Jesus demonstrated His love by dying in our place. This is the perfect example and the highest standard of love.
I vividly remember studying through the epistles of the Apostle John in my first year of Bible college. For such a short series of books, it evoked a lot of debate. The central theme is love. At the time, we were high minded intellectuals, fresh out of high school and still in our teenage years. Yet, we still thought we knew everything there was to know about love. Now, almost two decades later, I’m married, pastoring a church, leading a media ministry, and I still haven’t figured it all out.
Love is a subject that captures our attention. It’s an ideal that is held out for us as the solution for all our troubles. If we just had love, everything would be perfect. But, why then, do we have so many problems? Love has been reimagined and appropriated by every generation to mean something different. The more we try to define it, the more it eludes us.
The Apostle John is known as the disciple Jesus loved. Granted, he gave himself that monicker, but not without credence. When Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him, the bombastic disciple pointed to John as if to say, “What about him, he’s your favorite. He’s the one you really love.” He hadn’t quite comprehended the complexities of Christ’s love. John, however, seemed to get it right away. He never questioned the love of Jesus or felt that there was something he had to do to earn His favor. John had a unique relationship with Jesus and is able to teach us a great deal about a complex subject.
If the Gospel of John was written evangelistically so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we may have life in His name, then the Epistles of John were written so that we might have fellowship with God, through His Son Jesus Christ and so that our joy may be complete. In other words, the Gospel account gives us insight into who Jesus is and these letters teach us how to have a close relationship with Christ.
A Physical Example
The Gospel of John is a narrative picture of God’s love. From the very beginning, even before the world was created, God loved us. It was love which compelled God to give us His only Son so that we might have our relationship with the Creator restored.
Jesus embodies the nature of God in the form of our human flesh. He is gentle, yet firm with everyone He encounters. As you read about Him in the Gospel of John you cannot deny that He is the very embodiment of true love. He weeps with those who weep, He has a tailored approach to everyone He encounters, and He is gentle with the disciples who abandon Him in His final hour.
John had experienced this first hand. He was with Jesus when He healed the sick, comforted the broken hearted, and confronted the religious leaders. He had sat under Jesus’ direct teaching and absorbed the radiance of the Light of the World. He was the only disciple present at the foot of the cross. John then takes all of the teaching of Jesus and boils it down for us into three simple words, “God is Love.” No one has ever seen God, but John tells us that we can know Him by looking to Jesus.
A Personal Relationship
Much of John’s letters to the Church draw from a conversation Jesus had with His disciples on the night that He was betrayed. As the final hours before His death ticked away, Jesus reassures them of a unique bond they share with God and each other. Jesus says, “I am the true vine...” (John 15). This image of a vine is also how we should understand our own relationship to our Lord. We are connected to God through Jesus. We are made children of God through Christ. We are no longer servants, but friends. As long as we abide in Christ and He abides in us, we are connected to our heavenly Father.
With this renewed relationship we are given a new commandment. Only, it’s not really new. It is the same commandment since before time. As Jesus has loved us, we ought to love one another. We are a family now, and families share similar characteristics. If we are truly children of God, then we will be like Him.
Jesus demonstrated His love by dying in our place. This is the perfect example and the highest standard of love. By this, everyone would know that we are Christ’s disciples, if we love each other in the same manner. Jesus laid down His life for us and we are called to lay down our lives as well. We must die to ourselves. We cannot love God any other way.
A Spiritual Help
Love is more than a choice or an emotion. It is the power that transforms us into the image of Christ. Yet, if all we needed was love, there would be no reason for John to exhort us to love and good works. We need to be reminded of the gospel and obedient in loving others in order to be sanctified. We are not fully transformed yet, but love is the driving force at work under the surface.
The expression of God’s love is so beautiful that it can lead us into thinking that we are loved because we are lovely. Our old nature is dead, yes, but it is still there, decaying inside of us. We have grown accustomed to it’s stench, but we can smell it in others. This fuels our own self-righteousness and, with it, a love for self that is unhealthy. But if we confess our sins, we are not only forgiven, we are also reminded of the manner of God’s love toward us which humbles us and motivates us to love as we have been loved.
There is also a way for a believer to feel that they are unworthy of God’s love. By refusing to accept the forgiveness made possible by Jesus’ death on the cross, we are not honoring God. If we dwell on our own sins we will find ourselves unable to forgive those who have sinned against us. Jesus’ death not only demonstrates the extent of God’s love, but it also shows us that the penalty for our sin has been paid. Jesus died the death we deserved to die and became the propitiation for our sins, absorbing the full wrath of God so that we might know that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
God’s love is beyond our comprehension. Fortunately, He has given us a resource to help us understand this precious gift. The Holy Spirit resides in us to convict us of sin, comfort us in our guilt and shame, and guide us in comprehending the breadth, length, height, and depth of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. And since every believer has been indwelt by the Spirit of God, we are knit together in a way that supersedes all our differences. We are children of God, joint heirs with Christ, and one in the Spirit. Together, we will overcome the world.