Christians Love
SCRIPTURE: 1 John 2:7-14, 3:11-24, 4:7-12,19-21
GIST: Christians will love because God is love.
The structure of this lesson will be different from our normal approach. As 1 John circulates more as a conversation, I wanted to take us through each of the "love one another" statements in the letter and look at them together.
This comes on the heels of TRANSFORMATION POINT 2: Christians will live like Jesus. How is this manifested among us? God is love. Thus, to live like Him is to love like Him.
A New Old Commandment in the Light of His Love
1 John 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.
Admittedly, these verses seem very confusing at first glance. John appears to contradict himself. Is this a new commandment or an old commandment? Well, for those of you who were with us for the John lessons, this should sound very familiar. Jesus said nearly the same thing in John 13:34 "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." But loving one another was not new. This command is seen throughout the entire Old Testament. So, what does this mean? In what way is it new? Jesus declared that this commandment was new in its application because people had missed the point. Jesus demonstrated what love was supposed to look like (it was true in Him), and took away the darkness of our weak imitation/sin-filled loves.
1 John 2: 9-11 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.
What does this love look like? First, it cannot be hate. That seems pretty straight forward, but think about the implications here. True love is truly loving. It is easy to say that we live like this as a sort of "gut reaction". I don't hate my brother. However, in this context, Jesus is talking about having love specifically for the fellowship of Christ, the Church, believers. Do we love them, or do we tolerate them in public and slander them in private?
Consider the implications here, if we do not love, we hate. If we hate, we walk in darkness. If we walk in darkness, we are lost because we cannot see in the dark. Putting the metaphor into practical language--if we are not loving like Jesus, we're not living like we're saved. Spiritually, we won't grow. We cannot become more like Christ if we aren't like Him at this most foundational level.
United in Love
1 John 2:12-1412 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. 13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. 14 I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
This segment has also been the cause of much debate amongst theologians. Why is it here? Who is being addressed? Are we talking about actually chronological ages of people, or levels of spiritual maturity? I went back and forth on all of this myself, but think that it might be too easy to miss the forest through the trees here. John is talking about loving the brothers, then he tells us who these "brothers" are. The common thread in all of these statements is that these people are saved. The little children are forgiven and know the Father. The young men are strong, the Word abides in them, and they have overcome the evil one. The Fathers know God. I do believe that these are marks of spiritual maturity, but the foundation of each is salvation. Why do we love the brothers? We are united in Christ! We love the world for much the same reason. Jesus died for that irritating family member, rude customer service worker, and reckless driver---just like He did for this wretched youth pastor (Fill free to add any specific adjective of sin before my name. There are many--and those are only the ones you see.) Since this is true, why can we not love them?
I think it’s important to point out what this love “looks” like here. Alistair Begg pointed out that love amongst Christians is like love among family members. It’s not always warm and fuzzy, but it binds.
SIDE NOTE: It is interesting that the progression from forgiven to knowing God comes through the WORD abiding in us. Meditate on that this week.
Mobilized to Love
True love acts.
1 John 3:11-14 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.
Here, John sheds some light on the Genesis account of Cain and Abel. Cain killed his brother after God accepted Abel's sacrifice of a lamb, and rejected Cain's sacrifice of crops. Why was one rejected and the other accepted? It was the heart behind the sacrifice. Abel sacrificed his best out of love for God; Cain did not. John tells us his deeds were evil, and therefore, in jealousy, he killed his brother.
He goes on to tell us not to be surprised when the world hates us. This is to be expected. Darkness hates light. However, light should not hate light. So, how can we tell if we've been saved? We no longer hate the things or the people of God. Not loving God is loving death, Hell, self.
1 John 3:15-18 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
Like Jesus does in Matthew 5:21-25, John equates hatred to murder because the heart is the same. He then contrast this with the love of God. Jesus did not murder, but gave up his life for us. We should love likewise. But what does that mean? Are we to look only for opportunities to die physically for fellow believers? Is that the only way that this can be done, and, therefore, the only way we can be saved? Are we to live like radical Muslims who die sacrificially while murdering infidels as our only guarantee of salvation? No.
Laying down our lives is not always and never only physical. We are to sacrifice our time, talents, and resources. Look at verse 17-18. John is very straight forward. If you have the means to help, but don't--you're not living like Christ. If we're not living like Christ, then how can assume that we're saved since salvation is being filled by God. We can't just say we love. We have to do it.
1 John 3:19-20 19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
Again, this verse threw me off a bit on first reading it. If read causally, it could be taken as an admonition not to worry about a guilty conscience. You feel burdened? Don't worry, God is greater than your worry. But that's not the point here. In fact, we are warned of quite the opposite. If our conscience is burdened, and we don't hold ourselves to near the standard God does (nor do we see all He sees--sins of omission as well as commission), we have all the more reason to fall before Him and seek forgiveness through the truth.
1 John 3:21-24 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
We can have confidence before God when our hearts do not condemn us—our conscience is guilt-free. Our conscience is clear only when we keep His commandments. We keep His commandments when we believe that Jesus is the divine Messiah and love one another (love God, love people). Furthermore, those who do this abide (reside, live within) God because He lives within us by the Holy Spirit. He makes the change.
Demonstrated Love
THUS, we have the perfect example of love, Jesus Christ, abiding in us.
1 John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Why do we love?
1-Because love is from God
2-Whoever loves is God's
3-Whoever doesn’t love isn’t God's
4-God is love. This is not just a characteristic He possesses. He is love. Love cannot exist apart from Him.
1 John 4:9-11 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
God showed His love to us through the unmerited death and resurrection of Christ. This is the Gospel. We’ve did nothing to earn this. We deserve Hell. He willing chose this. He endured Hell for us. Verse 11 puts the point very clearly: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:12, 19-21 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us... 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Love perfected?
- Perfect love is God’s love. Thus, we love truly only when we love as He does.
Because He first loved us
-Again our love results from His.
Love and Hate
-They cannot coexist
The command is that we love our brothers. We can’t be Christians and not do this.
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