1 John 2:9 He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.
1 John 2:10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
1 John 2:11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
According to John, the command for Christians to love one another is both old and new (1 John 2:7-8).
(1 John 2:7 NKJV) 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.
(1 John 2:8 NKJV) Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
This seems to be a contradiction. Love obviously is not new. The commandment that men love God and each other is not a new thing. So what was John writing about? Let’s break it down.
First, John tells us that the command to love one another was an “old” commandment:
(Lev 19:18 NKJV) 'You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
Zechariah 8:17 – “Let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor…”
Jesus Himself combined Leviticus 19:18 with an Old Testament commandments from Deuteronomy 6:5 and said that these two commandments summarize all the Law and the Prophets. (Mark 12:28-34)
So, loving God and loving one’s neighbor were old, familiar responsibilities before Jesus ever came to earth.
John also lets us know that “loving one another” is a new commandment.
(John 13:34 NKJV) "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
(John 13:35 NKJV) "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
In what sense, then, is “loving one another” a “new” (1 John 2:8) commandment? Looking at the Greek helps to answer the question.
The Greeks had two different words for “new”—one means “new in time,” and the other means “new in quality.” For example, you would use the first “new” to describe a recent model of a car or a “new” hit on the recording chart.
But if you heard a kind of music or song that was so revolutionary that it was radically different, you would use the second word—new in quality or character. The DJ would introduce the CD artist as having a “new sound.”
The commandment to love one another is not new in time, but it is new in character. Because of Jesus Christ, the old commandment to “love one another” has taken on new meaning. It was “new music” to the ears of those who had been in bondage to the law or someone’s philosophy of life. It was a new quality or character of love.
In the Old Testament, loving your neighbor was the law. In the Old Testament if you didn’t love you’d die. (Lev. 20:9-10)
In the New Testament, Jesus comes and says, “I’m not coming to destroy the law, I have come to fulfill it.” (Matthew 5:17) The Bible says, “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17)
Love for God and love for others motivates a person to obey God’s commandments without even thinking about them! When a person acts out of Christian love he obeys God and serves others—not because of fear, not because of the law but because of love.
This is why John says that “Love one another” is a new commandment—it is new in emphasis. It is not simply one of many Old Testament commandments. No, it stands at the top of the list!
Now where there is true love, there is an absence of hatred. Psalm 97:10 says – “You who love the LORD, hate evil!” In verses 9-11 of our text John tells us you cannot say you love the Lord and hate your brother.
The true mark of a believer is that you love the brethren.
1 John 3:14 says, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.”
1 John 2:9 He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.
John in essence is saying you can tell those who are in fellowship with God; they walk in light and they love. He is also letting us know that you can tell those who are not in fellowship with God; they walk in darkness and hatred.
To walk “in the light” is to walk in a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
Men fall in two classes:
* Those who are in fellowship with God and therefore walk in light and love
* Those who are not in fellowship with God, and therefore walk in darkness and hatred
There are only two major classes of emotions: love and hatred. In God’s scheme of things, there is no such thing as indifference. You either love or hate.
One commentator says, “Where love is not, there is hatred.” Another has said in so many words, “Where love is not…that heart is not empty.” In other words, when it comes to people, your heart only has love or hate. A mild hatred is still hatred.
1 John 2:10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
The word “love” here is agapao. What does it mean? It is selfless. It is self-sacrificing. It is the kind of love that God demonstrated when He gave His Son Jesus Christ to die for the sins of the world. (John 3:16; Romans 5:8)
An expanded definition of this word is found in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13:
1 Cor 13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
1 Cor 13:2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1 Cor 13:3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. (NKJV)
4) Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
5) or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged.
6) It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
7) Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8) Love will last forever…(The New Living Translation)
Now in 1 John 2:10 John writes, “He who loves his brother…”
John is in essence writing about he who loves his brother. According to 1 Corinthians 13, he who loves his brother is:
* He who is patient and kind with his brother
* He who is not jealous, boastful, proud or rude with respect to his brother..
* He who does not demand its own way or is not irritable with his brother
* He who keeps no record of when it has been wronged by his brother
* He who is never glad about injustices imposed on his brother but rejoices whenever the truth wins out for his brother
John is teaching us that the one who loves his brother is the one who never gives up on him; never loses faith in him; is always hopeful for his brother, and endures through every circumstance with his brother.
This is what loving your brother or sister in the Lord is about. It is a self-sacrificial love that gives of itself for the happiness and well being of the fellow-Christian.
Guess what? You and I cannot practice agape love on our own. Thus John writes, “He who loves his brother abides in the light…”
The word “abides” is the Greek word meno, which means to “abide” or “remain.” It is the same word used in John 15:4, "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”
My daughter Shannon has a Guinea Pig for a pet. When I go shopping for it’s food I have to pay particular attention to the ingredients. You see, Guinea Pigs do not manufacture the Vitamin C that they desperately need. I have to buy food that has Vitamin C added.
It is this way with the Christian. We cannot manufacture agape on our own. God’s Spirit must supply it through our food. The Word of God has the essential “vitamins” you and I need to live the Christian life and “love” is one of them. You see, “love” is supernaturally produced. It is supernaturally produced only in the life of a believer who habitually is abiding in his Lord.
1 John 2:10 - He who loves his brother abides in the light…
Are you having a hard time loving people? Perhaps it is because you are not abiding in Jesus. This is what “abiding in the light” is all about. It is abiding in Jesus. Jesus said in John 8:12, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."
Are you having difficulty loving the brethren? Perhaps it is because you haven’t made a habit of spending time abiding with the Lord.
Next in 1 John 2:10 we find: He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
“Stumbling” is the Greek word skandalon, skan'-dal-on ("scandal"). It refers to a trap-stick (bent sapling), i.e. snare (fig. cause of displeasure or sin):--occasion to fall (of stumbling), offence, thing that offends, stumbling-block.
Verse nine tells us that when one hates his brother his is in darkness. Most of us know that when we attempt to walk when it is physically dark we can stub a toe or worse fall and kill ourselves.
It is bad enough when an unloving believer hurts himself by walking in darkness; but when he starts to hurt others the situation is far more serious.
Jesus says in Mark 9:42 "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.”
So it is dangerous to walk in the darkness when stumbling blocks are in the way! An unloving brother stumbles himself, and he also causes others to stumble.
The best way to help other Christians not to stumble is to love them. Love makes us stepping-stones; hatred (or any of its “cousins,” such as envy or malice) makes us stumbling blocks.
I believe one of the major reasons why unbelievers do not come to Christ is that they use disobedient Christians as an excuse not to come.
They justify their behavior by using disobedient Christians as reason to continue living without Christ.
“I saw her in the lottery line the other day.”
“My cousin says she is a Christian but she drinks and cusses as much as I do.”
“They both say they are Christians but they are living together and not married.”
“He says he a Christian but he tells me that he is gay…”
They are in essence saying, ‘If they say they are Christians and live like that then why should I have to become Christian?”
John says, “He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.”
The one who loves his brother will not stumble nor will he cause others in the church to stumble.
If you and I don’t exercise love in our church, there will always be problems and disunity. If there is no love we will always be falling over each other, instead of lifting each other higher and we will never become a truly happy spiritual family.
Again, we are talking about agape love. We are not learning about an experience. Christian love is not a shallow sentiment. It is not a passing emotion that we may experience as we are greeting one another to the tune of Celebrate.
Christian love is a practical thing; it applies in the everyday affairs of life. I challenge you to do some research on all the “one another” statements in the New Testament and you’re going to see how practical it is to love one another. Here are just a few (there are over twenty such statements):
Wash one another’s feet (John 13:14).
Prefer one another (Rom. 12:10).
Be of the same mind one to another (Rom. 12:16).
Do not judge one another (Rom. 14:13).
Receive one another (Rom. 15:7).
Admonish one another (Rom. 15:14).
Edify [build up] one another (1 Thes. 5:11).
Bear one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2).
Confess your faults to one another (James 5:16).
Use hospitality one to another (1 Peter 4:9).
When I am struggling with showing love, I force myself to think of the love that God demonstrated to me when He gave His only Son Jesus Christ to die for my sins.
Paul wrote in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
In view of this how can I withhold love, when God spared not love?
How can I withhold forgiveness when God spared not forgiveness?
How can I withhold compassion when God spared not compassion?
John continues…
1 John 2:11 - But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
Here John lets his readers know what happens to a believer who does not love the brethren.
John goes straight from talking about the one who loves his brother to the one who hates his brother. There is no middle ground. There is no neutral attitude between “love” and “hate.”
The Persuaders used to sing a song that has the words, “It’s a thin line between love and hate.” The Persuaders were close but there is no “thin line” there is no line between love and hate. You either love someone or you hate them.
Greek Scholar Kenneth Wuest says that “Love is active benevolence, and less than this is hatred, just as indifference to the Gospel-call amounts to rejection of it.”
In other words, if you shared the Good News of Jesus Christ with a friend and he or she told you something like, “Look, I respect you for what you believe but I am satisfied with the way I live.” They are in effect rejecting God’s plan of salvation no matter how polite or courteous they are in rejecting it.
You and I can come to worship with smiles on our face but if we do not love our brother we hate him. The words of the song by the O’Jays come to my mind, “They smile in your face, all the while they want to take your place (the backstabbers)..."
We can say “praise the Lord” and “glory to God” all the catchphrases in the Christianese dialect but if we are unwilling to prefer one another and be of the same mind one to another and not judge one another and receive one another and bear one another’s burdens we are not demonstrating love, but hatred. There is no way getting around this truth.
The other day I was watching a movie depicting the fictional voyage of a cruise liner whose passengers contracted a deadly virus. One scene showed a heartbroken wife who was infected and about to jump overboard because her husband would not come near her.
The wife cries out to everyone looking as she stands at the edge of the ship and stretches out her hand towards her husband, “All I want is my husband to show that he cares…” The ship’s doctor pleads with the husband to go to her and take her hand and save his wife.
The husband looks at everyone and then his wife and cries out, “I can’t.”
William Gladstone, in announcing the death of Princess Alice to the House of Commons, tells the story of how 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. Jesus was the personification of real love as He “for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
But the one who hates his brother is in darkness. This person is in big trouble because according to verse nine, he thinks he is in the light but he is in darkness. He thinks he sees, but he is actually blinded by the darkness of hatred.
This is the kind of person who causes trouble in Christian groups. He thinks he is a “spiritual giant,” with great understanding, when actually he is a babe with very little spiritual perception. He may read the Bible faithfully and pray fervently, but if he has no love in his heart, he is living a lie.
1 Cor 13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
1 Cor 13:2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1 Cor 13:3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. (NKJV)
We have had brothers and sisters come through our church that knew the Word but there was no love. How do I know this?
Because when things got tough the tough got going. But “love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” (1 Cor. 13:7)
When they couldn’t get their way, they split. But “love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged.” (1 Cor. 13:5)
The person who hates also becomes a cause of stumbling (cf. 1 John 2:10). We’ve learned that the best way to help other Christians not to stumble is to love them. Love makes us stepping-stones; hatred (or any of its “cousins,” such as envy or malice) makes us stumbling blocks.
A third outcome of hatred is that it retards a believer’s spiritual progress (1 John 2:11). A blind man—a person who is walking in darkness—can never find his way! The only atmosphere that is conducive to spiritual growth is the atmosphere of spiritual light—of love. Just as the fruits and flowers need sunshine, so people need love-agape love if they are going to grow.
A free-lance reporter from the New York Times was interviewing Marilyn Monroe years ago. She was aware of Marilyn’s past and the fact that during her early years Marilyn had been shuffled from one foster home to another. The reporter asked Marilyn, “Did you ever feel loved by any of those foster families with whom you lived?”
“Once,” Marilyn replied, “when I was about seven or eight. The woman I was living with was putting on makeup, and I was watching her. She was in a happy mood, so she reached over and patted my cheeks with her rouge puff … For that moment, I felt loved by her.”
Marilyn Monroe had tears in her eyes when she remembered this event. Why? The touch lasted only a few seconds, and it happened years before. It was even done in a casual, playful way, not in an attempt to communicate great warmth or meaning. But as small as the act was, it was like pouring a bucket of love and security on the parched life of a little girl starved for affection.
I like the title to the song What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love. I am not referring to some mooshy, mushy, warm fuzzy feeling kind of love. I am referring to agape love. It is selfless. It is self-sacrificing. It is the kind of love that God demonstrated when He gave His Son Jesus Christ to die for the sins of the world.
The world needs this kind of love and there is only one place they can find it—the church. Many attempt to love but they do it for selfish reasons. “I will be totally devoted to you as long as you are totally devoted to me.” Is this total devotion? No. It is contingent devotion. This is why most marriages fail—when the conditions aren’t met there is separation—emotional and then physical.
When we love one another we will be there for one another. We will persevere for one another. We will not give up on one another. We will be willing to sacrifice our own interests in order to meet the needs of one another.
Let me end with a story that has made a mark in my heart. It tells of circumstances that none of us in our right mind would ever want to have to face.
One Sunday evening the church's pastor stood up, walked over to the pulpit, and gave a very brief introduction of his childhood friend.
With that, an elderly man stepped up to the pulpit to speak, "A father, his son, and a friend of his son were sailing off the Pacific Coast," he began, "when a fast approaching storm blocked any attempt to get back to shore. The waves were so high, that even though the father was an experienced sailor, he could not keep the boat upright, and the three were swept into the ocean."
The old man hesitated for a moment, making eye contact with two teenagers who were, for the first time since the service began, looking somewhat interested in his story.
He continued, "Grabbing a rescue line, the father had to make the most excruciating decision of his life.... to which boy would he throw the other end of the line. He only had seconds to make the decision.
The father knew that his son was a Christian, and he also knew that his son's friend was not. The agony of his decision could not be matched by even the torrent of waves. "As the father yelled out, 'I love you, son!' he threw the line to his son's friend. By the time he pulled the friend back to the capsized boat, his son had disappeared beyond the raging swells into the black of night. His son's body was never recovered."
By this time, the two teenagers were listening very attentively, waiting for the next words to come out of the old man's mouth.
"The father," he continued, "knew his son would step into eternity with Jesus, and he could not bear the thought of his son's friend stepping into an eternity without Jesus. Therefore, he sacrificed his son. Oh, how great is the love of God that He should do the same for us!"
With that, the old man turned and sat back down in his chair as silence filled the room. Within minutes after the service ended, the two teenagers were at the old man's side. "That was an awesome story," said one of the boys, "but I don't think it was very logical for a father to give up his son's life in hopes that the other boy would become a Christian."
"Well, you've got a point there," the old man replied, glancing down at his worn Bible. A big smile broadened his narrow face, and he once again looked up at the boys and said, "It sure isn't very logical, is it? But I'm here today to tell you the fact THAT story gives me a glimpse of what it must have been like for God to give up His Son for me."
"You see, boys.... I was the son's friend."
God may never ask any of us to make that kind of heart-wrenching decision. All He expects of us is to tell people about Jesus. Show them the love of Christ so they might come to know Him.
He expects us to gather together regularly for worship and instruction and fellowship so that we might be built up in order to do the work of the ministry. Is this too much to ask?
No He is not asking us to sacrifice any of our children but He is expecting us to die to self; to take up our cross and follow Him. Are you willing to do this?
