Everyone Who Hates His Brother

Sunday, December 7th, 2008

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

(1 John 3:15, ESV)

1. Last week, we saw John say that the one who does not love “remains in death,” By this, he indicates that men and women are spiritually dead in trespasses and sins to start with and not that they die later through sinning.

"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." (Ephesians 2:1-3, ESV)

2. This is an expression of the doctrine of original sin. Men do not begin neutral and then either choose or reject God. They start as sinners and express their sin in everything they think and do and God by grace saves some of them.

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—" (Ephesians 2:4-5, ESV)

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9, ESV)

3. Today John is bringing us back to the fact that Jesus equates one’s inner attitudes with external actions. In our case today, the destructive nature of hatred is equated to the act of murder itself.

"You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire." (Matthew 5:21-22, ESV)

4. John equates (just as Jesus did) hatred with murder. In the Greek “murderer” [anthropoktonos] is a compound word from [anthropos] (man) and [kteino] (to kill), a man-killer, in the New Testamentis only used here and John 8:44 talking about Satan.

"You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies." (John 8:44, ESV)

5. Hatred is the desire to get rid of someone, whether or not one has the nerve or the occasion to perform the act. Murder is a distinguishing mark of Satan and his children. The hatred of the world is seen not merely in the hatred itself but in the fact that it principally hates Christians. For in hating them it hates Christ

6. John tells us also that whoever hates is not saved and is still walking in darkness: "Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness." (1 John 2:9, ESV)

7. He also states that the darkness is so thick he cannot see where is going "But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes." (1 John 2:11, ESV)

8. Anyone who says “I love God” and hates his brother is lost and bound for destruction. They are liars and will receive their due reward in the judgement.

"If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen." (1 John 4:20, ESV)

9. “And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” This statement does not need research to confirm this fact. It is self evident that the one who is governed by a spirit of hate does not possess eternal life and abides in death.

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

(1 John 3:15, ESV)