How do we know if we really know God? We are on our 2nd test to help us look at ourselves and see how strong our relationship is with God. Do we love our neighbors?
If we criticize, grumble, gripe, backbite, ignore, neglect, curse, abuse, slander, hate, or mistreat our neighbors in any way, then we don’t know God. No matter what we may claim nor how loudly we claim it, we don’t love God if we don’t love our neighbors. That is the message in a nutshell.
There was a story in the papers years ago that occurred in Hamburg, Germany. The skeletal remains of a man were found in his apartment, sitting in front of a TV set, with Christmas lights twinkling nearby. But the lights were from a long past year. In fact, the man had been dead for five years. And nobody had missed him.
He was divorced and disabled, and had become obsessively reclusive. So the other tenants just went about their business. It was not until his bank account ran dry (From automatically paying his rent and utility bills) that his landlord investigated.
Could this happen to one of our church members? Would we notice someone’s absence? Would we investigate? This all coincides with the command we have to love our neighbor.
Read Scripture
Loving others is a strong test of our knowledge of God. It saddens me when conflicts break out in the church and go unresolved. It saddens me when I hear things like, “I won’t go around them. I won’t look at them. I’ll sit somewhere else just to get away from them. I might even go to another church to get away.” We can tell whether or not we know God by testing our love for others. The test is an OLD COMMAND. It’s nothing new. Read verse 7.
One of the very first things that God said to man is this: Man must love his neighbor. (Lev. 19:18) Notice that John doesn’t just come right out in verse 7 and say that he is talking about love. He took a backdoor approach. Why do you think that was? He actually had a very good reason.
What John is about to tell everyone is new to them. It hadn’t been heard for some time. It would sound so new that the people would think it was something John made up. So he establishes the fact that it comes from days of old.
Then John seems to contradict what he just said. He just said in verse 7 the he wasn’t writing a new command. Then in verse 8 he says: READ. So it’s not only an old command but a new command. What’s so new about love? It’s not that love is such a new thing than it is the way Jesus told us to love. And here is our roadmap to loving our neighbor. Jesus Christ:
• Loved not only friends, but enemies.
• Loved not only good people, but bad people.
• Loved not only the righteous, but the sinner.
• Loved not only the acceptable, but the rejected.
• Loved not only the clean, but the dirty.
This is a totally new concept of love. We have always felt free to mistreat others, especially those who have mistreated us. We have always felt free to hate, strike back, hurt, ignore, neglect, criticize, be unkind, backbite, and retaliate.
But Jesus has shown us that we cannot mistreat people no matter what they have done, that we must love everyone no matter who they are. This is a big test for us all because the only way we can become children of God is to love even as God loves. And if we don’t love, then we don’t know God.
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. 35“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”(John 13: 34-35)
Jesus is telling us that the only way people can tell that we are His disciples is by our love for one another. I guarantee you that if anyone outside this church hears of bickering and fighting within this church, they won’t be visiting us. Why should they? They can get that kind of garbage in the world. They don’t need to come to church for it. This is exactly what John is saying is verse 8: “A new command; its truth is seen in Christ and you the true believers.” The person who truly follows God has the love of God in him.
Note something else about this new command. Verse 8 says that love is now made known by the true light that shines and erases the darkness. “The darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.” The darkness refers to man’s old idea of love; that he can retaliate against anyone who mistreats him. But Jesus, who is the light of the world, has shone forth the truth.
And John is telling us that no man really knows God unless he loves as Christ loves, and that means loving our enemies.
Jesus said, 43“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45“that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5: 43-45)
Then we come to verse 9 where we have the professing man—the false professing man. READ. This is the person who professes that they know God but they hate their brother. How many of us does this include? How many people say that they are in the light and that they are in Christ? They say that they:
• Believe in Christ.
• Have been baptized in Christ.
• Belong to the church.
• Take the Lord’s Supper.
• Read the Word of Christ.
• Pray to Christ.
• Live for Christ.
• Teach for Christ.
Yet there is still someone with whom they have animosity. They say, “Oh, I don’t hate my brother. I just don’t like him. I don’t know how to get along with him.”
How many people have you heard say, “There’s just something about him that turns me off: his appearance, his behavior.” OR “He did me wrong; he mistreated me.”
Whatever the reason, that’s not love. Love is love; it is not mistreatment or hate. And what the Bible is trying to tell us is that in order for us to really know God, we have to love as Jesus loved and that means looking at every other person in a different light—the light of Jesus.
If we profess any of these things I’ve just mentioned, we don’t know God, not really, no matter what we claim. The book of Titus says, “16They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.” (Titus 1:16)
John tells us today that “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.” (1 John 2:9) The book of Proverbs reminds us “Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.” (Prov. 10:12)
Then in verse 10 we have the obedient man—the man who loves his brother. READ. There are two wonderful things said about this man—he is in the light and in Christ. He loves the way Jesus loved. How was that? The Bible, once again gives us very detailed instructions on how to love.
• Love is patient.
• Kind.
• Doesn’t envy. (Jealousy and love will not mix. If there is jealousy, there is not love.
• Love doesn’t boast.
• It’s not proud.
• It’s not rude.
• Love is not selfish.
• It is not easily angered.
• Love doesn’t keep a record of wrongs. This speaks of true forgiveness.
• Love doesn’t delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
• Love always protects, it always trusts, it always perseveres.
Love is the binding force of the universe. God is love, so the more we love God, the closer we draw to Him. And the closer we get to Him, the more we learn to trust His care, provision, protection, and power. When God is taking care of us, there is absolutely nothing that can touch us.
35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”(Rom. 8: 35-39)
The great need of man is love. Man needs to be loved, but not with the sentimental feelings and passions of the world that come and go as freely as the falling star that shoots across the sky.
Man needs to be love with the love of God, the kind of love that we have talked about this morning—the kind of love that will help him to know that God loves him.
So tomorrow, when you go to work and your boss jumps all over you, or that customer accuses you of something you haven’t done, love them as Jesus loved.
When you go to the store and the store clerk is rude and obnoxious, even though your purchase helps them to keep their job, love them as Jesus loved.
When you call or go to your doctor and the receptionist or nurse acts like you’re bothering them, love them as Jesus loved.
Man needs to know that God cares for him and wants to deliver and strengthen him against all the trials of life. This kind of love will pull men together, not alienate them.
The man who loves his neighbor like this will not fail to live the kind of life he should live. The man who loves his neighbor like this passes test #2 for really knowing God.
