There has been a lot of resources that guide Christians in various aspects of our lives. These are well-meaning resources, but without the foundation of the Holy Bible they are meaningless and misleading. The most important resources that we have – outside of God Himself speaking directly and audibly to us – are prayer and God’s Word as we have it in a reliable format that we are able to read and understand. These are fundamental in growing our relationship with God.
I began reading and then studying 1 John this week. As you may imagine, I was struck by what John – led by the Holy Spirit – was saying. And of course, the Holy Spirit was speaking directly to my spirit about some things that are needed to be understood by me and possibly one of you. I am mainly going to be building off of 1 John 4:7-8:
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (ESV)
Notice both of the words “loves” and “knows”. These are the two key actions that I want to dive into here. I want to express the ideas as actions because in this passage they are active and dynamic. They are just building blocks to add to a list of things to do. They are THE actions to perform as an act of devotion and adoration. Our relationship with God is motivated by profound respect and active love.
In order to love someone, you have to know them. So beginning with getting to know God we are able to more fully realize Him and love Him. He already loves us, and He loved us so much that He sent His only Son to come into this environment filled with sin, live perfectly as a servant, die on the cross, and He raised His Son on the third day where He spoke with many before ascending into heaven back to the throne. When He returns, He will not be coming as a servant but as a King.
In verse 8 of this passage, the word “know” is the Greek word “ginosko”. This word means “to know, understand, perceive, have knowledge of, and to become acquainted with”. In essence, this word means to gain a knowledge grounded in personal experience. Our personal experience with God is what allows us to increase in our knowledge of Him. Just like with any relationship, we must spend time with someone in order to know more about that person. That takes time and energy. With God, there is one God with three persons: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
The Father is most recognized as God. The Lord’s Prayer begins with “Our Father who art in heaven.” God is from the beginning. Chapter 2 verse 13 says,
I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, little children, because you know the Father. (ESV)
That last word “Father” is “pater” in the Greek, and specifically here shows His characteristic highlighted as “Father of Christians, as those who through Christ have been exalted to a specially close and intimate relationship with God, and who no longer dread Him as a stern judge of sinners, but revere Him as their reconciled and loving Father.” He is our Creator, Teacher, and Guardian among other things. We have a relationship with Him when we come to Him through His Son, Jesus Christ.
In the verse from chapter 2 quoted earlier, “little children” refers to our place in relation to the Father. The title of that first group that John was singling out as “fathers” refers to older believers – those who have been pursuing a relationship with God for some time, whereas “young men” refers to the people that are newer to the faith.
The Son of God is Jesus Christ. This is Who John was speaking of in the opening verses of this letter when he said, “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (1:3 ESV).” He is telling us that he is a first hand witness to Jesus, and his gospel is a first hand account of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. The gospel message binds together those who receive it. We are bound to each other, which is probably why we are to love each other and do good to each other. Yet, the purpose is still richer than mere human fellowship because for the believers fellowship “is with the Father and with His Son.” This fellowship is personal communion with the Father made possible by the mediation of the Son.
In 1 Timothy 2:5, it says:
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
And in Acts 4:12, it says:
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life, and no one can come to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).” He is the only way to the Father because He is unified with the Father. He and the Father are One. To know Him involves a personal relationship that transforms practical behavior. Jesus’ “way” is how we walk. Jesus’ truth is “what” we walk in. And Jesus’ life is “given” to us. These are practical transformations that happen in us as we accept and follow Jesus. And He sent us the Holy Spirit to continue God’s work.
The Holy Spirit moves in, through, and around us to continue God’s work here. He guides and comforts us. He illuminates the Scripture so that we can actually understand it. In chapter 4, the verses 1 through 6 give us a way to test the spirit or motive of those who speak into our lives. We have to protect ourselves from lies and attacks. Attacks hurt us and lies mislead us, which may hurt us. So John explains a way to test those. Some motives and spirits are legitimately true and help us. But some are out to lead us away from life and into death.
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. (1 John 4:2-3 ESV)
People who are not true believers resist sound teaching. They actively and passively resist the irrefutable truth. They don’t understand it and are blind to it because they don’t have the Spirit to guide them and expand the profound truth presented outside of the simplistic communications of the natural. “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14, ESV).”
Getting to know God in the persons of the Father, Son, and Spirit leads us to love God. And as I explained above, love is active and dynamic. Love is shown by our obedience to His commandments and by walking the way Jesus walked. Obedience does not bring about justification (which comes by faith alone), but obedience as a pattern of life does give evidence that we have been born again and that we are children of God. And we cannot repeat Jesus’ unique saving death, nor do we need to, but we can mirror the faith, love, piety, obedience, and self-sacrifice that He lived. This pattern of life will give greater assurance that we are in fellowship with Him. And the love of God is “perfected” (1 John 2:5) which is a love that is not only a feeling but also an ethical response to God.
The love that we have for God came from Him, and that love overflows to other believers around us. All morally good human interactions and fellowship are good not because they conform to some arbitrary human standard of good but because they are rooted in imitation of the morally perfect character of God and conform to God’s commands, demonstrated supremely on the cross. God’s love always takes initiative, and the love of Christians is a response to that love (4:19). And we show that we truly love God by keeping His commandments.
So in summary, these three verses from 1 John are the jist of what I am talking about:
Know God: "Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love (4:8)."
Love God: "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (4:11)."
Love each other: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. (4:7)."
Let us continue to get to know God and love Him, and let us show our love for Him in loving others.
Gotta go fill up my cup…..
Coffee with Candee 