Sermon Notes

3 11 For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We must not be like Cain, who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be astonished, brothers and sisters, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brothers and sisters. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. 16 We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters. 17 How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?
18 Little children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. 19 And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him 20 whenever our hearts condemn us, for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God, 22 and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.
23 And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 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.
(New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, NRSVue)
3 11 For this is the original message we heard: We should love each other.
12-13 We must not be like Cain, who joined the Evil One and then killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because he was deep in the practice of evil, while the acts of his brother were righteous. So don’t be surprised, friends, when the world hates you. This has been going on a long time. 14-15 The way we know we’ve been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn’t love is as good as dead. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know very well that eternal life and murder don’t go together. 16-17 This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.
18-20 My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
21-24 And friends, once that’s taken care of and we’re no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we’re bold and free before God! We’re able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we’re doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again, this is God’s command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.

The Johannine Epistles (1 John, 2 John, and 3 John), along with the Gospel of John are called “The Johannine literature.” Collectively, they form a unit of theological thought because they were influenced by the Johannine Community of thought—a group of Christians within the early Church who drew their inspiration from John the Apostle. The Johannine Epistles were written in the late 1st Century CE after the Johannine community was no longer in relationship to the Jewish synagogue. While 2 John and 3 John say they were authored by someone called “the Elder,” 1 John does not have an authorial subscription. But, the author asserts he was an eyewitness to Jesus’ earthly ministry. In the early Church, because of the widespread familiarity with the Gospel of John, people assumed the same person who wrote John’s Gospel—they believed it was John, the son of Zebedee—also wrote the Johannine Epistles. Later in Christian tradition, the author of Revelation was conflated with the author of the Gospel of John as well.
Church tradition withstanding, there is considerable debate among scholars around if the same person wrote, or authorized the writing of, the Gospel of John and the Johannine Epistles. Scholars primarily disagree about their collective authorship because the socio-cultural contexts of 1 John appear to reflect a Greco-Roman context, while the Gospel of John indicates a Jewish-Palestinian context of the synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew and Luke.) Also, while 1 John does not reflect standard New Testament epistolary forms, 2 John and 3 John are real letters written to 1st Century communities. Further, 1 John does not have a formal salutation or formal conclusion. If these writings were authored by the same person, there should be some continuity of language, themes, and literary conventions between the Gospel and the Johannine Epistles. Scholars agree 1 John is pseudonymously attributed to John the Apostle, and is likely written by the “Elder” who wrote 2 John and 3 John.
Regardless of authorship, as “general” or catholic epistles—one of those non-occasional letters which were written to general audiences, not specific churches, within early Christianity (Hebrews, James, 1, 2, 3 John, 1 & 2 Peter)—the Johannine Epistles share a concern for several key theological themes such as the nature of Christian community (Ecclesiology), the importance of orthodox Christian conduct (Christian Ethics), the pre-incarnate divinity of Jesus and how he alone brings salvation (high Christology/Soteriology). Make no mistake about it, “God Is Love” is the profoundly bodacious theological assertion of the Johannine Epistles and the Gospel of John. Further, 1 John chapter 3 argues that those who embrace the message of God’s agape in Jesus Christ must live their lives like they are beneficiaries of agape. John says a life of sin—literally continuously, habitually missing the mark—is not how a child of God should live. To be “children of God” means Christians understand that the sacrificial agape of God requires that we also love sacrificially. After all, good children reflect the character, mindset, and actions of their Divine Father.
In the verses that precede the lesson text (1:1-10), John discusses how God’s agape love transforms believers into the “children of God.” Theologically speaking, sin (harmatia in Greek—literally, missing the mark—was our condition before God reached out to us through Jesus. Humanity would still be in a state of sinfulness if it was not for God’s agape or “so-love” (John 3:16). God’s agape, provides Christians with a new identity, newfound security, and a wonderfully changed new perspective on a life that is disciplined by our living out agape on a daily, moment by moment, basis. This is where the printed lesson texts picks up.

11 For this is the original message we heard: We should love each other.
In the opening verse of the lesson text, the Elder returns to something he has previously addressed in this communication (2:7-11; 3:1,11). He says love begins with Christian commitment and conversion. It is produced by the message we have heard, “from the beginning” (NRSVue). This is a reference to conversion—that moment when we first heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ and committed ourselves to that Divine invitation. From that very moment, we received a new awareness of the requirement of God in human lives—that we should love one another.
The implication here is that this is not merely a command, but a realization of the possibility of authentically loving one another. Such possibility originates with conversion. Certainly, non-Christians can and do love, mightily. But the Elder’s claim here is that love of the highest quality flows within the context of Christian experience. According to the Elder, agape originates not with humanity, but with God through Jesus of Nazareth—the Christ.
12-13 We must not be like Cain, who joined the Evil One and then killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because he was deep in the practice of evil, while the acts of his brother were righteous. So don’t be surprised, friends, when the world hates you. This has been going on a long time. 14-15 The way we know we’ve been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn’t love is as good as dead. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know very well that eternal life and murder don’t go together.
In verses 12-15, the Elder employs a figure from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament—Cain—to argue that sin originates outside of people. However, sin/hate is allowed to take root because people join with evil to allow it a place in our hearts. Literally, sin is crouching at the door to devour us, the way sin devoured Cain. The Elder says Cain “joined the evil one.” He was motivated by evil, while Abel was motivated by righteousness. By this, the Elder reminds us that sin and hate are powerful forces, which reveal the union of human will and the designs of evil. Once people allow evil to take root, the have become salves (literally a “doulos”), to evil.
The Elder also invokes Cain as example to make the point that differs from the Genesis account: hate causes a rupture of relationship between brothers or siblings that originates within evil itself. According to the Elder, since love originates with God, then hate must originate in evil. When Cain allowed hate to take root in his heart, and he murdered his brother, he was under the control of evil. His actions were not only an attack against Abel, but it was also an attack against God. The Elder makes it clear that anyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer—as Cain was of Abel. When hate is allowed to fester, it has the potential to develop into murder.
Then, the Elder says, “No murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” Eternal life—and the fruit that is evidenced by those who have received eternal life through Jesus Christ—no longer controls the one who has been overtaken by hate. This does not mean that the person ceases to be a Christian when they hate, but they cease to behave like a Christian. They have slipped back, albeit temporarily into a space where they are controlled by Evil and not the in-filling of the Holy Spirit. Further, the Elder asserts that while the world might hate the Christian Johannine community—they are still called to exhibit the agape love of God within the Christian community. Although the world may hate the Johannine Community—and by extension the Christian community—they must still exhibit the agape love of God.
16-17 This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.
In verses 16-17, the Elder defines agape as a willingness to surrender self-interest and lay down one’s life as Christ sacrificed his life for us. Because Jesus sacrificed his life for us, we should consistently lay down our lives for each other. “Living sacrificially” or “laying down our lives,” means the voluntary surrender of the right to privilege personal needs in order to meet the needs of another, meet our own needs in order that we might minster to the needs of another. The ability to put others first marks authentic agape. If Christians see others and need, and choose to do nothing, we have “made love disappear.”
18-20 My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
In verses 18-20, the Elder characterizes authentic love as love in action. Agape is not enacted by talk but practice. Real love is enacted by habitual action. This is how we know we are living truly or living in truth (“Alethia” in Greek): our lived witness—literally our spiritual biography—should evidence whether our hearts are filled with love or hate. Because, if truth be told, we sometimes doubt the veracity of our own lived Christian experience. However, the Elder asserts that God knows our hearts, even when we miss the mark (harmatia in Greek). Thank you Jesus!

21-24 And friends, once that’s taken care of and we’re no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we’re bold and free before God! We’re able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we’re doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again, this is God’s command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.
In the final verses of the lesson, the Elder declares that God knows us well enough to render judgment about our Christian witness, regardless of how we may judge ourselves. We are justified to stand boldly before God’s throne, and have the Divine grant our prayer requests, as long as we seek to please God. The Elder then compels the Johannine community to believe in the name of Jesus, obey his commands, and imitate his love.
When Christians imitate Jesus, and love like God—without limit or restriction—it will cost us something. It cost Jesus everything. However, believing (pisteuo in Greek) in Jesus Christ is itself an act of faith (pistis in Greek) as indicated by the close relationship between these two words. When we give ourselves to Jesus, the Holy Spirit activates our belief and empowers us to faithfully live out agape love. Further, as we love like Jesus, we experience his presence through the unction of the Holy Spirit, who advocates on our behalf. We cannot attempt to agape like Jesus, without the aid and direction of the Holy Spirit.

Ai. Thomas B. Slater, “1-3 John” in Brian K. Blount, Gay L. Byron and Emerson B. Powery’s True To Our Native Land: An African American New Testament Commentary Second Edition (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2024), 525-529.
ii. Alicia D. Myers, “The First Letter pf John,” in The SBL Study Bible, (New York: Harper Collins, 2023) 2147.