"In this we are having come to know the love, because that One on behalf of us the life of Him He laid down. And we ourselves are obligated on behalf of the brothers the lives to lay down."
-We know what love is, so we know what life is. Life = love, and love = death.
-Death. Not murder, as in life-taking. Nope. Life-giving. Actually it was murder - His enemies did murder Jesus. They took His life (actually, He let them). But the sublime irony is that in being put to death Jesus GAVE us life, His life. It was a murder which showed the way and opened the door for us to escape from the world of murder and hatred. He laid down His life for us. Let me say that again, and pause for more than a second to think about it. Let us linger on this life-giving, life-changing truth. The Son of God - laid down His life, allowed Himself to be murdered - for His enemies, would-be-brothers. For us. To give us life. That's you and me, brother. Eternal life, life without end. Unending. Immeasurable. Beyond anything we can imagine. Infinite life! He did this - for the sake of family. Laid it down, gave it up.
-So, brothers. we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. And sisters. We are under every obligation to do so. That is the word in the Greek. We're not just talking about a good idea. A suggestion. Like, we ought to wash our hands before we eat. That's not what God is saying here. This is a debt that we owe. To our family. But also to Jesus. We owe it to Him - and to our family - to lay down our lives for Him AND for our family. We must. The souls of many depend on it.
-Riddle me this: what is the debt that all men pay? Death. Physical death. But here is the debt that all Christian men (and women) pay - or should. In fact, what John is saying is that defaulting on this debt would show that God's love is not in us after all, that we are not a true brother after all. But what is this debt, the price we need to pay, the lengths to which we must go in loving our brothers? The answer to this is painful. We don't like this. Our flesh chafes against it. Because truly, love = death. It may not cost us our physical lives (altho that is certainly a possibility, esp if you live in a time or place where following Jesus is literally a matter of life and death). No, for most of us, at least in the land of (what used to be) Christendom, a life-laid-down looks more like... inconvenience. It involves going out of my way. Getting out of my house. Out of my routine (out of my rut?). Giving up some of my time or my stuff (as if it were ours to begin with - what do we have which we did not receive from our Heavenly Father? Did He in fact mean for us to keep all [or most] of it to ourselves?). Meeting needs with whatever means the Lord has entrusted to me (there were NO "needy persons" in the early days of the church - Act 2.44-45, 4.32, 4.34). Many of us sacrifice to build our buildings and to run our programs and to pay our pastors. But how much do we sacrifice for our brothers and sisters in need? It might involve loving the unlovely, or the uncomely, or the uncool. Giving, even devoting our time and our resources - and our hearts (caring!) - to those who may very well be unable to pay us back. This is the debt all Christians must pay. To give generously, hilariously, without keeping a tab, whatever it takes. And this is what it will take to cause the world to stop and wonder, behold, how they love one another! What makes them so different? It is Jesus, our Big Brother, the Firstborn among many brethren, the consummate caring loving Life-giver. He gave His all for us. Brethren, we must do the same. We must...!
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