Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20111207.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
1 John: True, Fulfilling Fellowship With God
Part X: Identifying God's True Spiritual Fellowship By Its Active Brotherly Compassion
(1 John 3:10-18)
  1. Introduction
    1. One of the most revealing characteristics of true fellowship with God is true Christian love: Jesus told His disciples that all men would know they were His disciples by their love for one another, John 13:35.
    2. However, true brotherly love is active, not passive, an entity exercising compassionate activity as follows:
  2. Identifying God's True Spiritual Fellowship By Its Active Brotherly Compassion, 1 John 3:10-18.
    1. 1 John 3:10a builds upon John's claim in 1 John 2:29-3:9 to teach that the children of the devil who are not saved do not do what is righteous where the sons of God are manifested by their righteous activities.
    2. Then, to referring one area of activity, 1 John 3:10b claims that those who do not do what is righteous are not of God such as one who does not love his brother in Christ!
    3. Indeed, John added that the commandment that Christians had received from the beginning was that they were to love one another, 1 John 3:11. The "beginning" likely refers to Christ's command to His disciples in John 13:35 shortly before His crucifixion, a command to be carried out in the era of the Church.
    4. However, the love about which John wrote was far more than a verbal claim of love, but a love that displayed itself in compassionate action, a truth developed in 1 John 3:12-18:
      1. The Apostle John illustrated the opposite of Christian love in the act of Cain's hateful, spiteful murder of his brother, Abel, 1 John 3:12a.
      2. Cain's murderous act arose out of guilt over realizing his own work of a sacrifice was evil while the sacrifice work of his brother was righteous, 1 John 3:12b; Genesis 4:3-7.
      3. For this reason, we Christians should not marvel that the world hates us just like Cain hated his brother Abel, 1 John 3:13: the Christian's godly works are a critique to the ungodly works of the world, so the world hates the believer much like Cain hated Abel, cf. John 15:18-22.
      4. Accordingly, just as 1 John 2:29-3:9 taught that righteous deeds signal one is a child of God, so love for fellow brothers in Christ, a righteous deed, signals one is truly a child of God, 1 John 3:14a.
      5. Conversely, he who does not love "remains" or "abides" in death, 1 John 3:14b, and he who hates his brother in Christ is a murderer, and we know that every murderer does not have eternal life "abiding" in him, 1 John 3:15. The key term in these 1 John 3:14b and 1 John 3:15 statements is the Greek New Testament word meno, translated "abide" or "remains," and it refers to spiritual fellowship. John is not saying that only unbelievers hate and are murderers, but everyone -- be he unsaved or a carnal believer out of fellowship with Lord -- who hates a fellow Christian, is out of fellowship with God, Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 896; U. B. S. Greek N. T., 1966, p. 819.
      6. John added that we experientially know (egnokamen, the perf. tense of ginosko, "to know by experience," Ibid., U. B. S. Greek N. T.; Theol. Dict. Of the N. T. , vol. I., p. 689) Christ's love, for He laid down His life for us, a self-sacrificing act opposite the selfish act of Cain's murder, 1 John 3:16.
      7. However, as the "opportunity to sacrifice one's life for another may not arise," what we do with our material possessions relative to other materially needy believers is the test of our love, Ibid., B. K. C., N. T., p. 897: if we have the means to address it, and then notice our Christian brother has need, but if we refrain from feeling affectionate concern (splanchna, Ibid.) for him to where we fail to give of our goods to his need, God's love does not remain (meno, Ibid., U. B. S. Greek N. T.; see 1 John 3:14b-15 above, "II, D, 5") in us. Failure to share our goods here means we do not fellowship with God.
      8. Thus, John urged all believers, teknia in 1 John 3:18, all those born of God (Ibid.), to stop loving in word and tongue [only] (pres. tense with the subjunctive adverb, Ibid.; Dana and Mantey, A Manual Grammar of the Grk. N. T., 1957, p. 301-302), but to love in truth, in compassionate action, 1 Jn. 3:18.
Lesson: True fellowship with God involves self-sacrificing compassionate activity versus selfish, heartless activity, so God calls us to fellowship with Him by self-sacrificing, compassionate action!

Application: May we fellowship with God not in active, selfish hate, but in active, selfless compassion.