John's second 3:16

     You've probably heard or seen the verse from the Bible known as John 3:16.  If you aren't, that's okay, you can read it for yourself right here.  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (NKJV)   If you know this verse, great.  But you may not be as familiar with 1 John 3:16 which says, "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."  (NKJV)  Both verses were written by the Apostle John, as the names of the books imply.  John walked with the Son of God, Jesus, while Jesus was doing His earthly ministry.  If you don't know, the Bible shows us that John was a witness to Jesus death and His resurrection.  John has a pretty cool opening to His gospel about Jesus (gospel means "good news", by the way), when he writes: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."  (John 1:1 NIV 1984)  If you haven't read John's gospel yet, here's a link to it, you can stop reading this, and go read that.  It's a much better read, and can change your life.  Anyway, the verse we're looking at today is 3:16, that is, 1 John 3:16.  This verse has two main statements in it, first, an explanation, and second, a call to action.  We'll look at both individually, and then see how they interact.


     The first part of the verse explains how we know love at all.  "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."  (NKJV, Boldface added)  Think about that.  Prior to Jesus laying down His life for us (which you can read about in the Gospel of John, incidentally) none of us knew what love is.  Hollywood couldn't tell us, the family dog couldn't tell us, no one except God could tell us what love is.  But God defined love when He sent His Son to die on the cross for our sins.  Jesus summed it up well when He said in John 15:13, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (NIV1984)  We know what love is because He loves us.  Love is the God who's willing to reach into our lives and pull us out of the messes we get ourselves into, wash us clean of our sin, and say to us, "I love you."  The Bible says in 1 John 4:19 that "We love Him because He first loved us." (NKJV)  It's that simple.  If you don't know Jesus, you can't know what love is.  We know love because of Jesus, period. 

     The second part of the verse tells us to do something.  It looks a bit confusing, maybe even intimidating, but it's not as complex as it sounds.  When John writes that we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren, he means that we need to be willing to show the same love for others that Jesus showed for us, and be willing to give our best for them, and lay our interests aside for their good, even when (not if) they hate us.  Jesus showed unconditional love for a race of humanity that had deliberately rebelled against Him.  He gave His best for us when we hadn't given Him anything.  Even though the Bible is not saying we must give up our lives for no apparent reason, it is clear in saying that we need to follow the example He set.  That's not the easiest thing in the world, but He calls us to it, and the reward for doing so is great.

     The 3:16 principle is twofold.  First, God loved us, and so He sent His Son to lay down His life for us.  Now, we need to do for others what He did for us, and lay our lives down for them.  Jesus showed us the ultimate embodiment of love when He gave His life.  Although He doesn't expect us all to get up on a cross, He does expect us to be willing to sacrifice all we have for Him and others.  Here's a story to demonstrate.

     A man has a three year old son.  The little guy does everything his dad does.  He imitates holding the door open for his mother, he puts on the same clothes that his dad does, and pretends to like all the same food.  He attempts to be just like his dad.  Why?  Because he loves his dad.  Why does he love his dad?  Because his dad loved him first.  It's just like that for us.  1 John 3:1 says "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him." (NKJV)  A little kid imitates his dad.  How much more should the children of God imitate theirs!  As we go out through life, let's remember why and how we know what love is, be thankful, and do what Jesus did by laying our life down for others.

(NKJV means New King James Version)

(NIV 1984 means the New International Version 1984)