I John 3 – Part 5

“By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” I John 3:16

God wants His born-again children to manifest their new righteous nature by living righteously (2:29-3:10a) and loving their Christian brothers and sisters (3:10b-23). This love for one another is not like Cain who took his brother’s life (3:10b-12). It is like Christ Who gave His own life: “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (I John 3:16). Christ is the opposite of Cain. Cain’s behavior was life-taking; Christ’s behavior was life-giving.

Let’s look more closely at Christ’s love. The Bible says He “laid down His life.” Jesus’ love was voluntary. He willingly took the initiative and gave up His life on the cross (Rom. 5:8). Christ’s love was not a response to our love (I John 4:10, 19). He loved us even if we never loved Him. Jesus loves us when our walk of faith is weak or when it is strong. He sticks with us in the good times and the bad. Nothing about us makes Christ love us. He loves us because it is His nature to love. If Jesus waited for us to love Him first, He would still be waiting. Thank God that He loved you and me first. His love does not require that we love Him back.  

Secondly, Christ’s gave His life “for us.” His love was vicarious. 1 He sacrificed Himself on a cross as our Substitute to pay the penalty for all our sins (John 1:29; I Cor. 15:3-4; 2 Cor. 5:21; I Pet. 3:18; I John 2:1-2). He took the punishment we deserved. You may be familiar with the shooting spree on January 21, 2023, in a Monterey Park dance studio that left eleven people dead, and nine others wounded. The suspected shooter, an elderly Asian man, later shot and killed himself. 2 Suppose that man had not killed himself, but, instead, was captured, tried for his crime, and sentenced to die for it. If it were possible, would you take that man’s place and sacrifice yourself so that man could live? I doubt any of us would. But that’s exactly what Jesus did when He took the place of undeserving sinners like you and me. Who else would die for you except Someone Who loves you that much!

Hatred for a Christian brother or sister makes us like Cain. Love for a Christian brother or sister makes us like Christ. Christ’s love for us is intended to motivate us to sacrificially love our Christian brothers and sisters: “And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (3:16b). Christ laid down His life once for us (Heb. 7:27; 9:12, 26-28; 10:10), but we are to lay down our lives repeatedly for one another. 3

“It is easy to ‘lay down one’s life’: martyrdom is heroic and exhilarating; the difficulty lies in doing the little things, facing day by day the petty sacrifices and self-denials which no one notices, and no one applauds.” 4

We may not have the opportunity to express our love for another Christian by dying in his or her place, so John gives us a tangible example of how we can love another believer. “But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (I Jon 3:17). The word for “goods” (bios) means “life, livelihood,” 5 or resources to maintain life.” 6  The phrase “and shuts up his heart” (kai kleisē ta splanchna autou) conveys the idea of closing or slamming shut the door of one’s sympathies or compassions toward another person in need. 7 John is saying that when a Christian has the resources to help another Christian “brother in need,” and refuses to give him assistance, God’s love does not “abide in” that believer, that is, he is out of fellowship with God.

During the first year or so in the Philippines as missionaries, my wife and I were often approached by someone asking us for money or food, simply because in their eyes we were “rich” Americans. And by their standards, we were rich. But I had closed my heart off toward those in need. I became resentful of people who would approach me as if I was a bank on two feet.

I must say, however, that my wife and I would eventually make a good team when we would go to the market to buy groceries. She would do much of the shopping while I shared the gospel with others verbally or through the distribution of gospel tracts. During one of those visits to the market, God’s Spirit pierced my heart when I watched my wife gently and graciously give beggars some fruit or vegetables along with a gospel tract. I had been telling people at the market about God’s love for them through Jesus, but my wife was showing them that love. The apostle John would have said that my wife was walking as Jesus walked (2:6), but I, on the other hand, was not. God’s love had made its home in my wife’s heart, but I did not allow any room for God’s love to dwell in mine even though I had shared the gospel with many people there.

John addresses Christians like me when he writes, “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” (I John 3:18). Christian love is expressed primarily with our lives, not just with our lips. Imagine where we would be if Jesus expressed His love for us verbally without any actions. We would still be dead in our sins.

We often tell others, “I love you,” without being prepared to act sacrificially for those to whom we say this. John reminds us that true love involves action (“in deed”) and conformity to the “truth” which involves a genuine concern for the person “as opposed to some self-serving motive.” 8

The apostle John is instructing us to to express our born-again nature as children of God by loving our Christian brothers and sisters (3:10b-18). This love is sacrificial.

“Two Americans were challenged to go to Russia and spend some of their time in ministry to orphanages. They weren’t professionals, and it cost them a pretty penny to leave their jobs and pay their own way. They sacrificed, but as they gave their love, they too found love in return. They came to one orphanage of about a hundred kids where the Christmas story had never been told. So they shared the story of Bethlehem, and the inn, and Mary and the manger, and you know the rest. Then they gave each kid some cut-outs to build their own little manger scene. They used brown flannel to make baby Jesus, some cardboard for the manger, and some yellow scraps of paper for straw.

“As these women went around to look at the work of each child, all went well until one of the women got to the table where little Misha sat. He was about six years old, and everything was in perfect order until she looked into the manger. There were two babies in the manger. She thought, ‘Oh, my gosh. What’s happened here?’ So she asked the translator to come over so she could find out where Misha had gotten mixed up.

“As Misha told the story, everything was accurate. He had all the details in place until he got to the very end, and then he began to ad lib. He said, ‘And when Maria laid the baby in the manger, she looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told her, ‘I have no mamma and I have no pappa, so I don’t have any place to stay.’ Then Jesus told me I could stay with Him. Then I told Him I couldn’t because I didn’t have a gift to give like everyone else did.

“’But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, I thought, what do I have that I could give as a gift? I thought maybe if I keep Him warm, that would be a good gift. So I asked Jesus, ‘If I keep you warm, would that be a good gift?’ And Jesus said, ‘If you keep me warm, that would be the best gift anyone gave me.’ So I got into the manger, and Jesus looked at me and told me I could stay with Him in the manger … always.’”

“As little Misha finished his story his eyes brimmed with tears and they began to splash down his little cheeks. Then he put his hand over his face, his head dropped down to the table, and his shoulders shook as he sobbed and sobbed. The little orphan had found Someone who would never abandon or abuse him, Someone who would always stay with him. The American finished her story by saying, ‘And I learned it’s not what you have in your life, but who you have in your life, that counts.’” 9

As believers in Jesus Christ, we have the most loving Person in the universe living inside us. He guarantees to never leave us nor abandon us. This amazing love of our Savior motivates us to love others sacrificially as Christ has loved us. We then discover that when we love, we live. That is, we experience Christ’s life in a deeper and more fulfilling way as we continue in fellowship with Him.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we are eternally grateful that Jesus did not express His love merely with words, but also with actions. He voluntarily laid down His life on a cruel cross that all who believe in Him may have everlasting life. O Father, fill us with Jesus’ love so we may love our Christian brothers and sisters with compassionate hearts. Lead us, we pray, to those You want us to love with our lives and not just with our lips. Forgive us for closing off our hearts toward those in need and please renew our love for them. In the matchless name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

ENDNOTES:

1. Tony Evans, CSB Bibles by Holman, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary (B & H Publishing Group, Kindle Edition, 2019), pg. 2944.

2. Retrieved on January 31, 2023, from J. David Goodman, Amy Harmon, and Adeel Hassan’s January 24, 2023, New York Times article entitled, “‘Tragedy Upon Tragedy’: January Brings Dozens of Mass Shootings So Far,” at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/24/us/mass-shootings-january.html.

3. Tom Constable, Dr. Constable’s Notes on 1 John, 2022 Edition, pg. 85.

4. Ibid., cites David Smith, “The Epistles of St. John,” in The Expositor’s Greek Testament, Vol. 5 (1910), 4th ed., edited by W. Robertson Nicoll, 5 vols., (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1900-1912), pg. 186.

5. Archibald Thomas Robertson, A. T. Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament [with Bible and Strong’s Numbers Added!], 6 Volumes (E4 Group, 2014 Kindle Edition), Kindle Location 206300.

6. Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature: Third Edition (BDAG) revised and edited by Frederick William Danker (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000 Kindle Edition), pg. 177.

7. Robertson, A. T. Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament, Kindle Location 206346.

8. David R. Anderson, Maximum Joy: I John – Relationship or Fellowship? (Grace Theology Press, 2013 Kindle Edition), pg. 171.

9. Ibid., pp. 172-174.

How can we face challenges with courage? Part 1

“In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you.” John 16:26

Do you know what Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Robespierre, George Washington, Napoleon, Queen Victoria, Golda Meir, Hitler, Stalin, Fidel Castro, and Barack Obama all have in common? The answer is quite simple: They are all orphans. This is the conclusion of a study done by Dr. Pierre Rentchnick in a book entitled, “Do Orphans Lead the World?” 1

After surveying the lives of three hundred leaders who have had a great impact on world history, he discovered that all these leaders had grown up as orphans – either actually, through the death or separation from parents, or emotionally, as a result of severe childhood deprivation. “He concluded that what many would consider emotional deprivation may arouse an exceptional willpower which can be turned to either good or evil.” 2

Today psychologists are giving lectures on how important it is for a child’s development to have a father and a mother performing harmoniously together their respective roles towards their child, and we find this study which shows that some of the most influential people in world history never had healthy relations with their parents.

Paul Tournier, the Swiss physician and counselor, who was also an orphan, was intrigued by Rentchnick’s study, and so he took up the study and realized that many of the most influential religious leaders were also virtual orphans. 3  In his book, Creative Suffering, Tournier states that circumstances are morally neutral, whether fortunate or unfortunate. They simply are what they are; what matters is how we respond to them. 4

Good and evil, in the moral sense, do not reside in things, but they always reside in persons. Rarely are we in control of events which cause suffering. But we can control how we respond to suffering. By God’s grace, we can respond positively, creatively, and see suffering as an opportunity to learn and grow. Or we can respond negatively and stunt our growth.

When we face challenges or difficulties in life, how will we respond? Will we respond with faith or with fear? The circumstances do not determine how we respond. How we view those circumstances determines how we respond. This is the lesson that Jesus wants to teach us in John 16:25-33.

In John 16:16-24, Jesus used the analogy of a woman in the labor of childbirth to teach how He could transform the disciples’ grief over His death into gladness at His resurrection (John 16:16-24). In John 16:25-33, Jesus wants to teach us how to face challenges with courage.

First, we are to RESOLVE TO GO DIRECTLY TO THE FATHER IN PRAYER (16:25-26). Jesus said to His disciples, “These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father.” (John 16:25). The phrase “these things” refers back to what Jesus just said about a woman being in labor (John 16:16-24). When Christ says He spoke to His disciples in “figurative language,” He is referring to dark sayings which conceal some truth. He admits that He has not given direct answers to His disciples’ questions. But He assures them that “the time is coming” after His resurrection when He will no longer speak to them in figurative language. For forty days after His resurrection (cf. Acts 1:3), Christ would speak “plainly about the Father” and that would be reflected in the apostles’ teaching.

Evans writes, “There is a principle at work here for believers in Christ: God only explains what you are ready and able to handle. You may not understand the circumstances that you’re experiencing, but God loves you and is taking you through a growth process. He calls for your trust and obedience now. Further understanding will come later, when you’re prepared to receive it.” 5

Next Jesus said, “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you.” (John 16:26). “In that day” after His resurrection and ascension to heaven, the disciples would be able to approach the Father directly in Jesus’ name. It would not be necessary for Jesus to “pray the Father for” the disciples as He had done during His earthly ministry, because now they would be able to ask the Father for themselves.

This does not mean Jesus would never intercede in heaven for His disciples because the Bible tells us that Christ intercedes for all believers (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25; 9:24). What He probably means is that they are not to look to Jesus only to meet their needs, but to the Father also. 6 The verb “ask” (aitēsesthe) is in the middle voice and means to ask for one’s self a favor from God. It is not wrong to ask God to meet your own needs. The disciples could pray directly to the Father because of Jesus’ finished work on the cross which provided direct access into the presence of God in heaven (cf. Hebrews 10:19-22).

All believers can pray directly to God the Father. This is not a privilege limited to pastors or other church leaders. It is a privilege for all Christians. The Bible tells us, “For through Him we both [Jews and Gentiles] have access by one Spirit to the Father” (Ephesians 2:18).

In Acts 4, the believers of the Jerusalem Church were experiencing opposition to the gospel, so they prayed the Scriptures found in Psalm 2:1-2 (Acts 4:25-26) which describe a future day of rebellion when the nations will gather against Christ under the World Ruler or Beast of Revelation (cf. Revelation 16:13-16; 19:11-21). Do you know how the Lord will respond to their opposition? Psalm 2:4 says, “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh.”

This is like the laughter of a father whose three-year old boasts that he can outrun him or beat him in a wrestling match. The father knows the boundaries of power possessed by his son. Likewise, God knows the boundaries of power among the nations and He is amused by their attempts to overthrow Him. That, my friends, is courage. If God laughs at this spirit of rebellion among all the nations, it would be inappropriate for you and me to be afraid among those who oppose the gospel. God has an abundant supply of courage to give us.

Among those who served in the court of Alexander the Great was a famous philosopher who had outstanding ability but little money. He asked Alexander for financial help and was told he could draw whatever cash he needed from the imperial treasury. When he submitted to the treasurer a request for an amount equal to $50,000, he was promptly refused. The treasurer had to verify that such a large sum was indeed authorized. But when he asked Alexander, the ruler replied, “Pay the money at once. The philosopher has done me a singular honor. By the largeness of his request, he shows that he has understood both my wealth and generosity.”

Believers who exercise great faith by asking God to provide for their needs demonstrate a similar understanding of His vast wealth and generosity. That kind of asking honors God the Father. If we are going to have courage when facing challenges in life, we must learn to go directly to the Father in prayer, knowing that He has an infinite supply of courage and He is eager to give it to those who ask.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I am so grateful to have direct access into Your throne room in heaven because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. I can talk to You about anything at any time, knowing that You understand and want to bless me as Your child. I honor You when I ask You to meet my needs abundantly because it reflects that You are a good and generous Father Who delights in blessing His children. Lord God, I ask that You supply Your children with an abundance of boldness to proclaim Christ crucified to a lost and dying world. The world may mock or oppose those of us who proclaim Your gospel message, but we are so thankful to have the honor of serving You as Your ambassadors here on earth. Please use us as You deem best to magnify Your Son. In the powerful name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

ENDNOTES:

1. David M. Atkinson, Leadership – By the Book, (Dyer, IN: Grace and Glory Publishers, 2007), pg. 84.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid, pp. 84-85.

4. Philip Yancey, Where is God When It Hurts? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990), pp. 143-144.

5. Tony Evans, CSB Bibles by Holman. The Tony Evans Bible Commentary (B&H Publishing Group, Kindle Edition, 2019), pg. 1811.

6. Robert N. Wilkin, “The Gospel According to John,” The Grace New Testament Commentar, Vol. 1: Matthew – Acts (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2010), pg. 456.