The Refined Command

Intro

I love college football. Specifically, I love Ole Miss.

I love a good steak fajita.

I love sweet tea.

I love my friends.

I love my wife.

I am using the same word everytime, but it certainly doesnt carry the same weight for all occurances. The word love is one of those words that just has gotten watered down through the years. In fact, love is one of the main topics that John writes about in 1 John.

The Old Commandment

The old commandment refers to the Law that we find in the Old Testament. 600+ laws that spelled out everything that was acceptable in the life of the Israelite.

For example: “a man shall not lay with another man, it is an abomination.” “Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy.” “You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard.” “You shall not…wear a garment of cloth made with two kinds of material.”

So there were all these laws that especially nowadays would be impossible to keep. In fact the Bible states that the Law was only given to show how sinful we truly are! It wasn’t made to be able to keep. It was made to show our deficiency.

For thousands of years, that was the requirement, the measuring stick, if you will. How good can I be in order to be closer to God? And the sad reality was that most people white knuckled it and did their absolute best, but it still wasn’t good enough.

If I steal a pack of gum from the store, what does that make me? A thief. A criminal.

Now if I steal 10 million dollars from a bank, what does that make me? A thief. A criminal.

Of course, one is a felony and one isn’t but that’s beside the point. Regardless of what is stolen the resulting label is that I’m a thief.

Someone who drives one mile over the speed limit is just as guilty of speeding as the guy driving 20 over.

The OT law was instituted for the sole reason of exposing the deficiancy of mankind without God.

This obviously created a big issue, right? How then were the Israelites supposed to get into God’s favor? If we can’t live up to the Law, then what were they supposed to do?

They were made right with God by their faith. We see that in Hebrews 11.

The New Commandment

In Matthew 22, The pharisees came to Jesus and asked him which commandment was the greatest. The Pharisees were always debating on the “weight” of the different laws. (Kinda how we like to debate the weightiness of our sins.) The pharisees knew that the Law should be treated as a level playing field, so they felt like they had Jesus trapped with this question. But Jesus answered first with a command that all of the devout Jews knew by heart. Daily they would repeat these words at least twice per day. “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.” The second is to love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus declared that all laws and prophets hang on these two commandments. And I’m inclined to agree. Anything that we do in our daily life should be filtered through those two commands. So the OLD COMMANDMENT is to love God and love others, but that was impossible.

The NEW commandment is to love God and Love others - through Christ. You cannot effectively love God without the presence of Jesus in your life. You cannot effectively love others without Jesus in your life.

When the love of God enters your life it transforms you into a new person capable of true agape level love. That love with transform your life, your marriage, your family, your workplace, everything!

Verses 9-11 are the evidence of this transformation, or the lack thereof. Your actions toward others are an indication of the love that is in you. If you are in here today and you have hate toward someone, let e tell you, the love of God is not in you and you are not a born again believer in Christ! You can not and will not go to heaven if you have hate in your heart! If that’s you, let me implore you to repent and seek forgiveness from the Lord and the person you hate.

If you want to be in a right relationship with God, you cannot be filled with hate. You must replace that with the saving love and grace from Jesus.

For Whom?

John continues by classifying different levels of his audience: little children, fathers, and young men.

Little Children

These are the baby Christians. These are the ones still drinking spiritual milk. They are written to because their sins are forgiven. They trusted in Jesus, and that’s as far as they’ve gotten. They’re likely new Christians or possibly (nowadays for sure) older but undiscipled Christians. John addressed them because the new commandment is just as important and the “measure” is just as important.

Fathers

The fathers are the mature believers in Christ. Not only men, but women too. I believe John was writing these words to address both genders in this message. John’s reason for addressing the fathers is “because you know him who is from the beginning.” This is a reference to John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” and 1 John 1:1 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—”

He wrote this because older mature Christians are going to have a greater understanding of the things of God. They are going to know the teachings of Jesus far greater than the other two categories, so John is calling on them to teach and impart their wisdom onto anyone who will listen.

Young Men

The young men is referring to those who are still on the battlefield for Christ. So everyone in between the other two. Think about what young men are and do, they work, they defend. That is this level.

They have overcome the evil one - this is a testament to their growing faith. Likely, by this point the young men would have faced a few trials from the enemy and won.

They are strong - another testament to their ability to overcome the evil one and make it to this stage of their spiritual life.

The word of God abides in them - this is where their strength comes from. If they had not the word of God, they would be lost as the rest of the world.

These were all addressed specifically to remind them of what is most important: Love God. Love others.

They were also likely encouraged to test their own faith by surveying the content of love in their hearts.

Closing

All of us have the command to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind…and love your neighbor as yourself” Are you doing that? Can you do that? Do you have the love of Jesus inside of you to empower a true love?

If not, during this song, come down and see me. Let me show you how Jesus can change your life.

If you want to become a member or need prayer, come forward during the last song as well.