John spoke in absolutes; he offered no middle ground: a person belongs either to God or to the Devil. The conclusion of the matter is that believers can tell who are children of God and who are children of the Devil. The way to tell the “pretenders” is to see whether they obey God’s commands and whether they love other Christians.
God’s children must be loving, yet many fail to love. So often today there is deep dislike among Christians. Churches struggle with issues that divide the members. All churches need to work on love and harmony. Jesus wanted his followers to be unified as a powerful witness to the reality of God’s love. Believers must help to unify their churches. They can pray for other Christians, avoid gossip, build others up, work together in humility, give their time and money, exalt Christ, and refuse to get involved in divisive matters.
God’s children must be loving, yet many fail to love. So often today there is deep dislike among Christians. Churches struggle with issues that divide the members. All churches need to work on love and harmony. Jesus wanted his followers to be unified as a powerful witness to the reality of God’s love. Believers must help to unify their churches. They can pray for other Christians, avoid gossip, build others up, work together in humility, give their time and money, exalt Christ, and refuse to get involved in divisive matters.
Cain and Abel were Adam and Eve’s first two sons. Abel offered a sacrifice that pleased God, while Cain’s sacrifice was unacceptable. Cain brought grain and fruits for his offering, while Abel brought an animal from his flock. Abel’s sacrifice (an animal substitute) was more acceptable to God, both because it was a blood sacrifice and, most important, because of Abel’s attitude when he offered it. After Cain’s sacrifice was rejected, God gave him the chance to right his wrong and try again. God even encouraged him to do so. But Cain refused, and his jealous anger drove him to murder.
John’s point was not that Cain murdered and became a child of the Devil; rather, because Cain belonged to the evil one, his anger and jealousy drove him to murder. John wanted his readers to understand the terrible results of refusing to love one another. Lack of love can lead to anger, jealousy, hatred—and, finally, even to murder.
After telling the disciples to love one another, John added, don’t be surprised . . . if the world hates you. When people become Christians, sometimes their lives change drastically. This was especially true for first-century believers who had come out of the morally corrupt pagan world—John’s readers lived in Ephesus. Former pagans would have been involved in many evil activities. After becoming believers, however, they no longer wanted to be involved in such things. As Cain did with Abel, unbelievers reacted in hostility, often because they wanted to justify their own actions or silence their consciences. When a person stands aside from certain activities, it makes the others think—and often they don’t like that.
To understand real love, believers need only to look at their Lord for the example. They can know what real love is because Christ gave up his life for all people. Christ’s example shows believers that real love involves self-sacrifice.
Because Christ is the example, believers ought to give up their lives for their Christian brothers and sisters. They do this by becoming truly concerned about the needs of their Christian brothers and sisters and by unselfishly giving time, effort, prayer, and possessions to supply those needs. Such an attitude would result in actually dying for a brother or sister if this were ever necessary. Believers’ own lives should not be more precious to them than God’s own Son was to him.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)
Have you ever been curious about why some people can go out on a Friday night and get totally drunk and then come to worship service at a church on the weekend and they don’t see any contradiction between the two? Or why a man can sit weekend after weekend next to his wife in services while Monday through Friday carry on an affair with a co-worker and he really isn’t bothered by that. Or maybe, how a Christian can sing praise songs on Sunday but hate someone at the same time?
Do you know why that happens a lot in our culture? Because in our culture we have come to falsely believe that as long as we give God some realms in our life we have the right to hold onto other parts of our life and God doesn’t have anything to do with those. But that’s wrong. That’s mistaken belief.
Let’s suppose that you have some boxes in front of you and these boxes represent different realms in your life. So you say to God, “I want You to have all of my life (boxes) except this one. I have some relationships and I know God, if I were to say to You, ‘God, lead me in these relationships,’ You’d probably have me give up some of the relationships in my life. Or You’d have me change the way I’m relating to this man or this woman, to my family, to my friends. So, God, You can have the rest but I’m taking this realm of my life on my own. You can’t touch that one.”
Or maybe for you the realm in your life that you’re keeping from God is “This weekend at church I’ll drop ten bucks for You in the offering plate but I don’t have ten minutes for You this week. I am so busy. I have places to go, people to meet, things to do. And, God, honestly, You’d just get in my way. I have my agenda and I am going to operate on my schedule so this You just can’t have. Take the rest, but You don’t get that one.”
Or maybe this is your deal. Maybe you’re having trouble-trusting God with your past. “God, if You saw how ugly my past was... You know there’s so much accumulated crud there. I know You don’t want to deal with all the broken places in my life and all the sin that’s accumulated there so God, I'll trust You with my future but I’ll just hang on to the shame and the guilt of my past because I’m not sure that I can trust You with that.”
Or maybe your issue is this: “God, I’ll trust You with my past but I’m not going to trust You with my future. I have plans. I know where I want to end up in life. Someday I'll hook up with You in heaven but in the meantime I am going to live life according to my agenda because I have some goals. I’ve worked for these. I’ve got them marked down and God, You take care of my past and I'll see You in heaven but all the in-between years are going to be mine.” So we just carry our boxes and we don’t give them to God. We say, “No, You can’t have this one or that one.”
Or maybe your issue is what the rich young ruler’s issue was. Maybe it was this: “God, I don’t want You to have my money. I’m kind of a spender and I know what I want to spend it on. Or I’m a saver and I’m insecure about retirement and my investment funds and my portfolios. You can have my past, and You can have my future, my relationships and my time, as long as it doesn’t touch my personal economy.”
If Jesus Christ is God's Son, if He died on a cross to prove His love for you, if He rose from the dead proving His identity and His power, wouldn’t you agree that He deserves your full devotion? He wants all of your life. He wants to be the only one you serve. He wants to be your only leader and He wants it all. He wants you to trust Him with all of your life.
There was a pastor in Texas that gave a great visual illustration of this. This pastor had on his staff a young single man who was the youth pastor in that church. And that youth pastor had an Irish Setter. They were close, this youth pastor and his dog. In terms of pet owner and pet, they were tight. They were so close, in fact, the Irish Setter almost died. And the youth pastor took his sleeping bag to the veterinarian and slept next to his dog for two or three days until the dog got better. They were really, really close. To make a point, the pastor had the youth minister’s dog up on the platform one Sunday, just sitting there. The pastor took a red rubber ball and threw it down the center aisle and said to the dog, “Fetch!” And the dog just sat there. Apparently church authority was not enough for this dog to fetch. So the pastor had a banker in the church to come up. The banker reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of money and waved it in front of the dog and then he said, “Fetch!” The dog didn’t move a muscle. The pastor said to the congregation, “On the count of three, let’s all say ‘Fetch!’ together. One – two – three!” The dog just set there. Apparently he wouldn’t fetch for peer pressure. The pastor had a beautiful woman come up to the platform. She petted the dog and said in a soothing voice, “Fetch!” I understand that the dog did flinch but he didn’t fetch. He just sat there. So then the pastor had the youth minister come up to the platform and he casually leaned over his dog and said, “Fetch!” the dog bolted down the aisle, got the ball in his mouth, came back up and gave it to the youth pastor.
The one who had loved him and cared for him is the one he was willing to serve.
Let me ask you a question: whom are you fetching for? It could be any of these. But the one who loves you most and cares for you in unfailing ways is the one who’s saying, “I want you to follow Me with your life.”
2 Chronicles 16:9 says, “The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” When you come to Christ, it’s like you surrender and you say to Him, “Jesus, I’m going to give You everything. I’m not even sure what that all means right now, other than I know You love me and I want my sin forgiven and I need You to lead me. I give You everything.” In that moment you surrender your will. It’s not what I want now. I want to do what God wants in my life.
For those of us who have been following Jesus Christ for a lot of months or a lot of years that battle of wills doesn’t stop when you come to Christ. There are still moments when I want my way instead of God's way. I’ve been learning this lesson painfully again over the last couple of years. I wonder if you would say to God today - "God, anything, anytime, anywhere, with anyone at whatever cost."
Let’s suppose that you have some boxes in front of you and these boxes represent different realms in your life. So you say to God, “I want You to have all of my life (boxes) except this one. I have some relationships and I know God, if I were to say to You, ‘God, lead me in these relationships,’ You’d probably have me give up some of the relationships in my life. Or You’d have me change the way I’m relating to this man or this woman, to my family, to my friends. So, God, You can have the rest but I’m taking this realm of my life on my own. You can’t touch that one.”
Or maybe for you the realm in your life that you’re keeping from God is “This weekend at church I’ll drop ten bucks for You in the offering plate but I don’t have ten minutes for You this week. I am so busy. I have places to go, people to meet, things to do. And, God, honestly, You’d just get in my way. I have my agenda and I am going to operate on my schedule so this You just can’t have. Take the rest, but You don’t get that one.”
Or maybe this is your deal. Maybe you’re having trouble-trusting God with your past. “God, if You saw how ugly my past was... You know there’s so much accumulated crud there. I know You don’t want to deal with all the broken places in my life and all the sin that’s accumulated there so God, I'll trust You with my future but I’ll just hang on to the shame and the guilt of my past because I’m not sure that I can trust You with that.”
Or maybe your issue is this: “God, I’ll trust You with my past but I’m not going to trust You with my future. I have plans. I know where I want to end up in life. Someday I'll hook up with You in heaven but in the meantime I am going to live life according to my agenda because I have some goals. I’ve worked for these. I’ve got them marked down and God, You take care of my past and I'll see You in heaven but all the in-between years are going to be mine.” So we just carry our boxes and we don’t give them to God. We say, “No, You can’t have this one or that one.”
Or maybe your issue is what the rich young ruler’s issue was. Maybe it was this: “God, I don’t want You to have my money. I’m kind of a spender and I know what I want to spend it on. Or I’m a saver and I’m insecure about retirement and my investment funds and my portfolios. You can have my past, and You can have my future, my relationships and my time, as long as it doesn’t touch my personal economy.”
If Jesus Christ is God's Son, if He died on a cross to prove His love for you, if He rose from the dead proving His identity and His power, wouldn’t you agree that He deserves your full devotion? He wants all of your life. He wants to be the only one you serve. He wants to be your only leader and He wants it all. He wants you to trust Him with all of your life.
There was a pastor in Texas that gave a great visual illustration of this. This pastor had on his staff a young single man who was the youth pastor in that church. And that youth pastor had an Irish Setter. They were close, this youth pastor and his dog. In terms of pet owner and pet, they were tight. They were so close, in fact, the Irish Setter almost died. And the youth pastor took his sleeping bag to the veterinarian and slept next to his dog for two or three days until the dog got better. They were really, really close. To make a point, the pastor had the youth minister’s dog up on the platform one Sunday, just sitting there. The pastor took a red rubber ball and threw it down the center aisle and said to the dog, “Fetch!” And the dog just sat there. Apparently church authority was not enough for this dog to fetch. So the pastor had a banker in the church to come up. The banker reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of money and waved it in front of the dog and then he said, “Fetch!” The dog didn’t move a muscle. The pastor said to the congregation, “On the count of three, let’s all say ‘Fetch!’ together. One – two – three!” The dog just set there. Apparently he wouldn’t fetch for peer pressure. The pastor had a beautiful woman come up to the platform. She petted the dog and said in a soothing voice, “Fetch!” I understand that the dog did flinch but he didn’t fetch. He just sat there. So then the pastor had the youth minister come up to the platform and he casually leaned over his dog and said, “Fetch!” the dog bolted down the aisle, got the ball in his mouth, came back up and gave it to the youth pastor.
The one who had loved him and cared for him is the one he was willing to serve.
Let me ask you a question: whom are you fetching for? It could be any of these. But the one who loves you most and cares for you in unfailing ways is the one who’s saying, “I want you to follow Me with your life.”
2 Chronicles 16:9 says, “The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” When you come to Christ, it’s like you surrender and you say to Him, “Jesus, I’m going to give You everything. I’m not even sure what that all means right now, other than I know You love me and I want my sin forgiven and I need You to lead me. I give You everything.” In that moment you surrender your will. It’s not what I want now. I want to do what God wants in my life.
For those of us who have been following Jesus Christ for a lot of months or a lot of years that battle of wills doesn’t stop when you come to Christ. There are still moments when I want my way instead of God's way. I’ve been learning this lesson painfully again over the last couple of years. I wonder if you would say to God today - "God, anything, anytime, anywhere, with anyone at whatever cost."
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