“Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth Him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God, and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:1-5).
“Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God: and every one that loveth Him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of Him.” The direct occasion for so writing is found in the closing verses of the former chapter, where we read, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar.”
One is likely to ask, “But who do you mean by my brother?” Some people have an idea that our brethren are those who happen to belong to the same particular company with whom we associate. If I belong to one certain church, my brethren are those who go to that church; that is, if I am a Methodist, my brethren are Methodists; if I am a Presbyterian, my brethren are Presbyterians; if I am a Baptist, my brethren are the immersed, and perhaps not all the immersed, for some of them may have undergone alien-immersion, and so as they are not the particular ones with whom I associate, they are not my brethren! Our poor minds are inclined to narrow down the brotherhood to some special fellowship, some group of assemblies with which we are linked. But in this fifth chapter the Lord Himself gives the limits of the brotherhood when He says, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God: and every one that loveth Him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of Him.” The brethren include all in every place who have exercised faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; because by this expression, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ,” we are not to understand a mere intellectual acceptance of the creedal fact that Christ is the Son of the living God, but rather a true, vital confidence—personal faith in the Lord Jesus as the Christ, the anointed One of God. If you have faith in Him, you are born of God. All who trust in Him enter into this relationship. It is not a question with whom you may associate, what church connection you may have; for, after all, there is only one great Assembly, the Body of Christ, which God Himself recognizes as His Church. We speak in a limited way with regard to church-membership, for we think of a local fellowship, yet when the Word of God speaks of this, it means that vast company of which Christ is the glorified Head in heaven. To that Church every believer belongs, every member of the family of God in this present age, and so as we ask, “Who is my brother?” we look out upon the whole Church of God and realize that our love must go out to them all.
“Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God: and every one that loveth Him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of Him.” There is no use talking about loving the Father if you do not love the Father’s children; there is no use talking about our devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ if we are not devoted to those for whom He died. Love is a very real and practical thing. We speak of it in such a sentimental way sometimes and say, “I love all the people of God,” but how do we prove it? What form does our love take? Scripture says, “Love suffereth long, and is kind; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up...beareth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things” (1 Cor. 13:4-6). Take some of these simple statements and test your own love to find where you stand. Are you envious of any of God’s people? When honors come to others which do not come to you, do you rejoice in them? Scripture says, “Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Cor. 12:36). When people are saying good things about somebody else and not saying them about you, does your heart rejoice in that? Are you thankful to see others honored and exalted, even though you may be left in the place of the one who is passed over? Real love of the brethren will lead to that very thing. It will always endeavor to put somebody else forward instead of oneself.
Love is active; love leads one to seek to serve, to delight to minister. Are you trying to serve the people of God or are you one of those who love to be served? Some Christians are always wanting others to do for them, and then there are Christians who are always trying to do for others. You know which are the happier of the two. The folk that are constantly looking for attention are never happy. They are ever feeling hurt and slighted. But with those who are manifesting the love of Christ, how different! Someone once said to me, “I go to such and such a place, but they are a cold lot there. I never see any love manifested,” and I said, “Do you ever show any?” He looked at me and said, “Well, perhaps riot; as much as I should.” Standing right near was another who attended the same place, and I said, “How do you find them down there? — a pretty cold lot?” “Why,” she said, “I think they are one of the most loving and affectionate groups of Christians I have ever seen.” She was showing love to them, and because of that she was getting good returns. You find what you are looking for.
Some time ago I read of a man who spent a few months in India. When he came back, he was discussing India at the home of some of his friends, and the talk drifted to missions, and this man, out of his wide experience, about five months in India, said, “I have no use for missions and missionaries. I spent months there, and didn’t see that they were doing anything; in fact, in all that time I never met a missionary. I think the church is wasting its money on missions.” A quiet old gentleman sat near. He had not said anything, but now spoke up and said, “Pardon me; how long did you say you were in India?”
“Five months.”
“What took you there?”
“I went out to hunt tigers.”
“And did you see any tigers?”
“Scores of them.”
“It is rather peculiar,” said the old gentleman, “but I have spent thirty years in India, and in those years I never saw a tiger but I have seen hundreds of missionaries. You went to India to hunt tigers and you found them. I went to India to do missionary work and found many other missionaries.”
Some have said to me, “I have come here for months and nobody ever shakes hands with me,” and I say to them, “How many have you shaken hands with?” Love is a practical thing— “Every one that loveth Him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of Him.” Scripture also says, “Love covereth all things.” And again, “Love covereth a multitude of sins.” It is translated charity, but it is really love. People seem to think of it as though it meant almsgiving.
In a saloon in Sacramento, California, I was giving out gospel messages one night to the people who drank and caroused there. I gave a little booklet to a well-dressed gentleman, and by and by he said to me, “Pardon me, sir, what church do you represent?” I told him, and he said, “I was interested in getting this little book; I am a church-member myself.”
“You are in rather a bad place tonight,” I said. “I am here serving the Lord; what are you here for?”
“Oh, I guess I slipped up a little tonight, but you know, a poor woman stopped me on the street just now, and asked me for a dime to get some coffee and doughnuts.”
“And what did you do for her?”
“I gave her half-a-dollar. Don’t you think that should cover up any little peccadilloes here this evening?”
He thought that the charity he had shown would cover up his drinking. But these words mean that if you know that your brother or your sister has failed, if you know of some sin, even some grievous sin that has come into their lives, you will never mention it to anybody but God, if you really love them, unless you go direct to them and try to help recover them first of all— “Love covereth all things.” You will never be a talebearer, you will never be a gossip, never go about talking against your brother. When you know of anything wrong, you will go to God about it. The difference is this, when you talk to other people about your brother, you only spread things around and hurt the whole company, but when you go to God, the Holy Spirit of God can, in answer to your prayer, begin to work upon the heart and conscience of the wrong-doer, and he will be brought to repentance or be broken down under the discipline of the Lord. Of course there is something even higher than that. Love in all its fullness will lead you to go to that brother and tenderly, graciously, kindly, seek to help him in his trouble, point out the wrong, offer to pray with him, and leave it there with God if he bows in penitence before Him.
There is a beautiful little picture in the Old Testament in connection with the candlestick. The candle was really a little olive-oil lamp with a wick. The wick would burn just so long, and then turn over charred and blackened, needing to be snuffed. The Lord told Moses to make a golden candlestick with seven lamps, and its snuffers and the snuff-dishes of pure gold. The more I read my Bible the more I am impressed with the importance of every word. What is there in snuffers and snuff-dishes? Well, you see if a lamp is going to shine brightly, it needs to be snuffed sometimes, and if I want to burn brightly for Christ, there will be many a time when I have to judge myself in the presence of God, or I will be just like the burned wick which obscured the light. The priest of old was to go in and trim the lamp and use a golden snuffer, and gold in Scripture speaks of that which is divine, so the believer who reproves his brother is to go to him in fellowship with God. I may be able to help my brother if I go in tenderness and grace. What did the priest do with that snuff when he took it away? Did he scatter it all around, get it on his white robe, and on his hands, and go around defiling the garments of other priests? Oh, no; he was to take that dirty black snuff and put it in a golden snuff-dish, and cover it up so that it would not defile anybody else. That is what love does. You do not spread abroad your brother’s failures, you just show real love, and cover them up in the presence of God. That is love in a practical sense.
But now the second verse suggests something more. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments.” What a queer Book the Bible is! First, John says, that we know we love God because we love the brethren; and now he says, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God.” It seems illogical, like reasoning in a circle, does it not? But God is above all your rules of logic. He is not concerned about them. That is why you can find so many illogical things in the Bible, according to man’s mind. The Bible contains the truth regarding predestination, but it also teaches ‘the great truth of man’s responsibility, and shows us, as D. L. Moody used to say, that the elect are the “whosoever wills,” and the non-elect are the “whosoever won’ts.” This too seems to be reasoning in a circle, but some day we shall see that all is perfect and harmonious.
And so with what we have before us here. If we love God, we love the children of God also. If we love the children of God we keep His commandments. Love is faithful. It does not make light of sin. It does not seek to excuse evil. It leads us to put the truth of God first and to bring all else into subjection to it. I do not love my brother when I condone his wrong-doing, or agree (for the sake of peace) to what is in direct opposition to the command of God. Take the question of divorce and remarriage. There may be circumstances where people have to be separated, but if so, they are to remain unmarried (unless divorced for clear scriptural reasons), and yet what a lot of preachers there are who marry people who have been divorced contrary to the Word of God. Some ministers may say, “I love these people so much I don’t want to hurt their feelings,” but they are helping them to do something that is contrary to the Word of God. That is not love. “By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments.” When we put the will of God first and seek to manifest love to His people, seek to do it in accordance with His Word, and lead our brethren in the path of obedience to the Word, that is real Christian love.
“For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.” But somebody says, “It is all very well to say that, but I find it dreadfully hard to do some things that God wants me to do.” If I felt that way, I should begin to wonder whether I were really born again. If unsaved I have only one nature, and that nature hates the things of God. If you are born again, you have a new nature and you ought to glory in the will of God; and you will do so if you are walking in the power of an ungrieved Spirit. If you are a Christian and do not find delight in the will of God, it is because you are grieving the Holy Spirit, because there is something in your life that is dishonoring the Lord, and so you have lost your joy. Judge everything in your life that is contrary to the word of God, and you will be surprised to find how sweet His will is. You come to the crossroads and know that God’s will is this way and your will is the other way. You know His way will mean happiness and that your way will bring misery. You may try your own way only to find that you are heaping wretchedness upon wretchedness, instead of finding true joy and peace. “His commandments are not grievous.”
“For whatsoever is born of God (that new nature, that new life which is communicated to you) overcometh the world.” It is a very blessed fact that every true believer will be an overcomer at the last, but I am afraid some of us, like Jacob, will never be overcomers until we are almost at the end of life. Jacob had been a child of God for many years, but it was not until he was down to the very end that he manifested the graces that God was seeking to work in him throughout all those years. Then we read, “By faith Jacob, when he was a-dying, blessed the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff” (Heb. 11:21). By faith when he was dying he was brought to the place of an overcomer. What a pity to have lost that past time, and what a pity if you and I should be so set upon having our own way that we should lose out throughout the years, years that can never be recalled.
What does it mean to overcome the world? All that is in the world is taken up in the second chapter of this epistle, the lust of the flesh, which is carnal indulgence of any kind; the lust of the eyes, or the pleasures of the senses, the esthetic pleasures; and then the pride of life, ambition, struggling after fame and praise in the world.
These are the things that constitute “the world.” Some Christians have the idea that worldliness consists in going to the theater, playing cards, dancing, taking part in certain worldly pleasures. No doubt these minister to one form of worldliness, the lust of the flesh and perhaps the lust of the eye; but you may never have crossed the threshold of a theater, you may never sit down at the card-table, you may never have been on the dance-floor in your life, and yet you may be just as worldly as the people who do these things. The lover of money is as worldly as the lover of pleasure, of fame, of ambition. The one who is trying to crush others and push himself to the front is just as worldly as the man who spends half the night at the theater. Do not think that you can “compound for sins you are inclined to by damning those you have no mind to.” Overcoming the world means being delivered from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the ostentation of living. As you obey the desires of the new nature you are set free from the world, because this new life rises up to God as water to its source and finds delight in the things of God.
“And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” In Revelation we hear the Lord saying seven times over in His command to write to the seven churches, “To him that overcometh.” He is not singling out a superior class of Christians, but means that in every age the real Christians will be the overcomers, for by faith they overcome the world at last in every instance.
And now lest we should make any mistake about that, the fifth verse says, “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” Do you believe that? Again I repeat, It is not merely as accepting a statement of creed, but it is that you trust in the blessed Son of God who came from the Father’s bosom, went to Calvary’s cross, and there shed His precious blood to put away your sins. Have you trusted Him? Have you believed on Him? Peter says, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever...And this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you” (1 Peter 1:23-25). When you believe the message of the gospel, when you receive the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as your personal Saviour, then you are born of God, then you have this new nature, then that faith is yours which is manifested by love. You may be sure of this; whatever failures, struggles, temptations you may have to meet, you will come through at last triumphant, because it is He that will bring you through. It is not a question of your own power or steadfastness, but you are “kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5).