The Command of Love

1 John 3:10–15 NKJV

In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous. Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

Prayer

Last week we examined the simple truth....

Since God has broken the power of sin over our lives, we must seek to rid ourselves of the presence of sin by walking in obedience through the Spirit.

This week, we turn our attention to the next proof for spiritual life within an individual.

Lasts week was the comparison between sin and righteousness, this week we will focus on love and hatred.

Since loving our brothers shows that we are born of God,

we must love our brothers and so prove that we have passed from death to life.

If I were to ask you, “What does hatred look like in the life of the church?”

I wonder what would come to your mind?

Would it be someone irately yelling at another person?

Or would it be the cold and calculated indifference toward another?

Maybe it would still be smiles and handshakes but the hatred bubbling up underneath?

I think for us to correctly understand love within a church community, we must consider what hatred would look like as well.

1 John 3:11 NKJV

For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,

Loving One Another

“The Command”

Verses 11-13

John is contrasting in this section love and hate.

He does so by looking at love and hatred’s origins, the nature of love and hate, and the outworked consequences of love and hate.

John is picking up again on the words of Jesus from the upper room in John 13:34

John 13:34–35 ESV

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. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

This new commandment for the Apostle John is the benchmark this community has been founded on.

It is the foundation and the very cornerstone on which this community rests.

Its the foundation because its the heart of the message of Jesus.

What’s surprising then is what John goes on to describe...

1 John 3:12 (NKJV)

not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother.

The Origins of Hatred

“Hatred Expressed in the Brotherhood”

So John reminds them of the command, and then immediately gives the photo negative example of this command.

He says, “The message we have had from the beginning is to love one another, and this is NOT how you do it.”

Turn with me to Genesis 4...

Genesis 4:1–2 (NKJV)

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.”

Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel.

Now we need to remember what just happened, Adam and Eve were thrown out of the garden.

They were expelled from the garden but they didn’t die physically yet, they were dead spiritually.

This spiritual death had not reared its ugly head yet in the human experience.

Genesis 4:2–5 (NKJV)

Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.

Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering,

but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

Now we should be clear, at this point we don’t have a sacrificial system given.

But clearly Cain and Abel knew what was pleasing to the LORD and what was NOT.

Some have said that Abel’s sacrifice was better because it was how God commanded.

Hebrews 11:4 ESV

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

There can be debate over this issue, but we should not miss the point in all of it: Cain was jealous because his brothers sacrifice was accepted and his was not.

Genesis 4:6 NKJV

So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?

Notice the way God interacts with Cain, just a few verses earlier, Satan asks a question which is seeking to lead Adam and Eve into sin.

Whereas, God asks a question which is trying to lead Cain to have a change of heart.

Genesis 4:7 NKJV

If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”

Some translations helpfully bring out the beastly understanding of that word “sin lies at the door”

It presents sin as ungodly desire crouching at his door, like a beast.

Genesis 4:8–9 NKJV

Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

Just like Adam in the garden, God probes and asks something He already knows.

And Cain lies.

He further challenges God by asking if he is in charge of his brother.

And the answer is: YES, you are your brothers keeper.

Genesis 4:10 NKJV

And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.

Adam and Eve leave the garden, and sin has not only followed them, it has now begun to reap havoc on the next generation.

Murder, which Cain does to his brother is the lowest relational level imaginable.

It is the very level that the devil himself resides.

It is the level that he has been from the beginning. (John 8:44)

This should bring to mind what Jesus said about hatred in the sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 5:21–22 NKJV

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.

Now we have a couple of choices when we come to a text like this.

As believing Christians, we can choose to diminish what is being said.

Or we can choose to believe what is said, and to repent.

Implication

Cain does not recognize the sin he just committed.

God questions him and he says, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

In fact, “Yes, yes you are your brothers keeper.”

I have heard this so many times, in our individualistic post truth culture.

You ask a person how they are doing, and their response is that you’re being too nosey into their lives.

They respond with, “It’s NONE of your business!”

Where in fact, if you’re a part of the church, it is our business.

This is one of the tangible ways in which we are able to love one another.

So if you ever see someone who claims to be a part of this church going in a bad direction, it is your responsibility to reach to out to them.

Because unlike Cain, we are our brothers keeper.

We are the ones who are called to look out for one another.

John goes on to talk about Cain and Abel in this passage...

1 John 3:12 (NKJV)

And why did he murder him?

John argues that Cain did this for the same reason that he has just argued for above.

The fact that he was a child of devil meant that Cain would act according to that nature.

But he goes a step further here.

1 John 3:12 (ESV)

And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.

The Nature of Love and Hatred

“The Unrighteous Hating the Righteous”

He argues that Cain murdered his brother because his works were evil and his brothers righteous.

Cain is presented here in these verses as a sample of this world.

As one man said, “A prototype of the prince of this world.”

Cain is being presented here as the spiritual offspring of the devil.

I want you to notice the context where this sin occurred.

The Context

“Nature & Nurture”

Cain and Abel had the same parents.

They grew up in the same household.

They had the same nurture their whole lives.

So if you’re a person who believes that how we are raised has a big influence on us...

The question is “How does Cain and Abel fit into that mold?”

They both grew up in the same house.

They both grew up with the same parents.

Cain and Abel were both bringing their offerings to God, essentially they were both partaking in a religious service.

So if you think that just being in a church will somehow make you more holy, I want to remind you that it won’t.

They both grew up in the same household.

They both were attending religious services.

They both brought their offerings.

The Content

“Hatred began in the Heart”

They both participated in the same actions, they brought sacrifices.

The problem is the actions don’t validate the heart.

Cain would have initially passed John’s first outward test of sin and righteousness.

On the outside, his actions appeared to be righteous.

But Cain failed the test of love.

The fundamental difference between Cain and Abel is: Cain’s deeds were evil and Abels were righteous.

John is essentially saying that the reason Cain killed his brother is out of jealousy.

He was jealous that Abel was accepted when he was NOT.

The first murder recorded in the Bible was caused by hatred of righteousness.

And John’s point is…

1 John 3:13 NKJV

Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you.

Don’t be Surprised

“Hated by the World”

John is saying don’t be shocked, don’t marvel, don’t be confused when the world around you hates you.

There is actually a little more weight to this than just “don’t be surprised”

It would be more helpful to say, “STOP being surprised”

Don’t be surprised when the world, which is in opposition to God and His ways, hates you.

Don’t be surprised when the world hates you for doing righteous deeds.

We look upon what Cain did to his brother and we are appalled and we should be.

What he is saying is, when the embryonic seed of hatred begins to form in the heart of man, don’t be surprised when this grows into murder.

Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume 1 John 3:11–13

Sin, indulged, knows no bound.

When a person commits a sin in their heart, and continues to indulge themselves in it, it does have boundaries.

There are NO boundaries to evil being worked out in the lives of other people.

When the world, like Cain, comes face-to-face with reality and truth, it can make only one of two decisions: repent and change, or destroy the one who is exposing it.

I would argue that the reason murder is not a bigger deal in our culture is that most people are afraid of the consequences.

The consequences create a fear of being arrested and humiliated.

The penalties that the law enforces actually keep people from committing murder.

So when we find ourselves being yelled at, or condemned by the outside world, we should not be surprised.

Implications

It could be that the persecution of our faith does not happen in dramatic ways.

It could be a simple look someone gives you when you express that you attend a certain church.

It can be the isolation you feel when others exclude you because you don’t laugh at their jokes or listen to ugly gossip.

It can be the rejection you feel when you try and reconcile with others.

It can be the feelings of being shunned for standing up for what is right.

John now moves from the origin and the nature to the outworked consequences.

These outworked consequences will begin by what the believer knows, and then move to give two implications of hating the brethren.

1 John 3:14–15 NKJV

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

From Death to Life

“The Evidence for the Believer”

Verses 14-15

John can assert that we know.

That is the Christian can know that they have passed from death to life when they love the brethren.

Love and Life

“Life brings forth Love”

1 John 3:14 (ESV)

We know that we have passed out of death into life...

John is saying that a person knows they have come out of death and moved into life when they love the brethren.

Notice again in this passage the passing from death to life.

“Passed from death to life”

John is assuming that we as believers know that a person does not begin in the position of life.

Life is NOT the starting place for humanity.

The same word that is used in this passage in discussing passing from death to life is used by Jesus in John 5:24.

John 5:24–26 ESV

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.

The passing here refers to a changing of one state to another.

It is a transitioning from being dead to being made alive.

John is indirectly making a claim about the nature of sin.

Like we saw last week, to remain under the power of sin is to remain under the category of death.

The secular lie is that humanity is neutral, but what John is showing here is there is no neutrality.

For the person apart from Christ, there is only death.

The Epistles of John: An Expositional Commentary The Social Test

No one grows into Christianity, in other words. Christianity is a divine creation or recreation, by which God of his own free will plants spiritual life within a person who otherwise is dead spiritually.

Passing from Death to Life is like Drowning (Charles Spurgeon)

While a person is drowning, it has been said that there is a sensation which can be pleasing.

But when he is brought up out of the water, as soon as he begins to get air again.

It becomes painful.

This is not a sign of death, but of life.

His arms and legs begin to tingle, his chest aches with pain.

The pain of life returning to him can be dreadful.

Well, so it is with God’s precepts when he revives us with them.

When life is rushed back into us, these pains reveal our shortcomings and failures.

These pains reveal our faults and it humbles us.

When you are numb and feel nothing, you are next to death.

But if today, you feel the pain of life circulating in you, rejoice!

Now there is a reason John gives for how we can know this...

1 John 3:14 (NKJV)

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren.

Loving the Brethren

He says that it is because we love the brethren that we can be assured we have passed from death to life.

Now we have talked about it before but I want to remind us that love here is NOT a feeling.

It actually has NOTHING to do with feelings.

It has everything to do with action.

So this is good news for you if you don’t have good feelings toward your brothers and sisters.

What matters here is a decision to love with word and deed.

It is the evidence of the love which gives proof for the life.

The primary love of a Christian is for their brother or sister.

This is where Christian love must start.

Implication

There is a temptation to equate love with making other people happy.

We may be tempted to think, if I speak the truth in love to them and they don’t respond with a gleeful jubilant reception, I’ve failed.

But let me assert that to equate love with making other people happy will lead to slavery.

Beneath my efforts to love other people, there is a self that says “Please love me.” It looks like morality on the outside, but it is driven by an utterly corrupted selfishness on the inside.

You will displease people if you are going to love them well. To love folks who are sinful, you will say no to them. You will disappoint them.

We must not love our brothers and sisters for our own happiness, or for theirs.

Or better put, we should love them for their ultimate happiness in Christ.

If we measure our love for one another by their response or our feeling toward them, we will never love anyone.

300 Illustrations for Preachers Love, Hate, and Indifference

“The opposite of love is not hate; it’s indifference.”

We must love our brothers and so prove that we have passed from death to life.

We don’t love them to earn God’s favor, we love because we have life residing in us.

John goes on to say...

1 John 3:14–15 (NKJV)

He who does not love his brother abides in death.

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

For John, the person who does not love his brother still in fact resides in death.

Life has not been given to him because his heart reflects a posture of hatred.

Hatred and Murder

For John to say that no murder has eternal life, what he cannot mean is that someone who murderers ever in his life does not have eternal life.

If this were the case, it would remove people like the Apostle Paul.

So logically, this CANNOT be what this text is teaching.

Christians are NOT saying that hatred and murder are the exact same thing as though God is blinding wandering around and He sees no distinction.

Equivalent in HEART

What John is getting at here is that the heart of murder and hatred are the same.

Matthew 5:22 NKJV

But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.

Jesus is saying that true murder is what is conceived in the heart.

To hate a brother or sister is on the same heart posture of murder.

By God’s own standard, to hate someone from the heart is AS unlawful as murder.

Hatred is the wish that another person was NOT there anymore.