I have decided to make a change in my monthly blog program. I want to invite you to follow my daily Live to Love Scripture Encouragement podcast. The 2-3 minute podcast airs daily on Spotify, iTunes, and Soundcloud and is also posted on Facebook. I am presently going through 1 John, verse by verse. I am looking for how each verse encourages us to live to love with Jesus or live out the gospel. On the first of each month, I’ll send an email with the content and link to that day’s Live to Love Scripture podcast—just like today’s post.

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1 John 2:9 The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.

Welcome to today’s Live to Love Scripture Encouragement from 1 John 2:9. I’m Norm Wakefield. I’m so glad you’ve joined me as we journey through 1 John to receive encouragement and inspiration to love with Jesus. John has been warning his readers not to believe or listen to everyone who says they know God or live in the Light. His warning certainly sounds similar to the Lord’s warning in the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew 7:15-21.

“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.”

Notice John’s warning that someone who says they have the Light, yet expresses hatred for his brother, is someone in whom the darkness is not passing away. They are still in the darkness. If they were living in the True Light, their lives would be filled with enough light and love to drive the darkness away. To John, hatred for a brother is the fruit of a bad tree, which is evidence that there is no light within. They are in the darkness.

As we love with Jesus, we testify by our lives that the darkness is passing away and that we live in the true Light. I hope you don’t have any hatred in your heart toward any of your brothers and sisters in Christ. If you do, then I encourage you to heed what John wrote in this verse and 1:9. Please confess your sin and your need for the cleansing power of Jesus’ blood shed for you. Humble yourself. Seek His face, and turn from that hatred by looking to the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ who died that you might not only be forgiven, but transformed by His life of love. In that moment, the darkness in which you have been living will begin passing away.