Untitled Sermon (34)

Proverbs 22:6 ESV

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

What happens if you did this…or thought you did this…and your child turns out to be a rapscallion…a real rascal. He has clearly departed from the “way he should go”.

What are your options?

One option is to say that Proverbs 22:6 isn’t true. It lied to you. You did what the Bible told you to do and you weren’t rewarded as it said you’d be.

I don’t think we want to take that path. The other option, then, is to say…well, the problem must have been with me. I just thought I was training in the way he should go…I didn’t do a good enough job.

Let’s be honest, there is probably some truth there isn’t there. None of us who are parents are perfect parents. But I think there are parents who did things in a way that would certainly fall under this Proverb and it just didn’t happen.

And this option tends to make us either overly critical of ourselves or others. Their kids didn’t turn out how we think they should have and we go secretly blame their parenting. All that being said…I don’t think that’s the option either. So what do we do?

We learn about the nature of Proverbs. A proverb is the way that things generally work. It’s how the world often works. It’s meant to speak generally and not definitively. You pick up Proverbs 22:6 and you say…I’m going to do everything in my best to parent in a way that brings glory to God. I want to raise them up in the hopes that as a general rule they will not depart from the gospel culture they grew up in. And then you leave the results to God…knowing that it’s ultimately His world. Sometimes things don’t go how they ought to go or how they generally go. But most of the time, they do.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because 1 John is in a similar category. Do you ever notice how the Proverbs speak in very black and white terms?

That’s why something like Proverbs 26:4-5 exists. Ever notice those? Answer a fool according to his folly…answer not a fool…Black and white. And that makes them seem like they contradict.

But Proverbs, by their very nature, don’t have nuance. And so in order to do that…you get what you have in Proverbs 26:4-5…that’s how you mix black and white and have some grey.

And that is also what makes 1 John kind of difficult. Last week we see the amazing grace…kinda makes you feel the depth of God’s love and mercy…and you walk away thinking, “Whew, I’m good…I’m gonna be alright...” And then you get to this text…very black and white…and you think.... “oh man…I’m as lost as can be. I don’t think there is anyway that I’m saved.”

We also tend to think of 1 John like a test. And that’s okay so long as we understand what kind of test we’re talking about.

Are we talking like a car inspection? You take it in the mechanic says, “you’ve got X, Y, and Z wrong with your car…you need to get it fixed...” And so in order to pass the test you go out and do work on your engine, transmission, blinker fluid, flux capacitor...” all that stuff.

But there is another type of test. We used to watch a show called Curse of Oak Island. They’d find something buried…sometimes hundreds of years old…its in such a shape that they are like… “what is this thing...” What do we make of it?

And so it goes through a series of tests. What kind of components does it have in it? Does it have gold? What kind of other metals? What is the true shape of the thing…? And they run it through all these tests and say… “Oh, this here is a thingamajig from 1520-1560”.

It’s this second kind of test that is throughout 1 John. How do I know what kind of thing I am…but combine this with what we’ve said about Proverbs.

Generally speaking…trajectory of your life…characteristics…overall assessment of who you are…this thing right here is a person who has been changed by God. This here is a person that is a follower of Jesus.

Or…this right here is someone who is claiming something...but inwardly…they aren’t that thing at all. This is a person who is deceived and deceiving others.

Put you under the microscope. What is this thing? Today we’re going to have one of our first tests to figure out what kind of thing is this...

1 John 2:3–11 ESV

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Sermon Introduction:

I suppose we need to do one more thing to help us think through 1 John. What do you do if your car fails an inspection...

Well, you might just keep driving it around…fake it until you make it…hoping it’ll still get you from point a to point B. Or you’ll go in and get it fixed.

So if John is saying something here like… “Christians love other Christians” then what you’ll be inclined to do is say, “I need to go love other Christians so that I can become a Christian.” But that’s not what John is saying…that’s not the message of the gospel.

But if you think of it like the other kind of test…you might come to the conclusion…I need to become this thing instead of that…I need new life…I need to actually be a follower of Jesus and have my heart changed. I need to come to Christ for transformation.

Or you’ll have a deep sense of conviction…I’m not living out who I am as I’d like to live. Jesus change my heart anew…make me loving…another layer of that onion peeled…light shines…Lord, I need cleansing.

What is that test today?

Verse 3. “We know that we’ve come to know”…we run those tests…oh, this here is a Christian. A little-Christ. How do we know that?

The first thing John says here is that if you walk behind a Christian you see that she is walking on the path of Jesus…patterning her life after Jesus. She wants to live like Jesus did.

“Keep his commandments”

“Keep his word”

“Walk as he walked”

How do you know someone is a Christian…well, they increasingly, the trajectory of their life, is to look more and more like Jesus. If you claim to be a follower of Jesus and you aren’t being transformed by Jesus…if nobody can see a difference…well…that probably wasn’t an encounter with Jesus. You probably aren’t in union with the living Christ.

Keep his commandments…keep his word…walk as he walked...These are all saying the same thing. I bet we understand exactly what John is saying here.

It’s Super Bowl Sunday…let’s talk football for a second. Patrick Mahomes is the QB for the Chiefs…that’s the guy who throws the football to his teammates…unless you’re a Cleveland Brown..and then you throw it to the other team.

Lots of kids in this area want to be Patrick Mahomes when they grow up. So let’s say we’ve got a kid here…I’m going to be the next Patrick Mahomes. I love him. I want to be like him. I’m dedicated. Just call me little Patrick.

Awesome. So you eating healthy…got a healthy diet to stay in good shape. I’m on an O’s diet...Cheetos…burritos…nachos…tacos...

Hmmm…okay, maybe you’re trying to get big…bulking up. But you’re running right…working on speed, agility...

Oh no. I don’t really like to walk even. But bro…you should see how good I am on Madden ‘25. I threw like 75 TD’s one season.

But you get winded when you get up from your bean bag....Okay…maybe you’ll be a pocket QB…not running a ton…I bet you’re hitting the weight room…strong fella are you?

Nope. Don’t lift weights.

Okay…so you’re like practicing throws and stuff right. Going out in your backyard every night…slinging the football…hitting targets…working on that accuracy.

Oh no, man. I don’t really play football. Or watch it, really. But I’m going to watch the game tonight and eat quite a few of those beanie weenies…you know…like Patrick Mahomes.

Dude…I’m starting to question this whole, “Going to be the next Patrick Mahomes…do you even know who Patrick Mahomes is…like what’s his number…are you sure you don’t have him confused with that world champion hot dog eater…”

We understand this with almost anything else…whoever says he knows him, but doesn’t keep his commandments is liar, and the truth is not in him…we get that with other stuff...but when it comes to Jesus we suddenly think differently.

But John is saying…if you really know Jesus, if you’ve really had an encounter with the living God…then it changes you. It changes your desires. It changes how you think and act. It’s utterly transformative.

You start to walk like Jesus. You pattern your life after him. There is a reason why every kid my age who liked basketball stuck his tongue out when he tried to do a layup. Michael Jordan did that…we watched MJ…we wanted to be like Mike…and so we did what Mike did. We walked like he did.

It’s the same way with a Jesus follower. Again…general trajectory…general rule. How can I possibly say that I love Jesus, I follow Jesus, I’ve encountered Jesus, been saved by Jesus…but absolutely nothing is different?

John is saying if we keep his word…then it shows that we’ve been transformed. You don’t drift into looking like Jesus…it NEVER happens by accident…you follow the Jesus way…you pattern your life after Jesus…it’s intentional, and it happens because God has changed your heart.

That is in part what verse 5 means...”the love of God is perfected”? It’s a difficult passage…fair amount of debate…

Love for who? What does perfected mean? Tough to really land on a definitive answer…but...

I think it helps us if we think about what John’s opponents were teaching. If you have their secret knowledge…pass their test…affirm their stuff…jump through their hoops…then you’re good to go. It was almost like passing a quiz. You get all the facts, regurgitate all the right stuff…then you’re in.

That word for perfected is “teleiow”…you’ve maybe heard that one before…remember when Jesus was on the cross and he cried out “It is finished”…tetelestai....same root…So that word looks at being completed…reaching your goal...

So what does John mean here…We know we’ve reached that goal…we know that transformation is happening…the finish line…the thing we’re setting our eyes upon…is when we’re walking like Jesus...

And particularly following a certain way…a certain commandment of Jesus…what is that one?

He tells us in verses 7-11. This isn’t a new commandment. It’s an old one…it’s been there from the beginning…it’s the word that you’ve heard…but at the same time it is a new commandment.

Okay what is that? The most natural reading, I think, is Jesus call to love God and to love people....but I think maybe it’s John 13:34-35

John 13:34–35 ESV

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

That new commandment that is really an old commandment is that believers love one another. He’s not talking here about loving the world (that’s a topic for a different time—yes, we love everyone)…but there is a special love here.

Listen to verses 9-11…how do you know if someone has really been transformed? How do you know if Jesus has done work in your heart? Do you love other believers? Or do you hate them?

Again, we’re at one of those kind of black and white statements…and it’s difficult and I’m depending on the Spirit here to do work in our hearts…

A tender conscience is going to hear this and think through all the ways relationships might be broken…and feel the weight and heaviness…and maybe rightly so, maybe it’s God calling you into deeper love.

And I think another way we hear these things is we kind of close off to them…we hate all the right people and we love all the right people. We squirm out of a verse like this because we narrow the definition of a Christian.

We narrow it as if the verse says, “whoever hates his brother who is also a Baptist...” or insert your favorite doctrine, or identity marker…And so we squirm out of and say, “I’m not hating another brother…these cat isn’t saved…this is an unbeliever...It’s okay for me to hate them…they are enemies of God…”

But I would just say this…is that really how Jesus walked? As you read the New Testament is he teaching us to hate or to love? Is he teaching us to really narrow down on who we’re extending love to…to get really insulated?

I think here of what happened with John…the author of this letter. Remember that story in the New Testament when a couple of disciples went through a village…and that village wasn’t really pro-Jesus or pro-these disciples being there?

And do you remember what that disciples and his brother did? Hey Jesus…these guys were mean to us…enemies to us and our cause…do you think maybe we could call down fire from heaven…and burninate the countryside?

You know who that was…that was John. The Son of Thunder. But do you know what John was known as at the end of his life…the apostle of love. Why? Because to his dying days that is what he always talked about and told others to do…love. Love as Christ loved us.

He was transformed. Hatred turned into love. And that’s what he’s telling us here…but he is focusing in.

And I don’t think he’s saying here…love your brothers…that’s the easiest thing to do…I think he is telling us this because brothers and sisters might actually be the hardest to love at times. Those closest to us are the ones where we will really see this transformation take place.

Family members coming to know Jesus. You want to see them come to know Jesus. Take out the trash. This is where we are more apt to see transformation happen.

But there is another reason. I hate to use another football analogy but it might be able to explain this the best. Let’s assume that you are all Chiefs fans.

Let’s talk about hate here for a second. Raise your hand if you’re a Chiefs fan. Okay…how many of you Chiefs fans hate....like, their success would really bother you.

The Detroit Lions...

The Arizona Cardinals...

The Atlanta Falcons...

Okay…now lets try this...

The Denver Broncos...

The Oakland Raiders...

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers with Tom Brady

The Packers (anyone still salty about super bowl 1)?

Do you see why that is? You aren’t hating on the Lions because they aren’t any threat to you. They aren’t in your circle. Not in your division.

It’s the same way as believers. We tend to have our hottest debates with the ones we are closest to theologically. I doubt many of you have had a debate with an Eastern Orthodox believer about iconoclasm or the filioque (Philly O Kway) clause. You probably don’t even know what that means...

But have you argued about whether or not you can lose your salvation…whether God chose us, or we chose God…?

That is where we can see transformation happening. You see hatred…and we’re going to define it a little better in just a second…comes from self at the center. We just things by our own measuring stick…so the people who are closest to us are going to be able to be measured the best...but when we’re transformed by Jesus we measure things differently, we look at the world differently.

A while back I was doing some work on Proverbs 10 and I thought about all of the outrage we have in our country. And even the outrage we have amongst fellow believers…it grieves my heart when I see some of the places where we draw lines. And as I interacted with this particular text…I realized…we kinda hate each other. Proverbs 10:12.

Proverbs 10:12 ESV

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.

Listen to what Charles Bridges says about this text:

Hatred, however varnished by smooth pretense, is the selfish principle of man. Like a subterraneous fire, it continually stirs up mischief and creates or keeps alive rankling coldness, disgusts, dislikes, envies, and evil surmisings. Hatred carps at the infirmities of others, aggravates the least slip, or resents the most trifling or even imaginary provocation. These strifes are kindled to the great dishonor of God and the marring of the beauty and consistency of the gospel. (Bridges, Proverbs)

What Bridges’ is saying here is that hatred does four things. First, it keeps alive ill feelings towards others. It keeps stoking the flames. Secondly, it continually finds faults at the infirmities of others. Thirdly, it turns the least little slip into a big deal. And lastly, it has deep bitterness toward the most trifling or even imaginary thing—it wants to be mad.

But contrast this with love which covers over a multitude of sins. Hatred wants to pull off the covers. It wants to expose everyone and everything. Hatred wants to view others in the worst possible light. Love on the other hand looks for ways to view people positively.

That’s not to be confused with what we talked about a couple of weeks ago. Darkness doesn’t lead to growth. Hiding isn’t the goal here. I’m not saying that we’re being loving as a church if we don’t expose evil deeds…don’t hear what I’m not saying here…but rather there is a type of hatred that LOVES to play “gotcha”…that loves to “expose” for the sake of condemnation rather than the sake of change…you see that’s the difference.

For Jesus he shines the light…exposes the yuck…to transform. But hatred shines the light in order to condemn…to show self to be better…to break.

Again, I appreciate the words of Bridges:

Love covers, overlooks, speedily forgives and forgets. Full of candor and inventiveness, it puts the best construction on doubtful matters, searches out any palliation, does not rigidly eye or wantonly expose a brother’s faults, nor uncover them at all except so far as may be needful for his ultimate good. To refrain from gross slander, while abundant scope is left for needless and unkind detraction, is not covering sin. (Bridges, Proverbs)

Love actually gets inventive about viewing people in the best possible light. The only time we would uncover the fault of another is to do them ultimate good. Is that really what you see on social media? Is that really what happens as we rant and rave against “the other side”? Are we looking to love people or looking to tear them down so as to win an argument for our side?

Sure we can look at this with how we interact with those in the world…but what about within the church. We might not say, “I hate them...” but if Bridges is correct…and if we’re really listening to that Proverb, “Hatred stirs up strife”...

Do we hate one another?

Let’s just be honest and confess that our fruits are evidence that we hate one another. I know as Christians we don’t like to admit that because we know hatred isn’t one of the fruits of the spirit. And I know that we’ve got a tendency to try to mask it as something else like righteous indignation and fighting for the truth. But we aren’t going to be healed of trying to bring in the kingdom through rage, if we don’t admit what is actually going on in our hearts. And let’s admit that this isn’t okay for us as believers in Jesus. And let’s come to Christ for the covering and redemption he provides and set out again to truly love our neighbors. And especially those who are fellow believers—those who are closest to us…those who can sometimes be the most difficult to love.

And so that’s why John says what he does. If you aren’t a believer…if your heart hasn’t truly been changed…you don’t have that capacity. But when Jesus changes you it changes the way we view other people—especially the way we view and love other followers of Jesus.

That’s the test...

Have you been changed?

One final thing here...It’s an old commandment…it’s really a new commandment…but it’s one you’ve already heard. What does he mean by this? How is this a new commandment—that’s not really new…what is new about it?

Is this something to repent of as a believer…?

The gospel...

The work of the Holy Spirit. We are transformed. Our hearts are different now. We love differently…that’s what the gospel does…it changes our allegiance, our hearts, our brothers and sisters…connects us in an entirely new way.

What do we do, then, if we find that hatred is bubbling in our hearts? What kind of test is this...

What do I do when this comes into the light? Do I go to Jesus for cleansing or do I deny it? I write this so that you might not sin…I write this so that you might not have hatred bubbling in there…but if you do we have an advocate...

Jesus cleanse me? I’m struggling here. Help me to love. That is what happens with this “new commandment” you have a new power. You have a new fountain by which you can be cleansed. Through the Spirit we really do grow in love…our trajectory is changed...

But if I minimize this…go back to those first verses in 1 John. If I say…I don’t have this…that isn’t hatred…they aren’t really believers…it’s okay for me to hate them…we start justifying this…we hang onto this hate…we keep it alive…well, John is saying…that’s a heart that isn’t transformed because it still has self at the center.

If that’s the case what needs to happen is coming to Jesus. Your heart has to be transformed…you don’t go out and say, “Oh man…gotta start loving people...” You don’t have the power to do that. You need Jesus.