The New Testament Johannine community identified the character of God as love—self-giving, other-centered love.
“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world (self-giving) so that we might live through him (other-centered). In this is love, not that we loved but that he loved us and sent his Son (self-giving) to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins (other-centered)” (1 John 4:7-10).
That community’s understanding of the character of God was founded upon God’s self-revelation to Moses (Exodus 34:6-7) and upon the teachings of Jesus whom they viewed as the Son sent by God. The Son was sent that we might know God as love—self-giving, other-centered love.
The heart of God’s character, according to God’s self-revelation to Moses on Mt. Sinai, is love—steadfast, faithful love. This love gave birth to Yahweh’s covenant with the nation of Israel (Exodus 34:10). It is God’s covenant love—chesed. God’s love for Israel was steadfast. It never waivered in spite of their failure to be faithful to the covenant. God’s love was faithful. God never gave up on or abandoned the people even when their unfaithfulness resulted in their experience of exile in Babylon. Even in that experience, God continued to work on their behalf, leading them into a deeper understanding of God’s nature and into a deeper understanding of who they were as the people of God. God was at work in ways they could not see—what the prophet to the exiles identified as a second exodus experience (Isaiah 43:16-21). God was at work to restore the nation in its homeland.
In this covenant love of Yahweh, Jesus saw the self-giving, other-centered love of God. He saw the servant nature in the heart of God and patterned his life after it. When his disciples argued about who among them was the greatest, Jesus taught them, “Whoever wants to be first must be the last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35). In the world, greatness (status) is tied to position, power, and wealth, but in the kingdom, greatness is measured by the spirit out of which one lives—specifically, a servant spirit. Jesus himself embraced and embodied the servant spirit. “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:43-45).
The apostle Paul grasped this deep truth, urging the Philippian church to adopt the mind of Christ by embracing a servant spirit (Philippians 2:5-11). The author of 1 John urged the Johannine community members to love one another with God’s self-giving, other-centered love—i.e., relating to one another out of a servant spirit.
God’s self-giving, other-centered love is expressed in a servant spirit. Any religious position or belief that does not reflect a servant spirit that seeks the good of another is not of God.
Because God is love—self-giving, other-centered
love—the heart of the matter is a servant spirit.
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