One of the best assurances that believers could have that they’re born again is if they see in their lives a pattern of sacrificial love for other Christians.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This is Part 1 of Episode 6 in our 1, 2, 3 John Bible Study Podcast entitled Love One Another Sacrificially, where we’ll discuss 1 John 3:11-24. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis.
Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Well, Wes, I’m really excited to be able to walk through this passage with you today. What a great epistle 1 John really is, it’s an epistle of assurance whereby genuine Christians can know how, they can assure themselves that they are Christians, that they’ve crossed over from death to life, that they’re going to heaven when they die. And in this section, he’s going to zero in specifically on this test, the love test: that we love our brothers sacrificially, not in words or with tongue, but in actions and in truth imitating Jesus the way he laid down his life for us. And this is one of the central assurances that Christians could have that they’re born again, if they see that pattern of sacrificial love for other brothers and sisters in Christ. Conversely, if that pattern’s not there, that person’s self-deceived and they need to repent and become a genuine Christian and start living that life of self-denial. We’ll also see at the end of this section a very efficient couple of verses that summarize the way by which John says every Christian can assure him or herself of their saving faith. We’re going to walk through those four aspects of assurance that are common throughout the entire epistle.
one of the central assurances that Christians could have that they’re born again, if they see that pattern of sacrificial love for other brothers and sisters in Christ.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read verses 11-24 in 1 John 3.
For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 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. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever 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 know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?
Little children let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
Andy, why does John keep talking about “the message you have heard from the beginning,” and what does this teach us about the need for repetition and going back to the basics in Christian instruction?
Andy
Yeah, he says this repeatedly, “And see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you.” That’s in the last chapter, 1 John 2:24. And now this again. And he begins as a whole epistle. “That which was from the beginning what we have seen,” et cetera. And so, I think what it means is there’s a consistency to the word of God, and you also never graduate beyond what we would generally call the milk of the gospel, the basic truths of the gospel. You’re never going to evolve or graduate beyond them. And so, you just have to go back to that basic truth again and again. Now, I do believe that there’s milk and there’s meat, and the Bible has all of that. And we need to be able to take in everything that it says and grow on to spiritual maturity. As the author of Hebrews says, it’s not enough to stay as children after many years, you should be able to eat solid meat, et cetera.
But the fact is we need to be able to go back to the lessons we’ve heard from the beginning. And this is not a new lesson. If you as a listener to this podcast have been a Christian at any length of time, you have heard that you should love your brothers in Christ. And so, this is a message you heard from the beginning. And so, the need for repetition is clear. Why do we need repetition? Because our hearts are so hard and because they wander and drift constantly, as the author to Hebrews says, “We must pay more careful attention to what we have heard” (Hebrews 2:1), the basic message so that we do not drift away.
We are constantly drifting away. And so, we need to be brought back to multiple themes. And one of the themes here is loving the brothers who we heard it from the beginning, and we need to be reminded about it.
Wes
Now, why is love for other Christians such a vital part of the Christian life?
Andy
Well, fundamentally we need to understand that the greatest thing God ever made, the greatest physical creation God made are human beings in his image. It’s just very unique. As you read in Genesis 1, God creates the heavens and the earth, and he shapes everything and it’s very earth centered, Genesis 1. Everything’s focused on what’s happening on the earth. And he made the sun, the moon and the stars to give light to the earth, and he’s creating the dry land and the oceans and the sky and then all these creatures. And then the climax is, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” And so fundamentally, we need to understand other human beings, what they are biblically.
They are created in the image and likeness of God. And so fundamentally we’re told in the Book of James, James 3:9-10, where he talks about the tongue being so such a small part of the body, but it does all these evil things. And he said, “With the same tongue we praise our God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth, come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.” Well, he’s hearkening back to we’re created in the image of God. And there James is talking about cursing. Well, what about killing?
We’re going to talk about Cain murdered his brother. So, the idea is you are forgetting who that other human is, that other human being, male or female is in the image of God. You should treat that person with tremendous reverence and respect. But as John mentions the story of Cain, very early in the wicked development of sin, we have murder. And so early, early on we have Adam and Eve making fig leaves covering themselves up from each other. So, their fellowship with each other as husband and wife is ruptured and damaged. And so that horizontal relationship is affected severely by our broken vertical relationship with God.
And so, we need to be told that when we have been saved, when salvation has done everything it was supposed to do, and sin has been addressed completely, where we’re in the new heaven, the new earth, the new Jerusalem, we will perfectly fulfill the two great commandments vertically. We will love God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, our mind, and our strength. And horizontally we will at last finally love our neighbors as we love ourselves. And we’ll have perfect vertical and horizontal fellowship. And that’s where we’re heading. John is very aware of that. And so, we can’t vertically love God and love Jesus and horizontally hate our brothers. That cannot be.
Wes
So, John then turns to this example of Cain. He says, we should not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. So, John is using the example of Cain as an example of an unbeliever making a parallel here. What does it mean that Cain belonged to the evil one? And does this mean that every non-Christian belongs to the devil?
Andy
Yes, it is what it means. I think basically what happened was Adam… God gave the keys to the earth to Adam, and Adam gave them to Satan. You remember the temptation of Jesus by the devil when he showed him all the kings of the world and their splendor, and he said, all this has been given to me and I can give it to anyone I want. Well, who gave it to him? It wasn’t God, it was Adam. And so, Jesus to some degree agrees with that. It’s like, yeah, he did. He gave it away. And he came, Jesus came as John tells us in this very epistle to destroy the works of the evil one. And so, Satan came in, deceived the human race and brought death in a punitive way vertically, the wages of sin is death. But then shortly thereafter, Cain literally murdered his brother.
And so, John tells us he belonged to the evil one. A very important parallel to this is in John 8 where Jesus’ enemies are coming to him, and they’re claiming to be sons of Abraham. And Jesus says, “You’re doing the things you’ve seen from your father.” They said, “Abraham was our father.” Jesus said, no, I don’t think so. If you were Abraham’s children, you would love me, but instead you want to kill me, you belong to your father, the devil. He was a murderer from the start and he’s a liar. He’s the father of lies. So, from the beginning, he lied and murdered. And so you are of your father, the devil. So, he called his enemies sons of the devil. Also, we have that image as Jesus defended his exorcisms where they said he was doing it by the power of Beelzebub, he said, no, that’s not the case because if Satan dries out Satan, his kingdom is destroyed. Instead, it’s a case like this where there’s a strong man fully armed who’s guarding his house and his possessions are safe. But someone stronger comes and overpowers him and takes away his possessions and plunders him. Well, that pictures then the people that Jesus redeems as Satan’s possessions, and he rescues them from Satan’s dark kingdom. So yes, I believe every unconverted sinner in the world belongs to Satan, belongs to the evil one.
Wes
Now specifically, why did Cain murder his brother, and what makes an unbeliever hate believers?
Andy
Well, what John says is he murdered him because his own actions were evil, and his brothers were righteous. But why did that make him angry? Why didn’t it make him repentant? It should have made him sorrowful and repentant. But we see time and time again, this is why Jesus was killed. This is why Stephen was killed. Instead of repenting of their sins when Jesus or Stephen or later Paul convicted them, they shoot the messenger. They come hard after the messenger, and they blame the righteous person for their own wickedness. And so fundamentally, as we remember the case, the day came for Cain and Abel to make offerings to God. And Cain brought some of the first fruit from the land, something they had grown that he harvested, and he offered that to God. But Abel brought some blood sacrifice, animal sacrifice some from the flock, and it was offered as a blood sacrifice.
Now, there’s already indication in the previous chapter in Genesis 3 of animal sacrifice when God covered Adam and Eve with the skins of an animal. And so, by the time then Cain and Abel come along, it’s pretty clear that animal sacrifice is the law of the land. It’s been established, and we get that from God’s statement to Cain, “Because the Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offerings, but he did not look with favor on Cain and his offerings” (Genesis 4:4-5). And God then got out ahead of Cain’s wickedness and sin. He hadn’t murdered his brother yet. And he said, “Why are you angry? If you do what is right, will you not also be accepted?” So fundamentally, what is he saying? You did the wrong thing. Well, how did he do the wrong thing? Was there something wrong with offerings first fruits of the land?
No, in the law of Moses, it’s part of the offerings. They are commanded to do it, but it wasn’t what was required there and then. What he wanted there and then was blood sacrifice as a picture of the later atonement that Jesus would work. And Cain became angry that God didn’t accept his kind of self-styled religion. Frankly, it was like the first false religion that it was. He made it up. And so, he was jealous of his brother and was envious of his brother. And instead of repenting and doing the right thing, sin was crouching at his door as God said. And he didn’t master it. His sin overwhelmed him, and then he overwhelmed his brother and murdered him. So, the reason he killed his brother is his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. And so that started up that dichotomy in the human race. We got two different ways to live. You’ve got sons of the devil and sons of God, and they live two different ways.
Wes
It’s striking. I think sometimes when we hear the word evil, we think of some grotesque dark action, but in this case, it’s a twisted form of what God had actually commanded. And so, I think it helps us also to understand the nature of evil and how, like you said, sin is crouching at the door. It’s not always just the grotesque, heinous sin, but sometimes our own, like you said, self-styled religion, our own version of how we think we ought to approach God rather than the way that he’s provided through his Son Jesus Christ.
Andy
behind all this is pride. Fundamentally, I think that’s why Satan fell, and I think that’s why Cain murdered him. It was pride.
Yeah, it’s a vital point, and we need to understand behind all this is pride. Fundamentally, I think that’s why Satan fell, and I think that’s why Cain murdered him. It was pride. He was angry. There’s no reason that this should have made him angry. Instead, it should have made him repentant, but instead he became prideful. He kind of doubled down.
Wes
So, John applies this in verse 13, essentially saying, don’t be surprised brothers then that the world hates you. Why should we expect the world to hate us as Christians?
Andy
Well, it’s going to be the same thing because Cain is set up as a paradigm or pattern of evil. There’s lots of Cains in the world. Fundamentally, that hate is murder, that hatred is murder. There’s fundamentally a murder in your hearts, even if you don’t act on it. Jesus said this in the Sermon on the Mount, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother is in danger of the fire of hell” (Matthew 5:21-22). So, he’s zeroing in on the heart state of anger. And so, Cain is a pattern of angry, murderous people whether they actually do commit the deed or not. And so fundamentally, the world is filled with people who are unregenerate, and Jesus said, if they hated me, they’re going to hate you as well. “If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of the household” (Matthew 10:25). So, in other words, he expects that we’ll be treated worse than Jesus because of Jesus’ place of honor. There’s a how much more argument: expect fully for the world to hate you.
Wes
Now in verse 14, what does it mean to pass from death to life? And how does love for Christians prove that that has actually taken place in our lives?
Andy
Oh, this is a very, very exciting verse, and I actually quoted it this past Sunday in a sermon on the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. Alright, so you look at Saul of Tarsus and how does he begin Acts 9:1? Breathing out murder and threats against the Lord’s disciples. He ends the chapter having fellowship meals with them and loving them. How did that happen? He passed over from death to life. He was spiritually dead while he lived. Paul himself would later write about that. “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live, when you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work and those who are disobedient- all of us also lived among them at one time” (Ephesians 2:1-3). So that would be Paul himself. I was a murderer. I was filled with hate and jealousy toward others. And so fundamentally, he hated him. I think it’s why he consented to Stephen’s martyrdom. It was the spirit of Cain right there. Here was a righteous man who had bested Saul and others in a debate. Saul didn’t take it kindly and said, this man needs to die. Why? Because he beat you in a debate?
Well, he wouldn’t say that. He’s like, well, no, he’s a blasphemer. He is this or that. But the fact is he had no answer for the biblical arguments that Stephen was bringing out, but it was the spirit of Cain on him. He was a murderer in his heart. And so fundamentally, the world is filled with people who have hearts filled with murder. But if the Lord’s sovereign grace comes on you, and if he calls you out of darkness into his light, if he gives you a new birth, if he takes out that heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh, you have passed over from death to life. And one of the evidences in this section of 1 John is you’re going to go from hating people to loving people. Now look at Saul of Tarsus. He went from hating Christians to genuinely loving him, loving them. I think fundamentally the greatest earthly joy of Saul’s life was good Christian fellowship, and they loved him too. So that was this one. John 3:14 is clearly displayed in the life of Saul of Tarsus.
Wes
Now the end of verse 14 is a little interesting. It says, whoever does not love abides in death, abide in death. Usually when we think of abide, we think of life. We think of something living and receiving its strength and sustenance from a source. How is a life of hatred for others really a life of spiritual death?
Andy
Yeah, we really just need to see that there are two kingdoms in the world. There’s a kingdom of evil and darkness and death and sin and Satan. We can put lots of names on it, but it’s all the same thing. Then there’s a kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of light, of righteousness, of obedience, all of that. There are just two different kingdoms.
And so, if you’re in that dark kingdom, if you’re unregenerate, you’ve not been converted yet, you are living in a world of death. You yourself are spiritually dead and you’re ministering death to others. You have a heart of murder. And so, anyone who does not love as he’s talking about, and I would say it’s the two great commandments to love God and love others, if you’re not living a life of love toward God and toward others, you are in death. You’re living in death. I think it goes back to the verse I just quoted, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live.” So that’s abiding or living in death.
Wes
Now, let’s take verse 15 in two parts. The beginning we’re told that everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. How should we understand that statement from John? I mean, most people don’t actually kill someone in the course of their life. How should we understand this statement?
Andy
Yeah, it’s just a fascinating way that John writes this. Fundamentally, hate is like heart murder. It’s similar to lust is heart adultery. So, it really does matter what’s going on in your heart. By the way, I want to put in a word for Paul’s point in Romans 13, alright. The governmental authorities with their power of the sword, which was clearly established after the flood, if anyone sheds man’s blood by man, shall his blood be shed. So that’s the death penalty. And Paul says, if you do wrong be afraid, for the governmental ruler does not bear the sword for nothing. It restrains murder in most cases. So, people have got murder in their hearts everywhere, but only very, very few people act on it. So, when people say, oh, it’s not a deterrent, that’s just simply, first of all, it’s not true, because biblically it says, then all Israel will hear and be afraid, talking about the death penalty. So fundamentally, what we know is the unregenerate heart is a heart of covetousness, idolatry, lust, murder. That is the heart of the unregenerate person even if they don’t act on any of those things. Why don’t they act on it? It’s not out of any virtue. It’s maybe out of some kind of self-preservation or fear or other reason. So fundamentally, anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, even if they don’t act on it.
Wes
And why does it say at the end of this first section of the verses that we’re looking at, that no murderer has eternal life in him? I mean, we have some pretty significant examples in the Old Testament, Moses and David who both killed someone. How do we understand the rest of this verse?
Andy
you have the seeds of your own destruction and the destruction of others within your heart.
Well, when we get to that, I think we have to say that God’s grace overcomes these truths. I think someone can be born again and still commit murder. You say, well, that’s directly contradictory to the statement we make here. But I just don’t think that David was unregenerate when he orchestrated the death of Uriah, the Hittite to cover up the pregnancy. So, I think you can be deluded. You can act like or masquerade like Romans 12, like the world from time to time. But it is not of the essence of the life that we have. And I think fundamentally that’s why John is writing this to Christians. He’s saying, you have the seeds of your own destruction and the destruction of others within your heart. They’re still in there. There are still glowing embers that can be fanned and flamed, but fundamentally we’re talking about life and death, light and darkness, truth and falsehood, et cetera. And so, he’s urging people to live consistently and live in that life of holiness and righteousness, so fundamentally to not be a murderer.
Wes
This has been Part 1 in Episode 6 in our 123 John Bible study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for Part 2 of Episode 6, where we’ll conclude our discussion of 1 John 3:11-24. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This is Part 1 of Episode 6 in our 1, 2, 3 John Bible Study Podcast entitled Love One Another Sacrificially, where we’ll discuss 1 John 3:11-24. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis.
Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Well, Wes, I’m really excited to be able to walk through this passage with you today. What a great epistle 1 John really is, it’s an epistle of assurance whereby genuine Christians can know how, they can assure themselves that they are Christians, that they’ve crossed over from death to life, that they’re going to heaven when they die. And in this section, he’s going to zero in specifically on this test, the love test: that we love our brothers sacrificially, not in words or with tongue, but in actions and in truth imitating Jesus the way he laid down his life for us. And this is one of the central assurances that Christians could have that they’re born again, if they see that pattern of sacrificial love for other brothers and sisters in Christ. Conversely, if that pattern’s not there, that person’s self-deceived and they need to repent and become a genuine Christian and start living that life of self-denial. We’ll also see at the end of this section a very efficient couple of verses that summarize the way by which John says every Christian can assure him or herself of their saving faith. We’re going to walk through those four aspects of assurance that are common throughout the entire epistle.
one of the central assurances that Christians could have that they’re born again, if they see that pattern of sacrificial love for other brothers and sisters in Christ.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read verses 11-24 in 1 John 3.
For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 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. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever 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 know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?
Little children let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
Andy, why does John keep talking about “the message you have heard from the beginning,” and what does this teach us about the need for repetition and going back to the basics in Christian instruction?
Andy
Yeah, he says this repeatedly, “And see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you.” That’s in the last chapter, 1 John 2:24. And now this again. And he begins as a whole epistle. “That which was from the beginning what we have seen,” et cetera. And so, I think what it means is there’s a consistency to the word of God, and you also never graduate beyond what we would generally call the milk of the gospel, the basic truths of the gospel. You’re never going to evolve or graduate beyond them. And so, you just have to go back to that basic truth again and again. Now, I do believe that there’s milk and there’s meat, and the Bible has all of that. And we need to be able to take in everything that it says and grow on to spiritual maturity. As the author of Hebrews says, it’s not enough to stay as children after many years, you should be able to eat solid meat, et cetera.
But the fact is we need to be able to go back to the lessons we’ve heard from the beginning. And this is not a new lesson. If you as a listener to this podcast have been a Christian at any length of time, you have heard that you should love your brothers in Christ. And so, this is a message you heard from the beginning. And so, the need for repetition is clear. Why do we need repetition? Because our hearts are so hard and because they wander and drift constantly, as the author to Hebrews says, “We must pay more careful attention to what we have heard” (Hebrews 2:1), the basic message so that we do not drift away.
We are constantly drifting away. And so, we need to be brought back to multiple themes. And one of the themes here is loving the brothers who we heard it from the beginning, and we need to be reminded about it.
Wes
Now, why is love for other Christians such a vital part of the Christian life?
Andy
Well, fundamentally we need to understand that the greatest thing God ever made, the greatest physical creation God made are human beings in his image. It’s just very unique. As you read in Genesis 1, God creates the heavens and the earth, and he shapes everything and it’s very earth centered, Genesis 1. Everything’s focused on what’s happening on the earth. And he made the sun, the moon and the stars to give light to the earth, and he’s creating the dry land and the oceans and the sky and then all these creatures. And then the climax is, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” And so fundamentally, we need to understand other human beings, what they are biblically.
They are created in the image and likeness of God. And so fundamentally we’re told in the Book of James, James 3:9-10, where he talks about the tongue being so such a small part of the body, but it does all these evil things. And he said, “With the same tongue we praise our God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth, come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.” Well, he’s hearkening back to we’re created in the image of God. And there James is talking about cursing. Well, what about killing?
We’re going to talk about Cain murdered his brother. So, the idea is you are forgetting who that other human is, that other human being, male or female is in the image of God. You should treat that person with tremendous reverence and respect. But as John mentions the story of Cain, very early in the wicked development of sin, we have murder. And so early, early on we have Adam and Eve making fig leaves covering themselves up from each other. So, their fellowship with each other as husband and wife is ruptured and damaged. And so that horizontal relationship is affected severely by our broken vertical relationship with God.
And so, we need to be told that when we have been saved, when salvation has done everything it was supposed to do, and sin has been addressed completely, where we’re in the new heaven, the new earth, the new Jerusalem, we will perfectly fulfill the two great commandments vertically. We will love God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, our mind, and our strength. And horizontally we will at last finally love our neighbors as we love ourselves. And we’ll have perfect vertical and horizontal fellowship. And that’s where we’re heading. John is very aware of that. And so, we can’t vertically love God and love Jesus and horizontally hate our brothers. That cannot be.
Wes
So, John then turns to this example of Cain. He says, we should not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. So, John is using the example of Cain as an example of an unbeliever making a parallel here. What does it mean that Cain belonged to the evil one? And does this mean that every non-Christian belongs to the devil?
Andy
Yes, it is what it means. I think basically what happened was Adam… God gave the keys to the earth to Adam, and Adam gave them to Satan. You remember the temptation of Jesus by the devil when he showed him all the kings of the world and their splendor, and he said, all this has been given to me and I can give it to anyone I want. Well, who gave it to him? It wasn’t God, it was Adam. And so, Jesus to some degree agrees with that. It’s like, yeah, he did. He gave it away. And he came, Jesus came as John tells us in this very epistle to destroy the works of the evil one. And so, Satan came in, deceived the human race and brought death in a punitive way vertically, the wages of sin is death. But then shortly thereafter, Cain literally murdered his brother.
And so, John tells us he belonged to the evil one. A very important parallel to this is in John 8 where Jesus’ enemies are coming to him, and they’re claiming to be sons of Abraham. And Jesus says, “You’re doing the things you’ve seen from your father.” They said, “Abraham was our father.” Jesus said, no, I don’t think so. If you were Abraham’s children, you would love me, but instead you want to kill me, you belong to your father, the devil. He was a murderer from the start and he’s a liar. He’s the father of lies. So, from the beginning, he lied and murdered. And so you are of your father, the devil. So, he called his enemies sons of the devil. Also, we have that image as Jesus defended his exorcisms where they said he was doing it by the power of Beelzebub, he said, no, that’s not the case because if Satan dries out Satan, his kingdom is destroyed. Instead, it’s a case like this where there’s a strong man fully armed who’s guarding his house and his possessions are safe. But someone stronger comes and overpowers him and takes away his possessions and plunders him. Well, that pictures then the people that Jesus redeems as Satan’s possessions, and he rescues them from Satan’s dark kingdom. So yes, I believe every unconverted sinner in the world belongs to Satan, belongs to the evil one.
Wes
Now specifically, why did Cain murder his brother, and what makes an unbeliever hate believers?
Andy
Well, what John says is he murdered him because his own actions were evil, and his brothers were righteous. But why did that make him angry? Why didn’t it make him repentant? It should have made him sorrowful and repentant. But we see time and time again, this is why Jesus was killed. This is why Stephen was killed. Instead of repenting of their sins when Jesus or Stephen or later Paul convicted them, they shoot the messenger. They come hard after the messenger, and they blame the righteous person for their own wickedness. And so fundamentally, as we remember the case, the day came for Cain and Abel to make offerings to God. And Cain brought some of the first fruit from the land, something they had grown that he harvested, and he offered that to God. But Abel brought some blood sacrifice, animal sacrifice some from the flock, and it was offered as a blood sacrifice.
Now, there’s already indication in the previous chapter in Genesis 3 of animal sacrifice when God covered Adam and Eve with the skins of an animal. And so, by the time then Cain and Abel come along, it’s pretty clear that animal sacrifice is the law of the land. It’s been established, and we get that from God’s statement to Cain, “Because the Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offerings, but he did not look with favor on Cain and his offerings” (Genesis 4:4-5). And God then got out ahead of Cain’s wickedness and sin. He hadn’t murdered his brother yet. And he said, “Why are you angry? If you do what is right, will you not also be accepted?” So fundamentally, what is he saying? You did the wrong thing. Well, how did he do the wrong thing? Was there something wrong with offerings first fruits of the land?
No, in the law of Moses, it’s part of the offerings. They are commanded to do it, but it wasn’t what was required there and then. What he wanted there and then was blood sacrifice as a picture of the later atonement that Jesus would work. And Cain became angry that God didn’t accept his kind of self-styled religion. Frankly, it was like the first false religion that it was. He made it up. And so, he was jealous of his brother and was envious of his brother. And instead of repenting and doing the right thing, sin was crouching at his door as God said. And he didn’t master it. His sin overwhelmed him, and then he overwhelmed his brother and murdered him. So, the reason he killed his brother is his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. And so that started up that dichotomy in the human race. We got two different ways to live. You’ve got sons of the devil and sons of God, and they live two different ways.
Wes
It’s striking. I think sometimes when we hear the word evil, we think of some grotesque dark action, but in this case, it’s a twisted form of what God had actually commanded. And so, I think it helps us also to understand the nature of evil and how, like you said, sin is crouching at the door. It’s not always just the grotesque, heinous sin, but sometimes our own, like you said, self-styled religion, our own version of how we think we ought to approach God rather than the way that he’s provided through his Son Jesus Christ.
Andy
behind all this is pride. Fundamentally, I think that’s why Satan fell, and I think that’s why Cain murdered him. It was pride.
Yeah, it’s a vital point, and we need to understand behind all this is pride. Fundamentally, I think that’s why Satan fell, and I think that’s why Cain murdered him. It was pride. He was angry. There’s no reason that this should have made him angry. Instead, it should have made him repentant, but instead he became prideful. He kind of doubled down.
Wes
So, John applies this in verse 13, essentially saying, don’t be surprised brothers then that the world hates you. Why should we expect the world to hate us as Christians?
Andy
Well, it’s going to be the same thing because Cain is set up as a paradigm or pattern of evil. There’s lots of Cains in the world. Fundamentally, that hate is murder, that hatred is murder. There’s fundamentally a murder in your hearts, even if you don’t act on it. Jesus said this in the Sermon on the Mount, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother is in danger of the fire of hell” (Matthew 5:21-22). So, he’s zeroing in on the heart state of anger. And so, Cain is a pattern of angry, murderous people whether they actually do commit the deed or not. And so fundamentally, the world is filled with people who are unregenerate, and Jesus said, if they hated me, they’re going to hate you as well. “If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of the household” (Matthew 10:25). So, in other words, he expects that we’ll be treated worse than Jesus because of Jesus’ place of honor. There’s a how much more argument: expect fully for the world to hate you.
Wes
Now in verse 14, what does it mean to pass from death to life? And how does love for Christians prove that that has actually taken place in our lives?
Andy
Oh, this is a very, very exciting verse, and I actually quoted it this past Sunday in a sermon on the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. Alright, so you look at Saul of Tarsus and how does he begin Acts 9:1? Breathing out murder and threats against the Lord’s disciples. He ends the chapter having fellowship meals with them and loving them. How did that happen? He passed over from death to life. He was spiritually dead while he lived. Paul himself would later write about that. “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live, when you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work and those who are disobedient- all of us also lived among them at one time” (Ephesians 2:1-3). So that would be Paul himself. I was a murderer. I was filled with hate and jealousy toward others. And so fundamentally, he hated him. I think it’s why he consented to Stephen’s martyrdom. It was the spirit of Cain right there. Here was a righteous man who had bested Saul and others in a debate. Saul didn’t take it kindly and said, this man needs to die. Why? Because he beat you in a debate?
Well, he wouldn’t say that. He’s like, well, no, he’s a blasphemer. He is this or that. But the fact is he had no answer for the biblical arguments that Stephen was bringing out, but it was the spirit of Cain on him. He was a murderer in his heart. And so fundamentally, the world is filled with people who have hearts filled with murder. But if the Lord’s sovereign grace comes on you, and if he calls you out of darkness into his light, if he gives you a new birth, if he takes out that heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh, you have passed over from death to life. And one of the evidences in this section of 1 John is you’re going to go from hating people to loving people. Now look at Saul of Tarsus. He went from hating Christians to genuinely loving him, loving them. I think fundamentally the greatest earthly joy of Saul’s life was good Christian fellowship, and they loved him too. So that was this one. John 3:14 is clearly displayed in the life of Saul of Tarsus.
Wes
Now the end of verse 14 is a little interesting. It says, whoever does not love abides in death, abide in death. Usually when we think of abide, we think of life. We think of something living and receiving its strength and sustenance from a source. How is a life of hatred for others really a life of spiritual death?
Andy
Yeah, we really just need to see that there are two kingdoms in the world. There’s a kingdom of evil and darkness and death and sin and Satan. We can put lots of names on it, but it’s all the same thing. Then there’s a kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of light, of righteousness, of obedience, all of that. There are just two different kingdoms.
And so, if you’re in that dark kingdom, if you’re unregenerate, you’ve not been converted yet, you are living in a world of death. You yourself are spiritually dead and you’re ministering death to others. You have a heart of murder. And so, anyone who does not love as he’s talking about, and I would say it’s the two great commandments to love God and love others, if you’re not living a life of love toward God and toward others, you are in death. You’re living in death. I think it goes back to the verse I just quoted, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live.” So that’s abiding or living in death.
Wes
Now, let’s take verse 15 in two parts. The beginning we’re told that everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. How should we understand that statement from John? I mean, most people don’t actually kill someone in the course of their life. How should we understand this statement?
Andy
Yeah, it’s just a fascinating way that John writes this. Fundamentally, hate is like heart murder. It’s similar to lust is heart adultery. So, it really does matter what’s going on in your heart. By the way, I want to put in a word for Paul’s point in Romans 13, alright. The governmental authorities with their power of the sword, which was clearly established after the flood, if anyone sheds man’s blood by man, shall his blood be shed. So that’s the death penalty. And Paul says, if you do wrong be afraid, for the governmental ruler does not bear the sword for nothing. It restrains murder in most cases. So, people have got murder in their hearts everywhere, but only very, very few people act on it. So, when people say, oh, it’s not a deterrent, that’s just simply, first of all, it’s not true, because biblically it says, then all Israel will hear and be afraid, talking about the death penalty. So fundamentally, what we know is the unregenerate heart is a heart of covetousness, idolatry, lust, murder. That is the heart of the unregenerate person even if they don’t act on any of those things. Why don’t they act on it? It’s not out of any virtue. It’s maybe out of some kind of self-preservation or fear or other reason. So fundamentally, anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, even if they don’t act on it.
Wes
And why does it say at the end of this first section of the verses that we’re looking at, that no murderer has eternal life in him? I mean, we have some pretty significant examples in the Old Testament, Moses and David who both killed someone. How do we understand the rest of this verse?
Andy
you have the seeds of your own destruction and the destruction of others within your heart.
Well, when we get to that, I think we have to say that God’s grace overcomes these truths. I think someone can be born again and still commit murder. You say, well, that’s directly contradictory to the statement we make here. But I just don’t think that David was unregenerate when he orchestrated the death of Uriah, the Hittite to cover up the pregnancy. So, I think you can be deluded. You can act like or masquerade like Romans 12, like the world from time to time. But it is not of the essence of the life that we have. And I think fundamentally that’s why John is writing this to Christians. He’s saying, you have the seeds of your own destruction and the destruction of others within your heart. They’re still in there. There are still glowing embers that can be fanned and flamed, but fundamentally we’re talking about life and death, light and darkness, truth and falsehood, et cetera. And so, he’s urging people to live consistently and live in that life of holiness and righteousness, so fundamentally to not be a murderer.
Wes
This has been Part 1 in Episode 6 in our 123 John Bible study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for Part 2 of Episode 6, where we’ll conclude our discussion of 1 John 3:11-24. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
