Sermon Tone Analysis
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I don’t watch it every week, but I’m becoming a fan of the Antiques Road Show.
If you’ve never seen it, it’s a show in which antiques appraisers travel to various cities of the United States to appraise antiques brought in by local people.
Sometime the finds are spectacular and people discover that they have real treasures in their attic.
Sometime, however, people hear those fateful words, “I’m sorry to tell you this, but it’s a reproduction!”
Which is a nice way of saying, “This thing you thought was a family heirloom or a fabulous buy, is fake.”
The experts can tell because on genuine pieces of art or furniture or jewelry there are often certain marks which brand the item as authentic or genuine.
So, there are ways to tell counterfeits and there are ways to tell what’s real and what’s true.
In the first century church, as we have already seen in our study of 1 John, there were Counterfeit Christians.
There were people running around who talked a good story, who said the right things, and who said things that sounded awfully spiritual.
However, these were people who were walking in darkness rather than walking in the light.
The Apostle writes to his congregation to assure them that there are certain identifying marks that reveal the authenticity of a person’s faith.
We’ve already looked at several of these authenticating marks:
* A genuine Christian must believe that Jesus is the Christ who has eternally existed with the Father.
* A genuine Christian must believe that the Christ came in the flesh.
* A genuine Christian must regularly confess sin and seek God’s cleansing.
* A genuine Christian must obey God’s commandments.
* A genuine Christian must walk as Jesus walked.
This morning we’re going to concentrate on 1 John 2:7-11 where the Apostle lays out another authenticating mark—A Genuine Christian will walk in loving fellowship with other Christians.
As we saw last week, John spoke of obedience to the commandments of God in general as the way we test ourselves.
/“We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.”/
(1 John 2:3, NIV84)
This week he speaks of the commandment to Godly love in particular as a way we test ourselves.
/“Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.”/
(1 John 2:10, NIV84)
!
I.
A NEW COMMANDMENT THAT IS AN OLD COMMANDMENT
* /“Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning.
This old command is the message you have heard.
Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.”/
(1 John 2:7–8, NIV84)
#. in a play on words, extended into verse 8, John wrote that the commandment to love was not a new commandment, but actually an old commandment
#. it had been taught throughout the biblical text
#. whether they were Jews or Gentiles, John’s readers would have heard from the Old Testament about the need for God’s people to love, not only one another, but the stranger and even the enemy
* /“‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.
I am the LORD.”/
(Leviticus 19:18, NIV84)
#. and, of course, Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan forever ends the question, And just who is my neighbor?
#. instructing the Church at Rome concerning brotherly love, the Apostle Paul quoted both the Ten Commandments and this passage from Leviticus
* /“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.
The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Love does no harm to its neighbor.
Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”/
(Romans 13:8–10, NIV84)
#. sooo .... it’s an old commandment in many ways
#. the Apostle is not springing something new on his Congregation whereby they’ll react, /“Wow, we didn’t know that!”/
#. but how is this commandment to “love the brethren” a new commandment?
#. it new in it’s intensity and example and emphasis
* /“A new command I give you: Love one another.
As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”/
(John 13:34–35, NIV84)
#. /it is new in it’s emphasis/—The popular sentiment in Jesus’ day was /love your neighbor and hate your enemy/ (Matt.
5:43)
#.
Jesus stands that platitude on it’s head when he insists ... /“But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others?
Do not even pagans do that?”/
(Matthew 5:44–47, NIV84)
#. it is new in it’s /emphasis/
#. /it is new in its example/—When Jesus tells his disciples to love one another he tells them that this will be one of the marks of authenticity of those who are his disciples
#. all men will know that we are Christ’s disciples by our love for one another
#. it is new in its /example/
#. it is new in its /intensity/—Jesus is clear, the authentic believer loves other believers in the same manner in which he loved us
#. how did Christ love us?
* /“I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”/
(John 10:11, NIV84)
* /“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”/
(John 15:12–13, NIV84)
* /“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.
And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”/
(1 John 3:16, NIV84)
#. it is new in its intensity
!! A. THERE IS AN INSEPARABLE LINK BETWEEN CHRISTIAN ASSURANCE AND LOVING OTHERS
#. assurance that we are walking in the light comes from loving the brethren
#. throughout this book, the Apostle John is dealing with a central issue of the Christian experience: How can we know that we are in a genuine relationship with God?
#. how do you know that you are walking in the light and not walking in darkness?
#. how do you know that you are a stalk of wheat and not a tare among the wheat?
#. how do you know that you are a sheep and not a goat?
#. how do you know that you are a child of God and not a child of the Devil?
#. one of the identifying marks of being a Christian is that we love other Christians and walk in fellowship with them
* /“Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.
Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.”/
(1 John 2:9–10, NIV84)
#. the truth that they were to love one another was something his readers would have heard from the beginning
#. the beginning in view here is not the creation of the world or God’s giving of the Law to Moses
#. the beginning the Apostle refers to is the beginning of their new life in Christ
#. the message to love the brethren would have been taught to them from the moment of their conversion
#. loving the brethren is not some new innovation that the Apostle has come up with
#. it is a message taught to them by Christ Himself that is being passed on from one generation of believers to the next
* /“Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.
One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”/
(Matthew 22:34–40, NIV84)
#. when John’s readers became Christians, they would have committed themselves to
#. loving God—which translates into loving His commands—and ...
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