The final thought from last week was this:
13 I am writing all of this to you who have entrusted your lives to the Son of God—so you will realize eternal life already is yours.
With the reminder that followers of Jesus have already started our experience of eternal life, we move into what John sees as a logical connection:
14 We live in the bold confidence that God hears our voices when we ask for things that fit His plan. 15 And if we have no doubt that He hears our voices, we can be assured that He moves in response to our call.
John talked about this earlier in this letter. The more we know God in the way we talked about last week, the more our hearts, minds, and desires align with God’s will. When our prayers flow from that kind of place, we can be confident that we are praying for God’s plan to unfold. He moves from that observation about prayer to something which is not as clear to us as it was to his original audience.
16 In this regard, if you notice a brother or sister in faith making moral missteps and blunders, disregarding and disobeying God even to the point of God removing this one from the body by death, then pray for that person; and God will grant him life on this journey.[1] But to be clear, there is a sin that is ultimately fatal and leads to death. I am not talking about praying for that fatal sin, 17 but I am talking about all those wrongs and sins that plague God’s family that don’t lead to death.[i]
That start of that paragraph - “in this regard” - is a reference to the kind of prayers in which God moves responsively, so the focus is prayer, not the kinds of sin. What precisely John means about the distinctions between sins remains elusive. See my endnotes on why that is. This, however, we can take away: We need to pray for those who are falling into accidental or purposeful sin. Our intercession matters on behalf of others.[2]
18 We all know that everyone fathered by God will not make sin a way of life because God protects His children from the evil one, and the evil one can’t touch them. 19 Have confidence in the fact that we belong to God, but also know that the world around us is in the grips of the evil one.[3]
This is a reminder that we are in a spiritual battle. We shouldn’t be afraid, but we should be aware. Notice the positive focus: we belong to God, and God protects His children. It’s one thing to be aware of the Evil One; it’s another to have all the evil in the world be the thing that fills our vision. It’s a good reminder to check ourselves on what fills our thoughts. There’s a lot of doom and gloom out there – this or that thing or person or idea is going to destroy us – and a lot of anxiety and fear that follows. John would be mystified. “Have confidence in the fact that we belong to God.”
Satan can’t touch us. While the Bible gives us other examples of what this means, in this context, Satan can’t make us sin. Whatever happens around us, that won’t change. Satan has a grip on the world, but his grip is only as strong as the handholds we give him.
· If you want to be poisoned by greed, hold your money as if it’s yours rather than God’s. Give Satan a handhold. He can’t make you sin, but now you’ve given him permission to pull you in that direction.
· If you want to be crippled with lust, fill your mind with things that create lustful thoughts. It gives Satan a better grip. He can’t make you sin, but now you’ve given him permission to pull you in that direction.
· If you want to be filled with anger or hatred or bitterness, stew in those thoughts and let them build momentum rather than praying for those toward whom you feel these things. It gives Satan a firm grasp.
· If you want to be controlled by judgment, fill your mind with all the harsh voices out there that villainize and demean and insult ‘the other side.” That’s momentum Satan loves.
When we reject the beginning of a journey into eternal death (practicing sin) and instead, journey into eternal life (practicing righteous and embrace obedience to God’s command), Satan can’t get a firm grip. He prowls around like a menacing lion[4], but when we stick with the Lion Tamer we are going to be alright. Speaking of the confidence John mentioned earlier,
20 We also can be sure of the fact that the Son of God has come and given us a mind so that we may know Him as the embodiment of all that is true. We live in this truth, in His Son Jesus, the Anointed One. He is the True God and eternal life.
Great reminder that we can know God through Jesus, God in the flesh, the embodiment of all that is true. When we embrace Jesus and live in this truth, eternal life has begun.
And now, the final words.
21 My little children, keep away from idols.
A comedian named James Acaster likes to talk about “refreezing the ice” in conversation. He doesn’t think it’s fair that, at a party, he does the hard work of ‘breaking the ice” with someone and then the next person benefits from it. So he refreezes it when he leaves. His example is saying, “Death comes to us all” as a final shot.
This feels kind of like that. Things were going so well: love each other, praying for each other has power; the Devil can’t grab you if you stay close to Jesus, Jesus is The Truth, you have eternal life, woo hoo! And that last comment just feels like it refreezes the room.
Or….it’s an easy way to remember the whole point of the letter. “Keep away from idols.” The psalmist wrote of idols,
“Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.” (Psalm 135:15-18)
This is the dilemma. Practically the whole letter has been about being like Jesus by worshipping Jesus. This is reminder that we become like what we worship.
And to be clear, the audience of the Bible would have associated worship primarily with sacrifice, and God makes it clear that acts of obedience and service are the sacrifice that matters the most
Isaiah 1:11-17 “What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” Says the LORD. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle; and I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. When you come to appear before Me, who requires of you this trampling of My courts? Bring your worthless offerings no longer, incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies — I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”
Amos 5:21-24 “I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. “Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
Micah 6:6-8 “With what shall I come to the LORD And bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
While the New Covenant does away with the Old Covenant sacrificial system thanks to Jesus’ “once for all” sacrifice[5], the imagery continues.
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1)
“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”(Hebrews 13:15-16)
“ I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.” (Philippians 4:18).
“To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (Mark 12:33).
In worship, there is always a sacrifice of some sort: time, money, energy, emotions, priorities, reputation, schedules, pride, things – and then ultimately either ourself or other people. It’s not if we will worship; we do worship. The question is how our worship is forming us, and to what ends.
“Idolatry is both personal and communal. What we surround ourselves with influences what, or who, we worship. John knew this. That’s why he shows us how gospel doctrine (the good news of Jesus) creates a gospel culture (the shared reality of that good news in the church). We all fashion our own personal idols, but the company we keep either reinforces them or poisons them.”[6]
An idol – this could be a person, an object, an ideology, wealth, fame, financial security – demands three things: total allegiance, unwavering sacrifice, and sacrificial victims.[7] In idolatrous worship, we will always end up sacrificing something or someone for the sake of ourselves. In idolatrous worship, the point is for me to be benefit,[8] to get what I want, no matter the inconvenience or cost to others.
1. Let’s start with a really minor example: If I leave my shopping cart in a parking spot because my time is too important, the person who tries to park will have to give up their important time to do it.
2. If I want my every need met, someone has to pay the cost of meeting them.
3. If I want my will to be done, someone else has to give up their will.
4. If I want to make money so badly I become a workaholic, somebody else is going to have to fill in the void left with my kids.
5. If my voice must always be the one that carries the most weight in a conversation, someone else’s voice is going to carry less weight.
6. If I have to vent about store COVID policies to a cashier, they will pay the cost of my lack of self-control and have to absorb my anger (and regret their job).
7. If I micromanage everyone around me so things are just like I like them, somebody else gets stuck with things the way they don’t like them.
8. If I don’t make the effort to choose my words carefully, somebody else pays the price of my verbal blows.
9. If I don’t make an effort to “see” and “listen” and empathize, someone else has to be around someone who doesn’t love enough to see and hear and empathize.
10. If I must win, everyone else must lose.
The goal of idolatry is always control: my life on my terms.
The cost of idolatry is always the same: others.
In true worship, we follow the example of the One who sacrificed himself so that we might live, and we pay it forward: we offer ourselves first to the one who sacrificed himself for us, and then give our lives in the service of God and others.
“My children, keep away from things that will lead you to sacrifice others, and consider how your love for God reaches its intended expression in your deep, deep love of those around you.”
Let’s #practicerighteousness this week.
(By the way..... we’re going to start using a Slack channel called “Our Weekly Practice” as a way to help each other do the “work” of discipleship. This channel is especially intended for use on these end-of-sermon practice/discipleship exercises. It’s a place to post updates on how #practicingrighteousness is going for you. It could be confession, encouragement, triumph….)
This week, look carefully and prayerfully at the list of 10 ways we can sacrifice others as we pursue our idols. Which of these are you least likely to actually struggle with? In other words, it’s not a struggle because this sin comes so naturally to you that you just “stew” in it, completely unfazed at the impact on yourself and those around you? Ask the Great Physician to show you the scalpel (discipline or practice) he intends to use on you; submit to the surgery; pursue a purposeful recovery plan – in community, not alone!
Have a blessed week.
Death comes to us all :)
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[1] “If love requires the willingness to lay down one's life for a member of the community (3:16), then certainly it follows that if one sees a brother commit sin, such a person must intercede for him in prayer. Not to pray for him would be as much a betrayal of God's love as to withhold material aid from him (3:17). Moreover, when we pray for a brother or a sister who commits sin, we can know that such a prayer is "according to his [God's] will" because Christ is the atoning sacrifice for sins (2:2); and if we confess our sins, he is committed to forgive us (1:9). But why should a brother need such intercession? Why does he not pray for himself and make his own confession? We can only speculate as to John's answer. Perhaps again it is a matter of assurance. The brother may need to be forgiven through intercessory prayer as an expression of the community's forgiveness. Because the sin was presumably committed after entrance into the Christian community, the need to confess the sin to another and to have received assurance of forgiveness may have had special significance. Also, there might be an allusion here to Jesus' words in Jn 20:23.” (Expositor's Bible Commentary (Abridged Edition): New Testament)
[2] The best reading I found on this point – or at least the one that makes the most sense to me in the context of what John has been writing about loving each other well – is that in the early church this was done more publicly as an act of community. Keep in mind these were house churches; this probably had more of a large small group feel than congregating in a large building like we do. “If you notice a brother or sister” means they had to be doing something that people noticed; since it was read to a church family, I assume it means, “You all know this is going on; you should all be praying.”
[3] 5:19 “Does the “evil one” control the “whole world”? It’s unclear if John meant that the evil one actually controls the whole world or if John was simply warning his audience of the pervasive presence of evil and the antichrist. Earlier in the letter, John encouraged believers by saying that Christ “is greater than the one who is in the world” (4:4). (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible)
[4] 1 Peter 5:8
[5] Hebrews 10
[6] David McLemore, https://www.thingsofthesort.com/sermons-2/2017/11/20/1-john-521-little-children-keep-yourselves-from-idols
[7] http://theinnetwork.org/idols-that-demand-blood-6/
[8] “Sacrifice itself was part of the universal language of ancient religion. What differed was what/whom was being sacrificed and to Whom/What the sacrifice was being made. This was worship. The ancients often made sacrifices to obtain favors or to avert disasters. Idolatry sought to control the outcome of history through the management of the gods.” S. Freeman, https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/2017/05/30/the-sacrifice-of-worship/
[i] [i] NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible “5:16 a sin that leads to death. Probably committed by the false teachers; it is presumably one that violates the fundamental commands of believing in Jesus and loving fellow believers (cf. 3:23). In Scripture, atonement was available for unintentional but not defiant sins (Nu 15:27 – 31). Perhaps more relevant, some Jewish circles described offenses for which Scripture prescribed death as “a matter of death,” which was normally enforced in their own time by expulsion from the community rather than by literal execution… John’s audience may well have understood the precise meaning, though today it remains in question.”
“The redemptive attitude represented here presents us with no difficulty of understanding. The distinction between a sin unto death and one that is not does. As Bruce puts it, “It is difficult to see how they could recognize the distinction except by the result” (p. 124). Various theories have been offered. Perhaps the safest course is to assume that any fallen (or falling) brother is redeemable and to seek to be the divine instrument in his restoration.” (Asbury Bible Commentary)
“Verse 16. A sin which is not unto death 1. It is supposed that there is here an allusion to a distinction in the Jewish law, where there was למיתה חטאה chattaahlemithah, "a sin unto death;" and למיתה לא חטאה chattaah lo lemithah, "a sin not unto death;" that is, 1. A sin, or transgression, to which the law had assigned the punishment of death; such as idolatry, incest, blasphemy, breach of the Sabbath, and the like. And 2. A sin not unto death, i.e. transgressions of ignorance, inadvertence, c., and such is, in their own nature, appear to be comparatively light and trivial. 2. By the sin not unto death, for which intercession might be made, and unto death, for which prayer might not be made, we are to understand transgressions of the civil law of a particular place, some of which must be punished with death, according to the statutes, the crime admitting of no pardon: others might be punished with death, but the magistrate had the power of commuting the punishments, i.e. of changing death into banishment, c., for reasons that might appear to him satisfactory, or at the intercession of powerful friends. To intercede in the former case would be useless, because the law would not relax, therefore they need not pray for it but intercession in the latter case might be prevalent, therefore they might pray and if they did not, the person might suffer the punishment of death. This opinion, which has been advanced by Rosenmuller, intimates that men should feel for each other's distresses, and use their influence in behalf of the wretched, nor ever abandon the unfortunate but where the case is utterly hopeless.
3. The sin unto death means a case of transgression, particularly of grievous backsliding from the life and power of godliness, which God determines to punish with temporal death, while at the same time he extends mercy to the penitent soul. The disobedient prophet, 1 Kings 13:1-32, is, on this interpretation, a case in point: many others occur in the history of the Church, and of every religious community. The sin not unto death is any sin which God does not choose thus to punish.” (Adam Clarke)