By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. - 1 John 5:2-4 The Three Tests (vv. 2–4) When a birth takes place the individual involved is not born into isolation, nor is he a totally unique individual in the sense that his characteristics and attributes have no connection with those of people who have gone before. For one thing, he is born into a family and into family relations. For another, he possesses at least some of the characteristics of the one who has engendered him. Spiritually, this means that the child of God exhibits those characteristics about which the letter has been teaching. Love The first characteristic is love, both for the parent and for the other children. Earlier John has said that it is a characteristic of the child of God to love, since God is love (4:7–8). Now he shows equally that it is a characteristic of the child of God to be loved by those who are also members of God’s family. Verse 2 is not altogether unambiguous, however, as Dodd notes; for it can have two meanings. If the opening words “This is how” refer to what follows, as is generally the case in John’s writings, the meaning would be that if we are uncertain whether or not we love other Christians, we may reassure ourselves by determining whether or not we love God the Father. In other words, love of God becomes the fixed point from which we may determine our attitude to others. It may be said in support of this view that John undoubtedly held that love of God and love of man belong together, so that one may begin at either pole and arrive at the other. But the problem is that this form of reasoning is the opposite of what has been affirmed throughout the letter. It is by our love for one another that we are assured of our love for God; this is John’s reasoning. Besides, just a few verses earlier John has argued that we cannot love God unless we love others. The words of verse 2 are capable of another meaning, however, as Dodd shows in his careful discussion of the passage. In this reading the words “This is how” refer to what comes before. So the passage may be translated, “This is how [namely, the truth that if one loves the parent he inevitably loves the child] we know that, when we love God, we love the children of God and keep God’s commandments.” The logic would be: (1) Everyone who loves the parent loves the child; (2) every Christian is a child of God; (3) therefore, when we love God we love our fellow Christians. Dodd concludes, “He [John] assumes the solidarity of the family as a fact of ordinary experience, and argues directly from it to the solidarity of the family of God. To be born of God is to be born into a family, with obligations, not only towards the Father of the family, but also (as part of our obligation to him) towards all his children.” Love for others is therefore a direct result as well as an obligation of having become one of God’s children. Obedience Love divorced from obedience to the commands of God is not love, however. So John immediately passes from love to the matter of God’s commandments, saying, “This is love for God, to obey his commands.” Christians frequently attempt to turn love for God into a mushy emotional experience, but John does not allow this in his epistle. Love for the brethren means love that expresses itself “with actions and in truth” (3:18). Similarly, love for God means a love that expresses itself in obedience to his commandments. At this point John says a striking and unexpected thing. He says that “his commands are not burdensome.” This does not mean that total obedience to all the commands of God is an easy thing to achieve, for if that were so, Christians would not sin, and John says elsewhere that they do. John probably means two separate things by this statement. First, he may be thinking of the contrast Jesus made between the commands of the scribes and Pharisees, which were “heavy loads” (Matt. 23:4; cf. Luke 11:46), and his own commands, which were easy—“For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:30). The Pharisees had created thousands of minute requirements by which the central commands of the law were to be guarded. But they were not God’s commands, nor were they life-giving. They were burdensome. Jesus cut through these man-made rules to expose the central heart attitudes that were required but that God would himself supply in his regenerated people. Later Paul argued for liberty from such burdensome rabbinical requirements: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1). Similarly, Peter at the Jerusalem council argued in nearly the same terms in order to secure liberty for Gentiles: “Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are” (Acts 15:10–11). The second thing John is probably thinking of is suggested by this passage. Here he is writing of the new life Christians have from God and of the resulting love they bear to him. Without this life and love the commands of God, even in the form in which Christ gave them, could be burdensome. But now, the life of God within makes obedience to the commands possible, and the love the Christian has for God and for other Christians makes this obedience desirable. The principle is seen in many areas of life, as Barclay argues. “For love no duty is too hard and no task is too great. That which we would never do for a stranger we will willingly attempt for a loved one. That which we would never give to a stranger we will gladly give to a loved one. That which would be an impossible sacrifice, if a stranger demanded it, becomes a willing gift when love needs it. … Difficult the commandments of Christ are; burdensome they are not; for Christ never laid a commandment on a man without giving him the strength to carry it; and every commandment that is laid upon us provides another chance to show our love.” In all fairness, however, we must admit that there are times when Christians find the commandments of God to be grievous. For who has not heard some Christian complain at some time that God is unfair in expecting him or her to live up to some conditions, particularly when it runs counter to what the individual wishes to do? And what Christian has not done it himself, at least mentally? The last phrase is the clue to understanding the problem, however, for the commands of God become burdensome only when we desire to do something else. In that case, love for our own will dominates our love for God, and fellowship is broken; and what was intended for our good seems cruel and restrictive. The solution is to return to that position in which we love God with all our hearts and souls and minds. Faith The third of John’s tests is expressed in these verses as belief. Indeed, it is with this concept that the section both begins and ends (vv. 1, 5). Between belief that “Jesus is the Christ” and belief that “Jesus is the Son of God” is found John’s discussion of both love and obedience. The implication is that, just as it is impossible to have love without obedience or obedience without love, so also is it impossible to have either love or obedience without belief in Jesus as the Christ and the Son of God. It was to lead men and women to this twofold confession that John’s Gospel was written (John 20:30–31). John has talked about the content of the Christian’s faith several times before. The new element in these verses is that of victory, expressed as an overcoming of the world. This is found three times: once in the first half of verse 4, in the statement that whatever is born of God overcomes the world; once in the second half of verse 4, in the statement that the active ingredient in this victory is faith; and once, finally, in verse 5, in the rhetorical question “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” These three statements express three important principles. First, that which is victorious over the world is that which has its origins in God. Indeed, if it were not for the reality of that new life that springs from God and that is implanted within the Christian, no victory would be possible. John has already spoken of the world and its assaults on God’s people. There is the world without. John has spoken of this in chapter 2, verses 15–17, referring to the lure of the world as “the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does.” There is also the world within, which John has discussed in terms of those false teachers who pretended to be among God’s people but who were actually of the world, which they revealed by leaving the Christian assembly (2:19). How can any Christian resist such diverse and insidious evils? He could not were it not for the fact of the new birth and for the truth that he who is within the Christian is greater than he who is within the world. The second principle involved in the Christian’s victory is faith, which John defines as faith in Jesus as the Christ and as the Son of God. The importance of this confession is seen in contrast to the denial of these truths by the Gnostics. But the confession is equally important for our age. No one would deny that other points of doctrine are important. But since Jesus is the center of Christianity, obviously the truth about him is most important and, in fact, determines what is to be believed in other areas. The third principle of victory is faithfulness, which is, indeed, always involved in the idea of “faith” as the Bible defines it. It is not just a past overcoming that John is thinking of therefore [one of the occurrences of this word is in the aorist tense], but also a present overcoming [the other two occurrences are present] through a continuing and persevering faith in Jesus Christ. This is the same sense in which the word is used in Christ’s messages to the seven churches of Asia Minor in Revelation, where the phrase “to him who overcomes” occurs seven times. There, as in John, it is not a superior class of Christians that is involved, nor those who do some great work as the world might evaluate it. It is rather those who remain faithful to the truth concerning Jesus as the Christ and who continue to serve him. This the Christians to whom John is writing have done through their faithfulness in view of the Gnostic threat, and this all who truly know the Lord will do also. Indeed, in the broadest view the faithfulness is not theirs, but rather his who has brought them to spiritual life and who, as a result, has also led them to faith in Christ, a pursuit of righteousness, and love for other Christians. Boice, J. M. (2004). The Epistles of John: an expositional commentary (pp. 125–129). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 23:41:07 +0000
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