1 John 3:11-18

v11: “We should love the Lord Jesus and value his love, and so we should love all those who receive his love, all who are our brothers and sisters in Christ.”

v12: When Cain murdered his brother Abel, he “imitated and resembled the first wicked one, the Devil.” He had no restraint in his hatred, first planning and then accomplishing murder, showing that “when sin is indulged in, it knows no bounds.”

v13: Satan rules as the god of this world. We should “not be surprised, then, that the serpent’s world hates and hisses at” us, because we “belong to the offspring of the woman” that has delivered the crushing blow to the serpent’s head.

v14-15: A sign that we have passed from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. We, of course, are to love all people, including our enemies, and “this love will express itself in wholehearted desires, prayers, and attempts for the conversion and salvation of the as yet uncalled, blinded world.” But a mark of being regenerated and having received eternal life is that we have “a distinctive love for the Christian community.”

v16: “The great God has given his Son to die for us.” Christ “became flesh for us… so that he could lay it down for us.” We should surely “love those whom God has loved, and loved so much, and we will certainly do so” if we know His love.

v17-18: “It pleases God for some Christian brothers and sisters to be poor in order to ensure the exercise of love by those who are rich. It also pleases God to give some Christian brothers and sisters this world’s goods so that they may exercise their grace by sharing those with poor saints.”