This morning I thought I would go back to where I left off in John's first letter. It was a while ago that I started working through his letter verse by verse, and I really enjoyed that study. So this morning I went back to where I left off. The following verses caught my eye - 1 John 2:9-11 NIV:
[9] "Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. [10] Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. [11] But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them."
When I read these verses I was reminded of a common dream I have where I am driving somewhere and it starts getting darker and darker and I have no idea where I am going because the darkness is blinding me. It is a bit unsettling to see such a clear parallel in my dreams with John's letter here. It is interesting, as we were just talking last night about how the Lord speaks to us through our dreams. I had used this very dream as an example of my not knowing where I was going in the future, being blind to what is up ahead.
In these verses John is speaking specifically about fellow members of the Body of Christ, for the Greek word is adelphos, which denotes a fellow believer, whether man or woman. Hatred for a fellow brother or sister, a fellow member of the body of Christ, causes spiritual blindness according to John. Good Spiritual sight seems to me to be related to our understanding of God and His heart and purpose for ourselves and those around us, and spiritual darkness or blindness would be a lack of this understanding.
I can definitely see John's point, for if we are hating a fellow believer, we are rejecting one that the Lord has chosen and died to save. We are rejecting His perspective on their significance and membership in the Body of Christ. Secondly, the most significant characteristic of Christ is His love. He IS love, literally the word incarnate. Love is the greatest of gifts (1 Cor 13:13) and the most excellent way according to Paul. It is the single thing that is supposed to differentiate us as followers of Christ (John 13:35). It is the new commandment that Jesus gave us, that we should love one another (John 13:34). It is supposed to be the most significant characteristic of the Body of Christ, the church.
Thus, John can safely say that anyone that hates a fellow member of the Body of Christ is still in darkness, for they are not operating in the single most important charism of the church - love. I am sure one of the great disappointments the Lord has with His church today is the fact that the church is hardly distinguishable from the rest of the world. We seem to have lost our love and affection for one another, choosing instead to argue and fight over doctrinal differences, and scriptural interpretation. We compete with each other for members, we discourage inter-church and inter-denominational fellowship. We offer a thin hand of fellowship to our fellow brothers and sisters. We each think that our perspective is correct and give into spiritual pride as we judge all those who don't agree with us.
We are called to love one another, to be for each other, to have this love be so evident that world can easily identify that we are followers of Jesus. Let us pray for the spiritual blindness to be lifted that we can see where we are supposed to go, and what we are supposed to do. Let us lay down our judgments and mistrust of each other, let us set aside our hatred and disagreements and let us open our eyes to see one another the way the Lord sees us, as someone worth giving our very life for out of love.
Amen Lord, help me to see!
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