First John: 1 John 2:10-Obeying the Command to Love One Another is Living in the Light Lesson # 58

Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. (ESV)

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Thursday June 15, 2017

www.wenstrom.org

-Obeying the Command to Love One Another is Living in the Light

Lesson # 58

Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. (ESV)

“Loves his brother” is composed of the following: (1) articular nominative masculine singular present active participle form of the verb agapaō (ἀγαπάω), “whoever loves” (2) articular accusative masculine singular form of the noun adelphos (ἀδελφός), “brother” (3) genitive third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός), “his.”

The verb agapaō refers to the function of God’s love in the life of the believer since John is speaking of the love which is reproduced in the Christian by God the Holy Spirit when they obey the Lord’s command in to love one another.

In other words, this love is divine in quality and character because is resides in the character and nature of God and is reproduced in the Christian by the Spirit when they obey this command.

The present tense of the verb agapaō is a gnomic present which expresses the absolute spiritual principle that the one who “does” at “any” time obey the command to love one another is abiding in the light or in other words, he is experiencing the holiness of God and fellowship with God.

The noun adelphos refers to a hypothetical believer who is hated by another believer and describes these Christians as related to each other and the Lord Jesus Christ through regeneration.

The articular construction of the noun adelphos is employed with the genitive third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos to denote possession expressing the relationship between these two believers.

“Abides in the light” is composed of the following: (1) preposition en (ἐν), “in” (2) articular dative neuter singular form of the noun phōs (φῶς), “the Light” (3) third person singular present active indicative form of the verb menō (μένω), “abides.”

The verb menō means, “to live” since the word pertains to experiencing fellowship with Jesus Christ and parallels the concept expressed by the verb peripateō which appears in relation to this verb here in .

The present tense of the verb menō functions as a gnomic present which expresses the spiritual principle that the believer who any time does love his fellow believer is “as an eternal spiritual truth” abiding in the light meaning he is living according to the standards of God’s holiness.

The noun phōs is used in the figurative sense for living according to God’s holy standards which is reflected in the command to love one another and is the object of the preposition en which is functioning as a marker of sphere.

This indicates that light is the sphere in which a hypothetical believer is living who is obeying the command to love one another.

“And in him there is no cause for stumbling” presents the result of the previous assertion that the believer who loves their fellow-believer is living in the light.

“No cause for stumbling” is composed of the following: (1) nominative neuter singular form of the noun skandalon (σκάνδαλον), “cause for stumbling” (2) preposition en (ἐν), “in” (3) dative third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός), “him” (4) emphatic negative adverb ou (οὔ), “no” (5) third person singular present active indicative form of the verb eimi (εἰμί), “is.”

The verb eimi means “to exist” and is emphatically negated by the emphatic negative adverb ou which emphatically negates the statement that there is a cause of stumbling in the believer who obeys the Lord’s command to love their fellow-believer.

The adjective “unequivocal,” which the adverb “unequivocally” is derived from, refers to that which is absolute, not subject to conditions or exceptions and refers to something that is not subject to dispute or challenge.

The one who at any time does love his fellow-believer is, as an eternal spiritual truth, living in the light and consequently there is, as an eternal spiritual truth, “unequivocally no” cause of offense in him.

The gnomic present of the verb eimi is used to express an absolute statement that is true all the time, namely that there is unequivocally no cause of stumbling, i.e. sin in the believer who obeys the Lord’s command to love their fellow-believer.

The noun skandalon means that there is no cause of sin in the believer who obeys the command to love their fellow-believer since obeying this command is the fulfillment of the Law (cf. ).

The one who at any time does divinely-love his fellow-believer is living in the light. Consequently, there is unequivocally no cause of stumbling in him. (My translation)

The apostle John’s teaching in stands in contrast with his teaching in .

The former teaches that the believer who hates his fellow-believer is in the darkness of Satan’s cosmic system while on the other hand, the latter teaches that the believer who loves his fellow-believer is living in the light.

Therefore, the contrast is between the results of loving one’s fellow-believer and that of hating one’s fellow-believer.

The former is living in the light whereas the latter is living in the darkness.

As was the case in , John is presenting to his readers here in another eternal spiritual principle which pertains to fellowship with God.

As was the case in verse 9, he is presenting another hypothetical situation in verse 10 to teach an eternal spiritual truth with regards to fellowship with God and in both verses, he is speaking of a hypothetical believer.

Furthermore, as was the case in verse 9, the prepositional phrase “in the light” is figurative language for the holiness of God.

It describes experiencing fellowship with God from the perspective that it is living according to God’s holy standards as they are revealed by the Spirit in the Word of God.

These standards are reflected in the command to love one another.

In verse 10, he asserts that the believer who at any time does love his fellow-believer is living in the light.

This love does not refer to the function of human love but rather the exercise of divine-love that is produced by the Holy Spirit through the believer who is obedient to the Spirit inspired teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is referring to the function of God’s love in the life of the believer since John is speaking of the love which is reproduced in the Christian by God the Holy Spirit when they obey the Lord’s command in to love one another.

In other words, this love is divine in quality and character because is resides in the character and nature of God and is reproduced in the Christian by the Spirit when they obey this command to love one another.

Then, John follows up this assertion about the believer who obeys the Lord’s command to love one another with a result clause which asserts that there is unequivocally no cause of stumbling in the believer who obeys this command.

This means that there is no cause of sin in the believer since obeying this command is the fulfillment of the Law (cf. ).

Some interpreters contend that the believer who obeys the Lord’s command to love one another will not cause their fellow-believer to stumble or in other words, cause them to sin.

However, the context would favor that the believer who obeys this command will cause himself to stumble or sin.

This is indicated by the fact that in , John is not addressing and emphasizing the believer’s behavior in relation to their fellow-believer when they are disobedient and obedient to the Word of God.

Rather, he is addressing and emphasizing the believer’s decisions with regards to their fellowship with God.

In , John is concerned with the believer who confesses their sin to be restored to fellowship with God and in , he is concerned about the believer obeying God’s Word in order to maintain fellowship with God after they’ve confessed their sins to the Father.

Now, in , he advances upon this and is concerned that the recipients of this epistle obey the Lord’s command to love one another in order to experience fellowship with God.

If they don’t obey this command, they will not experience fellowship with the triune God.

Throughout , John is concerned that the recipients of this epistle continue to obey the command to love one another.

In , John is teaching the recipients of this epistle what they must do to maintain their fellowship with God.

If they do not love their fellow-believer, they are out of fellowship which John describes in figurative language as living in the darkness which is referring to living one’s life according to the standards of Satan’s kingdom.

If they do love their fellow-believer, then they are experiencing fellowship with God which the apostle describes in figurative language as well and refers to living according to the standards of God’s holiness.

Therefore, John’s emphasis in is not to prevent believers sinning against each other but rather that they don’t sin in order to maintain their fellowship with God.

Of course, he is concerned that they don’t sin against each other but his emphasis is that the believer makes decisions which will ensure that they will continue to experience fellowship with God.

If they do experience fellowship with God, then they will not sin against their fellow-believer or in other words, John’s emphasis is not the consequences as they relate to others but rather the consequences as they relate to oneself.