In 1859, Anna Warner published a little-known book entitled Say and Seal in which one of the characters in the story comforted a dying child by singing a song which had been penned by Anna just for that book.
Three years later, William Bradbury came across the book and the song and wrote a tune to accompany the words, along with a chorus. About a century later, an Anglican priest added two more stanzas to the song — a song that has been translated into more languages than any other song in the world, making it arguably “the number one spiritual song in the world.”
The song?
Jesus loves me! This I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones to Him belong
They are weak, but He is strong.
This Bible tells us multiple truths about God —
- God is dependent on no one for His love — He is love in Himself.
- The great demonstration of God’s love is the work of Christ on the cross.
- The love of God is revealed as an exhortation for believers to love one another.
- And, God’s love is presently evidenced to the world through His followers.
That is, the way the world will know of the love of God is through the testimony of believers in Christ.
John makes this point in an interesting manner: he reminds us that no one has seen God. Nowhere, ever, at any time, has anyone seen God (Jn. 1:18). How, if no one has ever seen God can anyone offer testimony and revelation about God?
Notice the thread of John’s argument —
- If we love one another, God abides in us. That is, when (the “if” is a certainty) we love one another, it gives evidence to the reality of Christ’s salvation life within us.
- And if Christ abides in us, it is also true that we have the Spirit of God abiding within us.
- And if the Spirit resides within us, He will produce His fruit and His gifts in us (primarily, this context tells us, by equipping us to love one another), offering us a testimony to the work of the Savior within us.
So, how can those who have never seen God testify about Him? Because of His transforming work of the abiding Christ in our lives. And this is one more reason why the love of God has been revealed and manifested to us — so that by our love for one another, we might be a demonstration of the love of God to the world.
Jesus loves me, this I know,
For I have the privilege of saying so…
Words of Grace 