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Study this verse
Public-domain commentary
Matthew Henry
From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry comments on passages, not single verses — this entry covers 1 John 4:7–13. His three-level outline is real structure in the source text, so it is rendered as structure.
As the Spirit of truth is known by doctrine (thus spirits are to be tried), it is known by love likewise; and so here follows a strong fervent exhortation to holy Christian love: Beloved, let us love one another, Jo1 4:7. The apostle would unite them in his love, that he might unite them in love to each other: "Beloved, I beseech you, by the love I bear to you, that you put on unfeigned mutual love." This exhortation is pressed and urged with variety of argument: as,
I.From the high and heavenly descent of love:
For love is of God. He is the fountain, author, parent, and commander of love; it is the sum of his law and gospel: And every one that loveth (whose spirit is framed to judicious holy love) is born of God, Jo1 4:7. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love. The new nature in the children of God is the offspring of his love: and the temper and complexion of it is love. The fruit of the Spirit is love, Gal 5:22. Love comes down from heaven.
II.Love argues a true and just apprehension of the divine nature:
He that loveth knoweth God, Jo1 4:7. He that loveth not knoweth not God, Jo1 4:8. What attribute of the divine Majesty so clearly shines in all the world as his communicative goodness, which is love. The wisdom, the greatness, the harmony, and usefulness of the vast creation, which so fully demonstrate his being, do at the same time show and prove his love; and natural reason, inferring and collecting the nature and excellence of the most absolute perfect being, must collect and find that he is most highly good: and he that loveth not (is not quickened by the knowledge he hath of God to the affection and practice of love) knoweth not God; it is a convictive evidence that the sound and due knowledge of God dwells not in such a soul; his love must needs shine among his primary brightest perfections; for God is love (Jo1 4:8), his nature and essence are love, his will and works are primarily love. Not that this is the only conception we ought to have of him; we have found that he is light as well as love (Jo1 1:5), and God is principally love to himself, and he has such perfections as arise from the necessary love he must bear to his necessary existence, excellence, and glory; but love is natural and essential to the divine Majesty: God is love. This is argued from the display and demonstration that he hath given of it; as,
1.That he hath loved us, such as we are: In this was manifest the love of God towards us (Jo1 4:9), towards us mortals, us ungrateful rebels. God commandeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, Rom 5:8. Strange that God should love impure, vain, vile, dust and ashes!
2.That he has loved us at such a rate, at such an incomparable value as he has given for us; he has given his own, only-beloved, blessed Son for us: Because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him, Jo1 4:9. This person is in some peculiar distinguishing way the Son of God; he is the only-begotten. Should we suppose him begotten as a creature or created being, he is not the only-begotten. Should we suppose him a natural necessary eradication from the Father's glory or glorious essence, or substance, he must be the only-begotten: and then it will be a mystery and miracle of divine love that such a Son should be sent into our world for us! It may well be said, So (wonderfully, so amazingly, so incredibly) God loved the world.
3.That God loved us first, and in the circumstances in which we lay: Herein is love (unusual unprecedented love), not that we loved God, but that he loved us, Jo1 4:10. He loved us, when we had no love for him, when we lay in our guilt, misery, and blood, when we were undeserving, ill-deserving, polluted, and unclean, and wanted to be washed from our sins in sacred blood.
4.That he gave us his Son for such service and such an end.
(1.)For such service, to be the propitiation for our sins; consequently to die for us, to die under the law and curse of God, to bear our sins in his own body, to be crucified, to be wounded in his soul, and pierced in his side, to be dead and buried for us (Jo1 4:10); and then,
(2.)For such an end, for such a good and beneficial end to us - that we might live through him (Jo1 4:9), might live for ever through him, might live in heaven, live with God, and live in eternal glory and blessedness with him and through him: O what love is here! Then,
III.Divine love to the brethren should constrain ours:
Beloved (I would adjure you by your interest in my love to remember), if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another, Jo1 4:11. This should be an invincible argument. The example of God should press us. We should be followers (or imitators) of him, as his dear children. The objects of the divine love should be the objects of ours. Shall we refuse to love those whom the eternal God hath loved? We should be admirers of his love, and lovers of his love (of the benevolence and complacency that are in him), and consequently lovers of those whom he loves. The general love of God to the world should induce a universal love among mankind. That you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth his rain on the just and on the unjust, Mat 5:45. The peculiar love of God to the church and to the saints should be productive of a peculiar love there: If God so loved us, we ought surely (in some measure suitably thereto) to love one another.
IV.The Christian love is an assurance of the divine inhabitation:
If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, Jo1 4:12. Now God dwelleth in us, not by any visible presence, or immediate appearance to the eye (no man hath seen God at any time, Jo1 4:12), but by his Spirit (Jo1 4:13); or, "No man hath seen God at any time; he does not here present himself to our eye or to our immediate intuition, and so he does not in this way demand and exact our love; but he demands and expects it in that way in which he has thought meet to deserve and claim it, and that is in the illustration that he has given of himself and of his love (and thereupon of his loveliness too) in the catholic church, and particularly in the brethren, the members of that church. In them, and in his appearance for them and with them, is God to be loved; and thus, if we love one another, God dwelleth in us. The sacred lovers of the brethren are the temples of God; the divine Majesty has a peculiar residence there."
V.Herein the divine love attains a considerable end and accomplishment in us:
"And his love is perfected in us, Jo1 4:12. It has obtained its completion in and upon us. God's love is not perfected in him, but in and with us. His love could not be designed to be ineffectual and fruitless upon us; when its proper genuine end and issue are attained and produced thereby, it may be said to be perfected; so faith is perfected by its works, and love perfected by its operations. When the divine love has wrought us to the same image, to the love of God, and thereupon to the love of the brethren, the children of God, for his sake, it is therein and so far perfected and completed, though this love of ours is not at present perfect, nor the ultimate end of the divine love to us." How ambitious should we be of this fraternal Christian love, when God reckons his own love to us perfected thereby! To this the apostle, having mentioned the high favour of God's dwelling in us, subjoins the note and character thereof: Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit, Jo1 4:13. Certainly this mutual inhabitation is something more noble and great than we are well acquainted with or can declare. One would think that to speak of God dwelling in us, and we in him, were to use words too high for mortals, had not God gone before us therein. What this indwelling imports has been briefly explained on Jo1 3:24. What it fully is must be left to the revelation of the blessed world. But this mutual inhabitation we know, says the apostle, because he hath given us of his spirit; he has lodged the image and fruit of his Spirit in our hearts (Jo1 4:13), and the Spirit that he hath given us appears to be his, or of him, since it is the Spirit of power, of zeal and magnanimity for God, of love to God and man, and of a sound mind, of an understanding well instructed in the affairs of God and religion, and his kingdom among men, Ti2 1:7.
Historical interpretation
Six Centuries of Reception
7 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.
Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.
This we have said in the case where the things done are similar. In the case where they are diverse, we find a man by charity made fierce; and by iniquity made winningly gentle. A father beats a boy, and a boy-stealer caresses. If thou name the two things, blows and caresses, who would not choose the caresses, and decline the blows? If thou mark the persons, it is charity that beats, iniquity that caresses. See what we are insisting upon; that the deeds of men are only discerned by the root of charity. For many things may be done that have a good appearance, and yet proceed not from the root of charity. For thorns also have flowers: some actions truly seem rough, seem savage; howbeit they are done for discipline at the bidding of charity. Once for all, then, a short precept is given thee: Love, and do what thou wilt: whether thou hold thy peace, through love hold thy peace; whether thou cry out, through love cry out; whether thou correct, through love correct; whether thou spare, through love do thou spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good.
"In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us:" we did not love Him first: for to this end loved He us, that we may love Him: "And sent His Son to be the Atoner for our sins:" "litatorem," i.e. one that sacrifices. He sacrificed for our sins. Where did He find the sacrifice? Where did He find the victim which he would offer pure? Other He found none; His own self He offered.
The perfect love with which God first loved us will come into our hearts, for our faith tells us that this prayer of our Savior will not be in vain.
In this is love, etc. We did not love him first. For he loved us to the extent that we might love him. Grace indeed goes before man, that he may love God, by which love he works good things. Whence the Psalmist says: My God, his mercy shall anticipate me (Ps. LVIII).
And he sent his Son to be the propitiation, etc. And this is the greatest sign of divine love for us, because when we did not yet know how to ask him for forgiveness for our sins, he sent his Son to us, who, to those believing in him, would grant pardon freely and call us to the fellowship of paternal glory. In some Codices, this verse is read thus: And he sent his Son to be the altar sacrifice for our sins. The altar sacrifice means a sacrificer. For the Son of God sacrificed for our sins not by offering cattle, but by offering himself. Hence Paul rightly admonishes, saying: Therefore be ye imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved us, and gave himself up for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor (Eph. V). In agreement with this is what John also here adds in exhortation, saying:
We come to God not by our own merits but by the bestowal of his grace alone, as John bears witness when he says that we did not love God but rather he loved us.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this, the love of God was revealed in us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Again, after the aforementioned, John resumes the discourse on love. For when he had shown whom one ought to love, namely those who are conformed in character, he adheres to what was said at the beginning, stating that both love and the one who loves are from God, and that only he who loves is born of God and knows God: while he who does not have love also does not know God, confirming opposites with opposites. How, then, does he who does not love not know God? He proves it in this way: "God is love." And how will this be revealed? From the fact that he sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might have true life through Him, and that we might live through Him. For just as goodness is said to exist because it has produced the intellectual and sensible world for the sake of goodness, so that He who truly is, might have some participants in Himself; likewise, also for the love with which He sent His Only Begotten into the world for us, He shows, even through this, that love exists. Therefore, He Himself adds: "By this, is love," that is, in this it is shown that God is love. Then, praising the goodness of God's love, he says: Not that we have loved Him, but that God did this, giving His Son for us, as if He ought to repay the beloved with an equal affection; but through love, first anticipating the benefit towards us, He sent His Son; and not only did He send Him, but also, for our sins, He was an atoning sacrifice by His own blood.
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Summary
First John 4:10 profoundly encapsulates the essence of divine love, revealing it not as a human initiative or response, but as God's sovereign, unprovoked action. It declares that the true nature of love is found in God's unilateral decision to love humanity, supremely demonstrated by His sending of His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins, thereby addressing the barrier of sin and making reconciliation possible. This verse serves as the theological bedrock for understanding both the source and the character of authentic love within the Christian faith.
Context
Literary Context
This verse is strategically placed within a pivotal section of 1 John (specifically 1 John 4:7-12) where the Apostle John meticulously expounds on the nature of God as love and the implications of this truth for Christian living. Following an exhortation to "love one another" because "love is of God" (1 John 4:7), verse 10 provides the foundational theological premise for this command. It clarifies that our capacity and command to love are entirely derivative of God's prior and perfect love for us. The subsequent verses, such as 1 John 4:11 and 1 John 4:19, build directly upon this declaration, emphasizing that our love for God and for one another is a responsive act, empowered by His initiating love.
Historical & Cultural Context
The broader historical context of 1 John includes the nascent Christian communities grappling with various false teachings, particularly proto-Gnostic ideas that denied the full humanity of Christ or separated the divine Christ from the human Jesus. While 1 John 4:10 does not directly address these Christological heresies, its emphasis on God "sending His Son" affirms the incarnational reality and the specific, redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Culturally, the concept of "propitiation" would have resonated with both Jewish sacrificial traditions, which sought to atone for sin and appease divine wrath, and the broader Greco-Roman understanding of appeasing deities. However, John redefines this concept in a uniquely Christian way: it is God Himself who provides the means of propitiation, not humanity attempting to placate an angry deity.
Key Themes
First John 4:10 is rich with several key themes central to the book of 1 John and Christian theology. Foremost is the theme of God's Initiating Love, emphasizing that divine love is not a reaction to human merit but an inherent attribute of God, freely given. This contrasts sharply with human love, which is often conditional. Another crucial theme is the Demonstration of God's Love through Christ's Sacrifice, portraying the sending of the Son as the ultimate, tangible proof of God's affection and commitment to humanity, even in its sinful state. This leads directly to the theme of Propitiation and Atonement, highlighting Christ's work as the necessary act to satisfy divine justice and reconcile a holy God with sinful humanity, thereby removing the barrier of sin. This concept is foundational to understanding salvation as a gift of grace, as seen in passages like Romans 5:8.
Exposition and Analysis
Key Word Analysis
This term signifies a distinct form of love, often translated as "charity" in older versions, emphasizing unconditional, benevolent, and self-sacrificial affection. Unlike philia (brotherly love) or eros (romantic love), agápē is primarily a love of the will, a deliberate choice to seek the highest good of another, regardless of their worthiness. Here, it describes God's inherent nature and His active disposition towards humanity.
This verb means "to send out, especially on a mission." It implies a deliberate commission and authority. When applied to God sending His Son, it underscores the divine initiative and the specific, purposeful mission of Jesus Christ to accomplish salvation. It highlights the pre-existence of the Son and His obedient submission to the Father's will.
This word refers to "a sin" or "sinfulness" in an abstract sense. It denotes missing the mark, a deviation from God's perfect standard, whether through commission or omission. In this context, "our sins" refers to the collective and individual transgressions of humanity that create a barrier between God and people, necessitating the propitiatory work of Christ.
Verse Breakdown
"Herein is love"
This opening phrase immediately directs the reader's attention to the specific demonstration of love that follows. "Herein" (ἐν τούτῳ) points to the subsequent explanation, emphasizing that the true definition and essence of love are found not in human sentiment or action, but in the divine act about to be described. It sets the stage for a profound theological statement, asserting that the ultimate revelation of love is not abstract but concretely manifested.
"not that we loved God"
This clause serves as a crucial contrast, dismantling any notion that human initiative or merit is the source or prerequisite for God's love. It explicitly denies that our affection, obedience, or spiritual striving is what moved God to act. This negates any works-based understanding of salvation or relationship with God, firmly rooting love's origin elsewhere.
"but that he loved us"
This is the counter-assertion, establishing God's love as the primary, independent, and initiating force. It highlights the astounding truth that God's love for humanity precedes and enables any human response. This love is unmerited, given to those who were alienated and undeserving, underscoring its unconditional nature and profound grace.
"and sent his Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins"
This climactic phrase reveals the supreme demonstration and practical outworking of God's love. The act of "sending His Son" signifies the Incarnation and the Son's mission. "Propitiation" (ἱλασμός, hilasmós) refers to an atoning sacrifice that appeases divine wrath, satisfies God's righteous demands against sin, and thereby makes reconciliation possible. It is not about changing God's character from wrathful to loving, but about providing the just means by which His holy wrath against sin can be satisfied, allowing His love and mercy to flow freely to sinful humanity. This act addresses the fundamental problem of human sin, bridging the chasm between a holy God and fallen humanity.
Literary Devices
The verse employs several powerful literary devices. Contrast is paramount, sharply distinguishing between human love for God and God's prior, initiating love for humanity ("not that we loved God, but that he loved us"). This rhetorical technique highlights the radical nature of divine grace. Emphasis is achieved through the direct, declarative statement "Herein is love," immediately drawing attention to the profound truth that follows. The phrase "sent his Son" functions as a form of Metonymy or Synecdoche, where the act of sending the Son stands for the entirety of Christ's incarnate life, suffering, death, and resurrection, which collectively achieve propitiation. Furthermore, the concept of "propitiation" itself is a Theological Metaphor, drawing on the imagery of sacrifice and atonement from the Old Testament to explain how Christ's death satisfies divine justice and restores relationship.
Theological and Thematic Connections
This verse stands as a cornerstone of Christian theology, articulating the profound truth that God's love is not merely an emotion but an active, redemptive force. It establishes that salvation is entirely a work of divine grace, initiated by God's own benevolent will, rather than earned by human effort. The concept of propitiation underscores the holiness and justice of God, which must be satisfied in the face of sin, while simultaneously revealing His boundless mercy and love in providing the means of satisfaction through His Son. This demonstrates the seamless unity within the divine attributes – God is both perfectly just and perfectly loving. This truth liberates believers from the burden of trying to earn God's favor and empowers them to love others as a response to the overwhelming love they have received.
Reflection and Application
The profound truth of 1 John 4:10 offers immense spiritual nourishment and practical guidance for believers today. It provides an unshakeable foundation for our assurance, reminding us that God's love for us is not contingent upon our performance, obedience, or even our love for Him, but is rooted in His unchanging, gracious character. This frees us from the exhausting cycle of striving for acceptance and instead invites us into a relationship built on pure grace. Furthermore, this verse serves as the wellspring for our own capacity and motivation to love. Because God first loved us, and demonstrated it so sacrificially, we are both empowered and compelled to love Him in return, and to extend that same self-giving love to others, reflecting the divine nature within us. It calls us to embody a love that is active, sacrificial, and seeks the good of others, mirroring the love we have received.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What is the meaning of "propitiation" in this verse, and why is it important?
The term "propitiation" (Greek: hilasmós) refers to an atoning sacrifice that satisfies divine justice and turns away God's righteous wrath against sin. It's important because it clarifies that Christ's death was not merely a demonstration of love, but a necessary act to address the fundamental problem of sin, which creates a barrier between a holy God and sinful humanity. Through Christ's sacrifice, the penalty for our sins was paid, God's just demands were met, and the way for reconciliation and forgiveness was opened. This concept is crucial for understanding the mechanics of salvation and the depth of God's commitment to redeem humanity, as further explained in Romans 3:25.
Does "not that we loved God, but that he loved us" imply that human love for God is unimportant?
No, it does not imply that human love for God is unimportant. Rather, it establishes the correct order and source of love. The verse emphasizes that God's love is the origin and foundation of all true love, including our love for Him. Our love for God is a response to His prior, initiating love, not a prerequisite for it. As 1 John 4:19 explicitly states, "We love him, because he first loved us." This truth provides both humility and profound motivation for our love and obedience.
Christ-Centered Fulfillment
First John 4:10 finds its ultimate and glorious fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He is the very embodiment of God's initiating love, for it was "while we were still sinners" that "Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). The "sending of His Son" is the Incarnation itself, where the eternal Word became flesh (John 1:14) to dwell among us, ultimately laying down His life. Jesus is not merely the one through whom propitiation occurs, but He is the propitiation—the perfect, once-for-all sacrifice that fully satisfied God's righteous demands against sin. His cross is the intersection where divine justice and divine love perfectly meet, allowing God to be both just and the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26). Thus, in Christ, we see the complete and final demonstration of God's boundless love, securing our reconciliation and eternal life (2 Corinthians 5:19).