Last time we learned that the book of 1 John was written with a single purpose in mind. John tells us that he wrote this book so that you might have assurance of your salvation. He writes in chapter five verse 13, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (NIV)
As you read through the five chapters of the book of 1 John, if you “say” you are a believer, there are several “tests” that you could ask yourself, and if you are honest with yourself and do not try to justify yourself, you will know if you are saved or not.
1 John 1:6-7 - Do you walk in the light or in the darkness?
1 John 1:8-10 - Do you claim to be without sin, or do you confess your sins?
1 John 2:3-5 - Do you just say you know God or do you obey Him?
1 John 2:9-11 - Do you hate your brother or sister or do you love them?
1 John 2:15-17 - Do you love the world or do you do the will of God?
1 John 2:18-19 - Do you isolate yourself or do you rejoice in assembling with the body of Christ?
1 John 2:22-23 - Do you deny that Jesus is the Christ or do you acknowledge Jesus is the Son of God?
1 John 3:4-7 - Do you practice sin or do you strive toward righteousness?
1 John 3:14-18 - Do you love your brother just in words or do you love your brother in deeds?
1 John 4:5-6 - Do you listen to the world or do you listen to the Word of God?
These are just ten of the tests for true conversion found in this short letter. John helps us to know whether we are saved. But we also learned that he has provided us with evidence concerning the nature of the child of God and the children of the devil.
* Children of God do not practice sin.
* They do not habitually make a lifestyle out of sinning.
* When confronted with sin, God’s children, confess it, repent of it, and stop doing it.
* Children of God not only do not practice sin, they practice righteousness.
* They do the right thing when it comes to God and others, especially those they would consider their brothers and sisters in the faith.
We pick up our study of 1 John in chapter three, verse 10:
1Jn 3:10 In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the Devil: everyone not practicing righteousness is not of God, also he who does not love his brother.
We’ve dealt extensively with the first part of verse ten over the past few weeks: “In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the Devil: everyone not practicing righteousness is not of God”.
But notices what John writes at the end of verse ten: “also he who does not love his brother. John is telling us that not only is the person who does not practice righteousness not of God, but also is the person who does not love his brother.
He goes on in verse 11 to write, “For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another…”
John says that the command to “love one another” is the message that his readers had “heard from the beginning.” What was He referring to? John was referring to the words of Jesus found in the Gospel of John:
* John 13:34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. As I have loved you, you should also love one another.
* John 13:35 By this all shall know that you are My disciples, if you have love toward one another.
* John 15:12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
* John 15:17 These things I command you, that you love one another.
From the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry, the command to His followers was to “love one another.”
Notice in John 13:34 Jesus says that Jesus was giving His disciples “a new commandment.” What was new about it?
In my study I found that “loving one another” is:
* Brothers and sisters in the same family of God
* Children begotten of the same Father
* Children who are fellow disciples with each other
* Children of God who stay together and agree together
* Children who are praying one for another
* People who are bearing one another's burdens
* People who suffer long with and are forgiving one another
* Followers of Christ who are admonishing or warning each other
* Children of God who are building up one another in faith and holiness….
This is what “loving one another” means.
Jesus calls it "a new commandment” because it’s a new edition, and newly and more clearly explained, than ever before; and being enforced with a methodology that has never been used before.
Jesus said that He was giving a new commandment and that was to “love one another.”
But in the Old Testament we find a Law in Leviticus 19:18: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” So what is “new” about the commandment that Jesus gave?
I think that Jesus is telling us that you don’t find this kind of specific teaching on love in the Old Testament scriptures. Because if you notice with me in John 13:34, our Lord says at the end of the verse, “As I have loved you, you should also love one another.”
Jesus exceeded the demands of the Mosaic Law…He not only loved His neighbor as Himself, but He loved His neighbors more than Himself, proving it by laying down his life for them.” John 15:13 says, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
In John 13:1 the Bible says, “And before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come when He should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own in the world, He loved them to the end.”
* The idea behind the phrase to the end is “to the fullest extent, to the uttermost.” Meaning that Jesus' love had no limits.
* At the end of His earthly life the disciples gave up on Him but He never gave up on them. Though they stopped thinking about Jesus, and we're only thinking of themselves, He never stopped thinking of them.
* Jesus never stopped loving His own. His wasn’t a love that comes and goes. His was and is a love that reaches to the fullest extent. Some translations have “He loved them to the uttermost.” Jesus poured out the cup of His love to the bottom for us.
In John 13:34 Jesus calls for us to imitate Him; to be ready on all occasions to lay down our lives for each other. This was a new commandment: no system of morality ever prescribed anything as pure and holy as this.
So from the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry, the command to His followers was to “love one another.” As we progress through the New Testament we find the Apostle Paul teaching this same truth:
* Rom_12:10 in brotherly love to one another, loving fervently, having led one another in honor.
* Rom_13:8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves another has fulfilled the Law.
* Gal_5:13 For, brothers, you were called to liberty. Only do not use the liberty for an opening to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
* Eph_4:2 with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love,
* 1Th_3:12 And may the Lord make you to increase and abound in love toward one another and toward all, even as we also toward you,
* 1Th_4:9 But regarding brotherly love, you do not need that I write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.
* 2Th_1:3 We are bound to thank God always for you, my brothers, as it is right, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of each one of you abounds toward one another;
In Hebrews 10:24 the author writes, “and let us consider one another to provoke to love and to good works.”
In his first letter, Peter relays the new commandment from Jesus:
* 1 Peter 1:22 Purifying your souls in the obedience of the truth through the Spirit to unfeigned love of the brothers, love one another fervently out of a pure heart,
* 1Peter 5:14 Greet one another with a kiss of holy love. Peace be to you, all those in Christ Jesus. Amen.
The Apostle John. “The Apostle of Love” communicates this new commandment several times in his epistles:
* 1 John 3:11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another;
* 1 John 3:23 And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment.
* 1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God.
* 1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
* 1 John 4:12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us.
* 2 John 1:5 And now I beseech you, Lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.
Back to 1 John 3:10-11 John writes, “In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the Devil: everyone not practicing righteousness is not of God, also he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another…”
Jesus’ example exceeded the demand of the Mosaic Law to “love thy neighbor as thyself.” He esteemed the needs of others as more important than Himself being willing to die in our place, for our sins.
And so John contrasts this kind of unselfish love with the self-centered love of a Bible character we all are familiar with…Cain: 1 John 3:12- “not as Cain who was of the evil one, and killed his brother. And for what did he kill him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's things were righteous.”
We turn back to the book of Genesis chapter four where we find the account that John was referring to in his letter.
God created the heavens and the earth and on the sixth day God made mankind…male and female He created. God placed them in the Garden to take care of it and allowed them to eat of every tree but one. They were tempted by the devil and fell prey to his temptation and ate from the one tree. God kicked them out of the Garden but not before cursing man, woman and His creation. We pick up with this story in Genesis chapter four:
Gen 4:1 Then Adam had intercourse with his wife, and she became pregnant. She bore a son and said, "By the LORD's help I have gotten a son." So she named him Cain.
Gen 4:2 Later she gave birth to another son, Abel. Abel became a shepherd, but Cain was a farmer.
Gen 4:3 After some time Cain brought some of his harvest and gave it as an offering to the LORD.
Gen 4:4 Then Abel brought the first lamb born to one of his sheep, killed it, and gave the best parts of it as an offering. The LORD was pleased with Abel and his offering,
Gen 4:5 but he rejected Cain and his offering. Cain became furious, and he scowled in anger.
Why did God reject Cain’s offering? When Adam and Eve sinned, God had to shed blood to cover their sin (Genesis 3:21). This action on God’s part became the prototype for every subsequent offering to atone for sins.
Cain should have known this yet he chose to offer “the fruit of his hands” rather than a blood sacrifice (which, by the way, pointed to a time in history when God’s Son would be the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world).
Gen 4:6 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why that scowl on your face?
Gen 4:7 If you had done the right thing, you would be smiling; but because you have done evil, sin is crouching at your door. It wants to rule you, but you must overcome it."
Gen 4:8 Then Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out in the fields." When they were out in the fields, Cain turned on his brother and killed him.
Gen 4:9 The LORD asked Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" He answered, "I don't know. Am I supposed to take care of my brother?"
Gen 4:10 Then the LORD said, "Why have you done this terrible thing? Your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground, like a voice calling for revenge.
1 John 3:12 says that we are not to be “as Cain who was of the evil one, and killed his brother. And for what did he kill him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's things were righteous.”
Cain wasn’t angry because God rejected his offering; he was angry because God accepted his brother’s offering. He was jealous of his brother’s devotion to God. How do I know this? I know this because John inserted this biblical account right into the context of his discourse on brotherly love.
Cain had several problems:
(1) He was not demonstrating his love for God by obeying God’s Word
(2) He was envious and jealous of his brother (which would eventually turn into hatred and murder).
(3) He appeared outwardly as a “worshipper” but inwardly, he was a child of the devil and sinful.
I believe that the Holy Spirit moved John to write this passage for two reasons:
Because there might be some in the church who are jealous of a brother or sister’s devotion to the Lord.
There are people who appear outwardly as “worshippers” but inwardly, like Cain, they are children of the devil and sinful.
Let’s deal briefly with the first reason: There might be some in the church who are jealous of a brother or sister’s devotion to the Lord.
Has anyone ever been in a testimony service where people are confessing all kinds of sins and then someone gets up and says, “I’ve destroyed others with my envy” or “I’m filled with jealousy till I’m overflowing!”?
No one ever testifies saying, “I’m a hater.” Why? Because it’s so hidden and jealousy is one of the most destructive problems of all and jealousy can be found in abundance in the church.
You can be talking to someone and you can tell by their speech that they are dissing their brother or sister in the Lord. Their facial expressions also betray them as well. They can be talking to you about someone who they believe sings better, preaches better, serves better, knows more of the Bible, or is more faithful than they are---the cynicism leaks out between each and every one of their words.
What do you do when you see someone who we think is better (physically, emotionally, and spiritually) than you are? And we all do! There are two ways that people respond:
1. Find ways to “dog” them; reduce their value as a human being, then rationalize your own disrespect for them as justified criticism: “He is holier than Thou”, “How dare she judge me.” “He just spouts off the Bible too much.”
In Genesis 37 we find the story of Joseph. God was giving him dreams and these dreams pointed to a day when he would be ruler over his father and his brothers. Joseph’s brothers became jealous of their little brother and it didn’t help when their father exalted him and showed his love for Joseph over his brothers by giving him a beautiful coat of many colors.
So they plotted to kill him. Notice with me back in our text that later in verse 15 of 1 John 3:15 he writes, “Everyone hating his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has everlasting life abiding in him.”
Mary Jane Fonder of Bucks County, PA was infatuated with her pastor and showed affection in unusual ways, police say. Even after the Rev. Gregory Shreaves rebuffed her advances and cut off her "inappropriate" phone calls, the 65-year-old woman persisted.
And when she suspected a fellow congregant and choir singer at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church might be carrying on a romantic relationship with the pastor, she shot the woman twice in the head inside an office at the church where the two worshipped together, authorities say.
Investigators say Fonder shot Rhonda Smith on the morning of Jan. 23, 2008 after calling the church and finding out Smith was volunteering there that day. Afterward, state police said, Mary Jane Fonder went to get her hair done and to do "a little shopping."
Sadly, there wasn’t any romance between Rhonda Smith and Pastor Shreaves, but Fonder was jealous of the attention Smith received from her pastor and other women in the church, authorities said.
Sadly, this true story has been turned into a book called, Love Me or Else. The book description on Amazon says, “This is the shocking true story of love, worship, and murder in one American small town.”
Now I can imagine someone thinking, “Well, I would never murder my brother or sister because I was jealous.” It is not a matter of would you…John says you are a murderer if you harbor a jealous hatred for your brother or sister.
John got this from Jesus who taught him and the other disciples, “You have heard that people were told in the past, 'Do not commit murder; anyone who does will be brought to trial.' But now I tell you: if you are angry with your brother you will be brought to trial, if you call your brother 'You good-for-nothing!' you will be brought before the Council, and if you call your brother a worthless fool you will be in danger of going to the fire of hell.” (Matthew 5:21-22)
And the truth of the matter is that while jealously may not initially leader to murder, it immediately results in the death of any fellowship with the person you are jealous of. A death of fellowship results in the death of vision and subsequent ministry.
Sadly, I have seen when the green demon of jealousy has a stranglehold on a church member, one of the first things they do is step down or away from serving: especially if the ministry is connected to the person they are jealous or envious of.
So this is one of the ways (and most often the way) a person responds to one who they perceive is “better” than them. Now let’s look at the second way a person should respond.
2. Celebrate the person’s achievements while learning from them in humility.
Rom 12:12 Let your hope keep you joyful, be patient in your troubles, and pray at all times.
Rom 12:13 Share your belongings with your needy fellow Christians, and open your homes to strangers.
Rom 12:14 Bless those who persecute you; bless, and do not curse.
Rom 12:15 Rejoice with those who are happy, weep with those who weep.
Barney Fife would say, “Nip it in the bud.” Jealousy can be handled immediately with the following through on just a few action items: (1) Pray, (2) Share, (3) Bless, and (4) Rejoice.
* Pray - When you see someone experiencing the success that you would like to have in your own life, you should pray for them. Pray for their continued success. Pray that God would use them. Pray that they would not let their success cause them to become proud but to stay humble.
* Share - You can also celebrate a person’s achievement by sharing with them something that would accelerate their success: a card of congratulations and praise the Lord, a gift that will help them achieve even more, etc.
* Bless - Bless or say something good about the person who is successful. If someone sings better than you do or gets more “Amens” from the church, offer a sincere word of blessing or acknowledgement of their great ministry to the Lord and His people.
* Rejoice - Rejoice in that God has gifted or empowered someone with the ability to do what you want to do. Praise Him for His provision!
So the Holy Spirit moves John to write 1 John 3:10-18 for two reasons:
First, because there might be some in the church who like Cain are jealous of a brother or sister’s devotion to the Lord. When you see someone better (physically, emotionally, spiritually) than you—we either diss them or delight in them. The Bible says that we should delight in them. Romans 13:7 say, “Give respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is due.”
Secondly, there are people who appear outwardly as “worshippers” but inwardly, like Cain, they are children of the devil and sinful. Their real nature was exposed by how they lived (unrighteously) and how they treated others in the church (vs. 10b).
Cain was the epitome of one who lived unrighteously and he was the first murderer as he slayed his brother Abel. His act of murder wasn’t a “spur of the moment” act. It had been “simmering on low” for a while and at the right moment, when the heat of his jealousy turned in on “high”, it boiled over into a murderous rage.
You see, Cain was first tempted to sin. Satan was more than likely in the background accusing Able in the mind and heart of his brother. Even God brought this to Cain’s attention:
Gen 4:6 Then the LORD asked Cain, "Why are you angry, and why do you look disappointed?
Gen 4:7 If you do well, won't you be accepted? But if you don't do well, sin is lying outside your door ready to attack. It wants to control you, but you must master it."
God warned Cain that sin wanted to get the best of Him. In the Bible there is a warning for believers today about temptation and sin. This warning is found in 1 Corinthians 10:13: “No temptation has taken you but what is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but with the temptation also will make a way to escape, so that you may be able to bear it.”
There is no such thing as a Christian sinning without first being tempted and being tempted with getting a warning from God. The believer first has a desire for something and if desire gets stronger and continues unabated, it turns into sin. If sin is allowed to continue and fester, it ultimately leads to death.
Jas 1:12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation, because having been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
Jas 1:13 Let no one being tempted say, I am tempted from God. For God is not tempted by evils, and He tempts no one.
Jas 1:14 But each one is tempted by his lusts, being drawn away and seduced by them.
Jas 1:15 Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin. And sin, when it is fully formed, brings forth death.
We saw this earlier in the account of Mary Jane Fonder of Bucks County, PA, who was infatuated with her pastor and allowed her desire to fester into full grown sin which moved her to take the life of someone in the church.
Let’s close by reading the rest of 1 John chapter three. We will pick up with the exposition of these verses next time.
1Jn 3:13 Do not marvel, my brothers, if the world hates you.
1Jn 3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brothers. He who does not love his brother abides in death.
1Jn 3:15 Everyone hating his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has everlasting life abiding in him.
1Jn 3:16 By this we have known the love of God, because He laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
1Jn 3:17 But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother having need, and shuts up his bowels from him, how does the love of God dwell in him?
1Jn 3:18 My children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
1Jn 3:19 And in this we shall know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him,
1Jn 3:20 that if our heart accuses us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things.
1Jn 3:21 Beloved, if our heart does not accuse us, we have confidence toward God.
1Jn 3:22 And whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.
1Jn 3:23 And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment.
1Jn 3:24 And he who keeps His commandment dwells in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit which He gave to us.
What do we do when that “green monster” rears its ugly head? We need to do what Barney Fife says, “Nip it in the bud!”
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