We've all heard that children of God are known by the love they have for one another. But what does that really look like? Hi, this is the Him We Proclaim podcast. In our 1 John study, we're contrasting the children of God versus the children of the devil. We'll see today that one of the most profound ways children of God love each other is how they treat the teachings of God.
In other words, not spreading false teachings about the person and work of Christ is the primary way believers love one another. There's a lot more John Fonbuel wants to cover in this short series called Love One Another. Here's part 4. If you have your Bibles, you can turn with me to 1 John chapter 3. Verses 11 through 24.
This past week I posted this Statement on my social media, and it got one of the greatest responses I've ever had because I am a social media influencer. Yeah. I have Millions of followers. No, I'm just kidding. They don't even care about social media, really.
I just do it because of our church networking with. pastors and church leaders throughout the whole world. This is what I posted. I just posted this simple sentence, and it got one of the greatest responses I've ever had. which shows me that it's touching on something that people are thinking about and struggling with I'll come back to that.
This is what I posted. First John is for assurance, not. Testing, end quote. That's all I said. The response to it was just, you know, from my level of social media influence was.
Fantastic, it was overwhelming. And what it said to me was this: that first, People do struggle with assurance, but second, this is what it showed me. People have misunderstood the book of 1 John their whole lives. The book of 1 John has been presented so many times as a series of tests by which the believer can gain assurance. That's not the purpose of this book.
John tells us in chapter 5, verse 13, the purpose of why he wrote this letter. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. That's the title for Jesus as me and the Messiah, the incarnate, resurrected Jesus Messiah, the Christ. He says, I've written these things to you who believe so that you may know. That you have eternal life, not so that you may test yourself.
You see, the purpose of this letter is to assure his little children's faith. It isn't intended to test ancient readers' faith. In fact, as one New Testament scholar points out, the obvious, which should be obvious. Is that John tells us in chapter 2, verses 12 through 14, that his little children have already passed the so-called testimony. Test.
He says that they are victors. The book of 1 John is a publication. Of John's little children's victorious faith through Jesus, the incarnate, resurrected Messiah. He says, You've won. You've already overcome.
He says it to them over and over: You've overcome the evil one, you've overcome the evil one, you are strong, you have faith in Jesus, the Messiah. You've won, you've passed the test. It's those who have left and rejected that Jesus is not the incarnate resurrected Messiah. They failed the test. And so 1 John was written to this Jewish audience that was dealing with a situation in which some previous members of the community were now denying that Jesus is the incarnate resurrected Messiah.
That's why I have pointed you over and over through this series of 1 John. Back to chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. Because that's the foundation, that's the point of this letter. The entire letter of 1 John rests on those opening four verses. which is the apostolic I witness account the apostles who saw Who heard Thomas, right?
He says, Thomas, reach out and touch. If you don't believe that I'm the resurrected Messiah, John chapter 20, reach out and touch me. John says, we have seen the resurrected incarnate Christ Messiah. We have heard him, we have studied him, we have looked upon him, we have taught him. Touched him, and this is who we proclaim to you.
He is the eternal life. And John says, that's the test, and you've passed it. The whole book rests on those verses. Listen to this. Your whole Christian life All of your assurance rests on the fact that Jesus Is The resurrected incarnate Messiah.
That's his point in this letter, and that's assurance. What happened was some of these Jewish members of this Early church. They denied this. And because they denied this, John says in 1 John 2, verse 19, they have left the community of faith, they have left these apostolic churches. That John and the Apostles had planted, that they're writing to, they had left them.
And so it posed a great danger to those who remained in the churches. And that brings us here to chapter 3, where John, in light of this danger that was threatening their assurance, John in verses 11 through 24, he sets forth three contrasts.
Now about this letter, you have these stark contrast John sets forth all of these contrasts throughout this letter to assure his little children, to make the difference between themselves and those who have left the faith. Crystal clear. And so that's what he does here. He sets forth these contrasts between the children of God, which is his readers. And he says, and the children, he calls them, listen to that, he calls them the children of the devil.
Those are the ones who have left the churches, who have Deny that Jesus is the Christ, the incarnate resurrected Christ Messiah. Why does he set this contrast up? Because again, he's trying to assure his readers. He's trying to tell them: look, you're the children of God. How can you be assured of this?
And he says, look at the contrast between you who confess your faith in Jesus as the incarnate resurrected Messiah. And compare and contrast that to those who have denied this and left. The first contrast is verses 12 and 13. He just makes this general statement. He says this: the children of God love believers in the church.
They love them. But in contrast, the devil hate believers in the church. Look at verses 14 and 15, the second contrast. John explains why this is so. He says that verse 14: the children of God have passed from death to life.
But he says in verses 14 and 15, in contrast, the children of the devil, the children of the devil, they abide in death. Why? Why do they abide in death? Because they have rejected. Jesus Who John says, again, going back to chapter 1, verse 2.
Jesus is the eternal life. He is the eternal life. If you reject Jesus, the resurrected incarnate Messiah, who is the eternal life, you abide in death. It's because these secessionists, these who have left, The churches and the community of faith that abide in death, and therefore they're not characterized by love. They're characterized by hatred for fellow believers in the church.
Why? Because that is the condition by which we are born in. We are born naturally in death. And the consequence of that is, is we hate God and we hate our neighbor.
Now it says it never been delivered out of that.
So, this brings us to the third contrast that we started last week, verses 16 through 24. Because they have dead hearts, their hearts are closed towards the needs of fellow believers in the church. This third contrast, verses 16 through 24, there are three different themes that John picks up to make these contrasts. But basically, this is if you just take verses 16 through 24, this is what John is saying, saying that the children of God are generous toward fellow believers who are in need. But he says, in contrast, the children of the devil are tight-fisted, they have closed their hearts.
He says they're mean-spirited towards fellow believers. who have needs in the church.
So let's take up this first thing. There are three themes that John talks about in verses 13 through 24. He talks about love. Confidence and commandment. We're going to come back to those in the future weeks.
But last week, we started looking at this theme of love. Verses 16 through 18. Let's look at it again. Because we have to come back to the second part of that this week. Look at verses 16 and 18 of chapter 3.
John says, And we know love by this. This is how we know what love is. He says that he laid down his life for us. What is the effect of that? He says Look at the end of verse 16.
And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Verse 17, but whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, his fellow Christian, his fellow member of the body of Christ who has needs. Whoever sees that need And closes his heart against him. Here's the question. How does the love of God Abide in him.
What? Love, verse 16, we know love by this, that He laid down His life for us, voluntary, substitutionary, willing atonement of Jesus for our sins. That's what love is. How can the gospel abide in your heart when you see your brother in need in the church and you close your heart to him and don't meet that need? Verse 18, little children.
And here's the encouragement. He says, let us not love with word or with tongue. But indeed and truth So in verses 14 and 15, John spoke of love as the mark of those who have passed from death to life because they trust in Jesus, the incarnate resurrected Messiah, who is the eternal life. They've passed from death to life. They're not enslaved to the hatred of their fallen nature.
They've been set free from that. Love of God abides in their hearts and is freeing them now. And John, in verses 16 through 18, now explains what the nature of that love is.
So here are the questions. How do we know what love is? What is a source of generosity? What makes us generous? Yeah.
toward the needs of fellow believers in the church. Just very quickly last week, we saw that the nature and source of this love is found in the. The voluntary death of Jesus, the incarnate resurrected Messiah, is found in Jesus who voluntarily laid his life down for us. John says, This is how we know what love is. Jesus the Christ, the Messiah.
Lay down his life for us. Thankfully and mercifully, God the Father is generous toward us in Christ. God the Father wasn't And he isn't tight-fisted. He isn't meager. He isn't mean-spirited toward us.
John teaches us in 1 John 4, verse 10, that when God the Father saw us in our greatest time of need, John says in this verse, he says, out of love. He sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. He was kind. He was generous. He was loving.
He was extravagant. He was unsparing. to meet our greatest need. And then he says in 1 John 3, verse 16, John tells us his son came voluntarily and willingly and laid down his life for us. That's love.
So this is how we know what love is. Jesus the Messiah laid down his life for us. That's the nature and source of love that we looked at last week.
Now, having grounded his little children, And that grounded us in the nature and source of love, John encourages us to be generous of heart to fellow believers in need. That's the effect of love. Verses 16 through 18, John tells us what the consequence, what the effect of this great love I wish the Father, through the sending of his Son, to be the propitiation for our sins. This is the consequence. This is the effect.
This is the outcome. This is the fruit. Of what happens when that gospel, the love of God, begins to abide deep in my heart and deliver me from death to life. And so John teaches us that generosity of heart is the effect of the Father's love in Christ for us. John says to his little children with this assuring.
Statement. This is how we know. Look, he includes himself, the apostles, and his readers, his little children in this knowledge of the love of God in Christ. Little children, this is how we know what love is because you know that Jesus the Messiah has laid down his life for you. Therefore, because of that, little children, let's continue to follow our Lord's example.
And not be tight-fisted, not be meager, not be mean-spirited toward our fellow believers who are in need, the consequence of Christ laying down his life for us. John says this at the end of verse 16: We ought to lay down our lives. for our brothers. This is exactly what Jesus taught in the Last Supper in John chapter 15, verses 12 through 14. This is my commandment: that you love one another.
Just as I am of you. Greater love has no one than this that would lay down his life. for his friends. You aren't my friends if you do what I command you. And this love, this ethic of love exemplified in Christ's death is love, John says, which expends itself in the interests of others.
Godliness, growth, and sanctification, holiness is not measured by how much I stay in my private prayer closet, though that's fine. Do that. But godliness is measured In how much I expend myself in the interest of others, particularly God's people and God's church. And so, what John shows us here is the relationship between God's law and his gospel. John says, as Christ loved us and laid down his life for us, the gospel.
The effect, the corollary to that is we must do this for each other.
Now This is the immediate question that comes up from John's exhortation. Is John calling us to die for each other? Because he just said Jesus laid down his life, that meant he died. And John says, We all too also lay down our lives, so is he calling us to go out today and die for each other and tear them out of church. No, he isn't.
He isn't. This sort of extreme sort of self-giving involves the action, laying down our lives for fellow believers. That's not what John is saying. John is encouraging us to something far more down-to-earth and practical, something that we can actually do. Look at verse 17, and he tells us what it means to lay down our life.
He makes it clear: if anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need, but has no pity on him, closes his heart, shuts off his compassion, has no mercy, is mean-spirited, meagre. This is the question. How can love of God be in him? How can the Christ love, who laid down his life for us, how can the gospel, how can love of God be in his heart? John tells us, laying down our lives in this context means showing generosity toward those who are in need in the church.
That's what it means. This comes from the old covenant ethic, Deuteronomy chapter 15, verses 7 through 10. This is the background of the idea of closing one's heart towards fellow believers in need. Listen to what Moses commanded the people of Israel. If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land, the Lord your God has given you.
Do not be hard-hearted. or are tight-fisted toward your poor brother. Rather be open-handed and freely lend to him whatever he needs. Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought. The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near, so that you do not show ill will towards your needy brother.
and give him nothing. And he says in verse 10, Give generously to him and do so without a grudging Heart. This is where John gets this from. John encourages his little children to follow this love ethic of the old covenant. Jesus repeats this exact love ethic of which I just read to you in John 13, verse 34.
John repeats this love ethic in 1 John 2, verses 7 through 8. Look at verse 18. John calls us to carry out this love ethic of generosity, not just in word, but in action. Little children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.
So, love and truth. Just means this. It means to love truly. It means to be distinct from loving just in words only. Loving in action.
So Let's just back up a second, and that's what John is teaching. What is the context so that we understand what he's saying to us? This is the context. John is seeking to assure his little children that they're the children of God. He assures them that the children of God, by contrasting his readers with the secessionists, who he says are the children of the devil.
In verse 17, John is referring to the secessionists who have closed off their hearts to leavers who are in need. He is not addressing his readers at this point. He's addressing those who have left the church and denied the faith. John says that those who have denied that Jesus is the resurrected incarnate Messiah. He says they what?
Abide in death. They don't have eternal life. Therefore, their hearts are dead. Therefore, their hearts are cold-hearted. They are close.
They are mean-spirited. They're not kind. They're not generous. John states about their lack of faith in verse 17: if anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how can the love of God abide in him? How can the love of God abide in those who've left the church?
Because these were former church members who fellowship with those brothers and sisters in Christ.
Now they have left and they don't care about those people. And this was important back in the first century. We're going to come back to this next week because I know this raises lots of questions and makes you start feeling really uneasy. And am I knees? And am I generous?
We're going to come to all that, I promise you, in tremendous detail. But just listen to this for now. John says it is obvious they don't have The gospel in their heart, the love of God in their heart, which is Christ laid down his life for us, the first part of verse 16. That's not in their heart. The answer to John's question: how can the love of God be in him, those secessionists, those who have left the church, is obvious.
It can't. The love of God cannot be in the secessionist heart because they reject Jesus as a resurrected incarnate Christ Messiah, as he told you from chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. That's why I said, and I'll say it over and over until you get tired of it. I'm going to teach you how to read this book. The whole book rests on those first four verses of chapter one.
The whole thing. In 1 John 4, verses 19 and 20, John teaches that this love which comes from God creates believers' love for fellow believers. And this love expresses itself in love for them. Listen carefully. You've heard this a lot, but listen in context now.
John says in chapter four, verse 19 and 20, he says, Which means this, and we generously give to fellow believers in need. Because he first loved us, he generously gave his son to us in our greatest time of need. And this is what it has produced in us. We give, we love. If someone says, and now he's quoting the secessionist quote, he's quoting what they're saying.
I love God. That's what they were saying. I love God. He says, but hates his brother. He's a liar.
Four The one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, the secessionist, cannot love God whom he has not seen. Back in chapter 3, verse 14, John has already said that secessionists do not love because they abide in death. John chapter 3, verse 15. John says the secessionists do not love. Why?
Because they do not have eternal life abiding in their hearts. And certainly abide in death. They don't have eternal life abiding in them. Why? Because John has told us.
They reject Jesus as resurrected incarnate Messiah. Jesus has eternal life. He is the eternal life. Chapter 1, verse 2, and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life. That's the apostolic eyewitness account of the resurrection of Christ.
We have seen the resurrected Christ. And we testify as eyewitnesses. And proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us. After he rose from the dead, he appeared to us. We saw him.
He was the incarnate resurrected Christ. The resurrection of Christ changes everything. First John chapter five, verses eleven and twenty. Listen to what John says. The testimony.
What testimony? The apostolic eyewitness account of the resurrected Messiah. The testimony is this: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. That title, Son, is simply a title for Jesus being the Messiah. Verse 20, we know, and here it is again, that the Son of God, that's the title for Jesus' Messiahship, Son of God.
We know that the Son of God has come. And has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his son, Jesus the Christ, the Messiah. This is the true God, listen, and eternal life. Because the secessionists reject Jesus, the Messiah, the true God, who has eternal life, who is eternal life, they abide in death. And because they abide in death, they are hard-hearted and tight-fisted, needy believers rather than open-handed and generous.
They're mean. They're not kind people. In fact, they are so mean, they are so mean-spirited, so ungenerous. In verse 12 of chapter 3, John is comparing the secessionists to Cain's murder of his brother Abel. John says, These secessionists are just like Cain, who hated his brother Abel and murdered him.
They're just like Cain, who are enslaved to their fallen nature, which hates God and hates one's neighbor. Their dead hearts are closed toward the needs of fellow believers in the church. They don't care. And so to assure his little children, John says it's obvious that the secessionists do not have the love of God abiding in their heart. They don't have the gospel.
Oh, Jesus laid down his life for us. They don't have that in their heart. He says, because if they did, they wouldn't be tight-fisted. They would be generous toward those who are in need in the church. John tells us, as we come to it in a couple weeks, but in chapter 3, verses 23 and 24, John tells us that the Holy Spirit abiding in one's heart is a result of having faith in the Father, Son, Jesus the Christ, the Messiah.
And because the Holy Spirit is abiding in our hearts, John says that the result of that abiding of the Holy Spirit is that we have love. This is what the Apostle Paul says, Romans chapter 5, verse 5. He says, The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. When the Holy Spirit working through faith in the resurrected Messiah is working in your life and fills your heart, the effect of that is generosity toward believers in need. The Holy Spirit creates generosity in our hearts.
Generosity In giving is a fruit of the Spirit. Generosity, John teaches in giving is the effect of your heart filled with love of God in Christ. This is the first major thing that John touches on is love. And he reminds his little children and us that the love of God and the meanness of spirit cannot coexist. John says, look at the contrast.
These secessionists are mean-spirited. They are tight-fisted. Chapter 2, verse 3, they claim to know God, but they do not keep his commandments. What are his commandments? Chapter 3, verse 23: it is to believe in the name of his son.
Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and to love one another. to show generosity toward one another. In chapter 2, verse 6, John says these secessionists claim to abide in Christ. to abide in God. But he says they don't walk like Christ walked.
How did Christ walk? He tells us he laid down his life for us. He met our greatest need. He was generous towards us, he was kind. He didn't close off his heart towards us.
Aren't you grateful for that? But he says, in contrast, little children, look at these who have left. They're not generous, they're not open-handed, they're mean-spirited, they're tight-fisted. And John encourages his little children. He says, Little children, don't be like them.
Just continue to be generous and practical in your love towards each other. When you see a fellow believer in need, when you see a need in the church, Follow the example of Jesus. Yeah. And lay your life down. What does that mean?
Little children, just use the resources that God has graciously given to you to meet the needs of your church. That's all it means. And he says it's by loving fellow believers. Jesus teaches loving fellow believers in the church in John 13, verses 34 and 35. Jesus says, by doing this, He says, Men will know that you're my disciples.
Listen. 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 loving each other in the church. Look at the effect and the outcome. All men will know that you're my disciples if you have love for one another.
Now, as we finish, as I said, I realize. This raises lots of questions, lots of complex issues. This ethic of love exceeds our time today. We'll come back in the weeks ahead, and I'm going to slowly walk you through this to see how this works out. But I just wanted to encourage you this morning as we finish as a church.
And just pointing out to you one very small application of how this ethic looks in our daily lives as Christians. We planted our church on our couch in our house. I think this coming June, 14 years ago. There were four of us. It was myself and Catherine, and my wife, and some of our kids.
Some of our kids weren't even alive yet. And one other couple. I had no idea how that was ever going to work. We had no resources. No outside help.
Nothing. And I just remember that first year and a half when we met in our house, of waking up every Sunday morning. And staring out the window, going, Lord, I hope one car shows up today. There were times where we had worship around our kitchen table, and it was myself. And one couple.
And I would preach to them for 45 minutes. As if there were 4,000 people in there. And then I would pray with them, encourage them, sit on their way, and think when they walked out the door: this is never going to work, this is not going to work. Th this is not going to happen. But since the very beginning of our church and throughout its 13 and a half, almost year history.
By the grace of God, we have never once failed to meet our yearly budget. Not one time.
Now There have been times...
Okay. Where we're sitting around going, I don't know if this is gonna work. Yeah. It might be time to wrap it up and say we gave it a good go. And just close the doors.
And to be quite honest, I'm like, well. I just gonna trust God and keep preaching the gospel and let the gospel of gratitude work. Which is in the ministry of the Holy Spirit. That's all I can do. We didn't know how our finances would turn out.
COVID was decimating to our church, obviously. The past years have just obviously been incredibly Stressful. anxiety-ridden and hard. Not just for our church, but churches across the board. I still read about it on a weekly basis.
Church after church after church after church after church, not making budget, in debt, closing their doors, quitting, walking away, church planters devastated, church planters dismayed, church planters wondering why didn't it happen for my church. It's across the board. It's in a very, very hard time. But In every single case for 13 and a half years. Every time This church was presented With needs.
You've always responded. Always. And we're still here and we're still open. And I was thinking about that this week. And do you know what I think it is?
I think it's what John was telling his little children. Little children, you know what love is. He laid down his life for us. Because you know that he has laid down his life for you. The Holy Spirit has sunk that into you, and He's created generosity in you.
And it's not coerced. It's not fake. We've never had in 13 and a half years a financial campaign in this church where we put up charts and say, here's our goal this year. And you've got the red line here, and you've got the black line here. We're getting closer.
We've never done that. And we're never going to.
So I don't think that's how it works. I think what works is what John teaches. No What love is, know the source of it, be filled with it, and let the Holy Spirit who comes to abocet in you create in your heart generosity so that when you see a need, You just made it. You don't have to be coerced. There is no 10% tithe taught from Genesis to maps, nowhere in the Bible.
Nowhere. It's just spirit-led, created, gospel-filled love of God heart that overflows in generosity. And you go, I can meet that. I can do that. It's the fruit of your heart being constantly assured week after week.
Month after month, year after year, with the love of God in Christ. 1 John 4:19, we love, we're generous, we meet needs in the church. Why? Because he first loved us. I think that's what everybody here knows.
This is how God the Father showed his love among us. He sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him, be delivered from this death and not abide in death, but be delivered from our selfishness, our hatred, our mean-spiritedness, our ungenerosity. Our tight-fistedness. He sent the Son so that we can live. What does that mean?
To be generous, to be kind, to be open-handed, to freely serve and love each other. This is love. Not that we love God, but that He loved us. And sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. That is the source of love.
That is the catalyst of love. The gospel is the strongest fire in the world to inflame your heart toward generosity. Nothing else will do it. And so John says, Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, laid down his life for us. Therefore, listen, we ought to lay down our lives.
for our brothers in the church. Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this great gift. We thank you for the love of God in Christ. We thank you that in our greatest time of need.
When you looked down upon us and saw us, Unable To do anything, dying and death. Filled with hatred towards you and hatred towards our neighbor, and our greatest. Moment of need, you were generous to us. You are open-handed, you are extravagant, you are unsparing, you sent forth your son to be the propitiation for our sins. And we thank you for that.
And we ask you, Holy Spirit, to Put that deep To our being, so that we can have the effect of being like Christ and walking like Christ. in expanding ourselves, meeting the needs of others. And showing Kindness.
So we'll share our hearts as we come this morning to your table. Comfort our hearts. It show us. That you love us through this sacrament. And then help us as we pray to go forth from here and give in ourselves in love and good deeds that you have prepared for us to walk in.
We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Uh Thanks again for listening to the Him We Proclaim podcast. Please subscribe if you haven't already for all our new episodes. And if this message was just what you needed to hear, please let us know in the comments and share it with a friend.
