1 John 3:16-24
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Epistle reading for Sunday, April 21, is from First John chapter three, verses 16 through 24. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. By this, we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask, we will receive from Him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases Him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us, whoever keeps His commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this, we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. He runs the reading. John begins with an example of love. He says, By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. So this is the the idea of love, that Jesus came, lay down his life for us on a cross. That is the perfect example of love that our Heavenly Father gives us through His Son, Jesus Christ. And it's the beginning of love. God loves us, and saves us. And so then he says, Because of Christ's great love for us, we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Now, this doesn't mean just the men of course, in in New Testament speak, men and women in Christ are all brothers, because we are heirs of God, like Christ. And in in those days, women couldn't be heirs. And so to be an heir of the promise of Christ and one of Abraham's offspring, all of us get to be brothers, through adoption as sons in Jesus. So we ought to lay down our lives for one another. Now, does this mean that we run around like throwing ourselves in front of bosses hoping to die for other Christians? No, John explains. But if anyone has the world's good, and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him. So what he's saying is, we ought to love and support our community, of following Christ's Gift of Love by laying down His life for us. And so if we have worldly goods, and others are in need within our church, our brothers, we should help them. And this raises a really important thing to understand about what the early church taught about charity and love, is that the it was first and foremost for the Christian church, it is that we loved our brothers in Christ. And so that's why he says, If anyone has the world's good and sees his brother in need, it's not if anyone has the world's goods and sees anyone in need. And so the primary thing of the congregation in love is to love fellow Christians and support each other. This does not mean that Christians should not love those who are of the world and help them. In fact, the overflow of love for one another is one of the things that led to the growth of Christianity as we cared for not just our own poor, but the poor of the pagans, as well. And so, God calls on us to love with the world's goods and with what we have, and says little children, then let us not loving word or talk but in deed and in truth. And that's the thing, right? Love is not a, a an emotion, or a word or an idea. Love is an action. We do love, we show up, we act we give. It continues. By this, we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything. Now, I think this is wise to follow what John just said, We know we're supposed to love one another, but we can never love with the love that Jesus has. Right? Jesus's love is perfect. We Christians are imperfect. And so John follows up with some comfort, because he knows that if you if he writes, you ought to lay down your life for one another. Then that's gonna say, but I don't. So he says this. Whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything. So when our sin comes up before our face, and we feel the guilt, know that God is greater than guilt. God's love and forgiveness is greater than our sin, and He knows everything. Then he goes, Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases Him. Now, in the Gospel of John, Jesus says something similar, whatever you ask him, my name, it will be granted to you. And we say, really, whatever we ask. And I think it's pretty clear that that's not the promise that God will give us anything as long as we tack on in Jesus name, or as long as because we are faithful. It really has to do with the gifts that God promises us. If we ask God for His grace and His mercy, he delivers it. He sends us the word to be proclaimed to us. He sends us pastors to forgive our sins, He gives us His holy body and blood through the bread and wine of communion. God promises to give us richly in His love and His grace. And he also gives us all the other things we need. Because most of us have just about everything we need, and maybe way too much more. So let's continue. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. So the commandment is interesting here, he has a commandment one, to believe in Jesus and then to, to love one another. And so it's funny that in here we see as a command, one is the gospel, right? Jesus died for you trust in His salvation. And the other is the law, that because Jesus died for you, we need to love one another. And this is he combines those two as a commandment, a gospel promise, and a law action. Whoever keeps this commandment abides in God and God in him. And by this, we know that he abides in us by the Spirit whom he has given us. Now, when we hear about the love that we owe our brothers in Christ, I think it's very easy to point out all the areas where we lack it. And it is sometimes difficult to see all of the great ways that Christian congregations do love and support each other. Because the nice thing about Jesus is that when he fills us with the Spirit, all of the love that we're supposed to have just comes out and we actually start to not notice it. All the different ways we love, we talk to each other, we pray for each other, we care for each other, we give we and it's it almost becomes background noise. And then when somebody misses something, we're just like, Oh, we've got all this background love, but you did one thing wrong, and we're gonna be so mad. Or maybe even just we're gonna feel so guilty. I think we need to sit back and recognize all of the love that comes in a congregation is people that are accepting and loving and gathering and hoping and praying for each other. There is so much and that is a result of the Spirit work that God has given us. That's all I have for First John chapter three. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai