God is Light and God is Love

1 John 3:11-13

This is the Message

God is Light 1 John 1:1 through 1 John 3:10

1 John 1:5 NASB95

This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

John has been looking at the righteousness of God and His children verses the sinfulness of satan and his children

This is the Message

God is Love 1 John 3:11 through 1 John 5:21

1 John 4:7–8 NASB95

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

John will now be looking at the God is Love and his children love and the devil is hate and his children hate

Review John’s transition in verse 1 John 3:10

1 John 3:10 NASB95

By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

Vs. 11

The Message

1 John 2:7 NASB95

Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.

John 13:34–35 NASB95

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 15:12 NASB95

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

This is a higher degree of Love from the OT Love

John 15:17 NASB95

“This I command you, that you love one another.

Jesus demonstrated love when He girded Himself and washed the feet of the disciples

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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

Leviticus 19:18 NASB95

‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.

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

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.

1 Corinthians 13:4–8 NASB95

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.

Vs. 12

The Murder

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

The adjective ponerou (“evil”) indicates the active exercise of evil in one’s behavior.

Genesis 4:6–7 NASB95

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

Genesis 4:8 NASB95

Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.

1 John 3:15 NASB95

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

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The word SLAY (Murder) in the NASB

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

John uses the word esphaksen (“to butcher, slay, murder”; lit., “to cut the throat”) to portray the brutal violence of the event.

Matthew 5:37 NASB95

“But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.

The Motive

His deeds were evil

Psalm 38:18–20 NASB95

For I confess my iniquity; I am full of anxiety because of my sin. But my enemies are vigorous and strong, And many are those who hate me wrongfully. And those who repay evil for good, They oppose me, because I follow what is good.

Proverbs 29:10 NASB95

Men of bloodshed hate the blameless, But the upright are concerned for his life.

John 8:40–41 NASB95

“But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. “You are doing the deeds of your father.” They said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God.”

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

The subsequent answer, “Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous,” contrasts the two deeds and character of the two brothers. The righteous acts of Abel provoked the jealousy of Cain, which digressed into hatred and eventually murder.

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

“Jealousy—hatred—murder is a natural and terrible sequence.”

Vs 13

The Mindset

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

Hatred continues to be the reaction of the world toward the children of God. John uses the word “world” (kosmos) here as he did in 2:15, indicating that evil is an organized system in opposition to God and under the control of the devil.

John 15:18 NASB95

“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.

John 16:1–4 NASB95

“These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. “These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me. “But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.

John 16:1–3 NASB95

“These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. “These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me.

John 17:14 NASB95

“I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

We’re all in this together

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

For the first and only time, the apostle addresses his readers as “brothers” (adelphoi), a term denoting the unity that characterizes the community of faith.9 John places himself on the same level as his hearers. As their brother, John knows what it means to be hated by the world.

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

Just as love is the defining characteristic of the child of God, so hatred is the natural response of the world toward righteousness.

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

“The child of God … must be prepared for the enmity of the ‘world.’ For the fact is that those who belong to the world recognize neither God, nor those who belong to him.”

A-B-C

Ask for God forgiveness

Believe Jesus died on you behalf

Confess Jesus as Lord of your Life