To Love or Not to Love? That Is the Question
I John 2:1-17
I. Introduction
A. The Epistle with the Family in Mind
1. "My little children"
2. "Our fellowship is with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ"
B. Love in Our Earthly Families
1. Lovers pledging their love in marriage
2. Love continues: "Husbands love your wives" (Eph. 5:25)
C. John’s Lessons about Love in the Family of God
I
A. John Realizing God’s Love for Him (v. 5)
1. John and his brother James had been fishermen
a. Worked with their father, Zebedee
b. They loved their father, the boats, the sea
2. Then one day John heard the call of Jesus (Mark 1:17-20)
a. He had been mending nets
b. Now he would become a mender of men (Luke 5: 10)
3. John learning about love
a. Observed the compassionate Christ
b. His great lesson of love at the cross (John 18)
c. ’’The disciple whom Jesus loved" (John 21:20)
4. God loves us all (John 3:16)
B. John Reasoning That He Must Love His Brother (v. 10)
1. The loved have an obligation to love
2. "He that loveth his brother abideth in the light"
a. Jesus is the light (John 8: 12)
b. Love reveals our walk with Jesus
3. How love shows in life (1 Cor. 13:4-7)
a. Love is patient and kind
b. Love is not envious or proud
c. Love is consistent, not selfish or suspicious
d. Love is never glad when others are hurt
e. Love is pleased when truth triumphs
f. Love puts up with slights, insults, failures.
g. Love believes the best about others
C. John Refusing to Love the World (vv. 15-17)
1. "Love not the world" (v. 15)
a. Does not refer to people (John 3: 16)
b. Does not refer to creation (Matt. 6:26-30)
c. Refers to the Christ-rejecting world system
-H.A.Ironside stated "that system that man has built up . . . in which he is trying to make himself happy without God."
2. John refuses to love "things"
3. Lust and pride call us to love the world (v. 16)
4. The "world" is passing away
5. John chooses to love the One who is eternal
Conclusion
A. We Are Known by Who and What We Love
B. Who and What Do You Love?
