We're Related on My Daddy's Side

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Introduction

“We’re brothers, we’re happy and we’re singing and we’re colored! Give me a high five”
The term brother has many meanings. So much so the African-American community has utilized the term brother to designate who is black. For instance, “Hey have you been to the new restaurant, you know a brother owns it”. In life some of us have been blessed with siblings. As much as we talk about loving our fellow human beings, many times we have hard enough times loving those who are blood related.
Many of us in this room have sisters, brothers, step-siblings. We also have our fellow man and woman. People we address as Brother and Sister as we walk to our seat. This love described by John in this text is a sacrificial love. This is the love we should have for our brothers and sisters regardless of race or gender.
Love and prejudice cannot coexist, racism and love cannot coexist. Primarily because light and dark cannot coexist. To think of ourselves superior because of race goes against everything that God has ever inspired and everything the gospel of Jesus teaches. The inability to love has our communities in disarray, our families in cycles of toxicity, and our churches divided.
It’s interesting that when I take my children to a restaurant with a play place, they often go inside and play. When I look up to check on them, all the kids in the play place are having fun together. No one is worried about the color of skin, the economic class or the level of education. All they want to do is play. This allows me to know and understand that hate is taught, and difficult to rid yourself of.
My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
John writes these things to warn us.
As we progress to verse two we see that “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world”. and in verse three we see “Now by this we know that we know him”.
Propitiation or an appeasement is necessitated. God had to insert Jesus in a supernatural way. (Virgin Mary), Adam introduces sin to the world, despite God forming him in an unnatural way. Forming man from the dust of the earth, granting him authority and dominion on earth. Therefore God places Jesus on earth through the body of a virgin in effort to be the savior of the world.
Typically an appeasement has to be made in a similar way/realm the infraction was made.
Adam sinned in the midst of perfection, Therefore God had to insert perfection in the midst of sin.
Our relationship with God is dependent upon following his commandments.
Just as Tells us to love God, love our neighbor, and that all of the law hangs in the balance of this command.
Love your enemies
Love your neighbor
Love your brother and sister
As we embark on verse 4 we see that those who love God and do not keep his commandments as a liar. Jesus said the greatest commandment is love, the bible tells us in Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
Our relationship with God, in this text to “know” God, this knowledge of God is based on experience.
If we have experienced God, “If” is a key word. A conditional statement, we know God if we keep his commandments.
If you have experienced God and do not keep commandments you have become a liar. It is deceptive to experience God in His power and hate your neighbor, enemy or brother.
Commandments are to be kept, we should watch over or guard our lives. It’s maintenance spiritually.
It’s just like a car, you can’t just drive it, you have to maintain it, put gas in it, get oil changes, change tires. It can be beautiful on the outside but if you never maintain what is under the hood eventually it will not function the way it is intended.
“But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk just as He walked”
If we say we abide in Christ, our actions should reflect it.
Knowledge of God, experiencing God, should promote unity with God, you can’t expect unity with the creator of all mankind but hate his creation.
Verses 7-8 7 Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. 8 Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
It is interesting that keeping the commandments is a segway to “love your brother”. Fellow Christians, we were never meant to be separate. We separate ourselves because of pride, arrogance, hate, and the inability to be uncomfortable.
This relationship between brother and sister is based on love.
We have all had the love of God which is seen by “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
We have had it and heard it, now since we have experienced the Power of God’s love there is no excuse to hate your brother.
Verse 7 “had from the beginning”. This word you have heard, this is not a new phenomenon but rather a reality as it pertains to the fact that time is limited, and we waste our life when we use our life to hate others.
The foundation of our existence is love, the foundation of salvation is love, the foundation of the church is love.

8 Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.

This is not a new idea, but life or death reality. Either you exude darkness with hate or you emit light with love. There is no inbetween.

9 He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.

Just as darkness and light are mutually exclusive antithesis, so are hate and love.
I can’t say I love Jesus but hate my brother because the color of his skin. I can’t say I love God but hate my sister because of her skin color. I can’t say I love Jesus but fail to build relationships with people because of their ethnicity. I can’t say I am thankful for Jesus dying on the cross for me but refuse to worship with someone because their complexion is a shade darker than mine. Hate promotes fear, and fear causes us to miss out on blessings because we refuse to fellowship with someone because of outward appearance.

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Living a life of Christianity through the lens of commonality is going to cause us gate trouble. We say we want to go to heaven but there’s going to be all sorts of ethnicities in heaven. If we can’t spend a few moments learning to love everyone, we’ll miss heaven because of our refusal to step outside of our comfort zone and see humans as God’s creation rather than the way society and the media has programmed us to look at people.
The New King James Version. (1982). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
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