God Is Love

1 John 4:7-21

Key Verse 4:8

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Read verses 7-8. What does the author urge us to do? (7a) Why? (7b) Why is love closely related with God? (7c) What is true of whoever doesn’t love? (8a)  What is God? (8b, 16b) 

Read verses 9-12. How did God show his love among us? (9) What is love? (10, Romans 5:8) What ought we to do in response of God’s love to us? (11, 1 John 3:16) What happens in us if we love one another? (12)

Read verses 13-16. What do we know through God’s Spirit given to us? (13) What have we seen and what do we testify? (14) What happens in the one who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God? (15) What do we know and what do we rely on? (16a) What is true of  whoever lives in love? (16b)

Read verses 17-18. How is love made complete among us? (17a) What will we have on the day of judgement and why? (17b) Why does love have no fear? (18a) What relationship is there between ‘fear’, ‘punishment’, and ‘love’? (18b)

Read verses 19-21. Why do we love? (19) What is the one who says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother? (20a) Why? (20b) What command has been given to us by Jesus? (21)

God is love

1 John 4:7-21

Key Verse 4:8

“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love”

Knowing God means to know God’s love because God is love. God’s love is expressed by loving us first and by sending his Son as atoning sacrifice for our sins. God loves all men.

1. Read verses 7-8. What does the author urge us to do? (7a) Why? (7b) Why is love closely related with God? (7c) What is true of whoever doesn’t love? (8a)  What is God? (8b, 16b) 

Read verses 7-8.

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

What does the author urge us to do? (7a)

Dear friends, let us love one another.

Why? (7b) 

For love comes from God. The origin of true love is God. Man in his sinful nature does not know love. He does not know how to love one another. Yet, he can love one another if  he relies on the love that comes from God.

Why is love closely related with God? (7c)

Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Love is the evidence that shows one is born of God and one knows God.

What is true of whoever doesn’t love? (8a)  

Whoever does not love does not know God. Love is so essential for God that whoever does not love does not know God. 

What is God? (8b,16b)

God is love. This is one major definition of God. God has many essential characters such as power, holiness, righteousness, and love. Love is the basis for his relationship with us.

2.  Read verses 9-12. How did God show his love among us? (9) What is love? (10, Romans 5:8) What ought we to do in response of God’s love to us? (11, 1 John 3:16) What happens in us if we love one another? (12)

Read verses 9-12. 

⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son^[ HYPERLINK "http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20John+4&version=NIV1984" \l "fen-NIV1984-30597b" \o "See footnote b" ^b] into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for^[ HYPERLINK "http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20John+4&version=NIV1984" \l "fen-NIV1984-30598c" \o "See footnote c" ^c] our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 

How did God show his love among us? (9) 

^“9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son^[ HYPERLINK "http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20John+4&version=NIV1984" \l "fen-NIV1984-30597b" \o "See footnote b" ^b] into the world that we might live through him.” The love of God is clearly shown through Jesus because we could live through Jesus. We were doomed to die. But God loved us and sent is Son and saved us from death. 

What is love? (10, Romans 5:8) 

¹⁰ “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for^[ HYPERLINK "http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20John+4&version=NIV1984" \l "fen-NIV1984-30598c" \o "See footnote c" ^c] our sins. 

Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”

Love revealed by God is 

Loving others first: “Not that we loved God but that he loved us”. We did not love God. He loved us first. We did not know love, but God loved us and showed his love.

God loved us while we were still sinners. He loved us while we were still hostile against him and while we were still rebellious against him and while we were still opposing him. It is very challenging for us to love someone who speaks ill of us and who is rebellious and who is hostile against us. In our human strength the best thing we can do for that person is jus to avoid him. But God loved us while we were still sinners.

Sacrifice his Son for sinners: “God sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for^[ HYPERLINK "http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20John+4&version=NIV1984" \l "fen-NIV1984-30598c" \o "See footnote c" ^c] our sins”. God’s love for us is sacrificial love. He practically gave up his one and only Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Again, in our human strength we cannot sacrifice our children in order to love someone who condemns us and accuses us and complains against us. But God did.

What ought we to do in response of God’s love to us? (11, 1 John 3:16) 

¹¹ “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

John 3:16, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.⁽ HYPERLINK "http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1john%203:16&version=NIV1984" \l "cen-NIV1984-30580A" \o "See cross-reference A" ^A) And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers”

To love one another comes as a natural conclusion of a man who knows the love of God. God’s love for him will motivate and empower him to love one another. When we know how much we are loved by God we are happy and strengthened to love another.

What happens in us if we love one another? (12)

¹² “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

God lives in us. Loving one another is the way to invite invisible God in us.

The invisible God demonstrated his love through sending his visible Son to us. God’s love is real and physical as Jesus was real and physical. 

Since we know and receive God’s love in this way (real and physical) the author encourages us to love one another. The invisible God can be visible through Jesus and even through us who loves one another. 

God’s love is made complete in us. Loving one another is the way to know complete love of God.

3.  Read verses 13-16. What do we know through God’s Spirit given to us? (13) What have we seen and what do we testify? (14) What happens in the one who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God? (15) What do we know and what do we rely on? (16a) What is true of  whoever lives in love? (16b)

Read verses 13-16.

¹³ “We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. ¹⁶ And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.  God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”

What do we know through God’s Spirit given to us? (13)

¹³ “We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.”  

How do we know that we live in God and God in us? It is through the testimony of the Holy Spirit given to us.

What have we seen and what do we testify? (14) 

¹⁴ “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.”

The author (apostle John) and others personally saw and could testify that the Father sent Jesus as the Savior of the world. Their experience (seeing) and testimony of “Jesus is the Savior of the world” is real because it came from their personal experience.

What happens in the one who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God? (15)

¹⁵ “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.” 

To acknowledge “Jesus is the Son of God” is the same as to acknowledge “Jesus is the Savior of the world”.

When we acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God God begins to live in us through his Spirit and we also live in God. We and God become one.

What do we know and what do we rely on? (16a) 

“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.” We know that God loves us and therefore we rely on the love of God.  

What is true of whoever lives in love? (16b)

“Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” Since God is love whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him.

There are three ways to recognize that God lives in us and we live in God: if the Spirit is given to him (v13), if he acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God (v15), and if he loves (v16).  

4.  Read verses 17-18. How is love made complete among us? (17a) What will we have on the day of judgment and why? (17b) Why does love have no fear? (18a) What relationship is there between ‘fear’, ‘punishment’, and ‘love’? (18b)

Read verses 17-18. 

¹⁷ “In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. ¹⁸ 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.”

How is love made complete among us? (17a)

Verse 17a reads, “In this way, love is made complete among us.” Here ‘in this way” refers to verse 16. ¹⁶ “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.  God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”

So “in this way” means “in the way of one living in God and God in him through love”

What will we have on the day of judgment and why? (17b)

We will have confidence on the day of judgment because in this world we are like him. “Him” probably refers to “Jesus”. “We are like him” means that Jesus is in us. We can have confidence on the day of God’s judgment because we know that we will not be punished.

If we are punished by God, we are doubly punished for our crimes. The first time Jesus was punished for us and the second time we are punished. Therefore God will not punish us again. 

On top of this, as children of God, we are not afraid of God. God loves us, and we love God. Why should we worry about God’s punishment?   

Why does love have no fear? (18a)

Because there is no fear in love. Perfect love drives out fear. If we love God we will not be afraid of his punishment.

What relationship is there between ‘fear’, ‘punishment’, and ‘love’? (18b)

Fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 

5.   Read verses 19-21. Why do we love? (19) What is the one who says, “I love God”, yet hates his brother? (20a) Why?(20b) What command has been given to us by Jesus? (21)

Read verses 19-21

¹⁹ “We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. ²¹ And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” 

Why do we love? (19) 

a) ¹⁹ “We love because he first loved us.”  We love God because God loved us first. We love our brothers because God loved them first. 

b) The fact that God first loved us shows that God’s love is not based on our merit or performance because we were still sinners when God first loved us.

What is the one who says, “I love God”, yet hates his brother? (20a) 

“If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar.” “Loving God” means “loving God who loved all men.”

We can’t hate our brothers if God who is love in us.

Why? (20b)

“For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.” 

Unless we love visible brothers, we can’t love invisible God.

What command has been given to us by Jesus? (21)

“And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” John 14:15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

PAGE  

PAGE  6

GOD'S LOVE AND MAN'S LOVE

1 John 4:7-21

Key Verse: 4:7

     "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.

      Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God."

    As we know well, John was a politically ambitious person. He wanted to be Prime Minister of the earthly messianic kingdom he thought

Jesus would establish. Before Jesus called him he was competitive, selfish and a man who sought his own glory. But John came to realize that God made his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, the atoning sacrifice for our sins. He realized the love of God. He realized the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who obeyed God's will unto death, death on the cross.  Most importantly, his spiritual eyes were opened. In today's passage, John describes those who are born of God and those who are not born of God. He urges us to grow in the love of God. When we study this part prayerfully, we learn that we came from God. Those who do not know that they came from God do not know what to do with their lives, so they end up seeking self-glory and hating others. May God bless us to know that we are born of God. In short, our original being is from God.  Since God is love, we must grow in the love of God. We must love one another.  That should be our lifestyle on earth.

    Look at verses 7-8. "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." John clearly tells us that we are created in the image of God. Since the attribute of God is love, we also must love God as God loves man. On the other hand, whoever does not love does not know God. Here we learn that there are two kinds of people. First is those who do not know God and hate one another. Second is those who know God and his attribute and love one another. Let's think about the first kind of people who do not know God and hate one another. There are many kinds of love. Sometimes people say, "I love you," when it is not love, but just physical gratification. Sometimes people say, "I love you," but man's love is romantic and short lived.

    Many married couples say, “I love you” to one another.  Many parents say to their children, “I love you” and vice versa.  But there are many who divorce and there are many children who wont speak to their parents.  It is because they don’t know where they came from or who God is.  They are not born of God.  There was a young American man who played in a Christian rock band, who told a young Irish girl, “I love you.”  But when she made him angry he choked her until she died.  He said it was an accident.  In his band he sings songs like, “I love you Lord”, but he doesn’t know the Lord.  He doesn’t know that God is love.

    Now let's think about those who are born of God. Long ago on the Hawaiian Islands there used to be a leper colony at Molokia.  The lepers were completely isolated.  They could only get there by ship.  The ship would stop off the coast and throw the people overboard and sail away.  These sick and dying people were left to their own devices.  But one priest, Father Damian, could not bear this so he decided to live among them.  He was told that if he went there he could never come back, because at that time people thought leprosy was contagious.  He went anyways.  And sure enough he became leprous and eventually died among them.

This promising young man, who could have done anything with his life, decided to use it to comfort and reveal God’s love to an already dead people.  His time, effort and energy was spent fully lavished and some would say, squandered on a group of people who would only die.  Many parents give their all for their children to succeed in life, but who gives their all for condemned men and women?   Who gives their lives so that others may know the love of God?  Only those who are born of God and know God is love.

    How do we know that God is love? Verse 10 says, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." Martin Luther, once said, "If I were God, I would destroy all mankind twice a day." But love is this: God sent his one and only Son as the atoning sacrifice. In this short sentence, we learn that God is love. As I shared earlier, parents will do anything for their children, even lay down their lives for them.  But God sent his one and only Son into the world. When God sent his one and only Son into the world, he had to deprive him of all his glory, power and honor of the kingdom of God. When God sent his one and only Son to this world, he did not send him to a rented apartment, but to a stable of an animal, and when he was born he was laid in a manger.

It was the beginning of atoning sacrifice. The climax of atoning sacrifice was shedding his blood on the cross. But renouncing the glory and power of the kingdom of God was the same for Jesus as shedding his blood on the cross, because it required divine humbleness. One Ph.D. student studied 16 years for a Ph.D. But his advisor did not pass his dissertation. Then the student shot his advisor to death. How beautiful it is that the advisor bore with such a slow student for 16 years. It was indeed amazing that he did not dismiss him. But the student was not humble enough to honor his professor, who had long-suffering patience, and shot him to death. But Jesus, according to Philippians 2:7,

"...made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness." Jesus, from the position of God, humbled himself and became a servant.  In the beginning, Jesus was with God.

This Jesus is the very God who created the heavens and the earth. John

1:3 says, "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." Not only so, he is the author of man's life.

John 1:4 says, "In him was life, and that life was the light of men."

Jesus gives his life to each of us and the precious meaning of life to each of us. Amen. But God humbled himself from God Almighty to a menial servant. Servants were considered as nothing more than a useful tool. The fact that God sent his one and only Son Jesus Christ as the atoning sacrifice should convince us more than anything that God is love and his the grace is higher than the sky and wider than the sea.

Most importantly, he is the humble God who sacrifices for us.

    Therefore, when we say we believe in God, the most important thing is the realization of God's being as love and acceptance of loving our brothers as ourselves, especially one's wife. Love requires tremendous life-giving sacrifice.  Tremendous life-giving sacrifice does not stop with sacrifice itself. It convinces us that we are born of God, and we experience God's love is growing in our hearts. Look at verse 12. "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." This verse sufficiently explains that we have never seen God, but we can believe that there is God. Sacrifice is not easy, and it doesn’t get easier when we seem to constantly give and give and receive nothing in return.  So many stop giving when they don’t gain something in return; but those who are born of God, can give to the very end, because God lives in them and his kingdom is born in us.

     John says that God's love must be made complete in us. Look at verse 12 again. "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." Also look at verse 17 says, "In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the Day of Judgment, because in this world we are like him." St. John also used the words, "perfect in love" (18).

This tells us that we must grow in the love of God. When we are born of

God and we acknowledge the love of God naturally we want to love others. But the attempt to love others is not natural or easy.  Often the closest people to us we have the most difficulty even liking, let alone loving.  We call ourselves brothers and sisters, but often we don’t like one another.  There are also many more people who hate the children of God, who are born of God, intensely, day and night. Christian persecution is rising all across the world.  It is not easy to love these people. The only solution is that we must grow in love. Then we can embrace any kind of people. 

    There is a story of a boy who was beaten up and used as a babysitter and cook by his step-mother. His step-mother did not allow him to study during the night because he would be too tired to work. One night, he was discovered studing English. His step-mother found out and stopped him.  He pretended to sleep. After 40 minutes, he turned on his light and began to study again. His step-mother saw the light from under the crack in the door and came in and started beating him so badly that his left eye was damaged beyond repair.  He became blind in that eye.  Since then, his tragic moment motivated him to study English harder than before. God had mercy on him and introduced Jesus as his personal Savior through English John's gospel study. The point is not this sad story. The boy became a servant of God. He wanted to forgive his step-mother. But it did not work as he wished. He struggled to forgive his step-mother every night for 13 years. Finally, he read the scene of Jesus Christ becoming the atoning sacrifice on the cross. He learned that he was a selfish and revengeful Christian. He accepted Jesus' love. Since then, he became a student evangelist.  To grow in love is a great battle, maybe the hardest battle. But we must complete the love of God in our soul. We must perfect the love of God in our soul.

    Sometimes we wonder why we must love God and our brothers. Rather, it seems better to punish those who do wrong and hate them until they repent. But love involves forgiveness; whether he repented or not, we must love God's flock.  Again, let's ask the same question, "Why must we love God and others?" Look at verse 8. "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." God loved us. So we must love God and our brothers. This is the key point of the entire teaching of Christianity. Sometimes hatred comes into our hearts when we see unthankful and ungrateful people. But we should not hate them. We must love them.

    Read verse 9. "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him."

Love is victory without fighting. In short, love has its divine initiative. One strict father never forgave his second son for stealing money from his wallet one time. When his second son came and begged forgiveness with many tears, his father said, "Well, I will see whether you do such a thing again.”  This is not love.  This is legalistic hypocrisy. God loved us first. This one fact shows us that God is love. In John's gospel, the story about Jesus and the Samaritan woman is indeed inspiring and unforgettable. It is because Jesus loved the Samaritan woman first. Jesus wanted to visit Galilee. If Jesus walked from Judea to Galilee on a straight course, it took only three days.

But bigoted Jews wanted to avoid walking through the land of Samaria, thinking that the Samaritans were the lost 10 tribes who mixed blood with the Assyrians. So in order to avoid Samaritan territory, they took six days to go around Samaria to Galilee. But Jesus did not mind passing through Samaria. Jesus and his disciples walked from early morning until noontime. They had no food. So the disciples went into a village to get some. Jesus was sitting by the well which was called Jacob's well. The well was situated in the valley between the mountain of blessing, Gerizim, and the mountain of curse, Ebal. When Jesus was in deep meditation, a woman came to draw water. Jesus first spoke to her, "Would you please give me a drink?" (Jn 4:7) The woman answered, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan." At that time, men did not talk to women in public. But Jesus spoke to her first in order to give her living water welling up to eternal life. Jesus knew her past. Jesus knew how lonely she was. Jesus knew she was lost. But Jesus wanted her to come to know the love of God and receive eternal life and the kingdom of God as her inheritance. The problem was that she was so wounded and hurt; she was totally unlikely to accept Jesus' word. Rather, she could have said, "What do you mean by that, 'Give me a drink'?" But the woman was melted by Jesus' love, which took the initiative to speak to her first and she was fully evangelized and became a missionary to her own village people. It is indeed an amazing story that the Son of the Holy God spoke with such a woman at the well of Jacob. We call this God's initiative. Jesus loved us first. So we must practice God's initiative and invite students to experience God’s love firsthand.  We must put ourselves in divine discipline to learn God's initiative. This is the first step of learning the love of God.

    Look at verse 21. "And he has given us this command: Whoever loves

God must also love his brother." Here we must know that God's word is absolute and it is imperative. It is not at all an encouragement or psychological manipulation.  God's love and worldly love are different.

Worldly love depends on each individual's decision. But God's love is a commandment. When we keep this commandment we will come to know the truth and the truth sets us free (Jn 8:31,32).

    May God bless us to practice God's love. May God erase all the

hatred toward others in our souls so that God may dwell with us and his love be made complete in us.

 PAGE 1