Teaching & 1 John, Pt.3: Familial Love
Introduction
It is truly a blessing to teach redeemed students at a
Christian university. In scrolling social media, I frequently find reels made
by today’s public high school teachers; the disciplinary, behavioral, and
attention-holding challenges they face are truly astounding, and not all of
them can be attributed to the culture or age group. In contrast, my students
are consistently courteous, polite, diligent, and grateful toward each other
and me. This is not primarily due to their intentional upbringing, conservative
values, or the constructive environment; above all, their positive deportment
is evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in their lives, and it makes teaching
that much more of a joy.
“God is Love”
Two points always bear repeating when bringing up the topic
of love in the Bible. First, the Bible defines the kind of love it commands; we
do not get to define it ourselves. In the face of the world’s slogan “love is
love,” John states definitively that “God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8, 16) – he is
the standard. The love God requires of us is that exemplified in Jesus’ death
on the cross, as the Father gives his Son out of love for the World (Jn. 3:16;
1 Jn. 4:10) and the Son obeys the Father out of love for him (Jn. 14:31; 1 Jn.
2:4-6) and us (Jn. 13:36; 15:12; 1 Jn. 3:16). This means that the love of
Scripture is not primarily a personal emotional experience but a commitment to
self-sacrifice for the benefit of others.
Second, the love which the Bible commands is always
counter-cultural. The early church was greatly misunderstood because they
claimed to have “sibling love” (Greek: philadelphia) for their unrelated
friends and called their spouses “brother” and “sister.” The Romans thought
this meant that they married their biological siblings. What this second point means
for us is that if our love looks just like that of the world in terms of its
sacrifice and methods, it is not the full love of Christ to which we have been
called. These two points being established, let’s look at the love John says
meets the test of being the kind of teacher our students should follow.
John makes two broad theological statements about the nature of God in this letter: the first one is “God is light" (1 Jn 1:5), which indicates both his holiness and that he is the source of truth and life (cf. Jn. 1:4; 8:12; 12:46). John’s second statement about God’s nature, which he makes twice, is “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8, 16). While this may seem like a groundbreaking statement, God has always described himself as loving throughout Scripture, though the terminology is not always the same:
- Steadfast love/ Faithfulness – God faithfully keeps his promises in which he freely binds himself to us for our good (Deut. 7:9).
- Compassion/mercy – God takes pity on humanity in its fallen state and bends down to help us (Deut. 7:9).
- Benevolence/grace – God is infinitely generous and pours out good gifts on those who do not deserve them (Eph. 2:1-7).
- Patience – God postpones judgment to extend opportunity for sinners to repent in response to his love (Rom. 2:4).
Many of these words appear in God’s foundational self
revelation to Moses, referenced throughout the Old (Num. 14:18; 2 Chr. 30:9;
Neh. 9:17; Ps. 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; Jonah 4:2; Joel 2:13) and the New Testament
(Jn. 1:14, 17; Jas. 5:11):
Exodus 34:6-7 “The Lord
passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful
and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love
and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the
third and the fourth generation.’”
In fact, the first of the above listed facets of God’s love
– steadfast love – was routinely translated in the Septuagint (the Greek
translation of the Old Testament used by Jesus and the Apostles) with the same
Greek word John uses for love in his epistles: agapē. It is this same
love which God commands that we show to each other.
Familial Love
John applies the truth that God is love the same way the
rest of Scripture does: we should love one another.
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.”
But John is clear that this love for others is inextricably
linked with love for God, such that a failure to love others demonstrates a
failure to love God himself.
1 John 4:19-21 “We love
because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his
brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen
cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from
him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
After all, this is how Jesus himself, the author of the Law,
summarized its contents.
Matthew 22:37-40 “You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is
like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments
depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
In the New Testament, the second command takes precedence
since it cannot be fulfilled apart from love for God (Rom. 13:10; Gal. 5:14).
And so, John follows the biblical pattern of commanding true believers to
evidence their true faith in Christ through acts of love toward fellow
believers. We need to hear these commands today as well.
Compassionately help in visible ways
John’s Gospel and letters speak much of love, but one
passage in 1 John encapsulates his practical definition: compassionately and
sacrificially helping those in need, just as Jesus Christ did for us.
1 John 3:16-18 “By this
we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our
lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his
brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in
him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in
truth.”
Remember that Christ was often “moved with compassion” for
people’s needs, both physical and spiritual (Matt. 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; Lk. 7:13),
and that his ultimate act of love was dying for our sins (John 13:34; 15:12-13).
To refuse to do likewise – even to the point of laying down
our own lives – is a failure to have the love of God. In fact, John says that
while showing such love grants assurance of salvation, refusing to show this
kind of tangible love, especially to fellow believers, is tantamount to hatred
and murder.
1 John 4:14-15 “We know
that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.
Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a
murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”
Why such a drastic conclusion? Because love is the hallmark
trait of those who follow Jesus.
Earlier in this epistle, John refers back to the words of
Jesus which he heard him speak at the Last Supper:
John 13:34-35 “A
new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved
you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that
you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John’s reference to this “new commandment” to love
one another clarifies that it is not a new invention of his but is in fact an “old
commandment that you had from the beginning” since Jesus himself taught it (1
Jn. 2:7-8). And since Jesus himself said that the defining feature of his
followers would be their sacrificial compassionate care for each other:
1 John 2:9-11 “Whoever
says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in
darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there
is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the
darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going,
because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”
The Apostle leaves us with no uncertain terms in the
discussion, since the alternative to being born of God as demonstrated in love
is being born of the devil.
1 John 3:10 “By this it
is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil:
whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does
not love his brother.”
Just as “love is of God,” hate is of Satan, and just
as those born of God love like God, so those born of Satan hate like him.
Behavior reveals parentage, and John wanted his readers to be able to spot the
spiritual parentage of false teachers and so reject their false doctrine. Those
who do not love like Christ do not know him. As we seek to teach the next
generation by both out words and example, are we showing them sacrificial compassion
in the way we live our lives and in our interactions with them?
Make Christ visible through love
John makes a case in the end of chapter two that those who
are saved, or “born of God,” will imitate God’s character.
1 John 2:29 “If you know
that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness
has been born of him.”
John applies this truth of spiritual ancestry specifically
to his second test for true teachers: love shows that a person knows God. This
love is practical, as indicated in the previous section. This love is also
familial, not only because it is directed toward our spiritual brothers and
sisters, but also because it exists through family resemblance: since God is
love, to love is to be like God.
In a later passage, John returns to Jesus’ death on the
cross as the ultimate picture of love, reminding us of the Gospel-oriented
nature of Christlike love.
1 John 4:7-13 “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. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God
sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In
this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also
ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one
another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”
Just like Christ’s own love, our love must not be reserved
for those who deserve it but freely poured out on those who do not. I don’t
know about you, but I can be stingy with my love. Love does not mean that removing
all consequences, but it does mean that we treat people as intrinsically
valuable image bearers that are precious to God no matter how they respond to
us.
To me, chapter four verse twelve is one of the most
mind-blowing statements in 1 John. In his Gospel, John stated,
1 John 1:18 “No one has
ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”
You can’t see God because he is spirit and surpassingly
glorious, such that seeing him would kill us. That’s what God told Moses (Ex.
33:18-23). But here in 1 John, John says,
1 John 4:12 “No one has
ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is
perfected in us.”
The people around us cannot see God directly, but they can
see him in us when we love them like he does.
Like the test of righteous character, this Christlike love
is only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit within us, and because of
that truth such love is evidence that we are saved. But we can only truly show
this love to others if we are enraptured by the love that God has shown for us.
Do you meditate often of what God has done for you as fuel for your love for
others? When students ask us for help (and usually it is for something small,
like a ride to church), my wife and I have started responding with, “Jesus
died, I can endure a minor inconvenience.”
Application to Teaching
These truths are enormous and their implications equally so;
it would be impossible to exhaust them in a mere blog post. Therefore, I will
again simply present some of the applications the Holy Spirit illumined to me
regarding my profession as a teacher.
We must look for opportunities to love our students sacrificially
Do our students know us by our love? Notice, I am not asking
if we love our students – I would hope that Christian teacher would heartily
say, “Yes!” But do our students see that love displayed? Merely claiming to be
motivated by love or to love behind the scenes is not enough. John calls for
love that is marked by actions – “in deed and in truth” (1 Jn. 3:18) –
not by mere words. If love is a test that John gives to expose the false
teachers of his day, it would seem they were not known for love.
Are we known by our students for being willing to stop and
listen before we speak? For weeping with them over their sorrows? For taking
time to have lunch and discuss their future? One thing that blows my mind about
this current generation of students is that if you ask them to tell you their
story, they will – holding nothing back! They are looking for someone to
listen. John says not only that we must love, but that our love must be
visible.
We must pray for our students
At the end of his letter, John mentions the infamous “sin
unto death” (1 Jn. 5:16-17). While it is easy to get lost in what this side
comment means, his main point is that we should pray for fellow believers who
fall into sin. Is your first response when it seems a student has sinned – to
pray for them?
Think on this when you report academic dishonesty, when you
discover they used AI, or when you call them in for a disciplinary meeting. And
when students confess to having done such things, assure them that they are
forgiven even as you apply the consequences. Show love by praying for them –
always. In the first week of class, I hand my students a note card and ask them
to write their name, major, year, and some prayer requests, and I pray through
them throughout the semester. How can we claim to love our students if we do
not perform that most basic part of Christian love?
Conclusion
God is love, he has loved us in sending Christ, and we
should love one another. John’s logic is not complex, but it is daunting in its
implications. It is not only that we must love, but that we must love in the
same way Jesus loved us – by laying down our lives for the benefit of others.
Are we known for our sacrificial care for others? Are we as teachers known for
our self-denying, others-exalting service? If we wish to be like Christ, we
will be. If we wish to be teachers worthy of imitation, we must be.
Perhaps no passage of Scripture better illustrates this kind
of love than the parable of the Good Samaritan, in which Jesus himself defines
what it means to love one’s neighbor.
Luke 10:30-37 “A man was
going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped
him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a
priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other
side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed
by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he
was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up
his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and
brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out
two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, “Take care of him, and
whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.” Which of
these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among
the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ And Jesus said to
him, ‘You go, and do likewise.’”
May we as teachers do likewise to our students by looking for opportunities to show sacrificial love.
All Scripture verses come from the ESV.
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