There is a twofold motive for loving one another. First, the very nature of God is love, and, being born of God, we partake of His nature. By loving one another, we give a practical proof that we are born of God and know God. If we have no love for the brethren, it would prove that we are strangers to God.

"The love of God toward us" is a second great motive for love to one another (v. 9). We have not only a statement that God is love, however true; but we have the manifestation of God's love toward us.

In our unregenerate days we were dead to God and in our sins. In order that we might live and have our sins forgiven, God manifested His love toward us by sending "His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him" (v. 9); and further, He "sent His Son a propitiation [a satisfactory sacrifice] for our sins" (v. 10).

If, then, God has thus manifested His love toward us, we, who are born of God, "ought also to love one another" (v. 11). This love to the brethren is not mere natural affection, which can be found even in the brute beasts. It is love flowing from the possession of the divine nature, a love that was manifested toward us when we were dead and yet in our sins.

It is therefore a love that can rise above all evil and anything that I may detect to be wrong in a brother. I love him, not because of what he is but because of the nature I possess, which is love. The thought has been expressed that I ought to rise above all that is disagreeable and untoward in my brother, because God loved me when I was as untoward as possible.

Having spoken of the love of God toward us, the apostle passes on to speak of the love of God that has been "perfected in us" (v. 12). With this is connected the great truth of the Spirit which has been given to us. This is more than having a new nature, for the Spirit is a divine Person. "No one has seen God at any time;" but we know that "the only begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him" (John 1:18).

The Holy Spirit makes good to our souls the declaration of God by the Son, for He bears witness to Christ, brings to our remembrance what Christ has said, and takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us (John 14:26; John 15:26; John 16:14). The very perfection of love, the greatest privilege that love can confer, is that "we abide in Him and He in us" (1 John 4:13).

Moreover, if the Spirit of God testifies of Christ and the love of God is declared in Christ, the result of receiving this testimony will be that believers will testify to the world that "the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world" (v. 14).