How have you loved us? 1 John 4:7-5:5

'“I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you say, “How have you loved us?”' (Malachi 1:2).

I picture these people, arms crossed and chins lifted, with Oh, really? written all over their raised eyebrows. They dared God to show them evidence of His love. 

When we read “God is love”, declared twice between 1 John 4:7-5:5, I wonder if we secretly ask the same question that Israel asked thousands of years ago. The grand, eternal scale of God’s love seems so elaborate, that perhaps everyday life raises doubts about whether His love is tangible in our personal experiences. Or maybe we think Israel was justified in their stance since Jesus had not yet come to earth.

If the people of Israel unrolled an inspired scroll and rolled up their sleeves with a passion to find answers, the record of how they had experienced God’s love would have been clear long before Jesus appeared. Throughout the plotline of history, God had been lavishing covenant-keeping, unfailing love and kindness on His children.

Peering over Israel’s shoulders, we can ask if there's really evidence of His love for them and for us:

Has God answered any specific prayers you prayed? 

That was His love. Genesis 24:12-21

Has God ever taken the little you had and made much of it? 

That was His love. Genesis 32:10

Has God shown kindness in unfair circumstances? 

That was His love. Genesis 39:21

Has God ever forgiven you? 

That was His love. Numbers 14:19

Did God bring redemption when all hope was lost? 

That was His love. Ruth 2:20

Has God brought you relief from self-inflicted hardship? 

That is His love. Ezra 9:6-9

Has God stayed when He could have left? 

That is His love. Nehemiah 9:17

Has God been with you in your anguish? 

That is His love. Psalm 31:7

Has God been merciful to you in your sin? 

That is His love. Psalm 51:1

Did you ever have a season of flourishing? 

That was God’s love. Psalm 52:8

Did you ever feel fortified with strength? 

That was God’s love. Psalm 59:16

Has God delivered you from the depths? 

That was His love. Psalm 86:13

Did you ever fear slipping, but you were supported? 

That was God’s love. Psalm 94:18

Jesus is the climax of this love and our reason to exclaim, “How you have loved us!” 

Greater Than, 1 John 3:11-4:6

When I begin to peel back the layers on a quality like love, it’s tempting to hold it out like a specimen to analyze so I don’t have to hold it up like a mirror to my heart. I’d rather make notations on the facts about it than note how I’ve failed at it. Jesus’ standard for love is high. His love gave life instead of taking it, extended life instead of destroying it. 

The first set of brothers got love all wrong from the beginning, and their relationship ended in murder. Maybe we think Cain’s example of hate is extreme, and we protest, “I would lay down my life!” Peter announced he would do that for Jesus, yet in the warmth of a fire, three times denied even knowing Jesus. Isn’t it easier to love through hypothetical claims and flowery words instead of through personal sacrifice? It’s certainly more convenient for me to send an email with love than to make a meal with love.  

When I don’t measure up to Jesus’ love, my heart condemns me. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words explains that condemn means, “to know something against”. Your heart might have stored away something against you that no one else knows and you hope no one ever discovers: hateful thoughts toward someone, a heart closed off from someone's need, unloving actions against someone.  Maybe your heart occasionally regurgitates the mess it holds against you, and you choke it down, uncertain how God might respond if all came out. 

But God doesn’t just “know something against” you; He knows all the things, just like He knew Peter before and after his denial. God is greater than your heart. 

He counted all your sins that condemned Jesus, and His forgiveness tips the scales in your favor. His forgiveness is greater, so we confess what our heart condemns. 

What he says about you carries more weight than the accusations of your heart. His Word is greater, so we believe His truth, not our heart's lies. 

He knows everything regarding your life and still didn’t withhold His life. His love is greater, so we receive it in place of condemnation. 

Jesus gave Peter a way to act on his love: “Feed My sheep”, He said. Put love in action to silence condemnation. Active love consoles an accusing heart, because it’s evidence of the greater love on the inside. If love like this was easy and natural, it wouldn't need to be commanded, and we wouldn't need God's help.

Perhaps in addition to accusations from the inside, you face assaults from the outside. There may be people in your life who are anti-Christ, claiming He isn’t really God in the flesh, like you’ve been told. Sadly, their opposition comes as no surprise, since the world crucified the One we follow. But God is not only greater than your heart, God is also greater than the one who is in the world. His Spirit in you is greater than the presence of darkness around you. 

Do you feel like He's not there or not listening? The starting point for a healthy relationship with God is to follow His first and foremost commands: trust in Jesus, and love one another. Even our private prayers to Him are inseparably intertwined with living obediently to Him in these ways.  But if we’ve ignored these two commands which He has already clearly spoken, why would He speak any further in response to our prayers? 

We’ll keep holding Jesus’ love up like a mirror to our hearts, because no matter how far short we fall, God is greater. 

For John’s record of Jesus and Peter, see John 13:37,38; 15:13; 18:17-27; 21:15-17

Look Three Ways, 1 John 2:28-3:10

Whenever I read a confusing part of scripture, it can be daunting! It reminds me of the stage we’re in right now, teaching our 16 year old how to drive. We come to a busy intersection, and I wonder, will we make it to the other side?!  There’s so much going on and so much to consider! But I take a deep breath at the intersection and remind my son to look three ways: the way you’re headed and the two other directions. 

Similarly, I can start to navigate my way through scripture if I look three ways:

1. Look for clarity. What is straightforward in these verses? So often we skip this step! Our God is a communicating God who has spoken intentionally, so I start by asking Him to show me what is clear.

2. Look at THIS book. What else does this particular book say that could help clarify any confusion? The Spirit of God used specific authors to write specific words for a specific audience, so it’s best to consider the whole message of a book to avoid getting stuck in one place.

3. Look through THE Book. What does the rest of scripture say that might clarify an issue? Since God’s Spirit is the primary source, His message will be consistent across the pages of the Bible. 

 We’ll divide 2:28-3:10 into two parts, and below each section are other passages of scripture that help interpret the Spirit’s message here. 

Transformation in Christ (1 John 2:28-3:3)

Since Jesus is righteous, then those living like Him show that they have been born again. We don’t earn our rebirth by right living; we show our rebirth by it. Remember that one of the goals in 1 John is to recognize what eternal life looks like in real life. The internal spiritual change becomes something visible on the outside, just like fruit on a tree shows what type of seed it came from and just like kids reflect their parents. On the topic of being reborn, John can’t help but explode with a joyful insertion that becoming God’s child is evidence of the Father’s incredible love! 

Christ showed the world who the Father was, but the world missed out on seeing Him. Don’t expect the world to accurately describe God’s children or pick them out in a crowd; since they don’t know the Father, they won’t notice the resemblance to Him in His children. Only when you know the dad well enough, do you recognize his kids.

The more clearly we see who Jesus is, the more we become like Him, and our transformation into His image will be complete once we’re face to face. This future meeting motivates us to take active steps toward His purity, growing into an identity we will one day fully claim as our own. His perfection will finally replace our sin entirely, but not until we’re in His presence; this is key to understanding what John will say about sin in the next section. 

(Check out Matthew 7:16-20; 2 Corinthians 3:18, 4:4,16; Ephesians 2:4-10; Philippians 3:21; 2 Timothy 4:7,8; James 2:26; 1 Peter 1:3,22,23; 1 John 5:1)

A lifestyle of sin vs. a lifestyle of righteousness (1 John 3:4-10)

It’s possible that sin was being taken lightly, excused, or ignored by false teachers in that day. John previously emphasized the reality of sin and the need to confess it (1:8-2:2), and now he emphasizes the nature of sin and Jesus’ confrontation of it. Sin is serious.

A sin pattern is described as:

Practicing lawlessness (3:4)

Not seeing and knowing Jesus (3:6)

Being of the devil (3:8)

Jesus’ first appearing was in order to: 

Take away sins (3:5)

Destroy the works of the devil (3:8)

The devil himself has been unchanged from the beginning; he just keeps on sinning. There is no gospel message for him, no repentance, no rebirth, no pivot, growth, or transformation. As he was when he first rebelled, so he is now.  He doesn’t struggle against sin - he’s defined by it. An unrepentant, continuous sin pattern like his demonstrates that a person is in alignment with the devil, not with Christ. A track record of only opposing what Jesus came to do is not characteristic of God’s children. 

In those of us who embrace Jesus as Savior, God interjects a new, righteous nature that wrestles against the old, lawless nature. We have the choice to “put off” the old self and “put on” the new, and this alerts us to a war between the Spirit and our flesh. Though it’s a constant battle between the two until we see Jesus, we have the power to say no to sin and yes to godliness when we draw from our new identity. Jesus’ death for us paid for our sin eternally; Jesus’ life in us overcomes our sin daily. His Spirit empowers His Word so that we join Him in His work from the inside out, pulling up sin like weeds and growing the kind of fruit that looks like Him on the outside.

 (Check out Romans 6:6-12; 7:15-8:11; 2 Corinthians 5:17,21; Galatians 5:16-25; Ephesians 4:20-24; Titus 2:11-14) 

If you’re weary from sin’s battle and tempted to lay down your defenses in agreement with the accusation, take heart, child of God, and go back to foundational truth: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us” because of our “advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.” 1 John 1:9-2:1

Abide in Him, since He abides in you. 

The Story of a Garden, a Vineyard, and a Body

Long ago, a Gardener spoke a sprawling garden into existence, filling it with abundant life and calling it very good. But life in the garden disagreed with the Gardener’s terms and rejected His perfect conditions. To its own destruction, the garden went its own way. 

The Gardener was not finished with His work; giving life was in His nature, and it was His delight. He had his eye on a scraggly grapevine wilting under the Egyptian sun, and His heart was stirred by its pathetic state.  Instead of cutting it down or letting it die, He uprooted it by hand and carried it with Him until He brought it to a land flowing with milk and honey. There, he transplanted the vine and tended it faithfully until it flourished. “In days to come,” He resolved, “the whole world will be filled with its fruit.” 

But upon growing strong, it turned against the Gardener, resisting His clipping, His watering, and His care. It declared that it was better off free from the Gardener’s routines, and although multiple attempts were made to restore it, it refused to be brought back. It shriveled to nothing.

“What more can I do that I have not already done?” the Gardener thought. In an act of merciful intervention, the Gardener sent His Son.  “I am the true vine.” The Son explained, “Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he is the one who bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.” 

The Son put Himself in the place of the cursed garden and lifeless vine. To the branches who had fallen and withered in their rejection of His Father, He offered the life in his veins as the source for the whole world to tap into and flourish. 

Those who embrace Him are infused with His DNA and deemed children of His Father.  All who abide in Him, deeply rooted, develop fruit in their lives that looks a lot like the Son’s life: His love transforms their love, and His perfection perfects them. 

But the enemy has been working since the beginning to shame the dependent and embarrass the needy. “You got this far - can’t you take it from here? Only the weak need Him that badly!” he taunts. What he's covering up with his lies is that drawing life from Jesus actually grows confidence. When Jesus' likeness has been developing in his dependent, then there will be no reason to shrivel like a raisin in the sun when He appears face to face. In expectation of that day, cultivate your attachment to Him. Abide.

Outlasting the Last Days, 1 John 2:15-27

I’ve been to a few graduation parties this summer, and I always smile at the snapshots that do their best to capture 18 years of a student’s life up to that point. From chubby baby to present day, so much has happened, and so much has changed! If I know the graduate well enough, this is the moment my eyes well up quite enough. 

At one party, we were given a slip of paper and asked to put a piece of advice for the graduate into a jar. Hmm. I immediately try to summarize just one single, memorable lesson from my life that might be helpful in theirs. What’s the message from me to them as they go out into the world? Because the world certainly has a message for them. If the world strutted into their grad party, it would throw into the jar all the advice it has ever given to billions of graduates across time:

Put yourself first. 

Take whatever looks good. 

Find security in success.  

It’s a message that defines everything about the world, and, upon examination, it’s a message all about what to love. Paul explained the kind of love people would have in the last days, and it sounds strikingly similar to John’s description of the world:

Love of self

Love of pleasure

Love of money

Why is love spoken of with such caution - to the young, to the old, to graduates? Because, what we love takes us along with it for a shared future. If the world can direct our love, it will direct our steps into its own destiny. Illustrating individually what John warned corporately, Paul grieved that Demas “loved this present world”, and it resulted in his desertion of the faith. He didn’t last, because he chased what couldn’t last. To love the world is to reject the Father’s love, most clearly understood in Christ. No one can have the Father’s love without the Son, the only way to the Father.  John says that taking an anti-Christ position reveals a lack of belief in the heart from the beginning and also that the world’s expiration date is near. 

Since the world isn’t forever, don’t love what doesn’t last. 

But the Spirit lasts forever, present in a life from the very beginning of someone embracing Christ, and He is the ultimate teacher regarding who Jesus truly is. His original and genuine gospel message joins believers forever to the Son and to the Father; anyone who teaches something additional or alternate is a counterfeit. In Christ, God’s promise of eternal life becomes personal everlasting life, because He takes us along with Him for a shared future.

And so, graduate, as you go out into the world, love what lasts.