I have been addressing what Jesus reveals is the first and great commandment, the commandment that subsumes all other of God’s commandments, in which the keeping of this commandment is essential to our eternal destiny, namely the commandment, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength, and by extension, your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:34-38) (Luke 10:25-28).
The Apostle John reveals much about both loving and being loved by God in 1 John 4:7-21, including the reason and means by which we come to love God as God commands and deserves. In 1 John 4:19, he simply states, “we love God because He first loved us”.
An important question that needs to be answered here is who are the us being referred to in this passage. Many, if not most, would say it includes all mankind, without exception, and in one sense that would be true. We are told in John 3:16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal (everlasting) life. Eternal or everlasting life here, and as noted in other scripture passages, refers to the glorious life with God for which mankind was created.
Now most Christian theologians would agree the term world here represents all mankind; however, it is mankind in rebellion against the eternal God, a fallen humanity who have egregiously sinned against Him, rejecting His purpose for and rule over our lives.
Romans 3:23 reveals that this is true of all mankind, without exception. All in this sense are revealed in the Bible as the spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1), who actively suppress the truth of God in their unrighteous living (Romans 1:18), who are slaves to their sin (John 8:34), and are blinded to the glory of God by the one the Bible refers to as the “god of this world”, the devil, who has deceived the whole world into believing that there is something other than God that is worthy of our preeminent love (2 Corinthians 4:3-4) (Revelation 12:9) (1 John 2:15-16).
Thus, accordingly, all mankind is justly condemned, destined to perish, forever cut off from the glorious life with God for which man was created, subjected eternally to the wrath and judgement of God for our sin (Romans 3:8-18) (Revelation 14:9-11).
That is unless God, in love, intervenes. And that is what we have here in John 3:16, wherein God the Father sends Jesus, God the Son, into this sin cursed world as a man. And Jesus, out of love for the Father and for fallen mankind, comes willingly and joyfully, in anticipation of restoring many to right relationship with God, to eternal life (Philippians 2:8-11) (Hebrews 12:2) (Romans 5:19-21).
This restoration, what the Bible refers to as redemption, was accomplished through the sinless life Jesus lived as a man in this sin condemned world, His agonizing, substitutionary death on the cross, and His miraculous resurrection and subsequent ascension to His throne in Heaven. In Jesus, God can justly forgive the sin and declare as righteous all who believe Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the living God (Romans 3:24-26) (Matthew 16:13-15), and who repent of their sin, turning from a self-centered life to a God/Christ centered life in relationship with Jesus (Acts 17:30-31). All who do so will not perish in Hell, but receive the gift of eternal life (Ezekiel 18:32) (Romans 6:23). All others we are told in John 3:18 and John 3:36, remain under the wrath and judgement of God.
Thus, Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross is the defining expression of God’s infinite love for us (Romans 5:8) and of His infinite worthiness to be loved above all else in His creation by all (Revelation 5:11-13). However, not everyone sees and receives it as such.
The Apostle Paul reveals in 1 Corinthians 1:18 and 1 Corinthians 2:14 that the cross of Christ and all of its glorious implications are seen as foolishness to the natural man, the man noted above as dead in trespasses and sins. Thus, our ability to repent of our sin and to believe Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the living God requires a supernatural work of God, a work initiated by and brought forth in our hearts by God the Holy Spirit, who, in love, restores us to spiritual life (Ephesians 2:1-7) (Colossians 2:13-14) such that we can now see by faith the glory of God as it is revealed in the person and work of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:6). This supernatural work is what Jesus was referring to in John Chapter 3, when He told the Pharisee Nicodemus, you must be born again (John 3:3-7).
This same work is referred to in Titus 3:3-7 as regeneration and renewing and is identified in both the Titus and John passages as the work of God the Holy Spirit, who essentially creates in those God saves (Psalm 62:1) a new heart with new affections, new desires, new longings, and new motivations that are focused on pleasing, honoring and glorifying God as the object of our deepest love and source of our greatest joy (Ezekiel 36:24-27).
Thus, in answer to our question as to who are the us in 1 John 4:19, the answer is sinners who God, according to the wise counsel of His will and in the freedom of His mercy (Romans 9:15-16), would grant spiritual life, so that knowing, loving and being loved by Him would become the all-consuming passion of their life in this world, and in the world to come.
In granting us spiritual life and a new heart, God grants us the gift of repentance needed to see and turn from our sin, as well as the gift of faith in God’s saving grace as revealed in the person and work of Christ. It is the faith needed to receive all other gracious gifts God gives to those who love Him supremely. (Ephesians 2:8-9) (Acts 11:18) (2 Timothy 2:25) (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).
And those who will come to love Him supremely, with all of their heart, soul mind and strength (though not perfectly) will do so because the Holy Spirit has brought them to see, by faith, the glory of God as it is revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ (Romans 5:5) (1 Peter 1:6-9).
It is a love that becomes the controlling motivation in our lives, so that we live our lives no longer for ourselves, but for the glory of the One who lived and died for us (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). In Him we can joyfully declare with the Apostle Paul in Galatians 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Hallelujah! Thank You Jesus! Glory to God! AMEN!!
Grace and Peace ×
YES ! Thank You JESUS !
Glory to God❣️