Christian Love

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — 1 Kings 8:23
• Hymn — Bless the Lord, O My Soul (Psalm 103E)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Sin
• Assurance of Pardon — Psalm 32:5
• Hymn of the Month — The God of Abraham Praise (#234)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Sermon
• Hymn — Blest Be the Tie That Binds (#409)
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14

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Sermon Title: Christian Love

Scripture: 1 John 2:7-17

I. The Newness of Christian Love — 1 John 2:7-11

A. The commandment to love is both old and new

1. Old: rooted in the Old Testament — Deuteronomy 6:5 (the Shema) and Leviticus 19:18 (love your neighbor)
2. Christ affirmed these as the two greatest commandments on which all the Law and Prophets hang
3. New: the age of fulfillment has dawned; in Christ, the love of God shines on the entire world in unprecedented fullness

B. The light of Christ exposes false claims to spiritual enlightenment

1. John's polemical target: proto-Gnostic teachers who equated spiritual knowledge or ecstatic experience with knowing God
2. True enlightenment is demonstrated by love for the brothers and sisters in Christ, not by doctrinal knowledge or spiritual experience alone
3. John 13:34-35: A new commandment — love one another as Christ has loved you; by this all will know you are his disciples

C. The power of Christian love — 1 John 2:10

1. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling
2. Assurance of salvation is closely linked to love for the brethren; a lack of love for fellow believers may signal spiritual weakness
3. 1 Peter 4:8: Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, for love covers a multitude of sins
4. A church characterized by cross-bearing, self-sacrificing love is a defeat for Satan and a demonstration that the light of Christ has overcome the darkness

II. The Possession of Christian Love — 1 John 2:12-14

A. John addresses three stages of spiritual maturity

1. Little children — new believers, forgiven for Christ's name's sake
2. Young men — growing believers, strong in the word, overcoming the evil one
3. Fathers — mature believers, knowing him who is from the beginning

B. All believers, regardless of maturity, share the same objective standing before God

1. The Greek perfect tense underscores past action with ongoing present and future reality: sins forgiven, the Father known, the evil one overcome
2. Even the spiritually immature child and the spiritually mature father equally know the Father — a direct rebuttal to Gnostic hierarchies of enlightenment

C. Christian love flows from Triune love

1. Forgiveness through the Son (1 John 2:12), knowledge of the Father (1 John 2:13-14), the word abiding by the Spirit (1 John 2:14)
2. This is not guilt-tripping love (look how much I've done — what will you do for me?) but an organic bond with the God who is love
3. Luke 7:47: She who is forgiven much loves much; he who is forgiven little loves little
4. Application: Feed on the love of God for you before going out to love others — love for the brethren is fueled by the love of God received at the cross and the throne of grace

III. The Antithesis of Christian Love — 1 John 2:15-17

A. Christian love is a scrutinizing, selective love — it does not love the world

1. The contrast is absolute: either the love of the Father dwells in you or the love of the world does; there is no neutral ground
2. As seen in the morning sermon: you serve either the Father in heaven through Christ or the father from below through Adam in sin

B. John identifies three characteristics of worldliness (1 John 2:16)

1. The desires of the flesh — the inward man: the corrupted, sin-enslaved heart and its cravings
2. The desires of the eyes — the outward man: living by what looks good and will satisfy the corrupted heart
3. The pride of possessions — the autonomous man: placing himself on the throne as though he were God, blinded to his creaturely dependence
4. Commentator Findlay summarizes: two lusts and one vaunt — unholy desire for what one does not have, and unholy pride in what one does have

C. The world is passing away, but whoever does the will of God abides forever (1 John 2:17)

1. John does not merely give believers a to-do list; he inspires longing for eternity (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: to build a ship, teach people to long for the immensity of the sea)
2. Thomas Chalmers, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection: the love of the world cannot be driven out by demonstrating the world's worthlessness, but only by a superior affection — the love of God written on the heart by the Spirit in Christ
3. Application: Where do your affections lie — in the rotting things of this world, or in the eternal God, the eternal family, and the eternal home that will abide forever?