This is His commandment...

1 John 3:7-24 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; ⁸ the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. ¹⁰ By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

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.

¹³ Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. ¹⁴ We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. ¹⁵ Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. ¹⁶ We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. ¹⁷ But 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? ¹⁸ Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. ¹⁹ We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him ²⁰ in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. ²¹ Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; ²² and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.

²³ This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. ²⁴ The 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.

I say it often, but it is vital that we remember and recognize that the letters which make up a large portion of New Testament scripture, are written to the church, to believers. These are not evangelistic messages, meant to reach the lost. These are instructions, encouragements and at times rebukes to those who believe. We should not expect that unbelievers, those in the world, will accept or follow these messages. John ends today’s text saying:  This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.  The 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.

So love for one another is critical for believers. This love is to be an unconditional love, like the love God has for us. 1 John 4:19 says:  We love, because He first loved us.    When asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus said:   “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-30)     It is important to recognize that while Jesus says all that we do and all that we say depends on these two commandments, to love God and to love our neighbor, there is a third vital component of that love we must have. We are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. If we love ourselves, in our flesh, in our human nature, we love others with a self centered, self satisfying, self seeking and conditional love. We love then only to get something in return. Often even what might look like unconditional and sacrificial acts of love, acceptance and tolerance, are really done for self gratification, to make us feel good about ourselves. We love because He first loved us. Our first love then, the first and great commandment, is that we love God with all our heart, soul and mind. In loving God we recognize what true love, His love looks like. God’s love is unconditional. He loves us even while we are against Him, even while we are sinners. His love for us though is not demonstrated in His acceptance and tolerance of our sin. Romans 5:8 says:  God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  God’s love is unconditional and sacrificial. It is not warm and fuzzy, it is demonstrated through pain and anguish, through nails in the hands and feet of Christ. The love of God is demonstrated in the shed blood of Christ.

John says: We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.     In order to truly love anyone else, we must lay down our own lives. We must lay down all that is self. There was no benefit for Jesus in going to the cross. He did it purely for our good and to fulfill the will of the Father. Only when we ourselves have received that love, when we love our selves because of the great love that was demonstrated on the cross, can we love others. When we lay down our lives, like Christ, we love unconditionally. John says: Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.     Our love is not dependant on their love. Our love is dependant, in response to God’s love demonstrated by Jesus on the cross.   Jesus says:  “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:43-45)  Jesus also says:    “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.” (John 15:18-21)

We should not expect that as we love the world, with Godly unconditional love, they will love us in return. In truth if they love us, we are probably not rightly, fully demonstrating the love of Christ. Those who do not know the love of God will love in their human ability. Their love will be conditional love. They will love us to the extent that it is good for them. Our love on the other hand must be both unconditional, spiritual Godly love, but also it must be tangible. John says:  Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.  We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him  in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.  Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;  and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.    We need to back our words of love with acts of love and compassion.

We end where we began. John says:  This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.     The final thing for us then is that we believe in the name of Jesus Christ, God’s Son. If we believe in Christ then we will keep His commandment to love. If we believe in Christ, then also we, not the world will live in response to Jesus sacrifice for our sins. John says: make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;  the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.     Our lives should be a demonstration to the world, of both the love and the righteousness of God.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit thank You for the demonstration of Your love for me, the cross of Christ. Thank You that You, through the abiding and indwelling Holy Spirit empower me to love others as You have loved me. That it is not me that loves but You who loves them through me. Thank You also that it is also Your righteousness not mine. May I live today, believing in Jesus Christ, loving others and walking as Your child, in righteousness.    Amen