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First John is an unsigned letter, traditionally linked to the apostle John and close in language to John's Gospel. It was written to communities shaken by a split, after some had left and taught a different view of Jesus. Chapter 4 begins with a test for discerning teachers: whether they confess that Jesus Christ truly came in the flesh. Then it turns to its great theme. God is love, that love was shown in the sending of his Son, and those who are loved like this are called to love one another. Watch how tightly the writer binds love for God to love for a brother or sister.
1Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
3and every spirit who doesn’t confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God; and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already.
4You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.
5They are of the world. Therefore they speak of the world, and the world hears them.
6We are of God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not of God doesn’t listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
7Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.
9By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his only born Son into the world that we might live through him.
10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another.
12No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.
13By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
14We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world.
15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God.
16We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
17In this, love has been made perfect among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, even so we are in this world.
18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love.
19We love him, because he first loved us.
20If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn’t love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
21This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother.
Meditate
Love does not begin with us; God loved first. Let that settle. What fear might loosen its grip if you let yourself be loved that completely?
Read it slowly, then sit with the prompt. Free: stillingwaves.com/bible/1-john/4/
Scripture: World English Bible (public domain).Scripture: King James Version (1769 text), public domain outside the United Kingdom; in the United Kingdom under Crown patent.
Verse 12 holds a surprise. No one has ever seen God, John admits, and then claims that when people love one another, God's love reaches its fullness among them. The unseen God becomes visible, in part, through ordinary kindness. That is a great dignity and a quiet responsibility. Then come verses 20 and 21, which leave no room for a love of God that steps around the people right in front of you. Who is hardest for you to love at present? Could it be that God is already loving that person through someone, perhaps through you? Where does fear, in the sense of verse 18, still shape how you pray or act? Sit with the short sentence in verse 16 for a few breaths, and then speak to God honestly about one relationship.
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