Alright, we will be in 1 John chapter 3 again this morning. We spent the last couple of weeks talking about a fairly difficult subject, the subject of sin and the believer's relationship to sin. Sin is certainly not most people's favorite topic. In fact, there are many people even even mention sin when you talk to them about it, they'll shut off the rest of the conversation, especially when talking to unbelievers. We've probably all experienced something along those lines once, once or once or twice. So instead, today, we're going to switch gears a bit and we're going to talk about love. Love is a good topic, right? Everybody likes to talk about love. Although I will warn you along with love, we also have the contrast when we talk about murder and hatred too. But love is the main topic that we'll be in today. So these verses that we're talking about start in verse 11. Predominantly, we're going to see the believer's relationship and association with love. And specifically, keeping in mind the theme of the letter, what are the characteristics of a true believer in regard to love? In his epistle, John is busy showing us what a true believer is like, what characteristics someone who has truly put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ for their salvation has true of them. Not someone who has just gone through the motions, who knows what to say because they've heard it over and over and over again. No, what John is talking about here is someone who is truly saved. And how do we know that we're truly saved beyond a shadow of a doubt? And this entire letter is written with the thought in mind that a believer can know and should know whether or not they're truly saved. And we haven't gone back to our verse in a little while or in a few weeks, but in verse 13 of chapter five, we remember the theme verse of the entire letter as John says, these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. So John is writing so that we may have assurance of our faith. He's writing so that we might be able to see in our own lives whether or not we match up to what God says a believer ought to match up to. Do our lives reflect what is true of the life of one who has truly been redeemed, who's truly been born again and raised to new life in Christ? And that's what John is showing us, so that we might see the truth in our own lives or see that our lives don't match up and have the opportunity to repent and make our lives right before God so that we can look at these things and say, I've got some areas to work on, or maybe that's not true of me. We have seen over and over again that the distinction between those whose lives do match up and those who don't is that the one group is saved. And the other group is unsaved, right? There's no other category that we see here. These are tests of salvation that John is presenting us with here. Now, when it comes to these tests and these characteristics that he presents in this letter, in order for these things to be visible, in order for us to see them in our lives, what must be true of them? Their actions, right? He's talking about things that we do that manifest themselves outwardly. The test of the heart of what is truly going on inside of someone, what has really taken place in the, what you would call the invisible part of us, in our hearts, in our inner being, is revealed by what comes out of us. How do we act? How do we react? How do we live our lives? The things that we do that come out of us in the form of actions reveal what has happened to us on the inside. If I go out to a large empty field, and I plant some acorns in the ground. I find a big empty field. I dig up a little hole and I plant acorns in the ground. What would happen? What should that produce? Right? That's an oak tree. I had to look that up at one time. Somebody just asked me as I was coming in what kind of trees we have out here. I don't know. I don't know trees. But I know that if you plant acorns, you should get an oak tree. Well, if I came back to that spot years later, I should see an oak tree standing in the middle of that field. Now, if years later, I told you to go to that field and say, oh, you should go to that field and you should see my oak tree standing in the middle of that field. I planted it years and years and years ago, and that's my favorite oak tree. And you get there, and when you get to that field, you look and you see a tree, but it's a large, green, pointy tree that looks like a big Christmas tree, and it smells like pine. And you think, that's an odd-looking oak tree. I didn't know that oak trees could look like that. Is that what you would think? No. You would look at that tree and you'd say, that's not an oak tree. That's a pine tree, you fool. You'd tell me, that's not the tree that you planted. That's not the right kind of tree. What are you talking about? I would say, I planted acorns. They're years ago. I know that acorns produce oak trees. Therefore, that is most definitely an oak tree. Would you be convinced if I said that? Of course you wouldn't. Just by looking at what has been produced, anyone could tell that that's a pine tree. That's what a pine tree looks like. That's not an oak tree. Regardless of what I say that I planted, regardless of what I say I did on that spot years ago, regardless of what I thought I did when I was there years ago, what grew out of that is obviously not an oak tree. It shows no signs of being an oak tree. It shows every sign of being a pine tree. You can tell by what has been produced what truly happened. Maybe I didn't know the difference between an acorn and a pine cone when I planted it. Maybe my acorns got dug up by squirrels and someone else came along and planted pine cones there. Whatever the case may be, the evidence is obvious based on what has been produced. And that's the same way it is in the life of human beings, of people. Everyone on earth, the evidence is obvious. What is implanted in your heart is evident by the works that you produce in your life. That's what John is showing us in this entire letter. That's what the letter's for. It's that type of evidence that he keeps taking us back to. In the last section that we looked at, verses 4 through 10, it was in regard to sin and to righteousness. What does your life produce in relation to these two? Remember, we're talking about patterns of sin, patterns of righteousness, not an occasional sin or occasional act of righteousness. He made it clear in verses seven and eight. He said, little children, make sure no one deceives you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who practices sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. It all comes down to the one to whom you are born. Are you born of God or are you born of the devil? Everyone at one point is born of the devil. That's part of our sin nature. That's the nature that we have in our flesh. That's what we start out with. We are born in that path. We looked last time at Ephesians chapter 2. And we won't turn there again, but Paul there talks about being dead in your trespasses and sins. You were dead in your trespasses and sins, and you were walking according to the prince of the power of the air. With the exception of Jesus Christ, that is a condition that every person has ever lived in, that's ever lived, has ever been in. Everyone started out in that position. That is being born of the devil. That's that condition. That's being born of the devil. But those who have been saved, what's happened to them? They have been made alive together with Christ, raised up as a new creature, given a renewed life, freed from sin, now enslaved to righteousness. And we saw several passages on that when we looked at it a few weeks ago. The one who is saved now belongs to God, is now born of him. And as one who was born of God, we will now act like one who was born of God. That is our new nature. That is now what is true of us. If the acorn was truly planted and the growth was truly started and brought about, then the tree that will be produced will be an oak tree. And it will look like and bear evidence of being an oak tree. And if my profession of faith is genuine and the seed of the word of God was truly implanted within me and by the grace of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit, it took hold. That I will be holy as he is holy, and that is the absolute truth of the word of God. In verse 10, John said it again, reiterating this truth. He said, by this, the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. Those who belong to God and those who belong to the devil, they're obvious. It's absolutely clear, John says here. And he gives two examples, two tests that will be evident in the life of the believer. And I told you that verse 10 is our segue verse from the last section to this section. And the first thing he mentions here was what was dealing with the last section. It's about righteousness. Jesus Christ is righteous. God is righteous. As those who now abide in him have fellowship with him, our lives will be righteous. That's what will characterize us, though we will manifest those characteristics. Not sin, that's the contrast, but righteousness. But he also points out another test, another example. And this is what's leading us now into our new section for today. And that's the example of love. What is true of the one who belongs to God and the showing of love? Well, right here in verse 10, again, he makes it obvious. There's no surprise where this is going. The one who does not love his brother is not of God. That's what he says here. A true believer has love for his brother. And that's other Christians, right? We're not talking about family. Oh, I don't have a brother, so I don't have to do this. No, we're talking about other Christians, right? Let's just get that out of the way right now. Other Christians. And that's what we're going to see as we spend time going through the next several verses here in 1 John 3. Now, this isn't the first time that John has brought up this subject. He introduced it back in chapter two. So if you look back in chapter two, verse 10, for just a minute, he said there, the one who loves his brother abides in the light and there's no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. And there's the distinction. It's the same as what we're going to see here. The one who loves his brother shows that he's in the light. Right? Remember the terminology? That's salvation terminology, right? God is light. He abides with God in the light. He's in the light. But the one who hates his brother shows that he's not saved. He's in the darkness. And so John has already talked about this, but he's going to go here a little bit deeper, right? And John has this tendency to spiral around in his writing, right, in his thought process. And we see that to a smaller degree, right, because he talks about saved and unsaved, right? So he keeps going from saved to unsaved to saved to unsaved, right, in all these little arguments. But then in the bigger picture, He goes around and around, but then in the bigger picture, even with some of his topics, he keeps coming back around to some of these topics. He talks about sin, he talks about obedience, he talks about love, he comes back to sin, and then obedience again, and then love, and he keeps coming around to these different topics. So here we're going back to love, talking about love. Now look back just a second at verse seven of chapter two, where he introduced love before, he said in that verse, beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment, which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard. So here he's talking about love as an old commandment that they've heard before. Now, why do we care about that? Because now we come to verse 11 of chapter three, and we see a similar time element that he brings up here. He says in verse 11, for this is the message which you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another. And once again, he introduces the topic as not anything brand new. This was an old commandment back in chapter two, and it's been heard from the beginning here, he says. And this is very much a concept that believers should well be aware of, and this pretty much underlines it all. The concept of love is at the very core of the Christian life. It is a capacity that we now have that we did not have before, and I hope we all realize that. We could not truly love prior to being saved, not in the way that we're talking about here. This is sacrificial love. This is agape love. We've talked about this before already in the book. It's the type of love that God showed us by sending his son to die for our sins. The love that doesn't just say, I love you, then carry on selfishly, or a love that is fueled by an emotional moment in time. This is a love that works for the benefit of the one that you love, regardless of the cost. regardless of what it means for you. This is the kind of love out of which we were saved, right? And we saw that a few verses ago at the beginning of chapter three. If you remember our discussion on verse one, see how great a love the father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God and such we are. For this reason, the world does not know us because it did not know him. Remember, this was John's astonishment, right? His astonished statement on the love of God. Behold, see how absolutely unfathomable a love the father has bestowed on us that we would be called his children. And that's what we are. Our being his children, being born into his family is at the heart of everything that John has been talking about since. Since we are born of him, since we belong to him, then his character is now our character. That's what we're saved into. That's what our new life brings. And that truth has been taught since the very beginning, John says. He uses the term very beginning. But the beginning of what? What does he mean when he says the beginning? Well, you can see this idea of love all the way back into the Old Testament. The responsibility for God's people to love others was taught even back then. Leviticus 19.18, love your neighbor as yourself. Deuteronomy 6.5 says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, right? It goes back that far. Love is not a new concept. But I think what's more relevant here is what the entire concept of their salvation has brought about. What the new association with Christ, the fellowship that we have through him has made possible in our lives. Turn back with me to John's gospel, chapter 15. In John, chapter 15, Jesus is talking about the association that we have with him and with the father are abiding in him. The concept of fellowship that we saw earlier in first John. And the idea of abiding or remaining that we've seen throughout, right? We've talked about that several times in the letter. But as we come to chapter 15, you look down at verse nine, we see one of the things that our association with our new family, our new family association of being born with God will bring about in us. He says in verse nine, just as the father has loved me, I have also loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full." So here we see the association not only with Christ and the love of Christ, that love that Christ loved us with. He says that the one who is keeping his commandments, again, these are actions, right? We're talking about what we do. Having that outward manifestation that reveals what's true inside of us. It's that one who remains in the love of God, the one that is actually doing these things, that Christ truly loves just as the Father loves Christ. Now look at what he says going into verse 12 here. He says, this is my commandment. that you love one another just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." So here we are. This is what we are to manifest as those whom God loves. We are to love one another. In what way? In the same way that he loved us. This is exactly what John is saying. In fact, you could point to this and say this is where John got it, right? From what Christ told him, what Christ had told the other disciples years before, you are to love one another. So from the very beginning, the beginning of the Christian faith, of the Holy Spirit adopting believers into the family of God, the command has always been here. That has always been at the heart of being born into the church, being born of God. Love one another. Now, just because something is commanded doesn't mean that it's possible. I mentioned before that we now have the capacity to love. We did not have that before. You can be told to do something, but only those with the capacity to do it will be able to carry out a command. A general can command an army. You can go to an army and say, I want you to take your entire army, and I want you to go to that hill and take the hill. Army can do it. I mean, there's obviously, what's the opposing force and all that, right? But generally speaking, that army can do it. That's a command that he can give. The general could also go to this middle school and say, I want all the kids in this school to go take that hill. Could they do it? Probably not. It's not a command that they could do, but the general could give them the command. He could command it, but they have no capacity to be able to do it. The ability to love one another is commanded of believers and it is possible for believers, but what makes it possible for us to love one another? The Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter five, verse five, the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. And he says also in the fifth chapter of the book of Galatians, but the fruit of the spirit of the Holy Spirit is what? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. That's the first fruit that he lists as what comes from the Holy Spirit who has been poured out into us. The Holy Spirit coming upon us to indwell us because of his love, then gives us the capacity to love as God loves. And therefore, we not only have the ability to fulfill this command, but we have the expectation to love based on our new life in Christ. we are to manifest the love of Christ. We're all familiar with first Corinthians chapter 13. We won't turn to that chapter. Probably the most complete chapter on love. Where Paul makes it clear that as a believer, anything and everything that we now do is to be done in love or else it's not even worth doing. I can do the greatest things for people. I can give to the poor. I can help the sick. I can minister to the lost. But if I'm not doing it, with an attitude of love, then Paul says, I'm nothing. Believers in Jesus Christ are to be characterized by love, having that attitude towards others, and then manifesting that love towards one another. And that's where it starts. And John tells us here, and what Jesus told him is with a love of the brethren, love one another. That's what we are to be doing. Now, why is it important for John to remind us that this is nothing new? This is something that we've heard from the beginning. You've been hearing this since the start of the church. This has always been a command. The church in John's day had only been around for about 60 years. Today, the church has been around for 2,000 years, and yet it's still important for us to remember that this is true from the beginning. Why is that? Simply because God's word, his truth, hasn't changed in that span of time. What we're reading today, 2000 years later, is the same that John was telling the churches back then, 60 years after the church had been started. It's not new. We look at the word new and we think new, new is exciting. New is intriguing. New can be exhilarating, but new is not better. In fact, new is dangerous. New usually is heretical. What do I mean by that? Well, simply put, the canon of scripture is closed. There's nothing new coming from God today in the way of teaching, in the way of truth. I'm teaching you the letter of 1 John. This book's been around 2,000 years. I'm not teaching you anything new here, right? And if I am teaching you something, oh, I've never heard that before. Well, examine that. Right? What we are responsible for doing is to examine anything that comes along today and see how it compares to what's old, to what has been revealed, what has already been taught. That's the problem that the church in John's day was experiencing. Here, 60 years later, they'd been hearing these things, they'd been taught these lessons, and now all of a sudden somebody was coming around and they had new teachings. Oh, really? I hadn't heard that before, teaching new concepts that they had never heard before. And John is reminding them here, look, you shouldn't be looking for what's new. You should be looking for what has already been revealed. What's been taught from the very beginning, because those old truths haven't changed. And if you hear something that's contrary to them, you shouldn't be excited about it, you should reject it. It was true in John's day when, again, the church was 60 years old, and it's still true today. The 2,000-year-old truth. The command is still true. It's still relevant. It concerns me greatly, and it should concern you, too, when people start to get excited about new things, new teachings, new programs and processes. Oh, but look how many people they're attracting by that. I know. Look how many people they're attracting by that. That's not impressive. That's scary. That's terrifying. People keep coming up with new ways to rehash old heresies. They dust them off, they repackage them, they put shiny new cover on the book or on their video series or on their podcast and they draw in more people that just want to be lied to because they're now part of this new thing that's really based off of things that are centuries old. They just don't know that. The Gnostics in John's day are really the same as they are today. You look back at Gnostic teaching and you think, oh, they were teaching this and that and you think, That's stuff that people teach today. Yeah, 2,000 years old. That's not new either. They taught the same things maybe in different ways, but the underlying deception was still the same, and it still attracts people today as it did back then. is those who have been saved by the truth of the gospel. It's the basics of the gospel message that we are to be standing in, that we are to be going back to continually, daily, and making sure that those truths do not waver and that they do not suffer and get forgotten. The message that we have heard from the beginning is still the message that is relevant today. And the specific message that John is referring to here is that we love one another. Now it makes perfect sense for him to say that we should love one another, right? Because John has told us that God loved us. He's told us that we are in fellowship with God and with other believers. We're in fellowship one with another. And he's told us that we are now born of God. We are all now born of God. And we will manifest the characteristics of the one to which we are born. Therefore, believers will love one another. That's how we will operate, then that love will be evident in our lives. But as John always does, he's not going to give us one half of the equation. He's showing us without showing us the other half. He's got to draw that distinction, that contrast, right? So we've gone to one side, believers love one another. Now we're going back to the other side. Having shown us what is true of those who belong to God, he will now show us what is true of those that belong to the devil. And that's what he does in verse 12. So he says, 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. So here John uses his only Old Testament example of his epistles. He refers to the account of Cain and Abel. He here assumes that his readers are familiar with this account because he doesn't go into any detail, right? Very familiar account. The first two children that we have recorded in scripture, one of them murders the other. Not a very good start, is it? What John is going to do as he presents this contrast to love is show what we would see as varying degrees of the contrast, okay? But the point is that all these things that he shows don't really vary at all. In verse 12, he's contrasting love with murder, right? Cain killed Abel. He murdered his brother. In verses 13 to 16, we'll see him, he'll start talking about hate. Well, you've got murder, that's really bad. Hate, okay, well, that's bad, but it's not to the degree of murder, right, in our minds. And then in verse 17 to 18, he's gonna talk about indifference or apathy. Okay, well, now I just don't care about someone. I don't hate them, but I just don't care about them. But in reality, the point that we're gonna see here is that none of these is love. And if you're going to hate someone or even be indifferent towards them, that's really showing you to be in no better position than if you were going to murder them. And it's with that ultimate contrast of murder that John starts off here in verse 12 with the example of Cain. I think that most of us would agree you can't get much further away from loving someone than murdering them, right? I mean, that's like, that's it. That's the most extreme example you could find. They're pretty much polar opposites. Now, we won't take the time to go back and look at it, but you can find this account in Genesis chapter 4, verses 1 through 8. There Cain and Abel, they both offer their sacrifices, right? Cain is a, he grows crops and Abel is a keeper of flocks, right? So Cain brings a grain offering and Abel brings an animal offering. Well, God rebukes Cain for his sacrifice. It says in verses four and five of Genesis four, and the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. So Cain's offering is unacceptable and that makes it Cain angry. He's mad about that. So God comes to him. God actually speaks with him and warns him in verses six and seven. Why are you angry? And why is 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 desire is for you, but you must master it. So basically Cain here, God even tells him, you've got an option here, right? You can be obedient and you will do well, or the alternative is that sin is crouching at the door. It's waiting there for you. It's desires for you. Well, we know what Cain decides, because if Cain didn't decide the one, we wouldn't be talking about this, right? He ends up killing his brother. He chooses sin. He goes right along with sin. Well, it's curious though. In my mind, why did Cain kill Abel? It wasn't Abel that made Cain give the wrong sacrifice. It wasn't Abel that had no regard for Cain's sacrifice. We don't have any record that Abel was making fun of Cain for his sacrifice, but it was Abel that became the object of Cain's wrath, as Cain's hatred was directed at his brother. Why was that? Well, John tells us why here in verse 12. And there's really a couple of things that he says that point to it. The first thing he says, which is at the underlying stage of it, is that Cain was of the evil one. Cain was of his father, the evil one. He was of his father, the devil, is really what that means. The word for evil one that John uses here is the same one that he used before back in chapter two, when talking about those who have reached the spiritual maturity of young men. Remember when we talked about fathers and young men and children? The young men, it says in verses 13 and 14, same phrase is used, you have overcome the evil one. You have overcome Satan. You don't give in to his influence, to his desires. You're no longer born of him. That's different from Cain, isn't it? God told him, get your act together or you're going to succumb to sin. And that's exactly what Cain did. He gave in to sin. He didn't overcome it. He didn't master it as God told him to do. But believers, those with a true knowledge of the truth, overcome the evil one. We don't belong to him anymore. We now have the ability to resist him. But those that do belong to him, as we've seen before, will act like him, will give in to him, because they are enslaved to their sin. A passage that we've looked at before, again, we won't turn there, but John chapter eight, and I've referred to it many times over the last few weeks. John 8, 44, Jesus says, you are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer. from the beginning. It's not surprising that Cain killed his brother because he was of his father, the devil, the evil one, a murderer from the beginning. So that explains why Cain was evil. But specifically, why did he direct his wrath against Abel? Why did he kill Abel? John tells us that in the latter part of the verse here. He says, and for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous. Why did Cain kill Abel? Because Abel was righteous and Cain was evil. I don't believe this is referring to just the acts of the sacrifice. It's not saying that, well, Cain had a bad sacrifice and Abel had a good sacrifice. I believe John here is making a statement about the two brothers' lives. He's making a statement about their character. The pattern of Cain's life was to do evil things. while Abel did righteous things. And as John has already told us, that's an indication of their true character. There are only four times that Abel is referred to in the New Testament. And he's referenced in those passages because of his righteousness. Three of them, including this one, specifically mentioned that he was a righteous man. So John is basically saying here that Cain killed Abel because Abel walked in the light. And Cain walked in the darkness. And as we've previously seen in our studies, the darkness hates the light. It can't stand the light. So for the unbeliever, the very fact that a believer does righteous things, acts in righteousness, is enough to condemn him. It is enough to be a murderous offense. When you manifest the character of God, the love of God, righteousness, holiness, the world is going to hate that. It's going to hate you. And as we continue on, that's where John takes us in the following verses with this line of thinking. The hatred of the world towards believers. Look at what he says in verse 13. He says, do not be surprised brethren if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of life, 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. So John starts off talking about hate, but as you can see, he ends up again talking about murder, right? They're tied together. That's because we're going to see that there's really no difference between the two as far as the one who's doing them. The world belongs to their father, the devil. John made it very clear back in chapter two, that there was that distinction between that which belongs to God and that which belongs to the world, right? He said in verse 16 of 1 John 2, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is not from the father, but it's from the world. We are not to love the world, he said in the verse prior to this one, because the world is opposed to God. They're opposites. The world is opposed to God. Those who are in the world belong to the world, and they love the world, and they are children of the devil. And therefore, what the world does shouldn't surprise us. Look again at verse 13. Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. Don't be surprised. This is no shock to us. The world is going to hate you. We see the word if here, right? He uses the word if, if the world hates you. But this is what's known as a first class condition in the Greek, which means that it's an assumed reality. That means that this if, you could really use the word since, or a popular phrase we like to say today is if and when, right? If and when the world hates you. Turn back with me over to John 15 again. We were here a few minutes ago. There's a portion a little further down that we need to see. I think we ended up in verses 12 and 13 last time, where Jesus is telling them his new command, love one another. Then as he goes down through the next verses, we get an indication of what that love looks like, right? Lay down your life for your friends, being friends of the one to whom you belong, bearing the fruit of the one who chose you. And then in verse 17, which is where we're going, he finishes that up with the same command again. This I command you, that you love one another. Okay, so this is what he's telling his disciples, in extension us, this is what we should be doing, love one another. So that's the context of this. But then he goes on and he says this in verse 18. If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. Now, remember the new association that we have, the identity that we now have as followers of Christ, the new life that we have as we abide in him, right? That's what he's been talking about here. This is part of what that means. If the world hated Christ, which we all know that it did and that it still does, if the world has that hatred for Jesus Christ and we are now identified with him, then what do we expect? that it will hate us as well. And that's exactly what Jesus goes on to say next. Verse 19, 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 because of this, the world hates you. We are no longer of the world. We've seen that we've been chosen out of the world. Therefore, we can expect hatred from the world. We now belong to the world's enemy. Therefore, those in the world hate us. So this should not be a surprise to us. He goes on to say then in verse 20, you remember the word that I said to you, a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. In other words, however the world treated Jesus, we can and should expect the same. We are now part of him. We are now identified with him. Christian pastors being jailed in foreign countries, not surprising. Missionaries being martyred, Christians being humiliated in the news, false religions being given preference so that they aren't offended while Christians are told to shut up for offending others with the truth of God's word. Don't be surprised at that. It's not shocking. It's what Jesus told us was going to happen. This is what we can expect as Christians. Before Jesus was even gone, before he'd even died for our sins, he told us this is the way it's gonna be. Hatred from the world comes along with the Christian faith. Turn back to 1 John 3, if you're not there already. We live in a hostile world. We live in enemy territory. That's what's going on here, right? It'd be like walking around in Nazi Germany in 1942 wearing a USA t-shirt, right? You would not be popular. Or the other way around, wearing a Nazi Germany shirt in the United States in 1942 would not be popular. Hatred will come from the world. So back in 1 John 3, we see In verse 14, he again talks about love as a defining characteristic for the believer. He says, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. And again, this is part of our assurance as believers. This is part of how we can know that we have eternal life. Remember how Paul put it in Ephesians chapter two, talking about the spiritual condition that we were in before we were saved. He says, you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world. As believers in Jesus Christ, we are no longer dead. We have passed out of death into life because God has made us alive together with Christ. That is a spiritual fact. How do we know that that has actually taken place in us? How can we be sure? We're told that. We're told that that's what happens. How do we know that that happened with us? Well, one of those bits of evidence, do we love the brethren? How do our actions show that towards other believers? How do we behave around those with whom we share in fellowship with Jesus Christ, with each other, with those right here in this room? Do we love one another? Now we're gonna leave that question open for just a minute here and come back to it, right? Because remember, John's circling around believer to unbeliever, believer to unbeliever. So John is once again doing that back and forth here between believers and unbelievers. And I wanna follow the unbeliever theme here first, before coming back to what he says about believers. So we see that the believer loves the brethren, but what does he say at the end of verse 14? He says, he who does not love abides in death. So the one who doesn't love, doesn't manifest this love that he's talking about, abides in death. And that's the same death that Paul's talking about in Ephesians chapter two, you being dead in your trespasses and sins. This is where the one who doesn't love continually dwells. He's still in that state. He is lost in his sins. He's never been made alive together with Christ. And John makes it even more clear in verse 15, where he says, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. And here he's equating hatred and murder, right? We see that, how are the two the same? How can they be the same? You think, well, you know, if I hate someone, I didn't actually kill them. Well, murder is just the external action of what's already in someone's heart. The one who hates is already guilty before God, whether he's actually murdered anyone or not. Turn over to Matthew chapter five with me. In Matthew chapter five, Jesus is giving a sermon on the mount here and he's telling the multitudes things that they never heard before, right? I told you that we don't like new things, but when Jesus was here, he taught new things, right? That was okay because he's the one that could do it. But in Matthew 5, look down at verse 21. He said there, you have heard that the ancients were told you shall not commit murder and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court. Okay, that's an easy one, right? That's a no brainer. Everybody knows this. You don't murder. If you murder, you're liable to the court. You're guilty, right? You're going to pay for that. But then he takes it a step further, verse 22. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court. And whoever says to his brother, you good for nothing shall be guilty before the Supreme Court. And whoever says you fool shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. What he's showing here are all the things that would be considered hatred, not loving your brother. If you have hatred towards your brother, if you are under the same guilt, the same penalty as if you murdered him. The reason is because sin is an outward manifestation of what's in the heart. And in the heart of those who do not belong to God, there is hatred. Just because someone hasn't murdered anyone, They've only hated them, they're not off the hook. That's not any better. They're still abiding in death. They do not have eternal life abiding in them. They aren't saved. If your propensity is to hate others, especially believers, we're talking about the context of believers here. If you have no desire to be around believers, if you can only stand to be with the people in this room for one hour a week, maybe two, and that's about it, then that doesn't get you off the hook. You sit there and you say, well, you know, I never heard it. I know I can be around them. I don't want to be around them. I don't want to have anything to do with them, but I didn't murder any of them. That doesn't get you off the hook. That hatred, John says here, makes you as guilty as a murderer anyway. Hatred is a manifestation in the life of the one who is not saved, not of one who belongs to the light. Now we've seen murder and we've seen hatred, which is the equivalent of murder. But next John is gonna talk about one that may seem more minor, right? Murder is the big one, now we have hatred. And now we get down to one in verses 16 and 17 here, where he starts to talk about indifference or apathy. He says in verse 16, 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 brethren in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Now we're going to deal with verse 17 first and come back to verse 16, right? Because I'm, like I said, I want to focus on the unbelieving side here for a minute. The contrasts. In verse 17, what do we see? We see the one who has something that his brother needs. And he does what with that knowledge? Oh, I know this person needs something. I see that he has this great need. And what do I do? Well, he withholds it from him. He keeps it for himself. He doesn't give his brother what he needs. They're being selfish with what they have. They're being selfish against their brother who is in need. Now, selfishness is not what true love is. In fact, again, that's the complete opposite. True love, agape love, is love that sacrifices, that gives of itself. Right here in verse 16, the ultimate example of what love is, he laid down his life for us. It's from that example that we even know what love is. So when it comes to our brethren, to those around us in need, and we are withholding even the most basic essentials, we are closing our heart against them. We see that need and we think, that's their problem. What is that saying about us? That's the act of one who does not love. That's the act of the world. That's the act of those who are of their father, the devil or children of the devil. The unbeliever would rather not worry about anyone else unless it suits his own needs. The one who doesn't have the love of God abiding in him does not show love towards others. Now, as I mentioned before, this gets a little harder for us, right? We might not have a problem with wanting to murder someone. Oh, that doesn't, that's never crossed my mind. Hopefully that's not something we struggle with. Then we talk about hatred, the hatred thing, and that might, well, you know, there's a, maybe there's one or two people that I haven't, you know, not my favorite person in the world. But then we come to indifference and that might be something that's a little harder that we have to work on. Is this something that may sound like us? How do we respond to those around us who are in need? As we look at our own lives and we contemplate that, let's go back and see what John says does characterize believers, right back up to verse 14. He says, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. Okay, now look at verse 16. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. You see, we know that we are saved. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. That's our test of salvation. What is love? Okay, I'm to love the brethren, but what is love? What does it mean to love the brethren? Well, look at the example. Look at the act by which we are to know what love is in verse 16, that Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. He went to the cross and died for us. That's the type of love with which he loved us. And if we are to love as Christ loves, That's what we are to do. And because of that, and the fact that we are now identified with him and we abide with him and we are born of him, these are all things we've seen already in this letter, what are we to be willing to do? Lay down our lives for the brethren. That's a sacrificial love that we're talking about. Now, of course, this isn't saying that we all need to go out and die today, that we all lay on the railroad tracks. No, that's not what he's saying here. But he's using the most extreme example, right? We all need to ask ourselves, what are we willing to do for one another? Or better yet, what would we not be willing to do for one another? If we're to be willing to give up our lives for each other, then what else would we not be willing to give up? Are we willing to give up our time, give up our property, give up money? Remember the believers in the early church, they were selling their property for one another, giving to anyone that had need. The needs in the early church were great. There were many that were starving, many who had lost everything because of their new faith in Christ. Now, maybe we don't have all that going on, but we have many in our midst who do have needs. How are we willing to respond? Regardless of the specific circumstances surrounding what was going on in the early church, the fact remains believers had needs and their brothers and sisters in Christ were willing to do whatever was necessary to love them as they should. And that responsibility in the church has not changed between then and now. Remember, love is action, right? We sometimes sit there and we say, we hear about people's needs, we tell them, okay, I'll pray for you. And sometimes that phrase, we should pray for them, I'm not saying we shouldn't pray for them, but sometimes we use that phrase because we say, that's my get off the hook phrase. That's great because essentially when we pray for one another, we sit there and say, I can now walk away feeling satisfied that, well, I've done all I can do. What are we willing to do out of love to provide for others' needs? How can we go beyond praying for them, feeling compassion for them, telling them that we're pulling for you and actually serve them in some way? Our love for one another ought to be sacrificial. It ought not to be modeled after what the world says love is. Tell them that you love them and then go about your business. No, it's to be modeled on what God says that love is, on what God showed us that love is. Remember when we talked about verse one of chapter three, the great love that God showed us up in verse one. The phrase for great love was a foreign or alien kind of love. It's a love that the world doesn't even understand. Why would you do that for someone else? Why would you love someone that way? It's almost beyond comprehension. It's a love that has a willingness to lay down everything that you have for the benefit of someone else. Look at what John says in verse 18. This is the last verse we'll get to today. Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but indeed in truth. Again, here is John's appeal to believers. When all is said and done, how are we as believers to love one another? with deed and action, not just in word and tongue, not just, oh, you know, I feel bad for you, I'll pray for you. We pray for them, again, not belittling praying for them, we do that, but then what? We love them with deed and action, action based on the truth of the word of God, not just by lip service. That's true love. I can tell you I love you, but if I never do anything for you, if I turn my back on you, if I close my heart to you, then I am as guilty of that act as Cain was in murdering Abel. There's no difference. They are both acts devoid of love. A believer loves the brethren. It's not just what we are able to do, it's what we're going to do if we truly abide in Christ and we're truly saved. That's one of the ways that we can know, have assurance of our salvation if we have love for other believers. Let's close in a word of prayer this morning. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you, we thank you Lord for this opportunity once again that we have to be in your word and we thank you Lord for the truth that John is presenting to us here. We thank you for these tests, Lord. And sometimes as we look at these tests and they might make us uncomfortable, they might make us squirm a bit, Lord. We just pray that we would use that to spur us on, to make changes if we need to, Lord, and just know that everything that we do as your children is to be due to glorify and honor you. And I just pray, Lord, that as we serve one another, as we love one another, Lord, seek what's best for each other, that we would just honor you in that way. And Lord, that we would just manifest that characteristic. We thank you, Lord, for our time. Once again, we pray that as we go into the next hour, that that would be a time that would honor you as well. And Lord, we just pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.