The Church and The World
1 John • Sermon • Submitted
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· 3 viewsJohn describes who we are in Christ and how Christ effects our life in this world.
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Recap
This week we return to look at 1 John 2:12-17. As you turn there, I want to remind you where we have been and where John is taking us now. John has just finished exhorting his readers to follow the commandments of Christ. John details how this is not a new commandment being given to his audience but is instead the present reality of the old commandment which they were already made aware of. John concludes the previous section by detailing how their love for one another is a sign of their love for God. Then John takes a beat and makes time in his letter to encourage his believers in their faith and in how their faith leads them in their walk in the world. This is where we find ourselves as we read 1 John 2:12-17. Please read with me.
12 I am writing to you, little children, since your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you have come to know the one who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have conquered the evil one.
14 I have written to you, children, because you have come to know the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have come to know the one who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, God’s word remains in you, and you have conquered the evil one.
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world.
17 And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.
This passage is broken into two sections. The first section, verses 12-14 are an encouragement for believers of their relationship with Christ and their subsequent battle against satan. Verses 15-17 are an exhortation for how believers are called to live as Christians in a fallen world, which wars against their relationship with God in order to usurp the throne of God.
What I hope we see from these passages is who we are in Christ and how a relationship with Christ effects our life in this world.
This first section by John is two sections naturally divided by his repetition of the three different groups he addresses as well as a tense shift in the phrase “I am writing.” You’ll notice in verses 12 and 13 Scripture reads “I am writing” while verse 14 reads “I have written.” Likewise, you see that in verses 12-13 John writes to little children, young men, and fathers, then he echoes this address in verse 14. While there has been a lot written about the different tense forms and the repetition John uses. For our purposes this morning what we need to consider is that when we see repetition and even tense changes it is often times for the purpose of emphasis. This happens a lot of times in the original languages without being directly translated into the English when passages makes statements like “I write to you writing” or “The lord says saying” the repetition is for emphasis. Here the repetition is for emphases of encouragement for the believers to understand their place before God.
1. Christians are Called to Grow in Christ
1. Christians are Called to Grow in Christ
12 I am writing to you, little children, since your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
“Little children” - teknia - This is the same word John uses in other places to describe the whole group of believers who believe in Christ. Yet here, in this section John is describing three different groups of believers. The first group he calls “little children.” These believers are those who are young in their faith, those who are just beginning their walk with Christ.
And John encourages them in this way “Since your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.” This is the beginning point of sanctification. All believers begin at the point of forgiveness of sins and move forward in their walk with Christ in faith. The reminder here is for these believers to remember that they were not forgiven because of anything they did but instead they are forgiven on account of his name.
“on account of his name” - Who is John talking about. In this sentence we understand there is not only the one who does the forgiving but there is also one on whose account forgiveness if given.
Forgiveness is given by God because sin is against God. When we sin we sin against God. We can remember the passage in Psalm 51 when David, in anguish over his sin with Bathshebah says “against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” David points us to the reality that when we sin we sin against God and therefore forgiveness of sins comes from God alone.
On account of his name - this may seem like an obvious answer, but on account of whose name are we forgiven. On account of the name of Jesus Christ.
Recall 1 John 2:1-2 “1 My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous one. 2 He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.”
We are forgiven and made right in the eyes of God only by the work of Jesus Christ. There is nothing we can do or will ever be able to do which will make us deserving of forgiveness on our own.
14 I have written to you, children, because you have come to know the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have come to know the one who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, God’s word remains in you, and you have conquered the evil one.
“Because you have come to know the Father.”
In several places, John gives Characteristics of those who know the Father.
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him.
6 If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth.
7 If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
Those who know God walk in the Light
3 This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commands.
Those who know God, keep His commandments as fruit of their walk with God
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Those who know God, practice love for fellow believers.
As a point of application at the onset, think about these questions. do you:
1. walk in the light
2. keep God’s commandments
3. practice love for fellow believers
Remember, This is the starting point of all believers, John builds from this point, but this is the foundation of all believers, forgiveness by God as a result of the finished work of Christ on our behalf.
13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you have come to know the one who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have conquered the evil one.
Fathers - pateres or pater - the word we get our word father from.
Who is John referring to when he uses this word Father? Some would argue John is referring to those who are physically aged, those who are older and more mature in a physical sense. Those who make this argument will draw from 1 Timothy 5:1 where Paul tells Timothy “do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father.” This is one way of understanding this text. However, given the context and the direction John is taking this passage, it seems more likely John is referring to those believers who are more mature spiritually, those who have grown in their walk with Christ beyond the foundational and are at a different level of growth spiritually.
“because you have come to know the one who is from the beginning.”
These “Fathers” are those who have grown in their faith and knowledge of who God is. It would make sense to think this is referring to Christ when it says the one who is from the beginning, especially given John’s Gospel reference to the Christ. However, lets go back and read John 1:1-2
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was with God in the beginning.
We may quickly say in response to the question “Who is the one from the beginning?” that John 1:1 clearly shows the Word or the Logos was the one from the beginning. However, when we look at verse two we see that in the beginning the Word, the Logos was with God. So the one who is from the beginning is God. The eternal God who does not change from age to age but who always is. Those who are fathers are those who have come to know God and have placed their hope and strength in the one who is and always will be, the one who is unchanging and as we will see in verse 17, remains forever.
Notice this does not mean those who are older physically are necessarily those who are “fathers,” “Fathers in the faith” have moved past a working knowledge of God and are residing in a devotional knowledge of who God is and always has been.
So John has described those who are children in their faith and he has described those who are mature in their faith. Now he describes those who are growing in their faith between these two points.
13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you have come to know the one who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have conquered the evil one.
“Young Men”
There comes a time in every believers walk where they transition in their thinking and understand that living as a Christian is not just enjoying forgiveness and the fellowship with God, but the Christian life also means making war against the enemy.
The forgiveness of past sins must be followed by deliverance from sin’s present power. If you are still engaging your flesh, though you are forgiven, then you have not yet waged war against the flesh. Perhaps, you are still in the child phase of your walk with Christ and God is calling you to make war with your flesh.
It is the Spirit alone that can mortify sin; he is promised to do it, and all other means without him are empty and vain. How shall he, then, mortify sin that has not the Spirit? A man may easier see without eyes, speak without a tongue, than truly mortify one sin without the Spirit.
John Owen
In order to wage war against our flesh we must first be born again and indwelled by the Holy Spirit. If, however, you have recieved salvation and are indwelled by the Spirit then you have the power to kill sin at your disposal if you will to wage war against the flesh.
I do not say this as someone who is continually in victory over the battles with my sin, i fail at times, as did John Owen, and as we have seen John understands we will as well. But are we gratifying our flesh in the fight against sin or are we actively waging war against our flesh?
Be killing sin or sin will be killing you
John Owen
So those who are considered “young men” are those who are actively engaged in the war with their sin nature, and what does John have to say to them?
“Because you have conquered the evil one”
“the evil one” – poneros – in 1 john all references to “the evil one” refer to the devil.
We need to understand how else John uses this word overcome or conquer in order to understand why John is writing to them.
1 John 4:4(ESV) “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
Here John is telling believers that since God is in them, they have overcome the antichrists, those who seek to usurp the throne of God.
1 John 5:4(ESV) “4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”
Those born of God overcome the world by their faith.
1 John 5:5(ESV) “Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
Believers overcome the world by believing that Jesus is the Son of God.
“the author understands believers’ victory over the evil one to be achieved because God himself abides in them (he is greater than the evil one) and his Son, Jesus Christ, protects them, and as a result they are able to overcome the evil one through their faith in God”
So how is it that believers have conquered the evil one – Through remaining faithful to the message heard from the beginning.
There are many events which impact us and will likely stay in our memory forever. One in the most recent history was 9-11. However, another one for me was February 24, 2022. Do yall know what happened on that day? Air raid sirens began wailing over the Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine as Russia began what many thought would be a quick won war against the Ukraine. I remember in those opening moments as news agencies began to announce the beginning of this war I pulled up a few live feeds at work and had them open on one of my monitors to see what was happening in another part of the world. As you listened to these news casts you heard over and over how they expected for Russia to just walk through, capture Kyiv and the war be over. To the shock of many, the Ukraine bunkered down and began to fight back, not giving up much of their territories without a fight. As the days turned into months, other nations rallied to the support of the Ukraine and sent everything from helmets to weapons in support of the Ukrainian people. What has made the difference in this war is two things: the resolve of the Ukrainian people and the training/equipping of the Ukrainian people by other nations.
I am not here to discuss foreign policy or theories on war. What I want us to see from the example is that these people who by all accounts should be under Russian control now have remained Ukrainian because they resolved to fight and they used the equipment they recieved to do so.
Do you have the desire and resolve to fight your sin? Do you have the desire to use the equipment at your disposal, namely the power of the Holy Spirit, to crush the sin in your life?
Summary: John complements his readers in this passage, reminding them that they are forgiven of their sin, they know the father, they known Jesus, and they are strong and have overcome the evil one. John focuses on the blessing they have received from God in their new relationship with Him as children of God. Now, John proceeds to give them a command or exhortation to not love the world.
2. Christians do not love the world
2. Christians do not love the world
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
“Do not love” - Here John uses the present active imperative form of the word love with a negation. For those among us who are not grammar scholars. Imperative means that John is giving them a command. Present Active means that the action which he is commanding them to do is ongoing, it is not a one and done, it is instead a day by day, moment by moment ongoing action for believer to do.
You may recall a famous song by one Johnny Cash where when he was just a young boy, his mama told him “son, always be a good boy, dont ever…play with guns.” She gave him a command that she expected for him to do every day, she commanded him don’t ever play with guns. She did not mean this month or this year, she meant ever. Well as the song goes we know that Johnny didnt listen and ended up in Folsom Prison singing the blues as a result of not heeding his mothers command.
In the same way John is telling these believers do not love the world. He expects them, and likewise us, to follow this command every day, every moment.
“love” - Here as well John focuses on love as the pleasure and gratification one hopes to receive from the world.
“world” - referring to the worldly attributes or values that are opposed to God.
We don’t have to think hard to understand what he getting at when he says “do not seek pleasure or gratification from worldly attributes or values that are opposed to God.”
We do this when we try to find pleasure or gratification in our identity, success, the amount of money we possess, or the possessions we have. I know I am guilty of this, but it is a bottomless pit. We will never find the same kind of gratification and pleasure in lesser things than God, so why do we try? Because we like to be in control of the things we love.
If the satisfaction and gratification of our lives ebbs and flows on the waves of things in this world, then we need to ask ourselves if we are lovers of the world or God.
John makes it clear here in the end of verse 15 – “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
Matthew 6:24 makes it clear when Jesus, through a parable, tells his followers “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other…”
We cannot love this world and also claim to love God, we will only be faithful to one of them, and often times when we ride the fence on our love for God, we find ourselves on the side where we love the world.
John makes it clear. If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you.
16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world.
John tells his readers in verse 15 – do not love the world or the things in the world. He gives two different aspects of the world in verse 15 and then defines them in verse 16. What John is trying to convey is that we as believers are not to love the world as a whole nor the world as its constituent parts. An example of what I am talking about would be to take the object of a table. Tables are an object in themselves, however, they are made up of other parts which form the table, legs, a top, runners, support pieces, hardware. In this way, John is telling believer not to love the world as a whole, nor to love the world as parts.
What are those parts, you may ask.
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions.
1. The lust of the flesh
a. To many of us, when we hear this phrase we immediately think exclusively about sexual sin. In the New Testament, however, the flesh is that part of our nature which, when it is without the grace of Jesus Christ, offers a point of entry for sin.
b. Matthew 26:40-41: “Then (Jesus) came to the disciples and found them sleeping. He asked Peter, “So, couldn’t you stay awake with me one hour? Stay awake and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
c. This includes the sins of the flesh but also all worldly ambitions and selfish aims.
d. William Barclay puts it this way “To be subject to physical desire is to judge everything in this world by purely material standards. It is to live a life dominated by the senses. It is to be gluttonous in eating habits, soft in luxury, slavish in pleasure, lustful and lax in morals, selfish in the use of possessions, headless of all the spiritual values and extravagant in the gratification of material desires. The flesh’s desire is heedless of the commandments of God, the judgment of God, the standards of God and the very existence of God.”
e. Do you consult God before you make business decision? Do you consult God before you purchase something or before you watch something on tv? Do you consult God with how you use your money or possessions?
f. This is a sobering point: Barclay continues “We need not think of this as the sin of the gross sinner. Anyone who demands a pleasure which may be the ruin of someone else, anyone who has no respect for the personalities of other people in the gratification of personal desires, anyone who lives in luxury while others live in want, anyone who has made a god of comfort and of ambition in any part of life, is the servant of physical desire.”
2. The lust of the eyes
a. This is the desire for what is outwardly pleasing.
b. A spirit which finds happiness in the things that money can buy and the eye can see; things which have no value other than the material.
c. Remember there is a distinction between need and want. We can need things which some may consider lavish in order to do our jobs properly. However, if we are discontent with our life when we lack the next great thing, we need to ask the Lord if we have a heart which struggles with the lust of the eyes.
3. The pride in one’s possessions or the pride of life
a. John uses a term here which to the ancient moralist would have immediately connected. He uses the word Alazoneia, which is connected to the word Alazon – the man who laid claims to possession or to achievements which did not belong to him in order to exalt himself.
b. This person is the one who receives the gifts of God and does not turn back to praise of God.
c. Consider Nebuchadnezzar from the book of Daniel – God rebukes Nebuchadnezzar in this way
18 Your Majesty, the Most High God gave sovereignty, greatness, glory, and majesty to your predecessor Nebuchadnezzar.
19 Because of the greatness he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages were terrified and fearful of him. He killed anyone he wanted and kept alive anyone he wanted; he exalted anyone he wanted and humbled anyone he wanted.
20 But when his heart was exalted and his spirit became arrogant, he was deposed from his royal throne and his glory was taken from him.
21 He was driven away from people, his mind was like an animal’s, he lived with the wild donkeys, he was fed grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with dew from the sky until he acknowledged that the Most High God is ruler over human kingdoms and sets anyone he wants over them.
22 “But you his successor, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this.
d. We commit the same act of pride as Nebuchadnezzar when we, believers in God, consider that all the things in our life come from our own efforts and our own successes. Nebuchadnezzar was a pagan king. We claim to be Christians and we should live in the truth that all blessings in life come from above.
Are we controlled by our appetites or do we control our appetites through faithful consideration of the Word of God?
3. Christians fight from victory
3. Christians fight from victory
17 And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.
“And the world with its lust is passing away”
We all experience this when the newness of a thing fades, when we look in the mirror and see ourselves aging, when we are reminded by scripture “
19 “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.
20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal.
This world is passing away, there is nothing we can do to stop the steady march of time. Whatever we may place out hope in that is of this world is passing away. Houses are demolished in extreme weather events. The economy ebbs and flows. Our own personal efforts and abilities wane with time.
“But the one who does the will of God remains forever.”
Here, John juxtaposes the world and God. He shows us that the world is fading BUT there is something which is eternal, the one who does the will of God.
What does it mean to do the will of God?
When Christ said he was doing the will of God, he was completing the salvific mission God sent Him to accomplish.
However, for us, the will of God is different. In this context John is telling his readers that doing the will of God is to do the opposite of the things of the world. To look beyond the temporal things in life and look ahead to those things which are eternal.
This is not a concept which is foreign to John. Over and over in the Gospel of John, John stresses that those who believe in him shall never perish but shall live and remain forever.
14 I have written to you, children, because you have come to know the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have come to know the one who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, God’s word remains in you, and you have conquered the evil one.
You might think “this is impossible for me.” But we need to remember what John says to the young men in v. 13-14. John uses the perfect active indicative when he says “you have conquered the evil one.”
Indicative means that this is the way it really is, as opposed to the way things might be. For instance “I read the book” is indicative of what happened, “I might read the book” is not.
Perfect describes an action that has been brought to completion and whose effects are felt in the present.
So when we consider this verse “you have conquered the evil one” in this way we understand that the evil one has been conquered and remains conquered. The battle we fight against the powers of darkness is not a battle we fight and sometimes win or sometimes lose. No, instead John is telling believers that when we fight the evil one in our lives we fight from a position of victory because Christ has already conquered the evil one. Likewise, when we fight the evil one we do not fight as people normally fight, instead we should fight knowing that the power of the evil one is overcome.
Do you have eyes set on the kingdom or do you have eyes set on this earth?
Do you live as a child of God, one who does the will of the father or are you still living in the lust of the flesh?
Perhaps today you need to take some time and confess and repent of ways you have chased after this world instead of chasing after God.
Perhaps you need to, for the first time, tell Jesus you are aware of your sin and need Him to save you from your sins and become Lord of your life.
Perhaps you have been fighting in the flesh and found yourself failing over and over and need to be reminded that we do not fight without power, we fight, as believers, in the power of the Holy Spirit and when we fight the flesh we fight as those who have already won.
I want to leave you with this quote from Charles Spurgeon.
Conversion is a turning into the right road; the next thing is to walk in it. The daily going on in that road is as essential as the first starting if you would reach the desired end. To strike the first blow is not all the battle; to him that overcomes the crown is promised. To start in the race is nothing, many have done that who have failed; but to hold out till you reach the winning post is the great point of the matter. Perseverance is as necessary to a man’s salvation as conversion.
Life’s Need And Maintenance, Volume 22, Sermon #1300 - Psalm 22:29
Charles Spurgeon