Intro & Recap
- God is light, there is absolutely no darkness in him.
- If you say you’re in the light, but walk in darkness, you’re lying & not practicing the truth.
Last Week (2:1-2)
- I am writing these things so that you may not sin.
- If we do sin, we have both atonement in the past and an advocate in the present.
Text we didn’t get to until the very end:
This is how we know that we know him…
1 John 2:3a
John is going to give them a set of 3 questions, tests so that they can be sure of their salvation.
Know that You Know
Super important to know.
Building a house, won’t get far if you have to tear everything down and examine the foundation every day.
- And yet he’s writing these things for regular inspections of the foundation.
Test 1: Expanding Obedience
This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commands. The one who says, “I have come to know him,” yet doesn’t keep his commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, truly in him the love of God is made complete. This is how we know that we are in him: The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked.
1 John 2:3-6
This is how we know that we know: we obey in such a way that it would be impossible without the Spirit of God at work in our hearts, without walking in the light.
Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone
All I Have Is Christ, Sovereign Grace Music
And live so all might see
The strength to follow Your commands
Could never come from me
This is the difference between religion and the gospel.
- We don’t obey in fear that his love will run out.
- We obey because we know it never will.
- Do, do, do vs “Done.”
Obedience in the Christian life flows out of the love of God, “walking in in the light as he himself is in the light.”
If the trajectory of your life is toward obeying him more and more, then “truly in you the love of God is [being made] complete.”
Test 2: Increasing Love
Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old command that you have had from the beginning. The old command is the word you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. The one who says he is in the light but hates his brother or sister is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother or sister remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother or sister is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he’s going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
1 John 2:7–11
What’s this about a new old command?
Old New Command
Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old command that you have had from the beginning. The old command is the word you have heard.
1 John 2:7
It’s no shock to hear that you should love others, is it?
It was present in the Old Testament…
Love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.
Leviticus 19:18
Jesus took it to entirely new levels. “Nobody ever cared for me like Jesus.”
- New emphasis on love (greatest command)
- New length to love (70 × 7)
- New target of love (“love your enemies”)
- New depth to love (“greater love hath no man than this…”)
“I give you a new command: Love one another. Just
John 13:34
as I have loved you, you are also to love one another.”
Yet I am writing you a new command, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
1 John 2:8
- true in him, and now it’s true of those in him.
The darkness [of hate] is passing away, and the true light [of love] is already shining.
People who live in the light love one another.
Application
”I don’t hate anybody.”
John’s making a hard contrast here. There doesn’t seem to be any middle ground.
There is but a single alternative: love or hate, one or the other. God made us to love, not to be indifferent to others. A life of indifference belongs to hate.
Robert Rayburn
But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Whoever insults his brother or sister will be subject to the court. Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to hellfire. So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.
Matthew 5:22–24
Christians are an aquired taste. Loving them is not as easy as it may sound.
After witnessing the revolution in France, all the violence and the blood-letting that was done in the name of equality and brotherhood, the Austrian diplomat Metternich said, “After seeing what was done in the name of brotherhood, if I had a brother, I would call him my cousin.”
- It’s not easy—it’s hard.
- Apart from Christ, this love is frankly impossible… which is why it is a mark of true & living faith in Christ.
- It’s not natural—it’s supernatural.
1 Corinthians 13:1–2 CSB
If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.