Love a matter of life and death. Is the suggested title alongside the passage of 1 John 3 11-20. We’re looking at what John said. Let’s remind ourselves of some things about John.
He had a close relationship with Jesus, sometimes being referred to as the one who Jesus loved. He was beside him at key events with James and Peter – the transfiguration, questioned by high priest. Jesus entrusted John with the care of His Mother. John and his brother James were nicknamed sons of thunder or thunderbolts. The author of John, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John and Revelation whilst banished on the Island of Patmos. If you want to spend some Bible time around the cross John is a good place to go as he spends more time round Jesus’ last week than the others. I’m sure it wasn’t lost on the others but obviously it had a deep impact on him. The possible reasons why – can be dealt with somewhere else, some other time.
We are uncomfortable talking about death and for many good reasons. For those with loved one’s gone, a painful reminder of their absences isn’t welcome. There are those who fear to look at or accept their mortality and there are those who’ve accepted mortality but lack motivation to do anything with it.
As Christians we go on an amazing journey and also a bit of a strange one. Nicodemus posed the question, “How can a man be born again?” It’s not an unreasonable one either.
All an unbeliever has is death, death while they are breathing and death when they are not. What a believer has and no wonder people can’t get their heads around it, we also had death whilst we were still breathing, then we were given life, completely and truly with no death within us, the only death for us that’s left is when our bodies stop breathing, even then death has not claimed us, it’s just a door we go through, to enter the other room that has been prepared for us, the one with the comfy armchair and couch to rest our weary selves.
Like Derek a couple of weeks ago I stand up here a bit uncomfortable with the message I am bringing. I’d still rather have this one than his, but we do ourselves an injustice if we do not look at the things that make us uncomfortable. Why would you not give yourself the chance to learn and grow?
What happens to something when it dies? Have you ever watched the TV when they do the time-lapse photography? Where they take the pictures of something at intervals of minutes, hours, days or weeks and then show it all together so you see an event. Perhaps like a flower growing, blooming then withered inside 30 seconds. Have you seen it, when they watch a piece of fruit or something like that where it softens, sinks down, wrinkles, goes black and decays? Have you ever gone away with milk in the fridge and been silly enough to open the lid to test it? Have you ever found the bread you couldn’t see yesterday, felt happy your were going to have the toast you wanted and then stepped back after you unfurled the wrapper?
That is death. That is decay. That is the way we were whilst we breathed, ate, slept, drank, talked and worked. We were dead because we had no hunger for spiritual things; we neither ate nor drank of them.
There is a warning here, plenty of encouragement but a strong warning that should be neither passed by or given no heed. There are a few words that should make us stop quickly and pause for reflection, fearful if the answer is wrong. Chapter 3 verse 14
“he who has no love is still in death.” (BBE)
“But if you don’t love each other, you are still under the power of death.” (CEV)
It’s possible then for a believer to fall back under the power of death if they have no or show no love for their brethren. If there has been no eating of the spiritual things there will be no love. With no desire to eat of the spiritual, with no hunger for them worship will be vain repetition and full of dead prayers, so be warned.
Wives have been telling their husbands and their children for all time that birth is a painful thing, we are born of pain. We know this, so why do we think our re-birth through Christ should be pain free? I’m sure all of us have done this either fallen asleep awkwardly or just stayed in one position for too long so that when you wake up or move from your position an arm or a leg has gone numb.
The numbness is a strange sensation, where you’ve little control over it and it feels like it’s not really part of your body. The numbness you can live with, it’s not so bad, unless it’s your leg and you need to move quickly like to answer a door or go to the toilet. The numbness is ok, where it hurts is when the blood starts to flow back through. It can be agony. It can be a really sharp pain as the blood flows back through the veins, restarting life. Why should it be any different when the blood of Christ flows through our lives, restoring things back to life? Ridding our lives of what was dead and replacing it with life.
If then you have no love for your brethren, you’re taking one of your limbs, cutting off the supply of blood and so instead of life; death once again begins to take hold.
Not loving someone doesn’t seem like such a big deal does it? You can’t harm anyone just by not loving them can you? I have no love for Leona Lewis and yet she is doing all right, I have no favour for Girl’s Aloud yet they’re not going hungry are they? Let’s get serious.
If we have no love for our brethren then we have not moved from death to life, or at least have returned to its control. If we have no love for our brethren then we hate them, for without love there is hate and if there is hate then we have murdered and we are then like Cain. There is no share of eternal life with someone who murders.
Cain murdered his brother because what Abel was doing was righteous and good and Cain hated him because what Abel did gave him more favour with God. A resentful and jealous heart grew to murder. The world hates us, has no love for us, detests us and why? A righteous and obedient heart is a light that shines on their sin, their wrongdoing, their immorality and they hate you for it.
Why then would you side with Cain and hate your brother, there are more than enough outside the family willing to do that. People who hate enough to torture and persecute.
People are supposed to know who we are by our love for one another, so how will they ever know if we don’t. Have you asked yourself yet whether our of curiosity or fear or desire to love, the question “How can I tell if I love my brethren?” Here is the test, has God blessed you with more then you need of worldly things, money, food, clothes, shelter? Is there a brother or sister who needs some of what you have and you’re able to give it? Do you give it to them? If you do, then you love. Do you keep it, do you tell yourself, they’re not getting my stuff, they don’t deserve it or I would give to anyone else except them. Then you do not love.
Look around you and open your eyes and you can see the redemptive power of love. The love of a partner, that saves from a life from loneliness. The love for your children, that shelters and protects them. The love of a friend, that comforts and encourages. Love gives life meaning, love gives life to life; a life with meaning has hope.
The story of Lazarus is a beautiful one and there is much more that could be said about it. Lazarus’s sister says to Jesus, if only you were here earlier, He says that he will have life and she says yes in the next life, after all it had been 4 days in the Mediterranean heat and his flesh was decaying and stinking. As an example to us all he was brought back to life showing us that we can be given life, no matter how hopeless it looks or how rotten our lives actually are.
Once we have been given life, how do we keep it? In the same way we look after our physical body, we eat ,drink and clothe it, and stay away from things and activities that would bring harm. Jesus said that he was the Bread of Life and the Water of Life. So we should hunger after the things of Him and we should clothe ourselves in righteous and humility.
We know what love is because Jesus gave His life for us. That’s why we must give our lives for each other. (CEV)
John was a witness to this that is why he can write:- My little children, do not let our love be in word and in tongue, but let it be in act and in good faith.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, says this,
It is a sure token that you are a child of God when you love God’s people even when the world hates them, taking their part, being willing to be reproached with them; when you say, “You scoff at such a saint, do you? I am one of the same family, so give me some of your scorn. If you have any rotten stuff to fling, and you set this Christian man in the pillory, I will stand by his side, and count it a great honour to share the contempt that comes upon a child of God.” If you thus love the saints, you need not be afraid whether you have passed from death unto life.
So if you love your brethren, you’ll stand shoulder to shoulder with them in their hour of need. Love, a matter of life and death, you better believe it.