Love the Brothers (1 John 2:7-11)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you. God is light. In Him, there is no darkness at all. This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. Good morning. Our church has four pastors. In 1 Peter, it says that Jesus is the chief shepherd. So we think that we have a senior pastor is Christ and that we're an elder team.
We're a team of pastors. We don't have a senior pastor. We have four pastors. Two of us have the privilege of being able to work full-time for our church, and two of our pastors have other jobs and still serve our church as much as they can. Spencer and I take turns preaching. And it's not to take turns.
He preaches about half the time. I preach about half the time. We go back and forth. This week, he was slated to preach this sermon. We walk through it together on Tuesday. We always one person writes and preps everything, and then we work on them together to make sure that we're not completely out of bounds on something.
You know, if you make up a new bit of theology, it's probably wrong. So we just try to make sure that we're on the same page, and the Spirit's leading us in unity on that. And he walked through it on Tuesday, and it was so bad that he gave himself COVID so he wouldn't have to preach it. I say that to say this. If you've ever heard one of my sermons that I had a lot of time to prepare and plan for, and had someone help me work on and make sure it was organized, and still thought that was a bit all over the place, buckle up. We're going to be in 1 John chapter 2.
We're walking through 1 John together this morning. We're going to study verses 7 through 11 together. One of my favorite things about getting to ride around in small towns is to see the signs that small towns put up for the things that they're bragging about. Like, Irmo, you ride through, and it's like, the home of the okra strut. Well, good for you, Irmo. When I was working pools for my parents growing up, I would have to ride through some small towns in Georgia and Harlem.
They have signs that say it's the birthplace of Oliver Hardy, which was from Laurel and Hardy, and they have this face painted all over everything. In Waynesboro, Georgia, they have this giant water tower that says, Bird Dog Capital of the World. So Waynesboro's really getting it done. And they got all the bird dogs. But it's fun.
You're right there, and you see these things that people are bragging about. And these small towns are saying, This kind of marks us. This defines us. This is what we're known for. And as we're looking in this passage today, John's going to be talking about something that the church is supposed to be known for. Something that if the church got together and had a water tower, this is what we should put on it.
This is what we're known for. This is what we're supposed to be famous for. And so we're going to study this together and try to hopefully identify this in ourselves and repent where we need to, but to be people who are known for this in KC, South Carolina, in the year 2021. So let's pray. Oh, let's read the whole text together, then we'll pray, and then we'll walk through it. So this is the whole text we're going to look at today.
It says, Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
Let's pray. Lord, we pray that you would bless our time this morning as we study your words together as your people brought together by the work of your son. We pray that you would help us to grow and that if we are stumbling around in darkness, that you would help us to not be blinded any longer, but that we might see clearly. And we ask, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would help us to love one another in the way that you have loved us. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so let's look back at the beginning.
He says, Beloved, I'm writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I'm writing to you. What? I love John, but sometimes he writes some things and it's like, what are you talking about? He's saying, we've been told this from the beginning.
We've heard this in the word that was proclaimed all along. And it's this idea that we are to love. That this is the greatest commandment, Jesus says, is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. That God very early on said, if you're going to belong to me, you're going to be a people that loves. But then Jesus tells his disciples, I'm giving you a new commandment on top of these, and that is to love one another especially.
Love one another in a distinct way, as almost the pinnacle of love, as the love in the church. And they've had that from the beginning of the proclamation of the gospel, but it's also new. But also the command of love is not a new command. That's been around forever. So there's this command that's not a new command, but it is a new command, but you've had it the whole time.
That's what he's talking about. John 13, 34, this is the command where Jesus says it. And this is John, the John who wrote this letter, wrote this gospel about his time spent with Jesus. He says this, A new commandment I give to you, so this is Jesus speaking to his disciples, that you love one another just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
This love in the church, for the church, by the church, as brothers and sisters in Christ, is to be the thing that marks us. He says, by this they will know that you belong to me by the way that you love one another. So this is the thing we put on our water tower. Now, the brother here is not a biological brother. It is brothers in Christ. So if you're just reading this, the English is going to trick you a little bit because you might read it and go, okay, well, I've got two brothers, so that's what it's talking about.
And you might read it and say, I'm an only child, off the hook on this one. Some of you might be like, well, I've got a sister. She's the worst, but that's fine because it's just talking about brothers. No, what it's saying is this word brother means brothers and sisters, and it means in the church, those who belong to Christ. The word is actually in Greek, the word brother, but Greek does something that English doesn't. Spanish does it, does this, where the word brother can include brothers and sisters.
So every time you read, that's why some translations will say brothers and sisters, others will just say brothers, but it's meant to be brothers and sisters or siblings in the family of God. And John defines for us what he means by this in 1 John chapter three. So one chapter over, he says this, see what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called children of God. And so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Okay, just trying to help you see when it's saying brother, it means children of God.
And he does have a distinction between those who are in the family of God through the work of Christ and the world. Those who are not in the family of God through the work of Christ. The idea of the brotherhood of man, while we get some of that from scripture, the idea that we're all made in the image of God and therefore everyone has dignity and value, there is something distinct about the church that we are an eternal family through the work of Christ. This is what John says at the beginning of his gospel, that he gave the right to all who would believe in him to become children of God. And so that's who he's talking about.
So in order for us to understand this passage, we have to know that. We have to know that when he says brother, he means brothers and sisters in Christ. The church. Our church family, both locally and globally, we are to love one another. And so he says this, back in verse 8. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I'm writing to you, which is true in him, that's Jesus, and in you, that's you, the church, people he's writing to, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
And this is an imagery that he uses throughout his letter, this idea of light and darkness and walking in the light. Oh, I'm going to do it this way. Walking in the light and walking in darkness. That we would be in the light as he is in the light, that we would confess our sins, that we would, as we obeyed commandments, we would be in the light. As we love one another, we would be in the light. And then there's darkness.
And in some ways in John's framework, what he's saying, the true light is already shining, is that it's like a sunrise. I love being outside when the sun starts to rise. It just slowly, almost imperceptibly, the color starts to change over here. And you really can't tell at first, but then you start realizing, wait a second, no, it's different. And then at some point it's like, okay, it's actually starting to be daytime over here, but I can turn and it's still night over here. And you start realizing that you're able to see more, that even though the sun hasn't come up, you're starting to, it's revealing things to you.
And in some ways that's what John's saying, is that Jesus, when he was in the incarnation, in his life, in his death, in his resurrection, he's the sunrise. It's breaking through and piercing the darkness. That's some of what makes this command new, is that it was given to us as something that we were not able to live out, but now it's true in him and in us, because the light has begun to shine. That we're actually able, empowered to love this way, because he's loved us this way. We've seen what this is supposed to look like, and so that it's shining. And so in John's framework, those who love Jesus are running towards the light.
Ultimately, that light is going to conquer. The darkness is being broken. It's going to take over. But we're running towards the light. In confession of sin, he says in chapter one. In obedience, in chapter two.
And in love, that we're covering now, that the church gathers in, stands in the light. And that's why he keeps saying, if you say I'm in the light, but you're practicing things that happen in the dark, you're a liar. Some people have fled from the light, and are hiding over here. Now eventually the light's going to conquer. That's some of what he's saying. So let's look at verse 10.
Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. So he says if you love your brother, if you love the church, if you love fellow Christians, that's living in the light. Whoever does that is over here. Whoever's operating that way, living that way, has run to the light. And I love the idea when he says abides in. Because in chapter one he says, that we're going to sin.
Meaning that we're going to fall short. And he even tells us that when we do, he doesn't want us to sin, but when we do, this is the beginning of chapter two, when we do, there's propitiation, there's forgiveness in Christ. So Christians at times are able to have behaviors, and do things that line up better with the darkness, than the light. But the question is, where do you abide? Where do you live? Where have you taken up residence?
Because sometimes Christians sin, and he says, but when we do, we take that back to Jesus, we walk in the light, we have forgiveness, and we move on. But if your life is characterized, by living over here, he says, you don't know Jesus. If your life is characterized by hatred, or is it characterized by love? Now it helps us to understand, what he means by love. So that we can begin to evaluate, am I abiding over here, or am I abiding over there?
Because if there's one thing you're good at, it's lying to yourself. Oh, you're so good at it. You just told yourself, no I'm not. And you believed yourself. That we're good at this. We're good at tricking ourselves.
We're good at looking and going, well I know I didn't do something that was right, but my motives are good, and I'm kind of good over here. We just, we can justify almost anything. And so we need to be able to see, what does he mean, so that we can begin to evaluate, not in our estimation, but in his, whether or not we're doing this. So what does he mean by love? Because when we read the word, just like we said when we read the word brother, it can trick us. The same thing with the word love, that we have a cultural definition, but it helps to look in the context, and see, does John define love for us?
Good question. Yes he does. And he gives us a really simple, helpful definition, that we'll spend more time on later, but it helps us to look at today. John, 1 John 3.16. By this, we know love. So this is how we know what love is.
This is how we know love. That he, this Jesus, laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. He says, do you want to know love? Do you want a definition of love? Self-sacrifice. Sacrifice.
That he laid down his life for us, and therefore, when we love, we ought to lay down our lives for others. So as we try to figure out what does John mean about loving the brothers and living in the light, or hating the brothers and being in the dark, one of the best questions to ask is, where is self? Are you elevating self? Or are you sacrificing self? Because Christian love has a posture of self-sacrifice. That those around me in the church matter more than I do.
That their preferences, their desires, their cares, their hurts, their weaknesses, that they matter more than mine. That I'm not here for me, I'm here for them. I'm here for my brothers and sisters in Christ to make things better. That that's self-sacrificial love that we see modeled in Christ and that we're supposed to display in the world. And this is some of what he's saying when he says, this is how they'll know that you belong to me. Is that you'll look like me in self-sacrificing love.
Now, there's one place that I know of that we see this regularly and expect it and in some ways are repulsed when it's not present. When we see this kind of love in friendship, it's beautiful. When we see it in romantic relationships, it's beautiful. But we don't always see it in those categories. But one of the places I think we see it very regularly is in the way that parents love their children. that you'll see quite often parents sacrificing for the sake of their children and part of us expects that.
It's weird and repulsive when we don't see it. When you see a parent that's putting their needs above their child, it's like, ah, no, that doesn't fit right. That doesn't look right. The parents are supposed to. Now, pause for just a second. I think Americans can get this wrong where they build their entire life around their children and worship them.
And that's not what I'm talking about. But move it to some self-sacrificial, I'm here for your good. If someone's got to go hungry, it's the parents, not the children. If someone's got to take harm, it's the parents, not the children. If someone's going to be inconvenienced or made uncomfortable, it's the parents, not the children. I'm not talking about chores and difficulties where you try to help your children grow into good, healthy adults.
I'm talking about where really parents understand that I exist for the sake of protecting and caring for and developing these children. And we see it all the time. This is one of the reasons why a happy married couple has children and then has a hard time relating to one another because some amount of their love has shifted. That they love their children in a self-sacrificing manner and have started to expect more out of their spouse. No longer am I self-sacrificing for you. You're supposed to be sacrificing for me as I sacrifice for the children.
And it messes up the tone of love which is meant to be freed and enjoyed as we sacrifice for others. That's actually the best place that we have the most love. You are less frustrated with your children even though they're the worst people in your house. It's just true. Because you have set in your mind that I'm here for their good and so you don't evaluate it all the time on what am I getting out of this. If you have an infant and you ask well what am I getting out of this?
Nothing. Torture. And you're like I just wish they can talk and then they start talking and they have opinions and they say rude things and you're like I wish they would shut up. I love my children. But there is something about the fact that you have set yourself up in a way that I'm here for their good that this doesn't factor in as to what I'm getting out of this.
And you're free and it's delightful. But when we enter into situations with well what am I getting out of this? How is it working for me? We've ceased to model Christian love. And it robs us of joy. And that we are meant to show up.
Can you imagine what it would be like if you got out of the car this morning and you were completely free from self? And you walked in here and you were just looking for people that you could serve that you could talk to that you could encourage. Someone walks by and doesn't seem to notice you and you think hey I wonder if they're having a hard time rather than why wouldn't they talk to me? Or I notice they're talking to them and they don't want to talk to me. You didn't talk to them. But that's not how this works.
They're supposed to talk to me. We sometimes can get in this where we're strutting around I'm the most important person in the room. But could you imagine what it looks like among a group of people where that's not the attitude? I'm here to serve. I'm here to make this place better. You see a mess and you think how can I clean that up rather than why is it so junky around here all the time?
Someone does something that's frustrating and you give them the benefit of the doubt and you assume maybe they're having a hard time and that maybe they need more care from you and more love from you and more grace from you that we respond with kindness and generosity. And we do this. That's what I'm saying. It's helpful to look at how this interacts this happens with children. Children come in and throw a little fit and a lot of times parents go what's wrong buddy? But when I walk in and throw a fit like that my wife never goes what's wrong buddy?
And that's our general attitude is that we need to understand that we exist for the good of the others and when we do that there's joy and delight and freedom because we look like Jesus and his spirits at work among us. This is why. Mission trips. I always love the recap night of mission trips when people share what's happened. We got a mission trip we're trying to plan and go to Honduras next year. Be praying for that that'll work out and that with COVID and everything we'll be able to get a team down there to help the Rockies who are in Honduras.
But what happens a lot of times is people when I was growing up in my church people would come back for mission trips and they'd get up to share and what they would say is I went there to bless them. I can't do this without sounding real southern because that's the church I went there to bless them. I was blessed. Every time. And do you know why? It's the one time that we're able to really flip the switch in our mind that I'm just going here to serve this isn't about me.
And when that switch gets flipped the promises of Christ where it's better to give than it is to receive begin to be a blessing in our lives and that's what John is saying is that Christians look like they don't think they're the most important person in the room. Christians love as if self doesn't matter and everybody else around them does and it is beautiful when it happens. That's why he says in him so whoever loves his brother abides in the light in him there is no cause for stumbling. We're meant to put Christ on display and when we're operating in self-sacrificial love we're doing it so no one trips over us.
Nobody goes well I know some Christians and whoo I went to one of their business meetings and it broke out in a fist fight. We look like we actually are here to serve and here to make things better and here to love one another. We look like Christ. If you're doing a puzzle you dump all the pieces out you look at the box to try to understand what kind of puzzle am I making? What's this picture supposed to look like? You can get puzzles wrong or right and you make the puzzle and it looks like the box and we're supposed to look like Christ.
So we're supposed to look at him and go how are we supposed to do this? And if you've ever done a puzzle with a child or at least my child he every once in a while just decides this is where this piece goes and makes it work. And then you're trying to work on the puzzle and you're going what is going on over here? I can't find it and then you realize who stuffed this in here? And you stumble over it. It makes it not work.
And so that when we as Christians live as if Jesus is at work in us and that our model for love is self-sacrificial love and we show up being the least important person in the room all of us then no one stumbles because it looks like a whole bunch of Jesus got together. But when we show up with the opposite attitude we trip over each other we run into each other we stumble and people stumble over us because we're not putting on display what we ought to be putting on display. So let's look at John's definition of hate let's begin to understand what he's saying here. So verse 9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
John says I don't care that you say you know Jesus. If you say oh I'm in the light I'm over here with Jesus he says but if you operate in hate towards your brothers no you're not. Now in my sunrise illustration you have the sun over here it's lit up you have where it still looks dark over here and then you got this whole big middle section where it's kind of both. In John's light darkness stuff he doesn't have a big middle section where it's kind of both. He has you abide in the light or you abide in darkness. You love or you hate.
We have a category in between love and hate. neutral. I don't know them. I know them and they're kind of annoying but I'm not going to fight them over it. John doesn't have that category. He has you live self-sacrificially for the benefit of others or you have drifted into functional hate. hate. that's uncomfortable but it's good for us to hear that we can practice hatred in very simple ways. Now certainly it can be active and aggressive.
Certainly there are people who actively hate the church and rail against the church and who would say I'm a Christian but I've gotten rid of the church and I don't have anything to do with the church because the church and it's like he just says they're not that's not a Christian so I don't care if you're following their podcast or them online or their Facebook they're not you can't hate the church and belong to Jesus. So he gives us a category.
For that. There's also a way for us to be actively in opposition to the church and be here for you to hang out with your group slander other people be constantly bitter and angry towards other people show up here on a Sunday with an attitude of we'll see if they actually notice I'm here this time and be functionally in contempt of your church family operating with hatred towards them that in some ways we have the choice between being a Christian and being a consumer living as.
If I'm here for the benefit of others or they're here for the benefit of me. We took my son my older son we hadn't gotten to go back but we took my older son to Disneyland Disney World not Disneyland that one's the far away one took him to the one we could drive to we went to Disney World he was three or something but we thought it would be fun to go we saved up and we went and the best thing that happened.
While we were there was he lost his voice and it's not because he couldn't talk I love my son I love the stuff he has to say it's because he had no concept for losing his voice and so he lost his mind when he lost his voice because it's just loud you have to talk loud so the end of like the second day we were there he went to say something and he was like and we had to be like it's.
Okay buddy because we knew what was happening if I start losing my voice I think oh I'm losing my voice but for him it was like this is witchcraft I had to actually grab him and be like it's okay while laughing hysterically at him but when we first got there when we first got there we my son when he enjoys things especially when he thinks new if he's enjoying something he's enjoyed before he might smile he might be relaxed but when it's new he just looks like this all the time he just he's taking everything in.
But you don't know like when you're little real little and you're playing with him he'd just stare at you and you would get done he'd go do it again and you're like okay he enjoyed it I had no clue now you gotta stop and see like am I tormenting you like he so the first bit of us being at Disney World that's all he's doing you know he's riding the rod and so we we got to where we were asking him.
Because we came primarily for his enjoyment we thought this would be fun you know but you take a little kid on it's a small world and he's like you know it's like okay you know so we started asking him did you like that was that fun trying to get him to you know calm down enjoy this you know was that fun did you like that did you we started doing this and about three hours in we had messed him all up.
Because he had become a little tyrant we were here for his pleasure and it messed him up I had to look at my wife and say we're done asking him we're all gonna enjoy this and he'll enjoy it or not but we're done making him think that he's got to evaluate everything and rank everything and decide whether or not he loves or doesn't love everything enjoyed or didn't enjoy everything because it's messing up his little heart he did have fun he couldn't tell it from his face and I don't know where he got that.
But we can do that to ourselves you can go to the happiest place on earth and if all you do is evaluate and grade everything and decide that everything's just there for your enjoyment and did you like that or did I not like that and did I like that better you can just rob yourself of joy and we can walk around in our church family just absolutely robbing ourselves of joy and somehow convince ourselves that it's everybody else's fault when in reality we're meant to.
Look like Jesus and when we do there's joy and delight and freedom and hope and the truth is this happens all the time that we shift into consumer mode and it messes us up because we're not designed to be there that we're walking in darkness and we're going to run into everything and everybody I'm going to give you a couple of ways that I think this shows up to try to help us identify this there's a bunch but I'm going to give you a couple one is to be a consumer everything's here.
For me for my tastes my desires did I like that did I like the way they did that music did I like the way they came and what they said when our group got together did I like how this happened did I like the way they were handling that or I don't really appreciate how our group does this or I don't really like that this person says that and that somehow everybody's here for you like you like you don't belong to the family those of you who are younger I encourage you to try that.
When you go home for Thanksgiving sit down at the table and act like it's a restaurant see how much joy you bring to the Thanksgiving my potatoes were cold take these back this isn't what I ordered if you have good parents there will be some good correction that comes out of that and it will be good for your soul but that's the truth that we show up at the church and act like I don't belong here I'm not part of the family I'm a customer.
And then you say I don't feel like I belong here and it's like well you assumed that position when you showed up as a customer you show up to your group as a consumer and then say I don't feel like I'm a fan I'm family here and it's like well you set the default show up and serve let me tell you something stay late and clean you'll feel more like family show up with something that you prepared beforehand you'll feel more like family stop talking.
Listen when somebody says they're hurting call them check in on them when somebody's not there call and check on them you'll feel more like family but if you sit around going well I didn't really like that I didn't like that nobody ever brings them yeah yeah you won't feel like you belong because you've already chosen that by your posture we can assume the worst the functional way to hate each other is just to assume the worst this is why you start telling yourself other people's motives this is why they didn't talk to me this is why they made that face this is why they get together without me this is why this happened someone sins.
Against you and you just assume the worst and you go yeah that's just what they're like do you know that to correct someone in sin you have to assume some good things about them I have to assume that you probably didn't do this maliciously if you did do it maliciously I have to assume that the Holy Spirit is at work in you and you'll repent I have to actually think highly of you think highly of Christ think highly of his church think highly of his Holy Spirit.
For me to come correct you in sin and I think very lowly of you if you sin against me and I go well that's just how they are assuming the worst is a way that we can functionally live in the dark and hate our church family neglect is a beautiful form of hate just don't care somebody shares something they're going through you just don't care someone confesses sin you just don't care someone doesn't show up to your group you just don't care you don't show up to your group.
Because you just don't care group is there for your convenience every time that you don't show up because it would be inconvenient you have reinforced in your mind that your group exists for your convenience rather than you exist for your group every single time and after a while you'll just they're inconvenient and can I just be honest with you let me just step away from this for a second I guess it made it seem like I wasn't being honest over there.
But whatever your group is inconvenient it is I'm going to be honest with you I don't know exactly which group you're in but I can tell you that some of the people in that group are annoying just how it works it might not be annoying to me but you'll find someone in that group that annoys you and there's your opportunity to love like they're more important than you and to act like you belong to a family or to act like they exist.
For your benefit and walk a little further into the darkness we can just not care following Jesus is meant to make us warmer walking in the light is meant to warm our hearts towards one another not make us colder I love that this passage comes right on the heels of what he just said about following commands because there's an ability for us to convince ourselves that following the commands is just the moral imperatives of how I'm supposed to behave and therefore I'm one of the good ones and I'm.
So frustrated with these sinners that are all around me you ever met a Christian who says I'm a Christian I've been a part of my church for 57 years and it's the coldest most angry person you've ever met and it's like you haven't been in the light for 50 years you'd be so soft and warm and kind I'm going to be honest with you I've said this to other people I haven't said it to our church when First Baptist Church of Casey started coming to talk with us our church plant about a union us coming together we're going to celebrate two years in just a month we didn't feel like we could just say no.
And we thought let's get together and let's talk but my assumption was that we were walking into a hornet's nest my assumption was this was going to be the angriest most frustrated people you'd ever met and we walked in and we met people that acted like they'd been in the light of Christ for years and years I told people I expected Baptists and I met Christians there's a reality to when we walk with Jesus he does something in us that helps us think that we're not the most important person in the room and that he is and that others are and that.
When we show up to serve there's something beautiful about it something compelling about it and nobody stumbles and nobody runs into each other and if we don't before I say that let me say two things if following Jesus has made you colder has made you more self-righteous if you've sat through this thinking I'm so glad he's saying this because my group really needs to hear it you're in danger of being blinded to the fact that you may not be in the light Pharisees hear sermons and think I'm glad this person's here.
So that they can repent and they never see how it applies to them do not sit here and continue to elevate yourself but to understand that you need to walk in humility and grace towards the people around you secondly the love here we have infiltrated we have smuggled love smuggled this idea into love in our culture that love for us is all affirmation that it's all I'm supposed to if I really love you I'm just supposed to figure out what you want to do and clap.
For you that's not a Christian idea in love our picture for love is the cross which is sacrifice for the benefit of others but it is also correction without rejection that's Christian love our culture doesn't understand it the United States doesn't understand that they're going to say you're hateful if you try to correct anybody but I'm just letting you know the reality is if I'm walking with you and I actually believe this people say who are you to decide what's right and wrong nobody.
But I got a book and I know him who decided this stuff and I trust him but if I'm walking with you and I see that you're in sin and I don't want to address it I'll tell you some of the reasons most people cite for not wanting to address sin in someone else number one I don't want to seem judgmental well immediately you've elevated yourself and the perception of others to you two I don't want to ruin our relationship and again you've elevated your comfort and your desire.
For a relationship over the good of another person that you think if you actually believe the Bible is headed in the wrong direction towards harm and the reality is that you sacrifice yourself for their sake by correcting them in their sin because you believe they're more important than you and you believe good in them that the Lord would bring them back but even if he doesn't you understand that I love them enough to lose this relationship because it's for their good we are in danger of failing to.
See this this is what he says verse 11 but whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes we're in danger of not knowing where we're headed and this means functionally that we run into each other functionally we cause problems but it also means we think we're in the light if someone says they're in the light but they're walking in the darkness and he says that means they don't belong to.
Jesus then ultimately they're wandering around waiting to head to hell and the danger is that we would not realize that's where we're headed and that we'd be blind to it and so my encouragement to us this morning to look back at verse 8 he says this is true in him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining my encouragement would be to walk towards Jesus this morning and say shine your light on me and help me.
See this to walk towards him and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you where you've been blind where have I allowed self-exaltation to creep in so that I'm frustrated where have I allowed self-exaltation to creep in so that I'm mistreating those around me where have I begun to act like a consumer rather than a family member where have I begun to walk as if I'm the most important person and I'm so frustrated with this person in my group because they can't.
See it and if they just knew I was the most important person they wouldn't act like this to ask the Lord shine your light on me in the light of the gospel and help me to see it so that I might be free from it and that I might enjoy the delight that comes with walking as if I belong to you as the band comes back up and we begin to play I want to encourage you to do that in a moment we're going to take communion which is where we as Christians remind ourselves that we needed Jesus' sacrifice once.
For all for us we needed his body to be broken we needed his blood to be shed and that we proclaim his death until he comes but we're supposed to look at ourselves first we're supposed to evaluate ourselves and not take it flippantly and so I would encourage you to take a moment replace the music just sit for a minute and ask where have I been blind to my self-exaltation where have I robbed myself of joy where have I wandered in the darkness.
Because I have failed to follow Christ and enjoy the freedom that he gives and ask him Lord help me to see this and then when you're ready take communion but before you do you may have to go talk to somebody you may have to step out and make a phone call you may have to find somebody you say I've been mistreating you and I shouldn't be and then we'll take communion and we'll celebrate that Jesus Christ saves sinners like us and that he invites us into his light where there's freedom and joy and love and peace forever.
And if you're not a Christian we would invite you to run to Jesus and be redeemed we would invite you to see your sin and to repent and to have him who gave up his life for us give up his life for you and bring you into a family and then you'd be welcome to take communion for the very first time but if you aren't a believer we would ask that you don't take communion until you have trusted Jesus because this is a celebration of what he's done.
For us and what he's going to do for us and it's a celebration that we belong to him through his work on the cross and until that's true we just ask that you would refrain let's pray for we ask for the move of your Holy Spirit we ask that we would walk in the light of Christ that you might show us where we've been begun to wander in the darkness that you might remove where we've been blind we ask that your Holy Spirit would reveal that you would speak even.
Now to help us to see where we've allowed hatred to grow for we ask for repentance and the joy and the freedom and the delight that comes from that because when we do sin we have a sacrifice that covers us in our sin so that we get to walk in freedom and hope may we look like a family whose king gave himself up for us so that we ought to give ourselves up for others may this be a place filled with servants who delight in putting others.
First so that the warmth and the joy of the gospel is on display here help us to be quick to forgive quick to repent we ask this in Jesus name amen you continue to pray and as you are ready take communion.