What’s Love Got To Do With It? - 1 John 2:7-11 - June 30, 2013
Series: That We May Know – Life With Jesus - #6
I’ll invite you to open your Bibles with me this morning to the book of 1 John as we continue in our series entitled, “That We May Know – Life With Jesus.” 1 John, chapter 2, and we’ll begin reading in verse 7. This is our sixth message in the series, and if you’re just joining us for the first time today, or if you have missed a message or two in weeks past and want to get caught up, you can do so by simply going to our church website and listening on-line.
Now over the years I’ve met a number of people who struggle with what we might call “assurance of salvation.” What I mean by that is this: large numbers of people in our churches are simply hoping that they will enter into heaven when they die, but who live with the fear that they may not. They don’t have any assurance of salvation, and, because they don’t have any assurance, they don’t have any comfort in, nor any joy from, their faith either. Day by day, week by week, they go through the motions, hoping against all odds that if they do everything right, that maybe, just maybe, they’ll make the final cut; they’ll discover that their sins really have been forgiven and that they truly have been born again.
And maybe you’re one of them. You’re not sure. You’re not certain. You’re only hoping that salvation is yours, but you live in fear that it might not be. Now in some cases that fear is not a bad thing; it might even be justified. We’re told to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. And the truth is that there are some people today who should be living with that fear, because when it comes right down to it, they aren’t saved. All these years they’ve been going through the motions, and they have a form of godliness, but one without any power. They have deceived themselves - and that’s something Scripture warns us about again and again, saying, “Do not deceive yourselves,” “Do not be deceived.” In other words, “Don’t fool yourself,” “Don’t believe something to be true that isn’t.”
The good news is this: We don’t have to guess. We don’t have to live with that uncertainty; with that fear. John says we don’t have to wonder. He says we can know. We can have that assurance that we crave. In 1 John 5:13 he writes these words … “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13, NIV84) All these things that John is writing in this book, he’s written that you and I may know that we really have been saved. That’s why we’re going through this book verse by verse because we don’t want to miss anything that John is trying to tell us here. We need to take these things that he is writing, and apply them to our lives. Because what John does is to give to us a number of tests regarding salvation, so that we may examine ourselves to see if we really are in the faith. And we’ve looked at a couple of those tests in this series already.
The first test is the test of your attitude towards sin. What is your response to the reality of sin in your life? What happens when you’re reading the word of God, or when you’re listening to a pastor speaking, or when you’re confronted by a godly friend, and you suddenly realize that you’ve been living with this on-going sin in your life? What do you do? Do you deny it? Do you revel in it? Do you celebrate it? Do you excuse it or justify it? Do you continue in it? Or do you see it as God sees it? Does it break your heart? Does it bring you to your knees in brokenness and repentance? Do you humble yourself before God, confessing your sin, turning from it, and seeking His strength to overcome it?
Our attitude towards sin tells us an awful lot about the genuineness of our salvation. John writes that “If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, [as always “darkness” speaks of habitual, on-going sin, ignorance and the absence of God] we lie and do not live by the truth.” (1 John 1:6, NIV84) So that’s the first test – our attitude towards sin.
The second test is a test of obedience to the Word of God. John says, “We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands.” (1 John 2:3, NIV84) There are many people, who claim the name of “Christian,” but who make no effort to walk in obedience to the Word of God whatsoever. In fact, many people continue to live their lives, after having supposedly come to faith, just as they did before coming to that moment in time. I would suggest, that if that describes you, that there is a very good chance that you’ve deceived yourself, and that you are just as unsaved today, as you once were.
See, in some ways we can say the Christian life is all about transformation, all about change. We move from darkness to light, from death to life, from old creation to new. That newness reveals itself in new priorities, passions, interests, and values that are aligned with those of God Himself. We put to death the things of the sinful nature – they no longer have a hold on us, nor hold the same interest for us that they once did. Why? Because the Spirit of God comes and indwells us and begins to form within us the character of Christ.
Paul, in his letter to Titus, confesses to this change in his own life saying … “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. [These things used to be true of him but now something is different, something has changed, they are true of him no longer, for he goes on to say …] But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior. (Titus 3:3–7, NIV84)
Paul was once walking in darkness, but is doing so no longer. What changed? He experienced God’s mercy, he was forgiven his sins, he was renewed by the Holy Spirit, he was touched by God’s grace. And it changed him just as it will change you and me. And Paul began to live for the Lord. He left behind his old way of living and began to embrace a new way of doing life. Folks, a life that has not been changed, is a life that has not been saved.
Romans 12:2 says this … “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. [There’s that change we’ve been talking about.] Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2, NIV84)
Which leads us, this morning, to the third test that John gives us so that we might examine ourselves to see if we really are in the faith, or whether we’ve simply been deceiving ourselves all along. So let’s begin reading in 1 John, chapter 2, beginning in verse 7 …
“Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.” (1 John 2:7–11, NIV84)
Those verses follow right after what John had just written concerning obedience to God’s commands. Now he’s saying, “Hey, you want to know what’s at the heart of it all? I’m going to sum it up for you with one command here and it’s not at new command. It goes back all the way to the moment you first believed. And it goes back even further than that, right to the very beginning, this has been God’s heart for His people. So it’s not a new command by any means. But you know what folks, in a way it is a new command! Because Jesus has made it new – and it’s not new in terms of time – not even new in terms of something different – but it is new in terms of quality. Jesus has taken it to a whole new level and this is what He’s looking for in us. Here’s the command: Love one another.”
This third test that John gives us, it’s a test of love – specifically, love for one another. Jesus was once asked what the greatest commandment was – do you remember what He said in reply? He said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”” (Matthew 22:37–40, NIV84)
Why were these two commandments the greatest of them all? Because every other commandment is fulfilled in the keeping of these two. Think about it … if you love God above all else, you aren’t going to be worshipping idols or putting other things ahead of Him. If you love your neighbour as yourself, you’re not going to be stealing from him, lying about him or to him, you’re not going to be coveting his wife nor having an adulterous affair with her. If you’re walking in love for God, and love for your fellow man, you are by default, going to be fulfilling the heart of the commandments that God has given to His people.
And in this sense it is not a new command. It’s been God’s ways since the very beginning. But Jesus takes this old command and makes it new. In the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks these words to His disciples saying … “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34, NIV84) Jesus has upped the ante. He’s raised the bar. He’s shown us by personal example what it means to love, as God desires us to love. “As I have loved you,” He says, “so you must love one another.”
So how did Jesus love? Well there are a lot of different ways that we could mention this morning. When we go the Scriptures we find that He spent time with people, He healed them, He spoke truth to them, He entered into their pain and sorrow and traveled that valley with them. He touched the lives on the untouchable of His day and welcomed them to come and do life with Him. He humbly served others rather than lording it over them. We could go on and on but the point is we have many, many examples of how Jesus loved others.
And it’s Jesus who once said this … “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:12–13, NIV84) We can work with that right? We can understand that. We can understand how a person might lay down their life for someone close to them. In fact just earlier this week I read the account of two soldiers who served during WW1. They met in basic training, became great friends, and served together on the front lines. One day an attack was launched on the enemy lines and these two men, along with hundreds of others, leapt out of their trenches and ran towards the enemy. It was a disaster. They were mowed down by the scores and the survivors stumbled back to their own lines to regroup. That’s when one of those two men realized his buddy had been wounded and was still out there. His captain refused him permission to go and look for him; it was too dangerous. But he put his life on the line and went anyways. He was being shot at the whole time, yet was untouched. And he did find his friend just in time to be with him for a minute or so until the wounded man died. At that point the survivor picked up his friend’s body and carried him back to friendly lines. His captain asked him if it had been worth it and the man said yes it had because when he had rolled his friend over, amidst the blood and the mud and the exploding shells, his friend had whispered these words, “I knew you’d come for me.” How could he know that? Because the friendship these two shared was undergirded by a love that would lay down it’s life for one another.
That’s the type of love that Jesus is talking about – a selfless love, one that looks to the well-being of another ahead of yourself. It’s a sacrificial love. And we can understand that, can’t we? And yet Jesus took it further than that. When He went to the cross, He did it for those who were not just His friends, but for those who were still His enemies. And while those who hung on His left, and His right, were cursing those who had hung them there, what did Jesus say? … “Father, forgive them.” That’s the heart of God’s love, and we need to understand that, because we’re being called to love one another as God has first loved us.
Look at verse 9 … “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.” (1 John 2:9, NIV84) Can you think of someone that you hate? Someone who has done you wrong, and the bitterness and fury of hatred, rages unchecked in your heart? When you come to church Sunday morning are there others here who you refuse to speak to, to share communion with, to fellowship with, or to even acknowledge? If so, you have a problem, because hatred is a sign of unbelief. That’s why it becomes a test of the reality of our faith. John talks about this a little more in the third chapter of this book when he writes these words … “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.” (1 John 3:14–15, NIV84) See, hatred is incompatible with Christianity.
We all want to think we’re the exception. “Oh I know we’re not supposed to hate, but if you only knew how she betrayed me, what he’d done to me, then you would say I have the right to hate.” Couldn’t we say that about Jesus, too? Didn’t He have more reason to hate then most? He was completely innocent, yet He was abused and battered, falsely accused and ridiculed, humiliated and put to death. And yet He chose not to hate, because hate is the way of the world. What’s society’s slogan? “Don’t get mad, get even!” or “Do unto others before they do unto you!” When we’re hurt, rejected, ridiculed or abused in some way, we want to lash out in anger and hatred. We want the one who has injured us, who has caused us so much pain and heartache, to suffer as we have suffered.
We even see a glimpse of this in the Old Testament law of retribution – the whole idea of an “eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” type of mentality. But Jesus says this … ““You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person.” (Matthew 5:38–39, NIV84) In other words, “do not repay evil for evil but repay evil with good.” And again He says, ““You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:43–45, NIV84) Jesus takes this idea of love to a whole new level and then He tells us that we’re to love one another just as He’s loved us.
See, love is not an addition to the Christian life. It’s not something we add on after we’ve got everything else in order. Love is at the heart of the Christian life. Jesus says, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35, NIV84) Not, “if you carry your Bible, and attend Sunday School, not because you’ve gone through some religious ritual, or because you said some prayer” – but because of your love for one another. Jesus says, “That’s how they’ll know your one of mine – because of your love for one another!” If you’re given to hatred, you haven’t really understood the gospel, because the gospel is all about grace and mercy and love and forgiveness, being poured out to those who don’t deserve it – people like you and me.
Look at verse 10 … “But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.” (1 John 2:11, NIV84) Walking in the darkness is dangerous. It blinds you to the truth. When you’re in the darkness it’s easy to lose your way even more. And so it is with hatred. Do you know what hatred is? It’s not just active hostility to someone. And it’s not just an overflowing of anger and bitterness directed at another person – it’s a failure to love. You see, love isn’t about an emotion. It’s about a choice. We don’t have time to read it together this morning but I’ll encourage you to read it this week. 1 Corinthians 13. And as you read it, and reflect on it, and begin to put it into practice, you discover that what I’ve just said really is true: love isn’t an emotion – it’s a choice to treat people in a certain way. It’s a choice to allow God to touch others through your life, and through your love for them – and if you’re not choosing to love, you’re not giving God any room to work through your life to touch others.
Friends, when you love someone, you do not lie about them, or to them, you do not gossip about them nor seek their downfall. When you love someone you seek those things for them that are for their good. You make choices that seek to bless them rather than to destroy them. You seek to love them, as you love yourself.
John says … “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (1 John 3:16–18, NIV84)
See, Christian love is practical. It’s speaking the encouraging word, lending the helping hand, feeding the hungry, clothing the needy, ministering to the sick, walking alongside the grieving, reaching out to the one who is broken, and allowing God to work through you to touch their lives. It’s speaking the truth in love rather than telling people what their itching ears want to hear. It’s loving others, not just in word, but in deed – through our actions.
Now we need to wrap it up. Over these last several weeks I’ve been challenging you to examine yourselves in light of God’s word. Today I want to ask you: How are you measuring up? If someone were to ask you: “What evidence of salvation is there in your life?” how would you respond? Would you say, “I go to church, I teach Sunday School, I’m on the Board, on such and such a date I gave my life to the Lord while I was at camp,” or would you tell them about the moment you said the “Sinner’s Prayer,” or that time that you came forward at an alter call? I hope not, because none of those things is biblical evidence of salvation! Do you know what is evidence? A changed, and changing, life! A life that is responding to the reality of sin, a life that is moving in obedience to God’s commands, a life that is overflowing with love for others, particularly those in the family of God. These things, and not the others, are evidence of salvation, evidence that you have been born again, moved from death to life, been forgiven your sins and experienced God’s grace!
John writes these things that we may know that we have eternal life. You see, we’re not saved because we prayed a prayer or asked Jesus into our hearts. We’re saved the way people have always been saved – by repenting of sin and believing upon Jesus. The evidence that we have done so is that the things written in Scripture, that are indicative of the Christian life, are found in our life as well. And we have that assurance of salvation when we begin to see that the things that John has written of, are becoming true in the day to day moments of our lives, that we’ve left the darkness behind and have begun to walk in the light.
Let’s pray …
