John speaks of four different levels of relationships in which you can choose to live: murder (vv.11–12), hatred (vv. 13–15), indifference (vv. 16–17), and Christian love in action (v. 18).
I. Love and Hate are Mutually Exclusive in Your Christian Life – (vv. 11–15).
Children of God are to behave like children of God. It is not enough to believe right. We must behave right. Being precedes doing, but all Christian “doing” must be based on “being,” that is, who we are in Christ.
John gives an illustrative example of the brothers Cain and Abel in verse 12 that is related to verse 11 as negative to positive.
John answers three questions about Cain in this verse. First, where did Cain come from? Answer: “From the wicked one.” What did Cain do? Answer: He murdered his brother. Third, why did Cain do it? Answer: “His deeds were evil.”
Cain’s underlying attitude of jealousy and hatred for his brother led to his murder of Abel.
John draws a conclusion in verse 13: “Stop being surprised that the world (people like Cain) hates you.” The world hates Christians for the same reason Cain hated Abel. Abel’s righteousness was the fruit of his obedience to the Lord, and this revealed Cain’s disobedience and unrighteousness for what it was in reality. The present tense verb “hate” indicates a state of hostility.
Note the shift from “children” to “brothers” in verse 14 since John is dealing with the topic of brotherly love and Cain and Abel were brothers. John says we have come to know through experience that we have permanently passed from spiritual death to spiritual life (v. 14).
The experience he refers to is our love for fellow believers. John views life and death as opposite spiritual domains. To “pass” from death to life is to experience the permanent change from a state of lostness to a state of being saved.
How is it that one who hates his brother is a murderer? Jesus answers the question in Matthew 5:21–22. Hatred is an intense emotional feeling; the desire to get rid of a person. Hate is the first step toward murder. John continues his logic: hate is attitudinally no different than murder, and no murder possesses eternal life.
The question is not so much what did you do but what did you want to do!
Our love should not be limited only to believers according to John. Notice he tells us not to be surprised if the world hates us, and immediately proceeds, “We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers” (v. 14).
The emphatic use of “we” in the Greek text contrasts the way Christians love and the way the non-Christian world loves. But there is no emphatic contrast if Christians love their own little group in the same way that the world loves its own.
When John goes on to say “He who does not love. . . ,” notice there is no overt object “the brothers” stated. In fact, some manuscripts add “the brother,” but the best textual reading leaves it out.
To add the object “the brothers” narrows John’s meaning unnecessarily. The duty of love is absolute, and has a wider application than Christians. This passage actually demands that our love be more inclusive than the love of the world, which loves only its own.
II. Love Must be Demonstrated in Your Christian Life – (vv. 16–18).
We have known (perfect tense) this love in its essence and meaning because we are the direct recipients of it. This knowledge is based on the historical event of the crucifixion where Jesus “laid down his life for us.”
Jesus’ death on the cross was a voluntary death (“laid down”) and a substitutionary death (“for us”). The epitome of love is seen at the cross. Only in the cross can we understand the love of God.
On the basis of Christ’s death for us, John states emphatically that we are under moral obligation to love, if necessary, by laying down our lives for others.
John moves to practicalities and details of loving in verse 17. Notice he shifts from the plural “brothers” to the singular “brother” to individualize our duty to love in specific circumstances. Saying we love everybody in general may become an excuse for loving nobody in particular!
John paints a vivid picture in verse 17.
First, he speaks of having “the world’s goods.” John does not describe someone here who is rich in this worlds goods, but the average, ordinary person who has the basics of livelihood at his disposal and could help someone in need.
John speaks of “seeing” a brother in need, using a word here meaning much more than a casual glance but rather a careful awareness of the situation where you understand the need.
When he speaks of someone who would “close their heart” to a brother in need, the word “closes” conveys the notion of slamming the door, locking it, and throwing away the key!
One question concerning verses 16–17 is the extent of the meaning of “brothers.” Does John refer only to fellow Christians, or is the word, and the command to love, to be extended to anyone in need, Christian or not?
When the term “brother” is used to refer to those hated, it cannot be limited to Christians since the term is being used in the general sense of “fellowman.” Our love for the world is to be translated into helping those in need.
In v. 18, John introduces a final exhortation based on his preceding argument. We should not love in “word” and “talk.” The two words are essentially synonymous. Rather, we are to love in “deed” and “truth.”
The word for “deed” in the Greek New Testament is the noun which means “work” or “action.” In our culture, we use a word the first part of which comes from this Greek word – “ergonomics.” Our love for others should be ergonomically effective in the sense that its distinctive quality should be that it is Christ-like in every way.
John further describes how we should love: “in truth.” His use of “truth” here is probably an idiom which means “actually” or “really.” Our love should be genuinely demonstrated in action.
A modern version of the parable of the Good Samaritan would have the priest and the Levite saying to the beaten-up traveler, “Man, you need help, but I don’t need you.”
I sometimes think fundamentally some of us really would like nothing better in this world than to purchase a life-time membership in the “Association of Bystanders.”
Get busy loving others!