Cain did not love his brother Abel. Murdering him was shockingly wicked, and its deadly echo has reverberated down through the centuries (1 John 3:11-13). That dreadful act was an epic example of what it means to be against God's family and therefore against God.

By contrast, the believers who made up the Early Church found that, despite differences in background, ethnicity, language, culture and finances, they loved each other. They found they had a supernatural desire to share and give to people who ordinarily they might never have chosen as friends.

John had just set the test of true discipleship as loving our believing brothers and sisters in a practical and sacrificial way. But it is a test with two edges. The first is the confidence which flows from knowing that we are unsatisfied until the believers around us have what they need. That tells us that the family of God matters to us as much as our own family. It reassures us that that we belong to Christ who is the Truth.

Everybody, with a conscience towards God, wants to know what they must do to please Him. That desire is embedded into every heart, however much it is suppressed. John had heard Jesus answer the question, "'What must we do to do the works God requires?' Jesus answered, 'The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.'" (John 6:28-29).

The people you listen to, will be the people who shape your life. Listening is a choice based upon what you really want: so the people of God should listen to Him because they desire Him, and His holiness. But many people reject the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, preferring the world with its 'feel good' agenda. And so those who desire the world's standards will listen to worldly wisdom and be functionally anti-Christ, whilst those who desire the Lord will listen to Him.