Monday
1 John 3.10 “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.”
Most of us are now familiar with various forms of online authentication. That can be anything from your PIN, a password, even thumb print or facial recognition. It must be something uniquely personal, that only you would know. Apostle John points out two authenticating tests for Christian behaviour – to do what is right, and to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. To do wrong and think it’s OK, to despise and hurt our brothers and sisters, proves we are not children of God and followers of Jesus who walk in the light. Claiming to be Christian while hating others is to fail that test.
Tuesday
1 John 3.11 “For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.”
One way or another, from start to finish, love is a test of Christian authenticity, proof that we are children of God. The new commandment was made the authenticating test by Jesus in the Upper Room: “By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Love seeks what is best, remains faithful, acts in kindness and trust, helps carry life’s weight, is there as supportive presence and never intentionally does harm. John has much to say about this later, for now he simply says that love is the originating principle of every Christian life – we love because God in Christ first loved us. Love is who we are, and why we are.
Wednesday
1 John 3.12 “Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.”
The presence and activity of the devil is woven into the fabric of John’s view of reality. Evil is real, deceptive and destructive. John’s world is divided into light and darkness, love and hate, truth and lies – and we each must choose the path we walk. Christians walk in light, love as God loves, and hold to the truth of who Jesus is as Son of God and Saviour. Where light, love and truth are absent, murder happens. Cain’s murder of his brother is the first murder story, the start of human violence that escalates from not doing right and hating those who do. 1 John 3.8-15 are not there as devotional comfort. John is warning of the reality of evil, the consequences and cost of failure to live in the light, to act in love, to hold to the truth as it is in Jesus.
Thursday
1 John 3.13 “Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.”
The world is not set up as a place of love, doing right, speaking truth, or walking in light. And the world hates being exposed as the opposite of each of these. That is why Jesus was crucified. Where love is absent, nothing much can live. Where love is consistently practiced it becomes a way of life, and a way to life. John is talking about the fatal consequences of hate. Refusal to love by choosing hate is a self-imposed death sentence. By contrast, those who live in love flourish in the light of God.
Friday
1 John 3.14 “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.”
Yes, I know. Pretty dark stuff. John keeps hammering away at the dangers of hate, and the connection between hate and violence. But reading the Bible is an exercise in realism. We don’t treat the Bible well if we are only interested in being kept devotionally cosy, undisturbed by the realities of a world breaking apart by division, hate, lies, and therefore violence. John is explaining the chain reactions of hate, and is encouraging the chain reactions of love. Hate = Death: Love= Life.
Saturday
1 John 3.15 “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 and sisters.”
Let’s take that first sentence. John goes to the central defining truth of all Christian existence. “Inscribed upon the cross we see in shining letters, ‘God is love’. The cross is “the measure and the pledge of love.” That old hymn is a fine commentary on that first sentence – “We sing the praise of him who died”. It is not possible to kneel at the cross with hate in our hearts; kneeling in that place we are baptised in love.
Sunday
1 John 2.15b “And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”
John is an expert in the spiritual logic of the Gospel. Since God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. Love is never cost-free. To love is to become involved for good in the life of someone else. John recognises no limits. To lay down our lives is not so much to die for others, as to live for them, to bear the cost of their help and support, or as Paul says, “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.”
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