I John 2:3-6
Remember: John is talking to those who still live in the body of this death. He is talking to his little children that struggle with the high and holy requirements of the life of Christ in them. Sin is not an option, but it is inevitable in their walk in the midst of this fallen world, as it is measured by the righteousness that God requires. Therefore there is a constant appeal to the blood of Jesus Christ to cover our sins. And remember he's not talking to those who are walking in darkness, nor those who say they have no sin, nor those who say they have not sinned. The truth is not in them
Vs 2:3a Hereby we do know that we know stuff about Him. No, no, no. This knowing is the intimate know of which John speaks of in John 17:3 & 1 John 5:20-21. That life that was from the beginning is a relational knowing that we have been brought into by faith, that relational knowing of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And that access amd fellowship is only by the blood of our Day of Redemption, our Mercy Seat, our Scape Goat, our propitiatory sacrifice!!!
This Knowing Relationship that is life eternal is the Priority Relationship of our stay on this earth. It is our “operating center” of the new life in the redeemed.
I am not talking about some “higher life” for the super devoted few, I am talking of the normal walk in the Spirit as spoken of throughout the NT.(Rom. 8:1-4; 2 Cor. 5:14-18; Gal. 5:16-25, 6:15)
Vs 2:3b-4 “If we keep His commandments”.
Romans 8:2-4 Remember, what the law could not do, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh (without sin) and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the (weakness) of the flesh, but after the Spirit!!! This operation is spoken of in Vs 2 as “The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus!”
Ezekiel 36:25-27 After a dreadful lists of Israel’s sins, the Lord proclaims what He will do “for my Name’s sake” (Vs 23), God says He will give them a new heart and a new spirit within them. “And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgements and do them”. Jer. 31:21-34
Hebrews 10:15-17 declares in the parallel passage of Jeremiah 31:31-34 that it was the Holy Spirit declaring that covenant, and then the writer proceeds to imply(Vs18-22) that this was the prophecy of THE NEW AND LIVING WAY by which we have continual access to this fellowship with the very Holy Presence of the Most High God!!! All true children of God have the inward law of the Spirit of Life in ‘Christ Jesus operating in them!!
If the Father’s will, our Savior’s commandments, are not our priority, it seems doubtful that the Spirit of Life is in us!!!
But remember to walk in the assurance of 1 John 7, 9, & 2:1-2a!!!
Vs 5 The Love of God perfected in us??? perfected #5048 All word for word translations, ancient and modern, have “perfected”. “To add what is lacking in order to render a thing full”. What is lacking?? Our inadequate ego driven, self centered flesh love, it is sorely lacking!! We desperately need a new “Love Source”.
Rom. 5:1-5 The Justified have a new Love Source, the New Covenant Spirit sheds abroad the Love of God, God’s Love, in our hearts.
Eph. 3:14-21 takes this further. The Spirit’s Love Addition is a growing thing.
Vs 14-16 The Father is the Source. I Jn. 4:19, 2:15, 3:17 Notice from these 2 passages, that the issue is, does this Love of God/Father dwell in us?
Vs 16 The Spirit does the “heart work” in the inner man, the new operating center.
Vs 17 Christ, the embodiment of the Love of God, the root and ground out of which this Love of God grows (Vs 18)
Now notice three things. Firstly, this love is from outside of ourselves. It is the love of God. And secondly this love of God is the very person of Christ, in all of his glorious definition, dwelling in our hearts by faith. And thirdly notice, that our apprehension and comprehension of this indwelling Christ and His love, is to be an ever-increasing understanding. The terminology of verse 17, “being rooted and grounded in love”, demands that we understand that it is a glorious growing thing within us.
The fact that this love is sourced from outside of ourselves requires us to put aside our frail, fickle, and foolish ideas that is human love. It is ever deficient to obey the commandment of Christ to love one another. And that's because our natural love is anchored in ego, in self, in flesh. This Love that John is talking about is from above and is operated in faith by the Holy Spirit within our hearts. This Love that John is talking about, loving our brothers, is the outflow of Christ's love for the Father. This is what Peter is speaking of in 1 Peter 1:17-25 as the Gospel fruit of the Gospel, birthing in us the non-hypocritical love of the brethren.
But this Love may look different from what we have imagined. This is that love which threw over the money changers tables, for they had turned His Father's house into a den of thieves. This is that love for the Father which stated those fearsome words to Peter, “get thee behind me Satan”, because the Father's will and purpose was being questioned. It was that love for the Father that led Him to declare to the gain saying Pharisees and scribes, that they were whitened sepulchers full of dead men's bones, and on another occasion that they were of their father, the Devil. They had continually displayed an utter disregard for that covenant with His Father at Sinai. And this is that same love for the Father that continually led Him to not do His own will but the will of Him that sent Him. This is the love that waited two days for Lazarus after died so that Mary & Martha might learn through their tears that He is the Resurrection and the Life. And finally this is the Love of the Father of which our Jesus speaks at the end of The last supper when he says, “that the world may know that I love the Father, let us go up from here.” And that love led him to the garden, to His arrest, His crucifixion and His resurrection, and praise God, to His exaltation to the right hand of the Father. That is the love that the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in our hearts. The ultimate cause of our redemption and new creation is the Son’s Love for the Father and the Father’s delight in His Creator Son. Yes, our Jesus did some warm and fluffy “love stuff” which gets all the press, but that is the Love of Father in Christ Jesus meeting the need of the occasion. Remember, this is the Love first of all of Father & Son by the Spirit and the whole Essence and Glory of God is brought to bear in it’s expression through His people.
Eph. 3:19 And in this knowing the Love of Christ spiritually, beyond some mere mental idea, we are filled with the fulness of God. (See Col. 2:6-10)
Vs 6 Hence that which is lacking is filled up!! This is how we can walk as he walked. This is how we can keep His commandments by the Spirit with our faith eyes on Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
Remember: John is talking to those who still live in the body of this death. He is talking to his little children that struggle with the high and holy requirements of the life of Christ in them. Sin is not an option, but it is inevitable in their walk in the midst of this fallen world, as it is measured by the righteousness that God requires. Therefore there is a constant appeal to the blood of Jesus Christ to cover our sins. And remember he's not talking to those who are walking in darkness, nor those who say they have no sin, nor those who say they have not sinned. The truth is not in them
Vs 2:3a Hereby we do know that we know stuff about Him. No, no, no. This knowing is the intimate know of which John speaks of in John 17:3 & 1 John 5:20-21. That life that was from the beginning is a relational knowing that we have been brought into by faith, that relational knowing of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And that access amd fellowship is only by the blood of our Day of Redemption, our Mercy Seat, our Scape Goat, our propitiatory sacrifice!!!
This Knowing Relationship that is life eternal is the Priority Relationship of our stay on this earth. It is our “operating center” of the new life in the redeemed.
I am not talking about some “higher life” for the super devoted few, I am talking of the normal walk in the Spirit as spoken of throughout the NT.(Rom. 8:1-4; 2 Cor. 5:14-18; Gal. 5:16-25, 6:15)
Vs 2:3b-4 “If we keep His commandments”.
Romans 8:2-4 Remember, what the law could not do, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh (without sin) and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the (weakness) of the flesh, but after the Spirit!!! This operation is spoken of in Vs 2 as “The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus!”
Ezekiel 36:25-27 After a dreadful lists of Israel’s sins, the Lord proclaims what He will do “for my Name’s sake” (Vs 23), God says He will give them a new heart and a new spirit within them. “And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgements and do them”. Jer. 31:21-34
Hebrews 10:15-17 declares in the parallel passage of Jeremiah 31:31-34 that it was the Holy Spirit declaring that covenant, and then the writer proceeds to imply(Vs18-22) that this was the prophecy of THE NEW AND LIVING WAY by which we have continual access to this fellowship with the very Holy Presence of the Most High God!!! All true children of God have the inward law of the Spirit of Life in ‘Christ Jesus operating in them!!
If the Father’s will, our Savior’s commandments, are not our priority, it seems doubtful that the Spirit of Life is in us!!!
But remember to walk in the assurance of 1 John 7, 9, & 2:1-2a!!!
Vs 5 The Love of God perfected in us??? perfected #5048 All word for word translations, ancient and modern, have “perfected”. “To add what is lacking in order to render a thing full”. What is lacking?? Our inadequate ego driven, self centered flesh love, it is sorely lacking!! We desperately need a new “Love Source”.
Rom. 5:1-5 The Justified have a new Love Source, the New Covenant Spirit sheds abroad the Love of God, God’s Love, in our hearts.
Eph. 3:14-21 takes this further. The Spirit’s Love Addition is a growing thing.
Vs 14-16 The Father is the Source. I Jn. 4:19, 2:15, 3:17 Notice from these 2 passages, that the issue is, does this Love of God/Father dwell in us?
Vs 16 The Spirit does the “heart work” in the inner man, the new operating center.
Vs 17 Christ, the embodiment of the Love of God, the root and ground out of which this Love of God grows (Vs 18)
Now notice three things. Firstly, this love is from outside of ourselves. It is the love of God. And secondly this love of God is the very person of Christ, in all of his glorious definition, dwelling in our hearts by faith. And thirdly notice, that our apprehension and comprehension of this indwelling Christ and His love, is to be an ever-increasing understanding. The terminology of verse 17, “being rooted and grounded in love”, demands that we understand that it is a glorious growing thing within us.
The fact that this love is sourced from outside of ourselves requires us to put aside our frail, fickle, and foolish ideas that is human love. It is ever deficient to obey the commandment of Christ to love one another. And that's because our natural love is anchored in ego, in self, in flesh. This Love that John is talking about is from above and is operated in faith by the Holy Spirit within our hearts. This Love that John is talking about, loving our brothers, is the outflow of Christ's love for the Father. This is what Peter is speaking of in 1 Peter 1:17-25 as the Gospel fruit of the Gospel, birthing in us the non-hypocritical love of the brethren.
But this Love may look different from what we have imagined. This is that love which threw over the money changers tables, for they had turned His Father's house into a den of thieves. This is that love for the Father which stated those fearsome words to Peter, “get thee behind me Satan”, because the Father's will and purpose was being questioned. It was that love for the Father that led Him to declare to the gain saying Pharisees and scribes, that they were whitened sepulchers full of dead men's bones, and on another occasion that they were of their father, the Devil. They had continually displayed an utter disregard for that covenant with His Father at Sinai. And this is that same love for the Father that continually led Him to not do His own will but the will of Him that sent Him. This is the love that waited two days for Lazarus after died so that Mary & Martha might learn through their tears that He is the Resurrection and the Life. And finally this is the Love of the Father of which our Jesus speaks at the end of The last supper when he says, “that the world may know that I love the Father, let us go up from here.” And that love led him to the garden, to His arrest, His crucifixion and His resurrection, and praise God, to His exaltation to the right hand of the Father. That is the love that the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in our hearts. The ultimate cause of our redemption and new creation is the Son’s Love for the Father and the Father’s delight in His Creator Son. Yes, our Jesus did some warm and fluffy “love stuff” which gets all the press, but that is the Love of Father in Christ Jesus meeting the need of the occasion. Remember, this is the Love first of all of Father & Son by the Spirit and the whole Essence and Glory of God is brought to bear in it’s expression through His people.
Eph. 3:19 And in this knowing the Love of Christ spiritually, beyond some mere mental idea, we are filled with the fulness of God. (See Col. 2:6-10)
Vs 6 Hence that which is lacking is filled up!! This is how we can walk as he walked. This is how we can keep His commandments by the Spirit with our faith eyes on Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
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