Exploring 1 John: The Commandment of Jesus
1 John 3:23-24, Matthew 22:36-40 - We love because we Trust Him and He loves us!
“This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.”
1 John 3:23-24 NASB1995
John finishes the third chapter of his epistle by combining the two great commandments that Jesus spoke of in the Gospels. Here’s the version in Matthew 22:
““Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 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 foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.””
Matthew 22:36-40 NASB1995
Let’s look at the word believe again: This comes from the Greek word πιστεύω or pisteúō with the following Biblical usages; Strong’s G4100 is used 241 times in the New Testament:
to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in
of the thing believed
to credit, have confidence
in a moral or religious reference
used in the NT of the conviction and trust to which a man is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of soul
to trust in Jesus or God as able to aid either in obtaining or in doing something: saving faith
mere acknowledgment of some fact or event: intellectual faith
to entrust a thing to one, i.e. his fidelity
to be entrusted with a thing
When we believe in Jesus, we can’t help but love Him with all of our being. That loves spills over into our relationships with others and we are commanded to love one another! What is really intriguing in this passage is the word that is used for commanded. This comes from the Greek word δίδωμι or dídōmi, with the following Biblical usages; Strong’s G1325 is used 415 times in the New Testament:
to give
to give something to someone
of one's own accord to give one something, to his advantage
to bestow a gift
to grant, give to one asking, let have
to supply, furnish, necessary things
to give over, deliver
to reach out, extend, present
of a writing
to give over to one's care, intrust, commit
something to be administered
to give or commit to some one something to be religiously observed
to give what is due or obligatory, to pay: wages or reward
to furnish, endue
to give
to cause, profuse, give forth from one's self
to give, hand out lots
to appoint to an office
to cause to come forth, i.e. as the sea, death and Hell are said to give up the dead who have been engulfed or received by them
to give one to someone as his own
as an object of his saving care
to give one to someone, to follow him as a leader and master
to give one to someone to care for his interests
to give one to someone to whom he already belonged, to return
to grant or permit one
to commission
So let me run with an interesting insight: We have confidence and faith in our Savior and this turns into something (love) that we freely give back to Him and to others. If we were ordered to love others, like a military order, that would be an impossibility, but we love of our own accord (didomi) because of the power of the Holy Spirit and because He loved us.
Here’s what Enduring Word says about verse 23:
And this is His commandment: The idea of keeping His commandments in the previous verse led John to speak specifically about what His commandment is. Simply, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another.
Here, John does not refer to these two aspects of obedience as two commandments, but as one commandment. Grammatically, he may not be officially correct, but spiritually, he is right on. These two are one. When Jesus spoke of the greatest commandment: You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, He added another saying: And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). There are two commandments, but they are clearly like one another.
We should believe on the name of His Son: Again, John seems to have quoted Jesus’ idea from John 6:29: This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent. The first commandment and the greatest work we can do, is to believe on Jesus.
This is not simply believing that Jesus is, or even believing that He did certain things such as die on a cross. To believe on the name of Jesus means to put your belief on Jesus in the sense of trusting in Him, relying on Him, and clinging to Jesus. It isn’t about intellectual knowledge or understanding, it is about trust.
And love one another: The second commandment is also a quoting of Jesus’ idea from John 15:12: This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. The love of the brethren is not an option for some Christians; it is a commandment for all.
We certainly can’t be in this state of loving others strictly on our own strength and will. Other people WILL find ways to negate your self-willed love through their actions and words or the enemy will work through them. Our culture also confuses compassion for love and many people have perceived that they are suffering in some way (self-pity is a favorite emotional state these days), calling on others to have compassion. This call for compassion could ask you to “bless” their suffering because they are caught in a cycle of sin, but they also don’t want to acknowledge that sin, or they may ask you to put their feelings over their salvation.
Compassion is a “feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering”, as defined by a dictionary. When you are truly exhibiting agape love through the Holy Spirit, you may find that giving in to someone’s perceived suffering is not as loving to them as helping them to emerge from their state of self-pity or finally knowing their sin. By the way, I am not in any way dismissing true suffering that does indeed require a compassionate approach for victims of war, famine, religious persecution, natural and man-made disasters, etc.
In verse 24, John tells the believers to abide in Him and keep His commandments. We will know that He abides in us, from the Spirit that He has given us. I like this cautionary statement from Precept Austin author Bruce Hurt:
Be careful! John is not advocating keeping a list of things we are not to do! He is not placing us under legalism and that's what a list will do (whether the list is written on paper or simply written in your mind). The truth be told, the only way for even saved sinners to keep His commandments is by learning to daily rely on God's supernatural enablement provided by the indwelling Spirit. We need to learn to daily yield our will to His will, confess any known sins that might quench Him (cf 1 Th 5:19+, Eph 4:30+) and them rely wholly on the Holy Spirit, Who will give us both the desire and the power to keep God's commandments (see Php 2:13NLT+).
Even then we will not be able to keep them perfectly. So what John is referring to is not perfection, but "direction." That is, we need to examine ourselves and determine honestly whether our life is characterized by progress toward Christ-likeness or is our life characterized by habitual, continual lawlessness. A consistently unholy walk strongly suggests absence of a power to walk holy, in other words, an absence of the indwelling Holy Spirit! Do not be deceived. Do not think you are regenerate (born again, saved) simply because you made a profession or prayed a prayer! There needs to be at least some evidence of progress toward a holy walk (cf 2 Cor 5:17+). If there has been absolutely no change in your life or lifestyle, then you made need to be born again. (See Romans Road of Salvation).
By the way, I kept the link at the end of this commentary to a marvelous long section on Precept Austin on the Romans Road to Salvation. If you have the time to dig into this, it is worth your time. The epistle of Romans lays out in great detail the path to for our salvation. Stay on the path!
My next devotional examines 1 John 4:1 - The Spirit of Truth.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - I have faith and trust in You and believe on Your Name. Fill me with Your abiding love, so that I may abide in You and love others. Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
The Blue Letter Bible was accessed on 5/24/2024 to review the lexicon for believe and commanded.
Commentary from Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission.
Precept Austin was accessed ton 5/24/2024 to review the commentary for 1 John 3:23-24.