GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.
By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
1 John 4:11-13 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God. He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love. By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.
By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. In this love has been made perfect among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, even so we are in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn’t love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother.
Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another.
No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.
By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
Beloved yf god so loved vs we ought also to love one another.
No man hath sene god at enytyme. Yf we love one another god dwelleth in vs and his love is parfect in vs.
Herby know we that we dwell in him and he in vs: because he hath geven vs of his sprete.
Beloued, if God so loued vs, we ought also to loue one another.
No man hath seene God at any time. If we loue one another, God dwelleth in vs, and his loue is perfect in vs.
Hereby know we, that we dwell in him, and he in vs: because he hath giuen vs of his Spirit.
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
30 distinct cross-references across this passage (31 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv11–12 11 Beloved Now the Almighty accommodates to his own…
11 Beloved Now the Almighty accommodates to his own purpose what he has just taught us respecting the love of God; for he exhorts us by God’s example to brotherly love; as also Paul sets before us Christ, who offered himself to the Father a sacrifice of pleasant fragrance, that every one of us might labor to benefit his neighbors. (Ephesians 5:2.) And John reminds us, that our love ought not to be mercenary, when he bids us to love our neighbors as God has loved us; for we ought to remember this, that we have been loved freely. And doubtless when we regard our own advantage, or return good offices to friends, it is self-love, and not love to others.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv11–12 Another reason by comparison: if God so loved us,…
Another reason by comparison: if God so loved us, shall not we his children love one another.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv11–13 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought…
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
Ver. 11. If God so loved us] His one example easily answereth all our objections, taketh off all our excuses; as that our brother is our inferior, our adversary, of whom we have better deserved, &c.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv11–13 We discover little sense of this love of his…
We discover little sense of this love of his to us, if we do not so.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v11 Observe, 1. The genuine inference which our apostle draws…
Observe, 1. The genuine inference which our apostle draws from the doctrine laid down concerning the greatness of God’s love to us; namely, "that seeing God so loved us, we should love one another, and be like him according to our measure, and in our degree."
Observe next, The apostle’s argument to provoke us thereunto; he tells us, That God himself is to be loved by us for his astonishing love unto us: But as God is not to be seen in his essence, but in man his image, so must we love God in man, his creature, made after his own image and likeness: And if we love the holy image of God in each other, it is an evidence that God dwelleth in us, and we in him; namely, by the inhabitation of his Holy Spirit, which being a Spirit of love in us, draws forth our love towards himself, and one towards another.
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And further he assures us, That this will be a sign, that love is perfect in us; namely, that this grace is, in its vigour and perfection, in our souls, sincere and entire, having all its essential parts, though it be not absolutely perfect in all degrees.
Note, That perfection here is not opposed to imperfection, but to insincerity. Our love is then said to be perfected, when it is considerably heightened and improved. Blessed be God! the hour is coming when this, and all other graces, shall be perfected, when this spark of love shall be blown up into a seraphic flame.
Observe lastly, The rule which our apostle lays down, whereby we may know assuredly, that God dwelleth in us, and we in him; namely, If he has given us his Spirit, which is a spirit of holy love.
Learn thence, That the Holy Spirit, (not in its extraordinary gifts, which are long since ceased) but in its sanctifying operations and gracious fruits, (of which sincere love is the first and chief) is an undoubted evidence of God’s dwelling in us by a special inhabitation, and of our dwelling in him; that is, resting in his love and favour, and under his protection and care; Hereby we know that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit; namely, as a Spirit of holy and universal love.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv11–13 Beloved, if God so loved us,.... As to send…
Beloved, if God so loved us,.... As to send his Son to be a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins, and to obtain eternal life for us through his sufferings and death: the apostle uses the same language his Lord and master did, Joh 3:16;
we ought also to love one another; for those who are the objects of God's love ought to be the objects of ours; and if God has loved our fellow Christians and brethren to such a degree, as to send his Son to die for them, we ought to love them too; and if we are interested in the same love, the obligation is still the greater; and if God loved them with so great a love, when they did not love him, but were enemies to him, then surely we ought to love them now they are become the friends of God, and ours also; as God loved them freely, and when unlovely, and us likewise in the same manner, and under the same circumstances, then we ought to love, and continue to love the saints, though there may be something in their temper and conduct disagreeable: God is to be imitated in his love; and his love to us, which is unmerited and matchless, should influence and engage us to the love of the brethren, who have a far greater claim to our love than we can make to the love of God; and which indeed is none at all, but what he is pleased to give us.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v12 If we love one another, God abideth in us…
If we love one another, God abideth in us - This is treated of, 1 John iv, 13-16. And his love is perfected - Has its full effect. In us - This is treated of, 1 John iv, 17-19.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv11–13 Verse 11. If God so loved us] Without any…
Verse 11. If God so loved us] Without any reason or consideration on our part, and without any desert in us; we ought also, in like manner, to love one another, and not suspend our love to a fellow-creature, either on his moral worth or his love to us. We should love one another for God's sake; and then, no unkind carriage of a brother would induce us to withdraw our love from him; for if it have GOD for its motive and model, it will never fail.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v13 1Jn 4:13-14. Hereby — Εν τουτω, by this, we…
1Jn 4:13-14. Hereby — Εν τουτω, by this, we know — Have full proof; that we dwell, μενομεν, we abide in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit — In the enlightening, quickening, renewing, and comforting influences thereof. Some commentators understand the apostle as speaking here of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit; but surely these gifts, of whatever kind they might be, never were to any man a certain evidence of his possessing real piety and union with God, as is manifest from our Lord’s words, (Mat 7:22,) Many will say to me in that day of final judgment, We have prophesied in thy name, &c.; then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, &c. And St. Paul (1Co 13:2) declares, that though a man had such a measure of miracle-working faith, that he could remove mountains, yet if he had not love to God and mankind, it would profit him nothing. The ordinary graces of the Spirit, such as are enumerated Gal 5:22-23; Eph 5:9; Col 3:12-17; Rom 12:9-21, are certain evidences of a person’s being a child of God; but the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit are not, inasmuch as they sometimes have been and still may be possessed by persons destitute of true religion. And we have seen — Or known; by undoubted evidence, ourselves; and therefore do boldly testify to others; that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world — And that it is in and by him alone, how proudly soever the unbelieving and carnal world may reject and disdain him, that present and eternal salvation can be obtained. These things are the foundation and the criteria of our abiding in God and God in us, namely, the communion of the Spirit, spoken of 1Jn 4:13, and the confession of the Son, 1Jn 4:15.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv11–13 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also…
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another -
Because he is so much exalted above us, and if he has loved those who were so inferior and so unworthy, we ought to love those who are on a level with us;
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(2)Because it is only in this way that we can show that we have his Spirit; and,
(3)Because it is the nature of love to seek the happiness of all. There are much stronger reasons why we should love one another than there were why God should love us; and unless we do this, we can have no evidence that we are his children.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v12 No man hath seen God at any time. No…
No man hath seen God at any time. No mortal man hath seen God and the perfections of his divine Majesty in such a manner as the blessed in heaven, but we have powerful motives to love and serve him, and to love our neighbour for his sake. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv11–13 God's love to us is the grand motive for…
God's love to us is the grand motive for our love to one another (Jo1 3:16).
if--as we all admit as a fact.
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we . . . also--as being born of God, and therefore resembling our Father who is love. In proportion as we appreciate God's love to us, we love Him and also the brethren, the children (by regeneration) of the same God, the representatives of the unseen God.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv11–13 11. Love one another—The infinite consequence noted in our…
11. Love one another—The infinite consequence noted in our comment on last verse. God’s original love, poured forth through Christ, envelopes us all, and requires that we should all be ensphered in one common threefold love, with each other and with Christ and God.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv11–13 11. Beloved] For the sixth and last time the…
11. Beloved] For the sixth and last time the Apostle uses this appropriate address: see on 1Jn_3:2. No address of any kind occurs again until the last verse of the Epistle.
if God so loved us] As in 1Jn_3:13, 1Jn_5:9, the fact is stated gently, but without any doubt (εἰ with the indicative): here ‘if’ is almost equivalent to ‘since’; ‘If, as is manifest, to this extent God loved us’. Comp. ‘If I then, the Lord and the Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet’ (Joh_13:14). ‘So’ refers to what is said in 1Jn_4:9-10.
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we ought also] Better, as R. V. we also ought: ‘also’ belongs to ‘we’; we as well as God. In the spiritual family also noblesse oblige. As children of God we must exhibit His nature, and we must follow His example, and we must love those whom He loves. Nor is this the only way in which the Atonement forms part of the foundation of Christian Ethics. It is only when we have learned something of the infinite price paid to redeem us from sin, that we rightly estimate the moral enormity of sin, and the strength of the obligation which lies upon us to free ourselves from its pollution. And it was precisely those false teachers who denied the Atonement who taught that idolatry and every abominable sin were matters of no moral significance.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv11–13 Beloved introduces a solemn exhortation, as in verses 1,…
Beloved introduces a solemn exhortation, as in verses 1, 7. The "if" implies no uncertainty; (see on 1Jn_5:9) it puts the fact more gently, but not more doubtfully, than "since." The "so" outwv covers both the quality and the quantity of the love. Kai belongs solely to hJmeiv: "we also on our part ought to love one another." We should have expected as the apodosis, "we also ought to love God." But this link in the thought the apostle omits as self-evident, and passes on to state what necessarily follows from it. In verse 12 he shows how loving God involves loving one"s fellow-men. (comp 1Jn_2:5 for a similar passage over an intermediate link)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv11–13 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also…
1Jn_4:11
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another
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The Doctrine love a pattern for the human
God is Beauty, said the Greek; God is Strength, said the Roman; God is Law, said the Jew; God is Love, says the disciple.
It came to this that the Son of God had for love to lay down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. St. John seems to say, Yes; but you will not be much called on to do that when things are settled. You will not be asked for your life--will you then give up something of your living? There is more call for that. Whoso hath the worlds livelihood (βίος) and looks on his brother in want, and locks his compassions out of his reach--how is Gods love imminent in him? The barbed question is followed up by a glowing indignation, called for it would seem, even in those days of first love. Ah! Little children of mine, do not let us be loving in word, nor even in tongue, but in deed and in truth. Not so much theory, not so much even of warm expression, but reality. If God so loved us, as now we know He did, we owe it to love one another. It is a debt. That life was given, and given to us. There must be some obligations growing out of that utterly unearned increment. Surely it is by our working that God will cease to permit the misery that He has not made. Repay, redress, rebalance, we cannot by mere almsgiving, however liberal. But this worlds goods--the life of this world (βίος ) of which St. John asks us to give him some--this worlds life is more than its spare monies. Breath, light, space to be decent, and healthful food; order and peace and rest, and beautiful sights and sounds; knowledge and the power to care for it, time to consider, religion, and a belief that religion and worship are for the likes of them, and not a form of luxury; these are regions of the life of this world which we inherit, but which have been fenced and walled from millions. When we with the best intent are building, broad and high, castles of dwellings for artisans we still are not working on the lines of nature and society. Sanitation and accommodation, with even recreation added, are not all that the simplest society claims. Society, to be society, must have society. It cannot be all of one grain. The simplest must have some little range of ranks. It must have some elements of inspiration from without it, and from above it, in force sufficient to be felt. Some loving spirits must go and dwell among them; who will not hear of brutality being regarded as the natural law even of the lowest; who will begin by expecting of them, even as of others, soberness and honesty and care for the family, and through expecting patiently will create. There are the ἀρχηγοί of a new society, and there is no form of influence fuller of power, fuller it may be of trial, but also fuller of reward, and richer for the future. What the few bear who live thus, what discouragements, what broken pledges, what fallings back, what mad sounds by night, what sights by day, no novel and no visitor can describe. None know but they who live there. And yet there are the elements of society. There is duty constantly scorning selfishness, suffering brutality rather than wrongly escape from it, working itself to death for the children rather than take them to the workhouse. There are sacrifices as strange as the sins that impose them. Again, there are ears that will hear, men and families that will advance their whole standard of life, under the influence of those whom they have seen loving them for nought. (Abp. Benson.)
The Divine example of love
I. Love should be exercised by us after the example of the love of God (verse 11). What, then, were the features of the Divine love, and what ought to be those of our love?
1. The love of God was universal. He expressed it to all, good and bad, worthy and unworthy.
2. More than this, the love of God has been conspicuous toward His enemies (Rom_5:6; Rom_5:8-9). In this respect also we are bound to imitate the Divine example.
3. This is farther demanded, though it should be at the cost of the greatest self-denial. It need not be asked at what expense did God express His love for sinners? What, then, shall we refuse to suffer for the benefit of others?
4. Nor let us overlook that our love, like Gods, should be aggressive. We are not to wait until we are besought. God did not so deal by us.
5. To complete all, love should be constant. Nothing should weary it or cause it to relax.
II. In the exercise of this love we enjoy communion with God (verse 12). No man hath seen God at any time. It is as if it had been said, although no man hath seen God at any time, yet, if we love one another, God dwelleth in us.
1. When we engage in duties of brotherly love we are conscious of the Divine approval. And this applies to all duties of brotherly love, whether those that relate to our immediate connections, or the Church of Christ, or the world.
2. There is a sustaining sense of the Divine cooperation. God is with us in them.
3. He will bless us and our work!
III. Thus also his love is perfected in us. This expression may be understood either of the love of God, as it is perfected when it produces love in us, or of our love when it is perfected in the exercises of brotherly love.
1. The love of God is perfected in us. From the beginning He had a design of love toward every one of His people. But that design is not carried out into completion until His grace secures the heart, and fills it with His love.
2. Or the saying may be understood of our love when it is perfected in the exercises of brotherly love. The Divine love is perfected when it inflames our souls, and makes us like God in love. And our love, thus kindled by the love of God, is perfected in the deeds of charity.
IV. In our brotherly love we are furnished with the evidence of our fellowship with God, as it is seen to arise out of the indwelling of the Spirit. Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. These fruits do not grow on the soil of nature. They are the plants of grace alone, and proclaim their heavenly origin. (J. Morgan, D. D.)
The love of the Father
I. The love of the Father an incentive to mutual love among Christians.
1. On the principle that like begets like--
(1) The primal source of real spiritual love is the Divine nature;
(2) The manifestation of Christly love is an evidence of spiritual regeneration;
(3) The incentive to mutual love among Christians thus becomes all-inspiring and important.
2. On the principle of Christian professions--
(1) Every professing Christian professes to know God;
(2) But he that loveth not, knoweth not God;
(3) Not to manifest the spirit of love is thus inconsistent with the profession a Christian makes of knowing God.
II. The love of the Father in its marvellous example.
III. The possession of this Divine love is an assurance of richest spiritual blessings--the Divine indwelling and perfection of love. Lessons:
1. The revelation of the Divine love in Christ and in Christianity the highest truth, and its demonstration most scientific and clear.
2. The leading design of the manifestation of Gods love in the new birth of souls into the same love the sublimest and most blessed of all possible objects.
3. The importance of each Christian being an exemplification of the reality of Gods love and of the gift of His Son is thus seen to be most vital, as constituting one of the leading features in Christian apologetics--an unanswerable argument for the fundamental fact of Christianity.
4. As love is the most essential force for elevation and regeneration of the human race, Christianity is the only spiritual force yet discovered for that most-devoutly-to-be-wished-for consummation. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)
Brotherly love
I. What relation we stand in to God.
II. The relation we bear to one another.
1. We are all creatures made of the same ignoble materials, and derived from the same Hand.
2. We all agree in one common nature.
3. We have all of us occasion for the assistance of one another.
4. As to the injuries we may receive, they do not come up to our sinning against God.
(1) Our sins against God are more numerous than the injuries one man offers to another.
(2) Another difference is the greatness as well as multitude of our sins.
5. Let us consider the relation we bear to one another as being united in one common Christianity, and having embraced the same profession of faith. A motive this, to love, the most prevailing that can possibly be urged.
III. What benefits God hath conferred upon us. Were our minds fully possessed of a hearty sense of the extreme bounty of God, we could not be so base as to deny Him the only returns we are capable of making, that is love and compassion for one another.
IV. The kindness and love we are capable of showing those of the same frame and constitution with ourselves, comes prodigiously short of the marvellous favours and repeated kindnesses we have received from God. (R. Warren, D. D.)
Gods love the pattern for our love
If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
1. Because ignorance of what God means by love must now be wilful.
2. Because doubt and uncertainty as to the objects of love are forever excluded.
3. Because the power of love to conquer obstacles and impediments is, in Gods case, most gloriously shown.
4. Because the restoration of love between man and man is one of Gods objects in that redemption which so proves His love for us.
5. Because we are required to be followers of God as dear children.
6. Because love on our part must be pleasing to God.
7. Because hereby we express our love towards God. (S. Martin.)
The Divine prototype of love
If God so loved us. How? The preceding verse shows us some of the glorious traits of this love.
1. Its greatness and depth. One may dip out the ocean with a shell sooner than exhaust the ocean of Gods love with the little bucket of human conceptions. It is as boundless as God Himself, for God is love (verse 8). But the apostle puts into our hand a scale to measure even such greatness (verse 9). Is there for a father a greater offering than to give up his only son? If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. The greatness of this Divine love ought also to be the motive to and the example for our love to our neighbour.
(1) Surely the motive. How often are we stirred to love by beauty merely, by talent, or other excellences, or even sometimes by pleasing weaknesses; but not first and foremost by the thought that God the Lord in Christ went after him in love!
(2) And our example. We are by nature egoists. For all seek their own (Php_2:21). The soul of Gods whole activity, from the creation to the new creation, is love. And now has God, indeed, opened the bowels of His mercy and compassion (Luk_1:78), and in Christ given Himself, His best, His heart, to men for their own; so that whosoever receiveth Christ receiveth the Father that sent Him (Luk_9:49). But we? Even when we make our loving sacrifices, we keep back to ourselves the greater part of ourselves. Do thou, my hard, selfish heart, with thy scanty, wretched love, which scarcely ever deserves the name, be transformed after this great, Divine pattern! But love shames us yet in many other things. We are further amazed at--
2. The all-embracing extent of this love. God sent His Son into the world. He gave Him not to some few, but to all. How often our love suffers from a miserable straitness of heart! Towards some, sometimes towards those who love us, we are very kind and pleasing, but towards others indifferent. Some attract us, numberless others are repulsive. And oh! what wretched pettinesses often suffice to lock up our hearts so that not the least drop of love can flow out! God's love did not suffer itself to be held back, nor to set itself any bounds: it embraced all, even its enemies. God finds people enough to love His beautiful and richly-gifted children; but few whose love goes far enough to receive the miserable ones also. If we desire to do what is pleasing to Gods heart, let us also love those whom no one else is likely to love! And if our courage fails us for this--for such love requires much courage--let us look up to the primal example of Gods love, which condescended to this miserable world.
3. The clearness and calmness of Gods love. The greater and stronger the love of men, so much the harder for it to remain clear and calm. The bleeding Lamb of God on Calvary shows not only how deeply and all inclusively, but also how clearly, and soberly, and holily God loves the world. He will heal its sin and guilt, and therefore He suffers the Lamb to bleed. He must judge while He heals, and He heals while thus judging. Thus clear and calm, too, was the love of Christ, in all its greatness. How He loved His disciples, and yet how soberly and calmly He pointed out to them their errors! If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. Do we do it? Alas, how rare among us is that great and therefore sober love which steadily seeks to make our neighbour better! Either we continue clear and calm, and our love is, commonly, very lukewarm; or else it is great and warm, while we are as it were blind and dull.
4. Its unselfish disinterestedness. We love those who please us, who love us, or from whom we expect love. Therein appears the interestedness of our love. God loves those who love Him not; from whom, moreover, He can have no great hopes of love. Just as unselfish, too, is Christs love. In all His life of love He never seeks His own gain--not His honour, not His advantage, not His proper esteem, but only the honour of the Father and the salvation of the world. He puts away all self-help from His love (Mat_4:3, etc.; 26:53, etc.); renounces the applause of the great masses, especially of the rulers; and walks the way of self-abnegation and the Cross. If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another--so unselfishly, so disinterestedly. How rare is the love in which one thinks not of himself, but only of the welfare of another; which forgets ones self, seeks stillness and retirement, lets not its left hand know what its right hand doeth; yes, even expects nothing for itself, because it has its own reward in itself; which therefore rewards evil with good, which blesses them that curse us, and does good to them that hate us!
5. The steadfastness and faithfulness of the love of God; which is not less worthy of imitation. Only the unselfish love never faileth. Selfish love, in its very selfishness, has a worm in itself which speedily gnaws away its life. The purer love is, the less it changes. Because Gods love is without any mixture of impure self-seeking, therefore is it so steadfast. (Prof. T. Christlieb.)
Reflected love
Observe clearly this line of thought. If God so loved us, we ought also so to love Him. That is the first plain inference. But how? There is only one way--loving one another. To love God as He is, in Himself, is an abstract thing. This is only a feeling. To love one another in Him, and Him in one another, is action, and love is action, and action tests reality. We ought--we are under a debt to love one another. Gods love has placed us under this obligation. Whom are we to love? One another. Who is one another? All the great brotherhood; in the family of God. And if it be asked, What! all? All! The poorest, the meanest, the most wicked, the vilest? Find your answer in that us; or rather, for so each one of us ought to do--in the me, which goes to make the us. But to love one another--one another! It is, by reciprocity, not only to love, but to be loved. Now, am I wrong in thinking that to some of us it is a harder thing to consent to be loved than it is to love? There is a feeling of superiority in being kind to a person. It is pleasant to nature. It is a sort of patronising. But to receive kindnesses, especially from some persons, is an act of great humiliation. But you must love, and be loved, if you would fulfil the duty. You must so speak and act as to make yourself lovable to everybody. But there is a little word in the text which teaches us great lessons. God so loved us. How did God love us? That is our copy.
1. I notice that Gods love was originating love. He completely took the initiative. We should do the same--not wait to be loved.
2. And I notice that Gods love is a wise and thoughtful love. Our love is often very unwise and unthoughtful. There is very little mind in it; no consideration; therefore our love often does harm where it is meant to do good. Gods love is so carefully, so exquisitely adjusted. It is so very wise.
3. And Gods love, tender as it is, is always faithful. So far as reproof is faithful, Gods love is faithful. An unfaithful love is worse than hatred; and I may say very unlike Gods!
4. And Gods love is self-sacrificing love. He spared not His own Son.
5. And Gods love is never capricious. It never changes, except to deepen. Is your love so? Concerning love, let me further observe this--God always looks to the reflection of Himself in all His creatures. He expects to find the image of one or other of His attributes. If He finds it not, He passes unsatisfied. If He finds it, He rests. There He is content. Many different gifts and graces reflect different parts of the character of God; but God reflects all. Love gives back God to Himself, for God is love.
6. And love is the atmosphere of heaven. We are all to love now, that we may be ready to go forward. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv11–13 11. Beloved. If we are of God, and God…
11. Beloved. If we are of God, and God so loves us, we must love one another.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v11 11. “Beloved, if God so loved us with divine…
ARGUMENT 11
PERFECT LOVE
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11. “Beloved, if God so loved us with divine love we ought to love one another with divine love.” This purely unselfish love to all mankind is the universal test of a Christian character.
12. “No one hath ever seen God [with the physical eye, but we see Him, i.e., perceive Him, with our spiritual senses]. If we love one another with divine love, God abideth in us and His love has been perfected in us.” The Greek present tense means constancy and perpetuity, which only obtain in case of perfect love, the malevolent affections being utterly expurgated, so they no longer rise and interrupt the constant flow of love.
13. The clear testimony of the indwelling Holy Spirit must settle every problem in Christian experience. He never fails to witness to His own work. When He imparts this divine love, He speaks to your heart and tells you so. When He sanctifies you, making perfect your love, His testimony is never delinquent. Here you can detect false religion. It has no witness of the Spirit.
14. While the Holy Spirit is our witness, we are the world’s witnesses.
15. This does not mean a buncombe confession made by wicked people, manipulated by demagogues, but the experimental testimony which none can have till Jesus saves them.
16. “God is divine love: he that abideth in divine love abideth in God.” All this follows as a logical sequence from the fact that the divine agapee is the nature of God. Hence you see the transparent fallacy of all Satanic efforts to counterfeit God’s religion. He would as well undertake to counterfeit God. Surely with his own people he does constantly counterfeit both God and his religion, but he signally fails every time with God’s true people.
17. Here you see perfect love, i.e., entire sanctification, is absolutely necessary to prepare us for the judgment. “As He is so are we in this world.” Perfect love makes us like Jesus, even while in this world. Her false religions all stumble. If we live in this world like Jesus we will certainly meet Him with a shout when He comes.
18. “There is no fear in divine love.” The fear is the depravity, which is destroyed in sanctification, leaving us perfectly free from fear. Perfect love casts out fear. Fear is here used in its universal sense, and means all fear. If you have perfect love you fear neither poverty, scandal, persecution, death, judgment nor eternity.
19. “We love Him because He first loved us.” If He had not so loved as to come and save us by putting His love in us, it would have been as impossible for us to love Him as for a devil.
20. “If any one may say, ‘I love God,’ and may hate his brother, he is a liar, for he that loveth not his brother, whom he has seen, how is he able to love God whom he has not seen?” Our physical senses assist our spiritual, meanwhile this divine agapee is the same in the heart of God, angel or man, intuitively reaching out after every object in which it can rest. Hence the very fact that we do not love men with divine love whom we see with our physical eyes, is demonstrative proof that we do not love God, who is only discernible by our spiritual senses.
21. “And we have this law from Him, that whosoever loveth God with divine love loveth also his brother with divine love.” This law is indefragable as the divine nature. Love can not keep from loving, just as light can not keep from shining. It is the nature of this love to be drawn toward every human being, as the magnet to the pole. Hence the very fact that you do not love the entire human race with an ardent human love, homogeneous to that which brought Jesus down to die, is demonstrative proof that you are destitute of this divine love, and no Christian. After receiving this wonderful agapee in regeneration, it will be antagonized in your heart more or less by the malevolent affections, till utterly destroyed in sanctification. Then the divine love in your heart, as in the heart of Jesus, will move out on eagle’s wings to every human being in all the world. John Fisher, a devout preacher of the Gospel, having been arrested by the edict of Bloody Mary, and imprisoned in the Tower of London, when led out to the scaffold to have his head cut off, fortuitously opening his Greek Testament, with a simultaneous prayer, “Oh God, direct my eye to the Scripture you want to comfort me in this awful hour,” lit on this beautiful paragraph, expository of perfect love. Having read it he closed the book saying, “Glory to God! It is enough for time and eternity.” In a moment the bloody axe-man severed his head from his body, his heroic spirit, encircled by angels, winging its flight to heaven.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v12 (See Scofield "Mat 5:48").
perfected
(See Scofield "Mat 5:48").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v11 Dwelling in God and in His love:
Dwelling in God and in His love:
v. 11. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
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v. 12. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth, in us, and His love is perfected in us.
v. 13. Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.
v. 14. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
v. 15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God
v. 16. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. The love which God showed to us in Christ is the eternal type and pattern of perfect love.
For that reason St. John asks us to become imitators of it: Beloved, if thus. God loved us, we also ought to love one another. If thus, if so greatly, with such a Wonderful love God loved us, if we have received the benefit of His unmerited favor in such rich measure, then it cannot fail, His love must inspire us, we must feel the obligation of passing on some of His love to the brethren, at least by way of reflection. We should never cease to learn from Him what pure, unselfish love really consists in, and how it becomes and remains active, an element that propels the Christian forward and to whose leadership he joyfully yields all his powers.
The apostle brings forward another argument: God, no man has ever seen Him;—if we love one another. God remains in us and His love is complete in us. That no man, no human being, has ever seen God face to face was stated by God Himself, Exo 33:20, and by John, Joh 1:18. This is a bliss which is being reserved for eternal life. But although we cannot see Him, yet we have evidence of His presence in us, by the brotherly love which we feel in our hearts. For it would be impossible for us to have this love and to give practical proof of its presence in us, if it were not for the fact that God has chosen us for His abode and that His love, which wrought the new spiritual life in us, has come to perfection in us, has made its home in our hearts.
All this is not a mere conjecture on our part: In this we recognize that we remain in Him and He in us, because of His Spirit He has given us. If it had not been for this fact, that God imparted to us of His Spirit, gave us some of His life and power, thus enabling us also to feel true brotherly love toward one another, then we could not be sure of our state as Christians. But our confidence rests upon the work of the Spirit in the Word; in this way we have gained the knowledge that we remain in God and God in us. The brotherly love which we feel is a strong bit of evidence for the fact that God has made His abode in us and that we have communication and fellowship with God. Thus we are recompensed, at least to some extent, for the fact that we cannot see God as long as we are in the flesh.
At the same time we have another source of encouragement: And we have beheld and do testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world. St. John was not passing on to his readers what he had gotten merely by hearsay. He and his fellow-apostles had had abundant opportunity to behold the work of Christ in His ministry from every angle, to satisfy themselves as to the identity of Jesus of Nazareth and as to His work for the world. They beheld His glory, a glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, Joh 1:14. They all confessed as their heart’s conviction that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah, Mat 16:17. John knew that there could be no mistake, that his testimony could not be questioned: Jesus of Nazareth was and is truly the Savior of the whole world, there is not one sinner excepted from His gracious salvation.
And another truth John wants to emphasize: Whosoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God is in him and he in God. It is necessary that the believers join in the confession of John, that they accept his testimony concerning Christ without doubt. This fact, that the despised Jesus, who died the death of a common criminal on the cross, is nevertheless the true, eternal Son of God, is the basis of Christian faith. No Christian can be sure of his salvation unless these facts are known to him. But where this belief is firmly established in the heart of a man, there that wonderful fellowship obtains whose glory John is continually setting forth, there God makes His abode in the heart, there the believer is in God, united with his heavenly Father by the bonds of such a perfect union as is unknown anywhere else. The apostle and all Christians are such people, for it is of them that John writes: And we have recognized and believed the love which God has in us. This glorious knowledge and certainty came to us by faith in Christ Jesus. We have realized, at least to some extent, what that love means which God has shown us in our Redeemer. Note: This love is a matter of experience, and yet also of belief, for it is so great and wonderful that it is impossible for any man fully to comprehend how much it comprises. We must keep on believing until we enter into that state where we shall see Him face to face and know Him even as we are known.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v11 Beloved, if
Beloved, if
"You people whom I love, if" or "Dear friends, if." See how you translated this in 1 John 2:7.
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if God so loved us
"since God loved us in this way"
we also should love one another
"believers are to love other believers"
God remains in us ... we remain in him and he in us
To remain in someone means to continue to have fellowship with him. See how you translated "remains in God" in 1 John 2:5-6. AT: "God continues to have fellowship with us ... we continue to have fellowship with God and he continues to have fellowship with us" or "God stays joined to us ... we stay joined to God and he stays joined to us" (See: Metaphor)
and he in us
The word "remains" is understood from the previous phrase. AT: "and he remains in us" (See: Ellipsis)
his love is perfected in us
"God's love is complete in us"
By this we know ... us, because he has given
Your translation may be clearer if you omit either "by this" or "because." AT: "We know ... us because he gave" or "By this we know ... us: he gave"
because he has given us some of his Spirit
"because he gave us his Spirit" or "because he has put his Holy Spirit in us." This phrase, however, does not imply that God has less of his Spirit after he has given us some.
Also, we have seen and have borne witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world
"And we apostles have seen the Son of God and tell everyone that God the Father has sent his Son to save people on this earth"
Father ... Son
These are important titles that describe the relationship between God and Jesus. (See: Translating Son and Father)
translationWords
beloved
Holy Spirit
testimony
Savior
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v11 4:11-12 Those who have received God’s love cannot help…
4:11-12 Those who have received God’s love cannot help but spontaneously love those who have done the same. As this love flows through us to each other, it becomes evident that we love God.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.