EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/15/2025 4:37 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “Intro
to 1 John 4:7-21”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
1 John 4:7-21
Message of the verses: “7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God;
and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not
love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was
manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so
that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but
that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one
has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His
love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us,
because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the
Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever
confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 We
have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love,
and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.17 By this,
love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of
judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but
perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who
fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us.
20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a
liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love
God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the
one who loves God should love his brother also.”
It
is my desire to continue quoting from John MacArthur’s commentary to finish his
introduction to these verses from 1 John 4:7-21.
“Based
on that flawless relational model and His perfect desire and purpose to have
fellowship with His creatures, the triune God designed man as a relational
being. Man’s creation in the image of
God gave him self-awareness and the ability to think rationally, appreciate
beauty, acquire wisdom, feel emotion, and understand morality. But the most significant aspect of the image
of God is seen in man’s capacity to love others—as demonstrated through his
relational fellowship with God and with other human beings. Though only a shadow, human love (both for
God and for others) is a reflection of the perfect inter-Trinitarian love that
has characterized God from before time began.
“The
Trinitarian origin of perfect love brings the apostle’s theme in 1 John 4:7-21
into sharp focus. Four times in the
passage (once in verse 12, once in verse 17, and twice in verse 18) John refers
to perfect of perfected love. The New
Testament mentions many kinds of love (Matt. 5:44; 22:37-38; John 13:34; 14:15;
Rom. 12:9-10; 13:8-10; 1 Cor 8:3; 13:4-8, 13:; 2 Cor 5:14; Gal. 5:22; Eph.
5:25, 28, 33; Phil. 1:9; Col 3:14; 1 Thess. 4:9; 2 Thess. 3:5; Heb. 13:1; James
2:8; 1 Peter 1:22; 4:8; Jude 21), but the supreme love is the perfected and
completed love that comes from God as salvation. In Romans 5:5 Paul wrote, ‘The love of God
has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to
us.’ It is a love that does not derive
from mystical experience or attach to emotional sentimentality, but that
originates in salvation (cf. Rom. 8:28-30) and demonstrates itself in the good
works of sanctification (cf. Eph. 2:10; Heb. 10:24). The fullest expression of it occurs when
believers obey the Lord: ‘Whoever keeps
His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected’ (1 John 2:5a; cf.
5:3).
“The
passage is actually the third time John discussed love in this letter. First in 2:7-11 he presented love as a proof
of true fellowship. Then 3:10-17 John
discussed love as evidence of believer’s sonship. This third discussion of love is an example
of John’s cycling back through the letter’s moral and doctrinal proofs of
salvation, each time providing his readers with greater depth and breadth.” I am not real sure if this is just something
that John did in his writings of the Scriptures, but perhaps it was. It is my belief that John did not write each
and every one of his letters when he was on the island of Patmos as is stated
in the book of Revelation. I also
believe that the gospel that he wrote was also written very late in his life
along with his three letters. If this is
true John could have been in his 90’s by the time he wrote all of his writings
we find in the New Testament. Of course
all of his writings and the rest of Scripture, both Old and New Testaments are
inspired by the Holy Spirit of God.
“In
this passage, John discusses the nature of perfect Trinitarian love as it
relates to the character of God, the coming of Christ, the Christian’s claim of
faith, and the Christian’s confidence in judgment.”
That
will be what we will be looking at as we continue looking at 1 John.
2/15/2025 5:04 PM
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