WHERE LOVE CANNOT BE
1 John 3:11-18
INTRO: Love is the identifying mark of the children of God. The Lord Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.” One of the early church fathers said about the early believers, “Behold, how they love one another.” It is not that we have that love inherent in ourselves but the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit and He teaches us how to love people the way we ought to. In these verses he shares with us some places where love cannot be.
I. WHERE THERE IS MURDER (vv. 11-12).
Murder is the most extreme form of hate and it is the exact opposite of love. In v. 12, he brings into our thinking a character from the O.T., Cain. There are three questions I want to answer about Cain from these verses.
1. Where Did Cain Come From? What was his origin and how did he get the kind of personality and the kind of nature that he had?
Well, of course, we know from a physical point of view he came from the same mother and father that Abel did, but all of you who have more than one child know that children born in the same family, brought up in the same atmosphere, given the same kind of background, will be very, very different. So Cain and his brother Abel had the same mother, the same father, and yet they were altogether different.
Not only are people in a physical family but people also are in a spiritual family. Look at what it says in v. 12. “Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one,” talking about the devil. People are not born into the world as a child of God.
Look back at v. 10 for a moment. There are two distinct spiritual families, the children of God and the children of the devil. So Cain was of that wicked one, he had the attitude of the devil. The Bible tells us in John chapter 8:44, that the devil was a murderer from the beginning. The devil’s desire is to murder, the devil comes to steal and to destroy.
2. What Did Cain Do? V. 12 tells us that he slew his brother. The word that is used there is a very graphic word in the original language. It is a word that means to slay by violent means. It means to cut the throat, it means a slaughter, it means to be butchered. So when Cain killed his brother Abel it was a brutal, violent murder.
3. Why Did Cain Murder His Brother? V. 12 answers it again. Because his own works were evil and his brother’s righteous. Cain and Abel had a disagreement over religion, they differed about what religion is really all about. Cain was not willing to go God’s way. Cain was not willing to follow the directions of the Lord. Love cannot be where murder is.
II. WHERE THERE IS MALICE (vv. 13-15).
Do you get the connection here? You would all agree with me that love cannot be where there is murder but now the Scripture indicates that love cannot be where there is malice.
The Presence of Hate (v. 13). — John is setting before us here the presence of hatred in the world. We’re living in a world of hate. There is hatred between nations. There is hatred in the business world, there is competition and some of it is hate-filled. That is the nature of the world. Jesus put it this way. He said “they hated me, they’ll hate you.” This world doesn’t love you if you’re a Christian. Cain hated his brother Abel and he had an argument against God. He ultimately hated God.
But notice the difference that is to be present in the life of believers. Look at v. 14. You have been transposed out of death and unto life and in so doing you have been taken out of a world where your heart was filled with hate and you are now in an atmosphere of life where there is love in your heart.
Only the Lord Jesus can do that to a human being. We have all known people filled with hatred that Jesus Christ has made into new creatures and replaced hate with love. Some of you sitting here have real malice and hate in your heart for another person. But you don’t have to live in that hate any more. Jesus can teach you to love people. Why is it so important that we deal with malice in our hearts?
The Peril of Hate (v. 15). — Did you know the only difference between actual murder and hate in the heart is the outward deed? The inward intention is the same. And given the right circumstances and under the proper pressures, if you’ve got hate in your heart you could be guilty of murder.
Notice what else it says here? “no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” What he’s saying is you’re not saved. You say, “Oh wait a minute, Preacher, I’ve been baptized.” I don’t care. “Oh but, Preacher, I belong...” That doesn’t matter. God says if you’ve got hate in your heart you’re a murderer and no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Love cannot be where there is malice.
III. WHERE THERE IS MISERLINESS (v. 16).
Notice carefully what John is saying in vv. 16-17. He is saying that love cannot be where there is an attitude of miserliness in the heart. In these two verses there is a contrast drawn. Two examples are given to us.
An Example to Reflect (v. 16). — “He laid down His life.” John is referring to the Lord Jesus. In this brief statement John tells us three very important things about the death of the Lord Jesus.
1. It was voluntary. Nobody took His life away from Him, He laid His life down. Unless Jesus Christ had decided to die on the cross He would never have died. Life was not taken from Him on the cross, but rather He chose the exact moment of His death.
2. It was Vicarious. That word simply means it was a death on behalf of others. It says, “He laid down His life for us...” The preposition there is quite important. It means “in place of.” Jesus Christ died on the cross in our place.
3. It Was Victorious. The tense of the verb “laid down” here is the aorist tense in the Greek and it means “He did it once for all.” When Jesus died on the cross He cried, “It is finished,” and once and for all He laid down His life.
Because He did that we ought to lay down our lives to serve the brethren. He laid His life down to save, we ought to lay our life down to serve. So many people just live for themselves, everything revolves around themselves and they’re interested in what they can get for themselves.
ILLUS: William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army. He did a marvelous work as the founder of that group of soldiers for the Lord. He was unable to attend one of their annual conferences and so they requested that he send them a telegram message. When the telegram was opened and read, it was one word. Here’s what he sent to them. “Others.”
We sing, “Others, Lord Yes Others, Let this my motto be, Help me live for others that I may live for thee.” Love makes you live for others, but if there is miserliness in your heart love cannot be there.
An Example to Reject (v. 17). — This does not mean one who has an abundance of things but rather one who has the basic necessities of life. The word “shut up” there really means to slam a door, or it means to turn the key in a lock. If you see somebody with need and you slam the door, or if you turn the key on the lock, how dwells the love of God in you?
Jesus graphically illustrated that in the parable of the Good Samaritan. We use this word “love” in a lot of different ways. But when the Bible uses love it always uses it in the context of giving (e.g. John 3:16). Love is a verb. Love is an active word and where there is love there will always be an outgoing to the needs of other people.
CONC: Look at v. 18. “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but let us love in deed and in truth.” And if we don’t love in what we do it’s not really true that we love. It’s one thing to be talking about it but it’s another thing to be doing something about it. It’s one thing to talk about helping the needy, it’s another thing to help the needy. It is one thing to talk about winning souls to the Lord Jesus Christ, it’s another thing to actually be talking to souls about the Lord Jesus Christ.
ILLUS: A man came late one Sunday morning to the service. In fact he got there just as the service was letting out. He came up to a man and said, “Oh, my gracious, is the sermon done?” And the worshiper said, “No, the sermon is to be done.” Folks, I want to encourage you in the words of James 1:22. “Let us not be hearers of the word but let us be doers of the word.”
NOTE: This message is a revision of a sermon preached by my late father Ted Wood. It appears (though I can’t be certain) that he may have used Warren Wiersbe’s book "Be Real" for some of his inspiration.
