That You May Know…

The Message of 1 John

Peter J Blackburn

A sermon series presented in the Burdekin Uniting Churches in 2000.

© Peter J Blackburn, 2000, 2013

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New International Version, © American Bible Society, 1984

Light and Life

Reading: 1 John 1.1-10

One of the skills of the good cartoonist is the ability to caricature - to exaggerate some facial or other distinctive feature of a person in a way that is instantly recognisable. We could say that the person doesn't really look like that at all, and yet - there is no real question as to who it is! The intention of the cartoonist is not always kind and the caricature may not be complimentary. In spite of that, many politicians (who are often the butt of cartoons) enjoy the cartoons drawn against them and keep them in a file.

What would a cartoonist see in you? Now that's a dangerous question for a preacher to ask! There may be several cartoonists in this congregation who practise (and hide) their skills on the jotter near the telephone! That, of course, isn't really the point I am making. What is there about you - not just about your face, but about your whole disposition and manner - that is so characteristic that people would instantly recognise it as "you"? And are there any differences between "you" as you think of yourself and "you" as others perceive you? Which is the real "you"? And how can we become more real with less of a discrepancy between what we are and what we want others to think we are?

These are some of the questions that life thrusts on us. They are very old questions - they were about in Bible times. Indeed, they go back to the very beginnings of the human race when our earliest ancestors tried to hide themselves from God! They couldn't really do it. And yet there was something in that grasp for autonomy - what we call "sin" - that introduced serious complications into all our relationships with other people as well as with God.

It really pulls us apart because we were made for relationship with God and our spiritual hunger will surface. We see this in the unbelieving world around us - this quest to satisfy spiritual hunger. But when we seek spiritual fulfilment in the true and living God, sin forms a barrier that God alone can break down. And when we know forgiveness of sin in Jesus Christ the Son of God we still wrestle with the reality of sin in our lives.

The God Who can be Counted on

John, the beloved disciple who wrote the Fourth Gospel, probably wrote his first letter towards the end of the first century. At that time the view which came to be known as Gnosticism was starting to emerge. Among other things, it taught that the physical world was essentially evil and said that Jesus the Son of God couldn't have been a real human being.

John begins with a strong statement about Jesus. He is described as "the Word of life, which was from the beginning." These words recall the opening of John's Gospel - "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1.1,14).

John strongly insists on the reality of the incarnation. This eternal Word of God, whom John also affirms as the unique Son of God, truly became a human being. Note the specific emphasis that John gives to this - "That... which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched... The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it... We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard..." (vv. 1b,2a,3a).

The Christian faith is quite unlike the philosophies and religions of this world. It is not a set of noble concepts, high ideals and religious observances which people have hammered out over a period of time. God has made himself known to us. God has entered our human history. This divine revelation is the basis of the eternal life we talk about (v. 2b) and our fellowship with one another is rooted in restored fellowship with the Father and with his Son (vv. 3,6,7).

The patient wife wanted to hang a mirror in the kitchen. Weeks had passed, and she finally did the job herself, fixing it neatly to the door of a cupboard. A few days later, the unfortunate mirror came crashing to the floor. Her husband - who should have done the job himself - consoled her, "Darling, a mirror must be fixed to something fixed!"

Our world - its values and way of life - is constantly changing. We know well enough that advertising slogans can't really be taken at face value. The struggle of each for his own material advantage is coupled with a kind of cargo-cult mentality that assumes that the system can give us value without our putting value into it by our own hard work. And then we wonder whether the whole of society is beginning to come apart at the seams.

In this situation it is good news that God can be counted on. He is "faithful and just" - "he will keep his promise and do what is right" (v. 9), as the Good News Bible puts it. This is one of the prominent themes in John's letter. "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all" (v. 5).

On the one hand this realisation makes us uncomfortably aware of the reality of sin which is incompatible with his nature and makes fellowship with him impossible. On the other hand, in the light of the revelation of his love in Christ and the gracious promises of the Gospel, it speaks deep assurance to us. God does not work by whim or fancy - what he says he will do, and what he does is consistent with his righteous love.

Forgiveness

The very certainty of forgiveness, then, is based on the character of the God who cannot lie. And forgiveness is absolutely essential. John makes this strikingly clear. "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us... If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives" (vv. 8,10). So it's no use saying that we haven't sinned. But if we continue our association with sin we can't have fellowship with God - "If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth" (v. 6). We need forgiveness.

And forgiveness is costly. On a number of occasions, I have asked classes of primary school pupils, "Which is easier to say, 'I'm sorry,' or 'I forgive you'?" The answers have been fairly evenly divided. The drive to justify ourselves makes it difficult for us to be on the giving or receiving end of forgiveness!

So often we have imagined forgiveness to be easy - particularly for the other person, and especially for God. Perhaps these school children were expressing an awareness that forgiveness costs them something.

At the simplest level, to forgive is to accept the hurt or wrong as something that will not be paid back - and there is justice in paying back (except that, as a warning, we usually pay back twice as hard!). At another level, forgiveness means that the debt has been cancelled and that the creditor has taken the debt on himself.

We look at the death of Christ on the Cross and see the cost of our forgiveness. And in that Cross we also see the sure promise of the faithful and just God to forgive and to cleanse.

Cleansing

We notice that forgiveness is only one part of God's work here. John says that God "is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (v. 9).

Think back to the experience that Paul so graphically records for us in Romans 7. He describes himself as "unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin" (v. 14b). "what I want to do I do not do," he says, "but what I hate I do" (v. 19). He certainly knows his need of forgiveness, but he is desperately aware of his need for deliverance and cleansing! "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (vv. 24-5).

It is this sure promise of cleansing that John has in mind here, a cleansing that is the very purpose of Christ's coming, that is the very purpose of our being Christians, a cleansing that we will need to experience continually throughout our lives. John says, "if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us (or keeps on purifying us) from all sin" (v. 7). We are restored into fellowship with God. On the basis of forgiveness and grace, we can live in the light and can experience purifying from sin by means of the redemptive blood of Jesus Christ.

John emphasises, not simply the importance of living in the light of fellowship with God, but also of living in fellowship with one another - with those who share our faith.

The redemption is once for all and is received in an act of faith which is valid from that time on for eternity. The cleansing will take place throughout a lifetime. John continues this theme into the second chapter.

The Big "If"

Yet all of this is preceded by the qualification, "if we confess our sins..." The promise is that the specific acknowledgment of the sins in our life will bring both forgiveness and cleansing.

So we must confess our sins - that means agreeing with God that they are sins and that they are serious! - failure to do so is to "deceive ourselves" (v. 8) and to "make God out to be a liar" (v. 10).

But we also make him out to be a liar when we fail to accept that he has forgiven us as he has promised to do in response to our confession. Someone has said that we should write all our known sins on a piece of paper, confess them to God and then burn the paper because they are forgiven! Then we need to accept daily the clean new life he offers to us.

Light and life - these are two big themes in 1 John. In fellowship with the Lord and with one another, may we live in the light and know the riches of eternal life which is his gift to us.

Watch your Step

Reading: 1 John 2

How are you walking these days? That depends what you mean. For a heart patient, the question may refer to the fact that you are under an obligation to walk a certain distance every day. If the problem has been with knees or hip, it is a query about your mobility. On the other hand, it could be concern about your back...

When we turn to the New Testament, however, the ordinary word for walking, is often used in a special sense. It refers to our behaviour, our conduct, our whole manner of life. So, in this special sense, the question, "How are you walking these days?", is probably a question like, "How's life?" or "How's it going for you?" At a deeper level it is a query about your relationship with God and how that translates into daily living.

Life, action, vitality, happiness... Whatever you call it, it is much sought after and too often missing in the life of this world. In the first chapter of 1 John, we noted that life itself has been fully expressed in the history of this world in the person of Jesus Christ. And, as we have fellowship with Jesus, his life flows into our lives too (1.1-4).

If our relationship with him is genuine, the effects of his life will be seen in three major areas - in our personal life, in our relationships within the Christian family and in our relation to the world at large.

Within Me

Of course, we have a tendency to blame the failures of life on the world at large. We are surrounded by change and stress, by reports of violence and upheaval. It is all too easy for us (and it has such point!) to see the essential trouble "out there". The problem is what "they" do or don't do!

This has been a favourite with politicians wanting to explain the value of the dollar and rising interest rates, with students who have trouble settling down to study, with the motorist who fails a breath test or is pulled over for speeding... Probably all of us at some time have concluded that things would be different if it weren't for "them"! Like the teacher who said, "I could be a good teacher, if it weren't for the kids!" We could do our own translation of that!

But "they" are essentially a collection of "me's". Yes, I know the "synergy" principle - that together we are more than the sum of what we are as individuals. Nevertheless, the basic problem is within "me"! If the problems within the wider life of the world are to find some kind of lasting solution, the problem within each "me" has to be seriously tackled.

At the end of the first chapter, John has told us that we deceive ourselves if we say we have no sin (v. 8) and that we make God out to be a liar if we say that we haven't sinned (v. 10). But God's purpose is not only to forgive us our sins, but to purify us from all unrighteousness (v. 9).

Now, in the second chapter, John begins by telling us, "My children, I write this to you so that you will not sin..." (v. 1a). Sin has no rightful place in the Christian's life. It is an alien, an intruder. The ultimate purpose of the life of God within us is that the sin-principle, the spirit that sets us up over against God, that seeks first our own plan, pleasure and comfort, should be completely eradicated from our life.

But God is realistic in his dealings with us. We stand in daily need of his forgiveness. "But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence (someone called alongside to help us, an advocate) - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One" (v. 1b) How comforting it is to have Jesus, the Son of God himself, the only one who has "got it right," to plead our cause with the Father! For this Jesus is the very one who is "the atoning sacrifice for our sins" (v.2a) - as the KJV puts it, "he is the propitiation for our sins." His death on the cross was the sin offering, the sacrifice that fulfilled the punishment due to sinners. This is the one who is our advocate with the Father.

Yet, having said this, John looks to a real change taking place within the Christian. He gives two sure signs that a person knows God and lives in union with Christ. The first sign is that we "obey his commands", "obey his word" (vv. 4-5). The second has to do with our "walk" - "Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did" (v. 6).

What, we may well ask, is the point of contact between realism and idealism? between the reality of human sin and the goal of Christian holiness? It is the cross of Christ. Keep 1.7 in mind - "if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."

Within the Christian Family

It is John who recorded the interview between Jesus and Nicodemus. Jesus told this great Jewish teacher that it was necessary to be "born again", to be born spiritually (John 3). This implies a radical personal change. But it also points to a whole set of new relationships with others in the Father's family.

Within the Father's family are people at all stages of spiritual growth and development. There are some who are "little children" just beginning the Christian life (the term says nothing of physical age). They belong within the family because "your sins have been forgiven on account of his name" and are already beginning to "know the Father" (vv. 12,14a). Some are described as "young men... you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one" (vv. 13b,14c) - they are engaged in conflict and victory over evil. Then there are the "fathers", the ones who, across the years, have come to a deeper and richer knowledge of God - "you have known him who is from the beginning" (vv. 13a,14b).

All have their place within the family. All have need of one another. And the reality of my personal claim to what God has done within me will be seen in my relationships within the Christian family. Do I, or do I not, have love for my fellow-Christians, no matter what their stage of spiritual growth? Living in the light means loving our brother/sister. "Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness" (v. 9). The command of Jesus to love one another is not simply about loving those who are similar to us in spiritual development, in musical preferences or in experience of God. Mature family-love will reach across the ages and stages and preferences.

Within the World

John goes on to say, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (v. 15). Sometimes Christians have taken this verse to imply the need to separate the Christian and the Christian community from the world at large.

We need to remember v. 2 in which the life of Christ is seen to have been given, not just for our sins "but also for the sins of the whole world". Let us also remember God's love for the whole world that he gave his only Son (John 3.16).

Yes, there is a world system of thought and behaviour which is contrary to God's ways and is opposed to God. With this the Christian can have no part.

At this point John reminds us "Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come" (v. 18). Some of these have been part of the fellowship, but they did not really belong and have now left (v. 19). So the spirit of antichrist is a rejection of God - Father and Son (vv. 22-23).

But as Christians we have received "an anointing from the Holy One" and know the truth (v. 20). We should be able to discern the spirit of antichrist.

So, John tells us,

"See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you" (v. 24a). It is the gospel message that brings eternal life.

The Holy Spirit lives within us. "Just as [his anointing] has taught you, remain in him" (v. 27d).

"Christ is righteous". His character will become visible in us - "everyone who does what is right has been born of him" (v. 29).

So...

How are you walking these days - in your relationship with God, with your fellow-Christians, with the world at large? What God's life and love are doing within us cannot be contained. It must reach out, even as God's love reaches out, to embrace all people for him.

"And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming" (v. 28).

Genuine Love

Reading: 1 John 3.1-24

Some time ago I read an article about the uncovering of a big art fraud. Someone had been doing paintings in the style of seventeenth-century Dutch painter Jan Vermeer and selling them on the international art market as genuine originals.

The paintings were apparently quite good - done by someone who might well have made a name in his own right. Meticulous care had been taken to "age" the canvas and paints. For many years they had been bought and displayed by some of the world's major art galleries. Art critics wrote approvingly about them - what fine examples of Vermeer's work they were!

Then someone suspected a fraud. Extensive tests were done, with the conclusion that they were frauds. Suddenly these same art critics changed their tune. The paintings were obviously not Vermeer at all - just a shoddy attempt to make money out of the famous painter's name!

A young woman went to a magazine editor. She was wanting to become a writer.

"And what sort of things would you write about?"

"I would like to write about love…" she replied.

"And what is love?" asked the editor.

With that, the young woman got a far away misty look in her eyes. "Ah, love…" she said, "love is the moonlight shimmering on the surface of a lake. Love is soft lights and sweet music…"

"You have some more living to do," said the editor, "before you can write about love. Love is caring for an elderly relative when communication is all but gone. Love is getting up to a sick child before your spouse is woken. Love is caring and giving…"

An earlier song-writer said that "what the world needs now is love, sweet love." But the love songs of the past are getting replaced by the plea, "Please let me go - I don't love you any more!"

Truly God's Children

Today's reading begins with God's genuine love. "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (v. 1).

John has a sense of marvel about it. The Father has made us his children, his family! This is something that the world at large doesn't understand or recognise. Of course we have come through a long period in which church membership and attendance have been regarded approvingly. We cannot understand how it could be otherwise. Yet all that has begun to change. The Church, particular Christians and Christian beliefs and values in general are openly attacked in the media to an extent that we would never have thought possible. These days some latest guru is more likely to get approving media exposure than a significant Christian leader.

Yet it is not a question of what is popularly accepted but what God in his great love has truly done. And our present status as "God's children" is only a beginning of his work in us - "…what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (v.2).

All too often we do not look like, feel like or act like God's children. Yet God, in his great love, has made us his children. And when Christ appears in glory in the end time, we will be transformed to be like him. Seeing him as he is, we will be changed into what we were meant to be. Our status will become our character.

Now that's something to anticipate confidently! And "everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure" (v. 3). It is true that we face the reality of sin in our life, yet we can never rest contented with that, simply looking for change in eternity - we can never be comfortable about the presence of evil in our life. No! We recognise that even now we are to be involved in the cleansing of our lives.

And that is essential if we are truly children of God! "Sin is lawlessness" (v. 4b). The very purpose of Christ's coming was "to take away our sins" (v. 5). In his gospel, John records the Baptist's description of Jesus as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (Jn 1.29). The death of the sinless Son of God was the unique means by which forgiveness of sins and new life were made possible for all who would trust in him.

"No one who lives in him keeps on sinning…" (v. 6a). Sin is alien to the Christian life, though it is common enough in Christian experience. The key to overcoming sin is that "God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God" (v. 9b). We do not pretend to be sinless, but the reality is that the nature and character of God are going to become more and more visible in us.

Genuine Love

And when we think of the nature and character of God, we immediately think of - Love! So the expected nature and character of God within us will be marked by love!

Already in the previous chapter John has put this in explicit terms - "Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light… But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness…" (2.9-11). And now he has slipped it in again! "… anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother" (v. 10b).

Family relationships provide the environment in which the genuineness of our life is tested. The family is where we can see the greatest love or the greatest bitterness! John gives the example of Cain and Abel - the first recorded murder (Gen. 4.1-17). Cain's action showed that he "belonged to the evil one". He murdered his brother "because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous" (v. 12) - a further illustration of v. 10.

But, while love was to characterise the Christian life, they were not to expect instant love and acceptance from the people about them. "So do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you" (v. 13). That reminds us of the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount - on the one hand, "… let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven," yet on the other, "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Mt. 5.16,11-12).

So Jesus himself has given us the warning. Our lives are to express continually his genuine light within our community to the end that others will be drawn into faith. The reality is that many will reject God's light and we ourselves may become the target of that rejection. That was certainly the experience of the early Church. Active persecution is still experienced in a number of countries today.

The reason for that persecution or hatred is not to be because of funny mannerisms or dress… but the genuineness of God's life within us, a life expressed in love. John says, "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers" (v. 14a).

And love must be expressed in the practical giving of ourselves. "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us." This is the standard of true love. "And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers" (v. 16).

In the early church this love was conspicuous. "No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had… There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need" (Acts 4.32,34-35).

"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth" (v. 18). The genuineness of love will be seen in the action to which it leads.

Confidence before God

John has written about the less-than-enthusiastic response we can expect from people who reject God. He now writes about the confidence we can have in the presence of God.

It is because we are truly God's children that we can "set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything" (vv. 19b,20).

Do you have that problem, an overwhelming feeling that you are never good enough? God knows. He is greater than your conscience. Yes, there are many things about all of us on which he is still working! We've still a long way to go - all of us! But God knows. He knows that at the heart of us we believe in his Son Jesus Christ - the one who gave himself as "the atoning sacrifice for our sins" (2.2).

"Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God" (v. 21). This quiet conscience doesn't mean that we believe ourselves to be perfect but that we are consciously relying on Christ our Saviour.

Confident faith leads to confident prayer - "we receive from him anything we ask (Jesus had promised that "my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name," Jn 16.23) because we obey his commands and do what pleases him" (v. 22). It is a confidence that comes, not from our high spiritual and moral achievements, but from our trust in Christ our Saviour. "And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us" (v. 23) - it is the redemptive work of his Son that brings us forgiveness and it is by continuing in the fellowship of his people that we are "purified from all our sin" (1.7-9).

In the Christian life we "live in God and God lives us." He does this through the Holy Spirit whom he has given us (v. 24).

Put simply, the Christian life is the life of God lived out in the life of the world through ordinary people who believe in him. It will be characterised by love and practical service.

Yes, the world needs love, real love. There is a desperate drought of genuine love all around us. But the world needs God, the real God. He is the source of genuine love and life. Those who want to continue to reject God may not like the genuine article when they see it. And too often our lives are flawed and the genuine article is partly hidden!

But God hasn't finished with us! Let's keep going forward together with him!

Love One Another...

Reading: 1 John 4.1-21

In 1675 Charles II directed Christopher Wren to "build a small observatory within our park at Greenwich" for "the finding out of the longitude of places for perfecting navigation and astronomy." Originally map and chart makers fixed the zero meridian wherever they pleased - Greenwich, Paris, the Fortunate Islands... When the Nautical Almanack commenced annual publication in 1767, the British reading began to be generally adopted. By using the marine chronometer and sextant with the Almanack, navigators could find their longitude in relation to the Greenwich meridian. Map and chart makers began to base their calculations on Greenwich. There were still some anomalies and even legal disputes. By 1884, when the Meridian Conference was called in Washington, 75% of the world's charts were based on the Greenwich meridian and it was agreed that, together with Greenwich Mean Time, it should be the world standard.

When it comes to dates, times, measurements... there are still countries who insist on doing it their own way. That might cause few problems for a country living in isolation from the rest of the world. But most countries want trade and tourists and are willing to accept the universal standard.

It used to be accepted that Truth, Beauty and Goodness are absolutes. But that has all changed. Goodness is decided in terms of what is socially acceptable for the present. Beauty is seen to be totally subjective - it is "in the eye of the beholder", as the saying goes. Even truth is relative and subjective. Our multi-cultural society almost guarantees that, in the area of religion, anything at all can be regarded as "true to you". And without an acceptance of God and his Word as the standard of Truth and Goodness, changes of values are far more rapid than we could have dreamed possible.

Be careful what you accept as the Truth. Sooner or later it will be translated into values and actions.

Truth and Error

Already John has written about errors to avoid. In chapter 1, it was the error of unconfessed sin (1.6,8). In chapter 2, it was the hatred of one's brother (2.9,11) and the rejection of Jesus as the Messiah (2.18,22-23). In chapter 3, it was the view that we are not required live right (3.7-10).

In this present chapter, John warns that the claim to have the Spirit is not to be taken at face value - there are many false prophets. It is necessary to "test the spirits to see whether they are from God" (v. 1b).

John in fact gives several tests to confirm the true Spirit of God. The first of these is: "Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God" (vv. 2b,3a). In commenting on chapter 1, we noted, "At [the] time [John was writing] the view which came to be known as Gnosticism was starting to emerge. Among other things, it taught that the physical world was essentially evil and said that Jesus the Son of God couldn't have been a real human being." John's first test is specifically against this view.

The Christian view of Jesus is that he was fully divine and fully human. There are serious consequences for our whole understanding of the redemptive work of Christ if this dual truth is not grasped.

This false view that would see Jesus as the Son of God but not as a human being "the spirit of the antichrist" (v. 3b - see 2.18-23).

So do not strive for popularity, but for truth, knowing that "the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world" (v. 4b).

John gives another test - a willingness to listen to and accept apostolic teaching. "We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognise the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood" (v. 6).

These words are claimed by some groups who say they are the only ones right. They rule out anyone who doesn't agree with them. But the essential point is whether we are listening to the apostolic teaching which is now embodied in Scripture.

The church of today, in seeking to be acceptable to our society, is strongly tempted to turn aside from the teaching of the apostolic Scriptures. We express a great deal of caring concern about those who are "marginalised" - pushed to the edges of our society. It is even suggested that God prefers the marginalised over against the main stream of society. At that point we part company with the Scriptures. In speaking to the learned people of Athens, Paul said that God "now commands all people everywhere to repent" (Acts 17.30). When Jesus said that "the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you" (Mt. 21.31) he was noting their willingness to turn away from their evil ways. He wasn't suggesting that God prefers them in some other way.

God is Love

No, the measure of love isn't popular appeal, but God who is Love. As John talks about love we can begin to think about a sentimentality (and sensuality) which has little to do with the mind and character of God. John's words have been used to support ideas which are far from his thinking.

In my student days there were writers propounding what is called "situational ethics". They maintained that love is the only absolute (not the ten commandments), and that sexually deviant behaviour (for example) may well be good if it expresses "love". Such behaviour certainly indicates an emptiness and a desire for wholeness and fulfilment in intimacy. But it expresses itself in the brokenness of human sin and comes under the judgement of God, as Paul makes clear in Romans 1.26-27.

God is our standard, our reference-point. True love is measured by him and flows from him. We cannot say, "This is love. Therefore it comes from God." We err when we use our human measure of love as the test.

God's Character in Action

Love is the very character of God who is pure and holy. And his love reached out to fallen humanity through the sending of the Son. "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him" (v. 9) - words which recall John 3.16. So the origin of love is not in us but in God himself who "loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (v. 10).

Now those who have received God's redemptive love are to "love one another" (v. 11). In fact, our love for one another will become part of the visible expression of God's love within the world (v. 12).

We can understand that God is loving towards his creation, but to say that he is Love is going much further. The character of God from all eternity has been Love. Within the Godhead, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have been bound together by Love. And in his relationship with us, we see the love of the Father in sending his Son "to be the Saviour of the world" and in "giving us his Spirit" (vv. 13-14).

"God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him" (v. 16b). The essential character of God will increasingly become visible in us.

Back in the late 50's, I heard Corrie ten Boom speaking in Brisbane. She had been through many terrible experiences in German concentration camps. Her sister Betsy was cruelly treated and died there. After the War she met a German woman who had beaten her sister. Anger rose up within her. How could she love a person who had done that? She came to a point where she said, "Lord, I can't love that woman! And yet you love her! Please love her through me!" Love springs from God within us!

"In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love" (vv. 17-18).

So - perfect love gives us courage, perfect love drives out fear. But what sort of comfort is that to those of us who know that our love is not perfect, to us who are aware of the reality of personal sin? We are brought back to the truths expressed in the first two chapters again. Yes, it is true that we sin (1.8,10). But do we seek to live in his light, in fellowship with one another, confessing our sins to God... ? Then we are living under his forgiveness and are experiencing his cleansing from all our wrongdoing. Don't live in fear - he is still working on you!

But John sees fellowship with one another as vital. He comes back again to the importance of loving our brother. "We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother" (vv. 19-21). God is the source of our love. If he truly lives within us, our lives will reach out in love to one another. We will not be able to rest content with a broken relationship with either a Christian or a natural brother.

Where is our "zero meridian"? What is the central reference-point of our life? We need to allow God to be at the centre of our life, of our thinking, of our values, of our goals and ambitions...

Some tourists get their photo taken astride the zero meridian in Greenwich - east and west! That zero-point is the reference-point for all points on the globe. But you can't spend your life there!

Sometimes people want to spend their life with God - in holy separation from the world about them. But God loves the whole world. He is "out there", and calls us to be with him "out there" and not just in the "holy place"!

It is important to get the reference-point right. But God is Love. Spend time with him. Go out with him - to love!

That You may Know...

Reading: 1 John 5.1-21

When we were young, there was a certainty about many aspects of life. We worked hard at school, of course, but with a confident expectation that a chosen course and occupation would be awaiting us.

Not so for today's youth. The pressure to work is still upon them, but the prospect of tertiary entrance gives no confidence that a placement will be available. And the completion of qualifications no longer guarantees a job at the end.

How are we to tackle life when nothing is certain, even when we have put in our best effort? These uncertainties can lead to a deep disturbance at the core of our growing young people. In more ways than we realise, their emotional health and stability are vital to the well-being of our whole society. The problems of unemployment have become entrenched. Society and the politicians have "accepted" the situation with too much "wait and see" and not enough strong caring action!

Already our society shows the serious consequences of living with fundamental uncertainties - evidenced in increased drug use, break-ins, marriage breakdown, crimes of violence, murders, suicides... Yet, even without those uncertainties, none of us has a crystal ball or can "see around the corner".

Of course, there are people who try consulting crystal balls - or tarot cards, or the stars, or numerology, or one of the other ways in which people are promised insight into the future... It is all a symptom of the uncertain times in which we live - an unhealthy symptom, because people miss out on the real certainties and end up living on phoney promises instead of by faith in the living God.

Victory over the World

John is writing about some solid certainties that can give us strength at the centre of our being. Henry Francis Lyte expressed this in these words,

"earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away;

change and decay in all around I see:

O thou who changest not, abide with me." (AHB502)

That hymn, though often used at funerals, is full of affirmations that are important for life itself.

John has already indicated that we are involved in a struggle. In chapter 2, he said that the "young men... have overcome the evil one" (2.13-14). We noted there his reference to "the world" - "there is a world system of thought and behaviour which is contrary to God's ways and is opposed to God. With this the Christian can have no part." Our present-day "feel" of the world is not just that some people don't have time for God or Christianity - we are facing much more active opposition than there has been for a long time. John also writes about "the antichrist" (2.18,22) and many "antichrists". In chapter 3 he tells them not to be surprised that "the world hates you" (3.13).

Now in chapter 5, he is affirming that, though the struggle is very real, the outcome is certain.

"Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well" (v. 1). Faith in Jesus Christ is not just an optional additive to our life. It leads to a radical change within us that Jesus, in his conversation with Nicodemus, called being "born again" (John 3.3,16).

Unfortunately, this term has been hijacked by some groups to describe a particular spiritual experience expected of all members. True, Jesus was speaking about change, radical change. But he was also affirming the reality and certainty of our new relationship with God as members of his family, as his children. That reality within will lead to changes affecting every part of our life and personality. But it is already true - it has already come - because we believe in Jesus.

"This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands" (vv. 2,3b). God's love towards us is to lead us to the response of loving God and obeying his commands. John is quite specific - we cannot separate our love of God from obedience.

Do you love God? Are there some hymns that send a thrill down your spine? Do you experience a warmth of faith welling up in you when you read the Bible? Are you sometimes carried along with expectation and excitement in a service of worship? Do you obey God? That's the "bottom line" test - not the set of emotional experiences that we may or may not have, but whether we obey God! That's the test of whether we love God!

"And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith" (vv. 3b,4). God doesn't expect us to walk on our hands or live under the sea - though some may do these things for short periods! God's commands set out how he, the Maker, always meant us to live. Living as a child of God means living normally - as life was meant to be lived. We may well have a rebellious spirit and bad habits of living to overcome in ourselves. We may be rowing against the stream of public opinion and of accepted behaviour patterns. But we are living the normal life, the wholesome life. That is why we are able to "overcome the world."

"Our faith" is the means of winning the victory over that "world system of thought and behaviour which is contrary to God's ways and is opposed to God" - within ourselves and within our environment. "Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God" (v. 5). We recall John's earlier words, "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work" (3.8b) and the words of Jesus himself, "I have told you these things [that the Father will be with me, even when you scatter and leave me alone], so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (Jn 16.33).

Believing in Jesus we share his victory! We might well wonder as we look at the early disciples - or at ourselves - but Jesus has already won the battle! The victory is certain!

Certainty about Jesus Christ

"This is the one who came by water and blood - Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth" (v. 6). Jesus was a real person. He really lived in the history of our world. His ministry began with his baptism and came to a climax in his death on the cross. Not only did the Spirit come down on Jesus like a dove at his baptism (John 1.32-34), but the testimony of the Spirit continues to affirm the truth of what Christ has done and to bring conviction to the peoples of the world (John 16.8-11).

The Christian message is not based on a philosophy or a spiritual ideal, but on a real person whose life and death - as well as his words and example - are an essential part of the message.

"For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son" (vv. 7-9). The evidence about who Jesus was and why he came is not just based on human eye-witnesses - it is confirmed by the Spirit and by the testimony of the Father given throughout the Scriptures. We recall the words of Jesus to the Jewish authorities, "And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." (Jn 5.37-40).

"Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son" (v. 10). There is solid evidence as the basis for faith. There is very strong evidence concerning the historicity of Jesus, his personality and works. There is the Father's evidence through the prophetic writings of the Old Testament and (for us) the books of the New Testament. The Spirit is also at work and those who believe receive an inner conviction from God.

"And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life" (vv. 11-12). So this testimony focuses on what God has done - (1) his gift of eternal life (2) coming through his Son (3) to those who "have the Son" (a phrase conveying the same truth as "believes in the Son" in v. 10, "acknowledges the Son" in 2.23 and "remain in him" in 2.27).

That you may know...

"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him" (vv. 13-15).

Those who believe in the Son of God are meant to live with a fundamental certainty at the heart of their being. This certainty does not come from our excellence, but from what God himself has done for us in his Son. We are not trying to prove ourselves to God - he has already welcomed us! He has already made his love for us quite clear! We come into his presence with courage and confidence. Paul wrote in Romans 8.1, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

The fundamental certainty that God has welcomed us flows directly into our prayer life. Jesus taught his disciples to pray in his name - "the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name" (John 15.16b). To pray in his name is to ask "according to his will." "Ask and it will be given to you;" said Jesus, "seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you" (Matthew 7.7). God hears our prayers and answers them according to his will.

"If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death" (vv. 16-17).

Paul states the general principle, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 6.23). All sin is deadly, but through God's loving mercy sin is forgiven because of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. But our Lord Jesus spoke about an unpardonable sin - a sin which could not be forgiven and for which the death-penalty could not be turned back. Here are his words, "Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come" (Mt. 12.32). Why should a sin against the Holy Spirit be worse than a sin against the Son of Man (Jesus) himself? The context is the accusation that Jesus was casting out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons (Mt. 12.24). It is the Holy Spirit who brings us to repentance. Jesus warns that it is possible to have so rejected the work of the Holy Spirit that repentance, and therefore forgiveness, are no longer possible. This is reflected in what John is saying here.

In Summary...

John now comes to three affirmations that are central to his whole letter. Each of them begins with "We know...".

"We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him" (v. 18). For the child of God, sin is a foreign principle. There will be sins to be dealt with, but sin is no longer the way of life. The child of God is kept safe by the Son of God.

"We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one" (v. 19). The whole world may be under the rule of the evil one, but we belong to God.

"We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true - even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life" (v. 20). The Son of God came to bring us into a living relationship with the true God. Jesus himself said, "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (Jn 17.3).

This God who has revealed himself in the coming of the Son, Jesus Christ, is the true God. Knowing the true God is eternal life. "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols" (v. 21). John is not just thinking about worship in pagan temples, but all those ideas that were beginning to be current and were diminishing the person and work of Jesus Christ. To worship an idea that is less than the real Jesus Christ is to worship an idol.

Do you live with basic uncertainty? or do you know...? We are meant to know with certainty that we have eternal life, that we are God's children. Put your trust in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. That is the secret of certainty in an uncertain world!