Introduction:
A. “Love, love, love, love, the Gospel in one word is love.”
1. It’s not only a catchy little song, it is the truth.
2. And that sums it up so well, doesn’t it?
B. The Beatles released the hit song “All You Need Is Love” in July of 1967.
1. And even though we all know that “all you need is love,” love isn’t as easy as it sounds.
2. In the book, “Children’s Letters to God: The New Collection”, a little girl named, Nan, writes this letter: “Dear God, I bet it is very hard for you to love all of everybody in the whole world. There are only four people in our family and I have trouble loving them!”
3. Here are some other statements from an article called, “What Is Love—From a Kid’s Point of View.” So, What is love, from a kid’s point of view?
a. "When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love."
b. "When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You know that your name is safe in their mouth."
c. "Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is okay."
d. "Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."
e. "Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."
f. "Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."
g. "You really shouldn’t say ’I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."
C. As I have already said in this series, the apostle John makes two proclamations about God.
1. First, he declares that God is Light.
2. Second, he declares that God is Love.
3. Because God is light and God is love, we, his children, must walk in the light and in love.
D. I’ve pointed out previously, that the letter of 1 John divides quite naturally into two parts.
1. The first half of the letter is from 1 John 1:5-3:10, and the second half, therefore, picks up with 3:11 and continues through the end of the letter.
2. If you will notice, both sections begin with the phrase “This is the message…”
3. 1 John 1:5, “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”
4. 1 John 3:11, “This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.”
5. In section one of the letter, John has warned us against the false teachers who had disrupted the peace and unity of the body with their reinterpretation of Christ and holy living.
a. John stressed that God is light and that the church must be a place of light as God’s people walk in the light and hold to the truth.
6. In the second section that we begin today, John is going to be focusing on the quality of the fellowship of God’s people, and so John’s message will be about our need to love one another.
a. The work of the false teachers has injured the life of the body of Christ, and John takes pains to rebuild that life.
7. The two halves of this letter underscore the sort of balance that always validates the church.
a. It is a balance between sound doctrine and holy living. Light and Love.
E. John follows a very simple outline in this section.
1. He first of all gives us a negative example of how not to treat each other in the body, and then he gives us a very positive one; mater of fact, a perfect one.
2. This is a common strategy of good teachers – before explaining what something should look like, you first give an example of what it shouldn’t look like.
I. The Tragic (But all too familiar) Example of Cain (3:11-15)
A. The story of Cain and Abel is found in Genesis 4:1-16.
1. It is the first story that occurs outside of the garden of Eden.
2. Interestingly, it is John’s only allusion to the Old Testament in this letter.
B. As you know, Adam and Eve were expelled from paradise with their new found ability to know the difference between good and evil.
1. We assume that their first children, Cain and Abel, had the same ability.
2. The older son, Cain, grew up to be a farmer, which is a perfectly honorable occupation.
3. And the younger son, Abel, grew up to be a rancher; and his is also a perfectly honorable occupation.
4. They both somehow knew to bring God sacrifices from the fruit of their labor.
5. The Bible says that, “In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.” (Gen. 4:3-5)
C. Because the Scriptures don’t explain why the Lord looked with favor on Abel’s offering, but not on Cain’s, we must not spend much time in speculation.
1. The truly important point is not why Cain’s sacrifice wasn’t acceptable, but what Cain did in response to his failure.
2. The Scriptures make it clear that Cain could have made things right with God, verses 6 and 7 say, “Then the LORD said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.’” (Gen. 4:6-7)
3. Rather than taking responsibility for himself, Cain chose to blame his problems on somebody else – his brother.
4. He then took out his anger, which really was toward himself and his own choices, on his perceived “competition”; his brother.
5. His anger turned to hatred and resulted in murder. He killed his brother.
6. So, in the end, it wasn’t his failure in worship that was his downfall. It was his failure to “master” or conquer the crouching lion of resentment, hatred and violence.
D. John’s interest in the Cain story is in how the brothers were destroyed because of anger fueled by religion.
1. John himself was facing a religious struggle, a struggle for spiritual power and there were religious casualties as a result of this struggle.
2. Cain met his challenge with brutality – the word used for murder in verse 12 actually means “butchered” and occurs frequently in a sacrificial context in the Greek version of the OT.
3. And so in some convoluted way, in Cain’s mind, he butchered his brother for religious reasons.
E. As we think about how John was attempting to apply this to the circumstances they were experiencing, it is not too difficult for us to imagine how this might apply to our time and our circumstances.
1. How often have we witnessed the wonder of Christianity dashed as religion itself is used as a weapon?
2. We’ve all likely seen times and places when the church becomes a battleground.
3. People can fight over things like the color of the carpet or the times of the worship services.
4. People can jockey for position and power.
5. Words can be uttered to injure and destroy.
6. And all might be done in the name of religion, or spirituality, but it is done without concern for the casualties.
7. That’s what was happening in John’s time as the false teachers, the secessionists, did their work.
F. But, John was concerned about the wounded on the sidelines.
1. He knew that the fragmentation of the body ends up fragmenting individual lives.
2. There are many men, women and children who suffer grave doubt and debilitating disillusionment because of conflict.
3. People like Abel can, and are, still being “butchered” in the Christian community when love does not reign.
4. Therefore, we must work hard to maintain love, peace and unity.
5. We must shore up weakened souls, and strengthen waning spirits that are under siege and being fragmented.
G. We must not be like Cain, but we must not be surprised when our opponents, in the world or in the church, act like Cain.
1. John reminds us, “Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.” (vs. 13)
2. An evil man will instinctively hate a good man.
3. Righteousness always provokes hostility in the minds of those whose actions are evil.
4. The reason is that the good man is a walking rebuke to the evil man, even if he never speaks a word to him, his life passes a silent judgment on him.
5. So, we should not be surprised.
6. Cain provides us a negative example, now let’s turn to the positive one.
II. The Perfect Example of Jesus ( 3:16-18)
A. If Cain was truly self-centered, then Jesus was completely other-centered.
1. John writes, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (3:16-18)
2. Here we are called upon to lay down our lives for others, just as Christ laid down his life for us.
3. Our expression of love should be motivated and empowered by the sacrificial love that we have already received.
B. Lance Armstrong won an unprecedented seven consecutive Tour de Frances.
1. During his fifth consecutive victory in the 2003 Tour de France, in the fifteenth stage of the competition, he took a severe tumble off his bike.
2. It occurred when a race fan was leaning over the course barrier to get a better view, and a plastic bag in that person’s hand snagged Armstrong’s handlebars.
3. He went sprawling onto the street.
4. His closest competitor at the time was Jan Ullrich – only 15 seconds behind.
5. This was Ullrich’s perfect chance to take the lead.
6. But Ullrich did something non-cyclists would have trouble understanding.
7. He stopped and halted the competition while Armstrong got to his feet, checked his bike, and began peddling.
8. At the end of that stage, Armstrong had extended his lead to 67 seconds.
9. What you need to know is that waiting for a fallen competitor is not a rule in bicycle racing.
10. It is, however, part of an unwritten code of etiquette that cyclists observe.
11. Perhaps one thing that caused Ullrich to honor that code is the fact that two years earlier in the 2001 Tour de France, it was he who had suffered a bad crash on the thirteenth stage of the race.
12. At that time, it was Lance Armstrong who stopped the race, and waited while Ullrich recovered and remounted his bike.
13. With that illustration in mind, we should extend sacrificial love to others, because Jesus has already extended it to us.
C. This laying down of our lives will not likely literally mean a physical death for each other.
1. It will more likely include the “putting down” or “putting aside” our lives for others.]
2. It will mean the setting aside of our will, our needs, or our desire to control, dominate or win.
3. It will mean putting our selves into service and using ourselves up for others.
4. It is truly love in action.
D. John also challenges us with an expression of love that truly comes from the heart.
1. Verse 17 reads, “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?”
2. The word translated “pity” has some interesting connotations.
3. One commentator said this about this Greek word, “It’s really interesting that the translators must have been feeling very civilized at the time this was translated because what it really means is “innards.”…Maybe the New Testament people didn’t know too much about physiology but they sure did know a lot about people and where you feel it when you feel it. When you have had your feelings hurt, where does it hurt? And when you are heavy-hearted where does the weight rest? Not in your heart but in your splangknas – that’s where. When there is tension and misunderstanding in your home or at work, where does the dull heaviness rest? In your innards – that’s where. Now here is the awesome and wonderful thing about all this. If we see our brother in need, yet close up our insides against him – if it doesn’t get to us, if we keep aloof and cool and untouched and uninvolved, if it doesn’t get to us to tear up our indigestion at all – if we don’t feel it where we really feel things – then listen to this now – how does God’s love abide in us? Is John saying that the love of God is to be identified with the kind of love we feel in our innards? Yes, he’s saying that if you don’t feel it there then how does God’s love abide in you?” (Reuben Welch, We Really Do Need Each Other, p. 75)
4. In other words, it’s not love if we do not feel the pain of others in such a way that we are motivated to action.
5. Love that fails to take the form of action on behalf of others is nothing more than religious rhetoric.
6. If we are not very careful, we will find ways to avoid the command to love, right?
E. Here’s where I want to issue a practical challenge – The gospel in one word really is love.
1. We must not love with words or tongue only, but with actions and in truth.
2. We must be more than just a friendly church, we must be a loving church.
3. It’s easy to come together, and act like we care for each other, but what happens when we leave this place and go home?
4. Do we continue to care? John would say, “if you do, then show it!”
F. Let’s be looking for practical ways to put our love into action this week.
1. Let’s lay down our right to have our own way for the sake of others.
2. Let’s seek ways to mend relationships through humility and forgiveness. That’s love in action!
3. Let’s look for some way to invest ourselves in someone who is hurting or in trouble. That investment may be time, kindness or money.
4. Let’s look for some way to bless someone by serving them– someone here in the congregation, someone in the workplace or your neighborhood.
5. What does love look like in a practical way? Love is…giving rides, making meals, cleaning houses, fixing sinks. Love is making a call and listening. Love is writing notes and making visits. Love is giving money or spending time teaching. Love is a verb.
6. If we will pray and watch, God will show us creative ways to love – not in word or speech, but in truth and action.
7. The gospel in one word is love.
(Resources: The NIV Application Commentary, by Gary Burge;
Rubel Shelly, “The Gospel In One Word Is Love”)
