What Is Love?

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. – 1 John 4:7-11

1 John 4: 8 tells us that the person who does not love does not know God.  This is a serious charge.  It becomes imperative then that we know what love is. 

Did Jesus love everyone?  I’m not sure I know anyone who would answer “no” to that question.  Yet, He didn’t treat everyone the way we believe someone who loved them would treat them.  When He ran the money changers out of the church, was that “love” as we would define it?  When we think of His description in Revelation, riding a white horse with His sword drawn and robe dipped in blood, leading the armies of heaven against the enemy, is that “love” as we imagine it?  How about when He called the leaders of the church “serpents” and “brood of vipers” (Mt 12:34, 23:33)?  He was essentially calling them devils.  He also called them sons of their father, Satan (Jn 8:44).  Is this name calling “love” as we would describe it? 

Shouldn’t Jesus had just been a nice kind person who “loved” them?  And if He would just love them correctly, they would see that He was God and come to Him?  I mean, this is our evangelism style today isn’t it?    

We think of exhibiting love to be cuddly, teddy bears, and people that just make us feel good about anything we do, encouraging us to just be happy.  Yet, that’s not the Jesus I read about.  That’s not the love He shared.  If He had done that, we wouldn’t even know His name today.  He certainly wouldn’t have been purposely humiliated, falsely accused, and murdered on a cross.

   -     So, what was the love that Jesus shared?

If we are told in 1 Jn 4:8 that “anyone who does not love does not know God”, then we need to know how to love if we claim to be a follower of God, a Christian!  This is damn important!

Verses 9 and 10 answers this question along with John 3:16-17. 

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. – 1 John 4:9-10

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. – John 3:16-17

   -     How did God show His love to mankind? 

He gave Jesus.  Not just to be born and live alongside mankind and impart wisdom and miracles.  This aspect is not even mentioned as a reason.  He gave Jesus for the sole purpose of being a substitute for our sins so that God can have fellowship with any person who wants to have fellowship with Him. 

Again, let us ask ourselves then:

   -     What was the love that Jesus shared?

It was and is the gospel message, the good news:

Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” – Mark 1:14-15

The gospel message is the message of forgiveness for sin through the atoning work of Jesus Christ.  You can have your sins forgiven and be saved from the hell in your heart by believing upon Jesus as the Son of God having come to save you, so you can be reconciled with a just and holy God.

The love that Jesus shared is the same one that God shared.  Jesus gave Himself as a sacrifice.  There is one God and He came here to us and made a way for us to have fellowship with Him, if we will only believe that He is the only God and His Son Jesus is the only way.  He is the Lord, the One true Living God.  We simply are not.

Going back to 1 Jn 4:9, “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.”  We are taught that the way the love of God is “manifest” in us is that Jesus came into the world and we can live “through Him”.  That is, God’s love is exhibited in us through Jesus.  How do you live “through” someone?  You would have to be with them to live through them.  Or, they would have to be with you.  We are taught that when we believe upon Jesus as the Son of God and as having lived, died, and resurrected as the “propitiation for our sins” (v 11) we receive the Spirit of God.  And, in such, we are able to live through Him since He is then dwelling with us intimately. 

Okay, let’s walk this back.

   -     If God is love and the love He gives is Jesus, and

   -     If Jesus is the gift of God’s love and the love He gives is Himself, then

   -     What should our message be?  And what is the love we should give?

It should Jesus!  It must be the gospel!

If you want to truly love someone, give them Jesus.  If there is anything important in your message to others that you must say, it should be the gospel message.