1 John 4:7-14
7 “Beloved, let’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 By this the love of God was revealed in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may 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. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we remain in Him and He in us, because He has given to us of His Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.”
Love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God: All who believe in Jesus have the love of God poured into their hearts (see Romans 5:5). Whereas lost people can be loving and have moral and ethical standards, Christians actually have the eternal life of God poured out within them. We can, therefore, love fellow Christians in a way that the world will never love.
God is love: Love is God’s nature. Everything He does comes from love. This love is manifested fully in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the event in human history when God’s love is revealed fully (Romans 5:8).
By this the love of God: Forgiveness is only half of the Gospel. The other half is life in Him.
Propitiation for our sins: Jesus Christ’s work completely satisfied God. He has removed our sins perfectly because His sacrifice is not an atonement covering as was the case with the temple sacrifices of the Old Testament, but a total removal of our sins. God is completely satisfied with Christ’s finished work.
