Limapela Education Project
Faith in Action
This project aims to provide quality education to children in Zambia's Copperbelt Province.
Many people pride themselves on being loving. But genuine love can be challenging and difficult. In his eighth message on 1 John, preached at Greyfriars' Classical Service on 10 September 2006, Senior Minister Rob Yule talks about some neglected aspects of love. Love can provoke hostility as well as admiration. The pattern of truly sacrificial love is demonstrated in the life and death of Jesus Christ, who calls us to love one another with a love that is practical and costly.
There are stories of the apostle John as an old man, perhaps a bit senile, burbling on, 'Little children, love one another.' 'Little children, love one another.' He never tired of emphasising love. 'This is the message you had from the beginning,' he says: 'We should love one another.' (1 John 3:11).
Not only John, but the whole New Testament, emphasises love. The early Christians were known for their love for one another. Love is the most important moral quality of Christianity, the supreme Christian virtue. If we truly loved one another, there would be a powerful demonstration of the reality of God, and indeed of the superiority of the Christian way of life.
Love isn't easy. Love is a challenge. To love one another, truly and sincerely, is actually a very difficult thing. The world is not a loving place. So John begins by presenting love as a costly alternative to how most people live.
'Do not be like Cain,' he says, 'who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother.' (1 John 3:12). Love is an alternative to hatred. This alternative between love and hatred, John points out, has existed from the very beginning. Tragically, it divided the very first human family. It separated the two original siblings: Abel, the righteous one, and his brother Cain, the first murderer in history.
Cain, John says, 'belonged to the evil one.' He was inspired by the devil. Jesus said that 'the devil was a murderer from the beginning.' (John 8:44). Why did Cain murder Abel? 'Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.' (1 John 3:12). Cain's hatred was prompted by jealousy envy of his brother's superior character and moral outlook.
The Genesis story of Cain and Abel doesn't tell us why Abel's sacrifice of the firstborn of his flock was acceptable to God, while Cain's offering of the fruit of the ground wasn't. It could be that this foreshadows the truth that only a blood sacrifice was acceptable to God, that 'without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins' (Hebrews 9:22, NRSV). This would mean Cain's vegetarian, bloodless sacrifice, was not acceptable; and that this made Cain angry.
The Genesis text simply says that if Cain had done 'what is right', his sacrifice would also have been acceptable to God (Genesis 4:7). According to Hebrews it was 'by faith' that 'Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did' and 'by faith' that 'he was commended as righteous.' (Hebrews 11:4). Whatever the reason, Abel, a good person, a righteous person, was treacherously murdered by his closest blood relation, a man whose thoughts and actions were evil.
How are we to love one another, in a world of such treachery and violence? It's not easy. Love is difficult. It is a costly alternative to hate.
The murder of Abel shows the violent reaction that a good life can provoke in a bad person. Goodness provokes a violent reaction from the wicked.
The philosopher Plato once said that if a perfectly good man ever lived on earth he would be killed (Republic, 361-2). The murder of Abel and the crucifixion of Jesus illustrate this disturbingly prescient insight. We have in us a deep-rooted desire to establish our own superiority even if it means getting rid of a superior person.
This desire to justify ourselves and prove our moral uprightness can lead to self-deception and wickedness. This is why we need to cultivate humility and pray for an honest self-awareness. Ephraim, an early Syrian monk, used to pray, 'O Lord and King, grant me to see my own errors, and not to judge my brother.'
We don't expect love to produce hostility. When you do good, you expect goodness in return. When you show love, you expect love to be reciprocated. To receive hostility is unexpected, surprising. That's why John says, 'Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.' (1 John 3:13).
Good people tend to be trusting, even at times naοve. But the world isn't like that. If we love one another, if we live lives that please God, if we expose greed, injustice and exploitation, we can expect a kick-back from the powers of evil. Darkness can't tolerate light. Hatred can't stand love. Immorality won't tolerate morality. Selfish greed is exposed by selfless generosity.
If you love one another, your life will arouse hatred, persecution, even death. Jesus said, 'Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you. . . . Rejoice and be glad . . . for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.' (Matthew 5:11-12). Don't' be surprised, rejoice.
If loving one another is potentially so costly, it needs a strong justification. John says Christian love isn't based on passing feelings but on a settled conviction, not on subjective emotion, but on objective knowledge: '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 one another.' (1 John 3:16).
Christ's love is the pattern of Christian love. Because Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, so we ought to lay down our lives for one another. Here is our incentive to love others, even when they may choose not to show love in return.
The essence of love is self-sacrifice. Sacrifice is perfectly shown in the life and death of Jesus Christ. The self-sacrifice of Jesus is our inspiration to love. Christianity lays great emphasis on sacrificial love. 'This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for or sins.' (1 John 4:10). Jesus laid down his life for us. 'I am the good shepherd,' he says. 'The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.' (John 10:11).
Sacrifice, giving your life for another, is the exact opposite of murder, taking another's life. John says anyone who hates a brother or a sister is a murderer. 'We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderers have eternal life in them.' (1 John 3:14-15).
John is making a telling contrast. Cain was a child of the devil. He was jealous of his brother, his jealously nurtured hatred, and in hatred he murdered his brother. Murder leads to death, the antithesis of life.
| Comparison of Cain and Christ | |
|---|---|
| Cain | Christ |
| Child of the devil | Son of God |
| Jealousy | Empathy |
| Hatred | Love |
| Murder | Sacrifice |
| Death | Eternal life |
On the other hand Jesus Christ was the Son of God. He was filled with compassion and empathy, and known as the 'friend of sinners'. Out of love he sacrificed himself to serve people, and ultimately to die on the cross. From that sacrifice we receive the gift of eternal life the right to become God's children and to share for ever in God's life.
Christ's example of sacrifice is the highest form of love. But Christian love isn't mere idealism. It is practical and down-to-earth. John says that love is a verb, love is a doing word: 'Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.' (1 John 3:18).
One of my uncles, a minister, confided when he was dying that in his last years, many of his evangelical friends were nowhere to be seen. The people who faithfully visited him in an old people's home and hospital were Catholic nuns. He said that if he had his ministry all over again, he'd emphasise Christian love much more.
John says the genuineness of our love is shown by our attitude to material possessions. 'If anyone of you 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 you?' (1 John 3:17).
The early Christian shared their material possessions. John Wesley insisted that his converts share their money and material goods with those in need. The costly sharing practised by the early Christians and the early Methodists had a powerful impact on society round about. For them it would have been a contradiction in terms for a Christian to display ostentatious wealth. For them material possessions were resources to be shared, not status symbols to be paraded. 'Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.'
Rob Yule, 10 September 2006
© 2006, Greyfriars Presbyterian Church
