Love others, and you will not stumble (1 John 2a)

1 John 2:3-17

Key Verse 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.

Introduction: in Ch one, by using presumptive mood, John asserted that the believer must stand on an inviolable principle as God’s children; since God is light, his children must not walk in the darkness of sin.  If one does so, then he is a liar and deceiving himself. In this chapter, he moves from this principle to a command to act on that principle. First, he teaches that they are to obey Jesus’ command because through the obedience their love to the Lord is made perfect. Second, he commanded them to love their brothers and sisters as Jesus loved them. This call for action was followed by his encouragement for them by reminding them what has happened in their lives as children of God; identifying a work of God and their successes so far in living as children of God.  By reminding them of these successes as children of God, John urges them to reject the world and anything belonging to it.   

A.      Obey his command and fulfill your love to God (3-6)

Sin and the fellowship with God are not compatible with each other.

In the first chapter, he raised three presumptive questions, John strongly denounced those who justify their sinful life (1:6,8,10).  As children of God, no one should walk in the darkness of sin.

Nevertheless, such thinking has been with men since the fall. Cain killed a man and was justifying his murder

Genesis 4:23 Lamech said to his wives, "Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. 24 If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times."

Though he acknowledged God’s authority, he thought that he could get by without God’s punishment. Such thinking is also found in the church in Corinth (1 Cor 5:1-6; 6:12-20), the church in Rome (Rom 3:8; 6:1), and Jude’s letter to many churches (Jude 1:3-10).  Such inclination is the inherent nature of men in sin and that nature poses great havoc for believers on even after receiving God’s grace in Christ, who gave His body as a sacrifice to the Lord.

In order to deflect judgments on sins, men devised two very attractive ideas: Gnosticism, and Docetism.

The Gnostic idea is thought to come from the Orient long before the Christian era and it influenced Hellenistic thinking and then to Greco-Roman culture. Eventually, such thinking came to the church. It is an effort to find a solution for the disparagement on the finite and sinful body by the mind or spirit of man that searches something good and godly.  Salvation is to have the knowledge (gnosis) truth and the body and things that body do have little impact on one’s salvation or eternal life. In this way, such belief frees people from the burdens of sins committed to and by the body. In its essence, it is a dualism, that man is composed of body and spirit. Each of these two has a separate role and different fate. The distinctiveness of dualistic belief is a dissociation between spirit (or mind) and body. The problem of gnostic dualism is in its similarity to the biblical understanding of man for the Bible recognizes that man has body and soul/spirit.

The docetic idea is similar to the Gnostic understanding of man. But its understanding is directed against Jesus. They claim that Jesus only appeared to be a man but actually he came only as a spirit. Since he was just a spirit, the truth spoken through His bodily walk including his suffering on the cross is not applicable to us, men, in body and spirit.   

We daily struggle to overcome the power of sins of our body even when we want to do good; endless effort to mitigate the difference between the ungodly needs of body and the desires of our spirit has been made and yet unsuccessful. So, these reasonable offers to unload all the burdens of sin are very attractive and seem very plausible. Many have fallen into these untruthful traps. But then if these understandings are untrue, then how?  

At the fall of man, Adam, God charged Adam on two accounts: he listened to his wife even against God’s word and he reached out his hand and ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The disobedience of the mind/spirit came first and then the body, his hand reached out to pick from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. When Adam disobeyed God in action, there were no two different entities: ‘sinful body and no sinful mind/spirit’ working independently from each other. Also, rejection of God’s word in mind/spirit came first and then disobedience in action by reaching out his hand to the tree.

When God decided to wipe out the whole human race, God told Noah two reasons: their hearts are evil and they filled the world with violence (Gen 6:5, 11-12) In these two, we know that God saw the primary causes of sin is in the spirit that rejected God and only its outcome is rebellion in action.
In these two examples, God spoke clearly that the sin by the spirit cannot be separated from the sin by hands and actually they are one, the person under the power of sin.

This is well demonstrated and become evident in what and how Jesus lived for the sake of nullifying the power of sin in man.

When Jesus taught about entering the kingdom of God, he said to the people, “And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” (Mat 5:30 NIV) Jesus considered that man is one whole being, not an amalgam of two independent natures, body and soul. There would be only one choice, to enter the kingdom of heaven with his whole body or not.

When Jesus was on the cross, Jesus recognized the dualistic nature: Mark 14:38 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." But in obedience to the Father, he submitted his will to His father first (Mt 26:42b) and submitted his body to the will of the father by handing his life in the hand of evil men (Lk 23:46; "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.").  As much God is light and cannot tolerate darkness, so would God not tolerate any unbelief in and rebellion to Him and any life lived in that unbelief and rebellion bears.

When God called us, he did not just call our spirit to be his children. He accepted our being as a whole as His children.  Having laid out such truth, then how can we, the believers in Christ Jesus who walked the life of light, can walk in the light of Jesus, by doing away with sin? Or, how can we be in the light and stay as His children of light? Ch 2 John answers this question.

We know him and be with him by obedience

How can we?

3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.

The first ‘know’ is present active. It means that right now they are cognizant of a certain fact; the second ‘know’ in v3 and ‘know’ in v4 is perfect active. This means that at one point of their life, they obeyed and since that obedience they have come to know him personally. When was the first time of such experience? It is clear as we examine how the first disciples of Jesus came to know him. It was when the disciples came to accept Christ (Jn 14:23). Likewise, all entry to the faith in Jesus began with obedience to His word without exception. Also, we know that underneath this obedience, the first obedience was a deep love for Jesus (John 15:20).   Since then, and up to this time, they experienced an adding or enriching or deepening their understandings of God or relationship with him whenever they obeyed his commands. In other words, even small obedience to His word, God has imparted him the knowledge of God himself and they enjoyed having his relationship with the Lord more deepened and expended.  How can one come to know him and relate with Him and have fellowship with him? It is though one thing; obeying his command!  These experiences are living in their hearts as a living truth! As God noted the problem of Adam, the spirit and body has been corrupted and are to suffer death. But when we submit our spirit as well as our body in obedience to the Spirit of Christ, his spirit imparts us the power to change our spirit and to overcome the sinfulness of the body. What it means is well pictured in God’s command to honor him in Exo 24

 Exodus 20:24 "'Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. (Exo 20:24 NIV)

In order to come to him in His honor, one must offer a burnt offering, the entire animal, not leaving any part of the body behind, was to be burnt to the Lord. Here is a primordial picture of life-giving sacrifice that Jesus made on behalf of us sinners (Heb 10:8-9). Though he was the Son, he did this by obedience to the Father. Obedience is the only way to become pure and acceptable to God the Father of Holiness. This is the only way to let the light of God be upon our lives. Nevertheless, if one goes against the living truth in their lives, what would happen?

4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.

He is snubbing out that living truth and is giving himself into darkness, and become a liar. Such man cut himself off of his loving relationship with other believers and his Lord Jesus and God the father. God is still waiting; Jesus is still holding out his stretched arms for that person come to light; he is ready to hand over His grace forgiving that sin, behind which he wanted to hide in order to enjoy his sinful desires.  

Then when we obey, what would happen?

5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him:

When we obey his word, our love for God is made complete. We noted that our love for him prompted our obedience to him and that opened a solidifying relationship with the Lord. Now, in that obedience, our love for the Lord is made complete. In the Law of Moses, God commanded his people to love Him with all their hearts, soul, mind, spirit and strength. (Mark 12:30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.') The love that we have for the Lord cannot become complete unless we put an action in obedience to His command. If one obeys his command, then how can this one obedience make that love complete?

The word ‘complete’ (τελος=telos) has few meanings: perfect, complete, finish, reach one’s goal, and ‘fulfill’. Simply it is saying that what God commanded his people to do, to love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength, is met fully by one single act in obedience. Nothing else but obedience makes our love for the Lord complete. One’s obedience in love appeases the Lord fully and makes him very pleased. At the same time, anything other than our obedience cannot make our love to the Lord perfect. Also, when we obey his command, all else will be in His hand and He is obligated to do what God promised to do in His covenant!

What does this teach us? We are to do everything in obedience to the Lord! Since the command is to love others, when we do anything or everything in our love for others, then our love for the Lord is complete in us and we are in Him! Then what is the love that Jesus taught is to do?

6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

That love is the kind of love that Jesus did for us sinners. Mother loves her children. Father loves his children. Brothers love his brothers and sister. These are the prime examples of love that we can find in good humanity. Nevertheless, quite often, all these kinds of love fall through because of fear for their lives and care for their wellbeing. We all are desperately in need of the love of others. Being keenly aware of these human predicaments, we all call for love of others and many beliefs of the world also commend and encourage to love others. But the love that God commands us to do is not one of those loves which the people of the world are living out. Jesus came to show what the love that God was talking about. At the last meeting with his disciples on the night before his arrest, Jesus taught his disciples the love that Jesus would give to them and that they were to follow.

 John 13:14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ..17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

By washing the feet of his disciples, Jesus displayed the kind of love that he was about to do for them through his arrest, suffering, and death on the cross. He explained the essence of this love;

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command.

In love for us sinners, Jesus laid down his life; He gave His life for us by taking upon himself the suffering and death. So, the love that Jesus taught for us is life-giving love. All fall short of this love because of fear for their lives but only for us or in us, this love is made possible because Jesus showed that love and that love is in us in power and as a living truth.

John 21:15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" "Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."  (Joh 21:15 NIV)

After showing and giving the life-giving love for the disciples, Jesus came back asked Peter if he loved Jesus. Jesus knew that in the depth of Peter’s heart was the deepest love, that he could never understand and imagined before, was percolating like the geyser in Yellowstone Park.  Jesus pleading with him to live by that love. That love in him was to be for Jesus’ sheep.

Simple obedience to Jesus command opens for us a totally different world; the world of God’s love and God’s holiness and God’s amazing grace; filled with hope, power, and energy to transcend all odds and evils of our lives and to thwart evil and ungodly schemes and powers of this world.

How can we begin obedience anew?

First, we are to remember the love for Jesus that we had in the beginning (3). The memory of the first love will serve us as the source of the truth about the cross and of the power of God’s grace throughout our lives.

In cherishing the love and joy of the first obedience, we must put into action anew in obedience. When one makes the first obedience, then the next one would be much easier and the next to the next one would be much joyful one. If one has broken this chain of obedience, he has to restart again. Start with a small thing; when I was young, I was smart in my foolishness. I would not do anything that was not reasonable to my mind. Though many things I did was reasonable to me, many of them were not reasonable to Rebekah. I had and still have a very different set of what is good and reasonable. She was not happy that I did not brush my teeth before going to sleep and immediately after waking up from long night sleep. She kept on insisting on me to do brush my teeth in the morning and in the evening and even after lunch. I could not stand with her disdainful feeling over this matter. So, one day I decided to obey what she told me to do. As soon as I woke up, I brushed my teeth, and again before going to bed. I felt good not only because she was happy but also because I felt fresh and problems of mouth sore disappeared and mouth smell was gone. She told me to do many other things; I began to listen to her and do what she told me to do. I could pick up so many good habits by obeying her words. I came to see that she is a wonderful wife and a good trainer for a good and truthful life. What I mean is that the first obedience to her word changed totally my understanding and relationship with her. So are our relationship with the Lord.

Obedience begets obedience for it brings a new joy in Him.  I pray that you make a new obedience today! Start from a small thing; What about a five min prayer as soon as you get up in the morning? What about coming early for the worship service and prepare things for others? What about going to work 10 min before the time and do something in love for others? Though these are very small things, in these small things, God imparts us joy that we never knew before and also empowers our spirit to follow him more and more.

Repeated obedience builds our habit and our character and then our confidence. Jesus spoke about this in Mat 7:24-25:

24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. Mat 7:

Unless we begin the first obedience again today, we may not be able to begin at all. But when we begin the first one anew, then we come to know and assured that we are in Him. We can build more and more on this ‘know’. Many more obedience to follow and then to live by faith and obedience.  Our decision to obey will lead us to a habit and habit will build our character and our godly character will solidify our confidence in life; that life will and shall not shake even in time of life crisis. The certainty of victory is ours and, in this certainty, we can challenge all hardship of life; no problem!!

B.      Love your brothers and sisters and you will not stumble (7-11)  

We must refresh our understanding and memory again to restart life of obedience

7 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.

When Jesus met with his disciples last time before his death, Jesus taught the command;

John 13:34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

When they came to know Christ, they were taught of Jesus’ love and they accepted His love for them and they have followed this command till now. Now he is telling them again this command.

8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

The power of the truth becomes more evident when the light shines into the darkest of the darkness. The truth, the light, that Jesus gave on the cross is far clearer and far more powerful and far more distinctly clear for them because His love living in their lives are powerfully reflective of the love Jesus showed on the cross. How could the light of this love shine more now? The truth of love has been and it is now among us; now is the time to go through the dark time of confusion. 

9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.

11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

Here John describes what was going on at the time of this writing. Hate against each other and even among the believers were getting deep and spreading wide. So he came back and stated strongly in v9 and repeated again in v11. At this time, things got tight, and everyone was after their own interest. When many are put under the stress from persecutions, the darkness of hate become more intense and spreading. When one lost the guiding light of love, he or she lost the sense of direction. He is totally confused. He is walking in darkness.

In between these two sentences, he said very strongly how they could avoid stumbling in this dark time:

10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.

The real test of our faith comes when everyone is after their own interest in their survival. It is rare to see the love, the life-giving love. In such a tight situation, we must discern what is the way of light in Jesus. We much choose the light; instead of what the world is going after or the wisdom that our inner desire speaks of.  In this dark time, it is hard to discern what is the way, the right way for every one chooses anything other than love as the map for their lives. But long before things get so tight and even unbearable, we have built our discerning ability by loving others in obedience, we can navigate through this dark time.  When we love our brothers and sisters, we can never fail though we may not have much discerning ability to understand the time of darkness. Only love overcome the power of death and lead us to Him who is the true light.  In this regard again, we need to decide to obey his word/his command to love. 

C.      We are His children and should reject anything belong to the world (12-17).

You have proof of God’s children

So far John talked about how to live out the life in God/in Christ.  We are to walk in the light. In this second part, John taught the believers who they were. He is talking about their identity.

12 I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.

First, John called them that they all are the children of God.  All these demands and teachings that he is writing to them is because they are children of God. In other words, all the teachings so far are not about how to become the children of God but how to live a life as children of God. The evidence of the fact that they are the children of God is that their sins are forgiven on account of Jesus’ name. On the night before his arrest, Jesus made clear that his disciples are already clean by His word (John 15:3) and had become his children. He confirmed this again in his prayer to the Father (17:9-10).  This is the foundational truth for all believers.

We are saved not because what we did do something or did not do anything but because of one thing; Jesus forgave our sins by his own blood. We cannot add or detract anything from this truth. Our life foundation is not laid in what we do or do not do but in Jesus, the Son of God, and God's will to adopt us as his children and to impart His life for us.  This is clearer by using the word in defining the relationship between his followers and God; children-father. Father-children are an inseparable relationship. When we are born through our parents, our relationship with our parent is sealed. We cannot change no matter what we do. It cannot be erased or undone or nullified. This is because our parents bore us and we are born as their children. Likewise, we are born into God’s family for God bore us as His children. For in the past we were children of the world.   We did not know God and did not know His son Jesus. We lived as our own man. But God saved us and cleansed us to be his children. Also, this tells them that they are to live and to walk with the father for He is their father. Ultimately, they are to join with him in His house. Until that time, they are to take this journey with a distinctive identification; the children of God, though many a time they might not meet his expectations and fall into sin.

Second, the primary focus of these teachings is for their walk as the children of God. A rightful and commendable walk is to obey the command to love brothers and sisters.  How had God walked worked in their lives and how did they fair in their walk with the Lord? To know this with clarity will assist them greatly in their walk from this point on. What are the current results that reflect the works of God and their efforts? 

13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.

He divided his children into two groups; fathers and young men. Fathers knew Jesus who existed before the beginning of the world and worked for the creation of the beginning of the world. Fathers knew well of Jesus’ transcend nature as the Lord of heaven and earth.  In other words, they accepted Jesus as the foundation of the world and set their lives in Him. This knowing serves as irrefutable evidence in their heart that they are children of God. 

Young men are young relative to their fathers. Their experience and understanding are not as thorough and deep as fathers. But they have stayed with Jesus by overcoming all the temptations of the world; temptations from within and from without. They persevered the hardships through these temptations. This is the proof of the fact that God is with them and they are the children of God the father.

D.      Reject the world as you have lived in the light (14-17)

These are the current status of the children. But he reemphasized this truth again in the next verse;

14 I write to you, dear children because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. (1Jo 2:14 NIV)

John repeated what he said in v12-13 with more emphasis on the fact that in each of these groups has, within themselves, distinctive marks of being children of God. As the children of God, the distinctive mark is knowing the Father or having a relationship with the Father. The people of the world have no idea of him or no relationship with him. But as the distinctive mark within themselves, they know the father in an inseparable bond.  As fathers, they knew Jesus’ transcend power and authority to be the holder of truth and life, and as young men, the power of the words of God that enable them to overcome the evil.

These marks in them serve as clear evidence that they had overcome the world and they are to overcome the world though it is getting worse.

We all, at one point of our lives in Christ, failed to obey His commands and fell into sin. But those weaknesses and failures in no way should serve to nullify what God had done and has been doing and is now doing in each of our lives. God’s grace and power that began when we come to know Christ is still at work in our lives. God’s will for us is clear: he wants us all to be with him in time as holy and righteous; Jesus our Lord in his name we are counted and saved as His children is working on behalf of this; he shines his light of life into the depth our hearts; He does this by the cross he bore and by the love that he showed, and by the truth that he taught.

Why should they hold on to this evidence and should not ignore these witnesses in the depth of their hearts?  

15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

Earlier, we recognized that obedience is the entry to God’s blessing and only by obeying God’s commands, we come to know Him. At the same time, we also recognized that the underneath of obedience there is love, unbridled love for Jesus and God.

Love is not an intellectual element of our being. It is a matter of one’s heart or one’s affect. We may call it the inclination of one’s heart. When one loves the world, there is no room for the love of God. The world rejected God and God condemns the things of the world wrong, evil and ungodly. So, we can love only one. We were born into this world. We were born to love the world. And we had tried many things in our love for the world. But since we were reborn in God through Christ, we died to the world and became alive in God. Nevertheless, we still have an old body and affection for the world still looms within us and around us.  The world is antithetical to all that God stood for. It belongs to Satan. Any love for the world robs us of our spirit to love the Lord.  By all means, we must deny any love for the world. It comes through our lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of our life.  No matter how we look at these, they are of the world and do not help us in any way to walk in the light of Jesus. Jesus made this unambiguously clear when he let the people of sin crucify and gave his boy on the cross, even to the point of death. Also, we know that those who crucified ran their pride in full force to the detriment of their soul. None of us should follow their steps. We must choose one. The choice must be decidedly clear; not the world but God for we must overcome the world and for we will surely enter into the world of God.