Word of Salvation – Vol. 49 No.7 – February 2004

 

Staying in the Light

 

Sermon by Rev W Wiersma

on 1 John 2:7-11

Scripture Readings:  Ephesians 5:1-20; John 13:31-38

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

My theme today is taken from those last two verses of this passage, verses 10 and 11: “Whoever loves his brother lives in the light and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. He does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”

So John here suggests that we either live in the light or we live in darkness. If we live in the light nothing will trip us up or make us fall, but if we walk around in the darkness we do not have a clue of where we are actually going, we are just stumbling about. The remarkable thing is that the difference between living in the light and being in the dark is whether we love our fellow Christians or not. In other words, this is how we can tell whether a person lives in the light, whether he or she understands and lives by the Word of God. Does he, does she, love fellow Christians? Do I love my Christian brothers and sisters? This will show whether I am living in the light or whether I am in the dark.

Now this truth, this idea is of course right in line with what the Lord Jesus Himself teaches us. We read in John 13, “A new command I give you. Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (vss 34,35).

We need to take very careful note of this because in our churches, in our Reformed Churches particularly, we have placed a lot of emphasis on knowledge – on instruction in the doctrine, in the teaching of the Bible. We have sermons, we have Sunday school, we have catechism classes, we have Bible study evenings – and they are all good in themselves. We need to know what God’s Word teaches. In the Old Testament the Lord, through one of the prophets, complains that His people were neglecting His Word and He says, “My people are perishing for lack of knowledge” (Hos 4:6). The knowledge of God’s Word, the knowledge of what God’s Word teaches, is important for us.

But knowledge without love is dangerous. If you have all the knowledge in the world, if by way of speaking you know your Bible backwards, but you have no time or no respect for your Christian brothers and sisters, then you are living in the dark, then you are spiritually blind. Knowledge without love does nothing for making us honour God or pleasing God. Knowledge without love does nothing to make us a blessing for anybody else.

You can have oodles of Christian knowledge and be a knowledgeable snob – in the dark. The Christians at Corinth prided themselves on their knowledge. You know what Paul said to them? Knowledge puffs up – knowledge makes you swell up with self-importance. But love builds up.

So you and I need to examine ourselves. We need to ask ourselves, “Do we love our Christian brother and sister, whoever they might be? Do I honour my Christian brothers and sisters – the people who walk in the light? No matter who they are nor what they are like.

I’m sorry to say that the Christian church does not have a very good record on this score, does it? I’m thinking of all the quarrels and all the splits in the Christian church throughout the centuries. I think of all the tensions and arguments among Christians today. Why is that? It is not my intention to go into all kinds of details here – I just want to consider the big picture. I’m not concerned here about truth or error as such.

What we are concerned about is what we already find in the New Testament church – why were Christians, why were fellow believers at loggerheads? Let me refer you to something in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 1, verses 10 to 12, where he writes: “I appeal to you brothers, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this – one of you says “I follow Paul”, another “I follow Apollos” another “I follow Cephus” and still another “I follow Christ”.

What were they arguing about? They were arguing about who knew best – who was really right. And they put themselves in little groups – I follow Paul – I think Peter is the better man, he knows better – I think Apollos is right. They were boasting in their knowledge. And Paul goes on to warn against intellectual knowledge if that gets to receive too much attention. He says if knowledge doesn’t have a proper focus, it is destructive. But, he says, “To those whom God has called, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

You see, Christ is the light – not Calvin, not Luther, not Wesley, or whoever – Christ is the light. Christ gives meaning and direction. Christ leads us to a true knowledge of God and Christ leads us and inspires us to love one another – for He gave Himself in death for us all.

Christian knowledge, and that is essentially knowledge of God and knowledge of Christ, leads to a life of love. You see, the apostle John in this letter in which our text is found was, as it were, fighting against the idea that knowledge is all important.

Knowledge is something spiritual said the Gnostics, and they said that knowledge is all that matters – how you live doesn’t matter. After all, spiritual realities don’t have anything to do with things like how we live in this body, in this life. Wrong, says the apostle! True knowledge of God in His Word will express itself in action and in attitude. That is the way it has always been. John says, “Dear friends, I’m writing no new commandment. I’m writing nothing new. I’m writing about the things that have always been said to you right from the beginning” (1 Jn 2:7).

It is the command which we find Jesus teaching us – but it is also the command which we find in the Old Testament. Love your neighbour – a command to love your Christian brother and sister. Jesus teaches that we are to love each other, AS HE HAS LOVED US.

How did Jesus love? How did Jesus love? By just saying “I love you, I love you, I love you”? No, He loved by SERVING. He spent Himself looking after others. He DIED in serving, in rescuing the lost – and dying. He CARED about people and He went out of His way to help them. He wanted to help in whatever way He could, in whatever way they needed. He respected people. He saw them as human beings, as creatures of God; human beings to be loved, to be helped, to be restored.

Jesus never rubbished anyone. And that is how Jesus teaches His followers to love. He calls us to serve others, to respect them, rather than to despise them. Listen to what the apostle Paul writes in Romans Chapter 12: “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves.” (vs 9,10).

The apostle touches a sensitive spot here, doesn’t he? Honour one another above yourselves. Is that how we treat our fellow Christians – our brothers and sisters in Christ? Not only in our church but in other churches as well? Not only those we agree with but also those we disagree with and yet we understand that they are Christian people who trust in Jesus for their salvation? Who see Jesus, acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God, the Christ, which is what makes a Christian a Christian?

Is it not true that Christians have been known to rubbish each other? To speak derisively of one another? It is so easy to find fault with others and to think that you are superior. It becomes very difficult then to honour others above yourself. It is so easy to speak about others with disrespect and disdain when they are not in our little group.

Do we hold on to each other as Christians? Or do we readily reject each other and let go of each other? Are we living in the light? Or do we still operate in the dark? John is very blunt, isn’t he? Twice in this short passage he says, “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother (that is, rejects his brother, has no time for his brother) anyone who hates his brother is still in the darkness” (vs 9). What a terrible indictment. If you hate your brother or sister – if you reject your fellow Christian, you are in the dark. No matter what you believe, no matter what you know, if you do not love your brother, your sister, you are in the dark – you are not living in the light of Christ, who so loved us that He lay down His life for us.

What kind of people did Jesus lay down His life for? For the ungodly, for sinners, for people who had a lot wrong with them – and He LOVED them so much that He said, “I’d rather die than that they be lost.”

The command of God is love. “He who loves,” says John, “lives in God.” That is what John is writing about in verse 8, “and yet I am writing you a new command, it’s truth is seen in Jesus and in you because the darkness is passing and the true light has come.” You see, with Jesus, the commandment to love your neighbour has come to have a NEW meaning, a new vitality, a new clarity, a new simplicity.

Jesus is the great example of how this command is to be lived out, how it is to be put into practice. Those who believe in Jesus catch something of His Spirit – they are overwhelmed, they are inspired by the love of God. There is a sense of wonder in a believer. If God loves ME, then surely He must love others, too. And if God loves them, may I withhold my love from them?

It’s remarkable that the love of real Christians is something that is seen and noticed. We read something to that effect, for instance, in Ephesians 1, where Paul writes, “Ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers” (vs 15,16). Those things go together, you see – faith in Jesus and love for all the saints, for all the believers. The idea that you can be a Christian on your own and serve God on your own and that you don’t need anybody else, is just absolutely ludicrous. For it denies the whole theme of the Gospel – which is Love. For God so loved us that He sent His Son, and Jesus so loved us that He lay down His life for us – therefore love one another as I have loved you, said Jesus. To stay and want to stay on your own, is rejecting everybody else. It is saying, I have no responsibility for them, I have no interest in them.

True faith, however, expresses itself in love. The person who has come to know Jesus, and through Jesus has come to know God, understands what Paul was saying, “Be imitators of God as dearly loved children” Eph 5:1).

Is that how you think of yourself? That’s important, you know. It is important that you know that you are a dearly loved child of God. For if you don’t know that, you are still in the dark, you have missed the whole point of the Christian Gospel – of believing in Jesus. Be imitators of God as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us.

I close with the words of Ephesians 5, verses 8 to 10 (obviously addressed to people who believe in and love the Lord Jesus): “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for the fruit of light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth. And find out what pleases the Lord.” Of course we want to find out what pleases the Lord, for He loves us.

Let us pray:

Lord God, we thank you for the truth we need to hear again and again, for we so readily get caught up with ourselves and we forget that we live by your love. Lord, thank you for your patience, for your faithfulness. Lord, we ask that by your spirit we may walk and live every day in the light that you give us, in Jesus, your Son, the Light of the world, who gives life to all who receive Him.

Amen.