Amen. Please turn within your Bibles to First John chapter 4, beginning at verse 7.
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. 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.
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. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God abides in him and he in God.
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Lord, Father God, who is love, help us to know you as you are truly and not as we want you to be. Help us to reflect your image of love and help us to love others as you have loved us. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
So today we’re hearing a passage that has been adopted by our present post-modern, post-Christian culture as being the most important or the only remaining relevant statement to be drawn from sacred scripture: God is love. But Christians know—we know—the truth of the statement. We know how and why it is true, because most of us were raised up with it being preached and taught to us. It is a foundational and directing core truth of our religion and the expression of our faith. It is easy enough for children to understand and remember, but also applicable enough even for adults to still appreciate.
Now whenever we hear someone say, ‘God is love,’ we cringe, because what they mean is not what John meant when he wrote it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. What people outside of the historic conservative Orthodox Christian faith mean when they say, ‘God is love,’ is ‘love is God.’ But by love, they do not mean Agape; instead, they will mean any of the other possible modern uses for the term. They’ve taken a statement which is descriptive of God’s revealed character and turned it into an idol—a false god—which they worship and pay homage to.
However, before we dig into how the world will intentionally misuse God’s word, we need to consider how we rightly understand what Scripture means by ‘God is love.’ So we shall look at the context and beginning of John’s closing argument.
To do that, you’ll have noticed, I’m sure, that John has been very repetitive in this short document. That’s because he’s following a common rabbinic practice—a very Jewish mode of emphasis that’s used when teaching students. First, you tell them what you’re going to tell them, providing a short introductory summary. Second, you tell them what you’re going to—what you have told—you tell them what you’re telling them by providing an in-depth, detailed argument and rationale. Finally, you tell them what you have already told them, providing a final concluding summary connecting their argument and then concluding with the main point again.
As John approaches the end of this missive, he begins his closing summary like any good Jewish rhetorician. He writes, ‘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.’ See, he repeats and quickly summarizes everything that he’s been explaining for the past four chapters.
Christians are commanded and obligated to Agape one another because we have been—and because we are—loved by God. Whoever practices and exercises Agape is born of God; they are children of God and they gonoska God—they know God. They prove whose they are, proving whom they belong to through their Agape. Meanwhile, whoever does not practice or exercise Agape proves that they are antichrists; they prove that they belong to the devil—to Satan.
‘God is love’ means that God is the original source for all love and that God has given his love and the capability to love to us. All who likewise show love demonstrate their affinity with God, their godliness, and their God-likeness. See, that has been the thrust of John’s argument across this whole letter—telling us what we should do: love others—and why we should do it: because we have been loved and because we are Christ-like, like God.
Then John again defines Agape in a very specific way. This time he adds more to the definition by some details. 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.
See, God manifests his Agape for us through the gracious gift of Jesus Christ and the regenerating work of his Holy Spirit. God sent his Son into the cosmos so that we might live through him. God sent Jesus as the propitiation for our sins so that we can live through him.
Now, ‘propitiation’ is not a commonly used English word, but it is an important Bible word. It comes from the Greek word ‘elasmos,’ appearing six times in the Greek Old Testament and twice in the New Testament, both times here in First John. ‘Elasmos’ carries a very narrow range of meaning but is best understood through a broad description of its effect. Propitiation means a turning towards with positive favor, but that is only half of the understanding meant by ‘elasmos.’ The other half is expressed with the English word ‘expiation,’ which means a turning away from or removal of negative favor.
Other uses of ‘elasmos’ include forgiveness; we find this in Psalm 130 or Daniel 9, as an atonement sacrifice or sin offering described in Leviticus, Numbers, and Ezekiel. Lastly, it is best understood as bringing about reconciliation because that is its ultimate effect and the consequence in every instance. Theologically, the ‘elasmos’ of Christ is Jesus’s finished work on the cross whereby he satisfied our moral debt and removed the guilt of our sin through his death and the shedding of his blood, whereby he appeased the wrath of God and gained God’s favor and blessing for us as our perfect substitute.
Agape is therefore exemplified by God sending Jesus to reconcile us to himself and give us eternal life. God did not do this because we Agape’d God, but despite our not Agape-ing God, because we did not, do not, and will not Agape him apart from him Agape-ing us first. That is Mercy; that is Grace; that is love, Agape.
We can say that God is Agape because Agape is an attribute of God, like his other attributes; but like his other attributes, it cannot be separated from all the rest. See, I am husband to Jody, and I am son to Larry and Andrea—my parents—but even though I am holy, neither attribute is wholly or entirely me.
Next, John summarizes and repeats what Agape—what this selfless loving of others—means for us. He writes, ‘No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his Spirit.’ We have seen and testified that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment because as he is, so also are we in this world.
No one has seen God, although no one knows what he looks like. Scripture reveals to us what he is like, and since God is Agape, if we Agape, then we know that God, the Holy Spirit, lives within us. If God lives within us, then his love is perfected within us. He Agapes us perfectly; we Agape him perfectly; and we Agape others perfectly. By this, we prove to the cosmos, to ourselves, and to others that we know and that we belong to God through our works of Agape. We testify to what God’s character is like and we testify to who God is: the Savior of the World, by our Christ-likeness.
Since we confess and ‘pisteo’ that Jesus is the Son of God, we know that God abides in us and we abide in him. We depend upon him and trust him for our everything because we bestow the Agape which God has for us. Therefore, we have confidence for the day of judgment because Jesus Christ, God the Son, was given as our ‘elasmos.’ By God’s grace alone, the agent and means of our reconciliation to God, therefore we are justified before God our Father, and because we abide in him and are united in him, we are justified by ‘pisteo’ in him, by faith in Christ alone.
Then John concludes this summary by reminding us of our obligation of obedience to God and reminding us of the newly changed character of that obedience. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
The Greek word translated here as fear is ‘phobos,’ and while fear is a very nuanced word in English, ‘phobos’ is direct and clear in the Greek. ‘Phobos’ is dread—the kind of fear which will cause a person to want to flee as quickly and as far from the cause. ‘Phobos’ inspires the natural reaction of fight or flight.
But our modern culture has now trivialized fear to such a degree that we have forgotten what ‘phobos’ truly is. Lots of people enjoy scary movies because they’re looking for a shot of adrenaline that gets your heart beating faster whenever we’re startled. But that is not fear, even if it is a biological symptom of fear. Disagreements and disapprovals over people’s opinions, religion, or lifestyle choices are now described as being phobias—homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia—because contemporary culture considers them a form of hatred sourced ultimately in irrational fear. But those are not true fears either.
Do you know what causes you to fear? When was the last time you felt truly afraid? What makes you want to run away so fast, as fast as you can? If you have ‘pisteo’ in Christ Jesus, then the one thing you should not have ‘phobos’ of is the Lord God.
What John is saying here is that a Christian—someone numbered among the elect—any person who truly loves God should not need to fear God because love casts out fear. Since fear is closely related to punishment—the fear of punishment, particularly—we all fear being punished. But truthfully, the fear of punishment and the consequential retribution is what encourages and preserves a polite, civil, and moral society. That’s why governments are entrusted with the power of the sword to enforce justice and enact punishment upon the ungodly and the wicked.
However, only wrongdoers honestly need to fear punishment. As Paul writes, ‘For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be