Down an Unfamiliar Road

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson LI) 03/30/22

^4:7 Dear friends, let us practice loving each other, for love comes from God, and those who are loving and kind show that they are God’s children and are getting to know Him better.

John Painter (1935) sees that the obligation to love is grounded in “as I have loved you.”[1] The Greek adverb kathōs (“as”) has a double sense. First, it means “in the same manner,” “just as,” and “to the same degree.” Secondly, kathōs can also be the relevant element for our discussion here based on the love command in Jesus’ words, “because I have loved you.” That is both the moral ground of the obligation and the affective source to move the person so loved to love others. The foundation and affective basis point to God in verses seven to twelve. So, the ground, here in verse eight, for loving one another is “because[NIV] God is Love.” That is, God is the ultimate source of love.

This means, says Painter, that the person who loves draws from the divine source of love – being born of God. Human love is not the cause but the manifestation of being birthed by God. From the human side, believing that Jesus the Anointed One is come in the flesh is the foundation belief that puts the believer in a relationship with the divine source of love. Those who love that relationship reveal the divine origin of the life of the one who loves. Divine origin is understood in the metaphor “to be born of God.” Simply to love is the evidence, and God defines love from whom this love comes. Because the divine love here describes itself, it does not need any other qualification except to love “one another.”[2]

Muncia Walls (1937) notes that the Apostle John locates the origin of the love he is talking about here as being “of God” It is not in human nature to manifest this agápe-love. Humans cannot learn this love through any school of higher learning. This love only comes from God. If God does not give this love to us, and, if this love is not manifested through our life by the Spirit of God, then we do not possess this love.[3] This is because, for some Christians, there are three loves at work in their lives. There is Philautia: self-love; Storge: familial love; and Agápe: God’s love. The first two are from nature; the last is purely divine. The problem is that the two natural passions get in the way of agápe-love. So, even if a person shows love for God by loving their family and other believers, they still find it impossible to get over the resentment they are harboring over some treatment they received from certain individuals. So, the question is, “If you can’t show God’s love to someone, do any of your other acts of love count as loving God?”[4]

Michael Eaton (1942-2017) points out that the Apostle John again urges love, building on what he has just said. First and foremost, “the God of the Bible is the only source of love.” After all, since God is the Love we need, where else could we find it except in God?[5] Then secondly, John writes that “love requires the new birth.” No one can genuinely exhibit this kind of love except being “born again.” Now, John continues: Thirdly, “love is essential to fellowship with God.” Love not only shows to others that the person is born of God, but it also means that the Christian’s knowledge of God is currently being enjoyed. John distinguishes the two. His readers are born of God. Yet, he writes to restore fellowship with the Father and the Son. The two are not unavoidably intertwined; otherwise, there would be no need for this epistle. Love arises from and demonstrates two things: new birth and its development, and fellowship with God.[6]

William Loader (1944) says that this command to love one another is not a directive to live in isolation but flows from a relationship. We would love one another because the source of love is God. It is more than an exhortation to follow God’s example of love. The Apostle John immediately expresses this connection by saying that everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. Again, this is more than a matter of identification. We are not still dealing with the need for criteria about who is not a child of God. Rather, John is assuming the connection between our love and God’s agápe-love is within a dynamic system, where agápe-love produces our love.[7] There, too, John expressed it by identifying the believer as a child of God and arguing that this relationship enables the Christian to love. To do so means that the person loving knows God personally.[8]

Robert W. Yarbrough (1948) states that the Apostle John now points to the effect of God’s love. It gives rise to love in those to whom God grants spiritual rebirth. To love as John counsels is to be confirmed in the faith he is explaining. It means that “love alone … is not a sign of being born of God” when we take the broader context of John’s letter into account. Further, love is a means of “knowing God.” John has just advised how his readers can “recognize the Spirit of God” in Christological doctrine in verse two. But now, in verse seven, he implies that doctrine is not the entire issue. An agápe-love reality comes into play for spiritual discernment to occur. A key component in effective discernment is Love. And so, John has urged his readers to love. He links that love directly to God. But John realizes that to persuade often requires more than mere assertion. John can imagine that there will be those who do not heed his counsel. So, he prepares to clarify things for them.[9]

Colin G. Kruse (1950) notes that the expression “born of God” is best explained by reference to the Apostle John’s Gospel.[10] It emphasizes that people become children of God, not by natural birth, but by being born of God. Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born “from above,” which is equivalent to being “born of the Spirit.”[11] Then, being born of God is quite distinct from natural human procreation. It is brought about by God through His Spirit, in conjunction with faith in the Anointed One on the part of those concerned. When John says that “God is love,” he is not making a philosophical statement describing what God is in His essence. Instead, John is speaking about the loving nature of God revealed in His saving action on behalf of humankind.[12] [13]

Bruce G. Schuchard (1958) Sees parallelisms here, much like in the Psalms:

            Let us love one another,

                        Because love is of God.

Like the realities of the truth of light and life, love comes from above, as does the gift of the only-begotten One and the gift of our being birthed by God. The logic is that those who belong to God are born of God or know God, will love. With the form of direct address “beloved,” the reasonably exceptional instance of a command, “let us love,” also helps to mark the beginning of the passage. An abba pattern begins here.

            (a) – Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. – 1 John 4:8

                        (b) – This is how God showed His love among us:

(b) He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.1 John

4:9

            (a) – This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. – 1 John 4:10

But for John, love is not merely one among many things, finding distinctive rootage in God. Rather, love is an informing principal attribute of God that necessarily defines the believer if the believer is to belong to God. Thus, John describes “a non-negotiable necessity in the household of faith.” Because love is from God and belongs to God, John instructs his hearers to live from and for it in the lives of those in the Christian community.[14]

Duncan Heaster (1967) offers another proof of having been born of God through the Spirit[15] is whether we love one another. The love in view is not of a secular nature but the love of the new commandment, to love as the Lord loved us, by His death on a cross. To be born “of God” is to have the love which is “of God,” the love which came to its ultimate term in the gift of His Son for the sins of the world.[16] Although John’s audience was all born of God, they still had to be encouraged to “love one another.” The love between us is not as the Spirit imposed it against our will; the work of the Spirit requires our willing partnership. Knowing God means living in the sacrificial love of the Father and Son. We do not “know” God simply by perceiving the orthodox theologies about Him and placing and making a mental note of disagreement with them.[17]

Karen H. Jobes (1968) says that the Apostle John’s thinking for the agápe-love command is that it is a defining characteristic of God. Therefore, those born of God are defined by their love for others. As the old saying goes, “like father, like son.” In fact, exhibiting the love characteristic of the Father evidences personal knowledge of God. Not everyone loves in whatever way pleases them or has been born of God, but everyone who loves as God defines love.[18]

Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) admits that he does not find it necessary to have unbreakable sympathy for all his relatives. Nevertheless, Browne is hopeful that this attitude does not break the fifth commandment.[19] He wonders what people would say if he loved a fellow Christian more than his nearest relative, even his father or mother. It is hard for him to conceive how God loves all humanity the same. Oh, what happiness there is in the love of God.[20]

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[1] John 13:34; cf. 1 John 4:17

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

[3] Walls, Muncia: Epistles of John & Jude, op. cit., pp. 70-71

[4] Cf. Mark 11:25; 1 Corinthians 13:5; Ephesians 4:31; James 5:16

[5] Cf. Psalm 121:1

[6] Eaton, Michael: Focus on the Bible, 1,2,3 John, op. cit., pp. 141-142

[7] 1 John 3:7-10

[8] Loader, William: Epworth Commentary, op. cit., p. 52

[9] Yarbrough, Robert W., 1-3 John (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) op. cit., pp. 235-236

[10] John 1:12-13

[11] Ibid 3:1-8

[12] See Ibid. 4:9-10

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

[14] Schuchard, Bruce G., Concordia Commentary, op. cit., p. 443

[15] John 1:13; 3:5

[16] Ibid. 3:16

[17] Heaster, Duncan: New European Commentary, op. cit., 1 John, p. 31

[18] Jobes, Karen H., 1, 2, and 3 John (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on The New Testament, Book 18), p. 190

[19] Exodus 20:6; Deuteronomy 5:10

[20] Browne, Thomas: Religio Medici, op. cit., Part 1, Section 5

This is my promise to you, that my wife and I will be that someone praying for you.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson L) 03/29/22

^4:7 Dear friends, let us practice loving each other, for love comes from God, and those who are loving and kind show that they are God’s children and are getting to know Him better.

Greville P. Lewis (1891-1976) notes that in the Apostle John’s Gospel, Jesus uses the phrase “He who sent Me” no fewer than twenty-six times. It must have been in John’s mind when he used “sent” here and in verses ten and fourteen. Martin Luther once said: “If I were as our Lord God, and had committed the government to my Son, as He to His Son, and these vile people were as disobedient as they are now, I would knock the world into pieces.”[1] But God did not abandon His “human experiment,” nor did He wait impassively in high heaven for sinners to grope their way up to His footstool, pleading for pardon and a second chance. The word “sent,” like the word “gave,”[2] stresses the astounding fact that God so loved us that He took the initiative and “sent” His Son on a redemptive Mission which could only be fulfilled at an awful cost to both the Father and the Son.[3]

Amos N. Wilder (1895-1993) notes that the Gnostics might say that wisdom or power is of God but hardly love, whose involvements would not fit divine detachment. Pagan gods were thought of as the object of mystical desire rather than their subject. In verse ten, the Apostle John directly denies the general Hellenistic view that love is, first of all, an impulse that goes out from the material world to spiritual order. We would not otherwise have known what love is.[4] Therefore, those who love show they are born of God and know God. They are the true Gnostics! Because they have experiential knowledge of God, which disposes them to a deepening understanding of God’s action and revelation, it is far superior to any supposition or shadowy mysticism.[5]

Paul Waitman Hoon (1910-2000) states that certain oriental religions consider God to be somber, unmoved. Followers are so engaged in self-meditation, they have little concern about human life around them. Other pagan religions have defiled God by likening Him to the force behind fertility. Ancient and modern philosophies conceived God as a pure Mind, Wisdom, and Beauty. Moralistic religion envisions God as Righteousness. Ancient and contemporary science have imagined God as Energy. But the insight of the Apostle John surpasses these in defining God’s essential nature as Love, and represents the highest conception of the divine nature humankind can hold.

Therefore, says Hoon, one must believe that divine Love is eternal. It is “that which was from the beginning.” It requires one to think that love governs all other attributes in the Godhead. “God is Love” implies that all His activities are the result of love. If He creates, He creates in love; if He rules, He rules in Love; if He judges, He judges in Love. God’s agápe-love is dynamic; it acts decisively; because God is Love, He is not passionless. He manifested that by sending His only Son to lead us back to Him.

Robert S. Candlish (1806-1873) explains that the phrase “Love is of God” does not simply mean love comes from God, has its source in God, that He is the author or creator of it. All created things are of God, for by Him all things were made, [6] and on Him, they all depend. But love is not a created thing. It is a Divine characteristic, holy affection. And it is of its essence to be a cause which brings change, a communication that establishes contact, and, as it were, to reproduce itself in others. Love is also a good gift resulting from an act of the will. Wherewith God expresses Himself, wherever it is found, it is the very love. If it is seen in us, it is our loving with God’s agápe-love; it is in our loving with Divine love, a love that is thus emphatically and exclusively of God.[7]

Professor F. F. Bruce (1910-1990) points out that the love of which the Apostle John, like Paul, speaks is self-giving love, not giving-self. It is sometimes suggested that the Greek verb agapaō and the noun agapē, used here as in the Final Covenant, bear the same basic sense as the secular Greek noun erōs, [8] which denotes possessive love. But it is not a question of the inherent meaning of the words used but of the sense placed on them by speakers or writers.[9] No doubt that is why John used the Greek noun Philadelphia, “love for the brethren.”[10]

Rudolf Schnackenburg (1914-2002) agrees that everyone who loves is born of God insofar as they actually do so. Of course, this does not mean that being born of God consists in love but, as elsewhere, [11] that being born of God can be recognized by love. In other words, being born again comes first, not love. Next to being born of God comes our knowing Him. Love is the principle of such knowledge.[12] The idea itself is already a familiar refrain, confined only to mutual love or fulfilling the commandments.[13] If “being born of God” refers instead to the believers’ origin, “to know God” means most emphatically to have lasting fellowship with Him. Only those who prove themselves by loving with this “love-share” divine nature and have fellowship with God. John deliberately adopts these terms, for they define the common religious aspirations both of Christianity and other religions. It is to emphasize the requirement of love and, at the same time, crush the opposition.[14]

John Phillips (1927-2010) agrees that all true faith is built on the gold standard of love, and that’s the measure to which John always returns. The section of this epistle now opening up before us is the Apostle John’s hymn of love, comparable to Paul’s.[15] John begins with agápe love – where else could he begin? = telling us of the overflow of that love in our hearts and life. More specifically, he tells us who we should love: “My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God.”[16] [17]

Raymond E. Brown (1928-1998) says that the Apostle John speaks about love without specifying which type. It is not brotherly love, love for God, or the agápe-love of God for men, but love in itself. (You can see this illustrated in a well-known art piece by Jacques Charlier (1720-1790) called “Venus desarmant l’amour”). The Jewish world to which John belongs ignores any distinction between object and subject. In other words, it’s just “love.” However, if there is any specification of the love found here in verse seven, it would be in love for a “brother” rather than of agápe-love of God.[18] To say this another way, God planted His agápe-love in us when we were born again but did not target any specific group or person. In fact, Christians can love everybody. That marks them as being born of God.

David E. Hiebert (1928-1995) says that the Apostle John’s urging to practice loving others is grounded in doctrinal reality: “Love comes from God.” The use of the article “the”[19] with “love” centers attention on the kind of love John was urging, “the love” that has its source in God. It is not the natural love of the world for its own, [20] nor the love of tax collectors for fellow collectors, [21] but a self-sacrificing love motivated by goodwill and implemented in action.[22] The Greek preposition ek (“out of”) translated as “from” denotes that His agápe-love “flows from Him,” as the one spring, and the connection with the source remains unbroken. That’s why John used the Greek agápe for love. It is a special kind of love that only God can produce. The call to love is undergirded by its practice of being a sure revelation of character. Verse seven states the positive disclosure, while verse eight states the negative fact.[23]

Stephen S. Smalley (1931-2018) makes a good point here by observing that this verse contains two sentences that do not depend on each other. Here the Apostle John sets out the spiritual origins of Love and the one who loves in that both come from God. The use of “everyone (who is loving)” is characteristic of John’s style and emphasizes the need for love in every believer. He does not simply say “the one who is loving.” The reference is to love in all its forms. Although John supplies no object, [24] the words of Jesus recorded in John’s Gospel[25] speak about love in absolute terms: the love of one’s neighbor in the community and love in general, wherever and however that may be expressed.[26] Therefore, while Love comes from God, it isn’t until believers use Love can they claim that they know God as His children.

Edward J. Malatesta (1932-1998) sees the Apostle John now building a bridge between verses 1:5 to 2:28 and 4:7-5:13. This last section characterizes the threefold concentration on personal faith, mutual love, and reciprocal relationship between Christians and the Spirit, Jesus, and the Father. Here John begins with a consideration of love which corresponds to a parallel treatment.[27] John’s interest is to continue with his theme of faith and love and where he wants to treat them in their mutual relationship. That’s why the Apostle expresses his deepest thoughts about the mystery of communion with God and how it compares to our communion with our fellow believers. John has no intention of repeating himself, but constantly emphasizing the importance of these two factors can make his point more forcefully. They must keep in mind that love comes from God; everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God personally.[28]

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[1] Luther, Martin: Table Talk, op. cit., CXI (111)

[2] John 3:16

[3] Lewis, Greville P., The Epworth Commentary, The Johannine Epistles, op. cit., p.98

[4] 1 John 4:19

[5] Wilder, Amos N., The Interpreter’s Bible, op. cit., 1 John, Exposition, pp. 278-279

[6] Colossians 1:16

[7] Candlish, Robert S., The Biblical Illustrator, op. cit., 1 John 4, p. 28

[8] Erōs is the Greek god of erotic (sexual) love.

[9] Bruce, F. F. Bruce, The Epistles of John: A Verse-by-Verse Exposition. Kingsley Books, Inc. Kindle Edition

[10] Cf. 1 Peter 1:22 There are six main words for love in Greek: Eros, sexual passion; Philia, deep friendship; Ludus, playful love (“Puppy love”); Agápe, selfless divine love; Pragma, long standing love; and Philautia, self-love.

[11] See 1 John 2:29; 5:1

[12] Ibid. 4:8

[13] Ibid. 2:3ff

[14] Schnackenburg, Rudolf: The Johannine Epistles, op. cit., p. 207

[15] 1 Corinthians 13

[16] 1 John 4:7 – The Message

[17] Phillips, John: Exploring the First Epistle of John, op. cit., pp. 135-136

[18] Brown, Raymond E., The Anchor Bible, op. cit., vol. 30, p. 514

[19] The Greek definite article ho (“the”) is not seen in the English translation. The Greek text reads: “that the love out of God.”

[20] John 15:19

[21] Matthew 5:46

[22] See 1 John 4:9-10

[23] Hiebert, David E., Bibliotheca Sacra, op. cit., January-March 1990, p. 71

[24] As in 1 John 3:11, 23

[25] John 13:34; 15:12, 17

[26] Smalley, Stephen S., Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 51, op. cit., p. 237

[27] See 1 John 2:3-11

[28] Malatesta, Edward J., Interiority and Covenant, op. cit., pp. 293-194

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson XLIX) 03/28/22

^4:7 Dear friends, let us practice loving each other, for love comes from God, and those who are loving and kind show that they are God’s children and are getting to know Him better

Here are four things we can expect from this great foundation, says Wood. (a) First, our text comes to us as an invitation, “Beloved, let us love one another.” (b) It is a binding obligation, a debt we ought to pay.[1] If you are proud of yourself for paying your bills, here is a debt that needs much effort to pay in full. If God so loved us – if, that is, we have received so much love – we owe it as a debt to love one another. So, it is an invitation; it is a binding duty. But John is not finished. He puts it before us in sweeter, more alluring tones in another form. He, as it were, turns the prism once again to show us a more beautiful ray of colored light. (c) He shows us the indescribably blessed result which follows from loving one another; it is nothing else than this, God abiding within us.[2] However, (d) John knew people’s hearts; he knew its tendency to be slow in responding to an invitation, to regard it even when coming from the King of kings as something to be accepted or refused at one’s will. But John wants to make sure everyone understands God’s offer is more than an invitation; it is a commandment that if we claim to love Him, we owe a debt of love to our brothers and sisters in the Lord. God saved us by His Son’s blood; now He intends to sanctify us with that blood.[3]

Henry A. Sawtelle (1832-1913) is impressed by how much John dwells on this grace of loving one another! It is a significant part of Christianity to him! Along with faith, it is paramount.[4] Faith unites us to the Anointed One and love for each other. New convictions of the importance and necessity of brotherly love will come with the study of this Epistle. We see that those who do not have it are not Christians; however correct they may be in other respects. A new heart will not be persistently hard toward a brother or sister. To carry hatred and spite into the fellowship of the Anointed One’s Church is to carry in the spirit of Cain and the devil. It is to take a piece of hell into heaven.

What this agápe-love is, says Sawtelle, distinguished from general kindness and neighborliness, has been fully stated. It is the family affection of God’s house, as exclusive as a mother’s love for her child. Didn’t Jesus love John more than King Herod and high priest Caiaphas? This agápe-love of spiritual kinship, like the gift of the Spirit, distinguishes Christianity generically from all other religions. It does not exist in their emotional category. On the contrary, it is a grace that urges us to exercise, not toward perfect or agreeable Christians only, but toward very imperfect and not wholly pleasant Christians.

Therefore, notes Sawtelle, we must exercise a love that despite the imperfections of a brother or sister, loves them for the Anointed One’s sake, even at the cost of self-denial. But, if the Anointed One loved us, as some Christians bestow their love – namely, on a principle of loving only agreeable Christians, where might we stand? For love is God’s basic nature. Not natural love, which all humans are supposed to have, but agápe-love. It is not anything we have by nature; it does not spring out of biological relationships. It is not born of the flesh; does not belong to the category of earthly loves; is not, as some have said, natural love, directed to new objects; but is a heavenly principle, created in us out of the very nature of God. So, it was in God before it was in us.[5] [6]

As others have, John James Lias (1834-1923) notes that the Apostle John commences a new section of the Epistle. Once more, he takes up the duty of love, but from a different and far more profound point of view. John emphasizes the commitment to love[7] as a sign of belonging to the kingdom of Light and not darkness. It is the necessary proof of our kinship to God.[8] Furthermore, God’s love commandment stamps us as abiding in the Anointed One.[9] Consequently, the duty to love depends upon God’s essential nature and every believer’s inward fellowship with Him through His Spirit.[10]

Lias then adds, we speak of living for God, but what is living for God? It is possible even to renounce the world and be no nearer to God.[11] It is possible to have a fierce abstinent hatred of this world’s goods. It is possible to seek the kingdom of heaven in a spirit of refined selfishness. It is possible to hate and despise those selfish creatures who seek only earthly joys. It is possible even to serve God in a spirit of Pharisaic pride, high self-conceit, and contempt of others. Is this the spirit of truth? We reply, No!

And why? The contempt of this world is useless for its sake. The hate of our fellow creatures is no part of true religion. There can be no faithful obedience to God where there is an over-estimation of ourselves or contempt of others. It is what the Anointed One told us in many discourses and parables. But here we see that it is and why it is. Religion consists in uniting ourselves to God, and God is Love. If we are united to God, we must show the results of that union by displaying our likeness to Him. We should not relish contempt for the world but the desire to seek the welfare of others before ours. It is God’s object; therefore, it must be ours.[12]

Robert Cameron (1839-1904) begins by saying that no one can know God until they are born again. The possession of divine nature is necessary to understand what that nature is. It is knowledge that someone who is only a creature of God’s hand is utterly incapable of knowing, however wise and learned they might be. They lack the mental and spiritual capacity to grasp it. The Son alone knows the Father, and He alone can reveal them to those who have the spirit and nature of sons.[13] That’s why everything depends on participation in the divine nature.

So, no matter how religious a person may be, it is not a religion but spiritual life uniting us with God. By having the eternal life of God’s Son, we have the Father’s love and knowledge.[14] The only proof that we know God exists is that we are like Him in love. It is more profound than the previous thought of keeping the commandments.[15] That was outward uniformity to His revelation, while this is inward conformity with His nature. Without that union, a person cannot know agápe-love and doesn’t know God. We saw the same fellowship with God in the first chapter. It is communing with God as He is in Himself, and not merely delight in His ways or works. God is Light, and we walk in its glow; He is Love, and we bathe in its glimmer. We favor the light, but we feel the love. Step by step, we rise. We keep the commandments, we consent to His will, and we share the nature of the only God. The Lord’s prayer realized, “I will be in them, and You will be in Me so that they will be completely one.”[16]

The reason for this is evident, “for God is love.” Love is of the very essence of his nature. Even justice is but one manifestation of His agápe-love. The more tenderly a mother loves her child, the more severely she will resent any attempt to do him hurt. Love will seek the good of all who are the objects of its affection, even when justice demands the punishment of those who would do them wrong. Since the essence of God is love, the one who does not love can never have known him. Not to love is to be ignorant of love, and to be unaware of love is to be ignorant of God, for God is love.[17]

Erich Haupt (1841-1910) says that verse seven clearly shows that “knowledge” is very different from “thinking” based upon mere logic, to the Apostle John. Dr. Haupt says a person may understand all the teaching of Scripture concerning God and receive it into their mind without real love. But, does such a concept contradict the Apostle John’s assertion? If a person knows all plants by their scientific names, classes, and orders but has never seen them, it is far from understanding the plants. This adjective “knowing” means showing or suggesting that one has knowledge or awareness that is secret or known to only a few people.

In like manner, those who profess to know God without love have no spiritual perception, no experience of Him; because their ideas are only constituent elements out of which they seek to produce a living reality. They, therefore, prove that their idea of God is a false one, since God is not a compound substance of symbols and attributes. Only from experience and devotion can any deep knowledge flow from God. Love is represented here as a token of divine birth and a pure copy of divine love. We, of course, must not limit it to the love for fellow Christians but must be understood in its broadest meaning.[18]

Alfred Plummer (1841-1926) notices that the Apostle John made an abrupt transition from what he was saying. It is almost like he had summarily dismissed an unwelcome subject. But the connections of thought in John’s writings are often so subtle, a hurried idea, that there’s no place in the Apostle’s writings where two consecutive verses or sections lack any connecting links. However, we find two links here. First, in this chapter, the power to love one another, no less than the power to confess the Incarnation, is the gift of the Spirit.[19] This is the case, even person to person. We also see the transformation of agápe-love into Faith and Trust. The antichristian spirit is selfish; it makes “self,” namely, one’s intellect and interest, the measure of all things. Just as it separates the Divine from the human in the Anointed One, so it severs Divine love from human conduct in humans. So, no matter what amount or type of fellowship you have with others, John says, “Beloved, let us do even more. Let us love one another.”[20]

Alan E. Brooke (1863-1934) states that true love is not merely a quality of nature, and include it in our conception of the Deity. It has its origin in God. Human love is a reflection of something in the Divine nature itself. Its presence shows that they have experienced the new birth and share in that higher life which consists in gradually becoming acquainted with God. Where love is absent there has not been even the beginning of the knowledge of God, for love is the very nature and being of God.[21]

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[1] 1 John 4:11

[2] Ibid. 4:12

[3] Wood, John Allen: The Church Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., pp. 293-294

[4] Ibid. 3:23

[5] Romans 5:5

[6] Sawtelle, Henry A., An American Commentary, Alvah Hovey Ed., op. cit., p. 48

[7] 1 John 2:5-11

[8] Ibid. 3:10-18

[9] Ibid. 3:23

[10] Lias, John James: The First Epistle of St. John with Exposition, p. 304

[11] 1 Corinthians 13:3

[12] Lias, John James: The First Epistle of St. John with Homiletical Treatment, pp. 304-305

[13] Matthew 11:27

[14] John 17:25

[15] Ibid. 2:2-5

[16] Ibid. 17:23a

[17] Cameron, Robert: First Epistle of John, op. cit., loc. cit.

[18] Haupt, Erich: The First Epistle of St. John, op. cit., pp. 256-257

[19] See 1 John 4:2, 12-13

[20] Plummer, Alfred: Cambridge Commentary, op. cit., p. 146

[21] Brooke, Alan E., A Critical and Exegetical Commentary, op. cit., p. 117

CYNICS may ask, how many have profited by the innumerable proverbs and maxims of prudence that have been current in the world for centuries? They will say they’re only used to repeat after some unhappy right has “gone wrong.” When, for instance, a person gambles and loses all they have, including their house, that leads to remembering the old Scottish proverb which declares that “willful waste leads to woeful want.” But did not the gambler know this well-worn saying from early years to the present? But, what good, then, did it do? Are the maxims of morality useless, then 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 Persian poet Nizāmī Ganjevi (1141-1209 AD).

“In the hour of adversity, be not without hope, for crystal rain falls from black clouds.”

It sounds very similar to what the Psalmist David said, “O my soul, don’t be discouraged. Don’t be upset. Expect God to act! For I know that I shall again have plenty of reason to praise Him for all that He will do. He is my help! He is my God!” (Psalm 42:11) Living Bible

THE USE OF SEASONS OF SPIRITUAL PEACE

No doubt you’ve heard people talk about having “peace of mind” and perhaps listened to the song, “Let there be peace on earth.”[1] But in numerous instances, it’s only a matter of “ceasefire,” and our tensions remain high. So, here are some words that may help us understand more about having the peace we all think about and desire.

When God gives yon inward and outward peace, you can believe that He who has begun this good work in you will continue until the day of our Lord’s return.[2] You need then to make use of peaceful days to grow in recollection. Also, you ought to sing with your whole heart the Amen and Alleluia that reecho in the heavenly Jerusalem; this is a token of continual acceptance of God’s will and the unreserved sacrifice of your will to His.

At the same time, you should listen inwardly to God with a heart free from all flattering prejudices of self-love and self-pity, so that you may faithfully receive His light as to anything that needs correction. Then, as soon as He points these out, yield without argument or excuse, and give up whatever touches the jealous love of our coming Bridegroom without hesitation.

Those who yield to the Spirit in this manner will see imperfection in their purest deeds and an ever-growing measure of refined evil in their hearts. All this leaves us in dismay so that we cry out that only God is good. We strive to correct ourselves calmly and simply but continuously and steadfastly, and we do so even more because our heart is undivided and peaceful. We depend on nothing as to ourselves and hope only in God. Furthermore, we give way neither to self-delusion nor to carelessness. We know that God never fails us, though we often fail Him. We yield ourselves entirely to grace, and above all things dread any resistance to it. Not only that, but we blame ourselves without being discouraged. We cope with ourselves while striving to improve.[3]

Archbishop François Fénelon

 (1651-1725)

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[1] Let There be Peace on Earth, written by Jill Jackson/Sy Miller and sung by Vince Gill

[2] Philippians 1:6

[3] Fénelon, François: Paraclete Giants, The Complete Fénelon, Translated and Edited by Robert J. Edmonson, Paraclete Press, Brewster, Massachusetts, 2008, pp. 52-53; Vocabulary and grammar redacted by Dr. Robert R Seyda

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson XLVIII) 03/25/22

^4:7 Dear friends, let us practice loving each other, for love comes from God, and those who are loving and kind show that they are God’s children and are getting to know Him better.

William E. Jelf (1811-1875) states that as agápe-love flows from God, it follows that everyone possessed of this attribute could have only received it from God. It was part of God’s creation. We may observe that the love here spoken of is not limited to love between Christians born of God, but it is “everyone.” If love existed in a heathen, it was part of God’s original creation, created in God’s image. Even heathen virtues flow from and are the gift of God’s creative power. There is no reason why we should not receive this or view it as incompatible with the notion of the re-created Christian, in which also love forms an important element.[1]

John Stock (1817-1884) makes these points: The Apostle John enforces the duty of a believer’s agápe-love. The Apostle Paul also affirms that no gift or possession void of love is helpful to anyone who claims them.[2] In fact, as it pertains to respecting a person’s spiritual life, they are insignificant if their acts of kindness are not permeated with love. No doubt, that’s why John exalts love, showing its happy possessor to be one that is born of God. Nevertheless, even they require fresh stimulants to keep alive the divine flame, so John urges mutual love. They were no mountain peak that chilled the atmosphere and enveloped in dense fog, endangering navigation. Instead, they are a star of no small radiance in their Redeemer’s hand and filled with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, mutual respect and lukewarm affection do not fulfill our Lord’s commandment. John joins the Apostle Peter, who said, “You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.”[3] [4]

Johannes H. A. Ebrard (1818-1888) says that on that very account, the presence of love in a person is a token that they are born of God – thus that they are born again. Think of it, the fact that people can see God’s agápe-love in you is all they need to believe that you are God’s child. Agápe-love means true, self-consecrating, self-devoting, self-sacrificing love. It bears no resemblance to that natural pseudo-love with roots in the flesh, in self-seeking and subtle self-satisfaction, and either puffs itself up with sentimentality or strives to earn its approval. And knowing God: how the knowledge of God is connected with those born of God, may be seen in other verses.[5] [6]

Bishop Harvey Goodwin (1818-1891) says that it should be expected that in some quarters today, there exists a denial that brotherly love rests upon loving God because there are numerous doubts about being of God altogether. It is not merely the proposition “God is love,” which is contested, but the previous and more straightforward proposition “God is.” It is as old as the fool in Psalm fourteenth. On many occasions, political and social attitudes assumed by some of our scientific community and the trend in much of our current literature tend to give prominence and practical importance to the denial that “God is,” which was unheard of a century ago.[7]

But there is another tendency of our times, says Goodwin, which ought to be noted, and it is the tendency to deny that “God is love.” The first part of the proposition, we are sometimes told, may be accepted if you think it worth asserting: if you like to explain the order of the physical universe by the hypothesis of what you call God, there is no harm in it, any more than making the theory of an elastic medium pervading space, or of fluid electricity, or anything else which is theoretical: but the moment you attribute purpose, and will, and love, and the exercise of moral government to this imaginary God, then you are told that you fly in the face of modern observation and discovery. You are told, in fact, that the God whom science has revealed is an unbending, invariable, relentless, pitiless law, as different from love as the strokes of a steam engine are from the throbbing of a mother’s heart.

Not only should we continue to believe, encourages Goodwin, that the truth “God is love” is too genuine to be overthrown by any one of these unproven philosophies. We must keep our faith that rests upon grounds deeper, more theological, and more systematic than any denials or objections that oppose it. Believe that there is something in the human heart, in the universal nature of mankind, to which it appeals and to which it cannot petition in vain. In the Final Covenant, the proposition “God is love” is not an abstract theorem to be proven by the help of sayings and guesses, but it is the condensation in these three words of the life of Jesus the Anointed One, our Lord.

When we see that weary, wandering Son of man “going about doing good,”[8] when we see Him feeding the hungry, healing the sick, listen to Him preaching the Gospel to the poor, and still more when we see Him nailed to the cross of shame, then we must bow our heads in humble adoration, and say, “In very deed and truth, God is love.”[9] This demonstration of the agápe-love of God has changed the face of the world: many of its most crying evils have ceased; a bright principle of light and love, which was all but unknown in previous ages, has shown upon the earth; people have gone about doing good, so as they never did before: Christian sponsored hospitals and orphanages are common: we have seen so great a Light in Jesus the Anointed One that no other light can dazzle us. In the warmth and brightness of this Son of our souls, we are directly or indirectly persuaded that all love comes from Him.[10]

Charles Ellicott (1819-1904) views the religion of the Final Covenant as different from all others in this: it affects and appeals to, and governs the heart. Other systems have laid hold upon other powers of our nature. Still, the Gospel is distinctive in constraining the affections, seizing the motive and controlling forces of the soul, and bringing them into subjection to its loving claims. Indeed, it is true that the Divine revelation is not neglectful of any part of our being.[11]

Although the Gospel appeals to our sense of reasoning enlightened by its truth, it often uses our imagination. These truths can sometimes spark lively images of good, blessings, and curses on the righteous and evil on the unrighteous. They also stimulate the sentiment of fear on the one hand and hope on the other. And not too seldom, they bring up visions of death, heaven, and hell. But this is done as a means to an end. Namely, it moves the heart, draws the souls away from things of unfounded concern into the fellowship of God. This will produce a holy longing for the continued union with God’s divine nature, which desires to dwell in us.

William Kelly (1822-1888) states that if what the Apostle John says here in verse seven is a Holy Spirit-inspired promise, it is a sure and vital thing to say; there is no excuse for failure in love. But we must remember that love is not merely being kind to a fellow-saint; it is also faithfulness to God. And sometimes, the faithfulness of love is resented instead of being received. In such a case, the person who is upset by having their unloving attitude pointed out and who regards the other person’s faithfulness as not showing real love also needs to be cautious. If that resentment overcomes them – and it sometimes does – the issue may prove that there never was the divine gift of eternal life in their soul. We often find that departure from love, even in a small way, if yielded to, is an extremely grave sign. It may be a symptom of what may be called the “moral leprosy of mankind.” For, as we are taught here, there is nothing really of God, nothing truly sound, in the person who does not love.[12]

James Nisbet (1823-1874) tells us that in his day, on the east wall of the Church of the Ascension, Bayswater Road, London (not too far from Hyde Park), artist Frederic Shields (1833-1911), was decorating the old mortuary chapel in St. George’s Fields cemetery. He painted a wonderful series of pictures of our Lord’s life. He painted a panel embodying his conception of what love means. Love is a beautiful female figure, with a face strong and tender, a face that bears witness to endured suffering.

On Love’s lap is a European child; by Love’s side stands a little African child, one little foot still fettered, the other freed by Love. At Love’s feet, a little Chinese and a little Indian child are playing together. Both the little hands of the white babe on Love’s lap are outstretched to draw the little black boy’s face and impress upon it a kiss. The embodiment of love knows no distinction of race or language, or color to the artist. He interprets our text’s “one another” with a worldwide meaning.[13] But in today’s world, this would be seen as typecasting and racist. But it was for this same world our Lord died to free them from such thinking. This mortuary was deconsecrated and sold by the Church Commissions in the 1970s, and The Utopian Housing Association replaced it with low-cost social housing.

Brooke F. Westcott (1825-1901) states that the idea of “knowledge” that the Apostle John introduces here in connection with the action of the Spirit of Truth is a fuller unfolding of the mystery of the Anointed One’s Person. Those who love, derive their spiritual being from God and, therefore, are in harmony with Him and know Him, that is, recognize every revelation that reveals more of Him. But as John makes clear, none of this is possible without love.[14]

Rev. John Allen Wood (1828-1916), one of the organizers of the first Methodist Holiness Camp Meeting in America, was held in Vineland, New Jersey, in 1867. He says that verse seven begins a section of the Epistle that contains one of those profound truths which are so often expressible in words but are inexhaustible in meaning, “God is love.” It is our solid foundation, and, therefore, we are expected to build our house on this solid rock. From this high Rock, we can see the world. God wants that to be our view because His mission is world-embracing.

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[1] Jelf, William E., Commentary on the First Epistle of St. John, op. cit., p. 60

[2] 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

[3] 1 Peter 1:22

[4] Stock, John: Exposition of the First Epistle of John, op. cit., p. 338

[5] 1 John 1:5; 2:3

[6] Ebrard, Johannes: Biblical Commentary on the Epistles of St. john, op. cit., p. 287

[7] Time Magazine cover, April 8, 1966 read: “Is God Dead?”

[8] Acts of the Apostles 10:38

[9] 1 John 3:18

[10] Goodwin, Harvey, Biblical Illustrator, First Epistle of John, op. cit., Vol. pp. 29-30

[11] Charles. Ellicott’s Bible Commentary for English Readers, pp. 16235-16236

[12] Kelly, William: Exposition of the Epistles of John the Apostle, op. cit., Logos loc. cit.

[13] Nisbet, James: The Church Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., Vol. 12, p. 294

[14] Westcott, Brooke F., The Epistles of St. John, op. cit., p. 148

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson XLVII) 03/24/22

^4:7 Dear friends, let us practice loving each other, for love comes from God, and those who are loving and kind show that they are God’s children and are getting to know Him better.

COMMENTARY

Several early Church scholars have various ways of responding to what John says here.  For instance, Didymus the Blind (313-398 AD) points out that just as the person who does not choose what they ought to choose has done wrong and does not love what they ought to love, so those who love only those who are worthy of love receive only that level of praise due to them.[1]  Didymus is making a subtle point here: Unbelievers who love and do the wrong things are no different from believers who only love what they want, and any credit they get will be no higher than what they give.

Augustine (353-430 AD) writes that to practice righteousness and judgment means to live virtuously, and to live virtuously means to obey God’s law, which is to help us base our lives on the principle of love. As John says, this is the love that comes from God.[2]  In another place, Augustine says that love is from God, as have declared those whom He has made not only His great loves but also His great preachers.[3]

Also, Bede the Venerable (673-735 AD) offers this: “John often praised love, which he said came from God, which is why we read that ‘he who loves is born of God.’ What more needs to be said? God is love, and therefore to go against love is to go against God.”[4]  Let me put what Bede says here in another way.  If you have a well and want to bring up the water, you need to pump it until it flows. But if you have a spring or natural fountain, there’s no need for pumping; it flows naturally.  So, it is with people.  Those in the world that love each other must try to love, but it should come naturally for those in union with the Anointed One.  And if you are a believer, and it doesn’t flow naturally, you need to fix your connection with Him.

Then Andreas Osiander (1498-1552) asks what does it mean to say that love is from God? The answer is that this refers to the One who came from God in the image and likeness of the One who sent Him? This man appeared manifested as the beloved and worthy of being loved. Now, since this Savior has come into the world because of the Father’s great love for the things He has made, those who have received this blessing and who are thus beloved ought to love one another. For each of us is loved and is called to love, having the command that we should love our neighbor.[5]

James Arminius (1560-1609) commented on the Apostle John’s call to love one another with God’s agápe-love to show that we have been born again by God. Grace seems to be a valuable aide to Goodness and Love towards His creatures. Accordingly, God is disposed to communicate His goodness and love the creatures, not of merit or debt, nor that it may add anything to God, [6] but that it may be well with those on whom the good is bestowed and who is beloved.[7] [8]

Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) offers a confession that helps him better understand God’s love for us. He says “I’ve never found it necessary to have any unbreakable sympathy for all relatives. I hope I do not break the fifth commandment if I conceive; I may love a friend before the nearest family member, even those I owe the principles of life. From now on, I think I can better conceive how God loves mankind; what happiness there is in God’s love.” Omitting all others, there are three mystical unions: two natures in one person; three persons in one nature; one soul united in two bodies. Although they are actually divided, they are so joined, as they seem to be one.[9]

Looking at what the Apostle John said here in verse seven about loving one another as God and His Son love us, and which love unites us to the Father and Son as though we are one with them, illustrates how we should love each other. The firmer and tighter that relationship grows, the more our relationship with God and the Anointed One strengthens. The thing that makes this so complex and simple is that God put the same love He has for us in our hearts, so we could love others the same way. So, the next time you see a fellow believer, don’t look at them the way you see them, but the way God sees them. Loving each other does not mean loving them for what they can do for us, but what we can do for them.

Matthew Poole (1624-1679) focuses here in verse seven on the power and purpose of loving one another. By loving each other, we develop reliable spiritual energy to overcome the malice and cruelty of our opposition by offering pure Christianity that promotes mutual love. We do not limit God’s agápe-love in us to just ourselves, but toward others and letting it cover them like a cloak, even if they are not as loving to us. Behind all this is the fact that God is love. So, if you have God, you have His agápe-love. Never let your love for Him or others become a regulated love done out of obligation.[10]

John Flavel (1627-1691) explains that the Scriptures affirm that God is not only in the concrete but also in the abstract. Furthermore, God is not only loving but is love.[11] He is not only wise but is wisdom.[12] He is not only good but is goodness. God told Moses, “I will make all My goodness pass before you.”[13] He is not only holy but is holiness. He also spoke to the prophet Isaiah saying, “Lord, look down from heaven from your holy, glorious home, and see us.”[14] Therefore, these attributes of God must be boundless because they are the essence of His being.[15] And if God is in us, we should mirror these same virtues and characteristics.

William Burkitt (1650-1703) says that it is evident from this verse that if a person claims to have correct knowledge of God, both of His nature and will, and that they understand both what He is and what He requires; if they don’t have the grace of love in their heart, they do not have the proper understanding of God in their minds, whatever they may think of themselves, or pretend to be to others.[16]

Leonard Howard (1699-1767) says that the only proof of our being God’s children and having actual knowledge of His will and nature is the Christian virtue of charity, which they who do not practice it neither belongs to God nor are acquainted with Him.[17]

James Macknight (1721-1800) mentions that it is remarkable the Apostle John instructs true believers to love all humanity. We might suppose, says Macknight, that some of the first converts of the Apostles professed themselves to be disciples of the Anointed One but were deficient in love. They were possibly Jewish converts, who, by the rites of their law having been cut off from all interaction with the Gentiles, considered them unclean persons whom God hated. And therefore, instead of regarding them with any degree of esteem, they despised and hated them as enemies; and thought themselves warranted by following their law. I think this came from our Lord’s words in His sermon on the mount.[18] It is not improbable that some of the Jewish converts retained their ancient prejudices and considered it as their duty to hate heathens. And some of them who pretended to be teachers undoubtedly taught their disciples the same lesson. They perhaps extended it to those who disagreed with them in their religious opinions.[19] But this doctrine is contrary to the principle of the Anointed One; John did not hesitate to condemn it.[20]

Albert Barnes (1798-1870) outlines the agápe-love of God: (1) All true love has its origin in God. (2) Real love shows that we have His Spirit and are his. (3) It assimilates us to God and makes us more and more like Him. (4) It is the kind of love with which we are to love our brothers and sisters. What is said here in verse seven by the Apostle John is based on the truth of what he elsewhere affirms that God is love.[21] Hatred, envy, wrath, malice all have their source in something other than God. He neither originates them, commends them, nor approves them.[22] It sounds like a powerful force to be in us and work through us.

Richard Rothe (1799-1867) sees that the Apostle John resumes his theme from which he diverted since verse one; he stimulates his readers to focus on brotherly love. He begins by purposely repeating his message about loving one another, then supports it with a new motive. Think of it; Love is God’s property; it is divine; and, consequently, to love is as much as to be God’s property. And to know God personally as a sure token of being His child. This could naturally lead John to reflect on the fact that love is also a symbolic combination of two thoughts, “being God’s property” and “being in fellowship with God.”

Rothe continues by saying that the Gospel comes into contact with universal human feeling. Therefore, those who do not correctly understand the Gospel have very little to offer in opposition to the Good News. To emphasize this point, in the last analysis, wherever there is genuine love, there a person is undoubtedly the object of the Divine pleasure. Consequently, divine kinship cannot be lacking. That’s why the Gospel depends on faith.[23]

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[1] Didymus the Blind, Commentary on 1 John, loc. cit.

[2] Augustine: The City of God 17.4

[3] Ibid: On the Gift of Perseverance 21.56

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

[5] Andreas: Catena, loc. cit.

[6] Psalm 16:2

[7] 1 John 4:7; See Exodus 34:6; Romans 5:8

[8] Arminius, James: op. cit., Disputation 4.69, p. 403

[9] Sir Thomas Browne, (1605-1682) Religio Medici, pt. 1. sec. 5

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

[11] 1 John 4:7

[12] See Proverbs 9:1

[13] Exodus 33:19

[14] Isaiah 63:15

[15] Flavel, John, the works of: The Incomparableness of God, op. cit., Vol. 4, Ch. 10, p. 424

[16] Burkitt, William: Notes on N.T., op. cit., p. 730

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

[18] Matthew 5:43-48

[19] 1 John 4:20

[20] Macknight, James: Literal Paraphrase, op. cit., pp. 90-91

[21] 1 John 4:8

[22] Barnes, Albert: Notes on N.T., op. cit., p. 4863

[23] Rothe, Richard: The Expository Times, op. cit., February 1893, p. 231

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson XLVI) 03/23/22

4:7         Dear friends, we must love each other because love comes from God. Therefore, everyone who loves has become God’s child.  And so, everyone who loves understands God’s will.

EXPOSITION

In Moses’ message to the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land, he gave them this word of encouragement: “The Lord your God will take away the sin from your heart and the heart of your children. You will love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul so that you may live.”[1]

Here in verse seven, we arrive at the third and final development of the nature of true love.[2] With each advance of the topic of love, the subject becomes more intensified. There is a correlation between love and belief.  A person born of God loves as God loves.  From chapter 4:7 to 5:5, John weaves together the ideas of love, belief, and righteousness. We cannot separate these ideas from each other in the Christian faith. 

Now John expands on his comments to believers of all kinds, whether secular or spiritual. He punctuates this epistle with the word “beloved.”  His readers are “beloved” regardless of their spiritual condition.  God expects those He loves to love others. John is refuting false doctrine so that his readers in Asia Minor might have a clear idea of biblical love.  If they understand divine love, they will have a fulfilling Christian life. Therefore, divine love flows from God’s divine nature. 

It leads to John developing the theme of “love one another” in verses 7-12.  The Greek reciprocal plural pronoun allēlōn means “one another of the same kind.”  This refers to love among Jesus’ followers  because they have a mutual capacity for love.  They have God’s agápe-love in them and find that same love in genuine adherents. Without God’s agápe-love, human love is strictly human compatibility. The formula “love one another” occurs five times in this epistle.[3] That means God expects His children to reciprocate the love of a mutual relationship with Him and His other children. 

Consequently, true love finds its origin in God and derives it from Him.  We cannot live up to the standard of God’s agápe-love without the infilling of the Holy Spirit. God, the Holy Spirit, is the source of love.  Love for God means that we love all genuine Christians.  Christians love because it is their spiritual nature to love.  We can love because we are born of God. Christians should love one another for two reasons: 1) love is of God, and 2) God is love (next verse).  The nature of Christian love flows out of the God of love.

There is a definite relationship between the infilling of the Spirit and fellowship with God. The Greek verb ginōskō (“knows”) conveys the idea of a fellowship of communion.  It also means to know experientially – come to know, get knowledge of, perceive.  We can learn about relating to God when the Holy Spirit fills us.  We can absorb the truth of who God is; He is a God of love. The believer in union with God loves with love not natural to them; we are not born with this agápe-love; it can only be given to us by God. Therefore, we love with God’s agápe-love, not ours. 

At this point, we come to the third and final development of the nature of true love.[4]  With each advance of the subject of love, the matter becomes more searching. There is a correlation between love and belief. From 4:7 to 5:5, John weaves together the ideas of love, belief, and righteousness. We cannot separate these ideas from each other in the Christian faith. John addresses his comments to Christians, whether devoted or lukewarm. He punctuates this epistle with the word “beloved.”  His readers are “beloved” regardless of their spiritual condition. God expects those He loves to love others. John is refuting false doctrine so that his readers in Asia Minor might have a clear idea of biblical love. If they understand divine love, they will have a fulfilling Christian life. Divine love flows from divine nature.

When God puts us into His family, He puts us there forever. The tense of the words “is born” means that God makes our spiritual birth permanent from its received point because John writes the new birth in the perfect tense. The person born spiritually (with lasting effect, not again and again) has a lasting and permanent relationship that goes on forever with the Lord. God is the One who did the birthing [passive voice]. We do nothing to put ourselves in the family of God, so regardless of whether we are carnal or spiritual, we belong to the family of God forever. Love originates from our new birth. As recipients of God’s agápe-love, God expects us to radiate His agápe-love to others. 

The Apostle John’s use of “Beloved” is especially suitable where the subject is love. We must not look for the chief importance of the section in the appeal with which it opens. Just as “prove the spirits” is subordinate to “every spirit which confesses,” etc., so “let us love one another” is subordinate to “God is Love.” Keep in mind John addresses his comments to believers, whether carnal or spiritual.  He punctuates this epistle with the word “beloved.”

Many groups in evangelical circles today argue that we should put up with false doctrine by “loving one another.” This idea is love based on pure emotionalism. Unadulterated emotional love without truth is the enemy of biblical love. Biblical love is based on truth. False doctrine obscures and erases truth. It is impossible for any believer to love with agápe-love as long as they are under a system of false doctrine.  “True truth,” as Dr. Francis Schaeffer used to say, “is what is most beneficial for our lives.” Much of what we hear today about love is hot air.  Some say, “Oh, how I love God,” but they know little about Him. That is syrupy sentimentality. It does not mean a thing to God as we cannot love someone fully without knowing them, so we cannot love God without knowing Him.

Many Christians claim superficial love, but they don’t know the first thing about biblical love. They do not comprehend biblical love because they do not understand biblical principles. They know little of Jesus’ person and work. When a false teacher comes along with an emotional appeal, some swallow it whole without chewing because they do not have the fundamental courage to walk away. They operate on the insincere principle of attraction rather than the sound principle of character. Love means that we care about the person we love with their faults and failures. We love them although we know everything about them. This is steadfast love. Thus, mature disciples distinguish between different kinds of love.

Therefore, when we share God’s love with His other children, it is because the very source of love is God. Therefore, believers should love one another as a logical outcome of God’s love. How can any child of God claim to have God’s love in them, the love that saved them when they were drowning in sin, and then not share that love with fellow saints? Saints and sinners alike despise someone who is two-faced. People say, “I’m praying for you,” but don’t want to see you or talk to you because they have no respect for you. This is a person with a fractured soul. However, a Spirit-filled believer has the capacity to love the faultfinder.  If we love God, we will love all believers.

Unfortunately, there are always those people that you do not like because they won’t let you pour them into your mold. The more unstable you are, the pushier you get, so even if people do not have your attitude, you still try to squeeze them into your mold. This is arrogance and pride because you think they need your perspective on life. You act as though God needs your help in straightening out people you don’t like. This thinking does not love one another because true love is free from envy or pride. Just because we love our father or mother does not mean that those who walk in the Spirit love from a supernatural love. They will love the unlovely in the family of God. Love is only potential until we actively love with God’s love.

Since love is from God, the best thing that we can do is stay connected to the source. Each believer is a responder to God. God first loves us; then, we send love back to Him. Before our love reaches out to anyone, it first goes up to God. When it goes up to God, God gives it strength or power to the human race. That is the circuit of love. Every Christian has two kinds of love operating inside them. They have their human love, and then they have God’s love.  Divine love extended through the believer toward other Christians comes from God Himself. The Holy Spirit produces this love.

Human love can produce a very pleasing personality so that God’s children never act inhospitably. They always yield to other people (at least publicly). They show a big smile when relating to others. Unfortunately, sweetness is not the same as spirituality. Many people buy into this sweetness and confuse it with the real thing. You will love all believers; if someone criticizes another believer, and you support what they are saying, you also defame them. But if you are spiritual, your attitude should be the same toward a carnal believer as toward a spiritual believer. Remember, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.[5]

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[1] Deuteronomy 30:6

[2] 1 John 2:7-11; 3:11-18

[3] Ibid. 3:11, 23; 4:7, 11,12

[4] 1 John 2:7-11; 3:11-18

[5] Galatians 5:22-23

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson XLV) 03/22/22

^4:6 But we are God’s children; that is why only those who have walked and talked with God will listen to us. Others won’t. That is another way to know whether a message is really from God, for if it is, the world won’t listen to it.

Judith M. Lieu (1951) sees that the Apostle John once again echoes other sources available in his day in setting the Spirit and spirit within this dualistic framework. Perhaps most verbally striking is a passage from the Testament of Judah: “Recognize, my children, that two spirits are active in humanity, that of truth and that of deceit.” “Indeed, those works of deceit and those of truth are inscribed on the human heart.” [1] In contrast to the Apostle John, the two spirits appear to be conflicting dispositions or tendencies inherent in human beings, and elsewhere in the Covenants, there are multiple harmful spirits. However, the spirit of deceit appears to be preeminent.[2] Now Judah can look forward to the day when “there shall no longer be the spirit of error of Belial[3] because he shall be cast into the fire forever.”[4] [5]

Ben Witherington III (1951) says that in these verses, we find different ways of concluding who genuine Christians are: do they accept and apply godly teaching from those who indeed know God in their lives? The Apostle John says confidently, “Anyone who knows God pays attention to us and our teaching.” This is not egotism, but rather confidence coming from a long walk with Jesus, a lengthy teaching ministry, and a firm conviction that what He says was from God. John does not doubt that he and other apostolic witnesses are “of God” and “know God.”[6] Perhaps that is why Nicodemus did not go to fellow Jewish Sanhedrin members to learn how to enter the Kingdom of Heaven; he went to Jesus, the King of Heaven’s Kingdom.[7] So likewise, an unbeliever would not have a chat with their unregenerate friends, instead, go to a born-again believer and ask. The same can be said of preachers and teachers; why should a believer go to hear someone only familiar with the Bible when they can listen to a seasoned student of God’s Word who has the anointing of the Holy Spirit?

Gary M. Burge (1952) notes that the Apostle John’s second test involves audiences and finding out who celebrates the Apostles’ teaching? Where does it find a ready following? John frequently refers to “the world,”[8] and in some cases, he sees it simply as a place of lifeless unbelief. Nevertheless, God loves this world and sent His Son to save it, [9] even though the world is where false teachings germinate.[10] In fact, John says that the world is under the power of the evil one.[11] Therefore, it is no surprise that if false prophecies originate with an ungodly spirit, these utterances will find a ready reception. On the other hand, it is the Church’s response to test the reliability of a word from the Lord.[12] God’s people know the sound of His voice – like sheep with a shepherd.[13] There is also harmony in communion between the Holy Spirit, the preacher, and the believer’s spirit. When God’s Spirit inspires a minister of the Gospel, God’s people will discern its truth.[14]

Marianne Meye Thompson (1964) notes that the Apostle John offers a second way by which one may test the spirits – by evaluating the response that the speaker receives. Verses five and six echo John’s sentiments.[15] In the final analysis, the world’s response to Jesus’ disciples mirrors its response to Jesus and God. Reversing this chain of reaction, John can also say that those who have responded to God react positively to Jesus and His disciples by listening to them. Listening means “give an ear” more than simply giving them a hearing; it implies absorption with what is heard.

Thompson now suggests three guidelines for testing the Spirits with discernment, that is, wisdom, care, and humility. (1) We are called on as a corporate community to test the spirits. The spirits in view are the teachings and practices threatening the Church’s mission and instructions. (2) It is also crucial to remember what we are to test. We are not called to test every belief and practice of every individual who claims to be a Christian. (3) We are to discern what is main stream to Christian faith and doctrine. Within the Church’s life, some issues are more central than others, and few if any are more central than the Anointed One and salvation. In summation, says Thompson, two extremes are to be avoided, (a) On the one hand, we ought not to rush to judgment on others. On the other hand, (b) the church cannot avoid its task to teach and nurture people in the Christian faith.[16]

Ken Johnson (1965) notes that in verses four to seven, the Apostle John contrasts true believers who listened to him because he had the Spirit of truth with unbelievers who did not listen to him because they had the spirit of error.[17] But the true believers were able to win the victory over the false pretenders because God lives in them, and He is much more potent than they are. After all, look at the unsuccessful anti-Christian Jews, Romans, heretics, Gnostics, persecutors, Nazism, communism, atheism, Islam, etc.

Peter Pett (1966) says the question here is who are “we?” Does the Apostle John mean “Apostles” of whom he is now the representative, or does he mean “Churches,” especially the duly appointed leaders? Either way, John’s message is emphatic. “We are of God.” The Greek preposition ek is translated to designate where a person is from.[18] It also means to: eject an object, [19] select an object, [20] a source, a person, or a thing, [21] arrive from, [22] etc. So, whoever is of God, is who or what they are because God was the source of their creation. We can thank our parents for being born in this world, but in a spiritual sense, to be born again means if it weren’t for God, we wouldn’t be spiritually alive. Thus, we have the truth. And those who know God hear us because the anointing within them reveals to them the truth through the word. On the other hand, some do not pay attention to us. This demonstrates that they are not of God. That is how the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error can be detected, by whether such people speak in accordance with the true servants of the Spirit, with the true Apostolic doctrine.[23]

Duncan Heaster (1967) teaches that being “of God,” born of Him by the Spirit, [24] is presented as being in opposition to being “of the [Jewish] world.” John himself was a Jew and was not anti-Semite, but presents the world of Judaism, with their conscious denial of Jesus as the Messiah, as being absolutely opposed to the things of God. Those who were not born of God by the Spirit would not “hear” the teaching of John and his team. Yet, they had the tendency to refuse their teaching, which the Comforter taught them. It was more proof that these hearers were not “of God.” There is an intuitive bonding between all who have the Lord’s spirit. Those who were out of step with the teaching of spirit-filled teachers like John were thereby discernible as “the spirit of error.” “Error” is more like “deceit.” The same word is used of the spirit that the Lord would send upon the Jewish world in Greek.[25] [26]

Karen H. Jobes (1968) says that nothing worse could be expected when the One who created the world than that He was not recognized by the world’s people.[27] When the Word of God came to redeem the world, He was rejected.[28] In verse six, John draws the boundary of these dualities: truth and error, God and the world, those of God and those of the world – and the dividing line between the acceptance and rejection of the apostolic teaching that he offers. The issue implicitly is about who gets to say what is true about God and the Anointed One and the salvation offered to the world. Who gets to speak for God in this world? Some may feel that John is being arrogant to hold up his beliefs as the only truth about God. Don’t the opinions and beliefs of others count equally? But he is not being arrogant; he is taking a stand for truth as he urges his readers to remain with him in the safety of the apostolic teaching of those commissioned as witnesses of the Anointed One, who have seen and heard and touched the Life that was revealed.[29] [30]

David Guzik (1984) points out that the Apostle John says that those of God enjoy fellowship with other believers; they speak the common language of fellowship with God and each other because one flows from the other.[31] Guzik then states that the language here in verses five and six transcends language, culture, class, race, or any additional barrier. It is a true gift from God. That’s why he is mystified by what we find in the official doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. They claim to be the “us” (in verse six) of those who know God hears us, while those who are not of God do not hear us.[32] But John can only be talking about the apostles and their authoritative revelation in the Bible when he says to us. When we know God and are of God, we hear what the Bible says. If this were merely an individual talking, the claim would be presumptuous. But it is not. It is the Apostle John citing the collective testimony of all the apostles. That testimony has become the measure of truth and sound doctrine for the whole Church.[33]

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[1] The Testament of Judah 20:1, 3

[2] Cf. The Testament of Reuben, 2:1; 3:2

[3] Belial is a compound word, believed to have been taken from the Hebrew beliy, meaning “not,” and ya’al, meaning “profit” or “benefit.” It is used twenty-six times in the Old Testament, usually translated as “worthless” in the New American Standard Bible, but also as “base,” “destruction,” “rascally,” and “wicked.” In the earlier books of the Old Testament, when describing a wicked person, the King James sometimes uses “son of Belial” (or “daughter,” “man,” or “people” of Belial). Like many other uses of the term son of, the expression “son of Belial” doesn’t imply that Belial is a real person who fathers children; rather, it’s a description of people characterized by worthlessness or corruption. See Deuteronomy 13:13, Judges 19:22; 20:13; 1 Samuel 1:16 etc., 2 Samuel 16:7 etc., 1 Kings 21:10, 13; 2 Chronicles 13:7; 2 Corinthians 6:15

[4] The Testament of Judah, 25:3

[5] Lieu, Judith: The New Testament Commentary, op. cit., p. 174

[6] Witherington III, Ben, Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians: op. cit., loc. cit., (Kindle Locations 7118-7121)

[7] John 3:1-12

[8] The word “World” appears twenty-four times in the New Testament

[9] 1 John 2:2, 15, 17; 4:9, 14; 5:4-5

[10] Ibid. 3:1, 13; 4:1

[11] Ibid. 5:19

[12] Cf. 1 John 4:5-6

[13] John 10:4ff

[14] Burge, Gary M., The Letters of John (The NIV Application Commentary), op. cit., pp. 176-177

[15] John 15:18-23

[16] Thompson, Marianne M., The IVP New Testament Commentary, op. cit., pp. 117-119

[17] Johnson, Ken. Ancient Epistles of John and Jude, op. cit., p. 77

[18] Matthew 1:3

[19] Ibid. 7:5

[20] Ibid. 10:29

[21] Ibid. 12:42; 17:5

[22] Ibid. 21:25

[23] Pett, Peter: Commentary on the Bible, op. cit., PDF. loc. cit.

[24] John 1:13; 3:5

[25] 2 Thessalonians 2:11

[26] Heaster, Duncan: New European Commentary, op. cit., 1 John, p. 31

[27] John 1:10

[28] Ibid. 1:11

[29] Ibid. 1:1-4

[30] Jobes, Karen H., 1, 2, and 3 John (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on The New Testament, Book 18), pp. 183-184

[31] 1 John 1:3

[32] See Roman Catholic Church Catechism, Section two, Ch. 3, Article 9, §III

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