LOVE IS FROM GOD - 1 JOHN 4:7-8

Verses 7-8: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

Beginning in this verse through the remainder of the chapter, John picks up on the subject of love for the third time. At first he characterized it as walking in the Light (2:7-11), then as the righteous conduct of God’s children (3:10-18), and here as God’s essentially attribute as it has been manifested by Him in Christ (4:7-21). W.E. Vine comments that,

The resumption of the subject of brotherly love is not by way of a sharp break from what has immediately preceded. On the contrary it is closely connected with it, inasmuch as the Spirit of Truth produces love, whereas the spirit of error is ever against it.1

It should be carefully observed that this section is specifically directed to believers—those born of God.

Impersonal Love

There has been a longstanding belief that when John states “let us love one another,” that this love which he teaches is synonymous with God’s love. Although this may be true, some clarification is in order, for it is not an emotional, gushing of sentimentality exhibited towards others. Nor does this refer to personal love, which would be virtually impossible. Instead, John is referring to the impersonal love which has been discussed previously in Chapter 2:7. Therefore, it would be beneficial to reiterate the distinction between personal and impersonal love as it was cited there:

Unlike personal love, which emphasizes the attractiveness of the object of love, impersonal love emphasizes the capacity and integrity of the one who loves. Whereas personal love is an intense and subjective attitude toward a few, impersonal love is a relaxed and objective mental attitude toward everyone—friend or enemy, worthy or unworthy, pleasant or obnoxious. Impersonal love solves problems in personal relationships. The believer with impersonal love is able to accept all people as they are, without demands for reciprocation, without reaction or retaliation, without incurring mental attitude sins. Whether encountering love and admiration or hatred and reproach, this unconditional attitude is stable and enduring. (Colossians 3:12–14; 1 Peter 3:8–9) 2

 The late Bible teacher Chester McCalley (1935-2000) concisely summarized this type of love:

Love directed towards man is the mental attitude that demands that we do what is best for another in the light of eternity no matter what it costs us.3

Therefore, when John states let us love on another, this is an appeal to believers (the beloved) to join with him4 in a clear demonstration of impersonal love for other believers.

Knowing God

Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. This phrase expresses the ideal relationship of the believer with God; that after having experienced the new spiritual birth by faith in Jesus Christ they continually know God experientially by maintaining sinless fellowship and motivated in achieving spiritual maturity. As the apostle Paul stated:

Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13)

W.E. Vine explains further:

To exhibit divine love is an evidence of more than the existence of the divine relationship; it is a proof of the experience of a constant increase in the knowledge of God.5

This is why John is able to proclaim in the next verse: The one who does not love does not know God. Many scholars claim that John is assuming here that those who do not love are not believers in Jesus Christ. However, to disprove this view we need to consider the following: everyone in verse 7 and the one in verse 8 are together included in the word us (the beloved) in the opening phrase: let us love. Since love is an indication of the mature believer, we must not rush to judgement when we see a fellow believers’ failure to comply to this command or for that matter, with any command. It should be remembered that we are all in various stages of maturing spiritually and that these verses apply to each of us personally. 

How can a person know God? First, it begins with faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, Who gives eternal life (John 17:2). For Our Lord stated this fact: “This is eternal life, that they may know You [God, the Father]” (John 17:3). John the Baptizer declared the alternative:

“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”(John 3:36)

Secondly, the writings of the apostle Paul coincide with John’s assertion that believers know God. Paul’s prayer for us is,

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. (Ephesians 1:17)

What Paul means by a spirit of revelation is that of a “spirit which can fathom and unfold the deep things of God”6 that all the saints “may be able to comprehend” (Ephesians 3:18; cf. 1 Corinthians 2:10). The deep things of God are found in Scripture, which is “inspired by God and profitable for teaching…for training” (2 Timothy 3:16). Paul explained to Timothy the objective of his emphasis for teaching pertinent doctrine in order for the believer to know God:

But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (1 Timothy 1:5)

God Is Love

This is one of the most misused phrases of Scripture by unbelievers in our culture. Along with John 8:32, “You will know the truth and the truth will make you free,” these phrases are touted as mere virtue signaling, being misapplied and totally misunderstood.

This fact statement that God is love does not claim He is identical with love, but that He possesses the quality of love7 as an indication of His Divine attribute of love. Essentially, it denotes the very structure of His being and that “He is the unfailing source of all love.”8 His love is stable, unchanging, meaning that His love neither increases nor decreases. It does not imply an emotional personal love towards everyone, for He only has personal love towards Jesus Christ (John 15:9; 17:23, 24, 26) and towards those who believe in His Son—nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8:39).

On the other hand, since it is impossible for the righteous God to have personal love for those who are unrighteous, God has impersonal love for all the unsaved peoples of the entire human race. The apostle Paul proclaimed this:

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

And it is God's impersonal love of which Our Lord declared in John 3:16:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

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[1] Vine, W. E. (1996). Collected Writings of W.E. Vine. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1 John 4:7.

[2] Thieme, R.B., Jr. (2022). Thieme’s Bible Doctrine Dictionary, Houston, TX: R.B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries, p. 136.

[3] McCalley, Chester. http://wordoftruthkc.org/sites/default/files/file/Philippians%20Commentary.pdf, p. 4. [Retrieved April 19, 2025]

[4] Dana, H.E. & Mantey, Julius R. (1957). A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, Toronto, Ontario: Macmillan Co., p. 171.

[5] Vine, 1 John 4:7.

[6] Zodhiates, S. (2000). In The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament. Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, G602.

[7] Wallace, D. B. (1996). Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics—An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament. Zondervan Publishing House and Galaxie Software, p. 45.

[8] Chafer, Lewis Sperry (1976). Systematic Theology, Dallas, TX: Dallas Seminary Press, 1.205.

 

© 2025 David M. Rossi
 

THE SONG OF THE LAMB - REVELATION 15:1-4

Many hymns and songs have been composed from passages of Scripture. Some have even been made popular within our culture today. For example, the Christmas carol Angels We Have Heard on High employs a refrain based upon the angels’ announcement of Christ’s birth to the shepherds watching their flock (Luke 2:8–14), Gloria in Excelsis Deo—Glory to God in the highest. Also, in the early 19^th Century, Thomas O. Chisholm (1866–1960) penned the now famous hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness drawing heavily from Lamentations 3:22–23.

There are many other examples, but let us examine what may be considered an obscure song recorded in Revelation 15: the Song of the Lamb.

Verse 1: Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished.

This chapter is the prelude to the 7 Bowl judgment of chapter 16, having been preceded by the 7 Seal judgment (6–8) and the 6 Trumpet judgments (8–9). The end of the great tribulation (7:14) is nearing and the finality of God’s wrath will be poured out, to be followed then by the 2^nd Coming of Jesus Christ in chapter 19.

Verse 2: And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God.

John is now given a vision of something like a sea of glass mixed with fire. Note that he says like, meaning that it wasn’t an actual sea of water, for there is no water in heaven, so what he is trying to describe is something he had never seen before—yet something like or similar to that which he could relate to his readers. John saw the same thing in 4:6 before the throne of the 24 elders adding that this sea of glass was like crystal.

So what exactly did John see? It is only a speculation, but since John did not live in the 20^th or 21^st Century he never witnesses a dramatic Super Bowl halftime spectacle. And that is what it seems what he saw: a stage or expanse that consisted of crystal clear glass or some translucent substance with fire or flames shooting upwards. 

What he sees next helps to support the possibility that this is a stage, for standing on it are those who have been victorious over the beast, Satan’s Antichrist. These are the martyrs described in 6:9 and 12:11, who “did not love their life even when faced with death.” Their victory was based upon the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. These victors are standing on this stage holding harps of God.

The word harp comes from the Greek word kithára (κιθάρα) from which we get our English word for guitar. These harps were triangular shaped hand-held stringed musical instruments, unlike the one Harpo Marx famously played in the Marx Brothers movies and recordings. The strings were strummed or plucked with the fingers or an object similar to a guitar pick. In the Bible the harp is almost always associated with happiness, and here is no exception. It is noted that these ancient stringed instruments not only accompanied the songs of God’s people (1 Chron. 25:6; Ps. 33:2), but also accompanied prophecy (cf. 1 Sam. 10:5).1

Verses 3-4: And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,

The Scripture refers to 2 songs of Moses, both are different. In Exodus 15 is the praising of God for the deliverance of Israel from Egypt through Moses, while Deuteronomy 32 praises God upon reaching the promised land. Which one they sang is not specified, but quite possibly both.

They also sang the Song of the Lamb. This may well be a continuation of the song the 24 elders sang before the Lamb (5:8-14), there also each one was holding a harp.

John provides the lyrics of their song:

“Great and marvelous are Your works,

O Lord God, the Almighty;

Righteous and true are Your ways,

King of the nations!

Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name?

For You alone are holy;

For all the nations will come and worship before You,

For Your righteous acts have been revealed.”

 It is worth noting that what they highlight in this Song of the Lamb is the Lord God. They are careful not to place emphasis upon themselves, in spite of the fact they had been martyred. Instead they draw attention to His attributes: His great and marvelous works; that He is almighty, having power over everything; His righteous and perfect character; the sovereign King over all; His holiness, defining His integrity; and His acts, specifically the judgements He has dispensed are openly declared to be righteous and just.

Something to Consider

Both the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb are about God’s deliverance and provision to His people. And even at the conclusion of their fiery ordeal these martyrs are able to follow the Psalmist instructions:

Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones; 

Praise is becoming to the upright.

Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;

Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings.

Sing to Him a new song;

Play skillfully with a shout of joy. (Ps. 33:1–3)

 

The apostle Paul also expresses the manner in which the righteous ones ought to sing:

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation [self-indulgence], but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. (Eph. 5:18–19)

Concluding Thought

The message of our hymns and songs should take precedence in our thinking over and above the emotion derived from the instruments and music’s tempo. Since Jesus Christ is supposed to be the center of our lives, He should also be at the center of our songs of praise and worship. Therefore, we should place the greater emphasis on His eternal character and His provision of eternal blessings.

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[1] MacArthur, John F., Jr. 2010. The MacArthur Study Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, p. 1948 note.

 © 2025 David M. Rossi

OUR SPIRITUAL ORIGIN IS FROM GOD - 1 JOHN 4:6

Verse 6: We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

This verse concludes John’s analysis of the first six verses of chapter 4. John declares our position, restates the spiritual battle lines, emphasizing the participants’ origins, and finishing with the benefit of our attentiveness to his teaching.

We Are From God

We refers to John’s readers as well as to himself. Make no mistake, John is not writing to unbelievers in order to advise them on how to live the Christian life. That would be absurd, since the unbeliever “does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him” (1 Corinthians 2:14). The purpose of Scripture is entirely for the “man of God” as the apostle Paul stated:

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16–17)

The only statements that apply to the unbeliever are regarding their need for salvation. For example: “You must be born again” (John 3:7b) and “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

In this opening statement, John reaffirms the eternal reality that our spiritual origin is from God, having been born of Him (2:29; cf. John 3:6–7). Thus, we have the assurance that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38–39).

Spiritual Divisions

It is important to understand the demarcation which John is setting up here: he who truly knows the God of the universe, who believes in the One who has been revealed by His creation (Romans 1:20) and by His Son (Hebrews 1:2); in contrast to “he who is not from God.” The character of these two groups is distinct: one of them consists of those whom John stated know the father...who has been from the beginning (2:13-14), the other is identified with the world (4:1, 5).1 However, the missing word know is the determining factor that they are not from God—they are unbelievers. And not being spiritually born of Him they have no factual knowledge of God and may possess an erroneous understanding of even His existence.

By John’s use of the word know, he returns to the core issue that was confronting the Church in the 1^st Century: the Gnostic heresy. The adherents of Gnosticism implied that they possessed a superior knowledge of God which was hidden from others. “It makes a distinction between the select few who have this higher gift, and the vulgar many who are without it.”2

Today, the 21^st Century Church is confronted with a similar heresy, the divergent belief that a person can know God by subjective thinking or feelings as opposed to the objective revelation of God through His Word. Many fail to embrace the Christian way of life, which entails being thoroughly engaged in Jesus Christ and the reliance upon the empowerment of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 3:16–19). They may consider being a Christian as merely a Sunday activity, or worse, a dress-up day for Easter and/or Christmas—instead of Christ being the center of their daily moment-by-moment life.

The Missing Element

John states that these two groups which he has presented have obvious differences: one listens to us; while the other does not listen to us. The word listen incorporates the idea of hearing attentively and as a result to follow and obey what is said. For some, hearing has the tendency to ineffectively go into one ear and out the other. Specifically, the latter group do not listen to is the gospel of salvation—the appeal for them to believe in Jesus Christ as Savior. The cause of this missing element is their unwillingness to listen to us who possess the objective truth of God’s Word. Their reluctance to listen may be the result of their own wrong thinking as the apostle Paul observed:

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)

And if this were the case, then they left themselves open to the wiles of the evil one, Satan, the god of this world (John 12:31; 17:15; 1 John 5:19). Again, the apostle Paul explains:

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:3–4)

R.C.H. Lenski concludes:

In order to know and thus to hear with blessed results one must “be from God,” born of him, must have “the eyes of your understanding enlightened,” Ephesians 1:18. Only thus are the speakers appreciated.3

Our Resulting Benefit

By this refers to the aforementioned fact, that there are two groups that inhabit the world: those who listen to our message of the gospel and those who refuse and/or reject our plea that they hear and believe in Jesus Christ. So, by this we are now able to distinguish (know) the difference between truth and error. The use of the word spirit here does not refer to something supernatural. Instead it refers to one of its more basic meanings: a frame of mind, disposition, influence,4 with the implication of the essence, substance or evidence of the idea presented. This usage is not uncommon in Scripture (cf. Luke 1:17; Romans 8:15; 1 Corinthians 4:21; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 2:2; 2 Timothy 1:7).

What we can know, on the one hand, is the spirit of truth, the very essence of the absolute standard of truth contained in Scripture. Our Lord affirmed this when He declared to the Father that “Your Word is truth” (John 17:17), and that the Holy Spirit “will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13)—God’s absolute truth. This is “true truth” as distinguished by Dr. Francis Schaeffer, reasoning that “People today live in a generation that no longer believes in the hope of truth as truth.”5 For indeed, our culture rejects God’s truth; instead they are obsessed with arbitrary “truth,” embracing whatever appeals to their personal desires and objectives. God’s Word contains His absolute truth—His Divine viewpoint which is universal, unilaterally superseding and overruling any and all opposing human viewpoint.

While on the other hand, we can also know the spirit of error; it permeates everywhere in our culture, even sometimes right within our churches. It is evidenced by anything that is contrary to His absolute truth. Christians can discern the difference between truth and error, but only if they avail themselves to an intense study of God’s Word. Therefore, believers without a biblical frame of reference and fail to accept and implement His truth are at a disadvantage, being unable to identify the errors communicated by false teachers.

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[1] Alford, Henry (1877). The Greek Testament, Boston, MA: Lee and Shepard Publishers, 4.487.

[2] Lightfoot, Joseph B. (1999). St. Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians and Philemon. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, p. 77.

[3] Lenski, R.C.H. (2001). Commentary on the New Testament, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 11.491-492.

[4] Abbott-Smith, G. (n/d). A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament. New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, p. 367

[5] Schaeffer, Francis A. (1985). The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1.312-313.

 

© 2025 David M. Rossi