First John

I John 2:7-15, Love

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: I John 2:7-15, Love

Genre: Sermon

Lesson: 3 of 16

Track: #3

Year:

Dictation Name: RR308B3

[Introducer] Let us worship God. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. It is better to trust in the Lord then to put confidence in man. Oh taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.

Let us pray.

Our most good and gracious God and heavenly Father we praise You for your goodness’s to us each day. We thank You that You have brought us together to worship You and to study Your word this Lord’s day. Thank You for the union we have with believers throughout all history, and throughout the world at this present time because of your Son Jesus Christ. We thank You that we have a common purpose and meaning. We pray that you would help us this day to better understand our purpose in terms of obedience to You. We pray that You would encourage us in faithfulness, encourage us in our family life and our vocation so that we might us them to further Your kingdom and that of Your Son Jesus Christ. We come before You as sinners in need of repentance, we pray that You would open our hearts and cause us to see our shortcomings and help us to repent of those sins which keep us from serving You. We pray that You would encourage us to greater faithfulness and obedience to You in a wicked age. We pray that You would help us through this morning’s lesson to see better our responsibility to You. Help us in age which sees man as the center of all things to see You as the center of all things. Bless now this time we have together, in Christ our Savior’s name, amen.

The scripture for this morning’s lesson is I John, chapter two, verses 7-15, and the subject will be Love. I John chapter two verses 7-15.

“7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.

8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.

9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.

10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.

11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

12 I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.

13 I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.

14 I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.

15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

[Rushdoony] One of the interesting things about the Bible is that the languages of the world have changed wherever the Bible has gone. The Bible has greatly improved every language so that the languages have in some respects become Hebraic. One of the most powerful statements in Hebraic terms is the book of Isaiah. Now, on the other hand the curious fact is that even as the Bible goes all over the world and transforms the languages to make them more and more alike, at one point the translations have failed, and we come into the area of failure when we study John’s letters. John talks about love, but in the coina {?}, or common Greek of the day, there are three words for love. This is interesting in a language that did not have to many words, it was a kind of business Greek used all over the Roman empire in order to conduct business, and when the Bible was translated, or New Testament written in coina Greek, wherever it went people readily understood it because it was the language of business. But the New Testament Greek had three words where we normally have one, and that word is all-important, as we shall see in the weeks coming, to the understanding of John’s letter.

Coina Greek has three words, as does all of Greek, for love. Two of them very commonly used, the third rarely used. The first word, which is very common the world over but never used in the New Testament, is Eros, e-r-o-s; and eros has reference to precisely what it means in English, erotic love. Erotic love, not love with any morality to it, but sexual love. But there is a second word for love in the coina and Greek as well, and that is a word which we have in many English words, phileo. We have it in the name Philadelphia, which means city of brotherly love; adelphos, brother, and phileo meaning love- the human love. Good love, neighborly love, friendly love, family love, it refers to the kind of thing where we love because we are in a situation where there’s a happy relationship between us.

But there is a third word for love in the Greek, agape, it was rarely used. In fact one scholar wrote of the word agape it was hard to know why it existed, it was a rarely used word, and it primarily means in the New Testament, the love of God for us, and our ability to express that kind of love one for another. It’s a love that is not created because of a good relationship between us, but a love that is like grace. Grace goes to the undeserving; agape goes also to the undeserving, from God to the sinful fallen man and from redeemed Christian man reaching out to those who are fallen.

So when we understand these three words we understand why we cannot know John’s letter without a knowledge of these words. When John begins in verse seven “7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.” So, he says, I’m writing to you about God’s commandment, God’s requirement. But it’s nothing new, it cannot be new, it cannot be new in the most pagan portions of the world because it expresses what is in every man’s being. So he says it is an old commandment, one that all of you have heard from the beginning, you’ve always known it, whether you have admitted it in your being or not, ye have known it.

“Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.” You can appreciate the fullness of all that love means in a Biblical sense now that the darkness is passed from your lives, you know what the grace of God is and therefore you know what His true love is. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Why would someone die for sinners? As John tells us in his gospel, scarcely for a good man would anyone be ready to die, to give up his life for the best of men; it happens, but it’s rare. But while we were yet sinners, no good, Christ died for us, and because of Him, the darkness in our lives is passed, and the true light now shineth.

“He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.” Now John starts hitting close to home. He says there are to many people who claim to be Christians, but they don’t like anyone else. There is some who would say of us that it would never, never be fit to have any kind of communion with us because we don’t share their particular set of beliefs. So John is speaking of all such, he makes it clear that we cannot say that we are in the light, in Christ, and hate our brother. We are then in darkness even until now.

“10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.” To love our brother truly as God requires it means that we walk in His Spirit, we are in the light and therefore we are not an occasion for stumbling. To many people who call themselves Christians are on occasion for stumbling because while they may claim to be such, everything about them is a contradiction to the faith and it causes only trouble. And so he that loveth his brother abideth in the light, in Christ, and there is none occasion of stumbling in Him. He is not a problem in the community; he may be a problem to those are in darkness while claiming to be in the light, but not to any who are in the light.

11 ”But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.” Now John is being very emphatic, he is making very, very clear that the mere profession of faith is not in itself faith, that if we walk in darkness, if we walk outside of Christ, we’re going to show what we are and we are going to show that we are blind to the truth.

“12 I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.” John often uses the phrase “little children” or “children.” The meaning is somewhat different then what it says literally in English. Children are those who have not learned very much, and the sense in which this term occurs in the Greek means they are very young, they’re children in the faith, they have a great deal to understand. It is comparable to someone who knows no physics trying to learn it, he’s like a child suddenly, he has to learn the ABC’s of physics. Well so too, John says, we are like children when we come to the faith. We have to learn it, and it means that we cannot feel that once we believe it we know it all, we don’t, we are children in the faith. “I write unto you little children because your sins are forgiven for His names sake.” Jesus Christ and His love means forgiveness of sins. There is someone who has no reason to love fallen men, men who until converted hate Him, and yet He loves them and redeems them. “Your sins are forgive you for His names sake” John says; a very, very powerful statement. Not because, well being really a good man at heart once you understood what the faith was about you repented, no. You repented because His grace led you to repentance. You were a sinner when He reached out to you.

“He that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not wither he goeth because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.” So you claim to be a good member of first church San Francisco, Los Angeles, or wherever it may be. You are not a Christian because of your church membership, but because Christ has known you, remade you, made you a new creation in Him, because now your sins are forgiven you for His name sake. Our sins are not forgiven because of our repentance, our repentance is due to His grace, and our forgiveness is due to His grace.

“13 I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.” Three groups he writes to. Those who are mature in the faith, those who are young in the faith, and those who are little children in the faith; he rights to all three because he knows the grace of God will work in them, and will guide them in the way they should go.

“14 I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. And I have written to you, young and old, because ye are strong,” Why? Because “the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.” Our salvation is a work of the Lord, then our growth in grace and our overcoming of the wicked one in and around us is because of our knowledge of God.

“15 Love not the world,” therefore John says, “neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” John is here speaking about love, love in any ordinary sense, love as we love our parents, phileo. God is not asking the supernatural love of you, but to begin with a very natural love, you love the Lord because He has redeemed you. You love His people because like you they are sinners saved by grace, and so you have a different life because the focus is changed. Instead of loving the world you love the Father; because you love the Father you love the Son and you love all fellow believers.

The interesting thing, as I said at the beginning and we’ll go back to it in greater detail later on following weeks, is that John uses a different kind of language when he comes to the subject of love. Three words, why there were three in coina Greek or in Greek no-one knows. In fact “agape” the love of God, was rarely ever used. And so he’s prepared to tell us something about love and his definition of love will turn out to be very, very far from what the world means when it talks about love. I said at the beginning that every language where Christianity has gone and where the Bible has been translated has changed because of the Bible. In fact some languages entirely new words have been created to express the Biblical terms. But curiously the word love remains in all translations only one word, although three ideas are expressed by it. We will began to understand as we go through John how very different they are and how important it is for us to know the meaning of love as scripture declares it. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God we give thanks unto Thee for Thy word, for Thy love, for Thy so great salvation. Deal with us in Thy wisdom, teach us to grow, give us understanding, make us strong against the hostilities of this world, and make us victorious in time and in eternity. In Christ name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson?

Well we shall continue as we get deeper into the subject of love, with what God means by it as against what man means, and we shall see how it is curious that all languages have been very poor at this one point. Let us conclude with prayer.

Now Father guide us this day and throughout the week, and make us joyful in Thee, strong in Thy word, and ever mindful of Thy love. And now go in peace God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, amen.