Untitled Sermon (5)
Real Christians
3 See what great lovem the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!n And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.o 2 Dear friends,p now we are children of God,q and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,a r we shall be like him,s for we shall see him as he is.t 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves,u just as he is pure.v
3 See what great lovem the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!n And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.o 2 Dear friends,p now we are children of God,q and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,a r we shall be like him,s for we shall see him as he is.t 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves,u just as he is pure.v
The United States Treasury Department has a special group of men whose job it is to track down counterfeiters. Naturally, these men need to know a counterfeit bill when they see it.
How do they learn to identify fake bills?
Oddly enough, they are not trained by spending hours examining counterfeit money. Rather, they study the real thing. They become so familiar with authentic bills that they can spot a counterfeit by looking at it or, often, simply by feeling it
The United States Treasury Department has a special group of men whose job it is to track down counterfeiters. Naturally, these men need to know a counterfeit bill when they see it.
How do they learn to identify fake bills?
Oddly enough, they are not trained by spending hours examining counterfeit money. Rather, they study the real thing. They become so familiar with authentic bills that they can spot a counterfeit by looking at it or, often, simply by feeling it
The United States Treasury Department has a special group of men whose job it is to track down counterfeiters. Naturally, these men need to know a counterfeit bill when they see it.
How do they learn to identify fake bills?
Oddly enough, they are not trained by spending hours examining counterfeit money. Rather, they study the real thing. They become so familiar with authentic bills that they can spot a counterfeit by looking at it or, often, simply by feeling it
The fourth-century Church father, John Chrysostom, in a sermon on how to bring up children, advises parents to give their boy some great Scriptural name, to teach him repeatedly the story of the original bearer of the name, and so to give him a standard to live up to when he grows up. So, Christians have the privilege of being called the children of God.
(1) When Christ appears in his glory, we shall be like him. Surely, John had in mind the saying of the old creation story that human beings were made in the image and in the likeness of God (Genesis 1:26). That was God’s intention, and that was human destiny. We have only to look into any mirror to see how far we have fallen short of that destiny. But John believes that, in Christ, people will finally attain it and at last bear the image and the likeness of God. It is John’s belief that only through the work of Christ in their souls can men and women reach the true humanity that God meant them to reach.
(2) When Christ appears, we shall see him and be like him. The goal of all the great Christian men and women has been the vision of God. The end of all devotion is to see God. But that vision of God is not for the sake of intellectual satisfaction; it is in order that we may become like him. There is a paradox here. We cannot become like God unless we see him; and we cannot see him unless we are pure in heart, for only the pure in heart shall see God (Matthew 5:8). In order to see God, we need the purity which only he can give. We are not to think of this vision of God as something which only the great mystics can enjoy. There is somewhere a story about a poor and simple man who would often go into a cathedral to pray; and he would always pray kneeling before the crucifix. Someone noticed that, though he knelt in the attitude of prayer, his lips never moved and he never seemed to say anything, and asked the man what he was doing kneeling like that. The man answered: ‘I look at him; and he looks at me.’ That is the vision of God in Christ that everyone can have; and whoever looks long enough at Jesus Christ must become like him.
John says that sin is lawlessness (3:4). In this one statement, the writer uses two Greek terms, hamartia and anomia, to describe aspects of sin. This statement helps us discuss and deal with sin because it gives a clear understanding of what John meant by “sin” or hamartia. For John, sin did not include mistakes and human blunders. It is true that some of the Greek words translated “sin” suggest a wide scope of weaknesses, misdirection, and wrongdoing—but not in this epistle. When the writer references the term most often used for sin, that is hamartia, he is writing about lawlessness. For him, the sin of greatest concern is the inclination, the attitude, the conscious, rebellious determination to do what is wrong.
(1) He tells us what sin is. It is the deliberate breaking of a law of which people are well aware. Sin is to obey oneself rather than to obey God.
(2) He tells us what sin does. It undoes the work of Christ. Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). To sin is to bring back what he came into the world to abolish.
(3) He tells us why sin is. It comes from the failure to abide in Christ. We need not think that this is a truth only for advanced mystics. It simply means this: as long as we remember the continual presence of Jesus, we will not sin; it is when we forget that presence that we sin.
(4) He tells us where sin comes from. It comes from the devil; and the devil is the one who sins, as it were, on principle. That is probably the meaning of the phrase from the beginning (verse 8). We sin for the pleasure that we think it will bring to us; the devil sins as a matter of principle. The New Testament does not try to explain the devil and his origin; but it is quite convinced—and it is a fact of universal experience—that in the world there is a power hostile to God, and to sin is to obey that power instead of God.
(5) He tells us how sin is conquered. It is conquered because Jesus Christ destroyed the works of the devil. The New Testament often dwells on the Christ who faced and conquered the powers of evil (Matthew 12:25–9; Luke 10:18; Colossians 2:15; 1 Peter 3:22; John 12:31). He has broken the power of evil, and by his help that same victory can be ours.
All who have this hope in him purify themselves,u just as he is pure.v
4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.w 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins.x And in him is no sin.y 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning.z No one who continues to sin has either seen hima or known him.b
7 Dear children,c do not let anyone lead you astray.d The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.e 8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil,f because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of Godg appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.h
A novelist draws the picture of a young man who always refused to share in the lower pleasures to which his friends often invited and even urged him. His explanation was that, some day, something fine was going to come to him, and he must keep himself ready for it. Those who know that God stands at the end of the road will make all life a preparation to meet him.
(1) He tells us what sin is. It is the deliberate breaking of a law of which people are well aware. Sin is to obey oneself rather than to obey God.
(2) He tells us what sin does. It undoes the work of Christ. Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). To sin is to bring back what he came into the world to abolish.
(3) He tells us why sin is. It comes from the failure to abide in Christ. We need not think that this is a truth only for advanced mystics. It simply means this: as long as we remember the continual presence of Jesus, we will not sin; it is when we forget that presence that we sin.
(4) He tells us where sin comes from. It comes from the devil; and the devil is the one who sins, as it were, on principle. That is probably the meaning of the phrase from the beginning (verse 8). We sin for the pleasure that we think it will bring to us; the devil sins as a matter of principle. The New Testament does not try to explain the devil and his origin; but it is quite convinced—and it is a fact of universal experience—that in the world there is a power hostile to God, and to sin is to obey that power instead of God.
(5) He tells us how sin is conquered. It is conquered because Jesus Christ destroyed the works of the devil. The New Testament often dwells on the Christ who faced and conquered the powers of evil (Matthew 12:25–9; Luke 10:18; Colossians 2:15; 1 Peter 3:22; John 12:31). He has broken the power of evil, and by his help that same victory can be ours.
This passage is directed against the Gnostic false teachers. As we have seen, they produced more than one reason to justify sin. They said that the body was evil and that, therefore, there was no harm in satisfying its lusts to the full, because what happened to it was of no importance. They said that truly spiritual people were protected to such an extent by the Spirit that they could sin to their hearts’ content and come to no harm. They even said that there was an obligation on true Gnostics both to scale the heights and to plumb the depths so that they might be truly said to know all things. Behind John’s answer, there is a kind of analysis of sin.
9 No one who is born of Godi will continue to sin,j because God’s seedk remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.
10 This is how we know who the children of Godl are and who the children of the devilm are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not loven their brother and sister.o
More on Love and Hatred
11 For this is the message you heardp from the beginning:q We should love one another.r 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil ones and murdered his brother.t And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.u 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters,b if the world hates you.v 14 We know that we have passed from death to life,w because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.x 15 Anyone who hates a brother or sistery is a murderer,z and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.a
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.b And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.c 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them,d how can the love of God be in that person?e 18 Dear children,f let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.g
19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends,h if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before Godi 22 and receive from him anything we ask,j because we keep his commandsk and do what pleases him.l 23 And this is his command: to believem in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,n and to love one another as he commanded us.o 24 The one who keeps God’s commandsp lives in him,q and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.r
THE ONLY TEST
1 John 3:19–24a
By this we know that we are of the truth, and by this we will reassure our heart before him, when our heart condemns us in anything, for God is greater than our hearts and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we can come confidently to God and receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do the things which are well pleasing to him. And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and that we should love one another, even as he gave us his commandment. And he who keeps his commandment abides in him and he in him.
INTO every human heart, there are bound to come doubts. It is natural for people with any sensitivity of mind or heart to wonder at times if they really are Christians. John’s test is quite simple and far-reaching. It is love. If we feel love for our neighbours welling up within our hearts, we can be sure that the heart of Christ is in us. John would have said that a so-called heretic whose heart was overflowing with love and whose life had an attractive quality in the service of others was far nearer Christ than someone who was impeccably orthodox, yet cold and remote from the needs of others.
Our hearts condemn us—that is inevitable. But God is greater than our hearts; he knows all things. Not only does he know our sins; he also knows our love, our longings, the nobility that never fully works itself out, our penitence; and the greatness of his knowledge gives him the sympathy which can understand and forgive.
It is this very knowledge of God which gives us our hope. ‘Man’, as the thirteenth-century scholar Thomas Aquinas said, ‘sees the deed, but God knows the intention.’ Other people can judge us only by our actions, but God can judge us by the longings which never became deeds and the dreams which never came true.
When Solomon was dedicating the Temple, he spoke of how David had wanted to build a house for God and how that privilege had been denied to him. ‘My father David had it in mind to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. But the Lord said to my father, “You did well to consider building a house for my name” ’ (1 Kings 8:17–18).
The French proverb says: ‘To know all is to forgive all.’ God judges us by the deep emotions of the heart; and, if in our heart there is love, then, however feeble and imperfect that love may be, we can with confidence enter into his presence. The perfect knowledge which belongs to God, and to God alone, is not our terror but our hope.
We must believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ. Here, we have that use of the word name which is peculiar to the biblical writers. It does not mean simply the name by which a person is called; it means the whole nature and character of that person as far as it is known to us. The psalmist writes: ‘Our help is in the name of the Lord’ (Psalm 124:8). Clearly, that does not mean that our help lies in the fact that God is called Yahweh; it means that our help is in the love and mercy and power which have been revealed to us as the nature and character of God. So, to believe in the name of Jesus Christ means to believe in the nature and character of Jesus Christ. It means to believe that he is the Son of God, that he does stand in relation to God in a way in which no other person in the universe ever stood or ever can stand, that he can perfectly reveal God to us and that he is the Saviour of our souls. To believe in the name of Jesus Christ is to accept him for what he really is.
We must love each other with that same selfless, sacrificial, forgiving love with which Jesus Christ loved us.
We cannot begin the Christian life until we accept Jesus Christ for what he is; and we have not accepted him in any real sense of the term until our attitude to others is the same as his own attitude of love.