1 John 3:14
“We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.”

1 Peter 3:8
“To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit.”

Both of these verses are specifically connected to one thing! What is that> one thing? It is LIFE! 1 Peter 1:3 Speaks of being born again to a living hope. The book of 1 John opens by declaring what the apostles had seen and heard concerning the word of LIFE! Both 1 Peter and 1 John begin by speaking of and declaring to us Life, a new life that is to be IN us, but found IN someone other than us. What and where is this LIFE? Let us continue on and Lord willing we will gain a deeper understanding into the truth.

If we take a close look at 1 John 3:14 you will find that a love for the brethren is the RESULT or EVIDENCE of a change that HAS taken place. When there is a love for the brethren it is there because we “have passed out of death into life.”  and the way that we know a change has occurred is BECAUSE we now love the brethren. The whole issue then is one of LIFE or death!

There is no shortage of teachings or people saying that we should love each other, but there is a shortage of true love among “believers”. Why is that? Well, it is because the answer to loving our brothers and sisters in Christ is not trying harder to love, it is not trying to stop being so angry or grouchy it is something else entirely. The love of the brethren and the harmony and humility spoken of in 1 Peter 3:8 and 1 John 3:14 is not something to be chased or copied. These are not things that we strive for, these are the outflow of an entirely different life than our own. Our striving to love others without a change, or exchange of life is impossible and exhausting. Because Love is a result and not a work, our trying to love others is of no more use than trying to bail water out of a boat on the bottom of the ocean floor. All too often we hear a message or read a verse and run off to try and do it, only to find out that we can’t and we have failed again. Friends the solution is not more effort, or more commitment, the answer is not in ourselves, the answer is in passing from death to LIFE!

Where can we find this life?

[To be continued in tomorrow’s post]