Loving God

THOUGHTS FROM JOHN’S LETTERS

LOVING GOD

John understands love in a very logical and practical way:

Love comes from God: Because God is love, and because God has loved us, we love God.

We are born of God, who is love: Because God, who is love, and who loves us, lives in us, and because we live in God, who is love, we love one another.

As John understands it, loving God and loving one another are not optional outcomes; they are, in a sense, automatic outcomes – the inevitable sequence of events flowing naturally from the spiritual truths on which they are grounded. Our love for others is the fruit of our love for God which is the fruit of his love for us.

John states this clearly in 4:19 to 5:1:

‘We love because he first loved us’ – 4:19.

‘If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen’ – 4:20.

‘Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well’ – 5:1.

In 5:1 John imports a secular truth and uses it to demonstrate the simple logic of the Christian perspective that we should love one another: if we really love God we will also love his children, that is, those who are ‘born of him’.

But what does it mean to love? How do we know if we actually are loving God’s children, our fellow-believers, our brothers and sisters in Christ? If God requires that we love his children, how do we know what God means by ‘love’? What is God’s perception of ‘love’?

John gives us the answer: ‘by loving God and carrying out his commands.’ Then he explains: ‘This is love for God: to obey his commands ...’ (5:3). For John it is very simple: If we love God we will love his children. If we love God we will keep his commands. Therefore, if we keep God’s commands we will be loving God’s children.

The gospel writers report discussions about ‘the greatest commandment’. Jesus and the Jewish leaders both confirmed that the two great commandments, which encompassed all other commandments, were: ‘Love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ (Matthew 22:37 – 40; see also Mark 12:29 – 31; Luke 10:27).

Here we see both love for God and love for others. This is also true of what we call ‘the Ten Commandments’, where the first four commandments express love for God and the next six express love for others (Exodus 20:1 – 17).

These six other-centred commands all require us to respect the other person – that we will honour the other person, that we will not kill the other person, that we will not violate the other person’s marriage, that we will not steal the other person’s possessions, that we will not tell lies about the other person, that we will not desire to have what belongs to the other person.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus affirmed the permanence of these standards (Matthew 5:17 – 20), then pushed these standards even further. He pointed behind the letter of the Law to the lack of love and respect for others that was involved in breaking the commandments. On the basis of what Jesus taught in Matthew 5:21 – 48 we learn that loving one another involves:

A respect for one another that excludes not only murder, but also anger towards others and expressions of contempt for others (5:21, 22).

A respect for one another that prioritizes maintaining positive relationships (5:23, 24).

A respect for one another that deliberately pursues sexual purity (5:27 – 30).

A respect for one another that outlaws unjustifiable divorce (5:31, 32).

A respect for one another that prioritizes personal integrity and trustworthiness (5:33 – 37).

A love for one another that goes beyond normal cultural and legal expectations (5:38 – 42).

A love for others, that like the love of our Father, reaches out even to those who are our enemies (5:43 – 48).