Sermon Tone Analysis
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Prayer
Last week, we began looking at the reality that God is Light.
One implication of this we looked at the purity of God.
Specifically, we saw how since God is completely pure, we ought to walk in the Light of His presence.
We do so by taking off the mask of hypocrisy and coming into the reality of who we are.
John begins by turning our attention away from lesser matters and begins by describing God as He is.
This week we will turn the diamond of this statement and stare at another facet of it.
But before I do so, may I begin with a bit of a “pitstop”
Case Study - Biblical Counseling Journal
A young man came in for counseling, his brow tightly furled, the corners of his mouth drooping low, his facial muscles pulsating with tenseness.
Clearly he was in great distress.
As we talked, it became more and more evident that his face reflected an acute anxiety and that he was gripped in the downward spiral of depression.
All of the classic symptoms were there: worry, anger, bitterness, self-pity.
What do you think was going on with this young man?
Our culture would immediately place this young man on a barrage of medications.
Immediately place him through a regiment of counseling.
Where the basic message they would try and convince him is:
You’re enough.
You have what it takes.
You should try and achieve your goals.
The journal article went on to express what this young man was experiencing.
What was not so quickly apparent, however, was a major contributing factor lurking behind these symptoms....
This root factor was the sin of perfectionism.
He goes on the describe perfectionism as...
The Journal of Pastoral Practice: Volume 9, Number 1, 1987 (The Sin of Perfectionism (Stanley D. Gale))
Operationally speaking, perfectionism can be described as allegiance to and occupation with becoming perfect.
Included in this definition are a heartfelt commitment and life investment in pursuit of a state of perfection.
Here I have in mind a state of moral perfection.
Perfection in respect to the revealed will of God.
“I am no where near having an allegiance to perfectionism”
Hear me out for a second, we would likely never call it that.
But what we do is place “standards” or “expectations” on ourselves, our children, our co-workers, and our spouses.
What these “standards” produce in us could be anything as follows.
It may just be a genuine anxiety.
Or maybe marked by extreme worry.
It may even be manifested in anger or frustration.
The Standard: God is Perfect
God is perfect.
I think we all intuitively know that.
I quoted from him last week, but I want to place it before you again because we will be looking at a different aspect of it today.
Louis Berkhof helpfully talked about God’s ethical holiness in this way....
This ethical holiness of God may be defined as that perfection of God, in virtue of which He eternally wills and maintains His own moral excellence, abhors sin, and demands purity in his moral creatures.
Basically what Berkhof is saying is that God is completely perfect in His ethical and moral excellence.
And there is not a trace of imperfection within Him.
What do we mean by God’s perfection?
I love what Berkhof goes on to say...
The infinity of God is that perfection of God by which He is free from all limitations.
In ascribing it to God we deny that there are or can be any limitations to the divine Being or attributes.
It implies that He is in no way limited by the universe, by this time-space world, or confined to the universe.
What Berkhof is saying is that God is in no way limited by the universe, by anything within the space-time world.
He has no limitations.
He has no boundaries.
He has no restrictions.
We mean by this that God is so perfectly perfect that He has no boundaries or limitations to any of His qualities.
The Standard: God is Perfect
In the sermon on the mount, Jesus raises the bar from what the people of that time thought.
He does it in statements like...
Jesus even said this in Matthew 5:48
Since God is Perfect, You Should be Perfect.
We are going to look at today how we become perfect.
I hope you realize that I am speaking in hyperbole of sorts, and I am not going to give you some form of Christian perfectionism.
We are going to look at the next hypothetical person...
Claim
Reality
Truth
Listen to how John confronts the next hypothetical person...
Now we need to remember who John was addressing in this epistle.
He was addressing the Gnostics who believed that they had arrived to “special knowledge”.
They had obtained a special access to God.
John is NOT addressing people who have believed they have never sinned.
He is addressing people who believe they have arrived to a sinless state.
Likely because of their “special knowledge”.
Their special knowledge has allowed them to “become sinless”
Perfectionism: The Deceived Sinner
These opponents of John have believed they arrived into a state of sinlessness.
1 John 1:8 (ESV)
8 If we say we have no sin...
Claim - “We Have No Sin”
Now sin here for John essentially means to miss the mark.
Like a hunter aiming at a target misses what he is aiming at.
These opponents of John are claiming that they haven’t missed the mark since becoming Christians.
They are claiming that since they have found this special knowledge, they are perfect.
John is saying that if a person believes that they are no longer sinning in this life, then they are deceived.
Reality - You’re Deceived
The word for deceived finds it roots in the same word that we get for the word planet.
Which comes from the meaning for wandering about aimlessly.
“Come on now, I have never heard someone say that they have no sin..”
There have been teachings and people throughout history who have believed in so called “Christian Perfectionism”
But rather than harping on that clearly false teaching,
I think we need to consider what this kind of false teaching would look like amongst us.
To do so, I am going to give us two examples.
Example #1 - The Rich Young Ruler
There was a man who came to Jesus with a similar question that John is addressing.
In Luke 18, Jesus addresses a man which we often refer to as the rich young ruler.
This man was coming to Jesus to figure out what he needed to do to gain eternal life.
Jesus responds to him...
You may wonder why Jesus addresses this man in this way and the reality was that Jesus knew what was in his heart.
He knew that this man was not actually seeking salvation.
He was seeking to gain something from Jesus.
This man was essentially saying that he had never lusted after a woman.
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