A Test for Living in the Light
1 John 2:7-11
"Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. 9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. 11 But whoever 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."
Tests can be tricky.
1) How long did the Hundred Years War last?
116 years
2) Which country makes Panama hats?
Ecuador
3) From which animal do we get cat gut?
Sheep and Horses
4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?
November
5) What is a true camel's hair brush made of?
Squirrel fur
6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal?
Dogs
7) What was King George VI's first name?
Albert
8) What colour is a purple finch?
Crimson
9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from?
New Zealand
10) What is the colour of the black box in a commercial airplane?
Orange, of course.
Mat 24:12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.
The Old and The New
1Jn 2:7-8 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
John begins this passage with somewhat of a riddle. This is not a new commandment because it is the old commandment. At the same time, it's all brand new because it's new "In Him". And it is new because it is new "in you".
Although we have saw the commandment newly perfected Him and newly shared in us, it was here from the beginning. It always was. The command for God’s people to love each other has been around since the Jewish Old Testament Law. Even in the Noahic Law, we saw Love:
Gen 9:1-6 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image."
It was spelled out clearly in the Mosaic Law. Leviticus 19:18. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
1 John 4:8 tells us emphatically that "God is love". God's commandments were given to reveal to us God Himself.
Some say there are 613 laws in the Old Covenant. Some say there as many as 638. There were laws concerning how to treat your slaves, animals, neighbors, land, strangers, etc... The Jews believed the Decalog was a summary of the Law. They believed the 10 Commandments were the most important part of God's commandments.
Mat 22:36-40 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."
Now look at 1 John 4: 15-16 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
Did you catch that? Jesus is the new revelation of the Father. When Jesus Christ came to this earth He demonstrated visibly and publicly--in a way never before imagined--what it meant to love.
Heb 1:1-2 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
Jesus Himself said, Mat_11:27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Love not only friends, but enemies. Love not only good people, but all people. Love not only the righteous, but the sinner. Love not only the acceptable, but the rejected. Love not only the clean, but the dirty.
That is how this old commandment of love was newly revealed in Jesus Christ and lives new in us every day. Not new in quality, but old in that it was communicated before. The newness that it still has is seen when it’s truth--it’s reality. It is revealed anew in Jesus and is experienced in our lives. Jesus Christ gave love a new meaning.
The True Test
1Jn 2:9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
Interesting point here. John does not bring up love but hate, or the lack of love. This is one of several passages that I have commented on lately that defines hate as simply not loving. This says that if you testify that you are in the light and do not love your brother, you are still living in darkness.
This is a test. Are you walking in the light? You cannot hate your brother and be walking in the light. You cannot "not love" your brother and be walking in the light.
To Keep from Falling
1Jn 2:10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.
This does not mean that loving others is what enables us to walk in God’s light, as if we somehow earn our way into God’s light by our works. Raymond Brown says, "Not that loving enables one to be in the light, but that being in the light given by Christ enables one to love--because love is from God and is not a purely human action."
By walking in God’s light--thus also loving our fellow Christians--we won’t cause ourselves to stumble and fall in this walk, but neither will we lead others to fall also.
Please consider this: When do we stumble? When are we most likely to stumble? When we are offended. Tired. Angry. Depressed. In the worse mental state.
What can protect us from saying something or doing something harmful when we are in the worse emotional state? Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.
This is more important that I can express, and you will hear it again. Jesus did His greatest work when He was offended, tired, weary, treated poorly, hated, despised and rejected. When I am in those conditions, it is not an excuse for me to go into my flesh, but an opportunity to share in Christ's suffering and shine the brightest. More to come on that.
To See Properly
1Jn 2:11 But whoever 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.
Just as dangerous as the false teaching that was attacking the Church from without was the lack of love that was destroying them from within. This passage indicates that the person in darkness does not know what his actions are doing. Blindness prevents one seeing the true nature of their actions, as does darkness.
Darkness is a light problem. Blindness is an eye problem. If you walk in darkness for long enough, you will have eye problems. And you will be the last person to know it.
Love Exampled.
No one had every seen God’s love demonstrated in such an incredible, sacrificial, and wonderful way before Jesus Christ went to the cross.
Rom 5:7-8 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-- but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
1Jn 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Love Minimized.
Man has always felt free to mistreat others, especially those who had mistreated him. He has felt free to…Hate, ignore, be unkind, strike back, neglect, backbite, hurt, criticize, or retaliate.
Love is MORE than just a warm, fuzzy FEELING … it is a COMMANDMENT from God. If it is COMMANDED, that makes LOVE a CHOICE … an act of OBEDIENCE. It’s not just an EMOTION … it’s an OBLIGATION we have to God.
Love Exercised.
It has been often stated, Christians are the most loving and can be the most hateful people in the world. Unfortunately as a pastor and staffer in 6 different Churches, I have seen plenty of both.
“Some Christians are like porcupines … they’ve got a few good points, but they’re hard to get close to!”
If we have a commandment to love, and love is harder as the lawlessness of the world grows.....Then the light of our love should appear to burn brighter in a dark, hateful world.
Please note the intended impact of Christians loving one another....Joh 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
Ill. William Gladstone, in announcing the death of Princess Alice to the House of Commons, told a touching story. The little daughter of the Princess was seriously ill with diphtheria. The doctors told the princess not to kiss her little daughter and endanger her life by breathing the child's breath. Once when the child was struggling to breathe, the mother, forgetting herself entirely, took the little one into her arms to keep her from choking to death. Rasping and struggling for her life, the child said, "Momma, kiss me!" Without thinking of herself the mother tenderly kissed her daughter. She got diphtheria and some days thereafter she went to be forever with the Lord. Real love forgets self. Real love knows no danger. Real love doesn't count the cost.
Song of Solomon 8:7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.
Love should be seen greatest, not in the arms of a mother, but in the flock of a Church, if what Christ said is so true.
