Each week throughout 2021, I will share a Bible study blog post taking us through the letter of 1 John. Only five chapters long, this brief book is worthy of our consideration. Whether you drop in for one post or many, I pray that you enjoy them. Access all posts here.
6 Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked. 7 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. 8 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.
The Second Claim
"Whoever says he abides in Him..." (6)
Here, we have the next claim. "Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked" (2:6). In this assertion, the person who said they were abiding in God should live a life resembling the life of Christ! It is astounding to think of living like Jesus, but John believes it possible.
Before dreaming of a life like Christ's, we should consider the claim. Some claim Jesus yet lives or thinks in ways diametrically opposed to Him. In our era, in the west, Jesus is jammed into every box people can contrive. He is constantly refashioned into the image people want Him. Republican Jesus. Democrat Jesus. Gay Jesus. Gun-Totin' Jesus. Truth-Spittin Jesus. Angry Jesus. Open Border Jesus. Closed Border Jesus. Racist Jesus. Environmentally Aware Jesus. I mean, He is constantly reframed.
But I'm with John. I like O.G. Jesus. I like the original.
I'm good with Jesus, the Son of God, God the Son, who conspired within the Triunity of God to come to earth to save us from our sins. I like the Jesus who saw the depravity of man, was grieved over it, and saw how we could not rescue ourselves. I'm down with the Jesus who lived a fully human life, experiencing total human temptation, yet without sin. I love the Jesus who then, in that perfect state, allowed Himself to, under the perfect plan and will of God, be sacrificed on the cross for the sin of the world. I like the Jesus who came to deal with sin. That Jesus rose, ascended, and poured out His Spirit, making a new humanity called the church. And that Jesus, the great Perfecter, the Atonement, the only and exclusive intermediary between God and man, is going to come again. I can't wait for His appearance. I'm down with that Jesus.
Walk As Jesus Walked
"Walk in the same way in which He walked..." (6)
So John tells us the true disciple, the one who knows God, abides in Him, will walk in the same way in which He (Jesus) walked. At first glance, we might be intimidated by such a claim from John. Walk like Jesus? How? Who could?
Remember, though, John had a closer interaction with how Jesus walked than you or I ever could. We read John's -- and Matthew, Mark, and Luke's -- gospel. Secondhand, we hear the testimony of what Jesus was like. But these men, as we've remembered so far in our study of 1 John, were in intimate connection with Jesus. They touched Him, heard Him, saw Him, and looked upon Him. They were not left to read and then imagine Jesus; they walked with Him. And through that intimate connection with Jesus, they would've been floored by HIs personhood. They would've been moved infinitely more than we could be through mere words. They saw Him clearly. Still, though, John said we should walk as Jesus walked.
How? Jesus did miracles. Jesus extended Himself without reservation to the needy, hurting, and outcast. He touched lepers and ate with social pariahs. He traveled great distances to reach one lost sheep. He spoke with clarity, conviction, and boldness. Truth dripped from His lips. He prayed with passion and certainty and was sometimes transfigured in the process. He looked at the intelligentsia of His day in the eye and declared how wrong they were. He overturned tables. He washed the feet of His disciples. No one has been or will be like Him. He was joy and love and truth incarnate. He walked on water.
So what chance do we have to walk as He walked? John isn't saying we need to walk around doing the miraculous. But we can love like Jesus.
The way Jesus walked is the way of love. He gave us the example of sacrificial love for others in Christ when He washed the disciples' feet:
John 13:14–15 (ESV) — 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
Jesus modeled love, and He instructed every generation of believers to make love a priority.
The Old Commandment
"Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment..." (7)
So John says, Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. From the earliest days of their Christian lives, they'd been taught to love. From the beginning, they had heard of the requirement to love their brothers and sisters in Christ. It was an old commandment.
Love, it seems, is a Bible basic. From the outset, when Cain rose up to kill Abel, brotherly love has been under duress. But it is right and good and pure. God told ancient Israel, "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18). So much of their national law was instituted as a way to love others. How much they could harvest, their regulations regarding lending and borrowing, their sexual conduct laws, their laws of retribution and justice -- all of them were designed with love for others in mind.
And, ultimately, their honor and love for God, when healthy and strong, was designed to bless the nations. God had created Adam and Eve in His image. They were to have dominion over the creation. They were to fill the earth and subdue it. Sin marred the mission, but Israel became a picture of God restoring that original calling. When they loved God as a people, the earth was in subjection to them, and the nations were given a light pointing them to their LORD. The entire people of God in the Old Testament era existed to love God and His world.
But love, it seems is also a Christian basic. Jesus came along and introduced it in a fresh way. The gospel necessitates love for everyone because it was God's impartial instrument of love and concern for all nations. He did not discriminate between male and female, Jew and non-Jew, young and old, or black and white while on His cross. He died, as we saw in our previous passage, "for the sins for the whole world" (1 John 2:2).
So, for them and us, the command to love is an old commandment.
The New Commandment
"At the same time, it is a new commandment..." (8)
But John goes on to say it is, at the same time, a new commandment he wrote to them, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
Though God's people were called to love prior to Christ, when He came, he said:
John 13:34 (ESV) — 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
First, Jesus put a new emphasis on love. He took old passages like Deuteronomy 6:5 ("Love the LORD your God) and Leviticus 19:18 (love your neighbor as yourself) and gave them fresh meaning. He highlighted their prominence. Jesus put love on the marquee. He put the spotlight on it like no one else had. They'd focused on other things, but Jesus spoke of the preeminence of love, knowing the 'other things' would flow from it.
Second, Jesus put new length to love. To love like Christ requires patience and endurance never before seen. They had lived in an eye-for-an-eye and tooth-for-a-tooth society, but Jesus stamped an expiration date on that tit-for-tat style of life. Instead, He said things like: "you shall love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44).
Third, Jesus defined a new target for love. They knew they were to love their neighbor. But when they asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?" He spoke of the Good Samaritan, a man who went out of his way to find hurting people, just like Jesus did, and love on them (Luke 11:29-37). So Jesus radically redefined what a neighbor even is in the first place, which reset the target for love.
Fourth, Jesus gave a new depth to love. He told us God loved the world, so He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16). Then Jesus went and died, demonstrating how deep the love of God went. And now, He calls His people to take up their cross and follow Him. He incarnated, meaning He went to great lengths to come to us, and then died for us. We, too, are to love like Him, going to great lengths to find people and then lay down our lives for them.
Fifth, Jesus gave a continual newness to love. One reason it is a new commandment is the ministry of the Spirit. He awakens us to reality -- again and again -- and shows us who to love. Even when the doldrums of life invade our souls, the Spirit shouts of the love of God for lost and broken humans.
Sixth, Jesus introduced a new epoch of love. What do I mean? Notice how John said, in connection to this love, that the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. You see, when Jesus came, the age to come came. The age of glory and perfection began with Him. It is not fully here -- this is evident by merely glancing about our world and our own lives -- but it is coming. But one element of the forever kingdom is already here. It's not faith, for that will pass away. It's not hope, for that won't be necessary in heaven. It's love. Love never fails. Love never fades. Love will never end (1 Corinthians 13:8). Love lasts forever and is a foretaste of the kingdom's glory.
All this Jesus did to make love new. He made it a priority of His family, His church, His ecclesia that we would love one another. This is the old commandment made new in Him.
Practical Considerations Regarding Love
But before moving on in the passage, it behooves us to stop and think about love. At first glance when one is flippant about it, love seems like an easy task, a mere feeling. "Sure, I love you, I love them, I love God," one says. More honest inspection, however, reveals the difficulty of love, especially amongst God's people.
I know love for God's people was the thing that woke me up from a zombie-life and into ministry. I was completely self-consumed, but the Spirit awoke me and showed me His love for my fellow believer. And, though I haven't looked back from that initial burst of love, it hasn't meant my love for my brothers and sisters in Christ has always been easy. It hasn't. It has caused pain.
Love for other believers might disappoint you. Pouring out your life for others will put you with others. And, unlike God, others can fail you. You will discover short tempers, ungodliness, stubbornness, complaints, and sin, which will all discourage you.
Love for other believers might stretch you. No one else is just like you. People are different. Backgrounds, childhoods, nationalities, socio-economic levels, race, previous experiences -- all of it shapes us. To love others is to interact with people unlike you. And this will stretch you.
Love for other believers might reveal you. You might step out with gusto and passion, only to quickly discover the limits to your energy and love. You'll become short. You'll be easily deterred. You'll see how fleshy you really are. Your television will be calling. A believer in Jesus, you'll realize how little you are like Jesus. Attempting to love will show you who you are.
Love for other believers might fatigue you. Remember how tired Jesus was in ministry? There were times they couldn't eat. Raging storms couldn't wake Him from His slumber on the boat. Loving others is tiring work. It takes endurance and patience. Mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically, it will fatigue you.
But, in the midst of all this, love is the best and only way forward. Too many have become disillusioned or hurt and have ceased to keep on trucking on in love. But why? Has God disappointed them? Has Jesus been unfaithful? No, it's usually just people being what they are, people. What did you expect?
I remember moving up from T-ball to live pitch baseball. In my day, there was no coach-pitch. We went straight to other kids of the same age trying to find the catcher's mitt. Everyone was wild. Everyone threw the ball all over the place. And everyone was bound to get hit.
And, when each kid first got plunked, they had a decision to make. Do I love this game enough for this? Am I going to stick around? If this is part of baseball -- and it is -- am I willing to deal with it?
Look, deromanticize Christian love. You are bound to get plunked. You are bound to get banged up and bruised. But God is amazing. His gospel is good. And love is worth it.
But what are the results of loving the way Christ loved? What is the outflow of walking as He walked? Tune in next week.
