Abide pt6

We are a couple of days out from Valentines Day, so it is somewhat fitting that the passage from 1 John today focuses on love…although a different one than Valentines Day has in mind.

Let me ask you a question to start off with, can you really love someone and not be willing to help them, serve them, meet their needs, acknowledge their weakness and meet it with your strength? Think about that for a moment…can love be actionless? Apathetic?

There are some actions we cannot undertake towards someone we love as well. Love stops us from the worst actions. For love we are willing to forgive rather than seek revenge., or harbor bitterness, or give in to hate. Love makes us better people towards others…love transforms.

John makes an appeal, to the people in this church, to the people in this church, to really examine ourselves…what is the depth of our love?

(Read 1 John 3:11-18)

So here goes John again back to… “What you have heard from the beginning...” He is a broken record isn’t he?

Why does he keep doing this? Because loving people who you are around a lot is hard. People annoy us. Their weaknesses wear on us. And they fail us. And if we are not careful, the bill piles up and our love wanes…who among us has not heard of “falling out of love.”

1, 2, 3 John (1) Love in Action (3:11–18)

The absence of love in the life of a child of God is inconsistent with the message of love that has been proclaimed to them

Yet that is not the kind of love we are called to have for one another. Agape love does the opposite. It loves us where we are and as we are…and it bears with us to grow and change and become more than we are.

1, 2, 3 John (1) Love in Action (3:11–18)

Although the demand for obedience to love certainly applies to the world in general, this command to love is directed primarily to the community of faith. The present tense of agapōmen (“we should love”) calls for a continuous display of love in the family of God. Christian love is fundamental to being a child of God. Having established that believers are characterized by righteousness and abstinence from a life of continual sin, John now adds that they are also persons who love one another as a normal and consistent habit of life

Which is why John brings Cain into the conversation.

You remember Cain right? First murderer. And he brings up the reason why…Cain killed his brother because Abel was righteous and Cain was not…Cain was blinded by his sin.

1, 2, 3 John (1) Love in Action (3:11–18)

Cain is identified as being “of the evil one” (ek tou ponerou). Cain belonged to the evil one, to the devil, a thought that apparently is derived from Gen 4:7, where God warns Cain that “sin is crouching at your door.” The adjective ponerou (“evil”) indicates the active exercise of evil in one’s behavior. Cain demonstrated the defining actions of his spiritual father (cf. 3:10). As Marshall writes, Cain “drew his inspiration from the evil one, the devil, who is himself the archetypal murderer (John 8:44).”

Cain’s conduct revealed his diabolical character when he “murdered his brother.” John uses the word esphaksen (“to butcher, slay, murder”; lit., “to cut the throat”) to portray the brutal violence of the event

That’s what sin does- it blinds us. It makes us act in ways we would never have acted otherwise. Sin kills. And it does it slowly- like acid, eating away at our souls. That’s why we need a Savior, because we need to be brought back from death. (Gospel presentation here)

And that’s the contrast that John then draws- between how believers act with one another and how those who are not believers respond to Christians.

1, 2, 3 John (1) Love in Action (3:11–18)

The motivation behind Cain’s initial envy illustrates the conflicting nature between good and evil. In essence, Cain murdered his brother Abel because the wicked person hates righteousness. Burdick adds, “Godlessness is disturbed by the condemning presence of righteousness in its midst, and it would remove the cause of its discomfort if it could.”

Verse 13 is the key here- don’t be surprised that the world hates you.

1, 2, 3 John (1) Love in Action (3:11–18)

John urges his readers not to be surprised by the world’s hatred. The imperative construction of the verb thaumazete (“to wonder, marvel”) with the negative assumes an action that is already in the process of occurring. Apparently, some of John’s readers are surprised by the hostile attitude of the world around them. The apostle calls upon these believers to stop marveling at the hatred being displayed. “Because the hate of the world was an ever-present reality, so the Christian’s response must be a cessation of continuous wonder.” This prohibition reflects the teachings of Jesus in John 15:18–21

Look I know where we live and our history as a nation. Followers of Jesus have had a very privileged position here since the founding of the country- but it has been a position based on numbers in population…and that population is starting to wane.

The reasons for that decline are debated everywhere. And the arguments in many directions are persuasive, but the decline isn’t debateable and that is changing how we as Christians are interacting with and are interacted with by the culture at large. And it means we need to rethink some things.

First- how we see people around us who are not Christians. We need to see them as people Jesus died for. Not as enemies. And that should drive us to weep and to our knees. (Grammys this last week) In a confused and searching culture, shouldn’t people who have not met Jesus, be met with compassion by people who do know Jesus?

Second- how we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ. Covid broke me. I was one of those people who could nitpick another pastor or church or movement to death. No more. If you are on the side of Jesus, I am on your team if you will have me. We can agree to disagree about a lot- as long as we agree on who Jesus is and that our world needs more of Him and less of me bickering with you about bible translations, music styles, and the finer points of ecclesiology.

v14-15- We have too many people who call themselves Christians who “hate their brothers” and call it good. They are killing people. They have not “passed from death into life” because they are still seeking the death of people who do not agree with them, rather than wanting to see them come to life, or loving their brother or sister like they are called to do. Satan has a family too and his family has distinguishing characteristics as well- chief among them hatred.

1, 2, 3 John (1) Love in Action (3:11–18)

In other words, eternal life is not earned by loving the brothers. Rather, loving the brothers (e.g., the Christian family) is evidence that one has made the transition from death to life

1, 2, 3 John (1) Love in Action (3:11–18)

The destructive nature of hatred is equivalent to the act of murder itself. Burdick notes, “Hatred is the desire to get rid of someone, whether or not one has the nerve or the occasion to perform the act.” Love and hatred are moral opposites, but hatred and murder belong to the same sphere of “death” noted in v. 14. The driving force that motivates the hater to commit murder stems from Satan himself and is thus a distinguishing mark of his children

So what does this love look like? That’s always the question isn’t it? So John does not leave us hanging. He gives us the picture. It looks like Jesus. Look at verses 16-18.

First, we lay down our lives for one another. We see the advancement of another- even to our own detriment- as our own gain. Just as Jesus did for us!

1, 2, 3 John (1) Love in Action (3:11–18)

John’s point is that Christians have an obligation to follow the example of their Lord even unto death if such an occasion presents itself. It is clear that to whichever sacrificial act John refers, the love of Christ’s followers is to parallel the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary. His is an example to imitate. As Kistemaker affirms, “When the honor of God’s name, the advancement of his church, and the need of his people demand that we love our brothers, we ought to show our love at all cost—even to the point of risking and losing our lives

Second, we meet one another’s needs. As a church, we pool our resources so that those in our midst are cared for and not in need.

1, 2, 3 John (1) Love in Action (3:11–18)

The apostle knows, however, that not many are required to perform the heroic deed of giving one’s life for another, but the opportunity to help a needy brother is constant. The challenge for John’s hearers is to apply their Christian love to a context that is true to everyday life, one in which they repeatedly find themselves.

1, 2, 3 John (1) Love in Action (3:11–18)

It is easier to be enthusiastic about Humanity with a capital ‘H’ than it is to love individual men and women, especially those who are uninteresting, exasperating, depraved, or otherwise unattractive. Loving everybody in general may be an excuse for loving nobody in particular

Third, we display the truth. That can mean hard conversations. That can mean being held accountable. That can mean being pointed back to Jesus.

1, 2, 3 John (1) Love in Action (3:11–18)

Including himself in this exhortation, the apostle challenges his readers to understand that love is more than making a good speech. John is not condemning kind or comforting words. The expression of such utterances without an outward manifestation of them, however, is mere noise and therefore worthless

What it cannot mean is apathy. There is no room in following Jesus for apathy., because God could not remain apathetic in His pursuit of us. He acted, He initiated, He rescued us.

Where are you harboring hatred for a fellow follower of Jesus? Where are you making enemies of the people Jesus died for? Where are you practicing apathy where God has called you to action?