Life and Light in Him!

1 John 2:6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

Matthew 12:37 says, “By YOUR words you shall be justified and by YOUR words you will be condemned.”  One is not allowed to remain silent about your stand with regards to God.  If you belong to Him you MUST say so.  If you belong to another (though there are no others) you must make this verbal commitment.  One is not allowed to remain like neutral like Switzerland.  God requires a commitment on your part. 

Joshua 24:15 says, “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.”  He actually made it even more clear.  “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  They answered and said, “God forbid we should serve other gods.”  I will say that they did manage to keep God’s commandments all the days that Joshua led them.  They continued to fight for God successfully and lost no battles until after his death when they began to forget.

Verse six above says we ought to walk even as Jesus walked.  Jesus could never be accused of being a “forgetful hearer.”  He obeyed God’s Word because He was God’s Word.  In God’s miraculous grace, Christ is able to dwell in us and we in Him.  In God’s economy we are expected to walk as He walked, talk as He talked and even to do greater things than He did because He stands before the Father making intercession for us and funneling that eternal power through us into the world.  We are the conduit God has chosen to bring His Word to all the world.

1 John 2:7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.  8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.

These two verses can be confusing to some.  First John says he writes no new commandment and then says he writes a new commandment.  Jeremiah 31:31 says, “Behold, the days come saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.”  This is repeated in Hebrews 8:8 and explained further in that chapter.  In Hebrews 12:24 it says that Jesus is the mediator of that new covenant. 

In the law there is a high priest who makes intercession and offers sacrifices for the people according to the law through the sacrifice of animals.  It was an imperfect answer for an age old dilemma of a Holy God who wanted to make a path into His presence for an unholy mankind.  God instituted this sacrifice well before the giving of the law when He killed animals to provide skins for Adam and Eve.  Scripture after scripture says we must be clothed in righteousness in order to stand in God’s presence.  God provided this first example by clothing Adam and Eve in and through the sacrifice of animals.  When Moses came God codified (wrote into law) the various sacrifices.

Thousands of years later God sent His son in the same flesh worn by the rest of mankind except without sin.  According to scripture sin is introduced to the unborn child through the father’s seed.  God worked around this problem by making Mary pregnant by spirit and not man.  It is interesting how we have discovered through science that a woman does not provide the blood of the child, in fact her reproductive processes are designed to keep the child’s blood completely separate from her own blood.  Nutrients pass between them but blood does not.  When Jesus was born He was born without the sin passed down through the male lines from Adam.  Joseph’s legal position as her espoused made Jesus a Jew but Mary’s position opened the way for Him to be King.

When Christ first died and rose again many Priests came forward to become Christians.  Soon after the chief priests put a stop to this and through threats, lies and intimidation began a split that ended with two separate religions, Christianity, the new and vibrant faith that would join much of the world’s gentiles, and Judaism, which remained as insular and isolated as ever.  Because of their offensive declarations against Jesus (ignorantly calling the Holy Spirit Beelzebub), God blinded their eyes against the truth until the time of the Gentiles was fulfilled.

This is the spiritual and political arena that John was writing to.  Every chapter of the 66 books of our Bible tell of Jesus.  Both old and new testaments clearly broadcast His name and message to those who had ears to hear.  On the one hand he explains, there is no new commandment to write about.  This is true since everything that might be known of Christ may be known through the Old Testament, except for a few revelations that explain some formerly unknown attributes of Jesus. 

Those few revelations, such as the brass serpent in the wilderness, were only understood and explained in the New Testament.  Over all however, the Old Testament was the only scripture the disciples of Christ had to teach from until the New Testament was written and collected into one interconnected book.  The New Testament makes understanding our Lord and His message easier, but it was not absolutely necessary.  With proper prayerful insight a diligent and studious man can discover Jesus within the Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament.

This is why Paul said in verse seven that there was no new commandment but in verse eight that he was indeed writing a new commandment.  The new commandment hinted at in verse eight was foretold and almost completely revealed in the Torah.  That truth had been hidden for thousands of years but was now revealed in Christ.  Jesus brought the light of the glorious gospel, and the age of darkness brought on by man’s ignorance and lack of knowledge is erased by the light of truth in Christ.

1 John 2:9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.

LOVE.  Deuteronomy 6:5 says, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”  Matthew 22:37 repeats it with some clarification, “And he said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  The word for might in Hebrew is mod which means vehemence.  Vehemence is from a French word that means to put forth with violence, passion and forcefulness.  In other words, you must put everything you have into it.  The Greek word that replaced might in the Hebrew is dianona and though it loosely means mind, it really means the passion, strength and forcefulness of someone whose mind is made up and leads him in one powerful direction.

I have often sung a song that goes, “My mind is made up; I’m on my way up, I’m gonna hold my head up.  Goin’ on with the Lord!”  Job 23:13 speaking of God and His Word says, “But he is in one mind, and who can turn Him?  And what His soul desires, even that he doeth.”  God is of one mind though He be a triune God.  He has sent His Word and that Word WILL NOT CHANGE no matter how much some on earth may wish it.  David said, “Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee (Psalm 119:11).  Man’s desire is to move God to change so His Word might be more comfortable to follow.  God has no interest, no reason, no desire and no purpose in changing His immutable word. 

Malachi 3:6 says, “I am the Lord thy God, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”  There are two ideas present here.  In idea one, God’s plan and purpose will continue and all who accept His Word as sacrosanct, holy and unchangeable will not be consumed and destroyed.  Idea two is that whosoever changes God’s Word, even to the least jot or tittle will be consumed and destroyed.  I thought John made it quite clear in Revelation 22:18-19, “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” 

I wanted to establish that God will not put up with anyone changing His words.  There are others as well of course, but you get the idea.  This means that God’s first commandment is that you should love the Lord with all that is in you.  The second (also found in Matthew 22) is – v39 “…thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”  A brother ought to be closer than a neighbor.  1 John 3:15-16 says, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a MURDERER: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 

You know those two people in church that you can’t stand, sister (Smith) and brother (Jones)?  Tell me, how do you feel about sister (Smith) now?  What about brother (Jones)?  Do they still get on your nerves?  Do you still refuse to speak to them and talk about them behind their backs?  Did you know the reason sister (Smith) acts the way she does is because she was abused by her father?  …or that brother (Jones) is the way he is because he has a learning disability that he’s ashamed of and you are both smart and educated?  These are just examples I pulled out of the air of course but you get the idea.  There are ALWAYS reasons behind bad behavior and while someone may treat you badly because of those reasons, they may still LOVE you and pray for you.  That means that if you hate them for their behavior but in spite of their behavior they love you and pray for you, they will be saved and YOU will NOT.

1 John 2:10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.

The word used here for love is agapao.  This word does not say they are your good friend and you enjoy spending time with them.  There are plenty of difficult people in the Body of Christ.  That is not your problem, it’s God’s.  He is working on them.  You need not wish to marry or be near these people either, but you do have to love them.  You MUST want the best for them and desire God’s divine purpose to be fulfilled in their lives.  You must pray for them and ask God to deliver them from their pain and sorrows.  This is the commandment of AGAPAO and if you do this you will not stumble out of frustration and anger toward your brother. 

Frustration and anger toward others is caused by ignorance.  Racism, sexism, hatred and war are all caused by ignorance.  We are ignorant of God’s purpose and ignorant of the motivations of others.  Even if you understand what motivates the other person, if you cannot find it within yourself and your relationship with God to love that person and seek God’s face for their well being, you are not perfected in love.  While you were a filthy sinner, Christ died for your salvation (Romans 5:6-8).  I have already explained how your best, your absolute best behavior is a filthy, bloody rag to God so how can you expect others who have not yet been delivered or changed by the power of God to live perfectly toward you?

If you hate, you have already stumbled.  If you do not forgive, you are fallen on your face.  If you rejoice in difficult people because of the challenge of praying for them to be delivered and you shout in triumph when you see them begin to change, then you have fulfilled this scripture.  When you rejoice in watching the redeeming work of the Holy Spirit and God’s Word in the life of a former sinner, then you will truly walk in the light. 

1 John 2:11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

In the verse above I explained what our requirements are for the difficult people among us.  I have seen far too many ‘saints’ of God in church who have all but cursed other ‘saints’ of God because of their behavior.  I might expect this behavior from Christian babies, but when should we expect those babies to grow up?  A baby’s eyesight is terrible.  They can’t really focus yet and can only recognize colors and vague shapes.  As they get older, they learn to control their eye muscles and can focus on and track objects more effectively.  Far too many Christians see like those babies after years of life in church.  This is completely unacceptable. 

When Matthew 6:22 says that the light of our body is the eye it means that the light which flows into the body of Christ is the eye of the body of Christ; your ability to discern and understand those around you so you might love and treasure them by that knowledge.  Jesus Himself said, “If your eye be evil, your whole body is in darkness.”  How grievous it must be for Jesus when a large portion of the eyes of HIS body wallow in darkness and are totally unsuitable for service to God.  If you hate your brother you are in darkness.  A spiritually blind man cannot do the works of God because there is no light within Him and Christ came that we might have life and light.

Christ is our head and the head of our body.  How horrible if we bring darkness into His body and refuse to overcome our blindness and ignorance for the sake of the kingdom.  People are usually not blind and ignorant because they do not understand or cannot comprehend the scripture.  People are usually blind and ignorant because they choose to be and do not want to submit their anger and rage to God.  They believe that their desire is more important than God’s.  This is one of the greatest problems in the world today.  People want what they want and if they cannot justify it in Christ and His Word then they expect the rest of the world to simply change that word until it fits their will, their desire. 

God said, “I am the Lord thy God and I change NOT! 

Neither should WE!