Be In The Light
1 John • Sermon • Submitted
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· 3 viewsThe True light, Jesus Christ, is the light of love and thus, to walk or to live, or to be in the light, is to walk Love.
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Christlike love
Christlike love
1 john
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.
This commandment, the one that is not new, John is referring to the command that God gave Moses in where he says “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Yeah okay, so I just need to treat others the way I want to be treated and I’m good. maybe a Starbucks or a pat on the back here and there but otherwise I’m good as long as I’m nice to people.
That’s all good and well but that’s only part of this command and it’s the old part.
The new part of this takes the same principle of loving others a step further. This comes from Jesus
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
John
Okay, this is tough because Jesus didn’t just love, he loved to a level of sacrifice that ended in his death on the cross.
Being nice to people just doesn’t cut it in this case. That’s only the surface of what it means to follow this new commandment.
Jesus Genuinely loved everyone. Sure, he got angry with some and frustrated with others, but at the end of the day he also loved those people deeply. So deeply that he didn’t just die for his followers, he died for all people.
GUYS! HE DIED FOR US! and not just a nice easy death. He willingly subjected himself to the most painful and gruesome death imaginable.
That’s a love that is going to be pretty hard to passively replicate with some Starbucks and a pat on the back. That as it may, Jesus does call us to love as he has loved us.
Jesus is the True Light
Jesus is the True Light
1 john
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.
What is the True light?
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
In Jesus says “I am the light of the world...”
Let’s just say that Jesus, the light of the world is the “true light” that John is talking about in verse 8.
He’s the true, or real light of which physical light is but a reflection.
That earthly thing that we call light is just a copy of the real thing which is Jesus and the love that he has for us.
When you think about light, natural light, not from a bulb in a house or a flashlight. How does that light feel? How can we tell the difference between natural light and light from a light bulb?
Close your eyes for a moment....
Imagine you’re walking outside and it’s a brisk autumn day. The leaves are golden and they crunch beneath your feet as you walk. The sky is as blue as you’ve ever seen it and the sun… sometimes you just stop, close your eyes and turn into it’s embrace. No longer caring about the beautiful leaves or the brilliant sky. The warmth from the sun radiates across your face and slowly warms your body. But it’s not a harsh warmth, it’s gentle and it’s soothing.
The way we can tell the difference between natural light and that of a light bulb is the way it makes you feel.
A light bulb might have the ability to make you happy that there is light, but it will never have the same effect that the sun has as it gently warms your skin.
In the same way we know that Jesus is the true light because of the Love that he has for us. Like the warmth from the sun, nothing can quite compare to the love of Jesus.
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.
So in v.11 I really feel like John was foreshadowing Anikan’s relationship with Obi-Wan Kenobi.
v.9-11 presents this idea of hate and darkness being opposite to love and light. John doesn’t just present them as different, they’re polar opposites of each other and there isn’t any middle ground between them.
As Christians we are called to live fully in the kingdom of Christ, not with one foot in the world and one in the kingdom of Christ. The same goes for light and darkness, we can’t live in twilight.
Essentially what John is saying is that we can’t say that we are living in love and not be in darkness if we have hate for another in our heart because if we have hatred in our hearts we are contributing to the darkness
v.10 & 11 show us that, not only does our love or hatred reveal whether we are in the light or the darkness, but also that we will contribute to whichever one we are living in.
If we’re living in the light, then we’re contributing to that by living in the love of Jesus. But, as v 11 notes, if we walk in darkness then we will stumble because it will
That earthly thing that we call light is just a copy of the real thing which is Jesus and the love that he has for us.