I believe in Jesus. It doesn't matter how I live.

A sword with two purposes

Longswords are fascinating weapons. They are typically used with both hands, so the wielder usually did not have a shield. The sword was used for both defense and offense. One weapon with dual purpose.

The passage that we are going to look at together in this session is not unlike a longsword. On one hand, we will use it to attack the idea that someone, having claimed Christ, could thus live however he pleases. But we must also, on the other hand, use it to defend against the swings of the enemy that would make us question our own salvation in light of these truths.

1 John is a challenging book. It causes you to look intently into your own life, and it exhorts you to forsake sin and to obey the Savior.

If you’re not careful, you can fall into a pit of despair reading the book. “I am still a sinner! I’m clearly not a Christian!” But this is propaganda from the enemy camp. The devil wants you to think that you are not good enough to be a follower of Jesus Christ. But Christ wants you to know that, it’s true, you are not good enough to be a follower of Jesus Christ, but He is good enough, and He died so that you didn’t have to be good enough.

If you’re not careful, you can fall into a pit of despair reading the book. “I am still a sinner! I’m clearly not a Christian!” But this is propaganda from the enemy camp. The devil wants you to think that you are not good enough to be a follower of Jesus Christ. But Christ wants you to know that, it’s true, you are not good enough to be a follower of Jesus Christ, but He is good enough, and He died so that you didn’t have to be good enough.

In fact, John wants you to know that, as well. His goal in writing the book is not to shake anyone’s faith, but rather to strengthen it. He writes,

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .

But the problem is that one could take that doctrine and twist it so that they convince themselves and try to convince others that since Jesus paid it all, it doesn’t matter how they live. That’s what John is addressing in this passage, and that’s what you may need to address when you are ministering to someone, whether on the street, or at work, or at a family reunion, or whatever situation God has put you in to speak the truth in love.

And so we have one sword, two purposes, and we will seek by God’s grace to use it faithfully. Let us read the passage in its entirety, then we will defend against the devil’s lies, and then we will attack the them.

English Standard Version Chapter 2

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

Defending against the devil’s lies

So, we read this passage and it can be convicting and confusing. “I sin! There have been times in my life you could say I have made a practice of sinning. I keep on sinning. John says that no one who abides in him keeps on sinning. I look at my life and it sure doesn’t look like I practice righteousness. I look at my brothers and I fail to love them almost all the time.” How can we read this passage and have any assurance whatsoever?

What do you think?

Admittedly, this is not the main question at hand in this lesson. Our goal is to look at what to say when someone is on the other side of the spectrum, saying they’re in Christ and it doesn’t matter how he lives. But we need this.

Many Christians wrestle with this. They know that salvation is through Christ alone, but they also know that someone who truly has faith in Jesus will live accordingly, and they look at their own lives, and they don’t measure up. What are we to do with that?

And the danger of it is that we have a tendency to transition from one works-righteousness to another. First, we believed that if we could be good enough, God would let us into heaven. Now, we know that only through faith in Christ is someone saved, but now we have a tendency to wonder whether we are good enough to prove that we have believed. Our faith gets put on the fruit, rather than being fixed on Christ.

So, again, we need this. We need to look at this closely to see how to handle this high view of Christ-like living with our low-view of self.

First, we need to know that John himself, in this very letter, doesn’t suggest that a Christian can be perfectly righteous and sinless.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

So, John himself teaches that anyone who claims they don’t sin is deceiving themselves. But we must confess our sins to Him, and when we do that, He forgives us, not in the sense of being justified, but in the sense of a parent forgiving his child and restoring the closeness of the relationship.

If we say we haven’t sinned, we’re saying God is a liar, and we clearly don’t know what He has said.

We’re not supposed to sin, but if we do sin, Jesus Christ advocates for us with the Father. He is the righteous One and He advocates for us. He’s the propitiation for our sins. In other words, He paid the penalty that our sins deserve.

Then, he talks about how we know we have come to know Him if we keep His commandments. But that’s in the same letter that he just conceded that we often don’t keep His commandments. So, what we can conclude here is that John is not talking about perfect obedience, but rather obedience in general. Someone who truly knows Jesus will desire to obey His commandments and will, to some extent, obey His commandments. It’s not a requirement. It’s a promise.

On the other hand, someone who says he knows Him but doesn’t care about His commandments, doesn’t seek to obey them, doesn’t think he needs to obey them, that person is a liar.

Again, John isn’t writing this to make you question your faith, but rather to strengthen it. Look at what he writes later in chapter 2:

English Standard Version Chapter 2

I am writing to you, little children,

because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.

I am writing to you, fathers,

because you know him who is from the beginning.

I am writing to you, young men,

because you have overcome the evil one.

I write to you, children,

because you know the Father.

I write to you, fathers,

because you know him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men,

because you are strong,

and the word of God abides in you,

and you have overcome the evil one.

John is not writing a polemical letter in an attempt to persuade false Christians that they are not truly Christians. He is writing to assure true believers. Christian, your sins are forgiven for His name’s sake. You know Him. You have overcome the evil one. You know the Father. You are strong.

Then, he warns against antichrists in the world. He calls them to let what they have learned abide, or remain, in them, that they can withstand the lies of the antichrists. That brings us to our passage.

In verse 28, we read “abide in Him”. Continue in Him. Remain in Him. Again, this is an assurance for us. What it implies is that we are in Him. We can’t remain in Him if we aren’t in Him already. Those who believe in Christ are in Christ, and the task at hand, then, is to remain in Him.

As we know, it is He who will ensure that we remain in Him, but it is still our duty and responsibility to remain in Him. We are to work out our own salvation, with fear and trembling, though we know that it is God who works in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Since we are forgiven, our task is to abide in Him, for this reason: “ so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming” . Christ can come back at any time. And what will we be found doing? Acting like the world or living like Him and for Him. This is a good motivation for us. We know that the Master can return at any time. Will we be found busy for Him or busy for the world?

Now, we must be careful with this. Again, this can become a sort of works-righteousness. And it can also be a source of pride. If anyone thinks that their life can somehow be good enough to impress the Savior, as if He doesn’t already know what you’re doing, as if He doesn’t know the imperfections of what you’re doing, as if He doesn’t know your pridefulness, this is foolish indeed. No matter how Christlike you become in this life, you will always be more like your neighbor than you are like Christ. So, be humble in this endeavor.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .

With that said, we should strive to live for Him. I don’t know if any of us will deserve to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant”, but that should certainly be our aim, though we know that it’s only by His grace.

John continues, “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him” . Based on what we’ve seen so far, we know that this should not be a defeating verse for we who have believe in Him. We know that this doesn’t mean that we practice righteousness perfectly, but that we practice righteousness in general. And this will look differently in every Christian’s life.

The brand new Christian who was saved while hearing the gospel high on cocaine two days ago will practice righteousness at a different level than the elder of a local church. But nonetheless, by God’s grace, that Christian will practice righteousness to some degree. Why is that an assurance? Because this is a guarantee for the believer.

If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

God’s seed abides in him

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .

The one who “has been born of Him” will surely practice righteousness, because “God’s seed abides in him” . This seed could be referring to the gospel, which is the implanted word that saved us but will also continue to grow in us in sanctification. Or it could be talking about the Holy Spirit, who causes this implantation and growth. Either way, it is guaranteed that we will practice righteousness.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .

Do you believe in Jesus and trust in Him? You’re a Christian. In fact, look at your life. Look at how God has changed you. No, you’re not perfect, but you’re certainly not the same person you were B.C., even if it was just two days ago when you were high on cocaine.

If you are a Christian, you will be hard-pressed to conclude that you have never obeyed Jesus since you were saved. If that’s true, then perhaps you are in fact not a Christian. But any obedience to Jesus, even to one commandment, is evidence of God’s work in saving you.

Still don’t believe that John is not intending for you to doubt? Look at what he says next:

English Standard Version Chapter 3

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.

He doesn’t say that if you practice righteousness, you are a child of God. No, he assumes that the person reading is a child of God. Can we just relish this verse for a moment?

Oh, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us”. What kind of love. Not only was it different in magnitude, but it was different in kind. God loves us differently from the rest of His creation. In what way? He calls us “children of God”.

Can you grasp that you, a sinner, one who cannot deny that he sins against God, He still calls a child? And He made the biggest sacrifice in order to do that. He gave His actual child on the cross to be the propitiation for our sins in order that we—sinners as we are—may be called children of God.

He calls us His children, but not only that—we are His children. “And so we are”. He has adopted us into His family, despite our years of rebellion. He has made us coheirs with the only One who has ever perfectly practiced righteousness.

John doesn’t want us to question that. He wants us to know that. He wants us to rejoice in that. And he wants us to be who we are. He wants us to live accordingly.

He goes on, “The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him” . This is what the Savior promised in the gospels. The world rejected Him, the world hated Him, and since we are His, the world rejects us and hates us, too. But there is a future hope.

The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Not only is our hope in Him in the present, but,

English Standard Version Chapter 3

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

We’re His children now. Praise God for that! But we still struggle with sin, and we still suffer in this world. One day, one glorious day, we will be something different. We will be glorified, as He is glorified. We will see Him face to face, for He will raise us in glory. This is our resurrection hope.

And since we have that hope, we purify ourselves. “...everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” .

everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

We want to be like Christ. And we will be like Christ when He comes. We long for that day. And since we long for the day that we will be like Christ, we strive to be like Him now. So, we purify ourselves, as He is pure.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .

All of this is evidence of God’s work in us. And many take these words and despair that they are not living up to the standards. It is because we tend to think we must be perfectly righteous and perfectly pure in order to have assurance. But, no, our assurance is in Christ’s finished work on the cross and in the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in us, that manifests itself in at least some practice of righteousness and some purity. All Christians have this, not on their own strength, but on God’s.

If you don’t think you practice any righteousness nor have any purity, then either you’re right, and you’re not a Christian, or you are a Christian and you are dishonoring the Holy Spirit by denying the work that He has done in you. Even if you are spiritually immature, even if you still struggle with some of the same sins as you did when you were saved, you are different from point A, if you are saved. And if you have given your life to Christ and are different from point A, praise God! Be confident that He has saved you.

So, this is how we use this sword to defend against the enemy: by realizing that though we sin, God is working in us, and that is evidence of the sure salvation we have in Christ.

Now that we’ve looked at it from that angle, let’s see how the sword is used to attack the devil’s lies.

Attacking the devil’s lies

So, if some of the enemy’s lies are whispers in Christians’ ears that their lives prove that they are not Christians, some of his other lies suggest to non-Christians that all they need to do is identify with Christ, and they can live however they please. And, mind you, not only does the devil spread this lie, but so does the human heart, and many false teachers. We have false teachers today who teach such wickedness, and it was likely the main teaching of the antichrists John has warned against.

So, we attack these lies with our sword. John writes,

English Standard Version Chapter 3

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

The Christian practices righteousness, to some degree and imperfectly. The person who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Now, John isn’t talking about a person who sins. (Christians sin, as we’ve already seen.) He’s talking about a person who sins as if it’s okay. He’s talking about this lie from the antichrists and from the devil that you can continue on in your sin, since Jesus paid it all.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .

The person who does that practices lawlessness. Perhaps John has in mind Paul’s use of “the man of lawlessness”, which is antichrist language. But either way, this is referring to being a lawbreaker. And a person who is lawless, who is antinomian, completely disregards the law of God, but more importantly, disregards the Lawgiver, God Himself. This is a serious offense.

Furthermore, for someone to disregard the law and to disregard the Lawgiver is to be completely contrary to the One whom they claim to believe in. John writes,

English Standard Version Chapter 3

You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

A person claims to believe in Jesus, who came to take away sins, who Himself is sinless, and yet he has no desire to have his sins removed from him and no desire to be like the sinless Savior? This is utter foolishness and a lie. John continues, “No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him” .

No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him” .

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .

Again, this isn’t referring to struggling with persistent sin in our lives. This is someone who does not care that he is sinning, because he thinks it doesn’t matter, and such a person does not know Jesus. Such a person still needs to hear and understand the gospel. For he has believed a lie.

“Little children”, John writes, “let no one deceive you.” This is a lie from the devil. It’s also self-deception.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

let no one deceive you.

Children of God, those who have Christ’s righteousness imputed to them, practice righteousness, by His grace. On the other hand, those who make a practice of sinning, that is live under the delusion that it doesn’t matter how they live, now that they have professed Christ, are of the devil, as the Pharisees were of their father, the devil. They are not living a life consistent with Christ; they are living like the devil, who “has been sinning from the beginning”.

Again, this is grossly inconsistent with the Jesus whom they claim. Why? “ The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” . So, since He left His place of glory, lived a humble, perfect life, died on the cross for sinners like us, rose again on the third day, ascended to the Father, all in order to destroy the works of the devil, why are you acting like the devil? It’s a lie. It doesn’t work like that.

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” .

And as we saw earlier, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God” .

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.

Another way that a false professor of Christ shows himself to be false is that he does not love Christians. This is the thrust of the next section of John’s letter, and he thus transitions to it in verse 10: “By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .

Someone who claims Christ but says that it doesn’t matter how he lives is likely not going to be a part of a church. After all, “Why would it matter? Those church people are all hypocrites anyway. I love Jesus, but I don’t love the church.” More deception. Christ does not give this as an option. Those who love Him will love His people (not perfectly, but to some degree, and increasingly).

By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .

So, it is an utter lie from the devil and from oneself to think that all one must do is profess Jesus. One must believe in Jesus, and one who has no desire to worship Jesus and follow Jesus and obey Jesus is showing that he does not actually believe in Him. This is how we attack the devil’s lie.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .

Conclusions and applications

What should we do with all of this? Christian, be assured of your salvation. Trust in Jesus Christ. Remember what He did for you on the cross. Remember that God owns you as His child. Look at what He is doing in your life. Praise God for how He has changed you, even if it doesn’t mean that you’re perfect, even if it means that you continue to struggle with sin.

And having assurance of your salvation, continue in Him. Strive to be more and more faithful in your obedience. Identify what sin is in your life, and by His grace, kill it. Pay close attention to your life and doctrine.

Friend who has come in among us today who has been under the impression that your obedience to Christ does not matter, as long as you profess His name, let no one deceive you. The way you live absolutely matters. The way you live is evidence of what you believe. And if you believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross that you may live, then you will be saved, and you will practice righteousness, as God works in you.

Christian, speak that truth in love, to those who have been deceived. And do so graciously. Be compassionate, because your battle is not with them, but with the deceiver. Ask that the Holy Spirit would help them see the truth.

Parents, be careful how you raise your children. Are they under the impression that they need to be a certain amount of good in order to be a Christian? Or are they perhaps under the impression that it doesn’t matter whether they obey Christ? Feed them a balanced meal of free justification and ongoing sanctification and obedience to the Savior.