1 John 4: Love Comes From God, Not From Your Efforts

Introduction

What would make your life so happy that you could say, "I could die today"? That is how Nobuo Tanaka opens his message at the worship service of September 27, 2026, at Yonezawa Kōjō Church in Japan. His answer is a single word, worn thin from overuse: love. Even without health, a degree or money, if you have love, every door opens.

The text for the day is 1 John 4:7-8: "Beloved, let's love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. He who doesn't love doesn't know God, for God is love."

The problem, the preacher says, is knowing what love actually is. He gives a simple definition that a child could understand: to be loved is to be treated as precious when you don't think you deserve it. Then he distinguishes the love that people build from the love that comes from God, before showing, step by step, how much God cares about you.

Outline of the Message

1. Four Greek Words for Love

• The word "love" in the Bible comes from Greek, which has four words, all translated "love": storgē, the love between parents and children; philia, brotherly love; eros; and agapē, the love of God.
• If you know agapē and it becomes part of your life, your life is transformed. And that is not all: this love passes through you and changes those around you. "You can't do it, but the agapē that flows through your life does."
• From this the preacher draws a principle: the only condition for living is to be loved, that is, to be treated as someone precious.

2. Being Precious, the Condition for Living

• In Romania in the 1980s, the government wanted to increase the population to strengthen the country. Children were placed in institutions in huge numbers, up to 170,000 according to the preacher. They were fed, but many fell ill and died.
• The reason was simple: they lacked warmth. A human being is not raised the way chickens are raised in cages. He needs to be held in the arms of a mother who cherishes him more than a treasure.
• The world judges a person's worth by money or diplomas. At a facility where he had been invited, an elderly man told the preacher: "I want to die soon. My family doesn't come anymore. I'm just in the way."
• Nobuo Tanaka answers: even if your body is paralyzed, even if you feel like a burden, your frailty awakens in others the desire to help you. "Through what you lack, you draw love out of people."

3. Humility or Inferiority Complex?

• To believe in God is to acknowledge that someone exists above you. Many answer, "I'm humble, I'm worthless." The preacher corrects them: "That's not humility, it's an inferiority complex."
• An inferiority complex has a flip side: a sense of superiority. The person who says "I'm worthless" often thinks deep down, "I'm still better than you."
• To spot it, he offers a marker: the person who gets angry in relationships is constantly swinging between superiority and inferiority.
• This back and forth is the world of eros. In eros, you become the measuring stick: you strive, you compare yourself, you try to outdo others. "That's a good thing, but it is exactly these values that lead to war."
• In every relationship, at work as in the family, the one who makes the other feel precious succeeds. But this kind of love can't be manufactured: the peace, joy and warmth the preacher speaks of are not built up by our efforts. They are received from God freely and from one side only, to be shared in the family of God.

4. Your Existence Is the Sign of God's Love

• Some Christians need no explanation: looking at a flower, they see the God who created it. If God takes care of a flower and a sparrow, how would he not take care of you (Matthew 10:29-31)?
• For everyone else, the preacher starts from a fact: you are alive, here. Your very existence is the sign that God loves you. God created humanity in his image (Genesis 1:27).
• Yet none of us is complete: each of us lacks something. For Nobuo Tanaka, this is intentional, so that we keep room for a love that helps one another.
• Science today is discovering DNA, its double helix and its four bases, A, T, C and G. The psalmist said as much long ago: "For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb" (Psalm 139:13).
• The Bible says Jesus was moved with compassion (Matthew 9:36). The word evokes the gut: a love that comes not only from the head but from the deepest part of a person. It is with this love that God conceived your life.

5. God Knows You Personally

• The preacher quotes Mother Teresa: the greatest misfortune of human beings is neither illness nor poverty, it is being forgotten. Conversely, we feel alive when someone remembers us.
• "Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me" (Psalm 139:1). God doesn't only know your DNA, he knows you from the inside.
• Jesus said: "I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I'm known by my own" (John 10:14). The sheep is you. You are not just one of the crowd. You are in a unique and irreplaceable relationship with him.
• The shepherd calls his sheep by name (John 10:3). This name is not the one your parents gave you. It is the name of your very being, which only God knows.
• We don't grasp this love by enlarging our own way of loving. "What speaks to you right away is eros. If it doesn't speak to you yet, that's a good sign." The preacher suggests a prayer: "Show me happiness as it is seen from your side, not from mine." The more you pray it, the more what you had been stacking up from the ground collapses, and life gets built on heaven.

6. The Definition of Love: Giving Your Life

• The Bible defines love this way: "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).
• It is said that a mother's love is close to God's. Parents give their lives for their child, but it is their own child: that is still eros. To give your life for someone else's child, or even for someone repulsive, is beyond human ability.
• Jesus didn't say, "I will love you when you have become a good person." He died for you while you were a sinner (Romans 5:8). This goes beyond all the values of this world.
• A parent once asked the preacher: "If I become more devout, will my son change?" For him, this is still the logic of effort and merit. It is easier to grasp, but it makes you harsh toward those who don't do the same.
• It is not about first becoming presentable. It is about recognizing, just as you are: "Yes, this is who I am. And for me, you came, you called me your friend, you paid my debt with your life." The preacher asks the Holy Spirit to bring this truth down from the head to the heart, so that we live by the grace that comes from above.
• The cross is the summit of God's love. Whoever has received it is called, in turn, to carry the cross of others.

7. The Real Question: Who Are You Living With?

• "Our age asks what to live with": money, a beautiful partner, possessions, obedient grandchildren, dietary supplements. The preacher turns the question around: "Not with what, but with whom."
• A fish doesn't know it lives in water, and humanity long ignored that it lived thanks to oxygen. God is with you even more surely, whether you feel it or not, even at your lowest, even in shame. For Nobuo Tanaka, being truly independent means living with God.
• In the storm on the lake, Jesus was asleep in the boat (Mark 4:35-41). The disciples discovered that, because he was with them, they were in no danger.
• On the road to Emmaus, two discouraged disciples walked along complaining, and Jesus walked beside them without their recognizing him (Luke 24:13-35). "Jesus is right next to you. He listens to your complaints without saying a word."
• When God calls Moses, Moses objects that he can't speak well (Exodus 4:10). God answers: "I will be with you" (Exodus 3:12). For forty years, a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night accompany the people (Exodus 13:21).
• The preacher goes further: poverty, or a difficult relationship in the family or at work, can be "God in disguise." Looking back, many Christians see that God was present in a serious illness, a debt or an accident.
• He mentions Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara, who walked closely with him for many years. He entered medicine at Kyoto University with the dream of becoming a professor there, then fell ill with tuberculosis and had to recover for a year. He thought his dream was shattered. Later he would say that Jesus was with him during that year, and again during the plane hijacking he went through.
• A young man from Osaka, once a delinquent, was transformed through contact with the church. His uncle, a brilliant executive and zealous member of a movement the preacher calls heretical, wanted to draw him into it. When he came to a service, this uncle said: "Here, it's not a question of what, but of whom. My nephew isn't reliable, but the one who is with him is reliable."
• With humor, the preacher tells how he once reproached a young colleague for copying only his faults. The reply: "With all due respect, did you have any good qualities?" That is what being a Christian is: having nothing to boast about, and saying that you are what you are thanks to the one who walks with you.
• His conclusion: "If you have time and energy to criticize and complain, look up and give thanks."

Key Takeaways

• Love comes from God: it isn't built through effort, it is received freely and then flows through you.
• Saying "I'm worthless" is not humility. True humility is acknowledging God above you.
• Your existence is the sign of God's love, and he knows you in a unique and irreplaceable way.
• Jesus didn't wait for you to become a good person: he gave his life for you just as you were.
• The real question is not "what to live with?" but "with whom?" God is with you, even in the storms.

Personal Reflection

1. When you say "I'm worthless," is it humility, or an inferiority complex hiding a sense of superiority?
2. In which relationships do you get angry easily, and what does that reveal about how you measure yourself against others?
3. Who around you needs to feel precious, and how can you show them this week?
4. Are you waiting to become "better" before believing God loves you, or are you willing to be loved just as you are?
5. In the difficult situation you are going through, can you pray: "Show me happiness as it is seen from your side"?

Verses Cited

• 1 John 4:7-8
• Genesis 1:27
• Matthew 10:29-31
• Psalm 139:1
• Psalm 139:13
• Matthew 9:36
• John 10:3
• John 10:14
• John 15:13
• Romans 5:8
• Mark 4:35-41
• Luke 24:13-35
• Exodus 3:12
• Exodus 4:10
• Exodus 13:21

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between eros love and agapē love?

For Nobuo Tanaka, eros is human love that you build yourself: you strive, you compare yourself, and you become your own measure of worth. Agapē is God's love: it is received freely, from one side only, without condition. When you receive it, it changes your life and passes through you to touch those around you.

Is saying "I'm worthless" a form of humility?

No, the preacher answers: it is an inferiority complex, whose flip side is a sense of superiority. The person who puts himself down easily gets angry in relationships, because he swings between the two. True humility consists in acknowledging that someone exists above you: God.

How can I know that God loves me?

Nobuo Tanaka gives several markers: your very existence is the sign of God's love, he knows you personally, Jesus gave his life for you while you were still a sinner, and he is with you in every situation. It is not an idea you grasp through effort, it is a gift you receive and give thanks for.