By this we know that we love the children of God: Just as much as our love for the people of God reflects our love for God (as expressed in 1 John 3:10, 17), so our love and obedience to God is a demonstration of love to the body of Christ. And His commandments are not burdensome.Ī. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. (2-3) The demonstration of God’s love.īy this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. How must God feel when He sees His children fight among themselves? 2. Parents are exasperated, and even disgusted, when they see their children fight and seem to hate one another. If any of these things mean more to us than our common salvation, and the common Lordship of Jesus Christ, then something is very wrong. To love all others in the family of God means that you do not limit your love to your own denomination or group, to your own social or financial status, to your own race, to your own political perspective, or to your own exact theological persuasion. This is the common ground of Christians – not race, not class, not culture, not language, nor any other thing except for a common birth in Jesus Christ, and the common Lordship of Jesus. ![]() But it is also assumed that we will love others who are begotten of Him – our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is assumed that we will love God ( Him who begot us), because we are born again into His family. Everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him: Being born of God also has these two effects. But we would never say Jesus “has” the Christ – Jesus is the Christ.ī. There are many, of a new-age sort of thinking, who believe Jesus had the “Christ-spirit” – as they claim also Confucius, Mohammed, Buddha and certain moderns did. Additionally, John makes it plain we must believe Jesus is the Christ. Instead, he means a trust in and reliance on Jesus as Messiah. We also understand that John was not talking about a mere intellectual assent to Jesus being Messiah (as even the demons might have, as described in James 2:19). We are born of God when we put our trust on Jesus and on His saving work in our lives. John’s great emphasis has been on love, but he never wants anyone to believe he earns salvation by loving others. This means believing that Jesus is his Messiah, not just the Messiah in the generic sense. Here he tells us how one is born of God: whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ. ![]() Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: John has often mentioned being born of God (as in 1 John 2:29, 3:9, and 4:7). Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.Ī. (1) Being born of God is the source of love.
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