1 John 4:11
We should love one another because God has shown us His love and we should imitate it.
John Gill emphasizes the profound love of God as demonstrated through the sacrifice of His Son, urging believers to reciprocate that love towards one another. He highlights that since God loved us while we were still sinners, we are called to love our fellow Christians, regardless of their flaws or past enmity. This obligation to love is intensified by our shared experience of God's grace and mercy. Gill encourages believers to imitate God's unmerited love, recognizing that our love for others should reflect the depth of God's love for us. Ultimately, he asserts that our love for one another is a direct response to the love we have received from God.
Text
Ver. 11. Beloved, if God so loved us,....
As to send his Son to be a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins, and to obtain eternal life for us through his sufferings and death: the apostle uses the same language his Lord and master did, Joh 3:16;
we ought also to love one another; for those who are the objects of God's love ought to be the objects of ours; and if God has loved our fellow Christians and brethren to such a degree, as to send his Son to die for them, we ought to love them too; and if we are interested in the same love, the obligation is still the greater; and if God loved them with so great a love, when they did not love him, but were enemies to him, then surely we ought to love them now they are become the friends of God, and ours also; as God loved them freely, and when unlovely, and us likewise in the same manner, and under the same circumstances, then we ought to love, and continue to love the saints, though there may be something in their temper and conduct disagreeable: God is to be imitated in his love; and his love to us, which is unmerited and matchless, should influence and engage us to the love of the brethren, who have a far greater claim to our love than we can make to the love of God; and which indeed is none at all, but what he is pleased to give us.
Sermon Outline
- God's Love for Us
- Our Obligation to Love One Another
- The Nature of God's Love
- Unmerited and matchless
- Should engage us to love the brethren
Key Quotes
“If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” — John Gill
“God is to be imitated in his love;” — John Gill
Application Points
- We should love our fellow Christians, even if they are disagreeable, because God loves us freely and unconditionally.
- God's love for us should influence our love for others and engage us to love the brethren.
- We should imitate God's love by showing kindness and affection to those around us.