How Will I Know - Part 2
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How Will I Know - Part 2
How Will I Know - Part 2
3 We can be sure that we know God if we obey his commands.
Confession of Faith
I am not moved by what I see or by what I feel. I am moved by what I believe. I believe the WORD of God! The victory is mine! I have it now! I can see it through the eyes of my faith! In Jesus Name!
Introduction:
Last week we begin this series - by asking the question - How Will I Know if I truly know God!
3 Here’s how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his commandments.
Here is a question for you Do we love your neighbors? If we criticize, grumble, gripe, backbite, ignore, neglect, curse, abuse, slander, hate, or mistreat our neighbors in any way, then we do not know God.
No matter what we may claim or how loudly we claim it, we do not know God if we do not love our neighbors.
God is love
God is love
therefore any person who truly knows God is compelled to love.
Man, Loving others is a strong test of our knowledge of God.
We can tell whether or not we know God by testing our love for others.
It’s a Commandment
It’s a Commandment
This is not a new commandment, but an old commandment.
Check this out: John does not come right out and say that he is talking about love, not immediately. He says that the commandment he is about to talk about...
• is not a new commandment but an old commandment.
He say’s it is a commandment that you had heard from the beginning .
It is one of the very first things that God ever said to man was this: man must love his neighbor
18 Forget about the wrong things people do to you, and do not try to get even. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. I am the Lord.
So when we look at the scripture the question is Why then would John not just go ahead and mention the commandment?
Why take a backdoor approach to the subject of love?
Man, John had a good reason:
what John is about to say was new, so new that people would at that time think it was his own say idea and not the the word of God.
So John had to establish the fact that God had said the same thing from the beginning
so here’s the question
If the commandment of love has been with us from the beginning , how can it be a new commandment?
Is there something about this commandment that upsets people, that causes them to turn away from the truth?
8 But also I am writing a new command to you, and you can see its truth in Jesus and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
It is not only an old commandment but a new commandment.
So the question is what is so new about love?
Jesus Christ!
Jesus Christ!
Jesus gave love a new meaning.
Jesus loved not only friends, but enemies.
Jesus loved not only good people, but bad people.
Jesus loved not only the righteous, but the sinner.
Jesus loved not only the acceptable, but the rejected.
Jesus loved not only the clean, but the dirty.
Jesus stated the fact as clearly as it can be stated
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
This was a totally new concept of love.
People have always felt free to mistreat others!
This is really true when someone does you wrong!
People free and justified to
hate , strike back, hurt, be unkind, backbite, gossip, ghost folks, neglect , criticize and retaliate
But Jesus tells us we cannot mistreat people no matter what they have done, that we must love everyone no matter who they are.
"That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:45).
The only way we can become children of God is to love just like God loves.
If we do not love, then we do not know God, for God is love.
He is the love that loves all people no matter who they are.
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.”
Jesus says something amazing : the only way people can tell that we are His disciple is by our love for one another.
Our discipleship and our knowledge of God can be measured by whether or not we love our brothers and sisters in the Lord.
That’s why John said "the new commandment...is true in Him [Christ] and in you [true believers]."
The person who truly follows God has the love of God in him.
The love of God dwells not only in Christ but in the believer also.
8 Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining.
Love is now made known by the true light that shines and erases the darkness
The darkness refers to man's old idea of love, that he could react against anyone who mistreated him.
But Jesus , who is the light of the world, has now brought us the truth
We are to love are neighbor no matter what the neighbor does.
In fact, we are to love all people no matter who they are or what they have done.
God is love; therefore we are to imitate God:
We are commissioned to love.
It is by his love that you know whether or not you even know God.
You can’t know God unless you love as Jesus loves, which means love even your enemies.
12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
You Cannot Know God and Profess Hate
You Cannot Know God and Profess Hate
There is the professing people, the ones who profess that they know God but who hates his brother.
Here’s what that looks like They say the follow Christ
The says that they believe in Jesus
They say they have been baptized in Christ
The say the belong to the church of Christ
The say they have been confirmed in Christ
They say the take the communion of Jesus Christ They say they read the The bible
They say they pray to God in Jesus name
They say they live for Jesus
They say they preach and teach Jesus Christ
9 Anyone who claims to live in God’s light and hates a brother or sister is still in the dark.
See the folks who hate their brothers and sisters who are in Christ
Say things like "Oh, I don't hate my brother or sister . I just don't like them.
They say things like I don't know how to get along with him or her ."
They say things like They just turns me off:
They say things like - I don’t like how they look, or I don’t like how they act
They say things like
They e did me wrong; or she mistreated me."
Whatever the reason, it is not love.
Love is love
Love is love
It is not mistreatment or hate.
Jesus showed us what love is:
We must love our neighbors, even those who are our enemies, if we are to become children of God and followers of Jesus Christ
You cannot walk in the light of God unless you love your neighbor—even the neighbors who stand against him.
If we hate our neighbors—neglect, dislike, disregard, criticize, backbite, and mistreat them—we are not living in the light, not living in Christ.
We are making a false profession. We do not know God, not really, no matter what we claim.
We are living in the darkness of this world—living like most people in the world live—hating your brothers and sisters.
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
23 But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!
16 They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.
20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
We Must Love Each Other
We Must Love Each Other
10 Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light and will not cause anyone to stumble in his faith.
There is the obedient person
The one who loves their brother or sister.
This person abides or lives in the light, meaning the live in Jesus
This person lives and walks in Jesus Christ.
They walk in love just as Jesus walked in love.
What does it mean to walk in love?
What does it mean to walk in love?
The bible lays it out - the Scripture makes it practical
Love suffereth long (endures long, is patient). Love is kind.
Love envies not (is not jealous).
Love does not brag or boast about itself
Love is not puffed up (is not vainglorious, arrogant, prideful).
Love does not behave unbecomingly, rudely, indecently, unmannerly
Love is not selfish, self-seeking, insisting on one's rights and way.
Love is not easily provoked it is not touchy, angry, fretful, resentful).
Love thinks no evil (harbors no evil thought, takes no account of a wrong done it).
Love rejoices not in iniquity (in wrong, sin, evil, injustice), but rejoices in the truth (in justice, in righteousness).
Love bears all things.
Love believes all things (exercises faith in everything, under all circumstances).
Love endures all things (never weakens; has the power to endure).
This type of love prevents you from stumbling , to the point that nothing or no one trips you up in life,
This type of love will never make you fall and hurt yourself or destroy your life.
So how can this be true
How can it said that no one will stumble
Because love is the great binding force of the universe.
Because love is the great binding force of the universe.
God is love; therefore the more we love God, the closer and closer we draw to Him. And the closer we get to Him, the more we learn to trust His care, provision, protection, and power.
When God is taking care of us, there is absolutely nothing that can touch us
Our greatest need is love. We need to be loved, but not with the sentimental feelings and passions of the world that come and go as freely as the falling star that shoots across the sky.
We need to be loved with the love of God, the kind of love just covered above, the kind of love that will help us to know that God loves us.
We need to know that God cares for us and wants to deliver and strengthen us against all the trials of life.
This kind of love will pull us together, not alienate us.
The person who loves their neighbor like this will not fail to live the kind of life they should live.
12 May the Lord make your love grow more and multiply for each other and for all people so that you will love others as we love you.
How Will I Know - If I love Like Jesus!
How Will I Know - If I love Like Jesus!
Next Steps
Old Testament
Ezekiel & Daniel
New Testament:
Philemon & Hebrew