The Evidence of Love

October 19, 2025|The Evidence of Love|1 John 3:11-24

John-Daniel Cutler

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As we continue walking through the apostolic letter of 1st John we see him pick back up a theme that he began earlier in his letter.

In chapter 2 in verses 9 and 10 he says, 9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. In that particular section he was contrasting walking in the light and walking in the darkness, and from those verses we spoke on the test of love.

This morning we will see that John returns to the idea of loving our brother, but this time digs in a little deeper, or perhaps we might say, builds on, the foundational test of love by showing us how love is the evidence that we are children of God. In that part of his letter he did not spend anytime exploring the definition of what ‘love his brother’ truly means, what the evidences of that love are in reality, or the what love had to do with abiding in the light. All things that he explores more fully in our text today.

As way of introduction, in our text last week we ended on verse 10 where John says, By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.” That statement serves somewhat as a dividing line between what he has already said and what he is about to say. Much of what precedes that statement deals with the idea of practicing righteousness as evidence that someone is a child of God and much of what follows, what we will be looking at this morning deals with loving our brother as evidence that someone is a child of God. While we can certainly speak of these ideas independently, we must also remember that the one who displays one will display the other. No one will practice righteousness if he does not also love his brother, and no one will truly love his brother and not also practice righteousness. We examined what it means to practice righteousness last week, this week what John means by ‘nor is the one who does not love his brother.’

Last week we talked about the importance of being able to answer the question, Am I a child of God?

As our time concluded, I encouraged you to look back over your life for clear evidence that you belonged to God, focusing there on the first part of John’s statement by looking for signs that your relationship to sin has changed along with whether your greatest desire was to please God or yourself. This week, as we continue examining what John calls clear evidence, I pray that you will continue that process by now examining your relationship with your brothers and sisters in Christ. It seems that John’s primary purposes in this section of his letter is to remind his hearers that genuine Christ-like love is the evidence that they are children of God, which serves his overall purpose of the letter in distinguishing those who actually belong to God and those who merely claim to. Indeed, I think we can clearly say that Christ-like love is evidence that someone is a child of God. This morning I want to show you how the apostle John lays out the evidence in three parts that we will summarize in three correlating statements. The first statement is…

I. IF WE HAVE LIFE, WE HAVE LOVE

If you haven’t already, open your bible to the third chapter of 1st John and we will pick up this morning in verse 11. We will ready through verse 15 to begin with.

1 John 3:11–15 ESV

11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

We see John in these verses expounding on his statement in verse 10 that no one who does not love his brother is a child of God by returning again to the message that they had heard from the beginning.

If this language is familiar, it is because John said something very similar in chapter 2 when he says, 7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. While he doesn’t explicitly state it there, he references it when he starts talking about hate and love in the context of brothers. Here he explicitly states what he implied earlier, the word that they heard from the beginning is that we should love one another. We stated when we looked at that passage, that from the beginning is probably a reference to when they first heard the gospel, or the good news.

What you may not remember, and what I would remind you of this morning, is John is not the first person to tie the gospel message to the command to love one another. In the upper room with his disciples, Jesus said, 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”” People will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. I have no doubt that when the gospel message was proclaimed Jesus’ message was repeated. How could it not be?

The very idea of going from Jerusalem into the world to spread the gospel was Jesus’ commission, when he said, 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.

How can you make a disciple if you don’t explain to someone what the Lord said will be evidence of a disciple?

So what should a disciple be?

John says, not like Cain. He goes back to this first set of brothers to illustrate what a lack of love looks like as well as the difference between a child of God and a child of the devil as he previously stated in verse 10. We see this in the way he describes Cain when he says who was of the evil one. Now, we know that Cain murdered his brother Abel.

We find this account in Genesis chapter 4. We also know that it happened after they both brought an offering to the Lord. Cain from the fruit of the ground since he was a farmer, and Abel from the flock since he was a shepherd. We know that God had regard for Abel, or respect for Abel’s offering and not for Cain’s. We know that this made Cain very angry and after God warned him of his anger leading to sin mastering him, he went ahead and murdered Abel. John speaking through inspiration of the Spirit walks us through what led to this first murder. Why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. When we read the account in Genesis the only noteworthy difference between the sacrifices is that it says that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground, while Abel brought the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. From John we see that something about Cain’s offering was evil while Abel’s was righteous. Arguing from what we know, Abel is said to have brought of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions, we can say that Abel’s sacrifice reflected a holy reverence for God. He did not hold back, but brought the very best in it’s entirety. John calls that a righteous deed, which I think we can understand in terms that it was motivated by a response to who God was and his Holiness. We can speculate since Cain’s offering lacks descriptions like the first-fruits or even the best of the fruit of the ground, that Cain’s sacrifice was motivated by something lesser, or at least that his view of God was not as high as Abel’s.

Now, I think what John is saying is that when Cain saw Abel’s offering and especially that it was regarded by God, the level of worship and righteousness that Abel displayed in his offering, it actually served to highlight the inferior nature of Cain’s worship and sacrifice. Supporting this understanding, I think, is God’s own words to Cain when he says, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted?”.

Now, here is John’s application, do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. Don’t marvel at or wonder at the fact that the world (that is those separated from God) hates you. Detest you.

Why? Because your life in Christ, your devotion to God, the righteousness of Christ lived out in you will and does shine light on their wickedness. Instead of desiring to be right with God themselves, instead of doing well, as God says to Cain, they choose to follow Cain’s example and hate the one who is right with God. Their hate is evidence that they have not passed out of death into life, or as John says previously, they are still in darkness. Conversely, John says the evidence that we have passed out of death into life is that we love the brothers. If we do not love, it is evidence that we abide in death.

When we looked at 1 John 2 we talked about the contrasts of hate and love and that one commentator says ‘The heart is not empty, where love is not, there is hatred.’

If there is an ongoing love for the brothers we can know that we have life, if there is no love we know that there is no life.

John, drawing from Jesus’ own words in the sermon on the mount presses further when he says, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. Matthew 5:21-24 (ESV) 21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Jesus exposes that the act of murder begins in the heart with hate, and having hate for a brother is equally culpable as the one who murders in reference to God’s judgment.

John, carrying this teaching of Christ forward says, you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Now, we are not talking about simply getting mad at someone in the church, we are not talking about having a disagreement with a brother or sister, we are talking about an ongoing hatred in your heart. The verb translated hates in the statement, the one who hates his brother is in the present tense and indicates on ongoing action. We might read his sentence like this. The one hating his brother is a murderer.

Here is where John’s usage of Cain is a great teaching moment. Let’s say you do have a brother or sister you are mad at, when God’s word tells you to forgive, when God’s world tells you to pursue peace, when God’s word tells you to love the brothers, when God steps into the situation and shows you that your anger is incompatible with a life in Christ, do you repent or do you proceed? Cain proceeded, showing that he was not a child of God but rather a child of the devil. If you have new life, if you have truly been brought from death to life, you will not be able to continue hating your brother or sister in Christ. Where there is life, there is love.

Which leads to a very good and pertinent question. So what is love that evidences life? This leads us to our next statement.

II. IF WE HAVE LOVE, WE DISPLAY LOVE

Let’s pick up in verse 16 and read through verse 18 as we consider this second statement.

1 John 3:16–18 ESV

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

In these verses, John both describes and defines love for the brothers by appealing to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. By this we know (both in the sense we have come to understand it and we have experienced it) love. How? Christ laid down his life for us. The kind of love John is talking about is the God honoring, self-sacrificial, others focused, serving love displayed for us when Christ willing went to the cross to meet the greatest need of humanity, to be the propitiation for the sins of His people, for all that would believe.

The kind of love that Paul talks about in his letter to the Philippians when he says, Philippians 2:1-8 (ESV) 1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

In humility, counting others more significant than yourself, looking out for the interests of others, willing to use what you have to meet the needs of those whom you profess to love.

Our defining model of love is what Christ did for us on the cross. By this we know love. Not just can we define it, but those who have, in faith, believed that sacrificial offering have experienced that love. In it is one thing to intellectually agree with what the Bible says, it is another to place all of your hope and trust in the finished work of Christ on the cross, to see the love of God so clearly displayed in that he sent his only son to die in your place, for your sins, so that you might experience everlasting life with him both now and forevermore.

It is almost incomprehensible for someone who has experienced this kind of love to then look at someone else for whom Christ died, one of the brothers, and not want to express divine love towards them. And yet, do you remember when Peter tried to put limits on his forgiveness in regards to his brother. In Matthew 18, Peter asks, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times? It’s as though he is saying, isn’t that enough Lord? Do you remember what Jesus said, I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times, or seventy times seven, as some take it. But more importantly than the number is the parable he immediately shares about the kingdom of heaven. Do you remember? A servant owes the king an almost unfathomable debt for a servant, and yet when the servant fell before him and implored him to be patient and he would pay everything, the master released him and forgave him the debt. Then he goes out and finds a fellow servant who owes him a measly amount, chokes him, and when that servant repeats the same plea he had only recently given the king the forgiven servant refuses and throws him in prison. Listen to what the king said when he heard about it. “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’

Should not you have had mercy, as I had mercy on you?

Shouldn’t your experience of receiving mercy have motivated you to be merciful?

We know, John says, the love of God because Christ laid down his live for us, we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Do you see the parallels?

The word ought here can be used a number of ways in regards to something that must be done. Sometimes it us something imposed by law or sometimes by duty of office, but I do not believe either of those are in view here. It can also include things that should be done by necessity of reason. John says, if we have experienced so great a love from Christ, doesn’t it make sense that we ourselves would express that kind of love to the brothers?

Before anyone can say, that’s impossible. Christ died for my sins, I can’t die for anyone’s sins, I can’t replicate that kind of love, John explains that while our love will never be to the extent of Christ’s love, it is of the same kind. He uses the most mundane expression of service to highlight that it is not the size of your love but the quality of it that matters. If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need. Let’s unpack that for a moment.

If anyone has the world’s goods- literally that by which life is sustained. Resources, wealth, goods- and sees a brother in need- literally possessing a need.

If you have food, water, clothes, shelter, medicine, whatever it is that is necessary and you see a brother or sister who is hungry, thirsty, naked, without shelter, sick; that is you see a brother or sister in need and you have the means to help and you close your heart against him.

Literally- to shut up your tender mercies, your affections.

To look at them and to be able to not only shut your hand around what you have but to shut your heart so that you feel no compassion for them.

Painting such a scenario for someone who claims to know Christ, John asks the rhetorical question, how, or in what way, does God’s love abide in him? In what way could be say that we have the love of Christ if we don’t show the love of Christ?

The answer is not in any meaningful way and certainly not in the biblical way.

John then reminds us that this kind of love is expressed not in saying it but in showing it. He says, little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. Not in what we say that cost so little. Literally, moving our tongue to speak. But rather in action and in reality.

It costs nothing to say you love the brothers, but it costs much to actually love in reality.

On Wednesday nights we have been learning about the Five solas of the reformation and we talked about reconciling Paul and James when we talked about Sola Fide, or Faith alone. What James says there bears repeating this morning.

James 2:14-17 (ESV) 14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

As we said on Wednesday, James is talking about the evidence of saving faith, not the substance of it. The same argument would apply to the idea of genuine love. If you say to a brother or sister in need, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without hiving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? If you say you love a brother or sister and yet you don’t express it in action, what good is that? If you have saving faith then it will be evidenced in works, if you have genuine love then it will be evidenced in actions. John argues that if our love doesn’t motivate us to serve our brothers and sisters, to meet their needs when we are able, we do not have God’s love. Additionally we see that we do not display love by what we say but by what we do.

So far we have seen that if we have life, we have love, and if we have love we will display love, which is not only evidence to others of our relationship to Christ but also John is going to tell us that it reassures us that we are in fact children of God. Let’s turn our attention to our last statement.

III. IF WE DISPLAY LOVE, WE GAIN CONFIDENCE

Let’s pick up in verse 19 and read through verse 24 this morning.

1 John 3:19–24 ESV

19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

For the third time, the apostle uses the statement we know.

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us and now,

19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him

What is the ‘by this’ John refers to?

That we love the brothers in deed and in truth.

When genuine love for our brothers is evidenced in selflessly serving them it is evidence that we belong to God, we are of the truth.

So far John has said.

6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him

But now he says, we are of the truth.

Undoubtedly John is referring to the fact that we belong to God when he says we are of the truth. He follows up with a second statement, we reassure our heart before him.

The word translated reassure is the idea of our hearts will be persuaded.

Why would our hearts need to be reassured before God? Perhaps we are having a season of struggling in our faith, perhaps we are in a difficult season of life, or are struggling with a particular sin, and we are tempted to wonder if God is there, if he cares, if maybe we don’t belong to him after all.

The way John says we find assurance is not pointing back to a moment in time that we prayed a prayer, walked an aisle, joined a church, or got dunked by a pastor, not by what we feel, but whether or not the love of God is evident in our lives in the way we love the brothers. I mean, that’s a pretty powerful statement isn’t it?

Spurgeon, drawing from the fact that the word translated reassures here has a connection to tranquility, says

Truthful love proves that “we are of the truth,” children of the God of truth, and so assures and tranquilizes our hearts before Him. Our hearts shall be calm, confident, and happy before God when we know that true love flows within them.

There may be times that our hearts need reassuring, times where John says our heart condemns us, or accuses us. Times where we our consciences look at our life and wonder how in the world we can claim to be a Christian and still struggle with x,y, or z, or how we can listen to a sermon on loving our brothers and still actively avoid that person whom we dislike after service. Those times, John says, remember God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. He knows our love and desire to serve him, he knows our frame and the weakness of our flesh. He knows the completely sufficient sacrifice of Christ more than we can possible imagine. If there is nothing else in your life to quiet your doubt, if you find that you love the brothers, genuinely and in a Christ-like way, you can quiet your doubting heart, so great is this evidence that you are a child of God, John says.

John goes on. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.

Now whether this is someone who has never needed their hearts reassured or someone who has had their hearts reassured and now their hearts do not condemn them, is not clear. What is clear is that if we know that we belong to God, as a child of God, when we see clear evidence of God’s love working in us and through us to others, we gain confidence before God.

Not a worldly self confidence but the idea of coming boldly to the throne of grace kind of confidence. The confidence that says, Romans 8:31-32 (ESV) 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

We have confidence to come before God and to ask for the things that we need, believing that we will receive them from him. There are two guardrails to this statement. It is not the blank check that prosperity gospel preachers claim it is.

First, John says our level of expectation that God will give us what we ask is directly tied to the evidence of our obedience to him and our desire to please him.

John will return to this statement towards the end of his letter and clarify it a little bit when he says in 1 John 5:14–15 “14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”

The second guardrail is that if we ask anything according to his will.

If we are seeking to obey him and do what pleases him, if we ask according to his will, then we can have confidence he will answer in his time and in his way.

Dealing this morning with just the first guardrail John says, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

The very important question that follows then is what are his commandments?

3 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Faith in Jesus and love for one another.

One brings us into relationship with God and one displays that relationship with God. A relationship empowered by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us.

If we have life, we have love. If we have love, we display love. If we display love, we gain confidence. The apostle has laid out the evidence of being a child of God. The court has heard all the arguments, all of the evidence has been presented, now what? Are you a child of God? If your life was laid out before us today would there be enough evidence in your pursuit of righteousness and your love for the brothers to clearly indicate that you belong to God?

Here is where I want to land this morning. If you have heard this message today, I pray that either you are more confident that you are in fact a child of God, or it is fully clear to you that you are not. If you are in the former, praise God for his saving grace as we sing together in a moment. Ask him to continue sanctifying and refining you into the disciple he desires for you to be. If you are in the latter, I want you to hear me when I say, it doesn’t work in reverse. You cannot decide today to love the brothers in order to gain confidence, so that you can assure yourself that God’s love is truly in your heart, so that you can know you have passed from death to life. There is only one way to go from death to life and it is through surrendering your life to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, trusting in his finished work through faith alone.

If you have never done that, understand that you can do that today. Having found no love of God in your heart you can plead with the master to forgive you of your great debt and bring life, not based on your merit but on his grace and faith in Christ’s atoning work. If you want to know more about what that looks like or means, make sure to grab myself, Pastor Will or another Christian here this morning before you leave. I have no doubt that any genuine Christian would not be glad to talk to you about it this morning.

Let us pray.