Killers
"You might be right, but you're not doing it in the right way." When my high school English teacher confronted me on the steps outside the administrative building, I didn't know what to say. I had tried to share my beliefs in a school club by arguing that everyone else was wrong. But to my surprise, no one felt loved.
1 John 3:11-24
For here is the message you took in from the beginning: we are to love one another. We are not to be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and cut down his own brother. And why did he cut him down? Because his deeds were evil, while his brother's were righteous. Do not be shocked, my family, if the world hates you. We know we have crossed over out of death and into life because we love our brothers and sisters. Whoever does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother or sister is a killer. And you know that no killer has eternal life remaining in him. Here is how we have come to know what love is: he laid down his life for us. So we too should lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. Suppose someone has the means to live and sees a brother or sister in need, yet closes his heart against them. How can the love of God remain in this person? Dear children, let us not love with talk or the tongue, but in action and truth. This is how we will know we belong to the truth, and how we will persuade our hearts in his presence whenever they condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we boldly stand before God, and whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight. And this is his command: that we trust the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. Whoever keeps his commands remains in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he remains in us: from the Spirit he gave us.
We learn to walk and talk by watching others walk and talk. I treasured my seminary professor's insight: our example is what points people to Christ. About a year after the class ended, an investigation found he'd committed sexual misconduct, bullied others, and refused to seek reconciliation. The way of Cain is the standard human condition. Though God made us in his image, a pattern of evil deeds reveals we belong to the evil one. The way of death expresses itself through hatred of the righteous and indifference to the needy. Unchecked, we would actively kill people or look the other way if poverty would do the job for us. It's a bleak prescription, and I'd rather pretend that we're all decent people trying to do our best. But John says there are only two ways to live: like Cain or like Christ. The contrast is stark: Cain cut down his brother, but Christ laid down his life. In Genesis, Cain isn't an outsider but a worshiper of God. But his deeds were evil, while Abel's were righteous. When God refused his offering, he burned with anger. So, God warned him that sin was crouching at his door. But instead of turning around, Cain's lack of love turned lethal. So, how can we live like Christ? If we are dead, evil, and condemned, what hope do we have? Try harder? Get our doctrine straight? Go to church more often? God saw killers and let himself be killed. He met evil with good, lies with truth, and hatred with love. He didn't say "I love you" so much as he demonstrated his love. The important thing isn't to believe that Jesus loves us, but that Jesus loves us. Because he has given us his Spirit, we have come to know what love is and we belong to God. The one who made our hearts has restored them. Because he keeps loving us, we keep relying on him and loving others. A Christian friend told me he wasn't sure God still loved him. He couldn't stop sinning. He knew it displeased God, but he couldn't change himself, either. The guilt and shame made it hard for him to pray or come to church. Saying, "God forgives you" felt insufficient. His heart would keep condemning him no matter what I said. John says there's a better judge: God. He knows everything, including all our sins, and still loves us. The freedom comes when we trust his verdict more than our own. John writes not to an individual struggling with sin, but to a community. When we participate in a community where we keep loving each other with the love that God gives us, we start to walk and talk like those around us. We see the reality of God's love in each other's hearts, we gain increasing confidence that God loves us, and so we want to love others even more.
What does it tell us about God that he let killers kill him?
In the past week, when have you closed your heart against someone in need?
When your heart condemns you, what friend could remind you of God's perspective?
Take action to meet the one need that God keeps prompting you to meet.