1 John 4:7-8
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
After warning us about false spirits and deceptive voices, John now shifts the focus back to something central. Discernment is necessary, but it must never make the heart cold.
You need to see this.
A person can become so concerned about spotting error that he forgets what the Christian life is supposed to look like in the first place. It is possible to be very sharp in theology and very thin in love. John will not allow that. If we truly know God, love will show up in the way we treat people.
Beloved, let us love one another.
Why? Because love comes from God. It flows out of His very nature. When love begins to appear in someone’s life, it reveals something deeper. John says that person has been born of God and has come to know Him.
But the reverse is also true. If love is absent, something is wrong. A person may talk about God, argue about doctrine, or participate in religious activity, but John says plainly that the one who does not love does not truly know God. Why? Because God Himself is love.
Think about that for a moment.
Earlier John told us that God is light in 1 John 1:5.
God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
Moses described God as a consuming fire in Deuteronomy 9:3.
The LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them.
And now John tells us that God is love.
Those descriptions together paint a striking picture of who God is. He is holy light. He is a consuming fire. And He is love.
Fire helps us understand this.
A fire burning safely in the fireplace fills a room with warmth and light. People gather around it. It brings comfort and peace. But the same fire outside the fireplace, raging through the structure of a house, becomes terrifying and destructive.
The nature of the fire has not changed. The difference is the relationship a person has to it.
So it is with God.
The person who receives what God has done through Jesus Christ at the Cross finds warmth, forgiveness, and light. That person lives in the glow of God’s love.
But the one who refuses the Son stands in a very different place. Jesus said in John 3:36,
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
God does not change. His nature remains the same. But whether His presence feels like warmth or terror depends on whether we have come to Him through Christ.
That is why John brings us back to love.
Yes, we must test the spirits. Yes, we must recognize false teaching. Yes, we must stand firm in the truth about Jesus Christ. But the evidence that we truly know God will still be love for people.
Truth and love must travel together.
When they do, the life of God becomes visible in us.