The Relationships Test: Is the Love of God Perfected as You Walk in the Light?
Notes
Transcript
Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
If once John addressed the idea of not having to deal with sin that the false teaching resulted it, he had to at once give the disclaimer - but that doesn’t mean we don’t deal with sin - and then shoow both i. confess it, but also cleansed by ongoing Advocacy Ministry of Christ in heaven, and applying his propitiation - w actually have three legged stool - idealistic - we will quit all habitual, ongoing sin, we will be realistic their is real indwelling sin, and live by forgiveness - and in that new status - goal not cause keep his commandments - in otherwords goal of our forgiveness not just relief and joy, but also obedience! But now John wants to show us the opposite of sin - not just obedience… and discipline alone won’t get you to evangelical , discipleship obedience - moralism isn’t the same as Chrsitianity… The opposite of sin is LOVE. If you really understand this , yearn all the more to face our sins and repent of them, you know why? Because understand sin isn’t just a arbitrary score card, it rips at the fabric of what God joins together - his creation - heaven and earht,God and humanity, humanity in community with bond of being image bearers of Triune God - sin separates … So John throws ou an another test, not just the light test - remember that’s about walking in life - but also now in v.6 this walk - test and seee what the gopsel and the very Person of Christ is doing in your relationships! We are to be eager to deal with sin, in order to replace them with genuine love for one another and for God!
SO where is your love meter at? Do people only and continually annoy you, full of impatience with how they don’t meet your standard, only love them as they please you, are you a love sponge that like a leach just takes and takes and takes. HOw about with God ? Remeber verse 5 - kind of like a spiral staircase circles back - this obedience - the Word abidiing what does it do it perfects the love of God in you - DO you love near neighbours, not next door, but in your faimly, in your home, do your best friends experience you loving them as you love yourself/ physical hneighbours, how about far away neighbours not as much a claim, any lives bettered because we live?
does your soul sing to God, do you stand amazed at his mercy and compassion, in awe of his power and wisdom in provdience, do you adore Him for His great acts, do you exalt His very words - like a lover holds those letters…
From the beginning - life of Son , Genesis creation, only ref is to Cain and Able, so command from beginniing - I will be my brothers keeper - won’t regard him for his weakness nor despise him for … Ask Holy Spirit to fill you with INCREASING LOVE FOR your brothers and sisters in the church! Tough - rugged commitment - time together, communication! I feel that big time with you - time together -
In our battle against sin, the winning solution is not greater discipline. Discipline is helpful, but love is more powerful than discipline. In the end, we are engaged in a competition of “loves”—our love for sin versus our love for God. That’s what it comes down to. As Augustine once said, “Love, and do what you will.”47 Love shapes our will. Love is the most powerful motivator there is. If we truly love God we will live his way. IE Mike with sin, but more in word, more in prayer - more appetites in life changed!
Two parts = 1. Old/new COMMAND is love (vv7-8) Q. new in kind or time?
Probabbly since heard message of X, they had this command, but also from Moses Lev 19, id
ed command in Indeed, the second half of 1Jn 3:16 states, “And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” Throughout the letter, the love of God and of Jesus is connected to the love of believers.
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
John 13:34-35 Jesus gave new command
BUt connected to light and darkness = not just a simple act choose to start doing?
Truth of love seen in Him and YOU! why? reason = v.8c because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining = truth of love can be seen in the true light!
PARAGETAI - darkness is passing away, like 1 Jn 2:17
And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
This means darkness is world in opposition to God, true light = life in Christ that takes you out of allegiance to world FOR FELLOWSHIP with Father and the Son = in YOU LIKE IN CHRIST BECAUSE ENTERED NEW FELLOWSHIP , not remain in rebellion against God,
2. Distinction of Hate lives in the dark, love is in the light! (Vv. 9-11)
Hate is incompatible with the light we LIVE IN NOW, hate a bro/sis = still in darkness.. still in rebellion with God and not in fellowship...
not about whteher have salvation, but assurance, growth in dsicipeship - whether fellowship with God and others growing ie. hate not just strong detest, but also show disfavour or disregard, oppostie of love is indifference!!!!
What is is love then? 3:16 lay down life, 3:18 not just words but actions and in truth - Love is, then, as much about action as anything else. It involves rugged, self-sacrificial commitment to others, modeled on Jesus’s own self-sacrifice for us.8 Indeed, loving is more than simple imitation of Jesus (though it is not less than that) since God himself is love. To love is to live in God, and he in us (4:16). McKnight provides some further categories to think through the nature of biblical love as we learn of it from God’s own love. Defining love broadly as “rugged commitment,” he adds that it is a commitment to be “with” and “for” another person “unto” Christlikeness. Love is “rugged commitment” because it is often hard work. It is “with” because love is about sharing presence together. It is “for” because love means you will be their advocate, on their side. It is “unto” because love is directional; it moves toward the one to whom we surrender our love.9 These “love prepositions” give shape to our understanding of what love is as revealed by God’s love in Christ.
love is WITH, FOR, UNTO! and not in general terms, only in respect to particular BRO & SISTERS, can’t love humanity in gernal, its people I can’t stand! yet let shines in darkness to more than believers too
CS LEWIS - only ultimately two allegiances, either one is of the world and in darkness, and lesser loves mutate adn ctonrol; or one belongs to Jesus and the light!
Therefore, hate (can be indifference to bro/sis) and love become outward signs of someone’s true spiritual reailty!
v.10b,11b some seem like geneuine believers yet hate reveals in dark… ie why warning in prepratory form… in the light nothing to cause stumbling… not that there is nothing in belivers to cause stumbling- sin still in us, not perfect love yet, but light shines reveals all, allows us to direct our steps with care vs. spiritual darkness is disabling - hopelessly blinded to the way they should go.
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Jesus radical call to love enemies, but love of fellow believers radical call too… John 13:34-35 demonstrate sacrficial love is how world will know we belong to him....
Bro/Sis like sibblings, rivalry, irritations = why is it sometimes so hard? I wonder if the “brother and sister” imagery can help us to work this through. While we may love our literal brothers and sisters, quarrels among siblings are stereotypically prevalent in many households. Sibling rivalry can cause deep and lasting relational damage among family members. We can treat our siblings with a harshness that most of us would never extend to nonfamily members. Why is that? When we are really close to someone, like a sibling, we can sometimes lose respect for him or her, perhaps because we see him or her as an extension of ourselves. When this happens, we tend to view his or her faults and failings in a more acute way than we would if it were someone else. We might take more offense at things they do or say than we would if we were not so close. This means that as we rightly develop close bonds with our spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ, our intimacy can inadvertently cause us to treat each other with disrespect.
= then we are no longer FOR THEM = In such cases, being “with” others does not translate to being “for” them. Closeness has bred antagonism rather than advocacy. And if that’s the case, it’s impossible to be heading “unto” Christlikeness together.
BEDE = put up with everything for sake of unity: other, such as theological disagreements, differences of opinion over how church should be run, politics, parenting, and many other things. Part of the pain of such disagreements is that we are supposed to be united; we are supposed to be of one mind (Phil 2:2). So when we disagree, it hurts. And when we add hurt to our differences, that’s when divisions can set in. But our divisions can be overcome by love. Sacrificial commitment puts our own desires on hold in order to uphold another. It enables us to put aside our own hurts and exercise patience and forbearance. As Bede says, “The person who loves his brother puts up with everything for the sake of unity. Such an attitude keeps us from hurting anyone unduly.”13
ie. Parker vs Spurgeon - misundertand, but collection plates 3x emptied… If there is rabid conflict and infighting within the church, how can we possibly claim to be people of love to a world that desperately needs it? Notice how the newspapers in Spurgeon’s day reported his conflict with Parker. Thankfully the rift was mended quickly, but imagine how an ongoing feud between Spurgeon and Parker
When a brother or sister wrongs us, we would do well to remember the extent of Jesus’s love. He endured ridicule and mockery for the sake of love. He was the recipient of injustice, yet he did not retaliate (1 Pet 2:23). Sacrificial love bears the cost of any offense against oneself and chooses to respond with kindness. If more believers were able to overcome their anger, distrust, and resentment with love, we would see much more unified and loving churches.
UNPROMPTED ACTS OF SERVICE There are few things that communicate love more than unprompted acts of costly service. Not only does a costly act indicate love, but an unprompted act demonstrates that you have been mindful of another. You’ve considered their need without them having asked, and you’ve proactively sought out their good. By God’s grace our churches are filled with examples of this kind of love, and it surely does shine a light into a dark, self-centered world.
vs. PROLONGED state of self-serving antipathy to others Hating Brothers and Sisters Every family has conflicts, and all brothers and sisters battle each other from time to time. But that is different from a prolonged stance of hatred. If siblings come to that point—to a settled position of hate—they will effectively cease to be siblings. It is this kind of unrepentant, active hate that tears families apart. Instead of loving, sacrificial commitment, hate is self-serving antipathy toward another. If hate is committed to anything, it is the destruction of its object. Hate enjoys seeing the enemy suffer. Hate longs for its enemy to suffer misfortune. Hate justifies selfishness and pride.
UNTIL NOW IN DARKNESS = unrepentant after multiple attempts to win them over, Jesus said to “treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector” (Matt 18:15–17). That sounds a little harsh, but what Jesus means is that by their stubborn refusal to repent, such a person has excluded themselves from the fellowship of God’s people. We are then simply to acknowledge the truth of that reality. Nevertheless, there is always hope for such a one. John says that the hater “is still in the darkness” (2:9); literally, the hater “is in the darkness until now” (heōs arti). The phrase “until now” implies that this current situation may not last forever. The hater is still in the darkness, but he or she may eventually come into the light. We have no control over other people’s hearts. We might encourage, rebuke, and instruct, but we can’t bring the hater to repentance.
Loving is living in the light! = make choices by this guiding pricniple, light and love go together, vs. hate and lovelessness…
ie. Bill Bright Two gifted attorneys had great professional animosity, even hatred one for the other. Even though they were distinguished members of the same firm, they were constantly criticizing and making life miserable for each other. One of the men received Christ through our ministry and some months later came for counsel. “I have hated and criticized my partner for years,” he said, “and he has been equally antagonistic toward me. But now that I am a Christian, I don’t feel right about continuing our warfare. What shall I do?” “Why not ask your partner to forgive you and tell him that you love him?” I suggested. “I could never do that!” he exclaimed. “That would be hypocritical. I don’t love him. How could I tell him I love him when I don’t?” I explained that God commands His children to love even their enemies and that His agape, supernatural, unconditional love is an expression of our will which we exercise by faith. . . . Together we knelt to pray and my friend asked God’s forgiveness for his critical attitude attitude toward his law partner and claimed God’s love for him by faith. Early the next morning, my friend walked into his partner’s office and announced, “Something wonderful has happened to me. I have become a Christian. And I have come to ask you to forgive me for all that I have done to hurt you in the past and to tell you that I love you.” His partner was so surprised and convicted of his own sin that he responded to this amazing confession by asking my friend to forgive him. Then to my friend’s surprise, his partner said, “I would like to become a Christian, too. Would you show me what I need to do?” Choosing to love may hurt and it may humble us. It may require us to ask for forgiveness and let go of injustices. But God’s love will overcome our stubborn hearts if we let it. And it will lead others to the God who is love.