Love According to John

I recently got back from Winter Camp. It was one of the best weeks ever. The speakers were really good. We had a lot of fun. I met some amazing people, and many existing relationships were deepened. I could write endlessly about my experiences that week and the people I talked to and the things we talked about, but the task is daunting, and this isn't a very suitable medium. I think I'll just throw out one of the interesting thoughts I had this week. Actually, this is an adaptation of a "talk" (I don't want to say "sermon") I gave one evening. I feel like it's worth sharing. (Sorry to those who've already heard this.)

I started off by reading a whole bunch of passages from 1 John (You can pretty much skim over them, as they all say essentially the same thing. The repetition is for emphasis):

1:6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

2:3 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

2:9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.

2:29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

3:6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil

3:9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

3:17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us.

4:7 Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

4:16 God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

4:20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Scary stuff, eh? Just in case you missed the big theme there, allow me to summarize: He who does not love his brother, or who lives sinfully has not come to God, is not in God, has not seen or known God, is not a child of God (but rather of the devil), and does not have eternal life. To condense this further, allow me to be so bold as to say that John believes that those who do not display a loving and obedient life are not Christians.

Incidentally, 1 John mentions a couple other ways of determining if one is a Christian, namely whether they have the Spirit (2:20, 3:24, 4:13) and whether they say that Jesus came from God (2:23, 4:2-3, 4:15). (Furthermore, John urges his readers to "continue in him" (2:24-28) as if to say that it is possible for Christians to loose their salvation, but this is a separate issue.) However, the greatest and the most problematic of John's "salvation tests", so to speak, are obedience and love.

I think many Christians, upon reading this, will immediately wish to interpret these verses in light of the "greater context of scripture", which often seems to mean (if you'll pardon my cynicism) emphasizing the verses we like, and interpreting verses we dislike in a way that makes them line up with our preferred and preconceived doctrines. However, I believe the clarity and redundancy of the above verses are more than sufficient to warrant a serious and honest rethinking of our notions about salvation and Christian life. Anyway, I think we overemphasize the indivisibility (to say nothing of the continuity) of our Bible. We would do well to remember that the books of our Bible once stood alone (or rather, they stood in a context of personal experience between readers and writers, as well as a considerable amount of presumed knowledge and doctrine, that is all but lost to us). Perhaps our struggle to fit the whole Bible into some single creed or statement of faith and to interpret all Biblical concepts in view of all other Biblical concepts is not only impossible, but detrimental to our understanding of individual books, authors, and concepts. But I acknowledge that my view of the Bible is pretty unorthodox, and may seem positively burn-'im-at-the-stake heretical to you. However, I hope you'll agree that this has no direct bearing on my current point about John's ideas of salvation. Back to business.

Real Live Preacher (as I've mentioned before) says the Jews of John's era were very holistic, meaning that "they did not know how to separate mind from body". He says that in our culture "a man may betray his wife and neglect his children, but say he loves them 'down inside'. Bullshit. There is no 'down inside.' Love is something you do, not something you feel. Likewise, we think having faith means being convinced God exists in the same way we are convinced a chair exists. People who cannot be completely convinced of God's existence think faith is impossible for them. Not so. People who doubt can have great faith because faith is something you do, not something you think. In fact, the greater your doubt the more heroic your faith." I take this to mean that our attitudes and actions are a fairly accurate reflection of our true beliefs. Not that beliefs and underlying motives are insignificant (see 1 Cor 13), but the importance of action is often underemphasized.

Real love compels us to action. The same is true, I think, of real faith, real hope, real joy, peace, patience, etc. These things are not invisible - if they exist, they will be seen. James says faith without works is dead (2:14-26); John says love without works is dead. Martin Luther's take on it is that we are saved "by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone".

I think evangelical's zeal for converting people prompts and overemphasis on the "free gift" of salvation. This idea is supported to some extent by scripture, but we often forget or ignore the other side: that true faith and true love will prompt real and tangible changes in our lives - in our attitudes, thoughts, words and actions. Christians, particularly children, tend to doubt their salvation, wondering if perhaps they "said the wrong words" or some such thing. Intriguingly, I've never heard anyone answer a child's fears by saying "Well, do you love people? Do you obey God's commands? The Bible says that's how we can tell if someone's a Christian."

So the inevitable question is what if I don't love and don't obey? Personally, I love poorly and seldom, and I often willfully disobey God's commandments. Am I not a Christian? I don't know for sure, and I don't want to give the impression of having some authority on the subject, because John doesn't really address this possibility, but I'll give you my opinion. It seems to me - and I think many Christians would agree - that the attitude of your heart and the desire to serve God and love others are the distinguishing characteristics. Humility is key. One of my favorite verses is James 4:10: "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up". Before we can begin to really love and obey, we must come humbly before God, recognizing that we're not capable of pleasing him out of our own strength.

But examine yourself. Do you desire to love and obey more? Are you actively working towards that? If not, something is seriously wrong. You need to ask yourself whether you want to follow God and live for him, or whether you want to part ways with God, and stop calling yourself his child. The way I read my Bible, there is no other option.