I John 2:1-12
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
3 We know that we have come to know Him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know Him,” but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys His word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in Him: 6 Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did.
7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
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. 12I write to you dear children because your sins have been forgiven on account of His name.
I John 2:1-11 GRACE RECEIVED AND GRACE GIVEN
Springford Baptist Church: June 5, 2021.
As we continue to listen for God, what can we receive and learn from God’s grace today?
There is a principle here in this Scripture that we can learn and apply to our everyday lives:
GRACE RECEIVED
GRACE GIVEN
Could you put out your hands for that action of grace received?
And then having received God’s grace it is our privilege and our responsibility to give or extend grace to others.
This is the pattern that God has arranged and that God intends.
Every one of us has had an experience of God’s grace.
Life itself is a profound expression of grace. It is a gift that we have been given that we did nothing to deserve.
And every time we fall short of living the life that God calls us to, we again can receive grace in the form of forgiveness.
Over and over God provides His grace and cleanses us and gives us a new beginning.
Jesus Christ speaks to God our defense. He is the Righteous One. He has atoned for our sins and not only for our sins and shortcomings, but for the sins of the whole world. (vss. 1,2)
YES, we can receive God’s grace through forgiveness that expresses His unconditional love in a personal way to each of us!
But there is more and this Scripture spells it out.
Having received God’s amazing grace, we are then to give it to others in every relationship.
For anyone who obeys His word, God’s love is made complete in that person. (vs. 5)
We cannot miss the expectation that we not only receive grace but also extend grace. This Scripture puts it this way, “Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.” (vs. 6)
And how are we going to walk as Jesus did? Well, it will be seen in our relationships.
(vs. 8) “… the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.”
The evidence of this love in action is GRACE GIVEN.
If we only receive grace and forgiveness, but do not extend it to others, we are still in the darkness.
vs. 9 “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother or sister is still in the darkness.”
This is to be taken seriously!
Offering genuine love and grace to others can be really hard for us to live, especially if something hurtful has been said or done.
If we are going to love as God expects us to love, then this pattern of GRACE RECEIVED and GRACE GIVEN is essential.
We will each need to do inventory to determine if there is unforgiveness in our hearts.
Is there someone that you have refused to forgive?
It may be something recent that was said or done or something from the past. GRACE RECEIVED means that it is possible to offer GRACE GIVEN.
A refusal to forgive affects our relationship with God.
It causes us to reside in the darkness instead of the light and that will certainly impair our vision.
Notice vs. 10 “Anyone who loves their brother or sister lives in the light and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.”
Holding on to bitterness and refusing to forgive is bound to trip us up. We will stumble because we are not sharing the grace that we have been shown.
A lack of willingness to forgive weighs us down and holds us back.
The potential for giving/extending grace is there but we must choose what we will do.
I was reading about someone who was holding on to hurt and had been unwilling to forgive. It had happened some years before and he had been experiencing the effects all this time. When he recognized how this was affecting him, he went to the beach and picked up a rock and named one of the people whose actions and attitude had caused him hurt that he was still carrying. He then threw that rock into the water and watched it sink to the bottom. One by one he named people that he realized he had never forgiven and threw a rock into the water as a symbol of finally being willing to extend the grace of forgiveness to them. And do you know what happened? He was set free. He was no longer carrying the heaviness of unforgiveness.
What do I learn from this? Every day we receive fresh expressions of God’s grace and every day we can choose to extend grace to others.
We can extend grace in what we choose to say or not to say.
We can extend grace in caring about people when we are feeling overwhelmed with our own issues.
We can extend grace by seeing beyond the things that might annoy us about someone else and regarding that person as lovable to God and to us. GRACE RECEIVED and GRACE GIVEN is a powerful life changer!
vs. 12 “I write to you dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of His Name.”
Now what will we do with the grace we have been given?