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1 JOHN 2:3-11
Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.
He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning.
Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.
He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
In his Gospel, John says ‘in the beginning was the Word.’ Now in 1 John we hear that the old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning, stating that he is and is not writing a new commandment; rather, I believe he is restating and expanding upon what has been said in his gospel along with what Jesus stated as a commandment in Matthew 34:39b ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ In this way he combines Jesus’ simple statement with the allusions to light and dark from John’s gospel and Genesis chapter 1.
Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.
God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.
GENESIS 1:3-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
JOHN 1:1-5
The meaning here is self-evident. It needs no explanation or interpretation. Jesus IS the Word. Jesus IS the light in the darkness, both in what He says to us and in His being. There is no equivocation. It is so.
And yet at times we doubt. Is He the Son of God? Really? At other times we know the truth of it and are uplifted to the heavenly realms. We are constantly throwing ourselves from the spiritual to the natural and back again. The disciple Thomas stands in our place in that regard. Our rational minds often find the reality of God a step too far… even when we have experienced spiritual, even miraculous circumstances which deny that rationality.
The story of Adam and Eve and their fall by eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil reveals our doubt over this. We want to believe but it can seem so unreal. This is a part of our struggle with darkness and light; but we must train ourselves to focus on the light, for then the darkness recedes and fails.
And yet at times we doubt. Is He the Son of God? Really? At other times we know the truth of it and are uplifted to the heavenly realms. We are constantly throwing ourselves from the spiritual to the natural and back again. The disciple Thomas stands in our place in that regard. Our rational minds often find the reality of God a step too far… even when we have experienced spiritual, even miraculous circumstances which deny that rationality.
The story of Adam and Eve and their fall by eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil reveals our doubt over this. We want to believe but it can seem so unreal. This is a part of our struggle with darkness and light; but we must train ourselves to focus on the light, for then the darkness recedes and fails.
And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!”
Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
JOHN 20:26-29
Remember always that this is ‘an inside job’ that Jesus is doing — a work of The Holy Spirit to our innermost being. He is the Light of The World and the world’s darkness of hate and self-seeking recedes when He enters, closes the doors and stands in the midst saying “Peace to you!”
I KNOW NOT WHY GOD’S WONDROUS GRACE TO ME HE HAS MADE KNOWN — Fountainview Academy
A CLOSING WORD from DAVID WILKERSON
We are so busy working on God, we forget He is trying to work on us. That is what this life is all about: God at work on us, trying to make us into vessels of glory. We are so busy praying to change things that we have little time to allow prayer to change us…
and from MARTIN LUTHER KING
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.