Some mistakenly think that love is the act of ‘looking the other way’ or ‘no discipline.” However, in the Bible (Proverbs 13:24), it is written of the one who fails to correct his child actually ‘hates him’ (doesn’t love him like he should). God doesn’t make this mistake and everyone He loves He chastens (Hebrews 12:1-13) and purges (John 15:1-8) that more fruit occurs. The love of God is grand (John 3:16) and the word “so” is used to indicate it. At the same time, the expectation of faith in his only begotten Son is easily seen. However, where is repentance and confession of Christ expressly stated in this passage? Without this verse being in synecdoche form (the part which stands for the whole), neither of these words is in John 3:16. Yet, since it is only emphasizing the place of faith in Christ, we understand repentance (Luke 13:3), confession of Christ (Matthew 10:32), baptism (Matthew 28:18-20) as well as being faithful (Matthew 26:41) are expectations found in other verses relating to the subject of salvation (John 3:17). Jesus in His sovereign status said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). He expects us to change how we live. As He began the Sermon on the Mount, He noted: ‘strive to enter the strait gate’ (Matthew 7:13-14). Jesus said there is a narrow path that leads to life. All should choose the narrow way. It is entered by a ‘difficult gate,’ such as leaving old friendships and practices. In fact, old friends may accuse you of being ‘strange’ (1 Peter 4:4) since you no longer go with them to excesses of wrongdoing. Yet, it is worth this. When God brought about the death of two (Acts 5) and brought fear upon the whole church and as many as heard about this (verse 11), God intended that in loving Him others should not do as Ananias and Sapphira had done. Expectations on the part of God does not mean that God doesn’t love us. Rather, the opposite. We should love Him in return, and when we do we will let it show.
