In verse 12 John continues, “Not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his works were evil, and those of his brother righteous.” “Of the evil one” equals a child of the Devil. Cain’s brother Abel was of God, a child of God (v. 10). The Greek word rendered “evil one” here is poneros, which means pernicious, harmfully evil, affecting and influencing others to be evil and vicious. Such an evil one is Satan the Devil.
In verse 12 John uses two flesh brothers, Cain and Abel, as an illustration. Although these brothers were of the same parents, one of them became a child of God, and the other was a child of the Devil. We may find this difficult to believe. We may wonder how two brothers born of the same parents and living in the same environment could be so different, with one being the Devil’s child and the other becoming God’s child. Nevertheless, this was the fact. Here this fact is used as an illustration of what kind of person is a child of the Devil and what kind is a child of God. In order to know this, we should consider the case of Cain and Abel.
The fact that Cain was a child of the Devil is proved by his hating his brother and slaying him. This indicates that Cain did not have either the life of God or the Spirit of God. Why did Cain hate his brother? He hated him because he had the hating life of Satan in him. Why did Cain kill Abel? He killed him because he had in him the evil nature of Satan. What Cain had in him was the Devil’s life, the Devil’s nature, and an evil spirit. Abel, however, was altogether different. Today also those born of the same parents and raised in the same environment may become absolutely different. One may become a child of God and the other be a child of the Devil.
Verse 13 says, “Do not marvel, brothers, if the world hates you.” The “world” here refers to the people of the world. The people of the world, like Cain, are the children of the Devil (v. 10) and the components of Satan’s cosmic system, the world (John 12:31). If the people of the world, which lies in the evil one, the Devil (5:19), hate the believers (the children of God), it is natural for them to do so. The situation among flesh brothers today may be the same as that between Cain and Abel. Suppose one brother is a child of Satan and the other is a child of God. Automatically, the one who is a child of the Devil will hate the one who is a child of God. Regarding this, we do not need to marvel.
Verse 13 indicates strongly that all the worldly people are children of the Devil. Only a comparatively small number, the regenerated believers, are God’s children. If we live by God’s life and by God’s Spirit, the world will hate us. Because we and they are in two different categories, they will not be happy with us.
In 3:14 John says, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. He who does not love abides in death.” Death is of the Devil, God’s enemy Satan, signified by the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which brings death. Life is of God, the source of life, signified by the tree of life, which issues in life (Gen. 2:9, 16-17). Death and life are not only of these two sources, Satan and God; they are also two essences, two elements, and two spheres. To pass out of death is to pass out of the source, the essence, the element, and the sphere of death into the source, the essence, the element, and the sphere of life. This took place in us at our regeneration. We know (oida) this, we have the inner consciousness of this, because we love the brothers. Love (agape—the love of God) toward the brothers is a strong evidence of this. Faith in the Lord is the way for us to pass out of death into life; love toward the brothers is the evidence that we have passed out of death into life. To have faith is to receive the eternal life; to love is to live by the eternal life and express it.
Not loving the brothers is evidence of not living by the essence and element of the divine life and not remaining in its sphere. It is living in the essence and element of the satanic death and abiding in its sphere.
The word in 3:14 is quite similar to the word spoken by the Lord Jesus quoted by John in his Gospel: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life, and will not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (5:24). John’s word brings us back to the fall in the garden of Eden. After man was created, he was put before two trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The second tree is related to death, for in Genesis 2 Adam was told that if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die. Hence, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is related to death. Eve and Adam ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. As a result, they received death into their being. In other words, they ate themselves into death. Because of the fall, mankind has been brought into death. For this reason, everyone born into Adam is born into death. This means that everyone born into Adam is born not to live, but to die. A child is born to die because, as a descendant of Adam, he is born into death.
When we repented of our sins and believed in the Lord Jesus, we were saved. Simultaneously, we were regenerated. To be regenerated actually means to receive the tree of life, from which mankind was cut off through Adam’s fall. When Adam ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, he received death into him and lost the opportunity to receive the tree of life. But the opportunity of receiving the tree of life has been recovered through Christ’s redemption. At the time we repented and believed in the Lord Jesus, that opportunity was opened to us. By repenting and believing, spontaneously we received the divine life into us, and at that very moment we passed out of death into life.
If you consider your salvation experience, you will realize that when you were saved and regenerated, you passed out of death into life. Because we all passed out of death into life when we believed in the Lord Jesus and received Him as our Savior, a great change in life followed. We began to live another life, a life of righteousness and love. It became our desire to be righteous and to love the children of God. This is not merely an outward change; it is the passing out of death into life. Therefore, when we love the brothers in the Lord, this love is an evidence that we have passed out of death into life.
If someone does not love the brothers but instead hates them, this is an evidence that this one remains in the death that came into mankind through Adam’s fall. Because death entered into mankind long ago, we were born into that death. But when we repented and believed, we passed out of death into the divine life. Because we have passed out of the death of the tree of knowledge into the life of the tree of life, we have had a change and now live a life of righteousness and love.
Everyone who has been saved and regenerated can testify that he has passed out of death into life. There is no need to tell others what you were before you were saved. Simply tell them what you have become since salvation.
Because you have been saved and regenerated, your desire is to live a life that is right with God and man. You want to be right with your husband or wife, with your parents, with your children, with your relatives, neighbors, and colleagues. Your aspiration is to live a life that is right with everyone and even with everything. For example, a person who lives such a righteous life will not even mistreat an animal. As those who have received the divine life with the divine nature, a nature that is righteous, we have the aspiration to be right in every way.
This aspiration to be right with all things even extends to material things. Before they were saved, certain ones may have had the habit of kicking a chair or throwing something when they were angry. But when such a person receives the divine life with the divine nature, he does not want to be unrighteous in any matter.
Because of the fall, our natural life is not righteous. For this reason, in the natural life we are not right with others and even with things. But when we received the Lord Jesus, we received the life of the tree of life, a life with a righteous nature. Because we have received this life with the divine nature, automatically we aspire to be right with everyone and everything.
As saved and regenerated ones, we can also testify that we desire to love others. As those born of God, we want to help people and love them. When we love others, we feel happy. But we may feel sad when we miss the opportunity to help someone or to show love to him.
Love is the nature of the divine life we have received. Because the essence of God is love, the life of God has the nature of love. Love is the essence of God’s nature. When we have Him as our divine life, we have the nature of this life, which is love. We Christians, the children of God, have a life that aspires to live rightly with everyone and everything and also aspires to love others. We have such an aspiration because of the divine nature within us. As we have pointed out, if someone does not live in a way that is right with everyone, everything, and every matter and does not live a life of loving others, there is a serious question whether this one has received the divine life.