Sermon Tone Analysis

“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.

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.

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.

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.”

[1]

Retro is in.

It appears that if we live long enough, that which was once discarded as out of date will come back into fashion.

That is true in the world, as fashions that were jettisoned become popular again, as music that was identified with a particular group becomes popular again or as food that fell out of favour with the most comes back into favour.

What is true in the world is equally true among the churches.

Fads spring up with amazing regularity, and heresies once roundly defeated again plague the people of God.

One fad that seems to spring up with dismaying regularity is reducing the Body of Christ, the congregation of the faithful, to an organisation.

Thus, many professed people of God play musical church, moving from one congregation to another as though God had nothing to say about the matter.

Such an act is tacit admission of a failure to love, arising from a failure to know God.

The text is focused on knowing God.

In particular, those who claim to know God are called to “walk in the same way in which He walked.”

And the walk of faith is not mysterious!

That walk is, however, exciting; it reflects the character of Him whom we call “Father!” John is called the Apostle of Love with reason.

He emphasises the necessity of love as the essential mark of the follower of the Christ.

Tragically, this defining characteristic is absent in the life of much of modern Christendom.

In fact, we would be hard pressed to demonstrate love as a defining characteristic among the professed people of God in this day when church has been reduced to an optional feature of religious life.

Before we examine John’s commands, we must define what we are looking for.

I have the distinct impression that in the mind of most contemporary church members, love is defined primarily—if not exclusively—as an emotion.

Perhaps we Christians are not able to define adequately what we mean when we speak of “love,” but whatever definition we seize upon tends toward what we used to call a “warm, fuzzy.”

We argued that love made us feel good; love was revealed in feeling good.

Whether we have thought through the implications or not, in modern parlance love is often a condition controlled by others.

Others have the ability to show us love, but love does not lie within our purview when considering others.

That such exclusivity reflects an aberrant view becomes evident through even a cursory review of Jesus’ teaching concerning love.

/Love for the Son reveals relationship to the Father./

Jesus challenged the religious leaders when they avowed that God was their Father, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here.

I came not of my own accord, but he sent me” [JOHN 8:42].

/Love leads one to be sacrificial in life./

Recall Jesus’ teaching on this matter.

“I am the Good Shepherd.

I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.

And I have other sheep that are not of this fold.

I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.

So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.

This charge I have received from my Father” [JOHN 10:14-18].

/Love is revealed through obedience./

Listen to Jesus on this matter.

“‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.

You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

“‘I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me.

Because I live, you also will live.

In that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me, and I in you.

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.

And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.’

Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, ‘Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?’

Jesus answered him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.

And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me’” [JOHN 14:15-24].

I will have more to say on this aspect of love in just a short while as we follow what John has written.

/Love for Jesus is expressed in service to His people./

Witness a familiar exchange between Jesus and Peter.

“When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love (agapáō) me more than these?’

He said to him, Yes, Lord; you know that I love (philéō) you.’

He said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’

He said to him a second time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love (agapáō) me?’

He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love (philéō) you.’

He said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’

He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love (philéō) me?’ Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love (philéō) me?’ and he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love (philéō) you.’

Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep’” [JOHN 21:15-17].

Note that even affection for Jesus is revealed through service as He appoints.

Even when we cannot say that we love the Master with a self-sacrificing love, He calls us to His service.

Christians are responsible to serve as Christ the Master appoints; each of us has a gift and a role within the community of Faith.

This is exciting precisely because it means that even when we don’t feel successful, God employs us to His glory.

Our feelings are of no great significance.

The love that has shed abroad in our heart has no sexual connotation attached to it.

It does connote that we choose and act upon our choice, empowered by the Spirit living within.

Remember some of Jesus’ teaching on this point.

In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?

Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” [MATTHEW 5:43-48].

Did you notice that love is not extended by God in hopes of receiving something in return?

Likewise, we who reveal the love of God are not to attempt to show love in hopes of gaining something in return.

Love is to be demonstrated even toward one’s enemy!

And it is not apparent that one will gain anything from his or her enemy.

Love marks the twice-born child.

This concept is emphasised again on an occasion when the Master was interrogated by a lawyer.

“A lawyer asked him a question to test him.

‘ Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’

And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

This is the great and first commandment.

And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets’” [MATTHEW 22:35-40].

Perhaps it should not be necessary to address this one issue; nevertheless there does remain one further point that is necessary to ensure clarification of the passage before us.

Though John specifically addresses children (the word is actually neuter), fathers and young men in VERSES 12-14, it should be apparent that women, whether young or older, are responsible to love as God loves.

Love is the universal mark of one who is born from above.

Focus on the words Jesus delivered as recorded in John’s Gospel.