The First Epistle of John

The First Epistle of John Section Five “Victory Through Love” 1 John 4:7 – 5:3 Page 26

God’s Love Best Expresses His Nature 1 John 4:7-11 • Love is fundamental to every relationship that God has with man. He is: (1) man’s Creator; (2) man’s Provider; (3) man’s Teacher; (4) man’s Savior; (5) man’s Comforter, etc. • “…for God is love.” (1 Jn.4:8a)

God’s Love Best Expresses His Nature 1 John 4:7-11 • To comprehend God’s love is to comprehend God! (v.7) “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” (1 Jn.4:7) • Man’s own love is his way of responding to the love of God

God’s Love Best Expresses His Nature 1 John 4:7-11 • Man’s capacity to love is a precious gift from God, and man’s expression of love toward others is his expression of the divine nature (vs. 7,8a). (See 2Peter 1:4.) “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God,…” (1 Jn.4:7,8a)

God’s Love Best Expresses His Nature 1 John 4:7-11 • Man’s capacity to love is a precious gift from God, and man’s expression of love toward others is his expression of the divine nature (vs. 7,8a). (See 2Peter 1:4.) “…by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Pet.1:4)

God’s Love Best Expresses His Nature 1 John 4:7-11 • The totality of God’s love reflects the totality of the beauty of His Nature (verses 9,10). “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 Jn.4:9,10)

God’s Love Best Expresses His Nature 1 John 4:7-11 • God’s beauty was best shown in giving His obedient Son to die for disobedient men! (See Romans 5:9,10.) “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” (Rom.5:9,10)

God’s Love Best Expresses His Nature 1 John 4:7-11 • God’s love makes a demand on man’s reason: “...we also ought to love...” (v.11) “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (1 Jn.4:11) • Gnostics’ most basic goal was to become “one” with God through knowledge, but they ignored the most fundamental characteristic of God and failed to imitate that trait!

God’s Nature Is Best Understood Through Love Among Men 1 John 4:12-16 • God is Spirit (John 4:24) • A spirit does not have flesh and bones (Luke 24:3 9) • God cannot be seen with the human eye • All we can know about Him is what He has told us about Himself which • We accept by faith and • By what we can rationally conclude about Him • The demonstration of love among His children tells us a great deal about the love that first existed in their Father

God’s Nature Is Best Understood Through Love Among Men 1 John 4:12-16 • Many deny that God is responsible for the phenomena attributed to Him, contending that things "just happen.” • This may be because His blessings are so universally distributed among men “…that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matt.5:45)

God’s Nature Is Best Understood Through Love Among Men 1 John 4:12-16 • Many deny that God is responsible for the phenomena attributed to Him, contending that things "just happen” • But, John affirms that His love is represented accurately (“perfected”) by mutual love among Christians “No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.” (1 Jn.4:12)

God’s Nature Is Best Understood Through Love Among Men 1 John 4:12-16 • Man’s love to man is contrary to the self-interest of human nature • This is explained only by the influence of God’s love on the human family and on our individual lives (verses 12b; 13a). • Through His Spirit in the scriptures, we have been taught to love as He loves us (v.13b). “If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.” (1 Jn.4:12,13)

God’s Nature Is Best Understood Through Love Among Men 1 John 4:12-16 • Jesus is the most profound and direct confirmation of God’s Nature. He loved; He gave; He saved! (See John 3:16) • Some accepted the Person of Jesus (Christians) and some rejected Him as the slain Christ (gnostics) “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (Jn.3:16)

God’s Nature Is Best Understood Through Love Among Men 1 John 4:12-16 • John’s challenge to gnostic teachers: • “Who really understands God--he who embraces Jesus’ example of love for others in life and in death, or he who doesn’t?” “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” (1 Jn.4:16)

God’s Love In Man Is The Basis For Man’s Acceptable Service 1 John 4:17-19 • Love will be the basis for God’s judgment of man (verse 17) • The greatest compliment we can possibly give God is to imitate His love • We strive to be like God “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.” (1 Jn.4:17)

God’s Love In Man Is The Basis For Man’s Acceptable Service 1 John 4:17-19 • Lovers of God will serve Him out of love, not fear (verse 18) • “Perfect” love serves God primarily to please Him • Love does not ask: “How much must I do?” but “How much can I do?” “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” (1 Jn. 4:18)

God’s Love In Man Is The Basis For Man’s Acceptable Service 1 John 4:17-19 • We love and serve God as a rational response to His love for us (verse 19) • Christians do not serving God from a fear of punishment (as gnostics charge) • Our God is different from all others--He is a God of love! “We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 Jn.4:19)

Man Proves His Love For God By His Service To Other Men 1 John 4:20-5:3 • A “hater” of men cannot be a “lover” of God (verses 20,21) • Because love always responds to need “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.” (1 Jn.4:20,21)

Man Proves His Love For God By His Service To Other Men 1 John 4:20-5:3 • This truth was counter to the gnostic’s thinking that man may live in isolation from others • as long as he seeks personal development by acquiring their prized “special knowledge.

Man Proves His Love For God By His Service To Other Men 1 John 4:20-5:3 • Only he who appreciates the degree of love expressed in the gift by divinity to die for humanity can share in the familytrait “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.” (1 Jn.5:1)

Man Proves His Love For God By His Service To Other Men 1 John 4:20-5:3 • Our love for the Father and our desire to do what pleases Him will prompt us to show love for His other children “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.” (1 Jn.5:2)

Man Proves His Love For God By His Service To Other Men 1 John 4:20-5:3 • Love for God is shown when we keep His commandments about our relationships with our brethren “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” (1 Jn.5:3)

Lesson Section Five: No man can truly be in an intimate relationship with God unless he is also in an intimate relationship with God’s children. It’s a “family matter.” We “marry into” God’s family when we choose to have a close relationship with God, and we must behave in a way that is becoming to Christ’s bride.

Question – Section 5 • Christians driven by love for one another are ___________of God and _______God. (vs.4:7) • God’s love was demonstrated fully by what action on His part? (vs. 9) Where is an earlier Bible verse that expresses the same truth in the same way? • What was unique about the love that God demonstrated to man? (vs. 10)

Questions – Section 5 • On the basis of bad relationships with others, what is John’s rationale in verse 11? • While it is true that the physical senses cannot measure the nature of God and His love, what has the Spirit taught us about the proof that God loves man? (vs. 12-14) • Man can accept God’s love for him only when he accepts what physical fact? (vs. 15) What impact would accepting that fact have on one’s conception of “good” and “evil”?

Questions – Section 5 • What is the “day of judgment” in verse 17? How are “boldness,” “fear,” and “love” related to this “day”? (vs. 17,18) • The gnostic doctrine of unconcern about the treatment of others is refuted in John’s contrast between haters and lovers of brethren. What is the contrast? (vs. 20) • How did John stress the essentiality of the loving treatment of brethren? (vs. 21)

Questions – Section 5 • Why does the fact that Christians are “born of God” make it essential (and natural) that they love one another? (vs. 5:1) (See I Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 3:6.) • Two things will motivate God’s children to love one another. What are they? (vs. 2) • God’s people demonstrate their love for Him when they do what? (vs. 3)

1 John 4:7-11 • Knowing God Through Love • 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1 John 4:12-16 • Seeing God Through Love • 12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide 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 the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

1 John 4:17-19 • The Consummation of Love • 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us.

1 John 4:20 • Obedience by Faith • 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can[c] he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

1 John 5:1-3 • 1Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

The First Epistle of John