1 John Message from the beginning

1 John

Message from the beginning 

Love one another

The passage to eternal life

John’s central message is Love.

John tells the believers this message

of Love is from the beginning.

He takes the point all the way back to the beginning.

The first family.

 The first two brothers.

These two brothers Cain and Able modeled…

Hate Verses Love

Evil Verses Righteous

Death Verses Life

Cain was the older brother.

The first emotion we see with

these two brothers is anger.

Cain was angry because he did not

see the favor or grace of God on him.

Able pleased the Lord and favor was on his life.

The Lord spoke to Cain about his anger and unhappiness.

The first thing the Lord said to Cain is “Why?”

"Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? Genesis 4:6 NIV

Cain wanted to be accepted by the Lord

and God told him how to be accepted.

“If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?” Genesis 4:7 NIV

Cain wasn’t doing what was right.

We don’t have a lot of information

about what he was doing other than…

Cain worked the soil and produced fruit.

Farmers are highlighted in positive

ways throughout the scriptures.

So it does not seem that He was in the wrong profession.

Even though we see what Cain brought to the Lord

was a problem, God boils it down to what is right. 

Doing what is right brings God’s favor;

 something Cain was not seeing in his life

like he was seeing in his brother’s.

Cain was not doing what was right…

Which led to anger and unhappiness

 because he did not see God’s favor.

Listen to what the Lord says because

Cain is like all angry and unhappy people.

“But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door;

it desires to have you, but you must master it." Genesis 4:7 NIV

Sadly, we see Cain did not master his anger and

unhappiness and it led to jealousy, than to the first murder.

It is so sad to say many take the way of Cain.

They want God to bless what they are doing

instead of blessing what God is doing.

The frustration of not receiving God’s

 favor makes them angry and unhappy.

That anger gets channeled toward brothers and sisters in Christ.

An angry and unhappy person will not be able to show love.

John says we can pass from death to life if we love our brothers.

If you are struggling with loving others…

If you are angry and unhappy… 

If you don’t see the Lord’s favor on your life…

Go back and do what is right.

Ask the Lord what you need to do different.

Doing things wrong will lead to frustration

than anger and unhappiness.

And ultimately destroy you and others.

Let the message of love dominate your life

and it will cause you to do what is right.

Love will change your actions.

  

Scripture Reading

1 John 3:11-15 NIV

11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 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. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.