Daily Thoughts from 1 John: Phil-adelphia (3:11-15)

Daily Thoughts from 1 John: Phil-adelphia

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.  (1 John 3:11-15 ESV)

When Cain brought his offering to the Lord and his brother Abel brought his, God accepted Abel’s offering, not Cain’s.  That Cain’s offering was not offered in genuine worship is evident from the fact that when God rejected it Cain began to mope and got angry at his brother.  If he genuinely cared about the greatness of God he would have searched his own heart (as God encouraged him to) rather than directing his anger at his brother and killing him.

John is repeating Jesus’ message that we should love one another.  Thinking of Cain as an example of those who left the congregation over the doctrinal dispute, he highlights that true believers do not hate their brothers.  But the world hates us, for the same reason Cain hated Abel.  Our righteousness plays upon their desire to be seen as worthy of God’s regard and shows them up as self-centered and rebellious rather than worshipful.

Hating another is tantamount to wanting their death and so makes us, at least in our hearts, murderers.  And no murderer, that is, no one who habitually hates and takes the life of another, has eternal life.  So we know we have passed from death to life by the fact that we have a love for one another welling up inside us.

Three American principles of love:  1) everybody loves a lover, 2) love conquers all, and 3) love is enough.  But see Jn. 15:17,18 and Ps. 35.  Genuine lovers are not loved by the world.  Genuine lovers are suspected of having some ulterior motives, some real reason for doing their selfless acts.  Roger Fredrickson wrote:  “It is the nature of the world to hate as it is the nature of the disciple to love…And the separation of the disciples from the world makes them objects of hatred.” (C. Thomas Hilton, The Clergy Journal, Jan. 2000)