1 John 2:9-17 (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is 1 John 2:9-17. Let’s go!
1 John 2:9-11 (NIV)
9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.
10 Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.
11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
On verses 9-11: Light versus darkness is an ongoing theme in 1 John, the idea that God is light (see 1 John 1:5), that Jesus is the true light (2:5) and that if we are in Jesus we are in the light as well (1:7). In contrast, the darkness is anywhere where Jesus is not glorified or obeyed (1:6). How do you know if a Christian is truly in the light or in the darkness? It’s in how that person loves others. Here John proclaims that anyone who says he is in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness, whereas anyone who loves his brother lives in the light (v10). In other words, how we love others is proof of whether we are truly in Christ or not.
Also, when we live in hate, we live in the dark, can’t see clearly (“the darkness has blinded him” – v11) and don’t know where we are going (v11). When we live in love, we live in the light and there is nothing in us to make us stumble (v10).
So often what keeps us from loving the way God made us to love is the unhealthy stuff in us that makes us stumble – selfishness, laziness, prejudice, fears and insecurities. But when we living the lives God calls us to live empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are no longer bound by those things anymore – as verse 10 says, “there is nothing in him to make him stumble.”
1 John 2:12-14 (NIV)
12 I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
13 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father.
14 I write to you, fathers, because you have known 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.
On verses 12-14: Here John addresses three groups of people: children, young men and fathers. While it is possible that John is referring to his readers by their physical ages, it is quite possible that John is categorizing his readers by their spiritual maturity. It’s as if John is saying that in the kingdom of God there are three big stages in spiritual maturity.
First, there’s the spiritual child. Spiritual children have been forgiven of their sins (v12) and have God as their father (v13 – “because you have known the Father”). They also have much maturing to do. You are born again as a spiritual child (or infant) when you receive Jesus Christ into your life.
Second, there’s the spiritual young adult. Spiritual young adults are stronger and more mature than spiritual children. That is because in addition to being forgiven, spiritual young adults have grown up to experience victory over the enemy (“overcome the evil one” – v13). They have allowed God’s Word to dwell in them more and more (“the word of God lives in you” – verse 14; see also Colossians 3:16). Just as Jesus had God’s Word living inside of Him and thus He was able to be victorious over the evil one (Matthew 4), similarly if you want to grow up from being a spiritual infant to a spiritual young adult it’s about letting God’s Word change the way you think so that in the battlefield of your mind you can overcome the evil one.
Third, there’s the spiritual father, or the spiritual parent. Spiritual parents have experienced what spiritual children and spiritual young adults have experienced. But spiritual parents are more mature than spiritual children and spiritual young adults because they have one more defining characteristic: they have “known Him who is from the beginning” (v13, 14). In other words, while spiritual children know God as their father, spiritual parents know the Father in another sense: like the Father Himself, they reproduce themselves spiritually. They become mentors, shepherds and spiritual parents for others. In this way they have a sense of how the Father feels, loves, protects and guides His children.
God’s desire is that all of us grow up spiritually. It’s part of your calling. May you grow from a spiritual baby to a spiritual adult to a spiritual parent who reproduces and mentors others.
1 John 2:15-17 (NIV)
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does–comes not from the Father but from the world.
17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
On verses 15-17: What does it mean to “love the world or anything in the world”? Didn’t John himself write that “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son” (John 3:16)? Yes he did. But here when John says “the world”, he doesn’t mean humankind per se. Rather here “the world” refers to a system of thinking, feeling and living that pervades society and that is all about worshiping yourself instead of worshiping Christ. It’s a system that lives on “the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does” (v16). It’s a system that does not last and ultimately makes us miserable, whereas those who do God’s will live forever (v17). So when John writes, “do not love the world” he is saying, “Don’t give in to that system.” Or as Paul writes, “do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).
Father, I pray that I would grow up spiritually from a spiritual child to a spiritual young adult to a spiritual parent. May I go from one who is weak and immature to one who is strong in You, who experiences victory by hanging onto Your Word, who takes care of others and who lives set apart for You from the world. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
Copyright © 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.
