First John 3:15

In First John 3:15 the Apostle John is continuing his theme of love verses hatred and murder. In the teachings of Jesus, hatred is associated with murder. The Bible says in First John 3:15, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” This statement is once again an emphasis on the importance of one believer loving another believer. If there is any believer that you hate, then you are doing what the devil does and you are doing what the worst of the unbelievers do. God loves His children because of Christ. God loves all of His children. A true believer also loves the children of God. The surest evidence that someone is of the wrong spirit is their attitude of hate toward another believer for any reason.

And so John makes it very clear in this passage. If you hate another believer, then you are not a believer. There are no exceptions, and there are no allowances. That is it, pure and simple. There is not enough love in the world, but the ones who know more about love than anyone else are the believers in Jesus. We have the greatest example of love always before us. The Bible says in First John 3:16, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” First we are reminded that God laid down his life for us. God, whose name is Jesus, suffered a horrible death on the cross of Calvary, so that we would not have to pay for our sins. That is love. “Greater love hath no man than this: that a man should lay down his life for his friends.” That is what Jesus did for us. The greatest lover gave the greatest love to the greatest degree for the greatest number of sinners. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”

In the first verse of this chapter the Apostle John stated, “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” The current circumstance that we experience because of the love of God is this great name that has been given to us. Many things can be taken away from us by the power of man and of demons, but no one can take away that eternal name that God has given to each believer in Jesus: the name is “son of God.” That is what we have in the present that demonstrates God’s love for us: the title and the relationship as children of God.

What we have in the past that demonstrates God’s love for us is stated in verse 16: “he laid down his life for us.” That is a concept that is difficult to fully understand: God died for man. We may not understand it, but we do know clearly why it happened: love. God’s love for man is why it happened. “For God so loved the world that He gave…” And how thankful we must forever be for what He did for us.

But the point that the Apostle John is making goes beyond having appreciation and thankfulness for what Jesus Christ did for us. John is saying by the Holy Spirit that if we really understand what God did for us, then we will try to do the same thing for His other believers. We should have the same readiness and willingness to do for other believers what Jesus did for us, and He died for us. Until you are called to die for someone, there is something else you can do for the believers to show God’s love for them (which love does dwell in you, if you are a true believer.) The Bible says in First John 3:17, “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?”

The point that John is making is that it is not enough just to say that you love each and every brother in Christ. If you really love someone, then you will do something to help them. Anyone can say that they love, but you must do something to prove your love. Love without action is not love: it is just empty words. If God’s love was such that all that He did to show His love was to tell us that He loved us, then we would all die in our sins. He loved us so much that He did something to improve our terrible destiny. God had true love, and true love has deeds that follow the words. If all that you have is words, then you do not love. That is why the Bible says in First John 3:18, “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” If you only love by your words, then you are not true. True love has deeds with it. If you say that you love God, then you must love your brother. If you say that you love your brother, then you must do things to help him.

According to the Apostle John, Christianity has two great things that must characterize it, or else it is not Christianity. First John 3:23 says, “And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave commandment.” The two great things that must characterize Christianity are: belief in Jesus Christ and love for God’s children. These two things go together. You must have both of them. If you only have one, then you are not of the true belief. Some people have what they call “love” but they do not have belief in Jesus Christ. Often such people are called theological modernists or liberals. They are not true Christians because they only have one of the two great requirements. Other people have a boast of their belief in Jesus Christ, but they do not love all of God’s children. They are not of the true belief either, because they only have one of the two great requirements according to the Apostle John, and John had the Spirit. If you find a reason to not keep the commandment that was from the beginning of Christianity, then something is seriously wrong: you are of the evil one and you are still in darkness. Remember what John said in First John 3:11: “For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” Can the Holy Spirit make it any more clear than the verses of this chapter? What can be more clear than First John 3:23? It says, “And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave commandment.”

There is something more that should be said about First John 3:17-18. It has to do with an understanding of what is love, and an understanding of how a person can learn to love. Your problem may be that you do not love the way that you should love. Maybe that is why God gave these words to the Apostle John: to teach us to love. The world says a lot about love, but they do not know what love is. The world teaches the wrong things about love. Many people are looking for love, but they do not know what it is or they do not know how to love. The Word of God knows, and the Word of God declares what love is. Listen to the words and you will learn to love. Love is a decision more than an emotion: much more. You can choose to love or choose to not love. You can choose to do an action that is only done when you love, or you can choose not to do that action. The action is doing something to help or to benefit that other person. Notice clearly First John 3:17: “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him.” In other words you see a fellow Christian with some need, and then you make a choice. You choose to do something, or you choose to do nothing. What you say does not count. It is what you do. It is not your emotions. It is not how you feel about it. It is what you do. Do something to help them, and then you have truly loved them. How do you love the Bible way? You love by doing. Do something for your brother, and then you are loving your brother. That is exactly the message of verse 18 also. Doing something for someone is true love. “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”

Assurance of salvation is tied very closely to the one great command that John reminds us that Jesus gave to His followers: “love one another.” If you love the believers who come your way, all of the believers, then that is the greatest proof possible that you are a true Christian. The ones who do not love the believers, are the unbelievers. You can be certain of that. Therefore, if there is a believer that you do not love, that puts you on the side of the unbelievers, so maybe you are an unbeliever after all. Assurance, how can you have assurance that you are saved, truly saved? If you have the kind of love for other Christians that John is talking about, then and only then you can have that kind of assurance. That is why John wrote in First John 3:19, “And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.” “Hereby we know that we are of the truth…” In other words in this very thing of loving other believers is how we know that we are of the truth. Interesting that John writes that by loving other Christians we are assuring our hearts before God. Of course, assurance has everything to do with our relationship with God. The important thing to remember here is that our relationship with God is tied to our relationship with other believers.

The truth is that some Christians do not love all of the other Christians that they know. The truth is that some Christians do not have much faith. Did not Jesus say to His disciples, “O ye, of little faith?” What about such Christians who have so little faith and whose hearts have so little assurance before God? Some of them are even condemned by their own hearts. First John 3:20 speaks to that and says, “For if our heart condemn us, he is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.” Remember we are saved by grace and not by works. Once God has saved us through faith in Christ, He keeps us forever. What a great Savior we have. “Having loved his own, he loved them unto the end.” What should happen is that someone comes to faith in Christ, and continues to follow Him and look to Him day by day for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately that does not always happen. Some fall into sin and do not run quickly to First John 1:9 to stay in fellowship with the Savior, and they have a bad conscience and their heart condemns them. Some have even forgotten that they were saved. What happens to them? This verse tells you what happens. It says, “God is greater than their heart.”

One of the great goals of life is to continue to live by faith: to keep the faith no matter what happens. It is a wonderful life to live by faith in Christ, the powerful and loving Savior. Hopefully, First John 3:21 describes you. It says, “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.” John is talking about faith: the source of increased faith is your own behavior and actions. The more that you fail and the more that you sin, the less faith that you will have. The Bible says, “This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.” The writer of Hebrews told us, “Without faith, you cannot please God.” Confidence towards God is faith. Anything that hurts our faith is a bad thing. Remember that one of the great themes of the book of First John is sin. Here is one of the greatest reasons to not sin: sin will harm your faith and confidence in God. Behind every doubt is a sin, and you need faith. Find out what will strengthen your faith and do that thing. Avoid sin: that is how to strengthen your faith. Obey God’s commandments: that is how to strengthen your faith, and the greatest commandment is love.

One of the benefits of a strong faith is given in First John 3:22, “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” This is a promise without limits, but it does have a condition. The fact that there is no limit to what God will give to you is of course, the same thing that Jesus taught. Notice how Jesus worded the great promise in Matthew 17:20-21. Jesus said, “…verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” In these two great statements about prayer, one from our Savior and God in Matthew 17 and one from His disciple John in First John 3, we see a promise without limits, but we also see a condition. There must be action to accompany the faith.

You must pray and then do something in order to see an answer to prayer. Jesus said that you must have prayer and fasting, not just prayer. John said that you must have prayer and obedience, not just prayer. If you are not seeing an answer to prayer, maybe this is why. John said that you must obey his commandments: in other words the commandments of Christ. What is the one, great commandment that Jesus gave to His believers, according to the Apostle John. In case you have not been listening, John is going to tell you one more time. He writes in First John 3:23, “And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.” If you look at the history of Christianity since the Protestant revolution, here is one of the errors that have been made: an emphasis on faith without a corresponding emphasis on the need for Christians to love each other. Yes, we are saved by faith in Christ, and by faith alone; but it is not supposed to end there. According to the Apostle John, Jesus wants us to love one another; and that is a very important part of believing on the name of Jesus Christ His Son.

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