2002-01-01
Today’s passage for us to inspect is 1JN 3: 11-18 which deals with God’s assertion through the author of this little book that we should love one another. Let’s look at it in sections. 1JN 3: 11-12, “The message you heard from the very beginning is this: we must love one another. We must not be like Cain; he belonged to the evil one and murdered his own brother Abel. Why did Cain murder him? Because the things he himself did were wrong, and the things his brother did were right.” Please read GN 4: 1-16 to refresh yourself on the facts of this story. Abel was a shepherd, and Cain was a farmer. When it was time to make an offering to God, Abel offered the best parts of the slain first lamb born to his sheep. Cain brought some of his harvest. To appreciate why Abel’s offering was acceptable and Cain’s wasn’t, one needs to look at two issues: the need for blood to be poured for forgiveness and the foreshadowing of another Lamb slain. LV 17: 11, “The life of every living thing is in the blood, and that is why the lord has commanded that all blood be poured out on the altar to take away the people’s sin. Blood, which is life, takes away sins.” HE 9: 22, “Indeed, according to the Law almost everything is purified by blood, and sins are forgiven only if blood is poured out.” Cain’s offering was the work of his hands in which no blood was poured. That is why God deemed it unacceptable. The problem raised in this section of our 1JN passage is Cain’s reaction when he was told his offering wasn’t acceptable. His reaction was jealousy and evil willingness to kill his brother. Those are traits of one who belongs to the evil one. 1JN 3: 13-15, “So do not be surprised, my brothers, if the people of the world hate you. We know that we have left death and come over into life; we know it because we love our brothers. Whoever does not love is still under the power of death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that a murderer does not have eternal life in him. This is how we know what love is: Christ gave His life for us. We too, then, ought to give our lives for our brothers!” When Christ called his disciples for the first time, He warned them of coming persecution. MT 10: 16, “Listen! I am sending you out just like sheep to a pack of wolves. You must be as cautious as snakes and as gentle as doves.” I mention this, because it applies to anyone who becomes a disciple of Christ. That is because the adversary still holds dominion over the world in our time. Eventually, Christ will wrest it back from him, but that is in our future. That is no reason to falter in one’s faith, but it is a reality with which believers must cope. Our loving Abba knows this and equips us to handle it. RO 6: 23 tells us “the wages of sin is death.” That is clearly what happens to those who belong to the evil one. People who belong to him lack a conscience, so they don’t value human life. Hate and murder are behaviors acceptable to them and used by them to carry out the evil one’s agenda. People like Cain, Adolph Hitler, Charles Manson, Dylan Kliebold, Eric Harris, Kip Kinkle, and the young man who recently murdered his own mother and then tried to burn down their home to cover up his crime fall into this category. True believers are described by Christ in JN 5: 24, “I am telling you the truth: whoever hears My words and believes in Him Who sent Me has eternal life. He will not be judged, but has already passed from death to life.” The final separation between the sheep and goats discussed in MT 25: 31-33 is foreshadowed. 1JN 3: 16-18, “This is how we know what love is: Christ gave His life for us. We too, then, ought to give our lives for our brothers! If a rich person sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against his brother, how can he claim that he loves God? My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action.” Three citations come to mind which illuminate this passage. JN 10: 14-15, [Christ speaking] “I am the Good Shepherd. As the Father knows Me and I know the Father, in the same way I know My sheep and they know Me. And I am willing to die for them.” JAS 2: 17, “So it is with faith: if it is alone and includes no actions, then it is dead.” A question that has been debated for a long time is, “are we our brother’s keepers?” If one is to accept the message of the Bible, then the answer is clearly “yes.” EPH 2: 8-10, “For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift, so that no one can boast about it. God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus He has created us for a life of good deeds, which He has already prepared for us to do.” It should be noted that these messages come from John, James, and Paul-three different writers who are inspired by God to send them. They demonstrate the utter consistency of the Scriptures, a consistency that can only come from the God’s truth. Having looked at this entire passage, we need to ask ourselves, “how does this relate to our own personal lives?” No one can answer this question for another person. I can testify to the transformation in how I view and act on my relationships with others in my life that has taken place when I accepted Christ as the Lord of my life. Before then, I was self-centered and bought in to the artificial ranking that a worldly society assigns to people. Afterward, the Lord brought me to brokenness on these issues and showed me that serving others brings a far better quality of life. I realized that judging people’s worth by their occupations, how much money they made, or how much education they had was fallacious and sinful. When Christ makes us “a new creation,” He really means business. We are changed to something very different than the world had made us. While I was at university, I lived in a dorm and ate in a campus cafeteria. Every day, an elderly black man dressed in his janitor’s uniform would come in at the same time. He came over to my table one day and sat down. “You look kinda lonely sitting here each day,” he said. “I guess I am,” I replied. And then, this man said something that has changed the entire course of my life. “Young lady, you need a little more God in your life.” What great wisdom from this most unexpected source! God loves us and He sends people into our lives from time to time to help us do what I call a “mid-course correction.” It is my hope that I will always have the willingness to listen when God speaks. PRAYER: O Lord, You have asked us to go against our basic nature and to love one another. This message is not only wise advise, but it underpins the transformation that You want as many people to experience as who will listen to You. It is the transformation from death to life. When we approach others with love, we greatly increase our chances of engaging in faith-building. We can recognize You working through others, even those who we previously thought of as lowly and unimportant. When we stop being selfish and learn the joy in serving others, our lives are greatly improved. We have a purpose in them that goes beyond the grave. You want us to spend time with You, praying and studying the Scriptures, so that we will have the discernment to recognize who belongs to the adversary and who belongs to You. Because You love us as much as You do, enough to sacrifice Your only begotten Son so that we might have eternal life, You have called us to faith and to encourage faith in others. You give those lessons You deem important to more than one of Your prophets and apostles, so that by repeating them we will take note of them and act on them. You bless us this way and guide us toward being ready for the Day of the Lord. We praise, thank, adore, worship, honor, glorify, and magnify You. In Christ’s name, amen. 1JN 3: 19-24 deals with courage before God. That will be our subject in tomorrow’s message. Until then, Dear Ones, focus on the love that our Lord has for us all. Be encouraged in your faith, knowing that by acting on it, we can please God and serve others. Join me in attempting to improve our listening skills for when God speaks to us. Rest in the knowledge that our Lord’s will for us is always righteous and in our best interests. Take joy that in loving one another, we can enjoy a better quality of life and faith. Peter and I send you our love too. Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn