Agape Love for Other Christians
1 John 3v14
17th February 2023
1 John 3v14a
We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers.
As we've seen before, there are only two kingdoms: the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. There are only two states of being: either you're in death or you're in life. There's no third, "half-alive" state of being. By "death" John means spiritual death, separation from God. By "life" he means spiritual life - communion with God, relationship with God. If you're a child of God, a Christian in the Biblical sense of the word, you have passed from death to life (John 5v24, Romans 6v13). There was a moment when you repented of your sin, believed in Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross, and were born again. You became spiritually alive. You were transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God.
Some Christians wonder if they're really Christians or not. John gives us this test: We know we've passed from death to life, that is, we know we're born again, we know we're Christians, because we love our brothers and sisters in Christ.
There are plenty of people inside and outside the church who are very loving people, so what exactly does John mean? I don't have a full answer to this, but this is a far as I've got: One of the main drawbacks of the English language is that the word "love" covers all sorts of different things, and translates several Greek words. The Greek word translated as "love" here is "agape". Agape love is self-sacrificial love. It's the love of God that took Jesus to the cross to pay for you and me so we could be born again. It would be helpful if we read this passage as "We know we have passed from death to life because we agape our brothers and sisters".
Sometimes you hear of a non-Christian making a huge sacrifice for another person. It's a wonderful thing. I don't want to minimise it in any way. But I suspect that they do so largely on the basis of calculation. So you might hear of an old man dying in the place of a young man because he only has a few years to live and the young man has a whole life in front of him. You might hear of a soldier giving his life to save his platoon, laying down one life to save many.
It's a wonderful and great thing they're doing, but it's a calculated thing. Agape is not a calculated thing. Somebody with agape in his heart is a sacrificial person. It's in our nature to sacrifice for our brothers and sisters. We haven't got to do any calculation. We just do it because these are our brothers and sisters.
Jesus, our leader, laid down his life for you. If you try to calculate that, it makes no sense at all. The King of the Universe died for a sinner like me. The maths don't add up, but the agape love of God wants to sacrifice for me and for you.
We know we have passed from death to life if it's in our very nature to give ourselves for others, to put their needs first, to give even our very lives if necessary for our brothers and sisters in Christ.
John says:
1 John 3v14b
Anyone who does not [agape] love remains in death.
I don't want to claim that Christians are more loving than non-Christians, because I know some pretty miserable Christians, and I know some wonderful non-Christians, but this is Holy Scripture, and the Scriptures are emphatic and unequivocal. Only Christians have agape love.
Agape love is God's love. It's the first in the list of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians Chapter 5. The first attribute of the child of God is that he's a sacrificial person. And if we can't even agape love our brothers and sisters, then something is seriously wrong, isn't it? Jesus said:
John 13v34b-35
"As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
By this, all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one
another."
Anyone who does not love in a sacrificial way remains in death, has not been born again, is still in the kingdom of darkness, no matter how many church meetings he goes to, or how often he sings the songs or prays the prayers or gives the cash. The test of a Christian is self-sacrifice for our brothers and sisters.