God’s love is revealed in Christ, perfected by the Spirit, and displayed through the church.

This study calls believers to stop measuring love by the world’s desires and to behold love as God has revealed it in sending His Son. The aim is to teach that God is not merely loving; God is love. Therefore, true love begins in His nature, is manifested at the cross, is made known through the Spirit’s abiding work, and is proven in the believer’s obedience toward the brethren.

Because God is love, the church must define love by God’s holy character, receive love through Christ’s propitiatory sacrifice, abide in love by the Spirit, and display love through obedient fellowship with one another. Four aspects of this must be ascertained. 

1.     Love must be defined by God, not by the world.

2.     Love is revealed in the sending and sacrifice of the Son.

3.     Love is perfected as believers abide in God by the Spirit.

4.     Love is proven through obedience toward the brethren.

Introduction: The Question Beneath Every Relationship

Every generation asks, “What is love?” But when fallen humanity begins with “what,” it often treats love as a feeling to be discovered, a desire to be justified, or a preference to be protected. Scripture presses us deeper. The apostle John does not merely define love as a concept; he points us to the eternal God who reveals Himself. The better question is not first, “What is love?” but “Who is Love?” If God is love, then love cannot be detached from His holiness, truth, justice, mercy, Son, or Spirit.

Key Scripture: 1 John 4:8, 16

“God is love.” John does not say that love is God, as if love were an independent standard by which God is judged. Rather, God’s own holy character defines love. Therefore, all true love must be interpreted through God’s revelation of Himself. The world often begins with experience and then demands that God approve it. John begins with God, and then commands experience to bow before Him. This is where the weekly study must confront the heart: if God is love, then no human being has authority to redefine love against God’s will.

God as the Source of Love

Not only is God Love, but there also is no independent standard above God; love is defined by God’s own holy nature. Example: If someone calls something loving while it contradicts God’s holiness, Scripture requires us to reject that definition. Why? Because love originates in God, not in fallen human preference. Example: A believer does not ask, “What feels loving to me?” first, but “What has God revealed as loving?”

🛑 Stop and Reflect

1.     Have I allowed culture, pain, romance, family history, or personal desire to become my chief teacher on love?

2.     When I say “love,” do I mean what God means, or do I mean what my flesh wants?

3.     Am I willing for Scripture to correct my definition of love even when that correction confronts my emotions?

Love Must Be Defined by God, Not by the World

I challenge you to ask ten people, "What is love?" Depending on who you ask, you will likely receive a mix of different responses. Each person will share their perspective, but their answers may not align with God’s sovereign principle of love because of misguided interpretation. Why is this the case? Because the word "what" seeks information, and in this dark world, the understanding of love has become distorted by secular views, which can be deceptive, leading us astray.

Misguided Definitions and the Problem of Eisegesis

Unfortunately, the misguided “what” question about love leads people to share various interpretations, resulting in shallow and thoughtless definitions of love. The real issue is that society has taken the concept of love and used it as a façade for satisfying earthly desires. This has misled many in their pursuit of love, or even in seeking the righteousness of Christ. This question also affects married couples. Why is this happening?

Those contemplating what love is believe they have answered it conclusively and apply their insights to diverse movements worldwide. LGBTQ lifestyle and related practices, serial heterosexual monogamy and fornication, and various aspects of relational cheating such as swinging, open marriages, polygamy, and other fleshly pursuits where the question “What is love?” has been used to manipulate and deceive hedonistically. The misuse of the word love has run so deep that perversions of many kinds have developed due to the sinful state of our flesh. Even some pedophiles say they love the children they abuse.

The real tragedy is that the question "What is love?" often serves as a cover for pursuing lustful desires. I, too, have let uncertainty about this question cloud my understanding of love while I chased after my own immoral longings before I found Christ. As stated in 1 John 2:16: "For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world." During my time living in the dominion of darkness, I exploited the question "What is love?" to manipulate situations and deceive others to fulfill my needs.

For those chosen by God to minister to the church, it is essential to focus on preaching and teaching about the truth of love and continuously reinforce this message. As stated in 1 John 4:8, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” This verse answers the question of "Who is Love?" When we understand who Love is, we move away from the trivial question of "What is love?" We begin to recognize that love is not merely a worldly concept, often reduced to lustful desires, but rather reflects God's Omnipotence, Omnipresence, and Omniscience in our lives. His love is unconditional, sacrificial, and eternal, forming the basis for His interactions with creation.

Any pursuit of a relationship with others that does not begin with a proper understanding of God as the Creator of love is simply a pursuit of lustful desires, built on a faulty foundation. Do not be misled by those who claim to have definitively answered the question of what love is based solely on worldly perspectives (Proverbs 26:4). They are incorrect and foolish in their assumptions! God detests the misuse of the word "love" to satisfy the flesh.

Desire, Darkness, and Discernment

In 1 John 2:16, the passions of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life are described as “not from the Father, but...from the world” in the LSB wording. This helps clarify why love cannot be defined by appetite, preference, or self-fulfillment. Biblical love is not the baptizing of desire; it is the holy, self-giving action of God revealed in Christ, a distinction also emphasized in commentary that contrasts love’s divine origin with merely human or worldly affection (Bible Hub).

Regeneration and Knowing God

True love is evidence of regeneration and spiritual life, not merely natural affection or social politeness. It is born of God. Example: A person may be naturally kind, but biblical love seeks God’s truth, God’s glory, and another person’s eternal good. Therefore, Biblical love flows from relational knowledge of God and is expressed through obedience. Example: If someone claims to know God but rejects His commands, John teaches that the claim must be tested by the fruit of love and obedience.

The World’s Love Cannot Save

The world’s definition of love is unstable because it is built on the shifting ground of desire. Desire can be sincere and still be sinful. Desire can feel powerful and still be deceptive. Desire can sound compassionate and still lead people away from God. John has already warned that the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life are not from the Father but from the world (1 John 2:16). Therefore, the pastor must make this plain: love is not whatever permits desire; love is whatever reflects God.

This point requires deep reflection because many believers have not rejected biblical love outright; they have quietly mixed it with worldly assumptions. They may still use Christian vocabulary while allowing the world to define compassion, identity, affirmation, freedom, and happiness. The study should expose this mixture gently but firmly. If the source is corrupt, the definition will be corrupt. If the root is worldly, the fruit cannot be holy.

🛑 Stop, Reflect, and Examine

1.     Where have I mistaken emotional intensity for biblical love?

2.     Where have I called something loving simply because it avoided conflict?

3.     What desires in me need to be brought under the lordship of Christ before I can love others faithfully?

4.     Am I willing to let God’s Word name as sin what the world calls love?

Love Is Revealed in the Sending and Sacrifice of the Son

John does not leave love in the realm of sentiment. He says God's love was manifested when He sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Love is not first proven by what we feel toward God, but by what God has done for sinners in Christ. The LSB preserves the weight of this truth in 1 John 4:10: “not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Propitiation

In 1 John 4:10, God’s love is displayed through the Son satisfying divine wrath and providing atonement for sins. This means God’s love does not deny His justice; it fulfills justice through Christ. Example: A judge who ignores guilt is not righteous, but God remains righteous while showing mercy because Christ bears the judgment sinners deserved.

Propitiation Is the Fire at the Center of Love

If the cross is removed, love becomes sentiment. If propitiation is removed, love becomes permissiveness. Propitiation teaches that God’s love does not ignore sin; God’s love deals with sin. The Son is sent not merely to inspire us, but to satisfy divine justice and secure life for those who were dead in sin. This is why the CJB’s use of “kapparah” is useful for poetic and theological depth: it reminds the hearer of atonement, covering, sacrifice, and reconciliation. The NKJV’s “propitiation” retains the doctrinal precision needed to preach God's holiness and the seriousness of sin, consistent with David Guzik’s emphasis that God’s love is revealed in sending the Son as the answer to sin rather than as mere sentiment (Guzik).

This study should linger here. God did not love us because we were lovely. He loved us while we were guilty, helpless, and unable to cleanse ourselves. This humbles pride, destroys self-righteousness, and gives hope to the broken. The teacher can press the group with this truth: if God’s love is revealed most clearly at the cross, then true love must be willing to sacrifice, tell the truth about sin, and seek reconciliation on God’s terms.

🛑 Stop and Reflect

1.     Do I define God’s love mainly by what He gives me, or by the Son He gave for me?

2.     Have I minimized sin in order to make love seem easier?

3.     How does propitiation deepen my gratitude, humility, worship, and obedience?

4.     If Christ loved sacrificially, what comforts or preferences must I surrender to love others well?

Love Is Perfected as Believers Abide in God by the Spirit

John repeatedly returns to the language of abiding. God abides in believers, believers abide in God, and the Spirit gives assurance of this union. Love is not perfected by human effort alone. Love matures as believers remain in fellowship with God, submit to His Word, rely on His Spirit, and learn to reflect the life of Christ in the world.

Abiding

The LSB repeatedly uses “abides,” emphasizing continuing union, fellowship, and dependence on God. This is not a momentary religious feeling but a settled life of remaining in Him. Example: A branch does not bear fruit by visiting the vine occasionally; likewise, believers grow in love by remaining in fellowship with God through His Word, prayer, obedience, and the Spirit’s work.

Prefer What God Prefers

To love someone biblically is not merely to affirm what they desire, but to desire for them what God desires: repentance, holiness, truth, restoration, and conformity to Christ. Christian love is therefore compassionate without becoming compromising, patient without becoming passive, and truthful without becoming cruel.

Abiding Love Is Mature Love

The NKJV’s phrase “boldness in the day of judgment” and the LSB’s “confidence in the day of judgment” both show that mature love produces assurance before God. The CJB’s wording, “brought to maturity,” helps the individual understand, or a teacher explain, that love has a goal. Love is not mature simply because it is intense; love is mature when it reaches God’s intended end: fearless trust in God, faithful obedience to Christ, and visible love for the brethren. Craig R. Koester similarly emphasizes that God’s love reaches its intended goal when it creates relationships of love between God and His people and among believers themselves (Koester).

This is an area that deserves greater reflection because many Christians live with unresolved fear: fear of judgment, fear of rejection, fear of exposure, fear of man, fear of losing control. John does not say that perfect love removes reverence for God. Holy reverence remains. But slavish fear of punishment is cast out where the believer has come to know, believe, and abide in the love of God revealed in Christ. The Asbury Bible Commentary likewise connects abiding in God with both confession and obedient love, showing that assurance is not separated from a life shaped by God’s love (Asbury Bible Commentary).

🛑 Stop and Reflect

1.     Am I abiding in God’s love, or merely visiting spiritual truth when I am in trouble?

2.     What fears reveal that I have not fully rested in Christ’s finished work?

3.     Where do I need the Spirit to mature my love from emotion into obedience?

4.     How would my relationships change if I loved from confidence in God rather than fear of people?

Main Passage

God Is Love – 1 John 4:7-21 (LSB)

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love has been 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. 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. We love, because He first loved us.  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. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.”

Points to reflect upon for 1 John 7-21

1 John 4:7–8 — Love’s Source and Evidence

The LSB states that love is “from God” and that the one who loves has been “born of God and knows God.” This makes love evidence of regeneration rather than a merely natural human virtue. The NKJV’s phrase “love is of God” poetically preserves the sense that love belongs to God’s own realm and origin, while the CJB’s wording, “has God as his Father,” emphasizes covenantal family identity. Bible Hub’s collected commentary likewise treats love as evidence of divine birth and knowledge of God rather than as a detached moral ideal (Bible Hub).

1 John 4:9–10 — Love Revealed in the Son

The LSB grounds love in God’s initiative: He sent His only begotten Son so that we might live through Him. Verse 10 defines love negatively and positively: not our prior love for God, but God’s prior love for us in sending His Son as the propitiation for our sins. The NKJV maintains the theological term “propitiation,” while the CJB’s “kapparah” highlights the atoning, covering, and sacrificial background that is especially vivid in Jewish thought. Guzik’s treatment of 1 John 4 also stresses that sending Jesus reveals love as God’s initiative toward sinners rather than humanity’s achievement toward God (Guzik).

1 John 4:11–16 — Love Perfected Through Abiding

The repeated LSB language of “abides” teaches continuing fellowship: God abides in believers, believers abide in God, and His love is perfected in them. The NKJV also uses “abides,” giving the passage a poetic, devotional rhythm. The CJB renders this as “remains united,” emphasizing relational union and covenant faithfulness. Calvin similarly supports this emphasis by connecting God’s abiding presence with Spirit-wrought brotherly love, stating that God “shows himself as present” when by His Spirit He forms believers’ hearts toward love (Calvin).

1 John 4:17–18 — Perfect Love and Judgment

The LSB says perfected love gives “confidence in the day of judgment” because “as He is, so also are we in this world.” This does not mean believers become divine; it means that union with Christ gives assurance before God. NKJV’s “boldness” adds a poetic force of confidence, while CJB’s “brought to maturity” captures the idea of love reaching its intended goal. 

1 John 4:19–21 — Love as Obedient Witness

“We love, because He first loved us” is the logic of grace. Love is not self-generated; it is a response to divine initiative. John closes by exposing false profession: one cannot claim love for the unseen God while hating the visible brother. Biblical love is therefore doctrinal, relational, and obedient. Bible Hub’s commentary on 1 John 4:7 also supports this connection between love, knowledge of God, and visible conduct toward others (Bible Hub).

Love Is Proven Through Obedience Toward the Brethren

John closes the passage by confronting false profession. A person may claim to love God, but if he hates his brother, John says he is a liar. This is not a minor pastoral concern; it is a test of spiritual reality. Love for God cannot remain invisible when the brother is visible. The unseen God is honored through visible obedience, visible forgiveness, visible service, visible patience, and visible reconciliation.

Obedient Witness

Love for God becomes visible through love for the brethren. John does not allow a person to separate confession from conduct. Example: A believer who sings of loving God but refuses forgiveness, patience, or reconciliation toward a brother or sister must bring that contradiction before the Lord.

This does not mean love ignores truth or tolerates unrepentant sin. It means that hatred cannot hide behind orthodoxy. A person may be doctrinally articulate and still spiritually cold. A person may defend truth publicly while refusing mercy privately. This study should press the individuals to examine relationships in the church, in the home, and among fellow believers. Biblical love is not proven by a slogan, but by obedience.

🛑 Stop and Reflect

1.     Is there a brother or sister I have chosen to resent rather than love?

2.     Have I used doctrinal correctness as a covering for bitterness, pride, or coldness?

3.     What visible act of obedience would demonstrate love this week?

4.     Where is God calling me to pursue forgiveness, repentance, or reconciliation?

Conclusion: Love Has a Name, a Cross, and a Command

1.     Love has a name: God is love, and no one may define love apart from Him.

2.     Love has a cross: the Father sent the Son as the propitiation for our sins.

3.     Love has a witness: the Spirit causes believers to abide in God and display His love.

4.     Love has a command: the one who loves God must also love his brother.

The final appeal should be direct: do not ask the world to teach you love. Do not ask your flesh to define love. Do not ask your pain to govern love. Look to the God who is love. Look to the Son who was sent in love. Look to the Spirit who perfects love. Then go and love the brethren in truth, holiness, humility, and sacrificial obedience.

Closing Prayer

Father, teach us to know love by knowing You. Deliver us from worldly definitions that excuse sin or exalt desire above truth. Fix our eyes on Christ, who revealed Your love through His sacrificial death for our sins. By Your Spirit, cause us to abide in You, love one another faithfully, and walk in holiness, humility, and truth. Amen.

References

Legacy Standard Bible. “1 John 4:7–21.” Legacy Standard Bible. Accessed August 17, 2026. https://read.lsbible.org/?q=1+John+4%3A7-21

New King James Version. “1 John 4:7–21.” Bible Gateway. Accessed August 17, 2026. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20John%204:7-21&version=NKJV

Complete Jewish Bible. “1 John 4.” StudyLight.org. Accessed August 17, 2026. https://www.studylight.org/bible/eng/cjb/1-john/4.html

Asbury Bible Commentary. “IV. God Is Love—Fellowship as Acting in Love (4:7–21).” Bible Gateway. Accessed August 17, 2026. https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/asbury-bible-commentary/iv-god-is-love-fellowship-as-acting-in-love-4-7-21

Calvin, John. “1 John 4:11–16.” Commentary on the Catholic Epistles. Bible Hub. Accessed August 17, 2026. https://biblehub.com/library/calvin/commentaries_on_the_catholic_epistles/1_john_4_11-16.htm

Guzik, David. “1 John 4 Commentary: Abiding in God and His Love.” Enduring Word. Accessed August 17, 2026. https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/1-john-4/

Bible Hub. “1 John 4:7 Commentaries: Beloved, Let Us Love One Another.” Bible Hub. Accessed August 17, 2026. https://biblehub.com/commentaries/1_john/4-7.htm

Grace and peace to you and yours.

Pastor Anthony