Loving Others and Assurance of Salvation

Throughout this letter, John provides three tests by which his people can evaluate the teachers who had left the church. Their doctrine differed greatly from John’s, so the readers wondered who was right. Which teaching was the truth? In 4:13-21, John combines the Doctrinal test (see also 2:18-27 and 4:1-6) and the Love test ( 2:7-11, 3:11-18, and 4:7-12). In the process, he also teaches us some important things about the work of the Holy Spirit.

There’s another reason why John is writing this letter. A few verses later, he’ll say it’s the main reason for writing. John wants his readers to have assurance of their salvation. He wants them, and us, to evaluate ourselves by these same tests so that we can know — not wonder or hope — but know that we are children of God. 

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. (1 John 4:13)

This is very similar to what John wrote back in 1 John 3:24, and we discussed it here. We know that we live in God and God in us because he has given each of us his Holy Spirit, who assures us of our relationship with the Father. God wants us to know that he loves us, and he wants us to feel secure in him. That’s part of the work of the Holy Spirit in your life, to remind you that you belong to God and have received his eternal forgiveness and love. There are times when we may doubt, I believe that’s normal, and in those times we can turn to our Father, whose Spirit will give us all the assurance we need.

J. I. Packer, in his book Knowing God, writes: 

Do I, as a Christian, understand myself? Do I know my own real identity? My own real destiny? “I am a child of God. God is my Father; heaven is my home; every day is one day nearer. My Savior is my brother; every Christian is my brother too.” Say it over and over to yourself first thing in the morning, last thing at night, as you wait for the bus, any time when your mind is free, and ask that you may be enabled to live as one who knows it is all utterly and completely true. 

Assurance like that is the work of the Holy Spirit, and what a gift it is. John then mentions two other things the Holy Spirit does for us — he enables us to believe rightly and to love the way that Jesus loved, two things that John says are characteristics of believers. He starts with believing rightly. 

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. (1 John 4:14-15)

It’s only through the work of the Holy Spirit that anybody believes that Jesus is the Son of God, truly man and truly God. One evidence, then, that a person abides in God and God in him is that he accepts this truth about Jesus.

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (1 John 4:16)

Both believing that God loves us and loving others in return are evidences of the work of the Holy Spirit within us. This is the second time that John has said, “God is love.” Love is who God is in his very essence. Knowing that God is love should give us confidence.  

By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. (1 John 4:17)

John wants us to have confidence before God and not to be afraid of his judgment. When God works in our lives so that his love is perfected in us, in other words, when we put our love for others into tangible action, we have confidence. When we don’t just talk about loving others but serve them, forgive them, give to them, clothe them, feed them, and meet their tangible needs, God’s love is perfected is us. And because that kind of love only comes from a relationship with God, we’re able to look forward to Jesus’s return with excitement and longing instead of fear and worry.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. (1 John 4:18)

The believer never has to fear God because our relationship with him is based on his love for us. It isn’t based on our jumping through hoops to do the right things, live the right way, and avoid the right sins. We didn’t behave our way into our relationship with God, and we can’t behave our way out of it. We’re not with God because of us, we’re with God because of him. He’s the one who loved us first and initiated the relationship. We’re not clinging to God for dear life, he clings to us.

We can live free of the fear of punishment because God is no longer our judge, he’s our loving Father. And this Father does not punish his children. He loves us, so there are times when he disciplines and corrects us (and oh, how grateful I am for the times he’s corrected me), but that’s only out of his pure and perfect love for us. So, for the believer, there is no reason to fear him. 

We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

That’s a powerful little verse. Instead of being afraid of God, we love him. Instead of living in fear about the return of Jesus, we love Jesus, and we look forward with all our hearts to his return. It isn’t fear by which the world recognizes us as Christians, it’s love that’s our distinguishing mark. It’s love that shows the world that Jesus is who he claimed to be (John 17:20-23). And the reason we can love at all is because he first loved us.

John had personally heard Jesus say these words: 

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)

The more we realize how much God loves us, the more we love him — and others — in return.

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 John 4:20-21)

Christians simply cannot claim to love God with all our heart and soul and mind without loving one another selflessly. It’s both or nothing. Thankfully, the perfect love of God that destroys fear in us also creates and strengthens love in us.

Correct doctrine is vital. John mentions the Doctrinal test four times in this letter. It isn’t enough, however, to have the right doctrine. If we’re going to be all that God calls us to be, if we’re going to allow his love for us and in us to grow into perfection, then our love for one another should be clear for all to see. 

Denominations squabble all the time over doctrine. One of the things that drove me almost totally away from Twitter was the arguments among Christians over doctrine. It’s hard to be known for our love for one another when the only things the world sees are snarky, mean-spirited comments to each other. There’s no excuse for it. We need to discuss doctrine and hold one another accountable when we stray from correct doctrine, but it must be done in love.

What if we were just as interested in holding each other accountable for our love? What if we decided to “stir up one another to love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24)? What would the world look like if Christians helped each other not to merely feel bad for people in need, or grudgingly accept groups of people we tend not to like, but to put love into action and serve others in love?

Series Navigation

<< Believing Rightly and Loving GreatlyGod’s Rules are Not a Burden >>