*We* love because *he* has first loved us.
God's love is the beginning of the whole story, and our love is only the echo. It settles that order for good. It also shows why every try at loving God out of our own strength collapses.
Love that starts on God's side
The verse answers a question about where love comes from. It tells us how love for God ever started in hearts that had none.
The proof of God's love is that He has given His Son; the perfection of it is that we are as He is; and it drives fear out, even when we face the day of judgment. But how did this happen? The answer is, "We love Him because He first loved us." That brings us back to the simplest truths. We did not come to God because of His loveliness. We do not come in by loving God; that comes later. We come in as sinners who owe everything to His grace. Once we are in, we find God to be what He is: love that meets us in our every need. Then we love Him.
What the law could never produce
The law demanded love from people. One writer shows the difference between a demand and a revelation of love.
The law demanded love from people, but never got it. But God has won it by showing His great love to us in the death of His only Son: "We love Him because He first loved us." Our love is not forced out of us by threats of wrath. Threats never produced love in any human heart. They produced terror, but not love. Love produces love, wherever that love is valued.
A statement, not an instruction
Notice that John does not tell his readers to start loving. He reports what has happened to them.
First he shows how God has displayed His love. God has given His Son. He has given His Spirit to live in us. He has made His love perfect with us, so that we may have boldness on the day of judgment. Then John says, "We love Him because He first loved us." He does not say we ought to love Him. The heart has drunk in all that this love has brought: eternal life, propitiation for our sins, the gift of the Spirit, and boldness on the day of judgment, because we will be like the Judge. All this streams into the heart. So we can say, "We love Him because He first loved us."
Love cannot be manufactured
Some people try to work up warm feelings toward God. One writer explains why that fails, and where to look instead.
This reaction is spontaneous and natural. I put no effort into it at all — no pushing myself, no working up my emotions by artificial means. Love must be spontaneous, or it is not love at all… Our hearts are no fountain of love. We must look elsewhere: "we love because He first loved us." Receiving the love of God is the only source of love for God or for others… What is the use of putting all our energy into pumping to draw water from a well that yields only poison gas?
How far "we love" reaches
Many readers know the verse as "we love Him." One writer says the shorter reading, without "Him," takes in more, not less.
You may have noticed that the true reading of 1 John 4:19 is, "We love, because He first loved us." You may feel, as I did, disappointed that the old familiar words have changed. But the true reading still includes the old words we all love so much, and it takes in much more. It is a wide, absolute love. It includes love for Him, love for one another, love of the Word, and love of prayer… And the only way for that love to grow is to know more and more of His love to us.
The same reading, another writer argues, works as a check on spiritual self-admiration.
All is included in "we love." Yet none of it would be possible unless we begin in the dust of death, "because He first loved us." So these words correct us, and our hearts badly need it. They strip away our focus on self and our admiration of self.
What our love rests on
One writer asks what our love for God actually rests on.
This holy sentence tells us that we can only love God when we know He first loved us. We love Him because we trust His love for us. If it were the other way round, we would be assuming that our love is greater than God's… So the only true love for God grows out of confidence in His love toward us.
Summary
- First — God loved first, and His love is the cause of ours. We came to Him as debtors to His grace, not as admirers of His loveliness.
- Given — The proof of that first love is the gift of His Son. With Him come eternal life, propitiation, the Spirit, and boldness for the day of judgment.
- Received — Love is not pumped up from our own hearts; it is the spontaneous return of a love taken in. The law demanded it and got terror instead.
- Spread — "We love" is left wide open: love to God, to one another, to His Word and to prayer, growing only as we know His love better.
- Tested — Real love for God rests on confidence in His love for us, never on admiration of our own love.