Bible Study Notes - 1 John 4:7-21

Bible Study Notes - 1 John 4:7-21

We continue our study in 1 John which primarily teaches disciples how to live, individually and collectively, in the “beloved community” which the “Church” personifies.  The author, the Apostle John, “the Beloved Disciple” who also wrote the Gospel of John as well as the other two epistles and the book of Revelation, instructs believers on the practicality of living in fellowship with God through a relationship with Jesus Christ (the Logos and the Life) within a community of fellow believers. 

In this week’s passage, John defines God as “Love.”  We will discuss our inherent lovability as children of God.  To be lovable means you are “worthy of love.”  We inherently possess this worth as children of God.  We do not submit to the treadmill of earning love as the world defines it.  In accepting God’s faithful and covenantal love for us, we triumph over life’s pernicious fears whether relating to relationships, finances, jobs or daily activities such driving, heights, water or traveling.  Moreover, the apostle assures us God’s perfect and unfailing love eradicates all types fear we encounter in daily living.  We will discuss the practical ways we define and experience God’s love.

Consider the following ideas and questions as you study the passage.

God’s Love and Ours – 1 John 4:7-21

• In the seventh verse of this passage, John insists love comes from God.  To love genuinely one must be born of Almighty God because God is love.  As disciples, we strive daily for a greater revelation of God’s love as embodied in Jesus Christ.  John uses the word, agape, which is Greek for the most supreme form of sacrificial and redemptive love. 
• A person’s inability to emulate Christ’s example of love is a clear indication of his ignorance of God.  We do what we know.  Our relational and experiential knowledge of God means we freely share His love with our fellow disciples and humankind.  Adherence to religious tenets does not suffice to demonstrate knowledge of God.  Sharing His love in accordance with His word (Isaiah 61:1-3, Matthew 25 and James 2:14-26) is more reliable evidence.
• God most clearly reveals and demonstrates His faithful and covenantal love for humankind in the gift of Jesus Christ as the “Lamb of the God who takes away the sin of the world.”  Christ is an atoning sacrifice, a literally a perfect sin offering that satisfies the holy wrath of God, in exchange for the totality human sin.  Christ’s gift shows sacrificial, selfless and redemptive love which enables each person to experience abundant and eternal life.
• In the eleventh verse, John exhorts the disciples in the beloved community to follow Christ’s example.  We demonstrate Christian love in appreciation for His indescribable and immeasurable gift. Our willingness to love without the expectation of receiving anything reflects our understanding of Christ’s love for us.
• In the next verse, John essentially shuffles the emphasis of “The Great Commandment.”  St. Matthew details this primary purpose of discipleship as loving Almighty God with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself.  Usually, believers emphasize their undying love of God.  However, John insists our love of fellow disciples and common people is the surest way to demonstrate our love of God.  In as much as God is love as we claim to know Him, we prove our knowledge through daily acts of lovingkindness.  John reminds his fellow disciples they have never seen God.  How can we pledge undying love to Someone whom we have never seen and ignore people who need our love whom we see each day?  If express love for our fellow citizens, we prove God who is love actually lives in us.
• God graciously gives us the Holy Spirit who encourages and empowers us to emulate Christ’s love.  Human nature intrinsically resists selfless giving without any expectation of reciprocation.  After our born again experience, the Holy Spirit enables us to progress spiritually as we more greatly acquire the mind, heart and character of our Lord.
• In the fourteenth and fifteenth verses, John reminds the beloved community of the necessity of believing in the actual, physical incarnation of Jesus Christ.  Again, he opposes the prevailing heresies of Docetism, Gnosticism and other ideas that questioned this fundamental teaching.
• In accepting this non-negotiable doctrine, disciples have assurance of God’s love as He embodies and reveals it in Christ.  In 1 John 4:16, God defines Himself as “Love.”  When combined with Exodus 3:20, the biblical definition of God means literally “I AM Love.”  I am the perfect, eternal, faithful, limitless Spirit of love.
• Accordingly, in order to know God, a person must know how to love.
• Moreover, God’s unfailing love liberates His children from fear of punishment or divine retribution for offending His holy character.  God does not sit in heaven with a sadistic thirst awaiting the final judgment so that He may satisfy His holy wrath.  His faithful love yields confidence on the Day of Judgment.  Like a parent who does not want his children to be afraid of him because he unconditionally loves them, God desires that we know His eternal, covenantal love which faithfully covers our sin and thus eradicates punishment.
• 1 John 4:18 is a divine promise worthy of heartfelt memorization.  In his first epistle, John offers a compelling legal argument about God’s perfect love.  In 1 John 4:18, the great Apostle of Love offers a four-point, line of reasoning.  “There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”  John assures early disciples the perfect love of Almighty God completely annihilates fear.  In Christ, God most clearly and uniquely reveals His perfect love for humankind.  This truth liberates us from fear of death; and empowers us to receive abundant and eternal life.
• In the next verse, John says we love simply because we understand the height and depth and breadth and width of God’s sacrificial love in Christ.  Selflessly demonstrating God’s love in Christ is the surest act of worship and thanksgiving.

• John concludes this passage with an admonition to love our brothers and sisters.  Frankly, anyone declaring love for God while maintaining a hatred of some human being is a liar.  In fact, it is impossible to love God without simultaneously loving our neighbors. 
• Summarily, John insists we prioritize the second part of “The Great Commandment” as much as the first part.