1 John 2:3-14
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 lovec 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.
7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in himd to make him stumble. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
12 I write to you, dear children,
because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
13 I write to you, fathers,
because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, dear children,
because you have known the Father.
14 I write to you, fathers,
because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you are strong,
and the word of God lives in you,
and you have overcome the evil one.
A great way to start a message on Father’s Day is with verse 13, I write to you, fathers,
because you have known him who is from the beginning. In the very first verse of this letter, John described Jesus this way: “that which was from the beginning”. We know that this description echoes back to John 1:1 which in turn echoes back to Genesis 1:1. Jesus is the eternal creator of all things, and these fathers know this Jesus. Dads, when you open your Father’s Day card today, I don’t know it will say. It might be funny or it might be serious, but I don’t think there is a better sentiment for a father than this: you have known him who is from the beginning. You know Jesus Christ and are known by him. That’s what I want to be said of me. I wouldn’t mind this on my gravestone: “Here lies Rich Maurer—He knew him who was from the beginning.” This is what every father should want to be said of them. The only problem is that John is not addressing human fathers. The fathers, children and young men here are stages of spiritual development, the fathers being the most mature people of these Christians. John may have not been addressing human fathers per se, but it has direct application to fathers. But before we arrive at the application, we need to understand what it means to know him who is from the beginning.
Thus
far in our study of this letter, we know what fellowship means—it means entering
into fellowship with the triune Godhead. It is restoration of
koinonia-fellowship with God through our salvation from
God. Most people claim to have fellowship with God but a great many of them are
lying. They don’t have fellowship with God because they are walking in darkness.
There is a clear demarcation between those who walk in the darkness and those
who walk in the light. There is no such thing as a gray area where you are in
between darkness and light. You are either walking in darkness or else you are
walking in the light. But how can we know if we are walking in the light? As we
said two weeks ago, koinonia is not something that can be seen. It is an
invisible, spiritual reality. Koinonia, which is part of our salvation, cannot
be seen, but John tells us that there are outward signs that are manifestations
of this invisible reality. You can’t see your salvation, but you can, and must
see evidence of the results of your salvation. In this passage we will look at
two of these signs.
The first sign comes in verse three. We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. Verses four and five restate the same sign first negatively and then positively. 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. Sometimes Scripture can be difficult to understand. There are some mysteries in the bible that we will never fully understand until we reach eternity. But this is not one of those difficult passages. In fact, nothing could be more clear than this: if you claim to have fellowship with the eternal God—him who is from the beginning—you must walk as Jesus walked. You must obey Jesus’ commands. Evidence of obedience is a necessary sign of koinonia. If the evidence of obedience is missing from your life, then there is a good indication that saving faith is not present.
Whenever we speak of the signs of being a Christian, we must tread very carefully. We never want to confuse the signs of being a Christian with the cause of being a Christian, that is, obedience to Jesus’ commands is the result of your salvation, it is not the cause of your salvation. If you are older than six years old, you have almost certainly had a case of chicken pox. If you suspect that your child has chicken pox, how do you know this to be true? The signs of chicken pox, usually called symptoms, are a fever and the classic small red bumps all over your body. Thos little red bumps can pop up anywhere on your skin, can’t they? You might have a milder case and have few red bumps or you might be covered with the little buggers, but the number one sign of chicken pox are small red bumps. But did the red bumps cause the chicken pox? That’s a silly notion isn’t it? The red bumps don’t cause the chicken pox, rather the chicken pox cause the red bumps. The red bumps are a sign that you have chicken pox. In the same way, good works do not cause salvation. No matter how hard we fight against sin or strive for obedience to Christ, do not think even for a moment that you are saved because of these good works. We are justified by faith alone through grace alone in Christ alone. The symptoms of chicken pox are red bumps and the “symptoms,” albeit, wonderful symptoms (!!), of being a Christian are good works. Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
What then do these signs look like? What does it mean to “walk as Jesus walked”? When Jesus stood on a mountain in Galilee and gave the Great Commission to his disciples, he commissioned them to “teach them to obey everything I have commanded you.” We quickly learn two things about what it means to walk as Jesus walked. First, we see that the emphasis is on obedience. Jesus didn’t tell his disciples to teach others but rather to teach them to obey. Jesus did not merely know the Scriptures, he lived out the Scriptures. He obeyed the Scriptures, therefore anyone who claims to be one of his followers must also be taught so as to obey. Getting a good grade on your Bible exam is a really good thing if you are in Bible College or seminary, but a good test score alone will not carry you very far. Furthermore, anyone can understand the Bible. The majority of Bible scholars throughout the world are walking in the darkness. That fact ought to scare us to death—that tens of thousands of Bible scholars do not even have a saving relationship with Christ. These scholars take apart the Scriptures with clinical and diagnostic skill, then they write hundreds of volumes of commentary and position papers as conclusion to their years of study, yet sadly, all the time they know nothing of the Jesus whom they write and teach about. We do not teach to know but we teach to obey.
The second thing we learn is that the disciples were to teach them to obey everything Jesus had commanded. There is no such thing as “Five Quick Steps to Following Jesus.” What Jesus meant is a lifetime of growth in obedience. Do you know how you can know if you are done with this process? All you need to do is ask yourself a simple question: Have I learned to obey everything that Jesus commanded? If your answer is “no,” then you know you have more work to do. Then a few years later you can ask yourself the same question: Have I learned to obey everything that Jesus commanded? There is no end to this quest for obedience, is there? And I trust that is an encouraging thing to you and not a reason for discouragement. One the one hand you could say, “How can I possibly obey everything Jesus commanded? It is so overwhelming I might as well not even try.” But on the other hand, you could say, “No way—you mean there is an endless source of knowledge and joy that I can explore and practice for the rest of my life?!” In the person of Jesus Christ, we have an infinite treasure that can never be exhausted. At the end of this message I will explain exactly why you are not expected to learn perfect obedience all at once.
By way of application, let’s look at a few of Jesus’ commands to see how we are doing.
The observant person will realize that I skipped the first half of the Great Commission in Matthew 28. Before Jesus said to “teach to obey everything I have commanded you,” he said, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Have you reached the nations with the message of the gospel? Is your work done? Forget about reaching the guy in Afghanistan for a moment. How are you doing at reaching the guy you talk with everyday at work? Have you ever shared Christ with him? Have you ever initiated a spiritual conversation? Have you ever prayed for him to be open to talking about Christ?
Here’s another application. Do you recall the story of Jesus appearing to the two men on the road to Emmaus? They were all depressed because Jesus was dead and now his body was missing. Hidden from their eyes as he was, Jesus said, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” Here is my question: could you do what Jesus did? Could you use the O.T. to explain all about Jesus? If you can’t even imagine beginning to do such a thing, might I suggest that you begin by reading through the whole Bible? The story of Jesus and the gospel message is not just a few evangelism verses scattered here and there, rather, Jesus and his gospel is the theme of the entire Bible.
As you know, for six years I presented a challenge to the teens in our church: If they read through the Bible in a year, I would shave my head. This week I received an email from Whitney Boisen updating me on her progress. With her permission, allow me to read part of her email.
I am really learning allot from reading it. I didn't know that there was so much in the Bible that I was missing out on of learning. I am not only reading it because you will shave your head but because I want to learn more and when I read it I fell closer to God somehow. Thank you for trying to get teens (me) to read it. I think all kids who don't read it every day, are really missing out. Some people might just read the bible for a year to see you shave your head and then forget about it, but I am going to read it every day after I finish it. I think reading the Bible every day kinda got me into habit about reading it more when I am finished.[1]
Here
is a good idea of what the result of all of this Bible reading will look like!
As far as I know, there are three teens who are taking this challenge this year.
As Whitney said, the most exciting thing about this challenge is not my shaved
head, but the lifelong benefit of reading, understanding and obeying the word of
God.
A third application comes in John chapter two when Jesus went to Jerusalem and found men selling sheep cattle and doves and others sitting at tables exchanging money. Do you remember what Jesus did? You will no doubt quickly say, “Well of course—everyone knows that. He overturned their tables and drove them away with a whip.” That is true, but what did he do right before that? John provides us with a small detail that is often overlooked. Before Jesus drove them away, he made a whip out of cords. Normally we think that Jesus exploded with anger and rushed into the temple area like an absolute madman. I am certain that Jesus was angry when he overturned the tables, but before he reacted, he sat down and crafted a whip out of cords. I see two applications for men and fathers in regard to anger. Men, when you sense feeling of anger rising within you, before you react in anger, first sit down and make a whip out of cords. Now I don’t mean this in a literal sense, but in a deliberate sense. While Jesus sat and crafted his whip of cords, he was thinking about the scene before him and he was contemplating his plan of action. When he was done deliberating he went forth in righteous anger. Of course it was impossible for Jesus to sin in his anger, but for us men, most of our anger is sinful. But if we first sit down and craft a proverbial whip of cords, if we think through our reaction before we act, nine times out of ten we will decide to respond differently. While we craft the whip of cords, we can think to ourselves, “Do I really want to take this whip and thrash little Johnny with it? Does my wife really deserve to have this whipped across her bare back?” At the first hint of emotions of anger, make your whip of cords.
The second application relates to the reason why Jesus got angry. Jesus’ anger was a direct response to the desecration of his Father’s house. Jesus was mad because these Jews were treating the matchless glory of God like a three-ringed circus. Men, we tend to get angry for all the wrong reasons yet we don’t get angry about things that should make us mad. When was the last time you got angry because the holiness of God was being trashed? When was the last time you got angry because the truth of God was being tramped on? When was the last time you got angry because the name and character of the Lord—the Lord who saved your very soul—was being blasphemed? I don’t mean to suggest that the next time you hear a coworker take the name of the Lord in vain that you should rush across the room, tackle them to the ground and start choking the life out of them. I don’t mean that kind of anger, but I do mean a righteous anger at sin—including your own sin. Men, we need to learn to hate all sin with a holy passion. We must learn to hate sin with a white-hot anger, especially the sin that creeps into our lives.
I got mad two weeks ago when I picked up the latest copy of Christianity Today. The front cover shows an ark and animals, which is obviously about the upcoming movie called Evan Almighty. The bold print says “Evan Help Us” and in case you can’t read the smaller print, it says: How a movie—and a movement—are partnering with the church to change the world. At first I was mad because Christianity Today would devote a whole issue to promoting this movie. But then I realized it was actually a fake cover. The whole thing was an advertisement for the movie. But it was much more than that, because when you look on the inside cover, which is actually another ad, you find this page describing a ministry called “ArkAlmighty”. ArkAlmighty is a website where your church can list the various needs in the church so others can look them up and try to meet those needs.
Let me explain why I got so angry about this. First of all, I am not on a tirade against movies. I don’t care if Hollywood makes this kind of a movie. I expect Hollywood to make this kind of a movie. But I am mad for several reasons.
These Christians running this pyromarketing campaign are absolutely blind to their blasphemy. They do not realize they are being used by Hollywood. These Christians don’t get it, but do you know who does get it? The secular-humanists at the New York Time get it. Listen to this quote.
"More important than the lesson Mel Gibson taught Hollywood
about drunken anti-Semitic tirades (that they’re bad for publicity) is the one
gleaned from his 2004 film “The Passion of the Christ.” The movie demonstrated
just how many evangelical moviegoers there are and how much money can be made
from them. "
"Mindful of that market, Universal Pictures has teamed up with Grace Hill Media,
a public relations firm that reaches out to religious groups, to publicize the
mainstream film “Evan Almighty.”[2]
These are just some of the ways that we are to walk as Jesus walked. These are some of the signs—some of the symptoms—that show that we know him—that we know him who is from the beginning. Some of you have many of these signs and some of you have fewer, but at one level, this is what we would expect. In Verses 12-14 John addressed fathers, children and young men. As I said at the start, these are not human fathers and children but rather spiritual fathers, children and young men. A child is another way of saying the person is a baby Christian. A young man is someone who is growing strong in their faith and a father is one who has reached a solid level of spiritual maturity. Every church should have people at each of these stages. We should have baby Christians because that shows that some people are new believers. It is natural to have people at all stages and it is natural for all of us to grow through these stages. If you are a baby Christian, you are not expected to be like a spiritual father. But what is not natural is for someone to remain as a child for their entire lives. A baby Christian is supposed to grow into a young man and a young man is supposed to grow into a spiritual father. God does not expect perfection but he does expect progression. The best thing that could be said of a man on Father’s Day is that he “has known him who is from the beginning.” We would like all of our human fathers among us to mature into spiritual fathers. But if you are not there yet, are you moving forward? Are you seeing progress?
Rich Maurer
June 15, 2007