A believer
who professes to have a relationship with God must live a life that
demonstrates that reality. In nine verses John urged us to do two things to be
obedient and loving people. In verses 3-6 he dealt with the need to be obedient.
He said believers who claimed to know God must keep His commandments. Not
keeping His commandments will prove that the truth is not in that person. On
the other hand, keeping the instructions of God will indicate that the believer
has matured in his love for God. Verse 6 tells us that a person who has a
relationship with God patterns his life after that of Christ and live out the
example He had set.
From verses 7-11, John proceeded
to deal with the area of loving one another. Note that this call to love one another
is not a new one. It is found at the very heart of the Old Covenant. The Lord
Jesus Himself emphasized it in His ministry.
He summed it this way: you shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart, with all your soul, with all your might, and with all your strength; and
you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Here, John was in effect saying
that to love is not a new commandment but it was at the heart of the Old
Covenant. He assured us that as we believers obey that commandment and love one
another, the darkness would fade and get dimmer as the light shines greater.
The objective of this light-darkness discussion is to show that one cannot walk
in darkness and light at the same time. To love is to walk in the light; to
hate is to walk in darkness. To hate another fellow believer would indicate
that a person is still in darkness and has been blinded by it.
If we find loving our fellow
believers a difficult thing to do, think of how Christ has loved us. None of us
can claim to be the loveliest person, yet Christ loves us unconditionally. The
Bible said that He commended His love towards us while we were yet sinners. He
left us an example to emulate – let’s seek to love like He loves!
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