Compelled By Love
1 John. The book of assurance. The book of true assurance, something we can confidently stand firm on. We can believe that what John has to say is the truth, because he was a witness to Jesus: his life, death and resurrection. He is testifying to that truth and he is making sure the true Gospel is being explained to Christians in Ephesus as well as for us today here in Corsham. It is to help us “know” (he uses this phrase many times during the book) what is the true Gospel and not be fooled by false teachings, and to help us know and be assured of our salvation through Jesus Christ.
Last month Christine shared with us and reminded us that we are children of God.
What does it mean to be children of God? We are saved by his grace, justified and made righteous by the blood of Jesus AND we are then adopted into His family. Therefore, we have an eternal inheritance with Him in Heaven. John was writing to those confused, those doubting, those with questions who are wondering if they are one of these people – are they children of God? Maybe we have these same thoughts and questions. Are we included in His Family? Thinking back to the medical examination analogy that we have addressed over the months, throughout 1 John, he gives us pointers, or ‘pulse checks’ to check and see if we have a beating Heavenly heart, a beating child of God heart. These pulse checks, we can assess ourselves: Are we obedient to what and who God has called us to be; Knowledge – do we believe in the true Gospel of Jesus, that he is who He says He is; and are we loving?
So what does the application of being in God’s family look like? The passage tonight will be focusing heavily on the pulse check: love; how we love our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ – other Christians. And this is the application of being in God’s family, how it plays out in reality.
Have you ever noticed a change in how you talk, maybe mannerisms, maybe even the way we dress, based on who you spend time with? It might happen gradually or sometimes it is really obvious quickly. We start to look and sound like the person or people we hang out with. We moved around quite a lot as children as my dad was in the Navy. We noticed when we were living in London my sister, Louise, adopted somewhat of a London accent, but when my sister would talk on the phone to our uncles back up north in Nottingham, she would get off the phone and sound like she was one of them: ‘ay up me duck’. She now lives in Wales and we are forever noticing her Welsh twang on words. We always used to joke with my sister that she was a chameleon. She started to sound like the people she was spending time with. Another example. Or maybe based on who you spend time with you start looking like them. Or maybe you start dressing the same [see picture]. Based on who we spend time with, we will end up looking, acting, speaking and sounding a particular way.
What has that got to do with this passage of tonight?
Who we spend time with – Jesus or ‘the world’ – will change how we engage with other believers. We are going to be looking at two trajectories tonight, two ‘camps’, two examples of how we are living out our lives with particular focus on our engagement with other believers.
- Jesus the camp of life-giving – LOVE;
- the world – the camp of life-taking – HATE
Who do we act, look and sound like: Jesus or the world? When we are transformed by the love of Jesus. When we have fully grasped what he has done for us, we will be made more and more in his image and look and sound like a child of God, based on how we love. Jesus, was the ultimate example of love, so are we emanating Jesus, do we radiate the love of Jesus in our lives? Let’s have a look by checking our pulse of love…
1 John 3V11 says, ‘We should love one another.’ John is reminding us of the command Jesus himself gave us in John 13:34, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Well that is super news John. I have passed my assurance test. I’m done here. I’m clearly in camp Jesus, because “I love everyone”, I can easily say with my mouth. I don’t know about you, but the words can come out so easily, without little thought to the reality. It is like when someone asks, ‘how are you?’, the very British thing is to instantly say, ‘I’m fine thanks, how are you?’ Even though you may have had the worst week in your whole life!
When Paul and I were dating, after a few months the topic of ‘I love yous’ came up. Paul explained that he didn’t want to say ‘I love you’ until he was sure we were to get married. I’m not going to lie, I was pretty miffed at first, actually, I was a little bit offended. I was head over heels for this wonderful man, so initially I felt a bit disappointed. BUT with his explanation I felt reassured. It also meant, when he did say it, it meant so much more. His words were meaningful and not empty. Saying, ‘I love you’, was a promise he was making to me. It was an action of commitment. You’ve probably heard the phrase, ‘Love is a verb’ it takes effort and for us to actually do something. Not just stating it emptily.
So when we read this command of ‘love one another’, do we really? Do my actions, not just my words reflect this love when it comes to my brothers and sisters in Christ? When we let our guard down after the smiley-Sunday-service does my heart really mean the ‘I love you’ to our fellow Christians? Or do you jump back to the slander and gossip of someone you’re annoyed by?
We’re given a stark contrast to really pulse check what it means to love and what the alternative is.
Read 1 John 3:12-16
Our passage tonight references the very beginning of the Bible, the first book, Genesis, with the account of Cain and Abel.
Adam and Eve gave birth to two sons, Cain (who worked the land) and Abel (who kept flocks). Both presented offerings to the Lord. Abel gave the very best he had, Cain gave an offering, but not his best and not truly out of love for God. God favoured Abel and Cain was jealous. Gen 4: 7 ‘IF you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.’ Despite the warning from God, Cain’s sin/hatred took over and he killed his brother. Sin was at his door and he welcomed it in. He could live in love and righteousness like Abel and God’s example, but he chose Sin, he chose the world.
Our passage tonight says:
V12 Do not be like Cain. , OK, I think I’m still good here, John. I didn’t murder anyone and of course I would never go as far as murdering my brother or sister, my church family. Phew! I’ve passed the assurance test again.
Have I? Oh, but hang on. Verse 15 says, ‘anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.’
This is reiterated in Matthew 5: 21-22, ‘“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder,[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister[b][c] will be subject to judgment.’
Ah, so not just literal murder, but the seeds of murder: hate, anger, jealousy. This is a bit closer to home and suddenly makes me feel uncomfortable as this is definitely relatable! We may not even go around using the word ‘hate’, but God knows our hearts, and our actions and words will reveal our true heart. We may not be a literal murderer, but if we hate, we are giving ourselves over to sin, we are choosing to be murderers of the heart, by not obeying and loving God and therefore will NOT have the gift of eternal life.
Why is sin so bad? Water analogy
- Crystal clear glass of water on hot summer’s day. Pure and refreshing. God’s holiness
- A bird comes along and poops in it – contamination (few drops of red food colouring in glass – it will diffuse quickly and strongly)
- Tiniest bird dropping – sin – envelopes the whole glass so you can’t separate it from the pure water. Are you now willing to drink this water? Even the tiniest bit of poo/sin- has contaminated the whole drink.
This is what sin does to our hearts, to our souls. Even the tiniest of sins, destroys our very being, separating us from God. We are contaminated. We are no longer blameless, we are evil, we deserve death for eternity, because sin and holiness cannot reside together.
But Jesus deals with our sin. He wipes it fully clean and restores to the beautiful, spotless, righteousness to enable us to be reunited with God. And when we accept Jesus and turn from following the world/camp hate, he will deal with our sin. (SHOW FRESH WATER AGAIN AND HAVE TWO GLASSES SIDE BY SIDE).
There isn’t an in-between glass, we either love like God, are righteous because of Jesus and in the camp of eternity passing from death to life OR the contaminated glass, the evil camp that follows Cain’s example where evil thoughts lead to evil actions.
There are two clear camps: the love and the hate; the life camp and the death camp. As Kathy mentioned a few months back, there is no ‘twilight’ zone here in 1 John, no lukewarm camp, no in-between camp. You are in one, or the other. One is the camp of Jesus as King, as our example, the camp of true sacrificial love. The camp of life and eternal life. OR the camp of evil, belonging to the enemy, following the example of Cain that have ‘murderous’ hearts as we continue to *hate* our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
God warns us of the two options, the two camps, the two destinations by how he warned Cain.
Gen 4:7 God says ‘IF you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.’ God warned Him he had the choice to TURN from his thoughts, his behaviour, his words. He hated his brother, and that is a sin, because it leads to death! Hate as with all sin, originates with the devil and Cain was clearly in THIS camp: acting with the ultimate example of hatred: murder – selfishly seeking another’s harm. TAKING AWAY HIS LIFE.
Why did he take away his life? Because he was jealous. Abel was acting righteously, he served God FULLY. God looked down on Abel and was pleased. Cain may have initially looked like he was doing the right thing, offering God something, but God saw his heart and knew he didn’t mean it. And low and behold a confrontation occurs and his true identity was revealed, his actions revealed his true nature: anger, hatred, murderer!
Cain was the template for the rest of history. He is in Camp evil: hate, selfishness, worldly. And our passage tonight reminds us, 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters,[b] if the world hates you.’ The ‘world’ cannot understand righteousness, as Cain didn’t understand Abel’s ‘righteousness’. They don’t believe it (another pulse point) – no belief and therefore it doesn’t make sense to them. As they function independently of God, they therefore have hate, jealously, anger in their hearts. They act evilly in action and word. Their true identity is revealed and it is ugly. Quarrelling, hating, self-seeking.
But with Jesus in our hearts, our true identity is also revealed when we show love to fellow brothers and sisters.
This passage is looking at relationships: either sinning against or acting in love to our fellow Christians.
There are two camps: evil camp, the hate camp. Or the loving camp, God’s camp.
PAUSE.
How does this sit and resonate with you as I am talking tonight? As I was studying for this, it really made me stop. It actually made me get on my knees and pray. It made me do that medical examination and ‘pulse check’, ‘do I love, or do I hate my brothers and sisters in Christ’? It can be easy to love those who like you, those who are kind to you, those who speak well of you. But what about those who seem to blank you, those who don’t return the smile when you smile at them, those who may cause trouble for you somehow. Those who seemingly or consciously rejected you. It can be extremely painful. Disagreements that turn to fall-outs can be incredibly painful to deal with, and in church they can seem even more exemplified as we don’t expect it in our ‘refuge’ of God’s house. If you are sitting in hatred for another brother/sister in Christ, we need to be careful. We have been given a clear warning like Cain. If you are not loving, you are hating and therefore a murderer of the heart – and murderers belong to the evil one. This may sound harsh, but it is in God’s loving kindness he is revealing these truths to us so we can do something about it. These people are the ones we are called to love. Because that is how Jesus has loved us. It is fundamental to being a Christian. So how do we handle it when there are arguments, disagreements, disputes with Christians? 1 John calls us to ‘love one another’. Truly love. Not hate.
Matthew 5: 23-25 says, ‘“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar [so coming to Jesus, coming before God] and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. “Settle matters quickly with your adversary.’
This is Jesus himself talking! We are not of the world and therefore we should be acting differently. People should be seeing something different in us in how we act and what we say of our fellow brother’s and sisters (think back to the beginning about being Children of God, we look and sound different to the world). When we hold onto Jesus, spending time with him, we will bear fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. And when we are faced with difficulties with other Christians, and have disputes we should bear these fruits and deal with them accordingly to Jesus’ instructions. We should deal with them quickly and lovingly. We are not to sit in hate for this distracts us from what has been done for us in Jesus. It fact it undermines what he has accomplished for us. We’ve been called into Jesus’ family to truly love and to reflect the true example of love himself: Jesus Christ. And what did he do? He forgave us. So we are to do the same.
Example of forgiveness – Corrie Ten Boom
After the war, she travelled the world speaking about God’s love and forgiveness. Despite horrendous things that were done to her and her family. After one of her talks, she is confronted by one of the prison guards who she recognised from the camp. It was one who was personally responsible for the pain and suffering she went through, for her sister’s death. Forgiveness became very personal…
Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: “A fine message, fräulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!”
And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course–how could he remember one prisoner among those thousands of women? “But since that time,” he went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fräulein”–again the hand came out–“will you forgive me?”
And I stood there–I whose sins had every day to be forgiven–and could not. Betsie had died in that place–could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking? It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.
For I had to do it–I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. “If you do not forgive men their trespasses,” Jesus says, “neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion–I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.
“Jesus, help me!” I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.”
And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.
“I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!”
This is a true act of forgiveness. An act of will despite how hard it may feel. It takes Co-operation with the Holy Spirit, who will give you strength when you feel weak, to be bold and take that step of faith.
This man hurt her in the most hideous of ways. Our brothers and sisters may hurt us in deep, painful ways. But she recognised we are called to act in love. It is an act of will to forgive someone who has hurt you. And we have the Father’s example of forgiveness of our sins to help us forgive others.
Jesus’ example of ultimate love, 1John 3:16 ‘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 was not selfish like Cain, but SELFLESS.
He didn’t take away a life, He GAVE His life so we might GAIN eternal life.
Unknown quote: ‘Just look at Jesus on the cross – or indeed at any point of his life. When people beat him, he forgave them. When they spat at him, he loved them. And when they crucified him, he gave his life gladly to save them.’
Jesus forgives. Jesus loves. And he didn’t wait until we were ‘friends’ and we were ‘sorted out people’ (as that would never happen). The Bible tells us He died ‘whilst we were still sinners’.
He died, whilst we were enemies of Him. He was pierced because of my sin, because of my hate, my evil words, my jealousy, my idolatry, my selfishness. Jesus’ enemy, me/us pierced him. So when your ‘enemy’ pierces you/me/us and hurts us whether knowingly or unknowingly, we are called to LOVE THEM LIKE JESUS LOVED US. We should lay down our lives for them… Can you see the complete contrast from Cain? Jesus’ example of love selflessly seeks another’s good. It should encourage us to do the same, expecting nothing in return.
We are all sinners. We don’t instantly stop sinning when we become Christians, it is a sanctification process of holiness. When we read this passage, we may read it and be shocked. Thinking, this is me? I’m quarreling with someone. Or I really don’t like someone… I’m clearly unloving. You may be able to acknowledge within yourself that you have come in with a bitter heart tonight. But remember this is written as a warning, as a wake-up call. It calls us to action and change. At the point of our rebellion, Jesus died for us, ‘Whilst you were still sinners.’ He knew we were going to sin and stumble and struggle with people. That is why it is written, out of love and a warning for us to get that medical examination so we can check ‘is the heart beating with a Heavenly beat’? This passage gives us the opportunity to come to Jesus, to repent and to ask for forgiveness. This is us choosing to be different from Cain, when God gave Cain that warning ‘YOU MUST RULE OVER [THE SIN]. Coming to Jesus and seeking Him means we are being transformed into the likeness of Jesus and therefore changing from the path of evil and hate, to be loving in action and word. We need to ask God to search our hearts, transform us into the likeness of Jesus as we give him our hurts, concerns and sins. In doing so we will begin and then continue to adopt the Heavenly family actions and words.
1 John 1:9. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
We are going to do this now. Reflecting on your relationships with fellow Christians. Ask God to reveal those areas, to shine His light of life into those areas so you can repent and seek forgiveness and be made right with him.
STOP AND PRAY INDIVIDUALLY
When we abide in Christ, we remind ourselves that we are loved, truly, fully and unconditionally. And that is when it begins to shape our life so we are able to love in the same way that He loved us first. We start transforming into the likeness of Jesus, sounding like Him, acting like Him. The sanctification process begins and keeps on going all the way until Heaven. And as John says in v14, this is how we know we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. THIS IS HOW WE KNOW we have salvation and are Children of God. We have passed from the evil camp of hate, into the life camp of love.
Read 1 John 3:17-20
More practical applications
1 John 3: 17-18 ‘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.’
Knowing Jesus affects our ability to love. Understanding of Jesus compassion, leads us to action. By acting out of love: by giving possessions/money/time to those in need – it shows we have passed from death to life. It is a practical example of the pulse check. If we don’t have pity on them, John is saying, God cannot be abiding in that person! Eeeck!! If we are professing how much we love God, but aren’t loving with our words and actions, we haven’t understood and fully grasped the love of God.
We can’t do everything for everyone, but if we aren’t willing or wanting to help when we see someone in need, this is a warning for us. Love for others doesn’t earn you eternal life, but it does show that you have it! It is the evidence that we are searching for, evidence of the spiritual life inside of us. When you know Jesus, it changes the ability to love and how we love. When we really know Jesus, his death becomes more amazing and we therefore increasingly obey the commands of God to ‘love one another.’
1 John 3:19-20 ‘This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence:If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything’.
These verses are talking about coming into the presence of God. Coming to Him in prayer: abiding with Him! When we authentically come to God in genuine prayer, it is likely that we are to be condemned and convicted by our sinful hearts. We are a work in progress. We are not in Heaven yet, so we are not perfect, but we are being sanctified which won’t happen overnight. So when we are made fully aware of the true Holiness, pure, righteousness of God, no wonder our sin becomes more obvious. We have had our eyes opened to God so our sin is contrasted with the pure, spotless, holiness and glory of God. So the black spots of sin stand out. And actually as we grow in faith the black spots of sin become bigger and more obvious, and magnified. We realise just how UNHOLY we are, in the presence of the one who is TRULY HOLY. We recognise how we are unable to save ourselves and we recognise the consequence of our sin is judgement to hell.
But it can be at this point that Satan has a go at us. He pushes that condemnation. He is the master of deceit. He tells us how the sin is TOO much for Jesus, we’ve gone TOO far this time, he can’t and won’t possibly forgive us. He shovels the shame and worthlessness on top of it and makes us feel REALLY condemned. He has a good go and says TOO much sin, Victoria. You are not worthy to be forgiven. You hate too much that God can’t won’t forgive you for this. But that is a LIE. THIS is the point when we preach the Gospel to ourselves as the 2nd half of 1 John 20 says, ‘God is greater than your hearts!’
(SHOW GLASSES AGAIN)
God’s power is GREATER than any lie the enemy can trick us with. We cry out to God, acknowledge who He is, acknowledge the anointing sacrifice of Jesus and how HIS PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS made a way for us to be right with Him.
Before the Throne of God lyrics
When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end to all my sin
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free
For God the Just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.
God is greater than the enemy. God is greater than our hearts. God is greater and able to conquer sin and death and guess what, he already has! The victory is His. When we acknowledge this and grasp this we have confidence that we are his children. We are saved and redeemed. We have that true assurance that we are forgiven and have been given that gift of eternal life.
1 John 3:21-24 ‘Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before Godand receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.’
If we doubt, we need to pulse check: do we believe in Jesus; do we obey his commands and do we love as he loved us?
He tells us that we live in Him and He in us. So we need to abide with him, spend time with him, have conversation with him. When we do, we are refined each day, becoming more Christ-like so we sound like him, so we look like him and then our actions and words will be truly loving like Him. Then we know, we are children of God, with a Heavenly beating heart.
And we can boldly be assured, Romans 8:1 ‘Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’.
And we give Him thanks and adoration for this.
Questions for Reflection:
- How assured are you that you are in the “Jesus camp” based on how you love one another?
- John makes following God sound so simple: Believe in Jesus, obeying Him and love one another. Are there ways you tend to over-complicate or add to what it means to glorify and enjoy God? Which area do you tend to struggle with the most?
GRACE PLACE 