PERFECTING OUR WALK
1 John 2:7-11
INTRODUCTION: Over the last few weeks, we have been developing this thought of John regarding our walk with Christ. John has challenged us to consider the validity of our walk with regard to personal obedience, personal repentance, and now personal love. The perfection of our obedience – the maturity of our obedience is seen clearly in our love. John wants us to know this, “We know we know we love Him when we obey and love”.
It is often our tendency to measure our relationship for God in degrees, like one measures the temperature. According to John, this is not a valid method for believers in Christ. The issue is not the degree of a relationship with God, but the reality of a relationship with God.
As we look at the text today, it should become increasingly clear that our very ability to function as a follower of Christ is at issue.
I AN OLD AND NEW COMMANDMENT – 2:7-8
A John writes out of concern
1 Dear friends – Beloved ones
2 Still talking bout love
3 Still talking “LOVINGLY”
B John is writing about an OLD COMMANDMENT
1 From the moment we came to know Christ
2 Obligation to love one another
3 Obligation to walk like Jesus
4 The word Message means word/LOGOS
a The message we heard is summed up in the person of Christ.
b Bible says Jesus is the LOGOS
c Jesus is the message
C John is writing a NEW COMMANDMENT
1 New in the sense that this commandment is the practical realization of my walk as a follower of Christ
2 New in the sense that this is what our focus should be
3 New in the sense that this command is still fresh
4 Jesus gave this command new meaning and freshness
a Jesus showed me to love my enemies, not just my friends
b Jesus showed me to love the bad people as well as the good people
c Jesus showed me to love the sinners as well as the righteous
d Jesus showed me to love the rejected of this world as well as the accepted of this world
e Jesus showed me to love the dirty as well as the clean
Matthew 5:43-45 "You have heard that it was said, ’Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
5 Jesus lived this command to love, and now He expects me to carry it forward – “it’s truth is seen in Him and YOU”
D What John is writing belongs in our time
1 “the true light is already shining”
2 The command to love belongs in our time
3 The command to love didn’t stop on the cross
THIS IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE, “WHERE LOVE IS NOT, THERE HATRED IS: FOR THE HEART CANNOT REMAIN VOID”. Bengal
II AN OLD CLAIM – 2:9
A Same claim people in the church have been making since the church got started.
1 John 1:6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.
1 John 1:8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
1 John 1:10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
1 John 2:4 The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1 John 2:6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
1 Christians can hate others
2 Christians can hate other Christians
3 John is warning us about loving and hating
WE DO NOT NEED A LIST OF “DO THIS” AND DON’T DO THAT” TO KNOW IF WE ARE PLEASING CHRIST! WE JUST NEED TO ANSWER THE QUESTION – ARE WE LOVING?
B The absence of love is hate
1 Christians can hate
a King David
b Man after God’s own heart
c Guilty of murder – the ultimate expression of hate
2 Hate is a disregard for others
3 Hate is a subtle spiritual danger
a I just don’t like him
b I don’t know how to get along with him
c He turns me off
d He mistreated me
ALL THESE REALLY ARE ARE EXCUSES NOT TO LOVE SOMEBODY!
4 Hate does not value the soul
a Unjustifiable feeling regarding eternity
b Its root is sin – when we stray away from someone because of our own petty likes and dislikes, we are hating them, and we are sinning
John is not done here – because this attitude – this hatred goes farther than we think ….
III A NEW TWIST – 2:10-11
A Loving keeps me from stumbling
1 Word stumble is our word “scandal”
2 Means – a bent limbed snare.
3 Keeps us from getting turned upside down in a trap
B If loving keeps me from stumbling then hating makes it possible for me to stumble
1 To get caught in something that will turn my spiritual world around!
C The text says that if I hate (have that disregard for others, esp. other believers), that I am blinded
1 The walking around in darkness
a “is” – it is a continual state – not just passing through a tunnel. There is no light at the end.
b I am/will always be in darkness
2 Walking around in darkness makes me spiritually blind – Cannot deal spiritually when I am rebelling against God
a Blind regarding my location
b Blind regarding my sense of direction
c Blind regarding the direction of God
1) Ever opposes something in the church not because it was a bad idea, but because of who was proposing it? – This is blindness
3 What kind of blindness is it?
a To be blinded by something getting in the way – keeping me from seeing what I should
b The word means to be obscured by smoke
1) Funny thing about smoke …
2) What were we taught to do when we were in a situation where smoke was all around us and we needed to get out?
3) We were told to drop to the ground
a) The ground is where we would survive
b) The ground is where we need to go if we want to get out alive.
c) You want to get out of this dilemma of hate – not having value on the soul of others
DROP TO THE GROUND – GET ON YOUR KNEES AND ASK GOD FOR FORGIVENESS.
