Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): You're just in time for today's Power Walk Ministries broadcast with Pastor Paul Cannings. The Measure of Love is our current series, and Reverend Cannings brings us the second volume in this series where he takes us to 1 John chapter 2, which clearly outlines what love is really all about. How can we practically show our love for others, especially those who have wronged us? It can be very difficult, but God's word says it's possible. And Pastor Cannings shares how in this second part of the message, Love in Action.

Dr. Paul Cannings: Many times hate is defined in ways that sometimes make us look good. But let's define hate for just a minute based on how the Scriptures view it because the Bible has a lot of places where there's hate. The Jews experienced Nero; that's a lot of hate. Jesus Christ, a lot of hate. You don't have to worry about whether or not the Bible could define hate. You have lots of things in the Old Testament that vividly define how people hated and led to the destruction of many lives.

Whether you go from the Old Testament or to the New Testament and look at all that took place, there was lots of murder and lots of devastation because of hate. Many times we have Hollywood defining love and hate, and many times we have emotions defining hate. But fundamentally, hate is not an emotion. Hate is an action. A person can hate and not show any emotion. Their disposition says these different things.

Number one, when they function in this manner, they despise the person. They see the person coming towards them, and they go in a whole different direction. That tone of their voice irritates me. It's just a dislike for the person, how they dress, or their cultural differences that sometimes create hate. So they can't stand the person.

Hate has to do with a sense of emptiness. There's nothing inside of this person that says I have any motivation within me to talk to the person, be around the person, or interact with the person. I don't want to ever be in their space. That's hate. That's how the Bible defines hate. God would even say that He hates adultery. He has nothing to do with it. I hate divorce. When He uses that word 'hate,' or you go to Proverbs chapter 6 and He says, "Here's the six things I hate, yea, seven," He says He has nothing to do with gossip. There's nothing inside of Him that motivates Him to go do any of those things that He despises.

Hate is displayed when you've got the Jewish man going down the road and he sees this Samaritan man on the road to Jericho hurt. The priest that went on the other side, that word means to despise. He hated him because he despised him. He saw a need and he hated him by going on the other side and despising the person in the worst moments of their life when they were robbed. This person going to church went on the other side and despised them. That's hate.

Many times we look at hate in different ways. Hate can become an action in the sense that it's malicious, when a person is now trying to get somebody and they're being malicious about it. In other words, they're like a snake in the grass. They're trying to hurt the person, but they're not going to ever do it in front of the person's face. Or they're going to do it with a group of people who would never go to the person and say anything, but they're doing different things on this job or in the family or in the church, trying to make the person come out a certain way so the person is slandered, and people start having questions. It creates people opposing and polarizing themselves from each other. That is hate. It's slanderous. It's malicious.

So many times when we come to hate, we jump to that emotion and that feeling. But in the Scriptures, hate is those things and more. When we come to the book of First John and he is talking about love, he's talking about love to a group of people who believe they are in love with God, but their actions show hate. He's trying to help them to understand that if their action shows hate, then it takes them to a place that is dark.

In 1 John chapter 2, verses 9 and 10, he said, "He that saith," we dealt with that yesterday, "he is in the light but hateth his brother." So he's actually bringing this within the context of the church. He hates his brother, context of saved people, hates his brother, despises him. Now, he says this person is in darkness. We've been dealing with light and darkness.

In their day, there are no streetlights, no cars driving around with lights coming out the cars, none of these lights that they could just switch on in their house. So when it gets dark, all kinds of things happen. You've got wild animals that come out, and they're in mud huts. They scratch their way through that mud hut and get that little baby and kill it. You have men that have to go sleep in the gates of the sheep where they would make sure that the wolves and everything don't come through that gate to get their sheep, especially the sacrificial lamb that they have to prepare to take to the temple.

Darkness, John is defining. When he defines it, he is actually saying "evil." When a person decides to hate, they have moved away from love to the whole opposite side of evil. That's exactly what he's talking about because there's an aspect of hate that is malicious, where a person can get to the point of anger. When it gets to the point of anger, it can move to wrath where they're trying to hurt the person. That's different.

So he's saying that if a person walks away from loving God, it can take them into a place where they act just like Satan does in darkness, evil. Now, here's the contrast. Light has to do with obeying God. A person who walks in the light will have fellowship with one another. He's saying that in 1 John chapter 1, verses 5 through 7, "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin."

In the midst of seeking to walk in this light, the same writer, John, is going to tell us who this light is. That's why he later on in chapter 2 is going to teach us that that person comes to know God. That person doesn't just go to church and go home; they get to know God. There's an experience of God.

So when we come to this issue of hate and love, a person that loves will have fellowship with anybody, koinonia. The Holy Spirit is so developing in each person that the Spirit of God so connects the two individuals that they end up in the truth. The Spirit of God is the truth. When they end up in the Spirit of God, they end up in fellowship with one another. They can't hate because they walk in the light.

Who's this light? John chapter 1, same writer: "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." In other words, there's no way the darkness can absorb the light and still be dark. So the light is automatically dominating the whole situation that's taking place, and that's why he says it leads to life, it leads to fellowship. The word 'life' here, zoe, means it leads to the fruit of the Spirit.

He came to give us life, John chapter 10, verse 10. He came to give us life and life abundantly. "I am the way, the truth, and the life." So my life now becomes one that displays the nature of Jesus Christ because I am walking in the light, meaning I'm walking in the very nature of who Jesus is. The more I walk in the very nature of who Jesus is, and He is love, there is no way that I cannot end up having a life that looks like Christ.

Remember Paul said, "I no longer live. It is Christ that lives in me." The life he now lives, he's no longer in a place where he matters. "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain." I no longer have this life anymore; I have died. He goes through that in Philippians chapter 3 where he would say, "I have counted all things loss, and it doesn't matter the level of sufferings that I go through because the more sufferings I go through is the more I depend on God."

His promise to me is that in my weakness I am made strong because I'm constantly relying on His word, I'm committed to renew my mind in it, I'm committed to practice it, I'm committed to let Him transform me from the inside out. So the more I do that, the more like Christ I become because it doesn't matter what I feel if I'm anxious. It doesn't matter what I feel when I get broke. It doesn't matter what I feel when I'm suffering. I'm going to keep praying, I'm going to keep seeking to obey God, and I'm going to keep surrendering my life to God.

I'm going to keep seeking to empower myself through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." When that person starts to act this way, they start to develop the very life that Christ came to give them. Eternal life starts to manifest itself through them. The fruit of the Spirit is now coming out of them. What does that mean? It means that they can love anybody. They can be at peace in the worst relationships ever. They can long suffer through it because they have a patience that comes from God. The joy of the Lord becomes their strength.

This is that person that now starts to have this light. That's why he's saying they cannot say that they are walking in the light and not have fellowship. It is impossible for them to say that because the fellowship that we have with God is a fellowship where He still loved us when we were sinful. For God so loved the world. 'The world' doesn't mean all these different nations and all this stuff; world in the Bible means a way of thinking that is opposed to God. It is a way of a person being sinful, a person being depraved.

That person shows us that He could find a murderer named Paul and turn him into the person that writes half the New Testament. That person, He's saying, because of who He is, so transforms us into His light that it doesn't matter who we meet. The influence that comes from the inside out, 1 John chapter 4, verse 4, He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. That person could even give us the strength to withstand what Satan does in a dark, evil, wicked world.

We could still stand out as people who display the very nature of who God is. There's no way a person could walk in the word of God and not come out with light, not come out being able to show people the very nature of who Christ is, to be able to show people what it's like for love to continue forward. Light helps people to see what the word of God really means in the day-to-day situations. Light is wisdom. A person could now apply the word of God into difficult, harmful, offensive situations and still find wisdom in it.

A person in this light could come to evil and overpower it, meaning the person that could be evil to them, do all kinds of things to them, say all kind of evil to them, but they could still stand there and still do what God tells them to do because it overpowers the darkness. So the person wants to know, "Who is this person? I've done everything I can to hurt them, but he still got up from the grave." What in the world is going on with this person? Who is this man? That's what they would say when they see all that is happening and Jesus Christ on the cross saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." That man. Who is this guy? He can't be nothing but the Son of God. You see, in the midst of evil, it just stands out. In the midst of all we experience all around the world, where's the light? Stay focused.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Pastor Cannings. The way we treat people on the horizontal level is the true measure of our love for God. Now, if you'd like to purchase a copy of this series to review or to pass on to someone else, log on to powerwalkministries.org. That's powerwalkministries.org. Or you can call us at 281-260-7402. That's 281-260-7402.

And when you reach out to us, would you consider becoming a Power Walk partner? You're hearing Power Walk right now because of the prayerful and financial contributions of people just like you. Won't you join us in our mission to reach people around the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ? Our phone number once again is 281-260-7402. Or log on to powerwalkministries.org. We thank you for your support.

And if you live in the Houston area or you're planning a visit, please join Reverend Cannings at Living Word Fellowship Church this Sunday. For church location and service times, visit lwfellowshipchurch.org. And now remember, when we walk in the light, we walk in the nature of Jesus, and therefore we will be able to love those around us.