June 8, 2025 – The Jesus Way – 1 John 2:3-11

1 John 2:3-11 emphasizes the importance of love and obedience as indicators of a genuine faith in Christ. It highlights that those who claim to know God but don’t obey His commandments are in darkness and deception. Conversely, those who love their fellow believers and live in obedience to God’s word are in the light and have their love for God made complete.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown:

Verses 3-6:
These verses establish that true knowledge of God is demonstrated through obedience to His commands. Someone who claims to know God but doesn’t obey is lying and not in the truth. Living as Jesus did is a further mark of being “in him”.

Verses 7-8:
John introduces both an old and new commandment, emphasizing the enduring importance of loving one’s neighbor. The new commandment is the love seen in Christ and in believers, reflecting the passing of darkness and the arrival of true light.

Verses 9-11:
These verses address the implications of love and hatred for fellow believers. Those who hate their brothers and sisters are in darkness and cannot see their way. Conversely, those who love their brothers and sisters live in the light and have nothing in them to cause them to stumble. Hatred is a clear sign of spiritual darkness, and love is a mark of belonging to the light.

1 John Series – Week 2: “The Jesus Way” – Text: 1 John 2:3-11

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New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
3 Now by this we know that we have come to know him, if we obey his commandments. 4 Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; 5 but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we know that we are in him: 6 whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk in the same way as he walked.

A New Commandment

7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because[a] the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. 9 Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. 10 Whoever loves a brother or sister abides in the light, and in such a person[b] there is no cause for stumbling. 11 But whoever hates a brother or sister is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.