"7 Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. 8 On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining. 9 The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. 10 The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes."
Good Morning my beloved,
Welcome to worship this Lord's day! We're so pleased to have you here with us today. We continue to lift all of you up in our prayers. We respectfully ask that you would pray for this ministry to continue to reach the lost, the broken and the hopeless. And for us. We are so grateful for those of you who have been sharing the ministry website with all of your family and friends. Your faithfulness to share God's Word with others has brought about tremendous results. Where will God's Word be heard today? With your help, and God's blessing, it will reach those that need it most. May God richly bless you for helping spread His Word. I have discovered, that if we live long enough, that which was once discarded, or seen as out dated, will eventually come back into fashion. Unfortunately, it appears that what is true in the world, is equally true in the church. Heresies, which were once defeated, again plague the people of God. One fads after another springs up with amazing regularity.
Many professed Christians, move from one congregation to another, as though they're playing musical church, diminishing the Body of Christ. Those who claim to know Christ, are called to walk in the same way in which He walked. Sadly, there is a failure to love in modern Christendom, tragically arising from a failure to know God. In fact, I believe that we would be hard pressed to demonstrate love as a defining
characteristic among the professed people of God in this day and age. The walk of faith is not mysterious! Love, is the essential mark of the follower of the Christ.
In our society today, love is defined primarily, if not exclusively, as an emotion. It is really difficult to understand how a man can use the same word to
express his love for his wife and family, that he uses to describe how he feels about pizza! When words are used that frequently and carelessly, they begin to lose their true meaning. Often reduced, to little or no meaning at all.
The Christian walk involves not only fellowship with God but also with the brethren. A Christian who is walking in light and love of Jesus Christ, is going to love his brother in Christ. The Christian life has always and will always be about love.
Jesus Himself said in
John 13:35, "
By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
Therefore, we can conclude the central theme of the Christian life, is love. However, love and obedience are inextricably interwoven, and Jesus summed up all the commandments of God, in the law of love.
In
John 8:42, Jesus challenged the religious leaders of the day, when they avowed that God was
their Father, "
If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me." Jesus was saying that love for the Son reveals relationship to the Father.
Genuine love leads one to be sacrificial in life.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, we thank You as always for Your Word. We are especially grateful because we know that Your Word comes from above. Lord, so often when we look at ourselves, we see our failures, how badly we've treated You and others whom You have called us to love, yet, deep within our souls, is the longing to obey You. Help us to embrace those within the body, and our neighbor, with the love, compassion and humility of Christ. Lead us to see others as You see them, that we might demonstrate clear evidence that You have changed us. Lord, we pray that the world will know that we belong to You because of the love we have received from You. Cause us to a people who genuinely love, as You have first loved us.
In Christ's name we ask and pray
Amen
Today's Message: The Light That Shines
As Christians, our love for Christ, is revealed through our obedience to His Words. Whether we realize it or not, in this world, love is often a condition controlled by others. More often than not, love does not seem to lie within our sphere when considering others.
In the Upper Room, on the night He was betrayed, Jesus demonstrated His
great love for the disciples by taking a towel and a basin of water and
washing the disciples’ feet. After that unforgettable act of love, He drove the point home loud and clear in
John 13, when He taught "
If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him."
Jesus was not instituting a ceremonial foot washing, He was instituting a very powerful lesson, something which is often much more difficult to put into practice, that we who
follow Him, must set aside our rights and serve one another out of
love. In Jesus’ life, and especially His death, He epitomized the meaning of true love. A pattern, which those who claim to love and follow Him are obligated to live out.
Before we go any further, I would like to clarify, that the definition of love of which I'm speaking, is biblically, not culturally. By the cultural definition, Jesus was not a loving man!
Because in
Matthew 23, Jesus loved the Jewish religious leaders when He said to them, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. In
Matthew 16, He loved Peter, when He said "Get behind Me, Satan." And, in
Matthew 17, He loved the multitude when He said to them, "You unbelieving and perverted generation."
To be clear here, I'm certainly not advocating that we should go around putting people on blast, as they say, all while claiming that we’re loving them. I am merely stating that we must encompass all that the Bible says about love!
So, here we are again back in I John chapter 2. John has written this epistle, so that you and I, can experience the complete joy of knowing we’re really a true Christian. John has very foundationally, laid out the proof, the evidences, and the tests, by which one can measure one’s true spiritual condition. The tests are actually quite simple to divide, because they are either doctrinal tests, moral tests or spiritual tests.
Open your Bibles with me if you will please, to I John chapter 2, verses seven through eleven. In verses 3 through 5, we have already looked at the test of obedience, having to do with keeping His commandments. Now, here in verse 7, we come to the second one, which is love. Love, while being one of these two tests, is really the supreme one, because love is the greatest commandment. Loving God is elevated above everything else and loving one another. By loving God, we are fulfilling all of the commandments, and by loving each other, we are fulfilling all those commandments, as they relate to others.
I invite you to follow along with me as I read to set the text in our minds, while we prepare our hearts, for what the Spirit is saying to each of us.
I John 2:7-11.
"Beloved,
I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which
you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which
you have heard. On
the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in
Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light
is already shining. The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But
the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the
darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has
blinded his eyes."
Whether one is walking in the light, possessing eternal life or walking in darkness, condemned to eternal death, is made manifest in love. That is the theme.That is the key. "The one who loves his brother abides in the Light."
John begins verse 7 with the term "Beloved," which, as we know, it a very familiar term used by John.
John very clearly likes to use that. And so, John is known as the apostle of love, which he has been called for many, many year, because there is a sweet tenderness about him that causes him to express his affections for others. As followers of Jesus Christ, that is certainly a fitting thing to do.
John then says that the commandment of love is not new, in fact, it is old, in the sense that you have had it "from the beginning." He is speaking about having the old commandment, from beginning of their Christian life, from the time in which they first heard the word. By the way, this is later confirmed in verse 24.Not so much something new chronologically, but the idea of something new in quality. The word new is the word "kainós," meaning fresh in development. Love is the benchmark of true salvation, it was part of the foundational gospel message.
I believe, that it’s more than evident, John has that kind of love. John loves those who are in Christ and he loves those to whom he writes. It is safe to say, that perhaps he wasn’t always known as a man of love, in
Mark 3:17, Jesus
gave the name Boanerges, and refers to him as a son of thunder. And, if you will remember, early on, there was the occasion when he wanted to call down fire from heaven to incinerate a whole village of
people because they didn’t comply with what he had thought he should.
And so, he becomes known to us as the Apostle of love, which we could say is by the mighty work of God in His life.
The philosophies that pervaded in the ancient world, had no attachment to morality. In fact, many philosophers, while trying to be the most adept at explaining the realities of life, are morally living in the gutter.
So, John is saying this is not like a philosophy, you cannot believe this and just live any way you want to live. That’s not how Christians are to live. If you’ve really been transformed, if you've been regenerated, there are going to be two things true of your life; the first, is you’re going to obey God, and second, is you’re going to love your Christian brothers. Anyone who doesn’t practice righteousness is not of God. And, anyone who doesn’t love his brother is not of God. Loving God and keeping His commandments and loving each other are inextricably linked, they're interwoven together, they are inseparable. John links this idea of loving with obeying God. Love is not a choice or optional in Christian growth. This is a very remarkable rebuke to typical gospel preaching and witnessing today.
This goes way back, to the Levitical law.
Leviticus 19:18 says "
You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord."
And, of course in the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:5, God demanded that He be loved with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The Old Testament the law of love was established by God in very unmistakable terms.
This was in part, this is what John meant in chapter 1 verse 3, when he wrote "What we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you." The commandment of love was part of the gospel message. So they knew that even in their Jewishness, that wasn’t anything new. Even today, God wants us to love their neighbors, and He wants us to love those that are around us.
In
Romans 13:8, the Apostle Paul is building on this when he says "Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled
the law."
Not only is loving your neighbor part of the law, but loving your neighbor fulfills the law. Because love does no wrong to a neighbor. Furthermore, you cannot say that you love your wife and then commit adultery. Because if you love your wife, you’re not going to do that. Scripture goes on to say, "You shall not steal," because if you love them you’re not going to steal from them. Because all of those things are done in the absence of love. All the commandments then, come down to a question of love. Love is the fulfilling of the whole law.
In
Matthew 22:37-39, Jesus said "
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
So if they had a Jewish background, they knew this before they were Christians. I believe that when a person becomes a Christian, people need to be told that with that comes a commitment to obedience to the law of God, and love toward God Himself and the people of God. New Testament believers, should know that from the very outset. This needs to be emphasized from the pulpits today. Christians need to be told what’s required of them. There's more to becoming a Christian than just saying a little prayer, that's just the first step.
They also need to be told that it will not be forced, it won't be burdensome, but that God will wonderfully do in their heart so that their obedience will not be superficial.
In verse 8, John says "On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining." We understand what he's saying here, it's old, because it's now new, and it's new, in quality and essence, because there's a new freshness to it.
The newness is "which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining." The newness of it is that it is made manifest in Jesus Christ. Even though God said, "Love your neighbor as yourself," never before has that love been made so clearly manifest as to be seen in its perfection, as in the person of Jesus Christ. Never before has the world seen such perfect love, until Jesus Christ demonstrated it to us. No matter who else we look at, everyone falls short of the standard.
Let's look for a moment at the word "already." It is the Greek word "ḗdē," it is referring to a point of time preceding another point of time and implying completion. The true light is already shining, a light that was expected in the distant future is no longer merely a hope. The Old Testament looked forward to a day when all would be light.
Isaiah 60:19-20 says "No longer will you have the sun for light by day, Nor for brightness will the moon give you light; But you will have the Lord for an everlasting light, And your God for your glory.
"Your sun will no longer set, Nor will your moon wane; For you will have the Lord for an everlasting light, And the days of your mourning will be over."
John says that the true light is already shining, he is connecting this with the previous statement, "because the darkness is passing away," since the true light is already shining, the manifestation is that the love
commandment has come true in Jesus Christ and is coming true in you.
Jesus loved His disciples to divine perfection, He loved them to a level that is not possible for us. So, this is the newness of the old command, that it has been seen as manifest in Jesus Christ for the first time. God becomes manifest to us in an new and marvelous way. The light of God which has already come true in Jesus Christ and is seen in the transformed lives of His people.
This love is the heart of God, perfect love, selfless sacrifice, and perfect humility. It has been seen in Jesus Christ, and now, it's being manifest in you and I, this is the realization of what it means to be a new creation in Christ. Love in the likes of which the world has never been seen before.What a glorious truth!
In John 15:13, Jesus said "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. And, in verse 12, He said "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you."
You know, one glorious day, this light will cover this earth like the water covers the sea. In John 9:5, Jesus said " I am the Light of the world."
This is marvelous reality of the gospel message, it transforms God's people into those who love like Jesus, and to that degree the
darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. When the Holy Spirit comes to reside in you, you become all wrapped up in loving one another. That's what is to happen when you become a Christian. That's the fruit of the Spirit! This incredible love, love like the world has never before seen, has been dispensed by God and deposited into the heart of believers. I hope that you can grasp that.
That's why Paul wrote in I Thessalonians 4:9-10, "Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren."
That's why Jesus said in John 8, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."
I fear that the modern church doesn't understand how the commandment of love relates to us as believers. God's love being perfected in us. Beloved, love is the evidence of eternal life in us. When we love as Christ commanded us to love, we give evidence of God within us, that we have been transformed.
That's why John says in verse 9, "The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now."
Here, the principle is applied to the one who claims to be a Christian. The bottom line is if you hate your brother, if you hate others, if you do not see others they way God sees them, then, God not in control of your heart. Because true Christians aren’t like that, because as followers of Christ, we are the truly enlightened. We know what the world desperately needs to know. We know more than all the wise of the world are completely ignorant of. However, we aren't to look down on the unenlightened, but rather our hearts are to go out to them in love. We are to love even those who don’t know Christ. Our hearts should break for them. And, if it doesn't, then you are in the same class as the sinners!
No matter what else we do, you’re going to have a heart of love for those around you. As God's own, we are not to hate, but to love others. If God's love is within you, you’re going to want to come to the aid of those around you. If you don't, that is clear evidence that God's love is not within you, no matter what you claim. It's that black and white. Because it means no transformation has happened.
John contrasts this in verse 10, "The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him." If you’re walking in the light, you’re not going to stumble over something. You're going to see what is in front of you, unlike those who walk in the darkness. When you love and obey God, you're walking in the Light. By the way, stumbling in the Scriptures, is a way of expressing sinning against others. Because if you love people, you don’t sin against them. That's the point here.
Because that's the way it is with people outside the kingdom of God, they are known by their hatred of others, especially those with whom the disagree, there is a disdain toward others that offend them. This goes back to chapter 1, verses 5 and 6. God is light, in Him there’s no darkness at
all. If you say you have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, then
what you say doesn’t mean anything, you’re a liar!
In verse 11, John closes with a profound example of the absence of love. "But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes."
Hatred is the evidence of blindness to the light of God. Love is the evidence that sight has been given to those who were once blind. Beloved, that is the miracle of the new birth. Blindness is the evidence of person doesn’t know where he’s going, he's lost, walking in darkness. Therefore, he sins against himself, he sins against others, and more importantly, he sins against God.
In Closing..
There is so much more to say about love. Unfortunately, we don't have time to go into to all of it here today, so, as we close our time together, let us rejoice in the amazing grace of God, that though we were once blind, now we see!
Let us love others, in the way in which Christ has loved us, even while we were yet sinners. Let us provide to others, the love, forgiveness, grace, mercy and patience that has been given to each us who are in Christ! How important is it? "By this all men will know that you’re my disciples." That's the test! Demonstrating to others the self-sacrificing love of Christ.
So when you think about loving others, remember the way in which God loved you, so much that He gave His only Son, Jesus Christ, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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