WWUTT 427 How Does God's Love Abide In Him?

If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does

God's love abide in him? We must love the brothers and sisters of Christ when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. And greetings, everyone. In the name of our Lord Christ, we continue our study of 1

John today, chapter 3. I'm going to go back to verse 11, where we started yesterday, and read through to the next paragraph, which will conclude at verse 18.

So this is the section we'll be looking at today. The apostle writes, 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 were 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.

But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does

God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.

I want to come back to a verse that we read yesterday and carry on from there. Verse 14, We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers.

Whoever does not love abides in death. So what is one of the assurances that John gives us to know that we have this salvation in Jesus Christ?

It's that we love the brothers. This is how we know that we're no longer dead in our sins and our transgressions, but we have been made alive together with Christ because we love the brothers.

And who are we talking about when we say brothers? We're talking about the brothers and sisters in Christ, who we are as Christians, followers of Jesus.

And brothers and sisters is fine. There are people that that got on the new international version for translating words like this here in verse 14 because we love the brothers and they translated brothers and sisters.

Oh, the NIV, they're wrong for doing that. It's all right. It's not a big deal. There are other problems I have with the

NIV. That's not one of them. When we read brothers, it's OK for us to read that as brothers and sisters.

I don't think we're going too far in our in our translation there. The reason why the

ESV and the NASB keep it as strictly brothers is because that's the way it's written in the original

Greek. But when it comes to interpreting that or preaching it or sharing it with somebody else, it's perfectly fine and acceptable to say brothers and sisters.

So when we talk about brothers and sisters, we're talking about those who are our fellow saints, those who are

Christians, those who are followers of Jesus Christ. It's not everyone. It's those specifically who are followers of Christ.

Go back to Matthew, chapter 25, when Jesus is sharing with his disciples in what is called the

Olivet Discourse. And the longest version of that discourse we have is Matthew chapters 24 and 25.

In verse 31, as he's as he's closing out this discourse with his disciples, Matthew 25, verse 31, when the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne and before him will be gathered all the nations and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.

Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink?

And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?

And the king will answer them, truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.

And Jesus is referring to those least of these as his brothers. This is not referring to any and every person.

It is specifically those who have been adopted into the family of God through Jesus Christ.

Jesus has a a close relationship with those who are his followers that he would refer to them as his very own brothers.

In Acts chapter nine, when Christ appeared to Paul at the time,

Saul on the road to Damascus, he said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And Saul's response was, who are you, Lord? And Jesus said, I am Jesus Christ, whom you are persecuting.

Well, Paul wasn't persecuting Jesus Christ. He was persecuting the followers of Christ. But Christ so associates himself with his followers that to persecute one of his own followers was to be the same as if you were to persecute

God himself. This is such a close and intimate bond that Jesus has with his followers that what is done for them or to them is what is also done to Jesus Christ himself.

So this passage, this section here in Matthew twenty five is often used to say that Jesus says that we need to help everybody who is poor, everybody who is sick and in prison and all these other kinds of things.

And indeed, we should do that. But that's not the context of what Jesus is sharing here in Matthew twenty five.

The true mark of love in the life of a believer is going to be the way that we cared for and loved the other people of God more so than the way that we shared the world's goods with those who were not of the family of God.

The reason being is because in the family of God, in the body of Christ, when we're attending church and we have regular relationship and fellowship with those fellow

Christians that we are are fellowshipping with and we are listening to the gospel together, we're listening to the word of God preached on a regular basis.

And so we're growing in the same things. We know one another so well that we know the kinds of things that we're going through in our respective lives.

You know the kind of job that your brother or sister has. You know what their family is like, you know, their family situation is like, you know what their health is like, you know what their financial situation is like, all of these different kinds of things that we know about one another so that we can encourage and admonish each other in relationships, in in matters of living in holiness and sanctification, so on and so forth, that we know one another well enough that we can help one another along in this growth that we continue in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And so in this way, we have a love and a fellowship with each other. We know one another intimately enough that we know each other's needs.

So therefore, we need to benefit one another. And if you have the world's goods, if God has blessed you immensely and greatly, then you need to take those things that God has blessed you with and therefore bless others.

And you can see of your own brothers and sisters in Christ, do you fellowship with on a regular basis what their needs are so therefore you can help them.

You don't know that as well of people who are out in the world. Now, here in Junction City, Kansas, we have a community that is right on Interstate 70.

And so oftentimes down there by the interstate, there are people who are hitchhikers or something like that, and they'll sit out there with signs and they'll say, hey,

I'm needing food. Some folks will pull off the interstate and sit by a gas station and say, hey,

I'm needing gas. And sometimes I'll go and I'll help them out. And I don't do it every time.

I mean, I probably pass by more people than I actually help, but sometimes I do stop and give a person a sandwich or take them over to the gas station.

And every time that I do that, I'm sure to share the gospel to tell them to repent from their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the grave so that all who are followers of Christ have escaped from the wrath of God and have been delivered into his eternal kingdom.

I share some form of the gospel with them even when I help, but I don't know those individuals.

And so I don't really know if they actually have a need or if they're just trying to save a buck and try to smooth somebody out of a out of a dime every once a while.

And I'm sure that that's probably happened to me on occasion that somebody said that they were in need and they really weren't.

But anyway, I mean, I don't know those individuals. I don't really truly know what their needs are, but those who are members of the body of Christ, I interact with them on a regular basis and I do know what their needs are.

And so I do know where I can help. You may not know how to help any other person that you're just passing by on the street, but you know how to help somebody who is in need there in the body.

And when Jesus references here in Matthew 25, those who are in prison, he's talking about those who have been out sharing the gospel and they have been thrown in jail because they stood firm on the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And and so there are going to be those in our midst who are being oppressed, maybe at work or or in some other environment.

I don't know. I can't come up with any good scenarios off the top of my head here. But in a place where people are coming down on them because of their faith, because of their beliefs, it's not happening happening to you right now, but it's happening to them.

And so, you know, to suffer with them, to share tears with them and to pray with them. In fact, the context in Romans 12, in which

Paul says that we are to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. The specific context is not all weeping and all rejoicing, although that is good to do with one another.

But it's those who are who have been struggling in attempting to share the gospel and the world is weighing down on them.

And so they perhaps they're grieved by being beaten down. And so weep with them through the struggles that they endure.

And when they lead someone to Christ and they have the opportunity to witness the gospel being advanced and they're rejoicing over what the

Holy Spirit is doing through the declaration of the gospel, the whole body of Christ can rejoice together.

So we weep together with those who struggle in in the growth of the gospel.

And then we also rejoice together with those who are advancing the gospel. That's really the context of Romans 12.

I think that there should be a closeness among the body of Christ that we weep and rejoice with one another in all circumstances.

But specifically, it's talking about there are ups and downs that we will go through as we are attempting to share the gospel in this world and live it out in a in a dark and crooked and depraved generation.

So here again in Matthew 25, when Jesus is saying to to love the brothers and as you do that, you do that also unto

Christ. Then in verse 41, he says to those on his left. So remember, he separated out the sheep from the goats, the goats who are on his left.

He will say to them, depart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink.

I was a stranger and you did not welcome me. I was naked and you did not clothe me.

I was sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Then they also will answer, saying,

Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you to you?

And then he will answer them, saying, truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me and add the context in with what we read in verse 40.

If you did not do it to these brothers of mine, you did not do it to me in verse 46.

These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

And this what we're reading about here in verses 41 through 45, this is hatred.

This is hatred for Christians, for the brothers and sisters of Christ.

They don't they don't actively hate. They don't point fingers and say, I hate you. That's not the way we see

Jesus describing them. They have a hatred for them in such a way that they do not show love, that they are not trying to serve one another within the body of Christ, but they hate.

And so they do not do and rather they ignore. And again, it's like we talked about yesterday.

We tend to think of hatred as an active thing. It is something that that a person displays or they say or there's anger in their face or their voice rises or they they say mean things to another person.

And that's typically what we think of when it comes to hatred. But hatred is also passive, not just aggressive.

It is also passive when somebody ignores or deliberately does not want to help somebody else they hate in their heart.

I am not going to care for that person. But here we have an evidence that is given to us in first John three of the salvation that we've received in Christ Jesus.

When we love the brothers, we know that we have passed out of death into life.

Whoever does not love abides in death. Love is an active thing to borrow the phrase sung by D .C.

Talk back in the 90s. Love is a verb. OK, it's something that you do. We can have the best intentions in the world.

But if we are not acting on those intentions and showing love to one another in the body of Christ, then it means nothing.

Surely you've heard the phrase the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Michael W. Smith, if I could borrow another

Christian song from the 90s, give it away. Wayne Kirkpatrick wrote that lyric.

It said we can entertain compassion for a world in need of care, but the road of good intentions doesn't lead to anywhere.

And so our intentions is not the display of love in the body of Christ.

It's actually doing for one another. Verse 16, again, first, John three, 16. By this, we know love that he laid down his life for us.

That's how we know love. Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers, considering others needs ahead of our own.

Paul talks about that in Philippians chapter two, that if we are of one mind in Christ and one spirit in the

Lord, then we need to consider others needs ahead of our own. Think not of your own interests, but also the interests of others.

And then verse 17, but if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him.

So, again, there's that that passive hatred. How does God's love abide in him?

He's closing his heart. To an opportunity to serve a brother or sister in the body of Christ, how can we say that God's active love is abiding in that person?

Little children let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.

And how do we know that we are in the truth when we are living out the truth in our lives? This is John's version of the statement that James makes in James chapter two, where he says faith without works is a dead faith.

If we say that we believe, then we will evidence that belief with obedience.

We obey God and his commands because we have faith. If we say that we believe, but we do not do, then that faith isn't real.

It isn't genuine and it is a dead faith, as James says. And John says it as this.

Let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. You can say it, but if you're not doing it, then it doesn't mean anything.

Again, good intentions are not an indicator of true and genuine love.

Our Lord Christ laid down his life for us, and so we ought to lay down our lives for one another.

And we know, therefore, that we have passed from death into his life because the love of Christ that has been poured into our hearts by the

Holy Spirit is at work, is on display among the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.

The world should be able to look at us and see there is a love that is going on there in the church that is not out here.

It is genuine. It is real. It is sacrificing. It is it is considering others needs ahead of our own, and they will see that there is there is a genuine love that exists there that is otherworldly.

It's a kingdom love. It is it is a love that has been given to us by the king. And so all of his servants show that kind of love that has been displayed by the king of the kingdom that we have been transferred into by his wonderful, good grace and mercy.

Let us pray together as we thank our God for this wonderful sacrifice in Jesus Christ, rescuing us from death and into his life.

Our Lord God, we thank you so much that though we were totally undeserving, what we deserved was death.

What we deserved was hell. We are not entitled to anything. We deserve nothing.

And yet you showed such favor on us as your children in Jesus Christ that our sins have been forgiven.

We have received the love of God. And so now help us to show that love among the brothers and sisters in Christ.

Keep us in our hearts a desire to be with the people of God so that we might grow in love and in knowledge, according to your word.

Let us love not just in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.

If we believe the truth and we live in the truth, we display the truth in all that we do, that God so loved us, he sent his son to die for our sins.

And everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. If we know that truth, then it will be seen in our love.

They will know that we are Christians by our love. Thank you, God, in the name of Christ.

Amen. Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog, sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues.

You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com. Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word when we understand the text.