We Know the Saved will Love the Saints
Introduction
The life of Frank Abagnale, Jr., is the story of a man who used deception, lies, and forgery to make millions of dollars. His life was loosely chronicled in a 2002 film called "Catch me if you can."
Frank was born in 1948, and as a young man in the 1960's, he assumed no less than eight false identities, and used those identities to forge and cash bad checks to the tune of some $2.5 million.
For some two years, Abagnale posed as a pilot for Pan-Am, and used his false credentials to get free flights around the world. Later, he posed as a pediatrician in a Georgia hospital, faking his way through his duties as a doctor. At the age of nineteen, he forged a Harvard Law transcript, and actually got a job working for the Attorney General's office in Louisiana.i In all of his assumed careers and professions, Frank Abagnale, Jr. was nothing more than a professional imposter.
We would like to think that no one around us is an imposter. Especially in the church, we would like think that all those who claim to be Christians are authentic. Unfortunately, that is far from the case.
Most churches have more than their share of actors, mimics, and imposters. Not everyone in the church that professes salvation actually possesses it.
One of the reasons the Apostle John wrote the first of his three epistles was to help to identify those who were real Christians, and those who were merely acting.
In the third chapter of I John, John gives us a couple of measuring sticks to gauge the authenticity of our faith. In the first part of the chapter, John says that we can identify an authentic Christian by life they live.
In verse seven of chapter three, John says, "Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as [Christ] is righteous." John says that one of the marks of an authentic Christian is righteousness, or right living. In other words, the fruit of "good works" is what grows in the life of a true believer.
As we come to our text in verse 14, John tells us that not only can you tell an authentic Christian by the life they live, but you can also tell them by the love they show. In this verse, John tells us that one of the ways we know we have been saved is whether or not we love our brothers and sisters in Christ.
As we look at another of the "we know" statements in the New Testament, we come to John's wonderful truth that we know the saved will love the saints.
Look with me at this text, and notice three truths that John gives to us. As you look at these truths, you will either be confirmed in your faith, or convicted in your faith. I challenge you this morning to "examine yourself" by John's standard, and see if you are authentic or an imposter. Notice first of all that John gives us:
I. The Expression Describes True Salvation
In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Juliet tries to express that Romeo's name is not as important as who he is. In doing so, she utters the famous line, "That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet."
There are many names and ways to describe what happens to a person that comes to Christ in faith and is born again. Each of them sounds equally precious.
We say we have been saved, redeemed, ransomed, and rescued. We say a person has been converted and changed.
In the opening of verse 14, John gives us yet another expression to describe the work of salvation. He says, "We know that we have passed from death unto life..." One translator renders the phrase, "We know absolutely that we have passed over permanently out of the sphere of the death into the life."ii
No matter how you describe it, the salvation of a soul is a precious and wonderful event. Notice a couple of things about how John expresses it in verse 14. First of all, he tells us that:
A. Salvation Is A Transferring Process
Look again at this phrase in verse 14, and notice the wording. John says that if we have been saved, we have "passed from death unto life."
Mark the word "passed". It is translated from the word that literally means to change place, position, or condition. It speaks of a transfer from one point to another.
When we examine John's choice of words, we are reminded that true salvation will never take place without the transferring of a person's spiritual state.
John tells us that the transfer is from death to life. In other words, true conversion means that a person has moved from a state of spiritual deadness into a state of spiritual life.
Ephesians 2:1 tells us that a lost person is "dead in trespasses and sin." That is they have no spiritual life. They do not hunger for God, for Christ, or for spiritual things, any more than a dead man will hunger for food.
On the other side of this, the Lord Jesus states in John 3:36, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life..." In other words, true saving faith transfers a person from a condition of spiritual deadness into a condition of spiritual life.
How do you know if you have been truly saved? Well, ask yourself this question, do you have spiritual life? Do you hunger for the things of God? Have you been transferred from spiritual death into spiritual life?
Some people claim to be Christians, yet they are still spiritually dead. They have no relationship with God, and no desire for spiritual things. John says that true salvation is a transferring process, whereby someone who is spiritually dead passes over into spiritual life. That is a clear and simple statement.
Salvation Army officer John Allen said, "I deserved to be damned in hell, but God interfered." John tells us that true salvation means that God interferes, and transfers us from death unto life.
Notice something further we see in John's expression of true salvation. We learn not only that salvation is a transferring process, but we learn further that:
B. Salvation Is A Transforming Process
Look again at John's words in verse 14. He says, "We know that we have passed from death unto life..." When we look at this phrase, we are reminded not only of the transfer that takes place in salvation, but we can also see the transformation that takes place.
John is dealing here with opposites. There is hardly anything as opposite as death and life. Think of it this way: Can you tell the difference between a dead person and a living person?
Of course you can! A living person is breathing, moving, talking, and walking. There is an obvious and distinct difference in a dead person and a living person.
One of the things John reminds us of in this verse is the total transformation that takes place in a person that has been truly converted.
In 2 Corinthians 5:17 Paul puts it this way. It says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new."
This is an inescapable fact of Scripture. A person that is truly converted will be transformed into a new person altogether. In other words, there will be a marked and obvious difference between a saved man and a lost man. John says that the difference is as sharp as the difference between death and life.
How do you know if you have been truly saved? Well, have you been transformed? Are you still being transformed as you grow in the Lord?
Change and transformation are as much the marks of a true believer as sunlight is a mark of the daytime. A true Christian is a transformed person.
I remember reading a story once about a man named Bill. He was a mean, cantankerous, hateful old drunk. The townspeople all called him "Old Bill". One night, Old Bill went to a local mission, and heard a preacher give a gospel message. That night Old Bill received Christ, and became a Christian. He stopped cussing and drinking, and even began to work as a volunteer in the mission where he had gotten saved. The change in Old Bill's life was so obvious that the people changed his name. That quit calling him "Old Bill", and he became known as "New Bill."
One of the surest ways to know that you have been truly saved is that there is an old you, and a new you. Is there a new you, or are you the same "you" you have always been?
John expresses true salvation by saying that we have passed from death unto life. Does that describe your experience? Notice something else as we move on this text. John not only gives us the expression that describes true salvation, but notice also secondly that we see:
II. The Evidence That Depicts True Salvation
Look again at verse 14. John says, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren..."
John describes salvation as passing from death unto life, and then he tells that the evidence of this passage is that "we love the brethren."
I remember an old preacher saying once, "Salvation is like the measles. If you have it, it is going to pop out on you somewhere."
John tells us in verse 14 that one of the evidences "that pops out in our life" once we have truly passed from death unto life is that we have a love for the family of God.
I want you to notice a couple of things about this evidence that John gives us in verse 14. He tells us first of all, that when we have been truly saved:
A. There Is A Change In Our Affection
Look again at verse 14, and notice specifically the word "love". John says that when we have been truly saved, we will "love" the brethren.
As we studied before, there are several different Greek words to describe love. The word John uses here speaks of what is called agape love.
This is not a mere emotion, or romantic feeling. The love John is talking about is a love that finds its value and purpose in something or someone. One writer said, "The love John is talking about here is a love which impacts our lives...it shapes our thinking, it colors our lifestyle, it flows through our spiritual veins."
For a lost man, the only thing he loves in this way is his self. His life is lived chiefly and primarily for his own pleasure and happiness.
However, if that lost man gets authentically saved, his affection will change. Where once he only loved himself, now he will love others; specifically those that have become his brothers and sisters in Christ.
When I examine what John says in this verse, I have a hard time believing someone who tells me they are a Christian, and yet they rarely if ever come to church. They have little or nothing to do with God's family.
Someone that has been truly saved loves to go to church. Church is not a bore or a bother to them. It is an opportunity to be with their family. You see; their affections have changed.
Salvation will take a man who loves the bottle, and cause him to love the Bible. Salvation will take a husband who loves only the world, and cause him to love his wife instead. Salvation will take person who loves sin, and cause him to love the Savior instead.
John tells us that one of the evidences of our salvation is the fact that our affections have changed, and we now love the people of God.
Notice something else about this evidence about which John writes. He tells us not only that when we are saved there is a change in our affection, but he tells us also that:
B. There Is A Change In Our Connection
Look again at our text in verse 14. John tells us that, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren..."
Mark that word brethren. John is writing here about the family of God. He says that once we are truly saved, we will love those who belong to God.
Why is this? It is simple; because once we have been saved "the brethren" become our brethren. Salvation connects us to them just like birth connects us to our biological brothers and sisters.
True salvation not only brings about a change in our affections, but in connections as well. Before we are truly saved, we are connected to sin and to the devil.
In verse 10 of this same chapter, John describes a lost person as a child of the devil. Before we are saved, our only connections are to our father the devil, our flesh, and our foolish sin.
However, the moment we are saved by grace, our connections change. Where we had once been the children of the devil, we are now the children of God. Where we had once been related to the family of this world, we are now connected to the family of the world to come.
One of my dearest friends in life is a young man named Tim Keith. Tim was born in Cartersville, GA, and not long after his birth, he was adopted by Buddy and Judy Keith in Ringgold, GA. Technically, Tim is the biological son of a woman he has never met. He is connected to her through genetics.
However, his family is the Keith family. He is connected to them in a much stronger and important way than he will ever be to his biological mother.
When Buddy and Judy signed those adoption papers some 28 years ago, Tim's family connections were legally and practically changed forever.
When a person gets truly saved, a wonderful transaction takes place. God the Father imparts to that person new life through Christ. At that moment, the greatest family in the world is increased as God signs the adoption papers in the blood of His Son, and places that person's name in the Lamb's Book of Life.
From that point on, that person's affections and connections are forever changed! From that point forward, that person will say with the songwriter:
"I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God!"
John tells us that we know we are truly saved because we love the brethren. I wonder, can you truly say that your affections and connections have been changed?
There is a further truth that John addresses in this text. Notice not only that expression that describes true salvation, and the evidence that depicts true salvation, but notice also thirdly that John tells us about:
III. The Emotion That Denies True Salvation
As we said earlier, John is dealing with opposites in this text. He has already used the opposites of death and life. Then as he closes verse 14, and moves into verse 15, he deals with the opposites of love and hate.
Notice our text again. John says, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death."
Now move on into verse 15, where John says, "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
These are strong words from John about the emotion and attitude of hate. John explicitly says that hatred has no place in the life of a true Christian. Let's look closer at what John has to say about hatred. Notice first of all:
What Hatred Attests To
At the close of verse 14, John says that if someone does not love their brother, they "abideth in death." In the context of what John has been teaching, he says that if someone does not love the brethren, or we could say, if someone hates the brethren, then they are still lost, or living in death.
While it is possible to not love someone without hating them, that is not what John is talking about here. Following John's writing style, to not love someone as you are supposed to, is tantamount to hating them.
In other words, if you do not love the family of God, then you in essence hate them, and John says that this is evidence that you are still lost.
I know these are strong statements, and John did as well. Nevertheless, when it comes to salvation, there can be no middle ground. If you do not love God in the truest sense of that word, then you hate Him. In Matthew 12:30, the Lord Jesus said, "He that is not with me is against me..."
The point John is making is this, if you do not love the brethren with the agape love, the love that affects how you live, then you are still dead in your sins, and you have never been truly converted.
Sam Gordon, in his commentary on I John, says this, "John does not mince his words. The inference from his comments is quite staggering for it leaves people in absolutely no doubt as to where they stand in relation to God."
In essence, John says if you do not love the brethren, then you hate them, and if you hate them it attests to the fact that you have never been truly saved.
I wonder; do you really love the family God? Is church a place where you gather with your brothers and sisters, or is it a boring, bothersome hour you have to spend once or twice a week?