Meditations from 1 John 4:7

Some weeks ago, I listened to a pastor preach on some verses of 1 John 4, and the Holy Spirit elaborated in my mind especially on verses 7-8, which read, in the NKJV that I had taken along for that service:

“Beloved, let us love¹ one another, for love is² of God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love³.”

That is a familiar verse to most of us who were raised in church, or have done some New Testament Bible study.  We would have learned that the ‘love’ mentioned there in English is more clearly defined by the transliteration of the Greek text. The first ‘love’ mentioned is the verb agapaō, meaning “to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly… (in a social or moral sense).” The second ‘love’ mentioned is the noun agapē, meaning “brotherly love, affection, good will, benevolence … charity.”  The last ‘love’ underlined above, as defining God’s character, is also agape.

Against that mental backdrop, the Holy Spirit began to focus my mind on the phrase “one another” in the first line – “let us love one another,” and contrast that with the kind of ‘love’ described in 2 Timothy 3:2-4, where last-days populations will tend toward being “lovers¹ of themselves, lovers² of money, … unloving, (and) lovers of pleasure.”

The first Greek word used for ‘lovers’ in that 2 Timothy passage is philautos, meaning “loving one’s self, too intent on one’s interest, selfish,… fond of self, lover of own self.” The second Greek word used there for ‘lovers’ is philarguros, meaning “loving money, avarice … fond of silver, avaricious … covetous.”

All of the above contemplations did not take place as I listened to the preacher that day, but I made enough jottings of what the Holy Spirit was also saying, that I could complete the mini-Bible Study later.  So my take-away from 1 John 4:7-8 was finally completed as follows. (1) The love we are to display is an ‘action word’ – a verb! It’s not just a word to espouse; we need to demonstrate / act out agapē.  (2) We are to love “one another” – not just ourselves. John knew that we don’t need encouragement to love ourselves. That is a ‘survival instinct’ characteristic of human nature, which according to Scripture we must subject to agapē if we claim to know God – the One who will take care of us while we demonstrate / act out His love to others.  (3) The love of money and love of pleasure are just expressions of the self-love that starts Paul’s list of unworthy loves in 2 Timothy 3. In fact, the passage disqualifies these unworthy emotions from being classified as love by use of the word “unloving.”

Finally, the Holy Spirit took me back along memory lane, all the way to where my Dad had impressed on me his favourite Scripture passage – the 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a description of real love – agapē:  

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”