(1 John 3:10-18)
10. The Law of Love (1 John 3:10-18)
My friends, this is what I said to you, if you remember, when I began to read this letter: there is nothing in it so recommended to us as love. Even if John seems to talk of various other things, he always comes back to love. He wants whatever he says brought to bear on love. Let us see if he does that here.
No one who is born of God commits sin. We are asking what sin he means, because if you understand him to mean all sin this is contrary to that other text: "If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." So let him tell us what sin he means, let him instruct us. It may be that I spoke rashly when I said that the sin meant here is the transgression of love. I said this because he said earlier that "'one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.'' Has he said something more specific in this later part and spoken of love by name? See how this sentence ends: No one who is born of God commits sin for his seed abides in him. God's "seed" is his word, as the Apostle says: "For I have begotten you through the gospel." And he cannot sin because he is born of God. Let John tell us in what we cannot sin. In this are manifested the children of God and the children of the devil. Everyone who is not righteous is not of God, nor one who does not love his brother.
One who does not love his brother or sister: this phrase makes everything clear. Love alone distinguishes the children of God from those of the devil. They can all sign themselves with the sign of Christ's cross; they can all respond Amen and sing Alleluia; they may all be baptized and come to church; and they may build churches; but the children of God are distinguished
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from the children of the devil only by love. Those who love are born of God, those who don't are not. This is the great sign, the great difference. Possess whatever you will, but if you lack this, the rest does you no good. Have nothing else; only possess this and you've fulfilled the law. "One who loves another has fulfilled the law," says the Apostle; and "Love is the fullness of the law."
I take this to be the pearl the man in the gospel was seeking. When he found this single pearl, *He sold all that he had and bought it." Love is this "'pearl of great value." Without it, nothing you have does you any good. If you have it alone, it is enough for you. Now your vision is "'by faith," later it will be "by sight." If we love now when we don't see, how we shall embrace love when we do see! But how are we trained in this love? In love of our neighbor. You can tell me you haven't seen God. Can you tell me you haven't seen your brother or your sister? Love them! If you love the brother and the sister you see, at the same time you'll see God too, because you'll be seeing love itself, and within love God dwells.
Everyone who is not righteous is not of God, nor one who does not love his brother. For this is the message. See how he confirms it: This is the message we have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. He's shown us where this message comes from. Anyone who acts contrary to this commandment commits that accursed sin into which those not born of God fall.
Not 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. Where there is envy there can't be any love of sister or brother. Dear friends, pay attention to this. Envy is incompatible with love. It's the devil's sin that is in the envious person, because it was by envy that the devil cast a human down. The devil fell and he envied the one who was still standing. It wasn't in-order to stand himself that he wanted to cast the human down, but so that he wouldn't be alone in his fall.
Keep firmly in your minds from this example that there can be no envy in love. You have it clearly stated when Paul is praising love: "Love is not jealous." There was no love in Cain. And if there hadn't been love in Abel, God wouldn't have accepted his sacrifice. When both brought their offerings—one from the fruits of the earth and the other from the young of his flock—you aren't to think, my friends, that God despised one and prized the other. God wasn't watching their hands; rather he was looking into their hearts. He had regard for the sacrifice of the one he saw coming with love; he turned his eyes away from the sacrifice of the one who brought his offering with envy. What John calls Abel's good deeds, then, is love; and what he calls Cain's evil deeds is his hatred of his brother. And it wasn't enough for him to hate his brother, he even envied his good deeds. Because Cain wouldn't imitate Abel, he desired to kill him. From this it is clear that he was a child of the devil, and that Abel was one of God's righteous ones. In this way can people be distinguished, my friends. Don't pay attention to their words but to their deeds and their hearts. Those who don't do good for their sisters and brothers show what is in them. People are tested by temptations.
Do not wonder, brethren, if the world hates us. Do I have to keep telling you what "'the world" is? It's not heaven or earth or any other of God's works. It's those who love the world. Some of you find it tedious that I say this so often, but I have a reason: There are some who can't answer if you ask them whether I've said it! Therefore, if I hammer it in, perhaps something may stick. What is the world? Taken in a good sense, it is heaven and earth and God's works in them. In this sense it is said that "the world was made through him." Still in the good sense, the world is the entire earth, as these words of John show: "He is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for those of the whole world." The world in the good sense means "all the faithful scattered over the earth." But the world in the bad sense means "'lovers of the world." Those who love the world cannot love their sisters and brothers.
If the world hates us, we know. . . . What is it we know? Thatwe have passed from death to life. How do we know it? Because we love the brethren. Don't question anyone else. Turn to your own heart. If you find love of your sisters and brothers there, you can be sure you've passed from death to life. Already you are at Christ's right hand. Don't be concerned that your glory is hidden now. When the Lord comes, then will you appear in glory! Even now you're full of life, but it's still winter. Your root is alive even though your branches seem to be dead. Your pith, which is full of vigor, is inside; your leaves and fruit are inside. They are waiting for summer. And so we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. One who doesn't love abides in death.
Dear friends, don't think that it's a small matter to hate and not to love. Listen to what follows: Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. Now if any one of you takes hatred of your brother or sister lightly, will you also take lightly the murder you commit in your heart? You aren't lifting your hand to kill anyone, yet God already counts you a murderer. The person you hate is still alive, but you are already judged a killer. 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. John is speaking of love's perfection, the perfection I've already put before you. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. How does love begin, my friends? Keep listening. You've heard what its perfection is. The Lord has put its end and measure before us in the gospel: "Greater love no one has," he says, "than that he lay down his life for his friends."
It's the perfection of love that he shows us in the gospel and commends to us here. But you question yourselves: ""When can we have such love?" Don't despair of yourselves too quickly! Perhaps it's been born but isn't perfect yet. Cherish it so that it isn't stifled. "But," you'll say to me, *how am I to know? We know how love is perfected; let us hear how it begins."
Jolin goes on to tell you. If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother suffering hunger and closes his heart against him, how can the love of God abide in him? See where love begins. If you're not
G.M. ELLIOTT LIBRARY Cincinnati Christian University
52 / LOVEONE ANOTHER, MY FRIENDS yet capable of dying for your sister or brother, be capable even now of giving him some of your goods. Let love stir your heart to action now, not to do what you do for display, but out of an inner richness of compassion, thinking only of your fellow human being who is in need. If you can't give what you have to spare to your sister or brother, are you able to lay down your life for anyone?
Say you have money in your pocket, which thieves can take away from you. Even if they don't, you'll leave it when you die, provided it doesn't leave you while you are still alive. What are you going to do with it? Your sister or brother is hungry and in need—anxious, maybe, pressed by some creditor. Your sister or brother has nothing, but you possess something. This person is a sister or a brother. Together you were purchased. One price was paid for you both. You were both redeemed by the blood of Christ. See if you have compassion, you who have the world's goods. Perhaps you ask, ""What does this have to do with me? Am I to give my money, so that this person won't be inconvenienced?" If this is what your heart answers you, the love of the Father is not abiding in you. If the love of the Father doesn't abide in you, you aren't born of God. How can you boast of being a Christian? You have the name and not the deeds. But if your work conforms to the name, let anyone who wants call you a pagan. Prove yourself a Christian by your deeds. If your deeds don't prove it, everyone can call you Christian, but what good does the name do you when the reality is lacking? If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how can the love of God abide in him? And then John goes on: Little children, let us not love in word only and speech, but in deed and in truth.
I think it must be plain to you now, my friends, how great and necessary is this secret and mysterious reality. All Scripture tells you of the value of love, but I don't think it is set forth anywhere more fully than in this letter. I pray and beseech you in the Lord's name to remember these things you have heard and to come eagerly and listen intently to what I have still to say before we finish this letter. Open your hearts to the good seed. Root out the thorns, so that what is being sown in you won't be choked but that the harvest may increase. Let the farmer rejoice and get his barn ready for you, the grain—and not prepare his fire for you, the chaff.