We have been looking at how we can know that we have eternal life from the teachings of the apostle John. John wants us to have a confidence in our relationship with God so that we can have complete joy in Christ. The picture that the apostle John has given to us is that if we see that we are walking in the light, then we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus is cleansing us from all sin (cf. 1 John 1:7). Walking in the light means that we will have an intensity about not sinning. We do not want to sin because we love Jesus and we want to maintain our relationship with him. So what the apostle John is doing is giving us these tests so we can know if we are in fellowship with God or if we are deceiving ourselves. The next picture John gives to us is to love. Please open your copies of God’s word to 1 John 2 and we will consider verses 7-11.
The Command (1 John 2:7-8)
John begins by telling us that he is not teaching us anything new. This is not a new command. Rather, it is a command that you have from the beginning. Love has always been the command. We could go to the beginning of creation and see that Cain did not love his brother. We could go to the beginning of the Law which summarized that we are to love the Lord with all our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We can go to the beginning of what Jesus taught his disciples.
“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)
The point is to remind us that walking in the light and remaining in fellowship with God has always included the need to love one another. Jesus spent some of his ministry trying to explain that loving others has always been in view.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is 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.” (Matthew 5:43-45 ESV)
Of course, the scriptures did not teach to love your neighbor and hate your enemy. This is what the religious leaders were teaching in Jesus’ day. Loving even your enemies has always been God’s way (cf. Exodus 23:4-5; Proverbs 25:21-22; Leviticus 19:18; Proverbs 24:17-18).
But what makes this a new command is how we see love in Jesus. We just saw Jesus say that in John 13:34-35. We set up our definitions of how we think we are to love. This is what Jesus was exposing in the Sermon on the Mount. We define who we like, call them our neighbors, and then choose to love them. But this is not what we see in the life of Jesus. The apostle Paul powerfully shows this in Romans 5.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person— though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die — but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:6-10 ESV)
In short, it was not while we were for God and on good terms with God that he acted on our behalf. We were weak and helpless. So we could do nothing for God to generate this act. We were sinners so our relationship with God was broken because of our own actions. We were enemies, not friends of God. Yet, in spite of these conditions, God proved his love for us by giving his Son for us. This is how the command to love is a new command. We are able to see the love God is teaching us like we have never seen before. In short, we see that true love is sacrificial. So then Jesus tells us: This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (John 15:12 ESV) Jesus is the shining light in the darkness, showing the way of true love.
The Fruit (1 John 2:9-11)
John now returns to the problem of what we say not matching with what we do. Here is the person who is all talk. This is the person who talks about love. This person talks about loving God and loving people. John tells us that we cannot say that we love our brother or sister in Christ but then hate them in our actions. Our actions are showing that we are still in the darkness regardless of what we are saying. In short, it is not good enough to say that we love. We understand this in our relationships. Your words are meaningless if your actions do not match. The importance of this problem is now expressed in verses 10-11.
Verse 10 states the point in a positive way and verse 11 states the point in a negative way regarding love. First, loving our brother or sister in Christ shows that we are walking in the light. This reminds us that love is not just a rule or command but a way of life. Love is one of the ways that we see we are walking in the light. Think about what a strong proclamation John makes in verse 10. If we love, not only are we living in the light but there is also no cause for stumbling in us. Practicing the kind of true, sacrificing love that we see Jesus teaching and exemplifying, then we are not going to be a cause for sinning and we ourselves would not stumble. The problem is we think about ourselves, not the other person. We are not thinking about what is spiritually best for the other people, what they need, and what God would be doing. Instead, we think about what we want and what is good for us. We do what makes us happy and comfortable. This kind of thinking is not love but causes us to stumble and others to stumble over us. Think about it like this: God’s love is not shown to us by God allowing us to do whatever we want. God’s love for us is shown by him doing what he knows is best for us. God does what is going to save our souls, not what is going to make us happy with him. So John is pointing us to a true love for one another and truly considers what the other person really needs in the light of God’s revealing love for us.
Now look at the contrast in verse 11. The one who hates his brother or sister in Christ is walking in darkness. This was the point in verse 9. But John expands on this even further. Not only does this person walk in darkness, but they do not know where they are going because the darkness has blinded their eyes. John is very clear that if we are not loving each other in the body of Christ, then we are spiritually blind. This is a terrifying declaration. A real problem is that we are blinded by the darkness but do not know it. Think about this. I do not think anyone in the room right now is going to raise their hand and say that they are not loving each other and are walking in the darkness. We all want to think that we are walking in the light. We all think that we see. This is the great danger that John is trying to expose for us. John is shining the light into our hearts. This is not about saying that you love people or saying that you walk in the light. This is about looking at your life and considering the fruit. Do you see fruit that reveals tangible love for the brothers and sisters in Christ? Or do we just have our words to point to and nothing else? John is saying that he knows you think you are in the light, but you are actually in the darkness. John is saying that you claim you love, but you are not loving the family of Christ.
I want to push this important point further. John did not say that we live in the light if we love some of our brothers and sisters in Christ. One of the problems that we see is that we choose a few people to love in the body. We love our family members who are in the body of Christ, but we do not show love to others in the body in Christ. We choose to love a few people in the body of Christ, but not everyone in the body. We need to be thinking about every person who belongs to this body. There is not a single person’s name that we would say and we would ask, “Who is that?” We have to move beyond the Christians we sit next to and the Christians we like to spend time with and love (not just get to know) the rest of the family of Christians.
Notice that John says that our lack of love for each other creates a spiritual crisis for ourselves. John says that our eyes are blinded and that we do not know where we are going. A lack of love destroys our life perspective. We do not see God correctly. We do not see each other correctly. We do not see ourselves correctly. We do not even see where we are going. We are wandering aimlessly, failing to the see the direction we need to go. Loving each other must be central in our lives or we lose our identity. Think about how true this is. Think about if you have seen or heard about Christians not loving each other but slander, malign, or verbal assault each other. Think about two Christians who are jealous of each other. Think about two Christians who are avoiding each other. Think about two Christians who hate each other. We immediately know that this cannot be right. There must be a true care for each other that is seen in our actions or else we are blind and do not know where we are going. John is telling us that we are walking in the darkness rather than walking in the light if we cannot point to the fruit of love.
We might come up with the excuse that you don’t understand what has happened between us that has harmed the relationship. The reason I do not talk to that Christian is because they said or they did such and such. But I want us bring us back to verses 7-8. First, this is not a new command to love each other. This has been the case from the beginning. Second, in verse 8 we see this old command expressed in a new way in Christ. Christ showed us that love was not dependent on the other person loving us first. Jesus gave his life while we were still sinners and enemies. Listen to what John will say later in this letter.
This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. (1 John 3:16 CSB)
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:1-2 ESV)
Look around the room and ask yourself if you would do this for each other. Look beyond the people sitting next to you. Jesus is the example of love and that means we will do what is for the good of the other person. Love does not perpetuate sin. Love does not pretend. Love looks at what the other person needs and gives that to that person. Love is not what I want. Love is what you need.
What God is proclaiming to us is that love is a choice. God commanded us to love each other. This means we are deciding to show love and not waiting for a feeling to act. Our challenge is to truly love the people of God. Our challenge is to love the family in Christ. Do not just love some of the family. Do not love just a few people. We are all family together in Christ. Love every person in Christ. If we do not do so, then we are walking in the darkness, we are blind, and we do not know where we are going.