Loveth His Brother - 1 John 3

3:1-2 - Because God has given the righteous “an unction from the Holy One,” John says that we can “behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” What does that mean? John continues that when Jesus “shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” The IM quotes President Dallin H. Oaks as teaching, “the purpose of mortal life is to prepare us to realize our destiny as sons and daughters of God- to become like Him… The Bible describes mortals as ‘the children of God’ and as ‘heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.’ It also declares that ‘we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together’ and that ‘when he shall appear, we shall be like him.’ We take these Bible teachings literally. We believe that the purpose of mortal life is to acquire a physical body and, through the atonement of Jesus Christ and by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel, to qualify for the glorified, resurrected celestial state that is called exaltation or eternal life.” That was really long, but I like that he only referenced Bible verses which to me denotes that this could be a universal Christian principle. When Bill Maher said that thing about “Mormons believe you get your own planet when you die,” while he’s not wrong, that context makes us sound crazy. The point is that when he said that I immediately thought about the scriptures President Oaks quoted that we can become like God and have everything that He has, and I mean, that does include planets among other things. All the other Christian denominations look at our doctrine of exaltation meaning becoming Gods ourselves as heresy, but in all honesty, its right there in the same Bible that they accept as God’s word. So if they want to reject that doctrine then that’s their prerogative, but they have to reject the rest of the Bible as well. To me, it just makes sense, but I can see why it might be a difficult topic for some. To see ourselves as God, then we have to see God as ourselves and that can be hard to accept. 3:3-5 - I like how John continues “every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” Not only is this another aspect where we can become like Christ, but the word “purifieth” denotes a process. It’s not “whoever has hope in Christ is purified” because it’s not a one and done deal, it takes time and thousands of small choices and commitments. We will make mistakes, every single choice doesn’t make or break us, usually depending on what choices they are, but it’s a progression. And it’s not a matter of who makes a mistake and who doesn’t, because we all “transgresseth also the law,” but the whole plan is that because Jesus had to sin, “he was manifested to take away our sins.” 3:6-9 - There is an important JST here, because the KJV says, “Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him (Christ), neither known him.” This is problematic because we all “sinneth” so by this logic no one knows Christ no matter how much they try to be better people. But the JST clarifies it saying in verses 6-9 “Whosoever continueth in sin hath not seen him, neither known him… He that continueth in sin is of the devil… Whosoever is born of God doth not continue in sin; for the Spirit of God remaineth in him; and he cannot continue in sin because he is born of God, having received that Holy Spirit of promise.” This is a significant change because essentially the meaning is now “try your best and you’ll be guided by the Spirit and be purified over time.” Instead, the KJV feeds right into one of Satan’s biggest lies, which is we’ve sinned too much to be forgiven. It’s easy to see why Satan would want the KJV instead of the JST. 3:10-15 - In another “by their fruits you shall know them” notion, John says that this is the way we can distinguish who are “children of God” and who are “children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.” I just had a thought that this statement is probably meant to be taken in the “and who is my brother?” type of way, meaning that all people are our “brothers,” but maybe it also means our literal brothers and siblings because family is hard. Maybe this literal “family” is what John was referring to when he mentions “Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother.” Cain killed his brother “because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.” This alludes to the concept of Satan’s followers hating and perpetuating violence against the followers of Christ. John says, “marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.” Maybe it’s because he just talked about Cain killing Able because of Abel’s righteousness, but he segways into life and death and the eternal perspective. Those who love their brother “have passed from death unto life,” so even though their physical body might die, they can still expect “eternal life.” The word “life” here is cross-referenced with John 5:24 which says, “Verily, Verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” Here Jesus doesn’t say anything about “as long as you’re still alive” or something like that. In fact, this statement implies that physical death and spiritual life are not connected, meaning that for the righteous spiritual life will mean joy and reconciliation with Jesus and Heavenly Father. On the other hand, “whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” Murder is a complex topic because it spans so many areas, from soldiers taking lives in battle to serial killers. I think that for many murderers, anger and hatred can play a part, but this implies an act of passion or something like that. I think back to growing up in LA in the 90s and it was such that murder was pretty common place and people were killed for things like shoes and gang initiation and driving down the wrong street. In those situations I don’t think there was an inherent anger or hatred for the victim. Serial killers, I think, work similarly, they kill to fulfill some need that they have, not usually out of anger or hatred of their victims. Not that those emotions have no place in killing because obviously they do, but there’s a broad swath of situations where they just don’t fit. So what could John mean when he says “whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer?” He could be speaking about spiritual murder of yourself. Hate and anger drives away the Spirit which leaves us vulnerable to Satan, and it certainly doesn’t build us up spiritually. Therefore, hate and anger keep us from growing spiritually, meaning that we spiritually die, self-murder. Another perspective might be that murder the spirits of those around us because of the venom we spit at everyone else injures their delicate spirit. Finally, a third meaning might be the path that hatred follows which can end in murder. 3:16-21 - When we love our brethren, we grow toward eternal life, and it was the “love of God” that gave us the opportunity to gain that eternal life. Jesus “laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren,” which I think means “brothers,” meaning our fellow human beings. I don’t necessarily think this means that we should literally die for our fellow humans because honestly, most of us won’t be put in that situation. But what it could mean is that we give our lives to others through service. In fact, John gives us an example of what this type of life of service looks like, asking, “whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” I understand that money and wealth and nice things are important to some people, but I struggle with it. Now that might sound like a load of crap coming from me with 3 jobs living in America and having food, water, shelter, etc. But I’ve always wondered, even as a kid, if we were to take all the money and resources in the world and give them out equally to everyone, what the common standard of living would be. Is there enough resources had among people that every single person could live in a nice house of their own choosing, with running water, indoor plumbing, electricity and a full fridge? I think there is. And even if it brought my own personal standard of living down, then so be it, if it means that everyone would have enough to eat and clean water to drink. I’ve been poor before, I can be poor again. And maybe I’m full of crap because I don’t already give enough and it’s all just talk, I don’t know. We are not to “love in word, neither in tongue only, but in deed and in truth.” Maybe that’s what I’m doing right now, just talking up big words when I should be doing more, I don’t know. But we can’t just talk about it, we have to be about it. And I don’t think that means we should sell all our stuff and give everything to the poor. When Jesus commanded the rich young ruler to do that, it was a personal injunction, not a global commandment for all, it doesn’t work if everyone gives up everything. If that was the plan that it would be preached from the pulpit. But we should do what we can, where we can and not just materially, but in helping hands and in kind, uplifting words, etc. Ultimately, whatever we do or want to do, “shall assure our hearts before him.” God knows the desires of our hearts, he knows what we want to do, and He’ll tell us what we should do and are capable of in our own spheres by the Spirit, if we listen. God knows our hearts and so do we, and “our heart condemns us” or not, and either “God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things,” or “have we confidence toward God.” I’m not exactly sure what “God is great than our heart, and knoweth all things” means, if it means that God can provide for those in need even if we can’t or if it means that, I don’t know. 3:22-24 – Along with serving others, “whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments.” The IM quotes the Bible Dictionary as defining, “The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them.” I’ve always thought of this concept as like God withholding some blessing that I didn’t even know existed because I didn’t ask for it, which doesn’t make any sense because I couldn’t expect my kids to ask me for something they didn’t even know what an option. But now that I think about it, I constantly have blessings that I didn’t know existed that I got without asking for them because how can I ask if I don’t know what it is? Maybe this is referring to blessings that we are aware of but are to ask when we are ready to receive them. For instance, say we want to see Jesus or an angel or something, maybe those are bad examples, I don’t know. Maybe we want to see the same vision as Nephi did when he was younger, that might be a blessing that we would have to make sure that we were ready for before asking. I don’t know, that’s all I could think of. These blessings can come to us when we keep the commandments, “and this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another,” and we can know that god “dwelleth” in us when we keep the commandments “by the Spirit which he hath given us.”