Between Sisters Blog | Agape, Agape, Agape… Part 3
Next, John reminds us in verses 16 through 19 that love actually gives us confidence in the day of judgment. John Calvin points out that this phrase in verse 16 “we have come to know and have believed” God’s love for us means that we have come to know by believing. God’s past and present faithfulness is a certified guarantee that He will be faithful to us in the future. God’s love was demonstrated for us when Christ’s death on the cross for sinners saved us “from the penalty of sin, the power of sin, the pollution of sin, and ultimately in Heaven from the very presence of sin.” John can tell us that God is love because God demonstrated His love in the action of sending Jesus to die on our behalf. We are most like our Heavenly Father when we go to work for others and love them well.
Verse 17 declares that God’s desire was to make a way through Christ that you could have a loving confidence towards God and look forward eagerly to meeting God rather than dreading it. We will all give an account for our lives on the day of judgment, but because of Jesus, our eternal judgment is already past.
A day of judgment is coming when those who are believers will not be as if they had just been stopped for speeding by a celestial, eternal police officer and have nothing to say because they are guilty. In that day Christians will have confidence. Why? Because God looks at us in the same way he looks at his Son, Jesus. I am in Christ, and my sins are covered. As Jesus is loved by the Father, so I am loved by the Father. I will have confidence in the day that I leave this world and enter that world to stand before a holy God. I will have no fear because as Jesus is loved, so God loves me now in the world…
Our judgment is not a judgment on our eternal destiny if we are believers. Our judgment is at what the Bible calls the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 14:10) where all believers will be held accountable to God for every careless word spoke (Matthew 12:36), where we will be rewarded with our inheritance (Colossians 3:24–25); where the evil we have done will be burned (Romans 14:10–12; 2 Corinthians 5:10). “The impetus for us as believers is to serve the Lord now with all our heart. None of us serves perfectly, but we don’t want to stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ and see much of our works on this earth burned up as it were under the fiery gaze of the Lord Jesus Christ. The image of someone standing before Jesus and pressing into his nail-scarred hands the charred embers of a wasted life should haunt each of us and stir us to godly living.”
In verse 18, fear of punishment does not abide in this love. Christ’s perfect agape love is the quarterback throwing fear of retribution for our sins out of sight and out of mind. Edwards says, “Fear is the legal principle, love is the evangelical. Servile fear is the spirit of bondage, but love is the spirit of adoption. The evangelical principle gives boldness and confidence…Fear keeps at at distance and prevents boldness of access.”
The only means by which we are able to love is because we first have been loved by God. His love is our teacher and our catalyst to love! Ted Peters said, “The promise of eternal life has the power to disarm anxiety for those who believe, for those who trust God to deliver on the promise. God’s eternal being sustains our threatened being. God’s faithfulness makes our faith possible, and our faith makes it possible to love others without abandon.”
Verse 20 is a hard-hitting punch to the gut. Many people would disagree with John that actually it is easier to love God because He loves us and is perfect, whereas people are imperfect and don’t always love us. But John is fixated on the fact that if we can’t even love someone we actually can see, how can we imagine we can love Someone we cannot see. More than that, John reminds us that Jesus commanded us that we love one another to show our love for Him, so this is not a mere suggestion, but an imperative from our superior that is expected to be obeyed. Jonathan Edwards said, “Love all men…Love wicked men with a love of pity, weep and pray for them and seek the good of their souls and welfare, wishing and praying that they may have the same mercy that God has given you.” If we approached love this way, how would our lives, our homes, our workplaces and our church be changed? But the bottom line is this is the way Jesus loved—He loved the woman caught in adultery, the tax collector, the thief on the cross, the soldiers beating and mocking Him—He loved them all, and not on merit of what they could do for Him, but knowing He would lay down His life for them.
According to verse 21, the question is, “do we love our brother or sister?” How are we actually loving others? Are we persistently loving them genuinely? Jerry Bridges says, “To meet the…needs of others costs getting out of ourselves, our concerns, and our interests. We cannot take a genuine interest in the welfare of others, as did Timothy, unless we are willing to become involved in their interests and their concerns. And we cannot do this unless we are willing to forego our own interests. But love willingly pays the price.”
Do you realize that there is nothing you can do to make God love you any more than He already loves you? Do you realize there is nothing you can do to make God love you any less than He already loves you? Do you realize that this love demands that you love others as Jesus has loved you?