Benefits of Loving One Another – Part Two

1 John 3:19-24

April 27, 2003

 

            Take your Bibles and turn with me to 1 John 3:19. 1 John 3:19. We will be reading from verse 19 to verse 24. Follow along with me as I read the text. Read text. Let’s pray.

            The Holy Spirit plays a vital role in the life of the believer, yet the Holy Spirit is perhaps the most misunderstood person in the Trinity. When you think about the Trinity, the idea of God as Father is probably the most accepted idea and concept in the Trinity. Jews, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims, and many others recognize the basic concept of a powerful God who is infinite spirit. These false religions that all deny the deity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, all will accept some form of the idea of God the Father, although not the biblical one. But God the Father is perhaps the most basic conception that people have about God.

            God the Son is less understood and less accepted than God the Father. Jesus is not recognized as God by anyone except Christians. Yet all true Christians will agree on the basic doctrine of Christ as fully God and fully man, and His role as Savior of the world is not something that Christians will dispute. As difficult as it is to understand the dual-nature of Jesus, Christians readily embrace this truth of Jesus being the God-Man.

            But when it comes to the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity – an infinite, omnipotent Spirit who is a distinct person from God the Father and God the Son – confusion often abounds. Many people who regularly attend church, if asked who the Holy Spirit is and what His role is in this world today, would not be able to give a clear, biblical answer. Many people may not think He has much of a role at all since we are not seeing miracles like those that He performed in the book of Acts. Others may credit Him with doing things He is not doing, seeing a role for the Spirit in the church that is not clearly taught in Scripture. When the Holy Spirit comes to mind, we often may think of miraculous events, – healings, speaking in tongues, prophesying – but do we understand His role in our day-to-day lives as believers? What is the role and function of the Holy Spirit in the church today?

            This question is one that is far too profound to exhaust in one sermon, especially when it comes to what are commonly called the “gifts of the Spirit,” but John does have a few words for us this morning about what we can understand about the Holy Spirit and what He is doing in our world today, especially within those who are part of the church.

            In his letter John does not mention the Holy Spirit in connection to any sort of gifts of the Spirit as we would commonly think of them. Instead, John discusses the Holy Spirit’s role in our everyday walk with God. Part of our walk with God, our fellowship with God, consists of abiding in God and of God abiding in us. John mentions the concept of this abiding several times throughout his letter. In fact, part of the definition of a Christian for John is someone who abides in God and in whom God abides. His major discussion of this theme is found in chapter 2, verses 18 through 27, which we looked at in some detail. The whole section ends with the words, abide in Him. Unlike the antichrists who abandoned the truth of Christ, the true believer is someone who abides in the truth, and thereby abides in Christ. But not only does the believer abide in Christ, but Christ also abides in the believer.

            In verse 20 of chapter two we had the first reference to the Holy Spirit, and He was called an anointing. He was sent by the Son from the Father to all true believers, and one of His priorities in the lives of believers is to teach them the truth. He guides us into the truth of God’s Word. He convinces us of its reliability and its truthfulness. He witnesses to our hearts when we read God’s Word that His Word is truth and should be believed and obeyed. He is the One who convinces our hearts of the truth of God’s Word and teaches us what it means. He is our teacher.

            But a second important aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit for John is the witness the Holy Spirit gives concerning our salvation. Not only does the Spirit teach us the truth, but He also is intimately involved in testifying in our own hearts that we are truly children of God. John mentions this role of the Spirit twice in his letter. The first mention of it we read this morning in chapter 3 verse 24: We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. The second time he mentions it is in chapter 4 verse 13. John writes, By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. Both references are in a similar context – loving the brethren. And both references have to do with the Holy Spirit testifying that God abides in us.

            John was eager that his readers would have full assurance of their salvation. In fact, his major aim was that they would know that they had eternal life (5:13), and thus by having such knowledge of eternal life and fellowship with God, would complete the joy of the apostles (1:3-4). John felt a burden for these people who were being pulled every which way by false teachers, and he wanted them to have clarity in a world of confusion. When everyone had something different to say about Christianity and God, John wanted his readers to be absolutely sure they were in the truth.

            Part of this assurance must come from the Holy Spirit. One of the things that He does in the life of a child of God is testifying to that child that God is truly his or her Father. The Holy Spirit affirms our salvation in our own hearts. There is an affirmation of the Holy Spirit to us of our salvation.

            Let me briefly remind you of the context of these two verses we are looking at this morning, 3:23-24. They are at the end of the section about loving the brethren. We cannot take them out of context. They must be understood in light of this simple yet profound truth that the children of God love one another. That is John’s message from the end of verse 10 to the end of the chapter. The children of God love one another. In verses 11-15 he sets out to prove that love is a non-negotiable in the children of God. Murderers do not have eternal life. Those who make a business of taking life certainly do not possess eternal life. Then in verses 16-18 John explains the doctrine, showing how the children of God are to love one another. Their love is not to be mere sentiment, and it is not to be hypocritical. The love that one Christian has for another is to be heartfelt love that meets needs. It is to be compassionate and active. It is a willingness to die if necessary for the good of the brother in need. This type of love was seen most clearly in Jesus, who is our example and model of true love. The children of God must love one another, and they must love one another as Christ loves them.

            In verses 19-24 John lays out three benefits of obeying this doctrine. There are three uses of this doctrine to our fellowship with God as His children. First, we have assurance of our salvation. We know that we are of the truth when we see in our lives evidence of this type of love. The love of Christ cannot exist in the unbeliever, so when we see self-sacrificing, joyful, compassionate, serving love in our lives, we are able to assure our hearts before God. We have assurance of salvation.

            Not only this, but we also have answered prayer. When our hearts are sure of our standing before God as His children, we come to Him in confidence, and when we come in confidence we receive what we ask from Him. The more we are like Christ, and the more righteous we become, the more we will see power in our prayer lives. Effective prayer and righteous living cannot be separated. When we have assurance of our salvation because we see the fruit of it, we can know that we are truly after God’s will, and when we are after God’s will, we pray according to God’s will, and God answers us. These, then, are the first two benefits of loving one another. But John does not stop here. He goes on and gives us a third benefit.

            The third benefit of loving one another is the affirmation of the Holy Spirit. The affirmation of the Holy Spirit. Not only can we convince and persuade our own hearts that we are saved, and not only can we have confidence before God when we see His work in our lives, but the Holy Spirit affirms the very thing of which we are persuading our own hearts. God Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit affirms our sonship; He affirms that we are His children.

            How does this work? How is it that the Holy Spirit affirms our hearts of our salvation? How does He affirm to us, witness to us, that we are in fact children of God? These types of things can often become very subjective, and people may go around claiming that they are saved and know they are saved because the Holy Spirit has told them so. But this type of affirmation is not the thing of which John speaks. There are things that must be true of a person if he is to have the affirmation of the Holy Spirit. While it is a subjective experience and something we know in our hearts, it has an objective reality behind it. It is not subjectivity based on a whim or a feeling. It is something we experience that is built on fact.

 

1. Recognize the commandment (v. 23)

 

            The first thing that must be true of someone who truly receives the affirmation of the Holy Spirit is that he must recognize the commandment of God. Recognize the commandment. The person who can truly experience the Holy Spirit testifying to his salvation must recognize the commandment of God. John makes this clear in verse 23. There is an objective commandment that we must recognize if we are to know that we are children of God from the Holy Spirit. John says, This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. Here is a commandment from God. This is a commandment directly from God the Father. It is evident that He is speaking of the Father because no one else can claim Jesus as Son but the Father. So here is a commandment we have received directly from the Father, and if we are to know we are children of the Father, we must recognize what the Father has said and commanded us.

This commandment, notice, is singular. John speaks of it as one commandment, not two. He gives two aspects of it, but this commandment is not two commands, but one. Why does John put it this way? I think he puts it in the singular because he doesn’t want his readers to separate this command into two commands, and think that they can be done apart from one another. John wants his readers to know that these two things are intimately related. They are inseparable. They are so inseparable that what appears to be two commandments is actually only one, because doing one will necessarily involve doing the other. He wants to be absolutely clear that this commandment, while involving two aspects, is not to be separated as two things distinct from one another. Believing and loving must be taken together or they must be rejected together. You cannot believe without love, and you cannot love without believing.

The first part of this commandment is belief. We are commanded by the Father to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ. The Father sent His Son into the world, and His commandment to the world is to believe in His Son. The Father Himself did not come to live on the earth as a man, die on the cross for sins, and rise from the grave. The Son came to do that, and He came from the Father. The Father sent the Son for this very purpose, and the Father, having sent His only Son, commands that men everywhere believe in His Son.

This aspect of the command is not spoken of as a continuous action. It is spoken of as a completed event. The command of the Father is that we put our faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. I believe that what John is talking about here is the moment of salvation that occurs one time in a person’s life. The command of the Father is not to continually be believing, although we must always believe God and have faith, but here John is specifically speaking of the command to repentance and faith and salvation. Paul spoke of this type of belief in Acts 17:30, when he said, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent. He is talking about coming to Christ for salvation. God’s commandment, His declaration, is that we should and must put our faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, for salvation. When John says, This is His commandment, he is referring to the commandment to faith and repentance. Believing in the name of Jesus is a common phrase used throughout the New Testament to describe coming into a saving relationship with God, of being reconciled to God and becoming His child.

Believing in the name of Jesus, then, is not merely intellectual assent to His person. It is receiving Him for all that He is. When we believe in His name, His name represents who He is, and we receive Him and believe in all that Jesus is. It is an embracing of Him as our Savior and Lord with all of our hearts. I believe John is referring here to receiving Jesus by faith, and all that Jesus is, not just part of Him. When you receive Jesus by faith you must receive Him as Savior, Lord, and King. There are many who would suggest that a person can receive Jesus as Savior and not as Lord. They can put their faith in Jesus but not submit their lives to Him as Lord. Yet if you are to believe in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, you must take Jesus to be not just your Savior, but also your Lord. You must receive all that He is, and not only certain parts. This, then, is the first aspect of the command. Believe in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Come to Christ by faith and be reconciled to God. God’s command is saving faith.

Secondly, His command is love. Not only are we to become children of God by faith, but we are also to love one another. This verb, love, is in the present tense, which means that this is an ongoing practice. It is something we do anew every day. It is not something we do one time, but it is to be a habit, a practice. Obviously we cannot make a habit out of getting saved, so John uses a different Greek tense for believe than he does for love. Being saved is a one-time event, but the continual, day-to-day effect of getting saved is love for the brethren. The Father has commanded us to love one another. He gave us this commandment in the Old Testament, and He gave us this commandment through His Son in the Scriptures. John wrote in the Gospel of John 16:12 that Jesus said, This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Love for one another is not a side-benefit of Christianity. To the contrary, it is so integrally related to being saved that believing and loving are said to be one command. This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another.

This command is infinitely high. We are to do it just as He commanded us. Our love is to be the type of love He commanded us. We are to obey just as God has commanded us. We are not to invent our own way of salvation; we are not to disregard the brethren; we are not to love the brethren how we think they ought to be loved. No, we are to have faith and love exactly as God has commanded us. We are to follow the guidelines and obey just as God has commanded us.

The person, then, who experiences the affirmation of the Holy Spirit in his or her life must recognize the commandment. Anyone who fails to recognize that this is God’s commandment can never truly have the Holy Spirit testify to his or her salvation. It is impossible to disregard the commandment of God to have faith and love one another and yet be saved, and the Holy Spirit does not lie and convince people that they are saved if they are not. People may convince themselves that they are saved when they are not and think the Holy Spirit is doing it, but the reality is that the Holy Spirit only affirms those who are truly God’s children and have recognized God’s commandment.

 

2. Realize the Principle (v. 24a)

           

            Not only are we to recognize God’s commandment, there is also a principle that we must realize if we are to experience the affirmation of the Holy Spirit. We must realize the principle. The principle is found in verse 24. Look at it with me. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. That is the principle. And I want to remind you of what a principle is as we read this verse. It is important to realize that a principle is something that is true. It is an axiom of truth. A rule. It is simply, as I am using the word, a rule that will always hold true. For example, let’s suppose the following statement was always true: The person who has a fever is sick. From this statement we could conclude that anyone who had a fever was sick. But we would not conclude that the fever makes the person sick. Rather, we would understand that being sick is what causes the fever. The fever is the inevitable result of being sick. The person who is sick has a fever because the very nature of illness causes a fever.

            It is this type of principle that John is using here. He is saying that a person who obeys God’s commandments abides in God. He is not saying that obedience is the cause of abiding; rather, it is the opposite. Abiding causes obedience. And abiding always causes obedience, so we can conclude that the one who is obedient abides, and the one who abides is obedient. Don’t see this statement as a system of salvation by works. John is not saying that if we keep the commandments then we will abide in God. He is saying that if we abide in God then we will keep the commandments. Abiding must exist if there is to be keeping the commandments of God. We must abide in Him if we are to keep His commandments.

            The principle, then, is that everyone who keeps God’s commandments abides in Him. If we see someone who abides in God we know for a fact that he or she will keep the God’s commandments. And if we see someone keeping God’s commandments, we know that the only way that person could keep God’s commandments is because he or she abides in God.

            But not only does the one who keeps God’s commandments abide in Him, but God also abides in that person. God abides in those of us who keep His commandments. There is an intimate union and relationship with God between those who are righteous and Himself. And this union and relationship only exists between those who keep His commandments and Himself. Those who do not keep His commandments do not abide in Him, and He does not abide in them. This is the principle that we must realize. The one who keeps God’s commandments abides in God, and God abides in him. If we are to have the Holy Spirit affirm our salvation in our hearts, then we must realize that only those who follow God’s commands are in a relationship with Him. The Spirit only lives in those who seek to be obedient to God’s Word as revealed in the Bible.

 

3. Receive the affirmation (v. 24b)

 

            If we have recognized the commandment, and found that we live a life patterned after obedience to it, and if we have realized the principle of righteousness and found our life habit corresponding to it, then and only then can we receive the affirmation of the Spirit. Then we can truly know that the Spirit testifies in our hearts of our salvation. Look at the second half of verse 24. John writes, We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. This verse is saying that there is a way by which we can know that God abides in us. This concept of God abiding in me, a finite, sinful, rebellious human being, is one of the most wonderful concepts in all of Scripture. That God would take up residence in my life and in my person and that He would live in me is one of the most amazing and thrilling doctrines in the Bible. And it is important that I am convinced that He does in fact live in me. As a child of God I need to know that God is living in me, that the Spirit indwells me, and that it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. These are facts I need to be certain of. And John says that we can be certain of these things.

            I think it is interesting to note that John says that we know that He abides in us rather than saying that we know that we abide in Him. In 4:13 John will include both halves of that relationship, but here he only includes the half of God living, abiding, remaining in us. Here John is talking about assurance of salvation, knowing that we are children of God. And he has just mentioned how our hearts condemn us from time to time as we come before God in prayer. That being the case, I must know that God does in fact dwell in me. This is sometimes one of the most difficult to believe facts of the whole Bible. I can believe that Jesus died for my sins and rose again the third day. I can believe that the Spirit came on the day of Pentecost and did miracles and wonders. I can believe all of these wonderful truths, but sometimes when I look at my life and see how dreadfully wicked and sinful I am, I find it hard to believe that God could really be living in me. How could I possibly be so wretched if God were living in me? Have you ever wondered this? If Christ is living in me, why do I still sin the way that I do? Why do I still struggle the way that I do? The fact that I abide in Christ is a wonderful, soul-stirring truth, but the fact that not only do I abide in Him, but He abides in me is enough to send my brain into overload! And there are times, especially if our heart is condemning us, that we need to know that He really does abide in us. We need to have that assurance and that affirmation. So John is anxious to give it to us. The second half of verse 24 is all about affirming that God really does abide in His children, even though they still sin and fail and have not been glorified yet.

            This verse is subject to all kinds of interpretational issues, which basically boil down to two major issues. One is whether or not the this in verse 24 refers to what John has just said or what he is about to say. Does John mean that the source of our assurance comes from the Spirit, or does he mean by using the word this that our knowledge of our relationship with God comes from our life as it is lived in love and righteousness before God? The second issue is the giving of the Holy Spirit. Is John referring to the giving of the Spirit to the individual believer upon salvation? Or is he referring to the day of Pentecost when the Spirit was given to the church? These are the two issues that commentators discuss on this verse.

I don’t believe that John is primarily referring to Pentecost here. I have two major reasons for that. One is because it seems out of context. He has not referred to Pentecost at all in the context, and to bring that in at the end without any reference to it seems strange. Secondly, I think John is here referring to the personal experience of the saints. I think he is referring to how we, individually, can know that we are children of God, and John’s readers did not receive the Spirit on Pentecost, but they received Him upon their salvation. So I reject the view that John is primarily referring to Pentecost here.

            With regard to the word this, I think we have to look at a mixture of the two views. I don’t think it is right to only take John as referring to the Holy Spirit in isolation from the whole context. I don’t think John is doing that. But I also don’t think that John is only referring to what has gone before. I think he is blending the two together into one powerful benefit of loving the brethren.

            What John is saying is that our keeping the commandments of God, our loving the brethren, all of our actions that can only be accomplished through the work and power of the Spirit in our lives, are what the Holy Spirit uses in His affirmation of our salvation. The Holy Spirit testifies in our hearts that He is abiding in us using the genuine fruit of His work. There is an objective reality that the Spirit uses in affirming that we are children of God. That reality is the Spirit’s own work. So what happens is the Spirit Himself produces in us love for the brethren, and because of the Spirit abiding in us we love the brethren in ways we could never love them on our own. Then the Spirit affirms in our hearts that it truly was His work in us, and by this affirmation He witnesses to us that we are God’s children.

            It is as if the Spirit gives us the grace to do something we would have never done if we were living for the flesh and in the flesh, and then He points it out to us, and says, as it were, that He is abiding in us by showing us the evidence of it. There is a dynamic relationship between the believer and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is leading the believer, filling him, working in him to be obedient to God, and the believer lives in a way that is for God’s glory and full of faith and love, and the Holy Spirit testifies through this in our hearts that we are God’s children.

            This connection between the Holy Spirit’s work and the Holy Spirit’s affirmation is why I said earlier that it is a subjective experience based on an objective reality. No one can say truthfully that they feel as though they are a Christian from the Spirit unless the works of the Spirit are there to back up that feeling.

            To give a more clear sense of what I am saying, I think it would be helpful to translate the verse like this: And by this we know from the Spirit whom He has given us that He abides in us. The point is that we have these objective realities that are seen because of our salvation, because of our union with Christ. Love for the brethren becomes evident in our lives. And it is by this that we know that He abides in us, and our knowledge of this comes directly from the Holy Spirit. He testifies in our hearts that we are God’s children. Paul says this very thing in Romans 8:15-16, writing, You have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. And He does this by affirming to us that our lives have been radically altered by His power.

            Oh that we might know that we are the children of God because the Spirit works mightily in us and then affirms that the work truly is His work. How we need to see the Holy Spirit in this way! We live in a vital, dynamic, intimate union with Christ through His Spirit who dwells in us and abides in us. We must eagerly and urgently and diligently seek to be filled by Him and for Him to work through us, and then pray that He would affirm in our hearts that we are in fact children of God through His work in us! When we are obedient to God’s commandments it is only because the Spirit empowers us to be obedient. We are not obedient because we have the willpower in our own flesh or in ourselves. And when the Spirit works in us in this way, He affirms to us that He is working in us and through us, and we know that we are God’s children, and that He abides in us.

            The benefits of loving one another are infinitely valuable. Assurance of salvation. Answered prayer. Affirmation of the Spirit. As children of God we are called to love one another. We are called to be willing to sacrifice one for another, within our own families, within our own church, and within the church throughout the world. We are called to love, not as Cain loved his brother, but as Christ loved us. When we love this way, we enjoy lives that are full of faith, assurance, and power. We have assurance of our salvation even when our hearts condemn us. We have answered prayers because we have confidence before God. And we know in our hearts from the Holy Spirit that He is working in us, and He affirms to us that He really does abide in us. Let’s pray.

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