The process of fellowship, 1 John 2:12-14

John's purpose, he has told us in the opening verses of this epistle, is to bring his readers into fellowship with God through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He revealed several tests by which you may know that you have fellowship with God.  Now in this passage we are looking at today, John shows us what fellowship produces; maturity, or spiritual growth. This is the real objective of our faith; not just salvation, but spiritual maturity, or what we often call the process of sanctification.  That is the process of maturing, of becoming conformed into the image of Christ.  Just like in the physical realm there is a process of maturation as a baby is born, becomes a young man, and then goes on to become a father, so John is saying that there is a spiritual growth cycle as well, as we are born again, we become overcomers, and then we become reproducers.

Many people in the church have what you might call an arrested development.  They have been born again, but there has not been much maturity since their conversion. But the goal of the gospel, John says in verse 4, is that our joy may be made complete.  This perfection, or completion of our sanctification is where we really experience the joy of our salvation, the fellowship with God, and the blessings of being one of His children.  Our conversion is just the beginning of the new life in Christ.  So let’s press on, Hebrews 6:1 tells us, to maturity.

Now John he is writing to little children. He is writing to fathers, and he is writing to young men.  And let me just say at the outset that these are not intended to exclude women in any way, but it’s a metaphorical characterization which is intended to denote maturity.  So it’s applicable to both sexes. I’m not going to try to be politically correct and make sure I include both sexes in my references.  I’m just going to use the characterizations that John did, and leave it up to your selves to adjust accordingly.  So what John is doing he is identifying three phases of spiritual growth.  Now John has used, and will use the term little children to identify all believers.  Little children in that context simply means those born of God.  All of the church must be born of God, or they are not His church. But in this context, He uses the phrase to indicate a level of maturity, with young men being the next phase, and fathers after that.

So we're going to look first at a word for everyone as defined by little children, then a word to the fathers, and finally a word to the young men. Now the word addressed to everyone is found in verse 12 and verse 13, for in the two verses he refers to the little children. In verse 12 we read, "I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake," and then at the end of verse 13 he says, "I write unto you, little children, because you have known the Father." So he calls them little children.

In the original Greek, there are two different words that are used for little children, referred to in my text by the same English words. One of them is a word that comes from the Greek verb that

means to begat, or begotten.  Basically, it is saying born ones.  The other word in vs.13 is a word that suggests moral training, discipline, disciplinary guidance.  So John starts by saying he is writing to little children "because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake.”  That’s the beginning of the Christian life.  You must be born again by the Spirit.  By faith in what Christ did for us, we have our sins forgiven, and we are born again into the family of God.  That’s fundamental.  The new birth begins with forgiveness of sins, when we are made righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Notice also the phrase “for HIs name’s sake.” When he says, "for His name’s sake," he means all that Christ is and all that he has done for us. John is careful to put that in there to indicate that our salvation is not by our works, but by the substitution of Christ’s righteousness for ours.  God sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ as applied on our behalf.  That is how we are born again, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy.

Now John goes on to say to little children in verse 13, “I am writing to you because you have known the Father." There is only one way to know the Father; it’s through a relationship with Jesus Christ.  And through Him only can we come to the Father.  Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”  That is the progression; we have a relationship with Jesus Christ first as we receive Him and His sacrifice for our sins, and then we are considered righteous and holy so that we might come to the throne of God the Father, with Jesus as our Advocate or Intercessor.

Paul in Galatians chapter 4:6 says God has sent the Spirit of His Son within our hearts, and as a result we are able to say “Abba Father”; Abba is the Aramaic term in the emphatic form for father, "Abba" which he translates in the Greek as patēr or father.  And it’s interesting that this is how we are told to address God - as Father.  The world has called it’s gods by many names; Allah, Budda, Zeus, the Great Spirit.  They have characterized their gods as vengeful, as arbitrary, or as some mystical, unknowable force.  But Jesus has taught us to call God Father.  A title which is rich with love and graciousness.  A good father has good will towards his children.  He has kind intentions towards their welfare. I’m not the best father by any stretch of the imagination, but there is not a place in the world my kids could be, where if they needed me, I would not do everything in my power to reach them.  If I as a not so great father has such love for my children, we cannot imagine how much the Father loves His little children.  There is no greater value then than to know God, and to be known by God as His child.

Jesus told us a parable in Luke 15 which we call the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  But I think that Jesus told us this story not just to illustrate the way in which a sinner can come to God, but to show us the nature of the Father. You know the story, how a father had two sons, and one son when he reached a certain age, demanded his inheritance from his father.  His father gave it to him, and the young man went off to a far away country and spent his inheritance in wild living.  One day the money ran out, and in addition Jesus said a famine came upon that country.  And soon the young man found himself working in pig pen feeding the hogs, and he was so hungry that he wanted to eat the pods he fed the pigs.  

This young man had reached the bottom.  Nothing could be more despicable to a Jew than pigs, and to have to feed them and even eat their feed was as low as you could get.  But Jesus said, one day he came to his senses.  And he remembered that in his father’s house even the lowest servant had more than enough to eat.  So he said, ‘I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”’  “So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”  

What a picture that is of the love of the Father for His children.  Notice the father was in the habit of looking way off down the road, hoping and longing that one day his son would come home.  And then one day, after perhaps years of waiting and hoping, the father sees someone walking down the road, and when he was still a long way off, the father said, “I think that’s my son.”  And the old man hiked up his long robe, and began running to meet him, his hair streaming out behind him, tears of joy running down his face, and he throws his arms around his son and just starts kissing him repeatedly.  That’s a picture of our Heavenly Father. He loves us and welcomes us home, and cleans us up and restores us to our place with Him.  And when we come to the place of repentance, and come to receive through faith  what Christ has accomplished for us, we can have that kind of reconciliation with our Heavenly Father.  There is no greater treasure than to be called a child of God the Father.  John says in the next chapter, 1John 3:1, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God.”

Now back in our text, John switches from writing to little children who know the Father, to writing to the fathers.  This is intended as an age distinction.  But though I say that, it may not necessarily always equate to chronological age, but it relates to spiritual maturity.  John is speaking of one who is spiritually mature, as a human father denotes a certain level of maturity.  And so we read in verse 13, "I write unto you, fathers, because you have known Him that is from the beginning." And then again in verse 14, "I have written unto you, fathers, because you have known Him that is from the beginning." So twice he has said the same thing, "You have known Him that is from the beginning.”

I think that the emphasis of the phrase “from the beginning” is an indication of the maturation process that someone who is mature spiritually has with the Lord.  They started out as a new born, being born again, and now they have reached an age where they have walked with God for many years.  They have come to know God by experience.  They have had their faith tested and proven again and again.  And so as they come to the end of their process of sanctification, there is a settled knowledge of God that has been born out of experience.  They have come to know the fellowship of walking with God, and to look forward to the future glorification with God.  So I think the fact that it is twice repeated, with no difference in the phrases, speaks of a redundancy, a fail safe faith that has been tested and proven time and time again.

But I will add one more possible application to the word to fathers.  And that is you cannot be a father simply by being a man.  The only way you can be a father is if you reproduce.  When you reproduce your faith that is a measure of maturity.  It means that you have reached the point in your walk where your relationship with God is not just self centered.  There is a time and place for that.  Babies are naturally self centered.  We expect that.  But when a man becomes a father, he takes on responsibility for others.  He loves others even more than he loves himself.  And that is I believe what John is picturing here for us.  A father is one who loves others, who takes on responsibility, and serves the family of God.  That’s the level of maturity indicated by fathers, and that should be the goal of our sanctification.

A final word is given to the young men in verses 13 and 14, he says, "I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one." And then in verse 14, repeating that and added two other things, he says, "I have written unto you, young men, because you are strong," (that's point one,) "and the word of God abides in you," (point two,) "and you have overcome the wicked one.”  So three points characterize being a young man.

The phrase young men, I believe, speaks to those Christians who are young in spiritual years, who are young in spiritual maturity, but who are actively pursuing sanctification, without which, said the Apostle Paul, no one will see the Lord.  So they are overcoming trials and temptations and tests as they live out the Christian life.  You know, when we are in our youth, critical decisions are being made.  It is a critical time, because so many decisions you make in those years you make without experience, oftentimes without godly guidance, and many of them are decisions that have lasting consequences in your life.  

For instance, a young man today generally finds himself deciding at a very young age which college to go to, then which career to pursue, then where he is going to live, and whom he is going to live with for the rest of his life in terms of taking a wife.  And all those decisions are made when he is relatively young.  It is such an important, critical time.  But notice the things he says about the young people, he says they are strong.  Now what do you suppose John is referring to here?  Physical strength?  Certainly young men are strong in comparison to children and old men.  But I don’t think that is what is being referred to here.  I would say that it is a commendation to be strong spiritually.  

When we go through trials and tests and temptations, it makes our faith stronger.  And so that is what he is talking about.  They are strong because they are overcoming tribulations. When wordsmiths in Japan made their famous blades, they were put into the fire dozens and dozens of times, beaten out again and again.  Such refinement made the strongest steel, and the finest weapons. So the testing of our faith, James says, produces endurance.

And then they are strong in the Lord John says,  because they have the word of God abiding in them.  Psalms 119:11 says, “Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.”  The word abiding in us is the secret to our strength.  Samson’s secret to his strength was not his hair, or his muscles, but the Spirit of God who worked within him.  So it is with our young people; they are strong because they rely not on their own strength but on the word of the Lord.

Ephesians 6:10 says, “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.”  And then it goes on to say put on the armor of God, and take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  That is the source of strength.

So the next thing John says is “I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you.”  The word of God abides in you.  There is an old adage which says, “This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.”  Your spiritual strength and your spiritual maturity will come not from listening to Christian music, or from supernatural experiences, or from sentimental feelings about God, but it will come from abiding in the word of God.  And abiding is more than just reading or hearing.  To abide in the word is to keep the word, it is to hide the word of God in our hearts, it’s to memorize scripture so that we have it within our hearts.  And very importantly, it is to study the full counsel of the word.  Not take a little bit from here and a little bit from there and come up with your own self serving doctrine of self fulfillment.  But study the full counsel of God, comparing scripture with scripture, and rightly dividing the word of truth.

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for forty days, He answered Satan and the tests of life by saying, "It is written, it is written, it is written.” Three times he appealed to the word of God and He defeated temptation. He was strong. The word of God abode in him, and as a result, he overcame the wicked one.  Unfortunately, we have raised a generation of young men today that are strong in the weight room, or mighty in the bar room, but are woefully underdeveloped in the word of God.  

Finally, John says twice that the young men have overcome the evil one.  Now the evil one is obviously a reference to the devil or his demons.  But the implication I think goes further than just the person of Satan.  I think it includes the world forces, the course of this world that has been engineered by the devil to take young people captive.  That’s why in the next section John says “do not love the world, nor the things in the world.”  Because the world system is the system  of the devil.  Ephesians 2:2 says that the course of this world is according to the prince of the power of the air, (that is the devil).”  The devil  has so orchestrated the world so as to distract and deceive, and destroy those who are seduced into his trap.  

So many things of the world seem good, or taste good, but lead to destruction.  It’s like the lures that fishermen use to catch a fish.  I went fishing once with this guy and he made a shrimp cocktail that had my mouth watering, and then he put it on a hook.  It looked good, it tasted good, but when it went down it became a lure that hooked the fish.  So it is with the world system.  I’m not going to argue with you that a lot of it looks good.  Some of it tastes good.  But the devil has engineered the world system in such a way as to trap you into a life time of servitude to materialism, a life time of the pursuit of happiness, a life time of seeking for self fulfillment.  And the end result is that you never really find it, but by the end of your life you have wasted your opportunity for knowing the source of all joy, which is to know God.

God however promises much to those young men and women who overcome the world and it’s temptations.  It may mean you miss out on some of those tasty looking enticements here on earth, but on the other hand you don’t get hooked on the lie of the devil either.  But the real rewards He promises us are spiritual, not physical.  

There are seven churches in the book of Revelation that Jesus sent a message to.  We have just finished studying those messages in our Wednesday evening Bible studies.  And again and again Jesus concludes each message to each church with an admonition to be overcomers. And when he does so, He promises a reward to those who overcome.  I want to just highlight those promises to the overcomers here in closing.

Jesus said:

*To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’

*He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.’

*To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.’

*He who overcomes,  and he who keeps My deeds until the end, TO HIM I WILL GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS.

*He who overcomes  will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.

*He who overcomes,  I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.

*He who overcomes,  I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame  and sat down with My Father on His throne.

This is our goal, ladies and gentlemen.  To be overcomers.  So that we might have uninterrupted fellowship with God.  Whether or not we are still little children, or fathers, or young men, we are all called to be overcomers, even as Christ overcame the world and sat down with His Father on His throne.  It starts with new birth, forgiveness of sins,  with being born again by the Spirit of Christ, and it continues with fellowship as we walk in obedience and in the light of His word, and then we are strong and we mature as we abide in His word, with the result being we overcome the evil one and the world, and one day we will enter triumphantly into the presence of the Lord to rule and reign with Him forever.  I pray you will be an overcomer and  persevere until the end.  Let us pray.

The test of fellowship, 1John 2:7-11

We have been studying the doctrine of fellowship so far in our exposition of 1 John.  We have seen that God designed us for fellowship with Him, and He desires fellowship with us.  But as we have learned, before we can have fellowship with God, we must first have a relationship with Jesus Christ.  Jesus manifested Himself to the world so that we might come to know God. Hebrews 1:3 tells us that “[Jesus] is the radiance of [God’s] glory and the exact representation of [God’s] nature.”   But God desires more than just knowledge of Him.  He desires fellowship with us, communion with us.  He desires love with us.  He loved us enough to punish Christ so that we might by faith become the children of God.  And out of this relationship He desires our love for Him.

So we have seen various aspects of fellowship up to this point. We saw the basis of fellowship, the nature of fellowship, the proof and progression of fellowship.  Today we are going to examine the test of fellowship.  When we were in school as kids, we dreaded tests, didn’t we?  The idea of a test always struck a chord of fear in my heart.  Usually it was because I was not prepared.  But the teacher understood that for us to really know the material she had been teaching, there must be a test of our knowledge.  As students, we could protest all day long that we knew the subject matter, but the teacher knew that unless there was a test, our knowledge, or lack of it, would not be proven, it would not become evident.

So also John, as he teaches us this vital doctrine, knows that it is one thing to say you know Christ, but it’s another thing to actually have a  relationship with Him.  John says it’s one thing to say you have fellowship with God, but it’s another thing to actually walk with Him.  And to illustrate that in chapter one we see John use again and again the phrase, “if we say.”  “If we say we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”  “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” And “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.”  All false professions of fellowship which are revealed by our walk. And we looked at the remedies to all those false professions.  What we should do, as opposed to what we merely profess.  We have to examine our worship to be certain we do not simply give lip service to God, but that our actions give testimony to the truth.

The next progression then in John’s letter is to define sin.  And in chapter 2 vs 4, he defines sin as not keeping the commandments; “The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”  So keeping His commandments, or obedience to God, is proof of fellowship with God.

Now today, John tells us what those commandments are. The commandment is love. John doesn’t explicitly spell out in these verses what the commandment is.  But it’s clear from the context of the passage, especially vs 10, that the commandment is love.  Love is the overarching theme of John’s epistle, and it’s the preeminent commandment of the Bible. But let’s look at our text to confirm this.  Don’t just take my word for it.  First of all, John says it’s an old commandment. Vs.7, “Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.”  

So he is saying, “I’m not writing to you a new commandment.”  “I’m not coming up with some new thing, some new gospel, some new knowledge.”  There were a lot of false teachers in John’s day that were trying to teach some new doctrine, as if they received it from some vision or revelation.  And so John, as he is writing to combat a lot of the false teaching of Gnostics and Dualists and so forth, is emphasizing that this is not something new.

A lot of commentators debate what exactly is meant by his comment that the commandment was “from the beginning.” Some think it predates creation, speaking of the nature of God.  Some think it speaks of Moses and the Levitical law.  Some think that it means the beginning of one’s salvation. I think we can make the case that all are true. John uses this idea of in the beginning, or from the beginning on a couple of other occasions.  John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”  Obviously in this passage, “in the beginning” refers to eternity past. Before creation, before the law, before the incarnation. 

Another passage is found right here in 1John, chapter 1:1, “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life—and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.”  There again, “from the beginning” refers to the eternal nature of Christ, who was manifested to man in His incarnation.  So I believe it’s safe to say John’s speaking of the eternality of this commandment, which reflects the eternal nature of God.

Now we know that God has also declared Himself to man in His law, which He gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai.  His Law declares His nature, His character, and His attributes.  And if we are to have fellowship with Him, then we must share those characteristics.  Thus God’s nature becomes God’s law. As God said to Moses in Leviticus 19:2, “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.”  

In the law, Jesus said there were two commandments which contained the whole law.  Some rabbi added up all the laws in the Pentateuch and came up with 613, if I remember correctly.  And Jesus, in Matt. 22:37 said in answer to what was the greatest commandment said,  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” So I think it’s fair to say that the old commandment, which was from the beginning, are these two which Jesus said contained all the law. 

However, it can also be argued that it means the beginning of one’s salvation.  John tells us in chapter 3 vs 11, “For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.”  So it is a foundational message which is essential to the gospel. It’s  old, it’s eternal, but it’s still vitally essential.

But notice then John seems to contradict himself in vs.8. “On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.”

Now John is indicating that on the other hand, this old commandment is, in some way, new. What does he mean, “On the other hand I am writing you a new commandment, which is true in him and in you ..."? Well if you can remember back in our study of the gospel of John, you may recall that this is an echo of  Christ’s words recorded in John 13:34, in the Upper Room Discourse.  There Jesus said, "A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you.”  That last phrase, "as I have loved you" is the key. To love one another is the old commandment, predating even creation. But "as I have loved you" is new application of it. The manner by which we love, the process by which this can occur is new.

I would suggest then that what is new is the manifestation of this law through Jesus Christ.  He establishes the standard of love.  And this is certainly new.  Because Jesus showed through His life God’s standard for love that we are to emulate.  We are to love one another as Christ loved us.  The motive for our love is new.  Before we loved because it was legislated in the law.  It was required, and so the Jews in particular looked closely to see who they had to love and when.  They limited love according to what the law specifically dictated. Christ though showed a different standard for love.  He loved us when we were enemies of God.  He loved us though we despised Him.  He served those who should have been serving Him. And when we come to know that love, through a personal relationship with Him, we have now a new standard for love, and a new motivation.

So in the reference from the Upper Room Discourse, how did Jesus show He loved them? He loved them by washing their filthy feet. That’s what He did to illustrate His love for the disciples. And I think that's sort of a metaphor summing up how Jesus had loved them all through His ministry. They always needed their feet washed spiritually.  And as we have discussed here in this epistle, this continual cleansing is necessary if we are to have communion with God.  But our love for God should motivate us to stay pure, to live as He lived, and love as He loved. 

How important is love? John 13: 35, "By this all men will know that you're My disciples." How they going to know you’re a disciple of Christ? "If you have love for one another." You'll know because it's a test that reveals your knowledge of God. Everybody else will know you are a Christian because of your love for one another. It's a humble love. It's a self-sacrificing love. It's a bowing and serving love. That kind of love, sacrificial love, is what Jesus speaks of when He said "Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

Now notice back in our text that John says this commandment is true in Him and in you.  The word for true there means genuine.  Genuine love is defined by Christ.  Folks, I’m afraid the church has let the world co-opt Christian love.  Love has been redefined by the world, and the church, unfortunately, has debased it’s definition as well to that of sentimentalism.  The church must get back to the Biblical definition of love.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had a few words to say regarding the law of love.  In Matt. 5:43 He said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

I just want to point out, that it’s human to love those who love you.  It’s natural to love those that do good to you.  But God’s standard of love is to love those who injure you.  To love those who mistreat you.  To love your enemies.  Even as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. Christian love is sacrificial love.  It puts the other’s needs above your own.  And this attribute, Jesus said, will be the defining characteristic, the defining test, to the world that is watching, that we truly are Christ’s disciples.  And by the way, that’s God’s standard for marital love as well.  The love between a husband and wife is not just sentimental, it’s not just romantic, but according to Ephesians 5 it is to be as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.  Marital love is sacrificial love.

Now how do we love like Christ loved?  Isn’t that a tall order? Is it even possible?  Well, John says it’s true in Christ and it’s true in us if we are truly in fellowship with Him.  So as we have already learned, this fellowship with God occurs when we walk in the light as He is in the light.  When we walk in the light of truth.  When we keep His commandments.  When we confess our sins as they happen.  We walk in fellowship. “Because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.”  As we are conformed to His image, as we are sanctified in obedience to Him, there is less darkness and more light shining in us.  

The Apostle Paul gives us some more insight in Romans 5:5, "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us.” Notice that we have the love of God in our hearts because of the Holy Spirit within us.  He is the source of our love, He is the power that governs our love. And through that same Spirit is also the way the Lord loved his disciples. The love of God was shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit who was given unto him without measure. That is the only way anyone loves another the way God loves. Only God can love that way. Therefore it is the same way for us. That is why John says, "which is true in him and in you." It comes out of a shared life as we have communion with the Holy Spirit. He is our power to keep the commandments of God. As we yield to Him, and as we stay true to Him, we are filled with HIs presence and His power.

So finally, we see love not only as an old commandment and love as a new commandment, but love as a way of life as we walk in the Light. This isn't just empty philosophy. This isn't just pie in the sky liberal ideology. In verses 9 to 11 John gives some clear illustrations of what love looks like. Here the principle is applied. The test is given to the one who claims to be a Christian. Verse 9, "The one who says he's in the light, yet hates his brother is still in the darkness until this moment.”  Here is another false profession.  “If we say, or the one who says he is in the light and eat hates his brother is still in darkness.”

I’m not sure if darkness is ignorance or an indication of a unbeliever.  I would like to think it’s ignorance, or willful selfishness. Some commentators think it speaks of a unbeliever.  Well, they would certainly fit the bill.  But remember, we’re talking about fellowship here.  And we have seen it’s possible to be a Christian and walk in darkness.  So I would argue this is a condition of selfishness, or ignorance.  But either way, it’s a sin.  Ignorance of the law is still breaking the law, it’s still sin.

But the remedy comes in verse 10. "The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him." Now that's a pretty obvious illustration. If you're walking in the light, you're not going to trip over something. He who is in the light sees where he's going. He's not like somebody bumping around in the darkness. When you love and obey the Law of God, when you express the love of God, the love of Christ to others, you're walking in the light, you're not going to stumble, you're not going to fall into sin. 

But their is also a sense in which this is saying if you love your brother, you won’t do something to cause him to stumble. Paul had a lot to say about this in  Rom 14:21, “It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles.”  And again in 

 1Cor. 8:9, “But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.”  So then, if we love our brother, there will be no cause for stumbling in him.  We will not despise our brother for the sake of our liberty or our rights.  But we put his needs above our own.

And then John closes with a comment on the absence of love in verse 11. "But the one who 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.”  Sin is darkness, it is ignorance, and it is blindness.  One who is walking in darkness is one who is blinded by sin.  Are they saved? I don’t know, God knows.  Or are they just backslidden?  Again, I don’t know.  But I do know the remedy.  The remedy to the darkness is light.  1John 1:5, “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”  

The answer is that we receive the light.  The answer is we do not put a basket over the light.  The answer is that we walk in the light as He is in the light. And if we are to stay in the light, we must love our brother. And the result will be that we shine the light of God to others. We reflect Jesus Christ to the world through our behavior.  So that the world may know that we are His disciples.  The manifestation of that test is that we love one another as Christ has loved us.  This is difficult, I know.  Human nature is opposed to it.  Human nature talks about love, but only loves oneself.  But through the knowledge of Christ, and through walking with Christ, we will adopt His nature, and what is true in Him will become true in us, because the darkness is fading, and the light is shining.  Walk in the Light, even as He is in the Light.  1John 1:7 “but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

So this is a test of your fellowship; do you love one another as Christ loved you?  Paul said in  2Corinthians 13:5, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?”  Are you manifesting your faith?  It’s one thing to claim it, it’s another thing to live it.  We are called to live out our faith as a testimony to the world, and in obedience to Christ.  I pray that you do not fail the test of fellowship, the test of loving one another as Christ loved you.  

The proof and progression of fellowship, 1John 2:3-6

If you are a regular here at the Beach Fellowship, then you will know that I do not normally try to accommodate the holidays with topical messages.  It is our practice to preach verse by verse, and we are in 1John 2 today by the providence of God.  So I hope that will not be discouraging for any visitors that might have come expecting a normal “Easter” message.  

That being said, however, I do want to make one association from our text at the outset, which has to do with the theme of Easter - that is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  The resurrection is the purpose of Easter, of course, and not an Easter bunny, or a Easter eggs.  We celebrate Christ’s resurrection this Sunday as we do every Sunday throughout the year.  That is why the Sabbath was changed to Sunday, the first day of the week, to commemorate the resurrection of Christ.  

However, what is significant about the resurrection from our perspective here this morning is that it’s because of the resurrection that we worship a living person.  John speaks here of knowing Jesus, of coming to know Him. Present tense.  If I were to speak of the fact that I know George Washington, you would think I was either delusional or that I misspoke.  It would be more correct to say “I know of him,” or if I were alive in the early 19th century I might have said, “I knew George Washington.”  When someone has died, it is not proper to say “I know him.”  But “I knew him.”

But because of the resurrection, John who witnessed Jesus crucified and dead and buried can say, “I know Him.”  Present tense.  Because John and 500 other people witnessed the appearance of the resurrected Lord on several occasions prior to His ascension.  And because John knew that Jesus was alive, and that He is eternally alive having ascended bodily into heaven, and hence he is able to say to us that  we too might know Him.  

So today, rather than focusing on the facts of a historical event 2000 years ago, we are going to focus on the present reality of knowing the resurrected, living Jesus Christ.  Christianity’s whole premise, is that we can have a vital relationship, and personal fellowship, with the living, Lord Jesus Christ.  We can know Him, not just intellectually, or theologically, but we can know Him personally, and even intimately.  In fact, that is John’s goal in this gospel; that we might come to know Jesus personally and intimately, so that we might have fellowship and communion with Him.  

Just having a relationship with Christ is not the end goal of the gospel, but that we might have fellowship.  Fellowship is the same word in the Greek we translate communion.  It means the living, resurrected Christ lives in us and through us so that we might have the power of new life. The death and resurrection of Christ is not just an historical fact to celebrate, but a present reality to duplicate.  His death is an example to be reproduced in us, dying to the old man, dying to the world.  And His resurrection is to be reproduced in us, living a new life, conformed to the image of Christ, living in His power and for God’s glory.  As Paul said in Phil.3:10, "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”

Now to establish the doctrine of fellowship, John has in chapter one presented the basis of our fellowship, which is a relationship with Jesus Christ.  In vs.1-4 John teaches the necessity of a relationship with Christ before you can have fellowship with God.  Jesus Christ, says John in ch.1vs 1, was from the beginning.  He is the eternal God who existed from the beginning.  In the beginning, Christ already existed.  Then He was manifested in the flesh.  The invisible became visible.  And by coming to know Him, to believe in Him and who He said He was, to believe in what He did for us by dying on the cross for our sins, God grants us salvation on the basis of Christ’s atonement.  So we begin our relationship with God through faith, by the grace of God, by which we are made a part of the family of God.  Through accepting and believing and trusting in Christ, we are made the children of God.  That is the basis of our relationship.  That is the only way you can have a relationship with God, it’s only through faith in Jesus Christ.  Not through our good works, but through His good work.  That’s why they call it “good Friday.”  Because of what He did on the cross.  Not by works of righteousness which we have done.

So faith in His atonement for our sins gives us a relationship with God.  We become a child of God. But it is possible to have a relationship with God and not have fellowship with Him.  There is a distinction between union (relationship) with Christ and communion (fellowship) with Christ. The goal is not to just have a relationship, but to have fellowship.  In relationship we come to know God, but in fellowship we come to experience God.  God designed us for fellowship.  So John presented that principle by saying in chapter one that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. 

He goes on to say in chapter one that a person can have a relationship with God and yet not have fellowship, when a person walks in darkness.  And in order to illustrate that broken fellowship, he gives us three false professions of fellowship, all of which start with the phrase, “If we say.” He says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”  Then “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” And finally, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.”  Three false professions of fellowship.  Three ways in which our fellowship with God is broken; if we walk in the darkness, if we deny our sin, or if we rationalize our sin. Now  I don’t want to re-preach the last two sermons, so I will leave it to you to go on our website if you like at www.thebeachfellowship.com and you can read them there if you like.

But as we come to chapter 2, John is continuing to teach this doctrine of fellowship, and in today’s passage he gives us two other principles of fellowship with God.  First we will look at the proofs of fellowship, and then the progression of fellowship.  Let’s start with the proofs of fellowship with God, or another way of saying it is the evidence of fellowship with God.  

Vs.3, “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.”  Here is proof number one that you have fellowship with God. You will keep His commandments.  John states this both positively and negatively.  Vs 4 is the negative; “The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

The  willingness to keep His commandments, says John, is a sign of true fellowship. It is proof that an act of union with Christ has already occurred, you have been born again. Your actions have changed, and because they have changed and you do not behave as you once did but you now have a desire to obey him, you can know you have indeed been born again.

But you cannot reverse this order! You cannot come to know God by attempting to keep His commandments. That is impossible. Titus 3:5 says, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.”  You can never come to know God by trying to keep his commandments, for a relationship with God comes by faith in Jesus Christ. That must come first, and then the keeping of the commandments is evidence  that your relationship is real, and that it is producing fellowship with God. 

There is an aspect of the negative principle of proof that I must mention, however.  And that is that John makes it clear that it’s possible to claim you know God, to claim a relationship with God, to even claim fellowship with God, and yet be a liar because the evidence of your works speaks louder than your words.

Jesus gave a warning about such people in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”  

So then the first proof of fellowship is that you will keep the commandments.  No one is able to keep the commandments perfectly.  But the result of new birth is that you get a new heart, which gives you new desires, resulting in a desire to keep the commandments of God.  If you sin though, God has given us a way to restore that fellowship.  Chapter 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  Confess means to agree with God, that His commandments are good, and that we agree they are right, but to admit it when we fall short.  And if we confess our sins, Jesus Christ the Righteous (chapter 2:1,2) is able to cleanse us and restore us to fellowship.

The second proof of fellowship is found in vs. 5, “but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him.”  The second evidence of fellowship is that we keep the word of God.  The idea behind the word keep is that of a sentinel.  It means to guard, to observe, to watch.  A proof of your fellowship with God is that you observe His word, and you come to love His word.  David was a man after God’s own heart, the Bible tells us.  And though David fell into sin, he constantly proclaimed his love for God’s word.  Psalm 119:11 says, “Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.”  It goes on to describe the love of the psalmist for the word of God; “I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, I shall delight in Your statutes; Your testimonies also are my delight; Behold, I long for Your precepts; I shall delight in Your commandments, Which I love.”  I could go on and on.  Psalm 119 alone has 176 verses, practically all of which extol his love for the word of God.

Let’s not forget that Jesus Himself was introduced by John in his gospel as the Word made flesh.  So if we are going to claim fellowship with the Word, then we must keep the Word, and treasure it in our hearts.  And that love of God’s word will be a proof of our fellowship.  This is how God talks to us, how He communes with us.  Fellowship is communication.

The third proof of fellowship is found in vs.6, “the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”  You can exchange the word “abides” for “fellowship”.  It means the same thing.  So read it again, “the one who say he has fellowship with Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”  

That simply means that we go where He goes, we do what He does, we say what He says, we walk where He walks.  We follow His leading.  We follow His example.  Peter, who was adept at missteps in his walk as a disciple, in his later years wrote in  1Peter 2:21, “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”   The Greek word for “example” used there is “hypogrammos”, which means a writing copy, including all the letters of the alphabet, given to beginners as an aid in learning to draw them.  Remember those when we were in elementary school?  You traced over the dotted lines to learn how to write the letters.  This is what Peter says about Christ’s example.  We walk as He walked. We walk in the same manner as He did.  And when we walk in His steps, we have fellowship with Him. 

And the good news is that now that we are born again by faith in Christ, we have been given the Spirit of Christ within us to help us walk as He walked.  To give us the power to live the life that He wants us to live.  

Now let’s look at the last point John makes concerning fellowship, and that is what I call the progression of fellowship. If you know Christ, if you have a relationship with Christ, then not only will there be the evidences or proofs of your relationship as we just mentioned, but there will also be a progression in your fellowship.  I’ve often stated the principle that Christianity is progressive.  It’s a walk, a journey of faith.  Jesus called it the Way, the Way of truth.  And as you walk with the Lord, as you have fellowship with the Lord, there will be a progression that gets better and better.

And to illustrate that I just want to point out three words regarding this progression of fellowship that John uses in this text.  He says fellowship begins with knowing, it becomes loving, and it ends with abiding. I said earlier that we were designed for fellowship with God.  Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that “He has also set eternity in their heart.”   Some have likened that to a God sized hole in your heart that cannot be filled with anything else but fellowship with God.  God designed us, made us for fellowship with Him.  Genesis 1 says that we were made in His likeness, according to His image. 2 Cor.11:2 says we were made to be the bride of Christ. 

All the other things God made in creation, He spoke into existence.  But God formed man out of the dust of the earth like an artist lovingly shapes a sculpture.  And then it says that God put His lips to man’s lips and breathed into Him the breath of life, and man became a living soul.  God made man for His pleasure, to be His bride, to have communion and intimacy with Him forever.  But Satan sold man a bill of lies, promising a better life, a higher knowledge of good and evil if they would just obey him.  And so man exchanged the glory of life with God for the temporary pleasure of this world, not fully comprehending that sin would bring about death and separation from God.  But thanks be to God, Jesus made it possible for us to be reconciled to Him, to have life in His name and through His righteousness be restored to fellowship with God forever.

Now this notion of communion with one you love should be familiar to all of us.  A young man sees a young lady, and he wants to know who she is.  He is interested in her.  He finds out her name. He introduces himself.  He asks her out on a date.  He wants to come to know her.  And that knowledge of her produces a relationship.  They become friends.  They aren’t just acquaintances.  They begin a relationship.  And of course, that produces dating.  It doesn’t really matter what they do, as long as they do it together.  They want fellowship.  They talk on the phone all the time.  They have communication.  They go on long walks together.  And before you know it, they are in love.  Their love is reciprocal.  It’s not going to work if he loves her, but she doesn’t love him.  They both love one another.  And the progression continues as it has for thousands of years.  That fellowship, that love, desires full time commitment.  John calls it abiding.  We call it getting married and setting up house together.  Till death do us part.  For better or for worse.  Forsaking all others, I will cling only to you. That’s the idea of abiding.

Well, that’s the progression that John shows us in this text.  Vs.3, we have come to know Him, Vs5, the love of God has truly been completed, and Vs 6, he abides in Him.  Let’s look real quickly at those three stages.  To know, in vs.3, we have already established as a relationship with Christ.  The first stage of our fellowship is relationship with Jesus Christ.  And John tells us that relationship is evidenced by obedience.  We do what He tells us to do.  We keep His commandments.  

I want to point out something here.  In the first chapter and the first two verses of chapter 2, John is talking about sin being the thing that breaks our fellowship with God.  Now in vs.3, he starts talking about keeping the commandments of God.  The point I want to make is that John is now defining sin.  He said in the last chapter, “if we say we have not sinned, we lie.”  Now John defines sin; it’s not keeping God’s commandments.  God’s commandments define sin. Without the law, we would not know sin.  Paul said in Romans 7:7, “What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.”

Christ did not come to abolish the law, but He came to fulfill it.  And furthermore, He came to explain it, expand upon it.  He said that all of the law was contained in this; “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and all your might.  And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Those two commandments encompassed all the law.  So a right relationship with God will be evidenced by obedience.  

Jesus emphasized that obedience in John 14:15, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." And in Verse 21, "He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me.”  And so we see that obedience segues into the next stage of our fellowship; obedience to Christ produces the next stage which is love for Christ. In him who is obedient to the commands of Christ the love of Christ has truly been perfected.  Perfected means completed.  

We love God because He first loved us. God initiated this fellowship.  He loved us, He sought us and wooed us to Him.  He introduced Himself to us in the scriptures.  He manifested Himself to us through Jesus Christ. And as a result we come to know the love of God experientially, and we reciprocate by loving others as He loves us.  That’s what it means to be perfected or completed.  We love others as He loves us.  We love His church because it is HIs body.  

And then lastly, that love desires to abide with Him permanently. One day that will result in Jesus coming again to take us to His home, to the place He has been preparing for us.  But for now that means that His Spirit takes up residence in us, so that we might have communication with Him through His word and through prayer and assembling together with His people.  But abiding means even more that that. Abiding produces fruitfulness.  John 14:4 ”As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” You can be in Christ, as a member of the vine, and only bear dry leaves. That is mere relationship. But if you want fruitfulness in your life, there must be that further attitude of abiding in him, living in Him and He living in you. That, he says, is what produces significant results in this new life in Christ. Without Him, "you can do nothing," (John 5:5)

Well, we must close.  Let me just conclude by saying that Christianity is not a bunch of formulas or rituals, it’s not an intellectual assent to God, nor even an emotional attachment to God.  Christianity is a personal relationship and communion with the very Creator of the Universe, the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is alive, and He wants to come in and have fellowship with His bride, that we might know the power of the resurrection life that He died to purchase for us.  Jesus said to His church in Rev 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”   That is what He wants.  Fellowship with us.  I trust that you will desire fellowship with Him. You can have this communion with God, when you come to know Christ, and to love Him, and abide with Him.