One of the Apostle John’s favorite instruments in teaching is the use of contrasts. He also uses repetition as another major instrument for teaching in this epistle. In the passage we are looking at today, John combines both of these instruments to help teach us concerning either the verification of a believer or the identification of a false believer, or a false teacher.
And the two principles that John is going to contrast here are love and hate. John presents love and hate as polar opposites, not only in emotion, but in thinking, and in action. What John is going to teach us is that love and hate are the products of our hearts. Not the heart as a muscle which pumps blood through our body, but hearts as used in the Bible, meaning the spiritual center of our soul. What is in the heart comes out - out of the mouth, out of our actions, and out in our attitudes.
Now as I said, John is going to contrast these two ways of thinking; love and hate. And that’s where the repetition comes in. John has already talked about the principles of love and hate in the previous chapter. Yet by using repetition as a tool for learning, John brings them up again, but adding more elements to his original thoughts. And he uses this instrument of repetition again and again as he deals with various themes in his epistle. Each time he repeats the principle that he wants to instruct us in, but adding more elements, or to say it in reverse, revealing more elements each time he revisits the theme.
So he begins in this passage with the theme of love, which as I said he has already spoken about. For instance in chapter 2, John talked about the love of God being perfected or completed in us, so that we may walk as He walked. We are to love as God loved. And then in vs10 he extrapolates the doctrine of love further saying “The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.” So we learned that we are to love like God loves, and that means we should love our brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Now in the passage we’re looking at today, chapter 3 vs 11, John reiterates and repeats that principle, saying, “For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” When John speaks of hearing this message from the beginning, he isn’t talking about the beginning of this epistle, but the beginning of their conversion. To love one another is a fundamental principle of the gospel, and one that they would have heard at the beginning of their salvation.
Love was a central doctrine of the gospel which the apostles taught, because it had been taught to them by the Lord Jesus. In John 13, Jesus identifies love as the distinguishing mark of the disciples. vs 35 "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” And He says in vs 34, “A new commandment I give you that you love one another, even as I have loved you.” The commandment to love was not new, but was in fact prefaced in the Old Testament. But there was a new element to it, which was to love one another as Christ loved. That’s the new element, to love like Christ loved.
So we should ask, how did Christ love? He loved with a sacrificial love, laying down His life for His brothers. He said in John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” That’s the kind of love that Jesus had, which we are supposed to emulate. It’s a sacrificial love. That’s the meaning of agape, the Greek word for love. It’s not an affection, a sentiment, or even an emotion. It’s a commitment, a sacrifice of your life, your priorities, your desires, your needs, for the sake of your brother.
It reminds me of Romans 12: 2 where Paul says “I urge you brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.” That’s what love is, to be a living sacrifice for the sake of Christ, for the love of the brethren. To lay aside your priorities to love another sacrificially. I happen to believe that Paul in Romans 12 is speaking of presenting your body to the church as a living sacrifice. A lot of people tend to think of going to church as something that is solely for their benefit. So if they don’t really feel a need to go, if everything’s good in their life, or so they think, then they can do without church. But one of the key reasons for going to church is to strengthen others, to share one another’s burdens, to teach others, to encourage one another, to help one another, ie, to love one another. That exposes one of the major shortcomings of the pandemic live stream scenario we were caught up in during the last year. You can’t love one another very effectively sitting in front of a computer screen or a television. You need to physically present yourself as a living sacrifice, which Paul says is your spiritual service of worship. That’s what it means to worship the Lord, by sacrificially loving one another.
So John says the message is to love one another, that is those within the church. And then he contrasts that love to hate. And he illustrates hate by the life of Cain. In John’s view, Cain is the representative of those who are not born of God, but are of the devil, whom he calls a child of the devil.
He says in vs12, “not as Cain, [who] was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous.” Cain belonged to the evil one. Now that’s a pretty significant statement. But it’s based on what Jesus said to the Jews in John 8:44, "You are of [your] father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own [nature,] for he is a liar and the father of lies.” So Jesus says that the unconverted, the unsaved, are children of their father the devil. They share in the nature of the devil.
But Jesus’s statement causes me to ask, when was Satan a murderer? I suggest that Jesus says that because Satan was the instigator for the first murder, the murder of Able by Cain. The devil instigated it by inducing Cain to rebel, to sin, to hate his brother. You will remember the story that Cain and Able came to worship the Lord, and Cain brought an offering from the fruit of the fields, and Able brought a lamb to be slain upon the alter. And the scripture says that God honored Able’s offering, but he had no regard for the offering of Cain. And Cain got very angry because God did not regard his offering.
But Cain’s anger was the thing that was sinful, and Satan taking the opportunity through that sinful rebellion and anger, induced Cain to kill his brother. NowI happen to think there was more going on there than meets the eye. You should remember when God cursed the serpent in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve’s sin, God said in Gen 3:15 “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."
Now that may sound like a riddle to us, but I think it became clear to Satan, whom someone has rightly called the first theologian, that God had a plan for the redemption of man, and their deliverance from sin and death, and by this seed, to crush the power of Satan. The plan of God was from the seed of the woman to come the Messiah, who was to redeem man from the curse of sin and death and give him life. And so the enmity of Satan, the hatred of Satan towards the object of God’s love was to try to destroy that seed of the woman.
I believe it had become obvious through some means that we are not privy to, that the line was going to be through Able. Cain’s heart was evil. And Satan knew that. And so he deduced that the line was through Able. So Satan acted upon this sin of anger that arose in Cain when his offering was rejected, and induced Cain to rise up and slaughter his brother, the one in whom Satan supposed was the seed of the Messiah. And by the way, the Greek word for murdered, which John uses in our text, indicates cutting someone’s throat. There are other words specific to murder, but John uses one which indicates cutting one’s throat. Someone has suggested that Cain deliberately killed him that way as a rebuff to God for demanding a sacrifice such as Able made in slaying a lamb for the altar.
But the point I would like to make is that Satan hates the gospel. And He hates those that embody the gospel. And the gospel was going to be made manifest in the seed which would come through Eve. And throughout the ages we have seen numerous attempts by Satan to destroy that seed, to annihilate the Jews in general as the seed of Abraham. But God’s plan would not be thwarted. That’s why when Eve conceived again and brought forth Seth, she said, “God has appointed me another seed in place of Abel, for Cain killed him.”
So the point is that Satan hates God’s people. He hates the gospel. And likewise those that are of the evil one hate those that are of God. That’s why John continues in vs 13, “Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.” The world hates righteousness. They are in rebellion against God. But the irony is that Cain came to worship God. Cain believed in God. He was religious. But he was not willing to accept God’s plan for redemption. He was not willing to accept God’s standard for righteousness.
And I would suggest to you that there are many false prophets and false believers today who claim to have fellowship with God, and yet in reality they hate God and they hate those who love God, because they resent God’s standard for righteousness. They want to believe that their life is acceptable, their sense of right and wrong is acceptable. They don’t want to believe that what they are saying is acceptable, God says is sin. And so they hate those who are righteous. And God says that hate is the moral equivalent of murder.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:21, “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing, shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.” So Jesus said hate is enough to condemn you to hell, whether or not it ever becomes actual murder. Because God looks at the heart. Prov.23:7 says, “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”
So John says the test of whether or not you are a child of God or a child of the evil one is whether you love or hate your brother. Vs.14 “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”
What John is saying is that love is the manifestation of those who are born of God, who have received life from God. Notice the sentence construction he uses does not indicate that love is the means by which we are born of God. But that love is the evidence that you’ve been born of God. “We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren.” Love is the manifestation of a child of God.
And vice a versa, “everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” The hallmark of an unbeliever is that they hate their brother. Now does that mean that if someone has committed murder they can never be saved? No, there are some good examples in scripture of murderers that were saved. For instance, Paul was a murderer. Didn’t he persecute and kill Christians? He says, “I was a blasphemer and a murderer.” But he repented and was forgiven. All sinners can be saved, if they repent of their sin. But that reveals the danger of not recognizing your sin. If you don’t consider yourself a sinner, then you obviously can’t repent and conseuently you cannot be saved. But any sin can be forgiven if you repent.
So John says hate is the moral equivalent to murder. And murder is the physical manifestation of hatred, and hatred is in a person’s heart. But there is another manifestation of hate and that is indifference., Not all the children of the devil are equally evil in their actions. They all are characterized by some level of hatred of those who are righteous. But not all of them carry it out to its extremity and actually murder someone. But another way, and perhaps the more common way of manifesting hate is through indifference. They don’t love others, so they are indifferent towards others. They could really care less about others. Look at verses 16 and 17, “We know love by this, that He lay down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him. How does the love of God abide in him?” This is speaking of indifference. This is another evidence of the selfish, hateful heart. They have the world’s goods but they selfishly hold them for themselves, for their own pleasure and satisfaction. They are not willing to make any sacrifice for anyone else. They’re dominated by selfishness. If they do give away a little pittance here and there, it is to pacify their own conscience and have the appearance of philanthropy. But the root of their deeds are pride. To be seen as philanthropic. But in general, the children of the evil one are consumed with themselves and they’re unconcerned and indifferent towards others.
But let’s consider for a moment what John said in vs16, “this is how we know what love is…” And then he goes on to state Christ’s sacrifice for us. The part I want to emphasize is John says this is how we know what love is. We need to understand what love is. You know, if there is one word or one doctrine that is completely mischaracterized today not only in the world but even in the church, it is the word love.
Love is not sex, ladies and gentlemen. Sex was designed to be a product of love, when love operates as God designed it to be. But love is not sex. When the Beatles sang “All you need is love…” they were really talking about sex. The culture has so corrupted the true meaning of love that it is hardly a word that has any spiritual significance today. That’s why in the Greek there were four words for love. John uses agape, meaning sacrificial love. There was another word eros, which corresponded to erotic love. God’s love is agape, which is the love we are to have for one another.
I think it’s also disingenuous to substitute the name of God with love. John will go on to say that God is love, but what he means is that love is a characteristic of God. But God is not love in that it is the only characteristic of God. Love is held in tension with all the other characteristics of God’s nature, such as holiness, righteousness, truth and justice. God is almighty, all knowing, all powerful, omnipotent, omnipresent. He is life, He is light, He is the source of all things, and the means by which all things hold together. God said to Moses that His name was “I AM THAT I AM.” To reduce the name of God to a single emotion which we’ve dumbed down to it’s lowest common denominator is practically sacrilege.
This thing the world calls love, this emotional, sentimental, affection for someone or something that causes us to desire it, is a bastardization of what God calls love. God says here is love; to lay down your life on behalf of someone else. It’s sacrificial, total selflessness, a willingness to give up everything that we hold dear for the sake of a brother. Love is being a living sacrifice to serve others, which is our spiritual service of worship to God.
Now then, if hatred is the moral equivalent of murder, then love is the moral imperative of the child of God. John says, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Ought is a moral imperative. Love is a commandment. Jesus said “if you love Me you will keep My commandments.” For a believer, love is a command.
So how does love look on a practical level? John says love gives freely. “But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.”
There used to be another song on the radio which had the line, “It’s so easy to fall in love.” It may be easy to fall into bed with someone, but it’s another thing to sacrifice my priorities for the sake of what’s best for someone else. It’s so easy to say I love you. But it’s another thing to actually love someone the way God loved us. It’s another thing to sacrifice your will for someone else. It’s so easy to say I love God. But it’s another thing to obey God’s commandments. But He says if you love me, you will keep my commandments.
John says don’t just give lip service to God. He is saying that true believers don’t just give lip service to God. I think a lot of people come to church on Sunday and sing “O how I love Jesus,” and then Monday through Saturday they live for the devil. They live for the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life. John says don’t just say you love, but do the deeds of love. We are to be known not by our words, but by our deeds.
What John is sort of reiterating here is the principle that by their fruit you shall know them. The life that has been born of God will be a life that is manifested by a love for the brethren. The life that is still in their sins, that is still in the bonds of the evil one, will be manifested by hatred, indifference, selfishness.
The crux of the matter is this, that our human nature is inherently sinful. Our human nature is inherently selfish. Watch two little children play together and no matter how many toys they have scattered all around the room, sooner or later they will end up in a tug of war over one of them. One of the first words a child learns is “Mine.” Selfishness and hatred is a natural attribute and we are naturally inclined to sin against God. We are naturally sinners, naturally rebels towards God.
But the love of God for us was manifested in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, that we might be forgiven of our sins and be given life through His death on our behalf. If you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We can be born again as a child of God through faith in what Jesus has accomplished for us at the cross. We can receive a new nature, the same nature that God has, by becoming a child of God. I urge you today to accept and believe in the death of Jesus Christ as the payment for your sins, and in His resurrection as the means of life in Him, that you might be born spiritually as a child of God. I pray that you will have the love of God completed in you today, as you turn to Him in faith.
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