The Love And Hate Barometer

The Love and Hate Barometer

1 John 3:11-18

Online Sermon: McKees Mills Baptist Church » Sermons (mckeesfamily.com)

A new command Christ has given to us born of the water and the Spirit and that is to “love one another” so that the will “know that you are My disciplines” (John 13:34)! As Christ’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20) we are called to not curse human beings made in God’s image (James 3:9) but instead to do good unto them (Luke 6:27) so that the comfort and love we have received (2 Corinthians 1:3-5) from the Father might be apparent and a witness of His grace and mercy. If God commands us to love our enemies, then how much more ought we love and seek unity and peace with our spiritual brothers within the same body of Christ? While the command to love one another is clearly to be a priority for God’s own it is difficult to put into practice because it invites intense persecution! Jesus warns us that while obeying His command to love results in our light shining amongst the lost it at the same time invites hatred amongst those who don’t want to approach the light because their evil deeds will be exposed (John 3:20, 15:18). While it is painful to be persecuted by non-Christians who have not passed from death to life (1 John 3:14), how much more so when indifference or “active antagonism” comes from within the body of believers? This was the situation that Apostle John wrote about in 1 John 3:11-18. The Johanne community were “experiencing a pattern of prejudicial treatment and resentment” from two God-fearing bodies. First, the Jews were putting them out of the synagogue and killing them (John 16:2, 9:34) due to their belief in the Messiah dying once and for all, and second, they faced intense persecution from a group of heretics, followers of Cerinthus, that were spreading false teaching. The incredibly sad part is that these secessionists used to belong to their church! Today’s sermon is going review the reasons John gave as to why it is not ok to be indifferent or outright hate those created in God’s image, especially when they belong to the same body of Christ because such negative emotions often demonstrates your bond is with Satan and you in fact are not born again!

The Message From the Beginning

John begins by stating that he is “not giving the church a message they have never heard” but instead one that was given from the beginning! The command to love was Christ’s command given to His disciples “likely dependent of the Last Supper discourse.” Jesus said, “a new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so must you love one another. By this everyone will know you are my disciples if you love one another” (John 13:34-35). This is not meant to be some “academic, theological, doctrinal statement,” but one of the litmus tests one can use to determine if one has indeed “passed from death to life” (1 John 3:14)! “As the knowledge of God is tested by conduct—whether one walks in the light (1:5–2:11)—so being “born of God” (2:29) is tested by righteous action and love of the brethren.” While the definition of “love” by the world is incredibly broad and often self-gratifying, the kind of love John is referring to, agape love, is the “responsibility to demonstrate selfless concern for our brothers and sisters in Christ as our response to the grace God has given us!” Agape love is crucial for “living for Jesus and for advancing God’s kingdom” because it is by considering others better than ourselves and looking out for their best interests (Philippians 2:3) that one demonstrates one has indeed received and is now able to pass the comfort one has received from the Father onto His children! It is not by carrying Bibles, singing worship songs, theological astuteness, or even the size of our church that others see God’s light but instead by our sacrificial love for them! While we are called to love all humans because they are created in God’s image, John stresses how important it is to show those who have a bond with the Devil and are filled with jealousy, hatred and strife that when you chose a bond with God through belief in the atoning sacrifice of His Son (John 3:16) you receive the opposite: unity, peace and love for both God and one another. It is this testimony of love that a believer can point the lost sheep to the Good Shepherd to be found, loved, and redeemed by His blood!

Hatred as a Sign of Death

Before John tells his audience more about the love believers are to emulate, he begins by using Cain as an example of the opposite of love, hated! We are told in Genesis chapter four that “in the course of time” (4:3) both Cain and Abel brought offerings unto the Lord. While “Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil” Abel brought “fat portions from some of the firstborn of the flock” (4:3-4). We are told that the Lord looked favorably on Abel’s offering and rejected Cain’s (4:4-5). “Cain became very angry; his face was downcast” (4:5) so the Lord said to Cain, “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 rule over it” (4:7). In a fit of jealousy and anger we are told that Cain invited his brother Abel to go out into the field where he proceeded to butcher him like one would an animal! The issue here is not that Cain brought an inferior sacrifice, a grain instead of animal sacrifice as some commentaries suggest, but that Cain lacked faith (Hebrews 11:4) to give God his very best and was filled with hatred in the sight of his brother’s righteousness! Despite both brothers being raised in the same environment and by the same parents, unlike Abel, Cain chose to reject God as the Master of his destiny and tried to control his own future. Cain did not “become a chid of the Devil (1 John 3:12) by murdering his brother. Rather, he murders his brother because he is already a child of the Devil!” The “evil character of Cain is universally assumed in both biblical and extrabiblical sources” and the murder of Abel constantly reminds us that every person has a choice between “hatred and love, life and death, murder and self-sacrifice” that comes from either having faith in self or in God!