1 John 4

This is the fourth of the five chapters of 1 John. 1 John 3 closes with the commandment to love one another and the statement that we know God abides in us by the Spirit he has given us. This chapter continues that thought, addressing the discernment of spirits and the source of love.

Outline

• Verses 1–6 Believers are told not to believe every spirit but to test the spirits. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God; every spirit that does not is the spirit of antichrist. By this the spirit of truth and the spirit of error are known.
• Verses 7–12 Love is of God, and God is love. God manifested his love by sending his only begotten Son as the propitiation for our sins. Therefore believers ought to love one another.
• Verses 13–16 Believers know that they abide in God because they have received the Spirit and because they confess that Jesus is the Son of God.
• Verses 17–21 Perfect love gives boldness in the day of judgment and casts out fear. The chapter ends with the commandment that whoever loves God must love his brother also.

Key Verses

• 1 John 4:8 "God is love" — widely quoted as the most concise statement of who God is.
• 1 John 4:10 "sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" — locates the starting point of love not in human beings but in God's atonement.
• 1 John 4:18 "perfect love casteth out fear" — connects love with boldness before the judgment.

People and Places

• God: presented as the one who is love and as the Father who sent his Son.
• Jesus Christ: introduced as the only begotten Son who came in the flesh and as the Savior of the world.
• Holy Spirit: the one by whom believers know that God abides in them.
• False prophets and the spirit of antichrist: those who do not confess Jesus.
• No specific places are mentioned.

Points for Reflection

• Many scholars hold that the phrase "come in the flesh" in verse 2 is aimed at Docetic claims, which held that Jesus did not truly take on a physical body. The text, however, does not name its opponents.
• Reversing "God is love" to read "love is God" does not reflect what the text says.
• The Wesleyan tradition reads the "perfect love" of verse 18 in connection with Christian perfection, that is, the goal of sanctification. The Reformed tradition, holding that complete sanctification is not attained in this life, tends to read the verse in the context of assurance of salvation.
• Verse 12 connects with John 1:18, and the "only begotten Son" of verse 9 connects with John 3:16.

In the Korean Church

• Verse 1 is frequently cited in teaching on guarding against heresy as a basis for the call to discern spirits.
• "God is love" in verses 8 and 16 is widely used in preaching and as a memory verse.