1 John 4:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

We have already observed that the Apostle John has the custom of repeating the same thing about the same subject. He does so now as well.

“Peter,” Christ said, “do you love Me?” And he answered, “I love You.” “Feed My sheep” (see Jn 21:15-17).

The Apostle calls us beloved because God loved and accepted us. He calls us loving because of love for neighbor, love that is blameless and pure, not passionate and filthy, such as perhaps exists among robbers and other evildoers.

The same love of God exhorts us to love our neighbor, that is, every human being. "If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another" (1 Jn 4:11).

Will you, Christian, want to hate the one whom God has so loved? Will you want to do evil to the one to whom God, out of love, does good? Will you want to harm the one for whom Christ, the Son of God, came into the world, suffered, and died?

Will you want to deceive, seduce, slander, or dishonor the one whom Christ, the Son of God, has so honored? Will you want to steal, seize, or take away any good from the one for whom Christ, the Son of God, shed His Blood?

The Apostle Paul writes to the Ephesians: Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor (Eph 5:1-2).

If the great and all-perfect God, without any merit on the part of mankind and despite all our unworthiness, so loved us that He sent His Only-begotten Son into the world for our salvation, then we too must love one another.

We must imitate the example of divine love.

The example of divine love for mankind was shown when people had angered God and had become hardened in sins. As slaves of sin, they were incapable of loving God.

This example obliges us to love not only those who love us, as the pagans also love.

The Apostle, having said that our God is the God of love, and that only one who loves Him knows Him, presents the clearest proof of God's love for man.

This proof was shown when He sent His Only-begotten Son into the world and delivered Him up for the life and salvation of the world.

Let us note here that the Lord's regard for fallen humanity is not the result of sacrifices or of any merits on humanity's part.

The restoration of life to one who had sinned beyond number required a boundless propitiation.

But what can worthless clay bring to the great Creator? What could earthly poverty render to the riches of heavenly goodness?

The heavenly Father Himself was moved to compassion for poor humanity. He loved us without our merits, and without our sacrifices sent His Only-begotten Son.

“If so,” and so forth: “We have already observed that blessed John has the custom of repeating the same thing about the same subject. He does so now as well” (Theophylact). Imitating the example of divine love, we too must love one another. We must love not only our neighbors in general, but also our enemies, since we too were enemies of God. Yet by the death of Christ we became sons of God (1 Jn 2:23; Mt 18:33).

Those who know God always join love to this knowledge (1 Jn 4:7-12).

For “he who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 Jn 4:7-8). This was revealed in the fact that He sent His Only-begotten Son and gave Him “as the propitiation for our sins.”

And this was so not because we first loved Him, “but because He loved us” (1 Jn 4:9-10).

“If God so loved us,” then, according to the reasoning of the holy Apostle John, love must also be manifested on our part.

Since God is invisible in Himself, our love must be directed toward beings who bear His image. Thus our union with Him may be living, and love may be not an empty sound, but perfect love.

“No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His perfect love is in us” (1 Jn 4:11-13).

In the Lord’s suffering for sinners, a special fullness of divine love was revealed (see Rom 5:6-8). Only Love itself personified, Love as being itself, could do this. Our being too is good by nature, and through regeneration we too are from God, who showed us in Himself the example of love. Therefore it is evident that we too must live by love and have it as the very being of our life (cf. Col 2:9).

Above, in the two preceding verses (1 Jn 4:9-10), it was said wherein God's love for us was revealed.

It was revealed in this: “God sent His Only-begotten Son into the world, that we might receive life,” and “as the propitiation for our sins.”

To what does such great love of God for us dispose us? The answer is given in the verse under consideration: that, following the example of God's love for mankind, we should love our neighbors.

How can we fail to love those whom God has loved?

We deserved eternal destruction. To save us from it and to grant us life, that is, eternal blessedness, He sent His Only-begotten Son into the world.

He gave Him as the propitiatory sacrifice for our sins.