1 John

Listen Carefully.

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They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. – 1 John 4:5-6 ESV

1 John 4:1-6

John made a fairly bold claim when he wrote, “We are from God.” He was telling his readers that he could be trusted because what he wrote, he had received directly from God. He was making it up. It wasn’t his opinion or his fading recollections of how things had happened. John had received his message directly from the Spirit of God, just as Jesus had promised. “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative–that is, the Holy Spirit–he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you” (John 14:26 NLT). John had special help and assistance. So did Paul and the other writers of the Old and New Testaments. Paul made a similar claim when he wrote the church in Corinth, “When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths” (1 Corinthians 2:13 NLT). Paul and John both believed that what they were writing, teaching, and proclaiming was the very Word of God. Paul reminded Timothy, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV). And Paul was not just referring to the Old Testament. The authors of what would become the New Testament believed what they were writing was from God. Peter said this of Paul, “just as also our dear brother Paul wrote to you, according to the wisdom given to him, speaking of these things in all his letters. Some things in these letters are hard to understand, things the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they also do to the rest of the scriptures” (2 Peter 1:15-16 NET). These men were penning the words of God. They were prophets acting on behalf of God. Listen to what Peter claimed:

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son,i with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. – 2 Peter 1:16-21 ESV

Peter was confident that what he wrote was from God, given to him by the Holy Spirit. So what they taught concerning Jesus was God’s words, not their own. That is why they were so adamant that their readers, those who believed in Jesus, not be deceived by any other messengers who might teach a different Jesus, a different gospel, or a different Spirit. Paul and the other New Testament authors wrote under the divine influence of the Spirit of God. They were not just motivational speakers coming up with their own version of the truth or their own take on spiritual life. Paul wrote, “And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:4 NLT). He claimed, “When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths” (1 Corinthians 2:!4 NLT). The things of God are impossible for the non-spiritual to discern or understand. “But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means” (1 Corinthians 2:14 NLT). But they can understand the things of the world. The non-spiritual, those who do not know Christ, are susceptible and receptive to falsehood, because they don’t know any better. But believers have the Holy Spirit, who helps us discern the difference between truth and fiction, the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. But we must learn to listen carefully to what He is saying. We must spend time in the Word of God in order that the Spirit of God can educate us and equip us for life in this sometimes very confusing world. We have the truth, as revealed in the Word of God. We have the ability to understand God’s Word because we have God’s Spirit. And we have the promise that “the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world” (1 John 4:4 NLT). 

Holy Help.

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Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. – 1 John 4:4 ESV

1 John 4:1-6

Not everyone who claims to speak or write on behalf of God has been sent by God. But how are we to know the difference? When you walk into a Christian bookstore and see the shelves lined with titles that all claim to be written from a Christian perspective and worthy of not only your time, but your money, can you trust them to be trustworthy? John gives us the litmus test: Find out what they say about Jesus. In other words, check their message. Do they confess Jesus as the Son of God and the Savior of the world? That’s the foundational test. But beyond that, is their message consistent with Scripture? To discover that, you will have to know the Scriptures. And you will have to be discerning, because false prophets do not usually deny Jesus. They simply do not confess Jesus. The danger is much more subtle. They may teach a slightly different Jesus. They may portray a redefined version of Jesus. But is their message consistent with the Scriptures? Is the Jesus they present the same one the apostles confessed? Has their Jesus been “modernized” to bring Him up to speed with current events and our culture’s changing views? Is the version  of Jesus they paint of a more tolerant, loving, totally accepting, non-condemning Jesus? Or is He the Jesus that loved sinners and said to the woman caught in the act of adultery, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more” (John 8:11 ESV). The problem today with many who claim to be speaking on behalf of God is that they want their Jesus to be accepting of both the sinner and the sin. They want a version of Jesus that is tolerant and totally accepting. And He is. But they forget that “he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5 ESV). “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8 ESV). When we start redefining Jesus and His message, we are on shaky ground. And when we start accepting the teachings of those who would portray a slightly different Jesus than the one the Scriptures reveal, we are venturing into dangerous territory. So what are we to do?

John would have us remember that we have help. Jesus has left us a helper, the Holy Spirit, who lives within us and lives to assist us and empower us as we make our way through this life. John tells us, “the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world” (1 John 4:4 NLT). Because we have the Spirit’s help, we can overcome all the false teachers and confusing doctrine that is being spewed out all around us. The Greek word John uses that is translated “overcome” is nikaō, and it can mean “to carry off the victory.” When referring to Christians, it typically means that they are those who ”hold fast their faith even unto death against the power of their foes.” And the Spirit is the one who helps us do just that. We have to rely on Him to help us spot falsehood. He alone can help us discern fact from fiction. But here is the point many of us miss. He will not do it apart from the Word of God. Dr. Thomas Constable puts it this way: “We overcome Satan, his agents, and his influence as we resist his temptations to doubt, deny, disregard, and disobey the Word of God.” But we overcome only with the help of the Spirit. But it is so important for us to remember that He will use the Word of God as the means by which we evaluate and test what is being taught. It is far more easy for us to doubt, deny, disregard and disobey the Word of God when we don’t know the Word of God. It is far more likely that we will give into false teaching when we don’t know what the true teaching of Scripture is. The Holy Spirit helps us understand Scripture. But if we spend no time in the Word, we make it impossible for the Spirit to teach us, convict us, equip us or comfort us through the Word. Paul reminded Timothy, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right” (2 Timothy 3:16 NLT). Jesus promised us, “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative–that is, the Holy Spirit–he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you” (John  14:26 NLT). So we have everything we need to withstand the assault of the enemy that comes in the form of false teaching, deceptive doctrine, and tempting half-truths. We have holy help, in the form of God’s Spirit and God’s Word. So we can overcome.

Spiritual White Noise.

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Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. – 1 John 4:1 ESV

1 John 4:1-6

What’s right and what’s wrong? Who’s telling the truth and who’s lying? How do I know who to trust? There are so many people saying so many different things, how can I tell who I should listen to? Let’s face it, we live in an age of confusion. There are so many voices shouting so many different messages and sharing so many different opinions, that it is hard to filter out the fact from the fiction, the heresy from the hearsay. Even the shelves in Christian bookstores are filled with an ever-growing selection of so-called religious titles on everything from finance to family devotionals, and losing weight to increasing your joy. Even the TV is filled with Christian broadcasters doling out an eclectic and ecclesiasticly confusing wave of “spiritual” messages for the masses. It can all become a bit overwhelming. And the same thing was true in John’s day. Which is a big part of the reason he wrote his letter in the first place. He was addressing a group of believers in the local church in Ephesus who had recently experienced a divorce of sorts. A contingent of their brothers and sisters had left their fellowship over a disagreement over doctrine. There had been a not-so-amicable parting of the ways. One group had begun espousing a different message and teaching a variant form of truth. But there was enough common language and similarities to make it confusing for those who had been left behind. They were probably wondering, “What if they’re right and we’re wrong?” Some of what their former friends had been saying probably sounded reasonable and even attractive to them. They were most likely  asking themselves, “How can we be so sure of ourselves?”

The danger they faced was allowing their confusion to turn to compromise. Their lack of confidence in what they believed could be easily taken advantage of by anyone with a slightly different take on the facts. And we run the same danger today. There is no shortage of individuals espousing their opinions about all things spiritual. Which is why we have to be careful. John indicated that there is “the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:6 ESV) and we have to be able to know the difference. So he provided us with a very simple test. “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God” (1 John 4:2-3 ESV). This is the foundational requirement for determining truth. What do they believe about Jesus? Notice it is not whether they believe in Jesus, but what do they believe about Jesus. Do they believe He is the Son of God? Do they believe He was God in human flesh? Do they believe He was the Christ, the Messiah, sent from God to pay for the sins of mankind? There are many who use the name of Jesus and even write books about Jesus, but who refuse His deity and deny His role as Savior. Sometimes their messages are subtle and difficult to discern. They use familiar phrases and similar terminology to ours. They speak of Jesus in glowing terms and talk of the spiritual life in terms that cause us to let down our guard. But John called them false prophets. They claim to speak for God, but what they are saying is not from God. Which is why he said, “do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1 ESV). Test them. Put what they are saying up against the Word of God. Start with what they say about Jesus. Make sure they are confessing the same Jesus the apostles taught, the Holy Spirit confirms and the Bible reveals. Not every Christian book is Christ-centered. Not every Christian teacher is speaking on behalf of God. John warns us, “They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them” ( 1John 4:5 ESV). Which is why their books may sell in record numbers. It explains why many of these authors and speaks are so popular. Paul warned Timothy that this was going to happen. “For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3 NLT). Everybody wants to have their best life now, so if you write a book that tells you exactly how to have it, you’ll have a best-seller on your hands. Everybody wants to be better, to improve their lives, so if you can tell them how God exists to make that happen, you’ll be on the lecture circuit before you can say, “Become a better you!” But we need to test the spirits. We need to determine what they believe about Jesus. The spirit of the antichrist is all around us. And it is not always blatantly anti-Christ. It appears in subtle, beguiling forms as half-truths and slight variations on what God has said. Like the serpent in the garden, the enemy continues to say, “Surely God has not said.” Then he gives us his version of the truth. Close, but deadly wrong. But John reminds us, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4 ESV). We are the children of God. We have the Spirit of God. We must constantly return to the truth of God as revealed in the Word of God. We must not allow ourselves to be misled, misinformed or misdirected as we make our way through this life. Christ must remain our focus.

That’s the Spirit!

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By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. – 1 John 4:2-3 ESV

1 John 4:1-6

That’s the Spirit. Or is it? Eight times in these six verses, John uses the Greek word, pneuma. And like a lot of Greek words, this one has a variety of meanings. It can refer to a breeze or movement of air; the soul of a man; the source of any power, affection, emotion, or desire; or it can be used when talking about the Spirit of God. The definition is established by the immediate context, including the words around it. But not only do we need to determine which pneuma John is referring to, he wants us to know how to figure out the difference between the Spirit of God and the spirit of the antichrist.

Not only does John repeatedly use the word, pneuma, he keeps bringing up the topic of confession. He does so in a variety of way, referring to prophets, hearing, speaking, confessing, and listening. In other words, John puts a high priority in these verses on communication. Prophets, by definition, were to speak on behalf of God. They were to be His mouthpieces, declaring the words of God to the people of God. When they spoke, the did so on His behalf. But John also puts a lot of responsibility on those who hear. They weren’t just supposed to listen, but they were to be discerning. Why? Because not every pneuma or spirit is from God. Not every influence or power that appears to be spiritual is from God. The Old Testament had some clear indicators as to whether a prophet was speaking truth or not. You couldn’t just go by what he said or did. You had to dig deeper and look at the root of his message. God gave the people of Israel the following standard:

“Suppose there are prophets among you or those who dream dreams about the future, and they promise you signs or miracles, and the predicted signs or miracles occur. If they then say, ‘Come, let us worship other gods’—gods you have not known before— do not listen to them. The Lord your God is testing you to see if you truly love him with all your heart and soul. Serve only the Lord your God and fear him alone. Obey his commands, listen to his voice, and cling to him. The false prophets or visionaries who try to lead you astray must be put to death, for they encourage rebellion against the Lord your God, who redeemed you from slavery and brought you out of the land of Egypt. Since they try to lead you astray from the way the Lord your God commanded you to live, you must put them to death. In this way you will purge the evil from among you.” – Deuteronomy 13:1-5 NLT

If they dreamed dreams and talked about signs and wonders, but encouraged the people of God to worship false gods, they were false prophets. And the penalty for their deception was death. Pretty serious stuff. In the book of 1 John, the apostle gives a similar warning to test the spirits or spokesmen declaring to be representing God. And the criteria for the test was simple: What do they say about Jesus? Do they confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? Was He the Son of God? Was He the Savior of the world? “Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist” (1 John 4:3 ESV). It is the lie of Satan. People can claim to have the truth, know the truth, and speak the truth. They can claim to speak for God. But if they do not confess Jesus as the Son of God, sent by God to pay for the sins of man, they are not of God. They are from the world, John says. Not only that, they speak from the world, and the rest of the world listens to what they have to say. But John made it clear that he and the other apostles were from God. They spoke on behalf of God, because they confessed the same Jesus that God confessed. And they spoke to those who were also from God. The children of God recognize the voice of God. Over in his gospel, John recorded an incident that occurred in the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus found Himself surrounded by a crowd who demanded, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly” (John 10:24 NLT). Jesus responded, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father’s name. But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one” (John 10:25-30 NLT). John follows this up in his letter with the declaration, “greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4 NLT). We have the Spirit of God within us. We have the power of God available to us. We have the truth of God made known to us. All because we believe and confess that Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and the sole reason we have a right relationship with God the Father. And anybody who teaches anything else is dead wrong.

Kids In A Candy Store?

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Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. – 1 John 3:21-22 ESV

1 John 3:11-24

The two verses above sound almost too good to be true. They appear to be giving us some kind of divine carte blanche, providing us with a blank check from God to get whatever we want from Him. All we have to do is ask. Of course, there does appear to be some fine print attached to this too-good-to-be-true promise. John seems to indicate that we have to keep God’s commandments and do what pleases Him. The condition is that I have to live obediently and keep God happy, THEN I can get whatever I want from Him. That explains everything. The reason I don’t get all that I ask for from God is because I fail to measure up. Or is it? Is John saying my behavior is the key to getting what I want from God? A little bit later on, in chapter five, John brings up this matter again. “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15 ESV). Did you catch the condition John placed in these verses? “If we ask anything according to his will.” Ah, now it’s all starting to make sense. I just have to figure out what God’s will is, then I can get what I want from Him. But wait a minute. Think about that last statement. God’s will and my desires are, in most cases, not one in the same. What I want and what God wants are not necessarily compatible. In fact, I would say that in most cases, our desires and God’s will are naturally and normally incompatible and at odds with one another. Paul reminds us, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:17 ESV). We have a sin nature, and it is diametrically opposed to the will of God. It has a mind of its own. Its desires are contrary to the desires of God. Earlier in his letter, John warned us about three things that are constantly wreaking havoc in our lives: the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life. The New Living Translation describes them in plain language we can understand – “a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions.” So what I want is not always what God wants. And what I ask Him for is not always within His will.

So what is John trying to tell us? What is he teaching us about prayer that we need to know? First of all, he is NOT telling us that we can get whatever we want from God. God is not some kind of a cosmic genie required to grant our every wish. He is holy and righteous. He is sovereign and all-knowing. He is all-powerful and, while He is fully capable of giving us whatever we ask for, He is too loving to do so. He is our heavenly Father and is not going to give in to our every whim and sinful desire. God loves us too much to cater to us. Jesus had this to say about the Father: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11 ESV). But the key seems to be what we ask for must be within His will. So how do we know God’s will? And how do we live obediently, doing what pleases Him? Those things seem to create conditions that make getting what we ask for from God impossible or at least, highly unlikely. As always, context is critical. John has gone out of his way to establish the non-negotiable necessity of abiding in Christ. Jesus Himself established it as the key to fruitfulness. “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 ESV). Abiding is the key to the behavior that is pleasing to God. God desires fruitfulness. Abiding in Christ makes it possible. But abiding also provides us with an intimate relationship with the Son and the Father that allows us to better know what their will is for us. As we abide, remaining dependent upon and energized by God, we discover what it is that He wants. We learn His will. And we begin to want what He wants. Our desires come in line with His desires. We become less and less driven by cravings for physical pleasure, cravings for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. So what we ask God for becomes increasingly more what He wants and less what we desire. Rather than ask for things that would simply make us happy, we begin to seek those things that would make us holy. Instead of simply asking God to remove the difficulties in our life, we learn to ask Him to use them to make us more like His Son. We begin to ask within His will. Our requests begin to fall in line with what God desires, not what we desire. As we abide in Christ, our hearts are slowly changed to reflect the will of God. So what we ask of Him, we receive. What we desire, He fulfills. Because our wills have come in line with His.

God Knows. Don’t Panic.

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Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything. – 1 John 3:18-20 NLT

1 John 3:11-24

All John’s talk about sinning and unrighteousness, being of the evil one, and abiding in death could easily leave someone wondering if they were ever saved at all. After all, John makes it quite clear that Jesus “appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5 ESV). So the natural conclusion one might make is that if I have sin, I might not be saved. John even seems to confirm this conclusion when he says, “no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him” (1 John 3:6 ESV). This entire section of 1 John has caused many to question their salvation or at least begin to wonder if they could lose their salvation. Could the presence of sin in the life of a believer indicate a “falling away” or a loss of their “savedness?” John seemed to know that those to whom he was writing were going to struggle with the same issues. After all, there had just been an exodus from the body of believers on the part of some of their so-called brothers in Christ. These people had left the church over some major disagreements regarding the deity of Christ, the nature of sin and the truth regarding the gospel. So John was encouraging those who remained behind to remain or abide in Christ. He was telling them to keep believing in the message taught to them by the apostles and confirmed in them by the presence of the Holy Spirit. His letter was designed to build confidence in his audience, not instill doubt. Which is why he wrote, “And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink back from him in shame at his coming” (1 John 2:28 ESV). For John, abiding in Christ was the key to confidence. But it would be easy for us to draw the conclusion that our confidence lies in our ability to NOT sin. In other words, we somehow have to figure out a way to do MORE righteousness and LESS unrighteousness. We have to get rid of all of the sin in our life or we won’t measure up when the Lord returns. But this is not John’s message. He is not out to cause doubt, but to encourage confidence. Which is why he keeps driving his readers back to Christ. Abide in Christ. Remain in Him. Place your trust in what He has done, not what you are trying to do.

But John did expect life change. He did believe that there would be fruit in the lives of those who had placed their faith in Christ for salvation and remained fully trusting in Him for their sanctification. In fact, their love for one another was evidence of that life change. Only Christ could have brought that about. John’s argument seemed to be that those who had recently left the church were not of Christ because they did not love their brothers and sisters in Christ. They had walked away. They had left. And the inference seems to be that their departure was marked by hate. Which is why John warned, …We should not be like Cain” (1 John 3:12 ESV). Those who had left were more like Cain than Abel. They were marked by a love for the world, not the love of God. Their lives were loveless and marked by an abiding in death. In other words, they lived as if they had never passed from death into life. But John told those who remained to keep on loving one another, and to make it practical by caring for the everyday needs of those in their fellowship.

Then John deals with a very real issue for us as believers. Those times when we feel like we are not measuring up. When we aren’t loving enough, doing enough, sinning less enough. In verse 19 John writes, “by this we know” and when he does, he is referring to when we love in deed and in truth. In other words, when we our love shows up in practical acts that are in keeping with Jesus’ command to love as He loved, selflessly and sacrificially, “we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him” (1 John 3:19 ESV). I love the way the New Living Translation puts it. “Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.” The very fact that we love at all is proof that God is at work in us. His Spirit resides within us. So we can come before Him with confidence. The writer of Hebrews reminds us, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16 ESV). Even when our hearts condemn us and accuse us of not measuring up, of not loving enough, of not being good enough, John says, “God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:20 ESV). This isn’t a threat, but a word of encouragement. God knows. Don’t panic. We can come before Him confidently. Not because of what we have or have not done. But because of what Christ has done on our behalf. Remember, Jesus is our advocate, our mediator. He is our High Priest, who intercedes on our behalf before the Father. Enter His presence with boldness. He knows and He cares.

Love and Hate.

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For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. – 1 John 3:11 ESV

1 John 3:11-24

Love and hate. God and Satan. Dark and light. Faith and doubt. Belief and disbelief. Children of God and children of the devil. John paints a black and white portrait of life in this world. There are two systems at work and at war with one another. As children of God, we have been placed in the middle of an environment that is opposed to our very existence. The world, as a result of sin, is in rebellion against God. Many in the world reject that very existence of God. Others, unable to explain their own existence and desperate to find meaning for life, have concocted their own versions of God. But to make your own god is nothing short of the rejection of the one true God. The point that John seems to be trying to make is that those who have a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ are going to find this world a place of conflict and contrasts. The very fact that we are His children puts us at odds with those who refuse to accept Jesus as the Son of God and the only way to be restored to a right relationship with God. The result is that the world hates us. John confirms that reality. “Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you” (1 John 3:13 ESV). Jesus gave us a similar warning. “This is my command: Love each other. If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you” (John 15:17-19 NLT). “You will be hated by everyone because of me” (Matthew 10:22 NIV).

John used the example of Cain and Abel – two brothers who should have naturally loved one another – to drive home his message of contrasts. Cain brutally murdered his brother. His act was an outflow of his anger toward and hatred for Abel. But it stemmed from his disbelief in God. He lacked the capacity to love Abel because he was devoid of a love for God. Cain’s sacrifice was unacceptable to God because Cain lacked faith in God. “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain” (Hebrews 11:4 ESV). Abel was motivated by faith in God. He believed in God. “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6 ESV). John makes it clear a little bit later in his letter that God is love. “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8 ESV). Love is essence of God. But this is not some kind of sentimental, Hallmark-greeting-card kind of love. This is a selfless, sacrificial, lay-it-all-on-the-line kind of love that is not of this world. Without God, Cain couldn’t manufacture this kind of love. But this kind of love is what sets the children of God apart from one another. It was what caused the early church to stand out from the crowd and set it apart as distinctively different. In the book of Acts, we read of the early days of the church as thousands of people from all walks of life and a variety of ethnic backgrounds are coming to faith in Jesus. “And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need” (Acts 2:44-45 ESV). That day, there were people from all over the world who heard the good news regarding Jesus Christ. “Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians” (Acts 2:9-11 ESV). And many of them came to faith and became part of a unique organism called the body of Christ. At that point, they became one in Christ. Their ethnic, economic, cultural, and idealogical differences were overshadowed by the love of God. Paul described the believers in Galatia in similar terms. “For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26-28 NLT). 

Our adoption as sons and daughters by God have placed us all into one new family. God’s love for us manifests itself in a love for one another that is unique and distinctive. No longer is our love based on earthly standards. Our commonality and community is not based on ethnicity, language, economic status, country of origin or level of education. Our unity is based on our relationship with Jesus Christ. So Jews who love Jesus can love Arabs who love Jesus. Muslims who have come to know Jesus as their Savior can call Christians their brothers. Blacks and whites can love one another. Individuals who were once enemies can now worship together because of the transformative power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. “The way we know we’ve been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:14 NLT). Our capacity to love is our calling card. It is what sets us apart. And in this world, it is what sets us up for hatred. This world can’t comprehend that kind of love. It makes no sense. It sees it as a threat. It views it as a weakness. The enemy can’t stand it, because he knows its origin. It is of God. And anything of God is repulsive to him. But God is love and we are God’s children. Love is the greatest expression of our God-likeness. Which is why Paul wrote: “Three things will last forever–faith, hope, and love–and the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13 NLT).

A Matter of Death and Life.

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We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love 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 3:14-15 ESV

1 John 3:11-24

Life and death. These two ideas are just one more pair of contrasting topics that John has raised in his very short letter. But they are probably the most basic and fundamental ideas he has addressed so far. For John, death represents the fate of all those who have not believed in Jesus Christ or who believe in a different Christ than the one taught by the apostles. But not only is death their fate, it is their very existence at the time of his writing of this letter. They abide in death. The apostle Paul, comparing the first Adam with the second Adam, Jesus, wrote, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…” (Romans 5:12 ESV). In other words, the sin of Adam and Eve resulted in the sin of their offspring, as illustrated in Cain’s murder of his brother, Abel. And with the sin came the penalty of death. Sin and death became the norm for mankind. But with the arrival of Jesus, that all changed. We read in the gospel of Matthew, “the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined” (Matthew 4:16 NLT). The Light shone in the darkness. The Life appeared in the midst of death. The writer of Hebrews gives us a clear explanation of what Jesus’ arrival on the scene accomplished. “Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying” (Hebrews 2:14-15 NLT).

Because of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, we can have new life. By believing in who He claimed to be, the Son of God and the Savior of the world, we can move from darkness into the light and from the shadow of death to life. Our new life is God’s doing, and Paul reminds us that not all will understand or even like the change the see in us. “Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume” (2 Corinthians 2:15-16 NLT). Even John says, “Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you” (1 John 3:13 ESV). They can’t comprehend what has happened in our lives. Our transformation is a reminder to them of their own sad state. They hate the light and love the dark. Our very existence exposed the darkness of which they are so fond. They abide in death. We abide in life. The fruit of their lives is evident. The Message paraphrases Galatians 5:19-23 in this very stark way: “It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community.” Their lifestyle is open for all to see. But so is that of the one who lives in the light. Our fruit is different because we have the Spirit of God residing within us. “He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely” (Galatians 5:21-23 MSG).

Because we have passed out of death into life, we can and should live differently. Our behavior changes because our natures have changed. We are no longer of this world. We no longer abide in death. We have eternal life and that new life allows us to live and walk in the light as He is in the light. We become beacons of light in the midst of the darkness, shining forth the glory of God in a world that is trapped in death and living without hope. But as we live and shine, we will be hated. We will find ourselves despised, because our righteousness exposes their unrighteousness. Our joy reveals their despair. Our faith shines the light on their hopelessness. “For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true” (Ephesians 5:8-9 NLT).

The Cain Mutiny.

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We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. – 1 John 3:12 ESV

John has a tendency to use terms and images that portray striking opposites. He loves the use of contrasts. Darkness and light. Sin and righteousness. Lies and truth. Old and new. Love and hate. The temporal and the eternal. Death and life. Abiding and forsaking. Then right in the middle of chapter three, he uses what appears to be a contrast between two Old Testament figures, Cain and Abel. At first glance, this is a very perplexing and difficult to understand passage. Seemingly, out of the blue, John brings up an event that happened all the way back in the story of beginning of the earth, recorded in the book of Genesis. The context is Jesus’ command that we love one another. Then, all of the sudden, John tells us, “We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother” (1 John 3:12 ESV). That’s quite a contrast. John goes from talking about love to warning about murder. In the well-known story of Cain and Abel, Cain killed his own brother. But why? John says it was “because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous” (1 John 3:12 ESV). So is John saying that Cain killed Abel because Abel was a righteous person? Did he murder his brother out of some form of jealousy or resentment? That was probably the surface cause. But there is something far deeper going on in this story, and we need to go back and look at the actual event to get a better handle on what actually happened and in order to see why John is using this story as an object lesson about love. Back in Genesis 4, we read, “Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,  but for Cain and his offering he had no regard” (Genesis 4:3-5 ESV). Both brothers brought offerings to the Lord. There is no indication that God had indicated the type of offering that was to be given, so God’s rejection of Cain’s offering does not appear to be about what he brought. But it clearly says, “but for Cain and his offering he [God] had no regard.” The word “regard” in the Hebrew means “to look on with favor.” So when it says God had “no regard” for Cain, it means He did NOT look on him with favor. Cain’s offering was an extension of his heart. The offering was not the issue, Cain was. There was something wrong with Cain that caused God to reject him and his offering. You have to go all the way to Hebrews 11 to discover what was going on behind the scenes. There we read, “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” (Hebrews 11:4 ESV). Notice those two words, “by faith.” They are key to understanding the story and getting the point of John’s inclusion of this event in his discussion about love. The motivation behind Abel’s gift was faith. He believed in God. And his gift was directed at a God he had never seen. That is an important point. You have to remember that neither Cain or Abel had ever seen or heard God as their parents had. After the sin of Adam and Eve, they were banned from the garden and from God’s presence. Their sons had never seen Eden or had the joy of intimacy with God. What they knew about God they had been told by their parents. Both had heard the same stories, but it would appear that only Abel believed what he heard.

What is interesting is that the writer of Hebrews goes on to say, “without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6 ESV). Abel had faith and his offering was pleasing to God. Cain did not have faith and his offering was displeasing to God. Cain did not believe in God. When it says that Abel offered a “more acceptable sacrifice than Cain,” the word “acceptable” in the Hebrew refers to “greater in quantity, greater in quality.” But it was not the sacrifice that was the issue. It was Abel’s faith. His faith gave his sacrifice its value. His belief and trust in God was what made his sacrifice acceptable. And according the writer of Hebrews, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 ESV). Abel had faith in a God he had never seen. He had hope and assurance in God and gave his sacrifice out of love and gratitude. Verse 6 of chapter 11 of Hebrews says, “without faith it is impossible to please him,” but there is more, “for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Abel believed God existed. Cain did not. Oh, he gave a sacrifice, but it was not from the heart, and it was given in a spirit of doubt and disbelief. Interestingly, in early Jewish and Christian writings, Cain is used as a model for those who deliberately disbelieve in God. Cain lacked faith in God. Cain didn’t love God. He didn’t abide in God. Cain loved Cain. His inability to love God made it impossible for him to love his own brother. And John warns that we should not be like Cain. We need to abide in Christ. We need to remain dependent upon Him and believe that He exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Our faith in God will produce fruit. Our love for God will produce love for others. Cain didn’t love God. Cain loved Cain. And Cain was incapable of loving Abel. The lack of love is hate. Love is saying “No” to one’s own life so that others may live. The to key loving others is faith in God. It is when we believe in Him and know that He loves us that we will be able to love others more than we love ourselves.

Believe and Love.

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And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. – 1 John 3:23 ESV

Two simple things: Believe in Jesus and love one another. But oh, how difficult those two things can be to do. The first one seems so easy. In fact, all of us who have placed our faith in Christ as our Savior have already done it. We have already believed in Jesus. But there is a sense in which we must continue to believe in Jesus. The word “believe” that John uses is in the aorist tense. Typically, we end up translating aorist verbs as past tense, but in the Greek the concept of an aorist verb is considered without regard for past, present, or future time. We don’t have an equivalent tense in English. So in reality, our belief in Jesus is to be past, present and future. It is non-ending. One of the reasons John put so much emphasis on abiding in Christ is that it is the key to our fruitfulness and without abiding we can do nothing. “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5 ESV). To abide in Him is to believe in Him. We must continue to rely upon Him for our sanctification just as we did for our salvation. Without Christ, we cannot be fruitful. Without Christ, we cannot grow in Christ-likeness. Without Christ, we cannot love others. Without Christ, we cannot do anything.

Which brings us to the second simple statement we find so hard to do: Love one another. It would seem that our struggle with loving one another is directly linked to our unwillingness to believe in Christ. Yes, we believed in Him for our salvation, but we sometimes fail to believe in Him for all that follows after that. When Jesus said that He would send us the Holy Spirit, we must believe that what He said was true. We must believe the promise of Jesus even when we don’t feel the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives. We must also believe that the Holy Spirit is our helper, comforter and guide just as Jesus said He would be. We must believe that He, the Spirit, is the Spirit of truth just as Jesus said He would be. We must believe that the Holy Spirit will teach us “about everything, and is true, and is no lie” (1 John 2:27 ESV). Our capacity to love one another is not some self-manufactured, man-made kind of love we conjure up out of our own will power. It is a fruit of abiding in Christ and relying upon the Spirit of God. Believing and loving go hand in hand. We love because He first loved us. Without Christ, we will find it impossible to love others. In the very next chapter, John tells us, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God, and knows God” (1 John 4:7 ESV). Our capacity to love comes from the love of God for us. But we must believe that. We must rely upon that. We must understand that all of our righteous deeds, apart from Christ, are like filthy rags. Even on our best day, our best efforts don’t measure up. We are completely dependent upon Christ for all that we need to walk as He walked (1 John 1:6) and love like He loved ( John 15:12).

To believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ is to believe that Jesus is who God claimed Him to be. He is the Son of God. He is the Messiah, the Savior of the world. He is the sinless Lamb of God who died on the cross in order to satisfy the just demands of a righteous God. He is the risen Lord of lords. He is our advocate, our mediator, who sits at the right hand of God interceding on our behalf. He is our source of strength, hope, salvation, mercy, grace, and love each and every day of our lives. He is the vine and we are the branches. Without Him we can do nothing. We can’t live without Him. We can’t love without Him. But we must believe that. We must abide in that. We must remain totally dependent upon Him for all that we need, from our salvation all the way to our ultimate glorification, and everything in between.