Christmas · Christmas Eve · Year C
1 John 4:7-16
God’s Love and Ours
December 24, 2027
Overview & Insights
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God.” (1 John 4:7)
There is little agreement among those who have made a serious study of 1 John as to how to divide 1 John 4:7–5:4, but most have understood 4:7–12 to center around God’s love for us and, in response, our love for one another. It is likely that the opponents of the Elder had stressed their love for God (cf. 4:10, 20), their devotion, piety, and mystical spirituality (cf. 1:6, 8, 10; 2:4, 6, 9; 3:18; 4:1). But the Elder thinks that it is God’s love for human beings which is foundational. It is the basis of love for one another and of any claim to love for God.
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Commentary
Working Preacher: 1 John 4:7-21 Working Preacher
Luther Seminary exegesis on love as the definition and evidence of knowing God.
Enduring Word: 1 John 4 Enduring Word · David Guzik
Verse by verse evangelical notes on testing the spirits and abiding in love.
Precept Austin: 1 John 4:7 Commentary Precept Austin
Word study and cross references on love as evidence of the new birth.
BibleHub: 1 John 4:7 Commentaries BibleHub
Aggregated classic commentaries on the source and nature of Christian love.
StudyLight: 1 John 4 StudyLight
Combined commentary set on the chapter's test of true and false spirits.
Background & Word Study
BibleHub Interlinear: 1 John 4:7 BibleHub
Greek text with parsing for agape love and the verb translated abide.
Enter the Bible: 1 John Enter the Bible
Luther Seminary background on the letter's setting and its opponents.
BibleProject: 1-3 John Overview BibleProject
Animated overview of John's letters and their call to love within the church.
The Church Fathers
Questions preachers ask
What does it mean that God is love?
God showed his love by sending his only Son so that we might live through him; because he first loved us, those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.
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