Love, from the Beginning.

It's the beginning of a new week; the beginning of a new month; and, just one month away from the beginning of a new year!

Beginnings are, of course, of great importance - although as the old fable of the tortoise and the hare reminds us, finishing is even more so! 

My third book, "Defending the Faith", is based on John's first letter. The pungent phrase "from the beginning" occurs no less than nine times in the first three chapters of the short letter. One of those occasions reads: "For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another," (I John 3:11).

Just prior to His crucifixion, in His great discourse to the disciples, Jesus said: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." (John 13:34)

 

Thus, while in one sense, Christ's command to love one another was a new commandment, in another sense, as John states, it has been with us from the very beginning of the world. "Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard." (1 John 2:7).

 

The first verses of John's first letter show that this "beginning" is the same beginning as is referred to in Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1 (q.v.): "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life - the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us." (1 John 1:1-2). Note also 1 John 2:13: "I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him Who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father."

 

"Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father." (1 John 2:24). This is an eternal commandment, for "God is love" (1 John 4:16) and "love is of God" (1 John 4:7). In the upper room, Jesus prayed to the Father: "Father, ... ... you loved me before the creation of the world. ... I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them." (John 17:24, 26).

 

Love, therefore, has been at the center of God's plan from the beginning, but a new pattern and measure of that love was given us by The Lord Jesus, the Christ. "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." (John 13:34; emphasis added).