Love Has Feet

I John 3:11-24 “Love Has Feet”

Some of the worst literature in the world is secular greeting cards about love. Messages about love being forever and ever, and living happily ever after just need to stop. The fluff is so thick, that you couldn’t wade through it. In our passage today, John cuts through fluffy conceptions of love and gives love a brain and some feet. This is the first substantial treatment of love in I John. In two weeks, 4:7-21 fills out his teaching on love.

At the end of our passage last week, John says this in 3:10 (read). Love for fellow Christians is a mark of a true believer. Remember there are 3 main marks of a true Christian in I John. A true Christian

1. Believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, come in the flesh
2. Lives a righteous life
3. Loves their fellow Christians

Someone may say: “Oh, I love my fellow Christians.” Really, let’s see what true Christian love is. John gives us 3 concrete pillars of true Christian love.

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1. No love is murder (11-15)
Have you ever had one of those conversations with someone when all of sudden it got serious? “Hey, great to see you! How are you doing? OK, my dog got run over by a truck last night and my kids are hysterical. Oh…” That’s kind of what happens here. We almost ignore verses 11, because we’ve heard it all before. This is what Jesus says in 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.” All of sudden, in verse 12, John’s talking about murdering your brother. What’s happening here?

As I said before, John thinks in black and white. He speaks in clear-cut categories. Love of the Father or the love of the world. Walking in the light or walking in darkness. Living righteously or not living righteously. The same is true here: you either love your brother or you hate him. John makes a chain of statements that link the absence of love with hatred from the pit of hell. Hate is murder. Murder is something the devil does. We know that murderers don’t have eternal life. In other words, if you don’t love your fellow Christian, you are a Satanic murderer like Cain.

Maybe you’ve heard the saying: “I love them, but that doesn’t mean I have to like them.” I would challenge you do think about what you are saying there. With loving God, there is no neutral ground. You love the Father or the world. The same is with loving your fellow Christians. You either love them or hate them. Your heart is directed toward them or away from them. Saying, “I love them but I don’t have to like them” is a cop-out to true Christian love. Not loving is pulling the trigger on your fellow Christian.
Genuine Christian love sets us apart from the world. The world hates us, says John in verse 13. If they do not have true love from God, of course they are going to hate you. Because, like Cain, they are of the devil. In contrast to the world, true Christians have the love of God because they have passed out of death into life.

Again, true love is a sign that we have been born again by God’s Spirit. The absence of true love is hatred, and a sign that person has not a child of God, but a child of the devil. That person does not have eternal life. These are strong words. But, John does not mess around with our souls and eternity.

2. True love has feet (16-18)
There can be a lot of talk about love. But real love has feet. Loving words and loving actions.

In verse 16, John sets forth Jesus Christ as the supreme example of love. He laid his life down for us. It would be easy to say: “When that terrorist comes through the door of the church and starts shooting all those who will confess Christ, I will stand in front of my brothers and take a bullet for them.” That’s easy to say, but may never actually happen. It’s harder when you get that phone call during supper from your fellow Christian…that one that kind of irritates you. They ask for help once more. True love has feet.

The specific example John uses here is the example of someone who is lacking the world’s goods- food, clothing, etc. But it can be expanded to many instances of someone who is in need of help. He says: don’t close your heart to your fellow Christians! John probably has in mind a passage from Deuteronomy 15:7-8:

7 “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.

True love is a commitment to serve others in need, especially our fellow Christians. Be wary of a Christian who talks big, but engages in no practical service for their fellow Christians. We are wired and gifted to serve in different ways. But, when faced with a need that we can meet, we must act. As John says: If anyone has the world’s goods. So love with what God has given you.

True love is:
-Taking out the trash and doing the dishes for you wife
-Doing yardwork or housework for an elderly saint
-Giving someone a ride to a doctor’s appointment
-Visiting shut-ins and the sick, taking them meals, sending them cards
-Giving money and food to poor Christians
-Giving money to missionaries to buy a car, or putting them up in our cottage
-Making a funeral dinner for a grieving family
-Taking time for the person who always calls at the wrong moment
As I’ve heard it said, “there’s no time like the present.”

We all have our gifts, quirks, and sins. Through the haze of strange personalities, the quiet and the chatty, the energetic and the contemplative, we can see the light of love shining in our actions. Don’t define love by personality or merely by emotional warmth, but by sacrificial service for the good of others.

One of my favorite characters from church history is Charles Simeon. He was a pastor in the Church of England for 54 years from 1782-1836. At the same church. There are quite a few lessons we could learn from him, but this is one that parallels our text today.

John Piper, in his biography of him
“The most fundamental trial that Simeon had –and that we all have – was himself. He had a somewhat harsh and self-assertive air about him. One day, early in Simeon’s ministry, he was visiting Henry Venn, who was pastor 12 miles from Cambridge (at Yelling). When he left to go home Venn’s daughters complained to their father about his manner. Venn took the girls to the back yard and said, “Pick me one of those peaches.” But it was early summer, and “the time of peaches was not yet.” They asked why he would want the green, unripe fruit. Venn replied, “Well, my dears, it is green now, and we must wait; but a little more sun, and a few more showers, and the peach will be ripe and sweet. So it is with Mr. Simeon.”

For example, he had the bad habit of speaking as if he were very angry about mere trifles. One day at a Mr. Hankinson’s house he became so irritated at how the servant was stoking the fire that he gave him a swat on the back to get him to stop. Then when he was leaving, the servant got a bridle mixed up, and Simeon’s temper broke out violently against the man.

Well, Mr. Hankinson wrote a letter as if from his servant and put it in Simeon’s bag to be found later. In it he said that he did not see how a man who preached and prayed so well could be in such a passion about nothing and wear no bridle on his tongue.”

In other words, he gave his enemies no foothold when it came to lifestyle and wealth. He lived as a single man simply in his rooms at the university and gave all his excess income to the poor of the community. He turned down the inheritance of his rich brother. [One biographer] said he had “a noble indifference to money.” And his active involvement with the relief for the poor in the area went a long way to overcoming the prejudices against him. It is hard to be the enemy of a person who is full of practical good deeds.”

Sacrificial service for others is not the only way to spot a Christian, but we are best known by this kind of love. (Repeat!)

No love is murder. Real love has feet. And true love takes persuasion.

3. True love takes persuasion (19-22)
John walks us into a debate in verses 19-22. This is not a debate between political candidates, but a debate raging in our hearts. John takes us in the boxing ring of our soul. Verse 19 says: “by this we know we are of the truth.” By our true love for one another we know we belong to God. And then says,” and reassure our hearts before God.” The word for reassure is normally translated “convince” or “persuade.” It should be translated this way in verse 19 as well.

It takes convincing to get our hearts to love, or in the words of verse 17, not to close our hearts to our brothers. Our hearts condemn us when we do not love our fellow Christians. Our hearts do not condemn us when we do love our fellow Christians. God is greater than our hearts, which means he does not lack love like our hearts often do. God is not a fickle lover.

If we love, we will have confidence before God, that we will receive what we ask of him. We will look at this more in depth in chapter 5. I’ll put it simply: if you do not love, do not expect God to answer your prayers. If we walk with him, he will answer our prayers.

I’m sure you’ve had this debate in your heart before. I have time and resources to help that person, but I’d rather stay home. Or, you sit down in your recliner, and you hear “Dear…” We’ve got to convince our hearts that it is right to love others and that we must do it. It’s worth the fight to love, because we will have confidence before our God.

Conclusion (23-24)
John concludes not just this section, but the whole book to this point in verses 23-24. What really matters? Belief in Jesus and loving one another. If we do this, we will have fellowship with God. And that fellowship is confirmed by the Holy Spirit who lives in us. We have this amazing reality called eternal life. God wants us to enjoy it; to enjoy fellowship with him. We do that by trusting Jesus and loving the saints.