This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to Daily Drive Time Devotions and our study together
through 1 John chapter 3. This is day 4 of that study, verses 11 to 18, and
we're following up at what we began to look at yesterday. How do we know that
we're His?

How do we know that we're a child of God? And we talked about the fact that it's
because I do what is right and not what is sinful. I know that God is my Father
because I'm doing what He asked me to do.

We talked about the fact that it's acknowledging that Jesus Christ has come in
the flesh. I know that God's my Father because I recognize His Son. I recognize
the other people in my family.

But we also talked about a third thing yesterday, and we're going to really
focus on that today. We talked about loving my brother or sister or hating my
brother or sister, but really focused here on what love looks like. And as John
gets into verses 11 to 18, he says, "Let me paint a picture of love.

" What if you had to do that? What if I asked you, "Paint a picture of love. "
What would you paint?

What would you show to be a picture of love? Well, John uses two people. When he
talks about love, he says, "First, let me show you what it doesn't look like,
and then let me show you what it does look like.

" He says love doesn't look like a man by the name of Cain. You might remember
him from the Old Testament. And love does look like, this one won't surprise
you, love does look like Jesus.

Let's focus in on what he had to say. Love does not look like Cain. He talked
about that in verses 11 to 15.

This is the message that you heard from the beginning. We should love one
another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his
brother.

And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brothers
were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.

We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers.
Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a
murderer.

And you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. In talking about what
real love looks like, John reaches back to the beginning of the book of Genesis.
You remember the story, Cain and Abel.

They both gave an offering to God. God accepted Abel's offering as an offering
of faith. He didn't accept Cain's offering.

We don't know why. We know certainly that Cain didn't offer it with faith. And
because of the jealousy that was born of that, Cain ended up murdering his
brother, the first two brothers.

And they murdered each other. And he murdered his brother because of jealousy
over worship of God. When God talks to us about what it means to love, he talks
to us deeply here about jealousy and how it can become involved in our lives and
begin to eat up our lives.

And Cain, because of that jealousy, murdered his own brother. Don't be like
that. Now remember once again, John is talking in very black and white pictures
here because he recognizes that the false teachers were telling these people in
this church, "You can do just about anything, anything you want.

" And John is saying, "Wait, that's ridiculous. You could be like Cain. You
could murder your own brother.

That is not love. That is clearly not love. " Now you may have not ever thought
of murdering someone else, but you may have murdered.

I need to recognize God's forgiveness in your life. But I would guess that most
listening to this, you've never thought about murdering someone. So you think,
"What does this have to do with me?

" Well, we murder people a lot of different ways. We do it through gossip. You
murder their reputation.

We do it through silence. You murder the relationship that you have with that
person. There's a lot of ways to murder someone in your life.

And when you do that, you're acting like Cain. You're acting apart from love.
Now, as John talks about the jealousy that resulted in this murder, there's a
great warning here to you and I about jealousy.

There's some idea in the world today that jealousy can be a good thing, that
it's a good and positive emotion that shows how much you really care about
somebody. It is not a good thing. Jealousy results in evil actions.

Jealousy results in a lack of love. Because jealousy is all about me. What are
you doing to me is what jealousy is about.

That's not about serving the other person. So John writes and he says, "By the
way, when you think about jealousy, that's why the world hates you. " We talked
yesterday about the fact that the world does not love those who are children of
God.

This is why the world hates you, because there is jealousy. You're living and
they're remaining in death. Although everyone could choose to cross the line and
come to Jesus Christ, while they're not choosing, there is this jealousy.

Because spiritually they sense the life that you have and spiritually they sense
the loss that you have. John is talking here about love and he says, "Love is an
evidence of your relationship with God and hatred is an evidence of no
relationship with God. Anyone who hates is a murderer and no murderer has
eternal life.

" He paints the picture very clearly. It doesn't look like Cain. What does love
look like?

It looks like Jesus. Listen to verses 16 to 18. 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. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need
but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us
not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

Love like Jesus. And what does Jesus' love look like? Well let's get specific.

Here's what John says, three things. Number one, it means we ought to lay down
our lives. I love the start of this verse.

Jesus laid his life down for us. I really struggle with the end of verse 16. We
ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

What a challenge. To lay down my life for someone else. To be willing to give of
my all for someone else.

But John says that is what true love looks like. It is a sacrificial kind of
love. When you hear this challenge in your heart, what happens?

Are you drawn to it or do you feel like, "Lord, I hope I'm never asked to do
that. " I'll have to admit, I'm in the second category. But I also have to admit
that if Jesus Christ ever asked me to lay down my life for someone, I would ask
him to give me the strength to do that.

And I'd ask him to give me the strength to do it through his love. Not a
prideful action, but a sacrificial action. Because he loves me so much.

Now it's interesting that John immediately goes from, "We ought to lay down our
lives," to, "We ought to share our possessions. " You see, it's one thing to
think, "Well, there might be some great sacrifice I need to make one time in my
life, lay down my life, and then I'm in heaven. I've made the greatest
sacrifice.

" It's another thing to think, "There's a daily sacrifice I need to make. I
might have to give up some of the stuff that I like in order to help, in order
to love somebody else. " Now the word he uses here is a very interesting word.

He says, "You need to share your material possessions with someone else. " The
idea of material possessions there is the Greek word bios. And it has more, it's
not just things, it's not just the stuff in your house.

It has the idea of your livelihood, what you have to live on. It's the same word
as is used in Mark 12, 44, you remember that passage about the widow who gave
the two small coins, and Jesus said it was all that she had, it was her living?
Same word, her bios.

This is not just your money, it's all your resources, time, possessions, money,
energy. It is giving of yourself to meet another person's need. And if you're
like me, every time you do that, it's a sacrifice.

Every time you do that, you need the strength of Jesus Christ. It's natural and
easy to make the selfish choice. It is Christian, and it is called, and it is
something that God brings about in our lives when we make this unselfish choice.

We got to share our possessions, we got to lay down our lives. And then John
says a third thing, we got to love with action and in truth, not with word and
tongue. Love is not something you just talk about, it is something you do.

Now I love the way he says this through the inspiration of the Spirit. We do it
with action and in truth. It's very important to have both.

Action without truth, I act in love towards you, but there's no truth in my
life. My life is filled with lies and hypocrisy, that's a lie. But truth without
action is a deception.

When you get truth and action together in one life, that is a powerful, powerful
expression of love. It's a life-changing expression of love. If you're like me,
you need the power of Jesus Christ to do this in daily life, every day of your
life.

That's why, as we said yesterday, you have to abide in Jesus, constantly stay
attached to him with this kind of love to happen in your life. Let's ask him for
it right now. Jesus, I need your power to love like you, and I ask for it right
now.

Lord, these are some big challenges. To be willing to lay down my life as you
laid down your life for me, to have that kind of spirit of sacrifice. Jesus, I
need you to do something in my heart to get me to that place.

And if ever there came a point in my life where I'd have to be willing to do
that, Jesus, I need you to work in my heart to prepare me for that moment. Lord,
you also challenge me here to give of my living, and that's in some ways a
greater challenge because it's something I know I have to do every day of my
life. Help me to see when to do that.

Help me to have the wisdom to do that in ways that show people that I love them.
And Jesus, you challenge me to love not just with words, but with action and in
truth. Help me to see right now some small way, maybe, that I could love with
action and in truth.

And let that be the pattern of my life today. Lord, there are so many things
that I'm concerned about getting done for me today, my schedule, my routine, my
checklist. But Lord, when I look at your greater schedule, when I look at your
greater calling, it's a calling to love.

And I pray that today you would call forth love in my life so that I could love
in action, in truth today. In your name, amen. Tomorrow, as we end our look at
chapter 3, we're going to be talking about what do you do when you're confused
or discouraged in your faith.