Sermon outline for 1John 3:16-20

A skeletal homiletical outline for 1J 3:16-20 follows:

Introduction – In addressing the question of love, John thoroughly integrates doctrinal and practical considerations in 1J 3:16-3:20. He presents to us the Christian definition of supreme love in v16 (the atonement of Christ) and then offers two concrete and practical results of this love in the life of the Christian (love your brother in deed in vv16b-18, and have confidence that you are of the truth in vv19-20).

Main Point #1 – Christ's love is the starting point for our love. Verse 16 emphasizes the exemplar aspect of the Atonement that we are to imitate. That love would be supremely demonstrated in death is an unpopular view today, but John not only tells us that this is true, he calls us to imitate it if necessary. The Atonement of Christ shows us the seriousness of sin and the kind of love it took to conquer it. A failure to properly respond to this supreme expression of love is to live lives that are misinformed about the nature of love. Our culture reflects the pervasiveness of this misinformation and its consequences. As a community of believers, we need to educate the world about what true love is, what it looks like, and the fruit it produces. How do we do this…

Main Point #2 – We must radically love one another in deed. It is not enough to give lip service to love; we must back up our words with actions. In particular, we must be willing to die for the sake of our brothers if necessary. But more commonly, we must strive to help fellow believers who are in need of tangible assistance. The church is too often guilty of tolerating the sin of indifference toward the plight of the poor, even in our own ranks. John adds his voice to the larger Biblical witness that hoarding wealth in the midst of great need is not a characteristic of the redeemed, but of those who are condemned (Luke 16).

Main Point #3 – We can have confidence that we are of the truth. Verse 20 is striking. When Scripture invokes God's knowledge of all things, it's often done in the context of warning the wicked that their deeds will not go unpunished because God knows their hearts and deeds (Rev. 3:1, 3:15, along with Pss. 1,2,10 and many others). The knowledge of God is a fearful thing to those who are perishing. Yet here, the knowledge of God is offered as a comfort to believers struggling with guilt and doubt. God knows who his people are and he knows those who are loyal to him (John 10) even though human loyalty is never perfect. For the redeemed, the knowledge of God is a source of confidence rather than a source of fear and judgment.

Conclusion – Go into the world confidently demonstrating the kind of radical love that Jesus says the world doesn't know (John 5:42). By this, we will show true love to a world that desperately needs to see it, and hasten the great Day of the Lord in the process (2 Pet. 3:12).


There's nothing here that's particularly profound, and certainly nothing that's innovative. But this passage is a tightly-knit pericope that thoroughly integrates the doctrinal with the hortatory. It should demolish any suggestion that there is a dichotomy between theology and life. This unit, along with many other units in 1 John, sees theology and living as mutually dependant, and mutually informing each other. This is how we need to look at the Christian life too. Theology that is done in a vacuum and doesn't factor in the Christian life is bookish and irrelevant (not to mention incorrect). Living that is done in a vacuum and doesn't factor in the theology that grounds our faith in the truth of God's revelation is haywire and inconsistent. A good preacher could spend years mining 1 John for pastoral insights that link the theological with the practical, so that his flock might see the two the way 1 John clearly does - inseparable.