The Weary World Rejoices: Love Revealed

1 John 4:9-14

9 By this the love of God was revealed in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we remain in Him and He in us, because He has given to us of His Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

We live in a time when the word love is used constantly—and yet experienced so rarely in its truest form. It appears in advertisements, political slogans, social media posts, and songs, but for many people love feels fragile, conditional, and shallow. We live with growing loneliness, deep division, and a quiet fear that if we are truly known, we may not be truly loved.

We expect to find love in the church, amongst Christians. But just because a person is a member of a religious affiliation or denomination, it doesn’t mean they know God or have a relationship with Him. Leaders fail, relationships fracture, and religion disappoints. Some Christians think, “anything I feel and interpret as love, God approves.” “Love is god.” But as we can see there is a synthetic, “manmade” or “manufactured” love, and then there is true love that comes from God.

John was writing to the churches in Asia Minor who were in the midst of a hedonistic morally declining society, filled with a plethora of gods and philosophies. The Greeks and Romans had their gods, the Jews had their God, each with their own exclusive practices and theology.

When Christianity came on the scene it was seen as too exclusive, too narrow, and a threat to the social order. With so many competing worldviews, John writes so that believers may distinguish the One true God from false gods and erroneous claims. In a weary, divided, and skeptical world, this passage invites us to reconsider what marks authentic love from synthetic love, where it comes from, and how it changes everything. John wanted to reveal the:

1. The Goal of God’s Love

1 John 4:9 says:

By this the love of God was revealed in us, (among us)

What does this mean? The phrase “was revealed” means put on display, made public, unmistakably clear. God’s love was not hidden or abstract—He entered history.

God didn’t send an angel to talk about His love, or just send a messenger with a letter.

He sent His only Son.

God’s goal in sending His Son was clear:

“…so that we may live through Him.” (v.9)

The word live refers not merely to existence. The word “live” means to have eternal life now and forever. This refers to true life, life as God intended it to be lived. (John 17:3). God’s wants us to live and his love is an unselfish interest in us for our sake, it unselfishly seeks our ultimate welfare.

Verse 10 says:

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Every other religious system places the burden on humanity: prove yourself worthy, obey enough, perform well enough. But that type of system produces fear, anxiety, and uncertainty—we are never sure if God loves us, if we have done enough, if our eternal future is secure. The Bible reverses the order.

God loved us first (1 John 4:19).

Jesus—the eternal Son, co-Creator of all things (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16)—entered a world that did not recognize Him and were not even looking for Him (Luke 19:10). He did not come because He was lonely or was looking for someone to love; He came because He is love.

This love is so supernatural, so counter-cultural, like nothing humankind had ever witnessed on this earth before Jesus first Advent. Christianity isn’t about our love for God but His love for us.

How did He make it possible for us to live through Him?

He became the propitiation for our sins.

Propitiation means to turn away the wrath of God by means of an offering, a payment. God’s holiness required that perfect justice be satisfied for our sin and God’s love provided that satisfaction/justice. He sent His son to live a perfect life without sin, the life we should have lived in order to have fellowship with God. And then Jesus died the death we should have experienced, but he did it in our place. He allowed Himself to be mocked and crucified by a people who did not understand why He came or what it was for.