We have before noticed the three tests or marks of a believer in the previous chapter (verses 7, 10, 24). I must remark a fourth at the commencement of our chapter, before proceeding with my subject. This is, listening to the words of the apostles themselves. After their time it could no longer be a test; but then, what they taught was a test of all else. Whoever does not give heed to them, and bow to the Word of God by them, is not of God. “ He that is not of God heareth not us.” “Us” is very distinct and definite. The Church never teaches—it is taught. The apostles assembled the Church and taught much people. (See Acts 11:2626And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. (Acts 11:26).) To whomsoever God has given gifts, they teach, but an assembly never teaches; it has to confess the truth. Teaching belongs to those whom God has made teachers. Another thing, to be remembered is, that revelation is not inspiration, though in common parlance the words are often confounded. A revelation is a positive, definite thing, learned of God. He has revealed something that men’s thoughts do not know. God’s Word is a test of everything else. “He that knoweth God heareth us.” That which was from the beginning—that which God revealed we know we know only what it is, and it is a test of all else that can be. But the question is, to whom was the Word written? To those in office? No; to all the people—to all Christians. I find that the Word of God is addressed by the apostles to those who listen, and if you do not hear it, you are not of God. The more you search and find out the place that the Scriptures hold, the more certain you become that they hold this place. If my child disobeys my commands, he disobeys me. In speaking of the Word of God in Heb. 4 you read, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight,” &c. There is no difference made between the Word sent, and the living Word, Christ. The Word of God is the expression of His heart and thought; and rejecting it is rejecting Him. It is a great thing, beloved friends, to get things simple. If you reduce revelation to inspiration, it is gone. Revelation commands me, as being of God. Paul expresses it when he says to the Thessalonians, “When ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe” (1 Thess. 2:1313For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. (1 Thessalonians 2:13)).
There is a remarkable connection between life, and the love of God dealing with us. We live by the life of Christ. But life alone would often create restlessness of soul. If I did not find testimony enough in myself, I might become uneasy, and doubt whether the life existed in me after all. This is dealt with here; and he takes up the love of God the other way, and casts us over on the fact that this love is in God Himself (v. 7). That is the real connection in which to view all experiences. The evil is when we look at our experiences—though it is better to have them; but we should look out from them at Christ. The effect of having the Spirit of God is, to take me out of my experiences, and bring me to Christ as He is in Himself. Suppose I have such and such an experience that distresses me—well I must go off to Christ: the experience is not wrong, but looking at it, and not out of it at Christ, is wrong. When I do know myself, if I have not something besides myself, in a certain sense it is all over with me. You see here, bow, while the apostle requires the experiences of life, he leads the soul out of them to another.
If I have love to the brethren (verse 7) I am born of God. I have no such thing in nature. I must have the nature of a being, though I am not necessarily on an equality with that being, to know what he is. I know what it is to be a man, because I am a man. So if a man has the divine nature he knows God. Of course he has much to learn, but in a sense he knows God (e.g., as light and love). Well, how is that shown? One characteristic of it is, love to the brethren. O, but someone says, I am so cold, so imperfect, so wanting in love; I do not know what to think of myself. I get out of myself in verse 9. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.” I must have the divine nature to know and understand God, but He takes us clean out of ourselves, to show us that which is totally outside of us, and of that which is not in ourselves at all, but in God. He loved me. when I was dead—when there was nothing that I could find in myself. “He sent his only-begotten Son,” and I see love in God, it is manifested, and in Himself. Now, my eye can rest in looking out of myself. I could not see it if not in myself too, but He has manifested it in sending His own Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Then He goes on to say that it is not in my heart at all. “Herein is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us.” It is manifested not only in acts but in nature. Now I have what it really is. It is not in my loving God at all, though it will produce that. It is another thing, for when I was hatred to God He was love to me (verse 10). Then He goes on to the day of judgment. First, it is in God, and then manifested to us when we were sinners. It is not only independent of motive in God, but “God commendeth His own (for that is the word) love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8).) There is nothing in me to draw it out but sinfulness and wickedness. In true love you always find a thoughtfulness about the state of the object of love. The love that is in God is perfect thoughtfulness about me, and this is blessedly brought out here. Why should He send His Son that we might live? I was dead as regards God, though if dead to Him, alive enough in my wicked will. I was wicked, and He sends His Son as a propitiation (v. 10). I was dead, and He sends Him that we might live (v. 9). He gives the object of His infinite delight for me when a sinner dead in guilt. That which spares nothing when there was no motive, and stints nothing, is perfect divine love. Now He sees perfectness in the ones for whom He gave His Son. “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel.” He did not leave out righteousness. In the work of the Lord Jesus, God was perfectly glorified in righteousness, and on this ground the love of God towards poor sinners can be righteously free. God cannot have sin in heaven; therefore, if He does not put it away, He must put me away. The source of it all was the supreme and sovereign and self-springing love of God in doing that which was needed for man; and He was perfectly glorified at the Cross, and it goes beyond propitiation, because it puts man in glory.
Mark another thing. Not only are the sins gone, but I am gone, “that we might live through Him.” I do not live through Adam now, I live through the Son of God; therefore my place now with God is, if you take up righteousness (v. 10), in virtue of the propitiation—if you take life, it is life in Christ (v. 9).
Now I have the perfect certainty of the manifestation of this love. I look to the God who has done it all, and I say, He is love. Supposing that I have a child who says, I love my mother quite enough—well, I say, you do not love her at all. But supposing a child says the contrary, and mourns over the feebleness of her love, I say that she loves her mother more than the other. True love is, “not that we loved God, but that he loved us.” I have learned God through my sins, and the place where I learn His love is, not in my love to Him, but in His love to me when I did not love Him. It is a love that is infinite in its way of dealing. Sins and self are set aside, so that now the life that I live, “I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” “Not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Then (v. 14) I have the love manifested, and I believe it, (v. 16). The whole principle is brought out in verses 9 and 10. So that now I find, “If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” If God has loved us in such a manner as this, why, we must love our brethren.
“If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath: given us of his Spirit.” Nowhere we have the springs and enjoyments of it in a saint. We have seen God’s love to a sinner, and by the Holy Ghost, which has “shed abroad” the love of God in our hearts, we learn it in a saint. Why, if I have God dwelling in me, what more can I seek? We have been washed from our sins, and the Holy Ghost can come and dwell in us because we are clean. You will find this still more striking if you look at John 1:1818No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. (John 1:18): “No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” I cannot know a man till I have seen him. The only-begotten one has declared the Father, and manifested Him to the earth in the sight of men. The one who, as a present thing, is enjoying the absolute perfectness of the Father’s love, has seen the Father (v. 12). All is concentrated in Himself, the only begotten. Now, supposing I told you what my father was. Well, I must tell you what he is to me, for that is how I know him; and this is precisely what Christ does. It resulted in giving perfect confidence to the vilest of sinners. If you were to ask me to explain it, I could not; just as if you were to ask me to explain the sweetness of honey, I could not—you must taste it. Here this blessed One declares what the Father was in His own person. In a certain sense the Comforter is substituted for the person of Christ on the earth: “I will not leave you comfortless.” He was with them when on earth, but not in them. He had to take man into heaven in His own person, and to send the Holy Ghost down to man on the earth. “Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.” This is known by the Comforter. And “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.” (Compare chap. 3:24, 4: 13). No saint ought to be satisfied without knowing that he dwells in God; and if he does not know God as the sanctuary of his heart, he is not in a right state. The first thing to know is that He dwells in us: “Hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us,” and the next thing is to know that we dwell in Him: “Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.” He comes and dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us; it came to us as sinners, but now His is perfected in us (verse 12). We shall be kept safe against mysticism by the fact that it was to me as a sinner, and is still God’s love, not mine at all. Can I measure what is infinite? No. Then what is the consequence? I never can get out of it. So with God’s love.
“And we have seen and do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of ‘the world.” This is properly preaching the gospel, and what we ought to have, personal knowledge, though not now actually with the eyes. It is absolute grace, but which is known now in the power of it by God dwelling in us. No person is fit to preach the gospel unless he is dwelling in the love he is talking about. Mysticism consists in the love that is in my heart, but the thing that is “shed abroad” is God’s love. Mysticism falsely thinks it is some state of man’s heart.
Now, we ask, what takes away the pretense of not considering this the actual condition of every Christian? “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” I get astonished, beloved friends, sometimes, that such passages as these have not touched us more! It is not progress, it is not a high: state of mystical condition. “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God.” I delight in that phrase. Supposing I meet a careless Christian, I say to him, ‘How are you treating this great guest?’ How much have you thought of Him today? If you had the Queen in your house, would you not consider her? Is that the way you have been treating God? Of course it is by the Holy Ghost, that we have God dwelling in us. Supposing I meet a humble, distrustful soul, I say, ‘Do you not confess that Jesus is the Son of God?’ Oh, yes. Well, God is dwelling in you; He has made your heart His dwelling-place. Where there is carelessness it touches the conscience, and where; there is lowliness it reaches the heart.
(To be continued.)