We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. 1Jn 4:19-21

Love is the supreme mark of one who is loved by God. We love, because He first loved us. (v.19) Our love is directly related to salvation- Jesus Christ took our sins and died in our place, so that in Him we might receive His righteousness and eternal life by the power of His resurrection. The everlasting spring of God’s love is in Christ, and as believers are sanctified by Holy Spirit to be transformed into His likeness, love overflows into the life of every believer. In this portion of Scripture, Apostle John asserts why Christians should love one another.

We love because God first loved us. Every man is born depraved, utterly lost and separated from God. The world does not know God’s love. Motivated by self-love and lust, man attempts to fabricate his own concept of love, but no philosophy or religion enables him to love others. (Jer 17:9; 1Jn 2:15-17) God first loved us- His love is unprecedented, selfless, and supernatural. When man experiences the love of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ, he is transformed to be able to truly love. (1Jn 4:9-10, 1Pet 2:25-26) Apostle Paul was a staunch Pharisee, set on obliterating the Christian faith. But when He encountered the love of God in the gospel, he was converted to Christ, and was able to love even those who became his persecutors. (Gal 2:20, Rom 9:3) Only God’s love in the gospel has the power to change us from within. Jesus demonstrated His love to us, and He has empowered us to do the same. (Rom 5:8)

Love is the hallmark of salvation. Love is the ultimate standard for Christian life. Without love, nothing can prove your faith is genuine, for the first fruit of the Spirit is love. (Jn 13:35) If a man claims to love God yet fails to love others, he is a liar and a hater. He has not yet seen the love of God in Christ, for God’s prevailing love transforms us to love one another. God has baptized us into one body, and we are members of one another- we cannot remain indifferent towards the church, but we ought to show mercy, grace, and compassion, just as Christ loved us. If our hearts are devoid of love for one another, we must examine our conversion to see if we truly believe and are assured of the love God has for us.

God commands us to love. It is God who commands us to love- we must obey. His commandment is in the present tense- regardless of our current circumstances, we must love one another, because God commands it. In the Bible, men of great faith were characterized by their immediate obedience to God’s Word, no matter the cost. (Gen 22:1-2, 1King 12:24) Our Lord did not delay in facing the terrible agony of His crucifixion, for He submitted to His Father’s Will and His timing. (Matt 21:2-3) Why do we fail to obey? Difficulty in obeying God’s command to love often arises as we read Scripture for knowledge and directives. Our intention in studying the Word must first be to know God. As we encounter God in His Word and grow in the knowledge of and love for Him, His Spirit enables us to obey. Knowing and loving God causes us to love one another. (1Jn 2:5-6)

The entirety of God’s commandments can be summed up by His command to love. God has loved us first. His love in Jesus Christ prevailed in us for salvation, and His love will continue to prevail in us as we love one another to show the world we are the beloved disciples of Jesus Christ. (Jn 13:35)

By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 1Jn 4:17-18

 

The love of God goes beyond our often generalized view of love in relation to grace and salvation. In this portion of Scripture, Apostle John highlights the power of God’s love, the love that will carry us through all of our life, even that which we live after death. Children of God can therefore be confident and fearless as they gain true understanding of and experience the love God has for them.

Christians must be confident in the Lord. Confidence denotes the ability to speak out freely, even when facing opposition. (Jn 18:3-4, Acts 4:18-19) John specifically refers to the believer’s confidence in the day of judgment, namely the Great White Throne Judgment. This is the ultimate court where every man- from Adam to the last generation- will be judged by God. Nothing will be hidden- our entire lives will be laid bare before God to judge. (Rev 20:11-15) In the midst of this spectacular and staggering scene, Christians will stand confident before God by their faith in His love. (v.17) God loved us, and sent His Son to the world to die in our place so that we can be saved. (1Jn 4:9-10) The love of Jesus rests upon our hearts, keeping us in perfect peace no matter what we face. God is love, and all the works of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are done in love. As God abides in us, and we in Him, His love always remains in us. (Rom 8:38-39)

God withholds nothing good from us, even giving the greatest gift to us in Jesus, whom he sent to be our Lord and Savior. In moments when it seems that God is distant from us, we must remember that God is not to blame, but we must examine our faith. He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? (Rom 8:32) Jesus’ work is good and complete- nothing else that God does will can improve or enhance his love, because it is already the greatest love. Confidence in the Lord is a matter of faith and trust. When God’s love is perfected in our life by faith, our hearts can remain calm as we trust in the Lord through any circumstance we face. (Rom 8:23)

In addition to faith in God’s love, believers must be sanctified to be confident in the coming judgment. (v.17) We must live and be like Jesus in this world. We must ask ourselves every day- Am I like Christ? The true test of sanctification is humility. As we measure ourselves to Jesus, we will walk in humility as we see the difference between the Son of God and ourselves. Humility leads us to deny ourselves and trust and follow Jesus our Lord. (Lk 5:8) He set the perfect example for us to follow, by becoming a servant, obeying to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Phil 2:8) As we share in the sufferings of Christ, we will surely share in His glorification. This is our confidence. (Rom 8:15,17)

Christians must be fearless. Love and fear cannot coexist. Love is triumphant, casting out all reasons to fear. We fear when the love of God is unclear in our hearts. When we don’t understand God’s love and grace in the gospel, the fear of punishment and judgment becomes a burden in our hearts that only the gospel of Jesus can alleviate. Man fears God’s punishment, but love always pardons, leaving fear irrelevant. (Gen 3:8,17) Fear implies a lack of assurance of salvation. If by faith in God’s love you no longer fear the coming judgment, there is no reason to fear anything in this present world. We must understand and fully receive God’s love in the gospel to have no fear, for your deliverance is promised and secure in Christ.

It is by God’s love the early church courageously gave up their lives for the sake of the gospel. There was no fear of death for the martyrs of Christ, because love was perfected in their hearts with perfect peace through the gospel. Death became merely a gateway to stand in judgment before the God who loved them, a judgment not to be punished, but to be rewarded for their faithfulness. (James 1:12; 2Tim 4:8) May we follow their path through the narrow gate, for the church today has the same hope, the same faith, and the same love of God to embolden us to live for Christ unto death and beyond.

Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary stayed at the house. Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.” Jn 11:20-27

 

We can avoid spiritual inertia by the power of Jesus’ resurrection from death. His resurrection strengthens every Christian against the world and gives hope to them for a heavenly future. Before our conversion, we hoped to find our joy in the world, but now our future is bound with Christ, and in Him we find our true hope. It is Christ who died for our sins and was raised back to life so that his elect are counted righteous by God. We are assured and made strong in our conviction and devotion to him because of the power of Jesus’ resurrection.

Jesus’ resurrection is real. Jesus’ resurrection is real because real evidences are given to prove He was risen.

– His tomb was empty. The body of Jesus was no longer in the tomb. (Acts 2:29,32)

– Apostle Paul’s conversion. Apostle Paul was the most unlikely convert. As Saul, he was a devout Pharisee with every reason to remain confident in the flesh. After encountering the risen Lord, Saul renamed himself Paul and was converted to the Christianity he once sought to persecute. (Acts 8:1; Phil 3:4-8)

– The disciples’ consistent narrative of Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus’ disciples suffered harsh persecution for their testimony of Jesus, but not one recanted their claim of Jesus’ resurrection.

– The many eyewitness accounts. All who witnessed the risen Lord and were converted gave eye-witness testimony of Jesus’ resurrection. (1Cor 15:7)

– The Bible says so. Above all, Scripture records that Jesus rose again. The Bible is the Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is infallible, inerrant, and is the ultimate authority. (2Pet 1:21; Lk 16:31)

Jesus’ resurrection is more than a historical fact. To have saving faith and the hope of the future, mere knowledge of Jesus’ resurrection is not enough. The resurrection gave us an eternal and accessible relationship with the living God, and many are taught this truth in their churches. Still, many Christians today live as if Christ never lived again, living with a mindset not unlike the world. They live a life of weakness, unable to overcome the difficulty of their lives. They are powerless against sins, and their hearts are not hoping for the Kingdom of God.

Are you responding to Christ’s resurrection with faithfulness? There are five groups of people illustrated in John 11 that can represent how men respond to His resurrection today-

– Those who were sarcastic, worldly, and superficial had no hope and no faith in receiving help from God after the death of Lazarus. Today, these men are those who ignorantly hate Jesus, not understanding Him or His works.

– Martha was simply religious in her response to Jesus. She did not fully understand who stood before her. She limited Jesus’ power in her mind with her little faith, unable to believe what she couldn’t see. True living faith is born from a true understanding of Jesus, who was truly man and truly God. (Jn 11:19-24, Col 2:9) Today, these men are those who approach Christianity with a superficial understanding of Jesus, applying false limitations to the power of Christ.

– The onlookers of Christ were simply entertained by the works of Jesus, but they never came to Him with repentance and faith for the salvation of their souls. (Jn 11:37, Lk 23:1) Today, these are men who wholly approve of the works of Christ, and yet are unconvinced of their own needs for Christ.

– Those who believed and were converted saw Jesus raise the dead Lazarus, and they responded with saving faith. True salvation has in its foundation faith in the resurrection of Christ. (Jn 11:45; Acts 22:7-9) Today, these are men who faithfully respond to the Gospel.

– Those who have resolved in their hearts to reject Jesus witnessed Him raise Lazarus from the dead, but still rejected Him. Even with all the proof, evidence, and knowledge that shows Jesus is the Son of God, they did not believe Him. (Jn 11:46) Today, these are men who harden their hearts to be purposefully militant against Christ and His church.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ must be central to your faith, because there is no power to our religion without the power of resurrection. What then, is ‘faith’? True faith is that which assures us of God’s promises, empowering us to believe in what cannot be seen. Faith has three elements- noticia (knowledge), assensus (intellectual consent), and fiducia (trust). It works like this – the Scripture provides us the facts of who God is, who we are, and what God has done for us. (Jn 20:31) The truth of the Scripture, then, is learned and understood. Simply knowing and understanding the Christ of the Bible, however, is not enough. Faith is complete as you put your trust in Christ- by exerting your confidence of the Word by resting upon Him, committing your life to Him, and looking to and learning from Him for all things. The exercise of faith requires you realize your inability and need for salvation and God’s gracious offer of salvation. Faith in Christ brings assurance and peace to our hearts, because we know Christ has loved us, gave Himself up for us, (Gal 2:20) and then rose again from the dead.

We see the love that God has for us in that He sent His only Son for the sake of reconciling lost sinners to Himself. Our Lord Jesus voluntarily died for us on the cross so that we can live in Him by the power of His resurrection. Hallelujah, what a Savior! (Jn 17:22,24; 5:24) Because we believe in the resurrected life of Jesus, we respond to this truth by sharing the life of Christ. The church of Acts overcame the world through their joyful assurance of Jesus’ resurrection. Do you truly believe Jesus was resurrected? Let us then testify to the world that salvation is in Christ alone, for we cannot help but speak of what we have seen and heard. (Acts 4:20, Jn 2:18-22)

The indelible mark on the heart of every Christian is God’s love. In our depravity, we were undone, lost, and spiritually dead, yet God loved us, justifying us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His love defined Apostle John’s identity- the disciple whom Jesus loved- and it was His love in Christ that compelled Paul to give up his life to preach the gospel to the gentile nations. (Jn 21:7, 1Tim 1:12) Christians are loved by God- and this love stimulates both the understanding and the mimicking of this love. Christians love as God loves. As we continue our series in 1 John, we will look at the unique responsibilities of those who are deeply loved by God.

The beloved testify about Christ. To testify is to bear witness about what is true and absolute. In this portion of John’s letter, we see what compelled John to testify about Christ- they have seen Jesus Christ, who was sent by the Father to be the Savior of the world. This is no passing glance of the Savior- the apostles were engraved with the love of Christ, and they testified about this love with full conviction of the gospel. (1Jn 1:1-3, 2Pet 1:16-18, Acts 4:20) If evangelism is natural for one who has seen the love of God in Christ, why then do we lack the desire to testify? We must see Christ as the apostles saw Christ by preaching the gospel to ourselves daily. We sin every day, and we need Jesus in every moment of guilt and hopelessness that comes from realizing our sins and facing our sinful nature. The gospel reminds us that in love God gave His only Son to die on the cross for our sins, so that we might have forgiveness and eternal life in Christ Jesus. Grace abounds in the gospel, and every moment becomes an opportunity to see Jesus.

– We testify Jesus Christ as the only Savior. None are righteous before God. The penalty for our sins is eternal death, but God provides the way of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus alone is the eternal God and sinless Savior, the source of life, who can save those who cannot save themselves. (1Jn 5:12, Acts 4:12)

– We testify Jesus as Lord. Jesus is not only the Savior, but He is and Lord of all. His is truly man, but is also truly God. His authority was never diminished in His incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection. All things- mankind and otherwise -are subject to the authority of Jesus. We testify not only of salvation in Christ, but His lordship over all. (Col 2:9, Phil 2:9-12)

– We testify of and for salvation. We tell the world the truth concerning Jesus’ offer of salvation, that whoever confesses that Jesus is Lord and believes Jesus is the Son of God will be saved. After this, we lead them to the body of Christ. Saving faith is public, and this public life of faith is to be lived together with the body of Christ, the church. (Rom 10:9)

– We testify of our blessing. In Christ, we live with every spiritual blessing as children of God- salvation, joy, security, spiritual fruit, answered prayer, and countless more. We testify of how God has blessed us in Christ, and how He is ready to bless those who come to Him with repentance of sins and faith in Christ.

The beloved remains in God’s love in all circumstances. Beloved, we must know that Jesus Christ is always with us. As we come to know God through a deeper relationship and knowledge of Jesus Christ, a deeper faith and trust in Him is established. (Heb 13:8) Sin indeed separates us from God, but we trust in Jesus for our forgiveness. The throne of grace is wide open for those that draw near to God with repentant hearts. We become convinced of our forgiveness, we are reminded that we are the children of God. Everything in this fallen world will try to lead us away from God’s love, but it will be unable to separate us from the love of God in Christ. (Rom 8:38-39) We must strive against circumstance to keep this biblical perspective on God’s steadfast love for us in any situation that arises in our lives.

The blessing of experiencing God’s love every day enables us to take on this great privilege of doing the work of God. The world must know of this love- we have seen the love that God has for us in Jesus Christ, and we share this love by sharing the gospel with all those around us.

While most things in life can be appraised by their monetary worth, there is no price that can be ascribed to love. There are many accounts in Scripture that shows love, particularly God’s love, overcoming impossible barriers. Love is indeed powerful and significant. (Matt 15:22, 1Cor 13:7) As we have seen in our ongoing study of 1 John, God has loved us with an everlasting love, even while we were yet undeserving sinners. Having received God’s prevailing love, what can our mutual love for God and for one another do?

We can love like God. When we were saved, God gave us a new nature. He gave us the freedom to love like Himself – in essence, he enabled us to partake in His divine nature as we love one another. (2Pet 1:4, 2Cor 5:17) Apostle John repeatedly addresses the church as “beloved,” emphasizing that God’s love for us is no different from His love for Jesus, Whom the Father called “beloved” upon His baptism. Since God so loved us, we must respond as His beloved to His beloved; we are compelled by God’s love to love one another with the same intensity. God is love, therefore, we must love. (Lk 6:36, 1Pet 1:15) We can love like God in these ways:

Personally- God’s love is not aimless. It is always focused and targeted. We must also love in an unambiguous way to our brothers and sisters, in both giving and receiving in love. The church is a body of love- we are those who are loved by God, who love God and practice the love they have received from God by loving God’s people.

Mutual love makes God’s presence evident. No man has seen God – because He is Spirit – but as we love one another, we are able to see God operating through the Holy Spirit within us. Godliness always results in love. In a sense, God abides in us as we love, and this enables us to bear the fruit of His Spirit. We are sanctified as God’s love takes root in us. This is a happy cycle – Through our continual practice of loving one another, we can learn more of God’s love, which emboldens us to love one another all the more.

Mutual love assures us of our salvation. All children of God experience seasons of doubt regarding their own salvation. How can we recover from doubt? We can over doubt by the love of the church and God. In practicing and receiving love in the body of Christ, we can know that we are loved God, as He loves us. (v.13) This is because love and faith are inseparable- as you practice love, faith expresses itself through that act of love. (Gal 5:6) Conversely, if you stop practicing love, faith cannot grow. How does this work? The Holy Spirit intertwines our love and faith, making them both real and effective. The first fruit of the Spirit is love, and we are able to love one another by the Spirit’s power. He is the One who assures our hearts of our adoption as sons. (Rom 8:15)

Beloved, let us love one another as God has loved us. We can never exhaust the riches of His love; it has been poured into our hearts through His Spirit. Let us therefore strive toward new heights of the effective power of God’s love in our lives by passionately and faithfully loving each other.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 Jn 4:7-10

In the midst of all the hostility and violent attacks on the early church, Apostle John’s single charge to all believers is to love one another. Above all else, love must be the hallmark of every disciple of Christ. For us to love as God loved, we must study the love that God showed to us. God’s display of love in Christ was something truly unprecedented in history and is even now unknowable to the unbelievers. As the church continues to endure and stand against false teachers of this age, it is by this unprecedented and unknowable love of God that we will be set apart as true children of God.

God’s love is divine. Love is from God, because God is love. Though love is often spoken and written, the world does not know what love truly is, because ever since the Fall, man is born unable to love. Just like Cain, our nature is murderous because of our total depravity. True love comes from God- we can only love one another by knowing the love of God first. (Mk 12:28-30) The Pharisees thought they knew God, but they killed the source of true love because from the beginning, they didn’t know God’s love, Apostle Paul on the other hand, was once a persecutor of the church, but upon knowing God’s love, he was transformed to give up his own life because of his love for Jesus and the church. (Acts 8:1, Acts 20:31)

God shows His love by showing compassion and mercy on the undeserving. (Jon 4:10-11) The display of His love brings divine consequences. It is by His love that we are born of God as children of God, calling Him ‘Abba, Father’. We reflect the nature of our Father as we obey His commandment to love one another. As we grow in the knowledge of God, we strengthen an enduring faith of Him Who is always with us, and we treasure Him in our hearts above all else. (2Tim 1:12, Matt 13:44) This is why those who know God are unceasing in prayer – because as they draw near to God in prayer, their hearts are strengthened by His intimate love. (Lk 18:1)

The practice of this love can show whether you are saved. The purpose of Apostle John’s letter is for the readers to have joy through the assurance of their salvation. This assurance is made sure by your love – if you don’t practice love, you are not saved. Whether we love is the test of salvation, because love is from God. His will is for us to love one another. It is not enough to have knowledge and sound doctrine- without love, you do not know God. (Rev 2:2-4) God is love- as we know Christ and experience the personal love of God, the whole person and love of God occupies our hearts, enabling us to love God and one another in return.

God’s example of love in Jesus was unprecedented. You cannot know the love of God without understanding the atonement, propitiation, and penal substitution of Jesus Christ. How do you explain God’s love? What is the source of your own love and joy? God’s love from heaven is found in Jesus Christ. We were born with enmity in our hearts against God. God had no reason to love us, yet He sent His Son to be born into a world that did not receive Him. Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness and love, and He died on a cross in our place to take away God’s wrath against sinners. (Jn 3:16) Jesus rose from the dead in victory against death so that we can live a life of love through Him. Our Christian life is a remarkable display of God’s love. He forgave us – not on the basis of deeds which we have done, but because of His great love. And because we are forgiven by God, we are now able to forgive one another in true love and grace. We can today ask God for His perfect grace and love at the cross. Let us therefore know the love of God, and love one another. It is by this selfless, self-sacrificing that love the world will know that we are the disciples of Christ Jesus.

In the era before today’s age of individualism, a person’s identity was inherently linked to his lineage. The question ‘Who are you from?’ indicated who you were and where you were from. Spiritually speaking, knowing who we are from tells not only of our origin but also of our destination. Man is either from God or from Satan. In this ongoing series in the first book of John, the apostle outlines the marks of those who are from God- those whom God elected before the foundation of the world to be redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, kept in love by the power of His will, and separated from the passing world to belong to God alone. (Eph 1:4, Jn 1:12-13)

Those from God overcome. Satan has no dominion over the Christian, because Jesus’ crucifixion freed us from our bondage and will to sin. Jesus Himself declared, “It is finished” – ‘It’ refers to the atonement of our guilt before God. (Jn 19:30) How can you overcome? As you defend your faith with a deep conviction of the Word of God, you can overcome evil spirits. (Ps 119:42, 11:3) God’s Word is the foundation of our confession, and by it we can discern truth from error through the Holy Spirit who enlightens us. The gospel is our greatest offense and defense to overcome false teachers, and we must be resolved to give up our life rather than to compromise Biblical truth. We can do this only by the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. He is our source of strength, and He is infinitely more powerful than he who is in the world. The Holy Spirit shows His power through the effecting work of Scripture, raising the dead to life both spiritually and physically. (2Tim 3:16, Jn 6:63, Rom 8:11) He is always with those who are from God, empowering them to overcome every evil spirit.

Those from God speak and act contrary to false teachers. In Apostle John’s day, the false teachers of pre-Gnosticism and Docetism denied Jesus’ humanity because they argued that since Jesus is good, and all flesh is evil, Jesus could not have truly manifested the flesh. False teachers today continue to deny the truth of Jesus Christ, while preaching a false and dispensable gospel. They despise the suffering and death of Jesus, and hate the narrow gate His disciples are called to go through to follow Him. They have a love for money, rather than God, and the heart of this fallen world is open wide for their soothing messages concerning their immediate, earthly problems. Those who are from God preach the gospel, honoring Christ as Lord. (Phil 3:7-9) We must exercise faith according to the solid truth that is the Word of God. Though our natural selves will desire to go against God’s Word, we can speak and act according to the Word of God in love with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Those from God listen to and obey God’s Word. As stated previously, those who belong to Christ pay attention to the Scripture and receive the whole Word as it is. Are you listening and obeying God’s Word? God has appointed leaders and pastors to shepherd His church and teach His Word. We must respect the speaker who handles accurately the Word of God, and we must constantly examine ourselves to avoid spiritual error. (Jn 10:4,27; Heb 13:7) If you attend church with a degrading view of God, salvation, and the seriousness of sin, it is alarming indication of teaching that cannot produce saving faith. You must resolve to flee such teaching and teachers and situate yourself under a good teacher who teaches unadulterated truth from the Word of God (Matt 7:21-24) If you find it difficult to understand and obey God’s word, ask yourself whether you have been truly saved – he who is not from God will not, or rather cannot comprehend the Word of God even while listening to the Word being preached.

As we examine ourselves under the light of Scripture, let us remember that the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, is with us. He is ready to help us as we repent of our sins and turn to Him. Let us therefore continually strive to maintain a biblical view that bears much spiritual fruit, which evidences that we are truly the children of God.