By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
Who is a child of God? In John starts out in 1 John 3 by making clear that a person who keeps on habitually sinning is not a child of God. That makes sense because that person either does not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them or does not want to listen to the Holy Spirit. And if a person doesn’t want to listen to the Holy Spirit, they likely have not really repented of their sin (turned from their sin).
So John says, “by this it is evident who are the children of God”. But then verse 10 ends with “nor is the one who does not love his brother”, a thought continues through verse 15.
You know if a person is a child of God, a believer in Yeshua by how the person is handling sin in their life. A true believer will pray and ask God for forgiveness and truly turn around and away from the sin. You also know a child of God by their love. They have to go hand-in-hand. You may be battling (and mostly conquering) every sin in your life, but if you don’t also love people you are not a child of God. A person who says they are a child of God, redeemed by the blood of Yeshua, who spews hate or just doesn’t like people in general, is not a child of God because children of God produce the fruit of the Spirit. .
I trust that you are asking God to help you to not sin. Are you also asking Him to fill you with love for all people?
Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
These words are extremely strong! A person who hates does not have eternal life because he/she is a murderer.
It is not exactly clear if the Greek used here for “brother” or “brethren” means a child of God or if it means a fellow human being. It seems too convenient to say that it only means a fellow child of God. We know that everyone is created in God’s image and we also know God is not willing that any should perish. These two facts alone highly suggest John is talking about all of humanity. Who is our neighbor? Everyone. We can love brothers and sisters in Jesus/ Yeshua, but we are also connected to everyone else. Our love cannot be exclusive.
This is even more evident from verse 16: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” Jesus voluntarily laid down His life to that eternal life would be available to anyone who comes to Him in repentance. Likewise, we need to love anyone and everyone.
You have no idea if the next person you meet needs to accept Jesus as their Savior. You have no idea if the next person you meet may be an angel and you don’t know it (Hebrews 13:2).
Hate sin, but believers must not hate people. Show the world you love our Messiah and reflect God’s love by showing love to everyone.
May God bless you today as you are a blessing to Him.