The Imperative of Love

1 John 3:10-15 

PART ONE: THE SINNER 

Here, John simplifies things for us. While we've discussed some signs of true and false believers, John gives a broader and simple tell tale way of knowing who is which.  

1. Children of God will practice righteousness and will dwell harmoniously with other believers.  
2. Children of the devil will not practice righteousness and they will constantly find themselves bickering with the believers.  

Do you find yourself constantly bickering with others in your church congregation? Perhaps you do not have the love of God within you. Do you find yourself constantly diving into sin? Perhaps you have not been clothed with the righteousness of God.  

Do you find it odd that so many churches are dividing? Do you find it curious that quarterly meetings can be filled with so much heat? Is it not confusing that of all the places on earth where gossip occurs, the church body is among the most prominent?  

How do you explain this to an unbeliever? How do you convince them that Christians have tapped into something beautiful and wonderful and different from the rest of the world when we all look the same? 

Do you explain it away with, "Well, we're just sinners like everyone, saved by the grace of God,"? 

No.  

In Galatians 5:13, Paul says, "For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another."  

The freedom Christ's sacrifice gives a believer is not to choose whether or not he will be nice to another believer today. Christ freed us from the chains of sin. Backbiting and gossip in the church is not a sign that the church is full of Christians who still sin. It is a sign of a pure lack of true believers.  

Similarly, in Romans 6, Paul condemns those who claim the grace of God, yet live in sin. In verses 1-4, he says, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." 

Simply put, someone who has actually been "saved" will no longer act like him who has not  been saved. There are no exceptions. God has made it clear how we ought to act, and how we ought to love. He has also made it exceptionally clear that the Spirit within us is more powerful than any temptation we will face (1 Cor. 10:13).  

No matter how juicy the potential gossip, the Spirit within us is capable of closing our mouths. No matter how much we disagree with the date of the church car wash, the Spirit within us can give us the spirit of love toward the individual who dared suggest a new date. Absolutely no temptation is too strong. Therefore, to give in to any temptation is to blatantly ignore the Spirit.  

This bickering, gossiping believer is a modern-age Cain. Now, Cain killed his brother, and maybe fake believers aren't killing their brothers. But let's look at the root cause of why Cain killed Abel.  

3:11-2: "For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother's righteous." 

What do sons of Cain have in common? They bicker and gossip and backbite out of a need to be better than someone else. It's pride, Satan's greatest tool. Listen to the words of Matthew Henry. 

"Sin, indulged, knows no bound. He (Cain) was vexed with the superiority of Abel's service, and envied him the favour and acceptance he had with God. And for these he martyred his brother. Ill-will will teach us to hate and revenge what we should admire and imitate." 

How many  church divisions have their roots in pride - in individuals fuming over things and people they should be admiring? We leave because the pastor insists on preaching something that tugs at our pride the wrong way. 

Don't get me wrong, there will be things in every single church service you attend that irk you slightly - or at least someone in that church. Anytime a group of people meet, there will be disagreements, controversy, various opinions and temptation for discord. This is normal. God made us unique. What is not normal, at least not to the believer, is when, in our pride, we believe that our unique opinion is superior to all others.  

This is no small sin. Because sin has taken its first hold of our foot, like a cord wrapped around our ankle. All we need do is take one or two more steps in that direction. We need only let this pride fester. We need only tell one or two people in the church  body how frustrated we are with so and so. We need only lie in bed thinking of what we would say to that individual if we didn't have such a godly filter.  

That is how Satan will trip you up, and the entire church body, if they are not careful, will not be far behind.  

PART TWO: THE BELIEVER 

John now switches gears, speaking to the believer. He tells the follower of Christ that the kind of hatred he's just spoken of should not surprise them. Hate toward believers not only spreads throughout the earth, but it infiltrates the church body.  

"Do not marvel," John says.  

The very fact that such hatred toward us exists gives us something to measure our faith by. We know we have passed from spiritual death to life, because we are not bound by hatred and pride. This is not an area where the believer should struggle. It is the linchpin of the evidence of our spiritual transformation. The imperative of love towards our brothers and sisters in Christ is that without it we have no assurance of salvation. But with it, we can view the hatred toward us much as Noah would have viewed the rainbow - as a promise.  

We ought to love fellow believers. We ought to refrain from gossip, choosing instead to encourage (Ephesians 4:29), not because it is our duty, but because it is our nature.  

It is not that we love them because they are the kind of person we naturally love. As stated earlier, the church body is full of unique people of various backgrounds, viewpoints and beliefs. But we are all under the love of God.  

Matthew Henry said, "(Love) is a mark of our transition into a stage of life. We may know it by the evidences of our faith in Christ, of which this love to our brethren is one. It includes a peculiar love to the Christian society. They are not so much loved for their own sakes as for the sake of God and Christ, who have loved them. This is the issue of faith in Christ, of our passage from death to life. The hatred of our brethren is a sign of our deadly state." 

Do you find yourself bent to hate before love? Examine this passage and pray that God would reveal the true state of your heart.