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Scripture Reading: 1 John 3:14-19a
First John 3:14a says, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.” In the foregoing message we saw that death is of the Devil, the source of death, and that life is of God, the source of life. Not only are death and life of these two sources, Satan and God; they are also two essences, two elements, and two spheres. To pass out of death into life is to pass out of the source, essence, element, and sphere of death into the source, essence, element, and sphere of life. This took place when we were regenerated, born of God.
We need to consider further the source, essence, element, and sphere both of death and of life. What is the difference between the essence of life and the element of life, and what is the difference between the element of life and the sphere of life? It is important for us to understand the difference between these things.
Perhaps the best way to point out the difference between source, essence, element, and sphere as applied to both life and death is to use the following illustration. Suppose a particular drink is composed of three elements: milk, tea, and sugar. Each element has its own essence. This means that with tea there is the essence, the substance, of tea. In like manner, milk and sugar each have different essences or substances. We would not say that this drink is made up of three substances. Rather, we would say that the drink is composed of three elements and that within these elements are three different essences or substances.
When we were saved, we received more than one element from God. We received life, and we also received righteousness. Both life and righteousness are mentioned in Romans 5. What elements did we have before we were saved? Before we were saved we were one with Satan, and we had the elements of sin and death. But when we were saved, we received righteousness, which is versus sin, and life, which is versus death.
On both the negative side and the positive side, we have two elements. On the negative side, we have sin and death; on the positive side, we have righteousness and life. In each of these four elements there is a certain kind of essence. The essence of life and the essence of righteousness are of one kind, and the essence of sin and the essence of death are a different kind.
Let us now apply these matters to our experience. When we were in the element of death, we experienced the essence, the substance, of death. Again, we may use tea as an illustration. When we drink tea, what we drink is not the element of tea; we drink the essence of tea. When we received the Lord Jesus at the time we were saved and regenerated, we received two elements. However, we should not say that we received two essences. At regeneration we received the elements of life and righteousness, and now we are living in these elements. But it would not be correct to say that we received two essences and that we are now living in these essences. Having received the elements of life and righteousness, we are now enjoying and experiencing the essences of these elements. We have received the element of righteousness, and now we are enjoying the essence of this element. Likewise, we have received the element of life, and now we are experiencing the essence of this element. Before we were regenerated, we were in the elements of sin and death, and we were suffering from the working of the essence of sin and the essence of death within us. This brief word may help us to know how to apply the essence and element of righteousness and life.
As children of God, we have two divine elements — righteousness and life. Now in our daily experience we enjoy the divine righteousness and the divine life. However, strictly speaking, we enjoy the essence, the substance, of the divine righteousness and life.
We have pointed out that through regeneration we have passed out of the source, essence, element, and sphere of death into the source, essence, element, and sphere of life. Please notice the sequence: source, essence, element, and sphere. The essence follows the source, the element follows the essence, and the sphere follows the element. First we have the source. Then out of the source comes the essence. The essence forms an element, and eventually this element becomes a sphere. Therefore, regarding life, we first have the source of life. Out of this source of life comes the essence of life. The essence forms the element of life, and this element of life then becomes the sphere of life.
We may use a fountain to illustrate the difference between the source of life, the essence of life, the element of life, and the sphere of life. Water flows out of a fountain and becomes a river. The fountain is the source. We may say that H2O is the essence of what comes out of the fountain. This essence then takes the form of water, and the flowing water becomes a river. Here we have the fountain as the source, the H2O as the essence, the water as the element, and the river as the sphere. Therefore, in the sphere of the river we have the water as the element, and the essence of this element is H2O. The source of it all is the fountain.
As children of God, we have received the divine life from God. God is the source, the fountain, of the divine life. The essence of the divine life is the very being of God. Hence, God’s being, His essence, is the essence of the spiritual water we have received as the divine life. This life also is an element by which and in which we can live. When we live in the element of the divine life, the divine life becomes the sphere of our living. Now we are living in the sphere of the divine life, possessing the element of the divine life, and enjoying the essence of the divine life. Furthermore, as we enjoy the essence of the divine life, we are organically joined to God as the source of this life. This is the reason we say that with the divine life we have the source, the essence, the element, and the sphere.
The principle is the same with death. Before we were saved and regenerated, we were in the source, essence, element, and sphere of death. We were living in the sphere of death, possessing the element of death, and suffering the essence of death. Moreover, we were joined to Satan, the source of death. Therefore, before regeneration, we were experiencing and suffering the source, essence, element, and sphere of death.
Before we were saved, we experienced the four aspects of death. Now that we have been saved, we experience the four aspects of life. Although we have had all these aspects in our experience, we have been short of the knowledge to analyze them and the terms to describe them.
In 3:16 John says, “In this we have known love, that that One laid down His life on our behalf, and we ought to lay down our lives on behalf of the brothers.” Literally, the Greek words for “life” and “lives” in this verse are “soul” and “souls.” Hence, this verse says that Christ laid down His soul life, His psuche life, for us, not His divine life, His zoe life. For Christ to lay down His soul for us means that He laid down His human life on our behalf. Now we ought to lay down our lives on behalf of the brothers. This means that, if necessary, we should die for them. We have within us such a loving life that longs to die for others and is able to die for them. The divine life within us, the zoe, longs to love others and even die for them if necessary. We are able to do this because we have the divine life.
In verses 17 and 18 John continues, “But whoever has the livelihood of the world and beholds his brother having need and shuts up his affections from him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word nor in tongue, but in deed and truth.” The livelihood of the world in verse 17 refers to material things, to the necessities of life. In verse 18, deed is versus word, and truth versus tongue. Tongue denotes the play of vain talk. Truth denotes the reality of love. Truth denotes sincerity, in contrast with tongue, as deed with word. Truth here denotes the genuineness, the sincerity, of God as a divine virtue becoming a human virtue as an issue of the divine reality. Therefore, the truth in this verse is the reality of God becoming our virtue.
John says that we should not love the brothers merely in word or in tongue, not merely telling the saints that we love them. This is not love in truth, love in reality. To love the saints in truth or reality means to love them in the divine reality that becomes our virtue, something that is honest, faithful, sincere, and real. We should love the brothers in this way. Of course, this kind of love in truth includes a love that supplies the needy ones with material things or money when necessary. We should not love the brothers with vain words; we should love them in truth and even with our livelihood.
We should not think that to love in truth is simply to love in the human virtue of sincerity. No, here John is not speaking of the natural human virtue of sincerity. The truth here is more than human sincerity; it is the divine reality becoming our virtue. Thus, it is the expression of what God is. This means that in loving the saints we should express God.
In 3:19a John goes on to say, “In this we shall know that we are of the truth.” In this verse truth denotes the reality of the eternal life which we have received of God in our divine birth. Having received eternal life, we may now love the brothers by the divine love. By loving the brothers with the divine love, we know that we are of this reality.
The phrase “in this” refers to our loving the brothers in truth, in sincerity, as mentioned in verse 18. This truth is the issue of the experience of the Triune God as our reality. In this kind of love we shall know, shall have the assurance, that we are of the truth.
In verses 18 and 19 the word “truth” is used with two different denotations. In verse 18 truth denotes the human virtue of sincerity, a virtue that is the issue of the enjoyment of the Triune God as our reality. But in verse 19 truth denotes the reality of eternal life, which is something higher, deeper, and richer than our sincerity. This truth is the reality of the eternal life which we received from God in our divine birth so that we may love the brothers by this love.
In this Epistle John presents deep, divine, and mysterious things. All these things are related to the divine life. However, Christians often speak of the life of God or eternal life with a very limited understanding. They do not understand the divine life in a deep, rich, and profound way. Some believers do not even realize that eternal life is an organic matter. They regard eternal life merely as an eternal blessing or as everlasting life that we shall enjoy in eternity. But even though we may have a right understanding of eternal life as something organic, our understanding of it may still be rather shallow.
We have received eternal life through our divine birth. However, when many Christians talk about everlasting life, they do not realize that eternal life is the result, the issue, the fruit, of the divine birth. In the past, many of us did not realize that eternal life came into us as a result of the divine birth. In speaking about eternal life, we may not have had the concept that it is related to the divine birth. Therefore, it is important for us to realize that eternal life has come into us through the divine birth. Apart from the divine birth, we cannot have eternal life.
We have seen that in verse 19 truth, or reality, refers to the reality of the divine life which we received in our divine birth. Therefore, this reality involves the divine life and the divine birth. Now that we have received the divine life, we can love the brothers by the divine love. Here we have the divine birth, the divine life, and the divine love. By this we see that loving the brothers is not a shallow or simple matter. On the contrary, our love for the brothers is the issue of the divine birth and the divine life.
Because we have received the divine life through the divine birth, we have the divine love with which to love the brothers. We may say that we have the spiritual capital needed to love the brothers. The divine life is our ability to love the brothers. We are well able to love the brothers because we have been born of God. Through the divine birth we have received the divine life, and the essence of this life is love. Therefore, we can love the brothers with the divine love.
If we love the brothers in sincerity, which is the issue of our enjoyment of God as reality, this will be the evidence that we are in the divine reality. It will be a confirmation of the fact that we are in the reality of the divine life, which we have received through the divine birth. By loving the brothers with the divine love, we know that we are of the divine reality.
