I John 3:18

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Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

THE STUDY:

John is possibly dealing with a group of people who were saying they loved one another but their actions were not saying the same thing.  John urges moving from lip service to lived-out love. True love works; it expresses itself in actions (see Mark 13:34). One can feel love and not act on it—loving only with words or tongue. But such love is of doubtful value. A “love” that is only words is not really love at all. The faith of which John speaks sees needs and acts to meet them. One with material means to help and in whose heart God’s life is active will instinctively show God’s love by sharing with others.^[1]

WHAT WE CAN WALK AWAY WITH ….

• This morning, my heart is heavy with the understanding of many marriages struggling. Not just where I live but abroad as well. In the conclusion of this Blog I want to share something that speaks to couples but can be helpful to those who are single as well.

CONCLUSION:

           In many families today, divorce, desertion, and separation create untold grief and bitterness. Couples who at the time of the wedding declared that they would love each other “until death do us part” exhibit callous indifference when they contemplate divorce. Their wedding vows lie broken like pieces of porcelain on a stone floor. What went wrong?

Love has vanished because it could not flourish in an atmosphere of ever taking but never giving. Love can succeed only in an environment where it is allowed to give, for genuine love is sacrificial giving.

Look at the divine example. God loves nothing more than to be able to give. Indeed, he loved us so much that he gave his one and only Son to die for us (see John 3:16), and out of love for his people Jesus laid down his life. Says John, “We ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

What does the Lord expect in marriage? Husband and wife should honor and love one another even to the point of being willing to lay down their life for one another. When husband and wife tenderly care for each other by imitating Christ’s example of sacrificial love, they will experience that God keeps them together in marital love and blesses their home and family with years of wedded bliss.

Blessings my friends

Pastor Rod

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^[1] Williamson, R. (2010). 1, 2, & 3 John: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition. New Beacon Bible Commentary (126). Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press.

I John 3:11-12 (Part 4)

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For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.

THE STUDY:

This morning we are going to answer the question found in this passage, why did he murder him? John reminds his readers that because Cain “was from the evil one” love had so disappeared from his heart that he could murder his own blood brother. Casting his lot with the evil one took Cain much further into depravity than he could have imagined. John’s only explanation for Cain’s action was “because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous”^[1]

The reason for this murder was Cain’s jealous resentment of his brother’s superior righteousness (Gen. 4:2-7). In saying this, John touched a sensitive nerve, since hatred toward another Christian is often prompted by a feeling of guilt about one’s own life as compared with that person’s. It is well to remember that such reactions are satanic, as John bluntly affirmed here.^[2]

WHAT WE CAN WALK AWAY WITH ….

• We walk away this morning with the understanding of two things: 1. When we are being persecuted or being treated unkindly by a person it may lie within that person themselves. What we bring about in that person is the sense of guilt due to their own lack of righteousness. James 1:2-3 says, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 2. Sin will take us farther down the road of immorality than we ever thought we would go.

CONCLUSION:

           Because of the natural law of seedtime and harvest, the farmer knows when and what to plant to achieve the desired result. He knows that you harvest wheat if you sow wheat, that you do not sow weeds and reap wheat.

           God’s moral and spiritual laws work in the same way. You cannot sow sin and reap righteousness, or indulgence and reap health, or strife and reap peace. You cannot sow “the works of the flesh” and reap “the fruit of the Spirit.”

           But there is a further truth in this law. You reap what you sow in quality, but you reap more than you sow in quantity.

          Let today be a day that is filled with the deeds of the Father and not that of the evil one!

Blessings my friends

Pastor Rod

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^[1] Williamson, R. (2010). 1, 2, & 3 John: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition. New Beacon Bible Commentary (121–122). Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press.

^[2] Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary. (1983-). The Bible knowledge commentary : An exposition of the scriptures (1 Jn 3:11–12). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.