Introduction
Have you ever looked up symptoms to an unknown medical condition, only to find yourself wrongly believing you have said condition?
At this point in John's letter, the readers may have felt he was singling them out. He had written about those who were walking in darkness, denying the presence of sin in their lives, and excusing sin which was there, all while claiming friendship with God.
John could not have been more clear. Their lives were a lie. With term after term, phrase after phrase, John thundered. You do not know Him, John declared. If you did, you would walk in the light. You would confess your sins to Him. And you would turn to Christ as Your Advocate whenever you fell to temptation.
Instead, all John saw, was rebellion. So he called it out, and in so doing, made it clear how he viewed a walk with God.
At this point, however, some of John's readers might have become nervous. They might have thought they had the same symptoms. Some legitimate and godly believers might have thought John was talking about them. Like someone checking symptoms online, they may have concluded, Hey, that sounds like us. John thinks we aren't in step with God, that we don't know him.
So, in a masterstroke, John began rolling out some tests for legitimate Christianity. He would repeat and rephrase and revisit these tests throughout the rest of his letter. The tests came in three forms.
- A moral test: Am I obedient to God?
- A social test: Do I love my fellow church member?
- And a doctrinal test: Do I believe in the real Jesus?
In the passage before us, the first two tests, the moral and social, are introduced. Both of these tests flow from the same source. Let's read the big, source test:
The Test (2:3)
3 And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.
Introduction To The Test
John was full of love for his readers. He was bothered by the deserters and secessionists, but those who remained had his affection, so he lovingly introduced a wonderful test to them. He wanted to give them a way to see the evidence of Christ's grace in their lives. He wanted to help them see they had, indeed, been walking in the light.
So, he said, And by this we know that we have come to know Him. Only John -- or another apostle -- could write this way. With authority he offered them ways to know if someone really does know God, starting with this first test.
You see, John was a black and white man. He knew the truth was not a slippery mess, but a tangible reality. With a desire to get to the real, he offered a way to verify. Does a person know God? John has a way to find out.
Backdrop: God Can Be Known
"...we have come to know Him..." (4)
But before noting this first test's presence, we must think about its purpose. Some said they knew God, but didn't. Some wondered if they knew God, and they truly did. The test would help discern who knows God.
And -- stop for a moment on this radical truth -- God can be known! This is the jarring truth of the Bible. God is knowable because He has made Himself known.
God is pure actuality, meaning He is pure existence with no possibility of change or to be anything other than what He is. God is indivisible, incapable of being divided. God is self-existent, the who who brought into and sustains everything else that is. God is essential, for His non-existence is impossible. God is eternal, meaning that, for Him, there is the absence of successive moments. God is unchangeable, for His perfection mandates He not change. God has unchangeable feelings, because they are rooted in His nature, not you. God is immaterial, meaning He is pure Spirit. God is immense, meaning He cannot be measured. God is omnipotent, meaning He is all-powerful. God is omni-present, omniscient, majestic, immortal, and, though triune, One. And He is holy, righteous, just, truth, loving, kind, and jealous for you.
Brothers and sisters, this God can be known. And the Bible does not suggest mere intellectual knowledge about Him. This was the farthest thing from John's mind. He knew God, having experienced Him for decades. He'd walked the earth with Jesus. He'd seen the outpouring of the Spirit in the first days of the church's life. He'd watched God use Peter to restore a disabled man to wholeness. He'd witnessed the great evangelistic hauls of the Spirit we read of in Acts.
But he'd also experienced God in prison cells, through beatings, and the martyrdom of his older brother. So, for John, knowing God was much more than learning things about God. By the blood of Christ, we have access to enjoy a working, real, experiential relationship with God. Perhaps the word "relationship" softens it too much. He is God. He is power, goodness, love, and light. His transcendence and immanence can be known to us. There has never been, nor will there ever be, a being like Him. And we can know Him.
The Overall Test
"...if we keep His commandments." (3)
So John, knowing he should provide a test for the church to determine whether they are in a knowing relationship with God or not, said, "If we keep His commandments."
It is of utmost importance we get the order correct. The cart, as they say, cannot go before the horse. That setup gets you nowhere, and if one thinks keeping God's commandments will get them a relational knowledge of God, they have gotten the order wrong. What John tells us is a person who knows God is going to keep His commandments.
Think of this order. John already said God is light. When His light shines upon a human heart, they see their sin and HIs solution for it at the cross. Accepting Christ as their propitiatory sacrifice, they stand forgiven before God. Then, in response, they begin to step out into obedience to God and His word.
The Apostle Paul is a good template for this order. In rebellion against God, he traveled to Damascus to persecute Christians. Then God's light shone, knocking him to the ground. He asked, "Who are you?" The response, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting." Paul then said, "What do you want me to do?"
The light shone. Jesus was revealed. Paul surrendered at that moment. Once he learned of Jesus' true identity, his next move was to obey. The man had just started knowing God, and obedience was the outflow.
And John's test is of major importance in our modern world. It is far too easy for people to claim a knowledge of God evidenced upon religious experiences. A tingle, an emotional moment, a moving worship song, or, like the secessionists in John's day would've said, a deep and internal knowledge they were in with God, are all held out as rock-solid evidence of a relationship with God. But John would not base his test on any religious experience, no matter how valid. Instead, obedience to the commandments of God was his test.
You see, it isn't based on your feelings. But a life which submits to Christ's Lordship, one which surrenders to Him and embarks on a journey of obedience, is the apostolic evidence. The test is simple: do I obey Scripture's commands?
We are to be doers of the word, and not hearers only, which is self-deception (James 1:22). It is good to become doctrinally mature, biblically sound, but it is to no avail if life remains unsurrendered. To ignore the pleas of God's Holy, perfect, and pure word is dangerous. The one who knows God and sees His light decides obedience is the best life possible.
Not Perfection
None of this suggests, however, a perfect allegiance to God and His commands. John has already said, "If anyone sins, he has an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1). The expectation, then, is that we will stumble. So John seems to think obedience to God's commandments is a general direction, not flawless execution.
No one but Christ has ever wholly satisfied the Law of God. Only Jesus kept the commandments without deviation. But the believer who has known Christ now longs to become like Christ, obedient, and adhering to the commands of God's word.
What Are His Commandments?
At this point, however, the reader is left wondering about God's commandments. Certainly, we could spend a lifetime unearthing them from the pages of Scripture, and we should embark on such a journey, but John has some particular commands of God in mind. For this, we must read on.
Keep His Word (4-5)
4 Whoever says "I know Him" but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in Him, 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in Him.
The First Claim
"Whoever says 'I know Him' but does not keep His commandments..." (4)
In 1 John 1, John ordered his writing by recording three claims. He started each with the phrase "if we say," followed by the claim (1:6, 8, 10). Here, in this passage, he does something similar. Three times John will write: "whoever says." Each claim is erroneous, necessitating apostolic intervention.
And this first claim is a contradiction. On the one hand, this person says, "I know Him." The knowledge John knows is possible, this person says they have. They assert they are in a working, tangible, experiential relationship with the Living God. They walked around, acting as if they were in tune with Him, close to the Creator. Their speech was filled with spiritual jargon. They would talk freely of prayer and God's will.
But, on the other hand, their lifestyle could only be categorized as disobedient. Though they made claims to know God, they did not keep His commandments. Their boasting was betrayed by their conduct. They were not at all who they said they were because people who actually know God are so moved by His light and grace and truth and power and majesty that they obey Him. Though the journey is long and the path is arduous, they see no alternative. His beauty is enough for them. They must respond to His mercy with submission.
It isn't hard to imagine people who make this claim, however. Our world is filled with religious claimers who do not submit to God. Just this last week a star athlete was accused of the repeated rape of a victim he met in college at a Bible study group. He might or might not be guilty of the rape -- the judicial system must run its course -- but he has already admitted to a consensual sexual relationship with a woman who was not his wife. He has claimed knowledge of God, but the lifestyle refutes such a claim.
And we are surrounded by this type of hypocrisy. Musicians who praise God for Grammy awards for albums and songs filled with sexually explicit or violent content. Actors who thank God for their third or fourth spouse. Politicians who pronounce "God bless America" while overseeing the systematic slaughter of innocents in the womb. Worship leaders and pastors who sing and speak in spiritual tones, only to deny the Lord in the privacy of life.
But this duality is not found among those who've truly known God. John could not imagine it. For him, if the God who is light has shown on our darkness, though temptations will come, we will want to walk in His all-freeing light.
His Commandments. The Truth. His Word.
"But whoever keeps His word..." (5)
John gives the alternative: "But whoever keeps His word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in Him."
Here, when he spoke of being in Him, John used a more Pauline doctrine. Paul taught, time and time again, how a true believer is baptized by the Spirit into Christ at conversion. One with Jesus, our position is now so closely identified with Him. We are considered to be "in Christ." It's as if we died with Christ and were buried with Him so that we might experience resurrection life with Him forever, but also today (Romans 6:1-10). We are dead to sin and alive to God, just like Jesus (Romans 6:11).
So, in John's mind, the person in Jesus will have a symbiotic relationship with the word. The liar does not keep God's "commandments," and "the truth" is not in him. But the person with the love of God in him "keeps His word." Notice the designations John used for the will of God: commandments, the truth, and His word.
To be in Christ leads to a revolution of the mind. The light of God convinces the believer their old mindset was an error, and that it must be replaced with the mentality of God. Only God's view of things is seen as adequate for the navigation of human life and experience.
Imagine a captain at sea. He navigates and charts his journey, only to discover all his navigational equipment is broken. If he followed them, his course would be incorrect. He would have the wrong heading. What does he do? He looks to the stars, realizing they will give him the accurate measure of things.
The person in Christ realizes their own code of conduct, the one they designed through childhood, experiences, others' teaching, and the world system is broken. It cannot help them navigate relationships, priorities, or truth. It cannot lead them to joy. They realize they need to borrow the truth, the commandments of God, His word. Only then will they find their way.
Love Perfected
"In him truly the love of God is perfected..." (5)
This person, John says, has the love of God perfected in them. Their obedience to God is evidence of the love of God. Truly, John said, it is perfected in them. But what does this mean? How is God's love perfected in them?
First, love is perfected when you realize His love for you. This causes you to want to obey Him completely. God gave everything for us. So when a believer looks at the cross and sees the ultimate sacrifice, they are motivated to respond with devotion and submission to Him. So when we see His love perfectly displayed on the cross, when we really see it, we respond with obedience.
Second, love is perfected when you mature in your love for Him. It causes you to want to obey Him completely. In the first instance, your eyes are opened to His love, and you respond. Here, though, your walk with Him deepens your appreciation of Him. You become more "perfect" or "mature" in your love, which causes you to realize the importance of obedience.
Third, love is perfected when God's love flows through you to others. Here, a person realizes the radical love of God for the world and becomes a conduit for His grace.
So, the person who realizes God's love for them grows to love God, and becomes a conduit for God's love to the world. This person "keeps His word" because love has driven them to do so.
What about you? Do you love God? Is it being perfected in you? Do you realize it's power? Are you in deeper love with Him? Are you an instrument for His love?
So John's test for knowing God is obedience. But that obedience, though expressed in thousands of ways in response to thousands of Scriptures, has one major application. Love. This is why John continues:
Love His People (6-8)
6 Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked. 7 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. 8 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.
The Second Claim
"Whoever says he abides in Him..."
Here, we have the next claim. "Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked" (2:6). In this assertion, the person who said they were abiding in God should live a life resembling the life of Christ! It is astounding to think of living like Jesus, but John believes it possible.
Before dreaming of a life like Christ's, we should consider the claim. Some claim Jesus yet live or think in ways diametrically opposed to Him. In our era, in the west, Jesus is jammed into every box people can contrive. He is constantly refashioned into the image people want Him. Republican Jesus. Democrat Jesus. Gay Jesus. Gun-Totin' Jesus. Truth-Spittin Jesus. Angry Jesus. Open Border Jesus. Closed Border Jesus. Racist Jesus. Environmentally Aware Jesus. I mean, He is constantly reframed.
But I'm with John. I like O.G. Jesus. I like the original.
I'm good with Jesus, the Son of God, God the Son, who conspired within the Triunity of God to come to earth in order to save us from our sins. I like the Jesus who saw the depravity of man, was grieved over it and saw how we could not rescue ourselves. I'm down with the Jesus who lived a fully human life, experiencing total human temptation, yet without sin. I love the Jesus who then, in that perfect state, allowed Himself to, under the perfect plan and will of God, be sacrificed on the cross for the sin of the world. I like the Jesus who came to deal with sin. That Jesus rose, ascended, and poured out His Spirit, making a new humanity called the church. And that Jesus, the great Perfecter, the Atonement, the only and exclusive intermediary between God and man, is going to come again. I can't wait for His appearing. I'm down with that Jesus.
Walk As Jesus Walked
"Walk in the same way in which He walked..."
So John tells us the true disciple, the one who knows God, abides in Him, will walk in the same way in which He (Jesus) walked. At first glance, we might be intimidated by such a claim from John. Walk like Jesus? How? Who could?
Remember, though, John had a closer interaction with how Jesus walked than you or I ever could. We read John's -- and Matthew, Mark, and Luke's -- gospel. Secondhand, we hear the testimony of what Jesus was like. But these men, as we've remembered so far in our study of 1 John, were in intimate connection with Jesus. They touched Him, heard Him, saw Him, and looked upon Him. They were not left to read and then imagine Jesus; they walked with Him. And through that intimate connection with Jesus, they would've been floored by HIs personhood. They would've been moved infinitely more than we could be through mere words. They saw Him clearly. Still, though, John said we should walk as Jesus walked.
How? Jesus did miracles. Jesus extended Himself without reservation to the needy, hurting, and outcast. He touched lepers and ate with social pariahs. He traveled great distances to reach one lost sheep. He spoke with clarity, conviction, and boldness. Truth dripped from His lips. He prayed with passion and certainty and was sometimes transfigured in the process. He looked at the intelligentsia of His day in the eye and declared how wrong they were. He overturned tables. He washed the feet of His disciples. No one has been or will be like Him. He was joy and love and truth incarnate. He walked on water.
So what chance do we have to walk as He walked? John isn't saying we need to walk around doing the miraculous. But we can love like Jesus.
The way Jesus walked is the way of love. He gave us the example of sacrificial love for others in Christ when He washed the disciples' feet:
John 13:14–15 (ESV) — 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
Jesus modeled love, and He instructed every generation of believers to make love a priority.
The Old Commandment
"Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment..."
So John says, Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. From the earliest days of their Christian lives, they'd been taught to love. From the beginning, they had heard of the requirement to love their brothers and sisters in Christ. It was an old commandment.
Love, it seems, is a Bible basic. From the outset, when Cain rose up to kill Abel, brotherly love has been under duress. But it is right and good and pure. God told ancient Israel, "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18). So much of their national law was instituted as a way to love others. How much they could harvest, their regulations regarding lending and borrowing, their sexual conduct laws, their laws of retribution and justice -- all of them were designed with love for others in mind.
And, ultimately, their honor and love for God, when healthy and strong, was designed to bless the nations. God had created Adam and Eve in His image. They were to have dominion over the creation. They were to fill the earth and subdue it. Sin marred the mission, but Israel became a picture of God restoring that original calling. When they loved God as a people, the earth was in subjection to them, and the nations were given a light pointing them to their LORD. The entire people of God in the Old Testament era existed to love God and His world.
But love, it seems is also a Christian basic. Jesus came along and introduced it in a fresh way. The gospel necessitates love for everyone because it was God's impartial instrument of love and concern for all nations. He did not discriminate between male and female, Jew and non-Jew, young and old, or black and white while on His cross. He died, as we saw in our previous passage, "for the sins for the whole world" (1 John 2:2).
So, for them and us, the command to love is an old commandment.
The New Commandment
"At the same time, it is a new commandment..."
But John goes on to say it is, at the same time, a new commandment he wrote to them, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
Though God's people were called to love prior to Christ, when He came, he said:
John 13:34 (ESV) — 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
First, Jesus put a new emphasis on love. He took old passages like Deuteronomy 6:5 ("Love the LORD your God) and Leviticus 19:18 (love your neighbor as yourself) and gave them fresh meaning. He highlighted their prominence. Jesus put love on the marquee. He put the spotlight on it like no one else had. They'd focused on other things, but Jesus spoke of the preeminence of love, knowing the 'other things' would flow from it.
Second, Jesus put new length to love. To love like Christ requires patience and endurance never before seen. They had lived in an eye-for-an-eye and tooth-for-a-tooth society, but Jesus stamped an expiration date on that tit-for-tat style of life. Instead, He said things like: "you shall love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44).
Third, Jesus defined a new target for love. They knew they were to love their neighbor. But when they asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?" He spoke of the Good Samaritan, a man who went out of his way to find hurting people, just like Jesus did, and love on them (Luke 11:29-37). So Jesus radically redefined what a neighbor even is in the first place, which reset the target for love.
Fourth, Jesus gave a new depth to love. He told us God loved the world, so He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16). Then Jesus went and died, demonstrating how deep the love of God went. And now, He calls His people to take up their cross and follow Him. He incarnated, meaning He went to great lengths to come to us, and then died for us. We, too, are to love like Him, going to great lengths to find people and then lay down our lives for them.
Fifth, Jesus gave a continual newness to love. One reason it is a new commandment is the ministry of the Spirit. He awakens us to reality -- again and again -- and shows us who to love. Even when the doldrums of life invade our souls, the Spirit shouts of the love of God for lost and broken humans.
Sixth, Jesus introduced a new epoch of love. What do I mean? Notice how John said, in connection to this love, that the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. You see, when Jesus came, the age to come came. The age of glory and perfection began with Him. It is not fully here -- this is evident by merely glancing about our world and our own lives -- but it is coming. But one element of the forever kingdom is already here. It's not faith, for that will pass away. It's not hope, for that won't be necessary in heaven. It's love. Love never fails. Love never fades. Love will never end (1 Corinthians 13:8). Love lasts forever and is a foretaste of the kingdom's glory.
All this Jesus did to make love new. He made it a priority of His family, His church, His ecclesia that we would love one another. This is the old commandment made new in Him.
Practical Considerations Regarding Love
But before moving on in the passage, it behooves us to stop and think about love. At first glance, when one is flippant about it, love seems like an easy task, a mere feeling. "Sure, I love you, I love them, I love God," one says. More honest inspection, however, reveals the difficulty of love, especially amongst God's people.
I know love for God's people was the thing which woke me up from a zombie-life and into ministry. I was completely self-consumed, but the Spirit awoke me and showed me His love for my fellow believer. And, though I haven't looked back from that initial burst of love, it hasn't meant my love for my brothers and sisters in Christ has always been easy. It hasn't. It has caused pain.
Love for other believers might disappoint you. Pouring out your life for others will put you with others. And, unlike God, others have the capacity to fail you. You will discover short tempers, ungodliness, stubbornness, complaints, and sin, which will all discourage you.
Love for other believers might stretch you. No one else is just like you. People are different. Backgrounds, childhoods, nationalities, socio-economic levels, race, previous experiences -- all of it shapes us. To love others is to interact with people unlike you. And this will stretch you.
Love for other believers might reveal you. You might step out with gusto and passion, only to quickly discover the limits to your energy and love. You'll become short. You'll be easily deterred. You'll see how fleshy you really are. Your television will be calling. A believer in Jesus, you'll realize how little you are like Jesus. Attempting to love will show you who you are.
Love for other believers might fatigue you. Remember how tired Jesus was in ministry? There were times they couldn't eat. Raging storms couldn't wake Him from His slumber on the boat. Loving others is tiring work. It takes endurance and patience. Mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically, it will fatigue you.
But, in the midst of all this, love is the best and only way forward. Too many have become disillusioned or hurt and have ceased to keep on trucking on in love. But why? Has God disappointed them? Has Jesus been unfaithful? No, it's usually just people being what they are, people. What did you expect?
I remember moving up from T-ball to live pitch baseball. In my day, there was no coach-pitch. We went straight to other kids of the same age trying to find the catcher's mitt. Everyone was wild. Everyone threw the ball all over the place. And every one was bound to get hit.
And, when each kid first got plunked, they had a decision to make. Do I love this game enough for this? Am I going to stick around? If this is part of baseball -- and it is -- am I willing to deal with it?
Look, deromanticize Christian love. You are bound to get plunked. You are bound to get banged up and bruised. But God is amazing. His gospel is good. And love is worth it.
But what are the results of loving the way Christ loved? What is the outflow of walking as He walked?
John continues:
The Results
9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. 11 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.
The Third Claim
"Whoever says he is in the light..." (9)
Here, we have the final claim of this section. This man says he is in the light, where God is, but hates his brother (in Christ). The reality, John says, is that he is still in darkness.
John holds out a second man, one who loves his brother (in Christ). This man is in the light.
So, here, we have a tale of two men. Both illustrate the results of the paths they've chosen. One chose a life of hate. Though he thinks he's chosen the path of love, John tells us he hasn't. The other chose a life of love. What comes of both their lives?
For John, life is either one or the other. There is no third option. Life is spent in the light, or it isn't. Life is spent loving others, or it isn't. We live in a world where fluidity is vogue, and certainty is frowned upon. John stands out as an oddity in our modern society. He is sure. Life is black and white. There is no gray on this subject. It's either light or darkness to John; there is no twilight. It's either love or hate, light or darkness, blindness or sight.
The Man Who Hates His Brother
"Hates his brother..." (9, 11)
Notice, first, the man who says he is in the light, but actually hates his brother. What does John say about him?
First, he is still in darkness and walks in the darkness. The whole point of the gospel is to take us from death to life, and from darkness to light. But this man is still in the darkness. He's walking in it. Again, he makes a big claim to be in the light, but he is misinformed. He thinks he's enlightened, but he's actually in the dark.
Second, he does not know where he is going. He is lost. Guided by emotions and the doctrines of demons, he projects great certainty and conviction. Sometimes, though, his inner man knows he like a wandering star, uncertain where he's going. Always, though, he has no idea where his beliefs and actions are taking him.
Third, he is blind, for the darkness has blinded his eyes. John envisions a man who is totally lost, incapable of sight. He is so blinded, in fact, that he never knows where he is going. The picture is of someone groping, never arriving at the knowledge of the truth, always searching, and utterly lost. The darkness only gives way to more darkness. Light is never known, never produced, and never hoped for.
The Man Who Loves His Brother
"Whoever loves his brother..." (10)
Notice, second, the man who loves his brother. What does John say about this contrasting man?
First, he abides in the light. His whole life is illuminated because he is living in the place where light pours down. Since this man is walking with God, and since God is light, this mans' life is full of light. He is not blind. He can see. His life is not clouded with the darkness of personal sin or hatred towards others.
Second, in him there is no cause for stumbling.
His life does not blind himself, so he does not stumble himself. There is something about walking with God, and resultantly loving your brother, which gives a person perspective, wisdom, and vision. They see themselves and the world they're in with clarity. They aren't easily duped. They don't go long without seeing their shortcomings and imperfections. They don't self-deceive.
His life does not stumble others. His life is clean because he's walking in God's light. He treats others with respect and kindness, outworkings of love, and their journey towards God is aided by his life. He does not allow his flesh to win the day and damage the future of others.
And his love for others helps him see himself accurately. When he extends himself to others, he can feel his own limitations. He can see where he needs to grow. Like the leper, he says to Jesus, "Lord, you can make me clean." But he only says it because, in the light, he's found his uncleanness.
Your Perpetuating Condition
"No cause for stumbling..." / "...does not know where he is going..."
For both men, the condition they are in leads to more of that condition. So for the man in darkness, all he can find is more darkness. And the man in the light, loving his brother, can find more light.
This is how it works. The path of self-love, isolation, and rejection of God's people -- hatred -- is a treacherous one. But the path of love -- sacrificial-lay-down-your-life-love -- is so good. It leads to light and more light. The fruit of this life is good.
It's not hard to imagine these two men, these two paths. A young person might decide, in their early years, life is all about them. In your imagination, track them over the years. Life is a constant stream of hurt. They cause pain. Finally, near the end, they are alone, forgotten.
But a young person might also choose the life of love. Their love begets more love. Lives are bettered. Pain is endured. More sight and light flow in. They grow because they see themselves aright. Near their end, there is a long line of fruitfulness. Like Joseph, whose branches ran over the wall, others enjoy their fruit (Genesis 49:22). They bare much fruit (John 15:1-11). People are glad for their lives.
Choose a life of love and obedience. Let God's light in, and then respond to Him.
Conclusion / Application
If this passage is true, and it is, there are some implications and applications to daily living which might help us. Here are some of them.
1 Let John's test have access to your life.
The apostle has given us this test to see if we're walking in the light or not. Obedience, particularly towards love, is the evidence he looks for. Give his test honest access to your life.
2 Study the implications of the cross of Christ.
I don't like to give you too much homework, but thinking longer and harder about the implications of the cross is good for modern Christians. We are often too quick to move on from the cross. Here are some articles, along with a book recommendation, for your edification on this subject.
- Some articles I've written: <https: data-preserve-html-node="true"//www.nateholdridge.com/blog/tag/Cross>
- The Cross Of Christ, by John Stott -- <https: data-preserve-html-node="true"//www.amazon.com/dp/B00ARLEUHG/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1>
3 Study the attributes of God.
Similar to the previous application, since so much of John's schema has to do with knowing God, we should consider His identity. Knowing more of what He is like might motivate you to know Him the way John did.
4 Put the spine back into the word "love."
It is not a flimsy or sentimental word. It is not a word reserved for a limp and lifeless acceptance of everything under the sun. It is, instead, a powerful word, one filled with sacrifice, pain, hardship, endurance, and victory.
5 Get back into Christian service.
Some of you need this exhortation. You loved the church, serving it, and go hurt. I feel you. I've been there. We can show each other our bruises after the game, but first, get back in there.
6 Find an encourager.
Not a general encourager, for those are a dime-a-dozen, but one who will exhort you to pursue loving the body of Christ. We are known for our love, so get people in your life who will encourage you to let it rip.
7 Write your obituary.
I recently did an exercise where I wrote my dream-obituary. Not a how-did-he-die kind, but a what-did-he-leave-behind-and-how-did-he-live kind. It was edifying and clarifying, helping me think about what really matters. Spoiler alert: I want to be the man in the light, not the man in the darkness.