1 John 4:20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
1 John 5:1 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. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His com...
1 John 4:20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
1 John 5:1 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. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
And then in verse 20, for the seventh time in 1 John, "If someone says..." Seven times John deals with claims and every time he gives a warning. "If someone says," in this case, "I love God, I'm a Christian, I'm a believer, but is characterized by hate toward his brother, he's a liar. He doesn't love his brother whom he's seen, he can't love God whom he's not seen." You can't claim to love the invisible God and not love the God that's in His people. You can't claim to love the invisible Christ and not love Christ in His people. It's absurd. So it's only reasonable then to say true believers are characterized by loving the way God loves, sacrificial, selfless love.
And then John closes this section with a command, just as he began it, "This commandment we have from Him," John is saying it's not mine, it's His, "that the one who loves God should love his brother also." With an unreturned love, you might say, wanting nothing in return, an unconditional love that accepts and forgives, a vicarious love that bears the pain of others, a self-giving love that practices sacrifice and a righteous love that tolerates no sin.
There is the wonderful love that a husband and a wife share, that a family shares, that children share with parents, friend with friend. We're not talking about any of those human loves which are enhanced and enriched by the love of Christ in the heart of believers. We're talking about this kind of love that extends toward anybody that has a need, particularly those in the family of God. It is a perfect kind of love, a different love than the world's kind of love. It is a whole, complete love and it is the essence of God manifest in Christ. It is our testimony, it is the assurance of our salvation. It is our confidence in judgment and it is only reasonable because you could never truly have the love of God in you and not love others with that love. Perfect love is the mark of the true believer.
Conclusion
At the beginning of this chapter the question was asked, Which is the most important of John’s three tests: righteousness, love, or truth? We answered that love was the most important, but at this point we have several additional insights for knowing why.
The first reason is obviously that we need love most, particularly in the so-called evangelical churches. These have sound doctrine, at least to a point. There is a measure of righteousness. But often, sadly, there is very little love. Without it, however, there is no true demonstration of the life of Christ within or true worship of the Father. The second reason is that Jesus himself made love the first and second of the commandments. The first commandment is love for God (Deut. 6:4). The second is love for one another (Lev. 19:18). The two properly belong together. As Jesus said, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matt. 22:40). The third reason is that it was the realization of this double love in us for both God and man that was the object of Christ’s coming. This is what John seems to speak about in the opening verses of the letter when he says, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ” (1:3). That is, the coming of Christ is proclaimed so that those who hear of his incarnation and death might believe in him and thereby learn to love both God and one another.
The devil is the one who disrupts. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one who draws together. Moreover, in the drawing together into fellowship, love is the key factor. Little surprise then that we have this commandment from him: “Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”[1]
it is by practicing a real and self-sacrificing love for one another that we learn to love the one who sacrificed himself for us.[2]
- V1,4,5 - Faith. The first test to give evidence or proof that you're an overcomer is your faith. Here is again the definition of somebody who is an overcomer, "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." That's simple enough, isn't it? Overcomers are those born of God.
That is to say the reason we are overcomers is because we have been given new life. We have been begotten by God. We now possess the life of God. And the only people who are born of God, the only people who received the new birth who are regenerate are those who believe that Jesus is the Christ. Overcomers then are those who believe that Jesus is the Messiah, God in human flesh. And, of course, that's an abbreviated statement. Jesus is Christ and you can fill it with the whole thing, all that's true about Jesus is implied there. Overcomers believe in Jesus. If you don't believe in Jesus, you're not an overcomer.
if you haven't been begotten of God you are not an overcomer, you are still under the power of Satan, under the power of death, under the power of sin and the law, under the power of the world, and under the influence of the false teachers who move through the world.
John 1:12 it says, "As many as received Him, as received Christ, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in His name." You believe in the name of Jesus Christ, God makes you His child.
Once a person is regenerated, once they have become a believer in Jesus Christ and been born again and justified and adopted into the family of God, once they have been delivered from sin and death and hell, once they have been converted, adopted and sanctified, Christians are invincible in the ultimate sense. This, of course, means that our salvation is eternal. We are eternally secure. We will persevere to the very end. Nothing can remove us from the Savior's grasp. We sin, we fail, we struggle but we never ever lose any battle ultimately, finally, with the world, with the flesh, or with the devil. Our faith, our salvation are indestructible.
Our victory then starts at the moment of our salvation and we are given a permanent faith that never ever runs out. Moments of questioning, moments of doubt...sure. And the Lord is gracious to us in our time of doubt. Doubt is a temptation. Doubt is a sin. But if you are a true Christian, doubt will always be a wrong response, a sinful response because if you are God's, your salvation is forever and so is the faith that He gave you. He has defeated every enemy. He has triumphed over Satan, demons, the kingdom of darkness, death, hell, sin, the Law, the world, false teaching and you are a super-conqueror cause you've been given a permanent faith. And that faith, the one who is believing, is because you have been begotten of God. And having been born of God, as verse 4 says, you are an overcomer and your victory was gained by our faith. And who is the one, verse 5, who has overcome the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
The word is used by our Lord Jesus Himself in John 16:33, He uses the verb form when He says, "In this world you shall have tribulation, be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
Romans chapter 8. At the close of that great eighth chapter where Paul is speaking about the unconquerable position of Christians in Christ, he says, verse 37, "In all these things we are more than conquerors
"We're super-conquerors. invincible, unconquerable. So much that, "Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, or any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." There is nothing that can conquer us, not tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword. We are super-conquerors. We are the unconquerable. We are the overcomers.
Revelation 12:11, "They overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb." They overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.
Revelation 21, verse 7 says, "He that overcomes shall inherit these things." Overcomes get not only triumph over Satan, but a triumph over Satan that results in an eternal heaven. And all that heaven is becomes ours. We are the true victors.
John certainly affirmed this idea earlier in his epistle if you go back to chapter 2, for a moment. And verse 13, "I'm writing to you young men," and he's not talking about chronological age, but those who spiritually are growing up. "Because you have overcome the evil one." How so? Verse 14, end of the verse, "The Word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one."
Not only have we become overcomes of Satan as powerful as he is, but we have become overcomers in the realm of life as well. That is, we have overcome death. I think the most notable portion of Scripture that speaks to that is 1 Corinthians 15 and just a reminder, it says at the end of verse 54 in this great fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, "Death is swallowed up in victory. O, death, where is your sting." The sting of death is sin, the power of sin is the law but thanks be to God that gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Victory over death because victory over sin, victory over law. That is to say we triumph over what sin wants to do to us. We triumph over what the law wants to do, the perfect, holy, righteous Law of God crushes us because we break it. It sentences us to damnation for our sins. But in Christ we triumph over the Law, over sin, over death which is the penalty the Law imposes.
- We go from believing in right doctrine, the doctrinal test, to the moral or ethical test and the second of John's three tests presented here to verify overcomers is love. Go back to verse 1. "Whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him." Verse 2, "By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God." Verse 2 - Love , "By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God
You can tell an overcomer very simply. He or she loves God and loves whom God loves, the children born of Him
If you love God, you long more than anything else to be in His presence, to hear Him speak, to praise Him and worship Him. And if you love His people, you long to be with them and to be the source of their needs being met as much as you can. You pray for them. You nurture them. You counsel them. You speak to them kindly. You exhort them. You encourage them. You confront them. Do whatever you need to do, all those one-anothers of the New Testament for their spiritual benefit because you care.
- Look at the end of verse 2-3. "We know that we love the children of God when we love God...and here it comes...and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments are His commandments are not burdensome."
The third characteristic that marks those who are overcomers, is obedience
Now let's put this together. We believe in God. We believe in Christ who is God. And that faith produces love and that love produces obedience. If I believe that Christ is who He is. I believe Christ is exactly who the New Testament says He is. If I believe God is who the Scripture reveals Him to be, then He is going to draw out of my heart all my love and all my praise and all my adoration and all my interest and all my attention. And I'm going to be consumed with Him as the priority of my life. And as a second priority I'm going to be consumed with the people He loves because whoever He loves I love. It's just how it works. And if I truly love Him that way, the expression of that love is going to come in keeping His commandments, and considering His commandments as not burdensome...not burdensome. If you love somebody, and they ask you to do something, you can't do it fast enough, right? True love always issues in obedience, always rushes to the will of the person who asks, always longs to meet the need.
At this point, we can review and understand the practical meaning of “maturing love” in our daily lives. As our love for the Father matures, we have confidence and are no longer afraid of His will. We also are honest toward others and lose our fear of being rejected. And we have a new attitude toward the Word of God: it is the expression of God’s love, and we enjoy obeying it. Confidence toward God, honesty toward others, and joyful obedience are the marks of perfecting love and the ingredients that make up a happy Christian life.[3]
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
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[1] Boice, J. M. (2004). The Epistles of John: an expositional commentary (pp. 121–122). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
[2] Boice, J. M. (2004). The Epistles of John: an expositional commentary (p. 121). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
[3] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 524). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
