Monthly Archive for March, 2001

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1 John 2:13

Published on March 21, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
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“I write to you, fathers,
Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
Because you have overcome the wicked one.
I write to you, little children,
Because you have known the Father.”
 
 
John wrote five books of the New Testament: John, the three epistles and Revelation. 1 John is the sequel to the gospel of John. John wrote the gospel to show to believe on Christ (Jn 20:31). He wrote 1 John to show Christians how to fellowship with God (1:3,4). He directs 1 John toward different classifications of believers into a threefold division. 
 
1 John is the epistle of assurance. That is why the word “know” occurs 38 times in the epistle. 
 
We now come to the second series of three statements about maturity. The first series stated the minimal spiritual experience for each phase of the Christian life (2:12-13b). 
 
The second series states the highest spiritual experience for each phase (2:13c-14). 
 
·         Children know the Father in initial fellowship
·         Young men [youths] gain victory over the world system
·         Fathers [mature Christians] are in a condition of spiritual maturity
 
I write to you, fathers,
 
John writes almost 40 years after Paul visited the readers of 1 John in Ephesus (Ac 18:19). Some were established believers. They knew the Lord in fellowship through long experience. 
 
Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.
 
The words “have known” mean that they knew God with continuing experiential results. They knew more than facts about Him but they personally fellowshipped with Him. There is a difference between knowing about President George W. Bush and knowing him personally. 
 
The perfect tense in the Greek indicates that these mature believers came to a state of maturation in knowing the Lord. They fell in love the Lord because of their understanding of what He did for them. 
 
The “wicked one” is Satan (2:14; 3:12; 5:18,19). The word “wicked” means pernicious (acts that cause detriment to others). A pernicious person seeks to drag others down with him. This is exactly what Satan did. These believers in the teenage phase of their spiritual life learned how to cope with the corrupting influence around them. 
 
The Gnostics of the first century had a distorted idea of the knowledge of God. John counteracted their false claims about knowing God by putting emphasis on knowing God personally and intimately.   True knowledge of God is more than factual; it is personal. 
 
Jn 17: 3 “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
 
PRINCIPLE: The outstanding characteristic of an adult Christian is his spiritual maturity. 
 
APPLICATION: One characteristic of a spiritual father is that they reproduce themselves. They lead others to Christ. Have you developed enough in the Lord that you lead others to Christ? Have you reproduced yourself in the faith even once? 
 
1 Co 4: 15 “For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.”
 
God characterizes mature believers as having 1) knowledge of the Word of God, 2) wisdom, 3) faith to apply truth to experience, 4) orientation to the principle of grace and 5) maximum edifice in their Christian experience. 
 
The ultimate aim of the Christian life is to know God fully. Those who arrive at maturity have the highest station in God’s eyes. 
 
Ph 3: 10 “…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death”
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1 John 2:12b

Published on March 20, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
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“I write to you, little children, Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.”
 
 Because your sins are forgiven you
Forgiveness is a wonderful Christian privilege.  The word “forgiven” means to let go, pardon.  Literally, it means to send off, to release or to remit.   God always forgives the wrongdoer and not the wrongdoing.  The wrongdoing cannot be undone but the guilt of the wrongdoing can be undone.  Forgiveness, then, means to remove the guilt of the wrongdoing.  It is not possible to wipe out an event but it is possible to remove the guilt. 
The tense of the words “are forgiven” in the Greek means that God forgave our sins in the past with the results that they stand forgiven forever.  That is why we cannot make restitution for our sins.  Jesus did all the restitution necessary.  We do not have to do anything to receive forgiveness except accept the forgiveness in Christ. 
1 Jn 1: 9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
PRINCIPLE:  The Christian stands forgiven forever because of Christ. 
APPLICATION:  The foundation to becoming a Christian is an understanding of the doctrine of forgiveness.  It is a release of great moment to know that God laid on Christ the guilt for our sin. 
One thing all Christians have in common is forgiveness.  It makes no difference to which denomination  they belong, for if they embraced the cross, they have forgiveness.  God forgives them completely, freely, and eternally.  This is the line of demarcation between those who are Christians and those who are not. 
God forgave all our sins in Christ.  That is why the gospel is “good news.”  God’s only remedy for sin is the death of Christ for our sins.  Jesus obliterated our sins forever.  Jesus solved the sin problem by dying on the cross. The person who trusts in Christ will never be punished by God for his sins. 
Ac 5: 31 “Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.”
Ac 13: 38 “Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; 39 and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.”
Ac 26: 18 “…to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’”
He 10: 17 “…then He adds, Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
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1 John 2:12

Published on March 19, 2001 in 1 John. 2 Comments
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“I write to you, little children, Because your sins are forgiven you for His names sake.”
 
Verse 12 begins a new division of 1 John.  As we divide the physical family into children, teens and adults, so John sets forth stages of spiritual maturity. 
It is one thing to fellowship with God but it is another thing to grow as a Christian.  Spirituality is one thing (1 Co 3:1) but maturity is another.  Addressing the issue of maturity, John speaks of three stages in our spiritual development. 
John sets forth six parallel statements emphasizing the assured standing each of the three types of Christian has before God (perfect tense).  The Greek present tense emphasizes the present consequences of a past event.  God gives His commitment to us at every stage of our spiritual development. 
I write to you,
The formula, “I write to you,” occurs once in verse 12 and three times in verse 13.  In verse 14 John says, “I have written to you,” twice. 
John writes to assure new believers that they are part of the family of God.  Later in verse 13 he writes of the new Christian’s early walk with the Father,
“I write to you, little children,
Because you have known the Father.”
little children
There are only two families as far as God is concerned: the children of God and the children of the Devil (Jn 8:44).  The term “little children” means born ones.  They are brand new babies in Christ.  They are in the family of God but barely.  We get into the family of God by birth (Jn 3:7). 
John addresses different ranks of believers in the church: “little children,” “young men” and “fathers.”  “Little children” refers to new converts.  “Young men” conveys those in process toward maturity.  Finally, “fathers” implies the mature in faith. 
These three groups of people do not correspond to physical age or sex.  It is possible to advance in years and yet be immature spiritually.  A younger person can be mature. 
The word “little” may mislead us in the title “little children.”  This title is just one word in the Greek meaning born ones.  It may be a general title for all God’s people.  This term has nothing to do with age or size.  It is a title of relationship.  If you have eternal life, you are part of God’s family. 
Of the nine occurrences of the title “little children,” John uses it eight times.  Paul uses it once (Ga 4:19).  John uses it only once outside 1 John (Jn 13:33).  All other occurrences are in this epistle (2:1,12,28; 3:7,18; 4:4,5; 5:21).  Another term translated “little children” occurs in 2:13, 18 meaning babes or very young children which is not the same idea at all. 
Whenever a person comes to Christ, they are “children” in the family of God.  It makes no difference whether they have grown in grace or not.  It does not depend on their growth in Christ for they are God’s children.  Spiritual birth is common to any Christian. 
PRINCIPLE:  God’s aim for each believer is that he passes through the phases of spiritual development until he grows up in Christ. 
APPLICATION:  Not all Christians are of the same stature and caliber.  There are baby believers, teenage believers and full-grown Christians.  Children are novices in the Christian life.  Novices need to know rudimentary truth such as the nature of God’s forgiveness of their sins. 
We need to change the diapers of new Christians occasionally because they manifest a pattern of anger, hatred and bitterness (1 Pe 2:1,2; 2 Pe 3:18).
There are three phases to spiritual development: babyhood, teenage and the adult.  Spirituality is one thing but maturity is another.  It is possible to be spiritual but not mature.  It is also possible to be mature but out of fellowship with the Lord.
Spiritual babes are immature believers.  These believers walk more out of fellowship than in fellowship with God.  They zig then zag.  They do not walk on a straight course of spiritual development.  The one thing that characterizes their Christian life is instability.  They rarely confess their sin.  They compartmentalize their sins.  They are afraid to face them.  They may feel sorry for their sins but they do not genuinely confess them. 
Christians who truly confess their sins realize that God fully judged sins in Christ.  Judgment of our sins occurred 2000 years ago on the cross.  Confession accepts this by faith.  It is not our emotion about the sin but our faith in what Christ did about the sin that matters to God.  That is why if we judge ourselves, God will not judge us. 
The principle of double jeopardy comes into play here.  If Jesus died for my sins, I do not have to die for them.  I do not have to pay the price for my sins because Jesus already paid the price. 
Spirituality is equivalent to the words “know” or “fellowship.”  Fellowship begins with sins confessed.  There can be nothing between the soul and the Savior if we are to fellowship with Him. 
A mature person is someone who applies truth to experience in a maximum way.  A person who takes a maximum number of principles from the Word of God and applies them to his experience along the way is mature.  Many Christians refuse to grow up spiritually because they do not want to find the principles nor apply them to their lives. 
Some believers live in undeveloped childhood.  Though they may be Christians for 20 years, they are still babes in Christ because they spend so little time in the Word of God.  If they read the Bible at all, it is not to discover how they can change their lives.  They do not connect their problems to the principles of the Word. 
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1 John 2:11b

Published on March 18, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
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 “But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”

 

and does not know where he is going,

The word “going” means to move away from a reference point. The believer who harbors hate in his heart will lose his sense of spiritual direction. He wanders aimlessly in the dark in peril of a great fall. Malice causes him to lose his sense of spiritual judgment. He no longer has a spiritual reference point.

because the darkness has blinded his eyes

Unconfessed sin causes loss of intimate fellowship with God (1:5-2:2). Hatred is a symptom of spiritual darkness. Only the Holy Spirit can give him spiritual light when he confesses his sin.

PRINCIPLE: Hatred revents spiritual growth.

APPLICATION: Hatred thwarts spiritual growth. God wants us to love other believers as He loves them. He wants us to love others the way He loves us. God never shows malice toward us.

If we hate our brother or sister in Christ, a self-chosen sphere of darkness blinds us. It does not merely impair our vision but constitutionally blinds us to fellowship with the Lord. We then stumble all over the place spiritually. Darkness creates its own momentum of vindictiveness and hatred.

Light shines on our path when we walk in fellowship with the Lord. We reflect the light of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. Darkness makes it utterly impossible to enter the sphere of glorifying Christ for we have no orientation to the God of light.

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1 John 2:11

Published on March 18, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
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“But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”
 
This verse says that the sin of hatred does three things:
  • It puts us in darkness and out of fellowship with God
  • It leads to aimless activity and the possibility of a fall
  • It causes us to lose spiritual direction (this verse)
But he who hates his brother is in darkness
John puts the phrase “he who hates” in antithesis to “he who loves.”  This is the thrust of verse 9. 
and walks in darkness,
A hater walks in darkness.  This is no occasional excursion into darkness but a course of life.  He cannot fellowship with a God characterized by light (1:5).  A person who hates lives in antithesis to the God of the Bible.  He belies his profession. 
1: 6 “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”
PRINCIPLE:  Walking in fellowship with the Lord requires direction and power from the Holy Spirit. 
APPLICATION:  The only way we can break out of darkness is to confess our sin (1:9).  If we do not allow the Holy Spirit to work in our souls, our spirit will curdle.  We will have a sour outlook toward others.  Everything will be sour grapes to us.  We lose spiritual direction. 
God does not call upon us to love others with our own puny love.  He provides the power of the Holy Spirit to love others with a caliber beyond our own.  We can draw on God’s limitless resource to love the not so lovely. 
Ro 5: 5 “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
Ga 5: 16 “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh… 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love…”
If Christians loved with the love of the Spirit, it would make a great impact on those without Christ.  They would say, “Those people are different over there.  They love one another.  They don’t gossip or backbite.  They do not knife each other in the back.”
There are believers all around us who carry broken hearts.  They are discouraged and defeated.  They have financial problems or domestic problems.  They have problems with their boss.  They need love in the struggle with all these problems.  They need demonstration of divine love. 
Many Christians walk out of church and do not ask penetrating questions of other believers.  All they contribute to other believers is a glorified “hello” and “goodbye.”  They have no genuine interest in fellow Christians.  If there is any place on earth where we should love one another, it is in the household of faith.  If we cannot find it there, we will not find it at work.
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1 John 2:10

Published on March 17, 2001 in 1 John. 2 Comments
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“He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.”

 

There is no twilight in divine love between love and hate.  The contrast is stark and unqualified between human love and divine love.
This verse shows the true claim to fellowship with God.   
He who loves his brother
The believer who can love all believers under any circumstance is a believer who walks or abides in the light; that is, he fellowships with God.  He fellowships with any Christian anywhere.  He may not agree with every Christian but he fellowships with him nevertheless. 
abides in the light,
To abide in the light is more than being in the light.  The person who loves walks in fellowship with the Lord.  The world will sit up and take notice of this kind of love.  This person may be shy, introverted or extroverted but he loves his brother without condition.  He takes no excursion from loving his brother for he abides in the light. 
“Walking” addresses behavior and “abiding” speaks to the proviso that determines behavior. 
and there is no cause for stumbling in him
The word “stumbling” means stumbling?block or trap.  The Christian who loves does not cause others to stumble or fall.  Christians who love are not obstacles to others.  They do not say thoughtless things to others. 
PRINCIPLE:  A great obstacle among Christians is lack of love. 
APPLICATION:  Loving members of the family of God involves commitment.  Biblical love goes beyond profession of love; it reaches into the act of love.  Showing care about the needs of fellow Christians demonstrates love.  Love costs something.  If we refuse to help a Christian in need while having the capacity to help them, we do not love them.  Is there any brother who you do not love?  You may say, “Well, I love most of them but there are a few that I don’t love.”  God says we are to love all of them all the time.  You may retort, “But some will not let me love them.”  God says, “Love them anyway.” 
1 Jn 3: 14 “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.”
Loving other Christians does not mean that we must initial everything they do or say.  We are not responsible for that.  We are not responsible for how they behave.  Our only job is to love them.  We do not have to like a Christian to fellowship with him.  We do not have to agree with a Christian to fellowship with him.  All we owe him is love. 
Ro 13: 8 “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.”
Love is free from jealousy, envy or malice.  Love does not run other Christians down or criticize them.  If there is one ounce of hatred, hostility or judgment toward another believer, we cannot walk with God in fellowship. 
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1 John 2:9

Published on March 16, 2001 in 1 John. 2 Comments
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“He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.”
 
 
Verse 9 connects closely to verse 8. John now gives a concrete example of verse 8. This is the third and final spurious claim to intimate fellowship with God in this chapter (2:4,6). 
 
Hatred of other believers is a sure sign of being out of fellowship with God. John tests the spurious claim by a practical situation. 
 
John picks up another test of character in this verse. The test here is the hate/love test. This is the fifth time John challenges inconsistency between claim and conduct (1:6,8,10; 2:4). There is a sixth in 4:20. Love concludes the three criteria for fellowship with God: “keep,” “walk” and “love.” 
 
He who says he is in the light,
 
The Gnostics mistakenly took academic knowledge of God for fellowship with God. Genuine knowledge involves correspondent involvement with truth. Genuine “knowledge” [fellowship] involves corresponding action; therefore, anyone who claims to be in the light demonstrates it in some way. 
 
Being “in the light” is equivalent to walking in fellowship with God. 
 
and hates his brother,
 
The Greek of “hates” conveys habitual hate. It especially carries the idea of malicious and unjustifiable bad thoughts toward others – to detest. It is a sense of animosity without cause. 
 
 “His brother” is a reference to a member of the family of God, a Christian.  
 
is in darkness until now
 
Christians who characteristically hate their brothers are in the darkness of being out of fellowship with God. This is the absence of fellowship with the God of light. God’s love cannot be neutral. 
 
Genuine Christians can hate other Christians. That is why John challenges the believer to radical love. We cannot toy with divine love if we love biblically. A Christian loves self-sacrificially. 
 
We cannot hate our brother and walk in the light simultaneously. There is strong antipathy between God and the believer who hates his fellow Christian because God is pure and absolute light. . 
 
Darkness means in this context to be out of fellowship with God or carnal. We cannot claim to be in the light and hate fellow Christians. We test our fellowship with God by whether we love Christians. There is no gray area between light and darkness when it comes to God for He is absolute in His character. We cannot be in fellowship with God and out of fellowship with a Christian concurrently. 
 
PRINCIPLE: Fellowship with God depends on loving members of the family of God. 
 
APPLICATION: Christians do hate other Christians. When this happens, we step out of fellowship with God. Hate stumbles our walk with God. 
 
Without love for the family of God, there can no love for God. Hating the members of the family of God is equivalent to walking in darkness. Hate and fellowship with God cannot mix. 
 
We can hate overtly or covertly. Either way, we no long fellowship with God. Coldness, isolation or exclusion of another Christian hinders our walk with God. 
 
Ro 13: 8 “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law… 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
 
We cannot claim fellowship with God and make a practice of hating the one we professes to own as our brother. Hate is not “not loving.” Hatred is the absence of divine love produced by the Holy Spirit for fellow Christians. 
 
Apart from walking in the light, all else is phony fellowship. It may be human attraction but it is not divine love. Human attraction has its preferences based on biases that we pick up along the way. We may like some but hate others. Many may be human unattractive to us. It is also easy to be attracted to those we are naturally attracted to. It is not spirituality to be attracted to those who whom we are naturally attracted.  Attraction to personality or physical appearance is not love. 
 
Can you say, “As far as I know, there is nothing between me and any one else. I am free to love.”?

 

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1 John 2:8c

Published on March 15, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
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“Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.”
 
 
because darkness is passing away,
 
Love is a manifestation of living in the light. Darkness passes away in us because of this. Jesus as the light of the world dispels darkness. When we fellowship with Him darkness dissipates in our lives (1:5-7). The present darkness of hatred is passing away. 
 
The “darkness” of spiritual insensibility that hides and obscures the light of divine love is in the process of passing away in believers. The darkness of sin and self-seeking found in natural love is in the process of passing away in divine love. 
 
Eph 5: 8 “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.”
 
Co 1: 13 “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”
 
1 Pet 2: 9 “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light…”
 
Note that John does not say that the darkness is already past. Obviously there is still darkness in the believer. 
 
and the true light is already shining
 
Jesus is the genuine love of the world (Jn 8:12). When Jesus came into the world, He dispelled darkness in the world. The word “true” means real, genuine. Jesus’ true light reveals the true character of a world in darkness. He is genuine light in contrast o the counterfeit or spurious light. The false light of Satan always imitates the true light. 
 
The present tense of “is already shining” indicates that the process already began and is continuing in the lives of Christians. Our true nature is revealed in Christ. When we believe the gospel, light floods in our souls giving us the capacity to love with divine love.   
 
PRINCIPLE: When we walk in fellowship with the Lord, the Holy Spirit sheds divine love in our hearts. 
 
APPLICATION: Jesus coming into the world represents light coming into darkness. The incarnation brought light into the world. The Holy Spirit enables us to walk in the light and manifest God’s love. 
 
The life of Christ shared in the believer produces love. It makes it possible to love difficult and disagreeable people, those hard to live with. The Holy Spirit spreads abroad the love of God in our hearts.
 
Ro 5: 5 “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
 
There is a genuine light and a false light. Fraudulent, spurious light does not measure up to the “true” light. The true light of biblical love lives up to its claims. It continues to shine forth as a luminary radiating the brightness of love. 
 
The “true light” shining in the believer is divine love as the result of the filling of the Spirit. It is the fruit of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit produces divine love in us. When the Holy Spirit controls us, He produces a love that goes beyond our measly love. 
 
The more God reveals Himself the more darkness fades in our lives and the more capacity we have to love others.
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1 John 2:8b

Published on March 14, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
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“Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.”
 
 
which thing
 
The words “which thing” refer to love as the fruit of the Spirit. The person who walks in the Spirit will produce the fruit of love. 
 
is true in Him and in you,
 
Jesus is the standard for loving. Mankind did not know genuine love until Jesus came. His love carried a new standard. Love took on a new in Christ. His love also became realized in us when we were born again. 
 
There is a conjoining of love in Jesus and in us. What flourished in Him will flourish in us. Love finds realization in Jesus first and in us second. Jesus loved us to the point of dying for us. By selfless, self-giving love, Jesus made possible a new dimension of love in us. It is true in Christ as the originator and Exemplar of love and it is true in believers as recipients, followers and imitators of love.  
 
The words “is true” indicate that Jesus’ love in us is not static but dynamic. The present tense indicates the need for constant application of love to our experience. The more we apply love to our experience, the more it is “true” or real. Christian love shines because of our fellowship with Him. We cannot fellowship with Him without His love corresponding to us. It cannot help but become operative in our lives. Love is real as opposed to reputed in our lives. 
 
PRINCIPLE: When we acknowledge the truth in Christ, we love conjointly with Him. 
 
APPLICATION: Love is realized conjointly between Christ and the believer when the believer acknowledges the truth in Christ. It finds realization first in Christ and then secondly in us. The believer finds corresponding reality of Christ’s love in his life. 
 
It is not until God regenerates us that we love more than me, myself and mine. God gives us a new capacity to love when we receive Christ as Savior. We cannot love if we have nothing with which to love. God enables us to love when we fall in love with Jesus. Jesus annihilates difference between people. No one else can do it. The ground is level at the cross. 
 
The only person many of us love is ourselves. That is why we are ornery and mean as a rattle snake. The philosophy is this, “Hurray for me and the devil take the hindmost.”
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1 John 2:8

Published on March 13, 2001 in 1 John. 1 Comment
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“Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.”
 
 
Verse 8 expands verse 7. Love in the family of God is the supreme way of demonstrating our fellowship with God.
 
 Again,
 
John looks at biblical love from another viewpoint than verse seven. Biblical love is not new or novel for his readers possessed it from the beginning of their salvation. However, from another viewpoint, it is new. John takes a second approach to the same subject of verse seven. 
 
a new commandment I write to you,
 
Christians heard the “old commandment” to love others from the beginning but now it is new in the sense of residing in the inner being of the believer. God’s love is old but not obsolete. The example was old but the exhortation is new. 
 
The principle of divine love in the believer is old from the viewpoint of time but, if we look at it in the context of the incarnation, it is new. Jesus demonstrated it as true. We can see it in believers as well.  
 
PRINCIPLE: God wants us to love with divine love. 
 
APPLICATION: God wants us to love as God loves. The good news of the gospel is that it gives us the capacity to love the unlovely. God gives us an ability to love beyond our natural ability. 
 
Jesus never asked His disciples to do something that He did not do. He told them to love each other as He loved them.
 
Jn 13: 34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
 
Some of us find that loving other Christians is quite a chore. Nevertheless, true believers love as Jesus loved. It is true in Him and in us. We have the same Savior so there is a ground for loving one another. There is an affinity in regeneration.
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