First John: 1 John 2:11b-The Believer Who Hates Their Fellow-Believer Has Been Blinded By Satan’s Kingdom and Has Lost Direction in Life

But whoever 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. (ESV)

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Wednesday June 21, 2017

www.wenstrom.org

Lesson # 59

But whoever 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. (ESV)

“And does not know where he is going” presents the result of the previous two assertions.

“Does not know where he is going” is composed of the following: (1) emphatic negative adverb ou (οὔ), “not” (2) third person singular perfect active indicative form of the verb oida (οἶδα), “does know” (3) adverb of location pou (ποῦ), “where” (4) third person singular present active indicative form of the verb hupagō (ὑπάγω), “he is going.”

The verb oida means “to know for certain” in the sense of having knowledge as to how to perform a particular activity or to accomplish some goal.

Here the activity would be living out one’s life with other believers and the goal would be executing the Father’s will for one’s life.

The word’s meaning is emphatically negated by the emphatic negative adverb ou, which expresses an absolute, direct and full negation.

Thus, John is stating with the emphatic negative particle ou and the verb oida that the believer who hates his fellow believer “unequivocally, does not know for certain” where he is going meaning he is confused and cannot execute the Father’s will.

The perfect tense of this verb is also a gnomic perfect which expresses an absolute spiritual principle or an eternal spiritual truth that is being taught here by John regarding the believer who hates his fellow believer.

“Because the darkness has blinded his eyes” presents the reason for the previous assertion that the believer who hates his fellow-believer unequivocally does not know for certain where they are going in life.

“The darkness has blinded his eyes” is composed of the following: (1) rticular nominative feminine singular form of the noun skotia (σκοτία), “the darkness” (2) articular accusative masculine plural form of the noun ophthalmos (ὀφθαλμός), “with eyes” (3) genitive third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός), “his” (4) third person singular aorist active indicative form of the verb tuphloō (τυφλόω), “has blinded.”

The noun skotia which again means “darkness” in a figurative or metaphorical sense referring to Satan’s kingdom which is characterized by sin and evil in contrast to God’s kingdom which is characterized by holiness.

It is used for Satan’s cosmic system, which is characterized by spiritual darkness because of sin and hate which is result of disobedience to God’s command to love one another.

The verb tuphloō means “to blind” in the sense of causing the believer to no longer have the capacity to understand and execute the Father’s will.

The noun ophthalmos means “eyes” but in a figurative sense for the function of the soul of the believer.

The one who at any time does hate his fellow-believer is in the darkness. Specifically, he is conducting his life in this darkness. Consequently, he unequivocally does not know for certain where he is going because this darkness has blinded his eyes. (My translation)

The apostle John presents the consequences of the believer who lives their life in the spiritual darkness of Satan’s kingdom by disobeying the Lord’s command to love their fellow-believer as He loves them.

He asserts in this result clause that this believer unequivocally does not know for certain where they are going in life which means that they can never execute the Father’s will if they disobey the command to love one another since love characterizes His kingdom.

is completed with a causal clause, which presents the reason why the believer who hates their fellow-believer unequivocally does not know for certain where they are going in life.

This causal clause asserts that the darkness of Satan’s cosmic system has blinded the eyes of this believer who hates their fellow-believer.

In , the believer’s “eyes” is figurative language for the soul which contains a mentality, which is that aspect of the soul, which circulates thought or mental activity and is where one’s frame of reference and memory center resides.

It is also the place where one’s vocabulary and the classification of thoughts reside as well as the conscience where the norms and standards reside.

A person’s entire mental attitude circulates in the soul as well as the subconscious where various categories of things that shock or impress from adversity, sin, failure or disappointment are located.

Also, it contains the volition, which enables a person to make decisions.

Therefore, when John teaches in that the darkness of Satan’s cosmic system has blinded the eyes of the believer who hates their fellow-believer, it indicates that the mentality of this believer is infected with the evil and sinful thoughts which reflect the standards of Satan’s kingdom.

It also means that the believer’s conscience has been corrupted in the sense that their norms and standards are reflecting the evil of Satan’s kingdom and not God’s holy standards.

Furthermore, it means that the believer’s emotions are now governing their decisions rather than God’s Word.

Lastly, it means that the believer is not making decisions through the function of their volition which are according to the Father’s will but are decisions which reflect what Satan would want.

The believer who disobeys the Lord’s command to love one another is living in spiritual darkness of Satan’s cosmic system and does not know where he is going in life because the spiritual darkness of Satan’s cosmic system has blinded his soul.

Spiritual darkness is sin and hate and is the absence of love and is also independence from God who is light in the sense that He is holy.

Spiritual darkness is also the rejection of truth and in particular the command to love one another as Christ loved and is living according to the lies of Satan’s cosmic system.

Spiritual darkness for the unbeliever is having no relationship with God whereas for the believer it is not appropriating by faith one’s eternal union and identification with Christ and as a result it is failing to experience fellowship with God.

The believer who hates their fellow believer is living in the spiritual darkness of Satan’s cosmic system and as a result they do not know where they are going in life.

They have no direction in life or capacity to enjoy life because they have been blinded by the cosmic system of Satan.

They do not know where they are going in life in the sense that they are not living according to the Father’s will, which is to love one another.

Just as literal darkness results in disorientation to objects around you so spiritual darkness results in disorientation to the will of God the Father and consequently, disorientation to life itself and people.

Spiritual darkness involves having no capacity for life and relationships.

The only solution to spiritual blindness for the unbeliever is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation (; ).

The only solution to spiritual blindness for the believer is the confession of sin () to be restored to fellowship with God which is maintained by obedience to God’s Word and specifically the command to love one another.

Obedience to the will of the Father as revealed by the Spirit in the Word of God is the only solution to spiritual darkness.

Specifically, obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ’s command to love one another will solve the problem of spiritual darkness.

Satan and his cosmic system seek to blind the unbeliever to prevent them from receiving eternal salvation.

Satan and his cosmic system seek to blind the believer by distracting him from hearing and obeying the Word of truth in order to prevent the believer from fellowshipping with God and doing damage to Satan’s kingdom.

Therefore, the believer who hates their fellow believer has been deceived by Satan and his cosmic system.

They have accepted the lies of Satan and his cosmic system.

If the unbeliever in spiritual darkness does not accept Christ, they will be sent to the lake of fire ().

If the believer does not confess their sins, they will be under divine discipline, which is an expression of God’s love.

The believer who obeys the Lord Jesus Christ’s command to love one’s fellow believer will receive direction in life and will bear fruit to God meaning they are enabling the Holy Spirit to reproduce the character of Christ in their life.

The believer who disobeys this command will have no direction in life and will not bear fruit to God meaning they are preventing the Holy Spirit from reproducing the character of Christ in his life.

Therefore, hating one’s fellow believer will result in a meaningless existence and it will result in a life of confusion and disillusionment.

The one loving their fellow believer will have a fulfilling, meaningful and productive life.