1 John 4:19–21 – 5:1 We Love Because He First Loved Us

Introduction

Love is often spoken about in ways that make it sound soft, optional, or undefined. But in this passage, love is not treated that way. John gives it to us as a command. That alone can make us uncomfortable, because our sinful nature does not like being told what to do unless it already agrees with what we want. And left to ourselves, this command does not.

That is why we need to understand that this command is not arbitrary. It is not unnecessary. It is not detached from truth. John does not command believers to love one another as if he is adding an extra burden to the Christian life. He commands it because love is tied directly to what God has done in salvation. God has demonstrated His love. God has given His love. And the love He has given is meant to be produced in those He has saved.

This is especially true toward those upon whom He has set His saving love. The command to love one another is not floating in the air. It is grounded in the work of God from beginning to end. If He has acted to make a people His own, then our excuses for withholding love from them have no real validity.

John’s point is simple, but it is searching. We love because He first loved us. If someone says he loves God while hating his brother, he is lying. And everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Love for God, love for His people, and faith in Christ belong together. If one is missing, something is wrong.

Salvific History

John begins by giving us the foundation. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). That means Christian love is not original to us. It is not self generated. It is not the result of our natural goodness. It is the response of those who have first been loved by God.

This should not be lost on us. God has always acted first. Throughout Scripture, the pattern is repeated again and again. A holy God moves toward sinful humanity. He initiates. He seeks. He calls. He preserves. He reveals. He redeems. If God had not acted first, there would be no hope for sinners at all. We would not move toward Him on our own. We would remain in darkness, rebellion, and judgment. But He did act. He was under no obligation to do so, yet He did. That is why this truth should humble us.

It may not sound like the most exciting place to begin, but it is the right place to begin. We need the weight of this truth to shape our perspective. Humanity was in a terrible condition. Each of us stood personally in that same condition. But because of the mercy of God, we have been brought into blessing. We have been given hope, salvation, and promises that will be fully revealed in Christ. That reality should change what we value, what we desire, and how we treat the people God has made His own.

From the beginning, the Lord has shown that He is the One who acts first.

In creation, humanity was given a distinction greater than anything else in the created order. The power and wisdom of God can be seen throughout all He made, but only male and female were made in His image (Genesis 1:26). That truth alone shows the dignity of human life and the seriousness of what follows in the rest of Scripture.

After the fall, Adam did not seek the Lord in the garden. Adam hid. Adam covered himself. Adam withdrew. But the Lord came to him and called for him (Genesis 3:8–9). Even there, in the earliest moments of rebellion, the pattern is already clear. Man runs. God seeks.

When the earth became corrupt and filled with violence, the corruption of humanity was not hidden from the Lord. He saw that what He had made good had become marred by sin. So He called Noah to preserve His image bearers on the earth through the judgment of the flood (Genesis 6:11–13). Even in judgment, God was acting according to His purpose.

After humanity was scattered across the earth because of proud and idolatrous rebellion, the Lord called Abram, an uncircumcised Gentile from an idolatrous background, and made a promise to him (Genesis 12:1–2). That promise did not end with Abram. It pointed forward to the gospel and finds its fulfillment in the Person of Christ. Once again, God moved first.

The same pattern appears in Moses. It was the Lord who revealed Himself to Moses in the bush that burned and was not consumed. That moment was not accidental. The Lord ordained it in order to call Moses and send him as part of the unfolding promise that would ultimately lead to Christ (Exodus 3:2–4). God was not reacting. He was acting.

The Lord also called Samuel before Samuel even knew Him (1 Samuel 3:4–10). That detail matters. God was working His saving plan forward, and Samuel’s knowledge of God began not with Samuel’s initiative but with the Lord’s call. God acted first.

The same is true in Jonah. Neither time nor distance changed this truth. God acted according to His purpose and showed mercy to Nineveh, a people who hated Israel. And He did so by calling a man who hated Nineveh (Jonah 1:1–2). The Lord’s saving and judging activity is never dependent on the willingness or worthiness of man.

Then Christ Himself gives us the picture of the lost sheep. Men may speak about profit, loss, and cost as if one sheep can be dismissed. But the Lord is not like man. He pursues. He seeks. He rejoices. In the gospel of Christ, God has shown that His love for sinners is greater than we would naturally expect and deeper than we can fully comprehend (Luke 15:3–7).

This is the point. God has been acting from the beginning to make a people His own. He has not done this carelessly. He has not done it casually. He has not done it halfway. He has pursued, preserved, called, and redeemed. So when we come to John’s command to love one another, we are not being handed a random duty. We are being confronted with the fitting response to the saving work of God.

If God has worked from the beginning to make a people His own, then our reasons for withholding love from them have no real validity. These are not random people in our path. These are people God has pursued, preserved, redeemed, and brought to Himself in Christ. That is why John’s words are so sharp. Hatred toward a brother is not a small issue. It is a direct contradiction of the love of God we claim to know.

Image Bearers and Adopted Children

John now applies the truth directly. “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar” (1 John 4:20). That is not softened. It is not qualified. It is not adjusted to make room for our preferences or personal grievances. John puts the matter plainly. A profession of love for God is exposed as false when hatred for a brother is present.

Why? Because the brother is the visible person standing before us. God is unseen. If someone refuses to love the brother he can see, then his claim to love the God he cannot see collapses under its own contradiction. John is not allowing us to live in the world of abstract religious claims. He brings doctrine down into visible life. You cannot say you love the unseen God while refusing to love the visible believer.

Then John adds, “this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:21). That means this is not a suggestion. It is not an advanced principle for especially mature Christians. It is a command from God Himself.

Now stop and consider what the Lord has done in salvation. He has acted to provide the gift of salvation, to remove the coming wrath of God from those who believe in the Person of Christ, and to secure promises that will one day be fully revealed. If God has shown this kind of love to sinners who bear His image and have been redeemed, then how could refusing to love others who share in that same grace ever be a real option?

We are called to be conduits of the love God has revealed. The love He has shown to us and placed within us is meant to be expressed through us toward those who belong to Him. There is a serious contradiction if we claim that God loves His people, and that His love dwells in us, while at the same time refusing to show that love to others who have received that same mercy.

We have not yet seen God fully revealed as we will when Christ returns. But we have seen those made in His image, and through the gospel we know that those who believe belong to Him. So if we say we love God because of what He has done for us, how can we not love those for whom He has done that same work and whom He now calls His own? If they are in Christ, then they are saved from the coming wrath of God by the same Savior who has saved us.

James makes the contradiction plain. With the same tongue, people bless the Lord and curse those made in the likeness of God, and James says this ought not to be so (James 3:5–12). Paul says the same thing in another way when he rebukes the Corinthians for their divisions. “Is Christ divided?” he asks (1 Corinthians 1:10–17). Their party spirit exposed that they were thinking in fleshly categories instead of gospel categories. Paul continues by reminding them that human servants are only servants, while God is the One who gives the growth (1 Corinthians 3:5–9).

That means if we create dividing lines between believers that go beyond the Person of Christ and His atoning work on the cross, then we are dividing wrongly. Those divisions rest on false and fleshly premises. We gather in Christ because in Him we have been restored and given right standing before God. And everyone else who truly believes stands with us, having been credited with that same righteousness.

None of this means truth does not matter. John is not promoting shallow unity. He is writing to those who believe. But it does mean that pride, envy, bitterness, preference, personality, social standing, and personal offense cannot be allowed to become stronger than the common salvation we have in Christ. If God has made them His own, then our excuses for refusing to love them are empty.

How Do We Know Between the Two

John then gives clarity about who is especially in view. “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God” (1 John 5:1). Christian love is not vague. It is not detached from truth. It is not mere sentiment. It is tied directly to faith in Jesus Christ.

The object of this affection and this fruit of the Spirit is those who believe that Jesus was sent by the Father and is the promised Christ. God continues to minister His love to those He has saved, those who now await His return and the fulfillment of His promises, and He does so through His own people. God has demonstrated His love toward humanity, and His people are now called to reflect that love as faithfully as possible in thought, word, and deed.

John goes further. “Everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him” (1 John 5:1). That means love for the Father necessarily includes love for His children. You cannot separate the two. If someone says he loves the Father while holding hatred, contempt, or settled coldness toward those born of Him, he is not speaking truthfully.

This gives the church a serious and beautiful privilege. As the body of Christ, we are ambassadors of the reconciliation accomplished at the cross and living witnesses of God’s continued work in human history. Wherever God has placed us, and whatever He has given us to do, our lives are meant to display His character. That character has been misrepresented throughout history by sinful men and opposed by the evil one, who continually works to corrupt what God has made. But the church is called to put something else on display, the love, holiness, mercy, and truth of God revealed in Christ.

How do we know who is especially in view? John tells us. It is those who believe that Jesus is the Christ. This does not reduce the importance of human dignity in general, but it does sharpen the focus of the passage. John is speaking about brotherly love within the family of God. He is speaking about those who have been born of Him.

That means Christian love is not indifferent to doctrine. It is not a love that says truth does not matter. In fact, the very mark John gives is doctrinal. The one born of God is the one who believes that Jesus is the Christ. Shared faith in the true Christ creates a shared family identity.

This also means our love is not optional once that identity is present. If we love the Father, then we must love those born of the Father. If we are united to Christ, then we are united to His people. If we have received mercy, then that mercy should be seen in the way we treat those who have received the same mercy.

We are the light that shines in the darkness because of the life He has given us. Christ said that the light is not meant to be hidden, but displayed so that others may see and give glory to the Father in heaven (Matthew 5:14–16). Paul closes his letter to the Corinthians by calling believers to restoration, comfort, agreement, and peace, and reminds them that the God of love and peace will be with them (2 Corinthians 13:11–13). He tells the Romans that love must be genuine, brotherly affection must be real, hospitality must be practiced, and the needs of the saints must be met (Romans 12:9–13). Peter says believers have been purified for a sincere brotherly love and are to love one another earnestly from a pure heart because they have been born again through the abiding word of God (1 Peter 1:22–25).

All of that fits John’s argument. The new birth creates a new family. The love of God produces a new pattern of life. The truth of Christ forms a new people. So the one who believes in Christ is not merely forgiven as an isolated individual. He is brought into the household of God. And that household is to be marked by love.

Conclusion

Our salvation was not an accident. It began with God, not with us. He acted first. He loved first. He called first. He pursued first. He redeemed first. Every part of the Christian life rests on that truth.

That is why hatred toward fellow believers is such a serious matter. It is not just bad behavior. It is not just an unfortunate personality issue. It is a contradiction of the love of God we claim to know. If God has worked from the beginning to make a people His own, then no excuse we raise for withholding love from them can stand.

And this love is not vague. It is tied to truth. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Everyone who loves the Father must also love those born of Him. We are bound together by one Savior, one new birth, and one salvation.

So the question is not merely whether we speak about love. The question is whether the love of God that came to us in Christ is now being displayed through us toward those who belong to Him. We love because He first loved us. That is the source. That is the standard. And that is the evidence.

Scripture References

Genesis 1:26
Humanity was made in the image of God.

Genesis 3:8–9
After the fall, God sought Adam.

Genesis 6:11–13
God saw the corruption of the earth and acted through Noah.

Genesis 12:1–2
God called Abram and gave him a promise.

Exodus 3:2–4
God revealed Himself to Moses and called him.

1 Samuel 3:4–10
God called Samuel before Samuel knew Him.

Jonah 1:1–2
God called Jonah and acted toward Nineveh.

Luke 15:3–7
Jesus shows God’s pursuing love for the lost.

James 3:5–12
We must not bless God and curse those made in His likeness.

1 Corinthians 1:10–17
Believers are not to be divided around human loyalties.

1 Corinthians 3:5–9
God is the One who gives the growth.

Matthew 5:14–16
Believers are called to shine as light in the world.

2 Corinthians 13:11–13
The church is called to peace, unity, and restoration.

Romans 12:9–13
Christian love should be genuine and active.

1 Peter 1:22–25
Those born again are called to love one another earnestly.