1 John : Day 7 : Love in Action

Day Seven: Love in Action

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.  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.

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.

By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.  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 what pleases him.  And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.  Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

1 John 3:11-24 (ESV)

Growing up in the church in the ‘90s, I was exposed to a variety of Christian contemporary music.  Some were good, some were not so good.  But one of the biggest bands at that time was DC Talk.  On their album, Free At Last, there is a song titled, “Luv Is A Verb.”  It may seem cheesy, but the song title itself contains truth.  Love is action, it is not passive.  I love my wife, I tell her all the time.  But there is an old saying that actions speak louder than words.  In addition to telling my wife I love her, I show my wife that I love her.  I do these actions not because the actions make me love her; the love I have for her makes me do those actions.  The same goes with dealing with other Christians.

The first portion of this passage is basically a what not to do; it uses the story of Cain and Able as an allegory.  It is an illustration that is very extreme, why does John use this?  Cain was jealous of Able, because Able’s righteousness was superior to his.  Usually when we hate another Christian, it is usually rooted in some sort of jealousy.  There is a saying that Christians eat their own; this is to express jealousy amongst us or how we can delight in the failure of others.  In verse 13 it states, “Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.”  This stuck out to me because it shows us how much we need each other.  We already are being attacked by the world, we don’t need to worry about being attacked by other Christians.  When we hate each other, we are disobeying God’s command to love and are denying the trait of righteousness that separates us from the rest of the world.

In Acts chapters two and four, we see the early church in community.  Making sure everybody had what they needed, even going so far as to selling possessions to make sure that their brother or sister had food to eat.  This may seem like a utopian view of communism, but in reality, this was out of necessity.  The members of the early church were ostracized from their community due to this radical new belief.  Through God’s sovereignty, they learned what it was to be a community out of their need to survive.  Being in community sometimes requires sacrifice.  Verse 17 states (in the NIV), “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?”  That word for pity in the Greek is splanchna; this is to indicate deep emotional concern or affectionate sympathy.  When we see a homeless person wondering the street, we usually feel some sort of sympathy but usually don’t think twice after we pass them by.  But what if we saw a family member in that condition, it would devastate us.  This is the approach we need to take when we see a brother or sister in Christ, especially in our own congregation.  “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35 ESV).  

Not only is the love of God active between believers; it is also active between believers and God.  The action of love continues to be active even after the moment of salvation.  We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which makes us more and more like Jesus (this is called sanctification).  With this, we know that God sees us as situationally perfect, even though we continue to sin.  Verses 20 and 21 state, “for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.  Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.”  We might condemn ourselves, we know that our flesh is still cursed by sin.  Though we still sin, we can have confidence that God still loves us and that we have nothing to fear because Jesus has paid the penalty of our sin for us.  With that confidence we can go before the Father, talk to Him.  As we mature in our faith, our will be attuned with God’s, and we ask for whatever in confidence.