The followers of Jesus are not only commanded to love but are empowered to express love. One of the most complete discussions of our responsibility to love is given by Christ’s Apostle John. John originally wrote the scripture which God gave him by using the Greek language. One Greek word for love refers to physical passion (eros). Another Greek word for love refers to affection like that between brothers (phileo) The highest form of love is expressed by a the Greek word ‘agapae.’ It seeks nothing in return for being given. It only seeks the well being and joy of the one to whom that love is given. That is the kind of love the followers of Jesus are commanded to show. How can we recognize that kind of love? The Apostle John tells us “We love, because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19 ASV)
First of all, this verse says, “We love.” It does not say whom we love, whether it is God, mankind, our family or fellow followers of Christ. It just says, “We love.” This verse is not concerned about the object of one’s love but the exercise of love toward anyone. Though it says that the followers of Christ now exercise love, the clear indication is that previously, that is before they became followers of Christ, they did not exercise love. On a world-wide basis, sin and Satan had so distorted human nature that love had died out. Man had to learn anew to exercise love. Man needed an object lesson. Man needed an example. Man needed to be shown how to love
In the phrase, “because he first loved us,” we learn who gives the object lesson. It is God himself. Even though the statement, “because he first loved us,” is in the past tense, his love is continuous. It didn’t stop in the past. The statement is put in the past tense because he had given the object lesson prior to the followers of Christ beginning to exercise love to God and to others. All around us we see the evidence of God’s love. It is obvious in the regularity of the seasons, in the predictability of the ocean tides, in the certainty of day and night, of winter and summer, of seed time and harvest time. Obviously someone cares or these areas of predictable regularity would be engulfed in unpredictable chaos. But more than these ‘natural’ manifestations of God’s love, he gave us the ultimate expression of his love in sending Jesus Christ into the world to become the Savior of sinners!
Man not only needs an object lesson to know how to love but he needs power to overcome indifference, to overcome animosity, to overcome selfishness and to overcome hate with love. That power comes from the fact that, as we have seen in verse 15, that “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God.” (ASV) When God abides in the follower of Christ, only then that follower is empowered to love.
It is easy for all of us to be deceived about our true inner condition. We need some way to know whether we truly love or not. God has used John to show us how to test ourselves. He wrote, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom he hath not seen.” (1 John 4:20 ASV)
In the words, “If a man say, I love God,” (1 John 4:20) The apostle John is repeating a claim that many make about their relationship with God. However the confirmation of that claim can be made good only by a proper relationship with our fellow human beings.
If while one makes the claim that, “I love God,” in fact he “hateth his brother” (1 John 4:20) his claim is totally negated. How can anyone love God while hating a person whom God has created and one whom God loves? The fact that the person we hate is living is proof that God loves him. Our lives and the lives of our fellow human beings are only sustained by God’s love. If anyone doubts the statement that the one we hate is sustained by God’s love, he should ask, who keeps our metabolism working? Further, he should ask who keeps the ecosystem working which supplies the materials which are needed by our metabolism? In other words, because God loves him, he is sustaining and upholding the one we hate! Obviously, then, for one to make the claim that I love God while hating one whom God loves means, “he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom he hath not seen.” (1 John 4:20 ASV) The easier, that is loving our brother whom we have seen, must precede the more difficult, that is, loving God whom we have not seen.
Someone might think that he will just love God but not have the same feeling for his fellow human beings. The apostle John shows that there is no room for such a choice. He wrote, “And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.” (1 John 4:21 ASV)
“this commandment have we from him,” Where do we find this commandment? It has been a commandment from the time of Moses and even before. Through Moses God said, “Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah: and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5 ASV) God also said, “Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people; but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am Jehovah.” (Leviticus 19:18 ASV)
“he who loveth God love his brother also.” This does not mean “that one can love God only in [or through] one’s brother; rather love for brother and love for God [must] coexist.” (Raymond E. Brown, The Anchor Bible, The Epistles of John, (New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1982), p. 562, n.64.) However, when we love people we show our love to God. Jesus’ statement recorded in Matthew 25:40 gives us this very principle. He said, “Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me.” (ASV)