In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ( 1 John 4:10 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son `to be' the propitiation for our sins. )

Do you believe both of these statements?

They are both true.

Before I give you the texts to show it, the key in all such questions is to insist that you define terms and make necessary distinctions. The same words can mean different things in different places.

In support of the first statement, we cite:

• 1 John 4:10 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son `to be' the propitiation for our sins. : “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
• Ephesians 1:4 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love: –5: “In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.”

In support of the second statement:

• John 14:21: 21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him. “And he who loves me will be loved by my Father.”
• John 14:23: 23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him.”
• John 16:27: 27 for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father. “The Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.”

The reason this is not a contradiction is that love is different in the two cases. Theologians (like Jonathan Edwards and John Murray) have used the terms “love of benevolence” and “love of complacency.”

Statement one speaks of God’s love of benevolence. It is free, unconditional, and purely benevolent — flowing unelicited from God’s sovereign good will.

Statement two speaks of God’s love of complacency. It is God’s positive response to virtue. To be sure, the virtue is a quality he himself has awakened in us by his own prior grace. But it is a real virtue. And there is real enjoyment in God because of what he sees.