#149 For this is the message
From Meditations on the Epistles of John, by Samuel Froehlich
I John 3:11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
John does not say "command" but "message" (and a good message indeed), over which everyone should rightly rejoice, that, through Christ, love instead of hate should again be among men because He destroys the works of the devil, by which he has ruined and sundered all.
Titus 3:3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
Of course, it is not yet accomplished in that it is proclaimed to men and for that reason they cannot yet love one another. But the message of peace should nevertheless make them realize that the hatred of men toward one another is of the devil and not befitting of men. And as many as are able to know what belongs to their peace, receive the love of God in place of the devilish ill will by which they must reciprocally destroy and ruin one another and, indeed, not according to the will of God (I Timothy 2), but because the devil has his pleasure in setting men at enmity with God and with one another, so as to lead them to condemnation.
Therefore, in His mercy, God offers love and peace to men in Jesus Christ and does not impute their natural sins to them but summons them to reconciliation, and only those are condemned who, in spite of it, persist in their enmity and the disposition of the flesh. If men know their designation of God and were adequate to it, they, as such, would now already have to recognize and love one another among themselves as "brethren." But by nature that is not the case. Instead, just as they are unjust in their relationship to God, so are they unjust toward one another—proud, lustful of power, hateful, contemptible, embittering life one for the other by sin— and do not even know that that is of the devil in whose power they are.
Therefore, all reasonable men should withdraw themselves from this unjust lordship of the devil and become converted to Christ Who, instead of enmity and hatred, brings us peace and love to save us here and yonder. And for that reason we also should recognize it as a good message, that He lets it be proclaimed to us, in order that in Him we may be translated into the right relationship of children of God and of brethren and members of one body in Christ, who are filled with one Spirit and ruled by one Spirit—Christ—and indeed by holy baptism (I Corinthians 12) , when faith has laid hold of and apprehended the Gospel. This cannot possibly be attained by the baptism of infants because in later life, in spite of it, men do not love, but hate, one another and make carnal discriminations, which is not so in the body of Christ (in the church of the saints); nor can it be for in all true believers the spirit of the world has been driven out and through the Spirit of Christ all are one.
For One is Master here, not many, and all are brethren in Christ and equal to one another, and he who wishes to be the greatest here shall be the least and the servant of all, that each one, by humility of heart, consider himself the least, just as the Savior has come, not to let Himself be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Therefore all are one heart and one soul in Christ because the same Spirit of Christ is in all. However, where love is not found among the believers, there all else is and counts as nothing (I Corinthians 13); but meekness is the source of love just as high-mindedness is the source of hatred.