The Love Test: 1st John Lesson 7

 Our study of 1 John brings us to verses 7-11 of the second chapter this morning. As we come to these verses we come to another test. We come to the love test. According to 1 John 5:13 John has written these things to those of us who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that we may know that we have eternal life. Knowing is an important theme in John’s epistle. He uses the word over 40 times in five chapters. He wants us to know that we know that we have eternal life. And he wants us to have concrete evidence upon which to base this confidence. So he gives us a series of tests by which we can evaluate our own lives to see if we have a solid basis for our confidence. We have seen frequently early on in this epistle that it isn’t what we say that is to be the basis for our assurance. It is the evidence of our lives that should be the basis for assurance.

 We have seen the fellowship test in chapter 1:5-7. “If we say we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” We have seen the sin test in chapter 1:8-2:2. If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say we have not sinned we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. These things John wrote to us so that we would not sin, but if we do sin we have Jesus as our Advocate with the Father.

 Last week we examined chapter 2:3-6 where we found the obedience test. It is by this we know we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But the one who keeps His commandments, in Him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know we are in Him and the one who abides in Him ought Himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. Our obedience to Him is reliable evidence that we have truly come to know Him.

 Now John gets specific in regards to perhaps the most important area of obedience. If the one who abides in Him ought to walk in the same manner as He walked, the one area where our walk must line up best with His walk is in the area of loving one another. John makes the connection between obedience to the commandments and loving others a couple more times in this epistle. Look at 3:10 and 5:1-2. Let’s read verses 7-11 of chapter 2 about the love test.

 There are three points we will examine from these verses. John first discusses the commandment to love. Then John will describe the contradiction to love. Finally, we will look at the confirmation of love. Before we look at the specifics of this test I just want to point out something. John is moving from the personal to the interpersonal evidence. The first tests required that we look only within, at my fellowship with Christ, my dealing with sin, my obedience to His commands. The results of this test could well be independently verified by others. Specifically your brothers, and sisters, in the body of Christ will be able to verify the results of this test. This is true because love is shown. Love is demonstrated. Love produces its own evidence. Others know if you love them.

 Having said that, I don’t think it is a good idea that we go into this passage focusing on how others are doing. We should approach this passage with a focus on ourselves. 

 Let’s look at the commandment to love. John begins by reminding his readers that they themselves are loved by him. “Beloved,” he writes. The affection of John shows up over and over in this letter as he calls them beloved, or little children, specifically “my little children.” He is, after all, the Apostle of Love. John is one who practices what he preaches. John is able to say, “Do as I do.” Beloved, I love you, and you must love one another.

 John then writes, “I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.” It isn’t clear from this verse which commandment John is talking about, but we know from verse 10 that the specific commandment concerns loving one another. The commandment to love one another is not a new commandment. Leviticus 19:18 says, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.” Moses was very clear. In the context of Leviticus 19, Moses warns the people of God against hating their fellow countrymen, or taking vengeance against others. So that they might get the intention of God’s will he concludes with the specific command to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Then He reminds them that this commandment is from the Lord Himself.

 Paul explains why the commandment to love one another was such an important part of the original commandments. Turn to Romans 13 for a moment. Let’s look at verses 8-10. Explain how loving your neighbor as yourself is the fulfilling of the law.

 So, this is not a new commandment. But, “on the other hand,” John writes, “I am writing a new commandment to you…” This is not a new commandment. It is the same old commandment which has been given fuller meaning. Look what John says. This is a new commandment to you, “which is true in Him.” This commandment is new in that the fulfillment of this commandment has reached a new height. The commandment to love one another was perfectly fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a new commandment because what we must do now to obey this commandment has been exemplified for us in the way Jesus loves. There is now the elevated character of love. This is the fullest expression of loving one another. This is love manifest and expressed like it has never been seen before. Now that it has been revealed, the expectation is that we can now understand it and walk in it. This is a new commandment because it is not just a commandment to love one another. It is a commandment to love one another just as Christ has loved us.

 The “new” part of this commandment comes from the part Jesus added to it. Turn to John 13:34-35. Read these verses. The “just as I have loved you” is the new part. It is the same old commandment. It is just that now we have a more complete understanding of what loving one another should look like. It should look like a love that washes dirty feet, even the feet of hard-headed followers who were not learning what they needed to learn. It should look like the love that washed the feet of even the one who betrayed Jesus. It should look like the love that washed the feet of men who had recently been arguing about which of them was the greatest. It should look like the love of that washed the feet of those who would pledge loyalty to Jesus and then scatter in fear when He is arrested. It should look like the love that washed the feet of those who would sleep rather than pray in the hour of greatest need.

 John says it is a new commandment which is “true in Him and in you.” If our hearts have been truly transformed by the love of Christ, we will love one another just as He has loved us. We will love the unlovable. We will love the hard-headed. We will love those who betray us. We will love those who turn their backs on us. We will love those who refuse to show up in our time of need. We will love those who are more concerned with themselves than us. Unfortunately, this is how it can be among the brethren.

 This new commandment is true in Him and in you, “because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.” When light shines darkness flees. Light is more powerful than darkness. A single candle can dispel the blackest darkness. It is obvious that the true Light is Jesus. He is the Light of the world. When He appeared He showed us what love one another really means, what it genuinely looks like. We have a whole new understanding of how to love one another. We have a complete new capacity to love one another. Our eyes have been opened, the true Light is shining in our hearts, and we see what love is and we know how to love one another like never before.

 This is the commandment. But there are some whose lives are a contradiction to the commandment. We read about the contradiction in verse 9. The contradiction comes from the one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother. John says this person is in the darkness until now. He is still in darkness regardless of what he says. Again, it is not what we say that proves the authenticity of our relationship with Christ. It is the way we live.

 If you hate your brother and you claim to be in the Light, your life is a contradiction. Your lips are saying one thing and your life is saying something else. How can we hate anyone whom God has redeemed and adopted as one of His children and made to be a joint heir together with us and with our Lord Jesus Christ? You can’t be born again and hate a brother in Christ. Read Titus 3:3-7.

 If we hate someone we have a serious spiritual problem. Think about this. Why would we hate someone? Hatred has to come from some kind of serious personal offense, doesn’t it? We don’t just arbitrarily hate people for no reason. If we hate someone, at the heart of the issue has got to be an unwillingness to forgive. If we don’t forgive others from the heart, we prove we are not forgiven. We have been forgiven so much from God that we cannot harbor unforgiveness toward anyone. Our debt to Him was a million times greater than any debt owed to us. Jesus told a powerful parable explaining this. You can read it in Matthew 18. Jay challenged us with this truth a couple weeks ago with his Scripture reading.

 Hatred is so out of line for someone who has experienced the love of God that it simply cannot happen. This is a clear statement. The one who hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who hates is not in the kingdom of Light. He never has been in the Light. This is why he is in the darkness until now. Even if the lips say I am in the Light, but the actions reveal hatred in the heart, this is the one who proves themselves to be still in darkness. In this regard hatred is not just a contradiction, it is a confirmation.

 Our third point talks about confirmation. Love for our brother confirms we are in the Light. Hatred for our brother confirms we are still in darkness. Look at verse 10. “The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.” This person, by his or her love for the brother, confirms that they abide in the Light.

 Didn’t Paul implicate that love as the confirmation of life in the Light in 1 Cor. 13? If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. I just make noise unless my love confirms the work of Christ in my heart. I can have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and have faith that moves mountains, but without love I am nothing. My love confirms the work of Christ in my heart. I can give all my possessions to the poor and surrender my body to be burned as a martyr, but if I don’t love these great sacrifices profit me nothing. My love confirms the work of Christ in my life so much more convincingly than any of these other things.

 When we love one another the way Christ loves us, we confirm that we are in the Light. This love is confirmation. And, there is no cause for stumbling in him. What does this mean? We have already seen that if we love one another as Christ loves us, we won’t do anything that causes another to stumble. Loveless actions are the things that cause others to stumble. If I am selfish, I will cause another to stumble. If I am angry without just cause, if I am impatient, if I am vengeful, if I am coarse, or harsh, or show any unloving attitude toward others, they may stumble. They may look at those kinds of attitudes or actions in me and decide, “Well, that wasn’t very Christlike!” And they would be right. If we love one another the way Christ loves us, we will cause no one to stumble. Nor will we be stumbling ourselves.

 On the other hand, verse 11 also tells us that hatred for one’s brother is also confirmation. If love for one another is confirmation that we are in the Light, then hatred for a brother is confirmation that one is in the darkness. “But the one who 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.”

 This is a sad condition. The one who hates his brother is in the darkness. His hatred confirms that he is not in the Light. He does not know the Light of the world. He does not abide in the Light, otherwise the source of Light would be shining through him. He knows nothing of the true Light which enlightens every man. He is in the darkness and he walks in the darkness, and he does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

 From what John describes in verse 11 we can conclude that it is possible for a person to be in the darkness and not even know it. How could this be? Wouldn’t a person know if they hated someone? Sometimes it is obvious, sometimes it is not. I would guess that no one here would say they hate anyone. I can honestly say that there is no person I have ever known that I hate.

 This word for hate in the Greek is “mieo.” It can mean “to detest, or abhor.”  It is used in this sense in John 3:20. “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”

 In 1 John 2:9 and 11 the form of the word is slightly different. Here it does not necessarily mean to detest or abhor, but rather simply “active ill will.” If we are harboring ill will towards another, we are guilty of hating them. If we have resentment, animosity, harbored anger, feelings of ill will of any kind, we are guilty of the hatred of which John speaks.

 As we prepare our hearts for the Lord’s Table I want to take you to the scene of the crucifixion. This is the place we must go for the Lord’s Table. Turn to Luke 23:33-34.

If ever there was a reason for anyone to harbor feelings of ill will towards others, it was Jesus. But He was the Light of the world and obvious He walked in the Light and the greatest manifestation of His light was His love. He loved even those who falsely accused, beat Him, spat in His face, pressed thorns into His brow, gambled for His clothing, mocked Him, ridiculed Him, and killed Him.

 Jesus was not resentful. There was no animosity, no feelings of ill will. Jesus loved even those who hated Him. We are told to love one another just as He has loved us.

 So, as we turn our attention to the elements of the Lord’s Table I would encourage you to examine your heart as I am my own. Ask God to reveal anyone to you whom you need to love as Christ loves us. You can begin to love them now by releasing any ill will, any animosity, any resentment.

 Let’s pray.