Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. | 1 John 4:7–11
This is the second of four principles of simple faithfulness that Peter offers to us in 1 Peter 4:7-11. He tells them to: keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. He presents love, not only as something that we should ethically do, but something that is effective in overcoming sinful brokenness. The verse at the top of this blog, from 1 John, provides the motivation to love. We will start there and then get back to how it functions to bring together things that have been pulled apart.
John begins by telling us that to truly love you must be borne of God and know God. That seems like a bit of a stretch, because we see love in the world around us, coming from people who do not know God. All love is FROM God, and He chooses to pour some of that out on those who do not love Him. Likewise, He chooses to fill people who do not know Him with a love that pours out toward other people. John is not saying that non-Christians will not love at all, but that there will be a limit to their love. They have a love that begins as a pure gift from God, but that gets distorted by human application.
Much of the love that we see in the world proves this. It is conditional – based on how well the other person loves us. It is inconsistent – based on how we feel in the moment. It is pragmatic – based on what we get out of it. It is limited – because we only have so much to give. An earthly love is not bad, it is just incomplete. It lacks the depth and definition necessary to sacrifice on behalf of another. This is why Jesus made it clear that in order for us to love one another, we must first love God. This was His answer when asked what is the greatest commandment?
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” | Matthew 22:37–40
The first commandment is to know and love God. The second is to allow that love to transform you into someone who loves their neighbor. By grounding your human love in your love for God, you gain both motivation and perspective to love properly.
The motivation is that you love as someone who has experienced love. Your love comes from your understanding of the gospel: Jesus Christ gave up His throne in heaven to be born into this sinful world, to live in the flesh, to die as an innocent sacrifice, all so that you could be reunited with God. When you reflect on the grace and blessings poured out, in love, on your life, the only proper response is to love others.
.Any time you lose the personal incentive to care for someone else, you can be filled by remembering that God loved you when you were in active rebellion against Him. The love that is poured out on you is a never-ending well, which can be returned to empower your own ability to love.
The gospel is not just a motivation, but it also shapes how we love. Jesus’ love provides an example for us of how we can look past our own interest in order to care for others. Paul explains this:
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. | Philippians 2:3–8
What do we see in the love of Christ?
- A willingness to aside His rightful place
- Empty Himself
- Take on the form of a servant
- Humble Himself
- To give up His life
In all of this, Jesus was continually putting God’s glory and the love of His people above what was self-serving. Paul uses this to call us to follow this lead by counting others more significant than ourselves and considering the interests of others. Jesus gives us something to aspire to. He provides the model that we conform our lives to.
As I said at the beginning, love is not only a proper response to how we have been loved and the right moral action based on Jesus’ example; it also works. When Peter tells us that love covers a multitude of sins, he is making it clear that sharing true love can heal what sin breaks. To love someone provides a sense of belonging and meaning that sin destroys. While it only provides a taste of the love that God has shown to us, even in small doses, love can rebuild trust, hope, and purpose. I have watched people who have lost the will to live, regain it through love shown to them. I have seen people who were abused reestablish a desire to be in relationships through love shown to them.
In the love of God placed in us, we have something that is more powerful than the sin that destroys. When we see sin breaking, it should not lead us to despair, but to love. It is in caring for others that we can do our part to cover a multitude of sins.