Sermon text for May 12, 2012
In this part of his Epistle, John tells the Christian what he should expect from other people. From the world, you can expect hatred. From your brothers and sisters in Christ, you can expect love. The social test of faith is love.
11 ῞Οτι αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ ἀγγελία ἣν ἠκούσατε ἀπ' ἀρχῆς, ἵνα ἀγαπῶμεν ἀλλήλους· 12 οὐ καθὼς Κάϊν ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ ἦν καὶ ἔσϕαξεν τὸν ἀδελϕὸν αὐτοῦ· καὶ χάριν τίνος ἔσϕαξεν αὐτόν; ὅτι τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ πονηρὰ ἦν, τὰ δὲ τοῦ ἀδελϕοῦ αὐτοῦ δίκαια.
11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.
ἵνα ἀγαπῶμεν "that we should love," ἵνα with with the subjunctive explaining the ἀγγελία "message."
ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ "who was from the evil one," that is, the devil.
ἔσϕαξεν aorist indicative σϕάξω "slaughter, murder."
Why does the wicked world hate the Christian? Jealousy. The wicked worldly sinner thinks, "My deeds won't look so evil if they aren't compared with anything good." This is also the message of the proverb: "Bloodthirsty men hate a man of integrity, and seek to kill the upright" (Proverbs 29:10).
Clement of Rome (writing at about the same time as this epistle was first sent) also used Cain as an example of sinful jealousy leading to hatred. Most of what he says is a quote from Genesis 4:2-8: "This is what is written: In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to God. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. God looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then God said to Cain, 'Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.' Now Cain said to his brother Abel, 'Let’s go out to the field.' And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Brothers, look: jealousy and envy brought about a brother's murder." (1 Clement 4:1-7)
The problem with jealousy is that it amounts to ungratefulness for the gifts God has already given to us. If I am jealous of my brother because he's better looking than I am, is better at sports than I am, drives a better can than I do, is a better businessman than I am, is a better artist than I am, and is better company than I am, what have I said about any of the gifts God has given me? How would I feel if, on Christmas morning, one of my sons sat crying in the corner because the present he got isn't exactly the same as the presents all his brothers got?
What we do have is a place in heaven. That impossible gift is guaranteed to all of us through Jesus. It's not something that we can buy; as Ezekiel said, "Their silver and gold will not be able to save them in the day of the Lord's wrath" (Ezek. 7:19). In heaven, there is no social ranking, and there is no status except one: Forgiven.
The train of John's thought so far is this:
A. The permanent message is LOVE.
B. Cain did not love, but fell to murder because his brother was righteous
and he hated his brother's righteousness.
13 [καὶ] μὴ θαυμάζετε, ἀδελϕοί, εἰ μισεῖ ὑμᾶς ὁ κόσμος.
14 ἡμεῖς οἴδαμεν ὅτι μεταβεβήκαμεν ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου εἰς τὴν ζωήν, ὅτι ἀγαπῶμεν τοὺς ἀδελϕούς· ὁ μὴ ἀγαπῶν μένει ἐν τῷ θανάτῳ.
15 πᾶς ὁ μισῶν τὸν ἀδελϕὸν αὐτοῦ ἀνθρωποκτόνος ἐστίν, καὶ οἴδατε ὅτι πᾶς ἀνθρωποκτόνος οὐκ ἔχει ζωὴν αἰώνιον ἐν αὐτῷ μένουσαν.
13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. (NIV)
3:13 μισεῖ present act ind μισέω "hate, despise." The present tense indicates typical, ongoing hatred that the world will always have for the godly.
3:14 μεταβαίνω perfect active ind., "leave, move, cross over." The perfect tense tells us that this is a permanent state; we were somewhere else, but we are here and we will stay here, from death to life.
The variant regarding καὶ μὴ or just μὴ is neither clear nor terribly important. The verse makes the same sense and says virtually the same thing either way.
More than half a century ago in Jamaica, young men overcome by addiction to drugs or alcohol would stand or sit or wander the streets in a lethargic stupor, uncaring, unwilling to work or smile or laugh or care about life at all. They were nicknamed zombie by their countrymen (nzambi is a Bantu name for a snake god), and soon the word zombie had entered into mainstream English as a word for the walking dead. John the Apostle describes the unbelievers of the world as zombies, the walking dead--but unlike a horror movie, the zombies of the world can be rescued; awakened from their living death by the power of the gospel.
John once again goes back to the story of Cain, by reminding us that "anyone who hates his brother is a murderer." A sin does not have to ever leave the realm of our hearts to be a sin in God's eyes. Whether it's jealousy, hatred, lust, laziness or gluttony, a sin is a sin the moment it's conceived.
What we need to remember is that every sin is forgiven by Jesus, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, we are able to resist temptation, we are able to run away from the desire to sin; we are no longer slaves to our passions. We are forgiven children of God.
1 JOHN 3:16-20
In his Epistle, John has just been describing love as evidence of faith (3:14-15). Now he turns our attention to the greatest act of love.
16 ἐν τούτῳ ἐγνώκαμεν τὴν ἀγάπην, ὅτι ἐκεῖνος ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἔθηκεν· καὶ ἡμεῖς ὀϕείλομεν ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀδελϕῶν τὰς ψυχὰς θεῖναι.
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
θεῖναι exegetical infinitive (τίθημι) "lay down, give up."
Christ's great act of love was self-sacrifice. He gave his life to ransom our souls from condemnation to hell. Of the several terms in Greek for "love," John chose the three-syllable word agape. In Classical Greek, the word agape was quite rare; it didn't have a specific meaning. When you shop for yogurt, you will find many flavors including vanilla, but you will also find one labeled "plain." It has no added flavor at all (strained of its whey overnight in a coffee filter, it makes a good low-fat substitute for cream). Agape-love was also "flavorless" in Greek until the writing of the New Testament. Even in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it was mainly used in parallel poetry verses with other terms for passion or friendship (Song of Solomon 2:4; 7:6; 8:6-7, etc). But then in the New Testament, especially from the pens of John and Paul, the meaning of agape has changed from plain, undefined "love" to the totally selfless love that God has for mankind, and which God urges us to show toward each other. An unbeliever is incapable of this kind of love; he might be a philanthropist, but even that isn't a good work in God's eyes without faith.
The definition of this kind of love includes expressing such selfless love in our actions:
17 ὃς δ' ἂν ἔχῃ τὸν βίον τοῦ κόσμου καὶ ϑεωρῇ τὸν ἀδελϕὸν αὐτοῦ χρείαν ἔχοντα καὶ κλείσῃ τὰ σπλάγχνα αὐτοῦ ἀπ' αὐτοῦ, πῶς ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ θεοῦ μένει ἐν αὐτῷ;
18 Τεκνία, μὴ ἀγαπῶμεν λόγῳ μηδὲ τῇ γλώσσῃ ἀλλὰ ἐν ἔργῳ καὶ ἀληϑείᾳ.
19 [Καὶ] ἐν τούτῳ γνωσόμεθα ὅτι ἐκ τῆς ἀληθείας ἐσμέν, καὶ ἔμπροσθεν αὐτοῦ πείσομεν τὴν καρδίαν ἡμῶν
20 ὅτι ἐὰν καταγινώσκῃ ἡμῶν ἡ καρδία, ὅτι μείζων ἐστὶν ὁ θεὸς τῆς καρδίας ἡμῶν καὶ γινώσκει πάντα.
17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. (NIV)
The great selfless love of God come to us (as one believer said, "God will love you more than your own mother does,"), but God also wants his love to go through us to other people. But we can easily be misled by the devil into thinking that we are somehow untrue with our love. Don't let the devil whisper in your ear when you're down, but don't let him whisper in your ear when you're not down, either. He's a liar all the time, and God is the one, the only one, who truly knows what is in our hearts.
Before God, our sinful motivations and our sins themselves melt away like frost in the sunlight. The service we perform for other people must not come from guilt or a sense of obligation, but from love for God, who loved us, who lived for us, and who died for us. Show your love for your Savior in your love for the people he died to save. They're all around you.
The overall theme of 3:11-24 is: (The ethical test of our faith): What dos it mean to be a son / child of God?
We are God's children.
A. True love is without jealousy and other sins (vs. 19-20: our hearts condemn us, so we rest in him)
B. True love is living our faith with what we do and not just what we say
Important phrase (telic note): "We set our hearts at rest in his presence" (3:19).
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