Love Like Jesus is Watching

Introduction

My high school gym coach could bench press 400 pounds and slam dunk a basketball. Despite the intimidation factor, high school guys sometimes talked a big game behind his back. He demanded we show up to gym before the bell rang, lined up under the basketball hoop, changed into our gym clothes with our shirts tucked into our shorts. He demanded this of us even if he wasn’t on time himself. So, some of the guys would untuck their shirts and run around the gym. But every time he walked into the gym, those shirts would be tucked in, and everyone would be in line. It’s one thing to act contrary to a superior behind his back, its quite another to so when he’s watching. In today’s passage, God commands Christians to show the love of Christ. We should love like Jesus is watching.

Summary of the Text

In last week’s passage, 1 John 3:4-12, John says a true Christian disdains and hates sinning. Today, in 1 John 3:11-24, he says a true Christian loves other Christians. False Christians, like Cain, hate the righteousness and faith of Able (vv. 12-13). They choose this world over their brothers (v. 17). True Christians, however, prove they love Jesus by loving Jesus’ people (vv. 14-15). Jesus laid down His life for us; since Christ dwells in us, we should lay down our life for other Christians (v. 16). Jesus didn’t just say loving things, He gave his physical body up for His people. Christians should love, not just with our words, but with our hands and feet (vv. 18-29).

Jesus wants you to be assured of your salvation through your love for the church. But what if you still feel condemned? In verses 19 through 20, if your hearts condemn you even though the word assures you, God trumps your heart every time. God doesn’t want you to stand afraid before Him, but confident before him like Able who lived by faith (vv. 21-22). John ends this chapter reminding us that faith in Christ and love for Christ’s people are a package deal (v. 23). So, if you obey God and love His people, you prove you abide in Christ by the Spirit (v. 24).

Adam’s fall into sin broke our relationship with God (vv. 23-24) and our relationship with God’s people (vv. 11-17). Sinners love on their own terms, not God’s (vv. 18-22). Jesus came to adopt us into God’s family. So, to have God as your father means you have brothers and sisters. But John wants us to know that this family bond is stronger than our individual feelings. God is stronger than our heart (John 3:20). God’s love is stronger than our sin and stronger than our feelings. If you are truly born again and part of God’s family, you love like your father loves.

John gives three characteristics of Christian love in this passage.

Christian Love Sacrifices for Your Brother

Soon we will go through 1 John 4:8, which tells us that God is love. Christians and non-Christians alike know this verse. God is love. Love isn’t God. God defines love. So, if your definition of love ever puts you at odds with God’s definition, you’re not loving.

The world demands love while God commands Christians to give love.

For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. 1 Peter 2:21–24

 In the world God made, a murderer forfeits his own life by stealing someone else’s. But what do you call the opposite? What do you call laying down your life for someone else (John 15:13)? Scripture calls it Christ-like love because that’s how Christ loved. Therefore, love is the first fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), it’s the evidence of our faith (Galatians 5:6), and the greatest of the three graces, faith, hope, love (1 Corinthians 13:2, 8, 13). Love gets primary treatment in the Christian life because Jesus explained what it is on the cross. Jesus’ definition of love is sacrifice for the glory of God and the good of your brother. As John Stott said, “as life does not dwell in the murderer, love does not dwell in the miser.” Love gives.

Notice in verse 16, John says we should lay down our lives for the brethren, but in verse 17, he talks about one brother. If the church is just an abstract idea, you can claim love without doing anything. But God commands you to love people with real faces and real problems. It’s easier to love the idea of the church than actually love an individual Christian. Ideas don’t have bad breath, but your brother does.

So, love like Jesus and love sacrificially (Romans 12:1-2). If you’re a Christian carpenter do your best work and give your cheapest price to your brother (Romans 12:11). If your Christian brother installs cabinets in your kitchen give him more than he asks (Romans 12:10). If your Christian brother gets the same job you applied for, throw him a party. Pray through the church membership list (Romans 12:12). Give generously to sisters and brothers in need. Most of the time it looks like cooking a meal for them, having them over for supper, and cleaning the kitchen when your done (Romans 12:13).

Christian Love Assures You Before God

God knows our hearts better than we do. He knows our hearts deceive us (Jeremiah 17:9-10). Our hearts are like the sidewalk in front of our homes. They connect us to the main sidewalk which connects us to other people’s houses. Our sidewalks get littered with campaign signs, newspapers, garbage, and grass clippings. Likewise, our hearts can get burdened with sin, guilt, and condemnations. This is why David prayed,

Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10

So, our hearts exist to connect us to God and other people like a sidewalk. But we have a tendency to use our hearts for news. The first person to place a campaign sign on our lawn tends to win our support. Satan knows this. So he becomes the best newspaper thrower in history. He’s always on time and the paper is delicately placed on the stoop. He’s a great paperboy; it’s just his news is evil, vile, and false. When you add our tendency to doubt with Satan’s tendency to accuse (Revelation 12:10), you get doubt, cowardice, and fear. Christian love fills our hands with casseroles for sick sister and weed eaters for a widow’s house. When you don’t love, your hands are empty. When you pick up Satan’s empty accusations against you day after day, eventually your hands are filled with doubts and your heart filled with worry. But God didn’t give you hands and hearts for doubt but for faith and love. So, use your heart to love God and His people. Attend the gathered assembly. Grieve with the sorrowful and rejoice with the delighted. Help your neighbor clean his gutters and invite the new people to your house for pizza. And while you’re at it, kick Satan’s accusations to the mulch bed.  

You don’t gain salvation by loving the church. Simply giving the church money or volunteering for a ministry, doesn’t save you. You are saved by God’s grace, not your relationship to the church. But, your love for the church confirms your salvation. So, lean into the church. God’s people are a tremendous grace to you.

Christian Love is Faith You Can See

In verse 23, God commands our faith in Christ and our love for Christ’s people. Faith in God and love for God’s people are a package deal. A father who commands that his son work hard doesn’t hate his son but loves him. He wants His son to find value in work so he can find joy and prosperity. God does the same when He commands us to love the church. Again, church attendance is a gift for the Christian. When Christians forsake gathering with the church, they prove their issue isn’t with the church, but with God. You can’t claim to love God’s grace in salvation while also hating God’s grace in the church.  

Notice, this entire passage deals with Christians loving other Christians. Does that mean Christians don’t have to love non-Christians? No! Loving your neighbor as yourself means both Christian and non-Christian alike. However, God commands us to show a particular love to our brothers and sisters (Galatians 6:10). For example, if a man ignores his wife and children so he can volunteer at the local Boys and Girls Club, that man is evil. But if a man loves his family the way the Bible commands, he will also invite orphans and widows to his dining room table. Loving our community does not excuse us from loving our church. Rather, loving our church is how we love our community.

Conclusion

You can’t find assurance for your faith in emotions or reason. You can’t measure your faith by counting how many butterflies flutter in your stomach. You can’t measure your faith by counting how many Bible verses you’ve memorized. Brothers and sisters, God wants you confident before Him (1 John 3:21). But you can’t get that confidence looking inside yourself. When you believe in Christ, you will follow Christ. You follow him outside your feelings, your opinions, your reason, and your traditions. When you follow Christ, you will love like He loved. You love sinners who need forgiveness, patience, party’s, and advice—just like you do. When you love the church likes Jesus does, eventually you will find yourself in God’s throne room, with God’s family. Be confident! You belong there.