START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 John 3:1-7
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OBSERVE:
There are two key words that continue to appear in the lovely epistle of First John — love and knowledge.
Love appears in 1 John 27 times, second in the New Testament only to the Gospel of John (39). No surprise there, since we are pretty sure the same Apostle John wrote both documents.
Know appears 32 times, which is only behind two other New Testament epistles (1 Corinthians has 37; Romans has 34). Although the usage of the word know is in close company with Matthew (33) and Luke (39), all of them trail behind the Gospel of John (83) and Acts (50).
This quick, superficial and non-scholarly overview is intended to illustrate the central themes in 1 John:
- Love is the essence of God’s character, and therefore the Christian character.
- A relationship with God is grounded in a sense of assurance (i.e., knowledge).
The knowledge of which John writes is not the “secret knowledge” of the Gnostics, nor is it a knowledge reserved only for the intellectual. This knowledge ultimately comes from love as well!
So what does this love do? Because of the Father’s love, Christians are called children of God. This is a terrific honor. John’s Gospel makes clear that Jesus is uniquely related to God the Father:
The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth (emphasis added).
Moreover, God’s children will be transformed into the likeness of Christ when he appears at the end of the age. This is a gift that results from the love that the Father lavishes on them. And when Christ appears, God’s children will know him fully and be transformed into his likeness:
But we know that, when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is.
Along with this promise comes a moral demand:
Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure.
In other words, the child of God is to be purified as Christ himself is inherently pure.
Note that this purification is not the prerequisite to the Father’s love, it is the result of that love. That is a significant difference.
John stays with this ethical concern for a moment, touching on the issue of sin. He offers his diagnosis that sin is the violation of a known law. However, he also offers the antidote to sin. He says that Christ:
was revealed to take away our sins, and in him is no sin.
John also corroborates both Paul and the writer of Hebrews in describing the sinless character of Jesus:
in him is no sin.
We should note that this is radically different from the character of every other human being. John has made that clear in 1 John 1:8:
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Jesus is uniquely without sin by his very nature; all other human beings have sinned, and are delivered from their sin by him.
This is where the mind begins to reel a bit, when John makes the audacious claim:
Whoever remains in him doesn’t sin. Whoever sins hasn’t seen him and doesn’t know him.
John further warns his readers not to be led astray:
Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
APPLY:
This excerpt from 1 John begins with great comfort, and then ends with great challenge!
We are reminded that God’s love is lavished on us, and because of that love expressed through Christ we have become children of God. This is in keeping with Paul’s doctrine in Romans 8:14-17 and Galatians 4:4-5.
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children.
But then, as the old timers used to say, John quits preachin’ and goes to meddlin’. Not only are we now God’s children, but we are also being transformed into the likeness of Christ! In some traditions this is called sanctification.
And John is very clear that we are to purify ourselves as Christ is pure. Now, let me be very careful here, and reiterate what I said above — we do not purify ourselves in order to become children of God. God’s love, expressed in Christ and received by faith, is what makes us children of God and then purifies us.
Nevertheless, it is presupposed that if we are children of God we no longer live as sinners. Like the church marquee that I’ve recently cited, “Holiness is not the way to Jesus. Jesus is the way to holiness.” And also one of my favorites, “God loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to let you stay that way.”
Most Christians would agree that if we are pardoned from sin then in some sense we must also be delivered from the power of sin. The rub comes with our human experience, doesn’t it? We want to be free from those things that we know estrange us from God, but we find ourselves drawn back to them like a bug to a bug zapper! Lust, covetousness, pride, anger, just to mention a few.
How do we reconcile our experience with this radical demand for holiness? Only by first recognizing our constant dependence on God’s grace. That’s when we must refer ourselves back to what John has already taught us:
If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don’t tell the truth (1 John 1:6).
In other words, we are called to walk the paths of light, which means the paths of holiness and righteousness. However, John also realizes our dilemma:
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8).
Nevertheless, he has given us the remedy — we begin by acknowledging our sin, and submitting it to God; and God is the one who forgives and gets the sin out of our lives:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
Salvation is not mere “fire insurance” or “cheap grace” that “gets us into heaven” with a minimum of cost. It cost Jesus his blood and life. And his goal is to save us to the uttermost, to renew us and to make us like himself.
This transformation may take a lifetime, but it doesn’t come with any kind of card that we might have gotten in a Monopoly game, that says “Pass Go and collect $200.”
But while we are called to purity and to a sin-free life, we are also aware that this is the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. Our part is to obey and to repent when we become aware of sin in our lives. And keep on walking in the light!
RESPOND:
I knew a man one time who got himself into a pickle. He had mismanaged some funds that had been entrusted to him, and faced possible criminal charges. When I visited him, he acknowledged that he’d done wrong.
He had been raised in church, so he knew that the standard of the Gospel didn’t allow for cheap grace. And he made the statement, “I’ve been relying on the verse ‘If we confess our sins God will forgive our sins,’ but I’ve neglected the rest of it: ‘and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.'”
I fear sometimes that this is the case with many of us, at least those of us who are Western Christians. I include myself in this indictment. We know we have been justified by faith. And sometimes we seem to act as though that means we can live as we choose, without paying much attention to the moral and ethical demands of the Gospel.
If we love God as his children, then it follows that as we mature in him we will want to live as his children, holy and full of love.
We are reminded that God does hate the sin but loves the sinner; and he hates the sin not because it hurts him, but because it hurts us. So our love for God means we will obey his commands through his power, and grow into his likeness.
What a profound challenge and reproach this is to me, Lord! It makes me keenly aware of how grateful I am for your grace; but also how I still fall far short of “Christ-likeness.” Please finish what you’ve started in me. Make me reliant on your grace and love, and not dependent on those silly things that this world offers that won’t be mine a second longer than I draw breath! Amen.