Love and Hatred
Summary
Dominic Jackson continues our journey through 1 John by exploring what it means to live in the light through the command to love. Though John calls it both an “old” and “new” command, the heart of it is simple: love one another. But this love is not a vague sentiment or shallow tolerance; it’s a love defined by the life and self-giving of Jesus. When we withhold love, John says, we walk in darkness, no matter what we claim to believe. To walk in the light is to live in a way that makes space for others to be seen, known, and welcomed. This passage challenges us to ask whether we are just avoiding hate or actively practicing love.
Questions for reflection
How does Jesus’ example of love reframe your understanding of what it means to live in the light?
What does John mean when he says the command to love is both “old” and “new”?
How do you distinguish between passively avoiding hate and actively choosing love?
Where in your life are you being invited to move toward someone in love, even if it’s costly or inconvenient?
Are there ways you may be walking in relational darkness without realizing it?
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Our passage today is 1 John 2:7-11. “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, yet I'm writing you a new command. It's truth is seen in him and in you because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 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.” This is the word of the Lord.
We continue our series this morning looking at the letter of one John, and it's really like a sermon in a lot of ways. John is the last apostle of Jesus who is still alive at this point. All of the rest of them, that original group, have been hunted down, murdered, and he's the last one. He's probably in his late eighties, more than likely early nineties. At this point. He lived according to church history, to be about a hundred years old. And he has been imprisoned. He was tortured. He was boiled alive at one point. Sorry for that visual, but they just could not kill this guy. And then he was cast out to live for years on an island by himself. And so here he is, he finds himself finally released. He makes his way back home and he's old. He's essentially an ex-con at this point.
His body has been badly beaten and he returns to the church, a church that he saw at its inception, and he saw what would become of the Jesus movement. He saw what happened when people took the departing words of Jesus in Matthew 28, seriously when they heard it as a great commission and not a great suggestion. And so he saw firsthand this small group of believers transform into a church network into multiple locations, into missions trips, into thousands and thousands of believers spreading out across the land. And now he's back and he's at the same church is now being led by grandchildren and great grandchildren of that original crew, some of his closest friends, and again, many of which who were martyred for their faith. And so John comes back and he sees some wonderful faithful believers looking for discipleship, for direction, continuing the gospel mission, but he also sees some false teachers and some heresies that has made its way into the church.
Of course, state the obvious here. I'm nowhere near John's level, but as a preacher, the difficulty of preaching to a room of more than two people is some people need to be challenged. Some people need an encouraging word, some need a tender invitation and a loving word. Others, others need a kick in the pants. Well, often the preacher himself, me needs all of the above at the same time. And so here is John and he's speaking to all of these folks somehow with the grace and loving and correcting and rebuking and power of God all at the same time. You'll notice that John refers to as audience, often as children or little ones or his favorite term, beloved. He uses that over and over, and this is of course a term of endearment of love. Remember, he's almost a hundred years old speaking to them.
He's a spiritual grandfather and a hero, especially in this church, in this culture. This was a message of love. In fact, according to the Eastern Orthodox tradition and church history, there's tradition that says that right before the end of John's life, right before he was buried in Ephesus, the leaders in the church would carry him around from meeting to meeting different congregations in the area. They would pick him up and move him around because of his age and his ailments. And so of course people would flock to these churches. I mean, the last living apostle was going to speak the last person to walk with Jesus in that original group of disciples was going to be preaching that day. And so John would be lifted up and he would face the crowd and everyone would quiet down and lean in a little bit, and he would say probably in a quiet voice, he would preach a sermon.
He would say, little children love Christ, love one another. And that's it. That was the sermon. That was all he had to say. Some of you are jealous and wishing your pastor would speak a similar length sermon. I'm not as old or wise, but this was John's primary message, and you'll see this theme over and over in this letter. Even when the church began to kick out the heretics gnostics, he still continued speaking with his last breaths. Children love God, love each other. Some commentators recognize a difference between the two. Most prolific New Testament writers each writing about a quarter of the New Testament, John and Paul Paul writing most of the New Testament letters known as the Paul lean epistles. And then of course, John authoring the gospel according to John first, second and third John. And then the last book of the scriptures, the apocalyptic narrative revelation.
And what many scholars have noticed is the difference in style, but also the difference in tone. Paul writes to the church, John writes to the family, and so today we gather around as a family, imagine all of us leaning in a bit with the wise words of a great grandfather, all of us knowing perhaps this might be the last time that he's with us in his presence. And so all of us, we have his words here and in them, the words of his Lord, our Lord in them, his friend, our friend, Christ Jesus. Last week we talked about gnosticism. I shared my thoughts on both two different sides of the thoughts and prayer tweets that will often go out following tragedy. And sadly, in the last seven days, there have been multiple tragic events in our country, but also across the world. But even before this last week, we looked at the sin of both minimizing the power of prayer while also casting out blanket prayers without action and how all of that comes down to ultimately our Christology, who we believe Jesus is.
If we view Christ as too human and not divine, not God, or if we view Jesus as the gnostics did, as all spirit, but distant, absent from humans, absent as a human. Both of these are dangerous beliefs and destructive to not only our theology but our reality of God. And so an absent-minded thoughts and prayers tweets with without looking for how God might desire to use us collectively and individually as a vessel to answer those very prayers is just as harmful as the one who mocks, a person who goes to God in their prayers and welcomes him into their thoughts, whether in mourning, grieving, desperation or worship. Next week we talk about the antichrist, which won't be controversial at all. Kidding, I'm going to clear out my inbox in anticipation for Internets heresy hunters or social media trolls or possibly well-meaning Theo, I'm ready. This week we discuss brotherly and sisterly love.
And if you like me, as I was preparing, as we're reading through one John verse by verse, as I came across this for this week's message, I assumed we would have some reprieve, a softball sermon, a breath of fresh air in between John calling people liars last week and us talking about the antichrist next week. And you think, okay, we could sing We are the world or Colors of the Wind, or whatever your favorite kumbaya song is, right? And recognize, yeah, it's important to love each other. We should keep on doing that. What's for lunch, right? Unfortunately, I think it's going to be a bit more challenging than that. So before we look at our text, let's pray.
Lord, all jokes aside as we look at your word for us today, a message of loving one another. Lord, it's hard not to feel discouraged, overwhelmed, and effective, even lost Lord to our nation. Our world feels more divided than ever, and we see this even in the church, in your church, we're at a place where when a public story of violence and hatred breaks out, we need to clarify which story we're even talking about because there's so much of it. Or just in the last seven days, protests and unrest in the uk, everything happening in Nepal, the continued countless deaths and bombs and famine in the Gaza Strip, Russia's presence in Poland, tensions in Thailand and Brazil within their own governments, not to mention everything happening in our own backyard, racial tension, ice raids, families being split apart, multiple school shootings, murder of Charlie Kirk, as well as not even that long ago, Melissa Hortman and her husband being assassinated. Lord, I admit that. I don't even know what to say. I don't even know what to pray. Just come Holy Spirit, sit not just with the brokenhearted or cry with the hurting, but stand with the brave and the just lead us. Help us cannot do this apart from you. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
I like many of you probably have been praying a lot this week and I was praying that somehow this text, these words that we would be looking at would meet us where we are and would somehow, somehow bring hope and healing. And I still believe that and I still pray for that. But what I found and continue to find, at least in my own life, my own walk with Jesus is often the scriptures, at least for me and how God is currently growing me. Often the healing comes after a challenge and today's message is a message of love. But I'll admit it's also a hard pill to swallow. And I don't know where that term comes from a hard pill to swallow, but I would assume it has something to do with a difficult medication for an even more difficult ailment. And that's just what I think this text is. So let's take a look at it one more time and we're going to move through it that Kindra read for us. Again, we are in one John chapter two, verse seven. If you want to follow along with your copy of the scriptures or the words will be on the screen.
Dear friends, this is John speaking. I'm 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 that I'm 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. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness, they do not know where they're going because the darkness has blinded them. If you were here last week, this probably sounds a lot. There's these themes that keep coming up.
This sounds a lot like our text from last week where John writes, this is the message we have heard from him. And declare to you God is light in him. There is no darkness at all if we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness. We lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus' son purifies us from all sin. And so last week John was saying, if we have fellowship with Jesus, with Christ, if we are in relationship with him, if we have a connection to him, if we love Jesus, we are in the light. And if we are not, then we are in the dark. And then he continues by saying in today's text, in order to be in that light, in order to love God, if anyone who says they're in the light or by default anyone who says they love God but they hate a brother or sister, then they're not actually in the light.
They're lying, lying to themselves, lying to one another, lying to God. There seems to be some sort of connection. John is implying actually he's not even implying. He's saying, there is a connection with my relationship, how I love God and how I love you and how I love others. And somehow the more we love, the more light we are in and the less we do seemingly of either the more darkness we're in. But this of course brings up all kinds of questions, at least for me. For example, darkness. Are we talking about evil sin? Are we talking about Satan? Are we talking about hell? What exactly is John talking about? Is he just being poetic here? Also, doesn't John say elsewhere the gospel of John to be exact, that darkness does not understand the light or cannot comprehend it, or your translation might say it cannot overcome it because there seems to be a clear line between the light and the dark.
And if that's true, is it one or the other? Can we have one foot and one and one foot out? Can we maybe I have a strong dislike of a brother or a sister? Does that constitute as hatred as long as it's not outright hating that person? Where is the line here? Which side note for our philosophy club on Thursday, if you're interested, this is the topic of discussion. We're meeting up at a brewery and talking about all the problems of the world as you do. But the question that we're going to be talking about is do the ends justify the means? We'll talk about Robinhood and time travel and one of the most heartbreaking scenes in any film where I still don't know what exactly is right and wrong in it. We'll save that for Thursday, but trying to decide what is good and what is evil in every worldview and in our text here isn't always as clear as it might seem.
How about one more question, the one that we probably all want to know, who is a brother or sister referring to here? Is it just talking about other believers, the universal church, capital C, just our church, little C. Is an atheist, a brother, a Mormon, or is John only talking about other believers here? Our Baptists and Lutherans equally brothers and sisters are we as most of us as Protestants, just step siblings to Catholics? I mean, all jokes aside, where is the line here? What constitutes a brother or a sister? This morning I'd like to propose two ways to look at this text. One you probably assume and another one perhaps you don't. And I'd like to propose how this text is just as much about cosmology as it is unity. So first, a little bit about light. John talks a whole lot about light. This theme keeps coming up over and over.
John says, God is light. Is he being poetic here, or can we learn things about God through light? Well, first notice Jesus is called light. He's also called love, which we'll get to shortly. But notice he is by essence the very definition of these things. For example, I am a dad. I am an Irish American. I am 40 years old. However, being a dad and middle aged man, as weird as that is to say it's true, I should accept it. And racially and ethnically, the individual are things about me. However, I do not give definition to these qualifiers. They help give aspects of me, but that's it. But this is not the case with God. John doesn't call him illuminating or brightly or light like he is light and he is not called loving or a good example of love or lovable. He is the very definition of love.
And why I love that John calls God light is because of the unchangeability of light. Let me nerd out on you for 30 seconds. If a car is traveling at a speed of 30 miles per hour, flashbacks to high school, if a car is traveling at a speed of 30 miles per hour straight towards you, and you decide to run in the opposite direction, as I'm sure most of us would do, and let's say that you could run at 10 miles per hour away from this car when you are standing still, the car was moving at 30 miles per hour, but now you're moving, the speed in which the car is moving at you is 20 miles per hour, right? Simple math problem there. And we know this based on a Newtonian understanding of the universe, and we were taught that there are boundaries and rules on how everything works.
Plug in the equation, list the variables, and here's your solution. But the problem is the universe doesn't always follow these rules. For example, light travels at 671 million miles per hour. Somebody counted. And so instead of a car, if light were traveling at you, a photon of light was flying straight at you and you're standing in the exact same street and you decide to run away for whatever reason, whether you run one mile per hour, 10 miles per hour, a hundred miles per hour, somehow you're a mutant or something. It does not matter. Light travels at the exact same speed. This of course, is an aspect of Einstein's theory of relativity, but the reason that I'm sharing this is because light doesn't change based on what the light is touching. We do not dictate how bright or fast or good light is based on how good or fast or dark we may be.
Light remains the same and God being light. We see this other characteristic of God as completely unchangeable, which is great news, especially for any of us Christians who are always searching the Bible for fine prints to make sure God hasn't changed his mind or included qualifications to his love. God's love, his grace isn't faster or stronger depending on how fast we can run or how little or big our sin is. It just isn't. God doesn't change. Additionally, I think another reason John, as well as other writers in the scriptures uses this light and dark motif as a picture of God. And sin is because light is not only healing. Think about plants and people and everything else that needs to grow requiring light. Light isn't just healing or helpful, it's also revealing. There's many verses, but I just pulled a few. Ephesians five 11, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
Daniel 2 22, he reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with him or Jesus speaking in Luke 12, two, everything that is hidden will be shown, and everything that is secret will be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in an inner room will be shouted from the rooftops. I think the reason John uses light and dark and why we see light as good and darkness as evil, I mean, think about pretty much every scary movie you've ever watched. They always take place at night. Why kids are naturally afraid of the dark is because darkness is the easiest place to hide. And it's not just for villains or monsters, even within all of us. When we sin, the temptation is to keep our sins in the dark, to keep it hidden.
And so something good like light can actually be scary or not seem good for us. I mean, I can't help but think about cockroaches like scurrying away. When someone turns on the light, a light is shined on them. The reason darkness is enticing is because we can hide in it. So how do you know if we are living in the light or the dark? Yes, our relationship with God and yes, our relationship with one another. But I think what also can point to where we gravitate of those two options is how we respond to sin, how we see sin, how we justify sin. Isaiah five 20 says, woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.
Someone who lives in the dark who wants to remain in the dark will convince themselves that something evil is actually good. And so when something evil happens, you can twist it and justify it even though deep down you know what it is. And so someone in the light would cease sin as harmful for us, and we might pray and confess, Lord, cleanse me, rescue me, shine a light on this thing that is poisoning me. Or someone in the dark will tell ourselves it's where we want to be or it's what's best for us, or why artificial light is just as good as God's light, the true light or why sin isn't really that bad, or at least not as bad as it could be. So what does any of this have to do with our relationships one another? What does any of this have to do with brotherly and sisterly love?
The second part of John's message here, well, remember John connects light with loving God and loving one another. And I have to confess, I have to tell you that this is probably the hardest part of scripture for me to read. And I will confess that I believe in Jesus and I believe in his power, and I believe I'm one of those wacky people who believe in all of those miracles that I read. I actually read them as literal, and I've seen miracles in my own life take place in other people's lives. But even still sometimes I wonder if my faith is strong enough to believe that the church as divided as it is, could ever be brought back to unity according to the Bible, one day it will be. But when I read that, I think that sounds like more of a miracle than turning water into wine, frankly, or a dead guy coming back from the dead or the king of kings defeating death.
Some days that seems more like a miracle. I mean, just go on the internet. Just listen to how people talk about other denominations or even read church history. Recently, a church in Idaho made the news. There was a split recently over a woman doing a SL during the service for the deaf community. And since this church didn't believe in women teaching, the congregation was split whether or not this constituted preaching and the church literally split in half over this. And it isn't just preaching. Church is split over music style, theology, politics all the time. The attacks that I read this week from brothers and sisters, many of which I have worshiped alongside publicly demonizing one another. One aspect of church unity that I never considered until recently is the message. This light sends into the dark. Because typically when I think about passages like this one, I think I should be nicer and I should strive for unity.
I should be trying to get along with other people, even people who are hard to get along with. I know that I should be getting along with other believers. I should be getting along with everyone because it's not good for me to hold onto that and it's not good for them. But something I never really considered until recently is how my disunity hurts more people than just me and the other party, how disunity actually has major effects on more than just two people bickering for years. I would sit around wondering, what would it take for my friends who I love dearly? What would it take for them to come to know Jesus? What would it take for them to be opening open to joining a church community? What would it take for them to believe? And I would sit around and I would daydream, and I would come up with these silly hypotheticals, which I admit are silly of if I were God, how I would accomplish this, how an unbelieving world outside of divine intervention could possibly come to know Christ.
And again, this is silly, I know, but I'll sit around and think, what if every time a person came to faith, they instantly became healthy or something, right? Instantly were healed of any ailment they had. Or what if I don't know, what if a person who came to faith could instantly perform miracles and have these superpowers, and I would go through all these flawed, unrealistic unbiblical, by the way, things of how if I were God, I would try and convince other people to put their faith in Jesus. But here's what's interesting. John actually writes the perfect evangelism model. Here's the perfect method. He gives it to all of us. John, details exactly what it would take to convince your loved ones or far from God, your neighbors, your friends. And here's the thing, it doesn't take raffling off cars or iPads or having a celebrity preacher or giving people the desires of their hearts to try and bribe or trick them into faith, into the light according to the gospel, according to John.
And chapter 17, he writes, and I want you just to imagine this for a moment, and I warn you, it will take a big imagination, at least it does for me more than superpowers or walking on water or anything else. But just picture this as he's writing, verse 20, this is Jesus talking. My prayer is not for them alone. Jesus prays. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me, I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one I in them and you and me, so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me according to Jesus, Jesus himself.
It will be our unity that will make the world believe and not just being nice or putting aside our differences. Jesus even says that it is possible that you and I and the people I can't stand will be as close to one another as he is with the Father. I can't even imagine that. And it take a radical love, a unity unlike anything this world has ever seen, a loving family, a light that never goes out that will make others want to know what it is that is holding us together, Christ in us. Jesus says in this that it is being brought to unity as close as the Trinity is that it will be this unification of the church that the world will come to know him.
And if you think about it, it actually makes sense. I mean, imagine you live somewhere. Imagine you move to a new neighborhood and maybe you're not really a religious person. Maybe you're not really sure what it is you believe or are not that interested in faith or religion. And imagine that you move here and you have two neighbors on either side of you, and one of them is part of a community, a faith tradition, and they're pretty much like everyone else. They're nice enough. They're marriage looks like anyone else's. They argue online just as much as anyone else. They spend their money the same. They yell at their kids the same, they watch the same sports, vote the exact same way, hate all the same people that everyone else seems to hate, love all the same things and people that everyone else seems to love.
But then you have this other neighbor on the other side of you, and maybe they're a little weird and maybe they believe in a few strange things that you can't really wrap your mind around. But you have to admit there is something about them. Their marriage is, it's not perfect, but it's a beautiful picture of love. It's warm, it's forgiving, it's unrelenting. And of course, they don't know that you could actually hear into their house, but you hear how they speak to their kids. And again, they aren't perfect, but those kids know that they are deeply loved and known and cherished. And you catch this family inviting people into their home constantly. People, they look different than people who are hurting, struggling, need help, but this family at the same time can also throw the best parties. Their joy is contagious. And when you lost your job, they were the first to show up with groceries when others polarized you based on how you voted based on the sign or the flag in your yard.
They didn't speak any differently of you or to you when you got a new job and a promotion. They showed up with balloons and champagne. And you think, I don't know a lot about Jesus, but from what I read, being with these people is the closest thing I think I could imagine him looking like. And I don't know what I believe. I have lots of questions about the Bible, and I'm not ready to join the worship band or anything, but I have to admit, whatever these people have going on over there, I want some of that. And I imagine a person walking in today, two gateway and talking with the person next to them and then going upstairs and talking to the people who live above us, and then going on the street and talking to the people who live around us, and then coming back and meeting more people here, and then quickly realizing that these people, us, in a lot of ways have a lot of things little in common, a lot of differences about us politically, socioeconomically, educationally, racially, and they don't seem to always agree on things, this group of people, and they aren't perfect.
But when I am with them, I cannot explain it. I feel accepted and welcomed. They're genuine, they're generous, they're authentic. They're humble. They're kind. They seek justice. They're growing. They're learning. They're faithful. What would that do? What message would that share? What would a church look like, not just to the outside world, but to us that was rooted in light and love? What would that look like? I think it would look a lot like Jesus. And so we're given an opportunity, and this opportunity is our message, our message to each other, our message to the outside world, our message to God about what we actually believe about him, about the church, about others, about the lost, about injustice, about the hurting, about his message, and his plan for redemption and reconciliation. Let's pray.
Holy Spirit illuminate, illuminate around us and in us. Shine your light in us on the darkness that all of us have, where we have held hatred or malice for others. Let us see how big our little actions and thoughts actually are, and how our comments and beliefs about others, even the judgment we hold, doesn't just harm us. It harms those who need you the most. Lord, bring healing to this world, but also Lord to us. Lord, examine our hearts. Start with me. God, any judgment or condemnation I have held for other believers, I repent. Help us to seek unity, to seek love, to seek light. Help us to seek you. Pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.