Peter Barnes | 1 John 3:11-18
SERMON NOTES
LOVING ONE ANOTHER
Genesis 4:1-15; 1 John 3:11-18
– what the world needs now is love, sweet love, but note Rom.12:9
1. Love is one of the proofs of regeneration.
– 3:11, 14-15, that one has moved from death to life (John 5:24-25)
– hatred is murder (Matt.5:21-26)
2. We must not murder.
– 3:12-13 (Gen.4)
– not neglect (Prov.24:11-12) but actively help (1 Kings 18:4; Jer.38:1-3; Acts 23:16-22)
3. We are to imitate Christ’s self-sacrificing love.
– 3:16; love gives (Gal.2:20; Eph.5:2, 25); the Lutheran chaplain read John 15:13 to Sophie Scholl just before she was beheaded by the Nazis in 1943
4. We are to love in the day-to-day practicalities of life.
– 3:17-18; James 2:15-17; ‘Rabbi’ Duncan: ‘If you are without love, then the church bell is as good a Christian as you.’