Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20111012.htm
THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
1 John: True, Fulfilling Fellowship With God
Part V: Identifying True Spiritual Love That Adheres Within True Fellowship With God
(1 John 2: 5, 7-11)
- Introduction
- There is a tendency today to think one is must either be a loving Christian at the price of fudging on Scripture truth OR of being a Scripturally correct Christian at the price of being less-loving!
- Actually, neither view is correct, and 1 John 2:5, 7-11 describes the true spiritual love that adheres in true spiritual fellowship, and contrasts it with such artificial ideas of that true love.
- We view that passage in order to draw a revealing profile about love and obedience to God's Word:
- Identifying True Spiritual Love That Adheres Within True Fellowship With God, 1 John 2:5, 7-11.
- Any believer who "keeps" the Word of God, that is, who hears and obeys it in his life, truly God's own personal love is perfected him, 1 John 2:5 NIV. In fact, we believers experientially know that we are in fellowship with the God of love by whether or not we are objectively obeying the commands in His Word, 1 John 2:5b-6. The true love of God cannot be divorced from real obedience to His Word -- they are necessarily linked as is evident in John 14:21-23 where Jesus predicted that when one obeyed the Lord in his life, God would enter into His life and lovingly make Himself at home in his daily walk!
- The love of God is timeless and changeless: John noted that the original commandment his Christian readers had been given by Christ to love one another (John 13:35) is timeless through Church History: it is to be heeded in John's era (1 John 2:7-8a) because the Light of Christ revealed in Nazareth in fulfillment of Isaiah 9:1-2 is the light of the new Messianic age to come, cf. Isaiah 9:6. In other words, true love, the love of God is not a passing fad, but an integral part of the godly believer's life.
- Indeed, since all of the Law during the Dispensation of the Law was fulfilled in one's loving God with all of his being, and his neighbor as himself (Matthew 22:34-40), we know that God has always consistently held that man's responsibility is to have an enduring, unchanging love for God and his fellow man.
- Thus, if a professing believer claims he is in the light, that is, that he fellowships with God in truth, but he hates his fellow Christian brother, he is actually in spiritual darkness, out of fellowship with God and thus also disobedient to the Word of God according to 1 John 2:5; 1 John 2:9.
- Conversely, when a believer loves His brother in Christ, he not only abides in the light, or fellowships with God by walking in accord with Scripture, but he has nothing in his life that causes another believer to be tempted or distracted to commit sin, 1 John 2:10. The reason for this truth is the fact that true spiritual love arises from true obedience to God's Word as taught in 1 John 2:5 so that true obedience to Scripture that produces true love leaves one unable to lure or influence another to sin.
- On the other hand, when a professing believer hates a Christian brother, he is out of fellowship with God, being in darkness, and he walks about, or lives his life out of fellowship with the Lord, 1 John 2:11a,b.
- Furthermore, that spiritually darkened position leaves the believer unable to discern where he is going in his life, for the spiritual darkness about him, which darkness he heeds opposite Scripture, blinds his viewpoint to the light of God's revelation in Christ and in the written Word of God, 1 John 2:11c,d.
- Accordingly, we can summarize two contrasting spiritual states regarding godly Christian love as follows:
- Negatively, when one disobeys Scripture, he suffers from spiritual blindness, and thus is ignorant of the truth, he hates his brother in Christ along with holding to a fickle warmth instead of a steady love, and he is harmful to others as he does not know the truth, and is not even aware of that fact, with his sin giving occasion for other believers around him to be influenced to stumble into sin themselves!
- Conversely, and thus positively, when one obeys Scripture, he has spiritual insight, he becomes aware of what is God's truth, he loves his fellow brother in Christ in an unchanging commitment, he is helpful to others as he knows God's truth and he is aware of that fact, and he does not influence anyone else around him to sin!
Lesson: True obedience to Scripture and God's true love are necessarily inseparable. Equally true is the converse fact, that disobedience to Scripture and lovelessness are inseparable.
Application: May we thus live in the true love of God as identified in the truth of His revealed Word.