Prove It - 1 John 2:7-11 | Tim Birdwell | Week 4

All the way from eternity past, all the way from the beginning, we got to go back to the source, leave your distortions behind, leave your additions behind, your subtractions behind, we got to go back to the very beginning. This is an old command, the idea that if you say you know God, you will keep his commandments, and you will see that culminate in loving one another. That's the pure message. If you don't know the message of Christianity, that's the pure message. [00:09:30] (29 seconds)  #ReturnToLoveCommandments

It's not just an add on moral checklist of like, you know what, you should make your bed in the morning, you should memorize scripture, you should speak kindly to your spouse, and what you should also love one another. Add that to your list. That's not what John is doing. He's saying from the very beginning, this is inherent in what it means to know God, it's how you know that you know him, it's an old command. [00:10:07] (23 seconds)  #LoveIsInherentInKnowingGod

It's a new command that's true in Jesus. And it's true in us. It's true in Jesus. It's true in the one who came, Jesus Christ, who fulfilled all the laws that let the 10 and Exodus to 613. And Exodus, the whole idea of what it means to be created in the image of God, to look like God, to reflect the very character nature of God, to walk as God walked. Jesus Christ did that perfectly, like no one else had done in history and like no one else has done since. [00:11:11] (38 seconds)  #JesusPerfectlyReflectsGod

Instead of just this random, like ethereal command that nobody really knows what it looks like, Israel wasn't able to keep it. Read the Old Testament. Jesus makes it visible, relational. He manifests what it means to walk like God, to love like God. And he does it perfectly outwardly and inwardly. And so now we get a command that is old, but it also is new. Because we see not just what to do, we see how to do it as we look to Jesus. [00:13:46] (35 seconds)  #JesusMakesLoveVisible

Love is the proof. If you're wondering, what is the proof that you know God? What is the proof that other people know God? What is the proof that you know God? The proof that certain churches that you're thinking about that that seemed like a lot of things are happening, people are getting baptized, a lot of like thousands of people are coming to the church, but their pastor says some weird political things, but they're, they talk about this weird, like they, I'm not sure, like how do you really know people know God? John's gonna tell us love is the proof over time. This is how you know. [00:17:51] (33 seconds)  #LoveIsTheProofOfFaith

Mistreating people, hating people, abusing people is not of God. That's how you, I don't care how many people get baptized, I don't care how many people attend the church, I don't care how much they have an overflow, if they're not loving one another over time, it means they don't know the love of the father manifested in Jesus Christ. Love is the proof. [00:18:37] (21 seconds)  #LoveManifestsGodsPresence

What do we do about all the sin and the evil and the distortion in the world? And sometimes we come up with ideas. We're like, we just need some more policies. We just need another president. We just need like, you know what we need? We need a holy huddle, Tim. We need to gather all the people who are not dark, but who are saints like me, and Phoenix Bible Church, and not like that other church down the street. Like we need to, we need to build some walls around this place from a holy huddle. We'll have school there, Tim. We'll have a church down the street. We'll eat dinner together, Tim. It's going to be great. We'll sing Kumbaya together, Tim. Like we'll just form a holy huddle. And the only problem with that is the Bible, because Jesus said we are the light of the world. [00:28:11] (37 seconds)  #LoveLightsUpDarkness

What do we do? What do we do with all the evil? Start loving your neighbor. You know what? That's super difficult. You know what? You know what? You know what? That's supernatural and powerful, and nobody's doing that. You start doing that, and you'll light up the darkness. That's the imagery John gives. What happens in darkness when light shows up? Darkness has to leave. [00:29:03] (19 seconds)  #MongrelChurchLightInDarkness