God is Love

It's impossible to have a personal relationship with God and not love others!

February 9, 2022

"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."

1 John 4:8

Yesterday – “True love responds to our Creator who loves us, and to His love as He provides for our needs.”

 

Today:

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” [1] (1 John 4:8, HSB).

In the fourth chapter of John’s first letter, he explains what authentic love looks like in the life of believers.  Just before our verse for today, he has written this –

“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God” (1 John 4:7).

It is plain to see that when a person is exhibiting this kind of Biblical love, it can only be since they have a personal relationship with God.

“We are not commanded to love one another to earn or become worthy of God’s love.  We love one another because we are loved by God, and have received that love, and live in light of it” [2] (EWC).

God, who is love, gives each of His children, His love to be communicated to others.

“…John insists that there is something that is given to the believer when they are born of God; a love is imparted to their life that they did not have before.  Christians are not “just forgiven” – they are born anew by God’s Spirit” [3] (EWC).

Our verse (v. 8) shares with us the converse of that truth about love in verse 7.  If a person does not exhibit God’s kind of love toward God’s people, they cannot say that they belong to God.  In reality, they do not know God!

 

“He that loveth not knoweth not God.”

“He that loveth not”
This person, lacking love, does not look or act like he belongs to God’s family.  There is no God’s kind of agape, self-sacrificing, self-giving love for others in his life.  This Christlike love never requires a reimbursement, nor does it expect any sort of repayment.  It is one-sided (unilateral) in character.  This love is built into believers by consequence of their relationship to God.

“Love stems from a regenerate nature and also from fellowship with God which issues in knowing Him…. The absence of love is evidence that a person does not know God” [4] (BKC).

“If love is of God, then those who claim to be born of God, and claim to know God, must be able to love one another in the body of Christ” [5] (EWC).

 

“Knoweth not God.”
This statement describes the “natural man” who is lost.  He is outside of the family of God.  He does not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  He is yet in his sins, hopeless to save himself.  And therefore, he does not have God’s kind of love dwelling in him.

Interestingly the ancient text says it this way for the Greek verb tense, “not only knoweth not now but never knew, has not once for all known God” [6] (JFB).

This person “is not loving, but God is loving!”

 

“For God is love.”
What a beautiful thought!  The God of the Bible is holy and just and is a “consuming fire,” He is also loveAnd His love permeates all that He is and does.

“Since God is love, intimate acquaintance with Him will produce love.  Like light (1:5), love is intrinsic to the character and nature of God, and one who is intimately acquainted with God walks in His light (1:7)” [7] (BKC).

God is love.  This means more than ‘God is loving’ or that God sometimes loves.  It means that he loves, not because he finds objects worthy of his love, but because it is his nature to love.  His love for us depends not on what we are but on what he is.  He loves us because he is that kind of God because he is love” [8] (NBC).

 

A Clarification –

God is love does not mean that love is God.  Love is an attribute of God, like righteousness and goodness.  Those who truly know him share in this attribute” [9] (CSB).

 

A Plea –

Dear lost sinner, please take special note of this –

“Never let it be thought that any sinner is beyond the reach of divine mercy so long as he is in the land of the living.  I stand here to preach illimitable [10] love, unbounded grace, to the vilest of the vile, to those who have nothing in them that can deserve consideration from God, men who ought to be swept into the bottomless pit at once if justice meted out to them their deserts” [11] (Spurgeon – EWC).

Please turn from your sin to this loving Savior!  Call upon Him in your need, for He is caring and gracious, and He alone saves sinners.

 

“Genuine love is the result of a personal relationship with God who is love.”

 

Quote:  “God is completely sovereign.  God is infinite in wisdom.  God is perfect in love.  God in His love always wills what is best for us.  In His wisdom, He always knows what is best, and in His sovereignty, He has the power to bring it about” [12] (Jerry Bridges).

 

 

 

[1] HSB is the Harvest Study Bible from Harvest Ministries in Guam.
[2] EWC – David Guzik.  Enduring Word Commentary, the electronic version in eSword.
[3] EWC, ibid.
[4] BKC, John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, Dallas Theological Seminary, The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 898–899.
[5] EWC, ibid.
[6] JFB, Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 2 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 534.  The verb “knoweth” is in the aorist tense.
[7] BKC, ibid.
[8] NBC, Leon L. Morris, “1 John,” in New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, ed. D. A. Carson, et al., 4th ed. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 1406.  The emphasis is mine.
[9] CSB, Robert W. Yarbrough, “1 John,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed.  Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1998.
[10] “Illimitable” is defined as “without limits or an end.”  Definition downloaded: February 8, 2022.  From: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=define+illimitable+.
[11] EWC – Spurgeon’s quote.  Ibid.
[12] Bridges’ quote was Downloaded: February 8, 2022.  From: https://inspiringtips.com/quotes-about-god-love/.