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Jesus Christ is considered a revolutionary, the founder of a great religious movement. Yet, his message wasn’t one of government reform or a code of ethics on how to live your life. Instead, at the heart of Jesus’ message is a simple command that I believe is impossible to live out apart from having one’s life first transformed by Christ: the command to love one another.
“A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so also you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:33-34Now, the idea of love itself isn’t revolutionary. In fact, it’s commonly preached everywhere and valued by everybody. Modern examples are everywhere: “All you need is love,” #LoveIsLove, #LoveWins, Valentine's Day, etc.
But, what makes Jesus’ take on love so revolutionary is that, for the Christian, love is more than a feeling. Expressing the love of Christ can only come from having one’s own life first transformed by Christ, as well as being at a place of complete dependency on Jesus Christ. In 1 John, this kind of life is referred to as “abiding in the light,” or having one’s “life in Christ.”
In the letter of 1John, we get incredible insight as to what this love looks like, and what makes the love of Christ unique.
“Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.” 1 John 2:7-9John begins this passage by putting into context exactly who this “one another” is in v.7, “Brethren;” i.e., the love of Jesus Christ is most clearly seen in the family of God, i.e, we who are brothers and sisters in, due to our common life IN Christ Jesus.
Now to be sure, every human is capable of expressing love in some capacity. But John is saying that the love expressed by the Christian is of a completely different nature than whatever form of love the rest of the world can show, apart from Christ. The difference between these two loves, John says, is as drastic as the differences between light and dark.
“The metaphor is rather involved, but to put it simply John is saying that people who are not Christians are walking in the dark; yes, but not only that, there is a darkness within them also. The trouble with sinners and unbelievers is not simply that they have darkness around and about them and cannot see where they are going; the darkness has blinded their own eyes--they are blind as well as being in the dark… so that, in a sense, even if you put them into the light they would not be able to see. So when people become Christians, two things happen to them: their own eyes are opened, and they are enabled to see; and they are also in an entirely new realm.” -Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Life in ChristThis “new realm of light” is a new life, or “born again,” that is now a life marked by love. It includes:
- A changed life.
- You are a new creation in Christ Jesus
- Citizenship of a different kingdom.
- You are found (last time I preached about what it means to be lost).
- You are made righteousness, or right standing before God (through no effort of our own).
- And a new family.
This is good news for those who, unfortunately, never experienced this kind of deep, unconditional love from their biological families. And this is good news for all of us, because it means that this family love can now be given to/experienced by way more people than just mom, dad, brother and sister. John is saying that every person who considers themselves a part of the Christian family should be both giving and receiving this kind of family love. John is also saying that showing this love is what makes a Christian a Christian, and, those who fail to do so by harboring hate, why, these people aren’t really Christians. By failing to show love to one’s family = a person is still in darkness.
“But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” 1 John 2:11John is addressing Gnosticism, a heretical group that was trying to pull people away from the church by 1. denying the Trinity, and 2., claiming that salvation only comes from a personal experience of receiving “secret knowledge about God,” or, “a new command.”
So John says that that the test of salvation, isn’t based on religious experience and personal knowledge, but it’s based on how a person shows the love of Christ to their brothers and sisters.
Anybody ever been burnt by religion before? If you have, consider verse 10:
Religion done without love or relationship = hypocrisy. Back then, hypocrisy was seen in Gnosticism and its false claims made people stumble. Can you think of modern examples of how unloving and hurtful deeds done in the name of religion still cause people to stumble today? Of course you can.
John is addressing the problem of Gnosticism in his letter by:
Asking his people, “How much love do you see coming from these ‘enlightened religious teachers?’”
Combating the fact that Gnostics are so concerned about “special knowledge,” “religious experience”, and “a new revelation,” with an old truth: all you really need is an old commandment that Jesus made new, v.7-8.
To summarize v.7-8’s “old vs. new commands”:
"In other words, from the moment you first heard the gospel, you heard this particular doctrine emphasized (to love one another). I (John) shall not add to the gospel which you have already believed (like the Gnostics were doing). I am simply reminding you of what you already know.”-Lloyd-JonesLiving this out this truth practically for today’s Christians: There’s a lot of temptation in today’s postmodern culture to add to the Gospel of Jesus Christ; diversity, new teachings, spiritual principles, exciting experiences, etc.. Friends, family members, we don’t have to reach for new things. The love that’s available in the life of Jesus Christ is more than enough to meet all of our needs.
So how are you doing with this super simple command to love your brethren? How’s it going with “walking just as Jesus walked”? (v.6). Now, walking in the light like this can be seen in variety of ways, from simply showing kindness to one another, to having meaningful fellowship, to serving each other’s needs. But, the true test of Christ’s love is seen when we express love in the most powerful way that Jesus showed love: when we forgive one another.
For the world and all of its definitions of love, forgiveness is a nice option, but not a command. But for the Christian, extending grace and forgiveness is at the heart of what it means to show the love of Jesus Christ. Also, showing forgiveness is fundamentally what it means to be family. Take for example a parent who is refereeing a fight between siblings. It’s common for them to say, “I know you’re mad at your brother, but he’ll always be your brother.”
Think for a moment how strong a church would be or how beautiful the movement of Christianity would look like if everybody who claimed to be Christian actually lived this out and forgave one another in this way? It would be a powerful witness of church unity that would testify to the world that, “Hey, there’s a different way to love!”
Admittedly, when it comes to forgiveness, this is where Christianity gets tough, but it gets easier to live out as you grow and when you’re plugged into a church community that’s committed to loving like Jesus loved.
All that said, I feel the need to make a distinction between loving and forgiving those in your Christian family, vs. loving and forgiving those in the world (outside your spiritual family, or those in the world and in darkness). I have a personal example from just yesterday of forgiving a young man like this who wronged me:
“What this means is that you and I can only be happy about the fact that we are Christians if we find this loving, forgiving spirit within ourselves. It is idle for us to say that we know that God has forgiven us if we are not loving and forgiving ourselves. People who say they are in the light but who hate and do not forgive their brother, are in darkness even now. Men and women who have seen the truth, those who are in the light, have seen themselves and others all under the law of the love of God. And having realized this love which has pardoned them in spite of their unworthiness, they are prepared to do the same to others.” -Lloyd-JonesLastly, I want to close by looking at a picture that John paints for us of what the Christian family looks like. He does this in the following verses, 12-14, and what we see here is a beautiful snapshot of the Christian family, one that’s marked by love and discipleship.
We see John give practical advice to children, fathers, and young men for victorious Christian living. But I don’t believe that John meant for us to take these titles literally in the biological sense. Look around you, the reality of this Christian family means that, spiritually speaking, this room is full of fathers/mothers, young men/young women, and little children. And your designation at the family table, isn’t based on your age, but on your maturity in Christ Jesus.
Example 1: How long have you been a Christian?
- A couple of years = a little child.
- Decades = a father/mother.
- If forgiveness is hard = hating someone a little less = a little child.
- If you’re so aware of how Christ forgave you that extending forgiveness to others is easy/natural = a father/mother.
“I write to you, little children, Because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake. I write to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, Because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, Because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have overcome the wicked one.” 1 John 2:12-14What’s really genius about how Jesus setup this spiritual family/love movement, is that we are each called to grow and mature in our faith, with the help of those who are more mature, for the purpose of raising up the little children in the faith. This is what it looks like when a church is a family of disciples that make disciples.
In the family snapshot John gives us, we see that John is the spiritual father, as seen in v.1 when he addresses his audience as “my little children.” Yet, there was a time when John, and all 12 of the mighty disciples, where each little children in their faith, and Jesus was teaching them like a father.
Going back to John 13, we actually see this on the night when Jesus was betrayed.
“Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, 'Where I am going, you cannot come,' so now I say to you.” -John 13:33That night at the family table, Jesus passed the all-important commandment on to John, “in the beginning” of his faith journey, while he was still new to salvation. Now, lets fast forward beyond 1 John to 2 John 1:5-6 and listen to John as an older man, a father in the faith, as he echoes Jesus once again:
“Not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another. This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.”Tonight:
- If you are a little child in the faith, then who is a father figure that’s mentoring you?
- If you are a father in the faith, then who is the child that you're pouring into?
- If you are a young man/woman, then how are you using your strength to overcome the wicked one and be on mission for God?
- Also, if you don’t consider yourself a part of the Christian family, then what stumbling blocks can we talk with you about so you can “see the light”?
So tonight, let’s come to this table remembering what Jesus did for us, as well as asking the question, “Because of what Jesus did on the cross, how can I better love my brother and sister?”
