Fellowship: Love God and love each other
1 John 2:3-11
1. The problem
A group of people have left this group of Christians in favor of some sort of “higher level” of Christianity.
Teaching:
They have fellowship with God 1:6
They have no sin 1:8
They know God 2:4
They abide in Christ 2:6
42 times 1 John uses “know”. The major issue seems to have been a group who had knowledge that others did not have and were seeking to draw the people into their knowing.
These spiritually elite Christians then left the rest of the body causing the remaining faithful to wonder if they had fellowship with God, why they still sinned, if they even knew God and did they abide in Christ.
2. John’s Response
I write to you….
1:4 To bring their joy back and in complete fashion
2:1 That they may not sin and strive for holiness
2:12 To remind them that their sins are forgiven
2:13, 14a To remind them that they know God and have overcome the evil one
2:14 To remind them that they are strong in the Lord, the word abides in them, and they have overcome the evil one
2:21 To remind them that they know the truth
2:26 To counteract the work of those who were trying to deceive them and remind them that God’s anointing (Spirit) abides in them and is their teacher and they do not need “higher level” teachers to help them achieve some superior level of the faith
5:13 To make them know that they have eternal life
3. John’s instruction to the church 1 John 2:3-11
In this section John is addressing, in particular, the false teacher’s claim that they “know God” and the others don’t know God like they do.
1. Show you know God by loving God and so loving each other
A. Those who love God and each other:
John says there are some characteristics of those who love God and each other:
1. The love of God is perfected in them 2:5 (1 John 4:12)
In other words: those remaining Christians are loving rightly
Objective genitive: the love that a person has for God.
A. The verb translated “made perfect” (teleioō) is in the perfect tense and is used four times in this epistle, always to describe the completion or perfection of love (4:12, 17, 18). Brown observes: “Since keeping the commandments (or God’s word) certainly involves living out the commandment to love one another, the love of God revealed to us in Jesus Christ reaches its perfection when the same love is shown to ‘one another’ and to the God who abides in the Christian.”
God’s love achieves its purpose when we keep his word.
B. The image of God’s love in man is fully restored and operational
When we love each other in particularly when others have not been
Particularly loveable…
2. They walk as Jesus walked (their manner of life looks like Jesus‘ manner of life) 2:6
3. They abide in the light 2:10a
These people who love God and others are living in the light of the dawning Kingdom of God in Christ while those who say they love God and are not loving others live in the darkness of the kingdom of this world ruled by Satan.
4. They do not cause others to stumble 2:10b
You can say that positively by saying: they cause other people to walk well.
B. Those who say they know God but do not love the others:
The converse is true of the false teachers and their followers.
“Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,…” 1 John 2:4
Jesus’ commandments are 1. Love God (believe in the name of his Son 1 John 3:23) 2. Love each other
1. They are liars 2:4
2. They are not walking as Jesus walked 2:6
3. They abide in the darkness 2:9
4. They cause people to stumble 2:10b
2. Application
How do we love each other and fulfill the commands of the Lord Jesus?
A. Love each other by continuing to bear each other’s burdens
1. Galatians 6:2
“Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
Burdens:
1. sin that continues to plague a person;
2. physical labors that are needed;
3. spiritual heaviness due to some loss or spiritual warfare;
4. emotional hurts due to mistreatment
A. Bear the burden don’t crush them with more
1. Be aware of others and just don’t hurt
B. Crucify pride and let others bear burdens
B. Strengthen each other’s hands in God
1. 1 Samuel 23:15-16 “…Jonathan…rose and went to David at Horesh and strengthened his hand in God.”
A. David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh and it is some 30 miles from Jerusalem and Jonathan travels to Be with David
1. Need for and need to give camaraderie
2. Conscious effort
3. Point each other to Christ not our self-sufficiency
1. Use Scripture
2. Jesus is enough for us
“…he is not poor nor much enticed who loses
Everything but Christ…”
4. Remind each other of the promises of God
1. Psalm 56, 57
Theology in the Dirt 