1 John 2:7-8

1 John  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  1:14:53
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1 John 2:7–8 ESV
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. 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.
1 John a book of Truth verse false teachings (gnostics)
A book of words that call out acts of truth.
And some of the truths studied have been who God is and who God is not.
First God is...
God is Light, God is Righteousness, God is Truthful, God is Honest.
Second God is not...
God is not darkness, only light, God is sinless, God is not deceitful, and God is not a liar.
And because of these truths of who God is, scripture calls out his people to be like-wise.
Who are His people?
2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
People who are aknew or in other words born again.
New creation, the old is gone and the new has come.
So if we’re a new creation in Christ and the Holy Spirit resides in us, 1 John is pointing out to us truths that should be in our lives.
Not in a demeaning, holier than thou way. But in a truthful, loving, caring, concerned way.
Either we’re this
Light…Righteousness…Truthful…Honest
or we’re this..
darkness…sinful…deceitful…liar
One is of God the other is not.
and if we’re this and not this, praise God if not let the truth be heard and please repent and believe.
What are all these ultimately contrasting?
Right & wrong
Good & Bad
Love & Hate
And in the context of 1 John, this is the commandment he’s talking about.
Love.
Matthew 22:37-39 Pharisee’s quizing Jesus and one finally asking what’s the most important?
Matthew 22:37–38 ESV
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.
Matthew 22:39–40 ESV
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
This is what 1 John has been going after! These 3 verses!
Love summarizes all commandments!
1 John 2:7 ESV
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.
From the very first time you heard the Gospel, to today’s reading of this letter…the commandment has never changed…Love God, love others!
1 John 2:8 ESV
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.
What has changed is you! The commandment is an old one but being a new creation and our eye’s being opened to this new commandment brings a whole new meaning!
This newness…seeing Christ for the first time…this darkness being filled with light!
This commandment isn’t new, it’s been there the whole time.
God has always been this, we just didn’t see it in truth and now it’s like a whole new commandment!
Love God, love others…this is what I’m trying to tell you!
Ok, great…what is love?
Define Love...
an intense feeling of deep affection.
an intense emotion of affection, warmth, fondness, and regard towards a person or thing
a deep feeling of sexual attraction and desire
These definations were pulled of the inner webs.
I can agree with the first one in the sense of a Mother and her new born child or a grand child and their Grandma.
Even the second one, to a sense as that of a teenage couple dating for a few months.
I see these definations and aren’t surprised by them…but...
there is a problem with these definations in contrast to the study of Scripture and who God is.
First problem…feelings (go back over definations and highlight the feeling side of them)
What other word do we sometimes put in place of feelings?
heart.
an intense heart of deep affection.
an intense heart of affection, warmth, fondness, and regard towards a person or thing
a deep heart of sexual attraction and desire
What is wrong with our feelings or our heart?
Right of the bat, scripture says this...
Jeremiah 17:9 ESV
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
it’s deceitful and sick, it has a sinful nature in it..our hearts are not pure…as much as we think our grandma’s heart is pure, it is not.
2. Our heart or feelings are always changing, not constant. From our dating lives, to our forever trucks…feelings are fickle.
3. What happens when grandma says no and the grandchild doesn’t love grandma anymore?
4. Fickle, so changing with the times and season’s we’re in.
Second, these definations are about you!
an intense feeling of deep affection.
an intense emotion of affection, warmth, fondness, and regard towards a person or thing
a deep feeling of sexual attraction and desire
This is a definition of love that promotes selfishness.
A definition of how you feel and what makes you happy in the moment.
Doesn’t nesaccarly mean you care for that person. Just that you have feelings towards them, that can be here one day and gone the next.
It’s a selfish defination of love.
What does scripture define love as?
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
1 Corinthians 13:4–5 ESV
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
1 Corinthians 13:6–7 ESV
it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love is...
Patient = thinking about others time over ours
Kind = thinking about others feelings over ours
Does not envy = thinking more about what you don’t have than what they need. Doing good in hopes of receiving what they have…home across the street…thoughts. That’s not love but ugliness. Opposite = be glad for! Happy for their good health!
Does not boast = praising of ourselves and comparing ourselfs to others to make oneself more than others. Lifting ourself up above others.
not arrogant = Not a prideful, unattentive person, who only hears themselves. But a person who values others and who they are…a created being made in the likness and image of God.
not rude = is respectful, considerate, concerned for others
Does not insist on it’s own way = caring of others and what’s best for all
not irritable = concerned more with my wants, desires, than of others.
not resentful = not remembering wrongs but forgiving others.
it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth = we don’t encourage lie’s and things that are bad for them but encourage truth and things that are truly good for them. Friend vs parent anology.
1 Corinthians 13:7 ESV
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Reminds me of wedding vows...
"In the name of God, I, _____, take you, _____, to be my (wife/husband), to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until parted by death"
not about feelings!
How are we to love our blood family , our brothers and sisters in Christ, anyone for that matter if it’s based on feelings? Feelings that are so unstable, so changing, so here today and gone tomorrow!
What about loving our enemies? Forget about it!! If based off feelings, never going to happen.
How do we love our enemies? Through the love bestowed on us as once being enemies of God. As once living in darkness but been given forgiveness and light.
We have to go back to what Love is in scripture..
It is truth, it is action.
1 Corinthians 13:4–5 ESV
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
1 Corinthians 13:6–7 ESV
it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
A love like God’s!
John 3:16–17 ESV
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Why did God give His Son? So we could have eternal life.
Not to condemn but to save!
Did we get that?! He did it for us! Not because He needed to but because we needed it and in love He thought of others more than himself!
John 15:13 ESV
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
Love is more than a feeling, it is a genuine care and concern for others over yourself.
It is selfless not selfish!
1 John 2:7–8 ESV
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. 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.
Little by little, bit by bit the scripture in Ezekiel is becoming more and more fulfilled.
Ezekiel 36:25-27
Ezekiel 36:25 ESV
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
Ezekiel 36:26 ESV
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 36:27 ESV
And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
It’s by His works, His cleaning, that we a new!
Praise God!
Thank you!
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