Darkness, Light and Love 1 John 2:7-11. Constant State of Tension Pressure from the darkness. Desire to live in the light. To walk in the light requires.

Darkness, Light and Love1 John 2:7-11

Constant State of Tension

•Pressure from the darkness.

•Desire to live in the light.

•To walk in the light requires a lifestyle of active love.

Dark, Light, Old, New – vs. 7-8

•1 John 2:7-8 --

“Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have 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 and the true light is already shining.

Out Of The Darkness, Into The Light

•1 Thess. 5:5 -- You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.

•Ephesians 5:8-9 – For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)

•The Old Commandment

•Deuteronomy 6:5 -- Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

•Leviticus 19:18 -- …but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

The New Commandment:

•Mark 12:30-31 -- Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these."

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.

Love Equals Light Vs. 9-10

There IS a difference between “claiming” and “living”.

The test of light living is GENUINE LOVE.Illustration: Dear Jimmy, I love you, …

Marie

We MUST be what God IS:

1 John 1:5 -- God is LIGHT1 John 4:8 – God is LOVE

Hate Equals Darkness

Vs. 11 -- But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.

Hatred indicates a failure to love.

Hatred is sinfulGalatians 5:19-21 -- The acts of the sinful

nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Hatred is like burning down your houseto kill a rat!

The Hater IS…

In the darknessWalks around in

darknessBlinded by

darkness