<p>3:11 <em>For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another</em>- The message pronounced from the beginning of the Lord's ministry (see on Jn. 1:1 for this definition of &quot;the beginning&quot; in John) was, in a word, love. From the beginning of His ministry, the Lord's very being pronounced His love for the world, and supremely for the Father. This is the essence of the Lord Jesus; the imperative is ever in any encounter with Him to love as He loved, to the death of the cross for others.</p>