Down an Unfamiliar Road

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson LXXXIII) 05/13/22

^4:12 For though we have never seen God, God lives in us when we love each other, and His agápē within us grows stronger.

The Apostle John takes a back seat to no one in Scripture, says Yarbrough, in advancing a lofty view of God the Father’s essential being. But in direct proportion to God’s transcendence, for John, is the mandate that believers incarnate God’s character, central to which is His love. It is essential if John’s readers are to avoid the lovelessness that he warns against. It is also vital for the sake of believers’ personal assurance, as we see in verse thirteen.

Colin G. Kruse (1950) sees the invisibility of God as an essential theme in the Apostle John’s Gospel.[1] “No one has ever seen God. The only Son is the one who has shown us what God is like. He is God and is very close to the Father; The Father who sent Me has given proof about Me Himself. But you have never heard His voice. You have never seen what He looks like; I don’t mean that there is anyone who has seen the Father. The only One who has ever seen the Father is the One who came from God. He has seen the Father.” John’s point is that while no one can claim to have seen God (apart from God’s one and only Son), believers who love one another demonstrate that the unseen God lives in them. This teaching is meant to reassure the readers that they do really know God, despite what the secessionists might say to the contrary.[2]

Judith M. Lieu (1951) maintains that the Apostle John’s readers would have quickly agreed to celebrate the superiority of God’s act of love that John had just rehearsed, especially if it drew on familiar phrases. Yet, it may be understood and experienced in highly individual terms, a collection of individuals who could claim God loved me. Such an understanding would not act as the foundation for the conclusion that John draws. For him: God’s prior love calls for a responding love, not to God, nor indiscriminately, but precisely to one another. God’s agápē for “us” does not simply transform individuals and offer them the possibility of life, but it creates a community; indeed, God’s agápē for “us” is for the community as a whole and not exclusively for its members. Hence, God’s act of love not only imposes the obligation to love but also determines to whom that love must be directed toward those who are equal recipients of God’s agápē along with “us.”

In other words, God’s agápē is not poured into us as a closed vessel to be capped and kept apart from others. No, it was dispensed to us as a reservoir that flows out to others. For that reason, Love is not an emotion; neither is it to be defined in terms of particular virtues or acts of kindness. It is the lifeblood of the community, that which gives it its existence. This goes beyond seeing it as give-and-take love but as something commanded.[3] As such, it is an act of obedience. Furthermore, it is not to be satisfied by a catalog of individual activities or a general affirmative concern for each other. Love is not among a number of characteristics of those who believe. In fact, at this point, rather than identifying them as those who believe, it would be better to identify them as those who are founded on love.[4]

Ben Witherington III (1951) notes that there is something odd about saying, “God lives in us, and His love is made complete in us,” as if God’s Spirit was not seen as divine or not closely identified with God. The Apostle John writes, “We know He lives in us because the Spirit, He gave us, lives in us.[5] It is therefore better to take the Greek “out of the Spirit” phrase seriously; it refers to the knowledge or assurance that the Spirit gave believers at conversion that God dwells in them, knowledge that has an ongoing and lasting impact. If we take the phrase “of the Spirit” in a strict separative sense (believers receive only a share of the Spirit, not the whole Spirit), who fills the entire church? John does not see the Spirit as a mere power in impersonal terms. Rather, the Spirit is a person who cannot be parceled out in bits and pieces. Then, it is better to see this as a reference to something received from the Spirit: knowledge, spiritual awareness, assurance, gifts, etc.[6] If the Holy Spirit comes in to dwell at the new birth, why do we need to return to God for the infilling of His Spirit? For Pentecostals, the Holy Spirit moves in for Salvation and Sanctification. So then, being baptized in the Spirit is empowerment for service. That’s why Jesus told the disciples to go to the upper room and wait until the Spirit came.

Bruce G. Schuchard (1958) begins with:

               “Immortal, invisible, God only wise,

               In light, inaccessible, hid from our eyes.”[7]

Whether a Christian or not, no one suggests John has ever seen God in person. Yet, still, we may know and be confident that ours is the knowledge of the one true God.[8] For John declares that we alone, and not individualist Christians, have responded in kind to the love of the One who alone is love, who therefore exemplifies what love truly is, what love must be, if it is to be true love, never selfishly taking or demanding, but selflessly given, enlivening, empowering, upholding, and sustaining for time and for eternity. After all, to quote the Apostle Paul, “the greatest of these is love.”[9] So then, we and not they have made His agápē our love. We and not the nonconformists have responded with the same love for the same community of the beloved for the sake of the life and the love that comes from and so is inspired by God alone through His Son, Jesus the Anointed One. We, and not the maverick believers, do these things by abiding in the love of our unseen God, as seen in our love for each other.[10]

Marianne Meye Thompson (1964) says that what we have here is that God gives us the command to love and has also modeled for us what true love is, just as Jesus modeled love for His disciples when He washed their feet before His death.[11] Love that does not express itself concretely and in service to others is not love.[12] But even more, God also empowers us to love. By confession of the Son whom God has sent, we are born of God and come to know God, who is love;[13] we are given life;[14] our sins are forgiven.[15] We come into the realm of life and love, in which we receive eternal life and are empowered to extend the same kind of life-giving love to others. That’s how we come to know the source of agápē.[16]

Ken Johnson (1965) points out that true love is not seen by what we do for each other or for God, but only in the fact that Jesus is the atonement for our sins. That fact should be the basis of the love we show to one another.[17] And since He was willing to forsake heaven, come to a hostile world, be murdered for His beliefs, and be buried in a borrowed tomb, so the Father could raise Him to life again, we can do no less for those, we desire to see become our brothers and sisters in God’s family.

Duncan Heaster (1967) is of the persuasion that the idea of “perfected” is an ongoing process. The Apostle John often writes in absolute terms, according to our status “in the Anointed One,” as if it is that those who know the Father automatically live in and with the kind of love exhibited by Him in the Anointed One. But we know from observed experience that this is a process and doesn’t happen instantaneously; even Paul felt he had not yet been “perfected.”[18] Love, the love unto the death on a cross, is developed and “perfected” in us; this results in the Christian community being “perfected” into a profound unity, unseen in any other human social relationship.[19] Our life paths are, therefore, directed toward the development of that love; and when our lives are over, we will stand before the Lord at the judgment; our love should have been perfected, matured, and developed to such a point that we assure our fluttering hearts before Him and find boldness there.

We will have reached the point the Lord did, says Heaster, who was “perfected” until the very point when He died – for that was the ultimate term and maturity of the process of love being “perfected” in a person.[20] From His example and path, we note that while the process of “perfecting” is still in operation, we may not be fully mature, but lack of full maturity is not sinful. For the Lord never sinned. Instead, the Spirit “perfects” us until we can be seen as being among the spirits of just men who were perfected.[21] It is by keeping the Word of the Lord Jesus ever before us that this love is perfected in us.[22] [23]

Karen H. Jobes (1968) inquires, “Because God is invisible in the material world we inhabit, how does one express love for God and fellowship with Him?” We can’t hug Him or send Him a nice Valentine’s Day card on February fourteenth. Consistently, the Final Covenant speaks of love for God in terms of our relationship with His people. We gather together for worship, pray for one another, and take Holy Communion together. Although Christianity in North America has a very “Jesus-and-me” quality, the Final Covenant writers did not conceive of an independent, maverick Christian.[24] Even the First Covenant commands that obedience to God were largely directives concerning how to treat others.[25] Biblically defined love for others is our appropriate expression of love for God. When Christians love others as God defines love, God remains in us, making His presence known, and His agápē is completed in us.[26]

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[1] John 1:18; 5:37; 6:46

[2] Kruse, Colin G., The Letters of John (The Pillar New Testament Commentary (PNTC)), op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Edition

[3] 1 John 3:11

[4] Lieu, Judith, The New Testament Commentary, op. cit., pp. 184-185

[5] 1 John 3:24b

[6] Witherington III, Ben: Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians: op. cit., loc. cit., (Kindle Locations 7224-7231)

[7] Immortal, invisible, God only Wise, by Walter C. Smith, (1867)

[8] Ibid. 2:3-11

[9] 1 Corinthians 13:13

[10] Schuchard, Bruce G., Concordia Commentary, op. cit., p. 476

[11] John 13:1-17

[12] 1 John 3:16-18

[13] Ibid. 4:7

[14] Ibid. 4:9

[15] Ibid. 4:10

[16] Thompson, Marianne M., The IVP New Testament Commentary, op. cit., p. 123

[17] Johnson, Ken. Ancient Epistles of John and Jude, op. cit., p. 78

[18] Philippians 3:12

[19] John 17:23

[20] Hebrews 2:10; 5:9; 7:28; Heaster fails to note that these scriptures are talking about Jesus, not a believer. It is the love of God that is perfected in the believer, not the believer in God’s love.

[21] Hebrews 12:23

[22] 1 John 2:5

[23] Heaster, Duncan: New European Commentary, op. cit., 1 John, p. 33

[24] Cf. 1 Peter 2:4-5

[25] Exodus 20:12-17; Deuteronomy 5:16-21

[26] Jobes, Karen H., 1, 2, and 3 John (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on The New Testament, Book 18), p. 194

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson LXXXII) 05/12/22

^4:12 For though we have never seen God, God lives in us when we love each other, and His agápē within us grows stronger.

From a worldly perspective, says Moody, the Gospel’s message of God’s agápē is quite uncanny and unbelievable, a state of affairs that would not surprise the Apostle John. It belongs to the character of the world not to believe such nonworldly message. Does the news have any basis in perceptible reality? If so, it’s only in mutual human love. Such love becomes a possibility in response to God’s agápē, made manifest in the historical human Jesus. It makes the message of God’s agápē as a credible witness to the world. However, one need not deny the genuineness of human affection apart from the Gospel message and our grateful response to it. Such love is inherently self-interested, but such a charge runs the risk of being rigid and unfair. We do not have to prove the world false so that the Gospel may be true. God’s agápē in Jesus the Anointed One and our responsive love become perceptible and credible. People already know what love means, understand its necessity, and long for its exchange and fulfillment.[1]

Stephen S. Smalley (1931-2018) thinks that because the statement “no one has seen God” is introduced so abruptly, it suggests that it “was somehow misplaced.” But the Apostle John has a reason for making the point now, shortly after speaking against the heretics about how God can be “known.” Perhaps some members of John’s congregation claimed to have “seen’’ God directly and thereby “know” Him. It brings to mind the idea in Jewish apocalyptic writings of the “heavenly journey” of the soul and compares the ascent of Enoch, [2] or the rapture of Elijah, [3] and also the four Rabbis raptured to enter the “Garden of Paradise.”[4] However, the notion in Gnostic thought of the soul’s thrilling journey to heaven, as a form of “divine knowledge,” must have been in John’s mind at this point, so verse twelve is directed against such heretical ideas.[5] It resembles today’s popular doctrine that as soon as a believer dies, they go directly to heaven to see their mansion and dance on the streets of gold, bypassing the resurrection as foretold in Scripture.[6]

Edward J. Malatesta (1932-1998) has the Apostle John introducing the theme of our inability to see God physically.[7] However, our mutual love experience of God being in us and His agápē perfected in us. It is the only way we can “see God” in this life. It means that every time you see a fellow believer showing agápē to another, you see God. Not only that, but when they see you loving others, they see God in you. God is not in you if they do not see any love in you. John expands this theme into verse thirteen when it requires agápē for us, remaining in union with God and He in us. This identifies the source of our knowledge of God and constant communion with Him. Thus, He gave us His Spirit to live in us to keep that fellowship going.[8]

Ian Howard Marshall (1934-2015) tells us that he sees the Apostle John turning his back on mystical experience as the high point in a person’s relationship with God. This, is from a man who had one of the most spectacular revelations during the Final Covenant era. He had no interest in retreating from the world of men into the privacy of a vision of God. On the contrary, when people love their fellow Christians – on a very practical level – they fully experience God’s agápē in their hearts and know the presence of God is with them. This does not mean that Christian duty is summed up in merely loving one another, as some would have us believe. John’s point is that loving one another is indispensable in a religion that longs to have true knowledge of God. We cannot find God by withdrawing from the world and its obligation to love one another, but equally, God cannot be found merely by trying to love one another. True religion comes only through believing in Jesus the Anointed One and accepting His command to love another.[9]

John Painter (1935) The alternative to seeing God ourselves is that when “we love one another,” we see Him in them. In expectation of seeing Jesus as He is the ground of the hope that “we will be like Him.”[10] This is the Johannine version of the vision of God. In the time of Jesus’ ministry, some saw, heard, touched, and handled Him. When He is fully revealed, [11] we will be like Him at His second coming because we will see Him as He is. But here, for the moment, loving one another appears to be an alternative to seeing Him as He is. Even here, it is unclear whether loving one another is God’s abiding with us or whether it is the evidence of that abiding. The latter seems more likely in that it is said that “if we love one another … God’s love is made perfect in us.”[12]

Michael Eaton (1942-2017) remarks that we might respond to the Apostle John by saying: “I do love God, I simply find it difficult to get on with so-and-so.” John exposes this as an excuse. It is too easy to claim to be getting on well with God. He is, after all, invisible. Our relationship with Him is a sacred one but not a secret one, generally speaking. Easy claims about knowing God may cover up the real battle we have with loving people. Maybe we are not far enough on the love’s pathway to appreciate the love given to us by the Holy Spirit.[13] John’s challenge is that we venture further down the road of love. It is the way God wants us to live. If we are born again, we already have the seed of love. So, just let it grow![14]

William Loader (1944) sees what the Apostle John says here as standard theology for Jews and Christians. It reaches back in tradition to the Sinai episode where God says to Moses: “No mortal may see Me and live.”[15] The climax of the prologue of John’s Gospel reads: “No one has ever seen God; God’s only Son, He who is nearest to the Father’s heart, has made Him known.”[16] So, John is not pulling some mystical or new concept about God and mankind out of the bag. It has been long established that God, like the wind, is unseen but easily felt.

David Jackman (1947) says that loving one another is not just an extra ingredient that we might add to our discipleship, but only if we feel especially moved to do so. We owe it to the loving Father not to further slander His name by denying His love in our human relationships. If we have been cleansed through the blood of the Anointed One, our new lives must be clean, like His, as we mix with others in God’s family. Let us appreciate the infinite price paid for our redemption, for a moment. We will quickly discern how vital it is that we do not continue to indulge ourselves in following our sinful tendencies. There is a new constraint within us that longs to live differently.[17] So the Christian church should be a community of love, unlike any other society. The Church indeed exists for those who are not yet members, but it is also true that the love among her members should be one of her most powerful magnets.[18]

Robert W. Yarbrough (1948) notes that among major emphases earlier in the discourse is the need for readers to “abide” or “remain” in what they have been taught and in union with the Anointed One.[19] The Apostle John has also stressed the perfecting or making complete of God’s love in believers through obedience to God’s Word.[20] In verse twelve, John sees the merging of these two strands, “abiding” and “perfecting,” as closely tied with the expression of love among believers.

The additional consideration is John’s categorical observation that “no one has ever seen God.” The invisibility of God is a consequence of the conviction that God is Spirit, not a being possessing material properties.[21] A First Covenant thought that spills directly over into the Final Covenant, God is a personal being, but he is not a human,

Numbers 23:19         “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that he should

                                      Change his mind.[22]

                                                     Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

1 Chronicles 21: 13  David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for                                          his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.”

Job 9: 32                     “He is not a man like me that I might answer Him, that we might confront each                                         other in court.”

Job 33:12                    ”But I tell you, in this you are not right, for God is greater than man.”

Psalm 50: 21              “These things you have done and I kept silent; you thought I was altogether like                                              you. But I will rebuke you and accuse you to your face.”

Hosea 11: 9                “I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I                                    am God, and not man – the Holy One among you”.

“Perfected” here in verse twelve is unlikely to refer to a state of sinless perfection in believers, which John has already rejected. Nor is John suggesting that there is something imperfect in God’s love that believers loving brings to perfection or fulfills. The root of the Greek perfect participle means “to finish, complete, or bring to the desired outcome.”[23] John speaks here not of perfect people but of God’s already pristine love finding its fullest possible earthly expression as people respond to the message of the Anointed One and reach out to one another as a result.[24]

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[1] Smith, D. Moody. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, op. cit., pp. 106, 111-112

[2] 1 Enoch 71; 2 Enoch, Ch. 44:7-8

[3] 2 Kings 2:11

[4] Babylonian Talmud, Seder Mo’ed, Hagigah, folio 14b

[5] Smalley, Stephen S., Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 51, op. cit., p. 246

[6] 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17

[7] See 1 John 4:20; cf. 1-3; 3:2, 6

[8] Malatesta, Edward J., Interiority and Covenant, op. cit., p. 295

[9] Marshall, I. Howard. The Epistles of John (The New International Commentary on the New Testament), op. cit., pp. 217-218)

[10] 1 John 3:2

[11] Ibid. 2:28

[12] Painter, John. Sacra Pagina: 1, 2, and 3 John: Vol. 18, loc. cit.

[13] Romans 5:5

[14] Eaton, Michael: Focus on the Bible, 1,2,3 John, op. cit., pp. 152-153

[15] Exodus 33:20

[16] John 1:18

[17] Romans 5:5

[18] Jackman, David: The Message of John’s Letters, op. cit., p. 122

[19] 1 John 2:6, 10, 14, 17, 24, 27-28

[20] Ibid. 2:5

[21] Cf. John 4:24

[22] Numbers 23:19

[23] Cf. John 4: 34; 5: 36; 17: 4

[24] Yarbrough, Robert W., 1-3 John (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament), op. cit., pp. 243-245

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson LXXXI) 05/11/22

^4:12 For though we have never seen God, God lives in us when we love each other, and His agápē within us grows stronger.

Amos N. Wilder (1895-1993) says that knowing God by the Gnostic path could reach its goal in the claim of having seen Him in a mystic vision. The audacity of this claim is no doubt to be condoned because some of great nobility of spirit from Plato onward have experienced it. But the Bible, more aware of the difference between Creator and creature, assigns this goal to Judgment Day[1] for the “pure in heart” and in an indirect sense.[2] But if we love one another, the life of God in its essential character is ours: God abides in us.[3] Indeed, His agápē is perfected in us in the sense that it is realized or brought into actuality· This is a much greater outcome than any alleged vision of God.[4] It is only one aspect of the final outcome.[5]

Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was prompted suddenly, to ask, “Why does the Apostle John suddenly, in the midst of this argument, exclaim, ‘No man has seen God at any time?’” Where’s the connection? What does he mean? Why was it, at this point, he burst out, as it were, with this extraordinary statement? There are those who would say that what John was really saying was something like this: “Dear friends, I told you earlier, since God loved us so much, we surely ought to love each other.”[6] Then he blurts out, “Listen, no one has ever seen God!” Therefore, the only way in which we can love God is by loving one another. After all, we cannot see God, but we do see each other. So, since you cannot see God to love Him, then love Him by loving His children. Lloyd-Jones calls this a reasonable answer. It is as if John is answering them this way: “Rid your minds of all these mystical ideas of love. Stop thinking that way and start realizing that there is no value in your saying that you love God unless you love your brother and sister. After all, you can’t see God, but you can see your brother and sister. So, it is simple, love your brother and sisters if you want to love God.”[7]

Ronald Ralph Williams (1906-1970) says that the Apostle John wants to make his point abundantly clear, so he explains that the love he is speaking of comes from God is not our love, not even our love for God, but God’s agápē for us. This found its supreme expression in Jesus’ coming, but still, more precisely, the purpose of His coming was to remedy the defilement of our sins.[8] The phrase “remedy for the defilement” comes from the Greek noun hilasmos, which means to “appease, alleviate, placate, atone for,” which is translated as “propitiation.” It comes from the Latin propitiare, meaning “appease.” Earliest recorded form of the word in English is propitiatorium, “the mercy seat, place of atonement” (circa 1200 AD), translating Greek hilasterion. The meaning “that which propitiates or appeases, a propitiatory gift or offering” is from the 1550s. Because all Christians owe everything to the flow of love poured into the world and the hearts of new Christians, no person has ever seen God except through the mutual love of His children. God’s agápē comes to its full maturity and is thereby brought to perfection.[9]

Wayne C. “Cy” Aman (1918-1995) states that Christian perfection is nothing else than perfected love. The Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle John to tell us that the height of the Christian experience is love. The Apostle Paul verified this by confessing to the Corinthians, “I may speak in various languages, whether human or even of angels. But if I don’t have love, I am only a noisy bell or a ringing cymbal. I may have the gift of prophecy, understand all secrets, know everything there is to know and have faith so great that I can move mountains. But even with all this, if I don’t have love, I am nothing. I may give away everything I have to help others, and I may even give my body as an offering to be burned. But I gain nothing by doing all this if I don’t have love.”[10] So, if the lack of love makes a nobody out of the Apostle Paul, think of what it makes you?[11]

Raymond E. Brown (1928-1998) is surprised that this denial by the Apostle John of anyone ever seeing God is surprising. Did not Jesus tell His disciples, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father?”[12] This was scarcely meant to be a unique privilege for those first disciples who saw Jesus physically during the ministry since Jesus promised the disciples that they would see Him again “in a little while, [[13] namely, after His death and return – a sight that presumably the Johannine Christians would share as second-generation disciples. Nevertheless, we would have to conclude that the sight of the Father in Jesus is not the same as seeing God in person. John promises that as a future reward: “We shall see Him as He is.”[14] Three times in John’s Gospel, he references that no one has ever seen God.[15] It was used to defend the uniqueness of Jesus against Jewish claims (actual or possible) about the superiority of Moses or Elijah.

The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that Moses met with the congregation before going off into the mountain and never returning. The prophet told them, “God has received me graciously . . . I have been admitted into the presence of God and been made a hearer of His incorruptible voice.”[16] And in Torah, we read, “Adonai would speak to Moshe’s face to face, as a man speaks to his friend,”[17] and, “there has not arisen in Isra’el a prophet like Moshe, whom Adonai knew face to face.”[18] But there is a debate within Jewish writings about whether Moses saw God on Sinai or through an assumption into heaven after death. Once again, John has taken over anti-Jewish criticism from his Gospel and used it in his war with the secessionists.[19]

Peter S. Ruckman (1921-2010) tells us how the Final Covenant affected the Hindu writings on the god Krishna. The name and synonyms of Krishna have been traced to prior to the birth of the Anointed One in literature and cults before His birth. However, without one prophesy about him in 2,000 years of Hindu “sacred scriptures,” he can do many of the things written in the Gospels about Jesus.[20] For instance:

• He can unite people to “the Eternal.”

• He can indwell sinners and rescue them from all evils.

• He believes in sacrifice and can indwell the believer.

• As the Supreme Lord of the Universe, even Braham “adores” him.

• We are to love and worship him and meditate on him.

• He was the “unknown god” before Jesus the Anointed One showed up.

• He is to be called “Our Lord” and “Blessed Lord” and, finally, “THE LORD.”[21]

John R. W. Stott (1921-2011) says we are not to think of love only as constituting God’s eternal being and as historically manifested in the sending of His Son into the world. For God, who is love and, has loved still loves, and today His agápē is seen in and through our love.[22] So, if the lost and sin weary sinner is expecting to see love, they need not look toward heaven, nor a Church, nor the Bible, if they want to see God’s agápē manifested, they will have to look at you and me. The question is, will they see any?

Simon J. Kistemaker (1930-2017) focuses on the doctrinal aspect of why the Apostle John’s First Epistle is the preeminent book on love. The verb love appears twenty-eight times, and the corresponding noun love occurs eighteen times. Furthermore, almost all these references are in the section of 3:1-5:3. If God loved us before the world’s creation, [23] why did He need to send His Son to a cruel death on the cross? Was the death of the Anointed One necessary? The answer to these questions is that although God still dearly loved us, He was displeased and upset with us because of our sins but could not be reconciled to us until the Anointed One removed our guilt. God expresses His agápē toward those whose demand for righteousness has been met. Therefore, God’s children, who are covered with His righteousness, may experience the fullness of God’s agápē.”[24]

Dwight Moody Smith (1931-2016) states, as others have, that this section of verses seven through twelve is one of the most eloquent statements about love in the Johannine literature, as well as in the Final Covenant as a whole. As such, it is perhaps less famous than 1 Corinthians 13.[25] But in fact, it is an adequate theological discussion about the origin of love than Paul’s renowned poem of praise, which has been popular among Christians and others, perhaps because it praises the importance and character of love over narrow religious qualities or claims. On the other hand, John gives a distinctly Christian explanation of the origin and human motivation of love, one that has become a classical model for theology and ethics. Appropriately, John begins by addressing his readers as beloved recipients of love. They are beloved by John, but, as we shall soon see, they are also beloved of God, which becomes evident in how this paragraph unfolds.

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[1] Matthew 5:8

[2] 1 Corinthians 13:12; cf. John 14:19; 1 John 1:2

[3] Cf. 1 John 3:24

[4] See John 1:18

[5] Wilder, Amos N., The Interpreter’s Bible, op. cit., 1 John, Exposition, pp. 281-282

[6] 1 John 4:11

[7] Lloyd-Jones, Martyn: Life of the Anointed One, op. cit., p. 452

[8] See 1 John 4:10

[9] Williams, Ronald R, Letters of John and James, op. cit., pp. 48-49

[10] 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

[11] Aman, Wayne C., The Cross and Crown of Holiness, op. cit., Ch. 3, p. 12

[12] John 14:9

[13] Ibid. 16:16

[14] 1 John 3:2

[15] John 1:18; 6:46; 14:9; cf. 1 John 4:12; 3 John 1:11

[16] Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 3, Chap. 5:3

[17] Exodus 33:11 – Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

[18] Deuteronomy 34:10 – Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

[19] Brown, Raymond E., The Anchor Bible, op. cit., p. 520

[20] Ruckman, Dr. Peter S., General Epistles Vol. 2, 1-2-3 John, Jude Commentary, (The Bible Believer’s Commentary Series), BB Bookstore. Kindle Edition.

[21] Encyclopedia of Religion and Religions, Pike, World Publishing Co., 1958; Religions of the World, John Hardon, Image Books, 1968; India, the Grand Experiment, Mangalwaid, Pippa Rann Books, 1997

[22] Stott, John. The Letters of John (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries), op. cit., p. 164

[23] Ephesians 1:4-5

[24] Kistemaker, Simon J., New Testament Commentary, op. cit., pp. 334-335

[25] 1 Corinthians 13

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson LXXX) 05/10/22

^4:12 For though we have never seen God, God lives in us when we love each other, and His agápē within us grows ever stronger.

Robert Smith Candlish (1806-1873) sees narrow and compressed reasoning here. Like steps in a process or the links in the chain are not evident on the surface, some intermediate bonds of connection need to be supplied. Thus, the assertion “No one has seen God at any time”[1] seems to anticipate a question as to the omission of love to God in the preceding verse. It is what we might naturally expect to be the logical inference, but it is not so; it is “we ought also to love one another.”[2] And why? “Because no one has seen God at any time.” Therefore, loving one another is the test of “God dwelling in us.” And it is so because it is “the perfecting of His agápē in us.” Two general principles are indicated here as regards this divine love; I. It must have a visible object; in other words, it must be actual and practical, not merely ideal and sentimental. II. It is thus not only proven but perfected; it has its free course to completion.[3]

William E. Jelf (1811-1875) notes that the Apostle John quotes what he wrote in his Gospel about no one has ever seen God.[4] It infers that we cannot hold communion with God face-to-face. Our connection to Him is spiritual, through His dwelling in our hearts, occupying our thoughts, affections, and desires. He does this if we love one another, for His agápē is the fulfillment of His moral law and keeping His commandments. So, if we keep His commandments, He has told us that He will dwell in us.[5] So, In such cases, the love we have for God, or the love He has for us, has received its full perfection and completion. In its perfect development, either of these comprehends and implies the other. They are only different expressions of the same moral and spiritual state. The love which God showed to us is developed to its proper end and functions when it creates in us love towards each other. If we love our fellow believers, agápē toward God is confirmed, developed, and perfected because it is evidence that God, by His Spirit, is in us in power. The more we feel God’s agápē, the more we will love them if that feeling is genuine.[6]

William Kelly (1822-1888) notes that there is a word worthy of all consideration here in verse twelve. It recalls John’s words, “No one has ever seen God at any time.”[7] How was so great a need for humanity supplied? Did not the God of all goodness feel for mankind’s lack? He made Himself known most gloriously for Himself and His Son, most effectively in itself, and most considerately and lovingly by sending His Son to become Man among men. If every soul of man since Adam was asked, How could God make Himself known in the best and surest way and the fullest love for humanity’s need and misery, never, would one have proposed to do it God’s way? Yet, Satan found the means to ignore and reject the Son of God to humankind through their lusts and passions, self-will, supposed interests, and invented religions.

But, says Kelly, the Son of God who came in divine love, is gone back to His Father. Yet, the Son, the rejected Son, is not here to declare Himself. What is the answer to the same need now? “If we love one another, God abides in us, and His agápē is perfected in us.” Is this not a striking and solemn means of supplying the need? Does it not address itself in a direct and powerful way to you, my brothers and sisters, to me, and to every other child of God? We are here and now through the Son not only washed from our sins but made children of God, and by our mutual love according to God to know and witness Him in a world that does not know Him. The children are now to reflect here on God’s agápē. Our Lord did this to perfection when here; how are we, or are we really knowing and abiding in His agápē the same way?[8] Therefore, can we not repeat the words of our Lord when others ask, how can I see Jesus? We can say: “Anyone who sees me has seen Jesus.”[9]

Now, says Kelly, no one has ever seen God at any time. God lives in us if we love one another, and His agápē is perfected in us. It is a wonderful word, evidently connecting itself with what is said in John’s Gospel, “No one has ever seen God. But the Anointed One, who is Himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He revealed God to us.”[10] There the Anointed One stands as the manifestation of God in love. Here the saints are called to be no less. But, beloved brothers and sisters, Kelly asks, how far and wide do we manifest this divine love that never seeks its own, and is determined for the good of its objects, His children, yes all, even their enemies?[11] Is this impossible or too encompassing? Not when we read what the Apostle Paul said, “The death of His Son restored our friendship with God while we were still His enemies.”[12]

I like Daniel Steele’s (1824-1914) comments that God is in the genuine believer not as a stranger in an inn lodging for a night, but He as a permanent resident. This fact should expel fear, encompass strength, extend unbroken peace and everlasting joy, and energetic activity in promoting His glory here on earth. We may not always be conscious of the Holy Spirit abiding within, but there will be periods of wonderful spiritual illumination and crises of indescribable joy. The NIV, NLT, and LB, [13] all translate it as: “Inexpressible joy.”[14] [15]

William Lincoln (1825-1888) wants us to observe these two facts: when you believe in the Anointed One, God’s agápē gets into you; it has been tapping at the door of your heart (it may be for years) every time you heard the gospel; but when you believe, and take the full salvation, God’s agápē gets into you; when at last you see that the precious Son of God dying on your behalf on the cross, God’s agápē has got right into you; and so, observe, it is said of every Christian, here in verse twelve, that God’s agápē is perfected in them; if we love one another, that is proof that divine love has reached us – God’s agápē in its descending scale must have gotten into you, (commonly called conversion).[16]

In examining what John says here that no one has ever seen God, Brooke F. Westcott (1825-1901) states that with these words, John seems to call up all the triumphs of the saints in the past. No matter how close their fellowship with God had been, no one had seen Him as He is. Here, the question is not of some abstract power but an experience. Although God is invisible, He yet is not only very near to us but in us, the Life of our lives. People’s manifestation of active love witnesses two facts: (1) God abides in them, and (2) the presence of divine love in them in its completest form. There is both the reality and effectiveness of fellowship. Generally, this fellowship is described under its two aspects (“God in us, us in God”), but here the idea is that of the power of His divine indwelling.[17] John then reveals the unmistakable proof of our mutual union with God. The love of the brethren is indeed the recognition of God’s presence in us because it is after the image of God. So, the whole idea of whether a person has seen God in person or not is muted because we can all see God in each person who loves as He did.[18]

Henry A. Sawtelle (1832-1913) states that although this opening is abrupt, the connection of thought between this verse and the preceding is evident and straightforward: We ought to love one another; and, though we may not see God with these outward eyes, yet if we love anyway, God is in us as really as if we saw Him. He is where His agápē is, for love, as a divine principle, is a part of the believer. God the Father is the One spoken of, and seeing Him has so far been denied to mortal humans with bodily eyes. With the outward vision, people have seen the express image of the Father in Jesus the Anointed One, [19] but not God the Father by Himself as He is.[20] He whom Adam and Abraham and Moses saw was not the Father, but the Word, the Angel of Yahweh, the veiled higher nature of the Anointed One before He came in the flesh.[21]

John James Lias (1834-1923)  says that if we live that life of love, we can be sure that God’s agápē is abiding in us – that love which He has placed in our hearts – is already perfected in us. Here, as elsewhere in these notes, says Lias, we have represented John as looking toward the goal to which the Christian is aiming than at their actual present condition. No one – but one – has succeeded perfectly in leading this life of love. But every single act of love brings us nearer to that pinnacle. The nearer we are to that state to which the Lord desires to draw us is when God abides in us and we in Him, when we cease to sin and have at last come to “do righteousness,” when we love our brethren even as the Anointed One loved us, the more love is elevated as the practical principle of our lives.[22]

Eric Haupt (1841-1910) stays that here, at the end of this section, the Apostle John expressly adds that the divine nature of love in its fullness and glory takes up its dwelling in us. It is the highest perfection in God that His agápē neither excludes any nor ever permits interruption; and this is, therefore, the image and ideal for love among Christians, so that all individuals should love one another without exception (“each other”), and that with uninterrupted energy of the present tense “we love.”[23]

Alfred Plummer (1841-1926) points out that, once more, the connecting lines of thought are not on the surface and cannot be confirmed with certainty. Nevertheless, what follows gives us a clue to what otherwise looks like an abrupt transition from what the Apostle John said that we must love one another, for by so doing, we have proof of the presence of the invisible God. No amount of contemplation ever yet enabled anyone to detect God’s presence. Let us love one another, and then we are sure not only that He is with us, but in us, and not merely in us, but stays there.[24]

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[1] John 1:18; 1 John 4:12

[2] 1 John 1:11

[3] Candlish, Robert S., First Epistle of John, op. cit., pp. 119-120

[4] John 1:18

[5] Ibid. 14:23

[6] Jelf, William E., First Epistle of St. John, op. cit., p. 62

[7] John 1:18

[8] Kelly, William: An Exposition of the Epistles of John the Apostle, op. cit., Address XVIII, Logos, loc. cit.

[9] See John 14:9

[10] John 1:18

[11] Kelly, William: Lectures on the Catholic Epistles of John, op. cit., pp. 326-327

[12] Romans 5:10

[13] New International Version (NIV), New Living Testament (NLT), the Living Bible (LB)

[14] 1 Peter 1:8

[15] Steele, Daniel: Half-Hour, op. cit., pp. 109-110

[16] Lincoln, William: Lectures on 1 John, op. cit., Lecture VII, p. 129

[17] Cf. John 17:23, 26; 1 John 4:13

[18] Westcott, Brooke F., The Epistles of St. John, op. cit., pp. 151-152

[19] Hebrews 1:3; John 14:9

[20] John 1:18

[21] Sawtelle, Henry A., An American Commentary, Alvah Hovey Ed., op. cit., p. 50

[22] Lias, John James: The First Epistle of St. John with Exposition, pp. 320-321

[23] Haupt, Erich: The First Epistle of John, op. cit., p. 267

[24] Plummer, Alfred: Cambridge Commentary, op. cit., p. 150

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson LXXIX) 05/09/22

^4:12 For though we have never yet seen God, God lives in us when we love each other, and His agápē within us grows ever stronger.

John Trapp (1601-1669) comments on the Apostle John’s reiteration of what was said long ago, “No man has seen God.” If we read that none has looked at Him, we must understand that they saw Him in what the Jewish Rabbis call mercabah velo harocheb (Chariot mysticism). So, it may be read in the prophet Ezekiel.[1] Rabbi Moses Maimonides speaks on this matter:

The mysteries included in the description of the Divine chariot have been orally transmitted from generation to generation. Still, as a consequence of the dispersion of the Jews, the chain of tradition was broken, and the knowledge of these mysteries vanished. Whatever Ezekiel knew of those mysteries, he owed exclusively to his intellectual faculties; he, therefore, could not reconcile himself to the idea that his knowledge should die with him. Accordingly, he committed his exposition of the ma‘aseh mercabah [Work of the Chariot] and the ma‘aseh bereshit [Following Genesis 1] to writing but did not divest it of its original mysterious character; so that the explanation was fully intelligible to the initiated— that is to say, to the philosopher— but to the ordinary reader it was a mere paraphrase of the Biblical text.[2]

Trapp points out that even with Maimonides attempted explanation, whether Ezekiel saw God is still in the area of speculation. Nevertheless, we know that God’s agápē is perfected in us, either actively or demonstrated in its excellence. Or else, the agápē that God brings to us is abundantly declared perfect, in that He implants such a gracious inclination in us. And in an excellence sense helps us understand the Apostle’s message of love made perfect.[3]

Matthew Poole (1624-1679) reminds us that God’s existence is invisible to our physical eyes and incomprehensible to our minds. But by yielding ourselves to the power of His agápē and being transformed by it, we become familiar with the exercise of mutual love. We also get to know Him by the most intelligible effects of experiencing His indwelling vital presence and influences, whereby He is daily perfecting His likeness and image in us. This is the most desirable way of knowing God when, though we cannot see Him at a distance, we can feel Him close to us.[4]

John Howe (1630-1705), an English Puritan theologian, says it is necessary and, therefore, must be insisted upon so that we understand how essential it is to know there is another and a better Spirit than our spirit that makes us capable of loving God, whom we have not seen. If that doesn’t happen, we will never be able to love beyond what we can see. This is so extraordinary, since such circumstances speak for themselves, and the Holy Scriptures often declare that no one seems to understand this. But, if there is no necessity to love our unseen God, why was it taught to us?[5]

Leonard Howard (1699-1767) believes the reason for the Apostle John bringing up the fact that no one has ever seen God is evident that the Almighty God is not visible in our human and material world. Therefore, the only method left is to experience Him through our spirit with His Spirit. We should not try to get Him to love us through all the good works we do, nor in the formal manner of praying, praise, and worship. Instead, we should connect with Him by loving each other, whom we can see by the indwelling Holy Spirit.[6] 

James Macknight (1721-1800) says it is challenging to discover the connection between these words about no one having ever seen God, either with what the Apostle says before or what follows, quoting the words of the John the Baptizer.[7] If the Apostle John intended that his readers should keep in view what the Baptizer says next is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us. His meaning probably was this: Though no one has any knowledge of God by their human senses. Yet from what the only begotten Son declared about Himself, “But if we love one another, God lives in us, and His agápē is made complete in us,” and on that account, God’s agápē to us is made perfect; He loves us with great affection. That is something we must pass on to others.[8]

John Brown of Haddington (1722-1787) says that since our affection for God cannot be effective unless we are able to see Him, let us manifest it in loving our fellow saints. They, too, are visible representations of Him because He dwells in all of us. Therefore, if we cherish one another who bears His image, it is our way of loving Him, and that He lives in us by His Spirit to produce this agápē, and that way His agápē for us is exceedingly and effectually manifested; and ours to Him, blossoms in proper form and exceptionally exercised and proven to be sincere.[9]

Richard Rothe (1799-1867) finds the natural inference that God loved us much to give His Son for our salvation would be that we should also love Him with service in praise and honor for His gift. It might not occur to the ordinary Christian that this includes loving one another. Perhaps the Apostle John suspected that this might naturally occur to the reader, and the present verse seeks to remove it. Here John says it is impossible for us to offer our grateful responsive love directly to God, for He is invisible to us. However, the fact is that by loving one another, our responsive love reaches Him. This agápē for one another is how we manifest our love for Him.[10] There is a necessary connection between faith in God’s agápē to us and other believers’ confidence in our love for them.[11]

Augustus Neander (1789-1850) says that in connection with the declaration that God is love, the Apostle John presents the importance of love as the bond of fellowship between God and humanity. The words, “no one has seen God,” must contain why it is only through love we can be sure of His dwelling in us. “Us,” we, may be regarded as referring to the whole body of the Anointed One – the Church. “Seen” may at first take in the sense of bodily sight. We become conscious of the presence of a discernable being by seeing Him among us. But the invisible God cannot be so united with us. He cannot dwell visibly among us; there can be no vise manifestation of deity, as was expected by the Jews and was once desired by Philip.[12] What John would say, therefore, is this: No one has ever seen God by the bodily sense; a denial which, in John’s mode of expression, involves the assertion that He is invisible to the human eye.

Neander says that it follows, therefore, that the Church can only be in union with the invisible God by a spiritual bond and thereby can have the assurance that He abides with and in them, that He dwells in continued fellowship with them. And this spiritual bond is Love. Therefore, as God is love, and all love radiates from Him, so must the Church’s fellowship with Him be manifested so that He works in them as the spirit of love and that Love rules in them as the animating principle of their spiritual life.[13]

Gottfried C. F. Lücke (1791-1855) says that here the interpretation is controverted. He mentions that Johann Gottlob Carpzov (1679-1767), German Old Testament scholar, preacher, and theologian, compared verse twelve (“No one has ever seen God”) with verse fourteen (“We have seen and testify”) as if the Apostle John had written “No man has seen God” when “we only looked upon Him.”[14] His meaning is as follows: This can be understood in that God, indeed, has the power to behold the nature of the invisible when no one can much less comprehend it.[15] [16]

But German theologian Johann Peter Lange (1802-1884) has justly rejected this interpretation. From the beginning of verse twelve to verse fourteen, the middle proposal is too long, but its substance is too essential and belongs to the leading train of ideas to be considered a parenthesis. Nor is there any conjunctive particle indicating a mutual relation between the two propositions of verses twelve and fourteen, even in the remotest degree.

Lastly, and this is most important, the proposition that no one has seen God is so firmly expressed that (in the absence of intermediate proposals respecting the visibility, or rather recognizability of God in the Anointed One, as defined in John’s Gospel), [17] can by no means be considered as its limitation. The correct interpretation of the passage appears to be this: Granted, human love without a visible, immediately present object is not easily sparked or supported, as explained why John did not say that since God loved us, let us adore Him all the more. Instead, since God loved us so passionately, we must also love one another!

Yet, we all know that humankind cannot immediately return to the invisible God, the love they have shown to their visible brothers and sisters. But when we love our visible fellow believers, then God remains in us. He is present with His favor, showing our love for the invisible.[18]

Albert Barnes (1798-1870) says that when the Apostle John says that God’s agápē is perfected in us, it means His agápē was carried out to completion. Therefore, our love for each other is the proper exponent of love to Him reigning in our hearts. The idea here is not that we are perfect, or even that our love is perfect, whatever may be true on those points, but that this agápē to others is the proper carrying out of our love towards Him; that is, without this, our love to Him would not have accomplished what it was adapted and designed to do. Unless it produced this effect, it would be defective or incomplete.[19]

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[1] Ezekiel 1: 1-28; see 7:2

[2] Maimonides, Moses. A Guide for the Perplexed, Part I, (p. 75). Veritatis Splendor Publications. Kindle Edition; see also Part III, Ch. 7

[3] 1 John 4:17

[4] Poole, Matthew: op. cit., loc. cit.

[5] Howe, John: The Whole Works of the Reverend John Howe, Published by F. Westley, London (Kindle Locations 644-648

[6] Howard, Leonard: The Royal Bible, op. cit., loc. cit.

[7] John 1:18

[8] Macknight, James: Literal Paraphrase, op. cit., p. 92

[9] Brown, John of Haddington: Self-Interpreting Bible, op. cit., p. 1328

[10] 1 John 4:20ff

[11] Rothe, Richard: The Expository Times, op. cit., February 1894, p. 233

[12] John 14:8

[13] Neander, Augustus: First Epistle of John, op. cit., Chapters IV, V, pp. 262-263

[14] 1 John 1:1

[15] John 14:9

[16] Lücke, Gottlieb: Biblical Cabinet, op. cit., Section Eight

[17] John 14:9

[18] Lücke, Gottfried: Commentary on First John, op. cit., Eighth Section, verse 12

[19] Barnes, Albert: Notes on the N. T., op. cit., p. 4866

CYNICS may ask, why don’t people follow the advice found in the numerous proverbs and maxims of forethought available for centuries? Instead, they conclude that they are used only after some hopeful venture has gone “horribly wrong.” When, for instance, a person gambles and loses all they have, including their house, they should have remembered the old Scottish proverb which declares that “willful waste leads to woeful want.” But didn’t the gambler know this well-worn saying from earlier years? But, what good, then, did it do? Are the maxims of morality useless because people disregard them? For Christians and Jews, the Book of Proverbs is a great example. But what about other religions?

Here is one to consider by a 14h century Sanskrit poet called Hitopadeśa (Beneficial Advice) by Naryana of India. He wrote:

“LIKE an earthen pot, a bad man is easily broken, and cannot readily be restored to his former situation; but a virtuous man, like a vase of gold, is broken with difficulty, and easily repaired.”

It sounds very familiar to what the prophet Isaiah had to say:

“O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay and you are the Potter. We are all formed by Your hand.” (Isaiah 64:8)[1]

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[1] Also see Isaiah 29:16; 45:9; Jeremiah 18:1-3; Romans 9:21

ABANDONED BY PEOPLE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN BY GOD

Bill Wilson’s mother abandoned him at just twelve years old on a street corner in Brooklyn, NY. He sat and waited for her in that same spot for three full days, but she never came back for him. Countless people walked by this young boy sitting out on the street corner. Then, finally, a man who was on his way to see his son in the hospital stopped and asked him if he was okay. After learning of his situation, the man got him some food, made some calls, and within five hours, he was on a bus headed to a Christian summer camp.

Bill’s family hadn’t been the particularly religious type, so that camp was the first time he heard about God or Jesus. But, much to his dismay, Bill discovered that at that “Christian” summer camp, nobody would pray for him at the altar because of how badly he looked and smelled. So instead, he went to the altar alone and attempted his prayer to God: “My mother doesn’t want me. The Christians don’t want me. But if you want me, here I am.” God’s response to Bill was instant and resounding. That moment forever changed the course of his life.

That first experience of knowing he was loved and wanted by God put Bill on the path to the Christian ministry. While a teenager, he was given a job at his local congregation. After his high school graduation, he was encouraged to attend a seminary. So, he studied at Southeastern University and got his degree in theology. But a pulpit and a steeple were not the kind of ministry into which Bill felt called. Rather, in 1980, he established Metro World Ministry in Bushwick, Brooklyn. At the time, Bushwick was one of New York’s toughest neighborhoods, known for its gang violence, crime, drugs, and poverty. Armed with a bull horn, a station wagon, and Yogi Bear costumes, Bill went through the streets inviting and driving children to his fun, welcoming Sunday School program.

When he quickly outgrew the station wagon, Bill bought a bus and took his ministry onto the streets, creating the idea of a Sidewalk Sunday School. He converted trucks to serve as portable stages from which his team of ministers could share their message in hard-to-reach neighborhoods. Soon, he expanded his ministry into all five boroughs of New York City. Today, Pastor Bill’s unique concepts of school bus outreach and weekend-long Sunday School programs that feed and love kids who otherwise would have none of these things are now global.

After getting saved, one woman from Puerto Rico came to Bill with an urgent request. Unfortunately, she didn’t speak English, so she told him through an interpreter, “I want to do something for God, please.”“I don’t know what you can do,” he answered. “Please, let me do something,” she said in Spanish. “Okay. I’ll put you on a bus. Ride a different bus every week and just love the kids.”

So, every week, she rode a different bus – at the time, the ministry had 50 of them – and she loved the children. She would find the worst-looking kid on the bus, put him on her lap, and whisper over and over the only words she had learned in English: “I love you. Jesus loves you.” After several months, she became attached to one little boy in particular. “I don’t want to change buses anymore. I want to stay on this one bus,” she told Bill. The boy didn’t speak. He came to Sunday school every week with his sister and sat on the woman’s lap, but he never made a sound. And each week, she would tell him on the way to Sunday school and back home, “I love you, and Jesus loves you.”

One day, to her amazement, the little boy turned around and stammered, “I-I love you, too.” Then he put his arms around her and gave her a big hug. That was 2:30 pm on a Saturday afternoon. At 6:30 pm that night, the boy was found dead in a garbage bag under a fire escape. His mother had beaten him to death and thrown his body in the trash. “I love you, and Jesus loves you.” Those were some of the last words he heard in his short life – from the lips of an ordinary older woman who could barely speak English.

The days of religious rhetoric are over. People have to see the reality of the Gospel. And, for most people, YOU are the only scripture they will read. YOU are the only sermon they’ll ever hear. YOU are the only Jesus they will ever see. YOU – one person – can make a difference. So, in Jesus’ name, let yourself get close enough to people who hurt. Love them however you can. Tell them the only words you need to learn: I love you, and Jesus loves you. It may save their souls.

(A true story by Bill Wilson, Pastor, Metro World Church, Brooklyn, NY)

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson LXXVIII) 05/06/22

^4:12 For though we have never seen God, God lives in us when we love each other, and His agápē within us grows stronger.

Our love is imperfect, but God’s agápē is perfect. God poured out His agápē in us when we believe.[1]  It is not our love for God that God perfects, but His agápē perfected in us. His agápē answers to His nature. God’s agápē can reach God’s goal for us in this life. The word “perfected” means achieving a goal and accomplishing a purpose. God can complete His agápē as we mature. When Christians reach out in love to each other, God’s agápē reaches its goal. God’s kind of love can be fully expressed in our lives. God’s agápē is visible through Christians. Believers make God’s incomprehensible agápē comprehensible through loving others.

The reason this is necessary is that no one has ever seen God. Why does the Apostle John introduce this statement here? He is not implying that to love an invisible Being is impossible, but that the only security for genuine and lasting love in such a case is to love that which visibly represents Him. Seeing that God is invisible, His abiding in us can be shown only by His essential character being exhibited in us, namely, by our showing similar self-sacrificial love to others. “His love” can scarcely mean God’s agápē for us, or how can our loving one another make His love or the relationship of love between God and us perfect? But, as is chapter two, verse five, it’s our love for Him. Our love towards God is perfected and brought to maturity by exercising love toward our Christian brothers and sisters.

Nevertheless, while God has only been visible through theophanies (the physical manifestation of God), each theophany was a manifestation of God in the Anointed One. No one can see God, since God is a spirit.[2]  No one can see His Spirit’s essence. Therefore, we did not perceive God’s essence as a phantom or ghost, but only in the Anointed One’s divinity, not His humanity. 

When Christians meet their moral obligation to love other believers, God the Father abides or dwells in them. This is how we see God working. Others observe God by our love. God’s agápē springs from fellowship with God. When God takes up residence in the believer, everyone can see it.  Love is a manifestation of divine habitation. It is the Holy Spirit demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit in the life of the believer. God shines in believers who love other Christians.[3]

Therefore, a direct result of our love for other Christians that manifests God’s agápē. Jesus knew that publicans were considered thieves.[4] If tax collectors can love people who love them, that is no moment. They love their mothers, wives, and children. However, to love those who do not reciprocate, our love is God’s agápē. Such divine love loves whether anyone returns love or not. People with divine love can even love the unlovable.

Thus, we cannot manifest God by showing His essence to people because He is a spirit. They see God best in the act of love. So, love will reach its final destination or end when it reaches out to others. We see God’s love best in Jesus’ sacrifice and our sacrificial love. This sacrificial love makes God discernable. 

COMMENTARY

Tertullian (155-240 AD), an early Christian priest from Asia Minor who lived in Rome, taught in his treatise against Praxeas’[5] heretical tenet that there is no distinction between persons in the Godhead. It was coupled with acknowledging a divine nature in Jesus, which leads logically to the conclusion that the Father was incarnate and suffered. So, Tertullian asks, “How, I repeat, how can all this be?” Unless He is one, who anciently was visible only in a puzzling mystery and became more visible by His incarnation, even the Word who was made flesh.[6] Remember, the Apostle John deals with Jesus being in God and God being in Him. In like manner, it would also involve our being in Jesus and Jesus being in us.

Meanwhile, writes Tertullian, God is the one whom no human has seen at any time, being none other than the Father, even Him to whom the Word belongs? Let us, in short, examine who it is whom the apostles saw. That, says John, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, is the Word of life.[7] Now the Word of life became flesh and was heard, seen, and held because He was flesh who, before He came in the flesh, was the Word at the beginning with God the Father, [8] and not the Father with the Word. Although the Word was God, He was with God because He is God, and being joined to the Father, is with the Father. And we have seen His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father[9] that is, of course, (the glory) of the Son, even Him who was visible and glorified by the invisible Father.[10]

But Tertullian wasn’t the only one in the early church dealing with this issue. Novatian (200-258 AD) was a scholar, priest, theologian, and antipope in the early church. He mentions that in one passage, Moses says that “God appeared to Abraham.”[11] And yet, the same Moses hears from God that no man can see Him and live.[12] How are we supposed to see Him if God cannot be seen? Or if He appeared, why? The Apostle John repeats the idea of an invisible God.[13]  So, also, the Apostle Paul mentions what God said to Moses.[14] But assuredly, Holy Scripture does not lie; God was visible. We are led to understand that it was not the heavenly Father no one ever had a glimpse of because His Son, who descended to earth, said to His disciple Philip, “By looking at me, you’re staring at my Father.”[15]  Paul put it this way, for Jesus is “the image of the invisible God.”[16]  He said this so that weak and frail human nature might become accustomed to seeing, in Him – who is the Image of God, that is, in the Son of God, God the Father.[17]

Didymus the Blind (313-398 AD) states that since God is invisible, nobody has ever observed Him since we cannot view things without physical bodies. When we compare this statement to the Apostle Philip’s request: “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus’s answer is sufficient: “Anyone who has looked at Me has seen the Father.”[18] So, we must take it that Didymus is trying to say that no human has viewed God the Father[19] because He has no body; He is Spirit.[20]

But there are some heretics, laments Didymus, who say that the First Covenant speaks of a visible God because occasionally people are said to have seen Him. In contrast, the Final Covenant makes Him completely invisible. So, we have to ask what substance He is supposed to have which would make Him visible. They would have to answer, unless they are out of their minds, that God is a body, even though it is not made of any perceivable substance. But, if that is what they think, they ought to consider how strange and full of ungodliness their beliefs are. How can there be a body if there is no way of defining it?[21]

Bede the Venerable (672-735 AD) admits that this verse causes a problem when we remember that the Lord promises that those pure in heart will see God[22] and tells the saints that their angels are constantly gazing at the face of God in heaven.[23] John repeats this phrase in his Gospel, where he adds that the only begotten Son has sighted the Father and made Him known to us.[24] Ambrose (340-397 AD) expounded as follows: “No one has ever seen God because no one has ever comprehended the fullness of the divinity which dwells in them, either in their mind or eye. For the verb see implies both physical and mental perception.” Therefore, it is clear that here we are not talking about physical sight so much as mental perception, and our minds are incapable of ever grasping the fullness of God’s being.[25]

John Calvin (1509-1564) focuses on the Apostle John’s statement that as no person has ever seen God by saying that the exact words are found in the first chapter of John’s Gospel. John the Baptist had the same thing in mind.[26] He meant only that God could not be otherwise known, but as He has revealed Himself in the Anointed One. The Apostle here extends the same truth further that the power of God is comprehended by us by faith and love, for us to know that we are His children and that He dwells in us. John speaks, however, first of love when he says that God lives in us if we love one another, as perfected or proven to be in us. Then His agápē, is in agreement with what John said elsewhere in this epistle, [27] God shows Himself as being present when He forms our hearts so that they entertain brotherly love by His Spirit. For the same purpose, John repeats what he already said, that we know by the Spirit whom He (God) has given us that He (God) dwells in us. It confirms what the Apostle said in a former sentence because love is the effect or fruit of the Spirit.[28]

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[1] Romans 5:5

[2] John 4:24; 1 Timothy 1:17; 6:16

[3] Cf. Matthew 5:16

[4] Ibid. 5:46

[5] Praxeas, a priest from Asia Minor, in Rome about 206 and was opposed by Tertullian in the tract Adversus Praxean (c. 213 AS), an important contribution to the doctrine of the Trinity.

[6] Tertullian Against Praxeas, Ch. 15

[7] 1 John 1:1

[8] John 1:1-2

[9] 1 John 1:14

[10] Tertullian Against Praxeas, Ch. 15

[11] Genesis 12:7

[12] Exodus 33:20

[13] 1 John 4:12

[14] 1 Timothy 6:16

[15] John 14:9

[16] Colossians 1:15

[17] Novatian: The Treatise of Novatian on the Trinity, Trans. Herbert Moore, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, 1919, Ch. 18, pp. 80-81

[18] John 14:8

[19] Cf. Isaiah 6:1 where the prophet saw the Lord in a vision with spiritual eyes, not physical eyes.

[20] See John 4:24

[21] Didymus the Blind: (Bray Ed.), James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude, op. cit., loc. cit.

[22] Matthew 5:8

[23] Ibid. 18:10

[24] John 1:18

[25] Bede the Venerable, Ancient Christian Commentary, Vol. XI, Bray, G. (Ed.), James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John

[26] John 1:15-18

[27] 1 John 4:11-16

[28] Calvin, John: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles, op. cit., loc. cit.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson LXXVII) 05/05/22

^4:11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.

When it comes to loving one another, the Apostle Paul uses a similar grammatical construction on two occasions. (1) He tells the Romans, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another.”[1] (2) He tells husbands, “Husbands ought to love their wives.”[2] In summary, verse eleven restates the imperative of verse seven, although slightly softened by using “we ought to love” rather than a direct imperative. Again, the command to love is exhibited as the effect of God’s prior action in sending and sacrificing His Son. But now, John advances a new set of arguments for taking this directive to heart.[3]

Ben Witherington III (1951) says that the Apostle John is more concerned about spreading God’s agápē throughout the community. He claims that we should hear an echo of what Jesus said to His disciples, [4] where brotherly and sisterly love is grounded in His love for His followers. There is no doubt in John’s mind that God’s agápē is definitive, primary, and the source of all love. This then implies that human love is seen to be unoriginal and responsive. It suggests that human love continually needs to be redefined and corrected by divine love because human love in the world has the potential to be corrupted.[5]

Bruce G. Schuchard (1958) notices that the Apostle John continues to focus upon the refusal of the rebels to pay attention to the instruction of both the Father and the Son to abide in faith and love in communion with “us,”[6] that is, with John and the other eyewitnesses and all believers. According to Schuchard, modern interpreters of John make a big mistake when they fail to attend to John’s historical context. Unlike the secessionists, the “beloved” have every reason to be confident that theirs is the knowledge of the one true God. They, not the agitators, have offered the only proper reaction to the love of the One who loved first. They, and not the secessionists, have remained in the community of the beloved, have loved and not hated, [7] for the sake of fellow believers since they too have been loved by Him who loved us first.[8]

Duncan Heaster (1967) notes that the Apostle John sets the standard very high here. For the love of God toward us is not “love” as the world understands it, but the love of utter, total self-sacrifice expressed on the cross. With that love, we “ought to love one another.” Anything which may damage the path to salvation of others must not be done, and every effort and sacrifice is to be made to help them onto the path toward eternal salvation.[9]

David Legge (1969) says that first, the Apostle John has already said to love one another because of God’s nature. Then secondly, he tells us to love one another because of God’s grace. Next, John gives us, in verse eight, a description of how God manifested His love. John does this in three tenses – he talks about the past tense that God has demonstrated His love in that He sent the gift of His only begotten Son; we find that in verses ten and eleven. Then, later on, verses twelve to sixteen use the present tense: God, by His grace, has manifested His agápe because the Holy Spirit dwells within us and should be loving others through us. Then thirdly, he uses the future tense and talks about how God has yet to manifest His love toward us in the boldness that we will have in our hearts when we stand on Judgment Day, holy and without blame before God.

Now let’s deal with each of these that show us that we ought to love one another because of God’s grace. First, let’s look at the past tense in verses nine to eleven. John is telling us that as sinners, we are dead, and we need life; as sinners, we are guilty, and we need a pardon. So, God sent His one and only Son into the world so that we could be saved and have life – to live. Verse nine says, “that we might have eternal life through Him.” So, that’s the answer to death as sinners: we can live through the only begotten Son that God has sent. Then, in verse eleven, John says that’s because He provided the payment for our sins. That’s the answer to our guilt as sinners: He takes our sin and shame away.[10]

David Guzik (1984) points out that after receiving this love from God, we are directed to love one another. This pattern of receiving from God, then giving to others was familiar to John. He saw this when Jesus washed the feet of the disciples and showed such great love and servanthood to them; we might have expected Him to conclude by gesturing to His feet and asking who among them was going to do to Him what He had just done for them. Instead, Jesus said: “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”[11] The proper way to love God in response to His love for us is to go out and love one another.[12]

There is sparse evidence that the Apostle made feet washing an official ordinance of the Church. The key to this may lie in its origin. The first mention, of what no doubt was already a custom and tradition when Abraham saw the three men standing outside his tent near the great trees of Mamre, he said to them, “Sirs, please stay awhile with me, your servant. I will bring some water to wash your feet. You can rest under the trees.”[13] Since walking was the main method of transportation in those days, their feet were dusty and tired. Likewise with Abraham’s nephew, Lot. When two angels visited him in Sodom, Lot immediately went to them. He bowed to show respect and said, “Sirs, please come to my house, and I will serve you. There you can wash your feet and stay the night. Then tomorrow, you can continue your journey.”[14] So in washing His disciple’s feet, Jesus was teaching them the hospitality of showing the same love for others that He revealed to them.

Guzik goes on to say that this love will lead to practical action. If we do not love one another, how can we say that we have received the love of God and have been born of Him? Love is the proof we learn to look for. If you had a clogged pipe – water kept going into it but never came out, that pipe would be useless. You would replace it. Just so, God puts His love into our lives so that it might flow out. When that love no longer flows to someone or everyone, we need the Lord to unstop it with His cleansing blood and fill us so that His love can continuously flow through us.[15]

Now, John explains how loving each other is the same as loving God. Because, even though none of them had ever seen God, John points out:

4:12     Even though no one has ever seen God, if we love each other, it proves that God lives in us.  So, God’s agápē completes the circle through us by loving each other.

EXPOSITION

What the Apostle John says in verse twelve is made possible through knowing Jesus the Anointed One.  John preached this same message in his Gospel, “No one has ever seen God. The only Son is the one who has shown us what God is like. He is Himself God and is very close to the Father.”[16]  That makes the coming of the Anointed One in human form even more awesome.  If it weren’t for that, humankind would have never been allowed to see God, since God is spirit.  So just as God was in the Anointed One by way of essence, He is in us through the Holy Spirit.

I remember reading what French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher Pascal had to say. He wrote: “What is it, then, that this desire and this inability proclaim to us, but that there was once in man a true happiness of which there now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present? But these are all inadequate because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God. He only is our true good, and since we have forsaken Him, it is a strange thing that there is nothing in nature that has not been serviceable in taking His place; the stars, the heavens, earth, the elements, plants, cabbages, leeks, animals, insects, calves, serpents, fever, pestilence, war, famine, vices, adultery, incest. And since man has lost the true good, everything can appear equally good to him, even his destruction, though so opposed to God, to reason, and the whole course of nature.”[17]

This “abyss” is often referred to as a “God-shaped vacuum.” But who knows if John’s words here may have inspired Pascal to write that line. So, we do not stand alone; we are a part of something bigger than ourselves. Oh, what a beautiful scene: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is in a circle holding hands. But out of love, they invite you and me to join them. So now, instead of three, there are four in one.  So, we begin to think like them, act like them, feel like them, and love like them.

No one has ever seen God except through theophanies (the physical manifestation of God). Each theophany was a manifestation of the Anointed One in pre-incarnate form. No one can see God, since God is a spirit.[18]  No one can see His essential being.  We did not see the essence of God in the humanity of the Anointed One. 

When Christians meet their moral obligation to love other Christians, God the Father abides or dwells in them.  This is how we see God working in our day.  Others see God by our love. God’s agápē springs from fellowship with God.  When God takes up residence in the believer, everyone can see it.  Love is a manifestation of divine habitation.  The Holy Spirit demonstrates the fruit of the Spirit in the believer’s spirit.  God lives in the believer, so they can love other Christians. 

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[1] Romans 13: 8 – NIV

[2] Ephesians 5:28 – NIV

[3] Yarbrough, Robert W., 1-3 John (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament), op. cit., p. 243

[4] John 13:34

[5] Witherington, Ben III., Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians: op. cit., loc. cit.,  (Kindle Locations 7192-7196)

[6] 1 John 1:3; 2:19

[7] Cf. Ibid. 4:20

[8] Schuchard, Bruce G., Concordia Commentary, op. cit., p. 474

[9] Heaster, Duncan: New European Commentary, op. cit., 1 John, p. 32

[10] Legge, David: 1,2,3 John, Preach the Word, op. cit., “Christian Love: Its Source and Sign,” Part 13

[11] John 13:14

[12] Guzik, David: Enduring Word, op. cit., loc. cit.

[13] Genesis 18:3-4; also see Judges 19:21; 1 Samuel 25:41; Luke 7:44; 1 Timothy 5:10

[14] Ibid. 19:1-2

[15] Guzik, David: Enduring Word, op. cit., loc. cit.

[16] John 1:18

[17]The Pensées by Blaisé Pascal: Section VII, Morality and Doctrine ⁋ 425, Trans. W. F. Trotter

[18] John 4:24; 1 Timothy 1:17; 6:16

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson LXXVI) 05/04/22

^4:11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) says the question now is, what do you do when you come up against people who seem to irritate you and are a problem to you, and who complicate things? The Apostle John’s answer is this: “If God so loved us, we should also love one another.” It means: Rather than yielding to one’s intuitive feelings, stop and talk to yourself. Instead of speaking or acting or reacting at once, remind yourself of the truth you believe in and apply it to the whole situation. Now that is something we Christians must do. This life of which the Final Covenant speaks is full of intellectual features. It is not a feeling. You do not wait until You feel like loving other people – you make yourself love others (“we ought to.”)[1] According to the Final Covenant, Christians can use God’s agápē to love other Christians, and they fail miserably if they don’t do so.[2]

Raymond E. Brown (1928-1998) agrees that the Apostle John’s implication seems to be that our love should resemble God’s agápē in a similar manner and to a corresponding degree of self-sacrifice – to love one another, where the duty of Christian self-sacrifice is deduced from the self-sacrifice of the Anointed One.[3] Keep in mind that John does not advocate that we must demonstrate our love on a cross by dying on someone’s behalf. It is the principle of love in that it knows no conditions, circumstances, or limits.

Warren W. Wiersbe (1929-2019) states that two purposes are given for the Anointed One’s death on the cross: (1) that we might live through Him, and (2) that He might be the appeasement for our sins.[4] His death was not an accident; it was an appointment. He did not die as a weak martyr, but as a mighty conqueror. We should, therefore, remember our Lord’s death spiritually, not merely sentimentally. Someone has defined sentiment as “feeling without responsibility.” It is easy to experience solemn emotions at a church service and yet go out to live the same defeated life. A truly spiritual experience involves the whole person. The mind must understand spiritual truth; the heart must love and appreciate it, and the will must act on it. The deeper we go into the meaning of the cross, the greater will be our love for the Anointed One and the greater our active concern for one another.[5]

Stephen S. Smalley (1931-2018) now sees the Apostle John passing from a consideration of the source of love to a reflection upon its inspiration.[6] In the Gospel, the demand for love is a condition for living as a child of God.[7] It is supported by the example of the sacrificial work of Jesus. Here in verses seven to ten, the “atoning sacrifice” of the Anointed One for mankind’s sin is presented as an expression of the essence of God, who is love. Thus, the Christian Gospel is based on who is love and that it seeks, in turn, to produce from every believer the fundamental moral response of love.[8] The knowledge of God must result in loving action.[9] [10] Note, while we are not responsible for attaining God’s agápē, once it is given, we are obligated to use it for God’s glory and Jesus’ sake.

Ian Howard Marshall (1934-2015) reports that moralists have long been baffled over the idea of how a commandment can be generated out of a statement. How can “we ought to love one another” be logically based on “God loved us”? Apparently, the Apostle John was not conscious of this puzzle. It was sufficient for him to claim that the recipients of divine love must demonstrate the same love. He could not understand how a person could experience divine love and remain unmoved by the obligation to love other people in the same way as God loved them. The connection is not so much through the logic of moral philosophy as through the guidance of experienced love, which generates fresh love. It is significant that John does not say that experience of God’s agápē should constrain us to love Him in return; rather, John speaks of our obligation to love others. Although he is thinking primarily of love within the Christian fellowship, the fact that he starts from a statement of God’s agápē for sinners strongly suggests that his vision is not limited to the Church but extends to the world.[11]

John Painter (1935) says that the Apostle John began with a direct appeal to his readers to love one another, arguing that agápē comes from God, that His love was revealed in the sending of the Son, and that  it defines the nature of love. God’s agápē is definitive, primary, and the source of all love. In arguing this way, the author implies that four issues are at stake. The first is the character of love, which John insists is defined by the event of the sending of the Son – understood as the sending of the Son by the Father – the sending of the Son to save the world. Second, love has its source in God, so human love copies and uses it. This implies that human love continually needs to be redefined and corrected by divine love because human love in the world has the potential to be corrupted.[12] Third, it is because of the potential for corruption that the love command is given. The love command[13] reminds the believer of the obligation to love, and this is particularly clear in the use of “we ought to love one another.” Fourth, the love command is the claim of divine love on all people. But it is also the gift of the divine love: “We love because He first loved us,”[14] which is reflected in the love command itself. Agápē liberates those who recognize and respond to that love. It liberates us from loving one another.[15]

James Montgomery Boice (1938-2000) notices that the Apostle John begins with a passionate appeal to his readers to “love one another,” repeated three times in verses seven, eleven, and twelve. This is of great concern to the elderly apostle, and the reasons for that concern are given in connection with this threefold repetition. The first reason is that “love should be our nature;” therefore, Christians should naturally “love one another.” The second reason concerns God’s “gift of love in us through the indwelling Anointed One;” therefore, Christians have all the resources to “love one another.” The third reason concerns “God’s present activity in and through His people;” for this reason, Christians are obligated to “love one another.” Up to this point, love has been seen mostly as a believer’s duty. It is seen for what it most truly is, a driving disposition arising out of the divine nature that is now also within the Christian by God’s grace.[16]

Stanley Lewis Derickson (1940) notes that God loved the church in the Apostolic age. The Apostle John mentions God’s agápē, “Dear friends, if God loved us that much, then we should love each other.”[17] He gave the church age the organization of the church for our benefit. He gave us the job that we should be about. The ministry of missions is very rewarding to those who take part in it. God has shown great love for all people by opening up the Gospel to everyone.

So, now that we realize He loves us, our response should be to return that love through our beings verbally, physically, and spiritually.[18] The Apostle John tells us that we should love one another because He loved us. He loved us enough to send His son. We should respond by sending our sons and daughters to His service. An old church hymn mentions this. The song asks us to give of our wealth and soul in prayer.[19] All three are needed.[20]

Michael Eaton (1942-2017) believes that God could have let the weight of His anger fall upon us, but He found another way. It is as though He stopped Himself and gave further thought to the matter (if, as the Bible allows, we may think about it in a very human way). Then, instead of destroying the human race in His displeasure, He showed love to the entire human race and sent His Son. Since God showed such love to overcome our predicament under God’s anger, says John, you can enjoy the luxury of having God’s agápē in you and let others relax in the knowledge of your love for them. Is there anything more challenging than searching in the entire Bible?[21]

William Loader (1944) feels it is damaging to our Christian faith when we take what the Apostle John says here as evidence that he would see love limited to the Christian community. And certainly, it would conflict with his basic premises about God’s original initiative of love to limit it in this way. While John addressed an inner Christian controversy, the insights to which he gives expression apply just as much to the wider world of reality – His famous God is love is true for the world as much as it is for the Church. His agápē theology and spirituality are an abiding relevance is a central expression of the Christian message.[22] In the past, this attitude of restricting such acts of lovingkindness to the world was practiced, especially by the early Pentecostal and Evangelical Movements in America. To associate with sinners would make a believer as unclean, as uncleanliness was to the Jews concerning Gentiles and the dead.

Robert W. Yarbrough (1948) says that within the horizon of verse eleven, the major consequence is the responsibility that God’s agápē places on both John and his readers: “We too, [that is, like God] ought to love each other.” This conviction and its underlying rationale are not unique to John. Jesus’s parable of the unmerciful slave illustrated the same point graphically.[23] The logic at the parable’s core parallels the logic of the verse: “Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you?”[24]

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[1] 1 John 4:11

[2] Lloyd-Jones, Martyn: Life of the Anointed One, op. cit., p. 441

[3] Stott, John. The Letters of John (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries), op. cit., p. 164

[4] 1 John 4:10

[5] Wiersbe, Warren W., Be Real: Turning from Hypocrisy to Truth (The BE Series Commentary) op. cit. pp. 141-143

[6] 1 John 4:11-16

[7] John 3:16

[8] 1 John 2:27-8

[9] Cf. 1 John 3:17-18; 4:7-8

[10] Smalley, Stephen S., Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 51., op. cit., p. 244

[11] Marshall, I. Howard. The Epistles of John (The New International Commentary on the New Testament), op. cit., pp. 215-216

[12] See 1 John 2:15-17

[13] John 13:34; 1 John 4:7, 11

[14] 1 John 4:19

[15] Painter, John. Sacra Pagina: 1, 2, and 3 John: Vol. 18, loc. cit.

[16] Boice, James Montgomery: The Epistles of John, op. cit., p. 114ff

[17] 1 John 4:11

[18] 1 John 4:11

[19] O Zion, Haste (4^th stanza) was written by Mary Ann Thomson (1868)

[20] Derickson, Stanley L., Notes on Theology, op. cit., pp. 255, 257

[21] Eaton, Michael: Focus on the Bible, 1,2,3 John, op. cit., pp. 151-152

[22] Loader, William: Epworth Commentary, op. cit., pp. 53-54

[23] Matthew 18:21-35

[24] Matthew 18:33 NIV; cf. Col. 3: 13