Do you really love God? Tonight we look at a third test that proves if you really love God. Are you marked by love? Do we love one another? The greatest proof of all that we love God is the mark of love. Since God is love, it’s impossible to love God and not to love one another.
If we hold feelings against anyone else, it’s clear proof that we don’t love God. And this is extremely important in our churches today. There are too many churches in which there are people who say they are Christian, yet they don’t love one another, they don’t love their pastor, some of them don’t even love themselves.
We will be looking at 1 John 3: 10-17. The great mark of loving God is the mark of loving one another. Verse 10 tells us that love reveals your true nature. Love shows that you are either a child of God or of the devil. READ v. 10. Note who it is who is not of God. The person who doesn’t live righteously is not of God. And the person who doesn’t love his brother is not of God.
If a person’s nature is not of God, whose nature is it? It is the devil’s nature. This isn’t a very pleasant thought. But note that there is no in-between. You are either a child of God or of the devil. We can look at our nature and tell whose child we are. There are too many so-called Christians who have too much hate toward their brother to be called a child of God. The sad fact is that these very same so-called Christians are sitting in churches around the world right now.
I want you to note a significant fact in this passage that we are looking at. John defines righteousness as love. That’s what he’s really saying. Righteousness is love and unrighteousness is failing to love. Scanning the verses we see:
• In verse 12: Cain didn’t love his brother so he murdered him and did an unrighteous deed.
• Verse 14: the proof that we have passed from death to life is our love, our righteous behavior toward our brother.
• Verse 15: love is not unrighteous acts, hate, or murder.
• Verse 16: love is the righteous act of God in giving His Son to die for us. Love is laying down our lives for our brother.
• Verse 17: love is compassion and giving to meet the needs of our brother.
The point is that love is action—righteous deeds in action. How do we know if we really love God? We can look at love and tell. Do we love our brothers? Do we hold things within us toward others? Do we think evil thoughts about them? Do we talk about them? Criticize, gossip, backbiting? Do we do evil against them?
That’s the nature of the devil—to tear down and destroy. If we do these kinds of things, we are revealing that we don’t really love God, we don’t really know God, and that, in reality, we are children of the devil. Love reveals whose child we are. Are you marked by love?
Jesus said the peacemakers will be called the sons of God. (Mat 5:9)
Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor as ourselves (Mat. 22:37-39) and to love one another. (Jn. 13: 34-35) READ verse 11.
We have already covered this point in detail when we discussed 1 Jn. 2: 7-8. Jesus showed us what love should be like. He said to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute.
Former Boston Red Sox third baseman Wade Boggs used to hate going to Yankee Stadium. Not because of the Yankees, but because of a fan. The guy had a seat close to the field and when the Red Sox were in town he would torment Boggs by shouting obscenities and insults.
One day Boggs decided he’d had enough. He walked over to the man and said, “Hey, fella, are you the guy who’s always yelling at me?” The man said, “Yeah, it’s me. What are you going to do about it?”
Wade took a new baseball out of his pocket, autographed it, tossed it to the man, and went back to the field to continue his pre-game routine. The man never yelled at Boggs again. In fact, he became one of Wade’s biggest fans at Yankee Stadium. So we have heard from the beginning about loving one another. READ verses 12-13.
Love doesn’t persecute the righteous. The most extreme case of persecution is murder. And pastors around the world are being murdered. I’m not talking about physical murder. Many pastors are so persecuted for trying to carry out God’s plans that it kills their spirit. There are a lot of dead pastors (again not physically dead) because their own flocks have murdered them. They have killed the pastor’s spirit to even want to continue.
And yet these people say they love God? They need to check again. John mentions the story of Cain, which comes from the 4th chapter of Genesis. Cain committed the first murder on earth: he killed his brother Abel. Why?
Because Abel was a believer. Abel believed God, that he was to worship God exactly like God said, by the blood of a sacrificial animal. Cain didn’t accept that belief. He felt that if he brought the fruit of his own hands to God, then God would accept him because of his hard work and because he worshipped and gave offerings to God.
God accepted Abel’s worship and offering. It was evident in his life by the way God blessed him and took care of him. But God rejected Cain’s offering. Cain became jealous and killed Abel. The point here is two-fold:
1) First, love doesn’t persecute the righteous. A person who truly loves his brother will not persecute him. How do we persecute our brother or sister?
• Criticism – hair, clothes, teaching ability, preaching ability, how they walk, talk, and live. We should be more than faultfinders. We should help others.
A little boy in kindergarten was told that his shoes were on the wrong feet. “But teacher, I haven’t got any other feet.” It isn’t enough to tell someone he’s in the wrong.
That little boy probably knew that already, due to his pinched toes. Unless we are willing to help a person overcome his faults, then we need to keep our criticism to ourselves, because there is little value in merely pointing out faults.
• Gossip - We murder people with our tongue. We kill their spirit.
• Jealousy toward someone.
• Dislike someone.
Just think, love means that we will not even dislike another person. That’s the way we know if we love God, if we don’t persecute our brother like Cain did.
Paul said, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” (Rom.12:9).
2) The second point about Cain becoming jealous and killing his brother is this. If we love Christ, then the world will persecute us. Jesus told us, “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.” (Mat. 24:9).
He said, “Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven.” (Lk. 6:22-23)
So John tells us in verse 13 of today’s passage, “Don’t be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.” READ verse 14.
Love is the proof that you have passed from death into life. Again we are talking about spiritual death and eternal death. Spiritual death is a person who is dead while he still lives.
• A person who wastes his life in wild living is spiritually dead.
• A person who lives in sin is spiritually dead.
• A person who is separated from the life of God is spiritually dead.
• A person who does what seems to be great religious works but in fact is doing the wrong works, is spiritually dead.
• A person who doesn’t have the spirit of Christ within is spiritually dead.
• A person who doesn’t have the Son of God is spiritually dead.
• A person who has never accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior is spiritually dead.
Love is the proof that we have passed from death over into life. If we love our brothers and sisters—and I mean all of them—then we have been saved from death and we have eternal life.
“Heh! Mr. Christian. How come I didn’t see you at the social the other day?”
“Because I don’t like old so-and-so and don’t want to be around him.”
Have you heard that before? Maybe you’ve said it yourself.
That person really doesn’t love God. They are fooling themselves.
READ verse 15. Love doesn’t hate. That should speak for itself but it isn’t clearly understood. Many people feel that they are acceptable to God and that God will never reject them, yet they have all kinds of negative feelings against others—dislike, bitterness, anger, jealousy, resentment.
But John tells us that the person who hates his brother is a murderer. It has to do with seeing sin as God sees it. In God’s eyes, hate is murder. It’s the very same thing as murder. That is exactly what Jesus told us when He said, “Anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.” (Mat. 5:21-22)
Anger, bitterness, and contempt are just as serious in God’s eyes as murder. Do you know why? Because the person who hates has the very same feelings and spirit that the murderer does—a spirit of anger, bitterness, and contempt. The murderer reacts differently, more violently, but the heart of both the hater and murderer is the same. And God looks and judges that hater and the murderer the same.
You might fool others but you can’t fool God. John said to us a few weeks ago, “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother, is still in the darkness.” (1 Jn. 2:9) We are going to see in a few weeks that John says in chapter 4 of this book, “If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (2 John 4: 20-21)
READ verse 16. If you are marked by love, it shows that you really love God. Love proves that you understand the love of Christ. And remember how Christ loved us? Remember when He loves us? He loves us when we are powerless, when we are ungodly, when we are still sinners, when we are enemies of God. He loves us when we are unlovely. He still loves us. Despite all this, Christ still died for us.
And the point is this: if we love God, then we follow His Son, Jesus Christ. We love people just like He did. We love them when they oppose us and do things against us. That’s how the world can tell we are Christians. We take all this persecution and yet we still love one another. Or at least we should.
Verse 17 speaks of compassion. If we really love God we will have compassion for others. READ verse 17. The words “material possessions” is speaking of the necessities of life. If we have the bare necessities of life and see a person in need, how can we close our heart against him?
Beware of those in the world who take advantage of this compassion we have. But if a person is really in need, God will reveal that to you. And the love of God would be to help supply the basic necessities to live. That doesn’t mean handing someone a 20 for gas. It means helping with food and clothing and maybe shelter.
I guess you could say the main theme of this message is that no matter what people or circumstances do to you in life, we should love them anyway.
People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish motives. Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and real enemies. Try to be successful anyway.
The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow. Do it anyway.
Honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
People favor the underdog, but they chum up to the top dog. Fight for the underdog anyway.
Give the world the best you have and chances are you will get kicked in the teeth. Give it anyway.
God loves us and He gives all He has and is to save us. That’s what Christ did. And if the love of, and for, God truly dwells in us, we will exhibit that same kind of love. And when we do, we pass test #3 that proves that we really love God.
