Keeping His Commandments

Introduction

You guys remember the Pharisees right? Probably what you remember most about them is how often they got into disagreements with Jesus. Their legacy enduring until today is that they were hypocritical legalists who insisted on a bunch of really specific difficult rules that they didn’t even really keep themselves. The interesting thing about the Pharisees though is that they seemed to have started with their hearts in the right place. When you read about why their movement started and what their motivation was you can kind of sympathize with what they were trying to achieve.

You see the Jewish people at the time were in exile from their promised land. According to the prophets the reason they were in exile was because they had not kept their covenant with God that they had pledged to keep in the desert with Moses. So they were subject to the curses that they had agreed to when they had signed on to the covenant. So what the Pharisees figured was that in order for them to be worthy of the Messiah and of regaining their promised land Israel needed to perfectly keep God’s law. So they started with the intention of trying to lead Israel into perfect observance of God’s law.

Along the way however there were traditions of the elders picked up and rules multiplied into what I would call obsurdity and leadership fell in love with power and prestige and lost their way. They then became the extremem legalists that Jesus spoke out against time and time again in the gospels.

This attitude of extreme legalism didn’t die out with the Pharisees however. You still see today Christians who fall into the temptation to be strict legalists with the Bible and even to believe that you can earn your way into heaven by doing good works. An opposite but equally wrong extreme also exists, where there are some Christians who seem to get the mixed up idea that because we are forgiven by Jesus and covered by His blood we can just do all the sinning we want and not worry about it.

John the apostle inspired by the Holy Spirit speaks against both of those extremes in our Scripture for today, which is:

1 John 2:1–6 CSB

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. He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world. This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commands. The one who says, “I have come to know him,” and yet doesn’t keep his commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, truly in him the love of God is made complete. This is how we know we are in him: The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked.

There’s a lot to unpack in this short passage of Scripture, and it needs of course to be taken fully in context. We’ll try our best today to look deeply into God’s word and see how it can teach us to be better disciples and to make better disciples. This is a continuation of our Sermon series going through the letters of John. Today we’ll be reflecting on the three instructions John gives us here and what they mean for us today. Those instructions are:

Do Not Sin

Keep His Commands

Walk as He Walked

Do Not Sin

What if I told you that I almost certainly know one very specific sin that everyone here has committed? It is a sin to lie. The old school way to say it would be “bear a false testimony.” To intentionally say something that’s not true. How many of you have ever read the entirety of the Terms & Conditions for all of the software and websites you’ve ever used?

I have a sort of love hate relationship with the phrase “I’m just a sinner saved by grace.” Love because the heart of the statement is humble and true. We don’t think we’re better than other people because we didn’t earn our salvation, but Jesus saved us while we were still sinners. Besides Paul talks like this in Scripture when he calls himself the worst of sinners. But as much as we all struggle with and give in to sin the Bible doesn’t chiefly refer to Christians as “sinners saved by grace.” The titles used most by the writers of Scripture to describe believers are titles like “sons of God,” “Saints” which means “holy ones,” “beloved,” “fellow-heirs with Christ.” Yet some people use the phrase “sinner saved by grace” as if they have no hope of ever growing in obedience to God and in holiness.

The New Testament has a very optimistic view of how Christians should be living after they are saved. The expectation is that the lives of believers would be changed, and that there would be evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. This is why John writes this:

1 John 2:1–2 CSB

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. He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.

Clearly John expects us to mess up, since he just finished saying that if we say we have no sin we are liars, and he follows his statement that he wants us not to sin with “but if anyone does sin...” But He genuinely seems to expect us to strive not to sin. This isn’t the only place we read this kind of idea. Think to the time when Jesus saved the life of a woman caught in adultery. She was brought out to be stoned and Jesus famously told her accusers that the one who was without sin could cast the first stone and wisely they all left. Yet after this what does He say to the woman?

John 8:10–11 CSB

When Jesus stood up, he said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Neither do I condemn you,” said Jesus. “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”]

He tells her not to sin anymore. He forgives her, but expects her life to change. Expects her not to sin in this way again, lest His forgiveness be in vain.

And in the Sermon on the mount Jesus makes it clear that He isn’t lowering the bar of righteousness for His disciples.

Matthew 5:43–48 CSB

“You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus just told them that they need to be perfect. Nobody except Jesus is perfect, but that’s the bar of righteousness that Jesus sets.

So if Jesus wants us to be perfect and sin no more, than how was He different from the Pharisees? Really the ideas were perfectly inverse. The Pharisees preached a message that says “if you sin no more, God will love you and forgive you,” where Jesus says “God loves you and forgive you, now sin no more.”

We grow in Holiness out of thankfulness for the forgiveness and acceptance that Jesus already gave us. In this very verse John says that if we Sin Jesus will be our advocate, basically our defense attorney, and plead our case to God. He can do this because He already atoned for our sins and for the sins of anyone in the world who will come to Him.

Keep His Commands

At first blush this seems like John is just saying the same thing a different way.

1 John 2:3–5 CSB

This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commands. The one who says, “I have come to know him,” and yet doesn’t keep his commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, truly in him the love of God is made complete. This is how we know we are in him:

But there is a bit of an important difference that gives these verses a bit of a nuance that the others don’t have. Avoiding sin means not doing something that God told us not to do. Keeping His commands includes this, but also includes doing the good things that God has asked us to do. So when Jesus says:

John 14:15 CSB

“If you love me, you will keep my commands.

He’s not just saying we show love for Him by avoiding sin, but by doing the good things that God commanded us to do in His word. Consider what Jesus said about His relationship to the Old Testament Scriptures in

Matthew 5:17–20 CSB

“Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus talks about two opposites, those who break the commands and those who “does” the commands. Not that they don’t break them, but that they “do” them. This implies that the commands aren’t just about what they forbid but about what they encourage. And Jesus tells His disciples that their righteousness needs to “surpass” that of the Scribes and the Pharisees. They were incredibly zealous about minute details of the laws and carefully made sure that they weren’t breaking the rules. What were they lacking? Well Jesus rebuke to them was about their lack of love and mercy for their fellow man.

Matthew 23:23 CSB

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, and yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These things should have been done without neglecting the others.

So if we want our righteousness to exceed that of the Pharisees, than we need to not only avoid breaking God’s commands, but seek to pursue justice, mercy, faithfulness, and the sum of all those things: love.

Thankfully we don’t have to figure out how to do this all on our own.

Walk As He Walked

As a fairly new homeowner I’ve found myself in a position to do a lot of diy projects all of a sudden. Now I’m an amateur handiman at best. When I don’t know how to do something and I can’t for whatever reason get help from someone that does I am very thankful for the existance of YouTube. It’s one thing when someone tells you with words how a project needs to be done, another thing entirely when you can watch someone do the project so that you can imitate them.

When it comes to living righteous lives, we have a perfect example in the person of Jesus, whose ministry was written down from four different perspectives in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This is why the slogan WWJD, “what would Jesus do,” exists. It’s a short reminder to ask ourselves whenever we’re faced with a choice on how to behave what example Jesus provided us when He was walking the earth. I find it funny sometimes to remind people that if we’re doing the things Jesus did than flipping tables and chasing people with a whip is never completely off the table. No pun intended. But in all seriousness, Jesus’ example is why John says:

1 John 2:6 CSB

The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked.

People all around the world are inspired by Jesus. Even lots of people who don’t believe that He is really God and Messiah still see Him as a wise and loving person. Bringing up the words of Jesus in coversation is still very powerful despite how post-christian our world is becoming because there still exists this general wide-spread respect for Jesus because of His good reputation. He was kind and gentle, yet stood up against corrupt leadership when necessary. He hung out with sinners and healed the sick. He touched outcasts and told interesting stories. Who wouldn’t want to be like Jesus? He also was radically forgiving and the absolute best example of self-sacrifice in all of human history.

If you really want to change the world for the better, than following Jesus’ example is the only way to do it. That’s why Paul said to the Corinthian church,

1 Corinthians 11:1 CSB

Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.

And that’s the goal that we should have as Christians. By the way, did you know that the name Christian means “little christ” and was probably first coined as an insult against believers. If we want to inspire others to be like Christ, which is what we’re doing when we make disciples, than we should do everything in our power to be more like Christ. People don’t give birth to puppies or kittens for one simple reason: you can’t reproduce something that you aren’t. In the same way you can’t give someone what you don’t have. Therefore let us be more and more like Christ every day so that we can better help others to be like Christ.

Conclusion

So here is your mission if you choose to accept it: Don’t sin, Keep God’s Commands, and Be like Jesus. Easy right. Do you feel a bit of tension? Do you feel like I may be asking to much of you today? There’s a reason I just referenced Mission: Impossible. This sounds like an impossible mission. You might already be thinking to yourself “I can’t do that.” Well the Bible is asking you to do that, so if you can’t do it than where does that leave us?

I need to confess something to you guys, earlier in this sermon I purposefully left out a few important verses that come after a passage that I quoted. Earlier I read you John 14:15, but lets read

John 14:15–17 CSB

“If you love me, you will keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.

The fact of the matter is that the Christian life really is impossible on our own strength. I truly think that we can see our lives radically changed, and that we can truly grow in holiness every day. That we can become more and more like Christ every day. To be clear I don’t believe that we’ll ever be perfect on this earth, but we can be better. John thinks so too, or else he wouldn’t have wrote what He did. Jesus never lied, and so He really believes that we can grow in holiness. Who are we to contradict Jesus?

When John says that we can know we know God if we are keeping His commands I don’t think he means that you don’t know God unless you perfectly obey His commands, but there is a real difference between someone who is “walking in darkness” and “walking in the light” as we talked about it last week, or as Paul would put it “walking by the flesh” or “walking by the Spirit.”

Galatians 5:16–26 CSB

I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

The thing about fruit is that you can plant the tree, you can take good care of it and fertilize it, but God is the one who brings forth fruit. So it is with sanctification, a fancy word for growing more like Jesus. We can accept Jesus’ sacrifice and begin the discipleship journey, read God’s word and pray and strive to live in obedience to God, but only God can produce in us the fruit of the Spirit.

So my call to all of us today, myself especially, is to join together in praying for real transformation in our lives. I mean shocking, only-God-could-do-this, I want what they have kind of Spiritual growth. The kind of discipleship that sets us apart and brings us closer in communion with Jesus and the Father. Let’s pray.