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There’s a lot of reasons why we should not love one another. People do all kinds of crazy things. They abandon us. They exclude us. They attack us. They disrespect us. Now, I’m just talking about the church here. We haven’t even begun to talk about the world!
Into the rough and tumble world of human relationships, John tells us repeatedly that we are “to love one another.” This is the command that they had all heard from the beginning. John, however, was not unaware of the challenges of human relationships inside and outside the church. In spite of that awareness, inspired by the Savior, he still believed in love and wanted to encourage the church to continue in love.
As a result, John presented a variety of reasons to encourage, energize, and empower them to love one another. We will consider this passage looking at 10 reasons to love one another.
1. We should love each other because God’s children love like God. We are born of God. God is the source of love. “Love is from God.” When we become God’s children, we get a heart like God’s. We have His image restored to us. “Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). If we are the children of God, then we should love like God, because that is our character. God has given us a renewed nature that enables us to love, and we should show that this is who we are for our own encouragement, for the blessing of others, and for the glory of God.
2. We should love each other because God is love. Many people claim to know God. However, John gives us an acid test to determine if we really know God and have fellowship with Him. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8). If we love, then we know God. A person may be able to explain with great eloquence the details of theology, but the most eloquent expression is love. Without love, all of our knowledge will not profit us. Why? Because God is love. The Triune God shared a fellowship of love from all eternity within the Godhead between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He created the world out of love and so that the world could participate in that love. When we love, we show we really know and have fellowship with God.
3. We should love each other because God loved us when we were sinners. Although we were made for fellowship with God, we all rejected that love and sought out other sources of love. We have sinned against our Creator and rejected His love. The amazing thing is that God loved us even when we turned away from Him. As John says, “we love because He first loved us” (v. 19). The more amazing thing was that to bring reconciliation, there needed to be a just substitute, an atoning sacrifice for our sins. The only sufficient sacrifice was God come as a human being, and that’s what the Father gave. “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” (1 John 4:9–10). It cost God the death of His Son, but He loved us so much that He was willing to make the sacrifice. Such great love is hard to fathom.
And what is the result of such great love? We might think that John would say, if God so loved us, then we ought to love Him. That’s true, but that’s not what he says. “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11). And think about it. If God was willing to love sinful people who abandoned Him, attacked Him, excluded Him, and opposed Him, then how can we not love when others disappoint us? How can we not love when most of what we face is relatively minor frustrations? How can we not bear with the little offenses that we experience from day to day? God loved us when we were much worse, how can we not love others whom God loved so deeply?
4. We should love each other because God’s love comes to completion in our love. “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12). God does not demand that we be the source of love. He initiated love by creating us. He initiates that love in redemption. However, that love is not just supposed to be received. He loves us to make us loving people. The love He gives us is meant to flow out to others. If we have trouble loving others, we should drink more deeply of God’s love. If we are drinking deeply of God’s love, then that love will flow out to others. This is what it means when John says in loving others God’s love is made perfect or complete in us.
5. We should love each other because God’s Spirit enables us to love. John says, “This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit” (1 John 4:13). We see that God’s life is working inside us. God does not just give us motivation to love. He gives us power to love. The fruit of the Spirit is . . . love (see Gal. 5:23). We have a power that is leading us to love within us. We should not think that love is alien or impossible to us because we have the Great Helper, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can and will help us love, even in the darkest times. He is a light that shines in the darkness. Read The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, and you will see what I mean.
6. We should love each other because we rely on God’s love. Again, as believers in Christ, we all have a source of love that is greater than ourselves. God tells us: “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us” (1 John 4:14–16a). What enables us to receive God’s love? It is faith. Faith is the virtue or characteristic of the human soul that puts its confidence in another person. We have received the truth about God’s love for us, and we rely on God’s love for us.
What keeps us from loving others? It’s often fear that we won’t be loved or cared for. It is our own anxiety. God’s love is the anxiety cure. It tells us that God will take care of us and those we love. It tells us that God will be there for us. It tells us that we always have a love that is sufficient. The more we rely on this love, the more we can learn to put down our fears and anxieties over our own care. This releases us for the adventure of love to others. That’s what it means to rely on God’s love.
7. We should love each other because remaining in God means living in love. We are reading this or attending church because we want to remain connected to God. Remaining connected to God means remaining in love. “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” It means that we continue to love and fellowship with Him and with one another. Why? Because God is love. We cannot be in God and not have love. If we don’t have love we are not really connected to God because God is love.
8. We should love each other because love gives us confidence in the day of judgment. What keeps us from loving God? It is a sense that He is alien from us or against us. When we are driven by this fear, we cannot love God. As Martin Luther began to understand the holiness of God, he began to hate God. Why? Because he knew that they were enemies. When he heard the Gospel of God’s free reconciliation in Christ and understood it, he began to love God again.
That’s what can happen to us, too. The Gospel can teach us to love again. Here’s how John puts it. “This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:17–18). We have confidence because we see that God is reconciled to us in Christ, the fear of punishment is gone away because that punishment was laid on Christ, the atoning sacrifice for our sins. We also know all whom God forgives, He changes. When we see the change in us, we have confidence that God is working in us. This leads us to greater and greater love for God.
Now, how does this work out with human beings? When we have no confidence before God, then we are filled with anxiety. Everything seems against us. This does not open us up to love others. It drives us to excessive fear. When we know that we are right with God, the door is opened to free us from our anxiety and set us free to love others. That’s the connection between our relationship with God and love for others. Settle things before the Father, and the door to the love of others will begin to open.
9. We should love each other because our love of the seen shows our love for the unseen. One of the challenges of loving God is that we can’t see Him. So, we experience the love of God often through the love of others, and we show our love by how we treat those we can see. That’s what John says in 1 John 4:20: “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” (1 John 4:20). The love in our hearts or lack of it is manifested in the love we show in the world.
10. We should love each other because Jesus commanded us to love each other. We believe in Jesus. We accept God’s testimony about Him. So, what are we to do? What is Jesus’ priority for us? “And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister” (1 John 4:21). Jesus has a heart for His people, and He wants us to have this heart as well.
What do we see in all this? Love is a big deal. God wants us to love each other. He reinforces this over and over through a variety of reasons.
So, let me give you a few things to think about. First, are you a part of a community where you can show that love? It’s easy to say that we love people, if we are never around them! But our actions don’t show it. We need to gather with people where we can work out the love of God in the way we relate to others. We need to work through hard things and learn to show patience. That’s the real test of love. You can say you love people, but if you don’t get together with people on a regular basis to fellowship with them, receive from them, and care for them, then what does it mean?
In spite of this challenge, the people who will read this do love their brothers and sisters. I see you gathering together. I see you showing concern. You are not indifferent to the people in our church or brothers and sisters outside it. I want to encourage you here to continue to think about this and be even more deliberate about it. This is a big deal. It’s not an add on. It’s at the heart of our faith, as you can see from these ten reasons.
At the same time, maybe you need to work through some things today. Do you know the people you are worshiping with? Do you have something against someone you need to let go of? Is there something you need to talk about? Do you need to make another step of getting together outside of the church? Are you asking about who you can show love to right here? This is the place to begin.
Does that seem hard? We have an endless source of power to love! We have God’s love that encourages us, energizes us, and empowers us. Remember: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:10–11).
Benediction: as you think about the challenge of loving in the world, I want you to see all that you have available.
May you know the one who is love. May you have a greater vision of the one who loved you first. May you remember the sacrifice of Jesus for your sins. May you know the power of the Spirit working in you. May you rely on the love God has for you. May you have the confidence of love before His throne. May you experience the love of the God whom you cannot see with your eyes.
And may the love of the unseen one fill you up so that you may love that which you do see and lead you to fill the command of our great Savior Jesus Christ: Whoever loves God must also love His brother. That is what we go out into the world to do, to serve our Lord Jesus in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.