God never compares us to others

The last point about what it means to be like Cain is his jealousy of his brother. That may be the most important point in John's argument. It wasn't just that Cain's own heart was wrong. The thing that was galling to him was that God approved of Abel and the choices he made. That was a source of fury for Cain.

Again, in the Genesis account, the Lord doesn't say to Cain, "Be more like your brother." God never compares us to anyone else. We can't find examples in Scripture where the Lord says, "I disapprove of you because you're not more like somebody else." All of us relate to God as individuals. We have individually been given opportunities and gifts by him. We are to individually repent of our sins to him, be restored by him, be raised up by him, or be set aside by him.

Therefore, we are not in competition with each other. Grace is not like a zero-sum game in which one player's gain means the other player's loss. The fact that somebody else has been treated graciously by God doesn't mean he is less likely to treat us graciously. He doesn't use up his love for us by giving it to someone else. We can rejoice when a brother or sister rejoices because they are experiencing God's love. We can love them fully and not insist that we have what they have, because we're relating to a Father who loves us fully as well. He'll do good to us, he has a purpose for us, he understands what we need. We always have his full attention. The idea that spiritual or emotional rivalry with the people around us makes sense; that jealousy, revenge, and clamoring for what has been given another is in any degree reasonable; is a completely unbiblical point of view.

Cain's issues were all internal issues. He believed God's rival rather than God. He covered up his own unrighteousness and hated to have it exposed. He resented his brother, jealous of one who had been given an opportunity that he himself was offered but refused. And we must not be like him. That is the first step in learning to love: We have to solve the heart problems. We have to decide that God is worthy of our trust, and not listen to the liar. We have to confess our sins rather than hide them, to agree with God that what he says is wrong about us is wrong and turn from it, be forgiven of it, and be made new. And we have to refuse to measure ourselves competitively against one another, but rejoice and be thrilled when a brother or sister near us is given a gift, knowing that God's gifts to us have not been in any way diminished.

John goes on to say in verse 13 that we should not be surprised if the world hates us, because Cains are everywhere. We are all very familiar with Cain. We know what it's like to live as he lived. Before the Lord changed us, every one of us was like Cain.

Verse 14 suggests that if anything, what we should be surprised at and should glory in is the discovery of love. We have passed from death to life if we have discovered in ourselves an ability to love that doesn't come from us. It is a glorious thing to learn to love someone we were once unable to love, to take risks for love that we were too inhibited to take before, to forgive the family member who treated us badly, to reach across the chasm of a painful marriage and care about someone we've been hurt by and whom we've hurt, and to discover that God's love cuts through layers of antipathy that have built up over years. That is John's point here. Love helps us recognize that life has been given to us.

Be like Jesus

If we're not to be like Cain, we are to be like Jesus. Let's move on from murder to the wonderful news that begins in verse 16. What is the alternative? "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." 2 Jesus defined what real love is. It is sacrificial and difficult. It is to spend yourself for somebody else. We know love by his example, and we know love because we have experienced his love. He laid down his life not just for mankind in general, but for us personally. We know what it's like to have his death applied to our sin, to have his mercy poured out for us.

Jesus spent himself for us, so we ought to spend ourselves for each other. This is not a contractual argument John is making. He is not saying, "Jesus did a lot for you, and now you owe him. So make up what you owe by paying the debt. You ought to love others in the same way that you ought to pay your bills." That's not the idea.

John's argument is that nothing other than love makes sense. The one who is forgiven little loves little, Jesus said, and he taught by implication the opposite point (see Luke 7:47): The one who has been forgiven much loves much. Our experience of Jesus' love for us makes it impossible to choose to do anything else. Nothing else occurs to us. If we allow the love of Christ to touch us deeply, of course we ought to love each other-expend ourselves, lay down our lives, give up our rights, prefer another instead of ourselves, raise up another instead of taking the limelight for ourselves, give away our possessions, go where there is hurt. He laid down his life for us, and we ought to do the same.

C.S. Lewis made a telling comment on this point: "It is easier to be enthusiastic about Humanity than it is to love individual men and women, especially those who are uninteresting, exasperating, depraved, or otherwise unattractive. Loving everybody in general may be an excuse for loving nobody in particular."

Verse 17: "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?" There are a number of phrases here that I want to comment on briefly. First, one implication that flows from having material possessions is that your possessions don't have you-you do in fact have them. You have not been overtaken by what you own, so that you are serving your things, securing and defending them. If that's true, you can't give them away because you have no freedom to do anything with them-they own you. But John speaks of people who are at least mature enough to be in charge of their possessions, to be a steward of what they have been given.

'If you see your brother in need', that suggests that your eyes are open. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite went by the man beaten and lying by the side of the road. They didn't want to see him. They glanced at him, avoided his gaze, and moved away from seeing the pain as quickly as they could. Seeing your brother in need means you are willing to be aware, rather than fill your life with pamperings and diversions.

My parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary is this year. They just returned from a cruise they took in honor of fifty years of wedded bliss. It was the first time they had ever been on a cruise, and they had a marvelous time. Apparently, all the passengers were asked at one point to tell stories of their previous experiences on similar trips. My parents were among the few rookies on the boat. One of the other passengers was on her ninety-sixth cruise! Again, to John's point, we don't see too much need if we fill our lives endlessly with diversions. But having this world's goods and seeing your brother in need, how can the love of God live in you if you don't respond in concern and do something about it? It can't be.

Date: 2015-12-18; view: 796