Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction:
There is a story of how fleeting love can be and is told by a girl who regretted breaking her engagement and wrote this letter:
“Dearest Tommy, No words could ever express the great unhappiness I’ve felt since breaking our engagement.
Please say you’ll take me back.
No one could ever take your place in my heart, so please forgive me.
I love you, I love you, I love you!
I love you!”
Yours forever,
Marie
PS: And congratulations on winning the state lottery.
Transition:
Love might be perhaps one of the most misunderstood concepts of at least the English language if not of humanity.
And this misconception is compounded by the effects of sin.
Despite our tainted views of love, the Apostle John commands us to love with true love.
Scripture Reading:
Transition:
Our text this morning continues with the great theme of love that John has already mentioned somewhat extensively both in this letter and in his Gospel.
Known as the apostle of love, there is no surprise with John’s repetitive need to emphasize love among the believers.
He was blessed to literally and physically walk with the Lord, studying His life and ministry, clearly seeing the love Jesus expressed to others with his own two eyes.
As we follow Jesus’ great example and seek to heed the words of John in the Scripture, we too must be willing to put our love into action.
It is easy to talk of love.
It is easy to express concern for the pressing needs of our day, but it is quite something else to be moved to action.
Our love must not be limited to conversation; it must compel us to act!
Let’s take a few moments to consider the challenges John speaks of as we think on: Putting our Love into Action.
I.
A Lovely Call (vv.
11-13)
John calls the believer to love one another…again!
His exhortation is:
A. A Timely Love
Again this is nothing new; John isn’t sharing a message they have never heard.
From their earliest encounter with the gospel and the beginning of their relationship with Christ, they had been encouraged to love one another.
This is essential to the Christian faith.
It reflects Jesus’ very own words that John has already testified to in his Gospel:
Loving others accompanies salvation.
Christopher Benfield calls out this kind of love that John is calling us to, He says:
Jesus is the great example of love that each of us ought to emulate.
Jesus didn’t just speak of love, He exemplified love.
He was moved with compassion as He witnessed the multitudes scattered as sheep without a shepherd.
He healed the sick, fed the hungry, encouraged the lonely, and gave Himself on the cross for our sin.
He gave His life so we might have life and have it more abundantly.
This still remains a timely message for our day as well.
Surely we all have the capacity to love more, and in our day of self-indulgence and intolerance, love is certainly needed.
We are never more like our Lord than when we love others.
B. A Tested Love
In Genesis 4, Cain brought grain and fruits for his offering, while Abel brought an animal from his flock.
Abel’s sacrifice (an animal substitute) was more acceptable to YHWH mainly because of Abel’s faith when he offered it:
After Cain’s sacrifice was rejected, YHWH encouraged him to be in the right.
But Cain refused, and in his jealous anger he killed his own brother.
But why did he fell like he had kill his brother?
Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was right.
The message of love and YHWH’s expectation associated with it were not new to John’s readers.
This message was not a even new doctrine Jesus taught that would have been foreign to the Jews.
The people of YHWH were always expected to show His love toward others.
Despite how old this message is, love wasn’t and still is not always .
It didn’t take long for love to be tested and even resisted.
John reminds us of how Cain slew Abel in a moment of rage and anger.
Abel showed love while Cain revealed the hatred within his heart.
Cain despised his brother because Abel’s sacrifice was accepted in God’s eyes and his wasn’t.
In our passage this morning, John’s emphasis was not so much that Cain murdered and became a child of the "evil one”; but rather, since Cain did not abide in YHWH’s love, his evil anger and jealousy led him to murder.
John wanted his readers to understand the horrid ends of refusing to love one another.
Lack of love can lead to anger, jealousy, hatred—and, finally, even to murder.
Through the example of Cain we see that the heart will be revealed in time.
What we have hid within our hearts will eventually be revealed through our actions.
One can know of love and understand God’s expectation for love, and yet refuse to love.
Genuine love cannot be fabricated or imitated.
We cannot offer what we do not first possess!
C. A Tempered Love
John didn’t want believers to be caught off guard.
Jesus wants his followers to be distinctive; he sets them apart from the world.
Their very separation, however, arouses unbelievers’ animosity.
When people become Christians, sometimes their lives change drastically.
This was especially true for first-century believers who had come out of the morally corrupt pagan world—John’s readers lived in Ephesus.
Former pagans would have been involved in many evil activities.
After becoming believers, however, they no longer wanted to be involved in such things.
As Cain did with Abel, unbelievers reacted in hostility, often because they wanted to justify their own actions or silence their consciences.
When a person stands aside from certain activities, it makes the others think—and often they don’t like that.
At the point of Salvation, Christ’s love fills our hearts.
We are commanded to share that love because we belong to Him.
However, not everyone will accept our love, and if you haven’t experienced it already, some will even hate you for your relationship with Christ.
Despite the world’s reaction, we must still show love to all we meet.
Really this ought not come as a shock.
Jesus showed and shared love with all He met—even tough love.
His love moved Him to action, but there were those who hated Him in spite of His love.
If our Lord was hated even though He loved, we cannot expect everyone to love us.
In fact, Jesus says to expect opposition and hatred from the world:
Transition:
II.
A Lovely Revelation (vv.
14-15)
Here we is that love, or its lack thereof, will be revealed in the way we live:
A. Our Character Revealed
A tree is known by its fruit.
Those who are born again in Christ will always have love for their brothers and sisters in the faith—it is a part of our new nature!
This love does not earn eternal life; instead, this love is evidence that we have eternal life!
John stated again that this kind of love is proof of one’s salvation.
Those who belong to Christ will love others.
That love may not be received or reciprocated, but we will still love nonetheless.
And so logically, just as love shown for others is a good indicator of salvation, the absence of love stands a good indicator of the lack of salvation.
If one cannot love his brother, he “abides in death”, never brought from death to life in Christ.
B. Our Consequences Revealed
Here John deals exclusively with those who lack love for their brother, those who possess genuine hatred rather than love.
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