by This blog is taken from Ryan Jackson's devotional notes on the series: Crazy Love, a study of 1st John. Please enjoy!

Crazy Love

ThuThursdaySepSeptember29th2011 Love's Loyalty

Posted Thursday, September 29 2011 @ 4 PM byRyan Jackson Tagged No tags 0 comments Add comment

Love’s Loyalty

I John 2:1-11

Dictionary.com defines loyalty as: “the state or quality of being loyal; faithfulness to commitments or obligations, faithful adherence to a sovereign, government, leader, cause, etc. an example or instance of faithfulness, adherence, or the like.”

The main word in loyalty is: faithfulness, being faithful to whatever you serve.

As we continue in our study of First John, emphasizing the them of love- crazy love- love that goes against what our world says is love, it’s interesting to see from scripture that love is loyal, love is faithful. Any guesses on who love is faithful to? Without adoubt, love is faithful to God. Our theme verse is:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Matt. 22:37

Love is loyal to God. So what does that look like? 1 John 2:1-2 reads:

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Our first point is this: Love abides with Christ. What does abide mean? To remain, to continue. Love remains with Christ- it doesn’t shift around from Jesus to something else and maybe back again. No, love remains with Christ. Love builds that relationship with Christ, if we are to be people of love, then we will prioritize our relationship with Jesus.

So how do we do that? Well, first we reject sin. Love rejects sin. Verse 1 reads:

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Part of John’s reason for writing this letter was to help his audience with sin. Love has nothing to do with sin. Why? Because sin is selfish. Let’s face it, sin is after only what sin wants. When Eve was tempted in the garden, the serpent said: “You will be like God!” He tempted her with a desire to be like God and instead of accepting the abundant fruit of the garden that God had graciously given, man chose to be selfish. I want what I want and I want it now! That’s selfish, that’s sin.

So love rejects sin. But what happens when we do sin? We dealt with this last week. There’s good news: Love seeks forgiveness.

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

If we sin, if we choose to be selfish, God is waiting to grant forgiveness. He wants to forgive! The verse says Jesus is our advocate- what’s an advocate? “a person who pleads for or in behalf of another; intercessor.” I talked about this in our “Jesus Who?” Series. He is our advocate. When we sin and ask for forgiveness, Jesus takes our issue to the Father and we’re granted forgiveness. That’s a promise, remember last week? Forgiveness of sin is a promise, you can bank on it- God will forgive if you are truly repentant.

So love abides with Christ. But how else is love loyal? Love keeps God’s commandments. Verses 3-11 read:

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever 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.

Love keeps God’s commandments. Jesus said if you love Me you’ll what? Keep My commandments. John 14:15.

Where do we find His commandments? In His Word, is He only talking about the Ten Commandments? No, we follow all of His Word. Now there are some dietary and sacrificial rules of the Israelites in the Old Testament that we don’t follow anymore because when Jesus came He abolished the need for those things, but we still follow the moral law that’s in the Old Testament and we follow His teachings in the New Testament. Which by the way, those things compliment one another, they don’t conflict. The Bible is harmonious, meaning it fits together, it doesn’t contradict itself. We follow all of the Bible.

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,

The person who says: “Yeah, I’m a Christian.” But doesn’t follow the Word is a liar. And believe me they are out there. They may think they’re Christians but if they don’t have a relationship with Christ, which includes following His Word, then they aren’t. And that’s sad, there are people out there who think they are going to Heaven and they are not because they don’t know Christ.

So we keep His commandments by following His Word and secondly, by walking like Christ, Love walks like Christ. Read verses 5-6.

but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

Love walks like Christ. We walk like He walked. Christ walked or lived His life how? Perfectly! He never sinned, and the opposite of that He always did what was right! He was gentle, kind, compassionate, intolerant of sin. And He expects us, His followers to walk the same way. How do I live rightly? Look at Christ, read His example. Pattern your life after Jesus.

So love keeps God’s commandments by obeying His Word and Walking like Christ, lastly Love does not hate. That seems obvious doesn’t it?

Love does not hate. Read verses 7-11.

Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever 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 kinda does a play on words here, he’s saying this is not a new commandment because the Old Testament teaches us to love, but yet it is a new commandment because Jesus taught us to love and He kinda elevated it when He was here and specifically charged the church to love. So the idea’s always been around, but Jesus refreshed it so to speak. It’s kinda like a computer. The idea for the computer has been around for decades! But there’s always new versions and new ways of packaging the computer, right now the Ipad 3 is out right? Just another, refreshing way of packaging on old concept. That’s kinda what John is saying there.

But consider verse 9

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

Whoever hates his brother lives still in darkness. What does that mean? They are NOT saved. If there is hate in your heart, check yourself ask yourself if you are truly saved. As I’ve said before, we’ll all stumble in this area from time to time, but if you are a hateful person, then there’s no love and that’s dangerous!

Whoever hates his brother is in darkness and doesn’t know where he is going. Where is he going? If he doesn’t turn and repent, he’s headed for hell. Think about that thought. Think about being judged by God and going to hell and you didn’t even know it! Until it was too late.

Love does not hate- hate should never be seen in the life of one of God’s children. Never. There is no room, no excuse for it. Remember our definition of love? To provide and protect. So what would be our definition of hate? To not provide to not protect. A lot of times we think of hate as a strong emotion and it can be. But in action hate does not provide and protect. If I said, “I love my wife” and not once ever provided for her needs or protected her then are my actions loving her? No.

These things I’ve just shared describe how love is loyal. We serve a living and powerful God who loves us and wants us to love. Let’s be loyal to Him!

ThuThursdaySepSeptember29th2011 Love's Agenda

Posted Thursday, September 29 2011 @ 4 PM byRyan Jackson Tagged No tags 0 comments Add comment

Love’s Agenda

I John 1:1-10

I am very excited to be starting this blog, which will be composed of my notes from the series: Crazy Love, a study of First John.

Before I jump into this thing, I want to define love. I once heard someone say that one of the Bible’s greatest contributions to us is its definitions. Let me explain what I mean by asking this: “How would you define love?” or “How would the world define love?”

The world would probably say things like: falling in love, feelings, marriage, dating, but those definitions fall utterly short of the truth. The truth has been distorted by a fallen world that so desperately wants love, but doesn’t even know what love is! That’s where the Bible comes in- by giving us clear and correct definitions. The Bible defines things like worship, faith and most importantly, God. We find a Biblical definition of love in Ephesians 5 verses 28-30, “In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.” Do you see it? “Nourish” and “Cherish”. There’s our definition. You could even make it simpler. Providing- nourish, and protecting- cherish. So our simple, Biblical definition of love is to provide and protect. How do you know if you love someone? Well, do you provide for and protect them? That’s our definition of love. Pretty simple huh?

Okay, now that we’ve got that, lets dive into 1^st John. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life-- the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us-- that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” Okay, step back, First John was written by whom? Right, the Apostle John- one of Jesus’ original 12 disciples. So, what’s he saying in these first 4 verses? What did they see? What did they hear? What did they touch?

They saw the miraculous signs Jesus performed. The blind could see, the deaf could hear, Lazarus back from the dead and countless more. They heard the teachings of Jesus, the very words of God plus the voice from heaven declaring Christ to be His beloved Son. They touched Jesus, before and after His death and resurrection.

Why is John stating these things? Because Love passes the Baton. John is passing the baton so to speak of his own experiences because he loves the audience he’s writing to, which, by the way, includes us. He’s passing his own experiences so that others may hear and believe and ultimately experience fellowship with God according to verse 3.

John wants us to fellowship with God, so, out of love, he is writing the things of our Savior. Is that providing and protecting? Yes it is. It’s providing truth to enrich our lives and by providing truth, it’s protecting us from falsehood.

So Love passes the baton. What else does love do? Love fellowships with Light. Verses 5-9 read: This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

The truths in these verses are miraculous. It can seem a little confusing because John is using words like light and dark to help illustrate what he’s saying, but let me break it down for you: first God cannot sin. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. (verse 5). We know this. We’ve always heard that God cannot sin, if you’ve grown up in church you’ve heard it over and over, God cannot sin. But think about it for a second. God literally cannot sin. He can’t lie. He can’t steal. He’s always perfect. How does that affect your relationship with him? You can trust Him always. Think about it, if God can’t sin, then He’s always trustworthy. We may not understand why He does what He does sometimes, but He’s always trustworthy.

Secondly, Christians cannot live a life of habitual sin. Verse 6 states: If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. The word that should stick out is: “walk” what does he mean by that? He means your life, the way you conduct yourself. Your walk should not be defined as sinful. Your life should not be a life of sin and darkness. The pattern of your life should not be marked with sin, but with Christ. If people think of you and the first thing they think of is a liar, a cheat, a thief, selfish, uncaring… then your life might be marked by sin and you may not be a true believer.

Galatians 5 outlines the heart of sinful person in chapter 5 verses 19-21. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Ugly, wretched, horrible. Though they may feel good and even seem good at the time, they are leading to a destiny of eternal punishment. John is saying that a Christian’s life shouldn’t look like that.

Now you may be thinking, I’m not all that great a person and I’ve accepted Christ so what’s the deal?

Thirdly, Christians will still sin. Verse 8 reads: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. John is saying yes, we will still sin, though we are Christians, we will still fail. So what’s the difference? The difference is your walk. As a Christian your walk will not be marked by sin, but because you are still in this body of flesh, you will still sin. We fail everyday because we’re still in this body that desires sin. However, our walk should be marked by the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22-23. We should be people of love, crazy love that’s willing to do anything to please the Lord. But the sad truth is, we will still fail at times. However, the Christian life is a process of getting better. We should be working toward sinning less and less. God should be winning victories in your life, beating addictions, giving you the strength to fight temptation- those things should be happening- that’s part of the Christian life. It’s a constant “getting better”.

And here’s the good part: Christians will be forgiven. Verse 9 is one of my favorite verses: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is a promise. If we are faithful in confessing sin, God promises to forgive. How trustworthy is God? Totally, completely. He Promises to forgive.

Psalm 103:12 says: as far as the east is from the west so far does He remove our transgressions from us.

Total, complete forgiveness. That doesn’t mean we take advantage of it. I once had a friend that would do whatever he wanted and say things like: “It’s okay, God forgives”

Yes, God forgives, but only when our confession is genuine. That means true repentance. What does repentance mean? It means I was walking one direction, God got a hold of my life and I turned around and started walking the other direction. Fleeing from a life of sin and embracing a life of righteousness.

Now again, we’ll fail at times, but He will forgive us. Does that comfort you? I hope so. God will always forgive your sin. Even if you think it’s too evil... there is no such thing with God- He will forgive. I encourage you to memorize 1^st John 1:9. Use it as a tool to remind yourself you’ve been forgiven. One final thought. The verse says: cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness. Even if there is sin you can’t remember doing (and there probably is) God promises to forgive. What an awesome promise!