Dear Church family,
I enjoyed gathering with you yesterday and I hope you did too!
I preached on 1 John 2:7-11 and want to use this time to reiterate some truths that are vitally important for us to grasp.
1 John 2:7-11 describes the 3d kind of test in John that a true Christian needs to pass: that we are loving our Church family like Christ has loved us. The test is tough, but I hope you all understand that John gives his listeners the benefit of the doubt constantly throughout his letter, and 1 John 2:8 is a big example of this as he says:
“it (the love like Jesus commandment) is true…in you” and then John says “BECAUSE…the true light is already shining.”
This ‘love test’ is only passable because of God’s Spirit at work in us.
It’s important to note that our love for one-another is “a fruit of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22). Notice, John is not trying to bring up the love test in his letter to make Christians worry about if we’re loving one-another well enough, He’s doing it to confirm confidence in our relationship with the Lord (1 John 2:3, 5:13). He’s actually confident that we will pass the test.
However, I imagine that some of you may have felt worried or uncertain (which is the opposite of John’s aim!) when hearing about how radically we should be loving one-another in John’s words (2:9-11) because you are honest enough to admit that it’s not 100% you.
And yet I mentioned how John does not give any grey area for our love or middle ground. And the reason for that is because in John’s mind ‘love is the radiance/glow of God’s Light (2:7-8). And God as Light is described as “and in Him is no darkness at all” (1:5). Because love is the practical meaning of God’s light, this means that if we are united to God Who is Light (hence truly knowing Him), then our love should not be mixed with anything dark, not even close, nothing diluted with even an iota of hate or dislike or apathy for another fellow believer, because then we would exhibit some darkness in our love which is uncharacteristic of God. Therefore, we need to love as passionately as Jesus loved us while we were His enemies. We need to care deeply for the concerns of every Christian, not even 1 excluded.
This description of a polarizing kind of love with no tolerance for grey or even a spec of hatred might seem unrealistic if it’s not understood in light of 1 John 1:5-2:2 where God is explained as undiluted Light.
So let me try to encourage you with this: for those of you who are aware of the fact that you don’t love certain Christians like you should and you may feel like you walk in grey areas, here’s how we are able to still remain in the Light (that is, know God and pass this love test to prove our identity with Him):
Understand God’s Light according to 1 John 1:5-2:2 because in it, you will hear John explain how God’s light has no darkness in it at all in our lives: by applying the Gospel to us.
In 1 John 1:5-2:2, John laid out our first theological belief test that we must believe: That we have sin but that Jesus is a great Savior of our sin.
That belief sets us up for understanding how we love one-another with no hate, not even close, in 1 John 3:7-11, because if we love one-another with no tolerance for darkness/hate/dislike, we must also believe that we have sin in our life (1 John 1:8!). In that way, it’s actually a sign that you are passing the first test (1:5-2:2) when you admit that you aren’t passing the 3d love test (3:7-11) as you ought.
You see, the way that John explains walking in the Light in Whom exists no darkness at all (1:5) is by admitting our sin and confessing to God our sins, which leads us to forgiveness and cleansing (1:9). Then John will go on to say in 2:1-2 that WHEN we sin, the way we cope with it is by understanding that we have Jesus as our Helper, Righteousness and Propitiation when we sin. In other words, He’s here to help us through our love exam when we don’t pass it perfectly! In that way, it’s actually good evidence that you’ve passed the theological/belief test in 1:5-2:2 when you are aware that you don’t love other perfectly in a completely polarizing way.
Therefore, the way that walk in the Light, in whom there is no darkness at all, is actually by admitting that we do have dark blemish spots that make everything that we do, including our love for one-another, imperfect.
The question is then, how can we truly claim to have fellowship with God and know Him if He is Light and in Him is no darkness at all but we still struggle with darkness as Christians (And in 2:7-11, that would mean, we don’t love our brothers as we ought)?
The answer is that we believe that Jesus died on the Cross for our sins, the Light of the world became our darkness on the Cross. In fact, Luke records that when Jesus was dying on the Cross, the atmosphere became dark!
That explains how we can not pass this love test perfectly, even though God demands that we love all of our siblings in Christ passionately with no grey, with no mixture, in light of His “no darkness” identity:
God is constantly applying the finished work of Jesus for us in our lives when we sin: and in the case of love, when we don’t love one-another as we ought.
He maintains our ‘light identity’ because Christ is constantly applying His finished work on the Cross for us by saving us from our lackluster love.
So let me say this: for those of you who are honest and admit that you aren’t as polarizing in your love for your brother and sisters in Christ as you should, remember that your test results are based on 1 John 1:5-2:2 and those test results: do you believe that you still have sin in your life but that God is greater than your sin?
In your case, what you should do is confess your lack of love for a particular sibling in Christ, confess that you don’t match 1 John 2:10 perfectly, and look to Jesus for your forgiveness of your sins and as your cleansing Savior (1 John 1:9). He’s constantly wiping away your darkness so that you can still maintain your fellowship with the God Who is Light and in Whom there is NO darkness at all.
In Christ, we will continue to have no darkness in our lives despite the fact that it still gets to us.
However, nevertheless, 1 John’s 2:10 is stated as a fact: “whoever loves his brother abides in the light.” In that way, we should see that this verse defines our identity, and we should strive to make sure that we “love more and more” in the words of 1 Thess. 4:9-10. We should strive to make sure that our love is as contrasting as it possibly can be to the darkness. We have the Gospel as a great cushion and for our confidence. However, it should not be a cushion that we use to slack off and snooze on in our love for our Church family.
Finally, please understand that to pass these 1 John exams is not to create our Christianity. Our Christian relationship with God is a gift based on God’s mercy and grace. However, passing these exams proves our identity. It does not earn it, but proves it.
It’s meant to give us Christian confidence, not Christian conversion. Christian conversion happens because in God’s love He made us born again. (1 John 3:9!) His love creates our new birth, and apparently the results of our new birth is that we love God and love our siblings in Christ with a contrasting shade to the world (1 John 5:1-4!).
I hope this helps build more confidence in you towards your relationship with the Lord.
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are.”
With love in Christ,
Aaron
