I read 1 John today and was struck by its discussion of love. John's letter mentions love a lot, of course. It's where we get the famous axiom, "God is love." What struck me today was the essential way John sees love in the church. John doesn't seem to be saying that without love, it's hard to be a good Christian. He's saying without tangibly-expressed, risky love for the people in your church, it's impossible to be a Christian at all.
Let me say that another way: if we're not going out of our way to sacrificially love the people we go to church with, we aren't followers of Jesus.
Too strong? Consider how John said it:
This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother or sister. This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
— 1 John 3:10-11
Anyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
— 1 John 3:15
If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother or sister, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother or sister.
— 1 John 4:20-21
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother or sister is still in the darkness.
— 1 John 2: 9
And John doesn't abide conveniently vague definitions of "brother," either.
Thanks to the influence of a church friend, I'm also reading The Brothers Karamazov right now which brings me the torturous combination of shame (at not having read it before) and boredom (at the prose). But there's a clever monologue in that book in which one of the characters explains, better than I can, the difficulty in loving a brother rather than loving our brethren.
"I love humanity, but I wonder at myself. The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular. In my dreams, I have often come to making enthusiastic schemes for the service of humanity, and perhaps I might actually have faced crucifixion if it has been suddenly necessary; and yet I am incapable of living in the same room with any one for two days together, as I know by experience. As soon as any one is near me, his personality disturbs my self-complacency and restricts my freedom. In twenty-four hours I begin to hate the best of men: one because he's too long over his dinner; another because he has a cold and keeps on blowing his nose. I become hostile to people the moment they come close to me. But it has always happened that the more I detest men individually, the more ardent becomes my love for humanity."
John isn't talking about loving humanity in general. He's writing in the specific. He mentions specific heresies to guard against, and he instructs the believers to pray for a brother (singular) who commits certain sins. He's talking about loving people with names who live in our neighborhoods and worship three rows in front of us on Sunday.
In fact, John only commands us to love those we worship with. There's no command in 1 John to love the lost. John is only concerned with love inside the church.
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
— 1 John 3:16
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.
— 1 John 4:16-17
These are the words of the Beloved Disciple, who leaned against Jesus at the Last Supper and heard him say, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
So if there's no wiggle-room in the object of our Christian love, then maybe we can find a loophole regarding the its depth. I mean, some of those people at church are downright un-lovable! Surely we're only supposed to love them in principal, and not practice, right? In general, not in particular, as Dostoevky wrote.
Again, John doesn't let us off the hook:
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother or sister in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
— 1 John 3:17
Apparently, this love commanded of us is to be proved out in tangible ways.
So John defines a Christian as someone who loves their fellow church members tangibly, in a way that costs them. According to the disciple whom Jesus loved, if we're not going out of our way to love the people we go to church with, we aren't followers of Jesus.
So how are we doing with the command of John and Jesus? Who do you love, and how?
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