“Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.”

What is the purpose of any of the four gospels? The word “gospel” directly translates as “good news.” The point of each of the four gospels is to relay the good news of Jesus Christ – the life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, the Savior of the world. They each overlap in some areas, Matthew, Mark, and Luke more so than John, and they each have their own unique details. But each one, whether recounting genealogies, historical events, teachings, or miracles is all guiding you toward a singular thing – understanding Jesus Christ. This is the mission of the Christian, that we might grow in our understanding, and serve God in bringing others to understand the Truth, so it makes sense that our brothers in Christ who God used to pen His Word strive to this singular goal from many different angles. John was blatant concerning this in his gospel, driving at the point of Christ’s deity, of His oneness with God from the very beginning. We see this same persistence toward communicating the true nature of God, our relationship with Him, and who we are through Him in the letter of 1 John. As we address our understanding of the commandment we keep, the Light and Love of God, our relationship with sin and the world, and the position we have in relation to God and our brothers and sisters in Christ, we move in a sort of cyclical pattern, because it’s all related. Our understanding of each subject John addresses directly influences and is influenced by the subjects that come before and after it. 1 John systematically flows through and returns to these points and principles, all striving to the point that we better understand Jesus and who we are in Him. In today’s passage, as we close out chapter 3 of 1 John, we see another sort of culmination before we shift in subjects again, pointing us toward greater understanding of the Love of God, and what it means for us to practice this love, to carry out His commandments in the face of temptation and sin.

Changed in Love

1. Corrected by the Spirit of Love

There’s a curious dynamic between the person saved in Christ and sin. We addressed this in 1 John 2:1, where John wrote,

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

In our salvation we are freed from sin, the Spirit that indwells us is one, not of sin, but of the very opposite, righteousness. As we grow in this Spirit through the process of sanctification, we bear fruit in keeping with the repentance of our salvation, and we move pointedly away from sin – we crucify the flesh and its desires, not because it’s an obligatory practice of our religion, but because in the Light we can see sin for what it is, and we hate it. And yet we’ll still sin. There is a war that persists on this side of eternity, in that we contend with, and sometimes stumble on the block of temptation. But for the person redeemed in Christ, these stumblings are not a point of delight, or pride, or humor, but of conviction and shame. In Ephesians 4:17–24 Paul writes,

“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ! —assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Sin is no longer a comfort to us, because we know the true comfort of Christ. Last week we looked at our comprehension of Love by the sacrifice of Christ. We ended the passage with an absolute hammer blow of a question – if anyone in their abundance sees a brother in need and closes their heart against them, how can the Love of God possibly abide in them? The answer to the clearly rhetorical question is that it can’t. As we pick up in this week’s passage, we open with a practical calling in how we are to live in the Love of God,

“Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

We worship and honor God from a place of sincerity, not so that we may be seen or thought well of by others. Jesus teaches during the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:5–8

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

And James writes in James 1:22–25,

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”

We are not made righteous by works, but bring forth works when we are made righteous through faith. These acts of faith, hearts that seek God above all else, serve to justify who we have become in Christ. Today’s passage continues,

“By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.”

John 14:5–7 tells us,

“Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’”

And in John 17:17 Jesus prays,

“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”

The goal of every Christian is the desire expressed by John the Baptist in John 3:30,

“He must increase, but I must decrease.”

God is perfect, we are not, and so on this side of eternity we remain hampered in various ways by our flesh. The degree to which we succumb to temptation decreases as we are sanctified in Christ, but without the Love of God, we lack Truth, we lack guidance, and we know no correction. Jeremiah 17:9–10 says,

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? ‘I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

The human heart is a wicked, poisonous thing, corrupted by sin. But Ezekiel 36:24–27 shows a promise of immeasurable worth saying,

“I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

Without Love, we are lost, without Love we cannot know righteousness and only bring condemnation and destruction down upon ourselves. God understands the hearts of men – there is no mystery before Him, nothing that is hidden from His sight, and it is by Him that we are transformed. The divine revelation of the Spirit that is within us, the revealing Light of Christ gives insight and understanding. Through the Spirit we see our own wicked condition and through His hope we are led to repentance. 1 Corinthians 13:1 states,

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

If we lack Love, we lack Truth, we do not know any sincerity of action, and are reduced to only talk. If we stand on words alone, we have no correction, no conviction because we do not know God. We are a walking ball of good intentions that have no justifiable basis for what “good” is, we are lukewarm and self-serving. We lack all knowledge and understanding because we are estranged from the Teacher who understands everything. But in God we are given this education, we get to know the nature and qualities that separate Light from dark, Truth from lies, and we are pulled from a wasted existence into genuine and correcting Love. Jesus says to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3:17–19,

“For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,’ not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.”

The offered correction of the Love of God is beyond measurable value, and by it He shapes us as His own.

2. Assured by the Spirit of Love

As we’ve discussed, Love is, of its many qualities, a correcting force, and this correction shapes our relationship with sin. While we may still stumble at times, we see our sin for what it is. We no longer delight in what is wrong, but find disgust in unrighteousness, and this compounds over time, refining us. This isn’t instantaneous – the struggles and behavior of a baby Christian will not be the same as one who is mature in their faith, but it is this initial faith that grows and produces fruit that justifies us before God. Paul writes in Romans 5:1–2,

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

It is the developing process of this faith that guides us from a place of correction, to a place of assurance. John continues in today’s passage,

“Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God…”

The book of Job begins in verse 1, saying,

“There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.”

Concerning his children, Job 1:5 says,

“And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, ‘It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.’ Thus Job did continually.”

Before Jesus’ teachings during the Sermon on the Mount that anger in your heart against a brother is the spiritual equivalent to murder, or that lust in your heart is spiritual adultery, we have Job. A man who is called righteous, who “feared God and turned away from evil,” not based on appearances, but because he was concerned with the state of the heart. As our hearts become right under the Love of God, we can see how we pass from a place of reproof to one of confidence before God. It is the work and justification of this Love brought to us by faith that allows us to read the life changing, universe bending news of Hebrews 4:14–16, which states,

“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Nothing is the same under the Love of God, as we approach Him as His obedient children, appropriately guided by the heart of flesh that He has placed within us, to receive approval,  rather than wrath and judgement. Coming from this place of confidence, John continues in today’s passage,

“… and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.”

I’ve said this before, and I’ll doubtless say it again in the future – God is not a genie. Or, as I’ve heard Dennis Prager put it, “People think God is some kind of heavenly butler.” This is not who God is, and it’s not how prayer works. While other examples exist, Jesus gives us a blueprint for prayer in Matthew 6:7–13, a passage we visited earlier, saying,

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

This isn’t a prayer of asking for whatever you want, but of surrendering your own will to God’s, and asking for His provision above all else. Scripture does tell us to bring our worries and concerns before God, but in proper context. 1 Peter 5:6–7 says,

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

This again shows that submission before God comes before any petition or request – our fullness is found in Him, in our desires fading before His will. Jesus is thorough on the principle John writes about here, of asking and receiving anything of the Father. In Matthew 7:7–11 Jesus says,

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

In John 15:7–8 He says,

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”

And in John 16:22–24 He says,

“So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”

If we look at the Matthew passage we see the statement, “how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” God is not your Father if you’re not doing the work of God. While we may all be the biological children of mortal men, as we discussed earlier in 1 John 3, we are spiritually divided into children of God and children of the Devil – you are the child of whoever you obey. Looking at the John passages we see this supported. “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you,” is the qualifier given in John 15, while we see, “whatever you ask of the Father in my name,” used in John 16. To the one who is a child of God, an heir with Christ, who abides in the Word and the Word in him, who asks, not in the name of self, but in the name of the Savior in whom we are justified, there is nothing held back, God provides in abundance. This is the security and assurance we know in the Spirit of Love that indwells us.

3. Commanded by the Spirit of Love

“And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.”

As we looked at through the matter of prayer, obedience before God is not some chaotic, impulsive thing. There is an ordered, sequential nature to obeying the ultimate commandment of God. Matthew 22:35–40 records one of the many events where the ruling Jews sought to trip Jesus up over technicalities and legalism, saying,

“And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’”

The Law itself was vast, and the ruling Jews had only heaped their own rules and qualifiers onto what God had given. But Jesus doesn’t play along with their game and cites Deuteronomy 6:4–9,

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

This practice of binding the Law “as a sign on your hand,” and “as frontlets between your eyes,” as well as writing them “on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,” were all practiced literally by the Jewish people. But what the religious leaders had neglected was that this supreme distillation of the Law, that you Love God above all else with all that you are was to be written on your heart. Jesus clarifies the second commandment that you love your neighbor as yourself, because you cannot love God and not love your neighbor. Jesus tells His disciples in John 15:12–15

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”

If we are corrected by Love, it is because its commandment resonates within us. If we are assured by Love, it is because the commandment we obey has been used to change and redeem us. The commandment is our calling, it is the path we walk, it is the guiding of the Spirit that overcomes the world. If you say that you love God but hate your brother, then you are a liar. If you say that you love your brother, but do not know God, then you are a liar. You cannot love the Son apart from the Father, or the Father apart from the Son, or love your brother if you do not know the One who is Love – this is the foundation, the commandment from which all others spring forth.

“Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.”

Jesus says in John 15:9–11,

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

Love is our foundation, our base. It is the Vine from which we grow, the Water that never runs dry, the Light that teaches and guides. We dwell in the Love of God, and by the Spirit He has given us, Love dwells within us. The commandments call us, they bring the Love to action in our lives. Jesus says in John 14:23,

“… If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

This is the promise of the Love of God – that through His commandments we may be assured, and corrected, that we may know God even on this side of eternity, and that even after this universe is burned up and gone, we will have only grown closer to our Father, facing eternity in the presence of the One who is Love.

Pastor Chris’ sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ8u_eSugH4