Love On: A Study Through 1 JohnSample

By Pastor Dan Hickling

“For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.”—1 John 5:3 (NKJV)

John has had an awful lot to say about love in his epistle. But now he’s going to weave three threads of truth into this tapestry of love. The first thread is that love is connected to obedience. 

We see in the passage above that the love of God is indivisible with keeping the commandments of God. Now, John isn’t saying that we, the recipients of God’s love, will now lead absolutely perfect and sinless lives. Instead, John is stating the general nature of things: where love is present, obedience is also present.

Every parent understands this. Although every child will rebel and misbehave at times, if there’s a healthy loving relationship in place, the overall relationship is defined by obedience. Our relationship with God should resemble this. The next thread is that love is connected to faith. 

“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith.”—1 John 5:4 (NKJV)

We see that our faith—what we take and trust as being true—gives us spiritual victory over the world. No longer are we shackled by the hopeless and destructive things of this world; faith frees us from their power and puts us on a hope-filled path. It’s that powerful! 

But faith isn’t an independent actor. It’s connected to God’s love, the same love that serves as the basis for all that God calls us to place our faith in! Without love, there would be nothing to have faith in. Faith and love go hand in hand, each affirming and buttressing the other throughout eternity! The final thread to be woven in is that love is connected to Jesus.

“Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”—1 John 5:5 (NKJV)

John now defines faith as the belief in Jesus as God’s Son. In other words, it’s believing the biblical record about Jesus that He is God incarnate, that He came to live, die, and rise from the dead for our salvation, and now stands at His Father’s right hand as Judge of all. 

Our faith is all about Jesus and no tapestry of love is complete without Jesus woven throughout. Love can never diverge from Jesus . . . where there’s Jesus, there’s love! It’s a connection as eternally resolute as anything which ever was, is, or will be.

Love is connected to obedience, faith, and Jesus—the three threads that bind us to the God of all truth and love.

DIG: What are the “three threads” of truth?

DISCOVER: How do these change your perspective of love?

DO: Which thread(s) needs strengthening in your life? Ask the Lord for help today as you seek to strengthen those threads.