https://youtu.be/mPwKBRE6pAs?si=IPx6R9DHnpN5F09Z
Today we are going to continue our discussion in 1 John chapter 3. We will be covering versus 11 to the end. To state the obvious, John, let us know that the wicked will always be among us, and will always be against us. John also tells us that if we are saved, that we have been given a new life, that we have been reborn; then, we love the brethren. Thise that remain in hatred are not saved. They are part of the wicked community in which we live. Then, John explains and describe some characteristics that each child of the light has in their being.
Let’s begin with verse 11 Here, John tells us that we need to to love one another.
Verse 11: “For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.”
Therefore, from the beginning has been emphasized, and it is a command to love one another, which was reminded to us and verse seven. This follows the love to command in the big book of John chapter 13, verse 34.
The basic Christian message has not changed. The basic Christian message is that we have a personal relationship with Christ, but it matters to God and how we treat people. We are to treat others and love and respect.
And first 12 John gives an example of the opposite of love, and that is hate. He goes all the way back to the beginning of the book in Genesis, where it talks about the hatred of Cain.
Verse 12 says the following: “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.”
John gives us the example: “Not as Cain!” This is a negative example, John presents Cain, who was not right with God (because of his works were evil) and who hated his brother. You see hatred and love is totally opposite of each other. When there are two children of God who are both right with God, there will be love.
John emphasizes that Cain is a good example of the failure to love.
We can presume that Cain had a godly upbringing that should have equipped him to love, but he chose not to. Scripture calls us to bring up our children in the ways of the Lord, but ultimately, they have the choice whether to depart from the faith or to remain in the faith. here we see that Kane chose the Broad way.
Now let’s look at how the Bible characterizes came disobedience and hatred.
First, Cain’s disobedience came from a lack of faith (Hebrews 11:4) which resulted in first disobedience, then hatred.
Secondly, Cain’s disobedience and hatred was based in pride (Genesis 4:5).
Thirdly, Cain’s disobedience and hatred made him miserable (Genesis 4:5).
Fourthly, Cain refused the warning God gave him, and gave into the sin of hatred (Genesis 4:6-7).
Next, Cain’s sin of hatred led to action against the one he hated (Genesis 4:8).
Finally, Cain was evasive about his sin of hatred, and tried to hide it. But God found him out (Genesis 4:9-10).
Moving onto verse 13 through 15: this is where John informs us that Love as the evidence of the new birth.
“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.”
We shouldn’t be surprised when the world hates us; but i’m still surprised when there is hatred among the body of Christ.
What I’m going to say, next deserves in aman! A love for the people of God is a basic sign of being born again. If this love is not evident in our lives, our salvation can be questioned. If it is present, it gives us assurance.
Do you know the definition of hatred? When you start to hate someone you believe the worst about them, then you want them to get what they deserve, and you want them to be punished and brought to justice. You also know that you hate someone because you want them to burn in the lake of fire.
When we love, fellow believers, we pursue fellowship with them. If we love the brethren, we will want to be with them – and even if we have been battered and bruised by unloving brethren, there will still be something in us drawing us back to fellowship with the brethren we love.
This verse says the following: “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer:” Hatred can be shown passively or actively. To hate our brother is to murder him in our hearts. Though we may not carry out the action (through cowardice or fear of punishment), we wishthat person dead. Or, by ignoring another person, we may treat them as if they were dead.
John seemed to have in mind the teaching of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount regarding the true fulfillment of the law (Matthew 5:21-22).
Mat 5:21-22 NKJV – 21 “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.’ 22 “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.
To live in the practice of murder – or to have a life style of the habitual hatred of our brethren – is a demonstration that we do not have eternal life abiding in us, that we are not born again.
Being a Christian is more than saying, “I am a Christian.” There are in fact some who claim to be Christians who are not. How can we know if we are one of these? John’s reply has been constant and simple. There are three tests to measure the proof of a genuine Christian: the truth test, the love test, and the moral test. If we believe in what the Bible teaches as true, if we show the love of Jesus to others, and if our conduct has been changed and is becoming more like Jesus, then our claim to be a Christian can be proven true.
Verse 16 says the following “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
Real love isn’t merely “felt” as an inward feeling; it is also shown by demonstration – and the ultimate demonstration was the giving of Jesus on the cross.
The exact same idea was expressed by Paul in Romans 5:8: But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
And we also: Since we are sent with the same mandate Jesus was sent with, we must demonstrate our love by laying down our lives for the brethren. Jesus’ words As the Father sent Me, I also send you (John 20:21) seem to be ringing in John’s ears.
e. We also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren: The focus here is on loving the brethren. Of course, we are also called to love our enemies and those who hate us (Matthew 5:44), but John calls us to a more basic test – if we can’t even love our brethren, what kind of Christians are we?
Simply put, John is telling us to do the same thing we read of in Philippians 2:3-4: Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
We probably will not be called to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters, but we are called to see their needs before hours. We are called to love them through our actions. This may mean that we say that we’re sorry first. This may mean that we actually hold our peace; instead of, defending ourselves. A a This may mean if we have two coats, and our brother or sister needs a coat, we give them one of our favorite coats. This means that we may have to sacrifice our time to help them. But ultimately it means putting aside our once and desires to meet the needs of others. See, not just the preacher or pastor is called to this work. This work is the ministry.
When we talk about a broken spirit, it means something entirely different than what the world would consider a broken heart or a broken person. In God‘s house, we are all broken people, but when we come before the Lord, we should have a broken and contrite spirit. This reminds me of breaking a horse. Although, in our world today, they want us to call it, gentling a horse. Go figure! Political correctness at work, but, breaking a horse, involves the horse: biting, kicking, bucking, slobbering, and just running a muck. As humans we do this, too! Because, when the Lord begins to work in our lives, we endure this type of transformation. We kick, and buck, and even nip at God‘s direction and directives. Right? We resist his presence and through our resistance we are disobedient. Through the Holy Spirit He is working to bring about change into our lives. He is working to make us more, Christlike, and all we want to do is nip, buck, and ignore his positive influence in our lives. The Holy Spirit wants us to be the image of Jesus and we are fighting him all the way. We say, we don’t want this, but there’s a point in the believers life we stop bucking and we stop biting, and this is called brokenness. When we are broken, our pride has been dealt with in such a way that we are willing to put others first. This my friends is what John is reminding us that Christ has called us too. This is a word to the mature Christian. This is the word to what scripture calls an elder. This is a part of the word that should be a goal of all believers. The Holy Spirit is calling you to surrender today.
Next John goes to a different set of characteristics. This portion speaks to us about how we are showing love to fellow believers. Now, we may not be able to help everybody, but that does not mean we have closed our heart to others. Sometimes, all we can do is pray, and be there for someone. Sometimes, all we can do is bring the request to the church board and see if our church can help. We may just not have the resources and all we can do is pray for them.
Versa 17 and 18 give us a concrete example of What it means to love in real life.
Verse 17: “But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”
John will not allow us to merely talk about love; real love is demonstrated in actions (though it is also often evident in our feelings).
If you have the capability to meet a brother’s needs, and do nothing to meet those needs, then how can you say you love that brother? How does the love of God abide in you?
Lastly, the verse says the following: “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth:” We can substitute talk for love – talking about meeting people’s needs instead of actually meeting them.
This type of love brings assurance. Let’s check out verse 19 through 21.
Versus 19 through 21: “And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.”
When we see this love at work in our lives, we can know that we are of the truth – and this brings assurance to our hearts before God, that we are standing in Him.
Assurance is essential – who wants to wait until it is too late to know if they are really saved or not?
And shall assure our hearts before Him: Our assurance is two-fold. First, God already knows everything about you and He loves you, He cares for you, He desires you; second, God knows all things, and knows who we truly are in Jesus Christ. If we are born again, then the real self is the one created in the image of Jesus Christ.
Yet, when we are in fellowship with God, and our heart does not condemn us, we know that we can have confidence toward God and our standing with Him.
Let us also remember what Paul spoke about in Romans 8:16 – The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
Verse 22 is a wonderful promise if we have Fellowship in God’s love this means the assurance of answered prayer.
Verse 22: “And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.”
The person who walks in the kind of obedience and love John speaks of will also experience answered prayer. This is not because their love and obedience has earned them what they ask, but their love and obedience comes from fellowship – the key to answered prayer.
John seems to be quoting Jesus’ idea from John 15:7 – If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
Keeping God’s commandments is important to answered prayer. But we should make a distinction between the prayer of the man who is saved, and the cry of the heart seeking mercy from God in Jesus. For the sinner who comes to Jesus in prayer, seeking mercy, the only requirement is sincerity of heart. God does not demand our obedience before He saves us.
The key to prayer is being in such close fellowship with God that we ask for the things that are on His heart; we take up His agenda with our requests and intercession.
ii. The spirit of true prayer is Thy will be done, not My will be done – we turn to prayer to call into action what God desires; even knowing that some of the things God desires will directly and personally benefit us.
And do those things that are pleasing in His sight: The person who is in fellowship with God will want to do those things that are pleasing in His sight. We should have hearts that just want to please the Lord in everything that we do.
Verses 23-24 informs of The commandment of Jesus.
Verses 23 & 24: “And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.”
a. And this is His commandment: The idea of keeping His commandments in the previous verse led John to speak specifically about what His commandment is. Simply, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another.
Here, John does not refer to these two aspects of obedience as two commandments, but as one commandment. He added another saying: And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”(Matthew 22:37-39). There are two commandments, but they are clearly like one another.
John said the following:
“We should believe on the name of His Son:”Again, John seems to have quoted Jesus’ idea from John 6:29: This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent. The first commandment and the greatest work we can do, is to believe on Jesus.
This is not simply believing that Jesus is, or even believing that He did certain things such as die on a cross. To believe on the name of Jesus means to put your belief on Jesus in the sense of trusting in Him, relying on Him, and clinging to Jesus. It isn’t about intellectual knowledge or understanding, it is about trust.
Abides in Him: Those who abide in Jesus know they are abiding in Jesus, because of the presence and assurance of the Holy Spirit. John again is giving the same idea as Romans 8:16 (The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God).
Romans 8:9 tells us that anyone who belongs to Jesus has the Spirit in him; that indwelling Holy Spirit gives us assurance. You can’t be abiding in Jesus and not know it, though you may be attacked with doubt from time to time.
The one who does not keep God’s commandments does not have the ground of confidence that he abides in Jesus. As well, he does not truly have the assurance of the Holy Spirit’s presence in his life.
To know if you really have this assurance can take spiritual discernment, and that is what John deals with in the very next verse. But God has already given us another basis for assurance: seeing if we love one another (1 John 3:19).
