1 John 3:11-12 ESV
“For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous.”
I know that we have talked about this subject of love much
but it is a subject that can be very confusing and misinterpreted if we don’t
understand what this word means. For this is not speaking of human love which
is based on human feelings and emotions. This love is action and it is about
what we do, about how we treat God and how we treat others.
For to love with this kind of love, which comes from God, is
to prefer what God prefers, which is what is holy, righteous, godly, and
morally pure. This love will do no deliberate and willful harm to others. So
this love will not lie to, cheat on, commit adultery against, mistreat, abuse,
use, manipulate, slander, gossip about, and/or steal from others. Instead it
will treat others with kindness, care, consideration, faithfulness, honesty and
integrity.
When we love God with this love we obey him as a matter of
practice. And if we aren’t in the practice of obeying him, then we don’t love
him, and we don’t know him, and we don’t have eternal life in him. And if we
don’t love God then we don’t have this kind of love and so we can’t love others
with this love for this love comes from God for God is love.
Many people profess faith in Jesus Christ but few truly love
God and are walking in holiness and righteousness in commitment to the Lord and
to his calling upon our lives. So, some who profess faith in Jesus but who are denying
him deliberately by how they live, by their conduct, will be jealous or
resentful of those who are walking with the Lord. And that jealousy may turn to
hate, and they may end up doing evil against the righteous ones.
1 John 3:13-15 ESV
“Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”
Now, this word “hate” is another one that we need to understand
its meaning, because its meaning is fairly broad. For remember that Jesus said
that if we don’t hate our own relatives that we cannot be his disciples (Lu
14:26)? And yet most of the time he chides us for hating and he tells us we
must not hate but that we must love others. So, I looked up the word “hate” and
it can mean anything all the way from “loving less” to murdering.
So, when Jesus told us to hate our family members, he
obviously meant that we are to love them less than we love him. And when he
says that the world will hate us, he doesn’t mean that everyone in the world
will murder us or want us dead. But they may accuse falsely, denounce, vilify,
discard, hound, harass, oppose strongly, persecute, mistreat, oppress, and/or bully
us.
When we love others with this love which comes from God then
that is evidence that we have “passed out of death into life,” i.e. that we
have been crucified with Christ in death to sin and that we have been resurrected
with Christ to newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness
and holiness (Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; Lu 9:23-26).
But if we don’t abide in this love which prefers what God
prefers then we abide in death, for if we hate our fellow believers in Jesus in
the sense of persecuting them, or in the sense of sinning against them in order
to deliberately do harm to them, then that is the same as murdering them, and
no murderer (one who practices hate) has eternal life abiding in him.
1 John 3:16-18 ESV
“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
When Jesus laid down his life for us it was to deliver us
from our slavery to sin so that we would now be slaves of God and of his
righteousness. He died that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to
his righteousness, and he died that we might no longer live for ourselves but
for him who gave his life up for us and for him who was resurrected from the
dead.
So, to love others like Jesus loved and loves us, then we
need to be willing to put our selfish wills aside in order to see our brothers
and sisters in the Lord walk in purity of devotion to the Lord and be genuinely
delivered from their slavery to sin and walking in obedience to the Lord. For
we may be hated in return, just like Jesus was.
But loving others with Jesus love isn’t just about sharing
the gospel with them and pointing them to Jesus and to his will for our lives.
It involves caring for their physical needs (not wants), as well. But this
calls for wisdom and discernment in our day and age for there are many con
artists out there begging for help who are taking advantage of those with
compassionate hearts. For they are lying to the people and are not in true
need.
So, “seeing” someone in need, I believe, is not talking
about people begging on street corners or people coming to you and claiming
they have needs when they may be those who are con artists who know how to work
people. But it is you physically seeing that they have needs and even verifying,
if possible, that they are truly in need and that this is not a scam.
Now, each one of us has to do as we believe God is leading
us to do, but this makes it clear that if we have the world’s goods and we are
able to help others and there are people we know in our lives, and we know that
they have needs, yet we close our hearts to them, then does God’s love truly
abide in us? The evidence says “No!” But scam artists are really good at making
you feel guilty for not helping them, too, so don’t fall for that.
So, the whole point here is that if we say we love God, we
will obey him, and if we don’t obey him, in practice, then we don’t love him. And
if we say that we love other humans, especially those belonging to the family
of God, and we see that they are in need, and we are able to help, but we
choose not to, then it is questionable as to whether or not God’s love abides
in us.
And so the conclusion here is that we are not to love in word
or talk only but in deed and in truth. We must put action to our words. If we
say we love someone but we treat him or her the opposite of love, then that is
not love. So, again, love is action. Love is not what we say or what we feel
but it is what we do, and it must be done in truth and in sincerity of heart
and not with a hidden motive to get something for ourselves.
By Anonymous
Angels we have heard
on high
Sweetly singing o'er
the plains
And the mountains in
reply
Echo back their
joyous strains
Shepherds, why this
jubilee?
Why your joyous
strains prolong?
Say what may the tidings
be
Which inspire your
heavenly song?
Come to Bethlehem
and see
Him whose birth the
angels sing,
Come, adore on
bended knee,
Christ the Lord, the
newborn King.
Gloria, in excelsis
Deo
Gloria, in excelsis
Deo
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