At
the church where I serve we are in the middle of a sermon series entitled
Connect. During this series, we are looking at a letter that is recorded for us
in the New Testament of the Bible, called the book of 1 John. During this
series, we are going to discover the components that make for true connection
and community. During this series, we are going to discover the landmines and
roadblocks that keep us from true connection and community. And as we go
through this series, our hope and our prayer is that God would move by the
power of the Holy Spirit in our heads, hearts, and hands, in a way that moves
us to the place where we can experience the connection and community with God
and one another that we were created and designed to experience.
This week I would like
for us to spend our time together picking up where we left off last week. And
as we jump into the next section of this letter that has been preserved and
recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible, called the book of John, we
will see John reveal for us another timeless truth when it comes to how we can experience the connection and community
with God and one another that we were created and designed to experience. So
let’s jump into the next section of this letter together, beginning in 1 John
3:13-15:
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.
John begins this section of his letter to early
followers of Jesus who were from the church at Ephesus with a seemingly
surprising command: Do not be surprised brethren, if the world hates you. What
is so interesting is that the word surprised here, in the language that this
letter was originally written in, literally means to be extraordinarily
disturbed by someone or something so as to be surprised. As we have talked
about earlier in the series, when John uses the word world, he is referring to
those things in the
world that are hostile to God and place themselves in opposition to God and His
kingdom.
So John’s command, if
communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded
something like this: Do not be surprised so as to be disturbed by the reality
that those in the world that are hostile to Jesus and place themselves in
opposition to Jesus would be hostile to you and hate you. You see, in giving
this command, John was echoing back to the very words that he had heard Jesus
communicate to he and the rest of the disciples. Words that John recorded for
us in the account of Jesus life that bears his name. Let’s take a minute and
look at those words together, beginning in John 15:17-21:
"This I
command you, that you love one another. 18 "If the world
hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 "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. 20
"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. 21 "But all these things they
will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know the One who sent
Me.
You see,
just as Jesus wanted His closest followers to understand, John wanted the
members of the church at Ephesus, and followers of Jesus throughout history, to
clearly understand that the more that their lives demonstrated a genuine
and authentic relationship and connection with Jesus as a result of how they
loved others as Jesus had loved them, the more that those in the world that
were hostile to Jesus would be hostile to them. As we discovered last week, the
lifestyle we are committed to living reveals who we are committed and connected
to.
And because
of that reality, it should not come as a surprise that those in the world that are hostile to Jesus
and place themselves in opposition to Jesus would be hostile to those who were
committed to live a lifestyle that demonstrated a genuine and authentic relationship
and connection with Jesus. It should not come as a surprise, because those who
are hostile to God and place
themselves in opposition to God and His kingdom have committed themselves to a
lifestyle of rebellion against God.
However, in verse 14, John introduces a
well-known and generally accepted fact for followers of Jesus throughout
history in that we know that we have passed out of death
into life, because we love the brethren. John introduces this well-known and
generally accepted fact to remind the readers of this letter throughout history
that because the lifestyle we are committed to living reveals who we are
committed and connected to, those who demonstrate a warm regard and interest in
others that is marked by a selflessness in their relationship with others
provide the evidence that are no longer eternally separated from God as a
result of their selfishness and rebellion against God.
Instead,
their love for others reveals the reality that they have experienced the
transformational activity of God that has moved them into eternal life in the
relationship and connection with God that they were created for. By contrast,
John explained that he who does not love abides in death. Now, as we have
discovered throughout this series, the word abide means to remain in a sphere
of existence. John’s point here is that the person who does not live a
lifestyle that demonstrates a warm regard and interest in others that is marked
by a selflessness in their relationship with others reveals the reality that
they still remain separated from God as a result of their rebellion against
God.
Because,
as we discovered last week, the lifestyle we are committed to living reveals
who we are committed and connected to. The person who engages in a lifestyle that is committed
to selfishly rebelling against God and others is revealing the reality of a
lawless rebellion against God. The timeless reality is that, because children tend to take on the
characteristics and character of their parents, no one
who is born of God engages in a lifestyle that is committed to selfishly
rebelling against God and others.
The timeless reality is
that all humanity, whether
religious or irreligious, whether near or far from God, would arrive at the
conclusion that a person has a genuine and authentic relationship and
connection with Jesus as a result of how they love others as Jesus had loved
them. And because of that reality, the person who does
not live a lifestyle that demonstrates a warm regard and interest in others
that is marked by a selflessness in their relationship with others reveals the
reality that they still remain separated from God as a result of their
rebellion against God.
John then reinforced this reality in verse 15 with an
incredibly strong statement: Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. With
this statement, John was
once again echoing back to the very words that he had heard Jesus communicate,
this time as part of perhaps the most famous sermon that He ever preached.
Words that are recorded for us in an account of Jesus life that we know today
as the gospel of Matthew. Let’s take a minute and look at those words together,
beginning in Matthew 5:21-22:
"You have
heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER' and 'Whoever
commits murder shall be liable to the court.' "But I say to you that
everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and
whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the
supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.
You see,
just as Jesus wanted those who listened to perhaps His most famous sermon to
understand, John wanted the members of the church at Ephesus, and followers of
Jesus throughout history, to clearly understand that we are guilty of murder
when we respond to our desires being blocked in a way that damages another. We
are guilty of murder when we respond in anger either to the wrong things or in the
wrong way in a way that damages another.
We are
guilty of murder when we angrily verbally bully another, whether that verbal
bullying is face to face or on social media, in a way that damages the heart of
another. We are guilty of murder when we angrily
speak in a way that disrespectfully slanders another person in a way that damages
the heart of another. We are guilty of murder because Jesus is not simply
concerned with our external behavior.
We are guilty because at
the end of the day Jesus is concerned with our internal heart condition. Jesus
is concerned with our internal heart condition because Jesus knows, and human
history has shown, that what is in the heart will eventually spill out. John
wanted the members of the church at Ephesus, and followers of Jesus throughout
history, to clearly understand that what spills out of our heart produces a
lifestyle that reveals where we are truly at when it comes to whether or not we
have a genuine and authentic relationship and connection with Jesus.
And because of that reality, John introduced another
well-known and generally accepted fact to the readers of his letter throughout
history: and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. John
wanted to make it unmistakably clear to the readers of this letter throughout
history that those in
the world that are hostile to Jesus and place themselves in opposition to Jesus
would be hostile to those who were committed to live a lifestyle that demonstrated a genuine
and authentic relationship and connection with Jesus.
And
it is that hostility to
those who were committed to a lifestyle that demonstrated a genuine
and authentic relationship and connection with Jesus that provided the evidence
to reveal the reality that they were still eternally separated from God as a
result being committed
to a lifestyle of rebellion against God. And as John continued this section of
his letter, we see John describe what a lifestyle that
demonstrates a warm regard and interest in others that is marked by a selflessness
in their relationship with others looks like in the day to day life of a person
what has a genuine and authentic relationship and connection with Jesus.
We
will continue to look at this section of John’s letter on Friday…
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