Walk in Love's Light | 1 John 2:7-11

Good morning, everyone. It's good to be with

you this morning as we get into God's Word as

we Study it together and as we think about these

things together indeed it is great to be loved

by our God and Also have the opportunity to love

one another One year Shelley and I visited the

Australian Army Museum in Fremantle now if you've

never been there you should go you would enjoy

it. One of the great areas that you see when

you first walk in is the area where they have

pictures of Victoria Cross recipients, VC recipients,

those who have received the Cross, this Victoria

Cross Award for their sacrifice, for their efforts

to save others. for their efforts to face the

enemy and to deal with the risk and sometimes

even losing their life. The acts that we read

about, the stories that were written there were

really inspiring, actually quite challenging

as well. Each of these recipients faced very

difficult circumstances and gave their lives

or gave a great effort to save and rescue their

fellow soldiers. After reading many of the accounts,

I was surprised by the remarks of one of the

VC recipients who actually ended up being a governor

in New South Wales, of all places, but his name

was Sir Rodan Cutler. I'm going to read you what

he said about the Australian soldier. He said,

the Australian soldier is known for not being

good at taking orders. A captain who orders his

men to exit the trenches and go charge the line

will find that his men are not good at that.

However, if the captain jumps out of the trenches

and says, come men, follow me, he will find that

the Australian soldiers will follow him. The

Australian soldier will follow their commander's

lead. John's teaching in what we see here in

1 John chapter 2 verses 7 and 8 talks about an

1 John 2:7

old command and a new command. The new command

comes from Jesus lips way back in the book of

John in the gospel of John chapter 13 verse 34.

John 13:34

Just as I have loved you, you ought also to love

one another. That's the command. And our brave

king sacrificed himself to face the enemy, our

enemy, and to rescue us. The command to love

one another is not from the lips of a king who

gives the order, go and charge the enemy, and

stays in the trenches himself. Our king ordered

us out of the trenches, but he went first. He

went ahead and we follow his lead giving sacrificially

and sacrificing and loving one another For those

in Christ so what we read in first John chapter

1 John 2:6

2 verse 6 So a little bit earlier than where

we started this morning in first John 2 6 for

those of us in Christ Whoever says he abides

in him ought also to walk in the same way in

which he walked. We follow the lead of our Savior.

Genuine fellowship with God in Christ leads to

genuine love for others who are in Christ along

with us. So how will we as a church and how will

us as individual brothers and sisters, how will

we love? one another. Well, He loved us, so we

need to follow Jesus' command, right? To love

others. So don't be surprised that the King gives

us a command. He's in charge. We're in His kingdom.

This is where we belong. He's called us to live

here in His kingdom. Therefore, we are to keep

the King's commands. Again, chapter 2 verse 4,

just leading into the passage that we're in,

says this, someone who says, I know the king,

I know Jesus, but doesn't keep his commands.

Chapter 2 verse 4 says that person is a liar

and the truth is not in him. Now that's really

strong language, isn't it? If you're not obeying

the king's commands, then you're a liar if you

say you know him. Wow. That's pretty tough, but

it underscores the expectation of what we're

meant to do as brothers and sisters in Christ

in the kingdom of our Savior So there's two commands

here that Jesus talks about sorry that John talks

about this old command this new command and Together

they teach a crucial truth the gospel command

to believe Jesus to trust him is directly linked

to the command to love one another. So let me

just walk you through it. The old command is

this. We see it in verse seven, so we're finally

getting to our passage now. You're probably thinking,

why is he going to back to all these other passages?

Okay, we're in a passage now. Verse seven, John

writes, an old command you had from the beginning.

The old command is the word that you have heard.

What was that word that they heard? Well, they

first heard about this king. They first heard

his command when they heard the gospel. Remember,

in the opening of John's letter here, 1 John,

chapter one, verse three, he talked about Jesus,

his readers, hearing the apostles. hearing from

the Apostles and the Apostles heard and they

touched and they saw Jesus who is the word of

life and then John proclaimed this word to the

people and They believed and they became brothers

and sisters who shared in fellowship with the

Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and all

those who believe So by believing we become part

of the kingdom of God then we take on and live

that way. We obey the old command when we believed

the gospel. That's the old command. But then

John again appeals after our passage. He says,

let what you heard from the beginning, this is

chapter 2 verse 24, let what you heard from the

beginning abide in you. If what you heard from

the beginning abides in you, so believing on

the Lord Jesus, trusting Him, then you too will

abide with the Son and the Father. And His promise

is made to us. And it's this eternal life. So

by obeying the command, we enter into a fellowship,

into this relationship with God and we have eternal

life. That's the initial command, the old command.

Now let's get to the new command. Verse eight.

He mentions this new command. At the same time,

it is a new commandment that I'm writing to you.

Now, he doesn't separate the old from the new.

The gospel command to believe in the Lord Jesus

Christ and the new command to love one another

are linked. You enter the kingdom. You become

God's child by believing in the Son. And your

faith in Jesus connects you to this new kingdom.

And you love those in that kingdom as well. John

says, and this is the commandment that we believe

in the name of his son, and we love one another

just as he commanded us. So these verses, chapter

two, verses seven and eight. And right at the

end of verse 8 illustrates the connection of

the old and new commandment using that illustration

of light. John loves this illustration. He talks

about light often. Light and contrast to darkness.

Now Jesus Christ loved his people. That's really

evident from all of the Gospels and really across

all of scripture. Our God loves his people. His

command to love was fully active in Jesus. He

was the one who perfectly loves and So that's

why when John says in verse 8 at the end of verse

8 He says the true light was already shining.

What's he saying? Jesus is light Jesus is the

light of God's love Jesus loves perfectly. He

is light And the astounding truth in verse eight

is that this new command is true and in him,

not only in him, but look at what verse eight

says, and in you. If Jesus is alive in you, if

his light is shining in you, then you are shining

as well. because the darkness is passing away.

Jesus abiding in Jesus and Him abiding in us

means that we are light, the light of Christ

we love as well. The light that shines in Him

shines out from believers as well. Jesus and

his love if I could think of oh, there's bigger

numbers than this But think of Jesus as a two

million candle power torch You know, just this

huge bright if you want to say two billion, that's

fine. If I say two trillion That's fine, too.

Just a big number a very very very bright torch

He's entered your life and he lights it up If

you're a believer in Jesus he has entered your

life and he lights up your life Faith connects

you to the true light and your darkness is passing

away. And again, when we talk about individuals,

we know that God works in individual lives, but

he works in us as well as a body. So don't just

think in your life, but think about what he does

in the life of this congregation. Think about

what he does in the life of the church across

Perth and across the globe and throughout time.

The light of Christ shines and it drives away

the darkness. See, His related, this new command

and old command, it calls us to believe in Christ

and then it calls us to love one another. So

how are you going to love one another? How are

you going to carry this off, this loving for

one another? Because I know you guys, some of

you are very difficult to love. And if you really

got to know me, see I'm smiling and happy up

here, but if you got to know me in my down times,

I'm a little cranky person. In fact, Shelly thinks

that I'm one of the grumps that she really does

love. She loves the grumpy people. If you talk

to Shelly about the history situation, she loves

the grumpy ones in history. And I'm one of the

grumpy ones that she loves as well. I know we're

all difficult at times to love, right? So how

am I going to love you when you're difficult

to love? How are you going to love me when I'm

difficult to love? We need to walk in Jesus'

light. We need to walk with Him. See, John's

use of light illustrates two key issues for us,

two key things we need to take on board. First,

Jesus is the light. That's the first thing we

really need to take on board. Those who say,

I follow Jesus, we are in the light. Believe

it or not, if you're a follower of Jesus, you

are in the light. You may not feel like it. your

light will shine in the light of Jesus will shine

through you that love of Jesus or if it isn't

shining verse 9 is true of you look at what verse

9 says whoever says he is in the light in other

words I'm a follower of Jesus whoever says he

is in the light but hates his brother he's still

in darkness So you can't hide behind spiritual

words, yes, I'm a believer in Jesus, and not

love your brother. It's not allowed. Or to put

it this way, think of it as a test. If you're

hating your brother, but you say you're a believer,

you fail the test. See, we reject the gospel

of the king if we hate our brother. However,

verse 10 is also true. If you're thinking of

that as a test, whoever loves his brother abides

in the light. So you put nine and 10 together,

putting verse nine and 10 together, the right

place to be is in the light. Those who are outside

the light are in the darkness. They hate their

brother, but those in the light, they love their

brother. Jesus two million candle power light

is shining in your life as you love one another

Those who follow him will shine the light of

Jesus light in your life. It will happen As we

walk together with Jesus again that togetherness

You see love is a group activity It's something

we do together I can't just say I'm lover if

I don't have someone to show love to. Jesus from

all eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy

Spirit, they loved each other perfectly, always.

Three persons in the Trinity loved perfectly.

And then they love us and bring us in. And so

we love like they love. Well, we're learning

anyway, right? We're learning. Okay, so we learned

the first thing is that Jesus is the light. The

second thing we learned from these commands is

that walking in the light removes stumbling.

Jesus walked in perfect obedience to the Father.

He obeyed all of God's commands. He perfectly

displayed God's love. He is the perfect Son,

and He perfectly loves. And as we follow Jesus,

obedience to His light, or in obedience to His

command, then the light shines in us as well.

The benefit of His light is, look at what verse

10 tells us, the end of verse 10, the benefit

of walking in the light is that there is no cause

for stumbling. The word for stumbling there is

scandal. Scandalon, that's the Greek word, but

you can hear the word scandal. We don't cause

others to stumble. We don't cause others scandal.

We don't desire to see other people tripped up

by our mess -ups, by our lack of love. In my

childhood, my sister and I had an uncle. His

name was Uncle Pete, and Uncle Pete was blind.

And one of the house rules, when we would play

over at my grandmother's house, my grandmother

was married to this guy, Uncle Pete, who was

not my grandfather, he was, but we called him

Uncle Pete. Anyway, so when Uncle Pete, when

we were around the house and we were playing,

our toys had to be picked up when we were done

playing. We also like to set up little... furniture

tents, you know, you put out the blankets over

two chairs and you make a little cubby and we

make little forts. And so my sister and I used

to play around. And when we were done, the house

rule was you picked up all your toys and you

put the furniture back where you found it so

that you didn't cause Uncle Pete to stumble.

However, like little children do, many times

we'd forget that we had put out or left out our

toys or we'd forget to put furniture back and

then we cause Uncle Pete a bit of pain because

he would run into the furniture or you'd stumble

on a toy and if any of you've ever stepped on

a little Lego you know what that feels like so

we we sometimes we messed up our disobedience

would cause Uncle Pete to stumble over our toys

and to hit his shins on the furniture since we

never intended to hurt our beloved uncle When

our disobedience injured him, we always apologized.

Because we had hurt him, we were hurt as well.

We felt bad. You see, we walked in the light

and we wanted to make sure that our uncle did

not stumble and that we had no cause, that we

had done nothing to make him stumble. But when

we failed to obey, when we failed to obey the

house rules, when we failed to love Uncle Pete

properly, we humbly admitted that we caused him

to stumble. Similarly, as Jesus' true followers,

none of us will follow Jesus perfectly. We won't

always get it right. We don't always obey, sometimes

intentionally messing up, sinning. And sometimes

by mistake, we sin by just not doing it right.

We don't want to cause others to stumble, but

when we do, we must humbly admit our disobedience.

We must return to walking in the light. That's

the loving thing to do. Now, what if my sister

and I actually hated our uncle? What if we really

didn't care about him? What if we actually put

out Legos in front of him just so that we could

watch him fall over and stumble? What if we left

out the furniture so that we could just, you

know, have a giggle when he ran into it and goes,

oh, again? We'd be ratbag children, wouldn't

we? I mean, we'd be some pretty awful kids to

make a blind guy stumble. You'd have to be pretty

callous to do that. Essentially, look at verse

11. That's what John is saying. Whoever hates

his brother is in the darkness. You're a rat

bag. And you walk in the darkness and you don't

know where you're going because the darkness

has blinded your eyes. See, again, it's love.

practical ways of showing love, demonstrable

ways of showing love that truly show that we

walk with Jesus. How will you love your brother?

Followers of Jesus, you and I, us together as

a church, as a congregation of God's people,

we need to walk in the light. Just as He loved

us, so we love our brothers and sisters. But

when we don't, we must apply the gospel. Love

can still be shown. Ask Jesus for forgiveness.

He's the lover, the perfect one. He loves his

people. He will forgive. And ask those who you've

sinned against to forgive you. Ask for forgiveness.

When you cause another brother or sister in Christ

to stumble, rely on Jesus' promised love to forgive

you, and allow your brothers and sisters the

opportunity to practice their love for you as

they forgive you as well. We read Leviticus earlier.

Leviticus 19, and there's a lot of commands there.

And did you notice at the end of each one of

those commands, those little sections, it was,

because I am the Lord your God, was the command

there underscored by the fact that God is God.

We need to listen to him because he's God. We

need to do what he says because he's God. Here

we have, in a similar way, Jesus commanding us

to love one another because he's God. And those

were practical things that we saw in Leviticus

19. Love the needy. Love the poor. Love the stranger.

If you see your brother in need, make sure they

have what they need. Don't be false with your

brother. Don't lie to your brother. Don't steal

from your brother. Don't oppress your brother.

These are all from Leviticus chapter 19. Don't

Leviticus 19 · chapter mention

do injustice to your brother always treat them

equitably always treat them with respect and

dignity Don't slander them Don't talk evil. Don't

say untrue things about them Don't hate them

don't seek vengeance if they've done you wrong

don't seek vengeance in return Actually, in Leviticus

19, it isn't just with your brother, it's with

those around you, your neighbors, even the aliens

and strangers among you. Love your neighbor as

you love yourself. That's not just a New Testament

command, it comes from the Old Testament as well.

You see, we overcome... in what Jesus has done

for us in loving us and saving us, not in what

we do. No sin or failure to love others. If we

fail, if we don't, if we don't do this properly,

no sin gets us kicked out of the family. Jesus

work is complete. He saves to the uttermost.

He's taken care of all of our sin. He's accomplished

our salvation. It is all powerful. He is all

sufficient. The darkness is passing. His true

light is shining. But don't hide your sin when

you fail. Don't hide your sin. Instead, humbly

admit your sin. Allow Jesus' love and the love

of your brothers and sisters to shine and drive

out the darkness. Do you remember what Jesus

said was proof to the world that you are Jesus'

disciples? It's from John 13. You are my disciples

if you love one another. That's the proof that

we are really the followers of Jesus Christ,

not our words. but our actions of love towards

one another. Well, our words as well. We do want

to give hugs and say we love you and all that.

All the greetings that we have. Afterwards, each

of you hug one another. Okay, never mind. A holy

kiss? I don't know, whatever. Demonstrate love

for one another. Stay around, socialize, pray

for one another, care for one another. You see,

it's really God's Word here that is feeding and

strengthening us, encouraging us to love, to

care for one another. It's what we're going to

see at the table, Jesus giving His life for us,

that shows us that God has proven His love for

us. God doesn't command us to love without supplying

us with the love that we need to love one another.

God commands and He also gives us the love that

we need to carry out His commands. That's what

Jesus has given to us. That's what He proves

to us with the table. That's what we're going

to celebrate in a moment. God's love for us,

but also in communion, loving one another. I

read an article this week reflecting on the mercy

all of us need from Jesus. as we seek to walk

in obedience. The article told the story of someone

who battled sin and really struggled to properly

love one another. And over time, here's what

this person learned. Here's what he came to learn.

I'm just gonna quote from the article. Christ's

love for him. Was the given on which his life

depended it was the bedrock it was the anchor

on which his life depended the love of Christ

He could daily because of Jesus love he could

daily Seek Christ's mercy for what he needed

forgiveness from the lamb strength from the king

protection in the refuge of Christ's love guidance

under the shepherd's hand. How will we love our

brothers and sisters? We need to follow Jesus

commands. We need to walk in His light. We need

to follow our King out of the trenches and sacrificially

love, forgive, and serve one another. Brothers

and sisters depend on Jesus love to meet all

your needs seek his mercy to forgive your sins

and His strength to persevere in the difficulties

that you face each day Seek his protection from

the evil one and Seek his guidance all along

the way each step of your day. Let's do that

together as the body of Christ here in Armidale.

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we recognize because

you love us and your light shines in us, our

lives are changed. Lord, we want to see that

darkness driven out, not just individually in

our lives, but this darkness driven out of this

congregation, of the people of God, so that we

would be proper witnesses to a world that we

indeed do love one another because we are followers

of yours. Lord, help us to do this well by the

power of your Spirit and by the love that you

shine in and through us. Heavenly Father, thank

you for sending your Son. Thank you for loving

us. certainly beyond what we deserve, help us

to walk in Jesus' name.