We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love other believers. The person who doesn’t grow in love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. We understand what love is when we realize that Christ gave his life for us. That means we must give our lives for other believers. Now, suppose a person has enough to live on and notices another believer in need. How can God’s love be in that person if he doesn’t bother to help the other believer? (1John 3:14-17)
What is the apostle John saying here?
I believe a key to understanding it is mentioned by John when he pens:
“we have passed from death to life“
Death to life?
Yes, for the old nature is baptized in Christ death when we accept the Lord in truth. The New creation now is motivated by the heart of the Father (one of the fruits of our salvation) and in this state we are able to look at our brothers & sisters viewing them with the same passion and love the Lord has.
For by nature we are born of a corrupted nature – feed by hate, fear and every other detestable way of selfish thinking – yet once born again we are now alive by the infusion of the Lord Spiritual DNA, living a life with an incorruptible nature being feed by Love, Hope, Joy & Peace.
Now in all honesty history shows that the “Church” has not lived in this regard of which John is speaking of here – we can look down through the generations and witness all the atrocities committed against others all in the name of Christ. While at the same time we must realize that the Lord has had those who live according to what the Lord taught as well as by the example that John is presenting here, a remnant who has held to the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The truth is that in our own strength it can be tough to love when every thing about a person just seems to rub us the wrong way – this is the place that we must apply the death of our carnal nature and pick up the New Life in Christ, to walk in our Spiritual man.
There is no gray area here when we are discussing love –We must walk in true God like love – We see how Jesus was quick to point out its importance when He stated;
“And you shall love the Lord your God [a]out of and with your whole heart and out of and with all your soul (your [b]life) and out of and with all your mind (with [c]your faculty of thought and your moral understanding) and out of and with all your strength. [d]This is the first and principal commandment.(A)The second is like it and is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these”. Mark 12:30-31 AMP)
Now think about this for a moment and look at the setting that this message was giving – scribes and Pharisees were enemies to the Sadducees – though there all professed to serve the same God. So this answer in their presence is like a rebuke of their actions not only against one another – but their actions that they display when they walk as though they are better than those around them.
We must at all cost let the Love of Christ be as a cloak about us, fashioned to every aspect of our lives – for dear friends the world has not developed a thirst for the Lord for they have yet to see His nature being lived out in His called ones with any great measure – they have witnessed far more infighting, hypocrisy. We spent more time pointing fingers and throwing spiritual mud at the different factions of the Kingdom that have been illegitimately established by the whims of hell to cause such divisions that the Lord’s house appears to be in a divided state!
Within our own factions when a brother our sister falls we act like spiritual vultures tearing them to shreds, when the Love of Christ calls us to hold them up, pray for them, minister to them that they might be restored.
Now, when the world looks at the House of God they do not see Love according to the Kingdom, they see the nature of the world at work as they many of the leaders sit about playing playing religion.
It is time for the true disciples of Jesus Christ to rise up – to be the Joshua’s and Caleb’s pointing out that it’s time to come out of this wilderness that religion has encased the Body into and start walking in the fullness of Christ, adorned in the armor He has provided for us, empowered by His Life and clothed in His Love. And doing so in the spirit of love, not condemnation – For it is the Love of Christ which shall be as a healing balm, opening their eyes for the first time that they may see the beauty of His Bride and their ears for the first time that they might hear the whole truth of His Kingdom in purity!
John is very specific in here and he has provided a spiritual scale for us to measure our own lives:
“The person who doesn’t grow in love remains in death”
So ask yourself today – Am I growing in the love of God towards my brothers and sisters, or am I growing colder, less patient, less forgiving and ever so quick to cast forth an unjust judgment against them?
Do you see a brother in need and pass by without lending a hand, casting judgment upon their situation? This is not the love of Christ!
A loveless leadership produces a loveless people!
What about those we appear lazy and lag behind in spiritual matters?
Some of today’s leaders would say “leave them on the roadside – they are but a casualty and they will eat what is meant for the strong”? This is not the love of God friends, as taught to us by the very life of the Lord Himself – He said we must even go after the one who has strayed, whether it be because laziness, hardheadedness or what ever we must not leave a brother or sister behind.
A true brother in Christ would blow upon the coals that where once the Flame that at one time caught their eye and brought them to the Lord!
This example is portrayed in the Bible with reference to Mark – Paul wrote him off – yet a brother in the Lord came alongside Mark and nurtured him. This is the love of Christ – this is going that extra mile which many leaders in the house of God will not go – they want the glamour yet never wishing to get in the mud – for in their minds they have arrived at spiritual stardom – A total display of the worlds nature and total disregard of the Kingdom culture!
Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. (1John 3:18)
Let today be a Spiritual check point – Is your heart filled with the Love of Christ – or is your life running on vapors – lacking in true Christ like love!
Pray, asking Holy Spirit to fill up that well till its over flowing – for this shall be a reflections of God’s love to the world, when you, disciple of the Most High God, can love others regardless of the situation or the cost you will be releasing the very nature of He who gave His all even unto to death that we might be saved for all of Eternity basking in the presence of His love, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior!.
For we indeed serve an Awesome God!
Radical Disciples - A Remnant Revolution 