BIG IDEA:
THREE ARGUMENTS FOR LOVING THE BRETHREN
(BASED ON THE TRINITY) — cf. Boice
INTRODUCTION:
Problems with assurance are not solved so much by introspection (e.g. Am I one of God’s elect?) as by Faith (trusting in the promises of God) + Love (practical loving actions towards one another). (See Appendix on Two Tracks of Assurance.)
Each argument focuses on one person of the Godhead.
I. (:7-8) ARGUMENT BASED ON GOD THE FATHER —
BASED ON GOD’S ETERNAL NATURE —
LOVE IS CONSISTENT WITH HIS NATURE AND OUR NEW NATURE
A. (:7) Positively
1. The Command to Love the Brethren
“Brethren, let us love one another”
Stott: “John practices what he preaches. In urging them to love each other, he first assures them of his own love for them.”
2. The Source of Love = God
“for love is from God” = The Sole Source
3. The Defining Family Relationship = We have been Given God’s Nature with respect to this Ability to Love
“and every one who loves is born of God and knows God.”
B. (:8) Negatively
“The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
II. ARGUMENT BASED ON GOD THE SON
(:9-11) BASED ON GOD’S HISTORICAL GIFT —
LOVE IS CONSISTENT WITH HIS EXAMPLE AND WITH OUR EXPERIENCE
A. (:9) The Manifestation of God’s Love = the Sending of His Son to Give Us Life
1. The Sacrifice of Love
“By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world”
– God gave the best He could give = His Son
– God gave all that He had = His only unique Son
– God sent His Son into the front lines of battle = the world
Stott: “While the origin of love is in the being of God, the manifestation of love is in the coming of Christ.”
2. The Purpose of Love
“so that we might live through Him”
B. (:10) The Initiator and Essence of Love
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitation for our sins.”
Boice: “The initiative lies entirely with God; before there was any possibility of our exercising such love, He first manifested it.”
B. (:11) Our Response to God’s Example
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
III. ARGUMENT BASED ON GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT
(:12) LOVING THE BRETHREN ASSURES US THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT IS WORKING IN OUR LIVES
“No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.”
We can’t see God. How can we tell He is present and active in our lives?
Our loving one another is the sign that He (whose nature is love) is abiding in us, and it is also the means by which His love has been fulfilled in us and is reaching its goal in us.
Our loving others is not the condition for God coming to abide in us; but it is the evidence, the manifestation, of that indwelling divine presence. Loving one another accomplishes the same goals with respect to Assurance as supposedly would be accomplished by being able to see God face to face.
Stedman: ” God’s love reaches its ultimate and final conclusion when it becomes visible in us. It is an abortive thing, incomplete, and, therefore, unreachable, incomprehensible, until it finds its manifestation in a living human being, in flesh and blood, incarnate again in you and me.”