Love and Hatred

 1 John 2:3-11

In order to begin at a good starting point and also to re-emphasize a couple of important points  from last week I will begin today’s message starting with 1 John 2:1.

Here we read:  "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.  But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One." 

The apostle John said in chapter 1, “If we say that we have no sin we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:8

In verse 1, here we see the apostle John tell his spiritual children that he is writing to them so they will not sin, but at the same time, he is again acknowledging that we all still sin and that when and if we sin we have a friend who speaks with the Heavenly Father on our behalf.

 

The apostle John also said in chapter 1, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.” 1 John 1:10

But why do we need Jesus Christ to speak to the Father on our behalf?

It is because the Father is both Holy and Just.  Since the Father is Holy and we like the Israelites are sinful creatures we need a High Priest to go into the Holy of Holies and make an atoning sacrifice for our sin. Hebrews chapter 7 tells us that Jesus was a priest in the order of the Melchizedek.  Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually.  The original High Priests’ were sinners and even though they had purified themselves, their sacrifices were imperfect and therefore their sacrifices had to be offered over and over again on an annual basis for the forgiveness of their sins and the sins of their fellow Israelites.  Jesus however, was sinless and His sacrifice, like His priesthood, was perfect and eternal not temporary like that of the other High Priests.  Therefore, He did not need to make His sacrifices over and over again on annual basis for our sins.

1 Peter 3:18  says, ^“For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;”

Notice the payment for sin was then and still is the death penalty.  Whether by stoning, hanging, firing squad, the electric chair, lethal injection, or crucifixion the penalty isn't paid until the guilty party (or the guilt sacrifice) is dead. 

So if we were to come before the Father who is both Holy and Just with unforgiven sin on our record we would immediately receive the death penalty.  However, since Jesus Christ is there with the Father and since our sin is covered by the perfect and eternal guilt sacrifice we can go before Him and the Father without fear of judgment and without receiving the death penalty sentence due us as the consequence of our sin.

The apostle John also said in verse 9 of chapter 1, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”   1 John 1:9

In our Sunday morning small group study we are going over a book titled “How People Grow” subtitled “What the Bible Reveals about Personal Growth” by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend.

In their book, they define confession as “to agree with the Truth”.  They say: “Confessing involves taking risk with a negative part of ourselves, letting someone else know about it."

 

They also say: “As we experience comfort, identification, and truth without judgment, we begin to heal.  God created us to be confessors.  We were not designed to sequester parts of our lives from others, but to involve others in connection.  This is what it means to live in the light.”

The apostle James also realized this when in James 5:16 he writes, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”

Remember from 1 John 1:7, “but if we walk in the light … we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin.”  In addition to that if we confess our sins to each other and pray for each other then we are able to bring powerful and effective prayer to bear to help heal many things that keep us from experiencing the joy of our salvation.

So following verse 1 of chapter 2 the apostle John writes verse 2: "He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world."

Here we see that Jesus (not us) is special and worthy and His death has earned Him the right to speak to the Father on our behalf and not just speak on our behalf, but He is able to speak on the behalf of anyone who has put their trust in His death alone for the forgiveness of their sin.   This includes everyone up to and including the whole world population who do not put their trust in any good works that they might have done or will do as payment for their sin, but instead, they put all of their trust in Christ’s death alone on the cross as payment for their sin.

This is not like the Willie Wonka Golden Ticket that only the select five ticket holders could get in to see his factory.  This invitation is to the whole world to get into heaven.  However, just like the church service in the old western movies where you had to check your guns at the door, you also have to check all of your so called 'good deeds' and 'self-righteousness' at the cross and come before the throne of grace clothed in nothing but the Righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Now we know that trying to add something to Christ sacrifices is wrong because we read in Isaiah chapter 64: “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”  Isaiah 64:6

It is important to understand the point that trying to add our good works to Jesus Christ's perfect sacrifice does nothing to make His sacrifice any better and only disqualifies us from receiving the forgiveness of sin that God grants to all based on Jesus’ sacrifice alone.

That is not to say that there is no place for good works.  There is a place for good works but we need to recognize that these good works are orchestrated and made possible only by God and not by us.  So it is only right that God get all of the Glory for these good works and not us.

This truth is confirmed in Ephesians 2:10 where we read, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Since God prepared these good works in advance for us to do, we can’t even take credit for thinking them up ourselves let alone doing them.

How do we know if we really know the LORD and how do we know that we are truly forgiven and that we are trusting in Jesus payment alone for our sins?

1 John 2:3 tells us, "We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands."

A person that knows the Lord will spend time in His Word in order to get to know Him better.  As that person does this, he or she will read more and more commands that the Lord would have him or her obey.

John 14:21 says: "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.  He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

Proverbs 20:6 says: “Many a man proclaims his own loyalty, But who can find a trustworthy man?”

1 John 2:4 reminds us of the content of this proverb when it says: "The man who says, 'I know Him,' but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him."

1 John 2: 5 says: "But if anyone obeys His word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in Him"

1 John 2: 6 says: "Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did."

Well, how do we walk as Jesus did?

First, we must do the things that please the Father because everything that Jesus did was done to please the Father.

Jesus was tempted but did not sin.  So we too must not sin when we are tempted.

Jesus loved the Father.  So we too must love the Father.

So this begs the question, “How do we love the Father?”.

Before we answer that question let’s look at  the word LOVE.

The word love is appears 505 times in the New International Version of the Bible.

There are more than a dozen different definitions of Love in the Merriam-Webster Collegiate dictionary and there on more than a thousand song titles on the Internet that have the word love in them.

The dictionary definition that I think is the most appropriate is “a person’s adoration of God”.

This definition coincides directly with the first commandment and with what Jesus taught as the greatest commandment.

In Matthew 22:37-40, 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.”

In addition to loving God and our neighbor Jesus also taught us to love our enemies.

Luke 6:27-32 says: “But I tell you who hear Me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.  If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic.  Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”   “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?  Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them.

Jesus also taught us that we must love each other.

John 13:34-35 says: “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.”

1 John 2: 7 says: "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."

We read in the Bible that there is a direct connection between obedience, love, and suffering.

Hebrews 5:8-9 says: "Although He was a son, He learned obedience from what He suffered and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him."

1 Peter 1:22-23 says: "Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God."

  

1 John 2:8 says: "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."

Now let us consider the words "hate" and "hatred."

The word "hate" appears 74 times in the New International Version of the Bible.

The word "hatred" appears 11 times in the New International Version of the Bible.

There are two definitions of the word hate in the Merriam-Webster Collegiate dictionary

1. To feel extreme enmity toward.

2. To have a strong aversion to or to express or feel extreme enmity or active hostility. 

There is only one definition of the word hatred other than its root word hate (i.e., prejudiced hostility or animosity).

Note that Jesus’s commands dealt with Loving God and loving our neighbor. 

Note now that the apostle John is writing a new command about the opposite of Love (i.e., hate or hatred).

1 John 2:9 says: "Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness."

Psalms 81:15 says: "Those who hate the LORD would pretend obedience to Him, and their time of punishment would be forever."

Psalm 97:10 says: “Hate evil, you who love the LORD,”

1 John 4:20-21 says: If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.   And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

Proverbs 8:36 says: "But he who sins against Me injures himself; All those who hate Me love death."

James 4:4 says: “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?"

Back to the word "love":

1 John 2:10 says: “Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.”

1 John 2:11 says: ^“But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.”

Have you ever been blinded for any length of time?

I had an eye infection in both of my eyes when I was around four or five years old.  For a short period of time the drainage from this infection crusted over and sealed both of my eyes shut while I was asleep.  When I woke up I was literally blind in both eyes. 

I remember getting out of bed and walking around like that.  My bedroom was on the second floor of our house.  It wasn’t long before I wondered from the area near my bed and got near the staircase that went down to the first floor of our house.  At age four or five I did not have enough fear or common sense not to walk around when I could not see.  I remember falling down that flight of stairs.  I got banged up and it not only hurt really bad, but I thought I was going to be blind forever.  It is a miracle that I didn’t break my neck or one of my other bones.  I remember my mother put a warm, wet cloth on my eyes to dissolve the crust of the infection.  Soon I was able to see again.  However, after that I was very fearful of going to bed at night because I thought I might wake up blind again and fall down the steps again and this time I might not be as fortunate as I was the first time. 

John Newton a former captain of a slave ship got saved and then later authored the hymn "Amazing Grace."  In that hymn Newton writes “Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.  I once was lost but now I am found was blind but now I see.” 

This is my favorite hymn.  Why? Well I think that it is because I was a sinful wretch before I got saved and because I was blind to my sin just like I was blind when my eyes were both infected and sealed shut.  I can literally relate to the apostle Paul when he was blinded on the road to Damascus.

Let’s take another look at 1 John chapter 2:10-11.

1 John 2:10 says: “Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.”

1 John 2:11 says: ^“But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.”

The questions we need to be regularly asking ourselves concerning love and hatred are:

1. Do we truly Love God and do we truly love all of His adopted children?

2. Are we pretending to obey the Lord and saying that we love Him while we are still harboring hatred or un-forgiveness towards someone?

Let’s pray.  Lord you know our hearts.  Help us be broken and humble before You like Your servant David was when he prayed:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.” Psalm 139: 23-24 

Lord we want to walk and live in the light and we want to obey You without pretense.  We want to love our brothers and sisters in Christ and we want to love the Lost.  Help us Lord uproot any hatred or bitterness that we may still have lingering in our hearts.  Lead us in the everlasting way.  Amen.