John 5

Chapter 5. Love in the Gospel of JohnThis is another of the emphatic words in this beautiful gospel. It runs like a golden thread through almost every incident and utterance; like a majestic rainbow, it spans the heavens with its seven splendid tints of grace and beauty. God’s Love to the Son

1. God’s love to the Son shines out again and again in John 1:18. It is implied in the beautiful phrase, “God the One and Only (only begotten), who is at the Father’s side.” He is not only the Son, but the Only Begotten, and His place is ever in the bosom of the Father’s love. Again in John 3:35, it is declared, “The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands.” (See also John 5:20-23). In John 6:57, He speaks of His intimate relation to, and dependence upon the Father, drawing His love every moment from Him, speaking His Word, fulfilling His law, and supremely desiring to please Him. Again He speaks of His peculiar dearness to His Father’s heart, “The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him” (John 8:29). In John 12:28 the Father bears public witness to His acceptance, by a voice from heaven. Again and again, throughout the entire gospel, He speaks of His absolute oneness and unceasing communion with the Father. In John 16:27 He tells them that the very reason that the Father loves them is because they have loved the Son, and believed upon His name. And in His sublime prayer (John 17:5-23, John 17:24-26), He speaks of the glory which He had with the Father before the world was, and the love of which He has been the object from before the foundation of the world, and which love He asks for even them also. The veil is lifted from the most sacred and ineffable mystery in the universe, the heart of God, and the fellowship of the Father and of the Son. There is a unity and a love, of which all the highest forms of creature love are but a drop to the ocean and a spark to the sun. “God only knows the love of God.” There is yet one touch added to this picture in the account of the resurrection (John 20:17), where Jesus, just emerging from the tomb, lingers a moment to comfort the weeping Mary Magdalene, and then hastens to lay His completed offering at His Father’s feet and receive His approval and welcome, before He can receive the touch of even His dearest friends. “Do not hold on to me,” He says to her, “for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” God’s Love to the World
2. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Following the thought just expressed, this announces a mystery still more incomprehensible. It would seem as if the Father’s love to His Son was for a moment outweighed by His love for the world. Inexpressibly dear as His beloved and only begotten Son was to Him, yet dearer was the salvation of His ruined children on this fallen earth, and for them He spared not the treasure of His heart and the glory of heaven. Well may the apostle add, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). This is not the only place in the beautiful Gospel of John where the Father’s love to sinners is declared. Again and again Jesus announces that His coming is the Father’s own act and purpose of love, and that redemption originated, not in His cross and incarnation, but in the ancient and everlasting mercy of our Father to ruined men. Very beautifully is this expressed in John 6:38-40 : For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Back of all His words and works of love, Jesus ever recognized the Father’s coworking grace. Of His miracles of beneficence He says, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working” (John 5:17). Of His people’s security He declares, “No one can snatch them out of my hand…. no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:28-29). Of our future reward He says, “My Father will honor the one who serves me” (John 12:26). Of the coming of the Comforter He declares, not only that He will send Him, but that the Father will send Him in His name. His own indwelling presence in our hearts is followed by the Father’s love and indwelling. “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23). Not only does He love His disciples, but He assures them that His Father loves them likewise, even with the same love that He bears the Son. And thus the revelation of the Savior’s love coordinately reveals the love of the Father, too, and His deep, divine, tender and everlasting interest in the salvation of sinful men through the redeeming work of His dear Son. Indeed, Jesus, as a loyal Son, ever sought to glorify His Father’s grace, and to teach His disciples to know and trust that Father’s perfect love. Christ’s Love to the Sinful and Lost
3. Next we see Christ’s love to the sinful and lost. It is difficult to select any single passage out of the many pictures of His grace and love to sinful men. One of the most beautiful of these is the fourth chapter of John, and the story of His interview with the woman of Samaria. The Bible contains no lovelier illustration of the wisdom and love which sinful souls have shared. For this poor sinner’s sake “he had to go through Samaria” (John 4:4). For love of her thirsty heart, He forgets His weariness at Jacob’s well. With unspeakable tenderness and delicacy, He lays His hand first upon her aching heart and then upon the dark secret of her sin. When He has awakened her interest, her longing and her guilty conscience, then with divine simplicity, He reveals Himself to her as her Savior as well as the Searcher of her heart. And when the disciples come and ask Him to think a little about Himself, and eat the food they brought Him, He explains Himself by telling them that the work of love in which He has just engaged is the meat and drink of His life. Another touching and equally beautiful incident in this gospel is of less certain authority as a part of the chapter where it occurs. It is the story of the woman taken in adultery (John 8:2-11). Still there is no reasonable doubt of its being part of the sacred volume, and even of this gospel. Yet it cannot properly be assigned to the place it occupies in the old version, and must have occurred at a later period, probably in the last week of the Savior’s life, in connection with the final conflict with the Scribes and Pharisees in the temple; but these questions are of less importance than the spiritual teachings of this beautiful incident. Here was a case of flagrant sin for which no excuse was offered, and all the hostile use His enemies would make of any necessities of the situation, especially the leniency on His part toward her, seemed to demand that He should act with righteous severity, at least according to the strict letter of the law. By a stroke of infinite wisdom He silences her accusers in a moment and sends them from the room, more confounded than she, under the conviction of their own consciences; and then by an act of sovereign grace, He forgives her sin without condoning or excusing it in the least degree, and dismisses her with the tender, solemn charge, “Then neither do I condemn you…. Go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:11). One beautiful act of His delicate grace shines preeminent in all this incident. It was the refusal to look in the face of this poor woman while her accusers were present. Stooping down, He busied Himself writing on the ground and seemed to pay no attention to their bitter charges. This is the beautiful attitude which He still occupies in regard to His people’s sins and the devil’s charges against them. He listens as though He heard them not. “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?” (Romans 8:33). But although He forgives, He forgives with a purity as beautiful as His grace is blessed, and speaks to her heart the solemn charge, which the truly forgiven never can forget, “Go now and leave your life of sin.” Christ’s Love to the Needy and Suffering
4. John shows us Christ’s love to the needy and suffering. No quality of the Savior’s character was more constantly manifested than that which Mark has expressed so often by the word “compassion.” We find many instances of it in the Gospel of John. We see it for the hungry multitudes in the wilderness (John 6:5). We see it in His coming to the toiling disciples in the tempest (John 6:19). We see it in His compassion for the poor cripple at Bethesda (John 5:6). We see it in His loving appeal to the multitudes at the Feast of Tabernacles: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37). We see it in His compassion for the blind man (John 9:1-6), and in His gracious visit to this poor man when they had cast him out of the synagogue (John 9:35), and we see it most beautifully of all in the story of Bethany, and His love and tears at Lazarus’ grave (John 11:33-38), revealing a heart that was as human as it was divine, and that still is liable to “sympathize with our weaknesses” (Hebrews 4:15). Christ’s Love to His Own
5. The true place to know Christ’s love is on His own bosom. The love of Jesus is known by His loved ones. Very tenderly and fully does John unfold his Master’s love to His disciples. a. We see it in the parable of the Shepherd and His flock (John 10:3-29). He calls His own by name. He knows them intimately. He has a special voice for them alone. He leads them out gently by the hand. He always goes before them. He brings them into rich and abundant pastures. He stands in the place of danger. When the hired hand flees, He defends them from the wolf. He gives His life for them. He holds them in His hand, so that they can never perish, nor any pluck them out of His or His Father’s hand. He is indeed the Good Shepherd, fulfilling all the tender and gracious meaning which this figure had foreshadowed in all the utterances of the Psalms and prophets. b. We see it next in the picture of the home at Bethany, where we have an excellent picture of Christ’s love to His personal friends, with all the fine discriminations which personal friendships always unfold. We know something from the other Scriptures of the faults of Martha, but notwithstanding, she is first named in this picture of Christ’s personal friendship. “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus” (John 11:5). But this heavenly friendship has its strange tests; and therefore, in the darkest hour of their life, the best friend they had seemed to fail them, and Jesus lingered in the rear until Lazarus was cold in death and even corrupting in the grave. But His resources were, and still are, sufficient for every extremity. He came to them at last, not only to weep the tears of tender sympathy, which is often the best that human love can do; but, also, with His omnipotent love, to undo the work of death and give back to their arms the lost treasure of their affections. We have elsewhere pointed out the strange beauty of Christ’s conversations with Martha and Mary, respectively. To the one He talks freely; with the other He only weeps. So, still, His love is exquisitely given to all His children’s needs and temperaments, and His affection is as wise as it is strong and tender. c. The picture of the washing of the disciples’ feet is our next example of His love. (John 13:1-15). This is the love that stoops to cleanse us from our defilements, and to minister at our very feet. So, still, His blessed hands are daily cleansing and keeping our erring feet and stooping to depths of humiliation for us, which we could not dream of doing for others. Not only with His hands, but with the very blood of His heart, He ever keeps us cleansed from all sin. Well may we say with John in another place, “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood… be glory and power for ever and ever!” (Revelation 1:5-6). d. We see His love in the last discourses and His parting words (John 14-16). Volumes could not fully unfold the depths of love expressed in these divine words. How lovingly He comforts them. “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1), He cries, when we might rather have expected them to say to Him, “Lord, let us comfort You.” Then He promises them His personal comfort and deepest love if they will but obey Him: “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me…. and I too will love him and show myself to him” (John 14:21). This is the central thought in these, His parting words, that He is still to be linked with them by an unspeakable union and communion, and that He will so abide in them and they in Him that His love shall flow into theirs, His peace shall be their peace, His joy their joy, His love their love, and His works even shall be performed in them, and all the power of His ascension glory be at their command for their necessities and their work. e. We see His love in His intercession for them (John 17:23, John 17:26). It is not merely that this one prayer for them exhausts His interest and love, for this is but a sample of the work on which He was just entering and which 1,800 years have not finished. Thus He still represents their interests at the Father’s side, and whatever they ask in His name, He claims for them in His higher, priestly, and all-prevailing intercession. f. We see His love in His great request for them, that they shall be objects of the very same love which His Father has for Him. Which of us would give away, or even share with another, the love of our dearest friend? This is the one thing that the human heart claims as its exclusive possession. There are some whose love we want supremely for ourselves, but Jesus gives to His disciples and asks the Father to give to them the very same love that He has for His beloved Son. We are received into His own actual Sonship, and take the place in the Father’s heart which He Himself possesses. It is indeed unspeakable, and prostrates our hearts in adoring wonder at His blessed feet. g. We see His love in His tender concern for their safety (John 18:8). “If you are looking for me, then let these men go.” Here, even in the moment of His arrest, His thoughts are all for them. Offering His own body to His cruel enemies, He claims their exemption, just as He was about to offer His own body on the cross to all the horrors of the judgment, which we deserved, and from which we have now exemption through His sacrifice and substitution. h. We see His love to His mother as He hung on the cross (John 19:26). This is a little gleam of human tenderness which shines the brighter because of the suffering through which He was at this moment passing. How it reveals His utter unselfishness, thoughtfulness, and tender consideration for every human right and claim. What love it reveals on His part to His mother, how it honors the instinct of filial devotion in every human heart. What love it shows to the beloved disciple in the confidence reposed in his care and the trust committed to his keeping. i. We see His love to Mary Magdalene (John 20:16). One word expresses it all, and that one word her name. So, still, He speaks to the hearts that greatly love Him. There were some special reasons for His tender love to Mary; we love those best for whom we have done most, and she had been saved by His mercy. She, too, loved Him as perhaps few others ever loved Him; and while Peter, and even John, had left the sepulcher without beholding Him, she could not and would not go until she had seen Him. Such persistent love He ever prizes and rewards by the manifestation of Himself. If we would know all the fullness of His love, we must constrain it by a love that will not be consoled without Him. j. We see His love of Thomas (John 20:27). This is the pattern of His tenderness toward His questioning and doubting disciples. Still, often He makes us ashamed by the way in which He satisfies our doubts; let us rather, however, trust Him with the love that will not need to be reproved, even while its request is granted. k. We see His love of Peter (John 21:15). This represents His love to the backslider, and His readiness to restore even the erring one who still loves Him; and restore not only to His forgiveness, but even to the highest service—service, perhaps, all the more useful because of the lessons of humility it has learned through its own inconsistency.
6. We see His love to John. One single expression tells the whole of this secret; an expression often repeated in this gospel, “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 21:20). It is very beautiful to find John claiming this place for himself. Perhaps this was one reason why Jesus loved him, that, like a child, he claimed the tenderest love and was not afraid to insist upon it and take it as unreservedly as the babe presses close to its mother’s breast and assumes its right to all the love which it can claim. It is not necessary to say that such a babe is always the best loved. Jesus forbids none the closest place to His heart, but loves us better the more closely we nestle to His bosom. John’s place was one where we might well covet to lie, so near the Master’s heart that he could know its very secrets and ask Him what others dare not, and receive from Him the tenderest commission of service, and write as no other could the record, and unfold the mysteries of His divine character and His future kingdom and coming. May the Lord enable each of us to aspire to this high place and name, “the disciple whom Jesus loved… reclining next to him” (John 13:23). Our Love to Christ
7. We see ample lessons and illustrations that point to our love to Christ. a. The absence of love is the fatal source of all sin. “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts…. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts” (Luke 16:15; John 5:42). b. We learn from the love of Mary (John 12:3). Mary’s gift was not only an expression of faith, but a sacrifice of love, teaching that Christ expects our personal affection and gifts for Himself, and that all that we do for the Church and the poor can never be a substitute for His own personal claims. c. Love is the condition of His indwelling (John 14:23). It is to the loving heart that He loves to come and dwell, where He finds a welcome and a home. The root of piety is not intellect, but heart. Saintly souls are not cherubim, but seraphim, burning, rather than shining. d. Love to Jesus makes us dear to His Father. “The Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God” (John 16:27). e. The best proof of love is obedience. If you love me, you will obey what I command…. If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching…. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching…. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love… You are my friends if you do what I command. (John 14:15, John 14:23-24; John 15:10, John 15:14) f. Love to Jesus is the best medium of spiritual revelation. The hearts that loved Him best were the quickest to recognize Him (John 20:16; John 21:7). Mary Magdalene saw the Lord first, because her love would not let her go away. With weeping eyes and willing hands she waited at the grave, ready to bear in her own arms His dear body, out of the way of those who she supposed had removed it from the sepulcher. To such a heart, Christ is ever near; and the tear of love, like a heavenly lens, is quick to reveal His presence. John, too, through the mist of the Galilean morning, instantly knows his beloved Lord. It is the instinct of love, and he has finely expressed it by the beautiful words in his epistle, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love…. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16). g. Love is the true impulse of service (John 21:15-17). Christ is still asking, “Do you love me?” of every worker, before He commits to their hands His lambs, His sheep or His feeble suffering ones. No one is qualified to minister in His name without love. She is the queen of all the graces and the greatest of all the gifts. Burning glasses can be made of ice, and will set on fire the object on which they are concentrated, but hearts can only be kindled by hearts that are themselves on fire. It needs the overflow of heart To give the lips full speech. Our Love to One Another7. Our love to one another is the new commandment of the ethics of Jesus and the Gospel of John. It was promulgated, not at Sinai, nor even in the Sermon on the Mount, but at the supper table. The Mosaic law of love was, “love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), but the New Testament commandment transcends it, as far as the heaven is above the earth. “Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12). This is impossible for human nature. Such love must be itself divine; and it is, indeed, nothing less than the very indwelling of the heart of Christ in our breast. Therefore, love in the New Testament is always recognized as a divine gift. Its very name, Charity, has the same root as the word “grace.” It is a grace, and the gift of the Spirit of God. One of the most devoted ministers of the Evangelical Church of France was a rationalist in the beginning of his ministry. A neighboring pastor, who was evangelical, a most godly man, had long prayed for his conversion, and one day invited him to preach in his pulpit on the subject of love, the text being “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and… your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37, Matthew 22:39). As he began to preach, the Holy Spirit brought to his heart, with irresistible conviction, the sense of his own inability to love according to the divine standard. Standing in the pulpit, with the tears running down his face, he confessed to his congregation that the love of which he had been preaching to them was something he did not possess, and could not, himself, produce. Then there flashed upon his soul, by the same blessed convicting Spirit, the thought of Christ as the one who had come to do for us what the law could not do, and not only to atone for our failure to meet the divine standard, but also to work in us the love which nature could not originate. And he began to preach, for the first time in his life, the gospel of Jesus Christ. This, and this alone, must ever be the spirit of love. It is the love “God has poured out… into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless [even to love], Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:5-6).