WWUTT 402 Whoever Loves His Brother Abides in the Light?

The New Commandment and the Light of Christ

Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. Because when we love each other with the genuine love of God, then we truly love each other when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, studying God's Word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Find all our videos online at www .wutt .com, as well as links to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky.

And greetings, everyone. We continue our study of 1 John 2, and again, I'm going to read verses 7 through 14. In fact, I'm going to go a little bit further today, even into verse 17. So the apostle writes to the churches in Asia Minor, Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning.

The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

I am writing you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. I am writing you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.

I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not from the Father but is from the world, and the world is passing away along with its desires.

But whoever does the will of God abides forever. That's a good section to memorize there, by the way, verses 15 through 17. It's all good to memorize, but that section in particular. Okay, coming back again, verses 7 and 8, which we looked at yesterday.

Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it's a new commandment I'm writing to you, which is true in him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

As we talked about yesterday, the old commandment is the command that was given in the Old Testament. You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. A second greatest command is like it.

You will love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets are fulfilled in these two commands. So how is that a new commandment? Because you're hearing it with new ears. Before you were transformed in the spirit of Christ in your heart, those words meant nothing to you.

But now that the spirit has changed you to receive those words and understand what they mean and even giving you the desire to obey them. It's a new commandment because it's being heard with new ears.

It's being received with a new heart, a new mind that is being transformed in Christ. The darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. It doesn't say here that the darkness is gone because there still is within us.

There's still within us an indwelling sin. That's the topic of Charles Spurgeon's sermon number 83. That's the title of it. Indwelling sin. On Sunday evenings at our church, we do what we call a heritage service.

I have to be very careful with the way that I articulate that because I've already had a couple of people go, heresy service. No, no, no. Heritage service in which we go back to old sermons. And I'll read a sermon from sometime in church history.

And I started with the oldest sermon that is known outside of the New Testament. So late first century, their thinking is when this sermon was delivered to the church. It's commonly referred to as Second Clement, but it has since been discovered that that sermon predates Clement.

So it's just been inappropriately titled, but there's a likelihood that sermon was preached in the later portion of the first century. Also preached a sermon from origin and one from Chrysostom. And then this past Sunday, I preached a sermon from Charles Spurgeon, his sermon on indwelling sin.

It's one of my favorite sermons of his. If I did a top five of Spurgeon sermons, that one would be in there. But in that particular sermon, he talks about how there are two natures. And he says this in a manner of, I believe.

So not like I think this is matter of fact, but saying I believe that there are two natures in man as clear and as distinct as the two natures of Jesus Christ, who was very God and very man. So the two natures that are in us is a nature that desires to be obedient to God and a nature that is still the old man who is susceptible to the desires and the passions of the flesh.

And it is these two natures that are within us are in constant conflict with one another. A friend of mine, Kento Todd, I remember one time hearing him preach and saying at the beginning of his sermon, the difference between who I am now and who I was before I became a Christian, who I was before I came to Christ was not convicted about sin, but who I am now in Christ is convicted about sin.

I wasn't concerned about sin before I came to Christ, but now that I'm in Christ, I am aware of every single time that I sin and the conviction that I experience in my heart and a desire for God to wash me and cleanse me and make me more like him.

That desire was not in me before I came to Christ. So it is with a new mind that we are able to hear the old commandment as a new commandment because previously we weren't paying attention to it. Previously we were in rebellion against it.

We had heard that commandment, but we had rebelled against the commands of God in his loving kindness and in his grace and his mercy. He didn't leave us dead in our sins and our trespasses, but made us alive together in Christ to understand this word that has been given from way back when you will love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.

Loving God and Loving Neighbor

And from there, John continues verse nine, whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness because you cannot obey the second greatest commandment at the expense of the first greatest commandment.

So Jesus being asked, what is the great commandment in the law? Love God, love people. He says the second one is like it to love your neighbor as yourself. So this is the command of God. And if you do not love your neighbor whom you see, then you cannot love God whom you do not see.

John goes on to say that to clarify that a little bit later on. So if we if we do not love our neighbor, we cannot who is made in the image of God, we cannot say we love God because we are not obeying what God has told us to do.

So you can't say I love God and not love your neighbor. But by the same token, you can't say that I love my neighbor. So therefore, I love God, because if you don't love God, then you're not truly loving your neighbor.

The love with which you are showing to your neighbor, this this kindness, this nicety that you are calling love is not being done in the name of God. So you are not showing your neighbor anything godly.

Therefore, you cannot truly be loving your neighbor if you are not showing them the wonderful love and grace, mercy and forgiveness of God in your actions toward another. Then you're not giving them anything of any value.

It might be a nice gesture. It might be endearing for the moment in which it is being done. But there's nothing eternal there, nothing lasting, nothing that is actually putting the thoughts of them above yourself.

Because if you do not love God, you've not yet crucified the self. You've not yet taken up your cross and followed Jesus. Us. It is only when we understand loving the Lord, our God, with everything that we are down to the very core of our being, so that everything that we do is in praise and service and worship to our God.

It is only when we have been transformed in the mind of Christ to pursue these things that we understand loving our neighbor the way that God has called us to loving our neighbor truly, with the love of God and not with the selfish love of man.

Because whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him, there is no cause for stumbling. So the way that you show love to your neighbor is with the love of God. If it is with the selfish love of man, you are loving your neighbor in such a way to cause stumbling.

It's not genuine. It's not selfless. There is still something that's in it for you. But we have this God who, by his example, came down in human flesh, left his throne in heaven, came to us in our own flesh, and even became a servant, became obedient to the point of death, even death on a thief's cross.

And therefore, God has highly exalted him and given him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

That is the God that we worship. The son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. That's the very words of Christ. So this is the example that we have. And Paul precedes the hymn of Christ, which was what I was quoting to you out of Philippians chapter two, verses five through eleven.

He precedes the hymn of Christ with verse five saying, let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus. So after telling us in Philippians two, telling the Philippians, but the spirit also speaking to us that we need to consider others needs ahead of our own after after spelling that out, then he gives the example of Christ for Christ considered our need, our need for a savior to be made right with God, though he was himself God.

He did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself, made himself nothing, taking on the very form of a servant, God in human flesh, very God and very man. This is the example that has been set before us in Christ.

He is the ultimate example of what it means to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Remember, he did this to the glory of God, the father, and also the ultimate example of what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves, for God loves us as he loves his very self.

The love that God, the father, has shown to us is the same love that he has for his son. Can you imagine that you wrap your mind around that, that God, the father, is showing the same love to you that he loves his own son with.

God will not love you any more than he does now, and he will not love you any less. You know, we're very fond of saying that I need more Jesus. We actually can't get any more Jesus. We have given all we've been given all the Jesus that we are going to get, which is all of himself.

We need less of ourselves and then we see Jesus and then we are made more like him when there is less of ourselves in the picture, when there is less of what we are trying to get for us. Instead, worshiping God with everything that we are from the inside out, from the very core of our being.

That is what it means to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, with everything, everything that I am and everything that I do. I do it in service to God, the father.

Obedience, the Gospel, and Love for the Household of Faith

So we must know, we must know that to love God means to obey his commands. True faith is evidenced in obedience. Do you love God? Then you will obey him. John has said it here. Jesus said it to his disciples.

If you love me, you will obey my commandments. We show our love for God by obeying what he has said. So we truly love God with everything that we are. When we obey the command to love our neighbor as ourself and neighbor is everybody.

And the number one way that we can show our love for our neighbor is to take the gospel to them. There is no one from whom we should withhold the gospel of Jesus Christ. The good news that though we were dead in our sins and our trespasses, God was gracious and sent his son Jesus to die for our sins.

All who repent and follow Jesus are forgiven and are reconciled to God and will live with him forever in his eternal kingdom. That's the wonderful, beautiful gospel message of Jesus Christ. We must share that with everyone.

Now, having said that, the context specifically that John is talking about here is it has to do with brother. He doesn't say neighbor. He says, brother, whenever we see in the New Testament neighbor, that's everybody.

Whenever we see brother or sister, that's that's specifically pertaining to the body of Christ. And we should show love and charity to everybody. Paul said that to the Galatians, love everyone, show charity to everyone, especially the household of faith.

So our priority is the brothers and sisters of the body of Christ. And then we should also show love to those who are outside the church. So here John is saying whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

So one of the evidences that we are in the light is that we love others who are in the light. We show our love for God when we love the people of God and our faith is growing. We show that we are growing in that faith and in that progression of the love that we have for God, when we also grow for the love that we have for the brothers and sisters that we are with in Christ Jesus.

And let me share this with you, my friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ, let me share this with you. You cannot obey this command if you are not attending church. How can you show with regularity and an ongoing progress in growth and maturity, how can you show love for your brothers and sisters in Christ with whom you won't fellowship?

So how could you possibly be growing in that love? This is how we grow in that love for the other members of the body of Christ when we are with them, when we sing with them, lifting praises up to our God, as Paul instructed in Ephesians and in Colossians, that we are singing praises together, lifting up our voices in chorus that that we are sitting with in church and hearing the gospel proclaimed.

I hope that's what your pastor's doing from the pulpit, teaching the word of God. And all of you are progressing and growing in the same word that you are hearing together. So that's what permeates your conversations.

You are talking about the things that you heard in church on Sunday or or this past weekend or the series that you're in right now, you know, those kinds of things. And when I say series, I'm not talking about a topical series like the Andy Stanley series.

I'm talking about like a John MacArthur or R .C. Sproul series. We're going through a particular book at a particular time. Right. So so these are the things that help us grow. And the other way that we know how to love our brothers and sisters in Christ is when we're regularly fellowshipping with them.

What kind of hurts do they have? What kind of needs do they have? How can you pray for your brothers and sisters with whom you don't regularly converse and don't know the things that are going on in their life and how you can help and assist them?

How do you know what goods you can give to them, like cooking a meal or providing them with clothes, maybe even having to give them a room so they've got some shelter to have or, you know, buying a meal, just sitting down and having a chat because they need company for a time?

How do you know that your brothers and sisters need those things if you're not regularly with them? So this is the way that we show that we are in the light is when we fellowship with others who are in the light.

And I tell you that if you refuse to fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ, you're still in darkness. You actually hate them. No, I don't hate them. I don't I don't have this animosity in my heart toward them.

You may not have an aggressive animosity toward them, but it is a passive animosity because you refuse to fellowship with them. I refuse to go to church. And, you know, I'm I'm I'm fine just sitting here and listening to Gabe's podcast.

I I'm telling you, you're not. I'm not even flattered by it. The Bible commands that you go to church. I want you to listen to this program because it's additional feeding that you're getting through the week.

I don't want this to supplant your church attendance. You need to go to church. You need to sit under an eldership authority, even if it's a church that doesn't recognize plural eldership. You have a pastor.

There's an elder there. Sit under his teaching, grow with the brothers and sisters in Christ that you are fellowshipping with. Maybe the church is not mature. Pray that they will be. They certainly won't get more mature without you, because the instruction that we have in Ephesians chapter four is that we are supposed to be maturing together.

So they're certainly not going to mature without you. That's not to puff your head up, make you think, oh, well, this church is going to be better with me. That's so you'll humble yourself and you'll go to church and realize that you're being there is helping to serve the members of the body of Christ because you need to grow in the in the in the things that they are growing in as well, growing in love and charity and service to one another.

And this is the way that we show love for the brotherhood. And if we refuse to do those things, then we hate our brother. I mean, in Proverbs, it says that the father who refuses to discipline his son hates his son.

He may not be beating his son, punching him in the face and calling him bad names, but he hates his son because he refuses to discipline and train him in rightness. And so your refusal to be with the body of Christ is also hate.

It's not an aggressive hate, but it's still hate. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him there is no cause for stumbling. Don't cause any don't don't provide any reason for your brother to stumble, but be an encouragement, be an aid, an assistance in this maturity that we're all supposed to be accomplishing in Christ Jesus.

Whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Love God, so love others and you will be in the light as he is in the light.

We'll continue this section versus 12 through 14 and maybe also 15 through 17. We'll see how far we get tomorrow. Our Lord God, we thank you so much for your word. And I pray that it is convicting in our hearts, even to me as I am reading it, recognizing places where I am not serving in the way that I should be serving, submitting myself fully to the command of God to love you and to show love for others.

We love others at home, our brothers and sisters in Christ that are within our own households. And we love others at church, the brothers and sisters in Christ with whom we are to fellowship, encourage and admonish, sing praises together with, grow in the listening of the word of God together with them.

Lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake. And we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.