Aiming for Eternal Life Now

CONSECRATE Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.  Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you.  Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.  HEAR 1 John 3:11–13 (NIV) For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. CONSIDER I want to point out two things about 1 John so far. It’s about first things and contrasts. And sometimes, like today’s text, he combines first things and contrasts to teach us an important lesson—to aspire to a way of life here and now. First things first: That which was from the beginning . . . (1 John 1:1) Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old command that you have had from the beginning. The old command is the message you have heard. (1 John 2:7 HCSB) As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. (1 John 2:24) For this is the message you heard from the beginning. (1 John 3:11) Now, for some contrasts: This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5) Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. (1 John 2:9) Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. (1 John 3:12) John uses contrast and first things to give us a “be like this” mindset. He seeks to inspire us to be more than we are. It is easy to get discouraged when we make mistakes. Maybe when we sin, we question who we are. Great leaders don’t so much get in our faces as they grab hold of our hearts. Sure, they deal with sin, but only as a contrast device. The real game is the vision of becoming. That’s what’s going on in today’s text. By talking about Cain, John wants us to catch a vision of Abel. The world hates like Cain, but the message that you have heard from the beginning is more like Abel and of the world to come, a life of loving one another. John is calling us to aim at a particular variety of love, to aspire to a way of life—eternal life—here and now. Eternal life is life on another level. It’s life in the light of love. Eternal life will come down to Jesus, not Satan, and to his kingdom, not the world. PRAY Lord Jesus, you are the way and the truth and the life. I want to know you, to behold you, and to become like you. You are the bull’s-eye of the target at which I am aiming my life. Shift my focus from not losing to actually winning. Not only are you the way, you are also the way maker. I want eternal life now, which is another way of saying I want you. I pray in your name, Jesus. Amen.