Obeying FROM Love

1 John 2:1-6

INTRO ACTIVITY:

ASK:

“If Jesus already died for my sins, why should I worry about obeying his commands if I’m already forgiven?”

Split the students into groups of 3 or 4 and see what answers they come up with.

After 5 minutes or so, let each group give an answer.

Transition:

What motivates you?

Are you motivated to obey God thinking you will earn His love?

Or

Are you motivated to obey God because you already have His love?

There is a huge difference between the two motivations.

If we obey him because we love Him and are already loved by Him, we can be confident in His commands.

We can trust Him that He knows what is best for us.

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(Feel free to use a different version of Scripture, I just typically teach out of the ESV)

Read 1 John 2:1-6 (ESV) “1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”

EXEGESIS (explanation of Scripture):

Ask:

What is sin?

Thinking, saying, or doing something that breaks God’s commandments or disobey’s God’s Word.

What is the punishment of sin?

Death Romans 6:23 “23 For the wages of sin is death...”

If sin is disobeying God and the consequence is death… we know then, we should not sin!

In 1 John 2:1 John makes it clear, “I am writing… so that you may not sin.”

So how do we do that?

How do we not sin.

We wouldn’t sin if we didn’t enjoy sin. Right?

One of the reasons we do sin is because if feels good. It’s desirable. We gain something in the moment that we may regret later.

John is writing, that we may not do that.

One way we do that is to go back to 1 John 1:7 “7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

Sin thrives in the darkness and hates the light.

To be open, honest, and sincere people means that our sin gets exposed. It doesn’t hide in the shadows of darkness.

1 John 1:5 “5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”

1 John also says that in Christ, there is no darkness.

Illustration:

Little kids may put on a superhero mask, take Spider man for example.

When the kid puts on the mask and runs up to you and makes a superhero pose, what is the next thing he says to you?

I’M SPIDERMAN!

But is he really spider man?

No.

He is masking his true identity.

For kids that is innocent fun, but for us, what happens when we try to make the sin inside of us?

It keeps us enslaved to sin. The more we hide it, the more we fight it and succumb to it.

It keeps us from healing. From salvation from our sin.

In Christ, though, there is no hiding. He knows our sin.

That’s why the second part of 1 John 2:1 says that “We have an advocate with the father — Jesus Christ the righteous one.”

ASK

What does that mean that Jesus is our advocate?

An advocate is someone who publically supports someone or something.

So when we who love Jesus and place our faith in Him for salvation, when we sin, Jesus advocates for us and says, “I paid for that on the cross.”

Hebrews 7:25 “25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”

When Christians sin, Jesus stands before the Father and reminds God the Father, “I paid for that.”

When Satan brings accusations against us, Jesus says, “Not guilty… paid in full.”

Jesus doesn’t sweep our sin under the rug.

Jesus accepted all of God’s wrath for sin one time on the cross and we need to remember the heavy price Jesus paid for our sin.

Jesus, motivated by love, paid the price of our sin.

The debt we owe (Romans 6:23)

We read the first half of Romans 6:23 earlier

“For the wages of sin is death...”

But the second part says this.

Romans 6:23 “23 BUT the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Jesus, fully motivated by love for us… The Bible says this.

Romans 5:8 “8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

1 JOhn 4:10 “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.”

God didn’t need to save us, but motivated by Love, He chose to save us and offered Himself, not in spite of our sin… but because of our sin (Rom. 5:8)

The question is…

Knowing the great sacrifice God has made for us,

Will we obey Him?

Why should we obey Him?

Illustration:

Remember when you got in a fight with your siblings when you were younger (or more recently).

Normally the fight ends with parental intervention.

Maybe you’ve heard your parents say, “Now apologize to your brother/sister...”

And what do you do?

With a bad attitude… we say, “I’m sorry...” But we know we don’t mean it.

We obey our parents, but our motivations are not truly sorry. We obey without love.

Is that what God or our parents want for us?

Is that what John is saying here today in 1 John?

No.

1 John 4:19 “19 We love because he first loved us.”

The people who love the best typically do so because they know how much they are loved.

How loved are we by God?

It’s incredible to think of how undeserving we are of His love for us, and yet how far He was willing to go to remind us of his love. To SHOW us his love through Jesus!

APPLICATION

So today, Do you follow Jesus out of obligation, duty, and unloving obedience?

Or,

Do you follow Jesus because you love Him? Because you are thankful for his love for you?

There are two things we need to remember today to live in thankful love for Christ.

Rejecting the gospel is dangerous.

Hell is real.

the consequences of sin is real.

Choosing to ignore Christ and his commandments has real consequences.

Knowing God’s commandments and choosing to live in sin is a dangerous, dark way to live.

When we live in sin, we choose to live in hiding and in the danger of darkness.

We need to take this serious.

We need to also understand what we deserve.

We do not deserve for God to save any of us.

We all deserve hell.

BUT

Through Christ, we can have LIFE

2. Accepting Christ’s sacrifice means we have an Advocate!

The moment we trusted Christ for salvation, Jesus advocated for us.

But! Every time we sin afterwards, Jesus continually advocates for us!

He constantly reminds us, “Because of what I’ve done, you are forgiven.”

We should not accept that freedom lightly.

It cost us nothing, but it cost Jesus everything.

He took what we deserve and gave us what we didn’t deserve.

Therefore, 1 John 4:19 “19 We love because he first loved us.”

What motivates you to follow Jesus?

Do you follow Him because you love Him or because you are trying to get something from Him?

In Christ, He has already given us everything.

You don’t need to work harder to earn something from Christ.

But we can’t live a life that ignores what Jesus calls us to either.

Ephesians 5:2 “2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

As Christ loved us to the point of dying for us,

Our of love for Christ, let us also love those around us.

It isn’t loving to let our brothers and sisters live in sin.

We need to remind ourselves AND remind our friends to walk in love as Christ loved us.

Walking in love means rejecting sin and obeying Christ.

But, when we do sin. Love is also pointing ourselves and our friends back to the truth that Jesus advocates for us.

What motivates you to follow Christ?

I pray you are not following Christ to EARN His love.

Follow Christ FROM His love for you.

Remember how much He has done for you and how free you are to Follow Jesus who is so full of tender love, grace, and mercy.

Are you motivated by that love and obeying Him today?