It is almost as though the writer of this epistle begins a new thought at 1John 4:7, but this isn’t true. We know this, because, from its very beginning to its final chapter, John’s epistle is about the love of God for his children, and his children’s love for one another. However, we need to keep that context in mind, while we read this letter. Otherwise, we could slip into the error that all religions are equally valid and true. God is Love (1John 4:8), and “every one that loves is born of God” (1John 4:7). Would this mean that, because folks in the non-Christian faiths love one another, or they love their families and friends that John is saying all folks who love are born of God?
Actually, no, he doesn’t say that, at least not in a manner that fits into the current context of his letter. For example, if I wrote a letter to a friend, saying that the president was about to leave the United States on a tour of Europe and won’t return for a month, it might be helpful to know which president I had in mind. And to this end, the context of my letter might show the president I had in mind was the president of the local Elks Club or the president of the firm I worked for, and not the President of the United States. Context is important to understand the meaning of the words that are written, and John’s letter is no different.
John began this chapter by saying, “believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God” (1John 4:1). He also wrote about knowing “the Spirit of God” and the “spirit of antichrist” (1John 4:2-3), which boils down to the spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, while the sprit that denies this is the spirit of antichrist, and this is the difference between the “spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (1John 4:6). Into this context, then, we must fit John’s words, “every one that loves is born of God” (1John 4:7), so John tells his readers, “let us love one another, for love is of God.” John isn’t speaking of humanitarian love or the love one has for his wife or children, etc. All this stems from the love of God, which all men have. The ability to love is something that God has given to all men! However, John is speaking of one’s love for the children of God. The world hates God’s children, but the brethren love one another. To not love one’s brother in Christ would be the very antithesis of how a child of God would be expected to behave. A disciple of Christ behaves like Christ behaves, not as the world behaves. Christ gave his life for us (John 15:13; 1John 3:16), but the world hates the children of God (John 15:18-19).
John brings up the subject of love three times in this epistle. First of all, he mentions love as a commandment that acts as a kind of light that signifies the kind of work one does (1John 2:7-11). The works of Jesus were a light to what kind of God has created us (John 1:18), so works of love reveal, or shed light upon, God. Secondly, love reveals the righteousness of God (1John 3:10-18). It would, for example, be impossible to reveal the love of God in a man’s hatred for another man. Hate is the seed of murder and takes life, but God wants to give us eternal life, which is the very antithesis of hate. To behave hatefully toward one’s fellow man is to be unrighteous and in rebellion against the righteousness of God. Therefore, love reveals God’s righteousness. Finally, in chapter four John shows love for the brethren is a gift of God’s Spirit (1John 4:2), which is in contrast to the spirit of antichrist (1John 4:3). If Jesus is come in the flesh of the brethren (cp. Colossians 1:27), then one ought to love his brother, if for no other reason than for the sake of the divine seed (cp. 2Peter 1:4), which is in him. We are family, and God’s children ought to love one another, just as he loves us (John 13:34; 15:9, 12), and this is the very thing that is denied by the antichrist.
It is not that the antichrist denies that Jesus has come in the flesh, i.e. as a human being, because the antichrist would conclude this is how Jesus must have come. He could be nothing else but flesh. However, if Jesus is come in **our** flesh, that would be so other worldly that one would have to conclude that Jesus must be God, himself, who had visited us as a human being. Such a thing would have to have been denied by the first century Jewish authorities, because, otherwise, the Savior had come and had saved mankind in a manner that was never perceived by them. Therefore, in order to maintain their false doctrine about the Christ (cp. John 12:34), they had to deny that Jesus is the Christ and has come in the flesh of the believer. This doctrine of denial is antichrist (1John 4:3), because it rejects the knowledge of God, as it had been expressed in the life and works of Jesus (John 1:18; 1John 4:8). To believe that Jesus is come in the flesh of man, then, is to love that man as one’s brother, and this love is a gift of God’s Spirit, so “everyone who loves (the brethren) is born of God” (1John 4:7).
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