Believe It | Live It - Week 2 - OBEDIENCE

BELIEVE IT | LIVE IT OBEDIENCE APRIL 18, 2021 1 John 2:3-14 Whoever claims to live in him, must live as Jesus did. Well, shall we all just give up now? No. Let’s see what John’s actually saying. As the scholars have researched this le er, they have found that there were some false teachers that had le the church but s ll had in uence on the church, and John is bringing to light the problems with their thinking and how that thinking a ected how they lived. These false teachers believed that Jesus only had his role as Saviour for a limited period of me, and, yes, they needed Jesus in the beginning, but now that they had received God’s righteousness, they were no longer sinful, and therefore no longer needing an atoning sacri ce, no longer needing to confess, no longer needing forgiveness. And they even felt that they could dispose of the core teaching that Jesus was the Son of God, because they now had special status as the children of God. And this new status made them sinless, and guiltless. As they went on in their Chris an life they denied the signi cance of Christ’s work on the cross to bring about forgiveness. They had once needed that forgiveness, but now they had a new status before God. And, since they had now a ained full righteousness, there was no need to grow anymore. They’d made it. So this le er is not only addressing problems with thinking and theology or doctrine, it is also addressing the very prac cal issue of Chris an belief and behaviour. How we conduct ourselves is just as important as what we believe. What we do is just as important as what we think. This comes down to one simple phrase – being authen c in our Chris an life. having authen city in our rela onship with God, and in our rela onships with one another. Marrying up what we say and what we do. Marrying up what we think and what we say. Marrying up what we believe with how we live. Making the believe it and live it …. real. Having authen city, is about not being a fraud. And that means that you’re aligning your believing and your living. Verses 3-6 of chapter 2. 1Jn 2:3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Those who say, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. Dietrich Bonhoe er wrote - “Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate”. ti ti ti fi fi ti tt ff ti ti fl ti ti ff ti ti ti tt tt ft Page 1 of 5 Many people today diminish what the cross cost by living as though God ignores sin or condones sin. But forgiveness means that sin is real. Forgiveness means that sin must be dealt with. And, if God doesn’t ignore sin, then we shouldn’t ignore sin. Ignoring sin is not grace. Ignoring sin is a lie. Cheap grace means living without the demand of obedience. Where there’s no call to obedience, everything is fair game. Everything is tolerated. Nothing can be labelled as sin. Nothing is right or wrong. And if that’s the case …. then there’s no need for forgiveness, is there? Does that way of thinking ring any bells for you? Isn’t this the way the world is going? maybe even that’s where the world is right now. And even within some parts of the worldwide church, sin is ignored or denied, everything is tolerated, and sin has been rede ned. What that means is, that the power of the cross has been removed. But in this passage, John pulls no punches by saying that God calls us to obedience, and when we fall short, there is forgiveness in Christ. In fact, it’s really interes ng that John links together knowledge of God and obedience. Obeying the commands of God is not a test that we have to pass in order to know God, it’s not a prerequisite of knowing God, nor is it condi onal on knowing God. What obedience is, is evidence of knowing God. Obedience is about the shape of our whole Chris an life. It’s about consistency, it’s about consistency in who we are as disciples of Christ, and as growing disciples of Christ. What obedience is not, is hollow adherence to a set of rules or direc ons. Some mes that might be frustra ng, because there are some of us who want it to be more clear cut. Some of us may ask the ques on … what does I have to do? and the answer comes back … and you do it. But, o en, in fact probably most of the me, we’re not given clear cut direc ons …. but we do get direc on. And from what we read and heard last week, that direc on can be summarised as ‘walking in the light’. CS Lewis wrote: “We might think that God wanted simple obedience to a set of rules; whereas He really wants people of a par cular sort.” And the par cular sort of people that God wants are those who have a desire and strive to conform themselves to the very character of God, to be like Jesus. And as we look at verse 5 we see the very posi ve side of that knowledge. Whoever obeys his word, nds God’s love made complete in them. ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti fi ti ti ti fi ti ti ft ti Page 2 of 5 To be made complete carried with the idea of con nuous growth and development. It’s both a state of being and also a process of being. As obedience is prac ced, so God’s love matures in us. This of course, really contradicts what those who had le the church were saying. They were saying that they had ‘made it’ so to speak. What John is saying, is that the process of living in Christ and growing in obedience is just that … a process to be lived out, but also a process to be enjoyed. John is not saying that the walk of Jesus can be perfectly imitated, what he is saying is that we must take it seriously, because we want our life in God to be real. John is saying that it is simply impossible to claim to love or to know God, without also living in obedience to Him. And as we obey his commands, our love for God is made complete. Not necessarily morally perfect or without aws, but lived out as it should be. And who is the perfect example of this? Of course, it’s Jesus. So John says that we must walk as Jesus did. Now, yes, that seems to raise the bar to an impossible level. But the point is not that we have to be perfect in everything we do. The point is, that in the things that we do, are we showing that our primary allegiance is to God? If we love God, we already have a circle of light that we live in as we walk in the light. So we ask ourselves every day, Am I living in the light right now? Our aim is to live for one only, God alone, in everything that we do. That is walking as Jesus walked. We have guidelines and direc ons that we follow. So many of our decisions every day, are already made because of our commitment to God. We don’t have to decide not to steal, because we don’t steal. We’ve already made that decision when we commi ed ourselves to God. When we said I’m going to live for Jesus. In my own life, there are many things that the world might tell me I need to make a decision about, but I don’t, because that decision was made when I gave my life to Christ. Let me give you an example: and this is perhaps more appropriate for those who are younger …. But when I became a Chris an as a young person, and growing up in my church and youth group as a teenager, I very quickly grasped that God really wanted the very best for me and for my future, and that his design and his plan for how to live, were in fact, the absolute best. That became very clear to me. Now in the midst of that, I knew from the Bible that sex, for example, was best kept for marriage. So when I started going out with people, there was never even a ques on about whether we should have sex. I had already made that life decision, so when there was a tempta on, I didn’t even need to think about it. I knew what was best, and I knew I wanted to follow that. ti ti ft tt ti fl ti ti ti Page 3 of 5 It also came to me very early on in life that the money I got from working wasn’t actually my money. God had blessed me with it, but it s ll actually belonged to Him and I was to live as if it belonged to him and not to me. So when I got my very rst pay packet as a casual in the cosme cs department at David Jones when I was 15, I’d already made the decision that at least 10% would go to God’s mission and work in the world. And the only decision I needed to make was how much more than 10% can I give this year. And Chris and I s ll ask ourselves that ques on every year. How much more can we give this year? What John is saying here in this passage, is that if we focus on God and what he has done for us, then we will be guided by our love for him, our knowledge of him, and our obedience will grow, and grow, and grow. But if we focus on ourselves or our own feelings, even with good inten ons, we dri without direc on or anchor. So John moves on now. In vv. 7-11 the fundamental command we are to keep is to love one another. We love one another because we live in the light. If we don’t love one another, we are in the darkness. Just as light and darkness are incompa ble, love and hate are incompa ble. We cannot live in community, and hate a member of that community. Love and hate repel each other like oil and water. This is where we see the rubber hit the road in our authen city. Because if we claim to know God, but show signs of darkness, then it doesn’t ring true. I while ago I was subscribing to receive a daily devo on from Zondervan. One was an excerpt from John Ortberg’s book “The Me I want to Be – becoming God’s best version of You. Let me share with you this quote. It’s fairly lengthy so try and stay with me. Some people tempt me out of the ow of the Spirit. They judge me, and I feel discouraged. They dislike me, and I feel rejected. They are a black hole of need and drain me. They throw roadblocks in my path and discourage me. They anger me. They scare me. They depress me. Plus I don't like them... We all have di cult people in our life, but hear this: God can use them to help you become the best version of you - maybe even more than the people you like. Other people don't create your spirit; they reveal your spirit. No one mastered the art of dealing with di cult people be er than Jesus did. He had lots of prac ce. The Romans wanted to silence him; Herod wanted to kill him; Pilate washed his hands of him; religious leaders envied him; his family thought he had lost his mind; his townspeople wanted to stone him; Judas betrayed him; soldiers beat him; the crowds shouted for his cruci xion; and his own disciples ran out on him. Yet Jesus never prayed for God to remove di cult people from his life. If he had, there would have been no people le at all... Where in your life is there a rela onship that needs reconcilia on? Maybe you have been so badly hurt by somebody who lied or cheated or betrayed you, and that hurt goes so deep, that you are thinking right now, They don't deserve it! Probably not... Neither do I. Neither do you. Do it anyway. Within this community that John was wri ng to, there was obviously some strained rela onships. John is calling them into line. We are certainly to love all people, but there is a certain obliga on on us to those within the Chris an fellowship par cularly. ti ti ti ti ft ti ti ti ti ti ti tt fi ti ft ti ffi ffi ti ti fl ti ti fi ti ffi ti Page 4 of 5 We must love each other extravagantly. Let’s move on to these nal verses. They’re repe ve…. they’re poe c. But what vv.12-14 clearly are, is an encouragement to the faithful. Here in church week by week, we repeat familiar truths on a regular basis, don’t we? As we remind ourselves of the founda onal truths that we believe and hold dear, we mustn’t think of it as mere repe on. It points to the faithfulness and constancy of God. These words of John are probably quotes of familiar creed-like statements of the early church. You can see in the text on the page that they are set up like a quota on. And look what it points us to …. 1. our sins are forgiven 2. they are forgiven through Jesus 3. God is eternal – constant from the beginning 4. evil is overcome – Christ has won the victory 5. assurance of the knowledge of God John is encouraging the faithful genera ons to stand rm. God is the one – he invites us to know him, we know him through living for him in growing obedience. We do that because of Jesus, we do it because we are in His light. Our words and our ac ons are aligned, our authen city is visible, and all that put together, makes a di erence in our world. Are you on board for this ride of beau ful obedience? Amen ti ti fi ti ti ti ti ti fi ti ti ti ti ff Page 5 of 5