The Love of God vs the Hatred of the Devil: An Easter Season Meditation on 1st John 3

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us,

that we should be called the sons of God:

therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God,

and it doth not yet appear what we shall be:

but we know that, when he shall appear,

we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

And every man that hath this hope in him

purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law:

for sin is the transgression of the law.

And ye know that he was manifested

to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.

Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not:

whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.

Little children, let no man deceive you:

he that doeth righteousness is righteous,

even as he is righteous.

He that committeth sin is of the devil;

for the devil sinneth from the beginning.

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested,

that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin;

 for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin,

 because he is born of God.

 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil:

whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God,

 neither he that loveth not his brother.

For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning,

that we should love one another.

Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother.

And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil,

and his brother's righteous.

Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.

We know that we have passed from death unto life,

because we love the brethren.

He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer:

and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us:

and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

It should not surprise us that we live in a time of growing hatred.  Sadly, our world has known many such seasons, and in one way or another, hatred always seems to simmer in the background even when it’s not rising to the forefront of civic discourse.  There’s a fault within all mankind that seems to drift inexorably into hatred when left to its own devices, and much of what human beings have developed as culture and society puts boundaries of law around these base impulses.  What may be easily forgotten in our day, though it shines forth before our eyes with increasing clarity, is that the fallen nature of mankind makes hatred our default setting.  Almost as natural as breathing is our collective and individual impulse to define rival camps or rival families, to see enmity between competing forces, to demonize other people, and eventually to work out our hatred in various expressions of abuse murder—we see and assume it in others, because we see and experience it in ourselves.  This is why so much of the antagonistic literature, media, and galvanizing speeches we’ve heard recently result in riotous and murderous mobs who burn, loot, and destroy with gleeful abandon.  Tapping into this base impulse of mankind has always been effective, because it always lingers in the back of human minds, corrupting and inclining our souls toward evil.

 

What has generally kept such rampant evil constrained to greater or lesser degrees, is a civilization’s greater or lesser relationship with God.  A civilization which knows God as their Creator, knows Him also as the divine Law Giver and sovereign Judge.  There’s a sense of accountability such a civilization perceives before their Creator, which extends out into their relations with other people.  Such an understanding emerges in a variety of laws which protect the life, liberty, and property of individual people against unjust aggression, fraud, and theft.  This function of the Law theologians have called a “curb” against rampant evil in general society, where the sword of government (as St. Paul would say) becomes a terror to those who do evil, and a protection for those who do good.  This function of the Law compliments its other key functions (that of a “mirror” to reflect one’s own relative depravity before the goodness of God, and that of a “guide” into more virtuous behavior) and helps tamp down the vicious impulses all people tend toward.  Removing a sense of accountability before God, and thereby removing the Law which prevents evil and encourages good, is a recipe for destruction written across human history, and in various parts of the world today.  The erupting violence born of racial and class hatred in American cities is a reflection of this abandonment of God and the righteousness of His Law, with the unabashed Anarchists and Marxists who promote it doing the bidding of the Devil who inspires all to hatred and murder.  The 20^th century is replete with examples of the hell on earth such surrender to the Devil has brought forth, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of millions of people, and the tyrannical enslavement of billions more.  This is a path whose end we know, and it is one we must stop now, lest we suffer the same fate of Stalinist Russia or Maoist China.

 

And yet, while the Law works as a curb in society against rampant evil, it is not what transforms the heart from one of hatred to one of love.  The gift of God which passes all understanding, is the love which reaches down into our fallen world, into every fallen heart, through Jesus Christ His only begotten Son.  This is the divine love of God which forgives our wickedness and penchant for hatred for the sake of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection on our behalf—not a forgiveness which ignores the enormity of our evil, but one which chooses to take upon Himself our judgement and condemnation, offering mercy in return.  It is a gift we could never earn, but only receive as freely as it is given, and on the terms by which God offers it.  Such selfless, sacrificial love is alien to our fallen nature, and when it comes in contact with us, we cannot help but be changed by it.  Such love sings a more ancient song than the drums of war and malice which infect our souls, harkening back to a love and mercy which brought the universe into being at the dawn of time, before our complicity with the Devil corrupted it through our Fall.  Such love breathes a new life into those who will receive it, a work of the Spirit of Life who moves to restore the Creation of the Father through faith in the Son.  This is a divine love which makes children of God out of slaves of the Devil, redeeming them from a present and future destruction, that they might live fully restored with Him forever.

 

Thus St. John can write that everyone who has received and been transformed by such divine love, works to purify themselves, even as God Himself is pure.  This is not a motivation of the Law, but of the Gospel—a fruit of righteousness which springs forth from the Vine of Jesus into which all His people are grafted by grace through faith.  This impelling of the Holy Spirit, working through the Word of Christ, causes a child of God to seek first the Kingdom and righteousness of God, daily striving to drown the dark impulses of the fallen nature, to return to God through faith and repentance when sin overtakes them, and to look forward to the resurrected life where neither sin nor death nor Devil have any influence ever again.  This love of God brings present into the world a foretaste of the world to come, where the saints work out the love of God in the world around them as a reflection of the love first shown to them in the Cross of Christ.  Only such divine love can change the human heart, and thus change the world.

 

Yet there will always be those who prefer their enslavement to the Devil over the grace of liberty in Christ, as their twisted passions lead them to hate each other, the communion of the saints, and most pointedly God Himself.  Even so, it is not the saints of God who are being transformed by the murderous deceptions of the Devil, but rather the kingdom of darkness which is being invaded by the light and love of the Kingdom of God every time a fallen sinner is born again by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.  The Devil’s minions will always hate the Kingdom of God, not least because they cannot stop the Gospel from shining on every human heart, offering redemption and eternal life to all who will turn and accept it.

 

There is a path which leads away from the chasm of destruction yawning before our people, toward which they move with hastening step by the fanned flames of the Devil’s hatred and murderous ambition:  the Law and Gospel of Jesus Christ.  In the Gospel of Jesus’ grace and mercy, hearts are transformed and lives are renewed so that they might reflect the love, compassion, and goodness of God.  In the Law of Christ, all people, saints and sinners alike, are at least outwardly curbed from excesses of evil, given a mirror by which to examine themselves before the holiness of God, and provided a guide toward virtue rather than vice.  Yet what the Law can only accomplish outwardly, the Gospel transforms inwardly, so that the love which the Law commands becomes the love which is poured into the heart by Jesus.  If we are to be saved as a people from the hell on earth which the Devil is driving us toward, it is by the preaching of faith and repentance in Jesus Christ.  Only in Jesus will we see the miraculous resurrection of ourselves and our people, as the Devil is put to flight by the dawning of His saving grace.  Amen.