“And this is His
command, that we should believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ
and love one another, just as He gave us command. And the one keeping
His commands remains in Him and He in him; and with this we know that
He remains in us, from the spirit which He gave us.” (1 John
3:23-24, my translation)
Keeping the command
to believe in Jesus Christ and love one another is not causative of
remaining in Christ, that is, it is not a work which results in
remaining in Christ, rather it is evidentiary, that is, it is
evidence of remaining in Christ to begin with. We know that He
remains in us because we can see the produce of the spirit which He
gave (John 15:4-5, Galatians 5:22-24).
“Dear ones, we
should love one another, because Love is from God, and every person
who loves has been fathered by God and knows God. The person not
loving hasn’t known God, because God is love. With this the love of
God has been made apparent within us, because God sent His one of a
kind Son out into the world so that we should live through Him. With
this is Love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His
propitiating Son about our malfunctions. Dear ones, if God loved us
in this way, we are also obligated to love one another. No one has
ever viewed God. If we love one another, God remains within us and
His love is having been finished within us.” (1 John 4:7-12, my
translation)
While many will take
issue with me for saying this, in the context of everything John has
written so far and will write, the word “is” in the line which
reads “God is love” is essentially a “=”. It’s an “equals”
sign expressing that one equals the other. My apologies to other
translators and theologians, but it could just as easily be
translated correctly “love is God” in the context of what John is
saying here, which is that, if there is no love present in the
person, then God is not present within the person. Love being
expressed by the person for others, and by the community for one
another, is the key indicator that that person is remaining in Christ
and Christ is remaining in him (or her as the case may be). The
person who claims to be remaining in Christ is obligated to love and
express His love through what he does, because the person remaining
in Christ has God living and acting through him and God is love. That
love which is expressed is God Himself. It is a binary option in
John’s thinking. If love is present, then God is present. If love
is not present then God is not present. If hatred is present, then
God is not present and the person is not remaining in Christ. In
John’s thinking love = God and God = love.
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