The fourth chapter of 1 John is an elaboration on the statement in 3:23: "Believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ, and love one another." While 4:1-6 concerns itself with "believing in the name," this week's text focuses on the entreaty: "Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God."

Gnostic mysticism often spoke of the divine as "wisdom" or "power." But a deity personified as "love" flew in the face of popular Hellenistic concepts of an omnipotent god. When John asserts that "love is of God" and that one who loves is "born of God and knows God" he compounds that antagonistic message. Rather than love separating created matter (men and women) from the divine, through the Gospel and Letters of John there runs this insistence that love is a sign of their relatedness. Knowledge …