Hatred and Love

Sermon on 1 John 3:13-18

Text: Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. ¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other.  Anyone who does not love remains in death. ¹⁵ Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? ¹⁸ Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

The human being has many emotions.  I believe that two of the strongest emotions are love and hate.  At first, they seem to be polar opposites of one another.  However, they do have some similarities.  For example, look at the beginnings of both.  When a couple is newly in love, it can be all-consuming.  They want to spend every minute together.  They talk all the time.  The same is true for hatred.  The beginning is quite intense.  There is the feeling of rage every time you see that person.  You constantly think about the hurt that they have caused.  There is also a similarity as time goes on.  The intense feeling of hatred fades.  It doesn’t consume your every thought.  It has been reduced from a raging flame to a slow burn.  A couple’s love for one another also changes over time.  Assuming it was more than just the tingles, the couple is able to get into a regular routine.  There may not be the overwhelming feeling that you have to spend every moment together.  Instead, you enjoy the times that you spend together.  You still love that person, but love changes as you are together.  Hatred and love share some similarities.  In our text, the apostle John shows us that hatred and love couldn’t be more dissimilar.  We look at HATRED AND LOVE.  1. Hatred Brings Death.  2. Love Shows Life.

In our section of God’s Word that we are looking at, John begins with the words, “Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.” (Verse 13)  The words, “Do not be surprised” could also be translated “Stop being surprised.”  The Christians that received this letter were being persecuted for their faith.  It didn’t make sense to them.  They were there helping people both inside and outside of their group.  They showed love to others.  Yet, the world hated them.  John says, ‘You shouldn’t be surprised.’  After all, look at the track record of how the world has treated believers.  In our Old Testament Lesson, we heard how unbelieving Cain hated his brother, Abel. (Genesis 4:2-5)  Why?  Had Abel done anything to provoke that response?  The answer is “No.”  Abel was simply living out his faith.  That is one example of the world hating the believer.

Of course, the greatest example of hatred toward someone who was perfectly loving and caring is the way that the unbelieving Jews hated Christ.  Jesus never did anything to provoke the intense hatred that they felt.  He merely went around preaching the good news and healing people.  The Jewish leaders were so filled with hatred for him that they arrested Jesus on trumped up charges and put him to death.  This was the hatred that they had for Jesus.  Jesus told his disciples of then and now, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” (John 15:18)  That is why we shouldn’t be surprised that the world hates the Christian.  As we live our Christianity, it will naturally collide with the world.  People who hate the God that they cannot see can be expected to show that hatred for God’s people, whom they can see.  It is easy to see the hatred that the world has for the believer.

John mentions another instance of hatred in verse 15, “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.”  In the case of Cain and Abel, it is easy to see that hatred can lead to murder.  However, that isn’t what John is saying.  He says that hating someone is the same thing in God’s sight as murder.  This one can hit a little closer to home.  We are outraged that the world hates the Christian.  However, we may get a little uncomfortable when we hear this.  We try to come up with excuses as to why our hatred of someone else is justified.  They did something so hurtful to us.  They look different from us.  So, we feel a bit justified in our hatred of them.  We might tell ourselves that we really don’t hate anyone.  However, if I were to ask you to think of someone who hurt you in the past with something that they said or did, what would you be feeling?  Has there ever been someone who was mean and something bad happened to them, and you felt a little happy that they were finally getting theirs?  John makes in quite clear here that hating someone is the same in God’s sight as murdering them.  Then, he reminds us, “You know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.”  In other words, they are guilty and deserving of eternal death.  Hatred can only bring death.  This is where you and I are by nature.

Yet, John also says, “We know that we have passed from death to life.” (Verse 14)  This is the opposite what normally happens.  Normally, you go from life to death.  Here, we are told that we have gone from death to life.  We have gone from the eternal death that we deserved to eternal life.  How could that happen?  The answer is love.  Not just any love, but a one of a kind love.  That love is shown in verse 16, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.”  This is the love that has been shown to us.  Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  The Son of God came down from his throne in heaven to rescue us from the death that we deserved.  He did so by dong what we could not do.  His life was perfect.  You can see this in the way that he reacted when people showed hatred to him.  He did not retaliate.  Instead of cursing those who were nailing him to the cross, Jesus prayed that his Father would forgive them.  While on that cross, he paid for every single one of our sins, including the hatred that we have had for others.  We are forgiven.  By his resurrection, Jesus showed that we are right with God.  Jesus passed from death to life.  Because of this, through the working of the Holy Spirit, who has created faith in our hearts, we also have passed from death to life.

John writes, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other.” (Verse 14)  How do we know that this change has happened in our lives?  John gives us evidence of this change: “Because we love each other.”  Jesus’ love for us, as evidenced by our salvation, is our motivation for loving others.  Loving others is a fruit of faith.

John gives us an example of how we can show love to those around us in verse 16, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”  Jesus loved us so much that he not only offered to, but he actually laid down his life for us.  John says that we can follow Jesus’ example and be willing to lay down our lives, if necessary, for our brothers and sisters in the faith.

Now, to be honest, it is highly unlikely that we will ever be called upon to actually lay down our lives for someone else.  It’s kind of like if a husband were to tell his wife that he would die for her.  It’s a rather safe bet that he will not be asked to do that.  However, it is an entirely different commitment if the husband tells his wife that he will live for her.  He is promising that he will do whatever he can to show his wife that he loves her.  This is the type of commitment that we, as Christians, want to make to those around us.

We have a concrete example of this type of Christian love in verse 17, “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?”  John gives us a gauge to measure our love.  When we see someone who is in need, we share the blessings that God has given us with them.  It can be so easy for us to be judgmental when we see someone in need.  What did they do to get themselves in that position?  It’s also easy for us to think that we don’t want to give them anything, because they’ll probably waste it.  Again, look at how God has blessed us.  Does he ever hold back on blessings because we have gotten ourselves into a mess or withhold them because we’ll probably waste them?  Absolutely not.  He gives because he loves us.  We give because we love him.  Please, don’t misunderstand that we have to give money to everyone who asks us.  God, also, expects us to be wise stewards of the things he has given us.  However, are there other ways that we can show Christian love to the person in need?  In addition, we have the synodical agency called “Christian Aid and Relief.”  The money that is given there goes to help people in need in our country and around the world.

John concludes by writing, “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” (Verse 18)  In other words, John is saying, ‘It isn’t enough to talk the talk.  We also need to walk the walk.’  This type of doublemindedness is not the way that we want to live our lives in love for the God who loved us so much that he rescued us from an eternity apart from him.  We want our actions to match our words of love.  We don’t do this to get something from God.  Rather, this is a way of saying “Thank you” to our loving God.  In addition, the unbelieving world, that hates us, may take note of how we treat others.  God may use that opportunity to tell them why we act the way that we do, pointing away from ourselves to the one who loves us and who loves them.  Loving others shows the faith in our hearts.

The other day, I ran across an article that was entitled “The Thin Line between Love and Hate.”  It talked about how, in an instant, the love that someone feels for another can quickly be turned to hate, if the beloved does something to hurt.  That is the problem with human love.  It can be very fickle.  How blessed we are that the love of God for us is not like that.  He loved us before the creation of the world.  He loved us so much that he sacrificed his Son for our salvation.  He loved you and made you his own.  He continues to show love to you by providing everything that we need.  He loves us and walks beside us on our path to heaven.  We have the opportunity to love him and those around us.  We thank our God who brought us from death to life as we reflect his love to others.  Amen.