“Anyone who loves a fellow believer is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble.”
1 John 2:10 (NLT)
John reminds us that our faith isn’t proven by what we say—it’s revealed by how we live. He wrote this letter so that believers would not sin, but also to remind us that when we do, we have an Advocate—Jesus Christ, the only truly righteous one who pleads our case before the Father. Jesus didn’t just forgive our sins; He fixed the sin problem once and for all.
John makes it clear that knowing God is inseparable from obeying Him. To say we know God but ignore His commands is to live in deception. But those who obey show how completely they love Him. To live in God is to walk as Jesus walked—to follow in His footsteps of love and truth. That’s why the earliest Christians were called followers of the Way.
The command to love one another isn’t new—but it became new again when Jesus showed us what real love looks like. His life was light in a dark world, and His example gives us the clarity to see where we’re going. Hate, on the other hand, blinds us. It keeps us stumbling in darkness, unable to find the way.
Love is the truest test of whether we are walking with God. There’s no middle ground—light or darkness, love or hate. God’s Word lights our path and shows us again and again that hate has no home in a believer’s heart. When we love, we bring others into the light. Let’s walk as Jesus did, living in love and leading others out of the darkness.