Obedience

In his book, “Living with You; living with me” Aussie author Kel Willis relates the story of a friend of his who moved towns and went looking for a new church to join.

To their delight, they found a church close by that had a good reputation for taking God’s word seriously, had a vision to grow and were involved in local and overseas mission.

But on their first Sunday, as they arrived at the door they were handed a Pew Bulletin and song sheet without a word.

During the service the pastor invited people to greet each other so the husband and wife mentioned to a couple of people that they were new to town and looking for a church.

After church they stayed for the cuppa but despite a general hum of conversation no one spoke to them…

Kel says that because the sermon was encouraging and the church close to their home they tried again the following week… but again they experienced the lack of love and general friendliness.

And so, somewhat reluctantly, they went elsewhere.

Today as we turn to 1 John 2, John goes from preaching to meddling; from talking about others to telling God’s people how to conduct our lives!

In Chapter 1 John concentrated on the people who have left the church.

Three times he says, “If we claim...” and he makes a statement that those people that had left the church had presumably said.

But in chapter 2 John begins… “My dear children… I write this to you so that you will not sin.”

He’s moved from them to us.

Now it is obvious he loves them dearly, and he doesn’t wag his finger and rouse on them.

In fact it is because of his deep affection for them… that he does lay down the God’s law for their lives.

1 John 2:3–6 NIV84

3 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4 The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

Something to Know: Am I in Christ?

It’s quite mind boggling how good human beings are at deceiving ourselves.

If someone confronts us in the street with a pistol pointed at our chest and demands our wallet, we get the idea: they are hostile, intent on harm and taking us down.

If a person jumps out of their car and runs over and starts banging on our window and yelling at us… we’re probably safe to assume they don’t want to offer to wash the car for us!

We know threatening and antagonistic people are intent on harming us so we’re on guard, ready for fight or flight.

But deception is entirely different.

How do you tell when you’re being deceived?

If you’re being deceived you’re oblivious to the harm that is heading your way!

The scammer on the phone is so nice… and believable!

Something chapter 1 alerted us to is the fact that human beings are very capable of deceiving ourselves.

We believe a lie that we tell ourselves about ourselves.

1 Jn 1:8 “8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

It’s very difficult to believe that we would lie to ourselves; harm ourselves or need to be on alert and aware of ourselves!

1 Jn 2:3-4 “3 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4 The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

That person is deceiving himself.

Now there are people listening today who have a sincere faith that is a bit shaky. For them I want to say, read the Scriptures, pray and talk more to people about what you believe.

Don’t get more rickety because of what I’m about to say.

But there are others who are just plain lying to themselves… deceiving themselves by saying to themselves that they’ll be fine on Judgement Day… God will accept them because they’ve lived a better life than most people.

How do you know if you’re deceiving yourself?

You seem so nice and sincere… to yourself!

And so you play along with yourself… you believe your own lie.

You don’t think you’re threatening yourself; you’re not being belligerent to yourself.

In fact you seem to be quite calm and easy going to yourself.

But you are deceived.

What will reveal the deception?

If a person is being deceived by a scammer on the phone who just wants them to send them $50…when do they realise? The deception is only revealed when they go to the ATM to get $100 for themselves and find their account empty.

That’s the great revelation! That’s when everything becomes known.

Don’t lie to yourselves until you get to stand not before an ATM but a holy God on Judgement Day for the great reveal.

Matthew 7:21 NIV84

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

John agrees… and gives us some tests to reveal whether or not we’re deceiving ourselves.

1 Jn 2:3 “3 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.”

Gospel doctrines are so unexpected and so beautiful that every preacher, every believer loves to speak about them and remind themselves of them.

We did that last week.

1 Jn 1:9 “9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Glorious! Just GLORIOUS!!!

But John doesn’t avoid saying truth that is necessary.

If you know God you will obey what he commands.

People always want to know more about God. (And no doubt God is THE most fascinating subject a human mind can contemplate!)… but for John the knowledge must lead to obedience.

Ignoring God’s commands is not understanding the Good News nor is it personally knowing Jesus;

In fact it is living in the darkness.

You’re deceiving yourself.

To reveal ourselves to ourselves John gives us an example and two tests.

The Example of Jesus… Obey the commandments, v3-6.

The example is Jesus, v6

In fact look at 1 Jn 2:5-6 “This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”

What does it mean to walk as Jesus did?

Now I don’t think he means that we need to wear thongs and a tunic and speak with a Galilean accent! Nor will we have to learn to walk on water like Jesus did.

But it might seem exactly like that!

John 8:29 NIV84

29 The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”

One commentator said, “True, this is a goal as lofty as climbing Mt Everest without food, gloves, shoes or oxygen supply.”

But for us… thank God that doesn’t mean we have to be perfect!

1 John 2:1 NIV84

1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

We go straight back to Good News!

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sin.

We have the best defense attorney in the universe. Every time we mess up he is interested in our case and he speaks to the Father.

He says to the Father, “Yes, Garry did do that. It was terrible. But the price has been paid. I took the penalty for his sin on my shoulders at Calvary.” And the Father accepts the unassailable argument and accepts me as his perfect child.

That’s Good News indeed!

But neither do we do whatever we like!

The Acid Test, v9-11… Love for God’s People!

1 Jn 2:9 “9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.”

1 John 2:10 NIV84

10 Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.

I suppose everyone has heard of the woman who complained to her husband that he never told her he loved her.

Her husband retorted: “I told ya I loved ya when I married ya. If I change my mind I’ll tell ya that too.”

Doesn’t cut much ice does it?

Love unexpressed is not love at all.

The love Jesus had for his fellow man meant Jesus had concrete actions that he performed and lay down for us to follow.

Jesus said we must lay down our life for our brother Jn 15:13 “13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

That’s an action that Jesus took…literally!

Do I walk as Jesus walked?

Do you?

Jesus said we must consider others before ourself 1 Cor 13:5 “5 Love is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”

God’s standards are neither readily attainable by all, not totally unattainable by any. (Repeat)

They are within the reach of the people of God

They cannot be achieved by the people of the world.

Failure to obey God by disregarding his laws for our lives is not neutral but hatred and living in darkness, v9-11!

It is hard work, constant work… and Christ empowered work, grounded in the finished work of Jesus.

John Newton, the man who wrote Amazing Grace used to trade in human cargo… he was a slave trader. When he became a Christian he had a lot of things to learn about what it meant to practically love his brother.

At one point he wrote “I’m not what I ought to be; But I am not what I once was. And it is by God’s grace that I am what I am.”

Following the Commands

So I guess the question that we need to ask is did the church that Kel Willis’s friends try really, actually love their brothers?

Did they walk in the light… or in the darkness?

Their teaching was orthodox; I would think that they would be quite sure that they loved each other and lived in the light.

But they deceived themselves.

Can you imagine a letter coming to them from their visitors?

Dear church on the hill… we visited you a couple of months ago over a period of two weeks. You had some really wonderful things as a church that we very much appreciated. But no one seemed to notice that we were there? No one invited us in, asked after us, offered to take us for lunch.

We would love to hear around the town sometime in the next few months or year that things have really changed at Church on the Hill. That you have confessed your sin to Jesus and people in church now every Sunday have eye’s peeled to welcome visitors, that people had taken a vow not to talk to friends after the service until they had first looked for outsiders and spoken to someone they didn’t know before greeting old friends.