From Death to Life

Introduction

Illustration: Fire is an interesting thing. Gives the signs of life, but isn’t actually alive. Left to it’s own devices reaps destruction out of control. People are like that sometimes.

1 John 3:11–16 CSB

For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another, unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

There are a lot of things in life that are nuanced. There are shades of grey in issues where it’s hard to know for sure what we should do as disciples of Jesus. Then there are issues that are black and white, plainly explained in Scripture. Those are the ones we should focus the greatest part of our attention on. See we believe the Bible is the inspired word of God. For that reason we know that if God made something obvious it must mean that it’s important for us to know, and perhaps the harder to understand and more nuanced things are for whatever reason just not as high priority. This passage is about one of these more black and white direct matters of Scripture. According to the Holy Spirit through John the Apostle, you either love or you hate. You are either in death or in life. There is no spectrum or area in between. The question is whether you are a person of life and love or of death and hate.

This is something like part 9 of our sermons series going through John’s letters. This being the same John who wrote the Gospel according to John as well as Revelation. The major theme of this letter as we have seen is showing the difference between those who believe and those who don’t. In part in response to false teachers in the church or churches that John is writing to John sets out to explain the different tests that show who is a true disciple of Jesus. Last week we looked at 2:29-3:10 where John explains that those who sin are children of the devil and those who do righteousness are children of God. That’s the context that informs what we are looking at this week. The “for” at the beginning of this passage is a “therefore” kind of “for,” meaning that what John is about to say is true because of what he said before. So the fact that we ought to love each other is grounded in the fact that we are in fact God’s children. Remember that all along John has been showing that there should be a significant difference in the way that Christians should behave in contrast to “the world.”

This passage is perhaps the strongest language he uses to describe just how significant that difference is. It’s the difference between love and hate, and between life and death. So today we’ll dive into these verses and take a look at what John tells us about:

The First and Greatest Command

The Death

The Life

The First and Greatest Command

Illustration: I’ve read some of the 7 habits for highly effective people. Not all (what does that say about me) and it emphasizes the need to put first things first, not just in work but in family and in your personal life.

1 John 3:11 CSB

For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another,

We are limited human beings, with only so much memory and so much energy. Having children tends to make that very clear. So when we consider all of the commands of Scripture, and everything that is required of a righteous person - both what we need to avoid and what we need to proactively do - it can be overwhelming. There’s a reason that the people of Jesus’ day were debating which of the commands of the Old Testament were most important. Do you remember how Jesus answered when He was asked?

Matthew 22:37–40 CSB

He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

It’s all about love. And Jesus wasn’t giving some new teaching. We’ve already talked about this because earlier in this letter John says this puzzling thing in 1 John 2:7-8

1 John 2:7–8 CSB

Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old command that you have had from the beginning. The old command is the word you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

We talked about how the command is new and fresh in Jesus’ fulfillment, but how the command is older than time itself. That’s because God doesn’t just act loving, He IS love. In His very essence He is the God of steadfast love. Plus the greatest command that Jesus quotes does come from the Old Testament after all. This verse actually works like a sort of key to unlock a lot of the rest of the letter. When John refers to the message they’ve had from the beginning he doesn’t immediately explain what message he’s talking about. Here we get the message explained. So if you go back and read the first few chapters, which I recommend, you can now fill in all the parts where he alludes to the message from the beginning with “love one another.”

I always like to say that Christianity is easy to understand but challenging to live. I stand by that. I mean how much more simple can you get than “love each other.” Add loving God and you’ve got literally everything that it takes to be a good disciple, not forgetting that you can’t do either of those without repenting and following Jesus. So it’s a two item to do list. Easy, right? Where it gets hard is navigating how best to love in action in the day to day grind of discipleship. When do we simply step back and treat people with kindness, and when do we intervene for their own benefit? How do you show love to someone who hates you? How do you graciously accept generosity without taking advantage? How do you give graciously without enabling bad habits? The questions go on and on.

Throughout all the complicated and specific scenarios we face it’s important that we put first things first. That we dedicate ourselves to loving God and loving others. Does that mean you’ll get everything right in every moment? Theologically speaking, no. But I think that if we start from a motivation to love we’re a lot more likely to get it right a lot more often. Plus even the right things we do are spoiled by a lack of love.

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 CSB

If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

So I guess you could say that the application of this first point is for us to put love first on our list of priorities. First for God, but then secondly for others and thirdly for ourselves. If we get our foundation and priority straight then we do a lot more to set ourselves up for success.

The Death

Illustration: I may have talked before about the cheerful guy at Kingswood we used to grumble about. Our real motivation was probably what was lacking in us.

1 John 3:12–15 CSB

unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

So I’m pretty sure no one wants to be like Cain, right? Not a role model looked up to by anyone that I know of. Inside or outside of the church Cain has gone down in history as the first murderer. Not only was he the first one to kill another human being, but that human being was none other than his own brother. Let’s take a look at his story in Genesis 4:1-8

Genesis 4:1–8 CSB

The man was intimate with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. She said, “I have had a male child with the Lord’s help.” She also gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel became a shepherd of flocks, but Cain worked the ground. In the course of time Cain presented some of the land’s produce as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also presented an offering—some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but he did not have regard for Cain and his offering. Cain was furious, and he looked despondent. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you furious? And why do you look despondent? If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

Now there are a few things which stand out as interesting to me in the story of Cain. First of all, at the outset he is giving an offering to God. That’s a good thing. He knows and worships God. In fact he even has a conversation with God, where God warns him about “sin crouching at the door.” He had everything going for him, except that he was a sinful human being. I think Cain’s story along with its interpretation in the New Testament teaches us something important about the nature of sin. As the band Casting Crowns said, ‘it’s a slow fade.’ In other words most people don’t become murderers or adulterors or whatever else suddenly all at once without warning.

In the case of Cain John tells us it started with jealousy. It appears there’s more going on behind the scenes than we’re told just in Genesis 4. Abel is righteous, and hence why God looks on his offering with favor. Cain becomes jealous of Abel’s relationship with God and shameful of his own sinful heart. So he ignores the warning God gave Him about sin and plots to murder his brother. He doesn’t spring on him in a moment of anger and passion and accidentally go too far. He invites his brother out to the field with the express purpose of killing him.

You see murder starts in the heart. Even before he struck his brother Cain had as good as murdered him. This is what Jesus says in Matthew 5:21-22

Matthew 5:21–22 CSB

“You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Whoever insults his brother or sister, will be subject to the court. Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to hellfire.

The first step on the path of death is anger and hate. Maybe it will never escalate to actual murder, but to hate your brother and sister is to live a life of death. The world hates us, but we don’t get to hate the world back. We don’t get to hate our brothers and sisters. The person who lives a life of hate and a life of death is as good as dead already, and according to John doesn’t have eternal life remaining in them. So I think we can see the stakes are really high on this one.

What then shall we do fellow disciples of Jesus? How do we make sure that we aren’t living on the path or way of death? Examine your heart and the way that you think and feel about other people. Remember before we talked about the Bible’s definition of hate being a dislike that leads to seperation. If you find yourself turning away from other people and cutting yourself off from them than it’s time to check the health of your relationship with Jesus. Abide in Him truly and hate can’t live in your heart.

It’s not about trying harder to be a better person, trying to force yourself not to hate. It’s about getting closer to the God of love so that His love can live in you and burn away all the anger and hate.

The Life

Illustration: Signs of life in the womb, they listen for a heartbeat or recommend that the mother lay and count movements.

1 John 3:14–16 CSB

We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

You may have heard the quote before “Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good, but to make dead people alive.” I did a little research and found three different claims for who originally said that, but no matter who said it first it’s a great quote because it’s true. That’s the thing that sets Christianity apart from all the other world religions. They teach that if we’re righteous enough than the god or gods will accept us and we’ll receive our reward. Christianity teaches us the truth: we’re all too lost and broken to be good enough for God. We could strive and work our whole lives and be the most righteous mere human being that ever lived and the gulf between our attempts at righteousness and God’s perfection would still be massive and insurmountable. God is so perfect and holy that nothing we could do can compare, and we all know that we are “prone to wander” as the song says.

So what must we do to live in relationship with holy and perfect God of love? We have to actually come alive. How do we do that? Well God made a way for us. According to Colossians 2:8-15

Colossians 2:8–15 CSB

Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ. For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.

That’s how we managed to, as our passage says, pass from death to life. Now we are truly in the land of the living, and we should live as if that is true. Live as if Jesus really gave us new life and the Holy Spirit really is living in us and enabling us to do right and be holy.

Jesus’ death and resurrection was not only the means by which God made us alive in Christ, it is also the ultimate example of how we should now live. What was the motivation for Jesus laying down his life on the cross? Was it to get more worship? Was it to foil the devil’s schemes? More than any of those things Jesus’ motivation was love, love, love. God showed His love by sending His son, and His son being sent showed His love by laying down His life for us.

That’s the application to this point by the way. If Jesus was willing to lay down His life for us, than we should be willing to lay down our lives for others. And if we don’t find ourselves in a situation where we have an opportunity to literally lay down our livse for someone else, than we do the next best thing. Lay down our preferences, our finances, our time, our energy, everything that makes up our lives, so that we might pursue those who still don’t know Jesus and introduce them to our beautiful savior.

Conclusion

So what have we learned from God’s word today? We’ve learned about the importance of prioritizing love as the first and greatest command. We’ve learned about how hate leads to death, and how we need new life in order to love, and that the love we give should be self-sacrificial. Let’s read over our passage this morning once more with these things in mind:

1 John 3:11–16 (CSB)

For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another, unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.

Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

So I guess what I want you to leave with today is thankful hearts. Thankful hearts for what God has done for you, that He has made a way for you to be alive, and to be a person of love. Then we take our thankful hearts and out of our thankfulness for God’s grace we show love to others. Practical, self-sacrificial, ever renewing love for our friends, relatives, neighbors and even our enemies.

Let us pray.