Christians: We Must Love One Another! Series

Christians: We Must Love One Another!

1 John 2:7-11

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Series: The First Epistle of John

(Prepared November 25, 2023)

MESSAGE:

*Christians: Are you walking in the light of God's love?

*Somewhere, I have an old cartoon where the pastor is closing out the service. There's another man on the platform sitting next to the preacher. The man's name was George, and you could tell George was really, really grumpy. His face looked like he had just eaten the sourest pickle in the world. And the preacher said, "Remember, God loves you. I love you. -- And Brother George is still working on it."

*Well, when it comes to walking in the light of God's love, I've got to say, "I'm still working on it. And thank God, He is still working on me." I know I'm not alone.

*Stanley Jones was a great missionary to India, and at age 83, he wrote his autobiography. In the introduction, Stanley wrote these words: "The best that I can say about myself is that I'm a Christian in the making, not yet made, but in the making at age 83. So, I face the future with confidence and even with joy. I am persuaded that the so-called end is really just the beginning in Jesus Christ He is Lord of the past, the Lord of the present, and the Lord of the future!" (1)

*Church: As long as we are in this world, we can count on the fact that God is still working in us to make us more and more like our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's why Philippians 2:12-13 Paul said: "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."

*God is still working in our hearts to help us walk in the light of His love. So in today's Scripture, John gives us an old commandment, a new commandment, and a life-changing commandment. But it turns out that they are all the same commandment from Jesus: That is for us to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

*Here John was looking back to a commandment the Lord gave His Disciples on the night before Jesus suffered and died on the cross for our sins. In John 13:34-35 Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. As I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.''

*John did not write this commandment in his first letter. But he did in 2 John 1:5 where the Apostle said, "And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another."

1. AND GOD WANTS US TO KNOW THAT THIS IS AN OLD COMMANDMENT.

*We see this truth in vs. 7 where John said, "Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning.

*From a human point of view, the love commandment was a little old, because about 60 years had gone by since Jesus first spoke those words. But really, it's a timeless commandment, because in the very next verse John calls it "a new commandment." So how can we understand the oldness of God's love commandment?

[1] FIRST: IT’S OLD IN AN ETERNAL WAY.

*One of the great things that we learn from this short letter is that "God is love." 1 John 4:8 says, "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." And 1 John 4:16 says, "We have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him."

*God is love, and He always has been. God was love in eternity past, so this love commandment is in a sense, as old as He is. It's old in an eternal way.

[2] BUT CHURCH: IT’S ALSO OLD IN AN ETHICAL WAY.

*In Matthew 22:34-40, Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment. There, God's Word says:

34. But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.

35. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying,

36. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?''

37. Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'