John called himself a fascinating title:
23 One of his disciples, the one Jesus loved, was reclining close beside Jesus.
John 13:23
2 So she went running to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said to them, “They’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve put him!”
John 20:2
20 So Peter turned around and saw the disciple Jesus loved following them, the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and asked, “Lord, who is the one that’s going to betray you?”
John 21:20
The one who Jesus loved.
It was not arrogance speaking as he wrote this. It was a profession of experiencing the love of Christ. He knew without a doubt Jesus loves him. John knows God is a great mountain and from it flows a love for all of humanity. He had taken part in the love of God through the life of Jesus. What did God’s love do for John? God’s love rocked him to his core. It made him fearless to love God and others with totality. John was inspired to write one of the most well-known verses in God’s Word:
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16
To have this sort of love, we need to understand the totality and triad of God’s love.
The Spirit Loves Us
13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.
1 John 4:13
Other translations word it as: by this we know. What is John referring to in this statement? By what will we know what?
12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us.
1 John 4:12
When we are born again and have received Christ as our Savior and we abide in God, He will know because He has given us His Spirit. John says we know God is in us because He gave us His Spirit. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is great evidence of God’s love for us. God’s Word teaches us, the Holy Spirit indwells within us. He makes His home within us. (See also Ephesians 1:13-14, 2 Corinthians 1:22)
19 Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Can we pause a moment and ponder upon how radical this is?
Throughout the God’s Word we read of various temples and tabernacles built for God and He dwelled within them. God gave Moses and His people a moving temple and He dwelled with them even though they were constantly taking it down to move to the next location, God still dwelled with them. Solomon rebuilt the mighty temple of Jerusalem as a permanent grand building but eventually it was destroyed. Rebuilt. Destroyed.
But now God says, in Christ, we are His holy temple. John reveals to us that the Holy Spirit living within us is evidence of God’s abiding love. God wants to abide in us. The Holy Spirit is our bridge between us and God. We are never alone because He is here within us.
A Father who Loves
14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as the world’s Savior.
1 John 4:14
God gave us the Holy Spirit and His Son. This is the greatest expression of HIs love for us. Sadly, for many of us, our relationship with our earthly father (good or bad) can get projected on our Heavenly Father. The deficiencies experienced by our earthly father can get into our mind and define who God is.
We might see God as hesitant to love or forgive us. Jesus is our advocate to our Heavenly Father. He is continually holding up our righteousness before our Heavenly Father. We need to see the role of the Holy Spirit, Jesus and our Heavenly Father. The Father sent His Son. Jesus volunteered, but it was God who sent Him. When we look at Jesus, we get a glimpse into the heart of God.
Jesus is evidence of God’s great love. John is giving a personal testimony of seeing the Father’s partnership with the Son. John’s gospel highlights Jesus doing the work of the Father, executing the Father’s will, and always doing what is pleasing to the Father.
Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is the outward workings of the heart of our Heavenly Father.
Why did the Father send His son?
Jesus is love.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.
1 John 4:15-16
God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
Jesus was sent to be the Savior of the world. We confess Jesus is the Son of God who came for us, died for us, and this means we belong to God and God belongs to us. He abides in us and we abide in Him.
God’s Word is clear: He saved us from our sins and sin was the obstacle to God’s love. Man and God are separated by sin, but Jesus made a way to repair the gap.
And we finally reach our February 2024 Scripture reading Plan verse for today (vs 16).
We have come to know and believe the love God has for us. God’s love is robust. The Spirit, the Father, and Son aim God’s perfect love at us.
God IS love. If we abide in love, we abide in God and God in us.
Someone said it like this: If I say I am going swimming in the lake, I have to get into the water in order to swim. I have to get into the lake. I can not have one without the other. You can not swim without water and in water you have to swim. The absence of the lake is the absence of swimming.
To swim in love, is to swim in God. To abide in God is to abide in love.
Before the world was created, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit said:
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”
Genesis 1:26
God wants you and I and all people He has created to experience Him, bear His image, and know His love. John points out to us, this is a process. It is a process and takes time. In a way, it is a lifelong journey of continually discovering His love. John says, so we have come to know. Come to believe. To come means you arrived at a place and to get to a place it is a journey.
Ponder today: are you bold as John is and can you say you are His beloved? The one who Jesus loves?
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