1. The document discusses how love is the central message of Christianity according to 1 John. True followers of Christ demonstrate love for one another, as loving others is evidence that one belongs to God. 2. It explores how hate is defined as murder by Jesus and John, and contrasts the loving nature of God with the hateful nature of the world. Christians must demonstrate radical love like Christ by laying down their lives for others. 3. Loving others in deed, not just word, is how Christians walk as Jesus walked. Indifference to the needs of others would contradict God's loving nature. True faith motivates Christians to acts of love.

1. Healthy
Christians make
Healthy
Churches
Love One Another

2. 1 John 3:11 For
this is the message that you have heard from
the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 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. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world
hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death
into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not
love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is
a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal
life abiding in him. 16 By this we know love, that he laid
down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for
the brothers.

3. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother
in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s
love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in
word or talk but in deed and in truth. 19 By this we shall
know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart
before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God
is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21
Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have
confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we
receive from him, because we keep his commandments
and do what pleases him.

4. 23And this is his commandment, that we believe in the
name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as
he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his
commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by
this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he
has given us.

6. The Message
of Christ

7. The Message of Christ
1 John 3:11 For
this is the message that you have heard from
the beginning, that we should love one another.
“For” = 1 John 3:10 By this it is evident who are the children of
God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does
not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one
who does not love his brother.
Children of Devil = those who practice unrighteousness
and those who do not practice love.
Children of God = The righteous and the loving

8. The New Law – The Heart of God
Jesus summed up the Old Testament Law
• Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul and
strength
• Love your neighbor as yourself
In 1 John 3:10 – True followers of Christ and true children
of God are those who demonstrate these two laws in
their daily lives.
You cannot be righteous – without love for one another.

9. Paul Agreed
Romans 13:9 Forthe commandments, “You shall not commit
adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You
shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are
summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore
love is the fulfilling of the law.

10. How Did Paul Describe Love
“Love” = ἀγαπάω agapaō
1 Corinthians 13:4 Love
is patient and kind; love does not envy
or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on
its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not
rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,
endures all things.
In OT and NT – love is best described as the character of
long-suffering, patience, mercy, loving-kindness

11. Jesus Said it First
John 13:34 A
new commandment I give to you, that you love
one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love
one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are
my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
“New Command” = To Love as Jesus Loved
“New Mission” = To demonstrate the nature and character
of Christ through love

12. What is at Stake
John 17:20
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who
will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all
be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that
they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that
you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I
have given to them, that they may be one even as we are
one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become
perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent
me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I
desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be
with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given

13. me because you loved me before the foundation of the
world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does
not know you, I know you, and these know that you have
sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will
continue to make it known, that the love with which you
have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

14. Questions for the Heart
Am I Loving?
Are there Christians I Don’t Love?
Who Have I not Forgiven?
Can I be Unforgiving and Still Loving?
Who Needs to See that Jesus is God in My Circles of
Friends – Who is Outside My Circle Who Needs this
Love?

16. The Hate of
The world

17. 1 John 3:12
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.

18. The Heart of Murder
What Fueled Cain’s Murder of His Brother Able?
• He was a follower of Satan
• He was full of evil
• He was jealous and prideful
Jesus Warned of the Heart of Murder
Matt. 5:22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with
his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his
brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says,
‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

19. 1 John 3:13
Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world
hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death
into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not
love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is
a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal
life abiding in him.
“Hate” = Strong Dislike, Strong Aversion, Hostility
toward Another – to Detest
Ancient Idiom – “To Kill in the Heart” or “To Spit at the
Heart”

20. Expect the Hate of the World
The World is Related to Cain
• It is Motivated by the Evil One (Eph. 2)
• It is Full of Evil Actions
• It is Jealous of the Life Given to Followers of Christ
• It is Destined for Death (Separation from God)
John Repeated Jesus
1 John 3:14b-15 Whoever does not love abides in death.
15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you
know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

21. Hate – A New Definition
• Hate is from Satan
• Hate is Evil
• Hate Proves a Person is of Satan
• Hate is Murder
• Hate Separates us from God = Death
• Hate Proves we Need Salvation

22. Questions for the Heart
So You Thought a Little Hate was OK – What About Now?
Jesus and John Defined Hate as Murder – Are You a
Murderer?
Hate Separates Us From God – Where are You? Do You
Need Forgiveness?
Eph. 4: 32 Be
kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

24. The Example of
Jesus Christ

25. Jesus Showed God’s Heart
1 Jn 3:16 By
this we know love, that he laid down his life for
us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
Jn 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only
Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but
have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the
world to condemn the world, but in order that the world
might be saved through him.

26. Love is Extreme
• Love Opposes Hate
• Hate Kills – Love Dies
• Hate Killed Christ but Christ Died for Haters
• To Love is to Be Like Christ
Question for the Heart
Who is God Bringing to Mind Right Now?
Do the Ones We Dislike - Need More Love and Attention?

28. The Heart of
a Christian

29. Living Like Christ
1 John 3:17 But
if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his
brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how
does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not
love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

30. One Step Further - Indifference
Is Indifference Hate?
Is Ambivalence Love or………..?
If We See Needs and Avoid Them – Are We Loving?
How Did God Respond to the Need He Saw?
If God had Been Indifferent or Ambivalent Toward us
Would We Still Describe Him as a God of Love? Or Would
His Indifference Be an Act of Hate?
He Hates Sin, He Could Easily have Hated Us!

31. A Heart Motivated by God
We Are to Act Like God
We Are to be More than Armchair Quarterbacks
We Are to Hear then Act
Talk is Cheap but Actions Speak
Acting in Love – Demonstrates Truth
God is Seen in Actions Before He is Heard in our Speech
Speaking Truth without Acting in Love is Pointless
1 Co 13:1 If
I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but
have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

32. James 1:22 But
be doers of the word, and not hearers only,
deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the
word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at
his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and
goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the
one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and
perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who
acts, he will be blessed in his doing. 26 If anyone thinks he
is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his
heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is
pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit
orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep
oneself unstained from the world.

33. Questions for the Heart
Have You Been Indifferent or Ambivalent?
Have You Purposely Remained Ignorant About Needs
Around You?
How Does John View Indifference?
Who Comes to Mind that You Could Love?
List Some Small 1st Steps to Loving that Person – When
Will You Start?

35. The Blessing
For Christians

36. 1 John 3:19 By
this we shall know that we are of the truth and
reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart
condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows
everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us,
we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask
we receive from him, because we keep his
commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is
his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son
Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has
commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments
abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that
he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

37. Motivated by Relationship
As We Love Others – We Show Our Love for God
• We Are Reassured That We are True Christians
• We Are Seen and Remembered by God
• We Are Pleasing to God
• We Are Blessed with Answered Prayer
• We Abide in God
• God Abides in Us – His Spirit (Who is at Work)
Like a Parent – God Relates to Us and Responds to Us as
We Obey Him. John Spoke of a Quality of Relationship

38. Healthy
Christians make
Healthy
Churches
Are You Loving