1 John 2:1-14
Vrs 1 “These things” The Father extended His love toward us in sending Jesus (the incarnation) to die for us, this should inspire us to not sin, one major goal that we should have in our lives is something called “Sanctification” (Set apart) that is the concept that day by day we are becoming more and more like Jesus and sin less and less.
But if you do sin We have Jesus, who takes our place as our advocate
Vrs 2 “Propitiation”- David says in Psalm 51 against You only have I sinned
God does love us, but He hates sin. God has to hate sin because He is good and he has to be angry and do something about it because He is just. He can’t just ignore the sin that we commit. Sin spurs on God’s wrath or His dealing justly with sin
People have a problem with this.. If God is love, how can He have wrath in Him? Let me ask you this… Would He be love if He didn’t have wrath? Love protects, (I am a dad) part of God’s wrath is the eventual purging this world of sin. It is against God’s Character not be just He must be just, if He is just there must be wrath/payment. Would we consider our justice system to be loving if it let criminal go?
2 forms of wrath: Active wrath we see incidents of that in the OT and NT,
Passive wrath Romans 1 “Wrath of God revealed” “Gave us over to our sinful desires and we make a mess and all the sins we commit are added to the pile and then at the day of judgment that pile falls on you. There is justice because you paid for your sin ways.
The doctrine of Propitiation means that wrath was fully and completely poured out on Jesus, he paid for my sin. So if some say that God cannot have wrath if He is love then 1 John 4:10 clears that up. and if we reject that it is like we are saying I will take it myself.
The Passover illustrates this.
This is extremely important because in Jesus, The Father is not angry with me. (He may be displeased) In Jesus, The father is not punishing me (He may be disciplining me) In Jesus, I don’t have to pay God back for the wrong that I did. He paid it all…and offers to all.
Vrs 3-5 The litmus test for our personal faith in Jesus is our desire to follow, God knows our hearts
Faith- words for (example in Rom. 4:18-25 discussion on Abraham)
1. notitia – notion-understanding
2. assensus – assent-agree with it
3. fiducia – fiduciary(bank) reliable Salvation happens in the presence of assensus and fiducia
4. Actio – Action – readiness to do something. Love is displayed to God in Actio faith
Vrs 6 Abiding in Jesus means we follow His example. Jesus is pleased by “Actio”
loving what He loves, hating what He hates, doing what He does, treating people the way He treats them, praying like He prayed, sacrificing like He sacrificed and acting as He acts.
As a father I understand this (Zane surfing)
Vrs 7 Come on guys this is nothing new, from the beginning of your faith you knew what pleases God but you are neglecting that.
Vrs 8 The new command John 13:34 of love belongs to Jesus is His new age which we are living in.
The darkness passing and the true light is shining
Jesus came and died and now that message was going out into a dark world to light things up. Continent by continent, country, state, city, town, neighborhood, house Rev 21-22 the light will come from the Son Jesus
Vrs 9-10 This is speaking to Christians, if you have hatred toward another Christian you cannot claim to have a tight intimate relationship with Jesus
“cause for stumbling”-consequences and leading to other actions that will be destructive
“Hate is like acid. It can damage the vessel in which it is stored as well as destroy the object on which it is poured”. Ann Landers,
If we hate our fellow Christian we are disobeying the law of love that Jesus has for us and taught us.
What causes us to hate our fellow Christian?
1. They have hurt us…physically, emotionally.
Someone once said “you have never been truly hurt until you have been hurt by your fellow Christian” Why is this true? Because of the expectation you have on them But we have to think are these wants or needs?
2. They let us down by a spiritual downfall
I have noticed when a high profile Christian falls, they are able to find more mercy, compassion and love from those outside the Christian faith
The great preacher C.H. Spergeon said- “if you hate a backslidden brother you hate his master (Jesus), you and him have the same righteousness and the same master Jesus. Take care of the backslider.
3. We envy them, sometimes some people just have it together and we can’t stand it.
Vrs 11 Often times wrath is born out of hatred. The person that hates loses his way, we start to become driven by hatred and the idea of the revenge we seek, it consumes our thoughts our speech and our time because of this there is no room for the things of God, sometimes we kid ourselves, we start to read the Bible and instead of letting it be light to us and work on our heart we read it and think about how the person that we hate needs to follow this or this was written to them not to me as well.
God has taken their wrath on the cross, you don’t have to deal out the wrath. Jesus is their propitiation just like He is yours
In a will written in 1935 by a Mr. Donohoe. It says, "Unto my two daughters, Frances Marie and Denise Victoria, by reason of their attitude toward a doting father, . . . I leave the sum of $1.00 to each and a father's curse. May their lives be fraught with misery, unhappiness, and sorrow. May their deaths be soon and of a lingering malignant and torturous nature." "May their souls rest in hell and suffer the torments of the condemned for eternity." (This dad lost his way)
Which leads us into the next few verses 12-14 I write to you
“Little children” term for young and or immature Christians
Young men and fathers- I want to appeal to the men. Men’s study
How do we overcome hatred in our lives? Repentance especially if it is driven by our own envy and forgiveness.
Realizing that Jesus took our wrath for us on the cross
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