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.”
There are many ways to kill another person, and I don’t mean
physically. One can kill other people with unkind and cutting remarks intended
to hurt them. One can kill others’ hearts with looks of hate in one’s eyes or
with lustful looks in one’s eyes toward another in front of one’s spouse. One
can murder another in his heart via sinning against him deliberately with the
full intention to hurt the other person and with no heart or compassion.
And some people indeed do intentionally hurt others just
because they are jealous of them, and/or because they resent their walks of
faith in the Lord Jesus, and because they themselves are steeped in sin. I
mean, that is why Jesus’ persecutors treated him badly and then eventually had
him put to death. He was an offense to them because of his righteousness and
holiness and because of the love that he showed to the people.
They also hated Jesus because he told them the truth about
their sins, and he told them the consequences of their sins if they did not
repent. For Jesus’ gospel message was not this “feel good” message many people
are giving out today. He said if we are going to come after him that we must
deny self and take up our cross daily (daily die to sin and to self) and follow
(obey) him. And then he let us know that if we choose self over him that it will
not end well for us, that we will not have eternal life with him (Luke
9:23-26).
And if that is the gospel message that you are giving out to
the people, you are going to be hated like he was hated, and you will have
people who will attempt to murder you in your heart, too. You will be an
offense to them because of your walk with the Lord and because of the truth
that you stand on and because that is not the life they want for themselves,
although many will profess faith in Jesus Christ and put on a show of
righteousness.
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.”
But this is not to surprise us if we are hated and
mistreated for the sake of righteousness. It doesn’t make it less painful
knowing that this is a possibility, though. We are still human. We bleed. We
get hurt. For when we give our hearts to other people in acts of love and
compassion toward them, only to have them turn right around and stab us in the
heart emotionally, it hurts because we are feeling people, and because we do
care about people.
And there are many people out there, even many of them
professing faith in Jesus Christ, who are steeped in sin, and so some of them
do attack and mistreat and abuse those who are walking in faithfulness to the
Lord Jesus, especially if the faithful are ones who are sharing the gospel and
confronting sin and calling people to repentance and to obedience to the Lord. Satan
will hate them the most and thus so will his servants and messengers.
It is especially grievous in a marriage relationship if one
person is following the Lord Jesus wholeheartedly and if the other is still
habitually and deliberately living an idolatrous, selfish, prideful, and lustful
life. It ruins the marriage relationship, for one, because of the adulteries of
the one, but often those who are addicted to sexual sin, especially, turn out
to be abusers to their spouses, too, and so they will mistreat them.
And so they will, especially if they are confronted about
their own sins, attack the person trying to help them out of their sin. And all
this may not be outright but may be underhanded and devious and via trickery
and gas lighting and all sorts of evil ways of getting even with the one who is
loving enough to tell them the truth and to try to help them live the way that
they outwardly profess. And this is another way of murdering people in their
hearts and in their emotions.
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.”
But we are not to be like that if we profess faith in Jesus
Christ. We are to love one another, even to love those who hate and mistreat
and abuse and misuse us. And this love is not based in our emotions but in
doing what is right for other people even when we don’t feel like it, and even
when we are hurting. And it involves forgiving our persecutors and doing good
to them even though they have done evil to us.
For this kind of love does not come from our flesh but from
God who is love. And so this love will have the character of God. Therefore, it
will be based in righteousness, holiness, honesty, moral purity, faithfulness,
and the like. And when we love others with this kind of love we will not
deliberately and habitually sin against them and take advantage of their
kindness to us or plot evil against them like Jesus’ persecutors did to him.
For to lay down our lives for our fellow humans or for our
fellow Christians is to sacrifice our own wants and our own needs and our own
reputations, etc., in order to do what is loving towards others in the way in
which Jesus laid down his life for us. And why did he die for us? In order that
he might put sin to death in our lives so that we would now walk in holiness
and righteousness and have the hope of eternal life with God.
We need to be like Jesus with the same goal in mind as he
had which is the salvation of human souls. And salvation is not just a
get-out-of-jail-free card. Our salvation is deliverance from our slavery (addiction)
to sin so that we can now walk in holiness and righteousness in purity of
devotion to our Lord and no longer in sin, by the grace of God and in his
strength and power. And this should be our goal to see others delivered from
slavery to sin and be free to walk righteously before God until Jesus returns.
But when this is the goal of our lives to be like Jesus and
to do and to say the kinds of things he did and said and to help rescue people
out of their slavery to sin so that they can walk in holiness and godliness for
the honor and praise of God, we are going to be hated and mistreated in return,
and we may have some friends, fellow “Christians,” pastors, spouses, and even some
of our children turn against us and do evil against us, too.
But our encouragement through it all is that our Lord is
faithful to all that he said he would do, and he will never leave or forsake
those who are walking in fellowship with him. He will help us through every
trial and through every difficult circumstance and through every persecution
and mistreatment we might face at the hands of others who resent us or who are embittered
against us because of our walks of obedience to our Lord. So, where others will
abandon and mistreat us we can count on our Lord to be with us.
[Matt 5:10-16; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Matt
28:18-20; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; John
15:1-21; Acts 1:8; Acts 26:18; Rom 5:3-5; Rom
12:1-8; 1 Co 12:1-31; 2 Co 1:3-11; Eph 4:1-16;
Eph 5:17-27; Phil 3:7-11; Col 3:16; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; Heb 3:13; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 2:9; 1 Pet 4:12-17]
He’s Been Faithful
By Carol Cymbala
In my own suffering
Through every pain every tear
There's a God who's been faithful to me
When my strength was all gone
When my heart had no song
Still in love He's proved faithful to me
Every word He's promised is true
What I thought was impossible
I've seen my God do
He's been faithful
Faithful to me
Looking back His love and mercy I see
Though in my heart I have questioned
Even failed to believe
He's been faithful, faithful to me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkFaEMwct_A
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