D. Scott Meadows

1 John 4.19 says, “We love because he first loved us.” Three powerful truths from this verse are basic to understanding God’s love and ours. And the first truth is this:

1) Only Christian believers love God and other people as John intends by the word love here. “We love,” he says, and he does not mean that everybody loves. He has only Christians in mind, not other people. Genuine love for God and for other people is a distinguishing mark of real Christians. According to Scripture, nonChristians actually hate God and their fellow man. The Bible describes unbelievers as “hateful, and hating one another” (Tit 3.3). It says that the mind of an unbeliever is “enmity against God,” that is, hostile to God, and for that reason an unbeliever cannot keep God’s commandments or please Him (Rom 8.7, 8). It also says, “Without faith it is impossible to please” God (Heb 11.6). So when John says, “We love,” he doesn’t mean everybody. He means only true Christians who are born again by the Holy Spirit. Only they have it in their heart to love as a Christian loves, and to show that love in their words and deeds.

Another truth in this verse, “We love because he first loved us,” is:

2) God first loved us. Without a doubt the pronoun “he” in this verse refers to God. Just a few verses earlier John wrote this: “We have known and believed the love that God has for us” (v. 16). So we know verse 19 means, “We love because God first loved us.” John is stressing the point that God’s love for a believer comes before a believer’s experience of love, whether love for God or for other people. Now this corrects a couple wrong and very popular ideas.

First, there is the wrong idea that God loves everybody the same. Truly there is a general love of God for all people that provides them with all kinds of good things—life and health, the sun and the rain, family and society, and so forth. But the Bible teaches that God has a special love for some people and not others, for those who eventually become Christians. In Scripture they are called “the elect,” the ones chosen by God for salvation, while others are passed by. These specially-favored ones are called God’s “beloved” ones, that is, the ones especially loved by God. He loves them eternally, long before they were born, and even before He created the world. They in particular were loved before time.

Second, some have gotten the wrong idea that God’s love is a response to our love, and conditioned on it. They are heavily burdened with the feeling that God will not love them until they love Him, or that He loves them more if they love Him more. But the love of God to His elect is not based on their faith or good works. It is just God being God, for God is love, and it is the love that gave them the Lord Jesus Christ to be their Savior, and a love for people in Christ for the sake of Christ. If you are one of God’s elect, God could never love you more or less than He loves you eternally because His love for you is a perfect and gracious love. It is not a reward for your faith or good behavior.

I have one more truth to draw out of this verse and then I’m done. Remember, it says, “We love because he first loved us.” So the third truth is:

3) God’s love is the cause of our love. Whomever God loves with this special, gracious, saving love, will eventually and for sure, by the powerful mercy and grace of God, be changed spiritually from a sinner into a saint, and from one who hates into one who loves, one who loves with a true and spiritual love that pleases God. Again, this corrects a very popular but wrong idea.

Many think that God’s love is a weak thing, because they imagine that God loves everybody alike and yet most people never become Christians who love. In their minds, God’s love really does not make any difference to many people, because they go their whole lives without being changed and they are never saved. But John says, “We love because he first loved us.” In other words, His love is the actual and powerful cause of our love. If you are a real Christian, that is, someone who loves with a love that pleases God, you cannot take any credit for that. You only love because God loved you first. Everyone that God loves with this special, saving love, will eventually be changed from the inside out in what the Bible calls the new birth or being born again by the Holy Spirit. As the fruit of His love to them in particular, they come to love as they should.

Let us, then, memorize this verse, “We love because he first loved us.” We should embrace these truths from it: 1) Only Christian believers love God and others, 2) God first loved us, and 3) God’s love is the cause of our love. And last of all, we ought to believe this good news about God’s gracious love. Ω