In This Is Love (part 1)

In this is love; not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. – 1 John 4:10 (NET)

The author of the works that bear the name of “John” has a great deal to say about the love of God, and about the way that love was shown forth into the world. The most famous of these statements, of course, is to be found in the third chapter of the Gospel of John, where we joyfully read “For this is the way God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (3:16). In that same presentation of the words of Jesus, the love of God is juxtaposed with evil, when Jesus says, “the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light” (3:19b-20a).

In the first letter of John, the author appears to take up the theme of the third chapter of the Gospel of John, pitting the love of God against darkness and evil, writing that “The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was revealed: to destroy the works of the devil” (3:8). Quite naturally, we can think of the works of the devil as that which is productive of darkness and evil. The revelation (sending) of the Son of God, of course, was a demonstration of the love of God; and as has been stated, this was for the purpose of being the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Now, if the author has already stated that the Son was sent to destroy the works of the devil, then can we not rightly replace “atoning sacrifice for our sins” with “destroy the works of the devil”? This begs the question as to what are the works of the devil? More importantly, to what does the author refer when he makes mention of such things? Returning to the third chapter, we read “The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as Jesus is righteous (3:7b). This is what immediately precedes “The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning” (3:8a). Thus we have the author defining sin as the opposite of righteousness. In the author’s day, “righteousness” was understood as “covenant faithfulness.” One who was righteous was one that carried the status of being faithful to the covenant. Sin is the violation of that covenant. Here, Jesus is spoken of as one who is righteous, as the author proclaims Jesus as one who carries the status of “faithful to the covenant,” demonstrating covenant faithfulness. In contradistinction to one that is faithful to the covenant, we have the example of “the devil,” along with those who are “of the devil.” It is said that they practice sin, or unfaithfulness to the covenant, with this occurring “from the beginning.” It is upon this definition of terms that the author then asserts the mission of the Son of God, which was “to destroy the works of the devil.”

Before getting to that point, however, the author has made a few other statements that we must take into consideration. Backing up to the end of the second chapter, use is made of the terms we have now defined. They are even used in the context of “son-ship,” as we read “If you know that He is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been fathered by Him” (2:29). Then, in anticipation of what will be written in the fourth chapter, as the context for understanding the author’s point is provided on a narrative basis rather than through interpretative understanding based on a selective and subjective isolation of verses, we read “See what sort of love the Father has given to us; that we should be called God’s children---and indeed we are!” (3:1a) To that is added, “Dear friends, we are God’s children now” (3:2a), which he insists is the case even while admitting that there is a mystery to our purpose in being the children of God, as he writes, “what we will be has not yet been revealed” (3:2b). From here, though confessing that he does not know the precise reason for our being the children of God or what exactly it will look like when we are functioning as the children of God, he goes on to write, “We know that whenever it (or He) is revealed we will be like Him” (3:2c). Furthermore, we go on to find out that “Jesus was revealed to take away sins” (3:5a).

Is it not of the utmost interest that the practice of righteousness is connected to being fathered by God and to being God’s children, with this immediately connected to that which is “revealed”? “Revealed” is used three times in relatively rapid succession before the author makes his grand claim that “the Son of God was revealed: to destroy the works of the devil.” This, of course, is the devil who has been sinning from the beginning.