“Strength to Love” (1 John 3:11-18, 23-24)

For Such a Time as This 

Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33, NIV). Based on this truth the apostle John is writing to Christian people in the first century who were having a very difficult time, knowing persecution and suffering and misunderstanding.

Today the Holy Spirit, through John, is speaking to Christians (“us”) in the 21st century who are living a very difficult time, knowing divisions and injustice and brokenness. In my pastoral letter this week I shared reopening can be harder than closing the church because things can get ugly and messy very quickly, throwing stones of accusation to those who have different COVID-19 recovery convictions. We already see these things happening around us. Also, as Christians we are mourning the tragic death of George Floyd, an African American brutally treated by Minneapolis police officers this past week.

In such a time as this, where do we find hope? For such a time as this, John is writing this letter to comfort, to encourage, and to help Christian people in all ages in distress.

God’s Great Plan of Salvation 

Basically, John’s message is something like this: “Don’t get down and discouraged because of what’s happening right in front of you. See things from God’s perspective. You should never lose sight of the great plan of salvation. With that in mind, remember who you are. You are children of God. You are in fellowship with God. You abide in him, and he abides in you.”

From today’s passage I would like to draw your attention to one particular verse, which is verse 24: 

“All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.” 

In this particular verse John proclaims a great truth and doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit. As we study this verse, we ought to discuss the place of the Holy Spirit in the great plan of salvation. God’s salvation story starts way back in the Garden of Eden when man and woman fell and when God spoke and gave a promise. Then, God rescued Noah and his family out of the great flood. Then, God called Abraham and made a covenant with him, saying, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing” (Gen 12:2). Since then, God’s people increased greatly as God had promised. But then, they were oppressed by the Egyptians. Then, God chose Moses, and through him God delivered his people out of Egypt. So they crossed the Red Sea and entered the Promised Land. But there, the Israelites forgot what God had done for them. Instead, they followed detestable customs of the people who had lived in the land before them. So God kept sending his messengers – judges, kings, prophets. But they didn’t listen to them.

But our God is able. He had a plan – perfect plan to save his people. God declared his plan, called a new covenant, through the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Joel. Through the mouth of Jeremiah God said to his people,

“I will put my law within you, and I will write it on your hearts; and I will be your God, and you shall be my people” (Jer 31:33).

Again, through the mouth of Ezekiel God declared,

“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances” (Ezk 36:26-27).

Again, through the mouth of Joel God proclaimed,

“Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions” (Joel 2:28).

Then, how did God fulfill this promise? When the time had full come, God sent his one and only Son Jesus. He lived. He died. He arose from the grave and ascended into Heaven. Then, as God promised, through Christ Jesus he has sent the Holy Spirit. So on the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came down, entered the hearts of God’s people, and began to abide in them. All these events are part of the great plan of salvation, and the sending of the Holy Spirit upon his people, his Church on the Day of Pentecost is the ultimate fulfillment of the promise of God, the climax of God’s salvation story.

What Is a Christian? 

So what is a Christian? A Christian is one who has received the Holy Spirit. That is New Testament definition and terminology. We cannot be a Christian unless we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit – born of the Spirit, born again, God abiding in us. We have received the Holy Spirit, and we are therefore what we are. That is the Christian.

Then, how do we know that we have received the Holy Spirit? One of the surest signs that we have the Spirit is to honor Jesus, love Jesus, glorify Jesus with all our hearts. In John 16:14 Jesus said, “He [the Holy Spirit] will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” Probably many of you know the hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” written by Isaac Watts. Charles Wesley said that he would give up all the hymns he had penned if he could have written this hymn. In this great hymn Isaac Watts invites us to join him at the foot of the cross and witness the pain and shock of Jesus’ death:

“See, from his head, his hands, his feet,sorrow and love flow mingled down.Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,or thorns compose so rich a crown?

If we don’t have the Holy Spirit, when we hear this song or read Calvary Story, it’s just a historical fact or a fairy tale, containing a horrible death. It’s a terribly boring, meaningless, irrelevant story. But, if we have the Holy Spirit, this Calvary Story becomes so real, so meaningful, so personal, so transforming, and we cannot but join Isaac Watts in singing:

“Were the whole realm of nature mine,That were an offering far too small;Love so amazing, so divine,Demands my soul, my life, my all.”

That’s the work of the Holy Spirit. That’s the evidence that we have received the Holy Spirit - glorifying Jesus with all that we are.

Strength to Love 

According to John, by the Spirit that God has given us we have power and strength to love. In the early church there were all kinds of diverse groups of people: Jews and Gentiles, slaves and frees, males and females, pacifists and zealots. Different convictions concerning race, gender, politics, and religion. When John said, “We should love one another” (v. 11), I believe he kept all these people in mind. Jesus laid down his life for us. And now he gives the Holy Spirit to everyone who trusts him. By the Spirit we have strength to love – not only like-minded people, but also those who have different convictions, and those who are difficult people. Not just do we tolerate them, but we ought to love them to the extent of laying down our lives for them” (v. 16).

Once a Korean pastor shared a testimony about a teenager girl in his church. She grew up in a broken family and lived with her aunt. She was a Christian and went to church every Sunday, but her aunt was a Buddhist and didn’t like her to go to church. So they used to fight every Sunday. One Sunday afternoon, after service the girl prayed on the way home, “Father, I don’t want to fight with my aunt, but I can’t. I don’t have strength to love her. Lord, I know your Spirit lives in me. I will let the Holy Spirit within me meet my aunt and love her, instead of me.” Then, as soon as she opened the door, as always her aunt began to yell and swear at her. But strangely enough, she didn’t feel hurt or angry, instead she felt compassion, and her aunt looked lovely, so she hugged her aunt, and cried, and said, “I am sorry. Today you look thin and worn. It’s because of me. You have been working so hard to take care of me.” Both of them wept. On that day her aunt received Jesus as her Lord and Savior. Surely we ourselves do not have strength to love even one person! But the Holy Spirit within us is able. Let the Holy Spirit within you love others!

Shower of Love 

John says, “We must not be like Cain” (v. 12). Cain and Abel were brothers. They both brought sacrifices to God. Cain is not presented as an atheist; he is presented as a worshiper. On the surface, he did everything Abel did. He masqueraded as a true believer. But there was a real test. The real test was his love for the brethren. And here Cain failed.

How do we know that we are children of God? How do we know that we are Christians? The real test is our love for others. And only by the Spirit we have strength to love. So we need the Holy Spirit. We ought to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Martyn Lloyd-Jones describes the filling of the Holy Spirit in this way:[1]

A man and his little child [are] walking down the road and they are walking hand in hand, and the child knows that he is a child of his father, and he knows that his father loves him, and he rejoices in that, and he is happy in it. There is no uncertainty about it at all, but suddenly the father, moved by some impulse, takes hold of the child and picks him up, fondles him in his arms, kisses him, embraces him, showers his love upon him, and then he puts him down again and they go on walking together.

Have you seen something like this? Have you tasted this kind of love? My prayer is that by the Holy Spirit God may take us to Calvary at the foot of the cross and shower his love upon us again and again, so that we can love others. Amen.

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[1] Douglas Banister, The Word and Power Church (p. 49). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.