John is one of the spiritual elders filled with endless wisdom. He is so admirable, knowledgeable as well as experienced. He acts as a father giving advice as well as insights to the young children on matters regarding Christian life as well as general life. In his epistles, John addresses Ephesus as well as other adjacent churches. It is fascinating how he refers to his audience as “dear children.” The fact that the audience looks up to John for guidance, encouragement as well as direction on being a true believer, we can agree to some degree that the audience is his “children.” In the passage, love is a significant component of Christianity. It holds all the believers closely together and in particular, closer to God. This essay focuses on 1 John and in particular chapter 4, verses 7 to 16.
The selected verses and their meaning
1 John 4:7-16 focuses on loving each other with that love that comes from God. Verse 7 advocates for love in Ephesus church. According to John, the believers in the Ephesus church should love each other because any person who loves “knows God and is born of God” (1 John 4:7). In the verse, John’s intentions were to make the believers understand that by being born again, they should love one another automatically because they are all children of God and God is love. In verse 8, John reiterates that any person who does not love does not know God. God is love, and this means that knowing God is knowing love. John used the verse to caution people that, it was impossible to claim knowing God if one does not love each other. According to Barton et al., (1997), God is impartial, faultless and holy and those who know Him have the obligation of expressing the love God has. In verse 9 and 10, John demonstrates the love of God to the humankind by showing the people He sent his only son Jesus to die for the sake of human sins so that the human race could have eternal life (1 John 4:9-10). By sacrificing the only son, God showed a lot of love to humanity, and the church had to emulate the same kind of real love.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Application
There are many lessons provided by 1 John 4:7-16, which can be applied in contemporary society as well as personal situations. In verses 7 and 8, we are all urged to love one another no matter the prevailing situation. One example of the situation is feeding the homeless and hungry people instead of using the money to go to a party. A person has the liberty to spend his or her money as they wish, but the question is, do the actions promote love or individualism? Spending the money to promote or demonstrate love is better than satisfying one’s personal wants. Verses 9, 10 as well as 11 the extent to which God was willing to show love to human. He sacrificed His only son for the sake of human salvation. In the contemporary Christian life, Christians should be ready to sacrifice their precious things for the sake of other people. In that way, they would be demonstrating love for the people. Verses 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 emphasize the importance of loving each other. By loving one another, Christians demonstrate that God is living within them.
References
Barton, K. L., Beers, R. A., Galvin, J. C., Neff, L., Taylor, L. C., & Veerman, D. R. (1997). Life Application Study Bible: New International Version.
John 1 Commentary - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible. (2019). Retrieved 16 September 2019, from https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/jamieson-fausset-brown/john/john-1.html
Tunink, W. (1979). Jesus is Lord . Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.
