All human beings like to feel as though they belong or fit in with others. Being different can be difficult and we may even find ourselves exiled or outcast from the group we thought we associated with so easily. The world around us today is all about going with the flow. Actually, it pushes more for everyone to go “against” the flow so that they can become “their own individual” self. The problem soon becomes obvious; now everyone is trying to become individualized. The flow has now begun to flow in that direction. Different can actually be difficult but it may be for the best. Look at the world’s state right now; murder, rape, random acts of violence are all at super high numbers right now. Problems abound all around us. Sex, drugs, and violence now sell movies instead of quality and values. Promiscuous sex is seen as a valid source of entertainment and pleasure. Cheating, lying, and drinking are ok as long as you don’t get busted. Sometimes different can be a good thing.
Sometimes we wish life was different. In the movie Secondhand Lions, two old men who had once led incredibly adventurous lives decide to plant a garden. One of the gentlemen buys some seeds from a traveling salesman. He buys corn, beets, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes and the two men and the boy staying with them plant these in rows. Each row is labeled with the different type of plant. Soon they began to sprout and as they inspected the garden they noticed something; all the leaves look very similar. The salesman had ripped them off; all the plants were corn. They had like fifty stalks of corn and so they ate corn, corn, and more corn. They wished by then that they had something a little different.
We continue today through the book of First John by moving through verses thirteen through 24 of chapter three. The preceding verses in chapter three told us about living consistently as Christians. The verses we are focusing on today tell us what that consistency should look like; how we should live consistently. Look at verses 13 through 15. “Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who 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.” Why would the world hate you? If you truly go against the flow, then yes you will not be liked. If you have convictions about morality and the necessity of morals, I can guarantee that you will not be liked too well in the world we live in. We have moved from being spiritually dead to alive. We are in a whole new realm. We should be different than the world. The world may hate but we must not hate in the church. We are called to be consistently different. If we want to live with Christ, we must be like Him and to be like Him we must be different than the world. Christians live differently because 1) we have better example to follow, 2) We have a better way to love, and 3) We have the assurance of an all loving God. Let’s take a quick look at each reason we can live differently than the world around us.
A Better Example – v. 16a
“We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us…”
Understanding what this verse says is pretty simple. These Christians understood that Christ had set the example. This type of knowledge and understanding comes from the ability to examine the facts surrounding the subject. John is saying that these Christians can understand love by examining it first hand. John was saying in essence, “This is how you can know what love looks and feels like, Christ gave the ultimate sacrifice just for you.” As Christians, these men and women should have had a first hand experience in living each day with a God who loves them. They should have understood well the importance of Christ’s sacrifice to save them.
This John is the same John that wrote the gospel John. When John said these words “He laid down His life for us…” he would have thought about what he saw that day Jesus was crucified. He would have been in the garden where they all fled from the roman soldiers. He would have seen and heard Jesus weeping and praying so hard that he sweated blood instead of tears. He would have heard the crowd cry “Crucify, crucify.” He would have been there to watch Jesus being beaten to a bloody pulp. He could have seen Jesus’ disfigured body, so badly beaten that even His own mother wouldn’t be able to tell who he was. John was there watching as Pilate gave Jesus to the Jews to be crucified. Jesus looked down at John from the cross. “Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.” He stood and watched as Christ needed to drink. He heard Jesus’ final words, “IT IS FINISHED.”
John had seen love first-hand. He watched Christ die for our sin of his own volition. Christ chose to love us enough to die for us. That is some great love indeed. We can know how we are to love by looking at the actions of Christ. Christ gave every bit of His being even to the point of death because He loves us. Wow! We have an awesome example; one very difficult to imitate and very different from the world. Christ’s love was one that sacrificed for others. The world’s love is selfish and only looks out for itself. What example does the world have? Hue Hefner? Saddam Hussein? Someone might say Mahatma Gandhi which is much better than the others. Gandhi was just a passivist and not necessarily someone who truly knew how to love. Christianity is different and so we must be different starting with our example. We must follow our different example by loving sacrificially.
A Better Way to Love – 16b-18
Loving sacrificially stands as the one virtue of Christendom. Christ set a pretty hefty example to follow. The world’s love is very selfish and yet His was unconditional and unselfish. His example sets the stage for the rest of verse 16 through 18. “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.” John tells the people that they must also live like Christ by loving sacrificially. Verse 17 gets a little interesting. Verse 16 refers to the death of Christ and then verse 17 actually says “If anyone has the life of the world, they should help those in need.” The life of the world is wrapped up in possessions, money, and greed. If anyone has the stuff of the world, give it to help others out. If they didn’t give that stuff up, what kind of Christians were they? Christ gave his own life and they should give up their worldly things. Verse 18 is the key, the center, the very essence of how these men and women should be. “Do not just talk love, but live love.” John tells them that through Christ’s example they should understand that they must live love. Anyone can talk about love, forgiveness, and sympathy but only those dedicated to Christ can consistently live it out daily. Talk is easy but walk is much harder.
“In The Christian Leader, Don Ratzlaff retells a story Vernon Grounds came across in Ernest Gordon’s Miracle on the River Kwai. The Scottish soldiers, forced by their Japanese captors to labor on a jungle railroad, had degenerated to barbarous behavior, but one afternoon something happened. "A shovel was missing. The officer in charge became enraged. He demanded that the missing shovel be produced, or else. When nobody in the squadron budged, the officer got his gun and threatened to kill them all on the spot . . . It was obvious the officer meant what he had said. Then, finally, one man stepped forward. The officer put away his gun, picked up a shovel, and beat the man to death. When it was over, the survivors picked up the bloody corpse and carried it with them to the second tool check. This time, no shovel was missing. Indeed, there had been a miscount at the first check point. "The word spread like wildfire through the whole camp. An innocent man had been willing to die to save the others! . . . The incident had a profound effect. . . The men began to treat each other like brothers. "When the victorious Allies swept in, the survivors, human skeletons, lined up in front of their captors (and instead of attacking their captors) insisted: ’No more hatred. No more killing. Now what we need is forgiveness.’"”
These men took the lesson they learned from their innocent brother and applied it in their lives. They took the idea of pure love and peace and applied it to the chance they had to get revenge. They lived love. We must be different than the world around us guys. Christ lived the exact opposite of the way the world did. He set an awesome example and now it’s our turn to live love. Memorize verse 18, it isn’t long. Do not love in word or tongue but in deed and truth. Anyone can say the words “I love you,” but only those who serve Christ can truly live out His type of love. When someone comes to you and needs something, give it too them. When someone comes with a real need for food, let them have it. Help them out! Live love. Fellowship with Christ means that we are different from the world. We must live differently by living love just like our example. Love is a verb; its something you do not just something you say.
We have a better Assurance of Heaven – 19-22
“We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him, in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. 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 the things that are pleasing in His sight.”
We have an awesome example to help us live differently than the world and we have an incredible difference to complete; loving through actions, a sacrificial love. This entire section contains “if” statements. That means, everything in this section is conditional. If you don’t clean your room, you’ll be grounded. So the condition is a clean room and if that room is not clean consequences will happen. This section is just the same with four “if” statements. Again, they can know, the same experiential knowledge, they can live in truth by their actions. If their actions are what they are supposed to be, they have four assurances found in this passage; 1) They will know they live in the truth, 2) They can know that God is greater than their sin 3) They can have confidence before God 4) They will receive what they ask for. Each verse in this section contains one promise. 19 says that they can know they live in truth if they act out love. 20 says that if their heart condemns them (feeling guilty), they can be assured that God is bigger than their sins. They can be forgiven. 21 says that if their hearts are clean they can stand before God. 22 says that if they kept God’s commands they could ask anything from Him and receive it.
Tell me anywhere in the world where others who do not know Christ have these promises. Bill Hybels illustrated it this way. “Sometime when you’re in an airport, observe the difference between passengers who hold confirmed tickets and those who are on standby. The ones with confirmed tickets read newspapers, chat with their friends or sleep. The ones on standby hang around the ticket counter, pace and smoke, smoke and pace. The difference is caused by the confidence factor. If you knew that in fifteen minutes you would have to stand in judgment before the Holy God and learn your eternal destiny, what would your reaction be? Would you smoke and pace? Would you say to yourself, "I don’t know what God’s going to say--will it be ’Welcome home, child,’ or will it be ’Depart from me; I never knew you’?”
Ladies and gentlemen we can have no greater assurance than that which God offers us. Nothing in this world is stable, especially the people in it. They waver each day searching for meaning; maybe that’s you. Christians, you are to be different. You have assurances that only you can call on. We have a greater stability that no one outside of Christendom can ever imitate. Others are looking at you to be stable and whole in your faith. Christians, listen again to the promises in this passage alone. We can be assured that we are a part of God and that if we sin he will cover it. We can stand before a loving God and speak with Him and if we ask Him, he will do it.
Christians listen! William Gladstone, in announcing the death of Princess Alice to the House of Commons, told a touching story. The little daughter of the Princess was seriously ill with diphtheria. The doctors told the princess not to kiss her little daughter and endanger her life by breathing the child’s breath. Once when the child was struggling to breathe, the mother, forgetting herself entirely, took the little one into her arms to keep her from choking to death. Rasping and struggling for her life, the child said, "Momma, kiss me!" Without thinking of herself the mother tenderly kissed her daughter. She got diphtheria and some days thereafter she went to be forever with the Lord. Real love forgets self. Real love knows no danger. Real love doesn’t count the cost. The Bible says, "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it."
Christians are supposed to be different. We have so many advantages over the rest of the world. We have the ultimate example of life and love, we have a better type of love that will sacrifice to help others, and we have assurances that keep us steady. How different are you? Do you go against the flow? Do you stand on your morals? Do you tell others your positions? Maybe you don’t feel different. Maybe you stumble over how much God loves you. Maybe you just can’t seem to feel secure about your life. Whatever it may be, it’s time to give it to Jesus. “Christ stands at the door and knocks. If you open the door and let Him in, he will come in and spend eternity with you.” All you have to do is ask Him.
