“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 love. 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 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 the 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 the 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 the 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 rattlesnake. The philosophy is this, “Hurray for me and the devil take the hindmost.”
