First John

I John 3:11-24

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: I John 3:11-24

Genre: Sermon

Lesson: 8 of 16

Track: #8

Year:

Dictation Name: RR308D8

[Rushdoony] God our heavenly Father we gather again in Thy name to rejoice in Thy mercies and to delight in all Thy promises which are yea and amen. Bless us as we worship Thee, watch over our loved ones, guide us all in the way that we should go, and grant that Thy kingdom may indeed come and Thy will be done in our lives, our churches, and our families. In Christ’s name, amen.

Our scripture is First John 3:11-24 and it will be read for us by Daniel {?}

[Daniel] “11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.

13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.

14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.

20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.

21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.

22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

23 And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.”

When we began our study of John’s first letter we say that there are in the Coina, or New Testament Greek, three different words for love. Of these three the most popular one of the day is never used in the New Testament, it comes from the word “eros” e-r-o-s, and it means basically sexual love, human love that has its own satisfaction in mind. The second word which we do find in I John is phileo, as in the name of the city “Philadelphia” phila - love, adelphos –brother; so Philadelphia means city of brotherly love. Now that word “philos” appears repeatedly. The third word is a key word in the New Testament, not to often used but basic, and it is agape, a-g-a-p-e; and agape basically means a love of God, it is almost equivalent to grace. Why that word was in the Coina Greek we do not know unless God in His providence had placed it there for the day when He would use that language for His scriptures, because otherwise it is virtually a rarity in the usage of the day.

Well when we come to this section of first John we find that Phileo, brotherly love as in the cities name, is much more commonly used and the text begins in verse eleven: “11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” So what is stressed heavily by John is that we have an obligation to love one another, that this extend to everyone and this love that he asks of us is not a great supernatural experience as agape is, but ordinary human love. And he goes on to make clear what he means. “12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.” Now to define love, brotherly love, he goes all the way back to the garden of Eden and to Cain as an example of the reverse, of hatred. He defines Cain as the wicked one because he killed his brother; and why did he kill him? Because his own works were evil and His brother’s righteous. So that when we come to defining good and evil, because we are sinners, we too often define them not in terms of God, but in terms of ourselves. Cain’s works were evil, his brother’s were righteous, therefore he hated his brother, and we are often hated because we are righteous. And we must beware of hating others because they are more righteous than we are.

So he goes on to say “13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.” Don’t be surprised, the world is going to hate you in so far as you are righteous, in so far as you are Godly, good. It will resent that very fact, knowing itself it knows it’s evil and therefore it does all that it can to try to put you in the black and to hate you, to hate you because you are good.

“14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.” One way of knowing that we are now Christians, which means we have passed from death to life, is to know that we love our brother’s. Hatred is very easy. There’s been a great deal on television lately about the treatment of the Japanese in World War II. At the time I had many Japanese friends, I knew well that the Japanese community not only had a great deal of Christianity, many churches, but also that it was intensely patriotic. I knew only one boy who was name Lincoln, and he was Japanese; and there were other names like that reflecting their earnest patriotism, their appreciation of this country. And yet, hatred was promoted, their assets were wiped out, they were the big lettuce growers of California and the big lettuce companies helped promote the placement of Japanese into slave-labor camps, it was a fearful thing. These were people who were abiding in death & therefore they hated others. At the time the percentage of Japanese Christians was very high, that was another one of their offenses. Their churches, their homes, everything were either destroyed or badly damaged during their years in a slave-labor camp.

“15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” This is quite a statement, a very strong one. Let’s place ourselves at the time I was talking about, World War II. What John is telling us is that you cannot hate the German or the Japanese, or the Italians, they are your brothers under God, if you hate them you are a murderer, you want them dead. “No murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” Now this does not mean that we had a duty during World War II to avoid facing the facts of history, quite the contrary. What we need to recognize is that we are sinners. The United States is largely made up of sinners, as was Britain, France, and other countries; that there were sinners in the other countries like Italy and Germany and Japan. But we had a duty under God to see them not in relationship to us, but in relationship to God. What was God going to do about these peoples? Well it is clear in His word that He plans the salvation of all peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations. So what do we have to say? That we must see them as God sees them, and we must work to accomplish God’s purpose for them, their salvation.

“16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” We have a duty towards all our fellow men to bring them to a saving knowledge of Christ, to see them as our brethren, to work for their salvation, and this is a very, very important fact. One of the things that is now forgotten is the opposition to the missionaries who first went to Africa, on the part of their nationalities. Why? Well the European great powers were busily trying to exploit Africa. Did they like it to hear that we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren? Far from it, neither did the Africans. I shall never forget to my dying day the story of Marry Slessor of Calabar, a lone woman who went to a totally isolated area to become the missionary there in Africa. She worked with two tribes, each hating the other. On one occasion she was awakened in the night by an African women who said that the men were arming and they were going to attack the others, so she hastily went to that place and when they came to do battle she stood between them and made it clear that they were going to have to kill her first. What ensued was rather funny because at first they raged at her and told to go back to her cabin and stay there. Then they began to plead with her because they knew that she was a very godly woman and they did not want her hurt as she would if she stood between the two tribes. But she triumphed, and brought them, both sides, not only to a saving knowledge of Christ, but ultimately to a love one for another.

“17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” This is an amazing and powerful statement. What John is saying “if you are well off, and compared to much of the world you have enough to clothe yourself and eat, how can you see your brother, other peoples, have need & lack compassion. How then dwelleth the love of God in you? This is a very powerful statement. What John is saying that they may be sinners, but they are your fellow creatures, you have a duty to save them, to bring them to a knowledge of the love of God. Not to see their evils, but to see them in Christ. This is something we have a need for today because the world is very much divided by a hatred, and it believes that the only way that men can come together is through politics. Europe is now busy trying to achieve political union, as though this is the answer. It is not making the people of France, or Germany, or England, or Croatia, or Sweden, love one another any more than they did before. In fact, in some ways it has increased the hostility because it is not the love God describes, even the ordinary human love, but a political ploy that is seen as the solution.

“18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” Let’s not talk about the brotherhood of man and love of peoples, but let us do it in truth, in Christ. “19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.” Where do we stand in relationship with people? Why in terms of our relationship to God. If we love God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost we will then love our brethren, we will know that though they be sinners “while we were sinners Christ died for us.” Though they be sinners, they like us can be saved by grace.

“22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” We can ask then of God, and receive from God, because we keep His commandments. Now that’s an important statement and basic to the Bible. How is that we receive from God? As we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

“23 And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.” If we love Christ we keep His commandments, we love one another. “24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.” God gives us His Holy Spirit, His indwelling Spirit so that we may know Him, because the Spirit is the third person of the trinity. When we know the Spirit we know the Son and we know the Father, and so we have then a blessed hope, we have a love that is not based on what we think, but what on God orders us. We love our fellow men because God requires it. It may be that they are sinners headed for damnation, but until that happens, which is not our doing, we are to return good for evil, we are to love them, we are to manifest the grace of God towards them

So what John has to say about love is not anything humanistic, but totally Theistic, Christian, calling for us to be children of the Father, in Him brothers to one another. It is interesting that one of the most common bits of profanity in the English language, and in others, is “go to hell” and behind it is a very interesting fact. People want to be able to send others to hell, they don’t wait for God to say it, they feel “because I am disgusted with what you are and what you do, therefore go to hell.” Which means we’ve put ourselves in the place of God, which means we say we are the judge, not the Lord; well all that John has to say here is the antithesis of that, the Lord He is God, He is the judge, and in Him we are to make love paramount in our relationship to all people, even though they may be before death, this side of the other world, unlovable. But it’s God who will condemn them, meanwhile we do the work of the Lord and we try to bring others into the same service. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God we give thanks unto Thee for the majesty and beauty of Thy word. Thy word corrects our word, Thy word corrects our ways, Thy word blesses and strengthens us. Make us joyful in Thee, and truly brothers’ one to another. In Christ’s name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson?

Well if not, let us bow our head in prayer.

“How great Thou art oh Lord, and how wondrous Thy ways. Teach us to love Thee and one another as we ought to do, and bless us as we serve Thee. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, amen.