God Is Love

God sent His Son from heaven because that is where He was, in eternal existence with His Father and in loving communion through the Holy Spirit. Our God was not lonely in need of company. The triune God has existed forever in perfect, loving community and communion. No, our God was not lonely; He was loving. He sent His Son into enemy territory, into a world of sinners on a search and rescue mission. He came looking for us even when we were not looking for Him.

And why did He come? He came "that we might live through Him." This world of humanity was dead with no life or hope (cf. Eph 2:1-3). God sent His Son. This world of humanity was in rebellion against its loving Creator. God sent His Son. This world of humanity was not looking for God and even hated Him. God sent His Son.

What does it mean to "live through Him?" It means to be born of God and to know God. It means to experience His love and share that love with others. It means to enjoy fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It means to walk in the light, enjoy fellowship with one another, confess and receive forgiveness of sins, walk as He walked, abide in the Word and His will, know the truth, be confident at His second coming, have victory over sin, and so much more. What a life the Son provides!

This is one of the most wonderful and important verses in the Bible. It notes the initiative God took in loving us, and it addresses the magnitude of that love in the gift of His Son. God did not send an angel; He sent His Son. God did not send His Son to live; He sent His Son to die. And this was not an ordinary death. Nor was it simply the death of a martyr. It was the death of a Savior dying in our place and bearing our punishment.

As John states "Love consists in this," he again is pointing to what follows. First, God loved us before we loved Him. In fact He loved us when we spurned Him. Second, He proved His love by sending His Son. Paul said something very similar in Romans 5:8: "But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!" Third, God sent His Son to be the propitiation (NIV, "atoning sacrifice") for our sins. The word "propitiation" is a rich theological term and one of the most important in the Bible. It is used three other times in the New Testament in the context of Jesus' death on the cross and His work of atonement:

The word means to turn away the wrath of God by means of an offering. In ancient pagan religions, human worshippers made the offering to appease an angry deity. The New Testament knows nothing of this. In Christ, God Himself made the satisfaction, the atonement, as He offered Himself in His Son. As 2 Corinthians 5:19 says, "In Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them." And the fact that God provides the satisfaction Himself teaches us several truths about God. Propitiation teaches us that God personally hates sin. Propitiation teaches us that sin is serious. Propitiation teaches us the greatness of God's love in which He provided the offering to turn His wrath away. Propitiation teaches us the truth that Christ's death 106satisfied the Father and was a substitution for sinners. Propitiation teaches us that God's holiness required satisfaction and that God's love provided satisfaction.

John Stott says it just right in his classic work on the atonement, The Cross of Christ:

Likewise, Tim Keller reminds us,

And Stott again would add,

Love Is Perfected in Us When We Love Others

1 John 4:11-12

It is too often the case that Christians are not known for their love of others. Sometimes the criticisms are unjustified. Unfortunately, at other times we are guilty as charged. Recent research by Gabe Lyons and David Kinnaman reveals we are often seen by the lost as "hyperpolitical, out of touch, pushy in our beliefs, and arrogant"; in particular we are viewed by young Americans who do not attend church as antihomosexual (91%), judgmental (87%), hypocritical (85%), and insensitive to others (70%) (White, The Church in an Age of Crisis, 175). And yet, 107Jesus said love for others is how people know we are His disciples (John 13:35). He also says to love our enemies and to pray for those who hate us and would harm us if they could (Matt 5:44).

The great and challenging application to these commands is that we must go to those who don't want us there. We must share a gospel they don't want to hear. We must love those who may hate and even kill us in return. Because we are connected to Jesus through the new birth, we must go and live like Jesus among our friends and our enemies.

When we were in darkness, God sent His light. When we were dead, God sent His life. When we were in sin, God sent His Son. When we were in despair, God sent His love. For the second time in this passage we are addressed as "Dear friends." John is not transitioning to a new subject this time. Rather, he wants to build on and add to his previous words in verses 7-10. He uses a common "greater to lesser" argument. Let me paraphrase: "If God loves us in this way (and He does; just look to the cross of Christ), then we ought naturally—out of gospel gratitude and connection to the very source of love, God—love one another."

John 17:26 is extremely helpful at this point. There Jesus says, "I made Your name known to them and will make it known, so the love You have loved Me with may be in them and I may be in them." Later, in 1 John 4:13-16, John will address more fully the beautiful Trinitarian component to this wonderful life of love.

When John says here "we also must" love one another, I think he means something like this: Live out day-by-day who you are as those who are born of God, know God, and have experienced the love of God in the sacrifice of His Son. We are simply experiencing and enjoying who we are in Christ when we love one another. After all, God's seed is now in us (3:9) and God's Spirit is now in us (3:24). Loving others is just what we do because the love that has rained down on us now fills us as we abide in Him.

This verse is striking and unexpected in its beginning. The word "seen" is from the Greek word theaomai(we get "theater" from it), and it implies a careful observing, a close scrutiny or examination. No person has seen God "up close and personal" in His unveiled essence, glory, and majesty. 108To do so would certainly be our death. In the Old Testament, Moses on Mt. Sinai (Exod 33:22-23) and Isaiah in the temple (Isa 6) only saw theophanies, which are visions or revelations of God. They could see and handle this (barely!) without being consumed. If they beheld much more of His essence than that, they would have been vaporized.

John's argument, however, takes a beautiful turn. No one can see God in His essence, but we can see God through the lives of those who demonstrate His love to others. Stott again says it well: Mutual Christian love is the evidence that "the unseen God, who was once revealed in His Son, is now revealed in His people ... when they love one another" (The Letters of John, 164). John makes his point by stating that when we love one another, (1) it is proof that God abides continually in us, and (2) His love (God's love for us; His kind of love) is "perfected," brought to complete maturity. It reaches its intended goal. John's point is twofold. First, I can love others as God loves me because He lives in me. And second, His love will reach its intended goal, which is that I will love others as He loves me. It is a wonderful circle of theological truth that cannot be broken. After all, God is its source, its maintenance, and its perfection. It is all of God from beginning to end.

Conclusion

On June 25, 1967, more than 400 million people in 26 countries watched, via satellite, the Beatles perform the song "All You Need Is Love." They had been asked to come up with a simple song that could be understood by all the nations. While I believe their thesis was incorrect, I can understand why it was the cry of their hearts and that of the rest of the world. Why? Because it is very close to the truth. You see, what we really need is the God who is love! To be precise, what we really need is Jesus, who was sent by the God who is love. What we need is not to be connected to love, but to be connected to Christ, the source of love. And when that happens, real love, supernatural love, will flow like a river from Him into you, and out of you to others. Then you will come to see and know for yourself the wonderful truth, "God is love."

Reflect and Discuss