Saturday, April 9, 2016

Because We Love - 1 John 3:11-15

1 John 3:11-15 ESV 

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. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

From the beginning can take us all the way back to the beginning where the offspring of Adam and Eve live out the outcome of the knowledge of good and evil. Evil has infected those chosen to bring the light into the world. Cain displays and acts with the inevitable effects of the evil one. Satan was a murderer from the beginning. 

This may seem an unexpected event for the plans of God, one that He didn't see coming. This is not possible for the one who sees the end from the beginning. It can be easy to forget that God is not like us. He is not bound by the limits of our thinking and existence. His ways are not our ways. 

The power of God is made perfect, or complete, in our weakness. There is nothing lacking in the power of God that requires our weakness for perfection. It is when we are weak that we are able to see the need for something or someone other than self. We can begin to comprehend the power and love of God only when we are able to look beyond ourselves and choose God. 

The world is under the power of the evil one. The evil one hates God, and therefore the love of God. Hate is the opposite of love, just as death is the opposite of life. The evil one opposes God because he embodies hate and death. 

Those who have entered life have become the enemy of world.



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