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]
[1] Also see Isaiah 29:16; 45:9; Jeremiah 18:1-3; Romans 9:21
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)
4:12For 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]
[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.
[17] Novatian: The Treatise of Novatian on the Trinity, Trans. Herbert Moore, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, 1919, Ch. 18, pp. 80-81
4:11Dear 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.
4:11Dear 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]
4:11Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.
John James Lias (1834-1923) mentions that the Apostle John uses the term “Beloved” for the sixth and last time. The meaning here is not “if God loved usso much,” we ought also to love one another, but “if God loved us in such a manner,” namely, in the way in which we have been already told that He loved us, [1] namely, in sending His Son into the world (1) that “we might live through Him,” and (2) that He might “be a sacrifice for our sins.” If God did this for us, if He in this way manifested His agápē towards us, we also ought to love one another. It is not that we are to show love to our brethren without waiting for them to show love because God set this example for us.[2][3]
So, says Lias, we are constantly reminded how far the Gospel transcends our human reasoning or instincts. So, naturally, the feeling excited by this revelation of God’s agápē would be to make us return to Him; to sacrifice our time, our goods, our persons to Him; give up things to follow Him; to spend days and nights in delightful contemplation of what’s to come; to give of our means to build splendid Cathedrals to Him. But He doesn’t require this; all He asks is that we love one another.[4]
Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) picks up on the Apostle John’s directive that we should love one another as God loved us. Spurgeon concludes that our love for one another is God’s agápē to us, flowing into us and then flowing, not dripping, out again. If you and I desire to love our fellow Christians and the fallen human race, we must be joined to the stream that conducts love from this eternal source, or else we will fail in trying to love. Make note, says Spurgeon, that since God’s agápē is the source of all true love in us, a sense of that love stimulates us. Whenever your human heart fills up and starts running over, the overflow of God’s agápē courses out to all God’s people, your love will respect the same person or persons as God’s agápē does, and for the same reasons. God loves people; so, will you; God loves them when there is nothing good found in them, will love them in the same way? Our love ought to follow God’s agápē in one point, namely, is always seeking to produce reconciliation. To this end, God sent His Son to us; should we not then feel sent to others?[5]
Alfred Plummer (1841-1926) notes that the Apostle John says, “surely we ought also.” In the RSV, it is expressed even better: “we also ought to,” which ties “also” and “we” together. In the spiritual family, it is a case of “noblesse oblige.”[6] As children of God, we must exhibit His nature, follow His example, and love those He loves. Nor is this the only way the Atonement forms part of the foundation of Christian Ethics. Only when we learn something of the infinite price paid to redeem us from sin can we rightly estimate the moral enormity of sin and the strength of the obligation which lies upon us to free ourselves from its pollution. And it was precisely those false teachers who denied the Atonement who taught that idolatry and every abominable sin were matters of no moral significance.[7]
Frederick B. Meyer (1847-1929) says that in the Apostle John’s Day, the intense confusion of some minds brought many delusions and heresies into the assemblies garnished with many temptations to young converts, and the Apostle wished to give tests for determining which voice spoke from God. The confession of Jesus the Anointed One as the Incarnate Word, guided by a spirit of love and gentleness, and the willingness to abide in the Apostles’ doctrine, were signs that the Anointed One commissioned the speaker. The question then is still the same: Do you want to be victorious over the world? If so, then let the Anointed One enter and take control of your life, [8] and the world will have no attractions for you. There is only one source of pure, divine love, and wherever that love is present, you know that the possessor has found its source in God’s selfless agápē. He loves the unloving to make them love, putting away their sin and perfecting their union with Himself.[9]
Alonzo R. Cocke (1858-1901) Such love from God the Apostle John talks about here in verse eleven, must give birth to love in return to those who are its objects; and love ignited by the sight of God’s redeeming agápē must manifest itself in love to each other. From the consciousness of God’s agápē to us must spring mutual kindness: “We ought also to love one another.” “If God so loved us,” we must love, for we are commanded: “Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do because you are His dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of the Anointed One. He loved us and offered Himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.”[10]
Cocke tells us that German Protestant theologian Julius Müller (1801-1878) says, speaking of God’s agápē in the Anointed One is the inner seed which unfolds in progressive development into love to the Christian brother: “As the root lives on, although the plant has grown up out of it, and as the fountain does not cease to stream, though it has formed the brook, so, too, the beginning of the Christian life continues in its further progress. So as a plant and brook, at once, cease to be if the root is dried and the fountain sealed, so Christian brotherly love ever continues to derive its life from God’s agápē.”[11]
David Smith (1866-1932) says that here Love, as in John 3:16, may denote either the extent or the etiquette of God’s agápē – “to such an extent,” “going such a length;”[12] “in such a manner.” As John says in his Gospel, “A person who claims to be continuing in union with Him ought to conduct their lives the way He did.”[13] Smith calls it “noblesse oblige.”[14] If we are God’s children we must have our heavenly Father’s Spirit.[15] That way, we reciprocate His agápē, not ours.[16]
Harry A. Ironside (1876-1951) points out that God loved us when there was nothing lovable about us, God loved us when we were in a war against Him and “alienated by wicked works,” God loved us when our desires were contrary to His desires when we were trampling His Word beneath our feet, spurning His grace, breaking His commandments. So now we read, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”
Remember, our Lord Jesus the Anointed One told His disciples that if you love only those who love you, why should you get a reward for that? Even the tax collectors do that.[17] Why, even the most wretched creatures in the world love those out of whom they get some satisfaction, those who seem to give them some return for their affection. But the great principle laid down here is that after we have been born of God and are partakers of the divine nature, we will not wait for people to love us, to behave themselves in a way satisfactory to us. Still, they believe we will go on loving them just the same. That is divine love manifested through the new nature. That is a challenge even to Christians because we still have our old sinful nature. Though born of God, the Christian has a sinful nature that came from fallen Adam, and that nature is selfish and is looking for satisfaction in others and the things of this world. It is only through the power of the new nature, the divine nature, communicated by the second birth, that the Christians can rise to the standard now set before them.[18]
Charles H. Dodd (1884-1973) indicates that after what has just been said in verse ten, the command of love comes with greater intensity than ever. Already it has been enforced by the example of the Anointed One’s sacrifice.[19] That sacrifice has now been shown to express the “essence” of God as Love. It can now be seen that the new command is no arbitrary or optional addition to the original Gospel.[20] For the Gospel is the proclamation of God’s agápē – of God as Love – and consequently, to accept the Gospel is to place ourselves under the obligation of Love to our fellowman. Indeed, such Love is the only appointed and approved way of communion with God.[21]
For Greville P. Lewis (1891-1976), the Apostle John says something about God that humans could never have argued themselves into believing. The idea that the One, the supreme God, could, and does, love such people as ourselves is quite unthinkable; besides, it would suggest that God is incomplete and self-sufficient. The astonishing truth that “God is love” is revealed truth; it has been manifested in action in all God’s dealings with the human race, but supremely and finally in the person and life of His incarnate Son. We see Jesus loving depraved tax-collectors and abandoned harlots, as well as decent men like John and Peter; the brutal soldiers who scourged Him and nailed Him to the Cross, as well as the gentlewomen who ministered to Him in Bethany: we see Him dying that He may save, not only those who are devoted to Him, but those who engineered His crucifixion – and we cry, “This is God in action” – and only then can we accept the incredible truth that “God is love;” universal, unchanging love.[22] Lewis sees this same expression of love in the old Methodist hymn:
v.4 Yield to me now, for I am weak, but confident in self-despair! Speak to my heart, in blessing speak, be conquered by my instant prayer. Speak, or thou never hence shalt move, and tell me if thy name is Love.
v.5. ‘Tis Love! ‘Tis Love! Thou diedst for me, I hear Thy whisper in my heart; The morning breaks, the shadows flee: Pure universal Love thou art; To me, to all Thy mercies move; Thy nature and Thy name are Love.[23]
[3] Lias, John James: The First Epistle of St. John with Exposition, pp. 316-317
[4] Ibid. The First Epistle of St. John with Homiletical Treatment, pp. 315-316
[5] Spurgeon, Charles H., The Biblical Illustrator, op. cit., 1 John 4, p. 74
[6] The French term noblesse oblige translates to our “nobility obligates,” meaning that with great wealth comes the responsibility to give back to those who are less fortunate than oneself.
[7] Plummer, Alfred: Cambridge Commentary, op. cit., p. 149
[14] The French term noblesse oblige translates to “nobility obligates,” meaning that with great wealth comes the responsibility to give back to those who are less fortunate than oneself.
4:11That is how much God loved us, dear friends! So, we also must love each other.
Graham then shares the inspiring lyrics of a great hymn of his day:
Behold His patience, bearing longWith those who from Him rove;Till mighty grace their heart subduesTo teach them ‘God is love.’
The work begun is carried onBy power from heaven above;And every step, from first to last,Declares that ‘God is love.’”[1]
John Stock (1817-1884) has this word of wisdom: The more we are unlike our natural selves, the more we walk in the newness of life, not serving sin.[2] In everything we do, we should seek in all things to please God, to resemble Him, do nothing that will not bring God the glory, and the more we are kind to everyone; the more intense will be the commitment within us that we are destined to live in that heavenly world where love exists free from all harassment, in full power, and where there is everything to expand its intensity, and perfect its contentment. Until then, we are to follow on to know and to be like the Lord, more and more; and pray in the Holy Spirit to keep ourselves in God’s agápē, loving everyone, avoiding unnecessary interference with other people’s affairs; and as far as in us lies seeking to live peaceably with society, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus the Anointed One unto eternal life.[3][4]
William Kelly (1822-1888) points out that we have seen that to give the agápē into which we are called its true character, the Apostle John, in previous verses, recalls the manifestation of God’s agápē in the Anointed One. First, when we were spiritually dead, to give us life. Secondly, when we came spiritually alive and felt the burden of our sins as never before, we wanted to settle our debt with God and rid ourselves of all our sins. Such is the valid order of God’s acting on the soul. It enables us to see how important spiritual life is, for, without such life, there is nothing to help us hear or answer divine messages. Any thought of the possibility of the soul’s spiritual death and the notion that the Spirit of God could go on causing us to be spiritually alive without God’s life in us is ridiculous. The Spirit of God could not consistently act if there were no life in the soul.[5] In other words, John says, to love others as God loved us is the best way to prove that we still have the life of the Anointed One alive in us. Other than that, all the singing, praying, testifying, shouting, or rejoicing a person may demonstrate, without love for one another, is only done as dead people walking.[6]
Kelly then goes on to say that this is not all. If God loved us and demonstrated it as nothing else could, “we also ought to love one another.” Interestingly, John uses the Greek verb opheilō, translated as “ought” – KJV, and NIV means “to settle a debt.” In other words, we are indebted to others to love them as God loved us. It’s not an option, choice, or decision; it is a mandatory obligation. So, if the Anointed One settled our debt with God caused by our sin, how much more should we satisfy our love debt to others.
William B. Pope (1822-1903) points out that God manifested His agápē in us to create a new sphere for its existence. That’s why He sent us a permanent token of His agápē – His only-begotten Son into the world so that we might become spiritually alive and live through Him. So here, the Apostle John focuses his emphasis on “in us.” So, it’s not the case that we love God, but He loves us. Without Him or His Spirit living in us, we have no agápē. And this agápē that flows in us through Him must continue flowing back to Him, but by expressing that love to others. That’s what completes the circle; that’s how agápē is perfected in us.[7]
James Nisbet (1823-1874) sees the Apostle John sums up his argument, which is the conclusion of the whole matter: “Who are we supposed to love?” The answer is clear, “One another.” But don’t we love God first? No, you can’t love God unless you love one another. John is not writing about family affections, personal friendships, parents and children, brothers and sisters, or a few intimacies. He is writing to the “Church.” All in the Great Family of God; “the Church.” We are copying verse eleven, which says, “If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” So, what else should we know? Here are some essential things to keep in mind:
First, God’s agápē is original – He loved us long before we loved Him. He ultimately took the initiative. We should do the same – not wait to be loved; but look around to someone whom we might love and be kind to, who does not love us, whom we ought to love; and at once do something, say a kind word, do a kind thing, to that person.
Second, God’s agápē is thoughtful – O, how wise! How thoughtful! Our love is often very unwise and unthoughtful. We take no pains about it. It is a mere passion. It has no distinct aim. There is no fundamental principle in it. And then it is not appropriate. It does not fit the person we love. There is minimal thinking involved, and no consideration; therefore, our love often does harm instead of doing good.
Thirdly, God’s agápē is faithful – God can give pain, but He doesn’t. So far as reproof is faithful, God’s agápē is faithful. Therefore, be authentic in your affections and not exaggerate or overstate your concerns. See faithfully. Speak of faults. Do it opportunely; very gently, hopefully, sympathizing, and tenderly.
Fourthly, God’s agápē is sacrificial – What sacrifice? How much time, money, or comfort are we making for anyone? Even if we do it in our own families or for a few friends, are we doing it outside? Are we doing it beyond the circle of our relations? Are we doing it as fellow Christians, as fellow citizens? Are we doing it for “one another?”
Fifthly, God’s agápē is careful – It is never a thing to be taken up and put down again on an impulse. It is never easy to initiate. It is constant. Furthermore, it never changes, except to deepen. “He loved His disciples during his earthly ministry and would love them to the very end. He never leaves; He never fails; He is never tired of a friend. Is your love that way too?”[8]
Daniel Steele (1824-1914) suggests that as God’s spiritual children, we must honor Him by representing His moral attributes and following His example in loving those He loves. The obligation which God’s agápē lays upon us is not that we should love Him in return, as we would naturally expect, but that we should be His agápē to “love one another.” It was when Jesus was “knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He was come from God, and was going to God” that He put on the attire of a servant and washed His disciples’ feet. His followers should learn that the spiritual nobility implied by adoption into the family of God imposes the corresponding obligation. The more mature the Christian, the more service to humanity is expected.[9]
German preacher and professor Theodor Christlieb (1833-1889) speaks about the Divine example of Love – “God loved us so.” How? The preceding verse shows us some of the glorious traits of this agápē.
First: Its greatness and depth. One may scoop out the ocean with a seashell sooner than exhaust the seas of God’s agápē with the small bucket of human conceptions.[10][11] It is as boundless as God Himself. The greatness of agápē ought also to be the motive and the example for our love for our neighbor. It begins with our motive. How often are we stirred to love by beauty merely, by talent, or other excellencies, or even sometimes by pleasing weaknesses, but not first and foremost by the thought that God the Lord in the Anointed One pursued us in love! Of course, we are egoists by nature.[12] But, from the creation to the new creature, the soul of God’s whole activity is love.[13]
Second: The all-embracing extent of this agápē. Sometimes, we are very kind and pleasing towards those who love us, but towards others indifferent. Some attract us, countless others are repulsive. Therefore, if we desire to do what pleases God’s heart, let us also love those whom no one else is likely to love!
Third: The transparency and tranquility of God’s agápē. The more passionate our love, the harder it is to remain pure and calm. The love of the Anointed One was unclouded and tender in all its greatness. Either our love continues fresh and soothing, or it can become lukewarm.[14]
Fourth: It’s unselfish impartialness. We love those who please us, who loves us, or from whom we expect love. Therein appears the interests of our passion. But, on the contrary, God loves those who do not love Him, from whom, moreover, He can have no great hopes of love. And the Anointed One’s love is just as unselfish. In all His life of love, He never seeks His gain – not His honor, not His advantage, not His proper esteem, but only the glory of the Father and the world’s salvation.[15] How rare is the love in which one does not think themselves, but only of the welfare of another; which forgets one’s self, even expects nothing for itself because it has its reward in itself.
Fifth: The steadfastness and faithfulness of God’s agápē, is worthy of imitation. Selfish love has a worm that speedily gnaws away its life in its selfishness. The purer love is, the less it changes. Therefore, because God’s agápē is without any mixture of impure self-seeking, it is so steadfast.[16]
[1] “Come, Ye that Know and Fear the Lord,” Lyrics in 1784 by George Burder (1752-1832), Music in 1832 by Lowell Mason (1792-1872)
[7] Pope, William B., Popular Commentary, op. cit., p. 315
[8] Nisbet, James: Church Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., Vol. 12, pp. 301-302
[9] Steele, Daniel: Half-Hour, op. cit., pp. 108-109
[10] See the Hymn “The Love of God” by Frederick M. Lehman, 1917, which says, “Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade; To write the agápē of God above would drain the ocean dry.” [Later, the words, “Nor could the scroll, contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.”]
[11] Lines similar to verse 3 are found in the Qur’an (18:109 and 31:27) and in Akdamut, an 11th-century Jewish poem. Frederick Lehman tells us that the English rendition included in his song had reportedly “been found penciled on the wall of a patient’s room in an insane asylum after he had been carried to his grave.”
Whenever we hear the news about a pending flood or drought conditions, a hurricane or tornado warning, possible recession or inflation, we also hear a lot about being prepared for another danger or catastrophe. But it isn’t always the weather, stock market, or salmonella in food, it can also be about what we see others doing or their behavior that may bring them or us difficulties we must cope with.
In psychology, preparedness is a concept developed to explain why specific connections are adopted more readily than others. For example, the theory states that people who learned to fear threats faster had a greater survival rate. Psychologist Martin Seligman’s preparedness theory of phobias implies that fear-relevant stimuli cause us to pay attention to safety signals advising preparation. This means it should be challenging to establish a fear-relevant motivation as a safety signal in nonphobic subjects. Preparedness also points to one’s tendency to learn some connections more easily, quickly, and permanently than others.
Social Psychologist Danielle Every explains that psychological preparedness is a “state of awareness, anticipation, and readiness – an internal, primed capacity to anticipate and manage one’s psychological response in an emergency.” Psychological preparedness is not necessarily about removing feelings of anxiety or stress, as these may be adaptive, but in learning to anticipate, recognize and manage these effectively.
But there is another aspect to preparedness. Although psychologists do not offer therapy at disaster sites, they can help people build upon their internal strengths to begin recovering from the disaster. Psychologists help those in disastrous circumstances develop their resilience skills to move from feeling hopeless to having a more long-term, realistic perspective. This process can include taking small steps toward concrete goals and connecting with others as they learn to cope with a disaster’s logistical and emotional challenges.
Dr. Juliet Roudini at the Charitē Universitätsmedizin, and Hamid Reza Khankeh of the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences in Berlin, Germany, tells us that disaster mental health preparedness is an effective reduction method to protect individuals from detrimental psychological effects arising from unexpected natural disasters. And the results of an investigation by Evelin Witruk in Leipzig, University, Germany, show that people with a strong belief in a just world believe the hazards to be a result of human failure, and this belief is an essential factor when dealing with natural disasters.
Furthermore, Psychologists in Australia point out that we should think about how we usually react to highly stressful situations? Although these reactions are very natural, they can get in the way of other necessary preparations. If you understand your usual reactions, you can learn ways to manage them better when they happen. How you feel in highly stressful situations is strongly affected by how you cope with the physical signs of anxiety and the thoughts running through your head. In dangerous situations, our physical and emotional responses are called “fight or flight.” That is, you either fight for your life or run for your life.
But what about family and personal relationships with others? An online survey by the American Psychological Association conducted by Harris Interactive found that 73% of parents report family responsibilities as a significant source of stress. The survey also found that more than two-thirds of parents think their stress level has slight to no impact on their child’s stress level. However, only 14% of pre-teens and teens reported not being bothered when their parent is stressed.
Furthermore, the connection between high-stress levels and health is alarming, with 34% of obese parents experiencing high-stress levels (defined as an 8, 9, or 10 on a 10-point scale) compared to 23% of normal-weight parents. Therefore, it is crucial to consider the way a parent’s stress and corresponding unhealthy behaviors affect the family. For example, the APA survey found that parents who are obese are more likely than those who are average weight to have children who are obese. In addition, overweight children are more likely than normal-weight children to report that their parents are often worried and stressed.
Children model their parents’ behaviors, including those related to managing stress. Parents who deal with stress in unhealthy ways risk passing those behaviors on to their children. Alternatively, parents who cope with stress in healthy ways can promote better adjustment and happiness for themselves and promote the formation of critically important habits and skills in children. Parents know that changing a child’s behavior can be challenging, let alone their own. By taking small, manageable steps to a healthier lifestyle, families can work toward meeting their goals to be psychologically and physically fit. It certainly points to the need for preparedness on our part to successfully cope with these situations.
But as Christians, what does the Bible have to say about preparedness? King Solomon offered an example of what it means to be prepared. He told those who showed no concern over pending hardships that they should watch what the ants do and learn from them. Ants have no ruler, no boss, and no leader. But in the summer, ants gather all of their food and save it. So, when winter comes, there is plenty to eat.[1] Then Solomon goes on to point out that a wise person foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them; the uninformed goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.
Also, the Apostle Paul, speaking from experience, told believers in Corinth to be prepared. Hold firmly to your faith. Have courage and be strong.[2] And the Apostle Peter urged his readers always to be prepared to answer everyone who asks them to explain their hope.[3]
But for Christians, there is an even more important need for preparedness when it comes to what our Lord Jesus said. Again, the author of the Book of Hebrews gives an illustration. He wrote that God warned Noah about things he could not yet see. But he had faith and respect for God, so he built a large boat to save his family. With his dedication, Noah showed that the world was wrong. And he became one of those who are made right with God through faith.[4] The only reason Noah and his family survived the great flood is that he was prepared.
The same is true of another unannounced event on the horizon. Jesus said that the whole world, earth, and sky, would be destroyed, but His words will last forever. No one knows when that day or time will be. The Son and the angels in heaven don’t know when it will be. Only the Father knows. When the Son of Man comes, it will be the same as what happened during Noah’s time. In those days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving their children to be married right up to the day Noah entered the boat. 39 They knew nothing about what was happening until the flood came and destroyed them all. So be prepared, said Jesus, for you don’t know what day your Lord is coming. Just as an individual can prevent trouble from thieves by keeping watch for them, you can avoid trouble by always being prepared for My unannounced arrival. So, stay awake and be prepared, for you do not know the date or moment it will happen.[5]
When you were born, God stamped an expiration date on your life’s calendar. Every year, month, week, day, hour, and second were included.[1] Therefore, every second wasted cannot be recovered, not one blink of the eye, nor can you save some for later use; that time is lost forever. But there is a vast difference between the mind’s conviction and the proper disposition of the heart, resulting in diligent, dutiful practice of proper time management.
One meets with many souls who are most perfect and saintly in what they believe, but “by their fruit you will recognize them,’’ the Savior of the world has said. It is an essential rule if it is fairly dealt with, and by this, we must judge ourselves.
Time bears a very different aspect at different seasons of one’s life, but one maxim applies equally to all seasons: No time should go by uselessly. Every second forms a link in God’s chain of foresight. Every season carries with it various responsibilities of God’s appointing. We must give account to Him of how we used them from the first to the last moment of life. God never meant for us to look at any minute as having no purpose.
The important thing is to know how He would have us use it. And this is to be learned, not by restless, fidgety eagerness, which is more likely to confuse than enlighten us, but by a pure, upright heart, simply seeking God and being diligent in resisting the deceits and tricks of self-love as quickly as we recognize them. Keep in mind; we waste time doing nothing or something inappropriate, and doing things that arc in themselves are not part of God’s plan for our life. We are strangely ingenious in perpetual self-seeking, which worldly people do openly, those who want to serve God sometimes do with more refinement, under some pretext that hides the faultiness of their conduct.
One general rule for the correct use of time is to accustom yourself to live in continual dependence upon God’s Holy Spirit, receiving whatever He wills to give from one moment to another, referring all doubts to Him. Then, where an immediate course of action has to be taken, seek strength in Him, lift your heart to Him whenever you become aware that outward things are leading you astray or tending toward forgetting all about God.
Blessed is the soul that by sincere self-renunciation always abides in its Creator’s hands, ready to do whatever He wills, not weary of saying a hundred times daily, Lord, what will you have me do? Teach me to do Your will, for you are my God. Send forth your light, Lord, to guide me; teach me to use the present time for Your service, forgive the misuse of what is past, and may I never blindly count on an unpredictable future.
As to business and outward duties, we need only to give straightforward, diligent heed in keeping with God’s wisdom. As all such obligations result from His plans, we have only to accept them dutifully, subordinating our dispositions, fancies, inclinations, self-will, perfectionism, and restless anxieties –our natural impulses to do what we like. Take care not to let yourself be overwhelmed by outer things or be utterly immersed in external interests, however necessary. Every undertaking should begin with a definite view of God’s glory, continued quietly, and end without excitement or impatience.
Time spent in society and amusement is generally the most dangerous time for oneself, though it may benefit others. Therefore, be on guard, that is to say, be more faithful in remembering the presence of God at such times. You need then to cultivate the watchfulness so often urged by our Lord – to use aspirations and to lift your heart to Him as the only source of strength and safety: otherwise, you can scarcely hope to be kept from the subtle venom so often lurking amid society and its pleasures.
Spare time is often the most pleasant and beneficial for oneself. It can hardly be put to better use than renewing your strength (bodily, mentally, and spiritually) through personal communion with God. Prayer is so necessary and is the source of so much blessing that when once the soul realizes its gifts, it will hardly fail to seek as often as it is free to do so.[2]
[2] Fénelon, François: Paraclete Giants, The Complete Fénelon, Translated and Edited by Robert J. Edmonson, Paraclete Press, Brewster, Massachusetts, 2008, pp. 54-55; Vocabulary and grammar redacted by Dr. Robert R Seyda
Bede the Venerable (672-735) sees a correlation between God’s agápē for us and our love for each other. He writes that this is what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as the Anointed One loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”[1][2] And Œcumenius notes that as imitators of God: “The love we show to one another ought to be like God’s love to us. It should be sincere and pure; without ulterior motives or other hidden thoughts of the kind we normally associate with robbers and other evildoers.”[3]
John Trapp (1601-1669) warns his fellow believers. If God loved us so much, His one example answers all our objections. It removes all our excuses, such as our fellow believers are inferior and mean spirited, and we deserve better.[4]
John Owen (1616-1683) encountered doubters who objected to what the Apostle John says in verse sixteen about trusting God to love them. Owen responds by saying that this is one of the most unbelievable thoughts anyone can take a stand on. But it is the easiest way to try and rob God of His glory by refusing to accept the truth that we love God because He loved us.[5] The Holy Spirit inspired John to say, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us.” There is no reason to invert the order and say, this is love: not that God loved us, but that we loved Him first.
Why try and take God’s glory from Him? He loves us without reason as to what we have to offer Him.[6] But we have every reason to worship Him. Or would you rather say that God loved you just because of who you are? This is human nature’s way of trying to find out, but it will not bring glory to God nor peace to your soul. So put this kind of thinking out of your mind, then take God at His word by believing the Gospel message, and that will open your soul free it to join the Lord in the communion of love.[7]
Isaac Barrow: 1630-1677) comments on what the Apostle John says here in verse eleven, “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” Since He so lovingly gave up His only Son for us, shouldn’t we express kindness toward our fellow believers in imitation of Him concerning gratitude? How many good things can we do for them; what part of our lives should be so dear to us to share what we can for their good?[8] Those are questions we must ask ourselves since our Master told us, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
William Burkitt (1650-1703) makes a good point that the Apostle John’s argument here is to provoke us to do something we should already be doing. God is to be loved by us for His wondrous love: But as God is unseen, we must love Him through others. It is because He made His creatures after His image and likeness: And if we love the divine image of God in each other, it is evidence that God dwells in us, and we in Him; namely, by the indwelling of His Holy Spirit, which is a Spirit of love in us, draws forth our love towards Him and others.[9]
Thomas Pyle (1674-1756) suggests that such an unparalleled instance of divine compassion to sinful creatures ought to make us express the tenderest regard to the welfare of all those whom God was pleased to put such high a value on. Not only that, but demonstrate our appreciation by showing mercy, even to those who least deserve it.[10]
John Wesley (1703-1791) picks up on the Apostle John’s words where he says that God gave us this command: If we love God, we must also love each other as brothers and sisters[11] and that our love must be real. We must show our love by the things we do.[12] With these things being true, says Wesley, then we must heed what John then says, that is how much God loved us, dear friends! We also must love each other in the same manner.[13] As King David said, to every human soul, “The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all His creation.”[14]
We must agree, says Wesley, that the affection of those who receive God’s agápē must include humanity for His sake, not excluding the ones they’ve seen or those they knew nothing about except that they were “the offspring of God.”[15] (Never say you don’t have God’s agápē in your heart because the Holy Spirit put it there, [16] you just choose not to use it.) So, John included those whose souls for whom God’s Son died, not omitting the “evil” and “unthankful,” and least of all their enemies who hated, persecuted, or despitefully used them for their Master’s sake. These had a peculiar place, both in their heart and prayers. They loved them, “even as the Anointed One loved us.”[17][18]
John Brown of Haddington (1722-1787) asks since God so loved us with such high and astonishing standards, we whom He so loved and redeemed by His Son’s precious blood most certainly ought, under the influence of this agápē, and in imitation of it, to maintain the most enthusiastic affection toward our fellow Christians for His sake and in obedience to His will.[19] Again, Dr. Brown asks us to compare our love for Him with His agápē for us. Most certainly, all of us would fall way short of any expectation of equaling His example.
William Jones of Nayland (1726-1805) believes Christians are obligated to copy the Divine example in loving one another, grounded upon our relation to Him as His children. Because we are “born again of God,”[20] we should seek to resemble Him. The Apostle Paul’s argument is similar: You are God’s children, so be like Him.[21] If we are “partakers of the Divine nature,” we should imitate the Divine example. First, relative to mankind in general.[22] He loved us with the love of compassion before He could love us with the love of contentment. Let us imitate Him regarding our relationship with those who are yet in their sins. Second, relative to the Christian brotherhood in particular.[23] Let us demonstrate our relation to the Father, who is infinite Love, by our sincere love for our Christian brothers and sisters. Let the supreme manifestation regarding His agápē for us produce its appropriate effect in us.[24]
Charles Hodge (1797-1878) says that the Scriptures do not mock us when they say that God is like a father to us, tender and sympathetic, especially to those who reverence Him.[25] Our heavenly Father meant what He said when He proclaimed that Yahweh, the Lord, is a kind and merciful God. He is slow in getting angry, full of great love, and can be fully trusted.[26] That’s why the Apostle John can say that we should love each other because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has become God’s child. And so, everyone who loves knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. It is how God showed His agápē to us by sending His only Son into the world to give us eternal life through Him. True love is God’s agápē for us, not our love for God. He sent His Son as a way to take away our sins. That is how much God loved us, dear friends! We must do the same.[27] The word love has the same sense throughout this passage. God is love, and love in Him is what love is in us, in all that is essential to its nature. That’s why we do rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.[28]
Pastor Samuel Martin, (1802-1877) pastor of the General Baptist Conigre Chapel, Trowbridge County, England, famous for its woven cloth, 120 miles west of London, says that God’s agápē is the pattern for our love. And here are the reasons why: 1. Because ignorance of what God means by love must now be willful. 2. Because doubt and uncertainty about the objects of love are forever excluded. 3. Because the power of love to conquer obstacles and impediments is most gloriously shown in God’s case. 4. The restoration of love between humans is one of God’s objects in that redemption, proving His agápē for us. 5. Because we are required to be followers of God as dear children. 6. Because love on our part must be pleasing to God. 7. Because “as a result of this, we express our love towards God.”[29]
William Graham (1810-1883) says that the subject of Love contained in the seventh to eleventh verses in various forms is like surveying a magnificent building from multiple sides and angles, that you might gain the combined idea of the whole in all its varieties of architectural elegance: so, the Apostle John contemplates the theme of Love from all angles and finds it ever new and beautiful; for, in all its manifoldness, it comes from God and returns to God. It’s all about “brotherly love.” We are loved, says John; therefore, we should treasure the arms of the Father around us, and, consequently, we ought to love one another. The experience of His agápē to us awakens the consciousness of our duty to love one another. This we find practically true in our experience among people, for where we find those who love God, we are sure to find love to the brethren in a similar proportion. His agápē is first, and then, loving Him in return, we are also conscious of the obligation to love the brethren. May we seek to remove every impediment to exercising this noble affection. May we recognize all those of our brethren and fellow pilgrims of every name and country who love the Lord in our daily walk. Jesus the Anointed One in sincerity and truth![30]
Down an Unfamiliar Road 