Loving God and Hating People
The runners crouched. The starter held his gun aloft and slowly called “Set”. Then he squeezed the trigger. The runners exploded from the blocks. It was a fair start. The men’s 100 meter dash - the centerpiece of the 1988 Olympic Games - was underway. It was a race to decide the world’s fastest human.
People around the world had been eagerly awaiting the confrontation between two men; Ben Johnson of Canada and Carl Lewis of the United States. These bitter rivals had met before and the results were spectacular. Two billion people around the globe crowded in front of their television screens to watch 10 seconds of history in the making.
In lane 6, Johnson came out of his crouch like a rocket and surged into the lead. The rest of the runners felt his power and they knew they had to catch him. Over in lane 3, Carl Lewis, who was never a great starter, knew he would need to accelerate all the way down the track if he were to win.
But Johnson ran like a man possessed. By 50 meters, he was one meter ahead of the pack; by 80 meters, he was two. He was untouchable. He flashed through the tape with his fist triumphantly raised. He had broken the world record and run the 100 meters in 9.79 sec., something that no one had ever done before.
But it was all a sham. Two days later, Johnson was stripped of his gold medal and sent home in disgrace. He had tested positive for steroids. It was the drug that gave him his superhuman speed. His unbelievable performance had come out of a bottle. It was not real. It was not authentic.
We live in a day when authenticity is in short supply. Nowhere is that more true than in the spiritual realm. It was true back in the first century, and it is just as true today as we approach the twenty-first century. People are hungry for reality. They’re tired of spiritual phoneys. They want authenticity.
John writes about that in 1 John chapter 2. Let’s read it together.
1 John 2:3 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
I want to divide this passage up into two sections:
1. The principle of authentic Christianity - v.3-6
2. The practice of authentic Christianity - v.7-11
1. The principle of authentic Christianity - v.3-6
John says that the mark of a real Christian is simple: “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.” In other words, “to know Jesus is to obey Jesus.” Obedience is the hallmark of a true Christian. If you are not obeying Him, it means that you simply don’t know Him, in spite of what you claim to the contrary.
Look at verse 4: “The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” Verse 6 says “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”
If we claim to be Christians, if we claim to have that special relationship with God, then our lives and our testimony better back it up. We don’t have any credibility in the eyes of the world if we don’t practice what we preach. Our lives must line up with the teaching of Jesus.
Several years ago, I read a newspaper account of a Baptist Church in Mt. Clemens, Michigan. The state police had to be called in one Sunday because a gunfight had broken out in the morning service. Apparently the deacons and the pastor got into a disagreement over something and someone pulled a gun. Shots were fired, and that little local church was catapulted into the national media spotlight.
Over on Long Island, there is a pastor of a large church who became known for more than his preaching He was the man who introduced his secretary Jessica Hahn to Jim Bakker. This pastor made a habit of taking the offering money from his church and flying down to Atlantic City to gamble with it. He had a different woman on his arm on each trip. That man ended up in jail for embezzling funds, but after his release, he returned as the pastor of the church.
Now you and I may shudder when we hear stories like that. We shake our heads and say “Boy, it’s really a shame when people like that don’t practice what they preach. They give all of us a bad name.” And we wrap our religious robes around us and cross over to the other side of the street.
But there are other more subtle ways that Christians damage their credibility.
Just last week, I received a publication from a Baptist fundamentalist missions organization. This organization is made up of well-known Baptist missions, many of whose names you would recognize. This group claims to be biblically-based and Christ honoring, but when I read their newsletter, I actually felt sick.
It was filled, from beginning to end, with angry, bitter accusations against other Christian groups who didn’t happen to agree with their particular interpretation of Scripture.
The world looks at us taking pot-shots at each other in the name of Jesus, they look at our rivalry, our competitiveness, our resentment towards each other, our inconsistency in living up to what we say we believe, and they say “If that’s Christianity, then who needs it?”
There’s something missing in Christianity like that. What’s missing is found in verses 7-11.
2. The practice of authentic Christianity - v.7-11
We’ve seen that the principle of authentic Christianity is to obey Jesus Christ. To know him is to obey him. Jesus said in John 14:21 “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.” Obedience is the proof that you really know God.
But what is the one thing that proves in practice your obedience? It is love for other people.
Look at verses 9-10 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.
The hallmark of an obedient Christian is that he loves others. Not just the people who are easy to love - anybody can do that - but the people who are hardest to love. The people who are out to get you. The people who talk about you behind your back. The people who have it in for you; who give you grief.
Do you love them? When you start loving people like that, that’s when the world is going to sit up and take notice. That’s when your testimony sprouts wings. Loving in adversity is the one thing that really shows people that you are a Christian.
When we lived on Long Island, we lived right next door to a neighbor who didn’t like us. She didn’t like our kids, and she didn’t like us. From the day we moved in, we got nothing but grief from her.
At first, we thought “Well, that’s alright, we’ll just try to love her anyway. We’ll win her over with love.” So we tried to be nice to her, and be friendly with her. We even took her a piece of dessert every now and then.
But nothing worked. We could still sense this undercurrent of hostility that sometimes bubbled up into angry accusations. We would say “hello” and she’d turn the other way and ignore us.
So after about six years of living beside this person day in and day out, you know what I did? I gave up. I said to myself “If that’s the way she wants to be, I’m just not going to bother anymore.” (Now my wife didn’t give up, but I did.)
You know what I proved when I gave up trying to love that difficult woman? I proved that I hadn’t been loving her with God’s love. I proved that loving her was just a project that I had been trying to do on my own.
And when you try to love an unlovable person in your own strength, sooner or later, your love will come to an end. Sooner or later, you’ll say “That’s it. This is a losing proposition. I’m getting no return on my investment, so I’m gonna cut my losses. I’m going to take my love somewhere else where it’s more appreciated.” That’s how it is with human love. Sooner or later it runs out.
Because of the struggles and the failure I’ve had in this area, I’ve become especially attuned to the fact that other Christians struggle with it as well. And you know what I’ve found out?
I’ve discovered that God seems to put into every Christian’s life a person just like my Long Island neighbor. It’s amazing; it’s almost a spiritual law! I’d be willing to bet that every one of you has somebody like this in your life right now. Someone you’re struggling to love.
It may be a next door neighbor from hell. Or it may be someone you work with. Or it may be a family member. But whoever it is, it seems to be someone you just can’t get away from, someone you can’t avoid, someone who’s going to be there, in your face, every day.
And you find yourself crying out to God “Why is this person in my life? Why have you allowed this? Why are you punishing me this way?”
And you know what God says? “So you can learn what love is all about. So you can learn what it costs. So you can get a little inkling of what it cost me to love you. So you can come to the end of your resources, the end of your human love, and start relying on my divine love to love that difficult person in your life.”
Bible quiz time! What was the last miracle Jesus performed before he died on the cross? Think about that for a minute…
The last miracle that Jesus performed before he died on the cross was when he healed the servant of the high priest’s ear. It happened in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night that Jesus was arrested. Judas, the betrayer, led a detachment of soldiers into the Garden. There was a confrontation.
Peter, had been asleep when he should have been praying. And he did what people generally do when they haven’t done their prayer work. He reacted naturally instead of spiritually. He lashed out at the enemy. He whipped out his sword and took a swing at the high priest’s servant. He was probably trying to cut off the man’s head, but he missed and got only his right ear instead.
Dr. Luke records this miracle. And he uses the diminutive form of the word “ear”, which indicates that it may only have been part of the man’s ear. Maybe just his ear lobe. Now a man can go through life with part of his ear missing and it wouldn’t bother him too much. It would only be a cosmetic thing. No great loss.
But Jesus rebuked Peter. He said “No, this is not how it’s going to be. We’re not going to live by the sword. We’re not going to lash out at our enemies.” And then he touched the man’s ear and made it whole again.
Only Luke records that he did that. It was probably the smallest miracle that Jesus ever did. But maybe it was the most significant.
Jesus went to the cross loving his enemies; doing good towards his persecutors. His last supernatural act before he died was an act of kindness toward a man who was there to help arrest him and take him away to be executed. The only blood that Jesus would allow to be spilled that day would be his own.
John says in v.6 “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” How did Jesus walk? He walked in love. And when you walk in love, you walk toward your enemies instead of away from them.
When Luke records that little miracle in the Garden, he says that Jesus touched the man’s ear. He actually reached out and touched the man’s ear. He could have done that miracle without actually touching the man. He could have just spoken a word and made that man whole again.
But he touched him. He touched his ear. His ear must have been bleeding. Jesus must have gotten the man’s blood on his hands. But he touched him anyway. He touched him in love.
That man’s name was Malchus. We don’t know what became of him. But I guarantee you that that man remembered that touch for the rest of his life.
Jesus gave the world the right to decide whether we are really his followers on the basis of our love. Not our doctrine. Not our preaching. Not our buildings or our programs, but our love. If they see love in us; if they sense that we really care about them, then they’ll be interested in knowing Him.
I pray that we would learn to love as Jesus did.