Rev. Don Campbell
God Loves Those Who Love Jesus
Jesus had been preparing his disciples for his departure, the coming of the Spirit, and the tribulations to follow. He then said, “In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God” (John 16: 26-27).
Focus, for a moment, on the words, “the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me.” John says, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:10-12).
Jesus and John use two different words. John speaks of agape, that love which is motivated by something in the lover, not something in the loved. It is the love of John 3:16. Jesus speaks of phileo, or tender affection, as exemplified by the love Jesus had for Lazarus (John 11:3).
It is easy to see how the disciples could have tender affection for Jesus; they had lived with him for three years. However, Jesus said that it would be to their advantage if he went away and sent the Holy Spirit (John 16:7). In fellowship with the Holy Spirit and those of like precious faith, phileo grows in our hearts (Phil 2:1-3).
The world cannot address God as “Father,” and believers should not address him any other way, “And so we should not be like cringing, fearful slaves, but we should behave like God’s very own children, adopted into the bosom of his family, and calling to him, “Father, Father” (Rom 8:15, TLB).
