EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/5/2024 7:06 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “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.”
I want to begin with something that I quoted in the
last SD, and the reason is because of what comes after it. “The New Testament repeatedly sets forth the
supremacy of love. Jesus cited two Old
Testament verses (Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18) as proof that to love God and man is
to fulfill the supreme commandment of the law:
“34 But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced
the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. 35 One of them, a lawyer,
asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 "Teacher, which is the great
commandment in the Law?" 37 And He said to him, "’YOU SHALL LOVE THE
LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR
MIND.’ 38 “This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The second is like
it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ 40 “On these two commandments
depend the whole Law and the Prophets’” (Matthew 22:34-49).
In a majestic and lyrical passage in his
first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul argued for the superiority of
love over spiritual gifts:
31 But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And
I show you a still more excellent way. 1 If I speak with the tongues of men and
of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging
cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all
knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have
love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor,
and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me
nothing.4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does
not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek
its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6
does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes
all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts
of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will
cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in
part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will
be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a
child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish
things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know
in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But
now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love’” (1
Cor. 12:31-13:13).”
“Because love is the saint’s highest
moral duty toward others, it is not only the ultimate mark of genuine
salvation, but also provides the supreme assurance of that reality.
“In
this passage John reiterates the theme of light versur darkness that he had
introduced earlier (cf. 1:5-7). Light
represents the kingdom of Christ and eternal life (Luke 2:32; John 1:4, 9;
8:12; 12:46; 2 Cor. 4:4b; 1 Peter 2:9; cf. Ps. 36:9; Prov. 4:18; John 3:20-21;
Eph. 5:13), and darkness represents the kingdom of Satan and eternal death
(Prov. 2:13; Matt. 8:12; 22:13; Acts 26:18; Eph. 5:11; 6:12; Col. 1:13; 1
Thess. 5:5; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6; cf. Isa. 59:9-10). Though a form of the word love appears only once in this section,
love is clearly John’s theme as he emphasizes its primacy as a moral test to
verify salvation (cf. 3:10-11, 16-18, 23; 4:7-12, 16:21; 5:1-3; 2 John
5-6). The passage describes love as an
old commandment, and new commandment, and a way of life.”
I
have to say that the last part that MacArthur writes about as love is describes
as an old commandment, and a new commandment, is something that I have had a
hard time understanding the many times that I have read over these verses. Hoping to get some new incite on this as I
study these verses.
Lord willing I will begin to look at “Love
as an Old Commandment” in my next SD on 1 John.
10/5/2024 7:27 PM
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