We love Him because He first loved us.
Not because He’s God. And not simply because of what He’s done (i.e. rose from the dead). But because He’s good. A madman may do something profound. And a megalomaniacal evil god is not one we follow; viz., Pan, Moloch or Satan himself. And many have risen from the dead, and many other religions would claim their god to have done such. We follow the Lord of Lords and Jesus Christ because He’s good and loved us first; that is why we love Him.
And we don’t love each other because He loves us. We love others because we love Him.
Two days ago, this broken interpretation of verse 1 John 4:19 was all over the Bible app. And I was dismayed to find so many translations misinterpret this simple verse. Though if you uncover the Greek—“We love ‘autos’ because ‘autos’ first loved us”— the word autos definitively refers to “he, she, it”. Therefore, the scripture does not read: we love “each other” because “each other” first loved us. It reads: “we love Him because He first loved us”. In this, the New King James is accurate and the New Living falls short (though I appreciate the NLT for many other verses).
I do not write this in anger or derision, but merely caution. I think there is something misleading in this “we love each other” translation. Though it sounds good on the surface and eventually gets to the same place the accurate translation would lead us; it also potentially leads us to a broken idea that because He loved us, we love each other. And that verse, coupled with the recent terrible teaching that western churches are preaching—that we should “love others as we love ourselves”—will only take us far from Jesus’ teaching.
“Love others as you love yourself” is not the correct translation. It is “love others as yourself”. It is obvious, except by a few recent, and albeit weaker, translations, that the scripture instructs that we love others as they are one with us; i.e. we are brothers, sisters, family, one body under the Godhead Christ. Not (as it is so pitifully being taught) love yourself, and you’ll discover how to love others. My God, what a terrible thing that is leading so many astray! Self-love and self-help are an abomination. Christ never taught self-love nor self-help. He taught us to deny everything we hold dear, follow Him, and in that, we will discover ourselves. In truth, by loving yourself, you will forget others. By loving yourself, you eventually dismiss the rest. Christ said that the first shall be last and the last first. John said, He must increase and I must decrease. Only by loving God will you love others. And by loving God and others, you will no longer need to love yourself.
This damnable way of thinking has come upon so many in the church who claim to be “sick”, “weak”, “fatigued”, “overburdened”, and “burnt-out”. And so to patronize and mend these wounds, the church has been twisting the focus on to the self, in order to find some sort of relief. Ironically, it is only the sick who recognize they are sick. To be healthy is to be unaware of health. If you seek to be healthy, you will not be. But if you do the things that are healthy, you will be.
If we take these two simple verses that have been misinterpreted and put them side-by-side, we discover the disillusionment that “Because God loved us, we shall love others; and we love others only by discovering how to love ourselves.” The focus ends all on ourselves. “Love yourself because God did.” How pitiful! When in reality, the accurate verses are all pointed outward; “We love GOD because He first loved us. And because we love Him, we love others.”
I do not love my neighbor because they are my neighbor. I love him or her because I love God. And I love God because He loved me; not because He is God, but because He is good.
My message is simple. And it is not to teach or rob someone of whatever revelation they may have received yesterday or yesteryear in their time of sorrow. Instead, it is to emphasize the need for the Church to discover the truth behind the scriptures; and not rely on any pandering statements gleaned from someone trying to prove their already invented ideal. Instead, to listen to someone who is trying to discover what Scripture actually says. Scripture is not intended to be manipulated until the listener hears what they want to hear. But to stretch us and push us.
We love Him because He loved us. And because we love Him, we love others.
Keith G. Alderman 