Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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