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In this chapter we will consider the crucial points concerning life and living in 1 John 4.
First John 4:9 says, “God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might have life and live through Him.” The phrase have life and live through Him is from the same Greek word rendered “live” in John 6:57, where the Lord said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” Moreover, the Greek word for that in the phrase that we might have life is the same word rendered “because” in the phrase live because of Me. To have life is an initiation, and to live is a continuation; thus, to live includes having life.
First John 4 reveals two crucial points concerning life. The first is that we believers have been begotten of God. Verse 7 says, “Love is of God, and everyone who loves has been begotten of God and knows God.” God has begotten us through His Son. Thus, 1 John 4 mentions God sending His Son in relation to life three times. The first mention, in verse 9, which says, “God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might have life and live through Him,” is primary, and the second mention, in verse 10, which says, “Herein is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins,” is supplemental. Since the goal of the cross is for us to have life, and its auxiliary function is to accomplish redemption for our sins, Christ’s being made a propitiation for our sins is a supplemental point on life. In other words, redemption for sins accomplished through God sending His Son as a propitiation for our sins is not the goal but a procedure related to life. The third mention of God’s Son in relation to life is in verse 14, which says, “The Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world.” Here the Son of God being sent as our Savior includes two matters: His being made a propitiation for our sins and His releasing life for our regeneration. Thus, this third mention is a combination of primary and supplemental points. Nevertheless, all three mentionings of the Son of God in relation to life are auxiliary to the point that God has begotten us.
The procedure by which God gave us life was to have His Son accomplish redemption as the propitiation for our sins, and His motive for giving us life is His love. First John 4:8 says, “He who does not love has not known God, because God is love,” and verse 16 says, “We know and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him.” Both these verses speak concerning God’s love as a supplemental point on life. Whereas we must hold fast the crucial point of God causing us to have life, we must also see that God came to give us life because He is love; that is, His being love is the motive for His giving us life. Just as God’s sending His Son as the propitiation for our sins is a procedure to giving us life and is thus supplemental to life, so also God’s love as the motive for giving us life is supplemental to life.
The second crucial point concerning life is that God abides in us. God has begotten us by giving us His Son, and He abides in us by putting His Spirit into us. First John 4:9 says, “God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might have life and live through Him,” and verse 13 says, “In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us of His Spirit.” Verse 9 refers to the Son, and verse 13 refers to the Spirit. The emphasis concerning God’s Son is that we would have life, and the emphasis concerning God’s Spirit is that God abides in us. Verse 4, which says, “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world,” also indicates that God abides in us.
In summary, 1 John 4, like chapter 3, has two points on life. The first is that God has begotten us so that we may have life, and the second is that God abides in us so that we may live because of Him.
First John 4 contains two crucial points on living: loving God and abiding in Him. Of the sixty-six books in the Bible, 1 John 4 speaks the most concerning love. It speaks not only of God loving us but also of our loving God. Verse 10 says, “Not that we have loved God but that He loved us,” and verse 19 says, “We love because He first loved us.” God’s loving us is of the line of life, and our loving God is of the line of living. God comes to abide in us because He loves us, and we abide in God because we love Him. Thus, 1 John 4:11-13 says, “If God has loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another...If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us of His Spirit.” Moreover, verse 16 says, “We know and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him.” No one who has the life of God yet does not love Him can abide in Him, for it is not that we abide in God and then love Him but that we love Him and then abide in Him. Thus, to love God is a requirement for abiding in God.
First John 4 also speaks on the results, or issues, of living. First, when we abide in God and also abide in love because we love God, we eternally confess that our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is God come in the flesh. First John 4:2 says, “In this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.” Thus, we absolutely refuse to receive the teachings of the heretical errorists, and we absolutely refuse to receive the teachings of the antichrists.
Second, we are able to discern which spirits are of God and which spirits are not of God. First John 4:6 says, “We are of God; he who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. From this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.” Only those who love God and abide in Him have the discerning ability in spiritual matters to discern what is of God and what is not of God.
Third, we are able to overcome the heretics. First John 4:4 says, “You are of God, little children; and you have overcome them because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” Them here refers to the heretical teachers and the antichrists.
Fourth, we are able to love the brothers and love one another. First John 4:7 says, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God, and everyone who loves has been begotten of God and knows God.” Furthermore, the love of God is perfected in us. Verse 12 says, “If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.”
Fifth, we are able to have a living on the earth that is like Christ’s. This means that as Christ lived in this world a life of God as love, we too may live the same life of love in this world and be the same as He is. Verse 17c says, “Even as He is, so also are we in this world.”
First John 4:17b says, “That we may have boldness in the day of the judgment.” Thus, the sixth result of living is that we have boldness in the day of the judgment. We have boldness because we are living completely in Him and because we are as He is. That is, we are love as He is love, we are light as He is light, and we are living on earth as He is; we have no incompatibilities with Him. Thus, we have boldness.
Some may consider that reading the Bible along the lines of life and living is simplistic, yet it would be impossible to exhaust all the points along these lines, even if we were to speak hundreds and thousands of messages on them. Actually, we could speak for a lifetime on 1 John 4 because all the crucial points in the Bible are in this chapter. We must realize that every chapter in the Bible encompasses the entire Bible. Hence, we must read any particular chapter in the Bible with a view of the entire Bible in order to thoroughly comprehend it. Superficially, it may seem that there is an array of varied topics in the Bible; actually, all those topics can be grouped into three categories because the entire Bible speaks mainly concerning life, living, and the results of living. In summary, 1 John 4 reveals on the line of life that God has begotten us and that He lives in us; on the line of living that we love God and abide in Him; and on the line of the results, or issues, of living that there are light, love, our practicing righteousness, and our having boldness. Our speaking of these points may be repetitive, but it should be vibrant and living. If we know this secret of coming to the Bible in the way of life and living, we will be able to understand every chapter of the Bible and see the entire Bible in each of its chapters. On the one hand, reading the Bible according to this principle makes it simple and easy for us to comprehend any chapter that we read. On the other hand, the Bible becomes rich and all-inclusive because the content of the entire Bible is along the lines of life and living.
We are able to understand 1 John 4 in the context of Genesis 2. All that God in the Son as the Spirit does in us is the tree of life. Everything apart from this work—whether the antichrist, the spirit of antichrist, or those who deny that the Lord has come in the flesh—is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. All who receive God’s Son and abide in Him are eating the fruit of the tree of life, and those who follow anything other than the Triune God are eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The result of receiving and abiding in God is life, and the result of receiving anything apart from God is death.
