The Lord Jesus said He had overcome the world. (John 16:33) Through Him, we can overcome all the things of this world that seek to draw our devotion away from Him. Today John finishes up with the long discourse on love he's been providing, then he moves on to tell us how we can be confident about our salvation and how we can obey the Lord's commands even when the world tries to keep us from obeying Him.
Several days ago we clarified what John meant when he said that the one who loves has been born of God. We pointed out that he doesn't mean that everyone who loves anyone is right with the Lord. After all, the Lord Jesus said that even unbelievers love those who love them. (Luke 6:32) John is talking about loving others in the way God loved us. He's telling us that we know we belong to the Lord if we are able to love not only those who love us, but also those who can do nothing for us and who would do nothing for us if they could. God loved us when we were still unprofitable to Him. He loved us when we were living in opposition to Him. And now that we are in Christ, let's think back to what drew us to Him in the first place. It was His ability to love us when there was nothing about us to love, wasn't it? It was the fact that He gave Himself for us even though we were so unworthy. This is the type of love we are to have for our fellow man. How can we lead them to Christ if they don't feel like we love them? If they don't see any Christlike love in us, they will not be interested in hearing about Him.
"We love because He first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And He has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister." (1 John 4:19-21) Would we have ever loved Him if He hadn't first loved us? Probably not. Will unbelievers ever love Christ if they don't feel like Christians love them? It's going to be difficult for them to come to faith in Christ if they never see anything admirable in Christians.
Love is the fruit of a changed life. And what was it that changed our lives? Believing that Jesus is the Son of God. "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves His child as well." (1 John 5:1) We want to please those we love, don't we? If we love the Lord, we will want to live in a way that pleases Him. Having the desire to do what's right in the eyes of God is another fruit of a changed life. "This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep His commands." (1 John 5:2-3a)
We are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves. By loving others we are displaying our love for God, because obeying Him is how we prove our love for Him. If there's nothing in us that wants to show our love for the Lord by doing what He says, we must question whether we really love Him at all. The Lord Jesus clearly stated that our obedience is the proof of our love: "If you love Me, keep My commands." (John 14:15)
The Apostle John knows that we're going to run into people who don't want to get along with us. He's been a minister of the gospel since he was a young man, and he's run into a lot of people who are very difficult to like. But, as we said earlier in the week, we're not commanded to like everyone. We're commanded to love them because the Lord loves them, and because Christ gave His life for them, and because we (like God) don't want their souls to spend eternity separated from the Lord.
John knows that some of his readers are going to sit there with his letter and think about how some of the people in their community are very unlikable. He knows they're going to be thinking to themselves, "How can I be nice to my neighbor Jimmy? He's so ill tempered all the time." Or, "I don't know how I'm going to be polite to Ellen. All she does is brag about herself and look down on others." If we rely on the strength of our flesh to maintain a loving attitude toward those who are unlikable, we will probably fall short. But we don't have to rely on our own strength. We must lean on the strength of Christ---on the One who was able to love those who hated Him. This is why John can say that the command to love others is not too hard to follow. "And His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God." (1 John 5:3b-5)
How can we have confidence in our salvation? First, by being certain that we believe Jesus is the Son of God. This is the step of faith it takes to become a child of God. Second, if we've given our hearts and souls to the Lord Jesus, we should be bearing the fruit that is the evidence of a changed life. Do we have a desire to obey our Lord? Are we able to love others as He has commanded us? Do we care about those who are lost? Do we want to see people set free from slavery to sin? Do we want others to have the peace and joy that we have in our Lord? If we can answer all these questions with a "yes", then we know without a doubt that we are new creatures in Christ and that He is daily working to make us more and more like Him.
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