1 John 2:10-11
“Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. Whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”
The authentic Christian life is lived at the intersection of truth + love, where truth defines and directs love, and where love motivates how and why we seek to align our lives with truth. The combination of truth and love is taught throughout scripture. We saw it in Philippians 1, Ephesians 4, Proverbs 3, and we see it in First John. Indeed, the theme of First John is walk in light (truth) and walk in love.
The verses above are a classic contrast passage for John: He contrasts the person who walks in the light and loves his brother versus the person who walks in the darkness and hates his brother. The big message is that your relationship to the light determines your relationship to love, which in turn determines your relationship to others.
This is key: Walking in the light precedes and produces walking in love.
“Walk” is a term frequently used in scripture to describe daily attitude and conduct. It refers to how you conduct yourself in everything you do at home, at work, and in the community. Some people trust in Jesus and use the truth of God’s word to guide and direct the way they conduct themselves. These are the people who walk in the light. Other people do not believe in Jesus and reject God’s word as a source of guidance and direction. These are the people who walk in darkness.
Whether you walk in the light or walk in the darkness will determine who and how you love. The person who walks in darkness has a limited capacity to love; and in this passage, the person who walks in darkness “hates” his brother. The reference to brother does not mean sibling; it means a colleague or neighbor or teammate or maybe even someone in the church fellowship. The point is that this “brother” is someone with whom the person interacts, and the interaction is characterized by hate, not love.
Walking in the darkness is the source of hate. Because this person is in the darkness, he cannot see clearly. He doesn’t see himself clearly, and he doesn’t see his brother clearly. He is blind. He doesn’t know where he is going or what he is doing.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke about this darkness-induced blindness. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6.22-23)
“The eye is the lamp of the body” refers to the way we see things. An eye that is “healthy” means clarity of vision that produces wise decisions; an eye that is “bad” means distortion of vision that produces unwise decisions. Jesus is teaching us that the way we look at people and situations is enormously important.
If our eye is healthy (clear vision guided by Truth), then our life is full of light and we can deal with people and situations according to what is actually happening. But if our eye is bad (impaired vision because Truth is rejected), then our life is full of darkness and we will react to people and situations based on a distorted perspective.
Once again we see that light/truth precedes and produces authentic love, and darkness/rejection of truth precedes and produces the absence of authentic love.
If you look carefully at your life, you will notice that when your love for other people is at its strongest and most Christ-like, it is because you are allowing the truth of God’s word and the power of the Holy Spirit to guide you. You will also notice that when your love for other people is weak (or even absent), it is because you are following the impulses of your old nature.
All of this presupposes that we are operating from the right definition of “love.” There are many distorted and counterfeit versions of love in our culture, even among Christians. And when love is disconnected from the Truth, it ceases to be authentic love.
May we walk in the true light and love of Christ every day.
