All about love…. motivation and manifestation; inward vs outward…
1 John 3
3 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Motivation for love: God, the Father has lavished on us great love; we are called children of God.
Manifestation as God’s children: to be pure as Jesus Christ is pure.
4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
Sin is breaking the law. Sin is not in Christ. To live in Christ is to not keep on sinning. To keep sinning means one does not know Christ.
7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.
God’s children vs. the devil’s children:
God’s children does what is right. The one who does what is sinful is child of the devil.
God’s children, born of God, with God’s seed in them, cannot go on sinning.
God’s children love their brother and sister. Devil’s children do not love.
More on Love and Hatred
11 For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 13 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.
Message since the beginning: Love one another.
Symptom of one who does not love: Murder. Why? Envy. Cain murdered his brother because he knew his actions were evil and his brother righteous. v.12 Anyone who does not love remains in death. v.14
Symptom of one who loves: 1) hated by the world v. 13. 2) passed from death to life. v. 14)
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.
Love is Jesus Christ laying down his life for us. We are to do the same. What is laying down our lives for our brothers and sisters? We are to love in actions and in truth. How? We are to have compassion (pity) on those who are in need. We are to share what we have – whatever material possessions we have. We are to let the love of God be in us – this love enables us to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters just as God’s love compels Jesus Christ to lay down his life for us.
19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
Love from the heart: We are to set our hearts at rest in his presence.
Scenarios of the heart:
1) When our heart condemns us, God is greater than our hearts, he knows everything. God knows.
2) When our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. Confidence to ask from him anything, and confidence to receive from what we ask. BECAUSE we keep his commands and do what pleases him.
Conditions of receiving what we ask:
a. keeping God’s command: what is that? to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ. and to love one another.
b. do what pleases God: what is that? to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ and to love one another.
c. keeping God’s commands = living in God = God living in us. How to know this? We have the Holy Spirit which God gives us as our Counsellor – telling us what to do.. to love one another!
