Reflections on First John (part two)

Welcome back to Daughter of the Light. Today I’m sharing more of my (scattered) reflections on 1^st John. As I mentioned last week, please remember to go to the Scripture yourself and check everything that I say against the verses. It’s so vital to see what the Bible says and not just to take other people’s word for it. We must study it for ourselves.

What Is Love?

Jesus said that the whole law and prophets could be summed up in these words – love God and love your neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40). That used to seem so easy. I loved God. I loved my family. Check! I’d done my duty, and now God owed me entrance to heaven.

However, as I read the Bible more and saw the emphasis that it places on love, I became confused. What did love mean? The word has been distorted to mean that if we love someone, we’ll affirm whatever they’re doing whether it is good or bad. It means that we’ll accept them and help them along their way no matter what way that is. It means that we won’t judge them, we won’t ever tell them that they are wrong, and we will celebrate whatever makes them happy in the moment. Love is primarily a feeling. If the warm, gushy emotions go away, love is gone as well.

So when I began to study 1^st John, I was confused not only about what it meant to love God and others, but also how we were to fulfill, as James says, the royal law of Scripture.

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1^st John 2:15)

“In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” (1^st John 4:9)

“But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as he walked.” (1^st John 2:5-7)

Love is the high call that has been given to us as Christians. I still cringe a little when people talk about “love” because the word has been so sadly corrupted. But if we can reprogram our minds to think about love in the way that Scripture teaches, we will be better able to live it out.

Our Lives Must Be Full of Action

In reading through James recently, I found the principles in both John and 1^st John driven home.

“If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed, and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith but itself, if it does not have work, is dead.” (James 2:15-17)

If we say that we love God and our neighbors, we will act that love. We will not merely hear the commands, nod along, and then forget. (James 1:22) We will live out what we believe.

This is so hard!

It’s easy for me to think on a Biblical principle, to memorize passages about it, to write exhortations to myself and others about how to get out and do what the Bible says – and yet, when it comes right down to it, what do I do? I sit in my room, too afraid to do anything outside my comfort zone for fear that others will think I’m weird, crazy, or some kind of religious fanatic.

But what does John say?

“Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him.” (1^st John 2:3-4)

“In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.” (John 3:10)

“But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (John 3:17).

That last verse has played over and over in my head, to the point where my sinful heart was deeply annoyed. Growing up I never thought of myself as rich, but over the past couple years, God has been opening my eyes to the amount of material wealth that I have. I have much of this world’s goods, and yet what do I do with them? I’ll admit that more often than not, I want to cling to my precious resources and ignore the needs of others. After all, I can’t help everyone, so why try at all?

But John says that if we live that way, we don’t have the love of God in our hearts.

Now that is a serious and sober thought, and one that sticks in my head every time I recite 1^st John. Does that mean that we should give begrudgingly and out of a mere sense of duty? No! I often think back to Exodus when Moses was building the tabernacle. The people gave with such joyous, generous hearts that they had to be restrained from giving anymore! (Exodus 36:6-7) That’s what we should strive to emulate. As the oft quoted verse says, “God loves a cheerful giver”. (2 Corinthians 9:7) I believe that this is not limited to monetary or material generosity, but also to the giving of time, skills, etc.

Let’s circle back to the first of those three verses I shared (1^st John 2:3-4). When I began memorizing 1^st John, and came to this verse, I was confused. I’d often read in Scripture that the fruit of love of God would be obedience to His commands. But what commands was John talking about? The Mosaic law? The Ten Commandments? John doesn’t leave us in suspense.

“And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.” (1^st John 3:23)

That is the command that we have seen from the beginning of Scripture, given in its fulfilment. Love God, believe in Jesus, and love one another. Love is not merely words.

“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before Him.” (1^st John 18-19)

Love is action.

“By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (1^st John 3:16)

We Can Have Assurance of Eternal Life

I was shocked by John’s confidence and assurance when it came to eternity.

“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgement; because as He is, so are we in this world.” (1^st John 4:17)

 “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.” (1^st John 5:13)

I spent so much of my life in terror of death because I didn’t think it was possible to have assurance of eternal life. After all, most people hadn’t died, gone to heaven, and come back to give an account of what they saw. Sure, I’d watched some of those testimonies by people who had supposedly died and come back to life bearing messages from God, but I was skeptical at best. Who could verify their claims? What if there was nothing after death? What if Christianity wasn’t actually the truth? Was there anyway to know what was ahead?

At that point, I had good reason to fear death – I wasn’t living as God commanded in so many ways. But even after I became more fervent in my faith, I still lived in terror of death.

It’s been a year since my grandpa died. Death became real. For the first time, I watched someone I loved draw his last breath. I expected the experience to cement my terror of death. But the opposite happened. Grandpa was always a teacher, and even in his death, he taught us. He showed us how to suffer well, and how to die well. He was confident that he would meet the God whom he loved. His body wasted away, but his soul was strong.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

In that passage from the Gospel of John, Jesus spoke to Martha about how her brother, Lazarus, would rise again. God orchestrated it so that I memorized those verses a few days before Grandpa died and ended up reciting them daily the whole month after he passed. My heart was thus prepared to later accept the verses from 1^st John about the confidence we can have in eternal life. We who have put our trust in Jesus for salvation do not need to fear death. It is merely the doorway to a greater future, more glorious than our mortal minds can fathom.

Conclusion

There is so much that could be written on 1^st John. I’ve only begun to scratch the surface in this post, and there is much that I have yet to discover in the text. I’ll likely do another post soon sharing my thoughts on some of the similarities between the Gospel of John and 1^st John.  

As in so much of Scripture, we are reminded that God desires our heart, our love, and our loyalty. May we follow Jesus’s instructions and love one another as he has commanded.

~Hattush

What are your thoughts on 1^st John? What book of the Bible has encouraged you most lately? What are practical ways that we can love God and our neighbors? Let’s chat in the comments!