1 John 3:13-24

Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. (14) We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. (15) Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. (16) Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. (17) But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? (18) My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. (19) And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. (20) For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. (21) Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. (22) And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. (23) And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. (24) And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

The exhortation of the Apostle, to feel no astonishment at the hatred of the world, follows very suitedly, after what he had been before observing, on the distinguishing love of God Christ. If the hatred of the world be solely on account of our attachment to Christ, so far from becoming a subject of marvel, it ought to be a subject of great joy. Jesus saith, Behold I, and the children whom the Lord hath given me, are for signs and for wonders in Israel! Isaiah 8:18. As Christ himself was despised, so are his people. And it is blessed to observe, that as the Person of Christ was despised, so were all his offices; Isaiah 53:2. His preaching; John 7:12. His miracles; Matthew 12:24. His conduct; Matthew 11:19. And his followers, as the off-scouring of the earth; Joh 7:48; 2 Corinthians 6:4

I have often thought, that to a child of God under temptations and fears, and doubts and misgivings, this testimony of the new-birth, in the love of the brethren when higher ones are for a time wanting, becomes very refreshing. There may be with some precious souls, seasons, when former views of Christ's Person, and suitableness, and fulness, and all sufficiency, are not so bright and shining as heretofore. But there are no seasons, in the life of a regenerated believer its Christ, when the love of the brethren, as brethren in Christ Jesus is done away. Try a child of God in the darkest hours, and this remains. And if I love a child of God, because he is a child of God, I must certainly love him, on whose account feel that love. So that it is a sweet testimony, in the absence of higher tokens, of our love to the Lord Jesus, when we love the brethren for Jesus's sake.

But when we have carried our love to the brethren of the Lord Jesus's, on his account, to the highest possible pitch of affection, how infinitely short the whole falls, compared to what the Apostle, in the following verse, speaks of Christ's love to his people. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us. The name of God is not in the original; but it is very properly supplied. And that it is Christ who is meant by the name is evident, because it was neither the Person of the Father, nor the Holy Ghost; but God the Son who laid down his life for his people. And it is a sweet scripture on another account, for it is proposed the highest testimony of his love. It is similar to a verse in the next chapter; 1 John 4:10. Herein is love. As if this demonstration of love outweighed every other. It was love unparalleled, both in greatness and condescension, for Christ the Son of God to take upon him our nature, and for God to give us to Christ, and Christ to us; to bless us in all the departments of nature, and of providence, and of grace, and of eternal glory. But all these lessen to the view, when we rise to this highest, and best of all demonstrations of love, Jesus laying down his life for us; and offering himself an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet smelling savor; Ephesians 5:2. How our love to the brethren, with all the warmth of affection, sinks in our esteem, when we contemplate this love of Christ, which passeth knowledge! And in those cases, where men profess both a love to Christ and his people, who possess from the bounties of a gracious God, much of the good things of this life as they are called; (because when rightly used, they minister to good in the Lord's glory), but yet distribute them not to the necessities of the saints; how is it possible to interpret such a profession, by actions so totally dissimilar? Reader! depend upon it, if such men have real faith, with such unsuitable practice, it is a very weak faith at the best. He can never be said to trust God with his soul, who is over anxious in providing for the body. And very sure I am, that he is really lean in spiritual things, who is fattening on temporal things.

I will detain the Reader no longer in this Chapter, than just to observe, that when the Apostle saith, concerning the condemnation of a man's own heart, that if self accusation becomes painful, the consciousness of the greatness of God, and his knowledge of our heart, may excite yet more alarming apprehensions. This is the sense in which the passage may be taken. But there is another sense, and which, if well-founded, ministers to the reverse, and in a way of comfort. If our hearts condemn us, what a blessed relief to a soul under heart reproaches, to look off self to Christ. There is more in Christ to uphold, more to bless, more to justify, than all the sin of the Lord's people to condemn. And, when a child of God is born again, (and it is to such John is writing), this life in Christ sin cannot destroy, neither can death or Satan reach it. Your life is hid with Christ in God; Colossians 3:3. And when the Apostle adds, Beloved, if our hearts condemn us not; that is, he doth not mean a cold, insensible, unfeeling heart, (for he is all along writing to the regenerate), but it is that heart, which, while laying low in the dust before God, beholds more in Christ to save, than sin unpardoned to condemn; then (saith he) have we confidence towards God. Here again, he doth not mean that it is our strength of faith which gives this confidence, but the full and finished salvation of Christ, which gives strength to our faith. Reader! you and I shall do well, (if so be the Lord hath wrought a work of grace upon our hearts), to apprehend rightly, that our foundation for holy triumphs, doth not rest upon our faith, or the exercise of faith, or any other of the graces and gifts of God the Holy Ghost. Not in these; or any of them, or all of them put together, but the sure resting place of the redeemed soul is in the compleatness of Christ's finished salvation, and God the Father's perfect approbation, and acceptance of the Church in it. This is what the Holy Ghost so blessedly said, by the Apostle, and what every child of God; taught of the Lord, knows to be true, If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful; he cannot deny himself; 2 Timothy 2:13.