Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 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. 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? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. (1Jo 3:13-18)

More than at any time in my lifetime our culture has polarized its attitude toward Christians. Regardless of your political affiliation or philosophy, if you are a Bible-believing Christian, you must wear the label "Radical Right-Wing Christian." Muslims and oriental religions, at times even New Age advocates, receive open arms to present their views in various public settings, but the moment a Christian asks for the same treatment, they are spurned with the "separation of church and state" denial. If you hold to Biblical Christian views today, more than at any time in our lifetime you understand John's comment, "Marvel not...if the world hate you." Because of the Christian influence in our country's history (I do not use the term "Christian nation" because it implies more than our history will support and more than the Bible teaches about nations since God's rejection of the Jewish nation-culture for special privilege.), we marvel at our culture's treatment. But from the long historic perspective implied by John in this lesson, it is no marvel that secular culture hates Christians. Historically it has done so! But for the thinking informed Christian, this is no cause for surprise or marvel.

Why does John move immediately from this arresting line to what appears to be a distinct in-house and personal issue to believers? "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." Occasionally Christians and those who prefer to be called Christians, even though their personal lifestyle doesn't support the name, will diminish the Biblical role of community worship. "I am a Christian, but I don't need to go to church every Sunday." This is equivalent to saying, "I am a Christian but I deny the teachings of Jesus." In late 1999 a public opinion poll was published in which a significant number of people said they were Christians in answer to one question, but said they were atheists in answer to another question. How can you be a Christian and an atheist? It is impossible! To deny your place in public worship within the community of a godly church is to deny your Christianity! Why? Because the New Testament incorporates the worshipping community of the church into its model of New Testament Christianity. Rarely will anyone maintain a clear and credible Christian presence in his/her life for any length of time apart from active involvement in a church.

So why did John present such an unusual sequence of thought in this passage? What does "knowledge," or assurance of salvation, have to do with the world's hateful attitude toward Christians? The first point should captivate our minds. Which is more important to you, the "world's" opinion of you or God's opinion of you? And God's opinion of you will form in your mind largely in terms of your attitude and actions toward other believers, as well as toward humanity in general. Regular participation in the worshipping community of church will train your habits and attitudes toward other people, helping you more consistently practice Christian ethics.

Secondly the lesson strongly implies that a person's Christianity must appear in public attitudes and actions, words included. The idea of a secret Christian runs contradictory to New Testament Christianity. This point builds on John's consistent teaching that love appears in action, not simply in words. We know our spiritual state with God, not by a certain feeling toward other believers but by specific actions toward them. You man talk about your love of other believers until your voice becomes hoarse. But your assurance of salvation will only grow and maintain consistent clarity in proportion to your actual conduct toward them. If you try to build your assurance of salvation on the way you feel toward them, your sense of assurance will go up and down in direct proportion to your emotional cycles. Try testing your assurance of salvation a few minutes after you just lost control and exploded angrily toward another believer, any other person for that matter! But if you entrench a godly ethic deeply into your lifestyle and habits, regardless of you emotional swings, your assurance of salvation will maintain the same consistency as your conduct.

He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Don't forget John's use of love as equating to actions, not to feelings. So if you do not love your brother or sister, you do not treat them with godly Christian actions. Is John saying that anyone who hates another, particularly another believer, is not really saved, not a child of God? We cannot minimize the vital importance of this lesson in terms of our Christian conduct and ethics. It will not allow us to justify hatred toward anyone, especially toward another believer. But does it question such a person's salvation? I suggest that the dominant theme of this lesson is assurance of salvation, not the fact of salvation. Because of its clarity in this area, I will quote freely from the Bible Knowledge Commentary on these verses. It clearly speaks to this important question.

The statements of 1Jo 3:14b 1Jo 3:15 suggest that the spheres of "death" and "life" are here treated as experiential and determined by one's actions. If so, the issue of conversion is not in view here.

The statement, Anyone who does not love (the majority of the mss. add "a brother" or "his brother") remains in death, is considered under verse 15.

1Jo 3:15. This verse is usually taken to mean that a true Christian cannot hate his fellow Christian, since hatred is the moral equivalent of murder. But this view cannot stand up under close scrutiny.

To begin with, John speaks of anyone who hates his brother. If John had believed that only an unsaved person can hate another Christian, the word "his" unnecessarily personalizes the relationship (cf. comments on 2:9). But it is an illusion to believe that a real Christian is incapable of hatred and murder. David was guilty of the murder of pious Uriah the Hittite (2Sa 12:9) and Peter warned his Christian readers, "If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer" (1Pe 4:15; more lit., "Let none of you suffer as a murderer"). The view that 1Jo 3:15 cannot refer to the saved is totally devoid of all realism. The solemn fact remains that hatred of some other believer is the spiritual equivalent of murder (Mt 5:21-22), as a lustful eye is the spiritual equivalent of adultery (Mt 5:28).

John insisted then that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. The NIV does not translate the Greek participle ???????? ("abiding"), which is a crucial word here. John does not say that someone who hates his brother does not possess eternal life, but rather that he does not have it abiding in him. But since for John, Christ Himself is eternal life (Joh 14:6; 1Jo 1:2; 5:20), John's statement is saying that no murderer has Christ abiding in him. Thus once more the experience of "abiding" is what John had in view.

Hatred on the part of one Christian toward another is thus an experience of moral murder. As John had indicated in 1Jo 3:14b, he held that a Christian who fails to love his brother "remains (?????) in death." He is thus experientially living in the same sphere in which the world lives (see v. 13). Because he is a murderer at heart he can make no real claim to the kind of intimate fellowship with God and Christ which the word "abide" suggests. Eternal life (i.e., Christ) is not at home in his heart so long as the spirit of murder is there. Such a person is disastrously out of touch with his Lord and he experiences only death. (Cf. Paul's statement, "For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die" [Ro 8:13].) John's words were surely grim. But no service is rendered to the church by denying their applicability to believers. The experience of the Christian church through the ages shows how urgently they are needed. Hate, unfortunately, is not confined to unsaved people."

The commentary's explanation does not diminish the importance of the passage, but it does free us from the false theological view that a saved person may lose their salvation and fall away so as to be eternally lost.

What is your state of mind when you allow any form of animosity to dwell in it? You become self-absorbed. The whole world must revolve around you and what you view is right for you at the moment. That person offended you. You did nothing to provoke them or to justify their actions. If someone approached you during this episode and suggested that your best course of action would be to confess your faults, you would likely become as hostile toward them as you are toward the person against whom your original anger erupted.

You also become guilty of thinking evil against the other person. Rethink Paul's comment in his love chapter (1Co 13:1-13), "Charity...thinketh no evil." In fact read Paul's complete list here. (1Co 13:4-7) Paul did not define charity, the God-kind of love, in terms of how we feel, but in terms of what we do toward others.

As you reflect on this passage and its ethical implications, will you take a few moments to personalize it to your life and conduct. Not a living person can reflect on their life without encountering some occasion when they failed to practice the high ground of Christian ethics John sets forth here. Your failures will appear in broken relationships, people you once considered as dear friends who today find no place in your life. Oh, you may try to blame them by saying it was their choice to exit your life, that you hold no responsibility whatever, but the protest is not terribly convincing. Legitimate friendship is a precious commodity in this life. People don't simply walk away from dear friends! Often they are driven away by unloving attitudes and actions. Look through the last chapter or so of your relationship with these people. Check for signs of things you may have done to push them away, to give them the indication that you did not regard them with the same fondness as in times past. Did you structure the friendship so as to get the most out of it for yourself or to give of yourself? Did you judge the value of the friendship on what it gave to you? If so, you missed John's point here. And despite mistakes on that person's part, you did contribute to the destruction of that precious commodity of friendship. To the extent we damage, poison or destroy friendships in our life we will suffer from low assurance of our own salvation.

Why not start today with a new way of dealing with others? John closes this lesson with an exhortation to love in a specific way. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. Does this mean we should never tell another person we love them? Of course not, but it does tell us not to limit our love to words. Prove your love by actions. This approach to life will not only deepen the vital taproot of treasured friendships in your life. It will strengthen your assurance of salvation. Christ and hatred, the ethical equivalent of murder, cannot live in the same house. Who do you want to live in your house with you, to abide with you? In the lonely cold winter evenings of old age who would you like to keep you company? One will leave you bitter and lonely, void of close friends. The other will leave you at the sunset full of joy and surrounded by friends who want to know more of your secret outlook toward life. Do you want to be surprised when you enter heaven and joy with God, or do you want your death to simply represent the last comfortable and natural transition into glory from a life lived in anticipation of it? Now is the time to begin you choice. A notable and romantic poet wrote the lines, "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." Change the line ever so slightly to reflect your love. "How do I love? Let me follow Christ's example alone."

1Jo 3:19-24 - Heart Condition...Condemned or Assured?

1Jo 1:1-3 - Implications of the Incarnation

1Jo 3:11-12 - How do we Love? How do we Show it?