1 John 3: 11 – 4: 6

As those of you have been here on the last few Sundays will know, we have been looking at one of the ‘letters’ preserved in the New Testament which was written to one of the very first early churches by the Apostle John, the intimate friend and disciple of Jesus, sometime towards the end of the first century.      If you missed Joe’s excellent talk last week, you can get it on the website, or I have put some paper copies on the font by the main door. The text of today’s reading is there on your Notice Sheet so that you can refer to it.

Our reason for studying these letters to those infant churches is that as soon as we start to read them, we discover that, although written nearly 2000 years ago and in a very different culture from the modern West, human nature and those human communities we call ‘churches’ have not changed much! And that is especially true of human beings’ fundamental need for love and truth. These, as we have already seen, are exactly what John majors on in this letter.

(Several people have remarked that John does repeat himself quite a lot in his letter. Well, in his defence, let me explain. First, it is a long letter and would have been read out to an assembled congregation - not everyone in those days could read and he would have wanted to make sure that his message got home. Secondly, he was by then an old man, so I have a lot sympathy for him: after all, they say that when you get old, three things quickly go: first, memory; then………???? Oh, well let’s move on.)

What I would like to do this morning, to begin with, is just to sum up the main points he is making and then consider their significance in a little more detail before you, as we do here in the Third Sunday Service, have a chance to ask me any questions about the passage or anything I have said.

John reinforces here the main point in his letter, reminding his readers and encouraging them to hold fast to the perfect revelation of both truth and love which are to be found in Jesus the Christ, God’s one and only Son. It is his truth and love which together provide the one, sure focus and standard by which ‘truth’ and ‘love’ are to be defined and judged. But because of what they are, they also attract hatred and lies in the form of opposition from both outside and inside the church. John states very clearly what genuine Christian truth and love are, how we know and recognise them, and gives examples of how to test them. Finally, he distinguishes between, on the one hand, worldly views and values, and, on the other, God’s truth and love, reminding his readers that they have nothing to fear because (4:4) ‘The One who is in you (the true Spirit of truth and love) is greater than the one who is in the world.’ The ‘world’ in this sense being ‘anyone who is opposed to Christ and his teaching’, as Christ himself put it.

What we do learn here from John – a man who faithfully and lovingly explains the person and teaching of Jesus – are some things which, just as much in today’s world as in his own, provoke controversy; but which Christians and local churches need to appreciate - and, I must add, not be afraid to stand up for - if Christians and Christ’s Church are to remain faithful to the personally and socially liberating truth and love of Christ which he called us to proclaim and share with all people regardless.

Now, as most of you know, I always try to avoid controversy and ruffling feathers, realising, as I do, that the average Anglican in the average congregation in the average village in England would much rather a quiet life in which his or her church offered comfort rather than challenge and the status quo rather than innovation. But the Good News of Jesus, his ‘Gospel’, does have this uncomfortable feature of challenging; challenging the beliefs and world views of individuals, the status quo, and those givens and taboos that the world deems sacrosanct. John raises some of those areas of controversy here because the local church and local Christians cannot be either faithful or effective if they will not take Jesus’ teaching seriously and practise his love and stand up for his truth.

I’d like to touch on just three that his letter raises here because  they are crucial to a proper understanding of how we recognise or define who a Christian is – according to Christ’s definition, that is; how we recognise or define the opposition to Christ and to Christians; and then why Christians have every reason, indeed a sure hope, that if we remain faithful in both truth and love – love, the Jesus way - there is nothing in this world or the next to fear.

John begins this passage (v 11) by stressing the supreme and abiding requirement for ‘love of one another’, (citing Cain as an extreme example of failure in this) and a determination to set aside selfishness and sinfulness. Indeed, the kind of love he advocates has three very clear strains. You can see them there in verses 14 – 18.

First, Christians must be prepared not only to not hate but also to lay down their lives for others because that was the example set by Jesus himself. Secondly, we must not ‘refuse help (v 17) to the needy’; and thirdly, we should not be ‘astonished’ (v 13) if people hate us. The first two strains are perfectly obvious; but why the third? Well, because the fact is that such Christian love, whilst it has inspired people to become Christians, has also invited criticism and hatred. In John’s day the Christians were criticised by the rich and the powerful because, for example, they would go around collecting up the babies and children who had been thrown out to die and take them into their own homes and care for them. In the 19th Century it was Christians who stopped child labour, stopped the slave trade, educated the poor, etc, etc, all because (v 22) they ‘obeyed his commandments and did what pleases him’… and all that in the face of the world’s fierce opposition.

Today, Christians all over the world and increasingly here in our own country, seeking in love to right wrongs and fight injustices in accordance with Christ’s clear teaching, very often find themselves meeting fierce opposition, being told that the world knows better, and even facing persecution themselves as a direct result of their faithfulness to Christ. But for the Christian, truth must also and always accompany love; a trust in the truth and a firm desire to see it respected and implemented. As verse 23 says, truth and love go together. And what John expressly states is that the truth that inspires Christian love is the truth about Jesus Christ. Why? Because he it is and his teaching that not only inspire the love but also serve to define ‘love’ and how it should be exercised. Again we see the world today contesting this with alternative definitions of ‘love’ which, despite often very cunning attempts to hide the facts, do, all too often, lead to the most terrible of consequences especially, in my personal pastoral experience, where children and teenagers are concerned.

So, briefly, a Christian, according to John, is someone who believes that Jesus was exactly whom he claimed to be, the Son of God (v 23) come to present in person God’s perfect truth and love, who lived by that truth and love and then demonstrated them perfectly by voluntarily laying down his life to make it possible for humanity to be reconciled to God. And that voluntary ‘sacrifice’ of his was necessary because, like it or not, God’s justice is an integral part of his truth and his love which we cannot simply brush aside because it challenges our own much less than perfect ideas both about justice and about ourselves.

Well, secondly, what about the opposition, those whom Jesus referred to as ‘the world’, and by which he meant ‘those whose ideas about truth and love were opposed to God’s perfect revelation of them’? What I absolutely must make clear here though is this: Jesus did not mean that there were not and are not those who, although not confessing Christians, still live in keeping with and try to promote at least certain elements of God’s truth and love. Of course there are very decent, morally upright, and loving people who do these things because of the upbringing, education, and experiences they have had which lead them to live in this way, or because their consciences lead them this way.

That they refuse to admit or try to explain away the underlying, hidden, or innate Christian origin and influence of those things on their principles and attitudes is very sad and a symptom of the ‘blindness’ Jesus himself spoke of. And I have always thought this both sad and unfortunate because they could do so much more and with so much more joy if only they did welcome Christ and work with him: there is always a cost to the exercise of our free will when we use it either against or without regard to God’s revelation in Jesus Christ.

But John knew, and Jesus knew, and anyone with any discernment knows, that both beyond the church and, sadly, inside it there are those (4: verses 1 -3 and 5) who, for a myriad of personal reasons, either attack the love and the truth as shown and taught by Jesus or try to change it to suit their own very much less than perfect purposes. John wants Christians to be very clear and wise about the opposition, not to be taken in by it or tempted away by it, but rather (4: 1) to ‘test’ what they see and hear by the standards of Jesus’ perfect truth and love, the truth about him – that he was God himself come to earth to reconcile us – and the truth he taught and practised in the most perfect love.

Thirdly and lastly then, John explains the grounds on which Christians have nothing to fear; nothing to fear from God, from the world, or from the false prophets who would lead people astray. Quite simply it is this, (4 verse 4) that when a person puts his or her faith in Jesus Christ and his reconciling and redeeming love, they put themselves in God’s hands, God whom Jesus taught we can best understand, in human categories, as our heavenly ‘Father’. And whilst he does not promise, again in worldly terms, a ‘bed of roses’ – he desires a far more interesting and challenging, character-building life for us than that! – he does promise to be with us and in us every step of the way, and then to welcome us to our true home in the life to come – a promise and a hope proved beyond reasonable doubt by his resurrection, a resurrection which transformed John’s life and inspired him, in love, to share the ‘good news’ of Christ’s redeeming, reconciling, and liberating truth with all; ‘good news’ that we also have been commissioned  to share

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1 JOHN 3

This morning rather than picking out a particular theme I thought I’d go through today’s passage and pick out a few things that strike me about what John is saying in his letter.

You might find it helpful to refer to the text on your service sheets.

Firstly, John reminds us that a Christians we are children of God. 

Just as a child becomes a part of an earthly family at birth, so we become part of a spiritual family when we were born again. In this spiritual family, we are sons and daughters of God — God’s children.  

Many people struggle with feeling valued and can feel worthless and insignificant. But as Christians we are highly valued. As John says “See what love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God.”

The fact that God loves us and calls us his children and sent his own beloved son to die for us, shows us our enormous value in his sight.

And God wants us to recognise our value and to treat ourselves and others accordingly. We shouldn’t abuse ourselves or others because we are extremely precious in God’s sight. 

As His children, as Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans, we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.

Being a co-heir with Christ means that we share in the inheritance of Jesus - an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.

This inheritance – is received both immediately and in the future.

As we are birthed into God’s kingdom, we are immediately saved from God’s wrath. We immediately receive God’s Holy Spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. We immediately receive eternal life and forgiveness. 

We immediately become righteous and made clean in God’s sight and we are able to call God - Abba father.

There are numerous other benefits of being a child of God which apply the moment we are born again, but there are also future benefits which we will inherit only when we die.

As John points out in verse 2, although the full revelation of what we will be isn’t yet known, we do know that when we die, we will be like him.

Paul tells us in his first letter to the Corinthians - like Jesus, we will receive spiritual bodies that won’t wear out or perish. He says; “just as we have borne the image of the earthly man (in other words Adam), so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man (in other words Jesus).”

And as the writer to the Hebrews tells us, we will be made perfect for ever. 

We will receive the full benefits of Jesus’ death on the cross for us - and the completion of God’s work to make us holy – just as he is holy.

This is the hope that we have that helps us to purify ourselves, as John puts it in verse 3.

As we wait for the completion of our salvation and our eventual perfection in heaven, the knowledge that it is coming should inspire us to live on earth in a holy and morally upright way.

We should seek to live lives that honour God and we should seek with God’s help to become more and more like Jesus.  

Indeed, the Christian life should be a gradual process of becoming more like Christ or as Paul puts it - being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory.

Several years ago, I heard a speaker at New Wine describe the process of becoming more Christ-like very clearly and quite amusingly and it has really stuck with me.

He compared this process to a pig gradually changing into a sheep.

And he said it started with the pig receiving the spirit of a sheep and finding that it didn’t really want to roll in the mud any more with the other pigs but wanted to eat nice fresh green grass.

He said sometimes of course the pig forgot itself and went back to the mud and had a good roll around but then felt uncomfortable and returned to the grass.

And he described - as this process continued - the pig’s grunt gradually changing to more of a bleet, and it growing tufts of white wool on its back.

He said of course the pig’s transformation into a sheep wouldn’t be complete until it went to heaven but the process started on earth – and was dependant on the pig co-operating with and submitting to the spirit of the sheep it had received.

He also made the point that this process was irreversible – that that he who had begun this good work in us would carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Of course, what interrupts and interferes with this process of our sanctification – becoming more Christ-like - is sin which is what John talks about in the next few verses.

Verses 6 and 9 are quite difficult, but I think what John is saying is that although as Christians on occasion we will sin – we won’t sin habitually or purposely and without compunction.

Of course we will get stuff wrong and on occasion we will allow ourselves to be tempted, but when we sin we will be conscious of it and uncomfortable with it and genuinely want to change.

Using the analogy of the pig changing into the sheep, we will be uncomfortable if we go for a roll in the mud because we will be conscious that we are acting against our new nature – the nature to be Christ-like.

As John says in verse 9, we won’t continue to sin because God’s seed – the spirit of Jesus lives in us.

A person who continues to sin is a person who is not sorry or troubled by bad things they do. A person who is blasé and unconcerned about sin and perhaps doesn’t even recognise it.

So, I don’t think John is referring to Christians who genuinely struggle with areas of vulnerability and temptation but who are conscious that they are doing wrong and troubled by it.

Chapter 7 of Paul’s letter to the Romans is quite helpful as he describes his own struggle with sin.

He says; “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing… in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind…”

For all believers, until we die, there will always be a battle between our sinful natures and the spirit of Jesus living in us. The world will always seek to lure us away from walking with God.

But like Paul we should acknowledge our weaknesses and failures to God and confess them, and then with the help of the Holy Spirit seek to resist and overcome them. 

In his letter to the Galatians Paul urges us to walk by the Spirit, so that we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. As we submit ourselves to Christ and seek to follow him he helps us overcome the desire to sin.

The other part to avoiding sin is not feeding areas where we know we are weak and allowing ourselves to be tempted.

For instance, if a person is tempted by gambling, they should try to avoid walking past betting shops or going on gambling websites. 

As soon as they do this, they have put themselves in a position which invites them to succumb to temptation.

Sin is a bit like a fire - in that a fire needs to be fed in order to keep burning. If you stop feeding a fire it will eventually die out.

If we stop feeding an area of weakness, the urge to sin in that area will also die down.

Why is sin so important for John? Well, because he cares deeply for his little children as he addresses his readers and he knows how harmful and debilitating sin can be to our walk with God.

Sin grieves God because it is bad for us and allows darkness into our lives.

If we continue to sin, we can give the devil a foothold in our lives and before long we can find what was a little guilty pleasure that we thought wouldn’t do any harm, becoming an addiction that is hard to break.

And as we allow darkness into our lives its hardly surprising if our lives become darker and God feels distant; our peace disappears and is replaced by anxiety; and joy goes out of the window and is replaced by heaviness.

Sin also hampers our fruitfulness as Christians. It makes us feel guilty and then we feel unworthy to serve God. 

Satan encourages this cycle of sin followed by feelings of unworthiness and guilt and we end up convinced that God can’t use us because we keep tripping up.

Sin can also destroy our witness as Christians. Someone may have been impacted by our faith in God – but rudeness or harsh words or even coarse joking can rapidly lower their estimation of us. 

Ultimately John says in verse 10 that our lives and actions reveal whether our faith is genuine or not. 

And in particular the love we demonstrate for our brothers and sisters – other members of God’s family.

He is repeating in effect what Jesus said when he told his disciples that people could be recognised by the fruit they bear; that every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

So, to summarise briefly the gist of what I think John is saying in this passage – As Christians we are God’s children – hugely loved and valued by God – and we have an amazing inheritance both now and one day in heaven.

The hope of this inheritance should motivate us to live holy lives and to seek with the help of God’s spirit who lives in us, to resist sin and temptation as God changes us into the likeness of Jesus.

Ultimately our lives and the love we show for our brothers and sisters in Christ reveal whether we truly are children of God.

I’d like to close as usual with a time of quiet reflection and prayer where you can share with God anything I’ve said this morning which may resonate with you or perhaps challenge you.

So, let’s pray quietly for a few moments and share what’s on our hearts with our loving heavenly Father.