The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith

1 John, Part 8 – The Love of God

1 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” God uses humans to accomplish His work on earth, but not human character. The character of Christ in us is both exhibited in and poured out through His children to a dying world. As new creatures in Christ we live His character to the world only in the strength of the Holy Spirit within us. We abide in Him as He abides in us. We can do nothing towards living His character but to abide (1 John 2:24, 27-28). As we stay in touch with the living Word in us through stillness before God, reading the Word of God, meditating on the Word of God, and doing the Word of God (i.e., His commandments), we live righteously because of God’s character in us.

1 John 2:6 implies the human choice to abide and walk in Christ. “He that says he abides in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” The contrast in 1 John 2:4 and 4:20 is, “He that says, I know Him, and keeps not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.… If a man say, I love God, and hates his brother…is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”

The dichotomy expressed in 1 John is this: while we are dependent on the light of the Holy Spirit for our strength and relationship to Christ, we are also held responsible for the choice to intentionally keep His commandments and to walk righteously as Christ did. Our lives are to reflect in every way the overarching outcome of the New Testament commandment to “Love the Lord your God…” with all your being, and that is to love one another. As 1 John 4:7-8 reminds us, “Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God and every one that loves is born of God and knows God. He that loves not knows not God, for God is love.” We are to be known by our love for each other, a relationship that does not come naturally but is fueled by our relationship with God as expressed in Christ’s first commandment. And it is God’s example of love that we follow. He hasn’t left us without instruction but has, Himself, shown us how:

• 1 John 3:1. “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.”
• 1 John 3:16. “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
• 1 John 4:9-10. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
• 1 John 4:11. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”
• 1 John 4:19. “We love Him, because He first loved us.”

1 John makes it clear that the unbeliever lives unrighteously because the character of Christ is not in him. If we love one another, then Christ dwells within us. It is not that we have to love in order for Him to be with us, but rather His love pouring through us is a demonstration of His presence in us. When we do not walk righteously, we hinder God’s character and love from flowing through us. But when we keep His commandments, He is able to work in and through us, continually developing within us spiritual maturity. “But whoso keeps His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that we are in Him” (1 John 2:5)

For such a small book, this little epistle has a great deal to say about this righteous love:

• 1 John 3:11. “For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.”
• 1 John 3:14 “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.”
• 1 John 3:17-19. “But whoso has this world’s goods, sees his brother have need, and shuts up…compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love [only] in word [or] in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.”
• 1 John 3:23. “And this is His commandment; that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment.”
• 1 John 4:11-13. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.”
• 1 John 4:16. “And we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him.”
• 1 John 4:18. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love.”
• 1 John 4:21. “And this commandment have we from Him, that he who loves God love his brother also.”
• 1 John 5:2-3. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not grievous.”

I have two final thoughts to share with you. First, as Christians, we are God’s representatives here on earth. Second, the gradually increasing comprehension of our inability to keep His commandments ‒ there are only two of them ‒ reflects a mature recognition of our total dependence on Him, even to keep His commandments.

Update/Prayer Request: Once again we visited the emergency room this week, this time for respiratory distress. Dan is finally getting gradual relief from his non-stop coughing and throat issues. Added to his second round of steroids in two months, he is doing regular nebulizer treatments that seem to be clearing his lungs and releasing toxins that have been making him feel very ill and weak. We praise God for an apparently effective treatment. The current anti-inflammatory is also working to keep his shoulder pain manageable. The orthopedic surgeon has referred Dan for physical therapy to get his shoulders mobile enough to ensure successful surgery sometime this Fall. Please continue to pray for healing and uninterrupted sleep at night. Dan has a long haul ahead of him for both his lungs and his shoulders.

 

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