Sermon outline

INTRODUCTION John emphasizes throughout his letter that Christians must love one another. Here, he emphasizes that this love must take form as Christlike self-giving and generosity. John’s “children” are to love “in deed and truth” (v. 17).

THE TEXT “Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him . . . .” (1 John 3:13-24).

LIFE AND DEATH For John, love is not an option. It is literally an issue of life and death. The mark that we have passed from the death of the “world” into the “life” of the body of Christ is the love that we show for one another. Because we think of “life” as primarily biological, we tend to think that we are still alive even if our lives are full of hatred, envy, and anger. John defines life as fellowship with God (John 17:3), and says that if we are not walking in love we are dead.

If we hate our brothers, we are still in the realm of death, and are murderers (vv. 14-15). The only alternative, John says, is imitating Christ in giving ourselves to the brothers (v. 16). There is going to be “death” regardless: The choice is whether we “kill” our brothers through our hate or give our lives to and for them (v. 16). Either we make our brothers scapegoats and murder them; or we offer ourselves in sacrifice for them.

SHARING GOODS John is still using Christ as the model for Christian virtue in verse 17: Jesus had all the “world’s goods” as His own, but gave them up for us. He who was rich, for our sake He became poor. If we are truly in Him, and He in us, this will manifest itself in open-hearted generosity. John specifically has worldly wealth in mind, and he urges his readers to imitate not only Jesus but the early church, where Christians sold houses and other property to help their poor brothers. But wealth comes in many forms (talents, for instance), and John says that we should use this wealth to help a brother in need.

ASSURANCE AND OUR HEARTS Through loving our brothers we come to know that “we are of the truth” (v. 19). Earlier, John has talked about “knowing that we know Him” by keeping commandments (2:3). There, the first “know” referred to “existential experience” and the second to “be in fellowship with”: Thus, by keeping God’s commandments, “we experience that we are in good fellowship with Him.” John’s thought in 3:19 is similar: “know: again has the sense of “experience.” As we imitate Christ in giving ourselves and our goods for the brothers, we experience that we are in the truth, the realm of life.

Walking in love thus leads us to assurance. John knows that our hearts often condemn us (3:20), and often for things that are not worthy of condemnation. But the condemnation of our hearts is not the final issue with assurance. The key issue is that “God is greater than our hearts.” Whether our hearts condemn us or not, God gives us assurance that we are in the truth as we walk in love.

PRAYER When our hearts are assured by God, we have confidence in prayer. We can ask whatever we want, because we keep His commandments and live in a way pleasing to God (3:22). John is not talking about “works righteousness,” as if we could coerce God into favoring us by our good works. But he does say there is a causative connection between effective prayer and obedience: “whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments.” Walking in obedient love is not only the path of assurance, but the path of prayer. Walking in obedient love is, in short, walking in life.