The Apostle John in his epistles brings out the nature of God in the saints. He shows us the character of the life that is communicated, the life which is in God the Father derived through the Son. It is first given in Christ, and then it is manifested in the saints. The traits of God are brought out wholly in Christ but through the Christian.
The Power
The Holy Spirit dwelling in us gives us the power of enjoyment, that there may be no vacillation or uncertainty. He affirms the testimony in the public manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the capacity of enjoying the source of the life is by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. God is love, and this is first openly seen at the cross of Christ; then in the new nature we have a capacity to enjoy that love. But all fear must be taken away, because fear has torment, and torment is not enjoyment, and thus He shows what removes the fear. “Perfect love casteth out fear.” If it is asked, How do you know God loves you? I reply, I have a certain and constant proof of this in the gift of His Son, and then, besides that, I have the daily and hourly enjoyment of God as my Father, and I know it because I am enjoying it.
Love One Another
I may prove to another the love of God by certain acts, such as the gift of His Son, which is an open manifestation of God’s love, but this does not take away from the daily enjoyment of God, the capacity for which I get in the new nature and by the power of the Spirit. It is remarkable to see how the Apostle guards from mysticism (focusing on the testimony we are giving) by bringing the mind back to the plain statement of the gospel: “We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” In verse 7 he begins by saying, “Beloved, let us love one another.” Here we have the love of God in exercise in the new nature, and the characteristic of this nature is to recognize it in another. If I have this divine nature, I certainly will love it in another. I may have many prejudices to overcome, but there is the attractive power in the thing itself. I do not treat it as a mere duty; it is there in the nature, and being divine it is much above angels, although they are higher as to creation. Nevertheless, we need something more than the new nature, because it is a dependent nature, and therefore needs something else. Christ, when down here as man, lived a dependent life. He said, “I live by [or, on account of] the Father.” The old man sets himself up and pretends to be independent, and then he comes under the power of Satan.
A Dependent Nature
But the new nature is a dependent nature, and it says, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” Life in Christ leans on God’s power, and delights to do so. The Holy Spirit is the power. We are “strengthened with all might by His Spirit in the inner man” (Eph. 3:1616That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; (Ephesians 3:16)), and there is full blessing, both in the individual and in the church of God. Although we have the new nature, we need also the power of the Holy Spirit to remove the obstacles to its display. Labor will not do. You may labor on the cold snow, but the sun must shine before it melts. So the Holy Spirit is needed to dissolve the thick ice of our hearts and melt away that which is in us to obstruct and hinder its full manifestation.
Love Is of God
“God is love, and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.” When I am born of God, I have this nature and am brought into a position to refer everything up to God, for the nature we get from God has God for the object of that new nature to act upon. When I see the traits of this new nature, I say, He is born of God. I see the love that is in natural affection. In mere natural affection, selfishness is the ground of it all, but in the saint, he that loves is born of God. While selfishness is the spring of everything apart from God, we find in a soul that is born of God another principle which takes a man clean out of himself. In the world a man makes himself a fortune by some new invention that makes the world more comfortable, and what is this but selfishness? And all that gives an impulse to the progress of the world is selfishness, for God is left out. But for the believer it is different, though we are in a world where we all have to follow our various occupations and callings. In a Christian it is not selfishness; it is the activity of love; he is born of God, and love is the principle of God’s nature. It may be very feeble in me, but I ought not to be satisfied that it should remain so. No, that which is born of God came down from God and returns to God again; therefore, “be ye imitators of God as dear children.”
Returns to God
This perfect love came down from God that it might return to God again, for whom did Christ come to glorify in this world but His Father? So all that Christ did returned to God a sweet-smelling savor, or else it would have been lost. There are many beautiful qualities in a creature of God, but the question is, Do they return back to God again? If not, then it becomes sin. I get a good thing, I enjoy it and leave God out, and this is man’s sin. There may be a great deal of selfishness under the guise of liberality. A Christian will help his brother and look up to God as doing it to God because He loves God, but if he helps him and says to himself, I have done well, it is not love; it is self-righteousness. The new nature has God for its source and God as its object; the new nature acts in us like God, so that others can see it, but then it looks up and knows God. “Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God,” and it is a great comfort to say in everything, I have found God.
Our Love — His Love
After such manifestation of God’s love, let us not be thinking of our love to God. Who am I that I should be coupling His love with mine? The moment I begin to think of my love to God, that moment it ceases; it is gone, like the manna that had worms and stank. Heaven will be when I have entirely forgotten myself and am filled with God. That very same love which will fill heaven was manifested in the cross. God’s love is not exhausted, though my need may be and is great, and my failures many.
So in the present life we see that, when the Apostle realized the privilege of getting up to the Giver of every good and perfect gift, he returns to the very simplest truth: “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” Thus we see the saint who knows most of the heart of God is the best evangelist. The fathers in Christ will be the most careful to take account of the weakest babe in Christ.
Bible Treasury (adapted)