Free Bible Commentary
“First John 3:11-16”
Categories: First John“For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who 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. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
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Loving our brethren is a matter of life and death (verse 14). This is the second of three sections that John devoted to this subject (2:9-11; 4:19-5:4), and his emphasis of this essential theme proves that “the message which you have heard from the beginning” (verse 11) is worthy of much repetition. John reminds us again that the truth has not changed in the slightest, but people grow tired of the old ways of righteousness, and gravitate towards new and innovative things that appeal to their desires (2 Timothy 4:1-5). In actuality, disregard for the God’s commandments and hatred for brethren dates all the way back to the first family of Genesis chapters 3 and 4 (verse 12).
The same impulses that prompted Cain to murder his brother Abel also motivated the false teachers and their adherents to hate the lovers of truth. They despised their brethren because the agitators were “of the evil one” and not faithful followers of the God of love and compassion (1 John 4:8). Also, like their predecessor Cain, their “deeds were evil.” They had no desire to “do well,” and they refused to “master” the sin that is always “crouching at the door” and ready to pounce on its victims like a wild animal and devour them (Genesis 4:7). “The world” also hates God’s children because their “deeds” are “righteous”. Sometimes people will hate us because they see us as a bunch of “do-gooders” who think we are better than everyone else. They will take our righteousness as a personal insult and an assault on their worldly way of life. There is no reason to “be surprised” at this kind of hatred because it has been going on from nearly the beginning of time, but it still causes God’s children to “marvel” when people hate them for merely doing what is right and pleasing to Him.
One distinguishing mark which demonstrates that a person has been “rescued from the domain of darkness” (Colossians 1:13) of the world, and translated into the “marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9) of the kingdom is demonstrable love for brothers and sisters in Christ. This is not the only proof of faithfulness, but Jesus Himself said, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). An “unloving Christian” is a contradiction in terms. If we have hatred in our hearts for our brothers and sisters in the spiritual family of faith, we have not “passed out of death into life” (verse 14), but remain dead even as we live and breathe (Ephesians 2:1).
John even went as far as to say that “everyone who hates his brother is a murderer” (verse 15). It was Cain’s loathing of Abel that drove him to brutally kill his brother in cold blood. Even if we never go so far as to take the life of another human being, if we harbor hatred for them we possess the spirit and attitude of a murderer, and that is a sin worthy of death in the eyes of the Lord. Rather than fostering murderous hatred, we should nurture the kind of love in our hearts that would prompt us to lay down our own lives for our brethren if necessary instead. That is love in the greatest degree, and is exactly the love our Lord possesses for you and me (John 15:13).
Please read 1 John 3:17-18 for tomorrow.
Have a blessed day!
-Louie Taylor
