#154 The three stages
From Meditations on the Epistles of John, by Samuel Froehlich
I John 3:11-14 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
John forms three stages: to love, not to love, and to hate. Love is the case and the nature of the children of God; hate, the method and nature of the children of the devil. In love there is a divine, heavenly fire which warms and fructifies like the sun. Hate is a hellish fire; it destroys and consumes (James 3). The transition from love to hate is formed by the failure of love (not to love), which is coldness and indifference, and even it is just as much opposed to the divine nature as hate itself, for he who does not love is not of God and abides in death. And because in this coldness of death, the flesh already has the upper hand and the devil his sport, from there to hate is therefore a short step and a child of God cannot hover midway between hate and lovelessness.
Hate also has its stages without, at the first onset, leading directly to murder by the hand. Its first outbreaks are caused by the tongue (spoken and written); its words are poison and gall, spears and swords, even though by deceit they appear smoother than butter for hate also takes refuge in pretense, just as Cain first spoke with his brother before he slew him. It is further disclosed in dissension and quarrelsomeness, abuse, slander, lies, calumny, etc. These are the scourges and fiery darts that the wicked one shoots to try all on earth, one after another, and to ignite them with his hellish fire, in which he also succeeds—easily—with all unconverted men because they bear the material for it in them, so that the sinners themselves must fret and ruin one another. The devil uses men as his bow and whoever is not protected by the shield of faith, him his arrows, fiery and poisonous, strike in such a way that he also is set on fire and burns and requites evil for evil.
Hence all the wars and disputes and abominations and accusations in families come into court and upon the battlefield, where both contending parties are equally wicked and serve the devil and not God because it is not love, but hate, that reigns there. For where the truth of God is found, there the love of God is also and then one does not seize the weapons of the flesh to murder one another in false, blind zeal (like Cain), as it happened at the time of the Reformation. But where there is no love, there the truth is not to be found either.
For children of God are not zealous in a carnal way, neither do they allow themselves to be provoked or embittered to wrath, revenge, enmity; but are gentle in suffering, peaceable, patient, bear all things in love while faith commends all to God (I Corinthians 13), Who judges rightly if we do not ourselves enforce our rights. God does not let us come to shame in this and, besides, we conquer and overcome devilish hatred by divine love,
Romans 12:17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
for, in any event, all who are godly are mightier in their nature than are the devilish, although the former seem repressed in this world and, on the whole, are very few in comparison to the children of the devil.
But even though the children of God have to be among lions and dragons in this world, they still may not harm them for Christ gives them power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, that they may go out safely and freely right from the midst of them. A child of God cannot hate, he must love; otherwise he is not God’s child, and he who has allowed himself to be overtaken by the raging of another fire has much suffering to undergo before he is cleansed again from such defilement.