We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.  Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

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.  If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 

1 John 3:14 – 18

Again, John points to the heart of the issue, love.  One of the most extraordinary traits of human beings is the desire, even compulsion, the ability, the need to love and to be loved.  There is no stronger human capability.  This is a virtue that sets us apart from all other created life.  We are truly of the “new species” when we love, not only or own kind, but, at a far deeper lever, those whom we love because they are also in Christ even though they are different from us.  It is like Jesus who paid the price to open the door to all people of whatever culture, generation or people to receive salvation and a marvelous standing among all God’s born-again children.

That love of God that binds us together is nothing less than the love of Jesus who “Laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”  The kind of self-giving love that John speaks of here is nothing less than a gift from heaven!  We do not find it on earth, except in the rarest of occasions.  Human love, a gift indeed, is usually expressed in self-preservation, not in helping others who are different, and certainly not enemies!  John sets a high standard when he says that “We ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”  He is referring to not only blood brothers and sisters but brothers and sisters who also love Jesus and who live by the power of Jesus’ resurrected life in the Holy Spirit, no matter their language, tribe or nation.

So this statement comes with great power and surprise to those of us who look after our own, so to speak.  “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”

I find myself despising, in a sense, those who do not agree with me – even among those who confess to be in Christ.  I suppose there is a place for disagreement in the body of Christ but it should not give us an excuse to break fellowship.  I need to listen to the Spirit who reminds me, “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.”  Of this kind of love, I am a novice.  I need to grow up in Christ and love across all sorts of barriers.