If God so loved us, we ought also to love

Not until he had spoken of the Father’s love, does John use the word ‘beloved’, 3. 1, but thereafter he addresses Christians as ‘beloved’ eight times (ten times in the RV), in his three brief epistles three times in this chapter, vv. 1, 7,11. Therefore, before John was to write this Epistle, he had been taught of God to love his brethren in the Lord, 1 Thess. 4. 9.

The second occurrence of ‘beloved’ begins the second section of today’s chapter, vv. 7-10, in which are found two unparalleled examples of God’s love to us: ‘God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him’ v. 9; when we did not love Him, ‘God . . . loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins’ v. 10. When we ‘were dead in trespasses and sins’, Eph. 2. 1, God intervened that we might live through Christ, 1John4. 9. When our sins and iniquities separated between us and God, and our sins had hid His face from us, Isa. 59. 2, the loving God intervened at great cost, not sparing His own Son, but delivering Him up, Rom. 8. 32, to be the propitiation for our sins. In order to bring us to Himself, it was essential that Christ should die for our sins, 1 Cor. 15. 3.

John reveals that the loving God seeks a recompense: firstly, in our loving one another, 1 John 3. 11, 23; 4. 7, 11, 12; secondly, in His love being ‘perfected in us’, v. 12. John shows that God seeks more than mere words, so we should keep His word, 2. 5. Furthermore, He desires that we approach His presence boldly now and in the day of judgement without fear diminishing the enjoyment of our portion in Christ, 4. 17, 18. He has placed an obligation upon us: ‘we ought also to love one another’, v. 11, and seeks our acceptance of that obligation, an acceptance John places in a wonderful setting. John reminds us that no man has seen God at any time, v. 12. But, if we love one another, it will become evident to all men that ‘God dwelleth in us’. In his Gospel, we learn that while no man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son ‘declared him’, John 1. 18, and men noted that God was with Him. God began this great work in us, for He first loved us, 1 John 4. 19. He will continue to work until the day of account, not just of our work, but of our love.