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The Letters of John

God's Love Among Us

1 John 4:7-12, ESV
Dr. Ed Pilapil Jr.
October 19, 2025
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Sermon Notes

Introduction

After instructing the believers to test the spirits, meaning to test every proclamation or influence, the apostle mentioned love more than 40 times in this letter. It is about God’s love and the believers’ love for each other. The emphasis reveals to us its importance. The community of faith must practice love for each other. Rejecting false teaching and loving the brotherhood go together in the life of the church community.

1. Born of God

The apostle reminds the believers to love one another. The reason is that love is from God. The one who loves his brothers and sisters knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God. Genuine believers love one another.

1 John 4:7-8: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

John 13:35: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

2. God Sent His Son

John explained that God’s love is manifested through His Son. That is consistent with a statement the writer made in the Gospel Account (John 3:16). The purpose of the Son is to be the propitiation of our sin. Furthermore, it is through Christ that a believer should live his/her life.

1 John 4:9-10: In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only 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.

3. Love One Another

Once again, the apostle repeats himself. He states that believers should love one another because of God’s love for us. Although believers may not have seen God, they should love one another. The more a believer loves the people of God, the more God’s love is completed in him/her.

1 John 4:11-12: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

Application

  1. Let us test ourselves to see if we love the community of faith. If not, then probably we are not true believers. Therefore, we must be born again because one sign of a true believer is loving the brotherhood.
  2. We must always focus and refocus on the gospel. It is about God’s love that He sent His Son and that we should live through the Son. The gospel is about who the Son is and the significance of what He did.
  3. Every believer must grow in the love of God. We know that He loves us through His Son, but we grow in His love by loving each other. Therefore, one solid trait of a church community is the love we have for each other.

Study Guide

  1. How did the apostle describe those who do not love? (4:8)
  2. God’s love is revealed in sending His Son, who is the propitiation for our sins. Explain.
  3. Explain through the text why loving the community of faith is an assurance of salvation.