Christ is Central (pt. 2)

Have you ever noticed in life that we as a society have different expectations on people based on their chosen profession or career? There are certain careers that people have in which we have differing levels of expectations. Just to test my theory out, I took the crime driving under the influence as a test case, because that is now widely recognized as quite reckless and egregious because of the carnage that can come from it. I simply googled “Doctor arrested for DUI,” and quite a few articles came up throughout all of society. “Teacher arrested for DUI,” also came up with several hits. My goodness even, “Pastor arrested for DUI,” got more hits than I would have liked to have seen. So then I googled DUI with these different groups, Local fast food worker, plumber, construction worker, and other type jobs and there were no hits. Now, we can chalk this up to TV sensationalism, in which a news station is simply trying to drum up viewership based on the idea that “Local Doctor arrested for DUI” sounds much more interesting than “Your local Taco Bell worker arrested.” That is certainly a part of it, no doubt about it. We know that sensationalism exists. However, I think it exists in these cases because we have certain expectations about certain professions. We like to think that the surgeon who could be operating on me tomorrow is an honest upstanding citizen. Parents rest easier knowing that their child’s 1st-grade teacher lives a moral life. Now, we know deep down that this is not always the case but we at least want to live with this particular perception. Whether rightly or wrongly, a person’s profession seems to indicate to some degree our hope in their outward living.

There is another type of profession that makes a difference. I am not talking about a profession as in a job, but a person’s profession in what they believe. What a person says they believe matters. When a person professes Christ, this matters. This brings us back to 1 John 2. Last week, we began a sermon based on 1 John 2:1-6 in which the main point was: In our wrestling with sin we have confidence in the work of Christ as well as a model in the walk of Christ. We saw that verses 1-2 focus on the work of Christ as our advocate and his work as our propitiation, or the one who bore the wrath of God for us. Today we are going to see the spiritual implications of Christian obedience.

Read 1 John 2:1-6

Now, today we will be focusing on Verses 3-6 specifically. There are a few things I want us to see in this text and then we will specifically look at the spiritual implications for you and I in this life. For some interpreters verse 3 represents a completely new line of thought that is not dependent on verses 1-2. Someone could say that the theological concepts in verses 1-2 are different than the concepts that will be expounded in verses 3 and onward. However, I take a different track and believe that the talk of obedience is only possible with the grand theological concepts that are present in the first two verses of this chapter. In this way, it is because of what Christ has done for us that it is even possible to truly obey him. Now it is true that John is making a specific theological point when he writes, “and by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.”

John is saying something very important because here he is talking specifically about what it means to know God. Now, if we understand the opponents in 1 John to be Gnostics, then we see why this knowledge was important to John. One of the hallmarks of Gnosticism is the relationship to knowledge and the idea that salvation was tied into someone receiving this sort of secret knowledge that opened the path of enlightenment. However, there was a break between knowledge and moral action. John is going to claim that any knowledge that is separated from action is no true knowledge at all but is actually deception. In Christian thought, knowledge is experiential which leads to action.

There are two phrases that John uses to refer to obedience. First, is the word commandments. Now, when he uses the word commandments, we think of the commandments of God that were given in the book of Exodus, which we know as the Ten Commandments. We also think of the words of Jesus, God the Son, when he distilled the ten commandments to the two commandments: Love God and love neighbor. That is probably only a picture of what John is saying, as the other phrase is keep his word. Obedience is also is obeying the words of Christ. Taken together, obedience is much more than just religious keeping of certain commandments, but it is the keeping of the word of God in total, and not just in the letter but the spirit. Jesus himself alludes to this when he speaks of adultery. The religious man says, “I’ve never committed adultery… I’m good!” Jesus says, “Not so fast if you have lusted after a woman. That’s adultery!” Obedience is a very important part of the Christian life.

As we think about this passage and specifically about obedience, what is it that God is telling us? I believe there are three spiritual implications for you and me.

Spiritual Implication #1: Obedience is evidence of God’s work in you

All this talk about obedience can lead to the wrong end. There are two wrong tracks that you can take when you look at this passage. The first wrong track is to say that obedience is how we become Christians. This would represent a works-based salvation, in which we are saved by our works and our obedience. This is not scriptural, as we consistently see that we are saved by grace, not by our works. Even in this passage, we see that we are saved by Christ because Jesus is our propitiation. The second wrong track is to take this passage and see that our obedience to Christ is tied to our continual salvation or to say it differently, we are only Christians if we perfectly obey every command of God in the Bible. In this view, a person’s salvation is hanging perilously on the edge of a cliff and if you sin, you could fall right into that pit. Now, if you ask for forgiveness, then you are ok. In this viewpoint, there is a built-in insecurity of the believer. John is making a very different point in saying that Obedience is evidence of salvation, not the doorway to salvation nor the way to keep salvation. Obedience then is a sort of self-test in a lot of ways to determine if you believe what you say you believe.

Have you ever done one of those self-tests online to determine if you have a sickness? You have to be careful of those things don’t you? Do you have a headache? Yes. Do you feel tired? Well, I think so. Do you have trouble with your eyesight? Well… I think so. Then this means you have, insert some horrible disease. I’m not talking about that sort of self-test because the reality is that none of us could pass the obedience self-test! The question though is, does obedience to God take precedent, is it our priority in our Christian life? It’s not about perfect law-keeping, but it is the direction and posture of one’s heart and life. Do you even desire obedience in your life? Again, it is a question of a person’s heart posture.

There is another beautiful truth in verse 5… Don’t miss it. It says, “but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfect.” Do you know what this means? The more we obey God, the more our love for God. As I seek greater obedience in my life, the more I hate sin, the more I read God’s word for growth, the more my love grows. The more my love grows, the more my obedience grows. Do you want your love to grow for God? Obey Him.

Spiritual Implication #2: Obedience is not optional

One of the great dangers of modern Christianity is the tendency towards a buffet-style belief system. What I mean by that, is that we choose what we like and we reject what we don’t like, much like you would if you were to go to Asian King Buffet. Well in that style of Christianity, guess what is often left out? Obedience! We don’t naturally like to obey, do we? So, we tend to pick over that and there are elements of Christianity that seem so pleasing to our human flesh, so we go with that. Can I level with you this morning? Obedience is not optional. Do you see what John says in verse 6? Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. Key in on the phrase ought to. You could also have must or should. This isn’t optional. A Christian will live a life of obedience. So what does that mean that we will walk in the same way he will walk? Is it very literal, in that we walk exactly like he did? We have his gait or we go to live in the middle east? Obviously not. Does it mean What would Jesus Do? We figure out what Jesus would do and then we do it? Well, that is ok except that would leave out a lot in life, wouldn’t it? We don’t know everything that Jesus did. It means that we follow Christ. To follow Christ is to adopt His actions, attitudes, and ways of life. It means we become his followers, his disciples. You can’t properly be called a follower of Christ if you are not following Christ.

Spiritual Implication #3: Obedience to Christ sustains us in our struggle with sin

One of the key features of this passage is that it is written with a purpose in mind. Do you remember what John wrote in 1 John 2:1? I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. Last week, when we considered the work of Christ, you might understand why His work would lead us to not sin. As we consider obedience, this might be confusing. I could say, the more we obey Christ, the freer we are from sin; and this might seem like the most obvious thing that has ever been uttered from this pulpit. Of course, obedience means you will sin less. Listen, don’t let it become so obvious that you miss this important truth. Do you want to win in your wrestling against sin? Do you feel overwhelmed by your sin or that you can never overcome it? Obedience is the answer. The more you obey Christ, the easier it becomes to not sin. You might say, “Well, that’s the problem! I can’t obey Him.” Here is a very important realization that I have come to in my Christian walk. We have overcomplicated obedience. We tend to look at our lives broadly, and we think about all the different ways that we need to obey Christ. We need to do this, we need to do that. Here is a simple way that I have come to understand obedience: do the next right thing. Or we could say it a little differently: do the next Christ thing. This is obedience. You just keep trying to do the next right thing. You may fail, but you get up and keep doing it. You fall, you do the next right thing. You don’t give up because you mess up, you just say, “Lord, help me!” Guess what begins to happen? The more I obey him in these small areas of my life, the areas that seem so insignificant, the more I become accustomed to obedience. The more confidence that I have in Christ. The more I love Him. The more I want to serve Him. This is the snowball effect in Christian living. The more we obey Him, the more we will experience victory in our lives.

Can I ask you a very important question? How does your life look? How are you doing on the obedience side of things? There are three (maybe more) possibilities. The average Christian would likely say that they are struggling but they want to obey Christ. They are striving towards that goal. This is not necessarily a bad place to be. Do you know when the alarm bells go off for me? When someone says that they are doing fine in the obedience category and they don’t need help or when someone simply says that it doesn’t matter what they believe do because God loves them and wants them to be happy. That’s when I start being very concerned. However, if you are in that first group: Don’t Give up! Obedience is evidence of God’s work in you, it’s not optional but it will help you in your struggle with sin. Keep pressing forward!