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Scripture Reading: 1 John 3:10-15
In 1 John there are three main sections: the fellowship of the divine life (1:1—2:11), the teaching of the divine anointing (2:12-27), and the virtues of the divine birth (2:28—5:21). The first portion in the third section (2:28—3:10a) is concerned with the practice of the divine righteousness. With this message we come to the second portion of this section (3:10b—5:3), a portion on the practice of the divine love. In the divine birth there is a virtue that enables us to practice the divine love.
In order to practice the divine love as a virtue of the divine life, we need the divine life and the divine Spirit. The divine life is the divine seed that we all have within our regenerated spirit. In addition to the divine life that has been sown as the divine seed into our being, we also have the divine Spirit within our spirit. The divine life and the divine Spirit are the “capital” within us that enables us to practice the divine love. The divine life is the source, and the divine Spirit is the One who actually carries out the matter of loving others. The divine love is our daily living as the expression of the divine life carried out by the divine Spirit.
The divine life and the divine Spirit are basic factors for the practice of the divine love. With the divine life and by the divine Spirit, we can have a love that is divine and not merely human. This divine love in the daily living of the children of God is an evidence that we have both the divine life and the divine Spirit.
In 3:10b John says, “Everyone who does not practice righteousness is not out of God, and he who does not love his brother.” Righteousness is the nature of God’s acts; love is the nature of God’s essence. What God is, is love; what God does is righteousness. Love is inward; righteousness is outward. Hence, love is a stronger manifestation that we are the children of God than righteousness. Therefore, the apostle, from this verse through verse 24, proceeds further, from righteousness to love, in the manifestation of the children of God, as a further condition of the life that abides in the Lord.
It is a serious thing for John to say that everyone who does not love his brother is not out of God. As children of God, we certainly are of God and even out of God. Because we are out of God, we surely have God’s life and God’s Spirit in us. Spontaneously, we live a life of loving the brothers. However, if someone does not have such a love, this is an evidence that he has neither the divine life nor the divine Spirit. Hence, there is a serious question concerning whether such a one is a child of God, born of Him. Loving the brothers is a strong evidence that we are out of God, having God’s life and enjoying God’s Spirit.
In verse 11 John goes on to say, “Because this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” The message heard from the beginning was the commandment given by the Lord in John 13:34, which is the word the believers heard and had from the beginning. In verse 11 the phrase “from the beginning” is used in the relative sense. The love spoken of here is a higher condition of the life that abides in the Lord.
In verse 12 John continues, “Not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his works were evil, and those of his brother righteous.” “Of the evil one” equals a child of the Devil. Cain’s brother Abel was of God, a child of God (v. 10). The Greek word rendered “evil one” here is poneros, which means pernicious, harmfully evil, affecting and influencing others to be evil and vicious. Such an evil one is Satan the Devil.
In verse 12 John uses two flesh brothers, Cain and Abel, as an illustration. Although these brothers were of the same parents, one of them became a child of God, and the other was a child of the Devil. We may find this difficult to believe. We may wonder how two brothers born of the same parents and living in the same environment could be so different, with one being the Devil’s child and the other becoming God’s child. Nevertheless, this was the fact. Here this fact is used as an illustration of what kind of person is a child of the Devil and what kind is a child of God. In order to know this, we should consider the case of Cain and Abel.
The fact that Cain was a child of the Devil is proved by his hating his brother and slaying him. This indicates that Cain did not have either the life of God or the Spirit of God. Why did Cain hate his brother? He hated him because he had the hating life of Satan in him. Why did Cain kill Abel? He killed him because he had in him the evil nature of Satan. What Cain had in him was the Devil’s life, the Devil’s nature, and an evil spirit. Abel, however, was altogether different. Today also those born of the same parents and raised in the same environment may become absolutely different. One may become a child of God and the other be a child of the Devil.
Verse 13 says, “Do not marvel, brothers, if the world hates you.” The “world” here refers to the people of the world. The people of the world, like Cain, are the children of the Devil (v. 10) and the components of Satan’s cosmic system, the world (John 12:31). If the people of the world, which lies in the evil one, the Devil (5:19), hate the believers (the children of God), it is natural for them to do so. The situation among flesh brothers today may be the same as that between Cain and Abel. Suppose one brother is a child of Satan and the other is a child of God. Automatically, the one who is a child of the Devil will hate the one who is a child of God. Regarding this, we do not need to marvel.
Verse 13 indicates strongly that all the worldly people are children of the Devil. Only a comparatively small number, the regenerated believers, are God’s children. If we live by God’s life and by God’s Spirit, the world will hate us. Because we and they are in two different categories, they will not be happy with us.
In 3:14 John says, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. He who does not love abides in death.” Death is of the Devil, God’s enemy Satan, signified by the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which brings death. Life is of God, the source of life, signified by the tree of life, which issues in life (Gen. 2:9, 16-17). Death and life are not only of these two sources, Satan and God; they are also two essences, two elements, and two spheres. To pass out of death is to pass out of the source, the essence, the element, and the sphere of death into the source, the essence, the element, and the sphere of life. This took place in us at our regeneration. We know (oida) this, we have the inner consciousness of this, because we love the brothers. Love (agape — the love of God) toward the brothers is a strong evidence of this. Faith in the Lord is the way for us to pass out of death into life; love toward the brothers is the evidence that we have passed out of death into life. To have faith is to receive the eternal life; to love is to live by the eternal life and express it.
Not loving the brothers is evidence of not living by the essence and element of the divine life and not remaining in its sphere. It is living in the essence and element of the satanic death and abiding in its sphere.
The word in 3:14 is quite similar to the word spoken by the Lord Jesus quoted by John in his Gospel: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life, and will not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (5:24). John’s word brings us back to the fall in the garden of Eden. After man was created, he was put before two trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The second tree is related to death, for in Genesis 2 Adam was told that if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die. Hence, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is related to death. Eve and Adam ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. As a result, they received death into their being. In other words, they ate themselves into death. Because of the fall, mankind has been brought into death. For this reason, everyone born into Adam is born into death. This means that everyone born into Adam is born not to live, but to die. A child is born to die because, as a descendant of Adam, he is born into death.
When we repented of our sins and believed in the Lord Jesus, we were saved. Simultaneously, we were regenerated. To be regenerated actually means to receive the tree of life, from which mankind was cut off through Adam’s fall. When Adam ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, he received death into him and lost the opportunity to receive the tree of life. But the opportunity of receiving the tree of life has been recovered through Christ’s redemption. At the time we repented and believed in the Lord Jesus, that opportunity was opened to us. By repenting and believing, spontaneously we received the divine life into us, and at that very moment we passed out of death into life.
If you consider your salvation experience, you will realize that when you were saved and regenerated, you passed out of death into life. Because we all passed out of death into life when we believed in the Lord Jesus and received Him as our Savior, a great change in life followed. We began to live another life, a life of righteousness and love. It became our desire to be righteous and to love the children of God. This is not merely an outward change; it is the passing out of death into life. Therefore, when we love the brothers in the Lord, this love is an evidence that we have passed out of death into life.
If someone does not love the brothers but instead hates them, this is an evidence that this one remains in the death that came into mankind through Adam’s fall. Because death entered into mankind long ago, we were born into that death. But when we repented and believed, we passed out of death into the divine life. Because we have passed out of the death of the tree of knowledge into the life of the tree of life, we have had a change and now live a life of righteousness and love.
Everyone who has been saved and regenerated can testify that he has passed out of death into life. There is no need to tell others what you were before you were saved. Simply tell them what you have become since salvation.
Because you have been saved and regenerated, your desire is to live a life that is right with God and man. You want to be right with your husband or wife, with your parents, with your children, with your relatives, neighbors, and colleagues. Your aspiration is to live a life that is right with everyone and even with everything. For example, a person who lives such a righteous life will not even mistreat an animal. As those who have received the divine life with the divine nature, a nature that is righteous, we have the aspiration to be right in every way.
This aspiration to be right with all things even extends to material things. Before they were saved, certain ones may have had the habit of kicking a chair or throwing something when they were angry. But when such a person receives the divine life with the divine nature, he does not want to be unrighteous in any matter.
Because of the fall, our natural life is not righteous. For this reason, in the natural life we are not right with others and even with things. But when we received the Lord Jesus, we received the life of the tree of life, a life with a righteous nature. Because we have received this life with the divine nature, automatically we aspire to be right with everyone and everything.
As saved and regenerated ones, we can also testify that we desire to love others. As those born of God, we want to help people and love them. When we love others, we feel happy. But we may feel sad when we miss the opportunity to help someone or to show love to him.
Love is the nature of the divine life we have received. Because the essence of God is love, the life of God has the nature of love. Love is the essence of God’s nature. When we have Him as our divine life, we have the nature of this life, which is love. We Christians, the children of God, have a life that aspires to live rightly with everyone and everything and also aspires to love others. We have such an aspiration because of the divine nature within us. As we have pointed out, if someone does not live in a way that is right with everyone, everything, and every matter and does not live a life of loving others, there is a serious question whether this one has received the divine life.
In 3:14 John says, “He who does not love abides in death.” If we do not love others, this is an evidence that we still remain in death. In other words, it is a sign that we have not yet passed out of death into life.
In verse 15a John goes on to say, “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.” To the divine attributes, hatred is versus love, death versus life, darkness versus light, and lie (falsehood) versus truth. All the opposites of these divine virtues are of the evil one, the Devil.
In verse 15 murderer does not denote an actual murderer, but indicates that in spiritual ethics hating equals murdering. No actual murderer, an unsaved person, as Cain was (v. 12), has eternal life abiding in him. Since we know this, we, who have passed out of death into life and have eternal life abiding in us, should not behave as an unsaved murderer by hating our brothers in the Lord.
This section concerns the life that abides in the Lord. A believer who has eternal life, but does not abide in the Lord and let the Lord who is the eternal life abide and work in him, may hate a brother and commit other sins occasionally, but this should not be habitual.
Someone may not be an actual murderer, but he may be a murderer in principle. This means that, even though he has never murdered anyone, he may still be a murderer in principle by hating others. If we hate someone, in principle we are behaving as a murderer, even though we have not killed anyone. Therefore, we need to realize that, strictly speaking, we Christians, the children of God, should not hate anyone. On the contrary, we need to love others. The Bible even tells us to love our enemies (Matt. 5:44). Because the divine life we possess is a loving life, a life that is love, we must love those who are not lovable and even those who mistreat us. There should not be anything of the element of hate in us. Love is our life and nature, and love should be our essence and living. Therefore, we must not have hatred for anyone. Today some may oppose the Lord’s recovery, but we should not hate them. Instead of hating them, we should love them. If we hate those who oppose us, then in principle we are behaving as a murderer.
In verse 15b John continues, “And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” When John says that no murderer has eternal life in him, he is not speaking of saved persons but of unsaved ones, like Cain.
After reading verse 15, some have questioned whether a believer can murder someone and still have eternal life abiding in him. When I was young in the ministry, I was asked such a question at least a few times. Some have asked if it is possible for a real believer to murder someone and, if he did, would he still have eternal life abiding in him. It is difficult to give a definite answer to such a question. It is not safe to say that it is absolutely impossible for a real believer to actually murder someone. On the other hand, it is not safe to say that it is possible for a saved person to commit murder. It is better for us to leave this matter to the Lord and not try to explain it.
In matters like this, we should not be distracted by the lust for knowledge. Someone may say, “First John 3:15 tells us that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. I would like to know what would happen if a real believer committed murder. Would this one still have eternal life?” This kind of question is injected into our mind by the Devil. If such a thought comes to you, you should say, “Devil, don’t ask me this. I am not the one to answer this question. If you want an answer to this question, ask my God. I don’t know these things, and I don’t want to be bothered by them. However, I do know, Devil, that I have been regenerated and have the divine life within me. I also know that I am enjoying the divine nature and that I have the very God, as the divine Spirit, living in me. Satan, I do not want to answer your questions. Get away from me!” I can testify that the Lord has been merciful to me and has given me the wisdom to handle such questions in this way. However, some brothers are confident that they are knowledgeable and capable of giving an answer to questions concerning the possibility of a believer who has eternal life committing murder. We should not have such confidence in ourselves. It is sufficient for us to see that as children of God we should not hate others. We should not behave as if we were a murderer.
We have seen that in principle hatred equals murder. It is possible for a child of God to hate someone occasionally, but no regenerated person should do this habitually. If you hate others habitually, there is a question whether you have received the divine life. This is similar to committing sin. A believer may commit sin occasionally, but he should not do this habitually. If you sin habitually, this will also raise a question as to whether you have received the divine life.
John’s intention is to show us that, through the divine birth, the divine seed has been sown into our being. This seed is the divine life, and the divine life has the divine nature. Furthermore, we have received the divine Spirit to carry out whatever is in the divine life and the divine nature. Instead of trying to answer questions that are beyond our ability to answer, we need to know that we have received the divine life, that we are enjoying the divine nature of this life, and that the divine Person, God Himself as the Spirit, is within us carrying out whatever is in this divine nature. Therefore, we should live this life, abide in this One, and maintain unbroken fellowship with Him according to the inner anointing. This is the central point of John’s writing.
