1 John 4:7–17 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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. 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. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 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. 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.
Throughout this letter John has been speaking of love, God’s love for us and how we should love others. In this fourth chapter, it becomes even more intense. The word is repeated over and over again. John is driving home the points that God is love, love comes from God, and we need to love one another.
It hearkens back again to John’s record of Jesus talking to Nicodemus and He spoke of God’s love leading Him to send Jesus to be the Savior of all people (John 3:16). And John is careful to point out that we are not saved by our love for God. We are saved from sin and death by God’s love for us:
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.
That sacrifice is our assurance. Our sin was paid for. We stand before God as redeemed and forgiven. All because of Gd’s love.
