God is Love, so love one another

God is love, so love one another 1 John 3:11-24 Today we are continuing our series on 1 John by looking together at 1 John 3:11-24 and it would be great if you were able to follow along in your Bibles, or on your phones or tablets. John, the son of fisherman Zebedee, was one of the original twelve disciples and indeed a member of the “inner circle” that Jesus selected to take with him at special moments like the transfiguration. Scholars tell us that very probably John wrote not only the three short letters to the churches, 1,2 and 3 John, but was also responsible, for John’s Gospel and, of course, for the Book of Revelation. And there is no doubt, that John had a particularly close relationship with Jesus, and he is referred to on a number of occasions as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. Though the fact that this phrase is only used by John himself, in his own gospel, could be seen by some to be evidence that John is just “bigging up” his own status amongst his fellow disciples. But I prefer though to see this as a very significant indication that John had an exceptionally strong personal appreciation that Jesus loved him, which was a prime motivator in his Christian life and ministry. And the exciting thing for us is, that if we will really come to terms with the truth of what Jesus did FOR US ALL at Calvary, we too can share John’s experience. John’s deep appreciation of the fact that Jesus loved him personally, definitely influenced his teaching ministry, as we’ll see in our passage today. And far from using the phrase “the disciple whom Jesus loved” as a means of differentiating the quality of his own walk with Jesus from that of other lesser mortals, I prefer to think that he used the phrase to remind himself that he was loved because, when we do so, it injects a dynamic new power into our Christian experience. But as we come to the nitty-gritty of the study itself, I think it is worth a moment to recognise John’s very significant credentials as a key leader in the church and therefore, someone to whom we should pay especially close attention. Not only was John a disciple specifically called and chosen personally by Jesus; a member of that inner circle within the twelve, but he was also a key teacher, an apostle to the young church; and, very significantly, he is also affirmed in the book of Revelation, as a prophet. Like Paul, John, in fact, is singled out to be given amazing glimpses into the future plans of God, and also, like Paul, some of that revelation is so privileged that he is expressly forbidden to share it with others, as we see from the intriguing words of Revelation 10:4 (ESV) which read: “4 And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write,” says John, “but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.” And so, for now at least, that revelation remains a mystery for the rest of us. This indicates very powerfully how special John’s ministry is to the church, putting him in the company of a very select group of God’s earthly servants and making it all the more important for us to really hear for ourselves the vital message he brings to us this morning. At the time of writing 1, 2 and 3 John, which experts tell us was probably in the early AD90s, John, some suggest, was the only surviving member of the Twelve and was, of course, to be the only one of them who didn’t die a martyr’s death. And the church he was writing to at that time would have comprised second and even third generation Christians, some of whom would be experiencing persecution for their faith and others being drawn off-course by the false teaching that was already beginning to infiltrate the young church. And throughout his letters, you can sense John’s pastoral heart and concern for these believers, as he continually refers to them as “children”, or even, as he says in verse 18 of our text this morning, “little children”, and it was not, I’m sure, out of any wish to demean them, or put them in their place, but rather said with the protective and loving concern of an octogenarian spiritual “grandad” in the faith, wanting only to protect and bless his charges. Now a downside of the expository approach to preaching from a passage like ours today, where we are looking to understand and interpret it as accurately as possible, is that you, the listeners, can see just how long the preacher is likely to keep you before you can get off to Sunday lunch, as you review the number of verses left to cover! So I plan to rattle through at a rate of knots this morning, but do keep front and centre, that this is God’s Word, and if we open our hearts and respond to it with FAITH, we will inevitably go away with a blessing. Miss that, and all we’ll get is a growing appetite for lunch! So here goes. I’m using the much favoured ESV translation this morning, which like the majority of the other versions I’ve looked at, gives this passage the title “Love One Another” but I actually prefer the title used in the less well known LEB, or Lexham English Bible, that gives it what I think is the more comprehensive title “God is love, so love one another”. Because of time I’ll not read the whole passage now but instead we’ll put each verse briefly under the microscope as we study it together. VERSE 11 begins: 11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Notice particularly that phrase “from the beginning” and the important single word “should”. The message that as Christians we should love one another, love our brothers and sisters in Christ, is absolutely foundational. It is fundamental. It is something that was made plain from the beginning in the gospel and it is at the very heart of the new life that we have as born again Christians BECAUSE, of course, loving others is in the very heart and nature of Jesus, our Saviour. Loving others, loving us, was HIS PRIMARY MOTIVATION for enduring the physical and spiritual agony of the Cross for every one of us. If we don’t get that; if loving our brothers and sisters in Christ, is not a clear and obvious feature of our daily lives and fellowship, then a basic element of our Christian life is being ignored. If loving one another is not something that any unbiased observer can see in us; and something for which there would be sufficient evidence to convict us in a court of law, then the implication of verse 11 is that this is a serious cause for concern, BECAUSE it is so fundamental to the new life we have in Christ. But also, the use of that little word “should” in this verse tells us that loving our fellow Christians is something that we ourselves really have to do. It is not automatic; it is not about waiting until we “feel” that love before we show it. It is an imperative and we MUST get ourselves to do it. And, of course, it’s NOT about loving one another, to earn merit points in our Christian life. It’s not about pretending to love someone we can’t abide. Rather, it is an intrinsic quality of our Christian life, and, while we simply CANNOT show that love out of our own resources, it is something that God in us, Christ in us, is able to develop in us as we exercise our FAITH and allow God to display it in our lives. Now let me just say here that as Christians we can be big on EXERCISING OUR FAITH to see salvation, to see healing, to see miracles, to see the blessings we’d like to see in our own lives and in our church, and that is absolutely commendable and right, but we do ALSO need to learn to exercise our faith for our own individual life, so that we live our Christian lives in a way that honours our Saviour and gives Him the glory as we grow up spiritually into all that He intends us to be. As we choose to love our brothers and sisters in Christ BY FAITH, we find that we have the Holy Spirit’s empowering to do it. Bottom line: we MUST, as John tells us, love one another and, IF we do it by faith, trusting the Holy Spirit to work it out in our experience we will also discover that we CAN and, in fact, DO love them. VERSE 12 then goes on: 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. Cain’s real motivation is exposed when he compares his own deeds to those of his brother Abel and that made him so angry that he completely lost it and killed him. In fact, the word rendered “murdered” here is very graphic indeed, as it means to “butcher” or “slaughter”. So John is telling us here that any approach to our brothers and sisters in Christ other than one motivated by the Jesus kind of love – that is, totally unselfish and un-self-centered love, in effect makes us like Cain, because it exposes underlying motives that are unacceptable in those who claim to be Christians and followers of Christ. John’s disturbing implication then is that if we, as Christians, are not demonstrating genuine Christ-like love for our brothers and sisters in Christ, then we are in fact in danger of emulating Cain, the world’s first murderer! VERSE 13 then goes on: 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. Now at first sight, this verse seems unrelated to the previous one. What link can there be between not being surprised that the world hates us as Christians and being a murderer like Cain? The answer surely is that Cain and Abel are representatives. Cain of the world, the unsaved, the non-Christian, and Abel of the Christian. So, the world at large hates Christians because we have Christ’s righteousness conferred on us by grace through faith, while the world remains unredeemed and consequently, utterly opposed to everything we stand for. Now I’m not, of course, saying that every individual who isn’t a Christian hates us. I’ve had the privilege of knowing and working closely with lots of lovely people who are not Christians, and all of us, of course, are on a journey in life. I’m simply saying that the default position of those who go on to fully reject Christ, can be to hate, undermine and even ridicule Christians. But our response should always be, of course, to seek to love them and pray for them all the more. Though I do think that we’d have to be spiritually comatose, not to pick up on the fact that the world we are living in right now is growing more and more antagonistic towards Christians and seeks in every way possible to oppose and silence the message and truth of the gospel. And certainly the hatred of Cain remains alive and well in our 21st Century world. VERSE 14 says: 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. John is linking here our claim to be saved, to be born again, to the evidence of our relationship with fellow Christians. Real Christians, he is saying, will show genuine and unselfish love to brothers and sisters in Christ but also, and very frighteningly, he is claiming that if we do not show that love, we are deceiving ourselves. The obvious, but very serious implication of course, is that we are not just called to love “like-minded” fellow believers, because the real proof that we have passed from death to life, is our FAITH choice to love ALL our brothers and sisters in Christ, whether we are naturally drawn to them or not. Because, if we have only a very selective love for others, we are exposing a gaping weakness in our Christian walk. Perhaps even more worryingly though, John is telling us in the second part of this verse where he says: “Whoever does not love abides in death.” that, to put the very mildest interpretation on it, if we are not loving ALL our brothers and sisters in Christ, not just those we like, then we are indulging an area of our non-Christian characteristics, that should really be long dead. VERSE 15 tells us: 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Ouch! Without pulling his punches in any way at all, John is making crystal clear, that if our attitude and approach to brothers and sisters in Christ, however justified we may think we are, is so much the opposite of the loving approach that Christ demonstrated FOR US through his substitutionary death on the cross, then we are emulating the lifestyle of those who are God’s enemies, not of those who are His friends, and so we diminish our relationship with Him. VERSE 16 then goes on: 16 By this we know love, that he (Jesus) laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. This is John “turning the screw” and ratcheting up the demand he makes of us, by emphasising the need to recognise the QUALITY of the love that we should be demonstrating to one another as Christians. It is very much NOT a lip-service quality of love, where we offer a fake love but decide according to our own will and wishes, when, to whom and how far we will go to demonstrate the Christ-like love we have the potential to show to all our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are to aspire to the very highest quality of love - self-sacrificial and unselfish love, John is saying, and to show it to ALL our fellow Christians. That is a love we only have and can demonstrate supernaturally, as BY FAITH we allow the Holy Spirit to operate through us and then submit to his prompting and empowering. This is not a natural thing; or a comfortable thing; it is a supernatural, new-life thing; possible ONLY, as by faith we submit to God working in our lives. For many of us, I suggest, this is quite a stretch, and if you’re anything at all like me, pretty much more of a dream than a reality. And if I’m honest, as I say this, I’m thinking that it is absolutely spot on for John, for all my advanced years, to call me a “little child” because it seems entirely fitting when I’m facing a challenge like this. VERSES 17 and 18 then go on: 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. Here, perhaps, is the crux, the core, of our passage. We MUST love our brothers and sisters in Christ, yes. But our love must genuine, 24 carat love. Love that shows our concern for our Christian brothers and sisters in a practical way, that puts their needs, not ours, front and centre. Love that is seen by our actions, not just our words. Words are cheap and can be empty. Real love, the love God wants us to show, is genuine, and it is costly to us, but it works. And, it is fruitful, and genuinely beneficial BECAUSE it is a love that comes through us but is sourced in, and emanates from, God. When the rubber hits the road, John is saying, when we have a choice to make about whether or not we will offer real love and support for our brother and sister in Christ; WHAT WILL WE DO? Make excuses? Offer worthless platitudes? Slip away quietly? Pretend not to notice? Or, will we allow God’s supernatural love to break through into others’ lives through us? Our response tells us much about the reality, the honesty, the quality and the integrity of our Christian walk. VERSES 19 to 22, at last, bring us into the blessing that comes from loving one another. It says: 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. Here’s the thing. Demonstrating this real kind of love, love in action rather than in mere words, John is telling us, testifies that we are the new creatures in Christ that the Word tells us we are, when we accept Him as our Saviour. It is the clear evidence that we are children of God; His offspring; His people. It is a litmus test of our credentials as a Christian. Hearing this from John should be a wake-up call if we have been lulled into an inoperative and fruitless state in our Christian life, and have become a sleep-walking Christian, going through the motions of a Christian life, but missing out on the reality, the vibrancy, and the excitement of the new life we have received through Christ. But here’s the real blessing: if we can look at our lives and are encouraged by the way God has been able to use us through demonstrating His love to others in very practical and even costly ways, we are awakened to the REALITY of our experience with God and are encouraged and reassured in our relationship with Him. We learn to take God at His Word and to ACT IN FAITH on what He tells us to do. John is saying, that this actually boosts our faith and confidence in Him, so that we are better able to overcome our personal doubts and fears and so become available to God for greater service and blessing. We are freed from the personal doubts that so easily condemn us and keep us unfruitful because it builds our practical experience of God as one who does work and is working in OUR lives and in the lives of others. It becomes a positive boost to our FAITH-BASED expectations of what God can and will do, IF ONLY WE ARE PREPARED TO BE HIS OBEDIENT AND FAITH FILLED SERVANTS. VERSE 23 says: 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. Faith, believing in God, is here COMMANDED by God, and it will issue in a ministry of selfless love to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We need to really get hold of this vital scripture because it is key to a fruitful Christian walk and experience. Faith is COMMANDED by God. Believing in Him is COMMANDED by God. Holding on to this truth; building this truth into our day by day lives, is key. It’s the way we can walk victoriously as Christians on the road of blessing and fulfilment that we have been called to walk on! And, John is telling us here, it will issue in a ministry of selfless love to our brothers and sisters in Christ. So finally, we come to the last verse of our scripture today which promises us a very special blessing indeed. VERSE 24 closes our passage with this: 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. A discrete section of the Scriptures, like our text passage today, is called a “pericope” by those who study God’s word, and here as a finale, in verse 24, this pericope, serves us an amazing blessing and perhaps reveals the secret of knowing that WE are “disciples whom Jesus loves.” It tells us emphatically that keeping God’s commandments, including His commandment to love our brothers and sisters in Christ, and His commandment to respond in FAITH to what God tells us, will INEVITABLY allow us to taste the unparalleled joy of a close and intimate walk in the Spirit, with God ABIDING IN us! Act with faith on what God tells us is true in His Word, and we too can have that same, and so special personal assurance, that THAT GOD IS ABIDING IN US and so, like John, we too will KNOW that WE ARE DISCIPLES WHOM GOD LOVES and, what’s more, also like John, WE WON’T BE AFRAID TO DECLARE IT! HALLELUJAH!