Aug. 03, 2025

“WALKING IN THE LIGHT”

“LIFE OR DEATH?”

1 JOHN 3:11-24

Obedience and love are both evidence of sonship and brotherhood. We have been reminded that a true child of God practices righteousness (3:1-10), and now we shall look into the matter of love for the brethren (3:11-24).

We are told that loving the brethren is a “matter of life or death.” “…He who does not love his brother abides in death.” 3:14

When it comes to the matter of love we have “Four Possible Levels of Relationship A Person Can Live.”

1.  Murder- 1 John 3:11-12

1 John 3:11 “For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.”

John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

1 John 2:10 “He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.”

It’s clear, then that loving one another is the heart of the Christian life. Along with loving God, it sums up what it means to observe the commandments:

Matthew 22:36-40

It is the theme that emerges throughout the New Testament:

Romans 13:8 “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.”

1 Thessalonians 4:9 “But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.”

1 Peter 1:22 “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart.” 

And it’s a distinguishing mark of the authenticity of a disciple of Jesus:

John 13:35 “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

But what does this love of the brethren look like?

1 John 3:12 “not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.”

The devil was and is a murderer from the beginning of it all.

John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”

Cain is a example of a life of hatred: (Genesis 4:1-16)

Cain was a murderer and a liar like Satan, he murdered his brother and lied about it.

Genesis 4:9 “Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

The difference between Cain’s offering and Abel’s offering was faith and faith is always based on the revelation God has given:

Hebrews 11:4 “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.”

Romans 10:17 “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

It seems clear that God must have given definite instructions concerning how He was to be worshipped.

For what reason did Cain kill Abel? 

Cain killed Abel, “…Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.” vs.12

2. Hatred- 1 John 3:13-15

At this point, you are probably thinking, “but I have never murdered anyone!” And to this statement God replies:

1 John 3:13-15 “Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. 14We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. 15Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”

Remember that for a Christian to have hatred is the same as murder:

Matthew 5:22 “But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.”

vs.13 “Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you.” 

The world hates believers.

A Christian has passed from death to life:

John 5:24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”

3.   Indifference- 1 John 3:16-17

Christian love is to be personal and active:

1 John 3:16-17 “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?”

This is what Jesus had in mind in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)

If I am going to help my brother, I must meet three conditions. 

First, I must have the means necessary to meet his need.

Second, I must know that the need exists. 

Third, I must be loving enough to want to share.

Galatians 6:10 “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

vs.16 “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

Just as Christ laid down His life for us because of His love, who should love the brethren by laying down our lives for them.

vs.17 “But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?”

If we want to experience and enjoy the love of God in our own hearts, we must love others, even to the point of sacrifice.

4.   Christian Love- 1 John 3:18-24

How does the love of God abide in us?

1 John 3:18 “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”

To love “in word” means simply to talk about a need, but to love “in deed” means to do something  about meeting it.

To love “in tongue” is the opposite of to love “in truth.” It means to love sincerely. To “love in truth” means to love a person genuinely, from the heart and not just the tongue.

1 John 3:19 “And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.”

By what? By loving our brothers and sisters in Christ in deed and in truth.

John names Three Wonderful Blessings that will come to a believer who practices Christian Love:

• Assurance

1 John 3:20 “For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.”

Matthew 5:23-24

A Christian who walks in love has a heart open to God for God is love and knows that God never judges wrongly.

• Answered Prayer

1 John 3:21-22 “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. 22And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.”

Love is the fulfilling of God’s law:

Romans 13:8-10

One great secret of answered prayers is “obedience,” and the secret of obedience is love.

John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”

John 15:10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”

A Christian who lives to please God will discover that God finds ways to please His child.

Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.”

• Abiding 

• 1 John 3:23-24 “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. 24Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.”

Faith toward God and love toward man sums up a Christians obligations.

Galatians 5:6 “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.”

Jesus was not talking about salvation, He was talking about fruit-bearing. 

Abiding depends on our obeying His Word and keeping clean:

1 John 3:3 “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

1 John 3:10 “In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.”

John 14:23 “Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”

When believer obeys God and loves the brethren, the indwelling Holy Spirit gives him peace and confidence.

John 14:16 “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever.”

To abide in love is to abide in God, and to abide in God is to abide in love.