In this part of his Epistle, John tells the Christian what he should expect from other people. From the world, you can expect hatred. From your brothers and sisters in Christ, you can expect love. The social test of faith is love.
11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.
Why does the wicked world hate the Christian? Jealousy. The wicked worldly sinner thinks, “My deeds won’t look so evil if they aren’t compared with anything good.” This is also the message of the proverb: “Bloodthirsty men hate a man of integrity, and seek to kill the upright” (Proverbs 29:10).
Clement of Rome (writing at about the same time as this epistle was first sent) also used Cain as an example of sinful jealousy leading to hatred. Most of what he says is a quote from Genesis 4:2-8:
“This is what is written: In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to God. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. God looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then God said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.’ Now Cain said to his brother Abel, ‘Let’s go out to the field.’ And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Brothers, look: jealousy and envy brought about a brother’s murder.” (1 Clement 4:1-7)
The problem with jealousy is that it amounts to ungratefulness for the gifts God has already given to us. If I am jealous of my brother because he’s better looking than I am, is better at sports than I am, drives a better can than I do, is a better businessman than I am, is a better artist than I am, and is better company than I am, what have I said about any of the gifts God has given me? How would I feel if, on Christmas morning, one of my sons sat crying in the corner because the present he got isn’t exactly the same as the presents all his brothers got?
What we do have is a place in heaven. That impossible gift is guaranteed to all of us through Jesus. It’s not something that we can buy; as Ezekiel said, “Their silver and gold will not be able to save them in the day of the Lord’s wrath” (Ezekiel 7:19). In heaven, there is no social ranking, and there is no status except one: Forgiven.
13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. (NIV)
More than half a century ago in Jamaica, young men overcome by addiction to drugs or alcohol would stand or sit or wander the streets in a lethargic stupor, uncaring, unwilling to work or smile or laugh or care about life at all. They were nicknamed zombie by their countrymen (nzambi is a Bantu name for a snake god), and soon the word zombie had entered into mainstream English as a word for the walking dead. John the Apostle describes the unbelievers of the world as zombies, the walking dead—but unlike a horror movie, the zombies of the world can be rescued; awakened from their living death by the power of the gospel.
John once again goes back to the story of Cain, by reminding us that “anyone who hates his brother is a murderer.” A sin does not have to ever leave the realm of our hearts to be a sin in God’s eyes. Whether it’s jealousy, hatred, lust, laziness or gluttony, a sin is a sin the moment it’s conceived.
What we need to remember is that every sin is forgiven by Jesus, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, we are able to resist temptation, we are able to run away from the desire to sin; we are no longer slaves to our passions. We are forgiven children of God.
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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