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The Children of the Devil versus the Children of God
(1 John 3:11-18)
For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. (3:11-18)
In 1970, noted Christian apologist, evangelist, and author Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984) introduced his book The Mark of the Christian with the following statements:
Through the centuries men have displayed many different symbols to show that they are Christians. They have worn marks in the lapels of their coats, hung chains about their necks, even had special haircuts.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with any of this, if one feels it is his calling. But there is a much better sign—a mark that has not been thought up just as a matter of expediency for use on some special occasion or in some specific era. It is a universal mark that is to last through all the ages of the church till Jesus comes back.
What is this mark?
At the close of his ministry, Jesus looks forward to his death on the cross, the open tomb and the ascension. Knowing that he is about to leave, Jesus prepares his disciples for what is to come. It is here that he makes clear what will be the distinguishing mark of the Christian:
Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me; and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you. A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. (John 13:33-35)
This passage reveals the mark that Jesus gives to label a Christian not just in one era or in one locality but at all times and all places until Jesus returns. (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1970, 7-8; emphases added to Scripture quotation)
Love, then, in contrast to those in Satan’s realm, has always been an essential characteristic of every true Christian. The rest of the New Testament consistently bears out this truth.
Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Rom. 5:5)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Gal. 5:22-23)
Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. (1 Thess. 4:9)
Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. (1 Peter 1:22)
And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it. (2 John 6)
God not only commands those who are in Christ to show love (cf. John 15:12: Rom. 12:10; 1 Peter 4:8). He also enables them to obey that mandate, granting them the capacity to do what He requires (cf. Rom. 5:5).
There is nothing novel or unprecedented, then, about John’s teaching that Christians are marked by love for one another. (His teaching about love in this epistle serves as the second aspect of the moral test—cf. 2:7-11). Because God loves them (Rom. 5:8; Eph. 1:3-14; 2:4-5), true believers will surely reflect that love in their relationships with other people (Matt. 22:37-39; Eph. 5:2; 1 John 4:19). Thus the apostle’s instruction here is not new, but is “an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard” (2:7; cf. v. 10; 4:7-8).
John’s readers knew that truth, because apostolic preachers had faithfully delivered it to them (cf. 1:5; 2:24). However, false teachers had also come and taught, apparently, that brotherly love is not an essential mark of true salvation. Those apostates added to their erroneous view of Christ’s nature and their disobedience to God’s commands a lack of love for true believers. In response, John directed his readers back to the message they had heard from the beginning, referring to the beginning of gospel proclamation. That teaching included the truth about Jesus Christ, the gospel, mankind’s sinful condition, and the need for righteous living, as well as the command to love one another. The apostle urged his readers to remember what they were first taught and not allow anyone to lead them astray (cf. Jude 3).
In one sense, the Lord’s command in John 13:34-35 was very old (Lev. 19:18; Rom. 13:10). But in another sense, it was new. Love had never before been manifested as it was by Christ—culminating in His sacrificial death for those He loved. “This is My commandment,” He declared, “that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12-13; cf. Luke 19:10; Gal. 2:20; Rev. 1:5). The Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect model of the love God has always commanded. Though believers cannot love to the degree He loves, they can obey John’s command to love one another (3:23; 4:7, 21; 2 John 5; cf. Rom. 12:10; 13:8-9; Gal. 5:13-14; Col. 3:14; Heb. 10:24; 13:1; 1 Peter 1:22; 4:8) the way Christ loved, by the power of the Spirit (Rom. 5:5), lovingly and selflessly sacrificing for others.
Having stressed the importance of love in 3:11, John contrasted the children of God, who obey that command, with the children of the Devil, who do not. Instead of being characterized by love, Satan’s children are marked by murder, hatred, and indifference toward the children of God.
SATAN’S CHILDREN MURDER GOD’S CHILDREN
not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous…. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. (3:12, 14)
Murder is the ultimate act of hate (cf. Num. 35:20-21; Matt. 5:21-22) and demonstrates the absence of love in the most extreme way. To illustrate that point, John inserted the only Old Testament reference in the entire epistle: to Cain, the first murderer.
Cain, as a worshiper of God, offered Him a sacrifice (Gen. 4:3-5). Unlike his brother Abel, however, Cain did not bring an acceptable sacrifice to God (cf. Heb. 11:4). Abel brought an animal sacrifice, which the narrative implies was in obedience to God’s command. On the other hand Cain, in his self-styled religion, ignored the divine requirement and brought the fruit of the ground for his offering.
But far from being a true worshiper of God, both Cain’s disobedience and the fact that he slew his brother revealed that he was of the evil one. Genesis 4:26–8 describes the shocking story of history’s first murder:
Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
That Cain was of the evil one means he belonged to the kingdom of darkness, as did the unbelieving Jews who, like Cain, hated true righteousness and sought to kill Jesus. He said to them, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him” (John 8:44 a).
The word translated evil one (ponēros) denotes determined, aggressive, and fervent evil that actively opposes what is good (cf. Matt. 4:3-10; 2 Cor. 2:11; 1 Peter 5:8). Its meaning extends beyond basic evil or corruption (kakos) to include a type of malignant sinfulness that pulls others down into ruin (cf. Matt. 13:19, 38–39 a; 2 Cor. 4:4).
The verb in John’s phrase that Cain slew his brother is a form of sphazō, which is a vivid term that means to butcher or slaughter. It was used of animals killed in sacrifice (cf. Lev. 1:5, LXX) and implies a violent death. (In the only other reference to killing prior to Cain’s action, God put to death an animal and used parts of its skin to cover Adam and Eve [Gen. 3:21].) It is as if Cain, intensely resentful and jealous because his inferior sacrifice was rejected by God while Abel’s was accepted, violently slit his brother’s throat, thus defiantly making him his “replacement sacrifice.”
John’s rhetorical question, And for what reason did he slay him? is easily answered in a general characterization of Cain: Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous. It is as simple as that. Cain was evil and hated righteousness so greatly that he even killed his own brother, whose righteous deeds had rebuked him.
Like Cain, the ungodly resent the righteous because, through their righteous actions, they expose the false beliefs and wicked practices of those who are evil (cf. Matt. 14:3-5; Acts 6:8-14; 7:51-60).
On the other hand, those who have passed out of death into life (cf. John 5:24) are assured of that reality because they love the brethren (cf. 1 John 4:7, 12). The new birth (John 3:8; Titus 3:5; 1 Peter 1:23), which grants life to the spiritually dead (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; Eph. 4:24), turns hateful and even murderous attitudes into loving ones (cf. Col. 2:11). John therefore reminded his readers that anyone who does not so love has not received spiritual life but abides in the condition of spiritual death.
SATAN’S CHILDREN HATE GOD’S CHILDREN
Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you…. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. (3:13, 15)
In God’s eyes, hatred is the moral equivalent of murder; thus everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. It is true, of course, that only a small percentage of people actually murder someone. Many more have been angry enough to have done so, had the circumstances been favorable and were they not afraid of the severe consequences they would have suffered (cf. Gen. 9:6; Matt. 26:52; Rom. 13:4). But the only outward difference between murder and hate is the deed itself—the attitudes are the same. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus made this clear:
You have heard that the ancients were told, “You shall not commit murder” and “Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.” But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, “You good-for-nothing,” shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, “You fool,” shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. (Matt. 5:21-22)
Impenitent and unconverted sinners will be eternally condemned for their habitual attitudes of hate, even if those attitudes never translate into physical actions.
John warned his readers that even though they were transformed to love other believers and even unbelievers (cf. Matt. 5:44; Rom. 12:14, 20; 1 Peter 3:9), they should not be surprised … if the world hates them. The expression should not be surprised translates the present active imperative form of the verb thaumazō, a term that has the connotation of wonder, astonishment, or amazement. Rather than being shocked by the world’s opposition, believers should instead expect it (cf. Acts 14:22; 2 Tim. 3:12; 1 Peter 4:12), because the world has nothing in common with the kingdom of God (cf. 2 Cor. 6:14-15), and the lives of the righteous rebuke those of the unrighteous. In the upper room, Jesus promised the apostles that the world would hate them:
If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you…. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, “They hated Me without a cause.” (John 15:18-19, 23-25)
By their hatred, the children of the Devil have always revealed their true character. Redemptive history contains many instances of the world persecuting God’s people (cf. Heb. 11:36-40). The people of His own town hated Jesus and attempted to kill Him after hearing just one message from Him (Luke 4:28-29). The leaders of the nation later plotted to kill Him (cf. Matt. 12:14; Mark 3:6; 14:1-2; 6:11; John 10:39; 11:45-57; Acts 7:52). The world hated the apostles (Luke 21:12-13; John 16:2-3; Acts 4:1-31; 5:17-41; cf. John 17:15-16) and martyred all but the apostle John, whom it exiled to the island of Patmos (Rev. 1:9). Enemies of the gospel have always persecuted those who love the truth. Even today believers around the world die under the hateful, murderous hands of the children of the Devil.
In his customary absolute, black-and-white style, John reminds readers that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. That does not mean that a believer could never commit an act of murder, or that someone who has committed murder can never be saved. But it does mean that those who are characterized by hateful attitudes and who regularly harbor murderous thoughts evidence an unregenerate heart and will perish eternally (cf. Rev. 21:7-8; 22:14-15) unless they repent.
SATAN’S CHILDREN ARE INDIFFERENT TOWARD GOD’S CHILDREN
We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. (3:16-18)
The phrase we know love by this again affirms genuine love as the outstanding mark of the Christian (cf. the discussion of v. 11 above). By God’s grace, a loving willingness to give up everything to help others (cf. 2 Cor. 9:6-12; 1 Tim. 6:17-19; Heb. 13:16, 21) permeates the attitudes of believers and shines forth in their lives. The New Testament contains several notable examples of such sacrificial love. One such example was Epaphroditus, whom the apostle Paul commended to the Philippians:
I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my need; because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. For indeed he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I have sent him all the more eagerly so that when you see him again you may rejoice and I may be less concerned about you. Receive him then in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard; because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me. (Phil. 2:25-30)
Paul also was willing to surrender his life for the cause of Christ, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21; cf. Rom. 9:3-5; 2 Cor. 1:9-10). Of course, the Lord Jesus was Paul’s role model, because at the cross He laid down His life for all who believe (cf. John 10:11, 14-18; 15:13; Rom. 8:32-34; Gal. 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24).
The expression laid down His life for us is unique to the apostle John (John 10:11, 15, 17, 18; 13:37-38; 15:13), and in addition to life itself it refers to divesting oneself of anything important. Obviously, Christ’s atoning death is the supreme example of selfless love (John 15:12-13; Phil. 2:5-8; 1 Peter 2:19-23; cf. 2 Cor. 8:9). Thus John exhorts his readers, as followers of Christ, that they ought to lay down their lives for the brethren, should such sacrifice be necessary. That this expression refers to something far more extensive than only sacrificial death for a fellow believer is clear from the subsequent statement about having goods that someone needs.
The selfish indifference of unbelievers stands in sharp contrast to the generous, compassionate love that believers exhibit (Acts 2:45; 4:36-37; 9:36; 11:29-30; 2 Cor. 8:1-5; 9:2, 11-13; Phil. 4:14-16). John illustrates the difference in attitude in practical, specific terms: But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? The children of the Devil often have the world’s goods (material wealth) at their disposal. When they do give sacrificially to anyone else (cf. Mark 12:43-44), they are motivated by selfishness. Unbelievers’ philanthropic efforts are usually merely to pacify their consciences, satisfy their emotions, or bring honor to themselves (cf. Matt. 6:1-2) rather than glory to God.
But that is not to be the case with believers, as John’s closing injunction to his readers indicates: Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. It is not enough for an individual merely to profess love for others (which is also true regarding faith; cf. Luke 6:46; James 2:18-26). The proof that one has genuine love and is a child of God rests not in sentiments but in deeds (cf. Matt. 25:34-40).
For John, therefore, the differences between Satan’s children and God’s children could not be more distinct. Those who murder, habitually hate, or are chronically self-centered and indifferent to the needs of others do not have eternal life. But those who, as part of their repentance from sin and trust in Christ, have renounced murderous, hateful attitudes and all cold, selfish indifference to the needs of others give evidence that they have been born again. In place of those sinful traits, Christians manifest genuine love to others, especially fellow believers (Rom. 12:10-13; Gal. 6:10), because of the love of God shed abroad in their hearts. They sincerely obey James’s injunction: “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27; cf. 2:8, 15-17).