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Title: Two Foundations (Part One)
Today we will be looking at part one of a two part sermon dealing with John’s profound expansion of the idea of God’s love. As I have done countless times before, I began by trying to write a sermon containing both ideas, a sermon focusing on verses 10-15, but I got stuck on the first point, and just kept writing and praying, and, as I tend to do, I decided not to short change our examination, or to preach for an hour, but rather to break the passage into two section, and today we will tackle the first.
Just to bring us up to speed, the main idea that we looked at last week was the concept that actions come from motivations. The way that we worded that was to say that good fruit comes from good trees and bad fruit comes from bad trees.
In other words, the works of someone’s life are the results, not the causes. The causes are the tree, the plant, the roots. What we do is caused by our motivations. And today John takes that a step further by looking at two foundations of truth found elsewhere in Scripture.
I find passages like the ones that we are looking at today fascinating, and here is why: What we are really reading today is an excellent sermon, an excellent exegesis by John of another part of scripture.
Put another way: John is analyzing and preaching from other texts, and we know we can trust his words because they to are scripture. John takes these two passages and offers us further insight into our own motivations and deeds.
So let us begin.
(Read 10-11)
I. Foundation One: Christ’s Commandment to Love One Another
The first of the two foundations that John builds on come from the words of Christ himself which John quotes in his earlier gospel:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
-John 13:34-35
So what John does here is extend the idea of what it means to actually practice righteousness. Now, up until this point in I John, the idea of righteousness has focused almost exclusively on the idea of sin, personal conduct, discipline, and what we are to avoid.
Here, John expands that into the second great command of Christ by saying that righteousness before God includes loving your brother. Now the focus is shifting from us and God to us and other people.
In other words, it is not enough if we honor God by abstaining from sin, but do not show love to our brother.
It is not enough if we have amazing times of intimate prayer, but do not show love to our brother.
It is not enough if we accomplish great things for the Kingdom, but do not show love for our brother.
Paul said as much when he said in I Corinthians 13, “If I have all these things, if I can do all these things, but have not love, I am nothing.” (Paraphrase)
Let me attempt to put a bow on our first point by explaining it this way: Up until now in John’s letter, much of the idea of righteousness and holy behavior focused on the abiding relationship between us and God, and our constant struggle to remain, to abide, in his will. Now, John expands that and says, “And don’t forget, Christ gave two pinnacle commands. The first was to love him above all else. The second was to love each other. You can only truly love your brother if the love of God abides in you. And if you don’t love your brother, the love of God is not in you, and, therefore, you are not one of God’s children.”
POINT: Here is the first great piece of fruit that John uses to evaluate the health of our roots. How do you love other people?
I don’t want to over-simplify the truth that John is laying out for others, but when I’m evaluating where I stand spiritually, whether I’m spiritually healthy or spiritually starving, I know a great thermometer to gauge the reality of my spiritual status can be to ask the some very simple questions:
1. How am I loving my wife this week?
2. How am I loving my daughter this week?
3. How am I reacting to other’s inconvenient requests this week?
4. How am I loving my co-workers?
5. Have I remembered to call Mama?
6. How am I loving my neighbor?
If my answers to those questions are negative, it is, without fail, a sure sign I haven’t had good prayer, good devotions, or good discipline this week. When I succumb to, or struggle with, sin, all six of those are adversely affected.
And the opposite is also true: When I am in good communion with my creator, doing those six things are the most natural things in the world.
Conclusion statement: You can’t separate your love for God and your love for your brother. If one is bad, so is the other. If one is good, so is the other. How you love your brother shows how you love God.
Q/A?