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1 John 4:7-16

God Sent His Only Son

December 24, 2025

The Adoration of the Christ Child, Jan Joest of Kalkar
The Adoration of the Christ Child, Jan Joest of Kalkar, about 1515The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Mary, Joseph and a crowd of angels kneel round the newborn lying on a cloth in the manger, more angels unfurl a banner overhead, and shepherds look in at the window.God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him … And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world.Jan Joest of KalkarA painter from the Lower Rhine who worked in Kalkar and Haarlem.The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New YorkThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
LSB Three-Year Lectionary
GospelMatt. 1:18-25Mt 1:18-25
Epistle1 John 4:7-161 Jn 4:7-16
Old TestamentIsa. 7:10-14Is 7:10-14
PsalterPs. 110:1-4Ps 110:1-4

Overview & Insights

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world.” (1 John 4:9)

Agape and its verb saturate this paragraph, and the argument runs in one direction only, since love among believers is possible because it is derivative. Twice the writer states the predicate that God is love (vv. 8, 16), one of a very small set of such definitions in the Johannine letters, alongside “God is light” at 1:5, and each time it is followed at once by a consequence rather than a meditation. The ground given is an event and not a disposition: God sent his only Son as hilasmos for our sins (v. 10), a sacrificial term used also at 2:2 and rendered variously as expiation or propitiation. Verse 12 repeats the Gospel’s flat statement that no one has ever seen God (cf. John 1:18) and then makes mutual love the place where the invisible God is nevertheless brought to completion among us. On the eve of the Nativity, the sending of the Son is the whole basis of the ethic.

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Take it further: 1 John 4:7-16

Commentary

Working Preacher: 1 John 4:7-21Working Preacher: 1 Jn 4:7-21 Working Preacher

Luther Seminary exegesis on love as the definition and evidence of knowing God.

Enduring Word: 1 John 4Enduring Word: 1 Jn 4 Enduring Word · David Guzik

Verse by verse evangelical notes on testing the spirits and abiding in love.

Precept Austin: 1 John 4:7 CommentaryPrecept Austin: 1 Jn 4:7 Commentary Precept Austin

Word study and cross references on love as evidence of the new birth.

BibleHub: 1 John 4:7 CommentariesBibleHub: 1 Jn 4:7 Commentaries BibleHub

Aggregated classic commentaries on the source and nature of Christian love.

StudyLight: 1 John 4StudyLight: 1 Jn 4 StudyLight

Combined commentary set on the chapter's test of true and false spirits.

Background & Word Study

BibleHub Interlinear: 1 John 4:7BibleHub Interlinear: 1 Jn 4:7 BibleHub

Greek text with parsing for agape love and the verb translated abide.

BibleProject: 1-3 John OverviewBibleProject: 1-3 Jn Overview BibleProject

Animated overview of John's letters and their call to love within the church.

The Church Fathers

Catena: 1 John 4Catena: 1 Jn 4 Catena

Patristic comment chain gathering the Fathers on God's love made manifest.

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