CWA Epistle Supp - Epiphany 3 - Kieth Bernard Kuschel
1 John 2:3-11
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, God’s love 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.
IA1 3“We know Him(Jesus),” John wrote. What does it mean to know something? I know what the score of the game was. How did I come to know the score of the game? Did I read it in the newspaper? Did somebody tell me the score? Was I there? Knowing the score of the game doesn’t tell you if I have had any personal experience which gave me the information about the game.
2 I know my neighbor. Do I recognize my neighbor when I see him in a crowd because he lives next door? Do I know what my neighbor is like because I interact with him periodically? Do I know how he thinks because we have a lot of interpersonal contact? Knowing my neighbor doesn’t tell you if I have had much personal experience which gave me information about him.
B1 I know Jesus. What does that mean? It means I know that the Bible says He is the Word of God who came out of the mouth of God and created all things. It means I acknowledge that what the Bible says about Him is true. It means I manage the world around me because He has given it to me and to all other humans as the producer of what I need to live on. It means I know that the Bible says He sustains all things by His powerful Word. It means I acknowledge that what the Bible says about Him is true. It means that I regularly ask Him to keep what He has created operating so that His people can continue to function as His servants in this world.
2 I know Jesus. What does that mean? It means I know that the Bible says He took my sins on Himself, took them to the cross, shed His blood, and washed them away. It means I acknowledge that what the Bible says about Him is true. It means I don’t need to try to do things to persuade God to forgive my sins on the basis of me. It means I know that the Bible says He lived in my place and covered me with His holiness. It means I acknowledge that what the Bible says about Him is true. It means I am not constantly working to produce enough good to make myself right with God. It means I know that the Bible says Jesus rose from the dead to give me eternal life. It means I acknowledge that what the Bible says about Him is true. It means I walk confidently into the future because of His resurrection.
3 John put it this way: 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.” Knowing Jesus means knowing the facts about Him. It means believing those facts are true. It means that the acknowledgment that these things about Jesus are true leads us to do what God commands us to do.
C1 What does the Epiphany Season tell us our lives as Christians are all about? We are to reflect the light of Jesus to the people around us. We are to inform them that He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things. We are to inform them that He is the Substitute who lived and died and rose to provide them with forgiveness, holiness, and eternal life.
2 Does anybody see where knowing Jesus fits in? Knowing the facts about Jesus makes us capable of passing those facts along to someone else just like the score of the game. Knowing who Jesus is makes us capable of passing along that information to someone else just like passing along knowledge of who your neighbor is. But when our knowledge of Jesus leads us to manage His world, pray to Him, and trust that He has taken away my sins, covered me with holiness and given me eternal life, then that experienced based transmission about who Jesus is becomes meaningful to others as we reflect Jesus to them.
IIA1 7 “Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning.” The command that we are to obey God’s commands is old. It is as old as the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were to obey the command to not eat of the one tree. It is as old as the consciences of the human race which tell us what God’s wants and what he doesn’t want. It is as old as Mt Sinai where God put His commands which were to be obeyed into written form.
2 John says, 7b“This old command is the message you have heard.” From the fact that John calls the first readers of these letters his “dear children” it seems obvious that these were people whom John had worked with closely. So he knew what they had heard. He had taught them. He had taught them God’s Law. He had taught them that anyone who doesn’t obey God’s commands is a sinner who deserves God’s punishment.
B1 And then John sounds like he contradicts himself. 8“Yet I am writing you a new command.” John had heard something himself just like that. It sounded like this. John 13:34: A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” Anybody recognize those words? That is Jesus talking to His disciples, one of whom was John, in the upper room on Thursday night right before He died.
2 What is new about this command to love one another? Jesus said, “As I have loved you.” John wrote: 8b“its(the new command’s) truth is seen in him(Jesus).” In other words, if you really want to know what obedience to God’s Law looks like, you can see it in Jesus. His obedience was perfect. What was new? Jesus’ obedience was done, just recently completed by His life on this earth. That made newly available the completed, not just promised, holiness that each of the disciples and we need to be holy in God’s sight. That is the truth about obedience to God’s commands.
C1 What does the Epiphany Season tell us our lives as Christians are all about? We are to reflect the light of Jesus to the people around us. How are we to do that? Jesus said, Matt 5:16 “Let your light shine before men that they may see (something) and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” What is the something? Good deeds.
2 John wrote: 8b “its(the new command’s) truth is seen in you(us).” What truth about obedience to God’s commands is new and seen in us? We don’t strive to produce good deeds to earn our way to heaven. That’s the old sinful self’s view of things. We strive to keep God’s command to love one another as our thankful response to Jesus’ obedience which covers us. When people realize why we are striving to obey God’s commands, they don’t praise us for working so hard. They praise the Father who sent Jesus to be our Savior. The truth about Jesus’ substitutionary holiness which covers us is seen by us when the Holy Spirit brings us to faith. It is seen in us when people analyze why we want to obey God’s commands. Did it every strike any of you that the last two letters in Jesus name are us.
IIIA1 9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. What is hatred? John helps us to answer that question in the next chapter: 1 John 3:15 - Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. Hatred is the desire to end somebody’s life. The desire to do damage that could end somebody’s life. The desire to have God give them eternal death in hell.
2 What is hatred? I suppose another way to try to define it is to say that it is the opposite of love. John helps us to know what love is in the next chapter as well: 1 John 3:16 - This is how we know what love is: Jesus laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” Love is the action of giving oneself for the good of someone else. Hatred is the action of occupying oneself with attempts to damage and destroy someone else.
B1 John wrote: 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. The Bible uses that picture a lot. In fact we use that picture all the time when we talk about sins. We say we fall into sin. We trip over temptation on our walk toward eternity. Sometimes we fall.
2 But the stumble and fall picture gets even more dramatic in a passage like this. Romans 9:33 - See, I lay in Zion a stone(that is a reference to Jesus) that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.” When the Holy Spirit leads me to trust that Jesus lived and died and rose for me, I will never be put to shame. I will never have to endure God saying, “Depart from me into eternal fire.” But if I were an unbeliever, if I would insist that I didn’t need Jesus because I am not bad enough to be punished by God, then Jesus would be the cause of my stumbling and falling away from God and spending eternity apart from God.
C1 What does the Epiphany Season tell us our lives as Christians are all about? We are to reflect the light of Jesus to the people around us. How are we to do that? By refusing to get involved in hatred. People disagree with us. We feel attacked. We get angry. But with the Lord’s help we don’t wish these folks would go to hell. People do things or say things to hurt us. With the Lord’s help we refuse to get caught up with trying to get back at these folks for hurting us. John says this about a person who is controlled by hatred. 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.
2 What does refusing to be controlled by hatred but rather loving others say? 5 But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love 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. That is what it says to us. What does it say to others? It says we know where we are walking. We are walking with Jesus. And we are walking toward eternity with Jesus.
Lord, Jesus, help me to speak so others get to know you. Help me obey so others get to see You. Help me live so others keep headed toward You.