Trinity

To this point much of John’s letter has been given over to developing the three tests by which a person who has become a child of God may know that he truly is a child of God. They are: the moral test, which is righteousness; the social test, which is love; and the doctrinal test, which is the test of truth or of belief in the Lord Jesus Christ as God incarnate. The tests have been developed one by one, but it has been obvious even as John talks about them that they belong together and that each is important.

John begins with a passionate exhortation to his readers to “love one another,” a phrase which is repeated three times in verses 7, 11, and 12. This is his great concern, and the reasons for that concern are given in connection with this threefold repetition. The first reason is that love is of God’s own nature; therefore, Christians are to “love one another.” The second reason concerns God’s gift in Christ; therefore, Christians are to “love one another.” The third reason is God’s present activity in and through His people; for this reason, too, Christians are to “love one another.”

The fact that the Trinity is involved in these statements leads naturally to the second of John’s reasons why Christians must love other Christians. The second reason is God’s gift of Jesus Christ His Son for our salvation.

Yesterday, we concluded by speaking of the first two factors that enable us to measure God’s great love for us in Christ. The final factor is that God gave His Son to die for sinners. As John says, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (v. 10).

There are three reasons why Christians are to love one another: first, because God is love and we are of God; second, because God loved us in Christ and so revealed His love to us; and third, because God is at work in us by His Spirit to bring that love to completion.