Children in the light

Why do we remain?

We talked last week about what it means to REMAIN. And here, John gives this encouragement again. A continual action of being in Jesus so that we may have confidence in Him. That is, you aren’t ashamed of Jesus but are bold for Him. It reminds us of the importance of being born again. To see life new within the love of God. To now be a child OF God. And that is where John goes next.

He reminds us of God’s “great love” for us. But how John talks about this love is pure amazement and wonder. But also admiration or thankfulness. A love that is glorious and measureless. What is interesting is that it could be translated “what sort of love” God has given us. As if the love God gives us is so foreign to what we are used to, so alien and unexpected, that John discusses it as an otherworldly love. Because that is what it is. It is so strong, so inspiring, so hopeful, so capturing of our attention that it doesn’t make sense to us.

Because human love can only capture a piece of this love. You may know that someone loves you, but you also know that this person that loves you has some sort of prideful motive. We can be showing love but also be doing it with a desire to make ourselves feel better, or to prove we are better than another. Because our sinful nature corrupts what is a pure love. But God’s love is absolutely pure. It doesn’t have an ulterior motive, it isn’t seeking to manipulate us, it isn’t trying to prove anything. It is a love that divinely cares for us. Because it tells us that God isn’t just loving, God IS love. All that He does is from His love. God loves each and every one of us. And this isn’t because we have done something that makes us lovable, but because He desires the best for us in His love. His love is initiated by God until we love Him. Even when we run away.

In the movie Monster’s Inc there is the Sully and Mike, and the job is to scare children. They go door-to-door scaring every kid they can while simultaneously being scared of the danger that is behind each door because they could “kill you”. In this it is a weird dichotomy right? Both seeking to scare but also being afraid of these kids. But when Boo see’s Sully she should be scared by Sully, she should be afraid because Sully is trying to scare her, he is of another world then she is. But she continues to initiate love for him even as he tries to get rid of her, he tries to put her back through the door yet she keeps coming time and time again. Not because Sully has deserved her love but because, as a child, she has this pure love for him. By the end of the movie Sully loves Boo just like Boo loves Sully.

See, God should have given up on us a long time ago. Because we have told him that we don’t care, we have pushed him away, we have damaged our relationship with him through our actions. God is also in a better world, He has no reason to come to our world where there is pain and suffering while He is in heaven where there are no more tears and no more sorrow. Yet God keeps coming back.

It tells us that God has “lavished” His love onto us. That means He pours out freely and abundantly, never-ending almost. You can have someone who tried to show love by “lavishing” their child by spending money on them. But God lavished pure love. The type of love that would lead us to be called children of God. This means that God has chosen us, that He has drawn us out of the darkness and into His light. That we have the greatest privilege and joy of being sons and daughters of the living God.

He tells them why the world may be confused by our way of life, because they are children of another, of the evil one.

But as God’s children John tells us the great news. Christ will come again, we will see Him, and that we will “be like Him” when we see Him. That is, when we experience the fulness of the joy of seeing and knowing Christ that all of this will be worth it. That we will see Jesus, not as He was on earth, or just in faith, but in His heavenly glory and this sight of Him will make us like Him. But as we wait we live in hope for that day. Like being on your best behavior knowing that a vacation is just around the corner. Even the thought of what it will be like leads us to better living each day.

And the more that we focus on this hope the more we will be able to look like Him now. That we judge ourselves by how Christ lived and one day we will be like Him in His heavenly form as well.

We are to remain righteous in His love.

We have been shown this incredible hope, that God loves us unconditionally and He has given us the most incredible hope in Christ. But now we have the purpose of why Christ came. So that He might take away the penalty of sin but that He might also remove sin from our lives.

We see that EVERYONE who commits sin practices lawlessness. There are no exceptions to this. Those in Christ seek righteousness and to live purely and seeks to abstains from sin. But the word “commit” defines someone who willfully and habitually is practicing sin.

There is a clear contrast. Those born of God live for God. But those who commit sin are “of the devil” who sinned from the beginning and is not of God. The idea of “committing sin” here isn’t of someone who just has sinned, but someone who is intentionally opposing God with sin. Those who reject Christ with their actions. They don’t feel any feelings of sorrow or shame from their sin, they don’t feel anything. In fact, they can even believe they can engage in sin willingly and still be in fellowship with God. They believed their actions were “amoral”, not right or wrong. That God didn’t care about their actions as long as they “believed” in Him. But to live in sign is to have hatred towards God.

You know…I have this pet peeve. There are a lot of people in this world who say that they “love coffee”. And when I worked at Starbucks I had a lot of people who told me how much they love coffee and that they drink it all the time. But see…what MOST of those people mean is not that they love coffee, what they love is sugar. I know that they don’t love coffee and do love sugar because they would try and hide the taste of coffee with large amounts of milk and sugar until the taste of coffee is nonexistent in their drink. Some would say their sugary drinks were for a “special occasion” but from their habits they bought their $8 frappuccino every day. If I were to give them just a black cup of coffee, or a latte with no sweeteners in it they would probably not drink it. Or even if they would drink it they would not enjoy all the subtle notes of a cup of coffee, they would just drink it to get the caffeine.

See, there are a lot of people who can say that they LOVE God. But their love of God is sugared up by all the things they actually love. They want for God to fit into all the things that they actually love. And they try to align both loves together but this is still sin masquerading as godliness.

But look at the language that John uses in vs. 9. That those who love God seek to destroy the devils works. They don’t try and keep sin around them, letting it tempt them until it takes over. But John says that those in Christ don’t sin. They stay away from deception, in fact, the believers life is not characterized by sin but characterized by godliness. “a believer may fall into sin but they will not walk in sin.” And how do we know if we walk in sin or not? Well, do you know Christ? Is there a personal relationship with Christ? Or are you controlled by sin? Is there something that controls your actions and life that isn’t God.

So why did Christ appear?

The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letters of John (Second Edition) Theology

First, “he appeared so that he might take away our sins” (3:5). The author does not spell out how Jesus took away our sins, but says that, because of Jesus’s death (his “blood”), God can be both faithful to his promises and just in his action when he forgives our sins (1:9). Clearly, then, Christ took away sin by his atoning death on behalf of sinners.

Second, Christ appeared to destroy Satan’s word. Satan’s work was to accuse humans of sin and guilt so that we may feel unloved by God and condemned before His judgement. Rather than recognize God’s love through Christ who took away our sins and therefore there is no accusation the devil can throw at us because we are no longer condemned if we are in Christ.

“Moral conduct is a test of one’s spiritual heritage.”

“Those who neglect to love others aren’t of the spiritual heritage of God.”

1, 2, 3 John (2) Be Righteous and Do Not Sin (3:4–10)

Sin does not characterize the child of God. Our pattern is the Righteous One, Jesus Christ, who came to destroy the works of the devil and the power of sin. Those who have been born of God live a life that resembles the righteous life of Christ. The child has the distinguishing marks of his parent. Therefore the child comes to imitate, and even embody, the distinguishing marks of his parent.

(On a minor notes. Satan did create sin because God is unable to create sin. He can’t be the author of evil. Satan introduced sin into the world through his rebellion and led Adam and Eve into that rebellion.”)