CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
1 John 3:13. World hate yon.—The “world” includes all who are not actuated by the supreme motive, love to God. For “hate” read “hateth” (John 15:18).
1 John 3:14. From death unto life.—Death is spiritual death in selfishness. Life is spiritual life in love for others, which finds expression in serving others.
1 John 3:15. Is a murderer.—With distinct allusion to the case of Cain. “The first and the worst effect of hatred gives it its true character.”
1 John 3:16.—Read, “Hereby know we love.” Lay down our lives.—The figure of self-surrender, reaching to the limits of self-sacrifice.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 1 John 3:13-17
A Sure Sign of the Regenerate Life.—It is such a love of the brethren as leads us to self-denial and service for the sake of securing their highest well-being. That man must be “born again,” he must be a new man, other than the unnatural being which sin and self have made him, who really cares for his brother in such a way as enables him to give up his own things for his sake. The principal word in this paragraph is “hate,” “hateth”; and it is evidentally intended to stand in absolute contrast with “love.” But the word has undergone such change in meaning since it was used by the Bible translators, and even in their time it so imperfectly represented the Scriptural term, that the precise meaning and thought of St. John readily escapes the reader of his epistle. “Hate” is often the equivalent of our word “despise,” or pass aside, show yourself indifferent to, count as a thing of little value. Sometimes it means scarcely more than, “put down into quite a secondary place of interest.” In something of this sense it is said of God, that He “loved Jacob, and hated Esau.” What we have in modern times imported into the word is bitter, personal feeling, and that complicates our treatment of such expressions as are found in this paragraph. “To hate” is not always to be understood rigorously. It frequently signifies no more than a lesser degree of love (Deuteronomy 21:15). If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, that means less beloved. So our Saviour says that he who would follow Him must hate father and mother—that is, he should love them less than Christ, less than his own salvation. Solomon says, “He that spareth the rod hateth his son” (Proverbs 13:24). Fathers often spare their children out of an excessive love to them; but this is not a proper instance of affection, to forbear correcting them; their fond affection is as pernicious to their children as other men’s hatred could be. There is also a malicious hatred of men referred to in Scripture—as in Ahab, who hated the Lord’s prophet, Micaiah (1 Kings 22:8). Wicked men do, in this sense, hate the righteous (Psalms 34:21). It may also be added, that there is a hatred of the sins of men (Jude 1:23), and of our own sins (Romans 7:15). Taking the milder connotation of the term “hate,” let us see if we can understand, and get the precise teaching of, this paragraph.
I. The sphere of hate that may reasonably be expected.— 1 John 3:13: “Marvel not, brethren, if the world hateth you,” is indifferent to you, takes no interest in you, and even scorns you as enthusiasts. It is quite true that the world shows positive enmity to God’s people, and is, and ever has been, ready on occasions to persecute them; but we miss a point of much direct application to us, when we dwell too much on the active persecution to which Christ’s Church has at times been subjected. The indifference of the world, the scorn of the world, is constantly felt, and constantly wearing our hearts. Everywhere earnest piety is spoken against. It is the hate of the world in that sense—the society indifference which we are told should be expected, and should occasion no surprise. Our Lord impressed on His disciples that being, like Himself, “not of the world,” the world would be sure to hate them. Then this should be no occasion of anxiety to us. In entering on the regenerate life we should take account of it, and then it will not come on us as a surprise, or be in any sense a painful and trying experience. We may so satisfy ourselves with God’s approval, that we can be easily indifferent to the World’s. God’s world is kin with us; man’s world never can be.
II. The sphere of hate that is wholly unexpected, and cannot be approved.— 1 John 3:15: “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.” This is true when applied generally to the brotherly relations of man with man—true in the same sense as the saying that “sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Push hatred out to its utmost, and it appears as murder, as is illustrated in the case of Cain. But St. John here is distinctly addressing those who have the new life in Christ, and are thus set in new and gracious relations one with another. What he says is that hate, even in its milder form as indifference, is inconceivable among the members of the Christian brotherhood. In them the great human law, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” ought to be ennobled into this, “For Christ’s sake thou shalt love thy Christian brother better than thyself, and be always going out beyond thyself in loving ministries and service to him.” Then St. John’s point may be sharply presented in this contrast, “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you; but marvel much, my brethren, if you are found hating one another, even if it be only in the mild sense of being indifferent to one another, and loving yourselves better than your brethren.”
III. The mastery of unloving thoughts concerning our brethren is gained through the service of love.— 1 John 3:16-17: “We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this World’s goods, and beholdeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how doth the love of God abide in him?” The point is this—Do nothing for your brother, and you will find you very readily become heedless of him, indifferent to his interests, you may even come to dislike and hate him; but do something for him, tend him, spend yourself for him, give up something of your own to secure his well-being, imperil your life for him, and you will be surprised how love to him grows in your heart, how easy then it is to “love the brethren.” Activity of ministry keeps up the love, and delivers from all evil feelings. You never can hate people whom you are actively serving for Christ’s sake.
The love of the brethren is—
1. A peculiar and most appropriate kind of love:
(1) there is a general love, which we owe to every man;
(2) there is a particular love, which Christians owe to their fellow-believers.
2. Free from all dissimulation.
3. Fixed and fervent, invariable in its operations, and disinterested and fearless on all occasions. This sort of love was shown by John towards Christ, by the early Galatian converts towards Paul, and by Onesiphorus to the same apostle.—F. Gilpin.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
1 John 3:10. Love seen in Self-sacrifice.—“And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Laying down life is the extreme expression of self-sacrifice. We may give up our time, our personal interests, our possessions, our health, in the service of others, and these are beautiful and persuasive expressions of the Christly love. But that love does not reach its perfection, its full flowering, until, in the spirit of the Lord Jesus, we are prepared to imperil, and even lay down, our lives for the saving of others. Love in self-sacrifice is seen in the home and family life. It may be that we expect it in father and mother; but where there is a fulness of family love we find it in the brothers and sisters. They will spend themselves for each other’s well-being. They will imperil life for each other’s sakes. And it should be thus in the family of God, among the regenerate sons, who have become, in the very highest sense, brothers. It is not often that the extreme demand is made. But seldom now does the service of Christ call for the laying down of life. Yet the persuasion of St. John will come home to us if we see that laying down life is the extreme limit, and that love can be shown in everything that has the spirit of sacrifice and service, which comes short of the limit. Therefore Christ set before us the extreme opposite limit, telling us that love could go into the little act of sacrifice, the little trouble and inconvenience in giving a cup of water to a disciple. The essence of a love-gift is the self-denial that is in it. And there is nothing so sweetens, so beautifies, so dignifies our various human associations as the love which can deny self, in order to serve others. That is artistically, ideally, presented to us in Mary’s bringing the alabaster box of precious ointment to pour upon the Saviour’s feet. It was a love-gift with a woman’s uttermost self-sacrifice at the heart of it. That is sublimely, divinely, presented to us, in the uttermost self-sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, as the persuasion of the “so great love” He had for us.
“For love of us He bled; for love of us He died.”
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
1 John 3:16. Laying down Life for the sake of Another.—Two men were working together in a mine, and having prepared to blast the rock, and laid the train, the latter became by accident ignited. In a few moments a tremendous explosion they knew was inevitable, and the rock must be rent in a thousand pieces. On perceiving their danger, they both leaped into the bucket, and called to the man on the surface to draw them up. He endeavoured to do so, but his arm was found too feeble to raise the bucket while both the men were in it. What was to be done? The burning fuse, which could not be extinguished, was now within a few feet of the powder; a moment or two, and the explosion must take place. At this awful crisis, one of the men, addressing the other, said, “You shall live, and I will die; for you are an impenitent sinner, and if you now die your soul will be lost; but if I die, I know that, by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, I shall be taken to Himself.” And so saying, without waiting for a reply, he leaped out of the bucket, and prayerfully awaited the result. On the other reaching the surface, he bent over the shaft to ascertain the fate of his companion. At this moment a terrific explosion was heard; a portion of the rock was thrown up, and smote him on the forehead, leaving an indelible mark to remind him of his danger and deliverance. But the man of God, when they came to search for him, was found arched over by the fragments of broken rock in the mine, uninjured and rejoicing in the Lord. This magnanimous miner exhibited in this act an amount of disinterested love and charity which has seldom been equalled, and which is never found but in connection with the love of Christ.—R. Young.
Self-sacrifice: the Pilot of the “Rothesay.”—This vessel was wrecked in a cyclone in the Indian Ocean. The pilot, Paul Elson, collected a few volunteers, and rigged a raft. Thirteen only of the crew got on her; the rest were frantic with terror—some praying, others drunk, others raving, others lashed inextricably to the sinking vessel. Elson was the last to leave the ship; leaping overboard, he swam to the raft, cut the hawser that held her, and constituted himself by inherent right her sole officer. Within an hour the doomed vessel heeled, lurched heavily, and went down head first. All that day and all that night the raft drifted, heavy seas breaking over her. “We were up to our necks in water,” says the man who tells the tale, “for she floated low.” All that night, nevertheless, Elson, who was a powerful swimmer, swam round and round the raft, lashing her together and strengthening her as best he could. Ever and anon the furious breakers washed a man off. And then would the brave pilot who had not only the heart but the strength of a gaint, strike out towards him and carry the drowning wretch back. But at last it became apparent that the raft must be broken up, and that a second and smaller raft must be constructed to relieve the other. This, too, the pilot effected almost single-handed. The large raft floated away into the night; Elson and three other men took to the smaller; while on the other drifted away a native boy, Paul Elson’s servant, of whom hitherto, in the midst of all his terrible toil, the brave pilot had never once lost sight. “He kept near him; he tended him as a mother would tend her child; he gave him our last supply of drinkable water.” The vessel had sunk on the 29th of July; it was now the 2nd of August. The raft was drifting under a raging tropical sun; for three days there had been no food or water; worse than this, the frail support itself began to break up, and swimming about in a heavy surf, Paul Elson became much exhausted. The end of course could not now be far off. First one of the men was washed away, and then another, until Elson himself and the Scotchman who tells the story were the sole survivors. “ ‘Pilot,’ said I”—so the narrative runs—“ ‘we must fight it through!’ ‘Oh, Fraser!’ answered he, ‘I can’t hold out any longer.’ … Then a heavy sea broke upon us, and knocked him off. I found it impossible to hang on, and was forced to let him go.” And so the story ends. The body of Pilot Elson, worn out by his incessant labours, floats away into the great deep, there to lie till the sea shall give up its dead.—Daily Telegraph.