Us From Wasting Our Lives

The True Light Is Seen In Him & You

1.25.26 [1 John 2:3-11] River of Life (3rd Sunday after Epiphany)

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son and Your Advocate who is with us in truth and love. Amen. 

Liar, liar, pants on fire, nose as long as a telephone wire. 

If only it were that easy to spot a liar. If only pants spontaneously combusted into flames. If only their nose grew like Pinocchio's as they piled up one lie after another. Yet, at times, liars have tells. 

Maybe it’s how they avoid eye contact or begin to fidget anxiously. Maybe it’s how their story has way too many details but still doesn’t really seem to add up. Maybe it’s how they move their hand in front of their mouth too much or how their cheeks turn flush. Maybe it’s how their breathing pattern begins to change. Maybe we notice how the pitch, pace, or volume of their voice begins fluctuate dramatically.

Spotting liars has always been crucial and challenging. In ancient times, some cultures focused on saliva. A dry mouth was a telltale sign. In the far east, the suspect would chew dry rice while being questioned. If they spat out dry rice, it was because he was stressed out from lying. The Bedouins forced suspected liars to lick a hot copper spoon. A dry tongue would blister more easily. An ancient Greek physician, Erasistratus, connected lying with measurable changes in heart rate. 

Today, we put suspects on the polygraph. At least, that’s what we see on TV. The polygraph measures physical reactions like blood pressure, pulse, breathing patterns, and skin conductivity. The theory is that the body reacts when under stress and lying is stressful. But so, too, is being on a polygraph. Which is why it's not often accepted in a court of law. Even today, it’s challenging & crucial to spot a liar.

In our reading from 1 John 2, we have a kind of spiritual polygraph test. John warns us that there are many who claim to know Jesus. He says: 1 Jn. 2:4 Whoever says: I know him, but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in that person.  

A statement like makes us all nervous. Makes us all feel stressed out. We all say that we know Jesus. Maybe not as well as we’d like. Maybe not as well as someone more learned. But we know him. 

We know how he went around Mt. 4:23 teaching and healing and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. We know how he died on the cross. We know he rose to life on the third day. We know that he ascended into heaven a little while later. We know him. 

But John forces us to take a hard look at how we demonstrate that we know him. We do not show that we know him by a bumper sticker on our car or a piece of cross jewelry. We do not demonstrate that we know Jesus by taking a pop quiz or by praying every day. We do not show that we know him with an ironman streak of church attendance or a squeaky clean reputation among our peers. 1 Jn. 2:3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 

And what are those commands? Well, they are twofold. Mt. 22:37 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love one another as Christ has loved you. When we love God and love our brothers and sisters in Christ & love our neighbors as Christ loved us, 1 Jn. 2:5 God’s love is truly made complete in us. 

John here speaks of this being an old command and a new command. It is an old command because Mt. 22:39 Love your neighbor as yourself finds its roots in the 2nd table of the 10 commandments and is distilled into a single command in Leviticus 19:18. But it is a new command because Jesus deepened it on the night when he was betrayed when he said to his disciples: Jn. 13:34-35 A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples. 

But if there are two commands, why does John get so hung up on the second one? Because, as he recognizes in chapter 4 of this little letter, many claim to love God, yet try to justify their hatred for their brother or sister. 1 Jn. 4:20 Whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 

Some hatred practices are painfully obvious and yet all too prevalent in our world. If we envy our brother, we are walking around in darkness. If we slander our sister, even if we’re “just telling others the truth about her” we are stumbling into sin. If we covet, steal, or harm our neighbor, we are not living as Jesus did. If we undermine someone’s marriage, even just by lending an ear to gossip or by piling  on finding faults or mocking, we are walking in the darkness of sin. And yes, even Christians can develop blindspots to the sin of hatred. 

But there are more subtle shapes of hatred, like indifference and refusing to forgive as we’ve been forgiven. Indifference comes in two forms. 

First, we can be indifferent to a person altogether. We don’t think about them. We don’t care about them. Their problems are their problems, not yours. This is the attitude of the priest and the Levite who walked past the dying man on the road to Jericho, not the Good Samaritan. This is 1 Cor. 12:21 the eye saying to the hand ‘I don’t need you, I’m doing fine on my own and you’ll just have to figure out things on your own.’ This indifference is the sin of pride and lovelessness. 

The second form of indifference is even more duplicitous. It embraces the neighbor and ignores their real problems. Apathetic about the deeds of darkness. It has a reckless disregard for the damage of sin. It claims to love, but refuses to rebuke—usually because it’s afraid. 

The final shape of hatred is refusing to forgive as we’ve been forgiven. This is loveless behavior. It causes us to stumble—we even stumble over our words in our attempts to justify it. We say: How can we forgive them when they don’t ask or acknowledge their sin? Why should we forgive when they’ve wrecked my life? When they just keep on doing the same thing over and over again? 

All of those excuses make sense in the dark. None of them makes sense in the light of salvation. Does God only forgive the sins you confess and ask forgiveness for? Does God only forgive sins that didn’t affect his life? Does God only forgive sins when we don’t do the same thing over and over again? Of course not! Because God is love. 

And God has love for those who struggle to love one another as he has loved them. And John knew that personally. 

You see, John, the author of this letter, knew what it was like to claim to know God and yet hate the people around him. Like all the other disciples, John was not immune to arguing over the pecking order behind Jesus. And John wasn’t the one disciple that was trying to bring the little children to Jesus. Hardly loving. But in Luke 9, we have two accounts of John’s own struggle to love as Jesus loved him. 

First, John saw someone driving out demons in Jesus’ name and he tried to stop him because that man Lk. 9:49 was not one of Jesus’ disciples. Even John struggled with envy and jealousy. 

Then, as Jesus was setting out to offer himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, Jesus sent John and his brother James to get things ready for him in a Samaritan village. The people weren’t having it because they knew that Jesus was ultimately heading to Jerusalem.

So John came to Jesus with a fiery proposal. Lk. 9:54 Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them? 

In case you weren’t sure, Jesus declined that suggestion. In fact, he turned and rebuked James & John for thinking that was his mission. 

John learned to know Jesus in small moments too. Jesus was not interested in greatness, but in service. Jesus was not too busy for children, but came for all, great and small. Jesus was not worried about credit, but came that he might credit sinners with his righteousness. Jesus did not come to this world to condemn the world that did not receive him, but to receive the condemnation that this world deserved. He called the fire of God’s wrath down upon himself in our place. This Jesus, who lived righteously under the law in our place, who died for our sins, who rose to life for justification, and who sits at the right hand of the Father is our Righteous Advocate and Righteousness Activator.

When we sin, he reveals the truth to us through his commands. He calls us to repentance in his Word. As we guard and keep that Word it calls us to stand in the light and to know the truth. He calls us from the darkness of sin—and all the excuses we make for it—into his wonderful light where there is nothing to make us stumble. He has taken his truth, the seed of the Gospel, and planted it deep in us. It is he who warns and warms by saying 1 Jn. 1:8-9 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. That truth is in you. 

And that truth bears real fruit in you. The truth has tells, too. The truth bears fruit in you when you reject hatred in its many forms. When we choose to rejoice with those who rejoice instead of growing envious or jealous. When we choose to rebuke the sinner, rather than slander her behind her back. When we choose to defend someone’s good name, their property, and their health, rather than destroy, steal, or kill. When we encourage marriages that have hit a rough patch to be accountable, slow to speak and accuse, but rather quick to listen, and quicker to forgive.

The love of God bears fruit in your life when you choose to invest in others rather than be indifferent. The love of God bears fruit in your life when you choose to address sin head-on rather than ignore it and hope it goes away. And the love of God bears its finest fruit in forgiveness. When we forgive not because they’ve really changed, but because God has changed us. When we forgive not because they’ve promised to never do it again, but because God has promised to always love us. When we forgive not because we want to be the bigger person, but because we know the love of God in the person of Jesus Christ, his Son, our Righteous Advocate and our Righteousness Activator. Amen.