Reading: 1 John 3:11–15
As the end of the year approaches, we naturally go through a season of evaluation and assessment. What are we grateful for in this year that is coming to a close? What do we wish had turned out different? We also begin to look ahead to the new year to consider ways that we hope to make progress in our lives, our jobs, our skills, our physical fitness, even our sanctification. We can co-opt this customary backward and forward glance when we consider today’s passage.
John calls us to “love one another.” How has that looked for you over this last year? Can you think of any grudges that you are holding against a brother or sister in Christ? Are you maintaining a safe distance from anyone or punishing them by your withdrawal? With whom should you pursue peace? How would you like to grow in your practical love for the church body in the coming year? In what ways can you plan to show hospitality or extend belongingness? What kind of priority is reflected on the “member care” line in your own budget for next year? Who would be well served by a kind note of encouragement before the year even ends?
These kinds of practical questions are helpful and deserve careful thought. However, it is possible to pursue peace and express kindness in superficial ways. As Paul would say, “If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing” (1 Cor 13:3). Obviously, this is not what John is calling us to. Instead, he is talking about a radical transformation in us that leads to us loving our fellow members in Christ, and that radical transformation is called “eternal life” (3:15). At the centre of today’s reading is assurance that we have “passed from death to life” (3:14), and this assurance grows organically from our loving one another. For John, to be spiritually alive results in loyalty and affection for God’s people: to live is to love.
On the other side, John echoes the teaching of his master, the Lord Jesus, when he connects internal hate with external murder: “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer” (3:15). Compare this with Jesus’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:21–22). Though it does not always evidence itself in physical murder, the world, like Cain, is characterised by hatred, especially for those who evidence the new life (1 John 3:12–13). We should “not be surprised” by this; instead we should be all the more resolved to show how the old, old command to love one another is being lived out anew by those in whom eternal life abides. The world’s hatred is energised by the evil one (3:12), but “the Son of God appeared…to destroy the devil’s work” (3:8). That is why “the darkness is passing, and the true light is already shining” (2:8). Brothers and sisters, let us love one another.