Yesterday, we looked at the kind of love God has given to His children. It is very different than anything that the world labels as “love.” Indeed, it is a foreign concept to us as we are born into this world and will remain so unless and until God gives it to us.
Today, through John, God calls believers to love each other with the love that He has given them.
When a craftsman works to make objects out of precious metals, he will stamp a mark onto each object that he makes - called a “hallmark.” That mark is unique - no other metalworker can use it. When an object bears such a mark, it shows that the object is authentic - a genuine creation of the one who made it. Other pieces of metalwork may look impressive but without the maker’s mark, they are at the best mere imitations of the real thing.
The same is true in the spiritual realm, and one of the hallmarks God places on His true children is that they love each other with the very different kind of love that God has given them in making them His children.
So when we come to a passage like the one above and read about “love,” we shouldn’t bring to it the world’s understanding of what love is, because that is a cheap and tawdry mockery of the real thing. We should understand that John is still talking about the kind of love that God has given to believers in order to call them His children.
I have substituted the word “love” in the passage above with the Greek word, “agape” to try to help us understand that John is talking about something different here than the world’s concept of “love”. I am not a Greek student, so I know I haven’t used Greek tenses here but that isn’t the point. Read the passage through slowly and realize that John here is talking about this idea of love that is foreign to the world but lives in God’s children because He has given it to them and called them by His Name. John (who is called “The Apostle of Love”) argues that because these things are true, there are certain inevitable consequences:
- The only people who can agape one another are the ones who have been born of God and who know God (v 7). No one else can love like this! Take another look at yesterday’s post to see something of how different this love is from anything that is called “love” in the world.
- If you don’t demonstrate this agape in your life, you don’t know God, because He is agape and He gives agape to His children when He adopts them into His family (vs 8).
- As we saw yesterday, God demonstrated His agape when He sent Jesus into the world and ultimately to the cross so that those who believe in Him might have eternal life. (v 9).
- Again, God takes the initiative in this matter of agape. He doesn’t agape us because we first agape'd Him. Not at all. He demonstrated His agape for us by sending Jesus into the world to die for us while we were still sinners - still His enemies (v 10, Romans 5:8).
- If that is the kind of agape God has for us, then we who are God’s children (the beloved) should manifest the same kind of agape for one another (v 11).
- When we exhibit this agape toward one another, and since God is agape, we manifest God to a world that has never seen Him (v 12).
So this love of God, this agape, becomes a hallmark that shows who are the true children of God. The world cannot love each other in this way, only His children can. That is why Jesus said this:
John 13:35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have agape for one another.”
So let’s take this to heart. If we are God’s children, let’s agape each other more and more. Let’s not allow ourselves to be conformed to the world’s thinking of “love” when it has been given to us to both experience and to show forth the agape of God - and so to manifest God to the world and to show that we are the disciples of Jesus!
If you haven’t been born of God, don’t try to agape others in your own strength. This love comes as a gift when you turn from sin and trust in the work of Jesus alone to save you. Then God will give you His agape, call you by His Name, and enable you to agape all whom He has adopted into His family!
