1 John 4:19

We love him, because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And …

By God's grace we love him who first loved us, in order to believe in him, and by loving him we perform good works, but we have not performed the good works in order to love him.

God loves us so much that even the hairs of our head are numbered, as it says in the Gospels. It is not that God goes around numbering hairs but rather that he has exact understanding and complete foreknowledge of everything to do with us.

Therefore, let us love God, etc. Let us love because He first loved us. For how could we love unless He had first loved us? Hence He Himself says in the Gospel: "You did not choose me, but I chose you" (John 15). Thus, we …

By fear here is meant the preliminary fear. Whoever sincerely loves God does what is pleasing to Him not out of fear of punishment, but out of an inclination toward virtue and out of love for God, not safeguarding himself even with the lawful fear …

We love him, because he first loved us - This is the sum of all religion, the genuine model of Christianity. None can say more: why should any one say less, or less intelligibly?

As suitable and consonant to our Christian profession. In the profession of Christianity we profess to love God as the root of religion: " If then a man say, or profess as much as thereby to say, I love God, I am a lover of his name, and house, and worship, and yet hate his brother, whom he should love for God's sake, he is a liar (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens+odd-straight-quotes

2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture

We love him, because he first loved us.

THIS is a great doctrinal truth, and I might with much propriety preach a doctrinal sermon from it, of which the sum and substance would be the sovereign grace of God. God’s love is evidently prior to ours: “He first loved us.” It is also clear enough from the text that God’s love is the cause of ours, for “We love him because he first loved us.”

Translate, We (emphatical: WE on our part) love (in general: love alike Him, and the brethren, and our fellow men), because He (emphatical: answering to "we"; because it was He who) first loved us in sending His Son (Greek aorist of a definite act at a point of time). He was the first to love us: this thought ought to create in us love casting out fear (1Jo 4:18).

those of us who were here meditated upon the connection between faith and love, so I thought we had better pursue the same subject somewhat further, hoping that we might still receive Divine instruction upon that important theme. You must have noticed how continually John blends faith with knowledge and love, as in the 16th verse of this Chapter—"We have known and believed the love that God has to us." All through this Epistle, he constantly repeats the words, "we know," "we know," "we know," "we know." And perhaps even more frequently he uses the word, "love."

DURING the last two Sabbath days I have been preaching the gospel to the unconverted. I have earnestly exhorted the very chief of sinners to look to Jesus Christ, and have assured them that as a preparation for coming to Christ, they need no good works, or good dispositions, but that they may come, just as they are, to the foot of the cross, and receive the pardoning blood and all-sufficient merits of the Lord Jesus Christ.

DURING the last two Sabbath days I have been preaching the gospel to the unconverted. I have earnestly exhorted the very chief of sinners to look to Jesus Christ, and have assured them that as a preparation for coming to Christ, they need no good works, or good dispositions, but that they may come, just as they are, to the foot of the cross, and receive the pardoning blood and all-sufficient merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. The thought has since occurred to me, that some who were ignorant of the gospel might, perhaps, put this query:—Is this likely to promote morality? If the gospel be a proclamation of pardon to the very chief of sinners, will not this be a license to sin? In what respects can the gospel be said to be a gospel according to holiness? How will such preaching operate? Will it make men better? Will they be more attentive to the laws which relate to man and man? Will they be more obedient to the statutes which relate to man and God? I thought, therefore, that we would advance a step further, and endeavour to show, this morning, how the proclamation of the gospel of God, though in the commencement it addresses itself to men who are utterly destitute of any good, is, nevertheless, designed to lead these very men to the noblest heights of virtue, yea, to ultimate perfection in holiness. The text tells us, that the effect of the gospel received in the heart is, that it compels and constrains such a heart to love God.

THIS is a great doctrinal truth, and I might with much propriety preach a doctrinal sermon from it, of which the sum and substance would be the sovereign grace of God. God’s love is evidently prior to ours: “He first loved us.” It is also clear enough from the text that God’s love is the cause of ours, for “We love him because he first loved us.” Therefore, going back to old time, or rather before all time, when we find God loving us with an everlasting love, we gather that the reason of his choice is not because we loved him, but because he willed to love us. His reasons, and he had reasons (for we read of the counsel of his will), are known to himself, but they are not to be found in any inherent goodness in us, or which was foreseen to be in us. We were chosen simply because he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy. He loved us because he would love us. The gift of his dear Son, which was a close consequent upon his choice of his people, was too great a sacrifice on God’s part to have been drawn from him by any goodness in the creature. It was not possible for the highest piety to have deserved so vast a boon as the gift of the Only-begotten; it was not possible for any thing in man to have merited the incarnation and the passion of the Redeemer. Our redemption, like our election, springs from the spontaneous self-originating love of God. And our regeneration, in which we are made actual partakers of the divine blessings in Jesus Christ, was not of us, nor by us.

VERY simple words, but very full of meaning. I think I might say of this sentence what the poet says of prayer—it is "the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try"—and yet it is one of the "most sublime strains that reach the Majesty on high." Take a little believing child and ask her why she loves the Savior, and she will reply at once, "Because He loved me and died for me."

VERY simple words, but very full of meaning. I think I might say of this sentence what the poet says of prayer—it is "the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try"—and yet it is one of the "most sublime strains that reach the Majesty on high." Take a little believing child and ask her why she loves the Savior, and she will reply at once, "Because He loved me and died for me." Then ascend to Heaven where the saints are perfect in Christ Jesus and put the same question and with united breath the whole choir of the redeemed will reply, "He has loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood." When we begin to love Christ, we love Him because He first loved us. And when we grow in Grace till we are capable of the very highest degree of spiritual understanding and affection, we still have no better reason for loving Him than this, "Because He first loved us." This morning, in trying to preach from the text, I would pray the Holy Spirit that every person here may first feel it. It is wonderful, the difference between a text read and heard and a text felt within the soul. Oh, that you, this morning, may be able to say from your hearts because you cannot help saying it, "We love Him." If I were to say no more, but sit down in silence—and if you were all to spend the next three quarters of an hour in exercising the emotion of love to God—it would be time most profitably spent! It is, beyond measure, beneficial to the soul to take her fill of love with the Lord Jesus. It is the sweet cure for an her ailments for her to have leisure to delight herself in the Lord and faith enough to dwell at ease in His perfections. Be sure, then, to let your hearts have room, scope and opportunity for indulging and inflaming the sacred passion of love to God.

those of us who were here meditated upon the connection between faith and love, so I thought we had better pursue the same subject somewhat further, hoping that we might still receive Divine instruction upon that important theme. You must have noticed how continually John blends faith with knowledge and love, as in the 16th verse of this Chapter—"We have known and believed the love that God has to us." All through this Epistle, he constantly repeats the words, "we know," "we know," "we know," "we know." And perhaps even more frequently he uses the word, "love." Knowledge, faith, and love are plaited together so closely that they cannot be separated. They are intertwined and united like the warp and the woof of a fabric, and so they become really one. To know Christ, to trust Christ, to love Christ— these are among the elementary principles of piety. Without all of these Graces, there is no true religion. But if these things are in us, and abound, they make us to be neither barren nor unfruitful. When you notice that knowledge, faith, and love are placed like a set of precious jewels in one case, it leads you to see how necessary it is that all the powers of our nature should be renewed. Our intellects need to be regenerated so that we may be able to know Christ, for those who are unspiritual do not know Him. They hear about Him, but they are strangers to Him. Spiritual things are only known to spiritual men. Faith is an act partly of the intellect and partly of the affections and we must, therefore, have both head and heart renewed by the Spirit of God, or we shall not have true faith. Even though the mind may be purified, it will not suffice unless the affections are also cleansed, because love to God never comes out of a foul heart—it is a plant that will not grow on the dunghill of our corrupt nature.

This is the point where all genuine Christians meet. They can all say, without exception, "We love Him." They do not agree in doctrine—it is a pity, but I suppose that as long as we are in this body, we shall, none of us, see all the Truths of God at once, and each man, seeing only a portion of the Truth, is most likely to think that what he does not see is not true—whereas it may be just as important as that which he is able to perceive.

This is the point where all genuine Christians meet. They can all say, without exception, "We love Him." They do not agree in doctrine—it is a pity, but I suppose that as long as we are in this body, we shall, none of us, see all the Truths of God at once, and each man, seeing only a portion of the Truth, is most likely to think that what he does not see is not true—whereas it may be just as important as that which he is able to perceive. Well, well, amidst a thousand controversies between Calvinism and Arminianism, and all the forms that various systems have taken with regard to this, and that, and the other, still, all the elect of God, being quickened by Divine Grace, unite in this one declaration, "Whatever we do not believe, we do love Him." There are great diversities of experience, as well as of doctrine. Some are down in the gloom and some never seem to leave the cellars of the Lord's house—they have deep spiritual exercises, they doubt, they fear, they tremble and are afraid. Others climb up to the very roof of the Palace Beautiful and look abroad upon the fair scene around. Their feet are used to dancing with spiritual delight and their hearts sing sweetly before the Lord. Theirs is an experience of communion rather than of corruption. They have been with Jesus and their faces are made to shine with His company. Perhaps if I told my experience, it might differ from yours from an experimental point of view—in that we might stand wide as the poles asunder—but if we are in Christ, we can, each of us, say with equal truth and intensity, "We love Him." There we join hands! Whatever we have not felt, tasted, or known, we do love Him! And you will notice, too, in this short expression that there is a force, a power in it, principally derived from the fact of the Personality of this love. "We love Hm." You know, to love an, "it," is hard work.

We love him because he first loved us - This is the foundation of our love to God. 1. We love him because we find he has loved us. 2. We love him from a sense of obligation and gratitude. 3. We love him from the influence of his own love; from his love shed abroad in our hearts, our love to him proceeds. It is the seed whence our love springs. The verse might be rendered, Let us therefore love him, because he first loved us: thus the Syriac and Vulgate.