Click or tap book name
Use <control> drag to
scroll
Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
About
Links
Home
"
Navigator
1 John 5:2
Comments
In verse 1 John says that it follows that all who love the Father love his children also, but now he teaches the converse – that we know we love the children when we love the Father. So where do we start? If each in turn depends on the other, then it seems that neither can be resolved because each needs the other in place first. The answer is that both are true and together strengthen each other. The problem is that our love for the Father may be deficient and this will affect our love for his children. The apostle therefore gives us another way by which we may test our love for the Father: our obedience to his commandments. Those without faith are not incapable of forming friendships, but those friendships are often built around agreed participation in sin. We are not to love the brethren in such a way that we have no respect for the commandments of God.
Application
If we do not define love in terms of acts of obedience then it is liable to become mere sentimentality. Those who say that the ten commandments are no longer in force, but that the only command to be obeyed by Christians is the command to love, have failed to give us a proper definition of love. The details of the ten commandments are needed just because love is not some vague feeling but a very practical grace which keeps every aspect of God’s law.
Questions
Outline
Purpose
Introduction