#362 1 John Series# 3, Eyes Wide Open To Love

#362 1 John Series# 3, Eyes Wide Open To Love
By: Zach Sloane

1 John 2:7-17

RECAP– A messy book, written to a messy community, so that they can know Jesus is God, he was fully experienced, they can have same fellowship, and they can have complete joy.

Written to different groups within the community with different issues. Some were denying the reality of Jesus’ humanity, of His Messiahship, and false teachers were splitting the church.

John recaps message. God is Light, and Jesus is that light. You are either in Him or out of Him. Cannot deny reality of Jesus, nor your need for Him and have fellowship with God. Fellowship with God and cleansing happen in Christ, but in Christ they are yours once and for all.

Says if not in Christ, easy fix. Say same thing God’s does about your sin and he will will forgive (send away) your sins, not by dying and shedding blood again, but by placing you in Christ

1 John 2:1-2:6 (NIV) 2 My dear children, [ those who have embraced Jesus, who do believe and are in the Light]I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

Could read that to say “I’m writing you this, warning you, now that I’ve written you these instructions “do not sin.” And some read it this way like John is trying to appeal to people’s best human efforts.

I believe he is really saying that: The message that you are in Him, and in Him you have fellowship and forgiveness, the sending way of your sin, cleansing, that message is so powerful it has the re-creative power of God inherent with in it to make you a new creation and free from sin’s power.

Sanctified Over-comers!!!!See if you come to same conclusion.

1 John 2:7-17(NKJV)
7 Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard [b]from the beginning. 8 Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. 9 He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. 10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. I write to you, little children, Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake. I write to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, Because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, Because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have overcome the wicked one. 15 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. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

What do you hear? Sounds too good?

James 1:23-25
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

When you look in the word, when you hear it.. its like looking in a mirror. You should see yourself in there.

John 5:39-40
39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

Scriptures are about Jesus. So how do I see myself? In Christ!

1 John 4:17 “…as He is, so are we in this world.”

Not saying when you don’t do the word, or you do what the word says not to do, then you are a bad person, that who you are changes. NO! It says you have forgotten who you really are, what you really look like in Christ.

What did Paul say?

2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Transformation not progressive sanctification. Think of it as diverse …glory to meet every new occasion and moment… not one level of glory to the next.

1 John 2:7-8 (NKJV)
Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.

Confusing language. Not new, old, but again a new one. “… the commandment is the word or the message you heard from the beginning.”

What message? 1 John 1 :5 “that message that he said he had heard and passed on to them.. that message that “God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.”

The new command is a new message and here it is in the next verses:

1 John 2:9-11“He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. 10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”

Walking in the light is nothing more walking in Christ… and walking in darkness is being outside of Christ. When you are in the Light… in Christ. You do love your brother.

Jesus gave the disciples a new commandment:
John 13:34 (NKJV)
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”

As. The law told you that you needed to love… the law was supposed to move people along towards love.

Matthew 26:36-40
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Law said to love God and love others. So what was different about the New Commandment that Jesus gave? It was that it also empowered the fulfillment of the command.

Difference between OT and NT, law and grace, its not love verses legalism. According to Jesus, love is at the heart of both covenants.

The real difference is this: its the Spirit verses the letter. Its living in your own strength to comply with a written code verses living by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Living out of your unionwith Him.

You are empowered and John wants you to know that. You are empowered because you are in Christ and Christ is in you. You are in the light therefore, because the Light that He is is LOVE, You do love your brother.

Well how can that be. I am an unloving Christian or I know some.

You can get messed up, worried.. “uh oh… I didn’t love my brother perfectly… I must be in the darkness.”

Not meant to be a test, not a call to perform. He is saying You do love because God is in you and God is love.

So how do we know this? And what if your experience of yourself or other Christians doesn’t match this reality?

1 John 4:8 “… God is love.”

1 Corinthians 6:17 (NKJV)
But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

Galatians 5:22-23
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love…”

Timothy 1:7 (NKJV)
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

John says you will love if you are in the light because you are in Christ, and Christ in you is Love. Not giving you a test, but making a statement of fact concerning who you are in Christ and what being in Christ does to you and in you.

The new command to love as He loves is not a call to progressive sanctification through love, but to help you realize because you are in the Light in Him, you can love, you do love…so love big and bold and confident.

BUT that’s not what my experience shows me.

If you are in a light room with eyes closed or blindfold on, you act like you’re in the dark but you’re not. You are in light. What you need is open eyes or take blindfold off. That’s what John is doing. Opening eyes and taking blindfold off by saying, you are in the light and it looks like love, embrace it!
This what I believe the next verses are all about.

1 John 2:12-14
I write to you, little children, Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake. I write to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, Because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, Because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have overcome the wicked one.

He writes to them to help them see what is true of them in Christ… not commend their performance or call them to perform. He is prophesying to them. He is helping them take the blindfolds off.. helping them open their eyes to see who they are in Christ… sanctified overcomes who know God, have overcome the evil one in Christ, to help them know that they are strong in the lord and that Gods word does abide in them, and that they can be confident.. they do know Him who is from the beginning, and in that knowledge can be faithful re-producers of what they know.

1 John 2:15-17
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 lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

Have to read that he is talking to you in your identity in Christ… writing to help you see who you are in Him and what the love that is at work in you looks like.

Cosmos although can refer to the people in the world, it can also mean 2889kósmos(literally, “something ordered“) – properly, an “orderedsystem” (like the universe, creation); the world.

And what John is saying is that this world system, this ordered system is all about the pride of life, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. It’s a system built on corruption and corrupting influences that perpetuate themselves in the system it creates.

John is saying, “you are in the light and the light is love., but that love, its not a love for the world, the system that is built and perpetuated by these corrupting forces.. its a love for people, a love for your brother and its a love that does not scandalize or trap and ensnare.

1 John 2:10“he who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him…” it can also read there is no cause for stumbling in it. In the light! Some translations, amplified Bible included translate him as it. It’s the Greek word autosand it means “he she it they them.” It’s all one word. So when they translate the Bible translators have a bunch of options to choose from and some chose “it”, or at the very least, make a footnote to show you that it’s a strong possibility.

skandalon: a stick for bait (of a trap), generally a snare, a stumbling block, an offense. Original Word: σκάνδαλον

When you read that its read like this: v10 “He who loves his brother is abides in the light, and there nothing dangerous like a snare or the trigger of a trap in the light that Jesus is.. it’s perfect love and a perfect light.

The light is a love that doesn’t trap and ensnare. It’s actually the opposite… it liberates and sets free. Where as love of the world will be a skandalonto you. It will trap you. That love he says is not of the father. He’s comparing the love that is God’s light in you and hey, it’s different that the love of the world… it doesn’t ensnare or trap you or others.

So when you put it all together…

John writes to reiterate the original message .. God is Light and in Him is no darkness. And as result of being in Him… there is a power at work in you to walk like he did. And the new commandment is true in Him, and in you, and it’s all about loving as God loves, empowered with His very love to love.

It’s a prophecy. Its telling you who you are in Christ, that you are in the light, and in the light you are an overcomer, you are strong, you do know Him, His word does abide in you, your sins are forgiven… see it, live in that light, in Christ, and you will love.

And that love.. it’s not like the love you see in the world, it does not consist of those corrupting influences like lust… it’s the kind of love that will set you free, never snare you, never trap you, and liberate all those who encounter it.

The Blindfold is coming off. Your eyes are open to love! See that you are in the light and therefore you can and do love. You’re not being tested but spoken over. He’s calling something out of you, he’s opening your eyes and imparting something to you, and it looks like love. You are an overcomer and you do abide forever.

362 1 John Series# 3, Eyes Wide Open to Love, PowerPoint Slides