Because We Love the Brethren
Scripture: 1 John 3:14Devotional Series: Sovereignty and Prayer
Teaching: Sovereignty and Prayer pt. 4 (WED 2024-12-04) by Pastor Star R Scott
One of the greatest aspects of prayer: in everything give thanks. Amen? How thankful are we for what He’s done? Not what He’s given us. What He’s done on our behalf. All of these benefits and blessings that we have are just consequences of abiding in Him. They’re sure not merited. None of us by living more disciplined lives than the others get favor of God. God is no respecter of persons; amen? But there are consequences to living and abiding in Christ. And as we look over at John’s Gospel, here at Chapters 14, 15 and 16, we get to see some of those great benefits that come from abiding in Christ.
1 John 3 talks about the need, the mandate that we would love one another. That if you don’t love your brother you abide in death verse 14 says. But here’s how we see, verse 16, “the love of God manifested to us that He laid His life down on our behalf.” And our love is not to be, verse 18, in words—words are cheap—but in deed and in truth. And this is how we know the truth, and our hearts are assured. “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then we have confidence with God.” That’s that working of the Holy Spirit. The declaration of the will and purposes of God, but he goes on in this twenty-second verse, and he says, “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” Now, in context here, one of the things is to love our brothers; amen? To prefer others better than ourselves. “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren” (1 John 3:14), he said.
I’ve found that in my time of seeking and praying and being in the presence of God, a good part of my prayer life is, “Lord work in me to love my brothers better.” Because my natural tendency is to be selfish. It’s in every one of us. When Paul declares in Romans 7, “That’s not me, that’s sin that’s in me,” we know that he declared, “In me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing,” as Paul refers to himself. And it’s the same in every one of us. And if we don’t overwhelm self-love through the ability to boldly enter into the presence of God and obtain mercy to help and grace to help in these times of need. You see, that Matthew 10 dying daily is dying in the prayer room, in the prayer closet. That’s where we do our dying. And we make choices to leave the presence of God strengthened and revitalized, and now, with a great anointing, to be able to go out and love the unlovely by loving the most unlovely, biblically.
You see, as the chief of sinners, it’s a very difficult thing to love ourselves. Now, I’m not talking about the carnality. See, the love of self in the carnal perspective is the lust of self, the preferring of self, the feeding of these fleshly appetites. If we understood the true love and how we relate to self—there’s a tendency, once we get born-again, to despise ourselves. Why? Because this sin’s still in me, and I hate this thing, and why? “Oh, wretched man that I am!” the Apostle cried out, “who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24). With all of the doctrine we have, don’t you still deal with that? That comes up. Comes up more often than we would like it to. But if we’ve been in the prayer closet, and we’ve been practicing the presence of God, and we begin to habitually say about ourselves what God says about it, it becomes so easy, then, to tear that thing down and deny sin’s power and its manifesting itself in our lives. But you’re not going to hear that voice of the Holy Spirit, the ministry of the Lord Jesus Who’s interceding for us, that you’re the righteousness of God in Christ, anywhere but in that prayer closet. And when I say prayer closet, don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about a physical location. Men ought always to pray.
1 John 3 talks about the need, the mandate that we would love one another. That if you don’t love your brother you abide in death verse 14 says. But here’s how we see, verse 16, “the love of God manifested to us that He laid His life down on our behalf.” And our love is not to be, verse 18, in words—words are cheap—but in deed and in truth. And this is how we know the truth, and our hearts are assured. “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then we have confidence with God.” That’s that working of the Holy Spirit. The declaration of the will and purposes of God, but he goes on in this twenty-second verse, and he says, “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” Now, in context here, one of the things is to love our brothers; amen? To prefer others better than ourselves. “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren” (1 John 3:14), he said.
I’ve found that in my time of seeking and praying and being in the presence of God, a good part of my prayer life is, “Lord work in me to love my brothers better.” Because my natural tendency is to be selfish. It’s in every one of us. When Paul declares in Romans 7, “That’s not me, that’s sin that’s in me,” we know that he declared, “In me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing,” as Paul refers to himself. And it’s the same in every one of us. And if we don’t overwhelm self-love through the ability to boldly enter into the presence of God and obtain mercy to help and grace to help in these times of need. You see, that Matthew 10 dying daily is dying in the prayer room, in the prayer closet. That’s where we do our dying. And we make choices to leave the presence of God strengthened and revitalized, and now, with a great anointing, to be able to go out and love the unlovely by loving the most unlovely, biblically.
You see, as the chief of sinners, it’s a very difficult thing to love ourselves. Now, I’m not talking about the carnality. See, the love of self in the carnal perspective is the lust of self, the preferring of self, the feeding of these fleshly appetites. If we understood the true love and how we relate to self—there’s a tendency, once we get born-again, to despise ourselves. Why? Because this sin’s still in me, and I hate this thing, and why? “Oh, wretched man that I am!” the Apostle cried out, “who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24). With all of the doctrine we have, don’t you still deal with that? That comes up. Comes up more often than we would like it to. But if we’ve been in the prayer closet, and we’ve been practicing the presence of God, and we begin to habitually say about ourselves what God says about it, it becomes so easy, then, to tear that thing down and deny sin’s power and its manifesting itself in our lives. But you’re not going to hear that voice of the Holy Spirit, the ministry of the Lord Jesus Who’s interceding for us, that you’re the righteousness of God in Christ, anywhere but in that prayer closet. And when I say prayer closet, don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about a physical location. Men ought always to pray.