We Know That God Is Love

1 John 3:14,16 - "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

The major theme throughout the First epistle of John is the love of God. One of the things that we know about God is that God is love. This is one of His attributes. And we know what love looks like by gazing at the Lord Jesus Christ in His Word. In this passage the apostle presents as the greatest example of love the fact that the Lord Jesus laid down His life for us. The apostle Paul says the same thing in Romans chapter 5 and verse 8 where we read - "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." The love of God is seen all throughout the Scriptures, every action of God is governed by His love. But His love is seen the most clearly in the action of the Lord Jesus Christ dying in our place.

When it comes to the subject of the love of God I almost feel at a loss for words. There is so much that could be said, we could spend eternity exploring the depths of Gods love and not exhaust the subject. The hymn writer put it this way:

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

Now, having said that I just want to focus on one aspect of the love of God, and that is the practical effect that the love of God has on us. There is a practical response to Gods love, and that's what the apostle John touches on in these two verses. In both of these verses the apostle is talking about how Gods love effects our love for one another, that is, other believers.

First, in verse 14 he says - "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death." Our love for one another is actually the evidence of our salvation. The Lord Jesus says the same thing in John 15:35 - "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." But hold on a second. I thought we were talking about the attribute of Gods love, and we seem to have switched topics to the love of the brethren. What's the deal? What we need to realize is that the love of the brethren, our love for one another actually is an aspect of Gods love. We see this in John 15:12 when the Lord Jesus says to His disciples - "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you." The Lord Jesus commands His disciples to love one another just as He has loved us. How has the Lord Jesus loved us? Perfectly. Selflessly. Without restraint. Can you love in this way? This seems a little far fetched doesn't it? But this is a commandment nonetheless, and it's a commandment that is along the same lines as those found in Mark 12:30-31 - “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Can we love in this way? Can we love as God loves? In all honesty, no, we cannot love in this way. We don't have the capacity or ability to love in this way. However, the Lord never commands us to do something that He doesn't also enable us to do. Since we as believers have the eternal loving God living within us, He can (and desires to) live His life through us and therefore demonstrate His love through us as well. And so John picks up the thought in 1 John 3:14 that this love being demonstrated through us is the one of the evidences that we have passed out of death into life. And then in verse 16 he talks about the extent to which Gods love is willing to go. "We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." The love of God caused Him to lay down His life for us, and since that very same love is indwelling us, the same practical working out of that love should follow. If His love caused Him to lay down His life then His love ought also to cause us to lay down our lives for one another. This is how the love of God manifests itself. If my life is not picturing this then I need to ask myself, is the love of God really dwelling within me? Whatever is inside of us is going to come out. If Gods love is filling us then Gods love will overflow from us. "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." And laying down our lives for the brethren doesn't only mean being willing to die in their stead. There are small ways that we can live this out with one another everyday, and that's what we go on to read in verses 17-18 - "But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth." I am very good at coming up with excuses about why I don't need to help my brothers and sisters in Christ in one area or another. But according to this passage if I see them in need and shut my heart against them then how can the love of God abide in me? Let us not only love in word or in tongue but in deed and in truth. This is how Christ loves, and this is how He desires to love through us. 

1 John 3:14,16 - "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."