“[John is] talking to believers here as indicated by the opening designation ‘beloved,’ agapetos, divinely loved ones. Those whom God loves, let us love one another… the verb [is] agape, agapaois the love of the will. It's not the love of emotion. It's not physical love, friendship love, it's the love of the will. It's the highest and noblest. And it's habitual…
“Now when the Word of God says something once, it's divine truth. When it says something twice, that means it's very important. But when the Word of God says the same thing over and over, we'd better pay particular attention. God repeats the theme of love so much because we can easily forget to love. We need to be reminded to have a perfect, complete, and fulfilled love for one another…
“We're talking about this kind of love that extends toward anybody that has a need, particularly those in the family of God. It is a perfect kind of love, a different love than the world's kind of love. It is a whole, complete love and it is the essence of God manifest in Christ. It is our testimony, it is the assurance of our salvation. It is our confidence in judgment and it is only reasonable because you could never truly have the love of God in you and not love others with that love. Perfect love is the mark of the true believer…
“We ought to love one another because love is a characteristic of God. Since we are God's children, we should reflect the character of our Father. God's people are to bear His reflection. It doesn't matter what someone claims--if he doesn't love, he doesn't know God…
“God is love itself, however love does not define God; God defines love. All God's activities are expressed in love because all His attributes work in cooperation. Even in judgment God's love shines through. To prove that ask yourself: Where is God's judgment the most demonstrative? At the cross. He poured out His wrath on His own Son as the punishment for sin. But where is God's love displayed most? At the cross. God's justice and love operate together…
“I don't care how cantankerous and obnoxious another Christian may seem to you, God still lives in him. Don't say you love God but hate him. How can you claim to love the invisible God and not love His presence in His people? It is easier to serve a visible man than an invisible God. If you can't serve a visible man, you certainly can't serve the invisible God. A claim to love God is an obvious lie if it is not accompanied by unselfish love for our brothers and sisters in Christ…
“How Does God's Love Function?
- It is unrequited - Christian love doesn't need anything in return. It doesn't say, 'I love you because you love me.' One person doesn't love someone because he does him favors. He loves him independent of any return.
- It is unconditional - Love doesn't care how much it is offended, abused, and sinned against. We need to forgive and forget. There are no conditions to perfect love.
- It is vicarious - It gladly bears the pain of others. We should be willing to bear one another's burdens, weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice.
- It is self-giving - It is synonymous with sacrifice. If I have one meal and two of us need food, I give it to you and I go without.
- It is righteous - It tolerates no sin. When my child sins, I discipline him. When a believer sins, the church disciplines him. When you truly love someone, you will point out their sins to them in a loving way.”
“Verse 7 says that ‘love is from God.’ And verse 8 at the end says, ‘God is love.’ These are not at odds. Because when John says that ‘love is from God,’ he doesn’t mean it’s from him the way letters are from a mailman, or even letters are from a friend. He means that love is from God the way heat is from fire, or the way light is from the sun. Love belongs to God’s nature. It’s woven into what he is. It’s part of what it means to be God…
“When you are born again, God himself is imparted to you. He dwells in you and sheds abroad in your heart his love. And his aim is that this love be perfected in you… “What does John mean by abiding in God and God abiding in us? Is it an intimate second stage of Christianity or is it just plain being a Christian? Jesus said in John 15:6, ‘If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.’ Abiding in Christ does not refer to a second level of maturity. It refers to whether you are in the vine or in the fire.
“Let's [apply] two tests to our own lives…
- The Test of Hearing and Confessing - Does your heart incline to the testimony of the apostles and prophets? That is, do you have a persevering longing to read the Bible or to hear the Word of God? When your heart grows cool and you begin to drift away from the Word of God, do you feel a godly guilt that humbles you and brings you back broken to the cross for forgiveness and renewal? When you hear the testimony of Scripture that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior of the world, does your heart confess this truth? That is, do you gladly affirm the divine greatness of Christ and how worthy he is of trust and admiration and loyalty and obedience? Does your heart exalt Christ as the greatest thing of all? For that is surely what it means to be ‘Son of God.’
- The Test of Loving Each Other - When you hear a description of love like 1 Corinthians 13 or when you contemplate the example of Christ's life of love, does your heart fill with longing to be like that, and do you make firm resolves to conquer unloving attitudes and behaviors? When you fail in a resolve of love, does it grieve you and bring you broken to the cross pleading for forgiveness and seeking new strength to love again? Is the current and pattern of your life to live for the eternal good of other people, or are your thoughts and dreams and daily choices generally aimed at merely making yourself comfortable and your name esteemed?
“No one who is willing to follow John's teaching needs to be frightened at the approach of death. None of us who accepts this teaching will have to approach the judgment seat of God with our fingers crossed, wondering if we are going to make it. John wrote this book to give us ‘confidence for the day of judgment’ and to ‘cast out fear…’
“Brothers and sisters, one of the main reasons why so many professing Christians have little confidence with God and little boldness with men is that their lives are not devoted in love to the salvation of the lost and to the glory of God, but instead are devoted (often by sheer default) to providing earthly security and comfort for themselves and their families…
“When we try to say that we are indwelt by the Spirit of Christ, and yet we do not devote our lives to the eternal good of other people, there is a deep contradiction within that gnaws away at our souls and dissolves our confidence and leaves us feeling weak and inauthentic…
“A life poured out in the labors of love for the eternal good of other people yields a sure consciousness of doing good, a deep peace of mind and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter!”
Spurgeon
“[Believers] love God because He is infinitely lovely and because He has so completely won your heart as to engross your whole affection. Because He first loved us and that love of His has been shed abroad in our hearts, we have loved Him in return as a matter of course—we cannot help doing so. The mighty deeps of His immeasurable love, high up on the eternal hills, flow down into the inmost recesses of our empty hearts and when, afterwards, a fountain of love is seen springing up out of them, the secret of its action is to be traced to that great reservoir away up on the everlasting hills! So our love to God is not the result of effort, nor does it arise from a sense of duty—it comes by knowledge and faith...
“If ever I loved You, my Jesus, ‘tis now.’ Well, if you meant it, then, you will still love Him tomorrow when your hands are busily occupied at your toilsome task, or your brain is counting up the long rows of figures which make your eyes ache, or you have to wait upon so many customers that you get utterly weary. You may not be able to be always thinking about Divine subjects, but if your heart is right, your love to your Lord is there all the while…
“Whoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in Him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. Is there anyone here who is full of anger, enmity, malice and envy? If so, let him know that God dwells not in the heart that harbors such abominations! Until these base passions are expelled and we feel love to all mankind for Christ’s sake, God is not in us, for, ‘He that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him.’ The old method, according to Jewish tradition, was, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But Christ’s new rule is, ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that you may be the children of your Father who is in Heaven.’ This is the point in which our likeness to God will be seen, for He loved us when we were His enemies—and He expects His children to love their enemies! May He graciously teach us that sacred art!”
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