SPECIMENS OF SKETCHES ON 1 JOHN 4:7–13 - Robert Murray Mcchene

“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knower God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of his Spirit.”

I. It is a delicate love. — “Beloved, let us love one another.”
II. It is self-denying love. —Hear its language: “If God so loved us, we ought,” etc. Ver. 11.
III. It is God-like love. —Ver. 12. It is produced by the Spirit of God moving in the heart, and it imitates God. “If God so loved,” etc.
IV. It is never-failing love. —For no fountain is so unfailing as the heart of God, which is its fountain