1 John 2:7-14 | Dear friends | The Branch

"It's not how much they know about theology. The maturity is measured by their love." – Pastor Chris Reed

In this episode of The Tree Church Bible Study, host Pastor Stacey Crawford is joined again by Pastor Matthew Johnson and Pastor Chris Reed. The group continues in 1 John 2, picking up in verse 7. Their focus is walking in the light of Christ through the way we love others.

The conversation opens with a fun question. What is something you haven't done yet but would love to learn? All three answer piano. Pastor Chris would also love to learn stone carving after seeing ancient statues on a trip to Greece this year. Pastor Matthew would like to play piano for his private times of worship. He would also love to learn another language and get better at cooking.

Pastor Stacey admits her husband is the better cook in their house. He once tried to teach her guitar and drums, but she gets frustrated when she can't pick things up quickly. She jokes that she loves him too much to keep trying. Her mother-in-law plays piano, so that may be her next step. Or YouTube.

Pastor Stacey then recaps the previous episode. The group talked about Jesus as our advocate and how a relationship with Him leads us to walk in obedience.

Pastor Stacey reads 1 John 2:7–8 from the NLT.

"Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you. Rather, it is an old one you have heard from the very beginning. This old commandment to love one another is the same message you heard before. Yet, it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining."

She laughs that the passage seems to ask whether the command is old or new. She sees John building on the commands of Jesus.

Pastor Matthew explains that it has always been God's heart for us to love our neighbor. Yet people did not fully understand that. He remembers a sermon Pastor Chris preached years ago in their old building. Pastor Chris taught that the Jewish culture of that day believed they only had to love other Jews. That created tension over who counted as a neighbor.

Pastor Matthew points to the story of the Good Samaritan. A man asked Jesus who his neighbor was. Jesus told a story with an unlikely hero and showed that a neighbor is anyone around us. Pastor Matthew says that teaching opened his eyes. He had been reading Scripture through an American mindset without seeing the tension in their culture.

He also points to John 13:34, where Jesus says, "A new commandment I give you, love one another." John is now helping the church live this out. Jews and Gentiles, men and women, and slave and free were all coming together for the first time. With that many people and personalities, tension was bound to happen.

Pastor Chris focuses on the end of verse 8. Jesus, the light, has entered the world. He describes a dark room with a single light shining across it. There are still shadows, but the room is no longer completely dark. Now that Jesus has come, loving others is how we walk in the light and help it spread.

Pastor Stacey notes that John says Jesus lived out this command. So the group looks at what Christlike love looks like.

Pastor Chris explains that Greek has four words for love. Philia is friendship. Storge is family love. Eros is romantic love. Agape is unique because it starts with affection and always produces action. Pastor Chris says Scripture always uses agape to describe God's love for us.

He adds that Jesus loved people even when they were His enemies. His love was not based on being loved back. By returning hate with love, we might gain a brother or sister and help stop the hatred. Pastor Chris admits that is a hard love to follow.

Pastor Matthew adds that it feels natural to love people in our own tribe. That includes the people who think, look, and act like us. But Jesus was perfectly righteous, and every person He met fell short. Even the people He invested in most let Him down. He could have rejected them without sinning. Instead, He kept loving them.

Pastor Matthew points to Peter. At the Last Supper, Jesus told Peter he would deny Him. Jesus also said He had already prayed for Peter and wanted him to lead the others once he recovered. Peter's failure did not change his calling.

Pastor Matthew believes our culture is becoming so tribal that people feel free to break relationships in ways Jesus never modeled. He uses politics as an example. People from both sides of the aisle attend The Tree Church, and some would be shocked by that. Some might even think it justifies walking away from each other. Pastor Matthew says Jesus' kind of love goes beyond that. We can disagree and push back, but love remains.

"When we think a behavior disqualifies, we have to take a step back and go, would this behavior have disqualified Jesus' love for them? Would he have given up on them?" – Pastor Matthew Johnson

Pastor Stacey continues with verses 9–11.

"If anyone claims, I am living in the light but hates a fellow believer, that person is still living in darkness. Anyone who loves a fellow believer is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble. But anyone who hates a fellow believer is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness."

Pastor Chris explains that for John, hate is not only doing bad things to others. It is failing to love the way Jesus loves.

"For John, hate is simply just failing to live up to agape." – Pastor Chris Reed

He calls it a sin of omission. When we fail to do the good we know someone needs, that complacency is just as serious as gossip or slander. Pastor Chris admits this is sobering. It means caring for people even when we don't feel like it or when they will ask more of us than we want to give.

Pastor Matthew encourages listeners to pause and rewind to hear that point again. He says it is easy to feel successful by loving the easy people, like family, friends, and coworkers. The harder question is who we have pushed aside because they annoy us or think differently. That is who God is calling us to love.

Pastor Chris adds that we cannot meet every need in the world. We hear about needs in Africa and other countries. God brings us into a community that should keep growing, but we need to stay in tune with the Holy Spirit. He will show us the need in front of us or the kind word we should say, even when it costs us time, energy, or money.

Pastor Matthew agrees. When people ask how to know which needs to meet, he always asks where God has placed their feet. He believes God orders our steps. So we look around our family, marriage, work, and community, including the neighbors and coworkers we like and dislike. Through that lens, clear ministry opportunities appear.

Stacey mentions one of her favorite truths, that Jesus came to serve and not to be served. She asks what we do for the person who can't do anything for us or who drives us bonkers. She admits there are days when she has no energy, yet she chooses to love because God is calling her to.

Pastor Matthew says it is okay to be honest with God. We can tell Him we know what He is asking and ask for help when we feel drained. He shares that some Sundays leave him with zero emotional bandwidth, and he goes straight to his office to sit for a while. Recognizing that and asking God for help is not the same as excusing sin.

Pastor Matthew reflects on the picture of God's word as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Light brings direction and protection. Hate puts us in a dark and dangerous place.

"You cannot genuinely hate one person without it affecting every other relationship in your life." – Pastor Matthew Johnson

Love softens our hearts and helps us hear God's voice more clearly. Hate brings darkness, where we stumble, hurt relationships, and make poor decisions. Pastor Matthew connects this to verse 5 from last week. Loving like Jesus lets His ways change our hearts. He says God gives this in love, as if saying, just trust me, this is the better way to live.

Pastor Stacey adds that when we choose to be like Christ, we receive the light and it shines into others too. Pastor Matthew agrees. We have all been around people who drain a room and people who bring light wherever they go. Our world needs people who love in a radical way.

Pastor Chris reflects on how Jesus could have come to judge His enemies and stop evil with violence. That would have only continued the cycle. Instead, Jesus absorbed violence and answered our hostility toward God with grace and mercy. When we love like Jesus, we help stop the cycle of hatred. The world says to get even. God did vindicate Jesus, but through overcoming death. Sacrificial love may look weak, but it is the path that truly changes the world.

Pastor Stacey reads verses 12–14, where John writes to God's children, to those mature in the faith, and to those young in the faith. She senses John is speaking to the whole church while also addressing individuals.

Pastor Chris admits it is hard to tell exactly how John breaks this up. But in light of the difficult call to love, John pauses to encourage believers at every level. Anyone can find themselves in any of these groups at different times. Next week's passage will repeat the call to love one another as Christ loved us, and encouragement helps people do hard things.

Stacey shares that as pastors, they think about every person in the room when shaping a message. There are mature believers who need to keep growing and newer believers who may be hearing about Jesus for the first time. No matter where someone is, the call is to keep pursuing Jesus.

Pastor Matthew says this is encouraging because people often compare themselves to others at church and feel like failures. Even the three of them, as longtime Christians and pastors, each have areas where they still need to grow. He also shares that he intentionally cracks jokes during the most intense parts of a message. He wants people to know the message is serious without feeling overwhelmed. He sees John doing something similar with his affectionate language. It feels very pastoral to him.

Pastor Chris admits there are many times each day when he falls short of loving like Jesus. He is thankful we are not alone. We can rely on people who are further along. He is also reinspired by the zeal of young people like his son and Cole.

He shares that it bristles him a little when people say they just want to go deeper in Scripture or theology. Those things matter, and John would agree. But John measures maturity by love.

Pastor Matthew connects this to the greatest commandment to love God with everything and love people. Jesus said the world would know we are His disciples if we love one another. He could have named any standard, like mastering Scripture, but He chose love. Pastor Matthew says there is no mature Christian who is not loving people.

Pastor Stacey brings it together. Our love for God leads us to obey. As we obey, we walk in the light and share that light with others.

Pastor Matthew closes in prayer. He thanks Jesus for His extravagant love, which is the only reason we understand love at all. He prays that everyone listening would understand God's great affection for them and His commitment to their good. He asks God to soften hearts so people can give grace at a higher level and be His shining light to the world. He thanks God that His Spirit empowers us to walk in love.

Pastor Stacey thanks Pastor Matthew and Pastor Chris and invites listeners to like, subscribe, share, and check out the show notes.

This Bible study is part of The Tree Church Bible Study podcast (TCBS), created to help the Tree grow deeper in understanding the Scriptures. New episodes are released regularly on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.