A Study on God and Relationships
1 John 2:3-11
New American Standard Version
Fellowship with Him and One Another
03 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.
04 The one who says I have come to know Him and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;
05 But whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:
06 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.
07 Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.
08 On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.
09 The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.
10 The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
11 But the one who 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.
Focus on ATTITUDES:
Attitudes we have reviewed in the last several weeks:
Attitude about Adoration:
Who God is and What God has done;
Attitude about Confession:
Agreeing with God about our sin;
Attitude about Thanksgiving:
God wills that we be thankful all the time;
Attitude about Supplication:
Pleading a humble petition to God;
Attitude about Fellowship:
Be Ready to do any good work in His name;
Attitude about Joy:
Spiritual maturity produces lasting joy.
Attitude about Walking in the Light:
A strong desire to know Jesus and spend time with Him.
Look at another attitude:
Another Choice for A Person To Make:
A New Kind of Love: Our love for one another is motivated by our love for Christ.
John said:
I am not writing a new commandment to you;
But an old commandment which you have had from the beginning;
The old commandment is the Word, which you have heard;
On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you;
Which is true in HIM and in YOU;
HOW TO BE TRANSFORMED BY THIS NEW KIND OF LOVE !!
1. KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING WILL RENEW YOUR MIND:
In what sense was the commandment to love others both old and new?
It was OLD in the sense:
It was already there in the Old Testament;
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself (Leviticus 19:18).
Also:
It was NOT the first time that John's hearers had heard it;
From the very first day Christianity taught that the law of love must be the law of their lives.
This commandment: Old in Jewish law and Old in Christian teaching (John writes this 50+ years after Ascension).
It was NEW in the sense:
It had been raised to a completely new standard in the life of Jesus.
It was as Jesus had loved men that mankind were now to love each other.
Jesus said: A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you.
It could well be said that mankind did not really know what love was until they saw it in Him.
Examples of: An old thing can become a new experience in the hands of a master.
A game may become a new game to a person when seen as a master plays it;
A musical concert may become a new sound to a person when heard under a master conductor;
A chocolate cake may become a new dessert to a person when prepared by Mrs. June Wells;
In Jesus LOVE became NEW in 2 directions:
1. It became NEW in the extent to which His love reached;
In Jesus love reached out to the SINNER.
To the orthodox Jewish Rabbi the SINNER was a person whom God wished to destroy;
To the orthodox Jewish Rabbi there is joy in heaven when one sinner is destroyed.
Jesus was the friend of outcast men and women and of sinners;
Jesus was sure there was joy in heaven when one sinner goes home;
In Jesus love reached out to the GENTILE.
To the orthodox Jewish Rabbi the GENTILE was a person whom God wished to destroy;
But in Jesus God so loved the world that He gave His Son.
Love became NEW in Jesus because he widened its boundaries until all were included.
2. It became NEW in the extent to which His love would go;
No sin from any person could turn Jesus' love to hate;
No hate from any person could turn Jesus' love to hate.
He could even pray for God's mercy on those who were nailing him to his Cross.
John 2: 7:
This is Not a new commandment;
This is Not taking philosophy to the next logical step as is common in the history of philosophy.
John said it’s an OLD commandment BUT it has a newness to it.
It has a freshness.
The remarkable part of the newness of this:
- The old commandment is the Word, which you have heard.
- The new commandment ( new: not the idea of new in time, chronologically, but the idea of something new in quality).
- This is Manifested in Jesus Christ for the first time so that the visibility of what it means to love your neighbor is clear.
Jesus says the same thing: I have a new commandment that you love God and love all others.
That was a fresh new way to see the commandments of God and exactly how we are to love others.
He says I want you to love in a way you’ve never known before.
1 KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING WILL RENEW YOUR MIND:
2. CHANGE OF ATTITUDE IS A CHOICE TO BE OBEDIENT:
Another attitude:
Another Choice for A Person To Make:
Another Choice for A Person To Make Perfect Ones Love For Others !!
First we know what the Bible tells a person to do;
Next a person has a choice to obey it.
What is Jesus telling a person about a choice for loving others ?
I want you to love the way I’ve loved you.
That’s how I want you to love others.
Understand what it means to live a life that reflects God’s love.
If we claim to know God our lives will show evidence of His love.
1. Living Like Christ Proves We Know God (vs 3 – 6)
2. Loving One Another Proves We Know God (vs 7 – 11)
How had He loved them?
Three years of meeting every need they had:
providing for them food;
providing for them teaching;
providing for them forgiveness;
providing for them grace;
providing for them mercy;
providing for them patience;
How did He love them?
By washing their filthy feet.
A metaphor how Jesus had loved them all through His ministry.
They always needed their feet washed spiritually !!
They loved the Lord and believed in Him YET they had doubts, failures, pride, ambition, greed, self-centeredness.
Jesus made the choice to keep loving and loving and loving and loving, patiently, patiently, patiently.
There is a level of understanding of the perfection of that love which was never able to be understood by anybody until it was personified in Jesus Christ.
Never has the world seen this perfect love until Jesus showed it to them.
Remember: We never can find that perfect love toward others until we see it in Jesus.
HOW WERE THE DISCIPLES IMPACTED BY THIS PERFECTED LOVE?
- Look what it did to Peter after the foot washing event;
- It eventually took a compulsive emotional person and transformed him into a strong patient leader;
- But Jesus knew as He washed the feet of Peter that Peter would deny Him 3 times before the next morning.
The Significance of what he did: it is not just what Jesus did in the foot washing event.
The Significance of who did it: it is that it is the Lord of Glory, the Son of the Living God.
- Look what it did to John as he wrote these epistles;
- John was not known as a tenderhearted man;
- He is the same one that wanted to call down fire from heaven;
- He wanted to incinerate a whole village of people who did not comply;
- He became gentle and kind by the mighty work of God in His life;
- He expresses affection and love so readily and so easily both toward the Lord and toward others.
- John became known as the apostle of love.
- He has a tenderness about him that causes him to express his affections for others.
- John has the kind of love for believers making it a evident of true salvation.
- It’s very evident because he identifies the people to whom he writes as the ones whom he loves.
- He loves those who are in Christ. He loves those to whom he writes.
1 KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING WILL RENEW YOUR MIND:
2. CHANGE OF ATTITUDE IS A CHOICE TO BE OBEDIENT:
3. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE FUEL THAT EMPOWERS A TRANSFORMATION IN A PERSON:
Keeping commandments and Loving = the character of a person who has been transformed.
One will love the brethren.
One will have a great affection for those who are in Christ.
One will long for that fellowship and to render service to those who are in Christ.
One really been changed and regenerated, 2 things are going to be true about your life:
One will obey God;
One will love other Believers.
Then the contrast comes in verse 10:
John was perfectly right when he drew his sharp distinction between light and dark, love and hate.
How does a Person regard Others?
(i) One may regard Others as negligible:
One can make plans without taking others into account;
One can live on the assumption that the need of others is of no concern;
One can live on the assumption that the sorrow of others is of no concern;
One can live on the assumption that the welfare of others is of no concern;
One can live on the assumption that the salvation of others is of no concern;
One may be so self-centered that no one matters except self.
(ii) One may regard Others with contempt:
One may treat others as a fool in comparison to their intellectual attainment;
One may regard the opinion of others as having no value;
One may regard others as useful enough for the menial duties of life.
(iii) One may regard Others as a nuisance:
One may regard any gift to charity that has to pay for social welfare as regrettable.
One may regard others in poverty or in sickness or under-privileged as mere nuisance.
(iv) One may regard Others as an enemy:
One may regard competition as the principle of life;
That others in the same profession or trade are potential competitors and, therefore, a potential enemy.
(v) One may regard Others as fellow worker in the Kingdom:
One may regard others needs as their needs;
One may regard others interests as their interests;
One may regard to be in fellowship with others as the true joy of life.
How can a person know a transformation has taken place?
John gives us two ways to know: if you do what Christ says and live as Christ lived.
If one is in the light (possessing eternal life) or if one is in the darkness (sentenced to eternal death):
- It is made known in this matter of loving;
- The one who loves his brother abides in the light;
- The one who keeps the commandments is the one who knows God;
- In him the love of God has truly been brought to perfection through salvation.
1 KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING WILL RENEW YOUR MIND:
2. CHANGE OF ATTITUDE IS A CHOICE TO BE OBEDIENT:
3. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE FUEL THAT EMPOWERS A TRANSFORMATION IN A PERSON:
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