Good afternoon. Please turn with me to 1 John 3. We will be reading verses 11-18. 1 John 3 verses 11-18. For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the evil one and slew his brother, And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brothers were righteous. 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. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and in truth. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you once again for this day Lord, we thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ, that died and rose again for the salvation of sinners. Lord, we pray that you would bless the preaching, that you would bless your people, and Lord, that you would increase our love for you and for one another. Lord, that this would be a blessing to your people and that you, Lord Jesus, would be glorified. In your name we pray. Amen. So one of the most celebrated and sought after things in the history of the world is love. There are timeless stories and movies and songs that have been written about love. And it's truly been something that this world seeks after, and this world loves the most. It's something that has no borders, no languages, or no language. And in fact, it's been said that love is the universal language. And in some very sad cases, some people have even killed in the name of love. But to many in the world today, love is simply lust or emotions. What they define as love is not what the Bible, it's not what the God says love is. It's not true love. True biblical love is love that finds its origin in God. It loves righteousness and it loves holiness. It loves the things of God. But because of our sin, because of the fall, no one is able to truly love in this way. Because of our sin and our love for it, we naturally hate God, and we naturally hate all those things that are associated with God. As the Heidelberg Catechism says, when asked the question, if we can fulfill God's law perfectly, it says, no, we have a natural inclination to hate God and our neighbor. But, This love is something that we are called, all of us, to do. We are called to love. But again, because of our sin, what we actually have, what we actually possess, is hatred and this inclination to hate God and our neighbor. And this hatred is what characterizes, what marks the children of the devil, what the Bible calls the children of the devil. But there are those who, through no power of their own, do love God and can love the things of God. These are those for whom Christ died. They have been born of God and therefore are God's children. They have been given a new nature and therefore are able by the power of the Holy Spirit to love God truly, to love their neighbor, and as we will see in our context this afternoon, to love one another, to love the brethren. And love for these people is what characterizes them. This is what sets apart the child of God from the child of the devil. And what John does here in this epistle is to expose the child of the devil, is he contrasts children of the devil and what they do, who they are, against who we are and what our nature is. And so John uses a contrast, and we see this throughout his epistle. He's constantly contrasting between those that are true Christians and those that are false, between believers and hypocrites. And he does this by way of contrast. And again, this is what he does in our text this evening or this afternoon. He wants to encourage his audience to love one another because that is who they are. That is their nature to love one another as children of God. And so, John begins this section in verse 11 by reminding his audience of the message of love, a message that they had heard from the beginning, which is to love one another. But again, to prove his point, he's gonna first give an example of what love is not. And so the example that he uses is one that we've all heard, a story that we've all heard, it's found in the Old Testament, and that is the story of Cain and Abel. If you would turn please to Genesis chapter four, In Genesis chapter 4, we read the story of Cain, of two brothers, and both of them bring offerings to the Lord. But yet, Scripture tells us that God accepts one and rejects the other. He regards one, but rejects the other. And the one that he rejects is Cain. He rejects his offering, and beginning in verse 5, he says that for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. Then the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door and its desires for you, but you must master it. Cain told Abel his brother, and it came about when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him. Now, we are not told in this narrative why God accepted Cain's and not, I'm sorry, why he accepted Abel's offering and not Cain's. But in Hebrews 11, 4, the author of Hebrews recounts a story He brings it up and he does, he gives us the information. He tells us that the reason why God accepted Abel's offering and not Cain's was because faith's offering was done in faith. He says, by faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice. And then just two verses later in Hebrews 11, 6, we are told that it is impossible to please God apart from faith. So it wasn't that Abel's offering in and of itself was better or more righteous, but it was by faith that God accepted his deed, his work, his offering. And so we see in the story that then Cain, because he's rejected, becomes angry. And God confronts him and counsels him, warning him that if he does not master sin, sin is at the door and its desire is for you. And I like how the NIV puts it, it says, sin, regarding sin it says, its desire is to have you. Now a little side note, we all know that sin is not this personal entity, right? But it's intriguing and I've always found it intriguing how scripture And here in this passage, how it talks about sin as if it were this entity, this personal being, this personal entity. The Puritans talked about sin that way, by saying its desire is for you, that sin has this desire for you. It's like this vicious, ravenous beast that wants to, he wants you, he's hungry for you, will stop at nothing to get you. And if it were a physical beast, if it were this physical entity, then maybe we could do something to avoid it. Maybe we could do something to run away from it. But the scary reality about sin is that this beast, this thing, is in our heart. And we can't run away from it. We can't hide from it. Monks have been trying to do that for centuries with no success. We can't run away from sin. It's in our heart. We are born with it. And the only way to master it, the only way to escape its reigning power is through Jesus Christ. When we trust in Jesus Christ, we are freed from sin's reigning power. And that is how we master it. As Paul tells us, that sin shall not have dominion over you as believers. So back to the narrative in Genesis, Cain was counseled, he was warned by God to master sin, but he didn't listen. Now, if you've ever wondered how Cain killed Abel, the story in Genesis doesn't tell us. It doesn't give us much information about it. And if we go to Hebrews 11, 4, we don't have much information about that either. But in our text this afternoon, in 1 John chapter 3, we are told a little bit more about this incident that gives us an idea of how Cain killed Abel. If you look, In verse 12, it says, Not as Cain, who was of the evil one, and slew his brother. That word, slew, in my version it's translated as, or it's slew, but in other translations, it says murder. That's the NIV, the ESV I think also says murder. The NET, the New English Translation says brutally murdered. And I think that this translation gets it the closest because the word in the original literally means to slaughter. It means to slaughter, as in slaughtering of an animal or a person. When animals were being slaughtered, their throats were slit and were butchered. And so when this word is used regarding persons, it's pretty much the same thing. So from this word, what it implies is a violent and merciless killing of a person. And so what we are being told is that Cain violently and brutally murdered his brother. And why is this detail so important? Well, it shows us two things. First, it emphasizes the reality of the children of the devil, that they don't just dislike God's people. They hate God's people. And this is what marks them out. This is the mark of the children of the devil, that they hate God's people. John says in verse 15, of these people, that they, because of that, they abide in death and they are murderers. Secondly, this detail illustrates for us the fruit of such hatred, and that is persecution. God again had warned Cain about sin, but he didn't listen. The anger that he felt, the hatred that he harbored in his heart, continued to stir up within him until it consumed him and it broke out in murder. And this should be a stern warning for all of us, that we should not harbor anger in our heart. We need to bring it before the Lord, that it might be dealt with promptly. But we can see why our Lord equates anger with murder. Why he says that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court. Because violent, murderous acts originate in our heart. When Cain slew his brother, he was simply acting out what he had already committed in his heart. Now, you may say, but wait a minute. I know a lot of unbelievers, and we get along pretty well. They don't hate me, and they're not trying to kill me. And that's true, and we praise the Lord for that. We praise the Lord for his common grace, that his common grace restrains so much of the evil that would be directed towards us. So I wanna just clarify that I'm not saying, and John is not saying, that the world always has these intense, hateful feelings toward us, and they wanna kill us everywhere they see us. That's not what I'm saying. But it's similar to the doctrine of total depravity that we've been studying in Sunday school, that we can say that all of mankind is totally depraved, that every aspect, every part of man is tainted with sin, is corrupted by sin, is totally depraved, yet what we're not saying is that humankind or mankind is as wicked or as sinful as it could be. The world doesn't always experience, again, these hateful feelings towards Christians. In my last job, for example, I dealt with a lot of people, I dealt with a lot of departments, and so I knew a lot of people, and they all liked me. We didn't have much time to chat too much, but we talked, and they all seemed to like me. But there's this one coworker that I worked, she worked in my office, and she knew my wife, she knew our kids, she was really nice, but one time we were, and she was always nice to me, one time we were talking about something, and I forgot how it came up, but the subject of homosexuality came up. And she's not one, but she has friends, she supports it, the lifestyle. And so when I told her that what the Bible teaches about that, that it's sin and that it's against God's moral law, immediately She changed her attitude, her countenance, everything. She was full of hatred and it kind of turned pretty ugly. And so I just, you know, okay, we kind of stopped talking about it. But when the world is confronted by sin, that's when you see the hatred that comes out. As I was studying for this, one commentator noted that whenever the community of faith acts so as to expose the greed, the avarice, the hatred and the wickedness of the world, it must expect rejection. And if it should go as far as to interfere with its evil practices as Jesus did in the temple, it may expect suffering and brutal death. And John in John John's gospel, chapter three, verse 20, he says, everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. So the world may love you as a business partner, the world may love you as a student, the world may love you as a coworker, as a neighbor, but the world will not love you as a Christian who exposes their evil works by your good deeds and by your proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And in this sense, the world does hate and persecute God's people because we, God's people, are an aroma and fragrance of Christ. And so, in light of this reality that the mark of the children of the devil is hatred, and that this is expressed in persecution of God's people, John encourages his audience in verse 13 by saying, don't be surprised if the world hates you. Don't be surprised. This has been going on from the very beginning. We just read it in the story of Cain and Abel, and we see it throughout all of scripture. We've been going through 1st and 2nd Samuel, and we read in 1st Samuel how Saul just persecuted David. When David did nothing but be faithful, be a faithful citizen, a faithful servant, yet Saul, out of jealousy, out of pride, and his own sin, persecuted David. We see it in Jezebel, persecuting God's prophets, Elijah. We see it during the times of Jesus, being persecuted by the religious leaders. And in Hebrews 11, there's a passage there right after the author speaks of all the great things that God's people have done in faith. In Hebrews 11, 36, he says, and others, experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stones, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, and they were put to death with the sword. And they went about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated. And I love this verse right here. Men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in the deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. So God's people have always been persecuted. And that's not to mention all the people throughout history after Christ, after the church age, and then even today. Christians in places like in North Korea, China, India, Nigeria, that are being persecuted for their faith. And so John tells him, do not be surprised. This is the common Christian experience. And not only does John say this, but Paul confirms it in 2nd Timothy 3.12. He says, indeed all those who desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus shall be or shall suffer persecution. Peter also confirms it in 1 Peter 4.12, Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you. When we are persecuted, when we are rejected and hated by the world, we ought not be surprised. That's normal. That comes with being a Christian. And how are we, one last verse, Jesus himself confirms it. He says in John 16, 33, in this world you have tribulation, but then how are we to respond? Peter tells us, but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of his glory you may rejoice with exaltation. And our Lord tells us, in this world you have tribulation, but take courage. I have overcome the world. So because of our union with Christ through faith, we can take courage because He has overcome the world. We know that when He comes, He will afflict those that have afflicted us and bring comfort to those that have been afflicted. We see that in 2 Thessalonians 1. So the motivation now, what motivates the children of the devil to do this? What motivates them to hate, to persecute God's people? We see it in verse 12. John tells us in 1 John chapter 3 verse 12, he says, And Cain, who was of the evil ones, slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? He says, because his deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous. So it was because of personal sin. It was because of Cain's sin. And not just his sin, but in light of his brother's righteous deed. This is what really draws out the hatred in the unbeliever's heart. Their pride is hurt, their sin is exposed, and rather than repenting, rather than confessing their sins to God, rather than turning to God, rather than learning from their sinful mistakes, they harden their heart, and they're filled with hate toward the Christian who exposes their unrighteous deeds. And so again, we can go back to John's gospel in chapter 3, where it says, This is the judgment that the light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." So ultimately, their hatred is not necessarily for us, but it's a hatred of God and His righteousness. They hate the works of righteousness because they hate the Righteous One. Jesus tells His disciples right before His departure, if this world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, this is why they hate you. So they hate God, they hate everything about God, and so they hate God's people. and all this motivated because of their wickedness, because they love their sin. They do not want to repent of their sin, and so they seek to destroy, to extinguish the light that exposes their sin. So again, the mark of the child of the devil is hatred, its fruit is persecution, and its motivation is personal sin. But what about the children of God? The mark of the child of God is love. We are called to love. And particularly in this context, it's the love for God's people. It's the love of the brethren. And as I have said before, John here is seeking to prove his point by way of contrast. He's contrasting the vast difference between the child of the devil and the child of God. So if not loving the brethren means abiding in death, means being a murderer, and not having eternal life, and ultimately being of the evil one, then loving the brethren means the opposite. Look at verse 14. It says, we know that we have passed from death into life, or out of death into life. Why? Because we love the brethren. So loving the brethren is evidence that we have passed from this realm of spiritual death, of spiritual darkness, into the realm of spiritual life. That is how we know this is the mark of the believer. And it is because when we believe, we are new creatures in Christ. Our nature is changed. Though sin remains, we are new creations in Christ. There is a new nature and a new identity. And this is why it's natural or it should be natural for believers to love one another. So regarding this new change, this new identity, the Bible says that when we believe, we become members of Christ's body and are therefore members one to another, members of one another. And that's in Romans 12, four through five. Also, to a lesser or greater degree, we all bear the image of God, but we also bear the image of Christ. We're being conformed into the image of Christ as we are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit. And as believers, even though all the world, every person still possesses the image of God, as believers, that image is renewed, it's recreated in us by the Holy Spirit. We are also told in 1 Corinthians and in Galatians that we are temples of the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit dwells in each believer. And this is what unites us. The Holy Spirit is active in our life and it's what unifies all believers. And then lastly, the love of God for every believer, the love of God is poured out into our hearts. Romans 5.5. So as new creations of Christ, we love the things of God. And if we all possess these characteristics, if we have the Spirit of God dwelling in us, if we have the love of God in our hearts, if we are members of Christ's body and members of one another, then we ought to love one another. And though the context here is speaking specifically about the love of the brethren, We are called not just to love our brethren, but we are called to love even our enemies. Jesus himself says, if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. So as believers, we are to love everyone. We cannot separate the commandment to love our neighbor as ourself from love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind. Those two go together. We are to love our neighbor and we are to love especially our brothers in Christ. And just as love for our brethren proceeds from the love of God, so too the love of our neighbor proceeds from the love of God as well. And so what is the fruit then of this love? What is the fruit of Christian love? just as the fruit, or just as the characteristic of the child of the devil, which was hatred, just as that had its fruit, so does the love of the child of God. And that fruit is acts of charity. And we see that here illustrated in verse 17. John says, but whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? So what John wants to point out here is that love must be seen. It must be made visible. We can't say that we love someone and not do anything for that person. And so the example here is very similar to an example that James gives in chapter 2 regarding faith. James is trying to prove that faith is active. Faith is followed by works. Faith can be seen in our works, in our lives. And so he says in verses 14 through 17, What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed, and be filled, and yet do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. So this is pretty much exactly John's point. If we see someone and we have what they need, what is necessary for their lives, for their physical necessities, and we have that, we harden our hearts, we close our hearts and do not provide for them, do not help them, then how is God's love present in our heart? And so again, John's point is that it must be visible, it must be seen. And so that is the fruit of true, genuine Christian love, is to give selflessly without expecting anything in return. And I think that's why he uses this picture of someone being in need, poor. And that's why James also says that true and pure and undefiled religion is this, to give to widows and orphans or to visit widows and orphans. Because these are the helpless people of society and to give without expecting in return, that's the true mark of true love. And one of the greatest examples of this is found in Acts chapter 2, in verses 43 and 47. It says, um... regarding the church, it says, everyone kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common. And they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need. Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart. So here, in this example, we see believers selflessly giving, selling their possessions and giving to those who need it, not expecting anything in return. And they were doing it, as it says here, with gladness of heart and with sincerity or with gladness and sincerity of heart. And so we too, as believers, I know that we don't live in a society in a time when there's this drastic difference in social classes, where you have a large amount of people that are in deep poverty and rich. But what can we do as believers for our brethren? It could be something as simple as just giving of our time, praying for them, listening to them, whatever it may be. Physical needs, yes. But what can we do? How are we showing our love to the brethren? And then as we consider this, I think that we can all say that we've all failed at times to be as loving as we could have been. We've all failed to do what we should have done to help a brother in need. So what must we do? What is the remedy? How do we then do or motivate ourselves to give, to love as we ought to? Well, this is in verse 16 is where John gets to his greatest example of what true Christian love is and the true fruit of Christian love. But not only is it the best example, but it's also our motivation. What is it that motivates us? What is the proper motivation for a believer to love his brethren? And we see that again in verse 16, where he says, We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us, and we also ought to lay down our life for the brethren. So our proper motivation to love is Jesus Christ. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. We love because He first loved us. And the gospel is the greatest message of true love because the gospel tells us of the greatest act of love. And that is Jesus Christ dying for the sins of his people. And so this is a proper motivation. But many of us have heard the gospel. These people that John wrote to had heard the gospel as well. So if we've heard the gospel, why are we still lacking love? Why do Christians, true believers, still sometimes lack love? And I think that the reason for that is that we oftentimes forget who we are. We forget who we were. We forget how much Christ has forgiven us. We forget how much it cost God, the Father, sending His Beloved Son into the world, the one in whom He is truly pleased. For whom? For righteous people? No. He sent His Beloved and Spotless Son, His Perfect Son, His Beloved Son, for people like me, like us. People who were enemies of God, who hated God. I love the way John describes who we were when he writes to the Ephesians in chapter 2. And this is a picture of all of us. Beginning in verse one, he says, And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. We were children of wrath by nature. We indulged in sin. And even when we might have known about Jesus Christ, and known of the gospel, we continued in sin. We loved our sin. And it is for people like that that Christ died. It is for people like that that the Father sent His Son. Verse 4 says, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. When we were dead in our sins, and in Romans chapter 5, it says that while we were enemies of God, while we were weak, while we were helpless, Christ died for the ungodly. That is the great God that we serve, and that is the great Savior that we have. And many times we forget that. As we progress in our Christian life, we may, you know, get into theology and all these wonderful things that we should get into, but many times we might forget the simple gospel message. That we were wretched, we were miserable, we were on our way to hell when Christ sovereignly entered into our lives. When He saved us from our sins. When He delivered us from the reigning power of sin. And so that is what we need to remember because that again is what's gonna motivate us. That is what is gonna fuel our desires and motivate us to keep Christ's commandments, to love one another, and to show that love to our brethren. So I wanna close with an example that is found in Luke chapter seven. You don't have to turn there, but for your reference, it's Luke chapter seven, verses 36 through 50. And there's a Pharisee named Simon who invites Jesus to his house. And before I continue, the reason why I love this story is just it really exemplifies true love, true love being seen visibly and of a sinner who has been forgiven of their sins. So it's a really great example of this. And so here's this Pharisee named Simon who invites Jesus Christ to his house. And while he's there, a woman whom Luke calls a sinner, this woman hears that Jesus Christ has been invited and he's there at this person's, this is reclining at this person's table. And so she goes, she goes to meet Jesus. And she brings with her perfume. And when she gets there, she begins to cry and wet his feet with her tears and wipe them with the hair of her head and anoint his feet with the perfume that she brought. And she continually, continually kisses his feet. And the Pharisee, being a self-righteous Pharisee, observes this and he sees this, and he says to himself, if this were a true prophet of God, he would know what kind of woman this is, that she's a sinner. And by that, we can assume that it was some kind of a sexual immorality that she had been involved in in the past, but that title's still with her. They saw her as a sinner. She was a sinful woman. But Jesus, knowing Simon's heart and his thoughts, he tells him a story. He says, Simon, and he says, yes, teacher. And so he proceeds to tell him a story about two debtors. There was a money lender who had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii, the other one owed 50. And when neither of them could pay, the money lender forgave both of them. And so he asks the question, Simon, who do you think loved the most? And Simon answers, he says, well, the one who was forgiven most. And Jesus says, yeah, you're right. But then he rebukes Simon. He says, Simon, when I came in here, you gave me no water for my feet, which was something customary. It wasn't just something that some people did. This was something that people did all the time. And so to not offer water for your feet was offensive. He says, when I came in, you offered no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears. You gave me no kiss, but she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, yet she has anointed my feet with her perfume. All these things that were customary in those times, Simon had purposely neglected. And so Jesus says, for this reason, Simon, I say to you that her sins, which are many, have been forgiven. For she loved much. I'm sorry, because she had been forgiven much. And so she loved much. So the point here is, Jesus says of her that she loved much. And how do we know? How do we know that she loved much? It's because of what she did. Because she gave those things that Simon was supposed to do. She did those things because she loved Christ. Her love was made visible, was seen. Her love was active. And even though Simon, it doesn't say that Simon hated Jesus Christ, Simon didn't try to kill Jesus Christ, but by purposely neglecting those things that he should have given, it showed that he hated Jesus Christ. There was no love for Jesus Christ. So, she loved much because she had many sins that had been forgiven. And I think if we all consider our own hearts, there's so much sin that we have been forgiven of. And even now, so much sin in our hearts that remains. So, there may be some here this afternoon who outwardly might be religious, but inside are dead to God. There is no interest in the things of God. There's no love for the things of God. There's no love for the true God. and therefore no love for God's people. And if that's the case, my encouragement to you is to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to Him, and all your sins will be forgiven. But for those of us who have trusted in Christ, I'll close with this. Has Christ laid down His life for us? Yes. Have we been forgiven of our sins? Have we been forgiven much? Have we been forgiven much? If so, then let us love much. Let us love much. Let us love our brethren as Christ loved us. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your truth. We thank you for your love. We thank You, Heavenly Father, that You sent Your Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us. That in that act of sending Your Son, You demonstrated Your unfailing love, Your faithful love. And in Christ dying for our sins, He demonstrated His love for us, Lord. And we thank You for that. And we pray that we would be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ, that we would abound in love for one another, that the world would know that we are your disciples for our love for one another. Lord, we thank you, and again, we pray that you would continue to bless this word to our hearts, that throughout the week that we would be reminded just of how much we've been forgiven, and that we would be willing and humble to forgive others and to love others as you have loved us. Lord, we thank you, and we pray these things in your name. Amen.