1Jn 5:1-2 “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.”
What a comfort it is in our lives to believe that Jesus is the Christ. He is the only one anointed by God the Father for the remission of our sins. We can entrust our well-being to Him with full confidence. He has proved Himself worthy of our trust, our love, and our praise. We have this belief because we are born of God.
The word translated as “born” carries with it the idea of regeneration. That little word “of” indicates origin. We believe that Jesus is the Christ because we have been regenerated by God who is the origin of that wonderful work. If we truly love God who does the begetting then we also love him that is begotten. We certainly cannot claim to truly love God the Father and not love God the Son; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are but One God. To fail to love any aspect of the Godhead is to fail to love God.
While we certainly recognize that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God from the standpoint of physical conception, we also recognize that we are begotten of Him in regeneration. The teaching here (carried on from the previous chapter) is that we cannot love “him that begat” without loving him that is begotten. This is not only talking about Jesus, but about all those He has begotten again unto a lively hope (1Pe 1:3).
It is a great blessing to have the absolute knowledge that we love the children (begotten) of God. This certain knowledge comes from one source and one source only. In as much as we love God and keep His precepts we know that we love His children. Loving God and proving that love by keeping His commandments (“And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also” [1Jn 4:21]) gives us the assurance that we do love the children of God.
May we have the joy of being sure that we love the children of God because we have the joy of being sure we love God!
