How can John say that love is a mark of believers and hate is a mark of non-believers when we know believers who struggle with hate and non-believers who genuinely love others?
Review
“God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.” Therefore, genuine believers will:
- 1 John 1:5-10 – know that they are sinful
- 1 John 2:1-11 – long for holiness
- 1 John 2:12-17 – not hunger for things of this world
- 1 John 2:18-29 – confess that Jesus is the Christ
- 1 John3:13-24 – show self-sacrificing love for others
Context
1Jn 3:11 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; 12 not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous. 13Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. – 1 John 3:11-13 NASB
- Cain murdered Abel because Abel trusted God and the darkness hates the light.
- Compare with John 15:18-20
- Compare with Luke 10:16.
- Compare with Matthew 5:20-22
- Jesus claims that we all fall short. John says everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. How do we reconcile those two statements?
- No one who lives in rebellion to God is saved.
Passage
3:13 Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. 14We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. 15Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 16We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. 19We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him 20in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. 21Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. 23This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. 24The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. – 1 John 3:13-24 NASB
- “passed out of death into life” — no longer controlled by death the way we used to be controlled by it as slaves to sin and death.
- Loving others is a mark of saving faith. Loving others is not something we do left to ourselves. It’s part of the gift of saving faith.
- How is love a mark of a Christian in a way that it is not in a non-Christian? A sign of a genuine Christian is the desire to love not only those who love you, but those who do not love you
- What about Jesus are we to emulate (1 John 3:16)? We are to emulate Christ’s willingness to give up His own rights for the sake of another.
- The hate which is a mark of unbelief is a hate the results from a lifestyle of rebellion to God
- The love which is a mark of belief is a love which is not self-centered, and which seeks to love the unlovable regardless of the return.
- Your heart — your feelings, emotional perceptions, subjective conclusions — is not a valid indicator of your spiritual status.
- Even YOU can’t condemn yourself if God has forgiven you. And if EVEN YOU cannot condemn yourself, then you can have confidence before God.
- The objective standard is: Do you accept or reject Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah?
- “whatever we ask we receive” – this is not a blank check. The context is our status as children of God. We can have confidence that our request for grace and forgiveness and a place in the kingdom of God will be granted.
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Series: 1 John: Discerning the True Gospel
Study: 1 John Resources
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