Series: 1
John
Title: Brotherly Love or Brotherly Hate
Text: 1 John 2: 5-11
Date: September 20, 2018
Place: SGBC, NJ
Faith in Christ and
love to brethren is in every sinner born of God. The reason is because that is the end-goal to
which God, in his love to his elect, brings his people.
1 John 2: 5:
But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected:
“Perfected” means God’s
love for his child has brought us to its end-goal. Faith and love are sure to be in those born
of God because in him verily is the love
of God brought to its end goal.
We see the same Greek
word that is here translated “perfected” in other places in the new
testament. For instance, the end goal of
the law is to bring God’s people to Christ.
Romans 10: 4: For
Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to every one that believeth.”
“End” is from the
same word Greek word which is translated “perfected” in our text. The perfect, complete, end-goal to which the
law brings God’s elect is to faith in Christ.
Galatians 3:24:
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to
bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25: But after
that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
When one who Christ
redeemed has been brought to faith in Christ by the Spirit of God they are no
longer under the law because the end-goal of the law has been reached. Fleeing to Christ for Righteousness is the
end-goal of the law to everyone that believes.
Another example is
concerning holiness. The end-goal of
God’s sanctifying work of holiness is to separate his elect from darkness into
the light of Christ. God said that light
and darkness have no communion, wherefore come out and I will receive you and
be a Father to you and you shall be my child.
2 Corinthians 7: 1: Having
therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
When God has sanctified
his child and separated us out of darkness into his marvelous light then the
end-goal of God’s work of making us holy has been accomplished. Therefore, God’s saints give
Colossians 1: 12:…thanks
unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of
the saints in light: 13: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath
translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
So our text declares “whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the
love of God brought him to its end-goal.” Both faith and love (agape) are
of God, not of us.
Ephesians 2: 8: For by grace are ye
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9: Not of works, lest any man should
boast.
1 John 4: 7:…love is
of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
Therefore, since God’s
love is irresistible, if we believe on Christ and love our brethren, “Hereby know we that we are in him.” Brethren, while dead in sins, we did not
believe on Christ and our heart was enmity against God and enmity against those
born of God. So if we believe on Christ
and love our brethren, it is to the praise of God’s grace alone. That is why the Spirit of God says “hereby know we that we are in him.”
For the same reason, if
we say we believe yet, hate our brethren, it manifests that we are still in
darkness.
Our subject is:
Brotherly Love or Brotherly Hate
Proposition:
When God creates love in his child, God produces love for brethren and this is
how we know that it is of God and we are in him.
OUR WALK OUGHT TO MATCH OUR PROFESSION
1 John 2: 6: He that saith he
abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
“Ought” means as a debtor
to Christ. Our constraint is Christ’s
love for us whereby he redeemed his elect, in whom we have forgiveness. A few verses from here, John declares the
reason why he is declaring that we ought to walk as Christ walked is because of
Christ’s love for us by whose blood we are already forgiven.
1 John 2: 12: I write unto you, little children,
because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.
Be sure to get
this! The difference between legal works
and works of grace is God giving us this pure motive of love by giving us free,
full, complete righteousness in Christ.
AN OLD COMMANDMENT
1 John 2: 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.
This commandment from
Christ to love one another is not new. “Brotherly love”
is the word Christ preached to us from the beginning when he first gave us ears
to hear the gospel.
1 John 3:11: For this is the message that ye heard
from the beginning, that we should love one another.
2 John 1:5:…not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that
which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.
The first time the Spirit
planted the word in our hearts, we heard the gospel of “brotherly love”, of “him that loved us, and washed us from our
sins in his own blood.” (Rev 1: 5)
From that first hour
that God gave us faith and love in our newly created hearts, Christ commands each
believer to “walk in love, as Christ also
hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God
for a sweetsmelling savour.” (Eph 5: 2)
So this commandment
is as old as the everlasting love of Christ for his brethren—the gospel message
is concerning brotherly love—the love of Christ, the Firstborn among many
brethren. God chose his people and
predestinated us to be conformed to the image of Christ that Christ might be
the Firstborn among many brethren. It
was the love of Christ for his brethren—God’s elect—that made him come into the
world and lay down his life to redeem us by his blood. So this word is as old as the love of Christ
for his brethren.
Likewise, this
message, this commandment, is as old to us as when he first planted this word
in our hearts so that we had it. It is
as old to us as when he first made us hear the gospel in spirit and in
truth.
A NEW COMMANDMENT
1 John 2: 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.
This same commandment
is also new. We see why it is new by looking
at each phrase in John 13 where Christ gave this command to us.
One, this commandment is new because Christ himself, our Lord and our
Savior, gave this commandment—John 13:
34: A new commandment I give unto you. Moses
gave the law at Sinai. Christ himself
gave this new rule of life. He himself worked
out our example of love, saved his people by his love of brethren then gives us
the commandment to follow his example.
Two, this message is new because it is only one command—John 13: 34…That ye love one another. Christ’s law over his regenerated, believing people
is a light and easy yoke as opposed to the ministration of death given at Sinai
which included over 600 commands. Those
under Christ’s rule of life are under grace but those under the law of Sinai are
under the curse.
Three, this word is new because Christ shows us how to love—John 13: 34…as I have loved you, that ye
also love one another. This is why
John says this word is true in him. It is how the
true light now shines and the darkness
is now past. Christ himself has shined his light
showing us how to love as he loved his elect.
Beholding how Christ loved us the darkness is removed concerning how we
are to love. And this commandment is new
because by his love for us, by his irresistible grace in the new birth, this
commandment is true in us. By his great love for us, we have been born
again and given love in our hearts and light to behold the great love wherewith
Christ loved us. This is our example and
our constraint which moves us in power to love one another. The law at Sinai required love. But it never loved us, it never showed us how to
love and it never worked love in our hearts.
Four, this commandment is new because now it is the love of brethren that
distinguishes us as Christ’s disciples—John
13: 35: By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love
one to another. Under the old
covenant of works the children of Israel were distinguished from all other
people on the earth by fleshly circumcision. But under the everlasting covenant of grace,
God’s true Israel is distinguished from all other people on the earth by God
circumcising our hearts and creating love us in us to love one as Christ loved
us. Our distinguishing mark of love,
which makes us different from all other religions and people on earth, is manifest
in that “we are the circumcision, which
worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in
the flesh.” (Php 3:3)
HOW DID CHRIST LOVE US?
1 John 2: 6: He that saith he abideth in him ought
himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
The Spirit of God
says that if we profess to abide in Christ—to believe on Christ—then we ought,
from a debt of gratitude, our own self also so to walk, even as he walked. Christ
said the same thing when he said, “As I
have loved you, that ye also love one another.” So how
did Christ love us, how did Christ walk? We find the answer in Philippians 2.
One, Christ loved his
people by being of one mind with the Father—Philippians
2: 1: If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of
love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, 2: Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be
likeminded, having the same love, being
of one accord, of one mind.
Christ was likeminded
as God our Father to redeem and save all God’s elect. It was the same love between God the Father
and God the Son that choose a people to save, by which Christ entered covenant
to lay down his life for us, the same love by which the Father sent his only
Son to make satisfaction for us and by which the Son laid down his life and
made that satisfaction. They were of one
accord in the everlasting covenant.
Believer, he makes us
likeminded with him and with our brethren by being born of one Spirit. By one Spirit, by one gospel, we are of one
mind and one accord to give God in Christ all the glory for our salvation. So if we say we abide in him then as brothers
and sisters born of the same Spirit, let us love
one another, as Christ loved us, by being of the same mind and same love in
the gospel of Christ and for one another and in all that we do.
Two, Christ loved us
by esteeming his brethren better than himself—Philippians 2: 3: Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind
let each esteem other better than themselves.
Christ never did
strive with his brethren. He never
sought vain exaltation over his brethren.
Our Redeemer was lowly of mind,
esteeming his brethren better than himself.
This is why he laid down his life. He esteemed God his Father and his brethren
better than himself.
If we have ill
thoughts of a brother, we are walking in darkness and stumbling because we are
striving with one for whom Christ died, exalting ourselves over one Christ has
made a royal priest unto God, we are highminded, esteeming ourselves better
than our brethren—and doing so we esteem ourselves better than Christ! The
devil loves us to continue in that. So let
us love one another as Christ loved us by “Being kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour
preferring one another;”—for Christ’s honor and the honor of our brethren. (Rom 12: 10)
Three, Christ loved
us by serving God his Father and his brethren—Philippians 2: 4: Look
not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. 5:
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6: Who, being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form
of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
The GodMan never did
one selfish thing, he served God his Father and his people. It required him to go out of his way, even, from
heavens glory all the way to being made in the likeness of men. He had reason for being made of reputation. But Christ made himself of none. Christ is the sovereign God over all yet he
took the form of a servant for his Father and his brethren.
When I know this, how
can I not serve Christ and my brethren? How can I not give my brethren my time,
my labor, and my money? If we say we are
Christs, let us love as Christ loved, by serving rather than being served.
Four, Christ loved us
by denying himself in obedience to the Father—Philippians 2: 8: And
being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross.
Self-denial, humbling
himself in obedience to the Father, filled his ministry in serving his people. He said, “I
must needs go through Samaria.” Why
did Christ go out of his way to that place where no Jewish born person wanted
to go? He did it for his sheep. When it came time for him to go back to Bethany,
the apostles said, “Master, they tried to
kill you in Bethany!” But Christ
said, “I must go; I have sheep; but he
that walks in the light, obeying his Father, shall never stumble.” He loved his own in this humble, self-denying
obedience to this Father, even unto the death of the cross
Brethren, as we love
our brethren as Christ loved us there
will be plenty of obstacles. There will
be obstacles from our sinful flesh. But
there will also be some obstacles set by Christ our Head himself. It is to teach us to “run with patience the race set before us, looking to the Author and
Finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross
despising the shame.” The joy set
before him was the joy of exalting his Father and saving his people from our
sins.
Therefore, brethren, for
the joy of serving Christ by serving our brethren, let us deny ourselves to do
whatever must be done that we might honor God our Father and his Son Christ Jesus
and do that which is for the good of our brethren, as Christ loved us.
THE EXAMPLE CHRIST GAVE US
Back in John 13, Christ
gave us an illustration which sums up how he loved us when he washed the
disciples feet. Every word is
instructive.
One, Christ showed us
how to love by never forsaking us but loving us to the end—John 13: 1: Now before
the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he
should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which
were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
As the apostles said,
brethren, “To whom shall we go.” Wherever Christ has placed his gospel in
spirit and in truth and assembled his people together in his name, Christ is
there. Brother Fortner told us at the
very beginning not to start a new work if there was any place around here we
could hear the gospel. In 10 years, I
have only found one preacher in the tri-state area preaching the gospel and the
church that he pastored kicked him out the day before I called him. If God ever ends this work, there is no way I
would sit under half-truth and there is no way I would live alone not
assembling with my brethren under the gospel.
Christ said of those who preach the lie of half-truths, “Leave them alone!” I have been one with
the same brethren for over 30 years. Love
of brethren and love of Christ, constrained by Christ’s love for me, would compel
me to move my family where brethren are, where the gospel is. It is because loving as Christ loves us is to
love our brethren unto the end. We are
not of them that draw back to perdition but of them who endure to the end.
Two, Christ showed us
how to love by washing his disciples feet clean—John 13: 4: He riseth
from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.
5: After that he poureth water
into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was
girded.
This pictured what
the Son of God did for all God’s elect in washing away our sins. The Son of God laid aside his glory, girded
himself with flesh, poured out his blood and water on the cross washing his
people clean then girded us in his righteousness. He continues to cleanse us as we become
defiled every day.
Oh, let me love as
Christ loved us! Let me cover the sin of
my brethren rather than exposing them to others. Let me
bear the sin of my brethren when they stumble, loving them to Christ, rather
than condemning them and deceiving myself that I am something when I am nothing.
Oh, may God give me the grace to fulfill
the law of Christ, loving my brethren, as Christ loved us. (Gal 6: 1-3)
Three, Christ shows
us how to love by being patient with us—John 13: 6: Then cometh he to Simon
Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? 7: Jesus answered and said unto him,
What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.
Peter went on
objecting. But Christ is so patient with
our ignorance. He does not grow all
brethren at the same pace. Therefore,
loving our brethren requires patience to bear with those who do not yet know as
they shall. This goes for pastor,
spouse, parent, siblings who are brothers and sisters in Christ. We have a double bond who are a pastor or
spouse or parent or siblings who are also brothers and sisters in Christ. Therefore, we have double reason to be
patient with one another as we wait on Christ to grow one another in grace and
knowledge of him.
Four, Christ showed
us how to love by washing Judas’ feet—John
13: 11: For he knew who should
betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.
Judas was there. The devil has already put it in his heart to
betray Christ. And Christ knew it. Yet, he washed Judas feet the same as he
washed the feet of the others.
Believer, loving as
Christ loved us is to love all who profess Christ by serving all who profess
Christ the same, without doubting any of them. If Christ washed Judas feet the same as the
others knowing he was a betrayer, then not knowing, you and I ought to serve our brethren the same, never questioning
any brother or sister’s faith.
Finally, John was
there that night and here is where John got the word “ought” in our text—John
13: 14: If I then, your Lord
and Master, have washed your feet; ye also OUGHT to wash one another’s feet. 15:
For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. 16:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord;
neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. 17: If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
Christ’s message is
John’s message to us in our text: if we say we abide in him, then we ought to
walk as Christ walked by loving them by washing their feet in all these ways we
have seen; Christ said, “Happy are ye if
ye do them.” Likewise, John said, If
you do this then “you abide in light and
there is no occasion of stumbling or scandal to bring reproach on Christ.”
LOVE OF BRETHREN IS THE TEST OF LIGHT
1 John 2: 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.
Since love of
brethren is the sure end to which God brings those who he creates anew and
gives faith then love of brethren is the test of light.
“He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness
even until now.” Due to our flesh, believers
know what it is to go through seasons of darkness. When we become puffed up and strive with a
brother or sister, we are in darkness. Doing those things that accompany hatred is stumbling
in darkness as blind men. There is no
happiness in that and it accomplishes nothing but to make us look like
reprobates.
Oh, I pray the Lord
keeps his people from professing to abide in Christ, if we do not possess faith
and love that only he can give! God does
not have to teach a sinner to hate those who love Christ and one another. “Brotherly
hate”—hatred of one of Christ’s own—is the manifestation of darkness, which
usually ends in forsaking brethren they professed to love.
On the other hand, true
“brotherly love” is the manifestation of God’s love worked in his child by
Christ the Light. Christ said that those
who believe on him shall have the Light of life and shall not dwell in darkness
nor stumble. There is no stumbling for
those in Christ’s Light because we are upheld by the Master and walk after the
example Christ has set before us! May
God make us obey Christ to love our brethren as Christ loved us!
Amen!