“Love One Another” 1 John 3:11-17

Turn with me in your Bibles once again to the book of 1 John. It is good to be back with you sharing from God’s word here this evening. It’s been a little while since we’ve been in 1 John. It’s been about three or four weeks now.

So it’s good to be back together and back here in this letter from the apostle John to these churches. And as we’ve been coming through the book of 1 John, we’ve been seeing these different marks of a Christian. How do you identify a Christian?

And as I was thinking about this, it really occurred to me, have you ever had one of those times where you meet somebody for the first time and there’s just something different about them? And something that really, it’s almost like a kindred spirit. It’s almost a warm, and you can really identify with that person. You don’t really know anything about them yet, but then you come to find out later on that they’re a Christian. And that’s what it seems to be, that that’s why you were drawn to that person. That’s what was in them that made them feel familiar to you.

Or there’s other times where You meet somebody and later on you find out they’re a Christian and you’re like, wow, I never would have guessed that given what I’ve seen so far from them. And that would be a more sad case of that sort of a thing. But it’s almost as though you have this sense within you that when you meet another Christian, there’s something different about them. There’s something that you can identify there that starts to set off almost a radar inside you, that this must be another believer. And you may not identify it at first, but later on you can say, oh, that’s why, that’s why that person seems so friendly or seems so whatever the thing is. But have you ever wondered, has somebody felt that way about you? Have you ever wondered if somebody knew you were a Christian before you even told them. Or hopefully not on the flip side, was surprised when they found out you were a Christian.

What does a Christian look like? What is that about them that identifies them to us? How would you know somebody’s a Christian even before they were to tell you?

Well, along this same line of thinking, back in 1970 really, there was a Christian author named Francis Schaeffer. He was an apologist and he was an author. He wrote a lot of books. But he wrote a book called The Mark of a Christian. What it is that marks a Christian, that identifies what a Christian is, who a Christian is. And this is how he explains it in the introduction of his book. He says, through the centuries, men have displayed many different symbols to show that they are Christians. They’ve worn marks on their lapels of their coats, they’ve hung chains on their neck, they’ve had special haircuts. And of course, there’s nothing wrong with any of this if one feels it is his calling, but there is a much better sign. A mark that has not been thought up just as a matter of expediency for use on some special occasion or in some specific era. It’s a universal mark that is to last through all the ages of the church until Jesus comes back. What is that mark? Well, at the close of his ministry, Jesus, looking forward to his death on the cross in the open tomb in the ascension, knowing that he’s about to leave, he prepares his disciples for what is to come. And it is here that he makes clear what that distinguishing mark will be. And that is found in John chapter 13.

John chapter 13 verses 33 through 35 says, this is Jesus speaking, he says, little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek me, and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, where I am going, you cannot come. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. And then Francis Schaeffer concludes with this. He says, this passage reveals the mark that Jesus gives to label a Christian, not just in one era or in one locality, but at all times and in all places until Jesus returns. That is the mark that Jesus gave.

Now there are those, as he pointed out, throughout history who have, at different times really, Christians have dressed a certain way, or they identify themselves in a particular way, and again, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, but we need too to realize that we have a mark that is inherent with being a Christian, a mark that Christ gives us. And Jesus says, By this, all will know that you are my disciple if you love one another. That’s what Jesus says there in John 13, and that is repeated throughout the New Testament. Really, that’s one of the major themes that all of the New Testament writers pick up on, that because we’re Christians, we should love one another. I mean, you can probably think of a lot of the one and other passages in the New Testament and specifically the love one and other passages.

Here’s just a few to kind of give an idea of how thoroughly this is through the New Testament. In Romans chapter 5, verse 5, Paul in the middle of his argument says, hope does not put to shame because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit that was given to us. The love of God has been poured into us.

And in Galatians 5, fruits of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love. Number one on the list. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Then, you have in 1 Thessalonians, Paul speaking to the Thessalonians and encouraging them. He says, now concerning the love of the brothers, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. For indeed you do practice it toward all the brothers who are in Macedonia, but we urge you, brothers, to excel still more. That’s 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 9 and 10. And Peter, as well, he writes about the mark of love for the Christian.

In 1 Peter 1, 22 and 23, he says, since you have, in obedience to the truth, purified your souls for a love of the brothers, without hypocrisy. So since all that’s true, since you’ve already done that, he continues, fervently love one another from the heart. For if you have been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, that is through the living and enduring word of God. So Peter’s argument there is because you have been born again, and you’ve already set yourself aside to love one another, his instruction, his encouragement there is fervently love one another.

And then lastly, in the second letter of John, 2 John verse six, he says this. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it. So that is love. And you’ve heard from the beginning, and so you should walk in love. Again, this is just consistent throughout the entire Bible really, but specifically in the New Testament. The apostles repeating the instruction and commands of Christ, One of the things they’re all saying is, love one another.

You need to love one another. But if you noticed here, there were two things that stick out in all these passages. We are commanded to love one another, but we’re also enabled to love one another. We’re not loving one another from our own effort and our own will and trying hard. Love one another because of who you already are. The love of God has been poured out in your hearts. So then, love one another. His work in us makes us people who do love one another. That’s why Christians are marked by love for one another. It’s what sets us apart. Because God loves us, we can’t help but love one another. We can’t help but reflect the love of God in our relationships with other people.

So as you think on all those things, again, have you ever wondered if somebody notices that mark in your life? Have you ever wondered if somebody would find you a loving person? And that is exactly what John is speaking of in our passage tonight, and this is not the first time he’s spoken of loving one another. It’s not the first time he’s given the encouragement or really the command, he calls it a command, a commandment, to love one another. Back in 1 John 2, starting in verse 7, He says this, beloved, I am not writing to you a new commandment, but an old commandment, which you have from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard. On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.

And if you remember in chapters one and two, John really identified being a Christian with being in the light. And he’s saying there, the one who loves his brother is in the light. It’s not that because he loves his brother, he is now coming into the light. No, because he’s in the light, he loves his brother. And the one who hates his brother shows he’s not in the light, he’s in the darkness. And that same thing will be seen in our text here this evening. Really the main idea that we’ll be speaking of is that true Christians are marked by love for one another.

So as we work through this text, we’re gonna go from verse 11 through verse 17 tonight. I want you to ask yourself, do I see the mark of love in my own life? When somebody looks at me, what would they say? Would they see the mark of love in my life? And as we understand these truths, it will give us more confidence and assurance of not only who we are in Christ, but what we are called to be in Christ. And as we look at this text, we’ll see The structure of it really is first John starts with a command, the command to love. He brings that in again as he did in chapter two.

 So number one is the command to love, but the second thing is he brings in another contrast, as John often does. And here he’s contrasting love and hate, or Christians and non-Christians, and that’s really a consistent practice of John in this letter. But what we see is what a Christian is not, and then what a Christian is, and then what a Christian does and what a Christian does not do. And we’ll see that as we work through the text.

They really come in that order. First it’s the negative, then the positive, and then the positive and the negative. What a Christian is not, what a Christian is, then what a Christian does and what a Christian does not do. And then lastly, we will close with an example that John gives of what this looks like. All these things, he’s kind of building his argument why we need to love one another, but then he gives us the perfect example of loving one another. So that’s where we will go in our text this evening.

So now I’m going to read for us 1 John 3, verses 11 through 17. 1 John 3, 11 through 17. This is the word of the Lord. For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 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 brothers were righteous. Do not marvel, brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. The one who 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 have known love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 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?

So we see here right in verse 11, John repeats almost word for word the command to love. And he says again, and he said this several times as well, this is the message which you have heard from the beginning. This is nothing new. This is not some new revelation that John is giving them. Like, oh, I forgot to tell you guys You’re supposed to love one another. No, they know this, and that’s what he means here is you know this, guys. I’m reminding you of what you already know. You are to love one another. So we see there the command to love. And again, we talked about the command of love back in chapter two when we came through that passage, but it’s interesting to think about love as a command.

When we think of love often, especially when we’re thinking according to the way the world thinks of the term love, what love is, typically we think of love as a feeling or an affection, and it is that. We often think love is something that happens to us, that when we meet the right person, or we’re in the right situation, or things work out just the right way, we feel love, it happens to us. So how can I obey something that happens to me? Well, that just shows you that our idea of love is not big enough. That our idea of love is not the full picture of what love is. Love is, it is a feeling, it is an affection, it is something that does happen to us, but it’s also something we do.

Love is an action, love is a verb. We are commanded to do it. We’re not commanded to feel it, we’re commanded to do it, to love. Love is not an option for Christians. We are not to be held captive by our emotions. While love, we often identify love as an emotion, we are not to be told what to think and feel simply by our emotions. Our emotions can be deceptive. At one moment, we may love our brother. And in the next moment, depending on what he does, I may no longer want to love my brother anymore. Well, that’s not the type of love that John is commanding here.

The love he’s commanding here is an action on our part. It is an attitude. It’s an attitude that we need to cultivate. Love is a pattern of behavior. It’s a pattern of behavior that we practice and that we embrace in our life. And again, John says this is nothing new. This is the message you have heard from the beginning.

I read the passage in the quote I read earlier, but in John 13, Jesus speaking. I am little children, I am with you a little longer. You will seek me, and as I said to the Jews, and I also say to you, where I am going, you cannot come.

So he’s preparing them to live without him in front of them, to live without him physically present in their life. They followed him around, listened to his teaching, obeyed him, but he’s saying, I won’t be here forever. And you can’t come with me. So now listen, this is what you are to do. Without me here, when I am gone, he says a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. So as Jesus is preparing to leave the scene, leaving his disciples who would be apostles and the other followers there, the very first thing he has to tell them It’s not, well, you gotta make plans to hide from the government because they’re gonna come after you and you gotta try to do, love one another. Just love one another. Even as I have loved you, you also love one another. And he says, by this, by your obedience to this command I just gave you, By this, all will know, not only other Christians, like we were talking about earlier, how you can tell whether or not someone’s a Christian sometimes, all will know.

Which means, when you are persecuted, when you are put to death, because you’re a Christian, one of the ways you’re gonna be identified, all will know that you’re my disciples, because you love one another. And Jesus says, I’m giving you a new command, and John explains in chapter two, yes, it’s a new command, but it’s also an old command. It’s not like the Old Testament people didn’t have to love one another, it wasn’t as though they could just go around hating one another and God was fine with it, and now he says, well, actually, you know what, wait a minute, let’s change the rules here a little bit. No, Jesus is just explaining it to them in a new way, because We know in Leviticus, Leviticus 19, in the law, the law that God gave to Moses, Leviticus 19, 18 says, you shall not take vengeance, and you shall not keep your anger against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Why? Because I am Yahweh. God speaking to his covenant people. If you’re going to be my people, then you will love your neighbor as yourself. Because I am Yahweh. Because of who God is, that’s why we love one another. It’s not because it’s best for us or it’s gonna just make things more peaceful and more agreeable and things are gonna go better in your life if you love one another. Because God is God, we are to love one another, period. God does not elaborate. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh, period. God’s character is reflected in his laws and instructions that he gives his people. Why do we have to love one another? Because God is love.

That’s another way to say what is being said here in Leviticus. Love one another because I am Yahweh or because God himself is love. And if you are God’s people, it’s necessary that you love one another. But in another sense, it is a new commandment.

So we did have it in the Old Testament, so it’s not like this is a brand new thing for them, but it’s a new in another sense. Love had never been revealed like it was in Christ. This ultimately climaxes in his death on the cross, his sacrificial death for those whom he loved. And in John 15. Typically the passage we think of, abide in me, I am the vine and you are the branches. This is what Jesus says in that passage. This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. And he gives some further instructions here.

So he’s trying to get this into their heads. He’s trying to help the disciples understand this. He’s repeating himself, but then he gives more. He says, greater love has no one than this, than one lay down his life for his friends. This is what love is. Not only does he tell them, love one another, but you’ve never seen love greater than this, than seeing someone lay down his life for his friends. And Jesus could have said, now watch this, because that’s what he was about to do. He was about to lay down his life and give them the example of what they were to do in obedience to his command. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect model of the love of God.

Now you might say, well, I’m not Jesus, so how am I expected to love like he loved? Well, it’s true, you’re not Jesus. I’m glad we have that straight. But Jesus gave us this command. And though we cannot love necessarily to the degree of Jesus, Jesus being God loves infinitely, we can obey John’s command to love one another in the way that Jesus loved, by laying down our life for the brothers, for our friends. We’ll get to that when we come to the end of this passage. But by the power of the Spirit, we can lovingly and selflessly sacrifice. That’s really what it means there to lay down our life for our brothers.

I mentioned earlier, we’ve already covered the command of love, and that is our first point here. And chapter two has a lot to say on the command of love. And a few months ago, I preached on that. So if you want to listen to that again, you can, but the command of love is in verse 11 here. And then he contrasts the children of God who obey that command.

And if you remember, he’s contrasting with the children of the devil. Because look at verse 10 of chapter three. By this, the children of God and the children of the devil are manifested. Everyone who does not do righteousness is not of God, as well as the one who does not love his brother. So this is the contrast. The children of God and the children of the devil. There’s no indifferent middle ground. Children of God or children of the devil, and they are contrasted by their love. Satan’s children are marked by murder and hatred and indifference toward the children of God.

So we have the four divisions I mentioned earlier, the four contrasts. What a Christian is not, what a Christian is, then what a Christian does flowing from that, and what a Christian does not do.

So first, we see in verses 12 and 13, what a Christian is not. So he starts with the negative. Verse 12 starts with the word not, 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 brothers were righteous. Do not marvel, brothers, if the world hates you. If a Christian is no longer of the world, no longer of the evil one, then he will not act like Cain. He will not act like one who was of the evil one.

Cain here is personified as a non-believer. He is given as the illustration of what it is to be a non-believer. He was of the wicked one. His works were evil, his deeds were evil. He abided in death. And he hates his brother, he hated his brother. So that’s the parallel John draws. If you are not in Christ, this is you, this is your heart. And then Abel personifies the Christian here. That’s why he says in verse 13, do not marvel if the world hates you. Cain hated Abel.

And you know the story, in Genesis 4, Abel comes to God with his offering. He brought a lamb and God was pleased with the sacrifice because he obeyed. And then Cain brings his offering which was the fruit of the field and God was not pleased. And when Cain found out that God was pleased with Abel’s and not pleased with his, he takes out the competition. He kills his brother Abel. His hatred and resentment burned against his brother so much so that when he had the opportunity, he murdered him, even after God warned him. Be careful, sin is crouching at the door. And that has been the relationship of the world to God’s people ever since.

John says, don’t marvel, don’t be surprised if the world hates you. Who said that before? Jesus. Jesus said, don’t be surprised when the world hates you. It hated me first. If you are a Christian, a little Christ, a Christ follower, if you’re doing what he did, don’t be surprised if you get the treatment he got. We see this today.

I mentioned Tuesday night at our theology class, I used this illustration, but we had an interaction last first Friday, so last month at our first Friday downtown. We had a guy that wanted to come up and speak to us, and he was very interactive and was asking questions and was talking to us quite a bit. And his main reason for wanting to interact with us was to come tell us. that we have absolutely no right to tell people what’s right and wrong, and what they can and can’t do, and how they can get to heaven and how they won’t get to heaven, and all these things that we were there to share. And so, we just shared scripture with him. He was very concerned that we were making the way to heaven so exclusive. And that, well, why can’t Muslims and Jews and Mormons and pagans and whoever else find this too? You have no right to say that. And I was, you’re exactly right. I have no right to say that. I don’t.

But let me show you in Matthew and in John, and we took him there and showed him Jesus in John 14, 6. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. We showed him the words of Scripture, and these are not my opinions or my words. These are the words of Christ. He’s the one saying, there is no other way. And his response was, well, that makes me uncomfortable, and he stormed off. Don’t be surprised. when the world hates you. Don’t be surprised when the world hates our message. They hated Christ first.

In fact, if they hate you for the right reasons, because you are representing Christ and what Christ said, if they hate you for that, you should be honored. The apostles were honored. When they were persecuted, they were honored to be found worthy of the name. So don’t be surprised when the world hates you. So what a Christian is not is a murderer, one who hates his brother, like Cain who hated Abel.

And the second point here, the second contrast is what a Christian is. So he starts with a negative, well, if that’s not what a Christian is, what is a Christian? And in verse 14, we know that we have passed out of death and into life. A true Christian has passed from death into life. And again, he starts this verse with, we know. We know. John is speaking to these believers like a father speaks to his children. Now we know this is true. We know this. We know we have passed from death into life.

Really, the chief characteristic of the world given to us in the New Testament is that it is of the evil one. It is under the dominion of Satan, the prince of the power of the air, the god of this world. And we are born into this world. Because of sin, because of Adam’s original sin, the world we were born into is a world of sin. It is a spiritually dead and dark world. And we have been shaped in iniquity and born into sin. And because of that, we begin our life in the realm of death. We are born dead. This all stems back to Adam’s choice. Adam and Eve were given a clear choice in the garden. God told them, don’t eat of fruit. Don’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

In fact, in Genesis 2.17, this is exactly what God says. He was pretty clear. This was not veiled, this was not something they had to try to figure out. Don’t eat from the tree or you will die. Period. And they ate from the tree. They chose to disobey. And as a consequence, sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and now the entire world is groaning under this curse of sin. And every single person is born, the theological word we use is totally depraved. We are born in our sin, we are dead in our sin. If that was not true, then John could not say, we have passed from death into life.

Paul says it in Romans 3, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And in Ephesians 2, you were dead in your trespasses and sins. To be dead in sin means to be dead to the life of God. To be dead in Satan’s world, Satan’s realm, the God of this world, dead to a living fellowship with God. But a Christian, someone who has passed from death into life, a Christian is someone who has come to realize what their sin is, the true nature of their sin. He recognizes he is caught in the midst of this spiritual battle. And by nature, he is under the dominion of Satan, under the dominion of sin. He recognizes the desperate state of his condition.

That’s the first realization you come to when you become a Christian, what your sin is and where you’re headed because of it. He sees that only God in Christ can deliver him from that condition. A Christian comes to realize that Jesus is the only way. He sees the truth of Christ, the truth of the gospel, the truth that Christ came to die for sinners. And he comes to a personal knowledge and relationship with God. So if you want to know how it is we become a Christian, that’s it. We realize what our sin is. We realize the condition we are in. And we call out to God. We come to know God. We trust in Christ. We believe that he is true and what he said is true and what he did is true. And then a Christian is born again. We are passed from death into life. Once he’s born again, he becomes alive in God through Christ. He’s a child of God now and is living in fellowship with God. He’s become a part of the family of God. He has been transformed. That’s another way to say what John says here. We have passed out of death into life. We are not now walking dead people. We have been transformed. We were in death, now we are in life. We are not what we were. We’ve been transformed out of this worldly kingdom of death, Satan’s world, and we’ve been brought into the family of Christ. We once lived in this darkness and death, and now we live in eternal light and life.

That’s how John explains it in this letter. The Christian has eternal life abiding in him. The Christian has passed from death into life. That’s what a Christian is.

So we’ve seen what a Christian is not. We’ve seen what a Christian is. Now because of that, next is what a Christian does. And this is also in verse 14. So first we have, we know that we have passed out of death into life because, and there’s our clue there that this is our next point, because we love the brothers. The one who does not love abides in death. We know. How do we know? Because we love the brothers. If a Christian has truly been made a partaker in the life of God, and has been brought into the family of God, and has been transformed from death into life, then he should have an intimate, loving relationship with other believers. There’s nobody else in this world that that is true of than another believer. You cannot have the same type of relationship with an unbeliever. They’re still in death. Every believer has become his brother or sister in Christ. If a person’s become a new creation, then the love of God dwells in our hearts.

We saw that in Romans 5, 5. The love of God has been poured out into your heart. That’s true for Christians. And if he has come to love God as his father through the father’s own love that’s been given to him, then he will love his brothers and sisters in Christ with that same love. That love that was given to us by God through the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us. Now notice a few things here. He says, we know because we love the brothers. He doesn’t say, well if you want to be good Christians, you better start loving one another. He doesn’t say you need to try harder, you need to give more effort so that you can start loving one another. He says, we love the brothers. That is a current condition. We know this because of what’s already true of us. We do love the brothers. This is what marks us.

Remember John’s situation here. He’s writing to those who are confused, who are fearful. They’ve had these false teachers in their church, and the false teachers have now left, and they’re like, who was right? What’s going on here? How do we know what’s right and what’s wrong? And John says, listen, we know that we have passed from death into life because of what’s true of you, that we do love the brothers. Love for one another is inevitable. It’s the inevitable result of passing from death into life and having God’s light and life within us. The mindset of all true Christians is to love God and to love one another.

That’s what Moses told the people in Deuteronomy. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Why? Because this is what it is to be God’s people. That is what all Christians do. And then number four, what a Christian does not do, the one who does not love abides in death. In verse 15, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. His negative aspect here reinforces the positive he just gave.

A Christian does not hate his brother. Hating someone is murder. John is repeating Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know, again, you know that no murderer has eternal life. Hating someone, according to all of the New Testament, is this impulse of murder. the desire to destroy, wound, hurt, or hate anybody. Whoever hates is a murderer and does not have eternal life in him. So the man who does not love his brothers and sisters in Christ is still in this realm of death. He has not passed from death into life. This failure to love and this hate just reveals what’s already in you. It reveals what’s true on the inside, that the life of God does not abide in your soul.

That’s what a Christian is not, is one who hates his brother. He can’t be, because love and hate are opposites. If love is what identifies a Christian, then hate cannot be true of a Christian.

So as we’ve seen these marks, what a Christian is, or first, what a Christian is not, what a Christian is, what a Christian does, and what a Christian does not do, now we have an example. John gives us an example.

Verses 16 and 17. By this we have known love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 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?

It’s pretty straightforward. Christ laid down his life for us. And by this, we know what love is. If you see a brother in need, you put his needs first. That’s our example, that’s what Christ did. John says in verse 16, by this we know love, and he uses the example of Christ, and then he uses the opposite in verse 17. So if that’s what Christ did, the opposite of what Christ did is to see a brother in need and close his heart.

This is exactly what Christ did, is putting the needs of others before himself. In his humanity, Christ did not want to suffer on the cross. In the garden, the night he was betrayed, he asked the Father, if there’s any other way, please let this cup pass from me. He didn’t want to do it. But, then he said, not my will, but yours be done. So Christ’s humanity, his human will, he says not that will, not my human will be done, but God, your divine will be done. Complete and utter obedience. He did not want to do it, but he knew we had a need. He knew we needed salvation. He knew sin needed to be atoned for. He knew God’s wrath needed to be satisfied. So he said, not my will, but yours be done. That is our example. He laid aside his own human desires and provided what we needed.

So this passage is not saying we all need to go out and literally die, although that might be what you’re called to. What he’s saying is put the needs of others before your own, before your own desires, even when it’s hard. When we see a brother or sister in need, just like Christ, we need to lay aside what we want in that moment. We need to lay aside our wants and preferences, our comfort.

It’s uncomfortable to help some people. It’s not easy. It asks a lot of you sometimes. There’s not any reward in this life sometimes. You don’t ever get anything back sometimes. Sometimes it costs you. Sometimes you struggle to see whether or not it’s worth it. Sometimes you help someone in need and they reject you anyways. Sometimes you help someone in need and they take it and run. Sometimes they take advantage of you. Sometimes they take advantage of the grace that you have shown them. And none of that matters.

Because Christ laid down his life for us, because it’s what we needed. If anyone who sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

So how are we doing? How are we doing with that? Do we put the needs of others first? Do you give up your time? Do you give up time to the point where you had to cancel plans because somebody needed something? And even though I already had this planned and I really wanted to do this thing, somebody else needed something. Do you give up your energy when you’re already tired and you’re already spent and you don’t have anything left to give, and yet God places somebody right in the middle of your life in that moment that needs you?

Or your money, or anything else to serve other believers, your brothers and sisters in need? Do you seek the profit and success of others before yourself? Or do we battle feelings of resentment when we see others succeed? bitterness, envy, jealousy. Why can’t that be me? If people only knew what they’re really like, they wouldn’t be celebrating like that for them. If they know the things I know, man, I could really get them with this. No. That’s not what we are called to. That’s not who we are.

And I’ll tell you, we need to face these questions now before we face those questions on Judgment Day of how I am doing in this. Because, as Pastor just covered Matthew 25 a few weeks ago, this is how Jesus says Judgment Day will go. Verse 41 of Matthew 25, then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite me in. Naked and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Then they themselves will answer and say, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you? And he will answer them saying, truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

Many people will come to Christ on Judgment Day with their list of accomplishments, calling him Lord, Lord. And Jesus says, The least of these. These ones that I put in your life for you to serve, for you to love. You hated them. And whatever you do to them, you did to me. And you showed who you are by the way you treated them. Love and care for those in need is the standard.

And it’s not as though we earn our salvation by taking care of the needy, but taking care of the needy reveals what’s inside of us. It reveals who we are. Back in Matthew 7, Jesus says, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, in your name, did we not prophesy? And in your name, cast out demons, and in your name, do many miracles. And I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.” Lord, Lord, look at all these great things we did. We went to church. We called you Lord. We looked like good Christians. Look at all these things. Jesus says, I don’t know you. I don’t know you.

You may profess to know Christ, you might be baptized, you might take the Lord’s Supper every month, you might do many things for the church, but do you know him? You don’t wanna come to that day with your list of Christian accomplishments and never know what it is to be born again. Never know what it’s like to partake of this new nature, to have the love of God poured out in you so that you can’t help but take care of the needy.

So here in this passage for John, the difference between Satan’s children and God’s children could not be more clear. Those who murder, who hate, who are self-centered, and who do not care for the needs of others, do not have eternal life. But those who have repented of those things, those who have passed from death into life and trust Christ, they’ve given up their murderous, hateful attitudes and all their selfish indifference to the needy. They show they have been born again. By this we know we’ve passed out of death into life because we love especially fellow believers, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts.

So as I began by asking, what does a Christian look like? How would you know if someone’s a Christian? How would somebody know if you’re a Christian? Well, true Christians are marked by love, love for one another.

As I asked you in the beginning to be thinking of these things, do you see the mark of love in your life? When someone looks at you, what do they see?

These are questions that should be on your mind continually. And I pray that you will not only see the mark of love already in your life, but that you will hear and obey the command to love one another.

As Paul says in 1 Thessalonians, I read earlier, we urge you brothers to excel still more in your love for the brothers. Excel still more. The more we understand this, the more we understand what it is to be a Christian, what God has done in our life because we are Christians, we should have more confidence and assurance in who we are in Christ. and not only that, but what we are called to be because that’s true.

Let’s stand and close in prayer this evening. Father, we thank you for this passage of scripture, this truth that you have revealed to us in the Apostle John, that we can know who we are as Christians, as your people, because of the love that you have poured out into our life, because of the mark of love that has been put into our life, that’s been made on our hearts, I pray that we would seek to excel still more, to live this out even more, that as we are more and more conformed into the image of Christ, that our love would look more and more like Christ’s love. We thank you for your word. We pray that it would impact our life as we go from here. We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.