1 John 3:11-24

Introduction

Quickly let’s review a few important things to remember which will aid in the study of First John:

• The theme of First John is Assurance. John was writing to a community of believers who were doubting whether or not they were believers or not. They were doubting if they were ever saved in the first place.

• The theme or purpose for writing is found in 5:13: I write these things to you who BELIEVE in the name of the Son of God that you may KNOW that you have eternal life. To sum this verse up in one word: ASSURANCE.

• The heresy John was fighting was a early form of Gnosticism. They had a flawed view of Jesus Christ and believed Salvation was not found in Christ but through a special knowledge that God gave them, and only a select few could have this knowledge. Their false views of Jesus led to unrighteous ways of living, which John combats throughout the letter.

In our last lesson as we looked at 2:28-3:10 we noticed ONE dominate theme, mainly that those who are Christians, believers, those who have been adopted by God will be characterized by righteousness. The children of God will not continually sin, as the children of the devil do, but they will continually practice righteousness: obedience to the commands of God.

John in verse 3:10 says whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. John uses this last phrase nor is the one who does not love his brother to launch into another main characteristic of Children of God: LOVE.

John in his gospel records for us where Jesus said the way the world will know we are his disciples is by our love for one another (Jn. 13:35). The world will know we are the people of God, we are followers of Jesus Christ by the way we interact with each other. They will know us by our love. How sad is it then when people see the church and all they see is backbiting and power struggles. A church like this has ceased to be the church that God intended it to be. They are not characterized by love which is a chief characteristic of a Christian. Because Christians are to love one another they should be unified. They should be able to lovingly disagree with one another over certain issues. They should be able to not argue about stupid things like carpet and paint. Out of the command to love we should be different, the world will know us by our love.

Love and Hate Contrasted vs. 11-18

John says this is the message you have had from the beginning. In this verse from the beginning refers to when they first heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What John is about to say is not something new, but something these believers had from their earliest days in the Christian life. The message they had from the beginning is they should love one another.

John proves his point by giving them a contrast with love and hate in verses 12-15. John starts in v. 12 and says believers should not be like Cain. I am sure most everyone knows the story of Cain and Abel in Gen. 4. John does not want believers to be like Cain, and with good reason. Why does John say this? Because Cain was of the evil one, he was a child of the devil and he murdered his brother, and why did he murder Abel. If you remember the story Cain and Abel offered sacrifices to God. Cain offered the best fruit from the field and Abel offered the best from his flock. Abel’s sacrifice was accepted while Cain’s was rejected. God did not accept Cain’s sacrifice and this enraged Cain. In fact God accepts Abel’s sacrifice which enraged Cain even more. Cain was jealous of the situation he found himself in. Out of this jealousy he murdered his brother Abel. He murdered Abel because Abel’s deeds were righteous while Cain’s were evil, because he was of the evil one.

John goes on to warn believers in v. 13 to no be surprised if the world hates us. This word here surprised connotes the idea of being shocked or in amazement by the world (MacArthur, 134). The believer should expect to be hated by the world, WHY? For the same reason that Cain hated Abel, are deeds are righteous and theirs are evil. This is why as believers, and as a church, there should be some introspection and stepping back and looking at things when the world ALWAYS thinks well of us. This does not mean as a church that we need to go out of our way to purposefully tick people off, but our deeds will. The world will hate us because we are righteous and they are not.

John in v. 14 says we know we have passed from death into life because we love the brothers. The NEB translates this as crossing over. We were on the side of death and now we are on the side of life. The evidence that we have been saved from death is our love for other believers. How we love others generally. The love we have DOES NOT save us, but it shows, it proves, that we have passed out of death into life.

If you will allow me for a moment to talk about the importance of the church here. This verse right here, showing that we prove we have been saved, we have been born of God, points to the importance of being actively involved in a church. Some think it is possible to be a Christian and NEVER be a part of the church. This is not so. For how can we love other believers if we are not around other believers? The answer is we cannot do it. They only way to fulfill the command to love our fellow Christians is by being involved in the church. There are scores of passages in the Bible which are called “one-another” passages. The only way we can fulfill these is by being a part of the church. Anyone who says they are a Christian yet they never join the body to worship and glorify God something is amiss here and they MUST examine themselves to see whether they are in the faith or not.

A believer will love, which evidences they have passed from death into life, but those who do not love remain in death. Those who do not love believers are still in death. They have not been brought to life yet. John says they abide in death. They stay there they remain there, in death.

V. 15 is a tough verse, John says everyone who hates is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. John echoes the teaching of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. Jesus says you have heard that you shall not commit murder, but I tell you whoever hates in his heart has committed murder already, in his heart. Those who hate are murders. Not in the sense of physically killing someone, but in our attitude towards that person. When someone hates someone we wish nothing but bad on them. If they were to die it would be no skin off our back. We would be alright if this person were to die. We hate them. We do not seek their good. We murder them in our hearts when we hate them. No murderer has eternal life abiding in them. So what is John saying here. It seems as if he is changing his topic. He said everyone that hates is a murderer and now he is talking about murder, what is going on here? John is saying that hate=murder therefore murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them, therefore also those who hate do not have eternal life abiding in them. Their attitude is murderous. Their thoughts towards the one they hate are murderous. We wish them nothing but ill. People such as this do not have eternal life abiding in them, they are abiding in death, they have not crossed over into life.

As a side not this is not to say that a true Christian may or may not be involved in a murder and lose their salvation. Look at David he was involved in the murder of Uriah, yet God said David was a man after his own heart. Paul was a murderer and persecutor of the church, yet he was greatly used by God.

John so far has focused on the negative side. We have been given a clear picture of what a believer is not to do now in vs. 16-18 John gives a picture of what the believer is supposed to do.

John first gives an example of Supreme love, Jesus Christ, in v. 16. He says by this we know love, by this is referring here to what comes next, that he, being Jesus, laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. The Supreme example of love that John can give is that of Jesus Christ. Jesus loved therefore He died. The love that Jesus has for His followers led Him to the cross so He could die and make us right with the Holy and Wrathful Father. Jesus did this out of love. As believers we are to use Jesus as an example. We are to lay down our lives for the brothers. We know that there will probably not be times when we literally have to die for another believer. That is not just the time in which we live although one day it may be, only God knows. So what is John saying here?

V. 17 answers the question for us, and John goes about it by stating the negative. John says if anyone has the world’s goods and sees their brother in need, and yet closes their heart against them, how can the love of God abide in them? This is how we are NOT to lay down our lives for the brothers? Why? Because this is selfish and love is not selfish (1Cor. 13). What good does it do if we have the world’s goods and do nothing to help those who are in need. The poorest here is the room is richer than most people in the world. How do we act toward fellow believers many times? We see they have a need and what do we tell them? I will pray for you, which is well and good, but many times it needs to go farther. We sometimes need to sacrifice what we have in order to help others. Love is costly. To truly love another person will cost us something. We can do this it is possible. I heard a story not to long ago about people who live in Africa. And these people are poor, more poor than we can probably imagine. But these people are honored when people will come to where they live and visit them. SO honored in fact that they will use their whole food ration for the week just to show you how honored they are. They can do this because they feel honored how much more can we do out of love for fellow believers.

John drives home his point about love in v. 18. John says we are not to love in word or talk, but in deed and truth. What is he saying here, two things.

First off we are to love in deed. Love is not mere lip service. How many times did God chastise the Israelites because they merely paid Him lip service but there was never any obedience attached to it. We do not do this in relationships we have. If I were to date a girl, and fat chance of that happening apparently because I will not shave, but hypothetically speaking, if I were to date a girl and I were to love this girl and all II ever did was TELL her that I loved her, but that love never was acted upon. If I never did anything loving for her. I was never loving to her. If I never did those things, what kind of love would I have for her? I would have no love for her at all. As believers we are to put love into action. It is like the old DC Talk song Love is a Verb. We show are love for fellow believers by what we do NOT by what we say. Love is not talking, love is doing something. Our deeds back up our claim that we love someone. If gives that love content (Boice, 97).

Second we are to love in truth. What does this mean? It means that our love is genuine (Stott, 148). We genuinely love that person. We do not fake as if we love this person but it is a real love.

One last note about this section. Our love is to be active, and here is why. God’s love is active. God’s love is active and it is manifested in Jesus Christ on the cross (1 John 4:10). God in His love sent Jesus to die for our sins. God did not sit in heaven and be like oh look at those poor sinners down on earth. How I love them so. I love them so much, but His love never acts. He did not say oh how I love them so, it was active. He loved sinners so much that He sent His Only Son Jesus Christ to die for these sinners, because of His love.

Assurance vs. 19-24

IN v. 19 John says by this we know we are of the truth and our hearts are reassured before God. What does by this refer t here? It refers to our love for fellow believers what John has just covered in vs. 11-18 (See, MacArthur, 143, Stott, 148, Marshall, 196). By our love for other believers we can reassure our hearts before God.

The believers that John was writing to do, as we have stated many times were dealing with doubts and having assurance of salvation. They were not sure. They were doubting whether they were believers or not. John knows this and in v. 20 he point them to God. John says whenever our hearts condemn us, heart more than likely meaning conscience here, God is greater than our hearts and He knows all things. There will be times when the believers conscience will try to condemn it. But we must remember how we are viewed in God’s eyes. We must look to God. Why? Because God is greater than our hearts our consciences and He knows all things. For the believer there is no more condemnation (Rom. 8:1). We do not have to feel condemned. We are justified, and God did this, and if we have truly been justified we can never lose that because we did nothing to gain it. We are justified based upon what CHRIST did for us, and not anything we did. God knows who we are . He knows ourselves better than we know ourselves. He knows our hearts better than we know our hearts. He knows all things.

By looking to God our hearts do not condemn us, v. 21, and if our hearts do not condemn us we have confidence before God. The word confidence here conveys they idea of: “The word rendered confidence means “boldness” and “freedom of speech.” It describes the privilege of coming before someone of importance, power, and authority and feeling free to express whatever is on one’s mind. For believers it means coming into the presence of our loving heavenly Father without fear.” (MacArthur, 145). The believer can come boldly before the throne of Grace (See Heb. 4:16). We are free to come. As believers we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask we receive from him, v. 22.

We receive whatever was ask from Him for two reasons.

First we keep His commandments. We are obedient to what the Father has commanded us to do.

Secondly we do what is pleasing to Him.

The people who do this our living in God’s will. They desire to see God’s will done and therefore that prayer will be answered. John is not saying here that if we obey we can ask for whatever we want as if God were some genie in the sky and we obey and we get a brand new car. This is not the idea. We ask and pray for only that which is in line with the will of God. Those who are obeying will desire to see God’s will and God’s will only done and this will be their plea and cry.

This is His, commandment, the Father, that we believe in the name of Jesus Christ and love one another as He commanded us. In Greek the word name has to do with who a person is. We are called to believe in WHO Jesus is, that is what John means here by believing in Jesus Name. Those who believe will obey the command to love one another. Jesus Himself commanded this. This is how the world knows that we are followers of Jesus by our love for one another.

John concludes the section by saying in v. 24 Whoever keeps His commandments abides in God and He in them. Those who are obedient to what God has commanded abide in Him, and God abides in them. And by this we know that God abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. The Spirit living within us assures us that we are believers. He prays for us when we do not know what to pray. He opens up the scripture to us.

Conclusion

In our last two lessons we have really seen the rubber meet the road, if you will. We have been contending throughout this study that assurance is OBJECTIVE. And this is true. We know we are believers, we are assured we are believers because of how we presently live, not how we lived in the past but by how we live now.

Last we week John pointed us to the practice of righteousness to assure us. The believer, the adopted child of God, will OBEY. They will continually obey. Their life will be characterized by obedience, whereas the children of the devil, their life is characterized by sinning and disobedience to what God has revealed.

In this lesson John pointed us to love as another measure of obedience. How are we loving at this moment? Are we loving as we should? Or are we hating like Cain did which led him to murder his brother Abel? Are love is to be active, as the love of God is active. We should love in deed and truth. We can be assured before God because of our love for fellow believers. This will give us confidence before God because we obey Him and do what pleases Him and therefore our prayers are answered because we desire to see His will done. Those who obey abide in God and God abides in them, and we know God abides in us by the Holy Spirit whom He has given to us.