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Christmas · Christmas Eve · Year C

1 John 4:7-16

God’s Love and Ours

December 24, 2027

Charity, Cesare Dandini
Charity, Cesare Dandini, c. 1630The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Charity, a woman in blue and red, nurses one child while others cling to her and reach for water.Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.Cesare DandiniA Florentine painter of the early Baroque, admired for his bright colour and polished surfaces.The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New YorkThe Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, one of the largest art museums in the world.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

“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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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.

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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