The Standard

Read 1 John 3:1–4:21

11. This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
12. We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous.
13. So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.
14. If we love our Christian brothers and sisters, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead.
15. Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.
16. We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. 1 John 3:11-16

Suppose you had a friend who was in serious financial trouble. What would you do for that person? Would you help bail him or her out or give financial counseling? What if your friend’s problem was health related? Or worse, what if your friend was in trouble with the law? How far would you go out of your way to help this friend?

In this reading, John illustrates how far Jesus went to save us from our serious spiritual trouble—sin. Through Jesus’ sacrifice, we see what true love really is. As John points out, we now have a standard against which to compare our love for others.

Jesus loved us so much that he gave his life for us. His death on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins came as a result of his love. His selfless, sacrificial gift models how we should show love to one another (1 John 3:16).

To love someone means to be like Jesus to that person—to be selfless and to give sacrificially. Loving this way ignores all the enticements that normally compel us to be nice to people, such as the personal benefits we may gain from doing so. Also, loving others as Jesus did may not feel good all the time. This kind of love regards others’ welfare above our own, and it may cost an awful lot (pride, possessions, time, money). It may cost everything.

If you truly want to reach out to others, extend to them what God extended to you: unconditional love.