We love him, because he first loved us. ] Lest love to God, and so to one another, should be thought to be of ourselves, and too much be ascribed unto it, the apostle observes, that God's love to us is prior to our love to him; his love is from everlasting, as well as to everlasting; for he loves his people as he does his Son, and he loved him before the foundation of the world; his choosing them in Christ as early, and blessing them then with all spiritual blessings, the covenant of grace made with Christ from all eternity, the gift of grace to them in him before the world began, and the promise of eternal life to them so soon, show the antiquity and priority of his love: his love shown in the mission and gift of his Son was before theirs, and when they had none to him; and his love in regeneration and conversion is previous to theirs, and is the cause of it; his grace in regeneration brings faith and love with it, and produces them in the heart; and his love shed abroad there is the moving cause of it, or what draws it first into act and exercise; and the larger the discoveries and applications of the love of God be, the more does love to him increase and abound; and nothing more animates and inflames our love to God, than the consideration of the earliness of his love to us, of its being before ours; which shows that it is free, sovereign, distinguishing, and unmerited. Some read the words as an exhortation, "let us love him"; and others as in the subjunctive mood, "we should love him", because some copies read, "we love God", and so the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, and the Alexandrian copy, read, "because God first loved us": and so some others.
20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
For as 1 John 4:19 tells us, “we love because he first loved us.” It is the effectual love of God that first changes our hearts in order to make us capable of love, and it is His example of love that reminds us again and again of our need to love other people.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
John explains that God loved us first, as shown by His act of sending His Son to die for us. We did not love Him first, but He loved us. Individuals might think that they fell in love with Christ and then placed faith in Him, but this is not what the Bible teaches.
Loving as Jesus loves will require lifelong learning, and each day we get to make that choice to follow his command. We can show others the same kind of love Jesus showed by being humble, selfless, and serving others.
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
This sounds very simple and maybe even trite, but very few people know that they are loved without any conditions or limits. This unconditional and unlimited love is what the evangelist John calls God's first love. “Let us love,” he says, “because God loved us first” (1 John 4:19).
John 4 is the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The major part of this chapter (verses 1-42) recalls Jesus' interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well in Sychar. In verses 43-54, he returns to Galilee, where he heals a royal official's son.
19-21) “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he 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: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:19-21).
This chapter records the events on the day of the crucifixion of Jesus, until his burial. John 19:1-7 on the verso side of Papyrus 90, written AD 150-175.
He created people out of love for the purpose of sharing love. People were created to love God and each other. Additionally, when God created people, he gave them good work to do so that they might experience God's goodness and reflect his image in the way they care for the world and for each other.
First John chapter 4 emphasizes the way God's love removes the natural human fear of rejection. Fear is a punishment of its own, and those who do not believe have reason to fear judgment. Believers, on the other hand, have confidence. Not only has Christ forgiven our sins, but He gives us God's love.
Our God demonstrated His love when we were least deserving. He did something: He gave us His only Son who “died for us.” No wonder the Bible says, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends” (John 15:13). God proved His love toward us.
Jesus showed His love through His life by visiting the poor, widows, and orphans. Jesus lived His life for a purpose, and that was to serve all. He brought hope to all who would receive Him and He calls us to do the same! Jesus spent time with His disciples teaching and encouraging them.
Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus showed His love for others by blessing and serving the poor, the sick, and the distressed. He told His disciples, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you” (John 15:12; see also John 13:34–35; Moroni 7:46–48).
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
To remain in a first love means we weigh our actions on one scale only, and that is the Word of God. The first love for Christ drives us to seek to be conformed to His image and learn to act and react as He would.
Jesus strips us of defining love the way we see it; we don't get to love others as we see fit. Instead, he tells us to love everyone just as Jesus loved you. That means loving people when they don't deserve it and when they don't or can't earn it.
And it is written, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (John 14:15). Yet Jesus also said, "I give you a new commandment: love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another" (John 13:34). The apostle Paul goes on to tell us "Love does no wrong to a neighbor.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
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