“Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.”
1 John 2:10 (NIV)
John is a unique apostle, for his gospel is uniquely written compared to the other three, and his epistle is uniquely written compared to the epistles of Paul and Peter, and of course his book of Revelation is very unique. I don’t mean unique in any wrong sense for I really enjoy the way John writes, but it does take some adapting in the way I read his writings for me to receive the meaning of the text. I have to stop and reread, sometimes 3 times, and even then, I might be unsure of what the meaning is so, so I have to read it over several days. His writing is deep and wide. He tells us in verse 20 through 27 that we have an anointing from the Holy Spirit and therefore we can understand, which suggests to me that I am not alone in my struggle.
I chose this text because of Obadiah’s identification of Edom/Esau as a brother of Judah/Jacob, and his condemnation in verse 10 of Edom’s violence towards his brother.
John doesn’t want us to sin, and he wants us to have true assurance of our salvation, so he writes to us about how we treat our Christian brothers and sisters. He uses our treatment of our brothers and sisters as a way of revealing whether we are truly Christian. He does this in chapter 2:9-11 and chapter 3:11-24 and chapter 4:7-21 which tells us that this is an important aspect of our assurance of salvation.
I doubt very many us (except perhaps teenagers) would admit out loud that we hate another Christian, but we might admit that we don’t love all our brothers and sisters, who worship with us at Parkdale, we might even admit that some of our brothers and sisters really irritate us. John wants us to live in the light, he wants us to experience the full life that Christ has for us and to have full assurance of our salvation, so he tells us to love one another - not just an attitude, but also in action.
Edom/Esau was full of pride and hated his brother Judah/Jacob- he laughed at Judah’s misfortunate, he profited from their demise, and he even raised his hand in violence towards them.
May the Lord of love fill us with the love He has for our brothers and sisters.
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