I John 4:7-21, the Second Reading appointed for the 5th Sunday of Easter in the Year of Mark, continues our reading through John's First Epistle in this Easter season. As has been present in previous sections, the call to love one another, is once again, front and center. There are, however, in this text, several important differences from what has been said previously. Knowing God, it turns out, is all wrapped up in loving God and neighbor. This text challenges any view of faith which claims that we can know God apart from loving God and neighbor. This message will be the challenge for the preacher.
(The following questions have been developed to explore the function of the Word, a central concern of Law and Gospel preachers. These questions are best used in conjunction with other fine sets of questions available to exegetes. For more on this method and on Law and Gospel preaching in general, see my brief guide, Afflicting the Comfortable, Comforting the Afflicted, available from wipfandstock.com or amazon.)
1. How does the Word function in the text? There are certainly explicit statements of Gospel in this text: "God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world..." (vs.9) Yet the tone of this text does not seem to be proclamation of God's love, but rather a reminder "that those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also." (vs.21). Also there is an explicit word of Law here: "Those who say, 'I love God,' and hate their brothers and sisters, are liars..." (vs. 20). This is the Word functioning as Law, for it casts light on our tendency to claim a cerebral 'faith', while ignoring "the weightier matters of the Law." The tone is accusatory.
2. How is the Word not functioning in the text? As noted above, though statements of Gospel are present, the tone is not comforting. Rather, these descriptions of God's love are used as launching pads for reminding us of our responsibilities, and casting light on our hypocrisy. In this way, this text lacks a Gospel function, even though the Gospel claims are made.
3. With whom are you identifying in the text? We readers are the ones brought up short, shown our sins and failings, by these words. We are those who, though knowing of God's love, do not love others. We are those whom have known God's love, yet cannot seem to extend that to others. We are those who lack the perfect love that casts out fear, for we see fear ever-present in our lives. In short, we are the ones called to repentance by this text.
4. What, if any, call to obedience is there in this text? In some ways this whole passage is a classic call to obedience. Indeed verse 11 is a classic model of a call to obedience: "Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another." Yet, because the statements explaining God's love seem to function as a call to repentance, they do not lead us in the usual manner, inviting us to joyfully respond to God's work by living in a certain way. It is almost as if the writer is saying, "After all that God has done for you, the least you can do is to love one another."
5. What Law/Gospel couplet is suggested by this text? There are a number of couplets right in the text that could serve us well: hate/love; fear/boldness; sins/atonement for sins.
6. Exegetical work: It is noteworthy that the conditional phrase in vs. 12 is a condition of uncertainty: "No one has ever seen God; if we love one another [and we might or might not], God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us." Because of this condition of uncertainty, another way to translate this verse might be: "No one has ever seen God; whenever we love one another, God lives in us and his love is perfected in us." This way of understanding this phrase seems to be faithful to the tone of this text, and yet more hopeful. Commenting on this verse and the verse that precedes it, George Parsenios writes this: "Since verses 9-10 define God's love in the incarnation and crucifixion, events wherein Jesus embodied God's love on earth, so also the followers of Christ continue to embody this love if they are bound to one another by love. If in their lives in the flesh the believers also embody God's love on earth, then their union and love represent an imitation of the incarnation..." (Paideia Commentaries on the NT, First, Second, and Third John, p. 115). I like this phrase - an imitation of the incarnation.
7. How does the Crossings Community model work with this text? Steven Kuhl sees in this text the complete story of salvation: Christ's atoning act (vs. 10), our willful hatred of the neighbor which shows our hearts for what they are (vs. 20), and God's call to love (vs. 21). This analysis is a fine way of getting a handle on this whole text. See all of it archived under its reference at crossings.org/text-study.
Blessings on your proclamation!
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