1 John 3:16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
Here love is defined and described. The type of love we should have for our “brothers” and sisters should model Jesus’ self-giving love for us. Human love is usually conditioned by something: emotions, self-preservation, hormones, self-betterment, infatuation, reciprocal response, and many other things. When this condition changes or is removed, human love begins to diminish. People fall “out of love.” “I no longer love you.” The type of love John is writing about here is not conditioned by anything human because it models God’s love for us shown through God’s giving his Son to death (John 3:16).
Jesus gave his life believing in resurrection power to restore him from death. He had total confidence and trust in the Father that death was temporary and that three days later he would rise again. He willingly gave his life because he knew that his life would not end with death. His humanity cried out against this in the Garden of Gethsemane, but his faith in his Father opened the door to victory.
We are tempted as well to let our human nature keep us from the attitude of death required for unconditional love. As Paul the Apostle described it, we must die to the old life (Ephesians 4:21) if we are ever to experience love in the imitation of Christ (Ephesians 5:1-2). We must die to self knowing that there is new resurrection life to follow (Romans 6:4-6). This will take total faith and confidence in the Father. Faith becomes the open door for unconditional love.
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