1 John 4:1 This text shows (1) that the highest pretensions may be hypocritical, and therefore mere profession amounts to nothing; (2) that all pretensions should be submitted to trial, and therefore to shrink from trial is to confess incompetence and immorality; (3) that God Himself is the true sta... [ Continue Reading ]
1 John 4:7 The Source of Love. I. Essentially and eternally, all love is of God, and all God is love. To reveal this to man, that stream of paradise was parted, and became into three heads. There was the electing love of God the Father, which gave His Son to the world, and the world to His Son; an... [ Continue Reading ]
1 John 4:7 Love is of God; God is Love. I. "Love is of God." This does not mean merely that love comes from God and has its source in God, that He is the Author or Creator of it. All created things are of God, for by Him all things were made, and on Him they all depend. But love is not a created th... [ Continue Reading ]
1 John 4:8 I. In perfect love there are three elements, which may best be seen by examining the three states of life in which they are respectively most prominent: the filial; the fraternal; the parental. (1) The first form of love in the history of each of us is that of a child to his parent, and,... [ Continue Reading ]
1 John 4:11 Sacrifice and Service. I. The sacrifice of love. It is of this that St. John speaks when he says, "In this was manifested the love of God toward us." True, the visible world teems with illustrations of God's love, but this surpasses them all; true, our houses are filled with proofs of G... [ Continue Reading ]
1 John 4:8 , 1 JOHN 4:16 I. God is love. The text takes us up, as it were, above the veil; we are caught up through the door of this vision to the sanctuary of God's throne. We are suffered to know something, not of His working only, but of His being. We are led to the fountain of all good and joy.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 John 4:17 The Fear of Death. I. Is not the bondage to the fear of death the one heavy burden of life? I do not mean that the fear of our own individual death is a constantly present fear. It may but seldom occur consciously to the mind. But though the prospect and the thought be banished, the bon... [ Continue Reading ]
1 John 4:18 I. We can scarcely conceive how anything could live in such a world as this that had not the element of fear. For surely every part of life, not alone of the human family, but down to the lowest animated particles, has to struggle for its existence. One of the strangest things in the org... [ Continue Reading ]
1 John 4:19 Originating Love. The love of all who love God is a consequence of God's love to them. I. By an act of creative power. All love in the heart is a creation; and whom God loves, in them He creates love to Him. It might be enough to see that, but we may trace the creation. First, by mora... [ Continue Reading ]