This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to daily drive time devotions. We're looking through 1st
John, this is day two of our look through chapter two in 1st John. We're going
to look at verses seven to eleven today.

In fact, I'd like to begin by reading those verses. Dear friends, I am not
writing you a new command, but an old one, which you've had since the beginning.
This old command is the message you have heard, yet I am writing you a new
command.

Its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing away and the
true light is already shining. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates
his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the
light and there's nothing in him to make him stumble.

But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the
darkness and does not know where he's going because the darkness has blinded
him. Now, as I read those verses, it's important to remember to think through
who is John writing to here. He's writing to believers, those who've begun a
relationship with Jesus Christ.

That's evident by the fact that he often talks about your brothers, he talks
about a family relationship in many other ways throughout this book. There's no
doubt about the fact, the tone of the entire letter, he's writing to believers.
It's important to know that as you look at these verses and you see what they
have to say about old and new and you see what they have to say about darkness
and light.

Because they're verses that are written to you and me about how to live out this
life that Jesus has given us to live. John, first of all, talks about old and
new in these verses. Did you see it?

He says, "I'm writing you an old command, but really it's a new command. "
What's he talking about here? He's talking about the command to love.

And the command to love is old. It's in the Old Testament. There's no doubt
about that.

It's old. He's also saying that command to love is old in your experience.
You've known it from the very beginning of your Christian life.

This isn't something new. John would have obviously told them about the command
to love one another from day one of their Christian life. So he's saying, you're
not hearing anything new.

This isn't anything new that God has said, but he said it's also new. He says
it's new in the words of Jesus and it's new in your daily experience. He talks
about this true light that's beginning to shine because the darkness is passing
away.

Something new is happening. How does God get his newness into the world? How
does he do something new in my life and in your life and through my life and
through your life?

He does it through love. He does it through his love and he does it through his
love work through our lives. Jesus called this the new commandment.

We're going to look at it several times through 1st John. This new commandment
to love one another as he loved us. The question is, what is it that makes the
new commandment new?

I like the way John Piper put it in a sermon I heard in a podcast. He said
there's two new things about this new commandment. It's new in pattern and it's
new in power.

There's a new pattern and the pattern is in Jesus Christ. You can read the
command to love in the Old Testament, but there was no pattern. There was no God
walking the earth in Jesus Christ.

Jesus has walked this earth now. We get to see love lived out in human flesh in
God. And as I see that kind of love, as I view it, as I read the Gospels and
sense what Jesus did, how Jesus lived, how Jesus loved, I've got a new pattern
for love.

There's not only that, and I am so relieved that there's not only that, because
if I tried to live that new pattern as we talked about yesterday under my own
power, I would be so discouraged. I don't have that power. There's a new
pattern, but there's also a new power.

Jesus Christ is willing to put his love into your life and to love through your
life. That's what's old about love, but that's also what's new about love. This
command that he's given us to live.

He talks about the old and the new and how you and I can live it out in our
daily lives. So the question is, how are you doing? How am I doing?

How are you living out love today? Is it something forgotten? Or is it something
that's been there from the beginning and you're living out, living new things
every day in your life today?

Old and new. And then he begins to talk about right out of that discussion about
darkness and light. If you are living this life of love, you're seeing the
darkness passing away.

The true light already shining. But then he says in verse nine, if you claim to
be in the light, but you hate your brother, here it comes back to love. You're
still in darkness.

Hate is darkness. Love is light. The love that we have in Jesus Christ.

As I talk about love, as we walk through 1st John, I'm not talking about
sentimental love. I'm not talking about pop song love or pop psychology love.
I'm talking about the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ in this world and
revealed through my life because of my relationship with Jesus Christ.

We use the word love in a million different ways to mean a million different
things. I want to be clear. I'm talking about the power of genuine love.

And that genuine love, it is light in this world. But hatred, it is darkness.
Now the personal question behind that is, is there a brother or a sister in
Christ whom I hate?

I might not use that word hate. I might use the word despise or dislike or I
never want to see them again. But the truth is, I know in my heart that I hate
them.

When I do that, I am allowing darkness into my life. I'm keeping the light of
God's love at arm's length at that point in my life. What happens when you
decide to hate a fellow believer?

Well, these verses say what happens is this, you're still in darkness, you will
stumble and you don't know where you're going. That's the list that John gives.
And that means the people around me are going to experience the same thing.

And because I don't know where I'm going, sometimes I'm going to lead other
people to places where they don't know where they're going. Did you notice that
light and love go together? In the darkness, I hate.

In the light, I love. You want to stop hating. You want to start loving.

You walk in his light. I've talked to so many people who say, "I know I should
forgive them. I know I should let go of this bitterness against them, but I just
don't know how I'm going to do it.

Even if they came and asked me for forgiveness at this point, I don't know if I
could. " Or they'll never ask me for forgiveness, so I won't. Whether they ask
you for forgiveness or not, you are commanded to forgive.

You're not commanded to trust them and start the relationship again in the same
way as it was before, but you are commanded to forgive them. Where do you find
that power to let go of bitterness and to forgive? Walk in his light.

He is the light, and you walk in his light. Whoever in verse 10, whoever loves
his brother, lives in the light, and there's nothing in him to make him stumble.
You see, the terrible truth for some of us is, I've gotten involved in a pattern
where we hate a brother.

We have a deep disagreement, we might call it. That's our Christian phrase. I
have a deep spiritual disagreement with a brother, but it's hate.

I can't stand seeing him. If you can't pray for someone, if you can't stand
seeing him, when they're walking down the road, you turn and you go the other
way, you won't even be in their presence, I don't care what you call it, God
calls it hate. And when that kind of attitude comes into my life, it keeps God's
light out of my life.

If you love your brother, you're going to live in the light. Love for my fellow
brother and sister in Christ is what brings light into my life, one of the
things that brings light into my life. And hatred is one of the things that
keeps God's light out of my life.

And so I say to myself, here's the evil, malicious circle I get into, I say to
myself, you know it, I'll start loving them when God brings the light of his
love into my life. And God says, no, you choose to start loving them now. And
through that choice of faith, I will bring the light of my love into your life.

You don't need any more light than this. God's command you to love them. You
don't need any more light than this.

Jesus died on the cross for them. The idea that I need more light in order to
love this person that Jesus died for, you already have all the light that you
need. And so do I, love those people that I struggle with in my life.

So walk in the light you have, and then you'll get more light as you walk in
that light. This is tough stuff. I'm talking about tough stuff for me and you
both, I realize that.

So as we go to prayer today, if you're struggling at this point, I want to pray
for the compassion and the mercy of God to flow into your heart. Lord, when we
get caught up in a bitterness, when we get caught up in an unforgiveness, it
becomes large. It looms large and it's all that we can see sometimes.

And we don't know how to get out. We can't see our way out, even though we might
even in this moment feel the light, enough light to know that we want out. We
don't know the way out.

I pray you'd help us to say today that obedience to your light, the light you've
given us, is the step we need to take. Help us to obey and to forgive. Help us
to obey and to seek your love.

Help us to obey and to choose to love this person. Lord, they may not be
perfect. They may never ask for forgiveness.

That is their issue. But my issue before you is, am I going to let it go? My
issue before you is, am I going to set this bitterness down?

God, I choose to do that today and ask you to help me to make that choice again
tomorrow and the next day and the next day. Because of Jesus' love for me, do
something new in my life, something new in my relationships. I ask this, Jesus,
in your name, amen.

Make sure to join us tomorrow. We're going to be looking at verses 12 to 14 of
chapter 2, which are amongst my favorite verses in the entire book of 1 John.