1 John 3.13-18.
True, that’s a clickbaity kind of title. But it’s exactly what the apostle John wrote in his first letter. To quote the King James: “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” 1Jn 3.15 KJV I also coulda titled this piece, “If you don’t love fellow Christians you’re going to hell.” Just as valid.
Now yes, the word I keep translating as “fellow Christians” is ἀδελφοί/adelfí, “brothers, siblings.” In context it means sister and brother Christians; fellow adoptive children of God; fellow Christians. John’s addressing Christians. And also addressing the way Christians behave towards fellow Christians—right after he told ’em to reject society because society’s rejected God. And if society encourages us to reject our fellow Christians, we should all the more reject society.
This includes “Christian” society. Really, Christianist society—it pretends to be Christian, pretends to love Jesus, but it has its own set of values which have more to do with prestige and wealth and prejudices and nationalism—and way too often, white supremacy. It’ll encourage Christians to reject and shun and disavow their fellow Christians who are poor, who are “sinning” (whether they’re legitimately sinning or not), who have different politics, who do anything they might disapprove of for the pettiest of reasons. Christianists, like hypocrites, only care about how things look. Not about the sort of grace we need to extend to everybody—and fellow Christians especially.
In John’s day, in the Roman Empire, not helping out somebody who’s in a bind might have dire consequences. Results which might lead to their death. Your fellow Christian might be deathly ill, or starving and have no way to get food, or their debts were gonna get them sold into slavery and you never know what sort of slaveowners they’d get—and there’s a good chance they’d be awful people who worked their slaves to death. Little acts of compassion might save a life. Big acts would definitely save a life. But apathy? It’s still true that apathy kills.
So nope, it’s not hyperbole when John says hating your fellow Christian makes you a murderer. And it’s totally valid to wonder whether Christians who lack compassion are even Christian, are even destined for eternal life. That lack of grace in ’em? That suggests they never accepted the grace of God. They’ve nothing to pay forward.
- 1 John 3.13-18 KWL
- 13Fellow Christians, don’t be amazed
- if society hates you².
- 14We knew we passed over from death to life,
- for we love our fellow Christians.
- One who doesn’t love fellow Christians
- remains in death.
- 15Everyone who hates their¹ fellow Christian
- is a murderer,
- and you² knew no murderer has life in the age to come
- remaining within them.¹
- 16This is how we knew love:
- That man Jesus laid down his soul for us.
- So we’re obliged to lay down our souls
- for our fellow Christians.
- 17Whenever one might have a life in society,
- and might see one’s fellow Christian having need,
- and might shut off one’s compassion towards them:¹
- How does God’s love remain in that person?
- 18Children, we ought not love in word nor speech,
- but in work and truth.
Society doesn’t give a crap. Christians can’t think like that.
Jesus, points out John in verse 16, laid down his ψυχὴν/psykhín, “soul,” for us. Most bibles translate it “life,” because a soul is one’s lifeforce. When Jesus died, his lifeforce was extinguished; when he arose, his lifeforce was permanently restored, and he lives forever. Same as what’ll happen to us.
That, John said, is how we knew love. It’s like Jesus said in John’s gospel:
- John 15.13 KWL
- “No one has a greater love than this—
- than someone who might lay down their¹ soul
- for their¹ friends.”
The greatest love of all isn’t learning to love yourself, as it goes in the Whitney Houston song. It’s utter self-sacrifice. It’s not even giving up your physical life—which is immediately what Christians think of when they think of Jesus; they think of his self-sacrificial death to atone for our sins. But nope, it’s not even that. It’s devoting our lives to others. Which Jesus also did. Still does.
So if that’s how we obey Jesus’s command to love one another, the one thing we should absolutely not see among Christians, is Christians who refuse to do for one another. Christians who can give to the needy—who can easily afford it—but just won’t. Christians who can use what influence we have to make sure fellow Christians receive aid, fair treatment, and justice—and refuse to.
Oh, those Christians who do nothing have their reasons. And their reasons are rubbish. Because they’re the very same pathetic excuses and self-justifications used by society. Society doesn’t want to help the needy unless they consider them deserving—unless there’s some solid karmic grounds for why these folks merit any help. Did they suffer some catastrophe? Were they unjustly made needy? Were they wrongfully treated? Has their ethnic group historically been wrongfully treated? Is there any way you can tug at our heartstrings a bit, so we can feel like we oughta help these people out?
Because if not, society’s just gonna practice social Darwinism: The “fit” are able to weather any crisis and survive; maybe even thrive. The “unfit” are not. And it’s best for everyone if the unfit simply expire, and let the fit inherit the earth. True, most of them will never say “expire”; they’ll just think it, and leave it to the jerks to say it out loud. But yeah, that’s Darwinism for you. Humanity’s been practicing it long before Charles Darwin ever described “survival of the fittest” as how he thought evolution works.
And Christians have no business practicing social Darwinism. We’re meant to practice grace. Is this person undeserving? Unfit? Well Jesus came to save them too. “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick.” Mk 2.17 Doesn’t matter why they’re needy. Help the needy!
I’ve met so many Christians who simply don’t help the needy. They don’t give to charity.
Feed the hungry, house the stranger, clothe the naked, comfort the sick, visit the imprisoned; Jesus considers these acts as if they’re done to him personally. Mt 25.37-40 That’s why we see Christians running charities which do these things. Some of us are actually trying to follow Jesus. But sad to say, I’ve known so many Christians who have nothing to do with charities. They don’t help the needy. At all. Don’t give spare change to homeless people; don’t donate to, or help out at, local charities; don’t anything. The only money they give is their tithes: They help fund their churches. That’s it. That’s all they figure they need to give: The church can help the needy for them, and the government can do likewise with their tax dollars. Otherwise they do nothing.
So when the King takes his throne and sorts out the lambs from kids, how’re they gonna respond when he sorts them with the kids? “But Lord, I tithed!” Probably that.
Jesus doesn’t want us to simply pay one another lip service. Like John said, not in word or speech—with work and truth. Our actions gotta demonstrate we love one another. Have we any actions which do this? No? Better get some!
And if your excuse for not getting some is, “Oh, stop; we’re not saved by works”: True, we’re saved by grace. But if we’ve been saved by grace, our grateful response should be good works. And if it’s not, then our innate selfishness has not been mitigated, much less transformed, by the Holy Spirit’s presence within us. Either we’re resisting him mighty hard, or he’s not even there, and we’re not saved.
“How does God’s love remain in that person?” John rightly asked. Jn 3.17 Will such people inherit eternal life? Will you?
