Word Live: I Am Writing To Say
Go into your room, shut the door, turn off the radio, put down the phone, and pray: ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening’ (1 Samuel 3:9).
Bible passage
1 John 2:1–14
2 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
Love and hatred for fellow believers
3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 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: 6 whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
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. 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.
9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 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.
Reasons for writing
12 I am writing to you, dear children,
because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
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.
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.
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Explore
‘Lord, the light of your love is shining.’* This is what John is wanting for his readers. Loving God, who is light, means keeping his commands, which means loving our Christian sisters and brothers. Encouragingly, if our way of life is following God’s commands and loving his people, we can be assured (‘know’, vs 3,5) that we are his.
Nine times in these fourteen verses John says why he is writing. He speaks of the ‘true light shining’ and living in the light as we love others (vs 8,10). This is not theory. It is about our real day-to-day lives. Just as we might say ‘the whole room lights up!’ to describe the warmth or humour a guest brings to a gathering, John expects his readers to experience the light of Christ as they keep his commands and care for each other.
John intends his words to apply to the whole range of his readers (vs 12–14): the penitent, marvelling at being children of God and forgiven; the mature older believers who have known God through many aspects of life; and those in their prime, taking on challenges for Christ, and winning.
*Graham Kendrick, ‘Lord, the light of your love (Shine, Jesus, Shine)’, 1987
Author
Roger Combes
Respond
Every chapter of this letter mentions Christ’s death for us (v 2). How can the central matters of the Bible become more central in our lives?
Deeper Bible study
A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.’1
This section continues John’s pastoral appeal that his ‘dear children’ (v 1) should renounce the ways of darkness and live in the light. John is unflinching on this point: ‘whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did’ (v 6). We might read this and feel hopeless, yet John offers us a rich hope – Jesus Christ is the advocate with the Father and the atoning sacrifice for our sins and also for those of the whole world. Somehow, John maintains the tension of expecting full obedience and yet at the same time recognising that we will inevitably require the grace and mercy of Jesus on this journey.
For John the most crucial way in which obedience is realised is in our love for our brothers and sisters. Hatred of a fellow believer is darkness and cannot be tolerated, whereas love is evidence of living in the light. The darkness of hate leads to blindness, whereas love leads to ‘true light’ (v 8); the evidence of a genuine faith is a transformed life, which mainly expresses itself through a loving and unified Christian community.
As a parent of teenagers, I can identify with John here. I long for my children to be obedient and make good choices and I hold up a high standard for them. Yet I know that they will invariably make mistakes and so I want to hold out hope and grace to them as well. We live in this tension as a family and we often emphasise that the most important area of discipleship is our love: for one another and for others around us. I think this captures a bit of John’s fatherly heart for his extended Christian family and also of God’s Father’s heart for all of his children.
God’s standard is not moral perfection, but obedience in love. Has your lack of love compromised the unity of Christ’s community? Today’s reading offers hope for forgiveness, grace and transformation.
Author
Daniel McGinnis
