I admit that I may have seemed to get a little off-track from looking at 1 John 4:7-8 in the previous article, as that article discussed the importance of understanding what we – and others, including God – mean by “love”. Having said that, though, I think that we need to understand how human definitions of love compare – and contrast – with the love that God has for us. Since He wants us to have similar love for others, appreciating what that kind of love means is pretty important!
Regardless of what human beings (including us?) might confuse the love of God for, though, let’s consider what the actual love that God is talking about (here in 1 John 4) looks like.
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. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1 John 4:9-10 NIV
Have you ever had someone give you instructions, but then asked if they could just show you once? There are times when the most exhaustive description or the most eloquent of words can’t fully explain something, so we just need to see it…or at least get an example of what it should look like.
If we want to know what kind of love John is referring to here, God didn’t merely tell us what to do. He didn’t just give us a “dictionary definition” of love. Instead, He showed us the greatest, deepest, most profound example of love that we have ever encountered. Although we were dead in our sins, God sent his Son, so that we could live again.
As a result, the fact that we love God is almost “trivial” compared to the fact that God loved us first. Of course, we do love God, but “loving Him back” is in a whole different ballpark from His love for us. He loved us way back when we were living in rebellion to His holiness and perfection, and when we legitimately deserved to be eternally separated from Him.
(In fact, if we think about it, I don’t know if God ever tells us to do anything that He hasn’t done – in some form or another – first.)
By the way, while your translation might use another word or phrase in verse 10, the NASB translation uses the word “propitiation”. As mentioned in an earlier article, like a parent smoothing things over for a child who ran into another adult and caused them to spill coffee on themselves (the example from the earlier article), propitiation turns away wrath. God’s wrath was legitimately applied to us in our sins, but His love didn’t allow Him to leave us without an option, even though the solution required an unimaginable cost to God Himself.
Understanding what God’s example of love looks like isn’t the end of the story, though. Just as God’s love compelled Him to reach out to us (i.e., with a way to return to Him), our response should be the same kind of love, including showing similarly sacrificial and selfless love to others.
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
1 John 4:11-12 NIV
God’s love for us is tied to our love for others, but the sequence of events is one-directional: God doesn’t love us only when we love others. Instead, God loves us, we love God back, and then we show love for God by following His commandment to love others.
Or, maybe for you it’s simpler than that. Perhaps you are so grateful for God’s love that you want to pass it on. Perhaps you are so inspired by God’s love for the world that you want to be like Him in loving those created in His image. It doesn’t have to be complicated.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for March 9, 2025
References:
- 1717 Bible Studies, 1, 2, and 3 John, © 2025 Christian Standard Media.
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – 1, 2 & 3 John, by Morris M. Womack. © 1998 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 