PT-1 "Intro to 1 John 2:7-11

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/4/2024 10:31 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  PT-1 “Intro to 1 John 2:7-11”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  1 John 2:7-11

 

            Message of the verses:  “7 Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. 8 On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining. 9 The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. 10 The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But the one who 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.”

 

            John MacArthur entitles the sixth chapter of his commentary on 1 John “A New Kind of Love,” and I suppose that it will take at least a couple of days to get through the introduction of it.

 

            I suppose that if one asked true believers what is the preeminent mark of a genuine believer the answer in many cases would be Love for God.  When I think about that statement I think about the cross and as I look at the cross it has two wooden beams on it, one goes from top to bottom and one goes from side to side.  The vertical beam to me speaks of the fact that I should love God and the horizontal beams means to love others. 

 

            Love is the benchmark of one’s relationship to Him, and love for other people is the epitome of human relationships is how MacArthur writes about this and I think that this is what I am talking about when I talk about the cross.  In the New Testament we see that it repeatedly sets forth the supremacy of love.  Jesus spoke of two Old Testament verses as proof that to love God and man is to fulfill the supreme commandment of the law.

“"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut. 6:5).

“‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD” (Lev. 19:18).

 

            I want to now write about something that is important to me and it is that the most quotes from the Lord Jesus Christ while He was on earth came from the book of Deuteronomy, and when I think about that I think that if the children of Israel would have gone right into the Promised Land and by the power of God conquered it when they first got to it that there would have been no reason to have the book of Deuteronomy written.  Deuteronomy comes more from the heart while Exodus through Numbers is more about the Law, so I suppose that is the reason why Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy the most.

 

10/4/2024 10:52 PM