1 John 4:7 Commentary

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1 John 4:7

Comments

Having taught us how to discern the spirits, John returns to the subject of love and adds further wonderful truths. We must love one another for by doing so, what is of the essence of God is communicated to us and becomes part of us. He that loves gives evidence that he has received a new nature made in the image of the God of love; this can only come as a result of the new birth. Furthermore, the presence of love within us shows that we know God as he really is, for God does not communicate the essence of his being to any but his children. This is not a theoretical knowledge possessed by philosophers who only study ideas, but it is a knowledge that fills us with admiration for God and brings us close to him.

Application

Love cannot remain bottled up inside us but always finds some way to express itself. It is not love unless it is centred on another person. Love cannot simply be directed towards a scheme, and therefore we know that Christ loved us individually. We love the believer in recognition of his conversion, and we love the unbeliever in hope of his conversion.

Questions

John says that everyone who loves is born of God, but aren’t even unbelieving fathers capable of giving good gifts to their children? Are they also born of God? The love of those who have been born again is not the same as the love of the worldling. Only a believer can love God and all his attributes; only a believer can love Christians because they belong to Christ; only Christians can love the lost in the hope of seeing them saved. No one can love others who does not know the love of God towards his own soul, for his love will run out of resources.

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1 John 4:7 Commentary and Bible Study