Love One Another

Today, we’re continue our study in the book of 1 John. Last week John taught us what it means to be a child of God

Preaching the Word: 1–3 John—Fellowship in God’s Family Love and Hate Are Mutually Exclusive in the Christian Life (vv. 11–15)

In the previous paragraph John reminds us of who we are: “children of God.” Children of God are to behave like children of God. It is not enough to believe rightly. We must behave rightly. Being precedes doing, but all Christian doing must be based on being, that is, on who we are in Christ.

REVIEW LAST WEEK:

1 John 3:10 ESV

10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

SO WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO?

1 John 3:23–24 ESV

23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

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The commandments of Jesus are so simple, yet so complex.

Big Idea: Believe in Jesus; Love One Another.

*****Being precedes doing******** Children of God first.

1 John 3:16 ESV

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

1 John 3:11–15 ESV

11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

Main Point #1 - Overcome the world with love.

Believe in Jesus: Jesus overcame the world the flesh and the devil through an amazing act of love. Therefore it should go without saying that if our love is to overcome the world, it will have to be rooted in the love of Jesus. Because the world is just too messy. Only the love of Jesus can change the world.

Illustration: Stories from the Rwandan Genocide. From April-July of 1994. Forgiveness can be the greatest act of love. It gives new meaning to Vengeance is mine says the Lord. SO MUCH OF THE FORGIVENESS THAT TOOK PLACE THERE WAS ROOTED IN THE NAME OF JESUS. AND MANY OF THOSE WHO WERE HOSTILE TO THE CROSS BECAME CHILDREN OF GOD BECAUSE OF THE FORGIVENESS THAT WAS OFFERED.

Love One another: IF WE ARE CALLED TO LOVE OUR ENEMIES, HOW MUCH MORE SHOULD WE LOVE OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN CHRIST? Loving each other is Following Jesus 101. If you can’t love those who also belong to Jesus, how can you possibly love those who really don’t deserve it.

Cain hated his brother because he was jealous of him. IF ANYWAY SHOULD HAVE LOVED HIS BROTHER IT WAS CAIN. THERE WEREN’T MANY OF THEM YET.

HATRED DOESN’T JUST APPEAR. IT IS ROOTED IN OUR SOULS AND CULTIVATED OVER TIME. FOR CAIN IT STARTED IN JEALOUSY

The evidence of our faith is our propensity towards love.

Love is one more way for us to know whether we are actually Children of God.

Jesus raised the bar on what it means to not murder. You would assume that so long as I don’t kill someone that I’m not a murderer, but Jesus raised the bar and said, if you hate your brother, your heart betrays you.

APPLICATION: BREATH BEFORE YOU RESPOND AND REPEAT THESE WORDS.

Romans 5:8 ESV

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus overcame me with love, I ought to do the same for this person who has wronged me. In this way, love is not an idea or a word, but an action.

Let’s continue...

1 John 3:16 ESV

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

1 John 3:16–18 ESV

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

john 3:16

` john 3:16

Main Point #2 - Love like Jesus; With Action

Believe in Jesus: To believe in Jesus is to believe what he did on the cross.

Illustration: Baptism. What do we get baptized. It is a picture of Jesus’ love in action. To get baptized is an act of love on your part to those watching because it reminds us of our own baptism which reminds us of what Jesus did on the cross.

Jesus provides the example for what love looks like. He gave himself for His friends.

Love One another: We remind each other that Jesus died for us not that we might go to heaven, but that

We ought to lay down our lives for one another. Laying down your life is more than just dying. Most of us won’t die for our friends. Laying down your life can also mean dropping what we’re doing for our friends. Being on someone else’s agenda.

1 john 3:16-

The evidence or our love is our actions. Words aren’t enough. Jesus didn’t just say “I love you,” rather he showed us that He loves us. Love is the evidenced by your deeds.

We ought to lay down our lives for one another.

Can you imagine has Jesus just said, I love you....I hope you make it to heaven some day. We’d never make it.

Application: Loving one another means being there for each other. It means that you intentionally get to know other people. We join life groups and we commit to showing up; joining in; and being real.

Sometimes we care more about loving people outside of the family of God than we do those in the family of God.

Call someone this week. Sacrifice a sale or an account for the sake of the church. Sacrifice some sleep to go to a late meeting or an early coffee.

Love one another: The world is watching. But what if you just don’t care or you just don’t want to? Do it anyway.

If you’re like me, you probably hope that your lawn will thrive on neglect. Make a daily deposit of joy in your heart.

Find random ways to

Otherwise, you’ll wake up one day and the bitterness of life will have consumed you and there is no longer any evidence in your life of what you claim to be.

1 John 3:19–24 ESV

19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

1 john

Main Point #3 - Don’t let your heart condemn you.

Believe in Jesus: Jesus willingly went to the cross that the children of God would have a relationship with Him. His heart never failed and even in his agony he never hated those who killed him. So important to understand that it wasn’t the jewish sanhedren or the roman soldiers who killed Jesus. He was there because of the sins of God’s children. let that sink in. Can you still worry that God is angry with you?

DON’T LET THE ANGER OF AN OFFENSE MOVE YOU TO HATE!

Illustration: If you’re like me, you probably hope that your lawn will thrive on neglect.Don’t let the roots of hate be planted in your heart. Do constant weeding. Some people water their weeds and let the lawn die. Until all there is weeds.

Don’t let the roots of hate be planted in your heart. Do constant weeding.

Make a daily deposit of joy in your heart.

Otherwise, you’ll wake up one day and the bitterness of life will have consumed you and there is no longer any evidence in your life of what you claim to be.Whenever we fail in love and our heart condemns us, God is able to overcome our weaknesses.

Our love in action gives us confidence before God.

vs. 23: Obedience doesn’t earn us answer to prayer. But without obedience we would never pray God’s will.

The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary 2. The Uncondemning Heart, and Its Blessings (3:21–24)

Obedience is the indispensable condition, not the meritorious cause, of answered prayer.

The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary 2. The Uncondemning Heart, and Its Blessings (3:21–24)

This simple and unqualified promise must, of course, be interpreted in the light of further conditions upon which, in other parts of Scripture, God promises to grant his people’s requests. If a prayer is to be answered it must be ‘according to his will’ (5:14; cf. Ps. 37:4; John 15:7). Law is probably right that ‘to obey his commands’ is the condition of being heard, simply because such obedience is the evidence that ‘our will is in inward harmony with God’s’. We must also pray in Christ’s name (John 16:23–24), and for God’s glory (Jas 4:2–3), while the petitioner must be cleansed from his sins (Ps. 66:18; Prov. 15:29; Isa. 59:1–2; Jas 5:16), forgiven and himself forgiving others (Mark 11:25), and believing God’s promises (Matt. 21:22; Mark 11:24; cf. Jas 1:5–7) as well as obeying his commands. For the concept of pleasing God cf. John 8:29; 2 Cor. 5:9; Eph. 5:10; Col. 1:10; 3:20; 1 Thess. 4:1; Heb. 13:21.

Obedience in love is is evidence that we are children of God.

The commands of God are to believe in Jesus and to love one another.

When we are obedient in love, our requests will align with the will of God. And God gives us the Holy Spirit to empower us to stay on track.

Reflection: What motivates you to love?

1 john 3:

1 John 3:11–24 ESV

11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

John 13:34–35 ESV

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”