Love in Action, Live in Confidence

Love in Action

John gives not just a message, but a proclamation. “Love one another.”

John tells them that they had heard this message from the beginning of his walk with Christ. Something that is at the core of being a believer. That it isn’t just something they do now and then, it isn’t something they do when it is easy for them. But that they are continually showing love to those around them.

John gives an example of Cain and Abel. Who knows this story? Why does Cain murder Abel? Was Abel “deserving” of it?

-We see two motivating factors. Jealousy and evil actions.

-Jealousy was the motivating factor of his hatred. Jealousy of the gifts that Abel had that he wanted. It was resenting of what God had created Cain for.

-It was also because Cain had acted with evil previously that he acted in aggression.

-Why, in v. 13 does John say he used this example? Because the world will hate them.

-I think one thing we overlook when, as a believer, people can say that we “hate” them or get frustrated with hypocrisy in the church is the standpoint by which they make these statements.

-I think often it is because they want God to show them the same love we know we receive from God and they think that love is outside of their reach for one reason or another. Because they believe God doesn’t love their lifestyle, because they have been hurt by a church and they believe it shows God hates them, because they have dealt with pain in their life and it looks like those who believe in God have their life together.

-Opposition shouldn’t be met with more hostility but with love. Because behind every insult, every hateful comment, any form of violence, is an emotion behind those actions.

-We also show hatred towards others when we know we have made a wrong choice and we are finding a way to deal with those emotions.

-In basketball, if you get the ball stolen from you or you made a dumb mistake you can commit a frustration foul. That is, a foul that didn’t help your team but was done because felt this anger towards your own actions and needed to outlet for your emotions. We can get into self-destruct mode because of a choice we made.

-I think a third reason that Cain showed hatred, and why unbelievers might also show hatred toward us, is because the way that God calls believers to live is contrary to how we want to live our lives. That we feel what God is asking us to do is impeding on our ability to do the things we want and enjoy the things we want to enjoy. It seems “oppressive”.

This is why John tells them to see how their loves plays out in their life. How does He say that love is lived out?

Lay down our lives for others

The greatest type of love is self-sacrificial love. Love that is willing to put others needs before our own. We see this clearly in the life of Jesus.

To consider the lives of those around us as precious, to be worthy of love.

It is a willingness to surrender ourselves, our pride, our possessions, and anything else for another.

Give to those who we see are in need

To give to another in need to is desire to enrich their life for the sake of our own.

Oftentimes we can say that we “love everyone” or we can be very passionate about a particular social issue, yet in the individual sense we have men and women that make us angry, that seems too ugly or gross for us, that are too difference then us for us to feel like we can show love to them.

Our hearts convict us when we acts in anger or hatred towards another.

While love puts others first, what does hatred do? It thinks negatively about others, desires the harm of another, does not consider the perspective that another may come from, to believe that this other person is not worthy of love.

That is why John says not just love in word or speech but “in action and in truth”

See, the world lives in hatred. Many in our culture believe that if we disagree with their lifestyle or what they believe that it is “violence” towards them. If someone said something in the past they can be canceled for it. If we refuse to “affirm” something on social media or don’t “speak out” then it is a sign that we actually don’t love people. But what John says is that actions and truth should be how we define our lives not just what we say to gain approval and by a mistake we made in our past. How do we love those around us? Do our actions line up with our words? Many people believe that because someone supports a cause on social media that it means that they support it. But that is how the world judges right and wrong. That is why people love Disney or Apple, or any other company that makes an advertisement about how they “support” a cause. Because that is all the world cares about. Not actions, but words.

Live in confidence

But why, then do we allow the things that others say bother us? Because we don’t always live in confidence rather we live in self-pity, in depression, in guilt, in low self-esteem. So when someone hates us we feel the need to defend ourselves.

-When two people are in an argument there is a basic rule. The angrier and louder you feel you need to be, the more insecure you are about the position you are holding. In your yelling and screaming you are actually trying to convince yourself about what you are saying. The same can be said about insulting another in a conversation. If you feel the need to insult a person or attempt to defame their character rather than discuss their argument then you are trying to ignore the points rather than deal with it.

John tells us a few ways that we know we can be confident in our faith.

We already know we have passed from death to life.

We already know what we have received.

My kids like to make unfair competitions with me. Like we will be on a walk and we will be on our way to the house. I can have Zeke on my shoulders, and they can be 10 feet from the house while I am behind them by another 10 feet and they will say “I’ll beat you to the door” and then when they obviously get there first they will say “I win”.

But that doesn’t bother me. Do you know why? Because I know if I was actually to race one of my kids I would leave them in the dust.

John says “why should we have anger with the world and not show love when we already have confidence in our reward?”

Our love shows we have confidence in what we have received in Christ. That we have eternal life.

So if we love others, no matter, the circumstances we are showing that we have confidence in our reward. If we show anger then we are showing our confidence isn’t that high.

That our hearts tell us right from wrong.

Our hearts don’t just ignore when we have sinned, but it tells us we need to ask for forgiveness, or before we do something we regret we stop ourselves from acting out in violence.

That we love those it is hard to love and who kindness to the people around us.

Or even if we don’t, when we don’t show kindness we know that we should have.

That we seek to keep His commands.

That doesn’t mean that we always do. But that we seek to keep His commands.

If you listen to what we talk about on Wednesday night or Sunday morning in church, that you seek to live that out.