The Word You Have Heard
The Word You Have Heard
Sunday, March 9, 2008
" Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard."
(1 John 2:7, ESV)
1. In the previous verses John is telling believers to keep God's commandments in general. Today he starts to bring one of those commandments forward - the commandment to love. (2 John 5-6, ESV)
2. John starts us out today with the word "Beloved" (agapetoi “beloved ones.”) The word for “love” here is the one used of God’s love, as in I John 4:8. It is translated, “divinely-loved ones” who are loved by God.
3. This old commandment has been revealed "from the beginning" and can reference two types. The first type is revealed from the beginning of revealed Word of God in the Old Testament.
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." (Deuteronomy 6:5, ESV)
"you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord." (Leviticus 19:18b, ESV)
4. The second type is what the believers have heard from the very start of their Christian experience which is found in 1 John 1:1, 2:24 and 3:11.
5. How is it possible for one commandment to stand above others? By the fact that love is the fulfillment of God's law (Rom 13:8-10)
6. To love God is to keep His commandments!
"Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”"
(John 14:21, ESV)
"If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love." (John 15:10, ESV)
"You are my friends if you do what I command you."
(John 15:14, ESV)
7. To love one another furthers the Gospel and this is the "Word that you have heard!"
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35, ESV)
8. In the first two chapters of 1 John, there are five references to people who “claim” this or to an individual who “claims” that. Each time, the idea conveyed is that claims ultimately don’t mean much. Anyone can claim anything. In fact, lots of people claim lots of things! One of John’s major themes is that a person’s lifestyle is what they do and not whatever that individual’s lips might claim.
9. Most parents expect obedience from their children as a sign of loyalty and trust. In a similar way, God expects His children to follow His commandments (1 John 2:4–5). In fact, when we obey God and act like Him, we show ourselves to be His (2:6).
"Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked." (1 John 2:4-6, ESV)
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother." (1 John 4:7-21, ESV)
10. Today as we close let us see that God has established guidelines for proper conduct for His children (1 John 2:7–17).
When we follow God’s commandments we experience true liberty. As His obedient children we can be fulfilled, fruitful, and joyful as we look forward to the promise of eternal life.
"And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever." (1 John 2:17, ESV)
Evil Actions
All the miseries and evils which men suffer from - vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.
- Noah Webster
GracePointe Baptist Church
2209 N Post Road
Oklahoma City, OK 73141
Phone: (405) 769-5050