Love and Knowledge 

John 13:34-35: 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

John 15:9-12: 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 

1 John 4:7-9: 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

We are in the middle of a study on, broadly speaking, the will of God; I have so far covered the eternity of God, the image of God, and Jesus’s command to love your neighbor. Each of them is important and deserves to be treated separately. However, I have tried, or at least I hope, to connect them in a way that we see a bigger picture of the Bible and understand the will of God through that. What I would like to do today is bring them closer and make a finish touch of them. For that, I would like to cover several passages out of John.

John 13:34 states in no ambiguous way that Love One Another is a new commandment mandated by the Lord. It is indeed John’s version equivalent to Love Your Neighbor of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). Through John it becomes ever clearer that Love One Another (Love Your Neighbor) is the sum of the entire Bible and of all the Christian practices. Two things we draw out of this passage; “as I have loved you,” and “all people will know that you are my disciple” Love One Another is, first, based on God’s love demonstrated for us, and second, the world should identify us as followers of Jesus because we love one another.

In John 15 the Lord Jesus goes a bit deeper into a trinitarian fellowship within the Godhead. He loved the disciples “as his Father loved him.” He further illustrated his love by introducing “commandment”; “if you keep my commandment as I have kept my Father’s commandment.” From the verse 9 to 10 the love parallel turns into the commandment parallel so that to keep his commandment is to illustrate that they are in love with him. If they love another, they are proved to be in love with God.

Commandment! Or, the law of God! Or, the Word of God or the will of God!  

The verse 11 reminds me of Plato and Augustine. Plato once said that the greatest happiness of man is when he pursues the Good, whereas Augustine turned it into this way that the greatest happiness of man is when he is in the right relationship with God. How platonic Augustine was is not our concern currently, but the Lord Jesus did not deny that the greatest joy of man is when he obeys the commandment of God. And it comes down to this; Love One Another is a way to the greatest joy of man. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (v.12).

What John once recorded in his gospel is repeated in his own letter; “Beloved, let us love one another” (4:7). John’s Love One Another seems to be better remembered among Christians than Jesus’s Love Your Neighbor in the gospels. John states first that love is a supernatural kind; it is from God and only those born again can practice it. Second, the love is illustrated with the revelation of the only begotten Son of God, “in this the love of God was made manifest among us” (v.9). The whole objective of sending His Son is that we may “live” through him. Here, “live” is another way of saying Love One Another in the Christian life. 

Here, John’s logic drives love to the knowledge of God, that is, the knowledge of the One who sent His only Son so that we might practice Love One Another. Love and knowledge are intimately connected in a way that one does not stand without the other. You get to know God when you love one another, but equally true is that you love one another because you are born of God. As a disciple of Jesus who watched him in close proximity John speaks on behalf of his master, Love One Another. He knows well that it became possible only through Jesus Christ who is the manifestation of the love of God. John ties the practical instruction of Love One Another with the revelatory event of atonement. Both in the gospel and the epistle John constantly anchors his logic of love in the trinitarian involvement for the salvation of man. “Love one another, as I have loved you” (John 13:34). “I have loved you as my Father has loved me” (15:9). “You keep my commandment as I have kept my Father’s commandment” (v.10). “You love one another as I have loved you” (v.12). “Beloved, love one another … for the love of God is manifested in this way (of atonement)” (1 John 4:9).

Thus far, we see how the logic of love is established by the apostle John. We will now proceed to see how he makes the application. And I encourage you to recall what I have addressed through my previous sermons and put them into a perspective with me. 

What is astonishing in 1 John 4:7-9 is that John goes so far as to tie the Christian practice of love to the doctrine of atonement. God sent His only Son so that we might live. The question involved in this seemingly untroubling verse is that somehow the reconciliation is reached between God and us. We were the inflictors, and God was inflicted; we were the trespassers, and God was trespassed; we were the offenders, and God was offended. But no more of all that! Only reconciliation through Jesus Christ.

Here, why did God reconcile us to Himself? What made reconciliation possible for God? What is involved in the reconciliation of us? It becomes an issue of atonement that the wrongs done to God by us must be somehow undone. We conveniently understand that Christ died in our place so that our sins are forgiven, and we have peace with God. Then, the question is WHY at the first place? Some say that it was the decree of God that the creation, fall, and redemption was preordained in eternity. Such an answer always leaves an unsolved mystery of the origin of evil, lest God is the author of sin. The sacrifice of Christ becomes a means to achieve the Father’s objective. Others say that it was the nature of God that the love of God must save us. If God saves us because of His nature, Christ came for an internal dynamic of the divine nature. You might have heard such answers here and there. What is missing, however, from these answers is a personal relationship that God forged with us. 

Who would die for you or sacrifice their time or money to help you when you are in trouble, unless they are in an inseverable relationship with you?  It is not a coincidence that John mentioned love and atonement in the same breath. Love and atonement share the same logic and rationale for John.

In essence, God died for man. Of course, it is not the divinity of God but the humanity He took upon Himself that died. Was it worth of all the trouble? Or was man that precious God had to die for him? What did God achieve as He died for His creature? The logic is exactly the same as He loves man though he is a mere creature created by Him.

God did not have to die for man unless He wanted to. There was absolutely no obligation on God’s side internally or externally. He did it simply out of His own free and pleasing will. For that, the first thing God did was He created man in His image, that is, as a person for whom God may exercise His love and forgiveness. I explained it already. God invested so much value and meaning in man and calls him His friend. That is not all. He did not die just for man but for me specifically. Not us but me like Kevin, Richard, Mike, Ed and so on. The same way He did not just love man but me personally. 

This logic for John must be applied to Love One Another or Love Your Neighbor. We do not just love our neighbor. That neighbor must have a face and name. You do not love a class of neighbor or a group of one another but specific persons and individuals who have faces and names. Love Your Neighbor or Love One Another is not a faceless commandment. You exercise your love toward Kevin, Richard, Mike, Ed and so on. 

Here, you see that we have a trouble. Then, should we love each of them differently? Is it not unfair or even an injustice? Should we not love everyone equally or indiscriminately? Isn’t it a violation of equity if we were to love them differently? Let me put it this way; was God’s love a love of equity and indiscrimination? Did God love us all the same way regardless of who we are as an individual person? Is God always fair and equal in giving no matter what our needs are. There is no exception in God’s love for all people, but the way He demonstrates His love is personal and concrete depending on who you are and what your needs are. God never loves us as a group of people.

A close experience we have is the parent’s love for children. The love that parents have for children is the same, but the way each child is loved is not identical. The parents know them well enough that they provide the love personally for each child.

Such a mindset runs through in this passage of John when he said Love One Another or Love Your Neighbor for Jesus. You should love one another in different ways and forms knowing who they are and meeting what their specific needs are rather than as a class of neighbor. God has treated us in personal ways so that we may do the same to one another. You love your neighbor as a person. They have faces and names, and their needs and situations are all unique and different.

Naturally a question arises about knowledge at this point. How well do you know your neighbor when you practice Love Your Neighbor? I bet you already begin to see the troubles and difficulties associated with your practice of love. In reality we may not avoid running into troubles because love and knowledge go hand in hand inseparably. We are perhaps meant to hit a dead end, in a sense, realizing that Love One Another takes the knowledge of the other and ultimately God as to how He loved us at the first place; “whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” (v.7). We must go back and begin from the knowledge of God. 

John 13:34 mentions “a new commandment,” and 15:12 “my commandment.” The commandment of Love One Another is a practical translation for obeying the will of God. Equivalents are the law, the Word, and the will of God. We studied that Love Your Neighbor is the fulfillment of the Bible as Jesus had said in Matt 22:40. It is more than a law and prophets. It reveals that God is love; it is a way to learn who God is through our limited capacity of patience and knowledge. Once again, Love One Another or Love Your Neighbor is not a condition to fulfill before admitted to heavens. God is not a thing to earn. This commandment is a revelation that teaches us who God is, that is, love. 

We come to know God through His Word. And all the scripture hangs on Love Your Neighbor which is the will of God manifested throughout the Bible. Then, as John said, those who love will know God in the intimate personal depth, even though it may sound mystifying for some of us. Nevertheless, the issue is we run into our own dilemma, that is, our limited capacity of love and knowledge. We often fail to love our neighbor as a person because we treat them as neighbor. We often put them in a box of neighbor and treat them equally believing it is fair and justice. Consequently, we fail to know God, at least regarding how He loved us, because we fail to love our neighbor as a person who is not replaceable with anyone else. There is a remedy to correct our faults innocently committed without necessarily becoming an issue for us; we should learn first that each person is different and irreplaceable and second that we love our neighbor differently according to who they are and what their needs are. It is not a discrimination. God’s love is not confined by the law of equity that comes disguised in many forms and shapes. God loves us as a person not as a mankind. Knowledge is a prerequisite to love. To be more precise, the knowledge of the person is a prerequisite to the love of the person. At the same time love is a way to knowledge of both our neighbor and God, given the limited capacity and weakness of our nature.  

I would like to share a story about Henry Nouwen as I close my sermon today. One day Nouwen stood before a group of people. I believe it was L’Arche community with mentally disabled people. He introduced himself as a professor of Harvard. They asked what Harvard is. Nouwen a bit embarrassed answered that Harvard is a school where smart students come to study. They asked again why they study. That night he wrote like this in his diary; Today I had a difficult time to introduce myself to this people. What I am was not important to them. Nevertheless, perhaps a long journey of my struggle might have ended here tonight. They related to me in a way that is closest to the way God relates to man, that is, solely by my name Henry. Not professor or priest, but only my name Henry. 

People feel most vindicated and even respected as a person when they are remembered by their names. It is most rewarding and fulfilling as a person when you are remembered for who you are not for what you are. Do you know your neighbor for who they are than what they are? Do you love them for who they are than what they are, just as God loves us for who I am not because what I am? Love One Another and the knowledge of God intimately go together, and it is His will for us that we learn about God as we strive to love one another.

Soli Deo Gloria!