Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

Text:

One of my goals in this sermon series has been to show that the wisdom of the Bible is contrary to the wisdom of the world, even when the wisdom of the world sounds good. The world’s wisdom says, “Don’t be selfish.” But the Bible tells us to seek after our greatest good, which is joy in God. The world’s wisdom says, “Don’t air your dirty laundry.” But the Bible tells us to confess our sins to God and to one another so we can be healed. The world’s wisdom says, “Believe in yourself.” But the Bible is clear that the heart is deceitful above all things. Don’t believe in yourself, believe and trust in Jesus Christ.

This week, the world’s wisdom says, “Don’t offend anyone. Get along with everyone.” And the Bible seems to echo this wisdom at times. As far as it depends on you, be at peace with everyone (Romans 12:18). Agree with one another (2 Corinthians 13:11). But we need to balance this out with another truth from God’s Word.

Jesus said that He didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword (Matthew 10:34). We need to stand for truth. We should not unnecessarily offend others, but making people feel happy about themselves is not our ultimate goal. In fact, if we are following God’s plan for us, the world will hate us.

“For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 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. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” (1 John 3:11-16)

The text for the sermon this week flows logically out of last week’s text (v. 10). Loving our brother is very practically connected to practicing righteousness. Together, they are evidences of those who are children of God. If we say that we are following Christ, we must be practicing righteousness. And if we say we are practicing righteousness, we must be loving our brother. This is the same message that John has been reiterating over and over in this letter (v. 11).

We’re to live lives of love! Not only toward our brothers and sisters in Christ. But toward all people. But don’t run with this concept and go a place the writer didn’t intend. It’s easy for us to redefine what love is. We need to understand love according to how the Bible describes it.

Loving one another does not always mean that we’re to get along with others at all costs. We can’t control how others think, feel, or act in relation to us. As much as we care for others, we can’t make them live the way God wants them to.

If we’re living how we ought to live, the world will hate us (v. 13). But why shouldn’t we be surprised? I mean, if we’re loving our brothers, and loving the people in the world, shouldn’t they love us, too?

John illustrated this reality of the world hating us from the first murder to ever be committed (v. 12). Cain killed his brother Abel because Abel followed God. Abel’s righteousness reminded Cain that he was unwilling to follow God. As a result, Cain wanted to get rid of this reminder. We’re to follow Abel’s example, knowing that there will be people like Cain who will hate us because of it.

Loving the people around us doesn’t always come natural to us. Only those who are born of God can truly love their neighbors. We don’t obey God’s Word in order to be God’s children, we obey God’s Word because we are God’s children. So when we love our neighbors, we prove ourselves to be born of God (v. 14a). If we do not love our neighbors, we show that we are not born of God (v. 14b-15).

But why does the world hate us? Because our righteousness reminds them of their guilt before God. And because we love them! Remember, practicing righteousness and loving our neighbor is so closely related that they’re often practically the same thing! We ought to speak the truth in love, but it must still be truth, and the truth offends those who won’t believe it. With those two reasons in mind, give the world a reason to hate you.

Don’t be hated because of sins you’ve committed. Be hated because of righteousness. Be hated because you love them. I’m not saying that if you ever resent someone, that you’re not a Christian. I am saying that the Bible calls this sin. And we need to repent of sin rather than accept it as part of who we are.

You see, even though the world may hate us because of it, our response should always be that of love. This means that we must never respond out of anger when we’re mistreated. Instead, pray for your enemies! Bless, and do not curse. Point them to Jesus, the greatest example of love (v. 16).

Jesus showed us His love. Jesus is love. Before we were even created, He loved us. Knowing that we would sin, He created us and made a plan so that we could be forgiven of our sin. And at the proper time, Jesus came down from Heaven and was born as one of us. He healed people of their sicknesses. He fed people when they were hungry. He spent time with people and served them. He died for our sins. In the same way, we must show our love for one another by serving each other, and giving our lives for one another, so that we might all follow Christ more faithfully, out of love.