BY GLENN PEASE
CONTENTS
I JOHN
1. THE VOICE OF EXPERIENCE
Based on I John 1:1‑2
2. FELLOWSHIP IS FUNDAMENTAL
Based on I John 1:3
3. GOD IS LIGHT Based on I John 1:5
4. TRUTH IN ACTION Based on I John 1:6
5. WALKING IN THE LIGHT
Based on I John 1:7
6. CHRISTIAN CONFESSION Based
on I John 1:8‑9
7. PERFECTION Based on I John
2:1
8. WE HAVE A LAWYER Based on I
John 2:1b
9. BLESSED ASSURANCE Based on I John 2:3
10. HATRED HIT HARD Based on I John 2:7f
11. LOVE'S LIMITATIONS Based on I John 2:15‑17
12. WORDS OF WARNING Based on I John 2:18f
13. SATANIC SEPARATISM Based on I John 2:19f
14. THE WINNING WIND Based on I John 2:20
15. CHILDREN OF GOD Based on I John
3:1‑2
16. GOD IS LOVE Based on I John 4:7‑12
17. THE CONQUEST OF THE WORLD Based on I John 5:4
18. PROFOUND SIMPLICITY Based on I John 5:7
II JOHN
III JOHN
I JOHN
1.
THE VOICE OF EXPERIENCE Based on
I John 1:1‑2
James
Thurber tells the fable of the bear that use to go on a spree of drunkenness,
and come home at night and break up the furniture, and frightening the children
and drive his wife to tears. One day he
reformed and decided to never drink again, and from then on he would come home
and demonstrate how fresh and vigorous his new way of life made him feel by
doing gymnastic exercises in the living room.
In so doing, however, he broke the furniture, frightened the children,
and drove his wife to tears. Thurber is
pointing out that one extreme is no better than another in its practical
outcome in life. One has little to
boast about who has escaped falling flat on his face by bending over so far
backward he falls on his head. It is the man who keeps his balance, and falls
neither way that represents the Christian ideal. Neither the rider who falls off the horse on the left or the
right side is to be compared with the man who stays in the saddle.
Albert
Schweitzer said, "No man ever gets a great idea without carrying it too
far." He illustrates his statement
as he makes it, for he certainly went too far when he said, "No man,"
for Jesus as a man showed perfect balance.
What he said, however, is a valid
judgment on most men and movements. The
Apostle John in writing this first Epistle is combating a movement that has
gone to an extreme and has become a dangerous heresy. The Gnostics, as they were called, were not trying to destroy
Christianity, but were trying to make it an intellectually respectable
philosophy that would appeal to the contemporary mind.
They
were doing the same thing that we see being done in our day. There are men and movements within the
framework of modern Christianity who are saying we need to cleanse the church
of old ideas, and make its message relevant to the contemporary mind. Such things as the virgin birth, miracles,
and the literal resurrection of Christ are not acceptable to many modern minds, and so they are saying
we need to cut them off as branches
that will bare no more fruit.
The
Gnostics in John's day had the same idea, and there have always been men in
movements to promote this way of thinking.
That is why you notice this Epistle is not addressed to anyone in
particular. It is called a Catholic
Epistle, which means, it is a universal Epistle. It is God's perpetual answer to all believers in all generations
who are being thrust into turmoil and confusion by the muddled thinking and speculation
of men. God gave the church this
teaching and guidance through the Apostle John, who was one of the first chosen
by Christ; who was uniquely loved by Christ, and who lived longest in the
service of Christ. When we listen to
John we listen to the voice of experience, for no man who has ever lived has
had, either in quantity or quality, a greater experience with Christ. John does not answer the heretics on the
level of debate and theory, but on the level of experience.
The Gnostics
were very spiritual people. In fact
they fit into the category of those who are so heavenly minded they are no
earthly good. The Gnostics were so
spiritual, so fanatically spiritual that they became anti‑Christ, for
Christianity is based on the fact that Jesus, the very Son of God, did not
remain Spirit, but came in human flesh.
The Gnostics were too spiritual to accept this. They said that God was spiritual, but they
wrongly concluded that all that is not spirit is evil. They said flesh is evil, and all that is
material is evil, and, therefore, the Son of God could never become a real
man. He only appeared as a man. He was like a phantom. He seemed to be a man, but was really
not. They denied the incarnation, and
that is why John is so emphatic when he says, "Every spirit that confesses
not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God."
The
Gnostics had such a high view of the spiritually of Christ that they actually
became anti‑Christ. They refused
to balance their high view with the belief in the incarnation, and so even
though believing Jesus to be divine, they were not Christians, but enemies of
the church. They illustrate that half
the truth can be a whole lie. Half
truths are even more dangerous than lies, for they are often so plausible. They deceive so many more people. Never be content to ask is it true of a teaching, but go on to
ask is this the whole truth. Heresy is
almost always based on half truths.
The Gnostics
proved that even the best things of life, and God's greatest truths can become
curses if not kept in balance. The
reason the Bible is so full of paradoxes is to keep us ever mindful of the need
for balance. Fishing nets are only of
value when they have both lead and cork; the heavy and the light. If all the net had was cork, it would float
on the surface and catch no fish. If
all it had was lead, it would sink to the bottom and catch no fish. But with cork and lead to make it both sink
and float, it accomplishes its purpose and catches fish. The Christian who is weighted down with the
duties of the Christian life is too gloomy to be an effective fisher of
men. The Christian who is super‑spiritual,
and floating on cloud nine, is also too irrelevant to attract the fish. The effective Christian life is the balance
life.
The
Apostle John is the great Apostle of balance.
He was a profound theologian, and also a man of great personal
piety. He was deeply profound and
highly practical. Bernard Ramm wrote,
"How to put together theology and spiritual life has been one of the main
concerns of my life. Theology ought to
lead to the depths of spiritual experience.
It certainly did with Paul.
Spiritual experiences ought to create a great hunger in the soul for the
truth of God. But how fractured we
are! Theologians are frequently
spiritually snobbish or over‑sophisticated. And men who emphasize the spiritual life can be so theologically
naive and Biblically illiterate. Great theology
and great spiritual experiences ought to go hand in hand.
The
Gnostics were spiritual, but very poor theologians. Those who stress the deity of Christ and deny His humanity fall
on their face, and those who stress the humanity of Christ and deny His deity
fall on their head. The Christian is
committed to stand with John with his unwavering balance based on historical
revelation and personal experience with the God‑Man, Jesus Christ. Let us listen to his authentic and
authoritative voice first of all concerning‑
I. THE
HISTORICAL REVELATION verse 1.
John
here, as in his Gospel, begins at the beginning. The source of the Christian faith goes back beyond history into
the realm of eternity where Christ was eternally before the beginning. John only goes back to the beginning, for
that is as far back as creatures of time can go. John is conveying to us the fact that Jesus was from the
beginning. He did not begin then, but
was then. All else and all others have
entered the scene later, but he was the Alpha‑the first to be on the
stage for the drama of history.
It is as
if I said, Henry Ford was from the beginning of the Ford Motor Company. This tells us nothing about what was before
that except that Henry Ford was in existence before the beginning of the Ford
Motor Company. He did not begin at the
beginning of his company. He only began
his role as founder and creator of the company at that point. Likewise, Jesus did not begin at the
beginning, but already was, for He was eternally with the Father before the
beginning. Jesus did begin at this
point, however, as the founder and creator of the universe. The eternal Christ did have a beginning as
Creator just as He had a beginning as a child, and as a sacrifice for sin, and
as a resurrected Lord and interceding high priest at the right hand of the
Father. The eternal Christ has a
variety of beginnings in various roles, because He left the realm of
timelessness and entered the realm of history.
John is
making clear that the foundation of the Christian faith is indeed the
foundation. It is not secondary in any
sense, but goes right back to the very beginning of time and history. Whatever is really new is not really true,
for He who is the truth was from the beginning. How could we trust our eternal future to anyone that did not have
an eternal past? There is no end to the
newness of the experiences we have in Christ, and new are His mercies each
morning, but all that is new is our personal experience of the eternal grace of
Christ. In other words, all we
experience in time has its origin in eternity.
The Gnostics would not object to this, but John then leaps immediately
from the beginning right into the present historical setting of his day and
says that we have heard and seen and even handled with our hands this one who
was from the beginning. He not only
made the stage of history, but He came on the stage to play a role Himself‑the
role of redeemer.
Now if
John would have kept it more general he still would not have been offensive to
the Gnostics, but when he talks about actually handling Christ with his hands
he has gone too far for them. John is
saying that the eternal Christ actually entered history and was manifested in
human flesh. Westcott said, "A
religion that is to move the world must be historical." The world has had more than enough
philosophic speculation about God and religion. If speculation could save the world, we would have been in paradise long ago, but only a real,
literal, actual historical Savior can really, literally, actually, historically
save us, and this we find only in Jesus Christ. The God of eternity and the God‑Man of history.
Often as
Christians we speak of God being seen in His handiwork of nature, but let us
never forget that the Bible stresses far above this the fact that God is a God
of history. All the great acts of God
and revelations of God have been historical, and His final, fairest, and
fullest revelation was in the Incarnation when God became man. This is so basic that to doubt it or deny it
is to reject the Christian revelation as a whole. John goes even further than emphasizing that Jesus became man; he
also stresses‑
II. PERSONAL
EXPERIENCE.
Jung
once said, "The best of truths is of no use...unless it has become the
individuals most personal inner experience." Even truth is not an end in itself. Even the Bible is not an end in itself. John in all of his writing makes it plain
that the eternal Christ not only became the historical Christ, but that he must
become the experienced Christ to fulfill his purpose and our salvation. It is not enough to know Jesus as eternal
and historical if one does not know Him as personal.
John
says we have personal contact with Christ.
We knew Him through the avenue of our senses, and we bear witness of
Him. John is an eyewitness conveying
his experience to those who were not.
Almost everything we know about any of the great personalities of the
past is known on the same basis as this:
Personal testimony by contemporaries.
He who would doubt the historicity of Christ would on the same grounds
have to doubt all that is written about Plato, Socrates, and all the Ceasars,
as well as all the kings and queens, philosophers and statesmen, and poets of
the past. The very knowledge of their
existence is based on the same evidence that we have concerning Christ.
John is
no arm chair speculator, for he is an eye witness contemporary of Christ. He was writing this 50 to 60 years after the
cross, but he makes it clear that Christ was still his contemporary. In verse 3 he talks about present fellowship
with the Father and the Son that he and all that believe can have. His experience with Christ is not a mere
matter of memory, but a matter of continuous day by day fellowship. This is the
goal for every believer. This is the
ultimate in Christian happiness, for when we have come to this experience, John
says then our joy will be complete.
The
evidence of the past is effective in getting one on the road to belief, but the
personal encounter with the present Christ is essential to get us to the
destination of certainty and commitment.
John knew the dangers that Christians faced in his day because of
confused thinking in theology. He knew
that the anti‑christs were already come, and that believers would be in
danger of being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. That is why he gives this strong testimony
as to the historical revelation and personal experience of the eternal
Christ. He knows a Christian needs to
have a solid and sure anchor when the storm hits. He knows a believer who is not in a state of fellowship with
Christ and fellow believers day by day is in dangerous waters.
The same holds true for our day. It appears that there are rough waters ahead
for faithful believers. Doctrines
unchallenged for centuries are being rejected by leaders of the church. Men are reviving the Gnostic plan to update
Christianity so it fits the thinking of our day. Subtle error is going to touch everyone of us, but if we take
advantage of the light we have and walk in it, we need not fear the darkness.
Those
men who became living torches in the garden of Nero, and those women flung to
wild beasts in the amphitheater were not dying for any theory, or system, or
vague hope. They were dying because
they had encountered the eternal Christ in their own personal experience. James Stewart wrote, "Our religion is
going to make absolutely no impact whatever on the world....is going to leave
not the faintest impression on the paganism around, unless it is our own
assured possession." We know Jesus
is eternal by revelation, and we know He is historical by the witness of
others, but we can only know Him as personal and contemporary by experience. It
is time that we begin to take seriously our need for greater fellowship with
the living Christ, and for one another in Christ.
The
American Commentary says on these first two verses, "In the verses before
us, we see a deep and vivid experience attempting to put itself in
sentences. The life in Christ has
become life in John, and he wants to make such a declaration, such a testimony of
it as will lift up all his readers to the same plane of divine
experience."Personal experience is vital both for enjoying the Christian
life, and for sharing it with others.
One woman said, "You can no more tell what you don't know than you
can come back from where you ain't been."
What you
have experienced is a reality that no one can deny. The Pharisees said to the man who had been made to see by Jesus,
"We know that this man is a sinner."
He answered in John 9:25, "Whether he is a sinner, I do not
know: one thing I know, that though I
was blind, now I see." The
experience did not prove Jesus was the Son of God, nor did it prove He was not
a sinner, but the experience convinced the man that he had encountered the
supernatural, and no one could refute that, or deny the reality of his experience.
There's
no way to escape the paradox of experience.
It is both essential and inadequate.
Josiah Royce wrote in The Source Of Religious Insight, "Without
intense and intimate personal feelings, you never learn any valuable truths
whatever about life, about its ideals, or about its problems; but, on the other
hand, what you know only through your feelings is, like the foam of the sea,
unstable‑like the passing hour, doomed to pass away." We need the objective theology as a source
of our authority, and the subjective experience as the source of our
motivation.
Ruth
Paxon in her classic Life On The Highest Plane writes, "The grave danger
of fixing one's eyes upon an experience, however exalted and blessed, instead
upon Him who bestowed it was expressed very tellingly by Spurgeon when he said,
I looked at Christ
And the dove of peace flew
into my heart;
I looked at the dove of
peace‑
And it flew away.
Take you
eyes off Jesus and you can have much religious experience, but it is not
related to any objective revelation and thus it is unstable, and its value
uncertain."
The
craving for experience is both wise and foolish. During war time young men fear they will die and miss out on much
of life's experience, and so they rush headlong into all sorts of immoral
behavior in order to experience all of life before they die. This war mentality is becoming a standard
philosophy for our world. You only go
around once so get all you can out of it, and live with gusto. This is the modern version of, let us eat,
drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.
An old
sea captain told of how an inexperienced youth went to a hiring hall to get a
job as a seaman. The hiring agent
asked, "Have you ever gone around the Horn?" Well aware that the shipping companies
preferred seasoned sailors who had made a trip or two around Cape Horn, the
young man admitted that he had not made the trip. The agent said, "Follow me," and then led him into the
next room. A horn of a steer was in the
middle of the floor. The agent said,
"Now just walk slowly around that horn." The startled would be sailor did as he was ordered. "You have now gone around the horn and
I can get you a job on a ship going to India." The youth had been made a sailor in name only. He had the name, but not the
experience.
There is
a great deal of difference between calling yourself a Christian and being a
Christian by the experience of yielding your life to Jesus Christ, and trusting
Him as your Savior. Many take the name,
but do not have the experience. It is
the experience that saves and not the label.
John had personal experience with Jesus, and his whole letter is urging
all of us to enter into personal experiences with the Living Christ that we
might like Him be able to speak with the voice of experience.
2. FELLOWSHIP IS FUNDAMENTAL
Based on I John 1:3
No one
can doubt that this is an age of ecumenicity.
Everybody is talking about getting together with someone else for
dialogue or merger. Even those who are
opposed to the ecumenical movement are merging and uniting. In other words, wherever you are today you
are involved in a complex world where everybody is trying to make it more
simple. The Apostle John gives us some
guidance by teaching about fellowship.
This will help us to know what to do in all relationships of life. If we know what Christian fellowship really
is, we will be able to determine which relationships in life are consistent
with fellowship with the Father and Son.
Verse 3 supplies us with these three things: 1. The essence of
fellowship; 2. The essential of
Christian fellowship; 3. The extent of
Christian fellowship. We will consider
them in that order.
I. THE
ESSENCE OF FELLOWSHIP.
What
does the word fellowship mean apart from any Christian content? This word did not just fall out of the sky
into the Bible, nor did John make it up, nor did God give it to him as a new
word. It was a Greek word in wide usage
long before it became a part of the Bible.
Koinonia is the Greek word. It
was used to refer to many relationships by the Greeks in which people shared a
common bond. Business partners, trade
guilds, and burial societies were all called fellowships in the first
century. Those who had a common social
relationship had fellowship, and those who shared a belief in a common god had
religious fellowship.
The
basic idea is a relationship persons have because of what they hold in
common. This meaning is clearly seen in
the New Testament. This verse, for
example, has that meaning for John. He
is saying, we are declaring what we have
seen and heard to you, because once you also know it, then we will have a
common knowledge and belief. This is
the very essence of fellowship. Without
something held in common between two persons there is no possibility for
fellowship.
In all
four cases of the use of the word communion in the KJV it is a translation of
koinonia‑the same word translated 15 times as fellowship. There is no distinction between the two at
all in the New Testament. Sometimes we
hear, "May the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all,"
as if they were two different words,
but they are not, for they are identical. Paul says in II Cor. 6:14, "What communion has light with
darkness?" In other words, what
koinonia, or fellowship, can there be, for what do they have in common? On the other hand, the Lord's Supper is
called communion. The meaning is clear,
for when we partake of the elements symbolizing the body and blood of Christ,
we remember together the common basis of our salvation. What do believer's have in common? They have salvation through the shed blood
of Christ on the cross, and, therefore, this most basic and common factor in
our lives is called communion, or fellowship.
II. THE
ESSENTIAL OF CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP.
John
says, "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you." This is what distinguishes Christian
fellowship from all other forms of fellowship.
It has one foundation and that is the historical Christ. Nothing else can constitute a basis for
Christian fellowship. If we did not
have an objective record of what the Apostles saw and heard, we could have no
common basis for fellowship. The very
reason the Bible is in print is not just to satisfy our curiosity about the
past; it is the only way that the revelation of God can be a common factor in
the lives of all believers. The Word of
God in print makes it available to all men, and thereby increases the basis for
fellowship.
The
Gnostics, whom John was opposing, had just an opposite attitude. They said, keep the truth in the hands of
the elite. Do not make it common
knowledge, or it will be contaminated.
The truth is only for the intellectuals. The vulgar masses are unworthy of it. But John says, I am putting down in writing what we have seen and
heard so that anyone can read and believe, and then enter into a common union
with us and God. The basis of Christian
fellowship is not locked up in a temple
vault. It is not confined to any
priestly class or body of intellectuals.
It is not composed of mystical or magical incantations learned only by
the elite. It is found in the form of
paper and ink‑the most common means of communication in the world. Christian fellowship is based on fact, and
not fantasy, fiction, fallacies, or force.
That which was seen and heard is recorded, and this objective factual
record is the foundation of true Christian fellowship. By this alone the Christian determines what
is, and what is not, Christian fellowship.
Many
other things are held in common and provide a basis for fellowship, but only when
this essential factor is involved can it be called Christian fellowship. If Jews and Christians have fellowship
around the ten commandments, which they hold in common as the Word of God, it
would be true fellowship, but it would not be Christian fellowship, for the
essential for that is not in the ten commandments. This means there is two levels of fellowship. There is a level based on anything in
common, and then there is the Christian level based on the revelation we have
in Christ. This means a Christian and a
non‑Christian can have fellowship based on common interests, but it
is not Christian fellowship. It is not even Christian fellowship when two
or more Christians get together to watch a game or share in some common secular
interests. It is fellowship, but it is
not Christian fellowship.
Christians have fellowship with non‑Christians in many areas of
life. It might be in sports, or music,
or culture of all kinds, or hobbies, or clubs, or of a professional
nature. Jesus had a great deal of
fellowship with unbelievers of all kinds from Publicans to Pharisees. In His manhood He had things in common with
each, and He used that common bond to make contacts with all people. This enabled Him to have the opportunity to
lead them into a higher fellowship with Himself as Savior and Lord, and not
merely as a man and friend.
To
criticize someone for having Christian fellowship with an unbeliever is folly,
for it is impossible to have Christian fellowship with one who does not have
Jesus as their Savior as a common bond.
To criticize them for having natural fellowship with them is also folly,
for any Christian who does not have natural fellowship with unbelievers is not
doing God's will as a child of light.
There is no way you can be the light of the world and the salt of the
earth without some form of fellowship with unbelievers. This does not mean a Christian can
participate in anything sinful with unbelievers, but it does mean they can
share in common many interests which are legitimate. Jesus sets the example, for He could fellowship with sinners and
yet never be defiled by sin.
A
little boy who was lonely said to his mother, "I wish I was two little
puppies so I could play together."
That was a natural expression of the desire for fellowship. We have a need to have something in common
with someone else. The Christian is to
take advantage of this natural desire, and use it for the glory of God by
finding a common basis for fellowship with an unbeliever, and then introduce
him to what you have in fellowship with Christ.
We have
seen that the essence of fellowship is the relationship of persons who have
something in common. We have seen that
the essential of Christian fellowship is the reality of the historical Christ,
and one's acceptance of Him as Savior.
Now let's consider‑
III. THE
EXTENT OF CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP.
You
cannot be a Christian alone. When you
enter the kingdom of God you can only do so alone, in the sense that only you
can make that decision, but after you
enter you become a part of the body of Christ, and are from then on you are not
your own, for you belong to Christ.
After a person is saved he is in a family where he has many brothers and
sisters who share in common with him the same heavenly Father and Savior. John desired to share his experience with
Christ that others might enter into this fellowship with him and the other
Apostles.
Every
picture of the church in the New Testament illustrates the concept of
fellowship. It is a body with all cells
in the body having a common interest in the life and health of that body. It is a building, and all the stones form a
common structure. Jesus said I am the
Vine and you are the branches. A branch
not connected with the Vine will wither and die. Christian fellowship is not a luxury, it is a necessity, for you
cannot be a Christian alone. Jesus says
the shepherd leaves the 99 to go after the one lost sheep. The 99 can survive temporarily, but if the
one is not found and brought back to the fold, it will parish.
William
Morris once said, "The lack of fellowship is hell." This is literally so, for those who do not enter the body; the building; the vine
or the fold‑that is the church of Christ, will not have fellowship with
God but be separated in outer darkness forever alone. A Latin proverb says, "One man is no man at all." You cannot have anything in common without
someone to have it in common with. As soon as a person trusts in Christ as
Saviour they become a part of a vast fellowship of believers from all races
where all are equal in Christ. The Gnostics were extremely prejudiced. They
felt Christians were contemptible and absurd in treating the riff raff and
lower classes as equals, but Christian fellowship is extended to all in Christ.
God loves all for whom Christ died and this means all, and so our fellowship
goes all the way to what we have in common with God and Christ. We have a
common bond with God Himself and so our fellowship extends to the highest
heaven and to the ends of the world and to all peoples. Only Christian
fellowship leads us to be partners with God, for Jesus, the God‑Man, is
the common bond between God and man.
3. GOD IS LIGHT Based on I John 1:5
Tolstoy
wrote a story called "Where Love Is, God Is." It is about an old
cobbler named Martin who lived alone. One night as he read the story of Jesus
visiting the Pharisee, and the poor welcome he received, he prayed that the
Lord would visit him. In his sleep he heard a voice saying, "Tomorrow I
shall come."
The next
day Martin waited all day for his visitor. He saw a poor old man sweeping snow,
and he called him in from the cold and gave him some hot tea. He kept looking out
the window and the old man asked, "Are you expecting someone?" Martin
told him of the voice. Sometime later he saw a shivering mother with her crying
baby, and he brought them in and gave them some warm soup and a cloak to shield
them from the cold. He told her about the voice as well.
It was
getting late, and still the Savior had not come. He looked out one last time
before closing, and saw an apple woman scolding a boy who had stolen an apple.
He rushed out and made peace. He paid for the apple and persuaded the woman to
forgive the boy, and they departed with
the boy carrying her basket. That night Martin heard the voice again saying,
"Martin, Martin, don't you know me?" "Who is it," he asked?
"It is I," and he saw the old snow‑sweeper. "It is I,"
and he saw the mother with the baby. "It is I," and he saw the apple
woman with the boy. Then they all vanished, and Martin realized that Christ had
visited him that day after all, and his heart felt strangely warm.
Tolstoy
was saying by this story that where love is, God is. The presence of God and
the Lord Jesus Christ is directly linked to love. Love is the fruit of the
Spirit, and so if the Spirit is present, the first evidence will be love. If
God is love, then love is a sign of His presence, and lack of love is a sign of
His absence in Spirit. John say in
verse 12 that no one has ever seen God. So how can we know if God is present?
John says we know God is present because of love. If we love one another that
is the evidence that God dwells in us. When you see love, you see God. When you
feel love, you feel God's presence. God
is present in love, for God is love. Where love is God is. The more we love,
the more we experience the presence of God.
No
wonder the Paul said everything without love is nothing. Even faith and great
knowledge, and even sacrifice, are not worth anything without love, for love
alone is our link to God, and only in love do we experience the authentic
presence of God. Everything we do in worship is much ado about nothing if it
does not lead us to love. Therefore, there is not greater good than to gain an
understanding of what the Bible is saying in this simple but sublime sentence
stated twice in this fourth chapter of I John: "God is love." The
implications of these three words are so vast that one message on them is like
trying to harvest a million acres of corn with a comb. There is no way to get
all of the infinite riches they contain, but we will at least get a taste of
what this love is. First lets taste‑
I. THE INEXHAUSTIBLE ILLUMINATIONS OF IT.
R. A.
Torrey, the great evangelist, said this is the greatest sentence ever written,
and voices without number in heaven and on earth echo with an amen! Three
little words made up of just 9 letters in English, and yet they are saying
something that all the words of every language can never fully convey. They are
giving us an inexhaustible illumination as to who God is. Read all the books of
men, and search the universe, and you will not find a more important truth
about God than these three little words that God is love. It is the brightest
light we have by which to see who God is. Torrey said if he had to choose one
sentence to sum up the entire Bible and is message to man, it would be these
three words.
D. L.
Moody, another great evangelist, felt it was the essence of the biblical
revelation as well, and he had it put above the pulpit in the famous Moody
Church in Chicago. This is the Gospel in a nutshell. This is why God sent His
Son to die for us. This is why Jesus paid it all, and why he left his church
here to carry this message into all the world. In this sentence are included
all the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Love strong as death and
stronger,
Love mightier than the
grave,
Wide as the world and longer
Than the ocean's wildest
wave.
This is the love that sought
us,
This is the love that bought
us,
This is the love that
brought us
To gladdest day from saddest
night,
From deepest shame to glory
bright.
If God was not
love, there would be no Gospel. Only love could come up with a solution to the
fall of man and the sin problem. Only love would take on the guilt of the
sinner and pay the penalty for their freedom.
We have
examples of this kind of love in history. Schanyl, the great Circassion leader
of his people for 30 years revealed the power of love. Bribery was becoming so
prevalent in his government that he announced that anyone caught bribing an
official would receive 100 lashes. Not long after, his own mother was arrested
for bribery. He could not let her go, for this would make a mockery of justice.
His law had to be carried out, and so he brought her to the whipping post and
the whipping began. At the fifth lash he cried halt. He released his mother. Then
he bared his own back and took on himself the remaining 95 lashes. His love met the demand of justice, and set the
prisoner free by taking the penalty on himself. This is what Jesus did for all
of us, and not just for family and loved ones, but for the whole world of
sinners who were enemies of God.
God's
love is unique, for it is not directed toward those who love him, but even
toward those who do not love him. It is of the very essence of his being to
love.
Can ice cease to be cold,
and still be ice?
Can light cease to shine,
and still be light?
Can fire cease to be hot,
and still be fire?
Can humor cease to be funny,
and still be humor?
We could go on and on, and the answer is no, for you
cannot take away the essence of a thing and still have it. Its essence is what
it is, and God is love. Love is not something that God does, it is something
that he is. Love touches all that he is and does. Every theological idea and
concept we have must include this truth that God is love. If not, you are
dealing with some other god than the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible has
given us this truth about himself that illuminates all other knowledge about
him.
Many
people who have rejected God have not really done so at all. They have only
rejected some imaginary god of human invention and speculation. When people say
they do not believe in God you need to find out if the God they do not believe
in is love. If not, then you can say you do not believe in the God they do not
believe in either. The Christian does not just believe in God, but he believes
in the God who is love. All other gods are not God. The gods that people reject
should be rejected, for they do not exist, and they are poor images of the real
God. Everything you believe about God
must be consistent with this revelation that he is love, or you are walking in
darkness rather than in the light of his Word.
Hold everything up to the light of this truth to see if it fits, and if
not you can be sure it is not a part of God's will.
Take
prejudice for example. You can never make this evil look good in the light of
God's love. All the arguments about differences in races and their abilities
mean nothing, for no argument for being unloving towards people can resist
being shattered by the laser beam of the light from the truth that God is love.
If you want to be unloving toward anyone, you have to do it in the dark, for
the light will not support you. God not only loves his enemies, he commands us
to love ours, and thereby demonstrate that we are his children. It is a
powerful proof that God is present in our lives when we can care about those
who have no care for us, and who would not be loved, but hated, by the natural
man.
Everyone
can love family, friends, nation, and numerous other values and relationships.
This ability to love anyone or anything is part of what it means to be made in
the image of God, who is love. Even lost men love, for they are still a
reflection of God's image. The worst of men still have some trace of the
Creator, and they can love on some level. But John makes the radical statement
in v. 7 that everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. This can be interpreted by the
universalistic conviction that absolutely everybody is born of God, for
everyone loves. This has been perverted to teach that since everyone does love
to some degree, that all will be saved in the end, and none will be lost.
This is
obviously not what John is telling us. He is giving Christians a simple way of
identifying a child of God. Here is the birth mark that means you are in the
family of God. The mark of the believer is love. It is love for God; love for
the family of God, love for those still lost and not in the family; love for
the needy of the world; love for one's enemies who hate all these other loves,
and then all of the natural loves shared by all people. We are talking about an all pervasive love
that has no cut off point, but is universal.
Christians often fall short of this kind of love, but when they do they
are not being Christian at that point. If one's love does not rise above the
natural love of the world, one should examine his life to see if he really
loves God, for he is not letting the God he loves be present in his life and attitudes. This is a test of how much we love God. If
we do not have his love in us, we do not love him very much. It is only when we
love like God loves that we are born of God.
It is
not theology that makes us Christians. You can know enough to defend the
orthodox teachings of the Bible, but if you are unloving you are not an asset
to the kingdom of God. People don't care how much you know. They want to know
how much you care. Jesus drew people to himself for a lot of reasons, but the primary
one was because they knew he cared. He
had bread for their stomachs, and truth for their minds, but they knew that
above all else he had love for their hearts. He was living proof that God is
love. He was God's visible expression of love.
Anyone
who claims to be a child of God had better exhibit the key family trait that we
see in our elder brother Jesus. That is our birth certificate. It is our proof
that we are born of God. You cannot say you are born of God is you do not have
they key characteristic of God, which is love. How can anyone say they are born
of the Spirit it they do not have the first fruit of the Spirit, which is love?
An apple tree that never has any apples is an apple tree in name only. A pear
tree that never has any pears is a pear tree in name only. And a Christian
without love is a Christian in name only.
John's
point is that what God is the Christian is to be. God is light, and so the
Christian is to walk in the light. God is righteous, and so the Christian is to
walk in righteousness. God is love, and so the Christian is to walk in love.
Love is to infiltrate and dominate every aspect of our lives until we become
Godlike. Clement of Alexandria said
many centuries ago that the Christian is one who practices being God. That is a
radical way of saying it, but it is the goal. The love of God can only be seen
in us when we practice being God, and being channels of his love to others. We
are not being God, but we are being Godlike, and Christlike, and this means
their love is seen in and through us. This is like trying to channel the flow
of Niagara Falls through a straw. Only a fraction can get through, but it can
be enough to change the world that we touch.
We are
never nearer God than when we love, and we are never nearer to being what he
wants us to be than when we love. Love comes from God, and love leads to God.
God's goal is to complete the circle by making us both the objects of his love,
and the source of love for others. We
are to be both receivers and transmitters of love. Love can never be content
until it is flowing out to others. When we are not being loving we are like the
parked car, or the light that is turned off, or the heater unplugged. We are not functioning for the purpose for
which we are born. Martin Luther concluded that the greatest sin in our lives
is simply not being loving. This is especially true when we are aware of how
much God has loved, and does love us.
We can
never exhaust the love of God, for it illuminates every other attribute of God.
Love is eternal. Love is infinite. Love is holy. Love is omnipotent. Love is
omnipresent. Love in inexhaustible in its illuminations. We can never exhaust
it for all eternity, and so we will be able to grow in our knowledge of God
forever. But we can know all we need to know to let this truth fill us with the
assurance and security so that we can say with Whittier,
I know not what the future
hath
Of marvel of surprise,
Assured alone that life and
death
His mercy underlies.
I know not where His islands
lift
Their fronded palms in air;
I only know I cannot drift
Beyond His love and care.
The second thing we want to taste concerning the
truth that God is love is‑
II. THE INCREDIBLE IMPLICATIONS OF IT.
The
implications of these three little words are so vast they are beyond our
comprehension, for they are infinite, and they influence, not only everything
we can know, but even those secret things that belong to God alone that we
can't know. One of the really radical implications of this reality that God is
love is that his being love is why the problems of life, and the evils of the
world, are not quickly solved and eliminated.
If God was not love, but sheer power without obligation to love, the
problem of evil could be solved in seconds. If God was a tyrant whose will was
done without regard for the freedom of other wills, there would be no problems
in the first place, and any problem that could begin would be nipped in the bud
instantly.
Sometimes we pray as if God is not love, but just such a tyrant. We
assume that being Almighty he can do whatever we feel he ought to do, or at
least what he wants to do. We completely forget the enormous limitations that
love puts on one's choices. A tyrant whose motto is might is right has only the
limitations that are on his power. But to the extent of his power he can do
anything he chooses. He can execute millions of innocent people if he wishes.
He can rob and plunder, and take from other nations, if he has the power to do
so. He is free to the extent of his power.
Love has
no such liberty. Love is bound to respect the rights of others, and love is
obligated to act justly and fairly. Love must even go beyond justice to show mercy,
for love keeps the law, but does not stop there. It seeks to find a way to
forgive and be reconciled with the offender. You see, love really puts a crimp
in your style if you are all‑powerful, and expect to get your will done
by sheer power. Someone said, and I think it was everybody who ever thought
about God's relationship to evil,
If I were God,
And man made a mire
Of things; war, hatred
Murder, lust, cobwebs
Of infamy, entangling
The heart and the soul
I would sweep him
To one side and start anew
(I think I would)
If I did this
Would I be God?
The answer is no. You would not be God. You would
not be the God of the Bible, for he is not just power, but he is love, and love
has a totally different approach to problems than does power.
Power
eliminates an enemy by destroying the enemy. Love eliminates an enemy by making
him a friend. This is a whole lot harder and slower, but the other option is
not open to a God who is love. His greatest asset is also his greatest
liability and limitation. His power must be subordinate to his love, and so he
cannot be true to his nature and exploit people for his ends without their
cooperation.
You have
the history of God's own people. They were blessed like no other people ever,
and yet they were also judged like no other people as well. God could have by
sheer power taken them out of Egypt and brought them to the promise land, but
he could not by sheer power make them obey him. They had to choose to do that.
God could not treat them as mere pawns on a chessboard. It would make the game
of history go faster and be more efficient if he could, but he cannot do it
without ceasing to be love, and God cannot cease to be love, for that is what
he is. Jesus could by sheer power still the raging sea, but he could not by
power alone make the rich young ruler sell all and follow him. He could not
make the people of Jerusalem accept him. He said, "I would, but you would
not." Power was not enough, for
they had to choose to believe, and they wouldn't do it.
It is
superficial when we think that because God has all power he can do as he
pleases, whenever he pleases. That is why people blame God for everything that
goes wrong. They assume that he could prevent it if he chose to do so. This is
practicing theology in the dark, and not in the light that God is love. It is
like trying to put together a thousand piece puzzle in the pitch blackness of
an underground cave. You do not know God, says John, until you turn on the
light and recognize that God is love.
We are so hung up on power that we think that is the answer to
everything. It is not.
I have
the power to open my sons mail before he comes home. It comes before he gets
here, and it would be no problem for me to simply open it. But I do not do it,
not because I lack the power to do so, but because it would be an unloving
thing to do. My love for him and respect for his privacy limits my power. Power
that is not limited by love is dangerous. God's power is limited by his love, and
the paradox is that this is what makes the world a place of such widespread
evil. God cannot in power just rid the world of evil, for his love makes it
necessary to try and save those who are doing the evil.
It is amazing
to read in Rev. 2 of how Jezebel has corrupted the church, and has led
Christians into all kinds of idolatry and immorality, and then listen to Jesus
say in verse 21, "I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but
she is unwilling." What kind of nonsense is this? A God with all power,
and who can wipe out the whole planet as fast as we can wipe a drop of sweat
from our forehead, and he is going to give this evil person a second chance?
But this is the kind of God we are dealing with in the Bible. It is the
greatest wonder in the universe that a hell‑bound sinner can become a
heaven‑bound saint because God's power is under the control of his
love. We sometimes find this hard to
take, and prefer the hero to take the evil guy out and ride off into the sunset
victorious. God's love is sometimes so slow, and he seems to give the bad guy
too many chances. That is the price you
pay for God being love.
In Uncle
Tom's Cabin, the slave George Harris says, "They buy and sell us and make
trade of our heart's blood and groans and tears, and God lets them, He does;
God lets them." It makes man mad that God lets them, and their are a
thousand other evils God lets them do as well, and we do not like it. God stirs
up man to fight the evil, and eventually slavery gets eliminated, and
eventually the haters of history are pushed off the stage, but where is the
lightning? Why all the delay? Why not damnation by dawn instead of by decades?
The
answer is, God is love. What this means practically is that not even God can
have his cake and eat it too. He cannot damn the sinner at the moment of his
transgression, and yet still in love provide a way for the sinner to be
forgiven and restored to fellowship. We do not like what it does to a world to
have God choose the way of love, for it gives too much freedom to evil, but we
would like it a whole lot less if he chose the alternative. It would eliminate
all evil in the world if God judged all sin and evil on the spot. The only
problem is that all of us would end up in hell, and forever separated from
God. It is God's love that keeps the
life of every sinner going long enough to be forgiven and restored to
fellowship. This leads to a world full of suffering because of evil, but
remember, God is the one who has to suffer the most. He had to give his Son,
and the Son had to give his life in great agony to atone for the sin of the
world. The cross is the physical symbol of the fact that God is love.
The
cross says to us that God takes being love very seriously. He would rather pay
the price of the cross than to be unloving. God had other options. He could
have never made man in the first place. He could have made him a machine
incapable of choosing evil. He could have made him with no plan to save him.
The only problem with all the options are that they are not choices that a God
of love would make. A God of power
alone could have made the other choices, but a God of love had to make man as he
did, with freedom to choose, and a respect for that freedom that would let it
be exercised. It is hard on all of us
at times that God is love, and it is harder on him than anyone, but that is who
God is, and we must see all of life, and all truth, in the light of this
reality that God is love.
4. TRUTH IN ACTION Based on I John 1:6
The
story is told of how years ago a hard shell Baptist returned to his community
after visiting Jefferson, Texas, and he reported to his neighbors that he had
seen ice made there in July. It is
claimed that the first artificial ice in the United States was made in
Jefferson. When the word of this got
back to the church he attended, he was promptly charged with lying, and was
going to be expelled from the church.
One of the brothers suggested, however, that in all fairness they should
make an investigation first. So the
deliberating body appointed this concerned brother to go to Jefferson and
investigate. When he returned he
reported that as amazing as it sounded he actually saw ice made there with the temperature
nearly 100 in the shade. The church
voted to expel both members for lying.
They
were certainly uncharitable and unfair in the this decision, but they were wise
to be so concerned about the matter of lying.
Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "Sin has many tools, but a lie is the
handle which fits them all." We generally think of Eve's sin of
disobedience as the first recorded sin of the Bible, but there is one before
that. The first sin in the Bible is a
lie. It was the lie that they would not
die, as God said, if they ate of the forbidden fruit. The significance of this is magnified when we go to the last
chapter of Revelation and discover that the very last sin named in the Bible is
also the lie. In verse 15 we read of
those who are shut out of heaven, and the last on the list is "Whosoever
loveth and maketh a lie."
In
between the first and last reference there are many texts warning about the sin
of lying. In Prov. 6:17 a lying tongue
is among the 7 things God most hates.
In Prov. 12:22 we read, "Lying lips are an abomination to the
Lord..." Many were the miseries
suffered in the Old Testament because of lying prophets. Satan is the father of lies, but man has
been of considerable help in multiplying them.
It was so much a part of the pagan way of life, out of which the early
Christians came, that it was a sin yet wrestled with in the church. Paul in Eph. 4:25 admonishes them,
"Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his
neighbor." A Christian is one who
must shed the rags of deceit and falsehood, and be clothed in the garments of
truth.
The
Apostle John is very concerned about this matter because the Gnostics, like
many false teachers since, were masters at the use of the big lie. John does not hesitate to expose them as
liars, and warn believers that if they follow this false doctrine, they too
will be liars. In verse 5 John laid
down the fundamental concept of God that becomes a standard by which to judge
all truth and conduct. God is light and
in Him there is no darkness at all. In
reference to the current problem in that church it would mean‑God is
truth and in Him is no lie at all. The
Scripture clearly states it is impossible for God to lie. He has nothing in common with a liar,
therefore, a liar cannot have fellowship with God.
Who then
is the liar that John has in mind? He
is the one whose profession does not match his practice; whose claims do not
coincide with his conduct; whose words do not harmonize with his walk. The man who says, "I have fellowship
with God," but who walks in darkness, is a liar, says John. The son of thunder has not lost his
forthrightness, but now it is under
control, and serving the purpose of warning believers in love. The danger is a real one yet today, and it
will be for our profit to do some self‑examination on this matter. We want to consider first the danger of the
lie in our talk, and then the demand for truth in our walk.
I. THE
DANGER OF THE LIE IN OUR TALK.
John
says, if we say we have fellowship with God, we are making a great claim, and
if we do not back it up with action, this is where the lie begins. If the man
who walks in darkness does not profess to be in fellowship with God he is still
a sinner not doing the truth, but at this point, at least, he is not a liar.
The lie that John is exposing here is the one that is most dangerous, and we
can see this by considering what the Gnostics taught. They said that spirit is
spirit and flesh is flesh. God as Spirit is concerned only about the
spirit. The flesh is totally corrupt
and evil, and has no part in the spiritual life. They had a dualism that left the body out of one's relationship
to God altogether. This kind of
thinking leads to a Jekyl and Hyde type of living where the man serves God with
his spirit and Satan with his body.
What
made the Gnostic heresy so dangerous was the fact that they used the same
concepts as true Christians, but the perverted them. Salvation they said is
all of grace and no works whatever. Any
work of the body was of no value in the spiritual realm. Therefore, it makes no difference what you
do with the body. You can give your
body completely over to sin, and not be any the less spiritual. In fact, you would be more spiritual for
recognizing the body is irrelevant to fellowship with God. If good works are no
help to salvation, then evil works are no hindrance to it.
You can
easily see how this subtle lie could be appealing to the pagan mind who wanted
salvation in Christ, but who wanted also the old pleasures of his pagan life.
The same heresy is at work today. The
father of lies may have a new label and a new approach, but the lie is still
the same. Christianity is all a matter
of talk and thinking is the foundational principle of this big lie. It is all a matter of creeds and words and
not action. This error has invaded
orthodox movements over and over again, and left them as dead orthodoxy. All of the truth is there, and everyone has
the proper vocabulary, and so all are convinced they are in the kingdom of
God. Words become everything. If a person does not use the right words,
you doubt his salvation, even if he lives a life dedicated to Christ. But if a man is practically indifferent to
the work of the kingdom, and lives a mediocre life of godlessness, he is on the
in group because he has learned the code.
If you
examine your own attitude, it ought to scare you how strong the tendency is to
move toward the Gnostic heresy. I hear
men ridiculed and denounced who are giants of the faith, by men who are
spiritual pigmies, and the basis is almost always the subtle Gnostic heresy
that true spiritually is in words. Let
us note carefully: the primary lesson
John is teaching here is that the truth is in the walk. A statement of faith, or a claim to have
fellowship with God, is in itself neutral.
It is the action of the person that determines its truth. Our second point then is to observe‑
II. THE
DEMAND FOR TRUTH IN OUR WALK.
Saying
the truth is a lie without doing the truth.
Lack of action, or contrary action makes a lie out of what could have
been true. The son in the parable that
Jesus told said to his father, "I will go into the field to
work." When he said it, it was a potential
truth, but it became an actual lie as soon as he failed to act and not go into
the fields. Truth is not in words but
in actions. It was what he did that
made what he said a lie. If he would
have acted different, what he said would have been truth. Actions not only speak louder than words,
but also much clearer. I can say I have
fellowship with God, but if I go and walk in darkness I lie and do not the
truth. Truth is not in words but in the
walk. Truth is in action or it fails to
be true. All we say becomes truth or
falsehood depending on our actions.
Light
must be seen or it is no different than darkness. Talk will never be an adequate means of communicating the truth
of the Gospel. Jesus did not say we
were to be the sound of the world. If
that had been the case, the Gnostics would have been great, for they were all
noise. Many of the present day
believers also feel that sound is the key to evangelism. If we just get people to hear the Gospel; if we could only get Gospel
blimps to fly over every city with loud speakers proclaiming the good news,
then we could reach our world. There is
so much truth to this perspective it is hard to see the fallacy of it. We need to face the reality that masses of
people have heard the joyful sound that Jesus saves, and they couldn't care
less.
It is
time we see that Jesus meant what He said, "You are the light of the
world." He said men are to see our
good works and glorify our Father in heaven.
The Gospel needs to be seen, and so we must walk in the light and let
our light shine that the truth might be seen and not just heard. Sound is essential for the truth must be
heard, but it is inadequate without a visual demonstration of changed
lives. Men must see the truth in
action, for they are fully aware that talk is cheap. It costs something to walk in truth and apply truth in action,
but anyone can talk about it. Some of
the most eloquent praisers of spirituality were the Gnostics. If truth could be fully embodied with words
alone, they would have been the elite they thought themselves to be, but truth
can only be adequately and finally exhibited in action. In other words, if men cannot see truth in
your actions, you just as well save
your breath. It took the Word to
be incarnated to adequately express God's love. The written word and spoken word were not enough.
Without
the life of Christ in which He embodied all He taught in action, Christianity
would not be what it has been. His talk
without His walk would add another philosophy of religion to an already
overcrowded field. Jesus not only spoke
truth, He lived truth. He was truth
incarnate, and truth in action. It is
legitimate to test the truth that Jesus taught by the pragmatic standard, which
is to ask, does it work? What does not
work is not true. All the truth of God
is truth that will stand this test if practiced, and it is our task to prove it
to the world by doing the truth, and not just speaking it, for truth is not
just what you say, but what you do.
Shakespeare said, "Be great in act, as you have been in
thought." Again he said,
"Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant are more learned than there
ears." What a picture of what John
is saying. Men will learn the truth
faster and more surely by means of what they see than of what they hear. Whittier saw it to be true in his day and
said, "Speak out in acts: The time
for words has passed, and deeds alone suffice." The church in many ways is alive to this truth, but we each must
be alive to it, and avoid the Gnostic heresy like the plague. We must never be
content with verbal truth until it is backed up with vital truth, that is truth
in action. The world is not interested in essays on piety. They want to see lives
that exhibit the reality of the truths in those essays.
A man
whose house is burning down does not care to listen to a lecture on the
principles of spontaneous combustion. He wants help to get the fire out. His
ears are not open to advice, but his eyes are searching for those who will act
to help him. The world with all its problems is not listening for advice, but
it is looking for demonstrations of victorious living that exemplify the
teachings of Jesus. Our task is to talk, but with a matching walk that gets the
attention of a looking world who want to see the truth of Christ in action.
5. WALKING IN THE LIGHT
Based on I John 1:7
John
has made it perfectly clear that Christians are still sinners even as saints, and
that to claim that one is without sin is to call God a liar. He is not defending sin, but warning against
a false kind of perfectionism. The
Gnostics attained their perfection by simply denying that anything they did in
the flesh was sin. Sinlessness is
fairly easy to attain if it is all a matter of words, for all you have to do is
define yourself into a state of
perfection. Lust is a sin, but if you
call it aesthetic appreciation of art, you could define the man who lusts into
innocence.
As long
as men are deceived into thinking that truth is basically a matter of words
only, they will be able to rationalize anything as being consistent with
perfection. Pious words can be weapons
against the truth, and we all need to be aware that virtue is far more than
one's vocabulary. Men mean different
things by the same words. Humpty Dumpty
boasted to Alice in Wonderland, "When I use a word it means just what I
choose it to mean‑neither more nor less." It was no wonder that Alice was puzzled at his use of the word
glory, for he meant by glory "A nice knock down argument." This kind of irresponsible use of words has
no place in the Christian life. He is
to avoid deception of himself and others by calling sin what it is and dealing
with it instead of eliminating it as the Gnostics did by playing with words.
Our
fellowship with God is not based on words but on our walk, and if we walk in
the light as He is in the light, we do not have to rationalize our sin away,
for God has made provision through the blood of Christ to cleanse and forgive
us. Christian perfection is to be
realistic. It is a matter of a very
real and practical condition, and a very real and practical consequence, and it
is these two things we want to examine as they are revealed in verse 7.
I. THE
CONDITION.
If we
walk in the light we have fellowship with God, but if we do not, we have
neither fellowship with God nor forgiveness of sin. This then is no incidental truth, but is essential to the
Christian life. No one can be a
Christian who does not fulfill this condition.
Notice that the believers condition does not consist in making great
claims like the Gnostics. They were all
talk and no walk. John would caution us
against bragging about our marvelous fellowship with God. Beware of laying bare your soul before men,
and exalting yourself by speaking of
how intimate you are with God.
This leads to a superficial and sentimental mysticism that is not
edifying to believers nor appealing to unbelievers. The Christian who is edifying and witnessing is the one who
does not have to boast because his
attitudes and actions make it clear he is walking in the light. He shares the truths and treasures he
discovers in fellowship with God, and let's them speak rather than boast of
this fellowship.
The
condition all of us are to strive for is not to talk about light, but to walk
in it. Walking has these two
characteristics:
1. It is
voluntary. The Christian is not one who
walks in the light because he compelled or pressured to do so. He gladly performs Christ like acts, not
because they are required, but because he chooses to do them, and would have it
no other way. When Christians do only
what the organized church requires, the church has become an institution rather
than a living organism, and is a hindrance to the true mission of the
church. Christians are to voluntarily
do what they know must be done, and what is right and good regardless of any
other consideration. He loves and
serves just because he loves to serve and be a partner with Christ in reaching
the world. Out of gratitude alone he
wants to walk in the light, and lead others into the light. If a Christian is fulfilling this condition
he will be one who lives for Christ voluntarily, and not because he is
pushed.
2. Walking
is not only voluntary motion, it is continued motion. It is a series of steps.
One who takes two or three steps is not walking. The believer may take a step or two into the
dark, but this is not walking in darkness.
One walking in darkness makes a continuous series of steps in sin, and,
therefore, is out of fellowship with God.
The unbeliever may take several steps into the light, and do acts in
harmony with God's will, but these steps are not walking in the light, for they
are not continuous and consistent. To
be said to be walking in either sphere of light or darkness means one is making
continuous strides in that sphere.
In Jer.
9:3 we read, "...falsehood and not truths has grown strong in the land,
for they proceed from evil to evil."
This is a description of walking in darkness for it is consistent and
progressive. They were going on from
lesser evil to a greater degree of evil.
Paul gives us the same picture in II Tim. 3:13, "Evil men and
impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived." In contrast, one who walks in the light is
proceeding from one stage of glory to another.
A Christian who is fulfilling this condition is not in the same place
today as he was last year. He is making
progress in godliness, and is developing more fruit of the spirit. If you are not conscious of being more
Christ like as time goes on, it may indicate you have ceased to walk in the
light.
Christians can be compared to the strange substance called selenium
which is used in photoelectric devices.
When it is in the dark it is an insulator, and electricity will not pass
through it, but when it is in the light it is a conductor, and the current
passes through. The greater the
intensity of the light the more effective it is as a conductor. It changes its nature and function according
to its environment. It is the chameleon
of the non‑living realm. It
illustrates the truth that the man who walks in the light of God's truth will
be a conductor of that light to others, but if he walks in darkness the light
of truth will not flow through him. He
is a closed channel in the dark. The
greater the intensity of the light, or the closer one walks with Christ, the
greater will be his communication to others.
Walking in the light then is essential to be an effective
Christian. John then goes on to
describe‑
II. THE
CONSEQUENCES.
The
consequences here are so important that it forces us to realize just how much the
complete Christian life demands of the believer. Fellowship with God and forgiveness of sins are both conditional
upon the believers walk. For the sake
of clarity, let me emphasize that John is writing to believers. Therefore, this not referring to a condition of salvation. These are saved persons who need instruction on how to go on and be fully
sanctified. This means that all of the
acts and attitudes of the believer are important in becoming what God wants him
to be. When he walks in the light, the
first benefit will be‑
1. Fellowship with God. This is one of the basic goals of the Christian life, and one of
the main purposes for John writing this letter. Fellowship with God is essential to the full Christian life. Harry Emerson Fosdick said, "Opinions
about God are a roadway to God, but the end of the journey is a personal
fellowship that transfigures life; and to seize opinions as though they were
the objects of faith is like a man who tries to reach his destination by firmly
clutching the dust of the road."
The poet said,
By all that God requires of me,
I know what He Himself must
be.
God
requires us to walk in the light for fellowship with Him, and this is just
another way of saying that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. When the believer walks in light he has all
things in common with God, and, therefore, has fellowship with God. The second result is‑
2. The blood
of Christ cleanses us from all sin.
This means that though the Christian is yet a sinner and cannot claim he
has no sin, he can claim to be cleansed from all sin, for this is the promise
to those who walk in the light. It is
not the light that cleanses, but the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ cleanses from all sin ought not to be quoted
out of this context, however, for it is not true unless the condition is
fulfilled. It does not cleanse the sin
of any who do not walk in the light. Like selenium, it only works in the light.
The
atonement of Christ is adequate and available for all men and for all sin. But since is only cleanses those who walk in
the light, many will never be cleansed, for they love darkness rather than
light. Cleansing here is different from
forgiveness in that it indicates a removal of the stain of sin, and the desire
for sin in the person. It is a part of
the process of sanctification. One can
be forgiven and yet still go on sinning, but to be cleansed implies a victory
over sin. Forgiveness is a change in
God, but cleansing is a change in us.
This means that one consistently walking in the light could be
constantly cleansed, and at least temporarily be sinless. If we take the "all sin" literally,
then one could be totally free from sin in his life. The only way to maintain it, however, would be to never take a
step out of light into darkness.
Here is
the possibility of being restored to perfect fellowship just as Adam had with
God before the fall.
Oh, how sweet to view the
flowing,
Of my Savior's precious
blood,
With divine assurance
knowing
He has made my peace with
God.
The sacrifice of Christ was once for all, but it is
of perpetual effectiveness. Cleanses is
the present tense. The blood of Calvary
is still working today, and will wash away the sin of the believer. The sacrifice at the cross was unconditional
grace, and God's once for all provision for all sin, but the actual application
of that blood's power to cleanse in our
lives is conditional upon our walking in the light.
The two
consequences of walking in the light are external and internal. One is made right with God and can
fellowship with God. And one is made
right in himself so there is inner peace and harmony as he is cleansed from
sin. Our action of walking is met with
God's action of cleansing. Our words of
confession are met with God's word of forgiveness. We see here that just as we are justified through the blood of
Christ, so also we are sanctified.
Faith in His sacrifice without works saves us, but it is faith plus
works that sanctifies us. It is in
sanctification that faith without works is dead. Faith alone justifies, but faith and works sanctifies.
Since
the greatest blessings of God, and the greatest benefits that can be gained
from the atonement of Christ, can only be ours if we are walking in the light,
it is to be our primary concern to make sure that it is in the light that we
walk. The degree of our sanctification,
as well as the quality of our eternal life, are dependent upon our walk. Certainly nothing more could be added to
challenge us to go forth and voluntarily and persistently walk in the light.
6. CHRISTIAN CONFESSION
Based on I John 1:8‑9
The one
thing all people have in common is guilt.
Ever since Adam and Eve hid from God, because they were afraid, out of a
sense of guilt, man has had to bear the burden, and suffer the effects of
guilt, and these effects are enormous.
Modern psychiatry is discovering that guilt is enemy number one of good
mental health. It is the destructive
force behind dozens of different kinds of mental illness. It is the basic cause for the anxiety and
fear that makes millions live in dread and depression. It is the cause for the ineffectiveness of
many Christian lives. It disarms the
believer of the whole armor of God. It
cuts at the root of the tree of life. It poisons the springs of living water,
and it sends a corrupting worm into the fruit of the Spirit.
Everyone
who has done something he does not want known has guilt. This of course means that just as all are
sinners, so all are guilty. The more we
learn about the guilt of man, the more we realize it is a major factor in all
of human life. One doctor treating one
hundred cases of arthritis and colitis found that a hidden sense of guilt
played a role in 68% of these patients.
Flanders Dunbar in the book Psychiatry In The Medical Specialties
reports that, "It has been found that at least 65% of patients are
suffering from illness syndromes initiated or seriously complicated by
psychological factors."
Conclusions like this are being reached in one study after another, and
the result is that men are beginning to see that man's ultimate problem is sin. It is sin and its effects that are the
greatest plague in the world. And guilt
is sins major effect.
Rowe
expresses the minds of millions when he writes, "Guilt is the source of
sorrow! 'Tis the fiend, the avenging
fiend, that follows us behind, with whips and stings." There is no escape from the facts. Modern psychiatry has confirmed what the
Bible says: "All have sinned and
come short of the glory of God."
All are caught in the web of guilt.
But thank God the facts do not stop there. John knew almost 2000 years ago that this was man's major
problem, but he did not just analyze it and diagnose it, but he gave a
prescription authorized by the Great Physician Himself. John had to have an answer for the problem
of guilt in order to ever bring his readers to his established goal of fullness
of joy, and fellowship with the God of light.
Guilt is just the opposite of this, and no amount of truth could ever
lead to that goal that did not first show a man how to be relieved of guilt. That is why John begins with the matter of
sin and forgiveness, for all Christian maturity begins with clear understanding
of this basic issue. John shows us
three basic steps from guilt to God.
I.
CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN‑V 8.
John
says that if we try and live on the hypocritical level of non‑admission
to guilt and sin, then we are self‑deceived. The truth is not in us, and in such a state we cannot be
forgiven. Such a person, and they are
not rare, suppresses his guilt and tries to give the impression that there is
nothing wrong in their lives.
Meanwhile, though they have succeeded in hiding their guilt from their
consciousness, it is invading their whole being like a poison, and will reveal
itself in either a psychological or physical problem, or both.
Many
unbelievers do not respond to Christ just because they refuse to admit they are
guilty. They are hiding their guilt,
and they are saying we do not need a Savior, for we are not so bad. The natural man is fighting for survival,
and does not let himself be conscious
that he is a mass of guilt in need of cleansing, for to do so he knows must
lead to repentance and death for the old man.
The same is true for the Christian who lets the old man revive and live
again in his body. He hides his guilt
because to admit it is so painful, and his old man does not want to die. This is why guilt so often leads to mental
illness. It is an escape. It allows the sinner to say he is sick
rather than guilty. This sounds
foolish, but this is just how hard man struggles against admitting he is a guilty
sinner.
This may
sound like a harsh and cruel judgment on mental patients, but the facts being
discovered by competent men are reversing the idea that there is nothing to be
ashamed of in mental illness. It could
well be that such illness is, as Dr. David Bellgum calls it, "An
involuntary confession of guilt."
Unconfessed and unforgiven sin acts like a cancer of the soul. It effects the total person in body, soul,
and spirit. O. Hobart Mowrer in his book The Crisis In Psychiatry And Religion
comes right out and says that neurotics and psychotics are not sick so much as
they are sinners caught and condemned by their own conscience. Dr. Bellgum says this applies also to many
with physical problems, for he says physical "symptoms are often the
amplified voice of conscience." In
other words, you might suppress it, but one way or another guilt is going to
show itself.
The
saying was never more true than when applied to this area of life, that a
little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
Let us not jump to the conclusion that all mental problems reveal
suppress guilt. There are many other
causes; some uncontrollable which result in brain damage, and for which the
person is not responsible. There are
many exceptions to what we have stated, but there are many cases in which it is
true, and it shows that the church has the only answer to man's greatest
problem‑sin. People do not need
to be psychoanalyzed, they need to be saved.
They need to stop lying to themselves and admit they are guilty sinners,
for it is only then that they will be conscious of their need for
forgiveness. This is the first step on
the road to recovery.
To make
it clear that we are not only dealing here with non‑believers, let us
consider some actual examples of Christians who fell into the category of those
who refuse to admit guilt. Paul wrote
to the Corinthians , and said it was for this very thing that many of them were
weak and sickly, and some had even died.
In I Cor. 11 he explains that the reason was, they had been guilty of
unworthy participation in the Lord's Supper.
They were observing this remembrance of His death for sin, but were
refusing to do so with a consciousness of their sin. In lightness and carelessness, and with no sense of guilt for
their heathenish attitude, they
remembered the sacred event of Christ's death.
The result was hardness of heart.
They sought no forgiveness, for they were not conscious of sin, and the
result was all kinds of symptoms in body and mind, and in some cases leading
even to death. These early Christians
were experiencing the consequences of repressed guilt and unconfessed sin.
All of
the facts support the statement that holiness is the best way to health, just as
sin is the surest way to sickness. Even
the pagan philosopher Seneca observed that guilt always punishes even if the
law does not. He said, "Let
wickedness escape as it may at the bar, it never fails of doing justice upon
itself, for every guilty person is his own hangman." Plautus said, "Nothing is more wretched
than the mind of a man conscious of guilt." It is true and it is painful, yet, as John says, and as science
supports, to be conscious of guilt and to admit your sin is the only way you
can be ready to take the next step to the wholeness for which all men
seek. Admit your guilt and then take
the next step.
II.
CONFESSION OF SIN. V.9.
This
verse is tree with so many branches, on each of which hangs so much fruit, that
we cannot begin to taste all of its riches in one message. James Edwin Orr said, "Clear teaching concerning the
confessing of sins by Christians is one of the most neglected doctrines of
today." Here is a concept given by
inspiration of God to aid people against the most destructive force in the
world, and yet it is ignored as if it were incidental. The result is, all things have not become as
new as they ought in the lives of believers, because they have not availed
themselves of God's provision. Christians have needlessly borne mountains of
guilt when they might have had it dissolved and cleansed through the blood of
Christ. Continuous and consistent
confession of sin is a must for a Christian who truly desires to attain the
fullness of the stature of Christ.
If your aim is any lower than
that, that too is a sin needing to be confessed and forgiven.
Many are
uninhibited when it comes to the confession of the sins of others, but John is
writing to Christian people who need to confess their own sins. Confession is no part of the life of the
unbeliever. No doubt many deceive
themselves into thinking they can gain God's forgiveness, but John clearly
states that only those who walk in the light have fellowship with God, and only
they are cleansed by the blood of Christ.
Confession is of no value unless one is a believer walking in the light.
Sin is a blockade as long as we walk in darkness, but if we walk in the light
and confess our sin it becomes a bridge back into fellowship with God, for he
loves the sinner and waits in hope that they will confess and come back to Him.
The
story is told of how Satan approached God with the complaint that He forgives
His children over and over again, but He never forgave him, and God replies to
him, "You never asked." This
illustrates the truth that confession is an essential condition of forgiveness,
but it does not go far enough, for even if Satan did ask, it would be to no
avail unless he cease to be the prince of darkness, and began to walk in the
light.
It is
important to see this truth, for those who do not see the whole picture abuse
this promise and stretch it beyond what it was meant to cover. To think that one can confess, and yet have
no sense of guilt about continuing in the same pattern of life is to be
deceived. It is of interest to note
that some Catholics are perfectly aware of this danger in their own practice of
compulsory confession. In a
questionnaire sent out to priests asking what kinds of persons failed to gain
anything from the confession, one answered in a way that made clear he was
aware of all the things that Protestants criticize about the confessional. Here is what he wrote:
"The insincere‑those
who really are not in earnest about
breaking a habit of sin. The uneducated who consider the
powers of the confessional
as magical. A 'bad confession.'
They are either so attached
to the pleasure or advantages
deriving from the sin that
they do not really intend to stop
the sin or the habit, or
they are presumptuous of God's help,
thinking God will change
them without their effort or
cooperation."
Not only
will the Catholic confessional not be effective for those people, but neither
will the personal and secret confession to God alone. No confession will cleanse the sinner who refuses to walk in the
light. Confession implies a change in
walk, and not merely a change in talk.
A basic
maxim to be followed in confession is this:
"Let the circle of the offense committed be the circle of the confession
made." That is, if the sin is
secret, it is to be confessed secretly to God alone. If the sin is private, that is, against a particular person, you
are to confess to that person as well as God.
That is called private confession as distinct from public
confession. Public confession is to be
made when the offense is against the whole church, or a large segment of
it. In other words, confession is to
always be made to those who have been offended, for they alone can
forgive. This is why we do not practice
what is called auricular confession by the Catholic church. Auricular means, told in the ear, and refers
to telling the priest one's sins. A
party not involved in the offense can not be involved in the forgiveness. We feel that no party who is not offended
can honestly be a party to the forgiveness.
We do not deny that it can be effective in relieving guilt, but we feel
there is a better and more Biblical way that exalts Christ rather than man. That is by direct confession to God through
Christ, who is our High Priest, and who daily intercedes for us.
All of
this is not to say, however, that God does not use men as instruments of
conveying his message of forgiveness. All
of the reformers such as Luther and Calvin rejected auricular confession, but
still retained what they called private confession to the pastor. They simply recognized that in exceptional
cases a child of God gets burdened with guilt, and cannot sense the forgiveness
of God. Such a person can gain victory
by confessing to a pastor, and by receiving his assurance, as God's ambassador,
that He has been truly forgiven. This is more a matter of counseling than confession.
John
R.W. Stott, the well known English pastor and author, has written a book on
confession. In it he rejects auricular confession, but retains the concept of
private confession. He stresses, however, it is exceptional and not to be
habitual. The normal pattern for
believers is to confess to God alone, or to the persons offended.
This would be the position and practice of most, if
not all evangelicals. The important
thing to see is that the normal Christian life is to be one in which there is a
consciousness of sin whenever we have departed from God's will, and an
immediate confession of it to Him since He is ever present. These two steps are essential for Christian
maturity. The third step that John mentions
is‑
III. CLEANSING FROM SIN.
This is
God's step in the process. There is
nothing we can do to cleanse our life once we have stained it. God does not ask us to do this. If we confess, He is faithful and just to
forgive. This is the step He promises
to take if we take the others, and the result will be fullness of joy and
fellowship with the Father and the Son.
Cleanliness is not next to godliness, it is godliness, for this is the
final goal of Christian confession.
7. PERFECTION Based on I
John 2:1
There's
an old story about a couple who lived by the sea and kept a boarding
house. There boarders had only one
complaint, and that was lack of variety on the menu. Breakfast consisted of fish, chicken, and eggs; dinner consisted
of chicken, eggs, and fish, and for supper they had eggs, fish, and
chicken. The boarders finally rebelled
and insisted on something different.
The woman said, "All right, what would you like?" The spokesman said, "We don't care just
so its meat. Why don't you make some
sausages." She said, "I've
never made them, how do you do it?"
The spokesman was no cook either so he just said, "The same as you
cook fish." The next evening as
they all sat at the table a large tray
was brought in as they sat in excited anticipation. They could hardly wait for it to be uncovered. When it was, it was a tragic sight, for in
the center of the dish were some dark brown looking things huddled together
like sand bugs in the desert. The old
lady was on the verge of tears. She
broke out in a sobbing voice, "I know something went wrong, but you know
there just isn't much left in those things after they are cleaned."
She
certainly made a mistake in cleaning or gutting her sausages as she did her
fish, and some people feel it is just as big a mistake to cleanse your life
from sin. These are people who consider
this as a destruction of life, for if all evil were removed life would be
nothing but an empty shell, or dried up skin with all the meat of life removed. They hesitate to receive Christ, because
they feel that giving up sin is giving up the best part of life. They want to go to heaven, but they think
the path of getting there is so drab and lifeless they just can't see it is
worth it.
As
Christians, we can recognize the folly of their thinking, for they only know
the pleasures of the flesh, and have not experienced the joys of spiritual
blessings and the peace of God. They
are unable to conceive of the superior pleasures of abundant life in Christ, so
they hold back and cling to their sins and lose life's best. There are two
kinds of people then. There are those
who feel life's best is in sin, and those who feel it is in salvation from
sin. But as one has said, there are
only two kinds of people in the world:
Those who think there are only two kinds of people in the world, and
those who know better. We know better,
for in the second category there are also different kinds of people. There are Christians who believe in entire
sanctification, or, that one can be completely victorious over sin in this
life. Then there are those who feel
that this is impossible, and that we must remain sinners to some degree all our
life.
The
amount of literature and debate on this subject is staggering, and the more one
reads the more he becomes aware that
both sides of the issue can be well defended.
When godly men can be equally convinced of opposite points of view, it
usually indicates that there is truth on both sides, and what is needed for a
total view is to combine the truths of both.
This, I feel, is exactly what the Apostle John does. Both those who hold
to the doctrine of Christian perfection, and those who reject it, quote I John
for support. John teaches the
paradoxical truth that the Christian can be victorious over sin, and yet at the
same time be always in need of cleansing from sin.
The first verse of chapter 2 brings out this paradox
very clearly. We want to examine this
verse in detail, and look at two key aspects of John's teaching. First‑
I.
IDEALISTIC PURPOSE.
John is
writing to these Christians in order that they may cease to sin. It would be possible to read all that John
had written so far and come to an opposite conclusion. One could say, since we are all sinners, and
there is no use denying it, and since all we need to do is confess and they
will be forgiven, then there is no point in getting excited about sin. Why bother to fight it? In other words, the good news of forgiveness
could lead us to a lite view of sin.
John
says for us not to get any such misconceptions. I am writing, not so you can sin and not worry about it, but that
you sin not. Complete freedom from sin
is the idealistic goal for which John is aiming. The sinless Christ is our model, and it is to be our aim to be
conformed to Him, and to obey His command, "Be ye therefore perfect even
as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." This goal can only be attained by a continuous walking in the
light with Christ, and that is why John speaks so much about the Christian
walk. B. H. Benson said, "No man
can advance three paces on the road to perfection unless Jesus Christ walks
beside him."
Many
feel that even then one can never make it, but none can deny that John had the
goal of perfection as his ideal. John
refused to set the Christian goal lower than that of the Gnostics he
combated. Their goal was perfection,
but they attained it by watering down the definition of perfection so as to
exclude sins of the flesh. John says
the Christian aim is for perfection, and he includes victory over sins of the
flesh. There is no true sanctification
that does not include the body. It is
nothing but self‑deception to think you can separate the soul and body,
and be perfect in spirit while our body like a snake slithers in the slime of
sin.
The
Gnostics may pursue their goal of perfection without ceasing to sin, but John
says, I am writing that Christians attain the goal by ceasing to sin. Forgiveness is not to entice us to further
sin, but to make us so grateful for the chance to begin again with a clean
slate that we go forward, determined more than ever to keep it clean. John Wesley, the father of Methodism, and
also the father of all the modern perfectionists movements, felt it was
possible to keep the slate clean and be filled with perfect love, and there are
testimonies of hundreds of his followers who claim to have attained this
goal. Wesley himself never claimed to
have reached the goal but he felt it to be the most essential doctrine for
Christians to believe and aim for. He
wrote of visiting one place: "I was surprised to find 50 members fewer
than I left in it last October. One
reason is, Christian perfection has been little insisted on, and wherever this
is not done, be the preacher ever so eloquent, there is little increase, either
in the number or the grace of the hearers."
John
Wesley felt he was only following the path of John the Apostle when he urged
Christians on to entire sanctification, and it is hard, if not impossible, to
dispute it, for John could say that the blood of Christ cleanses us from all
sin and all unrighteousness, and then go on to urge us to sin no more, he certainly believed this was
possible. We must be aware, however,
that both John the Apostle and John Wesley were speaking of a perfection that
cannot rightly, or without confusion, be called sinless perfection, for this
leads to such criticism as that of F. Osborn who writes, "He that seeks
perfection on earth leaves nothing new for the saints to find in heaven; as long
as men teach, there will be mistakes in theology, and as long as they govern,
errors in state." Entire
sanctification does not eliminate mistakes, errors, and ignorance, nor sins of
omission. There is plenty left for the
saints to find in heaven even if they reach the highest goal in this life. John says in 3:2, "It doth not yet
appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like
him for we shall see Him as He is."
In the
context of what John is saying, and knowing the conduct of the Gnostics which
he is combating, it is clear that John is saying that willful disobedience to
the known will of God can be eliminated from the Christian life. Wesley defines the sin that Christians can
be free from as, "Willful transgression of a known law." In other words, even the perfectionists like
Wesley recognize that the Christian is far from perfect, and will never be that
until he is transformed at the second coming of Christ. But he feels the New
Testament warrants the belief that the Christians can be so filled with love,
and in such fellowship with God, that he never willfully breaks anything he
knows to be God's will. F. Faber wrote,
O keep thy conscience
sensitive
No inward token miss;
And go where grace entices
thee;
Perfection lies in this.
There
is much more than can and ought to be said on this matter, but since we will
come to it again in this epistle we will conclude that all must agree that John
had an idealistic purpose in writing this letter, and that he certainly must
have believed that it could be attained, and that believers could cease to sin
in the sense of willfully transgressing God's known will. In this sense I believe the New Testament clearly
teaches Christian perfection. Even the
Old Testament suggests it when it says, "Thy word have I hid in my heart
that I might sin against thee."
John wants Christians to hide the truth he writes in their hearts for
the same idealistic purpose that they sin not.
But then John goes on, and we see his statement on a‑
II.
REALISTIC PROVISION.
"And if any man sin we have an advocate." It may seem that John is the enemy of his own purpose here. He says do not sin, but if you do, here is
the good news, for we have an advocate.
Those who reject the possibility of Christian perfection say that John is clearly revealing that he knows
it will never be, and so as soon as he mentions it he follows up by making it
clear we will need a constant defense, for we will always be sinners. This is reading too much into John's
statement, however, all John is doing is being realistic. He knows many will fall in their climb to
perfection, and he wants to assure them that they are not eliminated from the
race.
They can be pardoned and forgiven, and still press
on for the goal. John did not say they
would certainly fall. He simply says,
if they do, they have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous.
We learn
from this verse the necessity of combining realism with our idealism. If we do not, it will lead to a perversion
of truth. Many who have set their goal
where John says it should be set, have not gone on to include John's provision
for those who fall as they strive for the ideal. For example, many perfectionist retain their perfection by
denying sins, just as the Gnostics did.
They do not want to admit that
they have done wrong, and so they call their disobedience a mistake, or in some
other way cover it up. This is the very
danger that John was afraid of, and that is why he went on to immediately point
out the only realistic way for a Christian to deal with sin. Plead guilty; seek a pardon, and go on. The Christian does not arrive at the goal of
Christian perfection by denying sin, and neither does he maintain his
relationship with God by covering up sin.
He does so by admitting his sin, and taking full advantage of God's
provision for pardon and cleansing.
Just as
the only way a sinner can become a saint is through Christ, so the only way a
sinner can remain a saint is through Christ.
The Christian who is truly sanctified and living close to Christ will be
sensitive to sin, and as soon as he offends, he will seek a pardon. There are only two ways to deal with
sin: The Gnostic way of denying it, and
the Christian way of confessing it and being cleansed. John wants to make sure
that the high ideal of the Christian does not lead them to fall into the same
error with the Gnostics, and so he adds this realistic provision to his
idealistic purpose. This provision does
not mean the ideal is not possible. It
only means it is not necessarily permanent.
One can only maintain it in a moment by moment walking with Christ, and
if he stumbles off the narrow path he loses his state of perfection, but this
loss is also not permanent, for God has provided a way to restore him. Christian perfection is relative, and not a
once for all experience.
The
provision is an Advocate, who is Jesus Christ Himself. And advocate is a defender, or a
lawyer. We get a picture here of the
court of heaven. A just God is judge,
and everyone who breaks His holy law is held accountable. Even the Christian whom He has redeemed
cannot violate His law and expect it to be overlooked. Every sin must have its day in court. The Christian, however, does not stand before God alone, as does
the unsaved. He has a defender‑Jesus
Christ the righteous. The fact that we
are there in itself shows that the sin that John is speaking of is willful
transgression of a known law. The
believer knows he has offended the holiness of God. He is there to plead guilty, and he has an advocate, not to
defend his innocence, but to plead for mercy, and to gain his pardon. John Wesley wrote,
Guilty I stand before thy
face, on me I feel thy wrath abide,
Tis just the sentence should
take place, tis just, but O, thy Son hath died;
See where before the throne
He stands and pours the all prevailing prayer,
Points to His side and lifts
His hands and shows that I am graven there.
The
Christian has an advocate to gain mercy and not justice, for God will always do
justice anyway, but justice will lead to condemnation. We who have Jesus as our Advocate will gain
mercy and be pardoned. Jesus, who was
innocent, had no advocate at His trial, and the result was He was condemned and
suffered the punishment of the guilty.
Now, as a result of that, we who are guilty can be pardoned, for He who
bore our guilt is present before the throne of God to plead for us. Jesus
not only bore our guilt and sin on the cross, He now lives to make
intercession for us that we might gain the full benefit of His sacrifice.
There is
some controversy over the matter as to whether or not the intercession of
Christ is necessary for our salvation.
I personally believe it is and feel the Scripture definitely teaches
this, but this will have to wait for another sermon. We have accomplished our goal for this message. We have seen that Christian perfection is
definitely possible, and every Christian is to aim for a life in which all
willful disobedience is eliminated. We
have also seen that he must, like John, recognize that his perfection, even
when attained, is relative, and he who stands must beware lest he fall, but if
he does, he does not need to be saved all over again, but needs to plead guilty
and trust his Advocate to gain him a pardon.
The conclusion on the whole matter is this: Is it possible to be entirely sanctified? The answer is yes. Will Christians always need provision for pardon and cleansing
from sin? The answer is yes. Both are true and only as we combine the
idealistic purpose of John, and his realistic provision, do we have a total
picture of the doctrine of Christian perfection.
8.
WE HAVE A LAWYER Based on I John
2:1b
Two men
were looking at the epitaph on a tombstone which read, "Here lies an
honest man and a good lawyer." One
looked at the other and said, "I wonder why they put two men in the same
grave?" Lawyers have not gained
the best reputation for being honest men.
One doctor asked another how his lawyer patient was doing, and he
replied, "Not well, he is lying at deaths door." "Well, that's a lawyer for you, "responded the other, " At deaths
door and still lying." It is
reported that a lawyer should be a good sleeper since he can easily lie on
either side.
The very
nature of the profession leads one to be tempted to bend the truth by
manipulating words. Thomas Jefferson
referring to congress said, "How can expedition be expected from a body
which we have saddled with an hundred lawyers, whose trade is
talking." When one does a great
deal of talking and debating he learns how to convey a message in such a way
that you get the opposite impression of what you would if you knew the
truth. For example, a lawyer out West
did not want to admit that his first client was hung, so he reported to his
friends back East that he got him a suspended sentence.
Like
every profession, that of the lawyer is the object of many slams and jokes, but
in spite of them we know it is a necessary and valuable profession. It is essential to our sense of justice that
every man have a right to defense, and that he have a defender skilled in the
law. Our Constitution guarantees this,
and that is why even the worst criminals are provided with a lawyer if they
cannot obtain one. It may bother us
that known criminals, who are obviously guilty, have such skilled defense that
they often escape the penalty of the law.
But let us not forget that everyone of us who have received Christ as
Savior are in that same boat. We are
guilty of breaking God's law, yet, because of our adequate advocate and divine
defender we gain a pardon and escape punishment.
The difference
of course is infinite in quality, for an earthly lawyer by immoral and
unethical means, or through weaknesses of the law, gets his client off, but as
we shall see, Jesus fulfills the demands of justice in gaining our pardon. The fact that Jesus is our advocate raises
this profession to the highest possible level.
Jesus was a carpenter for a few years on earth, but ever since His
ascension He has been the believers lawyer in the court of heaven, and He will
remain in that ministry until He comes again and takes the throne of
judgment. This means that all who do
not have Jesus as their defense attorney now will have Him as their judge when
He comes again. This shows that
Christ's present ministry is exceedingly important for every person to consider,
and our purpose in this message is to gain a better understanding of His
present ministry by examining the three factors of it brought out in John's
statement: "We have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
I. HIS
CLIENTS.
A big burly man called at the house of a
woman known for her charitable impulses, and when she came to the door he
addressed her in a broken voice,
"Madam, I wish to draw your attention to the terrible plight of a
poor family in this district. The father
has been fired; the mother is too ill to work, and the nine children are
starving. They are about to be turned
out into the cold streets unless someone pays their arrears in rent which
amounts to fifty dollars." The
woman exclaimed, "How terrible! May
I ask who you are?" The
sympathetic pleader applied his handkerchief to his eyes as he said, "I am
the landlord." Here is a case
where the advocate obviously had only one client, and that was himself. His pleading was not for there need, but for
his greed. But we have in Jesus and
Advocate who is ours‑literally ours, in that His purpose in the court of
heaven is not for His own defense, but for our pardon.
John
says, "We have Him." That is,
He is always available, and is never too busy, or tied up on another case, or
on vacation. Hebrews tells us the same
thing by saying, "He ever lives to make intercession for us." In earthly courts there are cases backed up
for months and years, but we who are clients of the eternal Advocate have
immediate defense when we sin. It is
tragic when Christians let their sin go unconfessed and suffer needless pain
and guilt when they could have immediate pardon before the court of God.
It is
important that we recognize, however, that Jesus is not the Advocate of every
sinner. The "we" here
includes only those who believe and have trusted in Christ as their
Savior. One must be a child of God
before he can be a client of Christ's and be a beneficiary of Christ's present
ministry. The unbeliever will have to
face God alone, and with no advocate, and the result will be, he will loose his
case and suffer the full penalty for breaking God's law.
Someone
has said, "He who appears as his own advocate has a fool for a
client." This may not always hold true in an earthly court, but it is
certainly true concerning the court of heaven, for only a fool could hope to
defend himself before God and expect to prove himself righteous, and thereby
escape judgment. One does not need to
be rich to be a client of Jesus. Barton
Holyday said, "A man may as well open an oyster without a knife as a
lawyers mouth without a fee." A
pelican, it is said, would make a good lawyer, for he knows how to stretch his
bill. These things do not apply to the
ministry of Christ, for it is free to all who claim it.
John
says in verse 2 that Jesus has already paid for our sins, and the sins of the
whole world. Every sin in the world
then can be freely pardoned though the ministry of Christ. The poorest can benefit fully from His
services. One does not even need to be
right to be His client. Sometimes
mothers say to their children when they are naughty, "If you do that,
Jesus won't love you anymore."
This is the world's worst theology, for if Jesus only loved us when we
are good, like everyone else, who is to our helper when we most need it, when
we are not good? It is when we are guilty that we need an
advocate, and not when we are innocent.
When the Greek lawyer Phacian was criticized for appearing on behalf of
an unworthy client he said, "The good have no need of an
advocate." Jesus said, "It is
the sick who need the physician and not those who are well." We conclude this point by making it clear,
there is only one requirement to be a client of Christ. You need not be rich or right, but you must
be redeemed. You must be one who has
Christ as personal Savior. Only then
are you in this, "We have an advocate." Jesus is a specialist, and thus, and advocate only of believers.
II. HIS
CALLING.
He is an
advocate with the Father. We have here
His profession and the place where He practices that profession‑with the
Father. The place of His service is
important, for it is that which makes His ministry distinct from that of the
Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is also
our Advocate, but His ministry is within us.
When Jesus said to His disciples in His last discourse before He went to
the cross, "I will pray the Father and He will give you another Comforter," He used the
same word that is used here‑paraclete.
It is used four times of the Holy Spirit and just once of Christ. Jesus
calls the Holy Spirit our Advocate, and the Holy Spirit through John calls
Jesus our Advocate. Jesus, however,
says He will send another advocate, and by saying another He claims also to be
one, even when He was with the disciples.
The terms comforter, counselor, advocate, are all descriptive of the one
Greek word paraclete. It means one who
is called to one's side to help and give aid.
When summoned to court the paraclete is at your side to aid you.
The Christian than needs two advocates, for he needs aid in two realms
and in two ways. He needs earthly and
heavenly aid, and he needs subjective and objective aid.
In the
last part of the first century, not long after John wrote this letter, the
Roman Emperor Adrian in a letter to Minucine Fundanus said, "If,
therefore, the people of the province will appear publicly and in a legal way
charge the Christians, that they may answer for themselves in court, let them
take that course, and not proceed by importunate demands and local clamors
only. For it is much the best
method." Here was an earthly court
situation, and Christian lives were at stake, but they were given the right to
defend themselves. Here is where the
Holy Spirit's ministry came in. Jesus
said they would be taken before courts, but they need not worry, for the Holy
Spirit would teach them what to say.
Time does not permit us to examine the great Christian defenses of the
early Christians, but we do want to refer to one more modern example of how the
Word of God has made great victories through Christians being tried before
men.
F. O.
Nilsson, the first Baptist preacher in Sweden, was summoned to the supreme court
of Southern Sweden in 1850 on the charge of heresy. He was found guilty and sentenced to banishment. The news media, however, carried the minutes
of the trial and the convictions of Nilsson were spread over the land. Nilsson reported, "From this day the
Baptists and their doctrines were no longer confined to an obscure corner of
the land, and to a few poor despised laborers.
The truth was with trumpet voices proclaimed on the housetops, and the
sound thereof re‑echoed from cottage to palace, throughout the length and
breadth of the land. Thus my appearance
before the High Court at Jonkoping was the public introduction of Baptist
principles into Sweden." In 9 years
there were 95 churches; 4,000 members, and it all began in court. This is of additional interest because the
banishment of Nilsson was even a blessing, for he came to America and became
one of the founders of the Swedish Baptist Conference which is now the Baptist
General Conference.
The
point of all this in relation to our subject of advocates is that it is the
ministry of the Holy Spirit to give guidance and counsel here on earth as we
defend the faith before courts or elsewhere.
It is he who aids Christians in bringing good out of evil
situations. It is also the ministry of
the Holy Spirit to defend us before the court of our own conscience, and to
help us experience the pardon and peace of God. It is not enough that we are pardoned objectively through the
ministry of Christ, for we need to sense its reality within also. We need to know we are free from
condemnation, and this is the calling of our other advocate the Holy Spirit.
Christ is our Advocate on
high,
Thou art our Advocate
within;
O plead the truth and make
reply
To every argument of sin.
The statement
of Christ being our Advocate with the Father is not incidental and
insignificant, for it designates his specific calling and sphere of ministry,
for it is with the Father. Jesus does
not plead for us in the state court, or the supreme court of the nation, nor in
the international courts of the world, but rather, in the highest court in the
universe. It is there where, not just a
man's rights or property, or even his life is at stake, but his eternal destiny. This is the high calling and present
ministry of Christ. It is said that
three Philadelphia lawyers are a match for the very devil himself. But all the Philadelphia lawyers combined
would be of no benefit to us before the judgment seat of God. Our need there is not to outwit the devil, but
to satisfy the demands of God's holiness, and that is impossible unless we have
an Advocate who is not just brilliant, but who can also satisfy God's
holiness. That is why John writes to
believers and says if you sin you need not despair, for you have an Advocate
whose calling is to gain your pardon in the court of heaven. If this truth alone does not add to our
Christian joy and fulfill one of John's purposes for writing this letter, then
we must be deaf to the Holy Spirit. We
who love Christ are His clients and benefit daily because of His ministry
before the throne of God.
III. HIS
CHARACTER.
Jesus is
called the righteous. It is not just
incidental either that John adds this word of description of Christ's character
as our Advocate. Unless He was
righteous, it would be of little comfort to be His client, for it is His
righteousness alone that enables Him to gain our pardon. On earth and advocate need not be righteous
to win his clients case. In fact, he
may be more guilty than the man he is defending. None of the cleverness of men and loop‑holes in the law,
however, can help the guilty sinner before God. If there is no just way for God to grant pardon, than he cannot
and will not do it. And the only way He
can justly pardon the guilty is, if there is a compelling cause such as a
substitutionary sacrifice on behalf of the guilty. Even God's mercy must be in harmony with His holiness. Jesus Christ the righteous is the only being
in the universe who can meet the need at the throne of God. He is not just the best, He is the only
lawyer that can win our case.
Jesus
died for our sins and took the wages of sin on Himself, and since He was
righteous and, therefore, totally undeserving of any punishment, His sacrifice
makes it possible for God to pardon all for whom He pleads. Justice demands mercy since is would be
unjust to punish again for the same sin.
This would be to deny the value of Christ's sacrifice. It would be unjust to deny the substitute
his right to suffer for another. If I
take ten lashes that you deserve, because out of love I do not want you to
suffer, that should be my right to so express my love, and it would be an
injustice to me, and a denial of my right to so love, if the punishment were
also then given to you. That would make
my suffering be for nothing, and it would be injustice. Justice demands that
the penalty be inflicted only once.
How much
greater wrong it would be to take the suffering of Christ the righteous, and
count it of no value. God's justice
demands that He hear and grant every plea of Christ for pardon. Jesus can never loose a case, for since He
died for all sin, there is no sin that cannot be pardoned if He is the sinners
Advocate. Sir Walter Raleigh sat in
prison waiting for his trial for high treason, for which he was to be condemned
to be executed. He felt all was unjust
in the courts of earth, but he looked to the court of heaven and wrote,
From thence to heaven's
bribeless call,
Where no corrupted voices brawl,
No conscience molten into
gold,
No forged accuser bought or
sold;
No cause deferred, no vain‑spent
journey,
For Christ is there, the
King's Attorney.
And when the grand twelve‑million
jury,
Of our sins with direful
fury,
Gainst our souls black
verdicts give,
Christ pleads His death, and
then we live.
Be thou my Speaker,
Taintless Pleader,
Unblotted Lawyer, True
Proceeder!
Thou giv'est salvation even
for alms,
Not with a bribed lawyer's
palms.
This then is my eternal
plea,
To Him that made heaven,
earth, and sea.
If Christ is your Advocate, this too is your hope.
9. BLESSED ASSURANCE Based on I John 2:3
Storms
had ravaged the ships; the Pinta had lost her rudder; the food was getting
wormy, and the crew was threatening mutiny.
Conditions could hardly have been worse, for there was darkness, danger,
hunger, panic, and exhaustion. All of
these stared them in the face, and yet the Admiral of the ship refused to turn
back. Day after day he wrote in his
log, "This day we sailed on. When
Joaquin Miller read that log that Columbus had written on his first voyage
across the uncharted Atlantic, his imagination caught on fire, and he felt he
was right there with him.
He could
feel the sting of the spray on his cheeks, and he could hear the roar of the
sea, and in spite of the fact that all he could see was endless darkness he
felt secure, for he knew he stood by a man of steadfast purpose, who was
assured of his goal, and knew he would reach it. Miller was so possessed with the amazing perseverance of Columbus
that he spontaneously poured out his feelings in poetry. I want to share just a part of that
poem. The mate is speaking.
"My men grow mutinous day by day; My men grow ghastly,
wan and weak."
The stout mate thought of home; a stray of salt wave
washed his swarthy cheek.
What shall I say, brave Adm'r'l, say, if we sight
naught but seas at dawn?
"Why, you shall say at break of day: Sail on!
sail on! sail on! and on!"
They sailed and sailed, as wind might blow, Until at
last the blanched mate said,
Why, now not even God would know Should I and all my
men fall dead.
These very winds forget their way, For God from
these dread seas is gone.
Now speak, brave Adm'r'l; speak and say‑"He
said: Sail on! sail on! and on!"
They sailed and sailed. Then spake the mate: This mad sea shows its teeth tonight.
He curls his lip, he lies in wait, With lifted
teeth, as if to bite!
Brave Adm'r'l say but one good word: What shall we
do when hope is gone?"
The words leapt like a leaping sword: Sail on! sail
on! sail on! and on!
We all
know that in spite of the number and magnitude of the obstacles, Columbus did
sail on and on until he reached land.
The question naturally arises, why did he have such assurance when all
others feared for their lives? Was he
just stubborn, or did he have no fear of death, or was there another reason for
his assurance in the midst of great trial?
Columbus answers this question for us himself in the first sentence of
his will. He wrote this: "In the
name of the Most Holy Trinity, who inspired me with the idea, and afterward
made it perfectly clear to me, that I could navigate and go the Indies from
Spain, by traversing the ocean westwardly..."
By his
own testimony in which he gives all the glory to God he tells us his assurance
was due to the fact that he knew he was following the leading of God. If a man knows and is assured that he is on
a course charted by God, then nothing can cause him to forsake it. Therefore, the most important factor in any
person's life is assurance, for it will enable a man to ride out any and all
storms, and finally to arrive at his goal.
All
people are on a voyage across an uncharted sea of time heading for the new
world of eternity. Some will go down in
the storms; others will lose their way, and still others will chose to change
their course and give up the goal. But there
will be many also who will, like Columbus, sail on and on and on, and at last
arrive because they have God's assurance that they will. We want to consider two facts about
assurance that John makes clear, for these two facts are precious gems from the
vault of God's own treasure. To know
them and believe them, and then to obey them is to be partaker of the very
riches of Christ. First we observe that‑
I. ASSURANCE IS POSSIBLE. v. 3.
"Hereby we do know that we do know Him." John is saying, not only can we know God,
but we can know that we know Him, and it is this knowing that we know that is
called assurance. It is not enough just
to know that Jesus died for the sins of the world, and that He is the Advocate
of all who believe and trust Him. We
must know that He died for my sins, and is my Savior, and my Advocate. John says that such assurance is
possible.
This is
good news in itself, and adds greatly to the Christians joy, for it gives him a
solid foundation on which to build in a world where uncertainty seems to
rule. One cannot be stable and secure
unless he can know something significant for sure. It is not enough to believe that you can be sure about what
Benjamin Franklin said, "In this world, nothing is certain but death and
taxes." If certainty is limited to
these things, then the skeptics are not far off who say, "The only
certainty is that nothing is certain."
Or, "Nothing is more certain than uncertainties." You cannot build very high on the hope of
such men, for they have no hope, and life to them is one big tragic sham. Omar Khayyam said,
"One thing at least is
certain‑this life flies.
One thing is certain, and
the rest is lies."
Such
pessimism is the natural result of men who see only with the eyes of flesh, and
not the eyes of faith. Faith alone sees
God's revelation, and this changes the whole picture. The materialistic and secular mind is blind to spiritual truths,
and can only speak of relativity and probability. Nothing is absolutely certain, and as a result there is no
assurance. This makes everyone and
everything unstable. A teacher asked
the son of a weatherman, "How much is two plus two?" And he said, "Four probably." She asked him, "How old would a person
be if they were born in 1920?" And
he asked, "Man or woman?"
Some people think of life in terms of the weather
and a woman's age, and so they feel that probable conclusions are the best we
can have.
In
these areas probability is good enough, for we do not have to be certain of the
weather or of a woman's age. But when
it comes to salvation and the goal of life, we can never be content with
anything less than certainty. Those who
talked about hoping they are saved cannot have the peace necessary to be happy
in the Lord. A man has to know he is
saved, and the point here is that such certainty and assurance is
possible. John had to write to this to
the Christians of his day because with all the false doctrine and false claims
being made, they could easily be confused and wonder if they were among the
true Christians, or the deceived Christians.
Today Christians still get confused and wonder for sure if they are
right or wrong, and how they can be sure that they are really saved.
Theologians of both the Calvinist and Arminian school agree that it is
possible to be saved on not be sure of it, for salvation and assurance of
salvation are not the same thing.
Charnock, a Calvinist, wrote, "The characters of faith may be
written in the heart as letters engraved upon a seal, yet filled with so much dust as not to be
distinguished.." Watson, an
Arminian, wrote, "A child of God may have a kingdom of grace in his heart
and yet not know it. O Jacob wept for
his son Joseph, when Joseph was still alive; thou mayest weep for want of
grace, when grace may be alive in thy heart."
Because
it is possible to be saved and lack assurance of it, it is of the utmost
importance that we know that assurance is possible. Some not knowing of this go on living in a hope‑so‑salvation,
when a know‑so‑salvation is possible, and it is God's will for each
believer to know. R. E. Neighbour
wrote,
What wondrous blessings
overflow,
When we can truly say, I
know.
I know in whom I have
believed,
I know the one I have
received,
I know His blood avails for
me,
I know that I was blind, but
see,
I know that my Redeemer
lives,
I know the gift He freely
gives,
I know He'll keep me till
the end,
I know He's my unfailing
Friend.
In order
to gain the full benefit of God's plan, the Christian must know this primary fact,
that he not only can know God, he can know that it is God that he knows, and
thereby have full assurance of his salvation.
After stating that assurance is possible, John goes on to explain that‑
II. ASSURANCE IS PRACTICAL.
It is
the result of a very practical test. If
we keep His commandments is the test.
We know because we obey. If
there is no obedience, there can be no assurance. It is not the result of some mystical experience such as seeing a
vision; being caught up in a trance, or hearing the voice of God. It is not a matter of being transported to
heaven, speaking in tongues, or any other
extraordinary experience.
All the
debates on whether or not these unusual experiences are of value is beside the
point that we are concerned with here.
If they were necessary for the Christians assurance, John would
certainly have mentioned them at this point, but he does not. He makes assurance rest on such a simple and
practical test that a child can understand it.
It is simply obedience to God's commands. Jesus said in Matt. 12:50,
"For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same
is my brother, and sister, and mother."
The way into the family of God is by simple obedience, and doing what
God expects us to do.
The
Gnostics had some of the early Christians confused, and had them doubting their
own security in Christ. They made such
amazing claims about their unique and superior knowledge of God that the
average Christian would start to wonder if their experience could begin to
match it. Considering their inferior
experience, they may begin to doubt if they are even Christians at all. Many Christians feel the same today when
they hear of the marvelous experiences of some believers. They feel so ordinary that they wonder if
they are indwelt by the Spirit at all.
John
says not to look to the unusual experiences to give you assurance, but rather,
examine your life, and see if you are keeping God's commandments. If you are not, all the extraordinary
experiences in the world will not give you the certainty that the simplest
Christian has who gives heed to the message which says, "Trust and obey
for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey." The happy Christian is the Christian with
assurance, and the Christian with assurance is the Christian who obeys.
My gracious Lord, I own Thy
right
To every service I can pay,
And call it my supreme
delight
To hear Thy dictates, and obey.
The
Gnostics said that only the elite can rise to the highest knowledge of
God. The masses must remain in their
near animal state without this knowledge.
This is reserved for the intelligentsia. John says that this thinking has no part in Christian theology,
for Jesus died for all men, and every man can rise to the full assurance of the
knowledge of God, and of his salvation.
All that is necessary is obedience, for as we obey God He draws nearer,
and reveals Himself and His will more fully.
Obedience is the way to assurance for every man, woman, and child.
Let us
not be deceived, for the higher and deeper Christian life is not reserved for
pastors, Sunday School teachers, and a few superior laymen. Full assurance which leads to full
fellowship with God is placed on such a practical level of attainment that
every Christian can reach it. They need
to simply obey what they do know of God's commands, and they can have the same
certainty as anyone else. How do I know
I am a good citizen or not? If I obey
the laws of the land I can be assured that I am recognized as a good
citizen. How can I know I am a child of
God? I simply need to look at my life
and see if I obey God's laws. Do I
really love to do what is good, pure, and right? Do I rejoice when I see God's will revealed so that I can obey
it?
This
practical test is so vital, and yet we often neglect it and assume that all a
person needs to say is that they believe in Jesus as the Savior. Many people have said that who do not obey God's
commandments, and John does not hesitate in verse 4 to call them liars. Any kind of salvation that goes no further
than changing a man's tongue so that he speaks pious words once in a while is
not worth having. Whatever men claim,
if they cannot back it up with a life, John says do not pay any attention to their claims. They might say they know God, but Jesus will say in the day of
judgment that he did not know them.
This verse puts a heavy responsibility upon the professing
Christian. If he does not keep the
commandments of God, the Bible authorizes the community to consider him a
liar. It will do no good for the
disobedient to say judge not, for he is already judged by the Word of God, and
he stands convicted as one in whom the truth does not dwell.
John
says in verse 5 that if we are professors who keep the Word of God, then we
will have the love of God perfected in us.
He says we will then have the assurance that we are in Him. Obedience, which all can understand, is the
road open to all that leads to perfect love and full assurance. John then closes this line of thought with
the perfect example, which is Jesus Christ.
He says in verse 6 that we who profess to be in Christ ought not to make
being a Christian a mystery or hidden secret of any kind, as did the Gnostics,
and those of mystery religions. We
ought to walk just as Jesus walked, and we know He walked the same way Columbus
sailed. He walked with the assurance
that he was in God's will, and he was determined to reach his goal whatever the
obstacles.
He walked the common lanes,
the city streets He trod,
And in His heart was
beauty....the beauty born of God.
The
beauty of Jesus can be seen in us when we walk as He walked, for beautiful is
the life that has a fullness of love and purpose because we can say,
"Blessed Assurance Jesus is mine."
When
Rudyard Kipling was a lad he went to sea with his father. Soon after the vessel was on its way Mr.
Kipling went below. He heard a
commotion above him, and soon the officer was banging on his door. "Mr. Kipling," he cried,
"Your boy has crawled out on the yardarm, and if he lets go he'll
drown." "Yes," said Mr.
Kipling, glad to know it was nothing serious, "But he won't let
go." Here was confidence expressed
in another human being that gave peace and assurance. Even on the human level this kind of assurance is beautiful, and
it leads to calmness in the midst of life's storms. How much greater the peace if we are assured that God will never
let go of us? Often we might rightly
feel that if God let's go of us, we are sunk, but assurance says, "But He
won't let go."
We need
assurance to face persecution. Many
fall away in times of trial, but those who have assurance count it a joy to suffer
for their Lord who suffered so much for them.
Valerim, the Emperor of Rome, issued a decree which required all
Christians to sacrifice to idols or be put to death. Cyprian was arrested and brought before the proconsul of
Carthage. Maximus said, "Art thou
he who hath borne the highest offices of their religion among the
Christians?" "Yes," said
Cyprian. "The Emperor commands
that you offer sacrifice to the gods of Rome." Cyprian responded, "I will not. Do as thou art ordered, nothing can move me from the stand I have
taken." "Let him be
beheaded," was the sentence, and he was led to an open field outside the
city. He prayed and tied the bandage on
his eyes, and then ordered his friends to give a sum of gold to the executioner
to show that he had no unkind feelings toward him. He bowed himself to the earth, and with a simple blow was ushered
out of this life into the presence of his Redeemer. One does not die like that without assurance.
Moody
said, "There's no liberty, peace, rest, joy, power, until we have
assurance." It is found in simple
obedience to the commands of Christ.
When the lawyer came to Jesus asking what he had to do to have eternal
life, Jesus said he was to love God and his neighbor. If you want to live, you need to love. It's really that simple, for to love is to live. To walk as Jesus walked is to relate to
everyone you confront with love. The
level of our maturity is measured by the degree to which we let love control
us. If we have little love, we live on
a low level. If we have greater love,
we live on a higher level. If we have
the sacrificial love of Christ, we live on the highest level.
Karl
Menninger in his book Love Against Hate says the world will not listen, but
modern psychology has discovered that the disease of the world is the disease
of the individual. He says the sickness
of the individual is the lack of love, and thus the sickness of the world is
lack of love. He is saying that they
have discovered that the two great commandments of Jesus are the basis of a
happy meaningful life. If this be so
then it follows that the greatest sin is to lack love for God and
neighbor. Lack of love is a violation
of the greatest commandments, and is the root cause of all the unhappiness in the
world. It is no wonder the world is
sick and cannot find a cure. Christians who have the cure in their hands fail
to inject it into their own hearts. How
often do we hear it, or think about it even, that our greatest sin is lack of
love? Smiley Blanton, another
psychiatrist, said so much when he titled his book simply, Love Or Perish. The
greatest commands of God are to love, and when we live in obedience to these
commands, and we are loving people toward God and man, then we can have the
blessed assurance that the Spirit of the Christ we trust as Savior truly dwells
in us, and we can know that we are children of God.
10. HATRED HIT HARD Based on I John 2:7f
One of
the most exciting books you can read is The Count Of Monte Cristo. The hero of the book, Edmund Dantes, had
been unjustly cast into a dungeon.
Fortunately, by means of a tunnel he met an old man in another nearby
dungeon. The old man told him of a
great treasure that was hidden on the island of Monte Cristo. It seemed to be a worthless bit of
knowledge, for he was just as trapped as the old man. His chance for escape,
however, did come when the old man died. His body was put into a sack and was to be thrown over the cliff
into the sea. Edmund Dantes saw his
chance for escape. He managed to drag
the body of the old man through the tunnel into his dungeon, and then he
returned and got into the sack himself.
He, of course, was thrown into the sea, and thereby became a free
man.
He was far
from free, however, for he so despised those who put him into the dungeon that
he was a slave to hate. He spent the
rest of his days, and his great wealth in tracking down, one by one, those who
were responsible. He was clever enough
to escape the bondage of the dungeon, but he remained a prisoner of the chains
of hate. When one is intoxicated with
hatred, he is not even free to chose to how to respond to persons, but is
compelled to be hateful, and therefore, is among the least free of all
men. None are so bound as those who are
wrapped in the chains of hate.
Catallus, the Roman said, "I hate and I love. Perhaps
you ask why I do so. I do not know,
but I feel it, and I am in torment."
He was a victim of his own depravity, and though he hated to hate, he
knew of no way to escape. Hatred is
just a part of the very being of unregenerate man. John says if a man hates, you can be sure he is still in the
darkness. Even Freud, who was no great
friend of Christianity, recognized the truth of man's depravity. He said, "Those who love fairytales do
not like it when people speak of innate tendencies in mankind toward
aggression, destruction, and in addition cruelty." Everyone who has their eyes open to the
facts are compelled to believe that hatred and hostility are basic problems of
our world. In the United States alone
there are on the average every hour 15 persons who are stabbed, clubbed, or
shot. The daily news could
appropriately be titled‑who's hating who.
The big
question is what can be done? Is there
any escape, or will man's hatred eventually be the force that brings down the
curtain on the stage of history, and then blows up the stage to boot. Bombs and missiles are not the problem, for
it is the hatred of men that makes them so dangerous. The most popular panacea for overcoming man's hatred is
education. Herbert Hoover once said,
"If we had just one generation of properly born, adequately educated,
healthy children, developed in character, we would have Utopia
itself." This is the view of
numerous leaders, but it is unrealistic.
Even though it is known that hostility is not inherited, and, therefore,
you could presumably begin with a generation of
unhateful babies. But there is no way
to raise them without them learning to hate, for they must grow up in a world
where hate is always on the loose.
Their parents hate; their relatives hate, and their neighbors hate. It would not be long before these potential
utopianites would be responding as J. Petit‑Senn who said, "We are
told to walk noiselessly through the world, that we waken neither hatred nor
envy; but, alas! what can we do when
they never sleep?"
You
cannot educate men out of hatred when the most powerful influences in their
lives are teaching them to hate. Men
are born with the tendency to hate, but the actual hatreds they acquire are
learned from their parents, relatives, and associates. Dr. Leon J. Saul a professor of Clinical
Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine says in his
book, The Hostile Mind, that studies indicate that very definitely that
hostility begins in the home. Man is
depraved, but the expression of that depravity in hate and prejudice are not in
the child. These things have to be taught, and so the very cause of
man's hatred is evil education. Oscar
Hammerstein II captured this truth in poetry:
You've got to be taught to
hate and fear,
You've got to be taught from
year to year,
It's got to be drummed in
your dear little ear,
You've got to be carefully
taught.
You've got to be taught to
be afraid
Of people whose eyes are
oddly made,
And people whose skin is a
different shade,
You've got to be carefully
taught.
You've got to be taught
before its too late,
Before you are six or seven
or eight,
To hate all the people your
relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully
taught.
The
Christian recognizes that education is essential, but it is inadequate to solve
man's hate problem. Hate is more a matter
of the heart, and so man needs his heart change before education will be of any
profit. Man needs to know God through
Christ, and he needs to know the commands of Christ, and live in obedience to
them, for only then can the love of God be perfected in him, and only then can
he have the power to snap the chains of hate that bind his heart. Education can help get men out of bondage,
as Edmund Dantes clever thinking got him out of the dungeon, but only the love
of Christ can get men free from the chains of hate. The most brilliant of men are still slaves of hatred if their
education has not included a knowledge of God through Christ.
For
example, take Joseph Goebbles of Hitler's Germany. He was a smart man, and he earned his PH.D. from Heidelberg. He rejected the Gospel, however, and he
wrote in his diary just before his 28th birthday: "I have learned to despise the human being from the bottom
of my soul. He makes me sick at my
stomach." His brilliance only
enabled him to hate with greater power and cruelty.
We have
spent a lot of time setting the stage.
We have seen that the problem of hate is great. We have seen that man's solutions to it just
do not work, for these very solutions are infiltrated by the forces of
hate. We have arrived then to where man
has always been. The stage is set the
same as in John today. Only the actors
are different. The Gnostics said
knowledge is the cure‑all. You
can just attain unto full knowledge, then you will be in the light. They, of course, despise and hated those who
were ignorant. There knowledge did not
free them from hate. John warned the
Christians of his day that they ought not to be duped into thinking that
brilliance is the key to the realm of light.
Love alone can get you in. If a
genius says he is in the light, yet hates his brother, John says he is still in
the darkness. He is not a free man, but
is bound and blind, and like captured Samson, he is a slave to the Philistines
of hate.
There is
only one way out of the darkness of hate says John. We must hit hate hard with the only weapon that can snap its
heavy chains, and that weapon is obedience to the supreme commandment of
love. John had just said in verse 3
that assurance grows out of obedience to God's commands, and now he explains
the commandment which is the essence of them all. He begins in verse 7 where he addressed them as brethren, or
beloved, as the modern versions have it.
He assures them that he is not introducing any new idea like the
Gnostics were doing. He is only writing
of the old commandment which they had from the beginning. Cults and heretics always stress the fact
that what they have is new and different.
This is even more so with those who want to exploit the masses who crave
for the novel in religion. The faith once for all delivered to the saints is
often labeled as old hash, and discarded, but John, and all of Scripture, says
it is this old hash alone that can nourish the soul and give it life and
strength.
John
says the commandment you need to obey is the old one you heard, and he is
referring to the words of Jesus in his
Gospel in 13:34, "A new commandment I give you that you love one another;
even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." John has just said in verse 6 that we are to
walk as Jesus walked, and He walked in love, and commanded us to also walk in
love. This command is the foundation
stone of the Christian life. Then in
verse 8 John seems to deliberately contradict himself, for he says it is a new
commandment he is writing. It is not
hard to see how it can be both old and new.
The old songs are often the new songs, and old subjects dealt with in a
new approach become fresh and new. John
is simply saying, the Christian answer to the problem of hate, and all other
problems is an old answer that goes back to the author of truth‑Jesus
Christ. Yet, it is ever new and
fresh. The message is old, but the
experience of it is always new in the lives of those who obey it.
The commandment
to love thy neighbor as thyself goes back to the early days of Israel, but it
became new in Christ, for he did not just repeat it, he lived it. It was an old truth made new and fresh by
being exhibited in life. John says it
is true also in you, for in following Christ the old commandment of love
becomes new because it is experienced and exhibited. This is so says John because the darkness is passing away and the
true light is already shining. Darkness
is not past, for if that was the case John would not even need to write. The Gnostics were still a force of darkness,
but they would be conquered. John was
optimistic and says the light will continue to shine until the forces of
darkness are destroyed. The speed of
the process will depend upon believers obedience to the command of love.
John
says even Judaism was darkness in comparison to Christianity, for the true
light was not shining in the Old Testament.
The Jews despised the Gentiles.
One Rabbi said, "The Gentiles were created by God to be fuel for
the fires of hell." The true light
in Christ, however, came to shine upon the Gentiles, and they became children
of God. Jesus came, not as a light of Israel
only, but as the light of the world.
All walls were broken down, and all hate and prejudice were excluded
from His kingdom. John Paul Wheelock
wrote,
I lift my gaze beyond the
night, and see,
Above the banner of man's hate unfurled,
The holy figure that on
Calvary
Stretched out wide enough for all the world.
God's
new age of grace and light has begun says John. The message supreme is that God is light and in Him is no
darkness at all. He goes on to say in
verse 9 that this makes hate
incompatible with the Christian life and fellowship with God. John hits hatred hard. It is a black and white area. Regardless of what you say, if you hate your
brother you are not a part of this new age of life. You are still free‑Christian, and you are yet in
darkness. We do not judge the hater
when we say he cannot be a Christian.
It will be of no avail to tell us we cannot judge, for God has given us
this revelation that the man who hates his brother is still in darkness.
Hatred hurts
the hater far more than the hated for it excludes him from the fellowship of
God. It is he who obeys and follows
Christ, who loves as He loved that becomes the recipient of God's blessings,
and in turn becomes the greatest blessing to society. The only answer to man's hate is love, and not just natural love,
but the love that God imparts into the hearts of all who receive His Son as
Savior. This is the Christian message
to the world, and it is our responsibility to exhibit the love of Christ to the
world. Henry Longfellow wrote,
The sole thing I hate is
hate; for hate is death and love is
life,
A piece, a splendor from
above; and hate, a never ending strife,
A smoke, a blackness from
the abyss. Where unclean serpents coil
and hiss.
Love is the Holy Ghost
within; Hate the unpardonable sin!
Who preaches otherwise than
this, betrays his Master with a kiss.
Let us
neither betray Christ by word or deed, but obey the great commandment of love
and be free from the chains of hate.
Only then can we be living examples that give the prisoners of hate the
hope that they too can be delivered by putting their trust in Christ.
11. LOVE'S LIMITATIONS Based on I John 2:15‑17
"Atlanta's Race" is the title of Sir E. J. Poynter's most
successful paintings. The story behind
the painting is from Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Atlanta was the daughter of Schoenus of Boeotia, and she was famous for
her matchless beauty. She was also so
swift of foot that none could outrun her.
To everyone who asked for her hand in marriage she gave the same
answer. She would be the prize of him
who could vanquish her in the race.
Defeat, however, would carry the penalty of death. Many lost their lives in trying to outrun
her. After a lull there appeared a
youth by the name of Hippomenes who challenged Atlanta once more to race. He knew he could not conquer her by
fleetness of foot, so he carried with him three golden apples, for he had
received this advice from Venus:
When first she heads the from
the starting place
Cast down the first one for
her eyes to see,
And when she turns aside
make on apace.
And if again she heads thee
in the race
Spare not the other two to
cast aside,
If she not long enough
behind will bide.
The race
began, and he followed these instructions.
As Atlanta was about to pass him he dropped the first apple. She looked down, but ran on. He dropped the second apple and she seemed
to stoop, and when he dropped the third she did stoop to pick it up. It was only a few seconds lost, but it was
enough, for Hippomenes had touched the
maple goal, and Atlanta had at last been defeated. Poynter's painting pictures Atlanta at that decisive moment when
she turned her eyes from the goal and stretched her arm toward the golden
temptation which brought her to defeat.
The
painting is an illustration of the danger that faces every believer in the race
toward the goal of Christlikeness. We
must be looking always unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, but
along side of us runs the world competing for our love, and John says it also
has three golden apples to cast in our path:
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The world casts these down before us hoping
we will take our eyes off Christ and stoop to gain these earthly prizes and
forget the goal.
All of
life is a competitive battle between the love of the eternal and the love of
the temporal. One or the other must
win, for one excludes the other. You
cannot have your cake and eat it too.
Atlanta must either win the race by keeping her eyes on the goal, or she
must sacrifice the race to gain the golden apple. A choice must be made, an John says the Christian must make this
choice as well. He cannot love God and
the world, for love must be limited to one or the other. John knows that Christians will be tempted
to stoop and pick up the golden apples of the world, and that is why he warns
them and commands them to love not the world.
He had
just written about love being the very essence of the Christian life, and that
to be without it is to be in darkness.
Now, however, he makes it clear that love must have its limitations, for
it cannot be indiscriminate. The object
of one's love must be God, and if this be so there are some things that cannot
then be loved, and they are called in one word‑world. Fortunately John goes on to tell us just
what he means by the world. He names
the three golden apples of the world's appeal, and he thereby defines the
worldliness that we are to avoid. It is
important that we see this clearly lest we misunderstand and pervert the
statement, "Love not the world." Many have done so.
St.
Bernard would spend days by the shore of Lake Constance and keep his eyes glued
to his book lest he raised them and see the beauty, and be seduced away from
God. John did not mean the creation
when he said we are to not love the world.
Jesus loved the world in that sense, and He said, "Behold the
lilies of the field and the birds of the air." The heavens declare the glory of God and all of nature shows
forth His handiwork. The earth is the
Lord's and the fullness thereof. It is
not the work of the devil. It is
legitimate for us to love the world in the sense of delighting in God's
creation. It can be excessive to the
point of worshipping the creation rather than the Creator, and this of course
is folly. But to love and enjoy nature
is a part of our appreciation of God's nature.
Not
loving the world does not mean we are to not love the people of the world. This would be a denial of what is
commanded. God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son to die for them.
We are to love the world in this sense of loving the people. We must see that the world in this context
is what we call worldliness. It is that
order of fallen society, and the attitudes of fallen people. It is the lust, pride, and all that is
opposed to the light of God's righteousness.
The world is that realm where darkness reigns. David Smith says the world here equals, "The sum of all the
forces antagonistic to the spiritual life." This is the world we are not to love.
John
does not just give a command and leave it at that. He says love not the world, and then he goes on to give reasons
for command. God expects man to use his
intelligence and to weigh values. He
does not compete with the world by brute force. He offers reasons for choosing His was rather than the way of the
world. We want to examine the 2 reasons
that John gives us here for not loving the world. First‑
I. IT IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE LOVE OF GOD.
The
Christian cannot love the world, for to do so is to forsake the love of God,
since it is impossible to love both.
Paul said, "Demus has forsaken me having loved this present
world." Demus had no choice but to
forsake Paul if he was going to love the world, for loving it and serving God
are opposites that cannot be reconciled.
He had to forsake Paul if he was going to love the world, just as he
would have had to forsake the world to truly serve God with Paul.
To love
is to give someone a supreme and central place in your life. You cannot have two supreme loves. It must be either God or the world on the
throne, for neither of them will share the throne with the other. If you love the world you are electing to
lose the love of God. Show me a man who
is lustful and proud in an evil sense, and I will show you a man who may be
very kind, helpful, and even religious, but a man in whom the love of God does
not abide. I believe, however, this can
even happen to a Christian. John is
wasting his time and ours if he writes to warn Christians about what they can
never be tempted into. Who needs to
watch out for what is impossible. It is
possible for a Christian to lose the love of God, and cease to be a servant of
Christ by letting the love of the world overwhelm their hearts.
Each of
us must constantly examine our hearts lest we end up as castaways, and no longer
worthy contestants for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. We are not talking about losing
salvation, but about losing one's usefulness for the kingdom of God. Our love and loyalty must be continuously
examined to see if its object is Jesus Christ or some selfish and worldly
object. Just as a person can get a
dishonorable discharge from the army and still be a citizen of the country, so
a Christian can be set on the shelf and no longer be an active member of the
soldiers of the cross, and yet still be a part of God's family. But this is a
terrible demotion.
When
two people get married they limit the expression of their romantic and sexual
love to their partners. So it is in the
spiritual realm. When a person is saved
and enters into a relationship with Christ as Savior, he becomes a part of the
bride of Christ. From that point on his
love and faithfulness is to be to Christ alone. To love the world is to commit spiritual adultery. This was the most common sin of the Old
Testament people of God, and it is doubtless in first place also in the New
Testament dispensation. The message of
the prophets is the message needed today.
We need to forsake all other gods, and be loyal to the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Set your
affections on things above and not on the things of the earth, for these things
are incompatible with the love of God.
The
challenge of John is for believers to be loyal to the Lord in their love, and
not corrupt it and diminish it by allowing the world to gain their
affection. Young put it, "Let not
the cooing of the world allure thee, Which of her lovers ever found her
true?" E. J. Poynter, whose
painting we earlier considered, painted another well known picture called
"Faithful Unto Death." It is
picture of a soldier at his post during the great volcano eruption that buried
Pompei in hot lava. All the people were
fleeing for safety, but the soldier grasped his spear firmly and stood
erect. His eyes revealed terror, and
one can sense the struggle that rages in his mind between duty and the desire
to save himself. Obedience wins,
however, and he remains at his post faithful unto death.
The
Bible nowhere says it will be easy to be a Christian, but if a pagan soldier
can be faithful to his superior even unto death, then any Christian should be
ashamed to do less for his Lord who died foe his eternal salvation. The world desperately needs Christians who
will love Jesus supremely, and forsaking all others keep themselves to Him
alone. To love the world is
incompatible with God's love, and so the degree to which you love the world is
the degree to which you suffer the loss of God's love. Let our decoration then be that of F. W. H.
Meyers:
Who so has felt the Spirit
of the Highest
Cannot confound nor doubt
Him nor deny;
Yeah, with one voice, O
world, tho' thou deniest,
Stand thou on that side, for
on this am I.
II. IT IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE WILL OF GOD.
Not only
is it impossible to reconcile the love of the world with the love of God, but
it will be impossible to do so in eternity, for the things of the world have no
part in God's will for the future.
These things will not last is what John is saying. They will pass away, for they are temporal
and transient, and will have no place in God's eternal plan. To love them is to trade the solid diamond
of eternity for the melting Popsicle of time.
The
love of the world, which is really lust, is centered around pleasures that are purely a matter of the flesh, and do not
go deep and affect the soul. The lover of the world has only surface pleasures.
They are real, but not lasting pleasures. They do not produce joy and a sense
of ultimate purpose and meaning.
Fading is the worldling's
pleasure,
All his boastful pomp and
show.
Solid joys and lasting
treasure
None by Zion's children
know.
This is
why it is of no profit to gain the whole world if one loses his own soul. You
can never come out ahead by trading the timeless for the temporary. The world
throws down its golden apples of present pleasure and say enjoy yourself, for
its later than you think. The world appeals with the same urgency as the
Gospel. The world says today is the day to satisfy the lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and so let us eat, drink, and be
merry, for tomorrow we die. Now is the time to live.
The
Christian, however, with the eyes of faith looks ahead and sees the world and its
lusts pass away. We claim the promise of God that those who do His will abide
forever. John fights worldliness, not by shouting and getting angry, but by the
calm appeal to the believer to consider how incompatible it is with God's
purpose and will. He appeals to their sense of values and makes it clear that
to choose the world is a poor investment, for the world and its lust are going
to go out of style for good, but those who are in God's will have a style that
will last forever. Omar Khayyam wrote,
The worldly Hope men set
their hearts upon
Turns to ashes‑or it
prospers‑and anon,
Like snow upon the desert's
dusty face
Lighting a little hour or
two is gone.
The
Christian does not invest his time and trust in that which is fading and
passing away, but it the will of God which is lasting and eternal. Love for
both are incompatible. The world has a strong appeal in spite of the fact that
it offers only fading pleasures, and the Christian can only refrain from
stooping to snatch up its golden apples of temptation by keeping his eyes on
Christ. John Henry Newman wrote,
Unveil, O Lord, and on us shine in glory and in
grace,
This gaudy world grows pale before the beauty of Thy
face.
Till Thou art seen, it seems to be a sort of fairy
ground,
Where suns unsetting light the sky, and flowers and
fruits abound.
But when Thy keener, purer beam is poured upon our
sight
It loses all its power to charm, and what was day is
night.
Do not
love the world, for it is incompatible with the love of God and the will of
God. To love the world is to lose the best for time and eternity, and so limit
your love to the Lord. Keep your eyes on Him as your ultimate loyalty, and make
sure all other loves are compatible with loving Him supremely.
A deaf
but pious English lady visiting a country town in Scotland went to church with
an ear trumpet. It was a new device
then, and the elders of the church had never seen one, and they viewed it with
great suspicion. After consultation one
of them walked over to her and waging his finger at her warningly said,
"One toot and ye're out."
This, of course, was a warning that was unneeded.
Not so
the warning a man received in New York.
He was walking down fourth Ave. and stopped on a temporary bridge to
watch some work being done on the subway.
A worker told him to move on, for he was in danger of being hurt. He said he had a right to be on a public
street, and he refused to move. A few
moments later he was struck on the head by a piece of metal and was severely
hurt. He sued for damages, and the
courts decision is of real interest.
The court agreed with him that he had a perfect right to stay where he
was. However, since he was warned of
the danger of doing so, it is presumed that he accepted the risk involved, and,
therefore, could not collect damages.
The contractor had no right to remove him by force, and so had fully
done its duty when it gave warning.
Here was a warning that was needed, but was unheeded, and so was of no
effect in preventing what it was meant to prevent. To be forewarned is not to be forearmed if the warning is
ignored.
In
Scripture there are no warnings but those that are needed, and so we ought to
make sure that we give heed to every one of them. Our study of I John has brought us to a warning concerning
antichrist, or antichrists. John only
mentions the anti‑Christ, but his warning covers his numerous
predecessors which he calls antichrists. The thing that impresses me about this
passage is the fact that John is judging who these antichrists are, and he lays
down a standard by which Christians of all time can judge the antichrists of
their day. From a superficial point of
view this would be contrary to the words of Christ that we judge not. These words of Christ are so often quoted
and given such an absurd application that I wanted to call your attention to
the fact that there are clear areas where they do not apply. This saying comes up all the time in
conversations where the character and conduct of persons are being
discussed. Even non‑Christians
quote it to throw up a smoke screen to avoid being examined.
Nothing
can be more absurd than to suppose that Christ meant for us to suspend our
critical and moral faculties, and refuse to determine the worthiness of any
man's character and conduct. Such an
application of the words of Christ would lead to the neglect of all the
warnings of Scripture to beware of false prophets. It would make John's warning and advice both wrong and
worthless. Not applying the truth of
the Bible to life is a common problem, but to give it an absurd application is
even worse. A boy said to his father, "Dad, did you go to Sunday School
when you were a boy?" Dad said, "Why yes son I always went to Sunday
School." The son replied,
"Well then, I think then I'll quit, it isn't doing me any good
either." Lack of application of
what one learns leads to no good, but an absurd application of what one learns can
lead to definite harm. Therefore, let
us give heed to these words of warning by John, and recognize that some things
we must judge. The first thing we must
judge is‑
I. THE SIGNS
OF THE TIMES.
In 3:1
John says it is the last time, and we know it by the signs we see. All of the New Testament authors indicate
that Christians will be able to know when the end is near, for there will be
signs. In Matt. 24 the disciples asked
Jesus what the sign of His coming will be, and of the end of the world. They assume there would be signs of the end
of history. Jesus told them not to be
alarmed at false messiahs, wars, and rumors of wars, nations rising against nations,
famines, and earthquakes in various places, for all of these are to characterize
all of history and not just the
end. Many have perverted the clear
words of Christ and quoted these things as signs of the end, but Jesus says
they are only the beginning of sufferings.
Jesus goes on to say there will be much tribulation for the church to go
through, and there will be a great falling away, and many false prophets, but
the church will still succeed in taking the Gospel to all nations, and then
will come the end.
Paul
later explains more concerning this falling away, and the man of lawlessness
who will arise before the end. John,
now later yet, adds some more details to the picture. He says to the Christians of his day that they have heard that
antichrist would come. He does not say
that he has come, but he says that there are so many antichrists already that
it is a sign of nearing the end. We
will consider the problem this raises in a moment. I want to pause here and draw a conclusion that I feel is
inescapable and important for our whole understanding of the doctrine of last
things. The Christian who studies the
Word of God will be able to see signs of the approaching end of the world. Christians have made many false judgments,
and given many erroneous applications of the signs of the end, but,
nevertheless, the whole New Testament
justifies us in believing we will be able to know when the end is near. To deny
this and say we will have no idea is to make a large portion of the New
Testament meaningless. Everything the
New Testament says about signs is worthless if we cannot judge the signs of the
times.
Now we
must consider what seems to be an embarrassing problem arising out of John's
dogmatic assertion that it was obvious 1900 years ago that it was the last hour
of history. John had good reason to
believe the end was near in his day, for except for the fact that the
antichrist himself had not yet
appeared, the other signs seemed to be almost fully fulfilled. The great falling away due to the Gnostic
heresy seemed to fulfill Paul's first sign, and sinse the known world then was
practically all reached with the Gospel, it would appear that Christ's major
sign was also fulfilled. When John
wrote at the end of the first century, it looked as if the last hour was at
hand, for all that was left was for the man of sin to appear. Many, especially of those who are liberal,
just say that John had good reason to believe it was the last hour, but it
turned out he was wrong for antichrist did not appear.
Others
say that John is referring to the fall of Jerusalem in 70A.D. and that it was
the last hour for Judaism. This is
highly improbable, for there is not the slightest hint that would lead the
reader to get this meaning. If John
meant this, he could not have done a better job of being obscure. If this were true, it would solve the
problem, but not convincingly. Bengal,
the conservative Greek scholar, solves the problem by an even less likely
interpretation. He says John is
referring to the last hour of his life.
He was old and the end was near for him, and he knew it. It is hard to see any connection with the
text in this interpretation. The fact
of many antichrists is what caused John to know it was the last hour, and not
his feeling that he was not long for this world.
The most
obvious interpretation is to recognize that John is only speaking in the common
Christian language of his day.
Christians looked at time as being in 3 ages: The former age, the
present evil age, and the age to come.
The present age is the last age of history as we know it. It is an age that is passing away. The age to come has already broken into the
present age, and runs parallel with it.
We who know Christ already partake of the things to come such as eternal
life. It has already begun, and we are
rescued from the darkness of this present evil age and are made citizens of the
kingdom of light. This concept leads
the New Testament authors to refer to this age as the last. It does not mean it will end soon, but that
it is passing away, and will give way completely to the age to come. For the Christian then, it is always in the
last days.
The book
of Hebrews begins by referring to the former days, when God spoke by prophets
in various ways "but in these last days he has spoken to us by His
Son." When Jesus came into history
that was the beginning of the end. The
last days began, and Peter at Pentecost said that what was taking place there
was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel that in the last days God would
pour out his Spirit upon all flesh. The
coming of the Holy Spirit was another sign of the last days. In other words, from the Jews point of view
in the Old Testament there was only the present age and the age to come‑the
last age. That last age began with the
coming of the Messiah to establish His kingdom. The present church age is the last age. God has no other plan. He
has given His final and fullest revelation in His Son, and when these last days
are over, eternity begins.
John was
simply saying that we are seeing the signs clearer than ever that these are the
last days, and the end is near. That
history has gone on yet for nearly 2000 years does not show that John was in
error. It only emphasizes the long
suffering of God. John also wrote by
God's inspiration the book of Revelation, and told of multitudes of things yet
should happen in these last days before the end. The fact that John could sense the real possibility of the end
being right around the corner explains why the book of Revelation can be
interpreted in so many ways. It can be
so interpreted to be nearly all fulfilled in the first century, as the
preterists do, or as being fulfilled in every century, as the historicists do,
or as being fulfilled at the literal last hour, as the futurists do.
The book
of Revelation is obviously calculated to keep the church aware that the end is
always near for every generation of Christians. John could sincerely believe that the last hour was near and be correct,
for it always is, yet God can continue to be longsuffering, and we can only go
by the revealed signs in judging if the end is at hand. In a sense the apostolic age was a type of
the history of the church to the end.
All the signs were fulfilled on what they thought was a universal
level. We know now it was not, but know
now that the whole world is involved, and when we see the signs fulfilled again
on a truly universal scale, we will know it is the last of the last days.
Let us
be cautious in applying this truth, and not depart from Scripture principles,
and start finding signs that are irrelevant.
A poet has done a fine job in giving us a sense of the urgency that is
to characterize us, but he misses completely the real signs of the end.
There are worries in the air, filling men with hope
and fear;
There are signals everywhere that the end is drawing
near,
There are warnings to prepare, for the King will
soon be here.
Troublelous times are gathering around, the days of
lawlessness
and crime.
Mighty earthquakes shake the ground, war clouds rise
in every
clime,
While there comes a solemn sound, we are near the
end of time.
His
conclusion is correct, but not his reasons for thinking so. Earthquakes and trouble have nothing to do with
the signs of the end. The reaching of
the whole world with the Gospel and the rise of anti‑Christ are the signs
we are to watch for.
13. SATANIC SEPARATISM Based on I John 2:19f
Harry
Emerson Fosdick has much thinking that is not acceptable to the evangelical
Christian, but he also has many valuable insights that make his writings of
real worth. One of his ideas is that a
man should not be judged so much by the position he is in, as by the direction
in which he is moving. He uses the
stock market as an illustration. To
judge the value of a figure quoted on a certain stock, it is not enough just to
have the figure of its present position, but one must know whether it has
reached that figure on the way up or the way down. It is not where it is, but the direction in which it is going,
that tells the value of the stock.
So it is
with people. It is not enough just to
know where they are. You must also know
which way they are headed, and whether it be up or down. Some start very high by natural endowment or
fortunate circumstances, and then head downward, while others start at the
bottom and struggle upward, and at some point says Fosdick, they will pass, and be considered equal, but
not so, for one is drifting down while the other is climbing up. It is not their position, but their
direction that determines the value of their position.
This is
true, not just for judging for secular success, but it fits the spiritual life
as well. The Apostle John is using it
as a standard by which to judge the antichrists of his day. In verse 19 John says that they have been
made manifest by the direction in which they have gone. They were visibly with us at one time, and
could have been judged as equals, for they were in the same church and same
fellowship. Now, however, they have
gone out from us, and this departure shows us they were really not of us, even
when they were with us. Their position
fooled us for a while, but once we saw the direction in which they were going, we knew they were not of us.
It is
significant to note that the antichrists were not outsiders, but were those who
were within, but who then went out of the church. This makes sense, for false doctrines seldom have their origins outside
the church, for those outside have no interest in doctrine. The heretics down through the centuries were
men who were deeply interested in theology, and considered themselves
Christians. So it is today with the
radical theologians who question orthodox theology. So it was with the Gnostics in John's day. They were not anti‑God by any means,
but they were convinced they had the real truth about God, and they were deeply
religious. Their departure from the
true church, and from the deity of Christ revealed that they were really never
a part of the body of Christ.
What
makes this of interest is that John is admitting that the Apostolic Church was
not infallible by a long shot. Just
like churches today, the membership roles then were filled with those who were
not truly saved. Whenever you hear some saint complaining because non‑Christians
get into the membership of the church, you can remind them that Judas got in on
the ground level when Christ began to build the church, and that the church of
the first century was also filled with false Christians. That has been the case
in every age.
It is
ignorance of history that causes Christians to look upon the past as golden,
and see only rust in the present age.
The church is in bad shape in many ways, but is far stronger now than it
has been in other periods. The sooner
we quit groaning in self pity and recognize we face only the same problems the
church has always faced, the sooner we will get moving along the road of
fulfilling our task. John says that
there was a great apostasy in the church of his day. John doesn't sink into pessimism, but simply says that it teaches
us that all who are with us are not necessarily of us. Every church since has had to recognize this, that just as Christians
can be in the world but not of it, so the world can be in the church but not of
it.
When the
unsaved within in the church get organized, as they did in John's day, then you
usually have a split. This is not to
say that all splits are a matter of saved and unsaved factions, for this is not
so. This would be giving Christians a
credit they do not deserve, for they have often been foolish and unchristian,
and have been tools of the devil in causing divisions. In John's case, however, he judges those who
have gone out as being antichrists, and he can do so, for he is an Apostle, and
knows that the true church is built on the foundation of the Lordship of
Christ, which they reject.
He knows that anyone who would forsake the group
that holds to Christ's deity must be unsaved.
By the same standard we can judge persons today. Those who do not accept Christ as Lord are
made manifest as antichrists.
This
passage has been used in false ways.
The Catholic church made much of it when Luther went out of the Catholic
church. He was branded as
antichrist. Any group can take this
passage and brand any who depart from them as antichrists, if the main concept
of the passage is ignored. It is only
in this context as departure from the body of Christ, which holds Christ as
Lord, that fulfills the type of apostasy of which John is writing. We cannot judge any person to be an apostate
until we can say they have denied the Son.
When person have done so they can be labeled as antichrists. B. H. Carroll said, "When you see a
star fall you can know it is not a star."
So when you see a deserter of the faith, you can know he was not a true
disciple of the faith.
We see
from this verse that there are two sides to the concept of separation. In itself it is not a virtue to be a
separatist, for it is as much the method of antichrist as it is of the true
church. The multitude of false cults
are the product of separation. The
truth is irksome to the unsaved, so they depart and start their own religion
where they can do and believe as they please.
It makes all the difference in the world what you are separating
from. If it is from the world and false
doctrine, then you follow Christ, but if it is from the truth and God's people,
you follow antichrist. John says, when
you can see a person going the wrong direction, you can judge him to be an
apostate.
The New
Testament pictures the church as a living organism, and believers are members
of it. They are hands, feet, eyes and
ears etc. Every true believer is a
living part of the body, and if he is not, he is not of the body. John Cotton, the old Puritan commentator
wrote concerning these apostates:
"A glass eye maybe an ornament to the body, and a wooden leg may
support the body, yet they are not true members. So much may be ornaments and supports of the church, but yet not
true members. Though they cleave to the
body, yet they are not joined by nerves and sinews, nor anointed by the
head. Just as not all Israel was true
Israel, so not all the church is the true church.
It also
shows a very close unity of true Christians in this period. The implication of this verse is that only
unbelievers would ever leave the church.
No true Christian would forsake the body of Christ. This text should have prevented many of the
separations that have occurred in history.
John Cotton comments on this matter in a way we need to consider. He wrote, "It may be just to separate
when a church is heretical, yet that alone is not a sufficient ground. The church at Corinth denied the
resurrection of the dead, yet Paul calls them saints; so the Pharisees charged
that none should profess Christ, and taught false doctrine, yet Christ charges His
disciples to obey them because they sit in Moses' chair. Therefore error, even fundamental error, is
not always a just cause."
Many
Christians built their separatist ideas on political, sociological, and
systematic theological foundations, and not on Scripture. Man made differences become a matter of
idolatry when they are used to divide Christians. Unless it can be established that a group or man has denied the
deity of Christ, it is a Christian obligation to work out any differences in
the spirit of Christ, and not be separated. If Christian would have always done
so, there would never have been so much disunity among Christians. Christians need to stay in places of
leadership in all organizations to maintain a Christian influence, rather than
separate and leave the group to become totally secular, or even anti‑Christian. R.E.O. White writes to evangelical
Christians concerning their relationship to the ecumenical movement and points
out all of the dangers and risks involved, but adds, "Nevertheless,
evangelicals must remember that to stand aloof from a movement for fear of what
that movement might do, when standing
aloof may make more likely the thing you fear, involved some responsibility for
the thing you foresaw but did nothing to prevent."
If Billy
Graham was a separatist, he would not be Billy Graham, and the Gospel he
preaches would remain unheard by millions.
Graham has the attitude of John, and says if men do not like the truth
they will leave us, and thereby prove they are not of us. In other words, let the devil retreat, but
let not the church forsake territory it has already won. John was doing all he could to keep the
church stable and centered on the solid rock of Christ. The influence of false doctrine was
everywhere, but John did not advise retreat, but like Paul and other New
Testament authors, he encouraged Christians to stand fast for the truth. If any separation is to take place, let it
be the satanic separation of those who cannot tolerate the deity of Christ.
14. THE WINNING WIND Based on I John 2:20
Determining the superiority of either side in either conflict is
difficult since the decisive factor in gaining a victory is often hidden. This was certainly the case when the Spanish
Armada sailed against England. It was
one of the greatest fleets ever assembled, and the Spanish ships dwarfed the
English vessels. They towered above the
sea, and the very sight of them threw fear into the English. It appeared to be no mystery where the
superior power was, until an unforeseen factor entered the picture. A strong wind began to blow up the English
Channel and it was discovered that this made the large Spanish ships
unmanageable, whereas the smaller English vessels could still maneuver. The result was, the Spaniards were at the
mercy of the wind, and were blown up the channel into the North Sea, and around
the coast of Scotland, and finally on to the Hebrides where they were smashed
to pieces.
The wind
changed the whole picture, and gave the victory to the apparently
inferior. The winning wind was the
decisive factor. It is the wind that
changed the whole picture in the battle of light against darkness also. Go back to Pentecost, and you find a small
group of 120 people facing a Roman Empire, and an unfriendly Judaism. A picture of weakness facing a great
strength. Yet, when the wind came upon
the 120, they received the promised power of the Holy Spirit, and they went out
and turned the world upside down. The
wind was the decisive factor, and again, the apparently inferior gained the
victory. Pentecost was the day of the
anointing of the church, and from that time on all who enter in the body of
Christ by faith in Christ are anointed with the Holy Spirit. John is saying to the Christians of his day
that it is this anointing that is still the enabling power to be superior over
evil forces, and it keeps the believer from being deceived by the
antichrists.
In verse
20, John with one blow destroys the professed superiority of the Gnostics. They said they were unique and above all
others, for they knew what only the initiated could know. Those who had not gone through their
particular rites just were not capable of knowing the mysteries of God. John tells the Christians that this is
nonsense, for he says to all of them, "You have been anointed by the Holy
One‑Jesus Christ Himself."
He said, you know all things, or as the modern versions have it, you all
know. John is contrasting the Christian
position with that of the Gnostics.
They say only the elite can know the deep truths of God, but John
says all Christians know the deepest
truths possible to know in knowing Christ.
John did not make a distinction between the slave and the educated Roman
convert, or the even more knowledgeable Jewish Christian. They all had the anointing of the Spirit,
and they all knew the basic truth of Christ's deity, and the need for faith in
Him alone for salvation.
Every
Christian is equal when it comes to the knowledge of God's greatest truth. Educated Christians go deeper, but none can
go higher, for knowing Christ is the pinnacle of Revelation. All of the true believers are one here, and
this is why John knew that those who went out of the fellowship were not true
believers, for had they been anointed of the Spirit, they too would have known
Jesus to be the Christ, and could never have forsaken Him or His body.
The
word here for anointed is chrism, and so all Christians have a chrism from
Christ. As He is God's Anointed One, so
we are His anointed ones. We are
Christ's Christ, or as one has said, we are little christs‑miniature
messiahs seeking in Christ's stead to bring the world to be reconciled with the
Father though Him. Every believer is
protected by the Holy Spirit within from being lead astray by the folly and
deception of the antichrists. This
explains why, when the antichrist comes, that Paul speaks of in II Thess. 2,
that though all the unsaved in the world will be deceived, there will be none
of the elect deceived. They cannot be,
for the Holy Spirit within makes it impossible for them to be deceived, for
they know Christ, and can recognize any lie that would seek to deny this most
fundamental of all truths.
This
whole concept of the anointing takes us back to the Old Testament where priests
and kings were anointed for God's service.
It was a special thing for them only that set them apart to be used as
instruments of God's Spirit. Now in the
New Testament age all believers are anointed.
We see in this another support for the doctrine of the priesthood of all
believers. Every one of us are anointed
by Christ, and not just pastors and missionaries. They have the additional distinction of being set apart by the
church, and they must give an account to the church, but all are anointed by
Christ, and equally accountable to Him.
The layman is not obligated to prepare sermons, baptize, marry, etc.,
but he is just as responsible for witnessing to the lost as is the pastor.
John is
not saying this here, but it is the logical result of what he is saying. He makes it clear that all Christians have this in common; that
they are anointed, and have the most basic knowledge of salvation in
Christ. This fact, plus all we know of
the significance of anointing in Scripture leads to the conclusion that every
believer is commissioned to be a servant and a witness in the world.
When
David was selected out of his brothers to be king we read in I Sam. 16:13, "Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and
anointed him in the midst of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord came
mightily upon David from that day forward." When one was anointed of the Spirit he was used as an instrument
to accomplish God's will on earth. This
was for kings and priests, and the thought occurred to me that there should be
a doctrine of the kingship of all believers, as well as the priesthood of all
believers. Just as we are ministers to
the world for Christ, so we also reign with Christ, and are called in Rev. 1:6
both kings and priests.
The
significance of these Scriptural truths are just being rediscovered, and are
the basis for the modern interest in the layman. The church became clergy centered, and the rest of the believers
became spectators, and the result is that the church became Americanized to the
point of everything centering around the performance of the clergy. With the development of so many more places
to go to be entertained, and better entertained, the church has lost a great
many spectators to the world, which gives them what they want. The result is the church is trying to figure
out how to get the laymen more active.
This is a good sign and should bring renewal to the church. It is not enough to have a gland active here
and there. The whole body must be
active if the church is going to fulfill its purpose. All are anointed, and all are responsible for proclaiming the
good news.
In verse
21 John says he writes to them, not because they do not know the truth, but
because they do. His purpose is not to
address the unbeliever, and try to convince them of the deity of Christ, but to
strengthen those who are already convinced.
Knowing the truth made them able to detect the lies of the Gnostics, but
the Gnostics were deceived by lies because they did not know the truth. In other words, truth is only of real value
to those who already know the truth,
for they alone can appreciate it and distinguish it from error. Those who are deceived cannot tell truth
from error. They are victims of the
lies of the antichrist.
This
verse shows us what we often forget:
That the Bible is for Christians, and not for the unbeliever. God's written revelation is for believers,
while the preached word, and the word of testimony from believers, are God's
instruments for reaching the unsaved.
Some unsaved people are won by Bible reading, but it is rare. Most people are won through the spoken word. The Bible is not meant to be evangelistic,
but is for the purpose of preparing the believer to be evangelistic. Paul gives us a list of the values of the
Bible, and not a single one of them apply to the non‑believer.