“God Is Love”
By John Tvedtnes

[Supplement to Gospel Doctrine New Testament lesson 44]

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth 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. ¹

If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us ... And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. (1 John 4:7-12, 16)

The apostle John penned these words to members of the Church to stress one of the most important of the Savior's teachings. Christ had declared that the two greatest commandments were that one love God and one's fellow man (Matthew 22:37-40). ² John had heard these and similar teachings of the Savior.

Indeed, it was John who recorded Jesus' words to Nicodemus:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved (John 3:16-17).

It was John who, during the Last Supper, reclined on Jesus' bosom. ³ He subsequently recorded one of Jesus' declarations, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:34-35).

As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you ... These things I command you, that ye love one another. (John 15:9-14, 17)

In his later epistles, John wrote that this commandment to love one another came from “the beginning,” a title he applied to the premortal Jesus (1 John 1:1) ⁴ and which the resurrected Savior had used in reference to himself (Revelation 1:8; 3:14; 21:6; 22:13).

With this in mind, we can readily see that John was referring to the Savior's last supper when he wrote:

• “For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” (1 John 3:11)
• “Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.” (1 John 2:7)
• “And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.” (2 John 1:5-6)

The last of these reflects another statement made by Jesus during the last supper: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15; also 15:10). In his first epistle, John expounded this principle:

And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us. (1 John 3:22-24; see also 1 John 2:5-6)

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. (1 John 5:2-3)

John further noted in his epistles that love of God and one's fellow man go together and that if a man does not love other mortals, it is evidence that he also does not love God:

• “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.” (1 John 2:9)
• “We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.” (1 John 4:19-21)
• “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:14, 16-18)

John's declaration that “we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” also draws on Jesus' teachings during the last supper, when he said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus commanded his disciples to love even their enemies. It was in this context that he commanded, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:43-48; see also 3 Nephi 12:48).

By loving God and all mankind, we can attain perfection. “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:17-18).

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. (1 John 3:1-3) ⁵

For additional material relating to this lesson, see: Russell M. Nelson, “Divine Love,” Ensign February 2003

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¹ This statement may seem troubling, but not if one realizes that it was the premortal Christ (and not the Father) who appeared to the prophets of the Old Testament. In John 1:18, the same apostle who wrote 1 John has Jesus declaring, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 6:46; cf. 3 John 1:11). Luke's version is slightly different: “no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him” (Luke 10:22).

² The premortal Christ had given these two commandments to Moses, as recorded in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.

³ John 13:23. The passage does not name the disciple, but it is generally held that John was the one who did not name himself, but simply used the term “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20).

⁴ See also John 1:1. Several of the early Church Fathers wrote that “the beginning” in Genesis 1:1 was Christ, through whom God created everything (see John 1:3; Hebrews 1:2).

⁵ The Lord revealed this concept to Mormon, as recorded in Moroni 7:48.

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