I hope that everyone had a wonderful 4th of July holiday. It's so dry and hot where I live that many of the fireworks displays were cancelled. It was too hot in the evening to enjoy being outdoors to watch the fireworks.
Please pray for all those suffering in this heat. Also, pray for those out west who are in the midst of the terrible forest and prairie fires.
Last week in our study in I John, we looked at the fact that following the commandments given to us by the Lord is one of the distinguishing characteristics of a true believer in Jesus Christ. John makes it abundantly clear that a person cannot be a truly redeemed person and live a life of habitual sin and disobedience. A true follower of Jesus will want to obey the commandments of Jesus out of the deep love for Jesus that resides in his heart.
As we come to our passage from I John today, John is giving us another indication of what true Christianity looks like. He begins this section by talking about a new and old commandment. Based on what follows these verses, I think that John is referring to Jesus commandment to His disciples to love one another recorded in John 15:12 as part of Jesus' Upper Room Discourse. In fact, Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another as He had love them. In other words, they were to love sacrificially. They were to give their all in loving each other.
What's exciting about this is that in a real way, the early church really did carry out Jesus' idea of self giving love. Acts 2:44-45 states, "And all that believed were together, and had all things in common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need."
In the early church, they showed their love for one another by meeting each others needs. If one member of the congregation had financial difficulty, the others would rally around and come to the needy members aid. They loved and cared for their brothers and sisters in Christ.
If the church acted this way today, just think of what a difference it would make in people's lives. If we loved each other and did our best to help one another we could help the hungry, homeless and hurting.
Unfortunately, this is often not the case. I became so frustrated many times in my younger days when the churches I attended wouldn't help people in our own congregation who were facing hardship.
It's a bad testimony to those outside of the church as well. Scripture says that people will know that we are Christians by our love for one another. It doesn't look to the world like we love our brothers and sisters in Christ when church going people have to seek government assistance to make it through the hard times. Fellow believers who love God and love one another should be helping each other out. Some will be able to help financially, while others can help in other ways.
John writes in I John 2:9, "He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now." Sometimes, I believe that indifference is worse than hate.
John is saying that if we don't love our brothers and sisters in Christ, we are not walking in the light. We don't have the characteristics of a truly redeemed person.
One thing that I believe really grieves the heart of Jesus is when Christians don't act like a family. Families help each other in hard times. At least they ought to.
The Christian world often times looks to the outside world like a hateful and dysfunctional family and not a loving family.
I believe that Jesus is grieved at the lack of unity and the fighting and arguing amongst His followers. Just look at how many different denominations and fellowships there are in the world. Almost all of these were founded because Christians became engaged in what were often very minor theological disagreements and split off and so on and so on. True believers should be able to get along better than that.
When those who aren't Christians see those who name the name of Christ acting so badly to one another, it is a big turn off.
Another application of John's message in this passage concerns the way Christians talk about one another. I've heard many times the terrible insults one group of Christians levels against another group of Christians.
For instance, when I was growing up, our church was very negative towards Pentecostals. As far as my church was concerned, Pentecostals weren't really Christians. I am not a Pentecostal, but most Pentecostal ministers I've heard preach the gospel of Jesus and are my brothers and sisters in Christ. Why do we want to act in such an abusive way toward each other?
Just think about the great things that could be accomplished if believers would work together in love. The gospel of Jesus Christ could be spread to every human being on planet earth. We could put a huge dent in the social and environmental problems of our day. The church could really make a powerful difference if we loved one another.
As John says, if we don't love our brother we walk in darkness. Let us walk in the light of the love of Jesus. Amen.
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