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Prayer
This week, we come to a parenthesis of thought for the Apostle John.
It’s a parenthesis because John has broken up his flow of thought.
John is encouraging these believers because he does not want them to be discouraged in their walk.
He also wants to build them up because the remainder of 1 John does not get any easier.
Especially in light of what John is about to warn his readers, it makes sense to pause and remind them of who they are.
Which is why he begins by reminding them who they are.
Example of Measuring Myself
When I was growing up, in my home on the doorway just inside the house, we had a place for us to measure our height.
I remember how every couple of months taking a pencil with such excitement to stand up tall and get measured.
Every time I would get measured I would try and stand up on my tiptoes and see how tall I was and would get so excited as I saw growth.
There came a point though that I would not grow like I did previously.
When I was younger, I could see the growth more quickly but as I got older the growth spurts were less often.
In a similar way, we as Christians are supposed to measure our own spiritual growth.
But in this analogy, rather than the frame of the doorway being the standard, Christ is the standard.
He is the ONE we are measuring ourselves against.
For the Apostle John, he is calling us to measure our growth, but at the same time is calling us onward to growth.
He begins by reminding the believers of who they are.
Know Who You Are
Notice the word in verse 12, “little children”
This same word is used 7 times in 1 John, and it always refers to believers.
1 John 2:1, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.”
1 John 3:18 “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
When John uses this word, it is a word of affection and tenderness.
It is a word that is referring to all believers in Christ in general.
To: the Christians
John is using this parenthesis to bolster them.
He is using it to remind them of their status and position.
He is seeking to strengthen them!
And what is the most strengthening words he could utter to these little children.
John is writing them to remind them that their sins are forgiven.
But look at the end of verse 12 and see the reasoning why they are forgiven.
“Because of His Name”
John grounds the reasoning for these believers forgiveness in the fact that God in Christ Jesus has done this for His name sake.
They are forgiven, and its NOT because they are good enough.
They are forgiven, and its NOT because they prayed the right prayer.
They are forgiven ON ACCOUNT of His Name.
Example of a Tab in a Store
When I was growing up, we had a store in the town of Friendsville.
Literally ONE store, and we knew the people who owned it.
I remember watching my family use this tab and I was in awe of it.
You just walked into the store took whatever you wanted and then rather than paying in that moment, you said, “Put it on my tab”
And friends, this is what John is saying of believers.
Except for the fact that all of our sins was placed on Jesus’ tab.
All of our debts were placed upon his score sheet.
It is for our sake, or on our behalf that God the Father made Jesus to be sin.
It is because of Christ’s Name that we are forgiven.
And brothers and sisters, that is true of us here today.
Identity in the 21st Century
Now we have some barriers to this great and profound truth, and I want to address just one of them today.
If we were to be transported back in time 200 years, life would look very different.
Not simply because of technology.
But also how a person understood themselves.
200 years ago, people did not have to come up with a way to identify themselves.
This was something that was given to them.
It was given to them by their families.
This is how we get last names like, Baker, Smith and the like.
The children followed in the footsteps of their parents.
But in our day and age, expressive individualism reigns supreme.
Everyone is seeking to understand themselves in light of their own experiences and desires and preferences.
With this concept of expressive individualism on the rise, it makes what John is writing here all the more pertinent for us to understand.
See, we have an enemy of the soul, the world, the flesh, and the devil who would be more than happy if you or I would find our identity in any other thing.
We can find our identity in our job, our spouse, or our sports team.
“Our need for worth is so powerful that whatever we base our identity and value on we essentially ‘deify.’”
What Keller is saying here is essentially what John Calvin said of our hearts, mainly that they are idol factories.
Continually setting up idols and as often as we tear one down, our hearts, this world, or the devil helps place one up again.
“Our hearts deify them as the center of our lives, because, we think, they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfillment, if we attain them.”
The question then is: how do we guard ourselves from this kind of idolatry?
How do we guard ourselves from placing ultimate identity in anything?
Well, John’s answer, and Paul’s answer are essentially the exact same thing.
What Paul is saying in Colossians is essentially the same thing that John is enforcing in these believers.
Christ has died on your behalf.
And He did so for His own Name sake.
I want to highlight three elements of this reality which fundamentally effect Christian identity.
The first reality has to do with the past.
We, as God’s children, have a shared memory.
“For you have died [shared memory], and your life is hidden with Christ in God [present hope].
When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory [glorious destiny].”
Shared Memory - Died with Christ
We have been buried with Christ in His death.
The death He died to sin, he died on our behalf.
This is exactly what John is expressing in the life of the believer.
But what John is reminding these believers is that their shared memory as a family is “Christ has died”
The second reality has to do with the present.
We, as God’s children, have a present hope.
“For you have died [shared memory], and your life is hidden with Christ in God [present hope].
When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory [glorious destiny].”
Present Hope - Life is Hidden with Christ
For John to write that our sins have been forgive is to say that our present world is different.
We don’t live in the same way that we once did.
Christ has died and Christ has risen.
We cannot live as we once did, but our present hope with which we live is unshakable.
The past reality of Christ’s death brings to bear a present hope in our life being hidden with Christ.
So we as believers live not sullying in our sin, but actually living our life by faith in the Son.
There is a present reality to our forgiveness.
The third reality has to do with the future.
We, as God’s children, have a glorious destiny
“For you have died [shared memory], and your life is hidden with Christ in God [present hope].
When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory [glorious destiny].”
Glorious Destiny - Reign with Him in Glory
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