[Maximum Joy Series] Perfect LoveSample

The Source–Measure of Love and Means to Love

God is love. He is the source, we are His children. He is the source of love. If I love God, then I must love His children! But how do I know if I am loving His children?

“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome” (5:2-3). 

So how do I know if I am loving my Christian brother or sister? No problem. Just keep His commandments. My love for other believers can be measured by the degree to which I keep the commandments of God. You may be saying to yourself, “Wait a minute, but doesn’t this put me right back into performance, legalism, and relativism (my obedience compared to those around me)?” No, because the commandments of God are not burdensome. Again, let us remember that the problem isn’t with the standard; the problem is with the source. As long as I think I am obligated to keep the law of Christ, I will always live a joyless, and to some degree a hypocritical life. Until I go to the right Source, there is no hope. 

Where can we get perfect love? “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (5:4-5)

The new birth, this victory over the world, comes by faith in God, the Creator. We got our first victory (new birth) by faith; all subsequent victories are by faith as well. Jesus was our substitute in death; He must also be our substitute in life. This is what Paul was trying to say: “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me; and the life, which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” 

It has been said that the hardest thing in the world for a non-Christian to believe is in the substitutionary death of Christ, but the hardest thing in the world for a Christian to believe is in the substitutionary life of Christ. We got victory over death by His death; we shall have victory in life by His life. This is what it means when it says, “Christ lives in me.” 

We must relax and rest in His power. He hasn’t set an impossible standard. It’s only impossible for us, but not for Him. “The things that are impossible for men are possible for God” (Luke 18:27). 

This is why the epistles start with our position, and move to our condition. It’s because there is a dynamic link between the two. As we focus on our position it affects our condition. When we focus on our position in Christ, our condition becomes more like Christ. He is our source. When I try, I fail; when I trust, He succeeds. 

We become what we think about. As we think about Jesus, we become like Jesus. We have trusted in His substitutionary death; now we must trust in His substitutionary life. This is the only way we will surely experience perfect love and Maximum Joy in our lives. 

To receive your free sample of the book Maximum Joy: First John—Relationship or Fellowship? and for more free resources on spiritual growth, please visit gsot.edu/center.