”Everyone trusting that Jesus is the Christ, out of God has been begotten, and everyone loving the [One] having begat is loving the [one] having been begotten out of Him.”
-John restates the previous verse here, but now he emphasizes paternity. IF you are trusting in Jesus Christ, if you have put your faith in Him for the forgiveness of your sins and for eternal life, then you have been born of God. God is your Father. He has given you a spiritual birth. You are a new creation, made not in China or the USA but made in heaven. This is true of every last man, woman, and child who are trusting in Jesus - they are a true child of God. The verb tenses here are significant. All of this begetting is in the past (perfect tense), and loving is in the present. In other words, if the new birth is in the past, then there is the ongoing result of love in the present. Such that everyone who loves the Father, will (or should) be loving the rest of His children. ‘Cuz they are family! It's the ultimate paternity test! The entrance exam, if you will, is what do you say about Jesus, who is He? But then these mid-term tests are all about love. We’re talking about an open-Book open-answer oral exam. How are you and I doing at loving the rest of the (student) body? However, this in fact is not a school. Some building where you attend a class once a week, or 5 days a week or even more. Pursuit of head knowledge and the chance to hang out with friends for a bit (who we may or may not throw off depending on the circumstances). And where I kind of only attend ‘cuz I pretty much have to. Isn’t this how so many of us approach church? To us it is a lot like school. What John is stressing throughout this letter and again in this verse is that we are a family, and it’s all about the Head of the family. God is our Father, and we are His children - IF we believe in Jesus. And again, this makes us family. Brothers and sisters who have Jesus in common. Jesus unites us. He trumps (or should) any and all other worldy factors which might otherwise conspire to pull us or keep us apart, at arms length, close enough perhaps for a polite handshake in passing but too far away for a hug or for any extended deep meaningful sharing and serving. And here again, we need to be truly careful about projecting our own experience of family on to what the family of God is supposed to look like, how it can or should function. Only child, child of divorce, abuse or neglect, physically or emotionally absent dad (or mom) - our parents weren’t perfect, our family wasn’t perfect - and some less than others. But we come to the family of God with all kinds of preconceived notions about how a family functions, and we need to take our cues not from nature or nurture but rather from our heavenly Father Himself. And from our Brother. They have shown us and told us what family and what love looks like. We would do well to pay careful attention... And may we not forget, family is forever. Love is forever.
-See, take a minute and consider what your first response is to that statement. Love is forever. Do you think of hearts and rings and holding hands, of romantic dinners and walks on the beach, of promises made - and not kept? Of love gone bad, love lost, a love which did not last? The tragic reality of our broken world, populated with imperfect people, is that we see (and experience) way too many examples of love which doesn’t quite live up to its billing. Love which is anything but. But THIS is God’s love we’re talking about. This is no all-purpose flower which can refer to how I feel about felines and mocha frappuccinos and philharmonics and fidget spinners. The Greeks had a special word for this love, in fact. Perhaps that is one reason why the Lord in His sovereignty had the Scriptures completed in the Greek language? It’s interesting to think about at least. Not surprisingly, John is using that word repeatedly in this letter about God’s love, as do all the New Testament writers. Agapé. It is different. It is everlasting. It gives, and keeps on giving - generous, selfless, sacrificing. Unfailing. It comes down from heaven above. Heavenly... And forever. This is the love we all know is possible, we all long for in our heart of hearts. We are hardwired for it, in fact. We were made for this, it is heavenly, and it is heavenly sourced. Made in Heaven. You gotta get it from there. It starts by believing in the One Who came from there to show us what love looks like, what it could and should look like. And this is the love which He pours out in our hearts to give to one another. Surely we can do better, by His grace. We must...
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