Sermon Transcript
Good morning, friends. I want to invite you to open up in your Bible, if you would please, to the book of 1 John. Continuing in our series we’ve been in since September, we’re going to be looking at chapter 3, starting in verse 10 here in a moment. I want to show you a picture and ask what’s wrong with the following picture and see how long it takes you to figure out.
If you’re not sure, let me help you. If you want to buy your child a gift at Christmas time, and specifically Superman, that’s not Superman. That’s 4 times not Superman. That’s something else entirely. And I came across this picture when I was doing some research for this message and saw that there is every year a number of people, toy manufacturers specifically, that go out of their way to put out a product that kind of looks sort of similar to other products that you and I might typically buy, but then it’s really like a counterfeit toy.
It’s something that purports to be one thing, and then it ends up being something else. And because of how my personality works, I had to do a deep dive on this and found that there’s a lot more out there that’s more egregious than this. For instance, if you want to get your child a Superman, don’t get them this next one either.
I don’t know what this guy’s superpower is, but it might be making soup. He can leap over tall buildings, but judging by the spelling of it, it might be doing something in a soup kitchen. We also have another version of Superman who’s really not so super. This is Special Man.
This is an actual toy. He’s not super, okay? He’s just special. He looks like Superman. Please, please, please do not tell your children that this is Superman.
This is just Special Man. But then you start to look and you see other counterfeit toys that are out there, and sometimes they put these universes together. How many of you have seen the Avengers? Yes? I haven’t seen all of them.
I’ve seen, like, I’ve seen, like, 3 of them. This is the Sense of Right Alliance. I don’t know what this— like, I don’t think this is actually a thing, but if you were looking for something Avengers, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, they’re throwing all of these things together in something that is not a real thing called the Sense of Right Alliance, and it says, let’s fence against the earth. Can somebody please explain to me what that means? I don’t understand what that is, and they’re throwing the Power Rangers in there.
There’s other groups as well. If you like Star Wars and you like E.T., you’re in luck. We have something else here for you. Go ahead. We have E-3PO.
I don’t— again, I don’t even know. Some people like the Ninja Turtles. You want to get your kid a Ninja Turtle? Well, we have something else for them that’s a little bit cheaper, the new style Ninja Tortoise. Very different than the Ninja Turtles.
This is the guy they wouldn’t let into the Turtles, and he’s showing how upset he is by having a group that’s called tortoise there. But again, you may save some money, but you’re gonna have an upset child. We also have— we all love Toy Story. Well, I introduce to you Space Boys 3, which is, first of all, it’s not a thing. But look at Woody’s hands and look how he’s been lifting weights or something like that.
Woody doesn’t typically look like that. We also— we all remember the movie— well, not all of us. Those of us who are of a certain age remember the movie Ghostbusters. Well, we have something similar to that, but not the same thing. Go ahead.
It’s called Spook Chasers. Who you gonna call? Spook Chasers, apparently. We all like Godzilla movies. Well, we don’t have Godzilla.
We have something else called Big Fella. I don’t know. Some kids want a G.I. Joe, but don’t get them a G.I. Joe when you can get them Sassy Jackie, which again, I don’t even know what that’s supposed to be.
And then My Little Pony. Is also known as Demon Donkey.
These are actual toys for sale that somebody might buy. And then, of course, if you’re concerned about your child having anger issues and you want to get them something Angry Birds but not so angry, you get them Ill-Tempered Birds, is what that says. Nothing like Angry Birds at all. Some of these are pretty obvious, right? You look at them, you’re like, that is not exactly the same thing.
Of course, this is actually a serious thing. If you’re in business to make toys and some other counterfeit group comes along and says, we’ve got these toys that are authentic and certifiable, and you’re like, no, like, these aren’t the actual things here, and companies may lose money as a result of something like this, or children may get hurt because these toys are being made poorly and quickly and cheaply and by people who don’t have the the ability to be able to make these things in a safe way. Well, we have to admit it’s a little funny, right? Like, so like we look at these things, and what we’re doing here in 1 John, especially in chapter 3, is John is taking us through a list of things that we should be looking for that help a person to know whether or not a person is really a Christian or not, whether they’re the real thing or they’re a fake, they’re a counterfeit. And sometimes it’s obvious and sometimes it’s not so obvious.
But that’s really what he’s been concerned with this entire book, but especially here in chapter 3 where we are. How do you know whether or not you are a Christian? How do you know whether or not a person is a Christian or not? And this is an issue in our world because something may look like one thing or somebody may say one thing, but it’s something else altogether. Before the service, my buddy down here in the front, Todd Cerf, gave me his brand-new business card.
I have it right here, right? And if you don’t know Todd, he works at a place called Ada’s Cafe. And I know that Todd works at Ada’s because I’ve been there, right, Todd? I remember going there, and you served me a sandwich there, and I took my family there, and I’ve been by there. I know that Todd works there, but you may not know that.
He might tell you he works there, and you say, how do I know? Well, now he has a business card, and this business card— this is legit right here, Todd. It says shift leader, inventory manager, and chief happiness officer. I love that, buddy. I love that.
That’s awesome. Good job. I’m going to hold on to that and share that with others. We love you, buddy. So, Todd’s the real deal.
He’s not just saying he works at ADAS. It’s a real deal. If a person— when it comes to Christianity, though, how can we tell? And what we looked at last week, starting in verse 10 today, I want to start there, just back up to what we looked at last week. It says this in verse 10, this is how we know.
This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. 2 simple, straightforward tests for us. Do you do what is right consistently as a, as a way of life? That doesn’t make you right with God, but do you do right as a result of being right with God?
And then secondly, do you love? Do you love? And that’s what we’re going to look at this week. Do you love or not? And this information here about there being sort of 2 camps of people may be news for you, may be upsetting for you.
It’s upsetting to a lot of people. It’s very threatening because for many of us we think, well, there’s like at least 3 groups. You have people who follow after God and then people who don’t, but then kind of like a large vast number of people who are sort of in the middle, right, who are morally neutral. And John says, no, there’s not 3 groups. There’s 2 groups.
Some of us think there’s only 1 group. We’re all in the same camp together, and by nature of being born and citizens of earth, we are all naturally children of God. And John says, 2 groups. There’s only 2 spiritual families, and whether you’re religious or not, spiritual or not, everybody’s a part of one or the other family. We’re automatically in one family by nature.
The only way you or I can get into the other family is by grace. Children of God and children of the devil. And John says the reason how you can tell the difference is, do you do what is right and do you love? And specifically, this idea of love, he’s saying, do you not just think that you’re a Christian? Do you not just feel that you’re a Christian?
Do you not just desire to be a Christian? But do you love? It’s a simple and straightforward test here that he gives us. And by children of the devil, by the way, he’s not saying that the devil created us. He’s not saying that.
But he’s saying that we reflect by nature the nature and characteristics of things that the devil does. We are born into sin. We are born into that family, and only by grace can a person come into the other family to be a child of God. He says this in verse 11, for this is the message you heard from the beginning. This is something Jesus shared with his disciples in the upper room, John chapter 13.
He says we should love one another. This is the message we’ve had from the beginning. What is the greatest commandment? To love God with all your heart, your soul, your strength, and your mind. We’re to love others as we love ourselves.
The laws and the commandments that are found in Scripture all fall under that umbrella. People will know that you’re a Christ follower not by you saying that you are or thinking that you are or feeling that you are or wanting to be part of that, but by your love. He’s saying this is a message we’ve had from the very, very beginning. So what he’s going to do for us, John, is he’s going to help us out by understanding, well, what is love and what is not love by contrasting 2 things. And if you haven’t figured this out in the book of 1 John, John loves contrasts.
He loves black and white. He doesn’t give us 3rd options here. It’s either this or it’s this. Contrasts light and darkness and life and death. And here he’s going to contrast love and hate.
And here’s what you need to know, that the mark of the world, the mark of those who are children of the devil, is hatred. The mark of those who are in God’s family, the mark of those who say that they’re Christ followers, is love. It’s a simple and a straightforward test he gives us here. So, he’s going to contrast these 2 things, and I want to look at these contrasts here so that we understand what are we marked by? What are you marked by?
Are you marked more by love, or are you marked more by hate? And can we read that, we say, like, there’s not, like, a 3rd option? No. Love or hate. So, let’s contrast these things.
Let’s start in verse 12. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. Why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.
We know that we have passed from death to life because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him or her. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?
Dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth. One of the first things we see here is he’s using language of brothers and sisters. He’s talking about we should be known by our love, if you’re a Christian, for other Christians.
But this doesn’t mean that you’re not supposed to love everybody else as well. So don’t get caught up on that phraseology. He is specifically talking about love within the covenant community of people who follow Jesus, but you should be known as love, as a person who loves all, is what he’s pointing us towards. And so one of the first things that we see here is this contrasting love and hate. Let’s start with hatred here, turning to verse 12.
And following, he says that hatred originates where? It originates with the devil. Hatred originates with the devil. You go back to, to the beginning, Genesis 4, right off the bat here, you don’t have to turn there, but it says that Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil, and in the course of time Cain brought some of the fruit of the soil as an offering to the Lord, and Abel also brought an offering. Fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.
The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry; his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 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. You must rule over it. Now Cain said to his brother Abel, let’s go out to the field. While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, where’s your brother Abel?
I don’t know, Cain replied. Am I my brother’s keeper? The Lord said, what have you done? Listen, your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. And he says, now you’re under a curse.
And he describes what that curse is. So John takes us back to almost the beginning here and pointing to Cain to say Cain and Abel had the same biological parents, but they had different spiritual parents. And Cain’s spiritual father was the devil himself.
They both offered sacrifices. One was accepted, the other was not. And so what he’s saying here is that his spiritual father is the devil. That doesn’t mean that Satan literally fathered Cain, but that what Cain was doing, his attitude and his actions reflected the family that he was in. He was a child of the devil, and hatred originates with the devil.
So anytime there’s hatred in your heart or in my heart or in anyone’s heart, we’re doing something that the devil has been doing from the very, very beginning. We are imitating the devil because that’s where evil and hatred originate. And because of that, because hatred and evil has been part of the devil’s MO from the very, very beginning, Don’t be surprised, John says, when other people hate you. This is just part of the world system in which we live. People naturally hate.
It takes something supernatural, God’s grace infused in our lives, for us to no longer naturally hate but to actually love those that we formerly hated. He’s saying that this originates with the devil. He’s been lying from the beginning. He’s been a murderer from the beginning. We saw last week in verse 8 He’s been sinning since the very, very beginning.
So don’t be surprised when other people sin against you. Hatred originates with the devil. The second thing we see here is that what hatred is, and it’s providing us a good definition and overarching thing as we think about Cain, is that hatred selfishly seeks another’s harm. Hatred is not merely an emotion, but is actually seeking another person’s harm. I want what is bad for you.
Why did Cain murder Abel? Was it because Abel was wicked? No, it says here in chapter 3 that it’s because Cain’s actions were unrighteous and evil, and his brother’s were righteous. It was jealousy. It was resentment.
It was pride. All of that originates with the devil. Wherever there’s jealousy, wherever there’s hatred, whenever there’s resentment and self-righteousness, and murder. All of that originates with the devil, and it selfishly seeks another person’s harm. So, the ultimate example of hatred that John points us to is the devil and also Cain.
It’s taking the life of another. The ultimate example of hatred is taking that which is most precious to other people. It’s taking the life of another.
And we hear that, we say, I’ve never taken another person’s life. And if we go to this passage and we walk away feeling like, I’m being obedient if I don’t physically take another person’s life, then we’re missing John’s point entirely. You go back to the Gospel of Matthew. Again, you don’t have to turn there, but Jesus said the following in the Sermon on the Mount, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, you shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister angry will be subject to judgment.
Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, Raca, which is an Aramaic term for empty-headed one, or, you fool, basically looking down at another person saying, you have no sense, you have no value, you have no worth, you’re empty. Anyone who says that to a brother or sister is answerable to the court, and anyone who says, you fool, will be in danger of the fire of hell. Obviously, there’s a difference between hatred and murder. Like, one actually physically takes the life of another person, but it all starts in the same place, doesn’t it? Murder starts with hatred, begins with hatred.
And so that’s John’s point here in all of this, is guard your heart against hate because of where it leads. And for many of us, we’ve never physically murdered somebody, nor will we, But the question is not, what did you do? But what would you have done if you had the opportunity to do so?
Would you have taken your hate to another place if there weren’t constraints of law?
The question is not simply what you physically do, but what is the intent of your heart? That’s where John’s pointing us to. Those who are in Christ, those who are genuine followers, don’t have that as a settled fact of life in them.
Evil and hatred and murder originate with the devil. And how does this work itself out on an ongoing basis? Well, on an everyday level, it— you don’t have to hate somebody, you don’t have to murder them, you just have to ignore them. It’s indifference that leads to inaction. That’s the everyday effect of hatred.
Maybe you don’t hate somebody, maybe you don’t murder them, but that’s not the— if you see someone, John says, and you see their need and you can do something about their need and yet you don’t have pity on them, that’s not the effect of God’s love, that’s the effect of hatred.
So he’s taking us to a place that many of us don’t even want to go, and he uses the term there for pity, which describes to close or to shut. So what he’s saying there is if you see a need and you can help meet that need, but you close your heart, you shut your heart to that individual, it’s like slamming the door in that person’s face. And that doesn’t come from God. We’re to love in word and in deed, with our actions. But this is just the opposite of that.
It’s indifference that leads to inaction. And this is— I’ve really wrestled with this personally. This week as I’ve been studying this, because I don’t feel like I actively hate people. I certainly have never physically murdered a person. I don’t even think I’ve ever wanted somebody dead, but I certainly have been indifferent.
This is a gut check for those of us who would look at this and say, he’s not talking about me here. He’s talking about a lot of us. We are indifferent about our indifference. We are apathetic about our apathy. When it comes to compassion, aren’t we?
It is the new normal for us in our world to be indifferent. Somebody has a need, oh well.
John’s saying the love of the Father is not within you. That’s not what’s guiding you if that’s the everyday effect. And what it is evidence of, the 5th contrast thing, is it’s evidence of spiritual death. Verse 14, you know you’ve passed from death to life. So the absence of love, so it works its way out in hatred or murder or indifference, originates with the devil because guess what?
The devil’s been the first— he was the first creature to ever tell God, my will be done.
I am competent and capable of living my own life. Hands off, God.
That all originates with the devil, and it manifests itself in hatred and in murder and in indifference, and it’s evidence of spiritual death.
Now, we hear this and we say, so does that mean a person who has ever hated is— can’t— they can’t be a Christian? Somebody who’s murdered can never be a Christian? That’s not what he’s saying here, because if we go back to what we talked about last week, he’s talking about a settled fact of life, an ongoing attitude. You may lapse, I may lapse into hatred or indifference or bitterness or resentment, but a true child of God doesn’t stay there.
They recognize that and they move away from it. That’s not the fixed attitude of their life.
But what John is saying here We talked about this last week as well, is it’s reasonable to say, how much can a Christian sin and still be a Christian? How much can a Christian hate and still be a Christian? How much resentment can a person hold in their heart and still be a legitimate follower of Christ? He’s talking about a continuing, ongoing hatred.
Nevertheless, we should Humble ourselves and repent. We hear this and we say, what does this have to do with me? Again, I don’t actively hate it. I can’t think of anybody I actively hate right now. But if hatred is the opposite of love, let’s look a little bit deeper.
You’re familiar, many of you, with in 1 Corinthians 13, that’s the love chapter. Love is patient, love is kind, and all of these things that love does. Well, let’s Look at the opposite of that, and I got this quote from a guy named Kevin DeYoung. He says these things about hate. Hate is impatient and unkind.
Hate is jealous and proud. Hate is arrogant and rude. Hate always insists on doing things its own way. Hate gets upset over every offense and keeps a close record of every wrong. Hate does not delight to see good things, but rejoices when people screw up or get what’s coming to them.
Hate complains about anything, is cynical about everything, has no hope for anyone, and puts up with nothing. Does this make you grieve? It ought to, to cause us to say, God, may this never be in my life. I grieve over not only my own heart, but also the fact that we live in a world that desperately needs to see love, and I feel like I’m doing a decent job or that we’re doing a decent job, and yet this kind of causes me to slow down and say, God, once again, guard our motives and our hearts and our attitudes. John is saying this should never be the case for somebody who’s a genuine child of God.
It won’t be the case. Not only do they not continue to sin, but they can’t. We looked at that last week. They’re not able to. So what is love contrasted with hate?
Well, hatred originates with the devil. Love originates with God. Love originates with God. The only reason we know what love is is because of God. God is love.
And we’ll look at this in a few weeks in the new year, starting chapter 4, but I’ll go on ahead and read it now. Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. Love originates with God.
He is love, and his love in our hearts is evidence that we are children of God. We are part of the family of God here.
Now, can a person who’s not a child of God love? Certainly, right? Many of us know people who are not so-called Christians who are, in fact, even more loving than some people who do claim to be Christians. That’s tragic, that’s sad, but love is beautiful in whatever form it comes in when it’s genuinely loving and sacrificial and puts another person above them. Like, that can be a beautiful thing.
But John is using a Greek word here that many of you are familiar with, agape. He’s describing a God-type of love, a perfect kind of love, and that can only be produced from God himself in the life of a person who is a child of God. I’m not saying other people can’t love in various ways, but the perfect love of God can only be spread abroad in the heart of a person who’s been made right with God. And he’s saying that love is the kind of love he’s talking about here, a God-type of love that’s not a feeling, a God-type of love that loves not only those who love you, but loves those who don’t love you. Not only loves those who are grateful, but loves those who are ungrateful.
Not only loves those who are walking the walk and talking the talk, but also loving those who want nothing to do with you.
It’s natural for us to love one group. It’s unnatural, it’s supernatural for us to love somebody else that we would not normally love. And that’s the love that God pours out into our hearts. And so Love originates with God. He’s loved from the beginning.
It’s part of His character. It’s the love that is of God and from God only. And just as evil originated with the enemy, the only way that we can define love is by starting with God Himself. It is part of His character. And we say that hatred and evil selfishly seeks another’s harm.
Well, love selflessly seeks another’s good. That I would want what is good for you even if I don’t feel that you’re deserving of it, that I would want what is good for you even if I’d prefer to not give that to you, that I’m selflessly seeking your good. That’s what love is, and we see it demonstrated certainly in Jesus, and we’ll talk about that in a moment, but John uses a term here in verse 16, to lay down your life. Many of us will never have the opportunity to actually give, like to die for another person, but you can live for another person. And what he’s talking about there is to set aside your self-interest and put the interests of others above yourself.
That’s what love is. The kind of God agape love, this perfect love that the Bible’s talking about, that John is pushing us towards, puts the interests of others above ourselves. It looks out for them before looking out for ourselves. It is loving others as we love ourselves, even more than we love ourselves. But that’s the kind of love that he’s talking about there.
And the greatest example of that, verse 16, is Jesus Himself. It’s not taking life, but it’s giving your life for another. You want to know what is the essence of Christianity? If you’re here today and perhaps you’re exploring Christianity or you’re not really sure what Christianity is about, It’s verse 16.
This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. It is Jesus giving His life for us, substituting Himself for us so that we have the opportunity to be made right with God. And I love that this is chapter 3, verse 16, because if you want to know what the ultimate example and the essence of Christianity is, it’s not just 1 John 3:16. You can go to the Gospel of John 3:16 too.
That’s pretty good. John 3:16, 1 John 3:16, both of those summarize Christianity and why a child of God is a child of God and why that’s even possible. Because Jesus gave His life, and He makes it possible that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but would have eternal life. And you simply have to receive that and say yes to that. It’s the ultimate example of Jesus giving His life.
He didn’t give us moral teaching. He didn’t set a good example just by itself. No, He gave His life in addition to that other stuff because that was your greatest need and that was my greatest need, giving His life for us. How does this play itself out? How does love play itself out on an everyday basis?
Rather than indifference that leads to inaction, it’s compassion that leads to action. It’s the everyday action. It’s compassion that leads to action, no longer shutting your heart and slamming it in the face of somebody with a need that I know about and I’m able to help meet, I open my heart to that. That’s agape love. And John does something really interesting here that I— we could miss.
In verse 16, he’s talking in the plural, brothers and sisters, loving other people, plural. And then in verse 17, he talks about if anybody has material possessions and sees a brother, he’s using the singular here. Why? Well, I think it’s possible that he’s trying to make an example here that it’s easier to love in general terms than it is to love the person you’re living with.
God loves everybody, but do you love the person who’s sitting right in front of you? Do you love the person that you live with? Do you love the people that God has placed around you? God loves everybody. Does this one individual know that because of compassion moving towards that person.
John is moving us away from generalities and vague overarching statements that are feel-good statements to, let’s talk about where the rubber meets the road here. Do you love this person? Do you love that person specifically? The effect of God’s love in our heart is compassion that leads to action, and it’s evidence not of spiritual death but of spiritual life. It’s evidence of spiritual life.
You know that you have passed from death to life, verse 14 tells us here, when this love is evident in your life.
It doesn’t make you right with God, but it’s evidence that you have been made right with God. And so, if you are comfortable with harboring anger, if you’re comfortable with hating another person, if you’re comfortable with holding a grudge against another person or ignoring another person, if you’re comfortable with indifference, there’s reason to question whether or not you’re a child of God and your faith is genuine. Is it the real thing or not?
What John is saying here is that the quintessential evidence that you belong to God that you have received His love is that you love other people. It’s that simple. It’s that straightforward. It’s that fundamental.
So what do we do with a message like this? We ask God to soften us, because I think indifference is a symptom of a hard heart. The book of Hebrews chapter 3 talks about how our hearts become hardened because of the deceitfulness of sin. We become callous towards other people. We become callous towards God.
And this message, this passage is a wake-up call to say, is God’s love being manifest through you? The good news of the gospel is not that you have to grit your teeth and love other people. The good news of the gospel is go out and love more people. The good news of the gospel is God has loved you, so love other people. In like fashion.
You’re not doing that to earn God’s favor. You’re doing it because you have received God’s grace and His favor in your life. It’s evidence of spiritual life. May that be the case in us this day, this week, as we live openly before God, saying, God, check my heart. Make me right with You, and let Your love be manifest in my life.
Let’s pray. Father, we thank You for the fact that You take something so common and everyday as love and hate and help us to see that we need Your help, that we don’t love as often or as consistently as we should. That very often the intent of our heart is to harm rather than to seek another’s good. And I pray, God, that we would repent of that. I pray that we would live our lives openly before you, that your love would be poured out into our heart, that we would love others as a result of that, that we would be known by our love, known by your love in us.
Pray, God, that we would not harden our heart, that we would not gloss over this and say that this doesn’t apply to me. Pray that we would receive it along with Your forgiveness and Your mercy. We thank You that You make it possible for a person to be a part of the family of God.
May we live that out this week. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
