1 John 2:10-11 ESV --- Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him[a] there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever 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.
Today we finished verses 10-11 and the teaching on hating or loving our fellow Christian believers. There is a ton packed into these two verses but in my time with Him today it wasn't an overly deep dive into individual words and more of a sit back and really soak in what the Lord was saying in 1 John 2:7-11.
The first part of chapter 2 was focused on your words and actions as they pertain to your personal relationship with God. If you say you know Him, fellowship with Him, then it'll be proven in whether you keep His commandments and are being changed by them. If you say you abide in Jesus, it'll be proven by seeing your walk start to line up with how He walked.
Now, in verses 7-11 your words/actions are now being applied to the command Jesus gave in John 13:34-35 to love one another as He loved us, as the world will know we're His by this. We're getting down to the first step of external application of saying we abide in Him and then keeping His commandments and walking as He walked.
I like John's writing because he's a wordy guy and he repeats thoughts and I'm the same way but today, instead of just definitions and being wordy about words, I was confronted by this, and I hope you are too.
If you have ongoing hate, ill will, less love for, or actively work against even ONE fellow sister or brother in Christ, then the very Word of God says you are in darkness and being in darkness means you are not abiding in Jesus and not abiding in Jesus means you are not keeping His commandments and not keeping those means you are lying and the truth is not in you.
That single bit of hate for your fellow brother or sister has you stumbling around in the dark, not just leading yourself astray, but creating stumbling blocks and snares for other believers along the way.
Is that harsh? Maybe, maybe not, but it's His word not mine. It's sharp and it cuts for sure, but it's meant to. Please note it's written to the church, to professed believers in Jesus Christ. So, it's meant to stub our toes on and get our attention.
Also, just because we're believers doesn't mean we're not human. We mess up, we slip up, we have horrible thoughts, we get irritated, we get frustrated with people, we say things we shouldn't, we do things we shouldn't (sometimes on accident, other times blatantly), we even feel hatred towards others at times… BUT, if you're truly abiding in Him and striving to walk as He walked, you'll be convicted when you do these things and that should lead you to repentance of it and back into action to restore, to make right, to love more, to walk right again, to fellowship, etc…
I don't type this summary of my time with the Lord today from a high holy roller golden tower, but from a place of someone having to remove the 2x4 wooden boards from my own eye, repent of my own thoughts/actions.
It's amazing that God loves me and you so much that He comes for us, just how we are, right where we're at, but His love doesn't stop there, it keeps going to transform and change us from the inside out, grow us, mature us, make us more like Jesus every day!
What an AMAZING LOVE!
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