Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

So, even though it’s a few days late, this afternoon is our Valentine’s Dinner at Buck’s Pizza (even if you haven’t signed up, you can still come on over!) Whatever you think of Valentine’s Day (a holiday to celebrate love, or a creation of Hallmark as a profit-making opportunity), there are few concepts so universally-affirmed as the notion that “love” is a good thing!

In fact, our text this morning begins with a verse that I would argue would be wholeheartedly and enthusiastically endorsed by just about anyone, no matter your political or religious or philosophical basis:

1 John 3:11 (ESV)

For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

I’ll wager that you can walk up to just about anybody on the street, knock on any door in town, post on any social media feed or stand up in any college classroom and quote this verse--“We should love one another!”—

and you will be unanimously agreed with!

But it’s been wisely noted elsewhere that the cultural battles we find ourselves in can be defined as a battle for the dictionary.

In other words, the battle is over who gets to define what words mean.

And that is precisely the case with the sentence “We should love one another”.

One of the most popular ways of defining the word “love” these days is not so much a definition as a slogan (and a weak one, at that!)

You have probably seen or heard it--“Love is love!”

What the speaker or writer usually means by this redundant sentence is that there is no single definition of love.

However your own personal desires direct you to define “love”—or how you show it or receive it—is equally valid.

There is no “wrong” way to love, according to this view—whatever makes you feel good about yourself, and whatever makes them feel good about themselves is “love”.

(The popular definition of “hate” is pretty much the opposite--’Whatever makes me feel bad about myself is hate…’)

But John has a very different definition of “love” here in this passage—love is not based on how someone makes me feel or how I make someone else feel, it is not the “anything goes” attitude of “love is love”—instead, what John is demonstrating here in our text is that

“Love is love” only when it FOLLOWS the RIGHTEOUS example of Christ

In the verses we studied last time, John summed up the difference between “the children of God” and “the children of the devil”

1 John 3:10 (ESV)

By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

As we summarized it last time, a child of God is one who does right, and who does right by others.

Love is righteousness lived out in relation to others, and whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, and in fact hates his brother.

And starting in verse 11, John gives us the Bible’s “Exhibit A” of a child of the devil who did not practice righteousness and hated his brother: Adam and Eve’s son Cain:

1 John 3:12 (ESV)

We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.

And why did he murder him?

Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.

John illustrates the difference between a child of God and a child of the Devil by pointing to Cain so that he can warn his readers not to follow

I. Cain’s SELF-RIGHTEOUS example of HATRED (1 John 3:11-13)

Cain made it evident that he was “of the Evil One”—he did not do right and do right by his brother; he did evil and murdered his brother.

Matthew Henry makes an interesting observation about the account of Cain and Abel that we read a few moments ago in Genesis 4.

He points out that Cain murdered his brother in a religious dispute!

Both Cain and Abel were carrying out the worship of God when this conflict broke out.

And why does John say this dispute took place?

“Because his deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous”.

Cain was performing the deeds appropriate to a righteous man—but as we will see, his heart was not righteous.

In fact, we see that his actions were governed by

an evil HEART of PRIDE (v.

12; cp.

Genesis 4:3-5)

Look again at Genesis 4:3-5 (page 3 in the pew Bible):

Genesis 4:3–5 (ESV)

In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions.

And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.

So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.

Now, this book was written by Moses, who wrote the Old Testament sacrificial laws under the direction of God.

So I think it’s important that he specifically records that Abel brought the firstborn of his flock with “their fat portions”.

In the sacrificial Law of Moses, offerings that include the “fat” of an animal are most commonly connected with a particular offering, the peace offering (cp.

Leviticus 9:18-20; 1 Kings 8:64).

The peace offering was meant to demonstrate fellowship (love) between the worshipper and God, and between the worshippers themselves.

So the fact that Moses specifically mentions the fat portions here may be and indication that the brothers had come to offer peace offerings, which meant that they had to be blood offerings.

Abel brought his offering in obedience to God (Hebrews 11:4 says that Abel was commended as righteous because he brought an acceptable offering), but Cain did not have an animal to bring, because he was a farmer, not a shepherd like his brother.

And here is why I say that Cain acted with an evil heart of pride—he could have easily traded with his brother to get an acceptable sacrifice!

It would have been proper—and even commendable—for Cain to offer his brother grain in exchange for an animal to sacrifice.

But Cain was governed by an evil heart of pride.

He would rather offer an unacceptable sacrifice on his own than an acceptable sacrifice with help from his little brother!

That heart of pride will kill any motion toward love; “love” is not love when it proceeds out of a heart that says “I won’t let myself be beholden to anyone!”

There is no relationship with God that can come out of a heart that says, “I have my own way of expressing my peace with God, and I don’t need to do it with other people in a church somewhere!”

John says that we must not follow the self-righteous example of Cain’s wickedness.

Love cannot come out of an evil heart of pride, and love is not demonstrated by

an evil DEED of ENVY (cp.

Genesis 4:6-8)

Look a few verses further down as the story continues in Genesis 4:6-8:

Genesis 4:6–8 (ESV)

The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?

If you do well, will you not be accepted?

And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.

Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

Cain spoke to Abel his brother.

And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

The first thing that strikes us about this account is how gracious God is to Cain here—He speaks with such patience to him, doesn’t He? God’s words to Cain here are particularly poignant, since the last time the voice of the LORD is heard—in Genesis 3—He is cursing the ground and pronouncing the banishment of Adam and Eve from the Garden because of their sin!

And here we hear the LORD’s voice He is gently and lovingly encouraging a sinner to repent from his sin! “Cain—you can repent of your prideful sin!

You can go back and offer that sacrifice and I will accept you like I accepted your brother!”

Not only this, but the LORD also encourages Cain that he can have victory over his sinful pride!

He warns him, “That sin is lurking nearby to pounce on you, but if you obey Me you can master that sin!

But the heartbreak of this story is that Cain would not listen to God’s gracious call!

Instead of repenting of the pride that prevented him from asking his brother for an animal for a blood sacrifice, he instead murdered his brother.

He would rather cover his hands in his brother’s blood than the blood of a righteous sacrifice given by the hand of his brother.

He did not just want to have Abel’s blessings, he wanted to have Abel’s place.

And if he could not have Abel’s life, he would take his life!

Love cannot proceed out of an evil heart of pride; only evil deeds of envy and hatred.

Cain would rather see Abel dead than see him receive blessings that he couldn’t have.

And as John goes on to warn us, that same spirit governs the world that we live in:

1 John 3:13 (ESV)

Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.

This same envious, prideful self-righteousness of Cain explains

The evil HATRED of the WORLD (v.

14-15)

As one author put it:

“Abel is the father of many, and Cain is the father of the rest.

The history of the world is a history of grasping, rivalry, and desire... Unrighteous men want what righteous men have, simply because they have it.

But righteous men have it from the hand of God, and this is a blessing that, however envied, cannot be seized.”

https://dougwils.com/the-church/practical-christianity/the-family-of-grendel.html,

Retrieved 02/09/2022

This is the way the world works!

The world lives in guilt, fear and shame, but they will no more come to Christ for the blood that will give them peace before God than Cain would come to Abel for the blood that would make his sacrifice acceptable before God.

And so the world hates and envies the gift of God’s love that you enjoy—but because they will not submit to God in order to have it for themselves, they will hate and scorn and deride and blaspheme.

There is nothing that even closely resembles “love” that can come from such hatred.

The only way to pass out of that death, the only way to pass into life, is through the New Birth that comes by faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ:

1 John 3:14 (ESV)