1 John 4:10

We come to God not by our own merits but by the bestowal of his grace alone, as John bears witness when he says that we did not love God but rather he loved us.

In this is love, etc. We did not love him first. For he loved us to the extent that we might love him. Grace indeed goes before man, that he may love God, by which love he works good things. Whence the Psalmist says: My …

Therefore he adds: "in this is love," that is, by this it is proved that God is love. Then, showing the surpassing quality of God's love, he says: God did this, that is, gave up His own Son for us, not because we loved Him, …

And he sent his Son to be the propitiation, etc. And this is the greatest sign of divine love for us, because when we did not yet know how to ask him for forgiveness for our sins, he sent his Son to us, who, to …

Herein is love,....

He loved us, when we had no love for him, when we lay in our guilt, misery, and blood, when we were undeserving, ill-deserving, polluted, and unclean, and wanted to be washed from our sins in sacred blood.

Herein is love--love in the abstract: love, in its highest ideal, is herein. The love was all on God's side, none on ours. not that we loved God--though so altogether worthy of love. he loved us--though so altogether unworthy of love. The Greek aorist expresses, Not that we did any act of love at any time to God, but that He did the act of love to us in sending Christ.

THE Law commands love, indeed, all its precepts are summed up in that one word, "love." More widely read it runs thus—"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself—yet all this amounts only to, "You shall love." But the Law, by reason of our depravity, never produced love. We were commanded to love, but we did no such thing. The spirit that is in us is selfish and it lusts to envy and to enmity.

THE Law commands love, indeed, all its precepts are summed up in that one word, "love." More widely read it runs thus—"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself—yet all this amounts only to, "You shall love." But the Law, by reason of our depravity, never produced love. We were commanded to love, but we did no such thing. The spirit that is in us is selfish and it lusts to envy and to enmity. Why do wars and fights come among us? Come they not from our lusts? Since the Fall, man has become man's bitterest foe upon the earth—and the world is full of hate, slandering, struggles, fighting, wounding, and slaying—all that the Law can do is to show the wrong of enmity and threaten punishment. It cannot supply an unregenerate heart with a fountain of love. Man remains unloving and unlovable till the Gospel takes him in hand and, by Grace, accomplishes that which the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh. Love is winning many hearts to the Kingdom of God and its reign shall extend till love shall rule over the whole earth. And so the Kingdom of God shall be set up among men and God shall dwell among them. At the present moment love is the distinguishing mark of the people of God. Jesus said, "By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love, one to another." And John said, "We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the Brethren." The man whose spirit is selfish has not the spirit of Christ and, "if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of His." The man whose spirit is that of envy and contention is evidently no follower of the lowly and loving Jesus—and those who do not follow Jesus are none of His. They that are Christ's are filled with His love.

To find love, you have need send a lover—one whose soul is full of love is the most likely to discover it. John, with love in his heart, soars aloft and, using his eagle eyes, looks over all history and all space and, at last, he poises himself over one spot, for he has found that for which he was looking, and says, "Herein is love."

To find love, you have need send a lover—one whose soul is full of love is the most likely to discover it. John, with love in his heart, soars aloft and, using his eagle eyes, looks over all history and all space and, at last, he poises himself over one spot, for he has found that for which he was looking, and says, "Herein is love." There is love in a thousand places, like the scattered drops of spray on the leaves of the forest, but as for the ocean, that is in one place, and when we reach it, we say, "Herein is water." There is love in many places, like wandering beams of light, but as for the sun, it is in one part of the heavens and as we look at it, we say, "Herein is light." So, "Herein," said the Apostle, as he looked toward the Lord Jehovah, Himself, "Herein is love." He did not point to his own heart and say, "Herein is love," for that was but a little pool filled from the great sea of love. He did not look at the Church of God and say of all the myriads who counted not their lives dear unto them, "Herein is love," for their love was only the reflected brightness of the great sun of love! No, he looked to God the Father, in the splendor of His condescension in giving His only Son to die for us, and he said "Herein is love," as if all love were here—love at its utmost height, love at its climax, love out-doing itself— "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." I have no time for an elaborate discourse and I have no desire to preach in such a fashion, but I do want to get at your hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit. There seem to me to be four things in the text, each of which tends to bring out the greatness of Divine Love.

As there not scenes and circumstances which, now and then, transpire before us that prompt an exclamation like that of the Apostle, "Herein is love"? When we have seen the devotedness of a mother to her children. When we have marked the affection of friend for friend and caught a glimpse in different human relationships of the kindness that exists in human hearts, we have said, "Herein is love!" Yesterday these words seemed to rise up and float upon my tongue, although I did not use them, for they seemed to be consecrated to something higher than creature affection.

As there not scenes and circumstances which, now and then, transpire before us that prompt an exclamation like that of the Apostle, "Herein is love"? When we have seen the devotedness of a mother to her children. When we have marked the affection of friend for friend and caught a glimpse in different human relationships of the kindness that exists in human hearts, we have said, "Herein is love!" Yesterday these words seemed to rise up and float upon my tongue, although I did not use them, for they seemed to be consecrated to something higher than creature affection. I had the painful duty of attending the Abney Park Cemetery, to bury a beloved Sister in Christ, one of the most useful women we had among us—and as I stood there to commit her body to the grave, I was pleased—I cannot tell you how I was beyond measure pleased, on that dark foggy day, at that distance from town, to find nearly a hundred, mostly poor people, gathered there to show their respect to their friend who had helped, in many cases, to feed them and clothe them and, in every instance, had tried to point them to Christ. There were thousands of tears shed of the sincerest and most heavenly kind. While conducting the service, I could not help feeling not only a sympathy with her bereaved husband, but with those who had been the objects of our Sister's care—men and women who, perhaps, had given up a day's work and walked long dreary miles in the unpropitious weather of yesterday, that they might come and mingle their tears over the dust of one who, as a Christian woman, had served them well.

Herein is love - In this great gift is the highest expression of love, as if it had done all that it can do. Not that we loved God - Not that we were in such a state that we might suppose he would make such a sacrifice for us, but just the opposite. If we had loved and obeyed him, we might have had reason to believe that he would be willing to show his love to us in a corresponding manner. But we were alienated from him. We had even no desire for his friendship and favor. In This state he showed the greatness of his love for us by giving his Son to die for his enemies. See the notes at Rom 5:7-8. But that he loved us - Not that he approved our character, but that he desired our welfare. Hc loved us not with the love of complacency, but with the love of benevolence. And sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins - On the meaning of the word “propitiation,” see the notes at Rom 3:25. Compare the notes at 1Jn 2:2.