1 John 3:11-18
The original message calls believers to love one another, and this love—modeled after Christ’s self-giving sacrifice—demonstrates passage from death to life and must be expressed in tangible action.
11 For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another;
12 unlike Cain, who was of the evil one, and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
13 Don’t be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.
14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. He who doesn’t love his brother remains in death.
15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him.
16 By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
17 But whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, then closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God’s love remain in him?
18 My little children, let’s not love in word only, or with the tongue only, but in deed and truth.
The original message calls believers to love one another, and this love—modeled after Christ’s self-giving sacrifice—demonstrates passage from death to life and must be expressed in tangible action.
To contrast hatred and love through the example of Cain and Christ, and to insist that genuine Christian love is active, sacrificial, and concrete.
Children of God, Practicing Righteousness, and Loving One Another
The Father’s love makes believers children of God, and this new identity is evidenced by hope in Christ, righteous practice, self-giving love, and Spirit-confirmed abiding.