1 John 4
OGC1 John 4:1-6
CHAPTER XI
DIVINE SONSHIP DEMONSTRATED BY CONFESSION OF CHRIST AND ATTENTION TO TRUTH
(The Third Test. The Second Time)
A.
The Text
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (2) Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth! that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: (3) and every spirit that confesseth not Jesus is not of God: and this is the spirit of the antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it cometh; and now it is in the world already. (4) Ye are of God, my little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. (5) They are of the world: therefore speak they as of the world, and the world heareth them. (6) We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he who is not of God heareth us not. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
B.
Try to Discover
How does the presence of the Spirit prove we have been begotten of God?
Are there preachers (or prophets) who deliberately and knowingly preach what they know to be false?
Are men today as conscious of the spirit world as they were in the first century?
Why is the Spirit apparently not as active in the church today as in John’s time?
When one denies Jesus as Christ, what is he actually denying?
Why will false teachers not listen to truth?
Are there people whose concept of life and reality are such that the preaching of the Gospel to them is useless?
C.
Paraphrase
Beloved! not in every spirit believe ye, But test the spirits whether they are of God; Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (2) Hereby do ye perceive the Spirit of God:Every spirit that confesseth Jesus Christ as having come in flesh Is of God; (3) And every spirit that does not confess Jesus Of God is not. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, Touching which ye have heard that it cometh: Even now is it in the world already. (4) Ye are of God dear children, and have overcome them; Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. (5) They are of the world: For this cause of the world they speak, And the world unto them doth hearken. (6) We are of God: He that is getting to understand God hearkeneth unto us, Whose is not of God hearkeneth not unto us: From this perceive weThe spirit of truth And the spirit of error.
D.
Comments
Preliminary Remarks
Ek tou theou is translated of God in most English versions. The idea is source or origin. Hence I have rendered it from God. Literally it may almost be translated out of God.
In essence, the phrase expresses the result of having been begotten of God. One who has been begotten of God possesses a life which is from, or out of God. It takes its source or origin in Him and issues from Him. When John says certain people are not from God, we must conclude they are not begotten of God. When He says certain ones are from God, we are to remember that they are begotten of God.
Translation and Comments
a.
Call from credulity. 1 John 4:1
(1 John 4:1) Beloved, stop believing every spirit, but test the spirit if it is from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
The practice of love by a Christian ought never take the form of gullibility. The sons of God are never to be tolerant to the point of being credulous. There are false teachers and preachers.
In verse one, John uses the term beloved for the third time in this letter. It is not a cliche, but rather expresses genuine endearment. It is John’s love for God’s children that causes him to warn them of false teachers. Modern disciples of love may well profit from his example! The outward evidence of the Spirit in the church was much more apparent in John’s day than ours. The manifestations of the spirit were so numerous that Paul lists among them the ability to discern spirits. (1 Corinthians 12:10)
In such a situation, the gnostic heresy might pass as another manifestation of the spirit. The claim to special knowledge might be taken as knowing all mysteries and having all knowledge. (1 Corinthians 13:2) Indeed, such seems to be the case, for John’s aorist imperative is stop believing every spirit.
Attention must be given to the Scriptural meaning of prophet. Too many have mistakenly thought a prophet to be a glorified fortune teller; a sort of divine crystal ball gazer. Such is not the case, either in the Old Testament or the New. To be sure, the prophet, in performing his mission often referred to the future. The workings of God in man are primarily future oriented. However, the watchword of the prophet of God is not It shall come to pass, but thus saith the Lord! The prophet in both the Old and New Testament was to make the will of God known to His people. John’s command here is that, before we do what a prophet says God wants us to do, we are to determine if the prophet is actually from God. The relevancy of I John to our modern theological climate becomes vividly obvious in this verse. The need today for a divine standard by which to determine the truth or falsehood of religious teaching is great. As then, so today, many false prophets have gone out into the world.
b.
The acid test. 1 John 4:2-3
(1 John 4:2) Know in this the Spirit of God; every spirit confessing Jesus as Christ has come in flesh is of God, (3) and every spirit not confessing Jesus is not from God; and this is the one of antichrist, the one of which you have heard that it is coming.
The abundance of spiritual activity in the first century demanded a test, a criterion by which the child of God might determine the validity of any spirit’s claim to divine origin. The demand of our present theological climate for such a test is much more subtle but no less urgent. The acid test supplied by John is the sharp contrast between denying and confessing the co-existent deity and humanity of Jesus. Every spirit confessing Jesus as Christ has come in flesh is of God. Contained in this confession is everything that makes the Christian faith unique. The ethical teachings of Jesus can be reproduced, albeit somewhat crudely, from the great pagan religions of the world, but none of these claim for their leaders the incarnate deity which John claims for the Man of Galilee. To confess Jesus as Christ is to say that Jesus is anointed by God to fill the office of Messiah. He is therefore recognized as prophet; the One Who is to make God’s will known to God’s people. He is recognized as priest; the One Who offers sacrifice and mediates between God and man. He is King; the final and absolute Ruler Whose word is law for God’s people. It is not enough to confess that a man named Jesus lived, and lived a sinless life, and died rather than renounce His own teaching. He is to be confessed as Christ; the long awaited fulfillment of the covenant.
Nor is it enough to confess that a man named Jesus was anointed as Messiah. He is to be confessed as having come in flesh. John 1:14 is perhaps the most concise statement possible of the essence of Christian faith. The man Jesus, whom we confess as Christ, is not of human origin.
He is eternal, He was with God in the relationship of an equal, He is Himself Deity. (Cf. John 1:1) In order to accomplish the eternal purpose of God in man, He bought man’s redemption with His own blood. (Cf. Ephesians 1:7) To do this He became flesh, (Cf. John 1:14), thus identifying Himself with those He came to redeem. (Cf. Hebrews 2:14-18)
It is in the capacity of Divine Redeemer that He voluntarily submitted Himself to learn obedience as a servant (Cf. Hebrews 5:8), emptying Himself of His Heavenly nature to die as a man for men. (Philippians 2:6-8)
To be recognized as originating in God; to be Christian, the message of a prophet must set forth this vital truth about the personal identity of Jesus of Nazareth. It is not enough that the prophet claim special enlightenment, either in the form of gnosticism or in the form of intellectual snobbery which refuses to recognize scholarship in anyone who still clings to the good confession.
The testing of the spirits is not, on the other hand, to be made on the basis of what may pass for spiritual activity. The fact that someone may speak in a tongue of heal by the laying on of hands is not proof of divine origin. The test is in the submission of the activity to the Christhood and especially the authority of Jesus as recorded in the inspired record. No matter what a person’s spiritual exercise, if he does not recognize and submit to revealed doctrine, his message is not of God.
Again John returns to the spirit of antichrist as the antithesis of Divine Sonship. Again we are reminded of Jesus-’ own words, He that is not with me is against me. (Matthew 12:30) (a) Whoever is not confessing that Jesus as Christ has come in flesh is against the anointed ones of God. (See above on 1 John 2:18-19)
Significantly, in light of modern confusion concerning The Anti-Christ, John here employs the neuter it in reference to the spirit of antichrist, rather than the masculine he. This would seem to indicate that the spirit of antichrist is the predisposition on the part of all false prophets to oppose God’s anointed ones, rather than a personal monster who is to make a dramatic appearance at the end of the present age.
c.
Contrast of origins and the consequent contrast of responses. 1 John 4:4-5
(1 John 4:4) You are from God, children, and you have overcome them, because the One in you is greater than the one in the world, (1 John 4:5) They are from the world: on account of this they are speaking of worldly (things), and the world is hearing them.
The living Spirit of God is greater than the spirit of the world which in fact is no spirit at all! The Spirit in the children of God is the Holy Spirit; the Third Person of the Godhead. The spirit in the world is, at best, a prejudiced opposition to God’s anointed ones on the basis of ignorance and self-worship.
Consequently, the children of God have the assistance of God Himself in their stand against the false prophets, whereas the false prophets are on their own. It is small wonder that Christians are instructed in the Scripture to be confident of certain victory so long as they remain faithful to Him who sent the Spirit. (Cf. John 16:33)
Just as our anointing guards us from the doctrines of false teachers, (see above on 1 John 2:27) so the same anointing guarantees us victory over them. The reason for this is seen in the phrase from God as contrasted with from the world. The diverse destinies of the contrasting kinds of life are inherent in their contrasting origins. The child of God originates in eternity through the divine begetting. Consequently, the child of God is destined for eternity. As the song says:
The soul of man is like a waiting falcon; When it’s released, it’s destined for the skies.
Conversely, the false teacher (and those who believe him) are from the world. Their begetting is not of God but of blood. the will of the flesh. the will of man. (Cf. John 1:13) Rather than being destined for the skies as are those whose lives find their source in God, they are destined to pass away. (1 John 2:17)
The cliche, birds of a feather flock together, is proven by the fact that the world gives a ready ear to the false teachers whose origin it shares. The Greek philosophy, the oriental mysticism and the corruption of the Gospel of which gnosticism formed a synthesis all found their origin in the world; not in divine revelation. No wonder, then, that the world heard them gladly.
It is ever so with false teachers. Today’s Christian AtheismGod is Dead theology finds its origin in German rationalism, obsolete modernism, and Neo-orthodoxy’s crisis theology. These are the speculations of befuddled, bewildered men. Their origins are in the world, not in Divine revelation. It is no great marvel, then, that these materialistic babblings are readily accepted by the world. The real tragedy lies in the fact that such teachings are able to make inroads into, and often destroy, congregations where once the Gospel of Christ was center. It is because such congregations have failed to heed the warning of John to test the spirits by the tests set forth in these verses. Contemporary left-wing theology began with the denial of the authenticity of the Bible. The Scriptures are they which bear witness of Jesus as Christ having come as flesh. The present denial of a transcendent God is the logical conclusion. Materialism begets materialistic religion, just as surely as God Who is Spirit begets Spiritual life in His children. Theology which takes its source in a competitive world cannot preach a crucified Christ. Doctrine which begins in the exaltation of self may teach a soft petulant tolerance, but it cannot teach a self-crucifying love. A tenet which comes from a philosophy accepting the concept of the survival of the fittest cannot set forth a life which expects to reach its full glory in eternity.
d.
False teachers revealed in their refusal to hear truth. 1 John 4:6
(1 John 4:6) We are from God: the one who is knowing God is hearing us. The one who is not from God is not hearing us. From this we are knowing the spirit of reality and the spirit of error.
Just as failure to confess Jesus as the incarnate Christ is proof of worldly origin, so refusal to hear the truth is demonstration of the same. The person who refuses to hear the teaching that the incarnation is indeed historic fact, who sees the acceptance of this truth as naive and unscholarly is simply not from God. He has not been begotten of the Father. Not only is his teaching in error, he is himself a fake of the first order! Those who are of God listen to those who are of God. Those who are of the world listen to those who are of the world. Those who have an increasing experiential knowledge of God hear the truth. Perhaps the term Christian Atheism, as it is used to describe the latest Protestant theology is the most vived present day demonstration of what John is saying. The term is itself contradictory. The adjective Christian comes from the noun Christ. None who know the meaning of the noun can attach the adjective to atheism. How can the Anointed One of God be in any way related to the denial of God? It is time the people of God forgot tolerance for a moment and apply the test of truth to those claiming to preach the Gospel.
E.
Questions for Review
What is the meaning of the phrase of God or from God as used in this passage of I John?
At what point does Christian tolerance become gullibility?
How do you account for the fact that the outward demonstration of the Spirit was more evident in the first century Church than today?
What is the test by which we are to prove the spirits whether they are of God?
What is the primary work of a prophet?
Why do prophets often refer to future events in revealing the present will of God?
What does John’s test prove about the claim of modern liberals that the Ecumenical Movement is led by the Spirit of God? Explain.
Does the fact of spiritual activity prove that the activity originates in God? What is the test of Divine origin for such activity?
What is the one unique truth of the Christian faith? How does it relate to the uniquely Christian teaching that God is Father to His people?
To recognize Jesus as Messiah is to recognize Him as ____________, ____________ and ____________.
As Prophet, the Christ is the One Who _______________________.
As Priest, the Christ is the One Who _______________________.
As King, Christ is the One Who is _________________________.
What is the difference between confessing that Jesus as Christ came as flesh and confessing simply that Jesus is the Christ?
The man, Jesus, whom we confess as Christ, is not of human origin. Explain.
John 1:1 teaches three things about Jesus that have a direct bearing on the confession here presented as a test of false teaching. What are those three things?
In order to accomplish the purpose of God in man, Jesus ________ with His own blood.
To do this He became flesh, thus __________________ with those He came to redeem.
It is in the capacity of Divine Redeemer that He voluntarily submitted Himself to learn ________________.
To be recognized as originating in God, to be Christian, the message of a prophet must ________________.
Why does John refer to the spirit of antichrist as it rather than he?
What is meant by the statement, The children of God have the assistance of God Himself. whereas the false prophets are on their own?
1 John 4:7-12
HEREBY WE KNOW PART IV
God Is Love
Divine Sonship Tested By The Inter-Relationship Of:
Love
Faith
Righteousness
CHAPTER XII
THE SOURCE OF LOVE
A.
The Text
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God. (8) He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. (9) Herein was the love of God manifested in us, that God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. (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. (11) Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (12) No man hath beheld God at any time: if we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
B.
Try to Discover
How can John say everyone loving has been begotten of God, and then refer to Jesus as the Son, the only begotten One?
How is the practice of loving evidence of knowing God?
How can John say God is light (1 John 1:5) and then say God is love in this passage?
How is God’s love for us related to our loving one another?
What is the end perfection of God’s love?
C.
Paraphrase
Beloved! let us be loving one another; Because love is of God, And whosoever loveth Of God hath been born And is getting to understand God: He that doth not love Doth not understand God, Because God is love. (9) Herein hath the love of God in us been made manifest, That His only begotten son God sent into the world, In order that we might live through him. (10) Herein is love: Not that we have loved God, But that He loved us And sent forth His son as a propitiation concerning our sins. (11) Beloved! if in this way God loved us We also ought to love one another. (12) Upon God hath no one at any time gazed: If we love one another God in us abideth, And his love hath been perfected within us.
D.
Comment
Preliminary Remarks
In Part II, John presents the three tests of eternal life in the abstract. He deals with them in terms of attitude toward personal guilt, toward our brothers in Christ, and toward Jesus. In Part III, John shows us the practical application of these tests, as righteousness, love and belief become the active demonstration of the attitude. As attitudes, these tests are considered evidences of walking in the light. Practically applied, they are considered proofs of Divine Sonship. In this last section of I John, which we shall cover in Part IV, these same tests are shown to be inter-related. Eternal life, manifested as righteousness, love and belief, is one grand whole.
Translation and comments
a.
Love is imperative because God is love. 1 John 4:7-8
(7) Beloved, continue loving one another, because love is from God, and everyone loving has been begotten from God and is knowing God. (8) The one who goes on not loving never did get to know God, because God is love.
God came to know experimentally, through the incarnation, what it is like to be a human being. (Hebrews 2:14-18) We get to know Him experimentally through the experience of loving. Loving is the only experience totally common to both God and man. The person who does not love does not know God because no other experience which is possible to man is identical to anything else God does.
Man has tried to share in the experience of God by doing his own will. This is a privilege which God has reserved for Himself, and when man does it, it is sin and lawlessness. God does not allow us to do our own will, but demands that we do His will.
Man has tried to share God’s intellectual experience, and in so doing has succeeded only in making a fool of himself. (Cf. Romans 1:22) Man at his best is pitifully ignorant as compared to God. The foolishness of God is indeed wiser than the wisdom of man!
Knowing God is eternal life. (John 17:3) God’s desire for man is that we shall get to know Him by loving as He loves. In giving ourselves for the purpose of providing life to others we may come to know what’s it’s like to be God without harming ourselves in the process.
Love takes its source in God, and only those whose lives originate in Him through the divine begetting can love as He loves. Consequently, when we do love in this way, we give evidence that our life finds its source in Him. Our loving proves that we are His children and that we know Him. It is not our love which produces kinship to God; it is kinship to God which produces love in us. Perhaps some special attention should be given to the statement that God is love. John does not say love is God. In 1 John 1:5, he informs us that God is also light, but he does not say that light is God.
The ancients often did worship light as god, and we call it idolatry. The modern American practice of falling in love with love is the same idolatry in new garb.
b.
God sent His Son to demonstrate love. 1 John 4:9-10
(1 John 4:9) In this was openly demonstrated the love of God in us, because His Son the Only Begotten One, God sent into the world in order that we might live through Him. (1 John 4:10) In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a covering on account of our sins.
John is aware of the virgin birth. Jesus is not merely a son, but the Only Begotten One. What we may become through adoption, He is by right of eternal identity. What we may be by right of re-birth, He is by right of birth.
We are begotten of God by grace through obedient trust. He is the only one actually begotten in the customary sense of the word. He alone is Son of God by right. All others who are God’s children are so by grace through adoption. (Cf. Galatians 4:4-6)
In the fourth Gospel, John refers to Jesus, the Incarnate Word, in a phrase unique and definitive. John 1:18 calls Him as God, only-begotten.
Our English versions read the only begotten Son, in John 1:18. However, the footnote of the American Standard Version (1901) refers to certain very ancient authorities as reading God only begotten. Wescott points out that these are two readings of equal antiquity and that there is no ancient Greek authority for the reading, the only begotten Son in John 1:8.
It is not within the scope of this present writing to present manuscript evidence sufficient to support one manuscript reading over against the other. However, many trusted scholars have done so and have concluded that God only-begotten is the correct reading of Joh 1:18.
Such a claim to deity for Jesus by John is not surprising. Both the fourth Gospel and the first epistle of John are written to reaffirm, in the face of philosophic denial, that He is indeed God as man.
John 1:1 makes the claim, the word was God. In the original language of the New Testament, the meaning was clear. The claim is not that Jesus and the Father are the same person, but that they are of the same nature. That which is the real nature of God is also the real nature of the Word. The true constitution of both is Deity.
That two persons have the same nature as Deity ought not give us any more trouble in acceptance than that two people can have the same nature as humans. This does not violate the fundamental faith of Israel expressed in … Jehovah, He is God, there is none other than He alone. (Cf. Deuteronomy 4:35) There is but one Deity, as opposed to humanity, just as there is one humanity as opposed to animal. The Father and the Son share this divine essence.
The term Son of God, as used multitudinous times in the New Testament in reference to Jesus does not deny that He is God. On the contrary, it rather describes the limits placed on His revelation of Deity. It is true that … in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. It could not be otherwise if He is indeed God only-begotten. But we ought never assume that, as a man, Jesus revealed the entire infinite essence of Deity.
That such is not the case is evident from such statements as that made by Paul that He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant. (Philippians 2:7) As J. B. Phillips so patly puts it, deity was focused in the man Jesus. This is perhaps the most powerfully significant fact with which the human mind can be confronted. The Creator of the universe, the Source of life itself actually stooped to take the form of one of His creatures.
This is precisely the truth denied by the gnostics, and is the focal point of everything John wrote in the fourth Gospel and I John.
The supreme function of this Incarnate Deity was to give life. The most quoted (and perhaps least understood) verse in the Bible is John 3:16. It is restated in 1 John 4:9. The extreme to which love will go to bring life to its object is only seen in the crucifixion of Incarnate Deity, God only-begotten, the Son of the Father.
To deny the Deity of Jesus is to set aside the only adequate demonstration of love, and consequently to short circuit the only source of life. This is, as well, the meaning of the virgin birth. There is no other way in which Deity can become human and still be God. The unique birth of Jesus, seen in this light, is not a miracle but a scientific necessity. To bring life to man, God must love to the fullest. The martyr death of one who is only human is not equal to the requirements of such love. Deity must die if humanity is to live.
Here is the heart of the Christian Gospel. The philosophies of men, past and present, advocate a reverence for God as they understand Him, which amounts to love as they understand love. Real love is not demonstrated in this way but in the death of the Incarnate Word as a covering for human guilt. We cannot but cry out, as indeed John did, look what sort of love the Father has given in our behalf. ! (1 John 3:1)
c.
The obligation to love. 1 John 4:11
(11) Beloved, if God so loved us, we also are morally obligated to keep on loving one another.
Failure to love our Christian brothers is as immoral as adultery or murder or the infraction of any other commandment of God. It is for this reason that enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, parties, and envyings which show the absence of love are listed in the same inspired sentence as fornications, uncleanness, lasciviousness. drunkeness, revelings and such like. (Galatians 3:19-ff)
No person can claim to have eternal life who does not love others having the same life by virtue of the same divine blood. No matter how correct the doctrine, no matter how pious the demeanor, no matter how stained-glass the personality, one who does not love has no life in Christ.
It is Jesus-’ own sacrifice which carries the moral obligation to so love our brothers. We cannot claim to have that mind in us which was also in Christ Jesus, (Philippians 2:5) until we have emptied ourselves of ourselves and given ourselves for the sake of bringing and sustaining life in the children of God.
The readiness of many church members to cut and slash and assassinate the character of a fallen brother is a far cry from the love which demands that he bear a cross in his brother’s behalf, not in spite of his brother’s weakness, but because of it. True spiritual life is demonstrated when love acts to restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness. (Galatians 6:1)
d.
The perfection of divine love. 1 John 4:12
(1 John 4:12) No one has ever seen God at any time; if we go on loving one another, God is remaining in us and His love is having been perfected in us.
The love of God reaches its intended end when God lives in us. His presence is demonstrated by our love for one another. Where this love is absent, God is absent, and therefore, experientially unknown. The boldest claim of the gnostic was that he knew God. While making this claim he denied that Jesus was really God as man. In making the denial, he removed the only demonstration, in the comprehensible human experience of love, of what God is like. He thus put the lie to his own claim. The proof of this is that no one has ever seen God as God. In the Old Testament, God was seen in various manifestations called theophonies. In Jesus, men saw God as man.
No one can, therefore, claim to know God from having seen Him fully as He is, in all the splendor of His glory. We can only know God experimentally as He lives in us and thus brings us to experience what He is like by empowering us to love as He loves. This cannot happen outside of Christ. No one cometh unto the Father but by Him. (John 14:6)
This is the purpose for which the Word became flesh. The love of God reaches its end perfection, the accomplishment of His self-revelation to us, when He lives in us and teaches us to love one another as He loves us.
Paul’s prayer for the church was … that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, that you may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled to the fulness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19) Paul too was aware that love is the demonstration of God’s perfected purpose in man. It was he who wrote, If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging symbol. (1 Corinthians 13:1)
Small wonder that Jesus said that on this hangeth all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:40)
E.
Questions for Review
Why does John say we are to love one another?
What is the source of Christian love?
God got to know what it is like to be human through ___________.
The experience by which we get to know what it is like to be God is the experience of ________________.
___________ is the only experience common to both God and man.
Loving your brothers proves that we are ________________.
Does John say that love is God? Explain.
What evidence is there in 1 John 4:9-10 that John is familiar with the virgin birth of Jesus?
Jesus is God’s Son by _____________ while we may become God’s sons through ___________.
How do you reconcile the claim that Jesus is God as man with the statement, Jehovah, He is God, there is none other than He alone?
The term Son of God applied to Jesus describes ________________.
The supreme function of the Incarnate Deity was to ___________.
What is the only way in which God can become a man and still be God?
Our acceptance of God’s love for us carries with it the moral obligation to ______________.
One who does not love has no _________________.
The love of God reaches its intended end when God ___________.
Evidence of God in us is that we ________________.
The ultimate knowledge that man can have of God comes from the experience of _________________. When this happens, the love of God has reached its intended end in a person’s life.
1 John 4:13-16
CHAPTER XIII
FAITHTHE GROUND OF LOVE
A.
The Text
Hereby we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. (14) And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father hath sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. (15) Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God. (16) And we know and have believed the love which God hath in us. God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him.
B.
Try to Discover
How the Spirit of God in us is evidence that we are in Him and He in us.
The significance of John’s reference here to his eyewitness experience with Jesus.
How confession of Jesus as the Son of God is evidence we are in God and God in us.
How can love be the object of belief?
Why John repeats here what he has already said in 1 John 4:8, that God is love?
C.
Paraphrase
Hereby perceive weThat in him are we abiding, And he in us, In that of his Spirit hath he given unto us. (14) And we for ourselves have gazed, and are bearing witness That the Father sent forth the Son as Saviour of the world. (15) Whosoever shall confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God in him abideth And he in God. (16) And we have come to understand and to trust the love which God hath in us. God is love; And he that abideth in love in God abideth, And God in him abideth.
D.
Comments
Preliminary Remarks
John presents a further synthesis of love and belief as evidence of continued fellowship with God. John appeals to his own experience with Jesus to re-affirm the fact of the incarnation. He then strongly re-asserts that Jesus, the man, is indeed the son of God and the Saviour of the world. If we believe this historic demonstration of God’s love, then we continue in the divine fellowship which is life eternal.
Translation and comments
a.
The presence of the Spirit and the memory of personal experience are assurance of continued fellowship. 1 John 4:13-14
(1 John 4:13) In this we are knowing that we are remaining in Him and He in us because of the Spirit He has given to us. (14) and we have seen and are bearing witness that the Father has sent His Son as Saviour of the world.
There is some question in 1 John 4:13 as to whether John intends to refer to the Spirit in all believers, as he has previously, or to the unique inspiration of the Spirit which was his as an apostle. His immediate referral to his own eye-witness experience may indicate the latter.
In either case, the testimony of the Spirit of God is to the deity of Jesus as the object of Christian faith. It is that faith which is the ground of the love we have for one another as the fulfillment of God’s love for us.
In 1 John 4:14, John again employs the Greek tenses in such a way as to indicate vivid memory. What he has seen, as set forth in the prologue, (1 John 1:1-4) is the basis of his faith and his testimony. When he walked and talked with Jesus of Nazareth, he came to believe that this Carpenter is indeed the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. That conviction has not mellowed with age. It is still the touch stone of his faith. It ought to be so with us today.
Voltaire set forth the following as tests by which any phenomenon may be confirmed as historic fact:
i.
There must be witnesses
ii.
Witnesses must be in substantial agreement
iii.
The witnesses must have had opportunity to know, (i.e. investigate)
iv.
The witnesses must be honest
v.
Hume adds: The more unusual the event, the greater the body of evidence needed to establish it as historical fact.
The great events in the life of Jesus, which establish His claim to be the Son of God and the Saviour of the world may be subjected to these tests. If they fail to meet the tests, then we are justified in questioning them, as some have. On the other hand, if they do meet the tests, then to be intellectually honest we must cry out with Thomas, My Lord and my God! (John 20:28)
Space will not permit us here to subject all the essential phenomena of Jesus-’ life to these tests. We shall consider the ultimate demonstration of His deity as an example. Can it be proven, as other facts of history are proven, that Jesus rose bodily from the dead?
Were there witnesses to the resurrection? Whom shall we call first? The Roman guard? These denied that Jesus had risen, but said that His disciples had stolen Him. They admitted the body was gone.
Mary Magdalene? She saw an empty tomb and ran to tell the others.
Simon Peter? He ran to the tomb in utter disbelief and stopped at the entrance. In the intervening forty days He was confronted with the bodily presence of Jesus until he became so convinced, his proclamation of the resurrection converted three thousand of those who had clamored for Jesus-’ blood!
John the Beloved? He ran past Peter, who hesitated at the door of the tomb. It was he who saw the grave clothes lying as though some huge moth had burst forth from his cocoon in full glory.
The two on the road to Emmaus? They were so completely disillusioned as they talked about the hopes that lay crushed on the hill of the skull. But their hearts burned within them as He revealed Himself to them at supper.
Saul of Tarsus? To him the death of the Nazarene was the just execution of a blasphemer who dared call Himself Son of God. But when Saul came face to face with history on the road to Damascus, the love of Christ constrained him with the conclusion that Christ had died for all, that all might live in Him.
The five hundred Brethren of I Corinthians fifteen? Paul challenged his doubting readers to go to them rather than take his word for the fact of the resurrection. There is no record that any one of the five hundred ever denied what he had seen.
Yes, there were witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus.
Are the witnesses in substantial agreement? There are those who say that the Gospel accounts of the resurrection vary a great deal. None has ever claimed, however, that the substance of what is reported is that the Galilean who was crucified actually rose from the tomb.
The witnesses are in substantial agreement!
Did the witnesses have opportunity to investigate? According to the record, Jesus appeared to them at various times and in various places. He not only gave them opportunity to investigate, but challenged them to do so. He ate fish in their presence to show that He was not merely an apparition, He challenged them to thrust their fingers into the nail scars and the spear mark and feel as well as see for themselves. Their conclusion from this investigation was voiced in the words of the greatest doubter of them all, My Lord and my God!
The witnesses had ample opportunity to know!
Were the witnesses honest? Not all of them were. The Roman guards, to save their own skins for sleeping on duty, accepted a bribe to say that the body had been stolen.
What about the others, and especially what about the ones who left the written record? Were they honest? How else can we account for the change that took place in them? When Jesus was led away to be killed they followed afar off. They cringed in the shadows, afraid for their own lives. Fifty days later they stood up publicly and virtually dared the ones who had put Him to death to prevent them from telling that He is risen! How can men who were cowards, when He was alive and in His moment of deepest need, suddenly become heroes when He is dead? Are we to conclude that, to the man, these all died for what they knew to be a lie? All they had to do to escape execution was admit they had lied about the resurrection. Not one of them did. Yes, the witnesses were honest!
Is the body of evidence great enough? In a court of law, two or three eye-witnesses who are honest and in substantial agreement are all that is necessary to establish a thing as a fact. In the case of the resurrection, the event is so extremely unusual that an honest inquirer is justified in asking how many witnesses actually saw Jesus alive after His death. In 1 Corinthians 15:1-58, when confronted with those who doubted that He had risen, Paul challenged the doubters to contact five hundred individuals who were alive at the time of his writing and ask them what they had seen.
There were indeed sufficient reliable witnesses! Any person who is intellectually honest can prove to himself the truth of what the apostles claim; even the most unusual claim of all. All he needs to do is subject their claims to the same tests by which he accepts other phenomena of the past as true.
John, in 1 John 4:14, concludes from what he saw that the Father has sent His Son as the Saviour of the world. He presents his testimony as evidence by which we may test our claim to fellowship with God. He who denies that which is historically true is living according to phantasy. His life is based on a lie. He cannot, therefore, have fellowship with God who is the author of all truth. To accept the deity of Jesus is to simply face reality.
b.
Confession of Jesus, manifestation of Divine love, is evidence we are in God and He in us. 1 John 4:15-16
(1 John 4:15) Whoever may confess that Jesus is the Son of God is remaining in Him and He in God. (1 John 4:16) And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and the one remaining in love is remaining in God and God is remaining in him.
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the source of all known truth about God is remaining in God and God is remaining in Him. Likewise, when we believe the love which His coming demonstrated among us, we move into the only area where the experience of God and the experience of man merge. As we saw in 1 John 4:7-9, intimate personal knowledge of God comes from sharing His experience of loving.
Since this love was first brought to light and then made available for us to experience by Jesus, His demonstration of love becomes the object of our faith. This coalescence of love and belief are here presented as evidence that we are intimately related to God. The one believing and loving is remaining in God. God is also remaining in him. To keep this truth in perspective, we must remember that John is not discussing the means by which we come initially into this relationship with God. This is not intended as an answer to what must I do to be saved? He is rather, concerned with the evidences by which we may reassure ourselves individually that the relationship does in fact exist. However, whatever is necessary to the initiating of this relationship, or to put it simply, whatever one must do to be saved will in no way violate or contradict the essential role played by faith and love. On the contrary, the rudiments by which one begins the new life in God will be found to be the embryonic expression of precisely these very elements.
E.
Questions for Review
What are the two alternatives concerning John’s reference in 1 John 4:13 to the Spirit He has given us?
What is the essential testimony of the Spirit?
To what does John appeal in 1 John 4:14 as the basis of his claim that Jesus is God’s Son and the Saviour of the world?
What are the tests by which phenomena of the past are established as historical?
How does the resurrection prove the claim of Jesus to be the Son of God and Saviour of the world?
Does the resurrection, as recorded in the New Testament, meet the tests of historicity? Explain your answer.
Can you suggest other events in the life of Jesus which may be put to the same test?
What is meant by the area where the experience of God and the experience of man merge? (See comments on 1 John 4:7-9)
The love which we share with God was first brought to light by ______________.
In what way is the love of God said to be the object of the Christian’s faith?
Is John here discussing the means by which we come to salvation? Explain your answer.
Can the steps to salvation contradict the evidences that we are indeed in a saving relationship to God? Explain.
1 John 4:17-21
CHAPTER XIV
RIGHTEOUSNESSDEMONSTRATION OF LOVE
A.
The Text
Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement; because as he is even so are we in this world. (18) There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath punishment; and he that feareth is not made perfect in love. (19) We love, because he first loved us. (20) If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom he hath not seen. (21) And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also. (1 John 5:1) Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is begotten of God and whosoever loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. (2) Hereby we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and do his commandments. (3) For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
B.
Try to Discover
What is the relationship of obedience to righteousness?
What is the relationship of righteousness to love?
Why do Christians love their brothers in Christ?
Who is my brother in Christ?
How may I know that I am fulfilling the commandment to love my brother?
C.
Paraphrase
Herein hath love with us been made perfect, In order that boldness we might have in the day of judgment, In that just as He is We also are in this world. (18) Fear existeth not in love, But perfect casteth fear outside; Because fear hath correction: He that feareth hath not been made perfect in love. (19) We love, because he first loved us: (20) If one should say I love God and should be hating his brother, false is he: For he that doth not love his brother whom he hath seen God whom he hath not seen he cannot love! (21) And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. (1 John 5:1) Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ Of God hath been born: And whosoever loveth him that begat Loveth him that hath been begotten of him. (2) Hereby perceive we that we love the children of God As soon as God we love And his commandments we are doing. (3) For this is the love of God That his commandments we are keeping, And his commandments are not burdensome;
D.
Comments
Preliminary Remarks
Righteousness is obedience to God’s commands. Love is commanded. When we love we are obeying God and therefore are doing righteousness. Righteousness, in this sense, is seen as a manifestation of love.
Translation and comments
a.
The perfection of love. 1 John 4:17-18
(1 John 4:17) In this love is being perfected with us, in order that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because just as that one, we are also in this world. (1 John 4:18) Fear is not in love, but perfect love is casting out fear, because fear is having punishment. The one fearing is not being perfected in love.
Just as God’s love for us reaches its intended end when we keep His commandments and love our brothers (see on 1 John 2:5), so our love is perfected when we no longer fear the judgment. The basis of boldness in the judgment is that we have lived as Jesus lived, by loving as Jesus loved.
No one has so lived who does not love his brother. To such a one the fear of judgment is well-founded! Some have seen in the preaching of love a softening or watering down of the sternness of the Gospel. Not so! The reason we must obey the command to love is it is appointed to men once to die, and after this cometh judgment. (Hebrews 9:27)
It is possible to counterfeit obedience to every other commandment of God; to deceive others and even ourselves. The only sure confidence in facing judgment comes in the unmistakable experience of sacrificing my life that others may live. When we love in deed and truth rather than in word. with the tongue, we may indeed assure our hearts before Him. (1 John 3:18-19)
The Hebrew writer informs us, … He also Himself in like manner partook of the same (flesh and blood), that through death He might. deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 2:14-15) In other words, the Word became flesh in order to die; and he died to free us from the fear of death. When we keep the commandments of God in His name, that divine demonstration of love reaches its end perfection. So also, our love, when it is perfected, (i.e. when it reaches its intended end) frees us from the fear of the judgment. We have the confidence which comes from knowing that we have lived as That One lived who overcame death and was seated at the right hand of God.
We shall never have the confidence which comes from being as good as He, but we may have confidence which comes from knowing our lives were motivated by the same life giving love.
b.
The motive of love. 1 John 4:19
(1 John 4:19) We are loving, because He first loved us.
The hymn writer has said.
I love Him because He first loved me, and died on the cross of Calvary!
If we omit one word, Him, as the object of love in this poem, we shall have captured John’s inspired thought concerning the motive of Christian love. We do not love just Him, as John will soon show. The presence of love in our lives as His children is because He loved us first. Otherwise, we would have continued to prostitute our love on the things of the world and have perished as the consequence. (See on 1 John 2:15-17)
Again John echoes Paul at the heart of Christian life. The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him who for their sakes died and rose again. Wherefore, we henceforth know no man after the flesh. (2 Corinthians 5:14-16.)
Because it has burst upon us that God loves all men, regardless of their station, we no longer recognize the artificial distinctions imposed by men upon men. Because He loved us and bought us with His life, we are constrained to also lay down our lives for the brethren. (1 John 3:16, The love of Christ thus becomes the motivating force of love in our own lives.
c.
The object of love. 1 John 4:20
(1 John 4:20) If any one should say, I love God, and should hate his brother, he is a liar; for the one who goes on not loving his brother whom he has seen, does not have power to be loving God whom he has not seen.
The claim of love for God in the life of one who does not love his brother is a fraudulent claim. It is simply unreal.
Such unreal love offered to the real God is as useless as the real sacrifices offered to unreal gods. No one has the ability to love God without demonstrating that love in love of his brother. To attempt to do so it to … love in word and with the tongue. (1 John 3:18)
d.
Love demonstrates righteousness. 1 John 4:21
(1 John 4:21) And this is the commandment we are having from Him, that the one loving God also love his brother.
In attempting to maintain the perspective of the overall evidence of life presented in I John, it is a good idea to re-read 1 John 2:3-11 in connection with this verse.
In both passages there is a definite relationship between righteousness, considered as keeping God’s commandments, and love which is the first of those commandments. In short, no one can lay claim to righteousness who does not love his brother. The moral obligation to walk as He walked, Who kept the commandments perfectly, comes into its sharpest focus in love. Without love, all other righteousness is as filthy rags.
e.
Who is my brother?. 1 John 5:1
(1 John 5:1) Everyone believing that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten from God, and everyone loving the One Who begat loves the one having been begotten from Him.
The tests of life and fellowship presented by John are intended to be subjective. They are to tell the individual personally whether he himself is in fellowship with God and thereby possesses life eternal. In 1 John 5:1, we find the single exception. Here is the objective test by which we may know whether someone else is a child of God and so our brother. Since love of our brother is essential to our own life, this test is necessary.
The test is the same as was presented in 1 John 4:1 as the standard by which to prove the spirits whether they are of God. There the evidence was the confession of Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh. Here the same evidence is concerned with the belief which is the content of that confession. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten of God, and is, therefore, my brother as we share a common Father.
In the rather involved discussion below concerning the begetting and birth of God’s children, we must hold fast to John’s chief concern in this verse. He has just reminded us that we are commanded to love our brothers. The necessity is thus placed upon him to answer the very pertinent question, who is my brother? The answer to this question forms the only legitimate test of fellowship for the Christian.
The main emphasis of the verse is focused on the verb gegennetai, from germao. It is not an easy word to translate. Gennao is used by John for the first time in John 1:12, where the American Standard Version renders it born, with the footnote, or begotten. The problem of the translator is to know which of these meanings to write down. It doesn-’t take a Ph.D. in zoology to recognize there is a difference between being begotten and being born.
Is John saying here that everyone who believes has been born from God or has been begotten? If born is intended, then being a child of God depends entirely on belief. If begotten is John’s intention here, then belief marks only the beginning of the process by which one becomes a child of God.
The problem of translation is complicated further by the diversity of renderings of gennao in the accepted English versions. Limiting ourselves to only two passages, both from John’s writings, we are confronted with no fewer than four different English words used to translate this single Greek word.
The King James Version has born in both John 3:3; John 3:5 and 1 John 5:1. However, in 1 John 5:1, when the word appears the second time, the King James Version has begotten. Here are two different meanings attributed to the same word in the same verse!
The American Standard Version (1901) was born in John 3:1-36 and begotten in 1 John 5:1.
The Revised Standard Version has born in John 3:1-36 but begs the issue by paraphrasing 1 John 5:1 with is a child.
Phillips follows the example of the Revised Standard by using born in John 3:1-36 and one of God’s family in 1 John 5:1.
The New English Bible repeats the rendering of the Revised Standard Version. Turning to the commentaries helps a little, but not much. Barnes notes the distinction between born and begotten and indicates a preference for the latter.
B. F. Wescott prefers born in commenting on John 3:1-36. However, his interpretation includes the whole process of regeneration.
Turning to Abbott-Smith’s Greek lexicon, we learn that gennao is to be translated beget when referring to a father’S contribution to new life. In reference to a mother, the same word means to bring forth.
Considered passively, from the standpoint of the child, it may be accurately rendered either born or begotten. However, even the lexicons seems rather arbitrary in their translations of this word when it refers to the means by which one becomes a child of God!
In our concern for the distinction between the begetting of God in the progeneration of spiritual life and the act of birth (re-birth), we are seeking to determine the point at which the individual is actually brought into the family of God as a brother.
From a purely linguistic view point, the preferred translation of gennao in its perfect passive form, (as in 1 John 1:5), is has been begotten, rather than has been born. However, John is not concerned with linguistics, but with the test by which one may know who his brother is. It would be tragic indeed to mislead some sincere seeker after salvation with a false rendering of so vital a word. How does one become a child of God?
Obviously, the fundamental answer to this question is faith. In John 1:12, where the writer presents the idea of re-generation for the first time, he says it is accomplished when one receives the Incarnate Word.
This receiving is accomplished according to the terms set forth in the following verse. To translate again, without regard for theology, one who receives the Word is, the one begotten, not from bloods, nor from fleshly will nor of a man’s will, but from God. (John 1:13)
But, how is one begotten from the will of God. The question is as old as Nicodemus.
In John 3:3 Jesus confronted Nicodemus with the necessity of being born (or begotten) from above. When Nicodemus asked how, Jesus answered … if one is not born (or begotten) from water and spirit, he does not have the power to enter into the kingdom of God. Here we are at the nub of the matter.
Obviously a begetting without subsequent birth is tragically futile. On the other hand, birth without begetting is impossible.
Perhaps the need for this entire discussion would have never arisen had the church not lost sight of the true nature of Christian baptism. Some have become so repelled at the sacerdotal doctrine of salvation by works that they have swung to the opposite extreme and said all that is necessary to become a child of God is to believe; that nothing else is involved in receiving Jesus. That to which they are reacting is the sacramental holy water concept which treats baptism as a rite, a sacrament by which one is ushered into the family of God as if by magic, even in the absence of belief. (This is especially apparent in the practice of infant baptism)
The matter of Divine Sonship, with which John is concerned in I John, and entrance into the kingdom of God, which Jesus is concerned in John 3:1-36, are much too vital to be settled on the basis of prejudice for or against baptismal regeneration.
Perhaps we can come to some conclusions concerning John’s meaning in his use of this term gennao by beginning with that upon which all are agreed. No one denies that John sets forth belief as absolutely necessary to regeneration. In John 1:12, it is those who believe on His name who are given the power to become the sons of God. In 1 John 5:1, it is whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ.
Secondly, we need to understand that baptism is not a religious work, so far as the candidate is concerned. Baptism is not something he does; it is something done to him. He submits to it in the Name of Christ; he receives it. To say that baptism saves us, as indeed Peter does say (1 Peter 3:21), is not to say we are saved by works. Peter’s own comment on the matter is that we are saved … through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 3:21)
The grammar of Joh 3:5 will not allow a separation of water from spirit. In that verse, hudates (water) and pneumatos (spirit) are inseparably joined by the co-ordinating conjunction kai (and). Whatever Jesus says of the spirit in this verse, He also says of the water, and vice versa. This verse is vital, for it is Jesus-’ own answer to our dilemma.
How can a man become a child of God? He must be begotten from above. How can this be? He must be born from (both) water and spirit. If we let spirit answer to faith, and water to the outward act of immersion, we have our answer. Faith is always obedient. John deals with obedience conclusively in the verses immediately following. Faith and love always submit, in full surrender, to be united with the life of the risen Lord. This is done for the first time in baptism (Cf. Romans 6:3-ff). From that point on, obedient faith becomes the hallmark of sonship for the child of God. Both belief and obedience constitute faith. They are two sides of the same coin where Christian faith is concerned.
In none of the references we have cited from John is the inspired author concerned with baptism per se. His concern is for the entire process of regeneration. Birth begins with begetting. Begetting issues in birth. When one has experienced the regeneration which takes its source in God, he is a child of God. The physical act involved is immersion in and resurrection from water.
The word except as it is employed by Jesus in John 3:5 is too narrow for some today. To John it is trust in and obedience to the divine revelation which marked a person as a child of God. No one else is to be considered a brother in Christ.
Just as Divine Sonship depends upon divine regeneration, so divine brotherhood depends upon Divine Fatherhood. One’s relationship to a child of God is determined by mutual parentage. No one becomes a brother in Christ by blood, or of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. When a person is one’s brother by right of common Fatherhood, one has no choice but to love him, just as one loves the common Father. Today’s divisions in Christianity can only be divinely healed on this basis. Love is not of party, but of persons. Christian unity can only be had by every Christian recognizing every other Christian as a brother, and loving him for the Father’s sake. It cannot, however, be fostered by considering those to be Christian brothers who have not been begotten from God through obedient faith!
f.
Hereby we know we love. 1 John 4:2-3
(2) In this we are knowing that we are loving the children of God, when we are loving God and doing His commandments. (3) For this is the love of God, that we shall keep His commandments; and His commandments are not distressing.
The urgent necessity of loving our brother fairly glows in this passage! In 1 John 4:21, John re-emphasizes the vital necessity of loving our brother. In 1 John 5:1, he sets forth the test by which we may recognize our brother. Now he will tell us how we know we are keeping this commandment.
Divine love is not recognized in God’s children by feeling but by obedience, There are those who are children of God whose personalities clash with our own. It is absurd to think we will ever come to the place where we feel good toward them. Is this proof that we do not love them? Are such feelings contrary to the love which we must have for our brothers in Christ? John does not say so.
We are commanded to love every one who is a child of God. When we remember what love is, this is not as impossible as it might at first seem.
It is from the example of Jesus that we learn the true nature of such love. He gave His life not only for His friends, but for His enemies. He prayed between clenched teeth for those who drove the spikes in His hands and feet. When other men would have kicked and cursed, He voluntarily lay down to be nailed on the cross for those who accused Him falsely, who spit in His face, and who scoffed at His claim to be God’s Son. If we love as He loved we will also lay down our lives willingly for those who treat us ill. Shortly, John will instruct us to pray for those Christians whom we see sinning. There is no greater sin than the failure of our brothers to lay down their lives for us, but we are to pray for the one who does this sin as well as other sins!
We know we love our brothers when we keep God’s commandments. If the habit of our life is to respond with instant obedience to any command of His, we will love those we cannot like before considering our feelings toward them. (See on 1 John 2:17 for the difference between phileo (like) and agape (love).)
Perhaps we should note here a favorite theme of the popular psychologist, Dr. George Crane. Dr. Crane is fond of saying that if we act like we love someone long enough and sincerely enough, we will learn to actually love them. In John’s language, we would paraphrase, if we love someone long enough and sincerely enough, we may even get to like them!
This, indeed, is the love of God! That the keeping of His commandments is not distressing to us. There is no other way to prove our love to anyone than to do that which is for his benefit. If we love God, we will do that by which His purpose is moved forward in man. This immediately necessitates the keeping of His command to love one another. God’s purpose in man is only accomplished when men are united in Christ by the bond of love. John does not say that the keeping of God’s commands is easy. It is a cross, not a cushion, to which we are called! The idea is that the commandments of God do not seem unreasonable to one who loves Him.
Jesus expresses the same idea when He says, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, and then immediately invites; take my yoke upon you and learn of me. for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)
E.
Questions for Review
How is righteousness said to be a demonstration of love?
What is the intended end of our love for our brothers?
Does one who loves his brother fear death? Explain.
Is the preaching of love soft pedaling the Gospel? Explain.
What is the one command of God which cannot be counterfeited?
What is the difference between these two statements:
(a)
I love Him because He first loved me.
(b)
I love because He first loved me?
How may I know who is my Christian brother?
What is the difference between being begotten and being born, in terms of entrance into the family of God?
Explain how regeneration covers both of these ideas.
Explain why the teaching that baptism is essential to salvation is not the same as teaching salvation by works.
Faith is always ________________.
Divine love in God’s children is not recognized by feeling but by __________________.
If we learn to love our brothers, and practice this love, we may even learn to ________________.
Explain how God’s commandments are not distressing to one who loves Him.