Love is the Natural Consequence

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the truth of God’s nature - that, according to 1st John 4:8, “God is love.” But what are the implications of that fact; I mean specifically for us and our behavior? To answer that, we only need to look at 1st John 4:11, “ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

That’s a familiar theme, isn’t it? And it comes in the form of a command. This is what we are supposed to do: “We also ought to love one another.” “Ought” means it’s the right thing to do.

But why? Because we’ve been granted such a great privilege: “God so loved us.” That’s the greatest benefit ever! But, that’s also a continuation of the theme of 1st John 4:10, “ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Previously, we said that this is why John can demand our obedience to the command to love. God set the pattern by first loving us, and He proved that love by sending His Son to die for us on the cross in our place.

That’s all rolled up in that one word, propitiation, or in the modern translations, atoning sacrifice, which speak of Christ being offered up in our place as the sacrifice for our sin. Thereby, Christ satisfied God’s holy standard that demands the death penalty for sin.

But, we also talked previously about how love should flow naturally out of our relationship with God. When we are born again, the Holy Spirit dwells within us and guides us to love. In other words, there are natural consequences -real world consequences.

And this brings us into new/old territory.
1st John 4:12 says, “No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. “

Truly, there is a lot in that verse to digest. But can you see the theme breaking out here again? “If we love one another, God abides in us.” Once again, love is given as the proof, the proof of salvation, and the proof of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

But in reverse, love is the natural consequence of abiding in Christ. It’s an outgrowth of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit - You just can’t help but love. But why? There’s two reasons wrapped up in this verse for why Christians are supposed to love, and these twin reasons are intertwined.

The first is this: “No one has seen God at any time.” And the second is this: “His love has been perfected in us.”