Herein as to us has been manifested the love of God, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
Love can stay just an idea until someone acts. John points to an event in history that answers three questions: whom God sent, where, and why life comes first as the proof of love.
(Older translations read "only begotten Son" where the ESV has "his only Son." The writers quoted below use the older wording.)
Just before this, John writes about being born of God and knowing God. That can tempt a reader to look inside himself for proof of love. One writer shows where the verse sends us instead.
John speaks of the one who loves as born of God and knowing God. That might have thrown the soul right back on itself, to search for love there and fall into mysticism. But the Spirit of God clearly lays down this sharing in the divine nature. At once He turns the eye of faith to what is wholly outside us. So we may have the proof of divine love and learn its character... I was dead then — I live through another. It was pure and perfect love in the mind of God Himself. It expressed what He is in this love, for there was nothing in me to attract it or awaken it.
The phrase "only begotten" is not decoration. It tells us who the Person sent is.
There was no life here, and no one else could give it. It was not enough to point to the Son in heaven; that would not satisfy God. No, God sent His Son into the world that we might live through Him; and this is the way souls do live. He sets this One before us, and tells us who the Son of God is. He is Jesus — truly the Son of Man, but also the Son of God. He is the only-begotten Son of the Father, yet God just as much as His Father.
"Into the world" fixes the place. It was here, among fallen people, that God chose to make Himself known.
Men may guess about other worlds. But no one has any real ground to say that God has ever revealed Himself except here... It is here that He sent His Son; it is here that He sent Him to be a man — a witness of His grace towards man beyond all words! — and remember, when man was fallen. Not until then was there the smallest word of it from God; but man had no sooner fallen than He speaks.
The purpose named here assumes something. If the aim was life, then the state before was death — and a dead person cannot respond.
Without the new life it would have been impossible for us to respond to God's love. The sweetest music, the finest beauty, the most delicate perfume — none of it stirs desire or wakes pleasure in a corpse. And by nature we are spiritually dead towards God, unaware of Him. But with God's gift of life we have gained a capacity for enjoying Him, and our hearts can now enter into His love.
"Live" in this verse is not survival. It describes a quality of life that had no source in man.
When God did send His Son into the world, it was to deal with sin and with Satan. It was to bring in what man could find nowhere else — LIFE, eternal life! Life that could feel according to God! Life that could take pleasure in His presence, and delight in His will. Life able to know and enjoy God! And where was this found? Is it in man's heart? In religious ceremonies? Nowhere but in the Son of God!
Earlier names of God did not carry this gift. One writer draws the contrast.
The name "Almighty" does not carry eternal life. "Jehovah" fulfils promises, but does not give eternal life. But the Father sent the Son, "so that we might live through him."
Life alone leaves something unsettled. The next verse adds propitiation — the Son sent to deal with our sins.
For we were dead towards God, and in Him alone was the life that could serve God, which we entirely lacked... But even this possession of life in Him does not satisfy His love, any more than it fits us to enjoy, serve, and worship Him. There is a burden which nothing on our part could remove. So it follows: this is love — not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son as propitiation for our sins.
- Manifested — hidden love proves nothing. John points to an event outside us, not to feelings inside us.
- Only begotten — the measure of the love is the worth of the One sent: the Son of the Father, God as much as His Father.
- Into the world — God sent Him here, to fallen people. He has revealed Himself nowhere else as He has here.
- That we might live — the gift assumes we were dead; a corpse feels nothing, so life had to come before response.
- Through Him — this life is nowhere but in the Son. Verse 10 then adds propitiation, because life alone leaves the burden of sin in place.
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son a propitiation for our sins.
God is love — but where is that proved? This verse turns away from what we feel toward God and points to what God did about our sins.
So where should a person look for proof?
God is love. That is a firm statement. If people look for proof of it in the sinful and disordered world around them, they will fail to find it. We must look in the right direction. There has been a perfect display of God's love, but only in one direction, as verses 9 and 10 so plainly state.
The verse rules out one starting point before it names the real one. Nothing in us set this love in motion.
Love has come in to deal with our sins as well as with our state... The gift God gave measures His love in all its infinite greatness. So do the depths of sorrow and judgment His dear Son entered to do this great work of propitiation — depths beyond our understanding... No feeling of love toward God on our side prompted the love that sent His Son. In our natural state as guilty sinners we did not love Him. It all began in God's own heart. The work was finished on the cross long before we ever thought of Him. That work enabled God to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The phrase does not mean we were free from any duty to love Him. It means we failed at it.
"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son a propitiation for our sins." Indeed He loved us beyond compare, and doubly. We were dead in sins; and God's love was shown in sending His only-begotten Son, that we might live through Him. We were guilty sinners; and He sent His Son as the only and effective sacrifice for our sins.
Does the word mean God had to be won over? One writer answers plainly.
The Bible does not teach that God is set against us. He is not a frowning God who has to be kept calm by sacrifices that change His feelings toward us. That is the corrupt pagan idea... Far from our having to change His heart toward us by a sacrifice, His heart, which is toward man, is the very source of all our blessing. Our sins had made propitiation necessary, but He Himself provided the necessary sacrifice.
Verse 9 speaks of life; verse 10 speaks of propitiation. Our ruin had two sides, and God's love meets both.
But we were guilty also, as responsible beings before Him. Here His love has met us. He has given His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. It is not law, nor duty, though duty was there... Love is not that we love God. That is what we must look for in our hearts if we seek the proof of life there — but then we are under law, and the law required just that, and required it justly. Love is that God loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. It is not requiring from us what we ought to be, but putting away, making a holy propitiation for our sins. We are dead in sins, and He gives us life. We were guilty, and He has given Him to make propitiation for our sins. He has met our whole case, in both its aspects as sinners.
The wording here is exact, and it reaches all the way to the conscience.
John does not speak of the Son here as making propitiation, but as being a propitiation. God sends Him as the One who, in His own Person, is able to do this great work that no one else could do. All the power of propitiation stays in Him, and it is available for all. We could never have received or enjoyed divine life if our sins had not been put away. The conscience must be free from all sense of guilt and defilement first. Only then can we enjoy the relationships and affections with God that He, in His great love, has given us.
A person may have life and still carry the weight of past sin. This verse speaks to that distress.
In the gospel God removes this distress. He purges the believer's conscience and fills him with peace through faith in Christ's sacrifice. That is why 1 John 4:10 adds, "In this is love, not that we have loved God" (which we surely do now, living in Christ), "but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." This alone is fully effective. The Spirit seals us on the strength of it, and grace brings us into liberty and spiritual power.
- Direction. The state of the world does not prove God's love. One event does: God sent His Son.
- Origin. Nothing in us started it. There was not a single feeling of love toward God prompting the gift; it all began in God's own heart.
- Correction. Propitiation never means an angry God bought off. Our sins made it necessary; God Himself supplied it.
- Completeness. We were dead in sins, and He gives life; guilty, and He gives propitiation. He meets our whole case.
- Effect. Because the Son Himself is the propitiation, God purges the conscience and brings the believer into liberty.