We know that we are murderers because we have not sacrificed ourselves for each other. If we do not love each other, then we are murderers. You know that you have truly moved from the realm of darkness and sin to the realm of light and righteousness when we love each other. After all of this discussion about helping others, why does John say "His command" is "to believe in the name of His Son?" John teaches that if we open our hearts (and our wallets) to those in need, God will open His wallet to us.) As he now fills in his preliminary sketch, he uses no colours but black and white. We are proving we are not his disciples. Therefore, do not be surprised that the world hates you. The other uses are found in John 13:34; 15:12, 17; Ro 13:8; 1Th 4:9; 1Pe 1:22. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 1 John 3:11-12 - NIV: For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 2:9-11). (Harris), Stott explains that this original Gospel message "was also public knowledge in contrast to the private and secret enlightenment which the false teachers claimed. Commentators have debated who “We” is in this passage. The Gospel message of Him who loved us, announced by His servants, is, that we love the brethren; not here all mankind, but those who are our brethren in Christ, children of the same family of God, of whom we have been born anew. We beat ourselves up for not doing better. And then and only then will we be free to forget about ourselves in order to genuinely love someone else. Cain murdered his brother Abel, as recorded in Genesis 4. NET Note - The word aggelia occurs only twice in the NT, 1Jn 1:5 and in 1 John 3:11. This most likely refers to John 15:12 where Jesus said “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you." God is greater than our guilty feelings. Aggelia is closely equivalent to euaggelion: (1) it refers to the proclamation of the eyewitness testimony about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ as proclaimed by the author and the rest of the apostolic witnesses (prologue, esp. In these verses we are reminded once again that our love for one another is evidence of genuine faith in our hearts. Arché refers to what is first or has primacy (the state of being first). ", Daniel Akin - John speaks of four different levels of relationships in which we can choose to live: murder (1Jn 3:11, 12), hatred (1Jn 3:13-15), indifference (1Jn 3:16, 17), and Christian love in action (1Jn 3:18). In the context the message is a reference to the original, apostolic Gospel, the good "message" of Him Who loved us (Jn 3:16) and which births children who exhibit a Spirit-enabled, supernatural love for their brothers and sisters in Christ. The doctrinal foundation that God is light and the moral, ethical foundation of love for one another are both at the heart of the apostolic gospel. Author: 1, 2, and 3 John have from earliest times been attributed to the apostle John, who also wrote the Gospel of John. (3) We know that we are living and staying with God (abiding in him) because we are keeping his commands. – This is the second time that John addresses the issue of Christian love here in his Epistle which should alert us to its importance (cf. Commentary on 1 John 3:11-15 (Read 1 John 3:11-15) We should love the Lord Jesus, value his love, and therefore love all our brethren in Christ. 1. “It is the Lord’s command, and if this is done, it is enough.”. Love One Another 1 John 3:11-24 In the eleventh verse of this chapter, John reminds his fellow disciples in the beloved community love is the essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ. To get what 1 John 3:11 means based on its source text, scroll down or follow these links for the original scriptural meaning , biblical context and relative popularity. This hope is the motivation for our purification. Never forget Paul’s words when we talk about helping others: “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Timothy 5:8 ESV) John is not speaking about those claiming to be Christians but refuse to work at all or work enough to take care of their own needs. We know that we have not loved like we ought to have loved. John begins the next section of his letter with his central theme -- love: "This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another." Abel’s heart was right which led to obedience. So let's delve with him! It was not something they had never heard before. The reason why Cain killed Abel was because his own actions were evil while Abel’s actions were righteous. That's what the false teachers in John's day were trumpeting. John provides three markers of the Divine parentage. (1 John 3:10) This week John delves more deeply into the question of what it means to love one another. God is greater than our hearts. Read 1 John 3:11-12. We must be around each other to love each other. And then and only then will we be free to forget about ourselves in order to genuinely love someone else. Love is sacrificing ourselves for the gain of others. Jerome informs us that toward the close of the apostle’s life, after he had become too infirm to preach, he still continued constantly to give the exhortation, “Little children, love one another.” He tells us how he remarked. The reason I put it like that is because of what 1 John 1:9 says and what Hebrews 12:16 says. Love is the denial of self for another’s gain. When Paul instructed who could be helped by the church, there were strict requirements that the widow have proven herself to abide in Christ. (2)We love one another, just as our Lord commanded us and showed us. The world is going to hate you because your actions are righteous and their actions are not. That is Jesus Christ, whose example of self-sacrificial love is to be imitated and followed by us as his disciples." We must clean out the filth in our lives and stop practicing sins because we see the amazing love the Father has given us so that we can be called children of God. In the New Testament the world also appears as a hostile environment. Those who abide in Christ have confidence and will not shrink back when Christ returns. It is a very close parallel (almost word for word) with I John 1:5. (Love: A Matter of Life and Death). Notice that John does not pass this off to the church to first deal with the situation. John is not speaking about the people standing in the median who will not work. When we are walking in the light, confessing our sins, and turning to the Lord, God has promised to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). For this is the message— In this verse we have St. John's first reason why Christians should love one another; namely, "It is the message or command of God in Christ." Others, however, while not denying the eternality of the Son, argue that that is not John’s meaning here. “We should love one another.” 1 John 3:11 “Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you.” 1 John 3:13 “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. When we get angry with one another and refuse to show proper love, we are showing that we are not born of God and do not have eternal life. It springs from an apprehension of the preciousness of an object. What we need, which is what his readers needed, is to go back to what we have heard from the beginning. We are not talking about saying that we love each other. Vine says for this is the message is "more literally, “Because the message is this,” cp. (4) We have the Spirit of God to let us know that God abides in us and we in him. What does 1 John 3:11 mean? Hawley - Our nature has consequences; eventually we act the way we really are. See John 1:29; John 11:3, etc. Neither is John talking about someone who has continually chosen to be in need because of his refusal to work and lacks the ambition to work to provide for his family. In the last 3 verses of this passage John speaks of right relationship between ourselves and other Christians. 2. One of the purposes of our community groups is to know each other better so we can love each other like John is commanding. Previous: 1 John 2:28-3:10, A Purifying Hope If we are not loving each other, then quite simply we are not cutting it. We are to lay down our lives for one another. Evil has a jealous hatred for good. BROTHERLY LOVE: If our heart does not condemn us, then that is not a bad thing if we are walking in the light. 1 Jn 3:12–13 show us the negative example, Cain, who in his hatred and ultimate murder of his brother Abel is the prototype of the world. 10b-11) • Why can John say what he does at the end of verse 10? The gospel is incomplete unless it includes both doctrine and ethics. But listen to the words of Jesus. Date of Writing: The Book of 1 John was likely written between A.D. 85-95. If we do not love, then we abide in death. This is a precious truth. John 3:11. We try to make so much more out of people sometimes rather than just taking the straightforward, simple point. Message (31)(aggelia related to aggelos = messenger; our English "Angel") means tidings, news, message, report. First John 3:11–18 describes the contrast between hate and love, and how love ought to be seen in the life of a Christian believer. –Gabriel Zepeda-Rolón 4th Sunday of Easter (White or Gold) Acts 4:5-12 Psalm 23 1 John 3:16-24 John 10:11-18 1 John 3:11-24-Love One Another (New Revised Standard Version) 11 For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. He knows your repentance. Answer: 1. In the gospel of John, the apostle quotes the Lord Jesus declaring love as … And I would add specifically "Life in the family (love of the brethren)! We cannot say we love. The religious leaders taught that if you murdered you would be liable to judgment. Every contemporaneous and collateral witness adds to this assurance. As John Calvin said "John reminds us that he was teaching nothing but what had been heard by the faithful concerning love from the beginning and had become old through long usage. Children of the devil do not give of themselves to others but always take. He continues the stark contrast he has already pointed in 1Jn 3:10-note between the children of God and the children of the devil, and writes of hatred and love, life and death, murder and self-sacrifice." To love the brothers and sisters in the believing community demonstrates that we belong to God; to reject the brothers and sisters demonstrates that we don’t really belong to God. Third, and the easiest to detect, God’s children love each other (1 John 3:11-24—Social). In 1 John 1:8, the grammar indicates John is speaking about occasional acts of sin. John speaks of the evidence of love in 1 Jn 3:14–15, and sandwiching those verses on either side comes John's teaching about the essence of love. 1. Next: 1 John 4:1-6, Tested, West Palm Beach church of Christ4236 Haverhill RoadWest Palm Beach, FL 33417, Sunday  Services9:30 am / 10:30 am & 6:30 pm. If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything. God knows that you are seeking him. 1. Have heard (Same phrase in 1Jn 1:1, 1:5, 2:7, 3:11, 4:3) - What had they heard? 3) What does Jesus mean when he said in John 3:12 “I have spoken to you of earthly things”? Rather than see their own wickedness and repent, they hate those who expose their evil ways. Did he mean that he is discussing with Nicodemus the things that can be done on earth? Compassion will lead to action. 1Jn 3:23; 4:7; 11–12; 2John 1:5; John 13:34; 15:12, 17)." Second, behavior is characterized by purity (1 John 2:28-3:10—Moral). Elsewhere the plural is used of something actually visible (Galatians 6:11). 12 We must not be like Cain who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. From the very beginning, that is, from the very first time they heard the Gospel, John's readers knew beyond a shadow of a doubt what God would expect and would empower them to do: love one another… And any gospel you believe, any gospel you proclaim that does not include both doctrine and ethics is only half a gospel, tragically incomplete, radically distorted, hopelessly deficient. (As we discussed, Jesus is the ultimate example of sacrificing for others. We need to see what John has set up so that we can feel the gravity of his conclusions. John 3:11. We are keeping his commands and do things that are pleasing to God. John in this context is speaking about helping our Christian brethren, so we need to bear this in mind. We know what love looks like when we look at Jesus. Verse 11 tells us — for (because) this has been the message that the readers have heard taught since the beginning of hearing the gospel. We must know each other to love each other. How we treat each other and deal with each reveals where we stand in our salvation. Our actions tell everything about who are truly God’s and who are not. They were infatuated with newness. 1Jn 1:3–4), and (2) it relates to the salvation of the hearers/readers, since the purpose of this proclamation is to bring them into fellowship with God and with the apostolic witnesses (1Jn 1:3). It is a cognate of epaggelia which occurs much more frequently (some 52 times in the NT) including 1Jn 2:25. John uses this term, ajgaphtoiv (agaphtoi) elsewhere in his letters – the plural form occurs in 1 John 3:2, 21; 4:1, 7, 11 and the singular in 3 John 1, 2, 5, 11. John 15:12 "is itself a restatement of the “new commandment” of John 13:34." They were the ones with the latest ideas. John then makes the point even stronger in verse 15. Sometimes our consciences still bother us because we know we have done wrong. We also need to be aware that there are many in the world who know how to take advantage of Christians by claiming to be Christians even though their lives do not show this to be true. What manner of (ποταπὴν) The word is of infrequent occurrence in the New Testament, but is found in all the Synoptists and in 2 Peter 3:11. Perhaps some have thought that because Christians talk about a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ” that it is only us and Jesus who matter. The content, style, and vocabulary seem to warrant the conclusion that these three epistles were addressed to the same readers as the Gospel of John. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. Doctrine is of the essence of the gospel--doctrine about the character of God; about human sin; about the mediator, Jesus Christ, who is the God-man; about his life, death and resurrection to forgive the sins of his people and give them eternal life; about the need for personal response of faith to appropriate the work of Christ into one's own life. Read 1 John 3:23-24. The grammar of 1 John 3:6 indicates that John is speaking of a settled, continued lifestyle of sin. They were the ones who were modern, progressive "with-it". And why did he murder him? When we mistreat each other, are not kind to each other, cause problems, are not sacrificing for each other, and putting others ahead of ourselves, we are showing that we are remaining in spiritual death. An Old Command for ALL Christians (vv. Jesus now discloses to the henceforth silent Nicodemus, in growing excitement of feeling, the source of his ignorance, namely, his unbelief in what He testifies, and which yet is derived from His own knowledge and intuition. "The beginning" likely refers to when his readers first heard the gospel message. (Wuest), Guzik - The basic Christian message has not changed. First John 3:11 stands as the thesis for this paragraph: “This is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” The Problem of Hating Our Brother (3:12-15) John turns to the example of Cain and Abel to teach why we must love one another. Children of the devil are self-consumed. (1 John 3 Commentary - Daily Study Bible), Harris notes that "This section marks the beginning of the second major part of First John (1John 3:11–5:12)." Why do we need to confess our sins in they have already been forgiven (1 John 1:9)? 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