First John: 1 John 2:9-Hating One’s Fellow Believer is Living in the Darkness of Satan’s Cosmic System Lesson # 57
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Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. (ESV)
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday June 14, 2017
www.wenstrom.org
-Hating One’s Fellow Believer is Living in the Darkness of Satan’s Cosmic System
Lesson # 57
Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. (ESV)
“Hates” is the verb miseō (μισέω), which means “to hate” in the sense of expressing unjustifiable hostility and antagonism towards one’s fellow believer, which expresses itself in malicious words and actions.
It also means “to hate” in the passive sense where the believer expresses indifference towards their fellow believer.
The one who at any time does say he is in the light and yet does at any time hate his fellow-believer, is still in the darkness. (My translation)
marks a transition from the apostle John’s teaching in regarding the newness and familiarity of the command to love one another and his teaching here in regarding this command in relation to the holiness of God.
Here in , the apostle John is presenting a hypothetical situation taking place in the life of a believer who is adhering to the teaching of the proto-Gnostic teachers in the Roman province of Asia.
He tells the recipients of this epistle that the believer who at any time does say he is in the light and yet at any time does hate their fellow-believer is still in the darkness.
“In the light” speaks of the believer living their life according to the standards of God’s holiness and which standards are reflected in Jesus Christ’s command which requires the believer to love their fellow-believer as He loves them.
The believer who obeys this command is thus living according to the standards of God’s holiness.
“In the darkness” speaks of the believer living their life according to the standards of Satan’s kingdom and which standards are sin and hate and is manifested by disobedience to the command to love one another.
Therefore, verse 9 teaches that it is a contradiction in the life of the believer if claim they are in the light while at the same time hating their fellow believer.
They are involved in hypocrisy.
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines hypocrisy, “a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not possess; a pretense of having some desirable or publicly approved attitude.
If we paraphrase this definition, we could say that the believer who makes the claim that they in the light or in other words, living their life according to God’s holy standards and are thus experiencing fellowship with Him and yet hate their fellow-believer is making a pretense of having godly character which they do not possess.
and prohibit the believer from getting involved with hypocrisy.
Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. (NASB95)
Your divine-love must continue to be characterized as being without hypocrisy. All of you continue to make it your habit to detest that which is evil in character. All of you continue to make it your habit to be devoted to that which is good. (Author’s translation)
When John speaks of “hate” in , he is speaking of hate in the active as well as passive sense.
In the active literal sense, hate speaks of expressing unjustifiable hostility and antagonism towards one’s fellow believer, which expresses itself in malicious words and actions.
This hatred exists between believers since the kingdom of darkness can deceive believers and of course believers still have a sin nature.
Therefore, this indicates that every believer has the capacity to hate their fellow believer in the sense of being hostile and antagonistic towards them since they all have a sin nature until the day that they die or the rapture, whichever comes first.
This type of hatred is seen in Saul and David’s relationship in which the former hated the latter by persecuting him and even attempting to kill him.
Sadly, many commentators frequently misinterpret because they are unwilling to face the truth of what believers are capable of doing under the power of the sin nature and the deception of Satan.
Many of these commentators claim that what is in view here is a “professing” believer who is not truly born again.
But this interpretation totally ignores the context and the words employed by John.
Hatred does exist among believers.
The noun adelphos, “fellow-believer” and the intensive personal pronoun autos, “his” which modifies it indicate John is addressing the conduct of believers in relation to each other since John is addressing believers in this epistle and these two words speak in emphatic terms of their fellow believer.
Also, clearly indicating that John is referring to hatred among believers is John’s use of the phrase “in the light,” which refers to experiencing fellowship with God and His holiness.
Only a believer would make a claim to experiencing fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, an unbeliever would not.
An unbeliever does not have the capacity or desire to experience a relationship and fellowship with God and live according to the standards of His holiness since they do not possess the Spirit, who enables the believer to experience fellowship with the Trinity.
Hate in a passive sense speaks of the believer being indifferent towards their fellow believer.
John mentions this type of hatred in .
In this passage, he asserts that the believer who has the financial or material means to help a fellow believer and yet does not do so, is disobeying the command to love their fellow believer.
This passive expression of hate is manifested by coldness, by isolation, by exclusion, unconcern for your fellow believer.
Someone has well said that indifference is the cruelest form of hate.
The Gospels clearly teach this fact to be true.
What hurt our Lord most was not the active enmity of those who were trying to accomplish His death, but the coldness and indifference of those who once followed him yet turned aside from Him and idly stood by as He was put to death.
Therefore, when John speaks of hate here in , he is not simply speaking of acting malicious towards one’s fellow believer but he is also referring to indifference, coldness, isolation, exclusion and unconcern for one’s fellow believer.
This passive form of hate is the absence of acts of love and it is basically the failure to obey the command to love one another as Christ has loved.
Hate is an absolute spiritual principle which means that if a believer is not loving their fellow believer, then, they are hating them.
If they are not loving their fellow believer, they are not experiencing fellowship with the Lord since experiencing fellowship with the Lord is contingent upon the believer obeying the command to love on another as Christ has loved all men.
If the believer is not obeying the command to love one another as Christ loves them, then they in essence hating their fellow believer.
Therefore, when love is absent, hate is present.
Love unexpressed is not love at all.
Indifference towards one fellow believer in need constitutes hatred of them.
Hate for the believer begins with the failure to deny self and take up his cross daily (; ; ).
It is also the unwillingness to lay down one’s life for a brother ().
Hatred considers its own needs first (; Phlp. 2:3-4).
Whenever a believer fails to help his fellow believer in need, he is in effect despising his fellow believer.
The brother or sister in Christ who is despised is, in effect, hated.
As we noted, this principle is illustrated in .
If the believer does not pray for his fellow believer, then he hates his fellow believer.
Intercessory prayer for both believers and unbelievers is an expression of the love of God in our lives.
If we love our fellow believer, we will pray for the spiritual growth and temporal needs of members of the royal family of God (; ; ; ; ; ; ; ).
Failure to intercede in prayer for one’s fellow believer constitutes hating them.
The believer who fails to “give” to his fellow believer in need hates his fellow believer.
Grace giving is a demonstration and expression of the love of God in our lives.
God demonstrated His love for us by “giving” His Son.