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1 John 3:11-18

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by Randy White Ministries Thursday, Jan 20, 2022

1 John, verse-by-verse


Session 9 | 1 John 3:11-18


1 John 3:11-18 | Israel Must Defend Its Own

  • Verse 11 --

    • Continuing to confirm that the message of 1 John is to Israel rather than to the Body of Christ under the Pauline pattern, the author speaks of the message that ye heard from the beginning.

      • This begs the question, beginning of what?

      • It would be hard to argue beginning of the dispensation of grace and almost naturally beginning of the national status, thus beginning with the Law.

      • The instruction to love one another comes from Leviticus 19:18, and thus from the beginning of the nation.

      • See also 2 John 5 for a similar instruction.


  • Verse 12 --

    • The example of Cain killing his brother could be used to argue that from the beginning in verse 11 is a reference to the beginning of creation. However, there is no known command to love one another from the earliest days of creation (though one could be presumed). I contend that the epistle speaks to the beginning of the Law.

    • In this example of one who did not love his brother (the brotherhood of the nation being in focus), we learn two things that we did not know in other passages.

      • First, that Cain was of that wicked one.

        • He is certainly referring to Satan.

        • We do not know if Satan as the serpent was still roaming the earth, or in what way Cain was of that wicked one, if only in motivation or trickery or something more.


      • Second, that Cain's reasoning was that his own works were evil. The envy of Cain, when considering his brother's righteous works, boiled over in Cain's heart.


  • Verse 13 --

    • This verse must be connected to verse 12 to make sense. Cain hated Abel because of Abel's righteous works. Israel then should Marvel not...if the world hate you.

    • Israel was created for and ordained unto good works (Eph. 2:10).


  • Verse 14 --

    • How can such a statement be made, that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren?

      • Because this is works-based, evangelicalism has to make this a sign that you are saved. Yet, if pressed, would quickly back off the statement. Evangelicalism would have to interpret the brethren“fellow Christians."

      • It is much better to interpret these brethren as fellow members of the nation of Israel. When this is done, even Paul agrees. In Romans 13.9-10 Paul says that the Law is briefly comprehended in the statement, love thy neighbour as thyself. Furthermore, he says that love is the fulfilling of the law*. *So Jews who love the brethren are Jews who are fulfilling the Law, and will receive life in the coming Messianic Kingdom.


    • The closing phrase (He that loveth not...) is not included in modern translations. It solidifies the works view of the first part of the verse.


  • Verse 15 --

    • The epistle continues with the illustration of Cain, the murderer. This verse continues the same works-based salvation of the previous verses. Here the writer speaks of the one who hates as a murderer who does not have eternal life abiding in him.

    • Several passages (such as Galatians 5:21) state that murderers will not inherit the kingdom of God. Once again, as so many times in this epistle, if we understand dispensations and dividing them from one another, we see a Law-based requirement for the coming Kingdom dispensation and a faith-alone based requirement for the salvation offered in this current dispensation. It is when we mix these two dispensations that confusion reigns.


  • Verse 16 --

    • This verse gets to the heart of the matter: Israel must love its own. In the last days, if Israel doesn't love its own, there will be no hope, for all the world will be attacking them.

    • As in WWII, there will be few, if any, who will come to their aid, and many who will gladly help the Antichrist to destroy Israel as a God-fearing people.


  • Verse 17 --

    • The Jew (in context) that hath this world's good (literally, life, as a reference to the things that sustain life) and yet seeth his brother...and shutteth up his bowels of compassion* *could not be considered one in whom the love of God dwells.

    • “incidental" truth to Christians because much of this is written in “the laws of nature and of nature's God."

      • As a natural law, it is applicable to everyone. But when the details of the words are pressed to their plain meaning, serious problems arise, mostly centered around a works-based requirement for continuing salvation.


  • Verse 18 --

  • Once again addressing the little children (the seventh of nine times in the epistle), he concludes this topic by encouraging action, the expression of love in deed and in truth.

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