Abiding Love

Reflective Reading: 1st John 4

If you’ve ever studied the first letter that the Apostle John wrote, you would know that his dominant theme was “love.”  He repeated it 49 times! Now, that’s a lot of love for such a small book! Let’s find out why. Our focus will be chapter 4, verses 7-21.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

“By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1st John 4:7-21).

Again, that’s a lot of love! So what is John trying to teach us about love? Remember, it is often not “what” the Bible means but “how” it means it. Like a painter who uses light to draw attention to a certain truth he's trying to portray, John is using structure to convey a central truth. If you look closely at these 29 times the word “love” appears, you will notice that in the center (verses 13-15), there is a surprising absence of “love.”

This absence of the word “love” is what John used to structure his treatise. Through this structure below, John highlights three central truths. These truths are found in verses 13-15. Let’s take a look:

• We abide in God

• God abides in us

     God has given us the gift of his Spirit
     Father testifies that Jesus is the Savior of the world
     We confess that Jesus is the Son of God

• God abides in him

• He abides in God

This is literary craftsmanship of the highest level…a brilliant masterpiece of art and theology woven together! Who repeats a word 29 times in fourteen sentences and then makes an obvious omission of the word in the very middle? Only someone who was intentionally conveying truth/meaning through the combination of design and theology. It really is a masterpiece!

Let’s look at the structure. John is surrounding three central truths, (the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Father testifying that Jesus is the Savior of the world, and our confession that Jesus is the Son of God), with the repeated word “abide.” The word “abide” appears six times in chapter 4 and twenty-two times altogether in First John. Again, that’s a lot of repetition. What is John trying to convey with all this repetition of love and abide?

Before we answer this question let’s first define the word “abide.” This is a word that has many meanings but can best be understood as: to continue, dwell, endure, remain, to be held, to be present, or (even better) to be at home. John is teaching us that when God is most at home in us and we are most at home in him, then there will be three primary truths that are central to our lives:

1. The reality of the Holy Spirit living within us, guiding, protecting, and convicting us.
2. Fully confident that Jesus is our Savior and the Savior of the world.
3. Fully convinced that Jesus is the Son of God, and this is proven by our confession.

At the time this was written, there was a lot of controversy surrounding these three truths. John was writing this to confirm two realities; the realities that he uses to introduce this chapter:

“By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist”…(4:2,3).

John was making his argument crystal clear to the churches—you either possess the Spirit of God who will help you overcome the world, enabling you to love your brother, or you possess the spirit of antichrist, which keeps you worldly minded, influencing you to hate others. This distinction would be further accentuated by the believers' confession that Jesus, their Savior, the Son of God, had made this new life of love possible.

John now builds upon this teaching as he writes in the next sentence:

“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (or God is at home in him) (16).

Do you see it? Whoever abides in love!!! What does he mean? Let’s look at the next verse:

“By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world.”

Do you see the words “as he is”? This is referring to “God is love.” Just as God is love, so are we to be “in this world.” And if the primary characteristic of our life is love, then God will be most at home in us, and we will be most at home in him. The phrase, “By this is love perfected with us,” refers to what happens when we walk in love, or moreover, when we practice love. The more we practice love, the more this love is perfecting us. And the more this love perfects us, the more God is at home in us. The more God is at home in us, the more we will be led by the Spirit to testify that Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior of the world. And there will be no greater proof of these truths than for people to see us love one another.

Sincerely,

Mark Hamby

M.S., M. Div., Th. M., D. Min.

Recommended Reading:

A Faith That Is My Own (Ages 6+)

Courage of Nikolai book and audiobook (Ages 9+)

Overtaken: The Wild Lad of London (Ages 12+)