Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

1 John 4:7

ἀγαπητοί, ἀγαπῶμεν�. See on 1 John 3:2 and 1 John 4:11. The transition seems abrupt, as if the Apostle had summarily dismissed an unwelcome subject. But the connexions of thought in S. John’s writings are often so subtle, that it is rash to assert anywhere that two consecutive verses or sections are entirely without connecting links. Two such links may be found here. 1. The power to love one another, no less than the power to confess the Incarnation, is the gift of the Spirit (1 John 4:2; 1 John 4:12-13). And faith and love mutually aid one another. This is the case even between man and man. Faith and trust soon pass into love. 2. The antichristian spirit is a selfish one; it makes self, i.e. one’s own intellect and one’s own interest, the measure of all things. Just as it severs the Divine from the human in Christ, so it severs Divine love from human conduct in man. ‘Beloved, let us do far otherwise. Let us love one another’.

For the third and last time in this Epistle the Apostle introduces the subject of brotherly love. First it was introduced as a consequence and sign of walking in the light (1 John 2:7-11). Next it was introduced as a special form of righteousness and mark of God’s children (1 John 3:10-18). Here it appears as a gift of the Spirit of God, a contrast to the antichristian spirit, and above all as an effluence from the very Being of God.

‘Love one another’ here, as in 1 John 3:11, applies primarily to the mutual love of Christians. The love of Christians to unbelievers is not expressly excluded, but it is not definitely before the Apostle’s mind.

ἡ�. Θεοῦ ἐστίν. And ‘we are of God’ (1 John 4:6), and ‘ye are of God’ (1 John 4:4); therefore there should be the family bond of love between us.

πᾶς ὁ�.τ.λ. This follows from the preceding statement. If God is the source of all love, then whatever love a man has in him comes from God; and this part of his moral nature is of Divine origin. Of ‘every one that loveth’ is this true, whether he be heathen or Christian: there is no limitation. If a Socrates or a Marcus Aurelius loves his fellow-men, it is by the grace of God that he does so. See first note on 1 John 3:3.

γεγέννηται. ‘Hath been begotten of God and remains His child’; the full sense of the perfect. Translate with R.V. is begotten of God. καὶ γινώσκει. And groweth in the knowledge of God: see on ὁ γινώ σκων in 1 John 4:6. A loyal child must increase in knowledge of its father.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

1 John 4:7

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