Evidence of Faith - 2 - Gods Word For You

THOUGHTS FROM JOHN’S LETTERS

THE EVIDENCE OF TRUE FAITH - 2

In the previous meditation we saw that John says that obeying God’s commands is the evidence of genuine faith in Christ. To give clearer definition to this obedience, in 2:5 John connects obedience and love: ‘if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him.’ In the verses that follow, John makes it clear that love is the evidence of true faith:

2:9 – 11: ‘Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light ... whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.’

And later in his letter:

3:11, 14, 15: ‘This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another ... We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.’

3:23, 24: ‘... this is his command: ... to love one another as he has commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them.’

4:7, 8: ‘Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.’

4:16: ‘... God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.’

4:20, 21: ‘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. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.’

This critical significance of love raises the question ‘What is love?’

John answers this question in his letter:

‘This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us’ – 3:16.

‘This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins’ – 4:10.

The love of God for us, demonstrated in and by his Son, is both the reason we are to love another, and the definition and measure of love.

The command to love is not new. It is the second of the two great commands: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’. But this demonstration of love in the incarnation and death of the Son of God, gives a whole new dimension to love and a whole new understanding of love.

Jesus, using his washing of the disciples’ feed as a symbol of his sin-cleansing death, said:

‘Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you’ – John 13:14, 15.

Then, in the same conversation, Jesus said:

‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another’ – John 13:34, 35.

And later that same evening:

‘My command is: Love each other as I have loved you’ – John 15:12.

Jesus Christ, both in his person and in his saving work has given ‘love’ a renewed and more precise definition. The Old Testament commanded love. It also commanded in God’s people a compassion that reflected the compassionate love of God towards them. But in Jesus Christ we see more clearly what God’s love for us really looks like, and what ‘love’ demands of us. Jesus shines his light not only on the nature of God, but also on the nature of love. When he commands us to ‘love one another as I have loved you’ the whole idea of love becomes immeasurable.

Both John and Jesus affirm that loving one another is the evidence of true faith in Jesus Christ. As with the evidence of obedience, this evidence of love is about the on-going characteristic, the habitual practice, of our life. In 1John 2:8 – 11, the verbs ‘hates’ and ‘loves’ are both in the Present tense. A life characterised by hate is evidence that a person is still living in the darkness, that that person simply does not know Jesus Christ, the light of the world. In contrast, the person who knows Jesus Christ, and is therefore walking in the light, will live a life characterised by love. That is the evidence of true faith.