Sermon on 16 June 2024 by Pastor Gaius
Introduction
If we say we love God, it will not be difficult to love our brother. ‘Brother’ means both men and women; it refers to everyone.
Message
Often, it is most difficult to love those closest to you. If a stranger insults you, it may be fairly easy to brush it aside. However, if a family member wrongs you, it is likely to bother you a great deal. In the passage, Jesus was speaking to His disciples. Even disciples of Christ find it difficult to love one another.
If anyone says, “I love God”, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. - 1 John 4:20-21
Why are we not able to love our brother?
1. Caused us harm before
In Genesis, Joseph was betrayed by his brothers and put into prison. God raised him up and one day he met his brothers again who were afraid of him. But Joseph saw that although his brothers meant evil against him, God meant it for good; by way of the position he was in, Joseph was able to save many people (Genesis 50:20).
In Acts, while Stephen was being stoned to death, he asked the Lord not to hold the sin against those who caused him harm (Acts 7:60). Saul was there and he was the one who approved of Stephen’s execution. Saul later became Paul - a disciple of Christ.
God’s standard is to love even those cause you harm.
But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. - Matthew 5:44-45
2. Seemingly not loving us
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. - Matthew 5:46-48
Tax collectors used to cheat people of their money, and hence ‘tax collectors’ refer to sinners. Being good to only those who love us is easy. But God wants us to be perfect. God wants us to love even those who do not seem to love us.
3. Better than us
But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. - Matthew 5:22-24
Being angry with those better than us is being angry without cause. God wants us to be reconciled with one another. Do not let anger keep you in bondage. The opposite of ‘love’ is ‘hate’. There is no such thing as ‘not loving but not hating’. If you do not love, you hate.
Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. - 1 John 2:9-11
Cain was jealous of his brother Abel, and murdered him. Cain did not examine himself; he did not ask himself where he fell short and why God accepted Abel’s offering but not his own.
By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practise righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. - 1 John 3:10-15
Do not be controlled by the actions of others. Do not be affected by them. Be controlled by God instead.
Why can we love our unlovable brother?
1. God represents love
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. - 1 John 4:7-11
2. God resides in love
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. - 1 John 4:12-16
3. God requires us to love
God commands us to love. Whoever loves God must also love his brother. We want to align ourselves with God.
By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God”, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. - 1 John 4:17-20
And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. - 1 John 4:21
There is no one that we cannot love. How do we love our unlovable brother?
1. Ponder good things
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. - Philippians 4:8
2. Practise good things
What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me - practise these things, and the God of peace will be with you. - Philippians 4:9
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. - 1 John 3:16-18
Closing
Let us bring one another closer to Christ. Let us have love for one another.