1 JOHN 2:7-8 The Test of Love

• True Christians Love others, Especially God’s Children

It Is New in Emphasis (1 John 2:7)

V7 Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment –

Love is the fulfillment of the Law Mt. 22:37-39 

The Word Love is used 184 times in the New Testament

When we read in 1 John about “love,” the Greek word used is agape (ah-GAH-pay), the word for God’s love toward man, a Christian’s love for other Christians, and God’s love for His church (Eph. 5:22–33).^[1]

The commandment to love one another is not new in time, but it is new in character. Because of Jesus Christ, the old commandment to “love one another” has taken on new meaning. We learn in these five brief verses (1 John 2:7–11) that the commandment is new in three important ways.

How is it possible for one commandment to stand head and shoulders above all the others? This is explained by the fact that love is the fulfillment of God’s Law (Rom. 13:8–10).

The commandment “Love one another” is the fulfillment of God’s Law in the same way. When you love people, you do not lie about them or steal from them. You have no desire to kill them. Love for God and love for others motivates a person to obey God’s commandments without even thinking about them! When a person acts out of Christian love he obeys God and serves others—not because of fear, but because of his love.

This is why John says that “Love one another” is a new commandment—it is new in emphasis. It is not simply one of many commandments. No, it stands at the top of the list!^[2]

The child is typical of an unsaved person. “We ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another” (Titus 3:3).

Ro 5:5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

When a sinner trusts Christ, he receives a new life and a new nature. The Holy Spirit of God comes to live in him and the love of God is “shed abroad in [his] heart” by the Spirit (Rom. 5:5). God does not have to give a new believer a long lecture about love! “For ye yourselves are taught of God [i.e., by the Holy Spirit within you] to love one another” (1 Thes. 4:9). A new believer discovers that he now hates what he used to love, and that he loves what he used to hate!

2Jo 1:5 And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another.

De 6:5 "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Le 19:18 'You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

Jn 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

Jn 15:14 “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.”

V8 Again, a new commandment, Not New in time, but quality or kind

It Is New in Example

Which thing is true in Him…1John 4:8,16 God is Love

Joh 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. The phase “as I have loved you” is the key to the love that God expects of believers. It was mighty difficult for Jesus to love the disciples yet He loved them. Jesus loved them with a pure, undiminished love.

Joh 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.

Mt 5:43 – 46 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'

1Jo 3:11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,

Ga 6:10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Joh 15:12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

1Pe 4:8 And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins."

Eph 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

Jas 2:8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well;

1Pe 1:22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,

1Jo 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

Jesus showed us how to love

Later on we will think about that great statement, “God is love” (1 John 4:8), but it is anticipated here. When one looks at Jesus Christ, one sees love come to life and demonstrated.

His righteous soul hated all sin and disobedience, but He never hated the people who committed such sins^[3]

He went to the Blind, lepers, prostitutes, paralyzed, tax collectors

It is encouraging to think of Jesus’ love for the twelve disciples. How they must have broken His heart again and again as they argued over who was the greatest, or tried to keep people from seeing their Master

But Jesus died not only for His friends, but also for His foes! And as they crucified Him, He prayed for them: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Jas 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

In Christ we have a new illustration of the old truth that God is love and that the life of love is the life of joy and victory.

Luke 14:13 "But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. 14 "And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just."

Gal 5:22 the fruit of the Spirit is love….

And in you

“Love one another,” John points out, was first true in Christ, and now it is true in the lives of those who are trusting Christ. Jesus Himself is the greatest Example of this commandment.

1Th 4:9 But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;

1Jo 4:19 We love Him because He first loved us.

The only person many of us love is ourselves. That is why we are ornery and mean as a rattlesnake. The philosophy is this, “Hurray for me and the devil go all the way to the rear

 

Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  -John 8:32

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