The Replay (John 4:7-5:5)

John is about to go into a summary section. In it, he kind of weaves in and out of several themes, specifically the importance of Jesus and his atonement for our sins and the importance of loving each other. For the sake of addressing these topics in a way that focuses on one at a time, I am reshuffling them. So the order of paragraphs is different than the text, but it’s still the text. First, let’s talk about Jesus.

1 John 4:7 My loved ones, let us devote ourselves to loving one another. Love comes straight from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and truly knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 

9 Because of this, the love of God is a reality among us: God sent His only Son into the world so that we could find true life through Him. 10 This is the embodiment of true love: not that we have loved God first, but that He loved us and sent His Son to become an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 

13 How can we be sure that He truly lives in us and that we truly live in Him? By one fact: He has given us His Spirit. 14 We have watched what God has done, and we stand ready to provide eyewitness testimonies to the reality that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone unites with our confession that Jesus is God’s own Son, then God truly lives in that person and that person lives in God. 

1 John 5:4 Everything that has been fathered by God overcomes the corrupt world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith. 5 Who is the person conquering the world? It is the one who truly trusts that Jesus is the Son of God.

 Last week John said: get Jesus right. Embrace that he is fully God and fully human, the Word become flesh. Here John comes back to the same thing Paul was so adamant about: Jesus’s death is what provides the payment for our sins. 

In theological circles this is called penal substitution. Just like our prisons are called the penal system because there is penalty involved, this has to do with those of us who were in prison, slaves to sin and doomed for death. So, all of us. Jesus paid penalty we deserve when he died on the cross so we could be freed from the prison of our own making. 

Why a cross? Here’s where we talk about covenant. 

In the Ancient Near East, there was a thing called a suzerain covenant. A stronger party – the suzerain - initiated a covenant relationship with the weaker party.[1] In order to understand atonement theology, or penal substitution, we need to look at God’s suzerain covenant with Abraham.

When God made a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15, (you get more details through chapter 22), God promised to bless the world through Abraham. This will happen in a number of ways, but it has traditionally been seen as a most importantly a foreshadowing of Jesus. There were only two stipulations for Abraham: leave his home/the gods of his fathers and follow God, and be obedient to the voice of God (Genesis 22).[2]

In a classic ritual that sounds weird to us but wasn’t to them, Abraham killed some animals, cut them in half, and arranged them to walk through. This was a Covenant Of The Pieces that contained a warning: that kind of penalty awaited the covenant breaker. A great darkness fell, and God, the stronger party, passed through the dissected animals (as a blazing torch) but never made Abraham, the weaker party, do the same.

By passing through the slaughtered animal, God was saying that if He didn’t bless Abraham and honor the covenant, God – the stronger, initiating party - would have to pay the penalty. That alone would be unusual, but that wasn’t the most incredible point. God was saying that if Abraham and his descendants didn’t keep the covenant, God would pay the penalty for them. 

Fast forward several thousand years. 

Abraham and his descendants had one job –well, two: leave other gods and be obedient to God. When God initiated another covenant with Moses, all the details got a lot clearer in the giving of the Law. It did not go well. The prophets had a loooooot of bad news to convey about just how badly this was going.  If you’ve seen the Lord Of The Rings movies, there is this eerie start where the music is foreboding, and “men desire power,” and chaos reigns, and Middle Earth just goes off the rails as they wait for the Return of a King[3] who will make things right. That’s an Old Testament kind of epic. 

Somebody has to pay the penalty for Abraham’s descendants breaking the covenant. 

·      If nobody does, what’s the point of covenant if it has no punch?  

·      If Abraham and his descendants do, what was the point of the promise that God would pay it for all parties? 

We see God fulfill his covenantal duty and pay the penalty for Abraham in the death of the incarnate Jesus. On the cross, a great darkness descends again, and Jesus, the Light of the World, fulfills the conditions of the covenant. What was represented by the death of those animals thousands of years earlier was done to him. Jesus was Yahweh, the Covenant Maker and Covenant Keeper.

We Christians, now, are the children of Abraham (“Those who have faith are children of Abraham.” – Galatians 3:7). And we, too, have done a terrible job keeping the covenant stipulations we have been given in the New Covenant that started with Jesus. The reality that “the wages of sin is death”[4] must be honored. Someone must pay for our breaking of the covenant. 

But “the gift of God is eternal life,”[5] and we commemorate how that penalty was paid by Jesus every time we partake in communion – His body broken, His blood spilled. “Do this in remembrance of me…remember his death[6]…”

The sacrifice that fulfilled the stipulations of an old covenant simultaneously took care of the inevitable failures of the new covenant makers. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, even flawed covenant makers are seen by God as flawless covenant keepers. This is what we celebrate when we take COMMUNION together.

* * * * *

John’s second point in his summary: When we are in communion with God, we are also incommunity that ought to be characterized by the love God modeled. True communion with God builds true community with others.  

11 So, my loved ones, if God loved us so sacrificially, surely we should love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God with human eyes; but if we love one another, God truly lives in us; God’s love has accomplished its mission among us. 

If I understand this correctly, the closest we will get to seeing God on this side of heaven is when we love each other as Jesus intended, and God truly lives in us. When we pray, “God is just want to know you real,” one of the primary ways God intends for this to be confirmed is by the way in which His children pass on the love of the Father. 

19 We love because He has first loved us. 20 If someone claims, “I love God,” but hates his brother or sister, then he is a liar. Anyone who does not love a brother or sister, whom he has seen, cannot possibly love God, whom he has never seen. 21 He gave us a clear command, that all who love God must also love their brothers and sisters. 

Everyone who trusts Jesus as the long-awaited Anointed One is a child of God, and everyone who loves the Father cannot help but love the child fathered by Him. 2 Then how do we know if we truly love God’s children? We love them if we love God and keep His commands. 3 You see, to love God means that we keep His commands, and His commands don’t weigh us down.

God’s love reaches the end of its mission when we enter into right(eous) relationship with others as a result of Jesus restoring us to right(eous) relationship with God.[7]  There is no such thing as a truly transformative experience of God’s love that does not result in love for his people manifested by obedience to God’s word.[8] We love others best when we love them as God commands. That’s the most obvious sign that the Holy Spirit is the wind in our sails.[9]#lastweek’smessage

When this happens, God is now ‘seen’ in the world through his family (v.11-12). We are his “body.” He is the head;[10] we make up the rest.  And when we pass on to others the love He has given to us, the mission of His love reaches the fullness of its expression[11] in obvious, profound and breath-taking sacrifice.[12] The ground should be littered with what’s been pouring out of us spiritually as we have been broken and spilled out for those around us. 

So now we can begin to understand John's concern for love and unity in the church.  This isn’t one of the extras one orders for church like the extra features when you get a new car. This is something without which there is no car. First-century Jewish writers were adamant about this: 

“And it is impossible that the invisible God can be piously worshipped by those people who behave with impiety toward those who are visible and near to them.”[13] 

* * * * *

There is a movement of people leaving the church today in what is being called “deconversion.” Some are leaving evangelicalism (“exvangelical”). Some are leaving white evangelicalism (#leaveloud) because of ongoing frustrations with how the legacy and on going reality of racism is (or isn’t) being addressed. (More on this next week). When people leave, it is rarely as simple as having been wooed away. There are three primary reasons (not the only ones, to be sure) that show up over and over again:

·      they feel deeply wounded in some fashion

·      they don’t feel safe wrestling honestly with life

·      they feel[14] actively pushed away by terrible teaching, harsh people, or both

 I don’t think I know anyone who has deconverted or become an exvangelical simply because something else caught their eye. The theme I hear over and over through personal conversation or through testimony online is the aftermath of disillusionment, frustration, and pain not just experienced in church but brought on by church, and it almost always has to do with not having the love of Christ passed on well.

We talk a lot about the dangers the church faces by getting sucked into culture, and that’s absolutely valid. But remember how John’s earlier focus on “antichrists” wasn’t outside the church? In fact, nothing in the book has warned Christians about the dangers lurking outside. It’s all been about how things can go wrong inside the church and shipwreck our faith. 

Here’s my summary of why so many people are leaving right now (not a Bible verse…it’s my way of trying to summarize). A bad thing looks better than it deserves if a good thing looks worse than it should.  I mean, if you give me a choice between shrimp and grits (the church) and liver and onions (the world), I’m only choosing the liver and onions if the shrimp and grits are nasty. 

So what’s the solution?

Jesus entered into our world to show that he was qualified to be an empathetic advocate for us.[15] This meant a number of things: 

·      he “saw” people[16] (loaded word)

·      he listened and thoughtfully responded (the Rich Young Ruler[17]; the woman who touched his garment[18]; the woman caught in adultery[19])

·      he spent time with them (that crazy ‘friend of sinners’[20], an insult Jesus embraced). 

·      He invited himself into their homes (Zaccheus[21]).

·      He went to their unclean neighborhoods (Woman at the Well in Samaria[22]).

·      he spent 33 years on earth in our neighborhood, during which time “he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Hebrews 2:17-18)

When we are promised an empathetic advocate, we know we have one. He didn't sit in the heavens are read about what it was like to be human; he became human. 

When we ‘enter into the world’ of others, we model the example of Jesus.  We see; we listen; we spend time together; we seek to understand so that we might be faithfully and lovingly present in attitude, action, and word. 

And when we do this, church life becomes very, very compelling. Imagine being part of a group of people who are committed to knowing you, understanding you, loving you, being poured out for you in honor of Jesus, who was poured out for us.[23] 

11 So, my loved ones, if God loved us so sacrificially, surely we should love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God with human eyes; but if we love one another, God truly lives in us; God’s love has accomplished its mission among us.

 
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[1] Genesis 15-22; Deuteronomy 29 and 30

[2] On the other hand, there were at least 14 very specific promises that God puts on himself. http://www.lifeinmessiah.org/resources/articles/gods-covenant-with-abraham

[3] Please give me bonus points for LOTR references..

[4] Romans 6:23

[5] Still Romans 6:23 J

[6] 1 Corinthians 11:24-26

[7] Colossians 1:20-22; 2 Corinthians 5:18; Romans 5:10

[8] “The connecting lines of thought are not on the surface, and cannot be affirmed with certainty. What follows seems to give the clue to what otherwise looks like an abrupt transition. ‘I say we must love one another, for by so doing we have proof of the presence of the invisible God.’” (Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges)

[9] See Paul’s opinion on this in 1 Corinthians 13

[10] Colossians 1:18; Colossians 2:18-19; Ephesians 1:20-23; Ephesians 5:23-30; 1 Corinthians 12:27.

[11] Our love for God is no greater than our love for “the least of these.” 

[12] We are never intended to be terminals of God’s blessings, like those things electricians use to stop the progress of the electricity going through wires; we were intended to be conduits or channels the keep the love from the source moving along. Think of spokes in a bicycle tire: as they get nearer to the center of the wheel, they get nearer to one another. (Believers Bible Commentary)

[13]  Thanks to Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background of the New Testament for some great ideas here. 

[14] “Feel” is a key word. Maybe they projected something into a situation…but maybe they didn’t, too.

[15] Hebrews 4:15  “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize (literally, “to have a fellow feeling with” in both Strong’s and the NAS Exhaustive Concordance; Thayer’s Greek Lexicon says “to be affected with the same feeling as another”) with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin.” (NIV)  The NIV gets it right here. Though the word is often translated as ‘sympathetic,’ the best English equivalent is ‘empathetic’.

[16] Matthew 5:1; 9:36, for example

[17] Mark 10

[18] Matthew 9

[19] John 8:1-11

[20] Matthew 11: 16-19 & John 8: 1-11

[21] Luke 19

[22] John 4

[23] Philippians 2:8

Catch The Right Wind (1 John 4:1-6)

The last thing John wrote in chapter 3 was this: 

“And this is how we know that God lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.”

Right away he moves into a contrast. 

4:1 My loved ones, I warn you: do not trust every spirit.  

Okay, we have to talk about this word “spirit.” It comes from pneuma in the New Testament, and it can mean spirit, wind or breath. The Hebrew equivalent in the Old Testament was ruach, and it meant – wait for it – spirit, wind, or breath. 

However, the Holy Spirit is not a thing. It is a person, one of the three persons in one being that is the trinity. There is not perfect analogy for this. Maybe you have seen the classic triangle. Images like this are imperfect to be sure, as the nature of God will be a mystery in the sense that its more than we can wrap our minds around. Just note that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the being of God. The trinity is co-equal and co-eternal in terms of essence, nature, power, intelligence, action, and will.[1]

Having said that, I think the divinely inspired words used to describe the Holy Spirit is give our frail minds an image of how the Holy Spirit works. 

In a community where fishing was a livelihood, it’s a really descriptive word. People understood how the wind moves you in a particular direction. You must catch the right wind to get to the right place. We used to play this game in youth group where two people on opposite sides of a table would try to blow a ping pong ball across the table. We understand how wind and breath works. This is the idea. That ping pong ball went the direction of the most powerful wind at the table. 

The Holy Spirit is the wind (breath) of God moving us in God’s direction. This is the idea behind the biblical claim that “All Scripture is God-breathed…”[2] It doesn’t mean God controlled the hands of the biblical writers. It means God moved their spirits in the direction he wanted them to go as they were writing.  

Keep this image in mind. That’s going to be a theme this morning. In the worldview of the Bible, the spirits that move us can be supernatural or natural – that is, “spirits” can be the Holy Spirit; angels fallen or unfallen; human desires; or even the spirit of the age. This image applies broadly because every spirit move us in a direction. They all push us toward a shore (to go back to sailing imagery). We have to unfurl our sails and catch the right spirit/breath/wind if we want leave these Grey Havens and reach the Undying Lands. #lordoftherings 

 My loved ones, I warn you: do not trust every spirit. Instead, examine them carefully to determine if they come from God (i.e. the Holy Spirit), because the corrupt world is filled[3] with the voices of many false prophets [who appear to be genuine but lead people away from the truth by their false teaching].[4] 

Anyone can string words together about the Bible, God, and Jesus; this does not mean they are moved, formed or informed by the Holy Spirit.[5] 

2 Here is how you know God’s Spirit: if a spirit affirms the truth that Jesus the Anointed, our Liberating King, has come in human flesh, then that spirit is from God. 3 If a spirit does not affirm the true nature of Jesus the Anointed, then that spirit does not come from God and is, in fact, the spirit of the antiChrist. You have heard about its coming;[6] in fact it is already active in the world. 

John's warning here[7] is that people can and are inspired by spirits that are not from God, be it simply their own spirit or something more sinister. Sure, they were inspirational – but the wind of their breath was catching the sails of people and leading them to shipwreck.[8] 

4 My children, you have come from God and have conquered (overcome) these spirits because the One who lives within you is greater than the one in this world. 5 But they are of this world, and they articulate the views of the corrupt world, which the world understands. 6a We come from God, and those who know God hear us. Whoever is not from God will not listen to us. 

The direct application of “greater is he who is in you than he that is in the world” is that they have overcome the false prophets in the world, because they resisted their teaching (v.5) thanks to the fact that the spirit of God in them – the breath which moved them toward a goal - was "greater than the one who is in the world" (v.4). 

Here is the key competing “wind of doctrine”[9]: the acknowledgment or denial of Jesus’ incarnation and all of its implications. The acknowledgment is central to Christian belief and discipleship.  

•  If Jesus was not fully God, we would have little confidence that the God has been revealed to us. 

•  If Jesus was not fully God, his sacrifice on the cross would have had limited importance, if any. 

• If Jesus was not fully God, there would be no reason to call him Lord, give him our allegiance, or commit to his Kingdom.

• If Jesus was not fully human and didn’t know what it was like to be us, we would not have confidence that he really is an empathetic[10] advocate for us.

• If Jesus was not fully human and didn’t know what it was like to be us, we could rightly wonder if he really knows how to set up a community (the church) in which we can actually flourish.

So, understanding the nature of Jesus is crucial to the good news of the gospel. This gospel, by the way, will undo you and rebuild you. 

•  It will put to death sin in you and bring life more abundant. 

•  It will expose you and cover you. 

•  It will fight the corruption in you and fight for you. 

 If Jesus has not in some fashion landed like an earthquake in your life, you have yet to experience the fullness of Jesus. And if you have not yet felt his tenderness and love reconstructing the rubble in your life and bringing beauty from ashes, you also have yet to experience the fullness of Jesus.  

Now, to a gospel that the world loves.  The world loves a gospel that is not this countercultural and unsettling. They want a cross without death, an earthquake without upheaval, a face lift on the shack of their life rather than a dozing and rebuilding. It’s…easier. More comfortable. More in line with we know and want.  

John’s reference is to that which appeals to our carnal nature – carn, meat, something that appeals to us just as mammals with urges. One who is carnal turns their sails to the spirit of the world rather than the Holy Spirit.

I found a great article with a list of Symptoms of Carnality from an evangelist with the Free Methodists in the late 1800s/early 1900s named Elmer Shelhamer (literally, “loud hammer.” That’s not important, but I think it’s a fantastic name origin).  I had to update the language and some of the examples, but I found his list to be thought-provoking. 

Think of this as a self-assessment. It’s a way for us to see what wind is catching our sails. 

• Are we becoming more ‘meaty’ and less Jesusy, or more Jesusy and less ‘meaty’? 

• What is our trajectory? 

• If it’s looking like we are heading for the wrong shore, where is that spiritual wind coming from that is pushing us there? And how do we adjust our sails

SYMPTOMS OF CARNALITY

l. A sense of pride: an overly exalted feeling in view of your success, your position, or your importance; looking upon yourself as far more important than others because of your good training, appearance, or gifts and abilities; a dislike of authority. You hate to ask for help from God or others.

The Holy Spirit will move you toward humility and servanthood. If you are moving away from this, the wind from a different spirit is in your sails.

2. Love of praise: a need to be the center of attention (not the same as a the importance of affirmation); you do (even good) things for the praise of others; a love of supremacy (the need to be the best at something); constantly turning the attention to self in conversation; an exaggeration of yourself when you speak.  

The Holy Spirit will lead you to “esteem others better than yourself,[11]” to elevate others, to create appropriate applause for them, and to decrease while Christ increases. If you are moving away from this, the wind from a different spirit is in your sails. 

3. Easily Triggered: a touchy, overly sensitive spirit prone to taking offense; reading the worst into what someone says or how someone acts; being resentful or retaliating when corrected: tense conversations quickly become sharp, heated flinging of words.

The Holy Spirit will lead us to long-suffering, patience, giving the benefit of the doubt as long as we can and keeping our words and our heads as cool as we can. If you are moving away from this, the wind from a different spirit is in your sails.

4. Love of power/control: a stubborn, unteachable spirit; an unyielding, head-strong attitude; a need to plan and dictate (“My voice must be heard and obeyed!”); a driving, commanding presence; rarely admits weakness or fault.

The Holy Spirit leads us to interdependence and mutual submission. If you are moving away from this, the wind from a different spirit is in your sails. 

5. A jealous disposition: unhappiness in view of the prosperity and success of others; a tendency to speak of the faults and failings, rather than the gifts and virtues, of others; characterized by self-pity (“Why do they have that and I don’t?”) and self-righteousness (“Because I certainly deserve it more than they do”).

The Holy Spirit will lead you to be content and at peace in any situation, slow to criticize and quick to affirm. If you are moving away from this, the wind from a different spirit is in your sails.  

6. Lust: practicing sexual objectification; viewing people as a means to your sexual gratification; refusing so put up solid fences in your life just in case the opportunity for inappropriate indulgence presents itself; avoiding accountability because you can’t image life without the fulfillment of lust. 

The Holy Spirit will build in you a love of purity, honor, and an increasing understanding of the value, worth and dignity of all God’s image bearers. It will also build in you an appreciation for the goodness of sex within righteous boundaries. #songofsolomon If you are moving away from this, the wind from a different spirit is in your sails.

7. Formality and deadness: you settle for knowing about God mentally instead of knowing God. Disdain for lost souls rather than concern; dryness and indifference about spiritual things; love of structure over people; love of order and predictability over vibrant, messy relationships. 

The Holy Spirit will move you into orthopathos (right feelings) to go along with orthodoxy (right beliefs) and orthopraxy (right actions). If you are moving away from this, the wind from a different spirit is in your sails 

8. Stinginess: being over-exacting with little things; slow to hand out complements to others; “falling out with others over a few apples, chickens, or pigs” (I had to keep that one from Elmer “Loud Hammer”); giving just enough to ease our conscience. 

The Holy Spirit will lead you toward generosity with money, with words, with the benefit of the doubt. If you are moving away from this, the wind from a different spirit is in your sails.

9. Combative: being narrow and divisive in favor of your crowd; cool and unloving toward others who differ; eager to argue and take the contrary side because you think conflict equals godliness; sitting back with a critical and over-wise air.[12] For you Chronicles of Narnia fans, it reminds me of Lewis’s assessment of one group in The Last Battle: “The dwarves are for the dwarves.”

The Holy Spirit will lead you to love those who are different – not necessarily everything they do or stand for, but love them; there will be an eagerness to build a bridge for the sake of gospel. Look at what Paul says (1 Corinthians 9:19 -23):  

Even though no one (except Jesus) owns me, I have become a slave by my own free will to everyone in hopes that I would gather more believers. When around Jews, I emphasize my Jewishness in order to win them over. When around those who live strictly under the law, I live by its regulations—even though I have a different perspective on the law now—in order to win them over.  

 In the same way, I’ve made a life outside the law to gather those who live outside the law (although I personally abide by and live under the Anointed One’s law). I’ve been broken, lost, depressed, oppressed, and weak that I might find favor and gain the weak. 

 I’m flexible, adaptable, and able to do and be whatever is needed for all kinds of people so that in the end I can use every means at my disposal to offer them salvation.  I do it all for the gospel and for the hope that I may participate with everyone who is blessed by the proclamation of the good news.

So that’s our self-assessment.  What spirit is filling the sails of your life? Are you sailing towards life or death? 

 And what does it look like this week to actively practice learning from and responding to this self-assessment?

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[1] https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/one-essence-three-person/

[2] 2315 theópneustos (from 2316 /theós, "God" and 4154 /pnéō, "breathe out") – properly, God-breathed, referring to the divine inspiration (inbreathing) of Scripture (used only in 2 Tim 3:16)…. Likely a term coined by Paul… relates directly to God's Spirit (Gk pneuma) which can also be translated "breath." (HELPS Word Studies)

[3] John talked about them earlier in 1 John 2:19 - “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.”

[4] See Matthew 7:15; 24:11, 24; Mark 13:22; 2 Peter 2:1. 

[5] Jewish tradition usually attributed Biblical prophecy to God’s Spirit (often also in the OT, e.g., Nu 11:25). Many Jewish circles associated false prophecy with evil spirits (1Samuel 18:10; 1Kings 22:22 – 23 or with the false prophets’ own spirits (Ezekiel 13:3). Either one would be a false spirit. (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Commentary)

[6] See 1 John 2:18 – “Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.”

[7] John's warning here is not against those who pretend to have the Spirit's presence by faking manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit. Paul appears to have addressed this already (1Corinthians 12:3; 14 and 1Thessalonians 5:21).

[8] Expositor’s Bible Commentary

[9] “Henceforth be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and their cunning and craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive…” (Ephesians 4:14)

[10] Hebrews 4:15

[11] Philippians 2:3

[12] The foundation of this list comes from Traits of the Carnal Mind  by Elmer E. Shelhamer, as well as the article at http://readyforthekingdom.blogspot.com/2008/06/signs-of-carnal-christian.html, which drew from Watchman Nee’s The Spiritual Man.

Approach God Boldly (1 John 3:18-24)

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

By this we shall know that we are of the truth.

 Our obedience will reassure our hearts whenever our hearts condemn us. Because God is greater than our heart, we therefore (in the consciousness that we are of the truth) shall calm our hearts before God, however much our heart may accuse us.[1] (Remember that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything including everything in our hearts). 

Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and can approach him with boldness; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 

 And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us. (1 John 3:18-24) 

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This is a notoriously confusing passage of Scripture when it comes to understanding a) how and why our hearts condemn us (false guilt or real guilt), b) what it means that God is bigger than our hearts (should this worry us or comfort us?), and c) what it means that we can ask for anything and get it. So, here we go.  

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. By this[2] we shall know that we are of the truth, and our obedience will reassure our hearts[3] before him whenever our hearts condemn us.[4] Because God is greater than our hearts[5], we therefore (in the consciousness that we are of the truth) shall calm our hearts before God, however much our heart may accuse us. (Remember that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything, including our hearts)[6]. 

When John wrote earlier (2:28-4:6) about how we can be confident, he said to "continue in Jesus" and "do what is right" (2:29; 3:7, 10), which is shown primarily by our love for others. Now he addresses what to do when our hearts (conscience) condemn us.  There are at least two possibilities for what John means.[7]  

#1. We could read this as our conscience is highlighting our genuinely wrong actions or inactions.[8] If that’s the case, our commitment to (not our perfection of) living in obedience to God’s truth is meant to reassure us. 

“A Christian’s heart burdened with a sense of its own unworthiness forms an unfavourable opinion of the state of the soul, pronounces against its salvation. If we are conscious of practically loving the brethren, we can [see] this as evidence of the contrary, and give the heart ground to change its opinion, and to reassure itself.”[9]

This usage suggests our hearts are telling us we did something wrong, but the pattern of our life (not all the particulars), is intended to reassure us of our commitment (not our perfection).

#2. Other commentaries see it as closer to the idea of us beating ourselves up unfairly when we fail. Self-condemnation can be brutal. If that is the case, then John is talking about that insidious voice of despair and condemnation that keeps whispering, “God doesn’t want you. You failed again. You just aren’t good enough to deserve love or respect. Why keep trying? Maybe you should quit.”  Even though imperfection is to be expected on this side of heaven, it’s easy to run with the fact that we have fallen short of it and run ourselves into the ground. 

Either way, we must remember that God knows everything.

Because God is superior to our consciences in being omniscient, we may (when our love is sincere and fruitful), persuade our consciences before Him to acquit us. Our consciences through imperfect knowledge may be either too strict[10] or too easy[11] with us: God cannot be either, for He knows and weighs all… He is a more perfect judge than our heart can be.[12]

When John writes that God knows our hearts, he doesn’t just mean the good parts even we don’t see. He means even the bad parts we don’t see. I mean, our proper sense of guilt and/or our self-condemnation probably only scratches the surface. 

I believe John intends it to be both sobering and comforting in that the worst that is in us is known to God, and still He cares for us and loves us as His children. Our discovery has been an open secret to Him all along. But God sees more: God sees into depths even we have not dared to explore. 

I was talking with a guy who works in surgery, and he was telling me how people under certain kinds of anesthesiology will act out in a way that shows the real them. It’s like the drugs take away all the veils, and the real them emerges. They may swear like sailors, or flirt with the nurses, or just be chill.  ‘The deep’ emerges. 

I came out of the anesthesia of knee surgery once fighting with everyone. They had to restrain me. When they told me, the doctor said, “Have you been under stress?” Yep. That’s apparently a typical response. I have never been in a fight in my life, but something violent was nesting inside of me.

Perhaps it is that kind of image John is tapping into when he reminds us that God knows everything about our hearts - and he still loves us and calls us His child. We beat ourselves up for the failures that lie on the surface; God sees what is deep down in his soul and does not beat us up for it. He works to clean us up as an act of love, not condemnation.[13] He bore upon himself the weight of our condemnation so we don’t have to.

As the guys at Southside Rabbi pointed out in their last episode,[14] Jesus experienced what we experience in life, but there is one thing he experienced that his followers will never have to: the wrath of God falling on a person for their sin.[15] We partly know ourselves and loathe ourselves; God fully knows us and fully loves us.

“He knows all things; on the one hand the light and grace against which we have sinned, on the other the reality of our repentance and our love. It was to this infallible omniscience that S. Peter appealed, in humble distrust of his own feeling and judgment; ‘Lord, You know all things; You know that I love you’ (John 21:17).[16]

I think this translation from the Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges captures all of this discussion well. 

‘By loving our brethren in deed and truth we come to know that we are God’s children and have His presence within us, and are enabled to meet the disquieting charges of conscience. For, if conscience condemns us, its verdict is neither infallible nor final. We may still appeal to the omniscient God, whose love implanted within us is a sign that we are not condemned and rejected by Him.’

* * * * * 

Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and can approach him with boldness; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 

This is the goal: to approach the throne of God with boldness. When we believe we are under the cloud of condemnation from ourselves or from God, we will not be bold. We will want to hide.

 As a kid, I remember that when I disobeyed my parents, I would hide. When my disobedience was known and dealt with, I didn’t. In fact, it was often freeing. A weight was gone. I think this might be the idea. 

What if we lived every moment in the freedom of knowing that nothing is hidden from God? There is no reason to try to hide something on the way to the cross. There is no reason not to be honest about our sins as a child of God. God already knows. He still loves us.  

How is it possible that we can approach God with this kind of boldness? 

• First, believing in Jesus Christ, that the death of God incarnate has saved us from the punishment we deserve, and that by committing our lives to him we can have eternal life that begins now and carries on (John 3:16-18). This is characterized by becoming more and more like Jesus.

• Second, committing to keeping his commands: Love God and love others. Love is the expression of true faith.[17] This is not about perfection; it’s about direction. What is our trajectory?

• Third, if our hearts (rightly) bring us godly sorrow or (unfairly) condemn us, we remember that God knows even worse things about us than we do; He anticipated it; He took care of it; He loves us more strongly than we can imagine. 

Now, he’s going to deal with us as a loving Father, which means a) there might be practical consequences we can’t avoid, and b) he’s going to love us too much to let us stay untransformed in that sin. But we didn’t surprise him. We didn’t suddenly go, “God, I don’t think you know this about me, but…” Nope. He brought us into His family knowing we would be at this point before we did. Be bold before God.

Now, about that “getting what you want.” 

This isn’t a formula for God becoming a cosmic Pez dispenser for our every whim. John is clear: if our will aligns with God’s will, when we ask what we will we are asking God to do what He already wills.  

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” (Romans 8:5)

"Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).

So, let’s say we are at a place where we approach God boldly. And let’s say we request something that is just not what God has in mind. We know what follows thanks to the disciples. Mark records the following story (Mark 10: 35-45).

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.  They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”  “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”  

“We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.” When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.  

Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Okay, kudos to the disciples for boldness. Notice Jesus doesn’t smack them down. He patiently explains that (like so many things we pray) they have no idea what they are asking. There is lot that will happen on the way to fulfilling that prayer request that is beyond their ability to know. As one country song notes, sometimes we should thank God for unanswered prayer. More importantly, that request did not align with God’s will.  

And then he teaches them how to ask for something in his will: Don’t ask for power and prestige in the eyes of people. Ask to be a servant. Ask how you might give your life for others. THAT’S a prayer that’s always in God’s will. This is the secret to powerful prayer: praying what is in God’s will to grant.

“To keep His commandments is to abide in Him. It is to live in close, vital intimacy with the Savior. When we are thus in fellowship with Him, we make His will our own will. By the Holy Spirit, He fills us with the knowledge of His will. In such a condition, we would not ask for anything outside the will of God. When we ask according to His will, we receive from Him the things we ask for.”[18] 

* * * * *  

And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us. (1 John 3:18-24)

While the Jewish community tended to think of the presence of the  Spirit as rare; Christians began teaching that God gave his Spirit as an indwelling presence to all of his children (Acts 2.17–18; Romans 5:5; 8:14-16).[19] Whereas before, God’s people would have asked the Holy Spirit to show up, now they simply thanked him for being present within them.  

2 Corinthians 1:21-22 “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, 22 who also sealed us and gave [us] the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.”

Ephesians 1:13-14  “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation–having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of [God’s own] possession, to the praise of His glory.”

 John 14:15-18 "If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”

Romans 8:15-16  “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

 Acts 5:32 “And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him."[20] 

Meanwhile the Old Testament told us what the Spirit of God would do (and this brings us back to what John has been writing about for this entire chapter):

"And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” (Ezekiel 36:27)

Bede paraphrases with a phrase I really like: “Let God be a home to thee, and be thou a home of God.”[21]

 That’s a fine goal for 2021.

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[1] Translation suggested by Meyer’s NT Commentary

[2] “The construction and punctuation of what follows is doubtful; also the reading in the first and second clauses of 1 John 3:20. Certainty is not attainable, and to give all possible variations of reading and rendering would take up too much space. The conclusions adopted here are given as good and tenable, but not as demonstrably right.” (Cambridge Bible For Schools And Theology) 

[3] kardía – heart; "the affective center of our being" and the capacity of moral preference (volitional desire, choice); "desire-producer that makes us tick" i.e our "desire-decisions" that establish who we really are. (HELPS Word Studies)

[4] “Accuse us with unfavorable prejudice.” (Vincent’s Word Studies)

[5] “A more perfect judge of our hearts than we are.”  (Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges)

[6] See 1 Chronicles 28:9. “He knows all things; on the one hand the light and grace against which we have sinned, on the other the reality of our repentance and our love. It was to this infallible omniscience that S. Peter appealed, in humble distrust of his own feeling and judgment; ‘Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee’ (John 21:17). It is the reality and activity of our love (1 John 3:18-19) which gives us assurance under the accusations of conscience.” (Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges)  “God is greater than our heart. It is asked whether this means that he is more merciful or more rigorous. Neither the one nor the other. It means that, although our conscience is not infallible, God is. Our hearts may be deceived; he cannot be. He knoweth all things. An awful thought for the impenitent, a blessed and encouraging thought for the penitent, He knows our sins; but he also knows our temptations, our struggles, our sorrow, and our love. 1 John 3:20”  (Pulpit Commentary)

[7] “The old controversy is, whether God is called greater than our heart as forgiving or as judging; the former is the view of Thomas Angl., Luther, Bengel, Morus, Russmeyer, Spener, Noesselt, Steinhofer, Rickli, Baumgarten-Crusius, Sander, Besser, Düsterdieck, Erdmann, Myrberg, Ewald, Brückner, Braune, etc.; the latter is the view of Calvin, Beza, Socinus, Grotius, a Lapide, Castalio, Hornejus, Estius, Calovius, Semler, Lücke, Neander, Gerlach, de Wette, Ebrard, etc.”  (Meyer’s NT Commentary)

[8] If that’s the case “condemnation” is another way of saying “godly sorrow that leads to repentance.” (2 Corinthians 7:10) The only other time this word is used outside of this passage is by Paul in Galatians 2, where he “condemns” Peter in Antioch because of something Peter did wrong. This is a different word than we Paul uses in Romans when he talks about “no condemnation” for those in Christ (Romans 8:1). That has to do with the results of doing something wrong, not if someone did something wrong or not.

[9] Quoted in Cambridge Bible Commentary

[10] The danger of Option B. It is sooo easy to see ourselves more severely than we should.

[11] The danger of Option A. It is sooo easy to give ourselves a pass and see ourselves more highly than we ought (Romans 12:3). 

[12] Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges 

[13] Good insights from the Expositor’s Greek New Testament reflected in this section.

[14] Season 2 Episode 12: “Floyd, Chauvin, and the War On Empathy.”

[15] 2 Corinthians 5 - 19 It is central to our good news that God was in the Anointed making things right between Himself and the world. This means He does not hold their sins against them….21 He orchestrated this: the Anointed One, who had never experienced sin, became sin for us so that in Him we might embody the very righteousness of God.”

[16] Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges

[17] HT Believer’s Bible Commentary

[18] Believer’s Bible Commentary

[19] NRSV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible

[20] I understand this to mean that the act of obedience which inaugurates the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives is surrendering our lives to the lordship of Jesus and acknowledging the saving nature of his death on the cross (salvation); this verse and others seem to at least suggest that the expression of the Holy Spirit’s power (not presence!) and the abundance of fruit in our lives is in some sense associated with our commitment to obedience.

[21] The sign what we have arrived at this divine housing arrangement is a commitment to obedience (1 John 1:6, 1 John 2:4; 1 John 2:6; 1 John 2:29, 1 John 3:6-7; 1 John 3:9). And that obedience is made possible by the Holy Spirit, the ‘life’ of God dwelling in us, His children.

Patterns of Gracious Love (1 John 3: 11-18)

John just finished writing about practicing righteousness rather than sin. He moves right into this.  

11 The central truth—the one you have heard since the beginning of your faith—is that we must love one another. 12 Please do not act like Cain, who was of the evil one. He brutally murdered his own brother. Why would he do something so despicable? Because his life was devoted to evil and selfishness, and his brother chose to do what is right. 

This is like saying to us, “Please don’t be like Charles Manson.” To John, murdering a biological family member is on par with not loving a spiritual family member. He’s building on Jesus’ teaching that one who kills and one who hates have the same heart in the eyes of God.[1] So whatever follows is going to be a big deal. The stakes are high.

13 Brothers and sisters, don’t be shocked if the corrupt world despises you.[2] 14 We know that we have crossed over from death to real life because we are devoted to true love for our brothers and sisters. Anyone who does not love abides in death (“lives among corpses”). 

John compares those who don’t love to someone who lives in a cemetery. This would have been unimaginably impure to John’s Jewish audience (and probably creepy to his Gentile readers). Living without love is like living among the dead. So unloving people are 0-2 here: they are like murderers of family who hang out with their dead victims. 

15 Everyone who hates other members of God’s family is a murderer. Does a murderer possess the eternal, beautiful life that never ends? No. 16 We know what true love looks like because of Jesus. He gave His life for us, and He calls us to give our lives for our brothers and sisters. 

Rather than taking life (like Cain), love gives its life. Rather than living in places of death, love lives in and points toward the beautiful life that never ends. Once again, note the language of murder. John does not want us to take this lightly.

17 If a person owns the kinds of things we need to make it in the world but refuses to share with those in need,[3] is it even possible that God’s love lives in him? 18 My little children, don’t just talk about love as an idea or a theory. Make it your true way of life, and live in the pattern of gracious love.

One could have read up to the last paragraph and thought, “I have not killed anyone and don’t hang out with dead people. I think I’m good.” John basically says, “Are you, though?” And he gives one example that hits close to home: our pocketbook. Lest this seem abruptly out of place, John is just highlighting a topic that Jesus highlighted.[4] Jesus talked about money more than he talked about heaven and hell. 1/3 of the parables are about money. The only topic he talked more about was the Kingdom of Heaven.  

Straight up: this is going to be an uncomfortable sermon about money. It’s going to make you uncomfortable like it has me, but that’s John’s fault. I encourage you to table all the excuses you are going to think of and just let the core teaching settle in. Then come to Message+ and we can unpack the nuance that ought to follow. 

John says if we don’t want to live like murderers – his analogy not mine – we must love of neighbor with “the kinds of things we need to make it in the world.” This is another way of saying “livelihood,” the material objects that sustain life: food, clothing, and shelter.[5]  Giving sacrificially for the needy around us is ‘righteous practice’ for laying down our lives in honor of what Jesus did for us. In fact, what we do with our money might reveal just to what extent we actually would be willing to sacrifice for them – or for God. 

“Here is a test of this love; if we do not divide our bread with the hungry, we certainly would not lay down our life for him. Whatever love we may pretend to mankind, if we are not charitable and benevolent, we give the lie to our profession. If we have not bowels of compassion, we have not the love of God in us; if we shut up our bowels against the poor, we shut Christ out of our hearts, and ourselves out of heaven.”  (Adam Clarke)

I want to (briefly) walk you through how this has played out in church history just so you can see how seriously followers of Jesus have taken this, and then talk about what it looks like for us today.  

• The early church practiced this kind of love right away was through agape feasts or "love feasts."[6] The meal provided an opportunity for congregations to give practical expression to their love through action (Acts 6:1 - 6; 1 Corinthians 11).[7] It was usually hosted by someone wealthy who provided food for all. Sharing material goods replaced possessing the goods as a value for Christians.[8] Possessions weren’t wrong; they just understood that God expected generous stewardship of what He gave. We are not our own;[9] neither is our stuff.  

• The Shepherd of Hermas (100 to 150 AD), a popular book in the early church, states that the wealthy should “assist widows, visit orphans and the poor, ransom God’s servants, show hospitality, help oppressed debtors in their need… the Master made you rich for this purpose that you might perform these ministries for him.”[10]

• Ignatius of Antioch (died in 108 AD) characterized heretics not in a theological sense but a practical one: they “have no regard for love; no care for the widow, or the orphan, or the oppressed; of the bond, or of the free; of the hungry, or of the thirsty.”

• By around 1100 or so, Canon Law (church law) had developed guidelines for giving alms: “the quality of the beggar[11], the capacity of the donor. . . the reason for the demand, . . .[and] the quantity being requested.”[12] This allows some ‘outs’ that aren’t necessarily spelled out in the Bible, but I there is an argument that stewardship includes not only sacrificial generosity but wise generosity.

• The Catholic Church became a societal hub of charity by the Middle Ages. While they encouraged helping people personally, over time charity became largely channeled through the church, who gave that money to the needy.

• With that much money, there was bound to be problems (giving counted as an indulgence; money intended for the poor made the clerics wealthy rather than helping the poor). Martin Luther, as part of his Reformation, wanted to reform the corruption that crept into that process.[13] He began the movement of shifting the care of the poor to the government,[14] which he thought was better suited to distribute it.

 So, followers of Jesus were taking this seriously. There were some problems because greed crept in, because the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.[15] But it was a central focus in the life of the church. 

This brings us to the first attempt to create an Acts-style community in the history of what we now call the United States. This is my last (and longest) example. 

John Winthrop was with the Massachusetts Bay Company, part of a group that established a Puritan community in New England. Winthrop was the governor for nearly twenty years. His 1630 speech, "A Model of Christian Charity"[16] provides a record of how Puritans (who wanted to “purify” the Church of England) sought to form bonds of Christian community in line with what the Bible has to say about doing life together such that they would fulfill the biblical mandate to be a light in a dark world. 

"A Model of Christian Charity" became one of the most well-known Puritan works ever printed. Over time it became thought of as sort of a prophecy because of its famous line about MBC being “a city on a hill,”[17] which has, for 350 years, been applied to the potential for America.

However, Winthrop’s ‘city on a hill’ was not a national vision. He wasn’t thinking of making a nation. He was thinking of a church-based community united by Christ’s love expressed in taking care of each other financially. It’s what the entire speech is about; it’s why the charter was drawn up. I can’t stress the enough: the entire premise is that when Christians take care of each other financially, they will be the city on the hill that shines the light of God’s Kingdom into a dark world. 

Now, John Winthrop was just a dude, so don’t hear what follows as sacred Scripture. He built on Scripture, which is good but not the same. I just want us to hear how, in our very specific history in the United States, people we admire as godly founders thought to build communities that made Christ and his Kingdom compelling. 

THE PRINCIPLES

• First, Winthrop assumed there would be rich and poor (as the book of Acts assumes), and Winthrop thought that was fine.[18] His emphasis was not on equality of living but on communal[19] living, with the wealthiest and most prosperous members of society freely giving to the poorest members. 

• Second, Winthrop points out that the interests of God must come before any person's interests, and God's instructions are clear: "If thy brother be in want and thou canst help him, thou needst not make doubt of what thou shouldst do; if thou lovest God thou must help him… We must love brotherly without dissimulation, we must love one another with a pure heart fervently. We must bear one another's burdens. We must not look only on our own things, but also on the things of our brethren.” 

• Third, individual households are intrinsically connected in Christian community: "It is a true rule that particular estates cannot [be maintained] in the ruin of the public." In other words, individual households might prosper more than others, but the community cannot prosper if there are individual households that fall into ruin. Think of the body analogy in 1 Corinthians 12. 

• Fourth, he describes the structure of the church in the book of Acts, where "44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2) As with a body, each individual part serves the whole.  The members of the community are united toward a common goal—serving God—and therefore should work to support and protect God’s family.

THE PRACTICAL

• First, a person is responsible to make provision for one's family and the future, but the overriding principle is: "if thou lovest God thou must help [thy brother]."

• Second, charity consists of providing money and material goods to others who need them. Material things "are subject to the moth, the rust, the thief," and therefore should not be held in excess of what one needs for one's own self and family. 

• Third, charity can be exhibited by forgiving a debt that is owed. When a person can repay, it’s just business, not charity. When approached by people who can’t or probably won’t repay a loan, Christians should simply give the person whatever he can afford instead of lending it. 

• Fourth, charity can be shown by offering love to others without expecting anything in return. Just as a truly loving mother gives love without any expectation of receiving something in return, so must a Christian freely dispense love and mercy to other Christians in need. 

• Fifth, the amount of help given should be regulated only by one's own most basic needs. Under normal circumstances, people should give away whatever they do not reasonably need.[20] Clearly, giving up all of one's wealth is not required,[21] but Winthrop encourages Christians, especially in times of emergency, to help "beyond our ability rather than tempt God in putting [others in need of] help by miraculous or extraordinary means." Winthrop refers to this as a "duty of mercy." 

Winthrop believed that if the MBC could do this, “we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be a by-word through the world." 

In his own diary, Winthrop reported the frustrations and failures. "As the people increased, so sin abounded." By the late 1600s, the material success of MBC had killed the dream. Too many people wanted the city upon a hill to be just another mercantile colony. What was left was just the shell of Winthrop's model.[22] In other words, though we love his vision of the United States as “the city on a hill,” Winthrop himself was convinced it collapsed long before there were states to unite because people loved money more that God.

And yet, his speech and his vision have remained, and I think rightly so. There is something compelling about this kind of community. Why? Because it’s a community model taken from the Bible. Winthrop quoted our text today in his speech: 

“ If a person owns the kinds of things we need to make it in the world but refuses to share with those in need, is it even possible that God’s love lives in him? Don’t just talk about love as an idea or a theory. Make it your true way of life, and live in the pattern of gracious love.”

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So, what’s the big takeaway here from John’s text and the way in which the church has tried to live out this reality? What’s the practical implication for our lives? 

•  Those who love God love others.

• Self-sacrificially loving people do self-sacrificially loving things. 

• We practice dying for others by dying to self and living for others. 

• Let’s start with our money, which Jesus and the writers of Scripture seem to emphasize as kind of a barometer for how much we are actually ready to sacrifice for others. If we get this one right, the rest of the sacrifices will probably fall into place.   

I’m not saying you have to give more here at CLG. This is not a sermon to guilty you into raising your tithe (though we will never complain if you do J). If you want to give to the Benevolence Fund here, we will distribute it within our church family as we see needs arise. However, you don’t need us as a mediator. Odds are good you know someone who needs financial help. Or that you know someone who would be encouraged by a gift card or an anonymous donation. I encourage you to think locally first, then think more broadly. Practice showing love by being generous. 

“Make it your true way of life, and live in the pattern of gracious love.”

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[1] Matthew 5:21-22

[2] “This was a lesson to the Church, preparatory to martyrdom. Expect neither justice nor mercy from the men who are enemies of God.”  (Adam Clarke)

[3] Let’s get this out of the way. Are there boundaries to this command? Yes. But don’t worry: there are plenty of opportunities that remain J “IF A MAN WILL NOT WORK, HE SHALL NOT EAT” (3:10)….The Greek text makes clear that Paul is not speaking about the inability to work but rather the refusal to work (the text literally reads: “If someone does not want to work...”). While the church must continue to care for those who genuinely need help (3:13, “never tire of doing what is right”), it must not tolerate those who are unwilling to work. The Didache, an early Christian manual of instruction, makes the same point in its teaching on how to deal with visitors “who come in the name of the Lord”: “If the [visitor] who comes… wishes to settle among you and is a craftsman, let him work for his living. But if he is not a craftsman, decide according to your own judgment how he shall live among you as a Christian, yet without being idle. But if he does not wish to cooperate in this way [i.e., to work], then he is trading on Christ. Beware of such people.” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary Of The New Testament)

[4] “ Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?” (James 2:15) In some Jewish traditions, withholding goods from someone in need made you complicit in starving them.  Also, this from Jesus: 19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth…20 but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven...21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, (fixed on good treasure –the things of God) your whole body will be full of the light of God’s will. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy (greedy or envious for things they see), your whole body will be full of the darkness of greed and self-interest.[4] If then the ‘light’ within you is darkness, how great is that darkness![4]  (Matthew 6:19-23

[5] The Bible has plenty to say on how we should treat the poor among us:

 “Because the poor are plundered and the needy groan, I will now arise,” says the LORD. “I will protect them from those who malign them.” (Psalm 12:5) “I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.” (Psalm 140:12) “Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.” (Proverbs 14:31) “If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs. ... Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.” (Deuteronomy 15:7–8, 10)

[6] 1 Corinthians 11 links it with a celebration of the Lord's Supper, but it eventually became something done separately.  Jude warns about protecting it: “ These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead.”  (Jude 12)

[7] New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology

[8] https://openbookreligion.org/read/early-christians-speak/section/22728118-08ad-470e-8705-276290e2f001

[9] 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

[10]https://place.asburyseminary.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1074&context=firstfruitspapers

[11] Probably based on biblical passages like this: 

·      Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!  It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard?  When will you get up from your sleep?  A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man. (Proverbs 6:6-11)

·      For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you.  We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” 

·      “We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat. And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.”  (2 Thessalonians 3:7-13)

[12] https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1040&context=dhp

[13] See the addendum at the end.

[14] Some see this as the beginning of what has turned into the ‘welfare state.’

[15] 1 Timothy 6:10

[16] Read the whole thing here, in all of its confusing1600s English language glory:https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Model_of_Christian_Charity

[17] JFK used that line in 1961, and Reagan quoted the "city upon a hill" passage as part of his Presidential inaugural speech in 1981 and is on record saying it at least 30 times as President.

[18] A Model of Christian Charity" begins with the following proclamation regarding inequality in human society: “God Almighty in His most holy and wise providence, hath so disposed of the condition of mankind, as in all times some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity; others mean and in submission.”

[19] Not the same as communism, in which the government forces economic equality. In communalism (see the book of Acts) individuals voluntarily take care of each other from their abundance. 

[20] As for saving wealth to be prepared for disaster or tragedy. Winthrop argues that a man who gives will be taken care of by God, and that all those he helps will stand as witnesses of his generosity and mercy when his day of judgment arrives. In addition, Winthrop notes that physical objects of wealth "are subject to the moth, the rust, the thief," and that they can cause a person's heart to lose sight of the true treasure of serving God.

[21] "There is a time when a Christian must sell all and give to the poor, as they did in the Apostles' times." But, he is clear, not all the time.

[22] All my information on Winthrop is from https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/educational-magazines/model-christian-charity

Practicing Righteousness: The Fruits (Part 2) - 1 John 3:4-11; Galatians 2

The Bible is clear: righteousness comes from God on the basis of faith (Philippians 3:9; Romans 3:22; Romans 9:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21). God declares us to be righteous because we have become part of His family, and he is righteous. We are part of the Righteous Family. The fancy biblical term is that he ‘imputes’ it to us – he gives his righteousness to us.[1] It means we are in ‘right standing’ (thanks to Jesus) and that we are committed to doing the ‘right thing’ (imitating Jesus).

Two weeks ago, we reached the part in 1 John where John wrote about “practicing righteousness” vs. practicing sin. Paul talked about this also: 

“All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness…” (2 Timothy 3:16)

 Last week I introduced the idea that we ought to be practicing[2] what the Bible calls the ‘fruits of the Spirit.’ [3] They are gifts from God, but we are responsible for the exercise, the practice, thepoeio. It’s simply being purposeful in doing the things that someone like us is made and empowered to do.  So let’s keep going with what it looks like to display and practice the fruits of the Spirit. 

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Kindness is the ability to serve others practically, often in ways which are costly or make us vulnerable. Our hearts are broken by the things that break the heart of God, and we do something about it. It’s active empathy[4]. 

·      Ephesians 4:32  “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

·      Luke 6:35  “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.”

I recently read a book on marriage[5], and the concluding advice from the authors was: be kind. Everything falls into place if you are kind to each other. 

The counterfeit[6] of kindness is manipulation. You do kind things - to be noticed and to get something in return. Practically, people say, “Wow, you are generous with your time (or money).”  But…you did it so they would say that. If nobody noticed, or people don’t honor you lik you want them too, you would probably stop doing it. Or maybe people do respond by giving you something you want in return, so now kindness is a means of getting what you want. You might even be trying to manipulate God with your impressive displays of kindness.  That’s manipulation masquerading as kindness.[7]

The opposite of kindness is rudeness, which is just being a jerk. We bully people with our words, or our emotions, or even physically (anywhere from intruding on personal space to abuse). 

·      How do we respond when the waiter messes up our order? 

·      When the person checking out at Meijer takes foorrreeevvveerrrr. 

·      When a family member steps on our emotional toes? 

·      When someone gets on our case for wearing/not wearing a mask? 

·      When someone ignores us or overlooks us?

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

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 Goodness has to do with personal integrity. We are the same everywhere, and our actions and heart and speech are integrated. If friends from our different social circles met and they started talking about us, they would all know they were talking about the same person. 

For a Christian, goodness (personal integrity) cannot be separated from our standard for goodness: Jesus. It’s not enough to have our hearts and hands aligned – I mean, you can be consistent and be a terrible person. Marilyn Manson told us for years what kind of guy he was, and it turns out he was that kind of guy. Fair enough. I suppose he had integrity – he was integrated – but that’s not enough to really count as a mark in our favor Maybe a more thorough definition for us as Christians is righteous integrity.

 “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.” Proverbs 10:9 

 “Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways.” Proverbs 28:6 

 “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.” Proverbs 11:3 

 The fruit of the Spirit is that we are consistent, integrated person in the path of righteousness.

The counterfeit of goodness is puffed up goodness – pride. You might not be a hypocrite – that’s the opposite; wait for it -  but you’re a jerk. You think that you are all that and then some, amazing just as you are, so there is no reason to be tempered by things like… the fruits of the Spirit J You think people can’t handle you because they can’t handle being around someone who walks so boldly and consistently in righteousness, when really they just don’t want to be around someone who walks so obnoxiously in pride. Something about a resounding brass or clanging cymbal...[8] “At least I’m not a hypocrite! You know exactly who I am!”  That’s not always a mark in your favor. 

The opposite of goodness is hypocrisy.[9] Personal dis-integrity. You are not integrated. You are different people on the outside and inside; you say one thing and do another; you are on person at home and another person at church and another person at work; you claim to believe one thing but live a different way; you say, “I’m this kind of person” but… you’re not. 

“This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” (Matthew 15:7)

“If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar.” (1 John 4:20)

“If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.” (James 1:26)

““Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (Matthew 7:15)

“They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.” (Titus 1:6)

Some of us are hypocrites and know it, but for many of us, this can be surprisingly subtle. Like Matt Chandler likes to say, nobody lies to us as much as we do. We can become really good at genuinely believing that we are fantastic ambassadors for Jesus when we are not.  

“I love my neighbor.” Do you, though? How have you been broken and spilled out lately, loving at cost, “esteeming them better than yourself,”[10] honoring all people[11], serving in love[12]rather than asking to be served? Do we have contempt or judgment for someone whose appears weak to us on what the author of Romans call’s “disputable matters.”[13] How’s that going with your spouse? Your kids or parents? Your friends? People here at church? At work?

“The Bible is the foundation of all truth.” Cool. When you think of cultural issues that have grabbed your attention and on which you have strong opinions, did you start with the Bible? Did you spend time studying passages that address this issue, and seeing if the church has a historical stance, and looking to see what Christian pastors and theologians and historians are saying? Did you do that before reaching an opinion based on a different foundation and then which you then used to filter the Bible, or did the Bible filter those other things for you? 

“My faith is the most important thing to me.” Quick question: when you schedule gets full, what gives – is it the practices of your faith (prayer; Bible reading; gathering for corporate worship, teaching and fellowship; staying in connection with Christians brothers and sisters; getting your kids involved in the rhythm of prioritizing things of the Kingdom)? If someone did a faith audit of our lives for 6 months, what would they conclude has the power to prioritize how we live?

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good[14], pleasing and perfect will… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:2;21

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 Faithfulness is courageous/righteous loyalty. It’s being reliable, dependable and honest even if it’s difficult. Faithful people offer a grounding or stabilizing presence to the people around them. Faithful friends don’t lie, they don’t leave, and they don’t cover up sin. 

When the writer of Hebrews unpacks what we call the Hall of Faith,[15] he uses a phrase to summarize what kind of people endure in the midst of incredible hardship. He says they are people ‘of whom the world is not worthy.’[16] The mettle within the faithful person is not of this world. Their endurance is not characterized by perfection; it is characterized by courageous, righteous loyalty. They do not forsake the truth on which they stand and of which they proclaim. They never stop living it. The mark of faith-fullness is faithfulness. 

The counterfeit of faithfulness is enabling loyalty. You are loyal but not courageously truthful, and chaos follows from that. I mean, Hitler had faithful followers, and that’s not a sign of character on their part. Loyalty is not enough. It must be courageous and stabilizing. How many youtube videos go viral because loyal friends don’t stop their stupid friends from doing stupid things?  How many people failed to get their friends help because “Dude, I won’t tell anybody because I am your friend”? Loyalty, on its own, is capable of covering up a multitude of sins. Faithfulness doesn’t waver in the midst of the uncovering, because it’s courageous in its loyalty.  

That, by the way, is why faithful Christians can talk honestly about the sins in the history of the church, and why American Christians who love their country should be the first to talk about the sins in our history as a nation, and why we can talk honestly about the failures or struggles in the past and present of this church. God forbid we merely be enablingly loyal. God help us be courageously loyal. 

The opposite of faithfulness is unreliability. This is a form of consumerism. You may or may not show up when others need you, and that has to do with your words, your presence, and your material help. Faithfulness focuses on the one to whom we are being faithful; the opposite focuses totally on the self. Maybe the opposite of faithfulness is selfishness: I am invested in you only as long as it benefits me.        

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Gentleness is the humble, healing use of power. It’s what helps us play games with our kids when we don’t like the game, we don’t like the pace at which they play it, and we are annoyed that we can’t seem to win at Wii tennis. It’s why we rein in our words when we know we could bully or hurt people with our words. It’s why we talk about things like servant leadership, modeled after Jesus, who as part of the Godhead humbled himself and became like one of us, serving even to the point of death.[17] The gentle make the powerless feel powerful. It’s why those of us with the power of Christ in us must be oh, so careful that any type of authority or power brings humility in us, not pride, and that we heal the world with the gospel and the gifts of Jesus Christ.

The counterfeit of gentleness is patronization. It’s very similar to manipulation. We help, but it's a kindness that reminds the recipient and others that they are lucky they have a powerful person like us around. We feel good about ourselves, but leave others diminished and ashamed.  The counterfeit makes the powerful feel more powerful, and the powerless are reminded of how much they lack. As with all the other counterfeits, it has once again become about us. 

The opposite of gentleness is abrasive use of power. It’s bullying or  even abuse. It’s a callousness to how people are impacted by us.  Let’s talk about words as just one example. I had a humbling moment when I reviewed a popular author’s book years ago. I didn’t care for it, and I wrote a pretty sarcastic review on my blog. Shockingly, he responded in the comments seciont. And one of his comments was along the lines of, “I didn’t expect this from a pastor.” Ouch. I was a minor blogger. A couple hundred people (maybe) read my review. But I still had power, and I abused it. Like, the Bible was clear about the power of words, and I had just ignored it. [18]

I’ve talked to too many people this past year who work in restaurants or stores who have talked about how mean customers have been over COVID stuff. Look, I get it. COVID has made a looooot of things super frustrating. But we are Christians. We are followers of Jesus. We claim to have God’s Spirit indwelling us, and as a result we have the fruit of gentleness – a fruit we have opportunity to practice right now with our words and presence in Michigan in every business we enter.  

“Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.” (Philippians 4:5)

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 Self-control is purposeful living. Self-control has to do with controlling the self for the sake of others. We understand what God wants us to prioritize in life, and we practice that prioritization. We practice self-reflection, repent where needed, and then ‘turn around’[19] and actively practice doing the right thing. 

·      We don’t just stop gossiping, we actively build up others with our words.

·      We don’t just stop consuming entertainment 5 hours a day, we purposefully do something productive with our time.

·      We don’t just stop building a 250 foot poop wall between us an our neighbor (#truestory[20]), we tear and down and put in a path. 

·      We don’t just stop wishing terrible things would happen to our enemies, we start praying for them.

The counterfeit of self-control is willpower. It’s controlling the self for the sake of the self.  It’s about purposeful restraint rather than purposeful momentum. Restraint of something bad is a good thing, please don’t misunderstand. It’s just only half the battle. Jesus told an interesting story:

“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.” (Matthew 12:43-45)

Willpower cleans a room in our lives. That’s not a bad thing, but that room will fill back up. Self-control cleans the room in order to fill it with something better.  

The opposite is self-indulgence.[21]  If self-control is purposeful living for the sake of others, self-indulgence is purposeless extravagance at the expense of others. It’s gluttony applied to more than food. 

“It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to seek one’s own glory. Like a city that is broken down and without walls is a man who has no self-control over his spirit.” (Proverbs 25:27-28)

 We seek our own glory and pleasure. We are consumers of things and people. We are the monsters characterized by zombies and vampires: we live to feed, and everything and everyone around us is food, and their worth to us depends on how much they fill us. 

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What do the fruits have in common? Agape love that sacrifices self for the sake of others.

What binds the counterfeits and opposites together? Selfishness that sacrifices others for the sake of self. 

“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians 1:9-10)

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[1] Romans 4:22

[2] Jesus had already given instruction on how to practice righteousness well: "Beware of practicing (poieo) your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 6:1)[2]

[3] Seek and pursue the fruit of peace  (Psalm 34:14) as much as it depends on you (Romans 12:18).

Consider it the fruit of joy when you face trials (James 1:2), or when we share in Christ’s suffering (1 Peter 4:13)

Choose the fruit of love (Luke 6:27 “But to you who are willing to listen…”)

Be patient (James 5:7-8) like a farmer waiting for crops, imitating the saints before us (Hebrews 6:12)

Make every effort to add to your faith goodness and self-control (2 Peter 1:5-7)  

Clothe yourself with gentleness and kindness (Colossians 3:12)

[4] “Let a righteous man strike me--that is a kindness; let him rebuke me--that is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it, for my prayer will still be against the deeds of evildoers.” (Psalm 141:5)  Interesting: kindness is not passivity or enablement. One can be kind and confrontational; in fact, sometimes kindness demands confrontation.

[5] The Great Sex Rescue, by Joanna Sawatsky, Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach, and Sheila Wray Gregoire.

[6] “The real trouble is that 'kindness' is a quality fatally easy to attribute to ourselves on quite inadequate grounds. Everyone feels benevolent if nothing happens to be annoying him at the moment. Thus a man easily comes to console himself for all his other vices by a conviction that 'his heart's in the right place' and 'he wouldn't hurt a fly,' though in fact he has never made the slightest sacrifice for a fellow creature. We think we are kind when we are only happy.”  (C.S. Lewis)

[7] Key check point: You might be a manipulator if a) you build a relationship through your kindness, then demand that relationship unfold on your terms, or b) you are kind as long as you have ownership or control of the relationship. 

[8] 1 Corinthians 13

[9] https://www.openbible.info/topics/hypocrisy

[10] Philippians 2:3

[11] 1 Peter 2:17

[12] Galatians 5:13

[13] Romans 14

[14] agathós – inherently (intrinsically) good; as to the believer, 18 (agathós) describes what originates from God and is empowered by Him in their life, through faith. (HELPS Word Studies)

[15] Hebrews 11

[16] Hebrews 11:38

[17] Philippians 2:8

[18] Epic fail on my part. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14 ) 

[19] That what repentance means in the Bible – turn around, change direction, move toward the right goal instead of the wrong one. 

[20] https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/man-builds-poop-wall-in-washtenaw-county-after-dispute-with-neighbor  (“It's not a poop wall. It's a compost fence," said the dude who built it.)

[21] I got the foundation for the opposites from Sophia McDonald at https://unlockingthebible.org/2017/02/the-fruit-of-the-spirit-or-the-flesh/

Practice The Fruits (Not The Counterfeit Or the Opposite)

Children, don’t let anyone deceive you. The one practicing (poeio) righteousness is just imitating Jesus, the Righteous One.  The one who practices (poeio) sin belongs to the diabolical one, who has been all about sin from the beginning. That is why the Son of God came into our world: to destroy the plague of destruction inflicted on the world by the diabolical one.

No one who has been born into God’s family practices sin as a lifestyle because the God’s children are the spiritually generated offspring of God Himself. Therefore, a child of God has the power to reject a life of persistent sin.  So it is not hard to figure out who are the children of God and who are the children of the diabolical one: those who do not practice righteousness and those who don’t practice agape love for one another do not belong to God.

‘Practice’[1] in this passage is poeio: to make or make ready, to prepare, to acquire, to produce, to do a thing well. 

As I noted last week, practicing is not in opposition to the reality that God’s gifts are, well, gifts.Something can be given to us freely, and we still have to practice, like the recorder my parents got me one Christmas and then quickly regretted. 

I think that’s true also of the gifts from God the Bible calls the ‘fruits of the Spirit.’ Here are a few places the Bible talks about the idea that we invest sweat equity into the gifts of the fruit:

·      Seek and pursue the fruit of peace  (Psalm 34:14) as much as it depends on you (Romans 12:18).

·      Consider it the fruit of joy when you face trials (James 1:2), or when we share in Christ’s suffering (1 Peter 4:13)

·      Choose the fruit of love (Luke 6:27 “But to you who are willing to listen…”)

·      Be patient (James 5:7-8) like a farmer waiting for crops, imitating the saints before us (Hebrews 6:12)

·      Make every effort to add to your faith goodness and self-control (2 Peter 1:5-7)  

·      Clothe yourself with gentleness and kindness (Colossians 3:12)

So these things are all gifts from God; they are all part of the fruit our lives bear when the Holy Spirit is the sap in these people trees. In that sense, they are not something we demand or we earn or we are even responsible for having. But…we are responsible for poeio. For practicing, cultivating, looking for opportunities, do the things that someone like us is made and empowered to do. 

This morning I want us to begin looking at how to do this. Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus:

“At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:8)

I’d like to offer something to help us discern whether or not we are a walking in the light in a way that pleases the Lord. Think of it as a Self-Assessment Fruit Test. We are going to get better at what we practice. Are we practicing righteous fruit like we think we are? 

Love (agape). I like Ken Boa’s definition: “a love not of emotions or feelings but of the will and of choice. This type of love can be defined as the steady intention of the will to another’s highest good. It is an ongoing benevolence—willing (-volence) what’s good or best (bene-) for another.”[2]

Agape love is is serving people for their intrinsic worth, not for how they make us feel or what they give us in return. It is a love that seeks first to give rather than be given. It’s what one popular song calls “reckless”[3] love. I don’t know that I like that word to describe the kind of love that originates in God,[4] but I think it’s meant to reflect what God’s love looks like to us. Extravagant. 

·      It’s a bottle of tears or a ridiculously expensive jar of perfume poured on feet as an act of love[5]

·      it’s leaving the 99 to get the 1[6]

·      it’s an innocent man paying the penalty on behalf of the world’s guilt.[7]

·       It’s the physical body of Jesus[8] and then the spiritual body of Christ (the church) being spiritually broken and spilled out for even the mockers and haters. 

 Poeio. Practice that. 

The counterfeit of agape love is selfish love or lust, where you care for others because of how they make you feel about yourself or because it benefits you. Instead of willing the best for the other even at cost to yourself, it’s willing the best for yourself at the expense of the other. It’s an easy love, really, a love that is all about you and what makes your life easier, and that’s not love. It’s actually a “love” that has no problem harming others for the sake of “love.” 

I call this Twilight love. “I love you, but in order for us to be together I am going to need to kill you and turn you into one of the undead.” Yeah, not love.  

The opposite is hate or indifference. That’s why we can murder people with our hands and in our hearts.[9] It’s the same spirit behind them both. Someone’s life is not worth caring about at best, and at worst is worth hating. “I hope terrible things happen to them” is not that far apart from  “I don’t care if terrible things happen to them.”  You’re on the same page.   

·      “I don’t want to have to care about you” is practice. 

·      “I don’t care about you,” means your practice is working. 

·      “I hope nobody cares about you.” It just keeps going. 

·      “I wish someone would harm you.”

·      “I wonder if there is some way I can harm you?”

The fruit of the Spirit is love. 

“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.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (I John 4:9-11)

  Poeio. Practice it. Watch the love from Jesus in you to others do a miracle in this broken world.

 Joy is a delight focused on God for the sheer beauty and worth of who He is. It is independent of our circumstances.  

·      Joy does not come from personal comfort or emotional highs. “Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” (2 Corinthians 6:10)

·      Joy is not us-centered; it’s God centered. It only comes from a focus on Christ. “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8-9) 

·      Joy looks to the future in spite of the present. “The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing.” (Proverbs 10:28) For the joy set before him Jesus endured the cross.[10]

·      Joy happens when we set our eyes on things above, and not on things of this world. Habakkuk 3:17-19, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The joy of the Lord is the thing that gives us strength.[11]

Because joy is dependent not on you but on the source of your joy, it is always available.

 The counterfeit of joy is happiness. You feel good as long as you have money, health, affirmation, success, and a schedule that’s just like you want it. Happiness is fine, but it’s fleeting. Happiness is a terrible task master.  It will drive you and the people around you into the ground. You cannot sustain happiness. Every vacation picture on FB shows you happy people (maybe). Do you know how many of them came home miserable? Happiness ain’t joy. 

A song we sang as kids made this confusing: “I’ve got joy down in my heart…and I am so happy.”  Sometimes that’s true. But you can be happy and not joyful, and joyful and not happy. In fact, happiness is not a biblical word. Seriously. If your translation has the word “happy” in it, it’s a bad translation. It should read “blessed,”[12] which comes from a root word meaning to walk in a straight path, which is an apt depiction of righteousness.

 “Some glad morning when this life is over…just a few more weary days and then…to that home on God’s celestial shore.” Whoever wrote that song[13] was not happy, but they were loaded with joy. 

The opposite of happiness is probably depression; the opposite of joy is despair. Despair happens when there is no hope. There seems to be nothing to set our eyes upon. Not only do we find our situation terrible, but we don’t see a future where it is not, and we certainly don’t believe anyone can save us. 

 So how do we practice joy?

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 

10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of  faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. 

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4)

 Peace is an internal groundedness that comes from a right relationship with a God whose sovereignty we trust. This, peace, as a fruit of the Spirit, seems to be something different than the peace that Jesus made possible between us and God through his death and resurrection like we read about in Romans 5. This has more to do with the John 14 kind of peace, which addresses Jesus’ gift of peace to address times of trouble and fear in our lives.[14] 

Peace is not controlling the storm; it’s offering our situation to Christ in the midst of it. We often seek peace through power or control. If I can just control the storm; if I can get my way; if everybody else could just understand how smart my ideas are; if you do that and this goes there, I can finally relax because I have properly ordered the world. Then I will have peace. 

Now, I’m not talking to ya’ll who are wired to be organized. I don’t understand what that’s like, but it’s a gift to be able to bring order from chaos. I’m also not talking to those with OCD-type tendencies. That’s just a thing. Carry on. I’m talking about the idolatry of order and control, the kind of thing that reflects a heart that does not trust the sovereignty and Lordship of Christ. 

I’m talking about how we respond to the storms in our lives. Do we have to walk on the water – do we have to have the power to control cultural, relational and spiritual elements around us - to find peace, or is it enough to know that Jesus is reaching his hand toward us? The peace that comes from controlling the world around us is like happiness: it’s fleeting. Peter didn’t walk on the water for long.[15] The world is never ours to control. If it was, we wouldn’t need Jesus. And if we think it must be, the inability to control it will eat away at us like a cancer. 

Here is one way the peace of God passes understanding: We remember that God is sovereign, and that He wins in the end, and that focus on the source of our hope-filled joy sustains us through the times when we don’t feel peace in the midst of chaos that we cannot control.

The counterfeit of peace is indifference or apathy. People think you are calm; really, you have just stopped caring.  You have become numb and it feels like a win. “Dude, nothing rattles me.” Yeah, because you’ve checked out. You don’t have the heart of Jesus for the world because you barely have a heartbeat. That’s not a mark in your favor.   

·      “Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.” (Proverbs 18:9) 

·      “Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever. On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them.” (Obadiah 1:10-11)

It’s a small step from apathy to complicity. At some point, doing nothing makes us partners with those who do something. Sometimes, “I just don’t get worked up about things” is a terrible sign. If you lived in the antebellum South during the time of slavery, or during Jim Crow, or read about the shooting of Ahmad Arbury, or saw this past week the story of this Snapchat group in town that had set up a slave market on line for black students in TCAPS, and someone asked, “How are you so chill about these issues of racial hatred?” and you said, “Guys, I know about these things, but it’s just not something I care about,” that would not be a mark in your favor. 

In fact, that’s how evil flourishes: when good people do nothing. And good people tend not to do something about evil either because they don’t know about it, they don’t realize it’s evil, or they just don’t care enough to get involved. It doesn’t mean we all respond in the same way, of course. But to shrug it off so that our peace is not disturbed – that’s not biblical peace. 

The opposites are worry, greed, or dissention. 

·      Worry links with lack of control (Take no thought for tomorrow…”[16]) 

·      Greed is what takes root in us when we must have what we do not have. That’s not just boats and lovers; that’s power and control. “Like ravenous dogs, they are never satisfied.They are shepherds with no discernment; they all turn to their own way, each one seeking his own gain.” (Isaiah 56:11)

·      Dissention is what we sow that robs those around us of peace. You’ve heard the phrase, “Hurt people hurt people?” Well, unsettled people unsettle people. If one my chickens panics, they all panic. It’s that idea. If even just one of them stays chill, the others will calm down. 

So how do we practice peace?

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 

 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:4-9)

 Patience is persistently enduring without blowing up, giving up or lashing out. You can face insults, for example, without lashing out. You can watch your kids screw up without blowing up. You can navigate hard seasons in relationships without giving up. This is sometimes translated as “longsuffering.” Yep, suffering for a loooong time. 

This isn’t encouraging enablement of passivity in harmful situations (see previous point about passivity). I mean, Jesus was patient and confrontational, patient and in-your-face as the situation required; patient and still comfortable with telling his disciples there are some places you will have to leave when they attack you.[17] You find your stability in knowing that God is sovereign in both circumstances and timing. 

I think this has to do with what we would call not ‘flying off the handle’, not jumping to conclusions, not giving in to immediate emotional outbursts, not rushing God’s timing in our lives and the lives of others. And if we must shake the dust off our feet and move on from a situation in life, it’s not a poorly thought out, emotional, knee-jerk reaction because someone pushed our buttons. It is a thoughtful, prayerful decision, likely after we have received counsel, following Matthew 18’s recommendation. 

 The counterfeit of patience is cynicism. You don’t blow up, lash out, or quit, so you look like a patient person, but really you expected the worst anyway and you are kind of watching things fall apart because it proves you right. You're the one in heated arguments that is cool, calm and collected not because you have peace, but because you think all of them are fools, and you figure time will prove that you were indeed the smartest one in the room because you knew this was all a fruitless joke.  

The opposite is impatience/resentment. 

  Impatience:

·      “I do not have time for this. How many times have I told you to stop pulling the cat’s tale! Twice? You’re 1 ½ now. Grow up!“ 

·      “I have to show you this again? How do you not know how to tie your shoe/change your oil/pack your own lunch?” 

·      “You said God was working with you about your impatience and it’s been what, a week already, and yet here you still are with your impatient self!” 

·      “This COVID stuff is dragging on forever! AAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!” 

·      “How have we not started fixing the fire damage yet!!!” 

   If our timetable is shorter than God’s, he’s not the one who needs to realign his outlook.

Resentment: “How dare you…

·      make me wait

·      disrupt my vegging in front of the TV

·      take so long to become just who I want you to be

·      not show up on my terms yet again

·      still not agree with me!  

So how do we practice patience?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 2: 22-25)

Up next week…the rest of the fruitJ

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[1] Philippians 4:9 has a word for ‘practice’ similar to poeio that more directly means doing something over and over. John uses a word that referred to individual acts, but in his context he makes clear these should be done over and over.

[2] https://kenboa.org/living-out-your-faith/five-loves-greatest-agape/

[3] Cory Asbury, “Reckless Love”

[4] Precise doxology, ya’ll J

[5] Luke 7

[6] Matthew 18; Luke 15

[7] All the gospel narratives of the crucifixion of Jesus

[8] 1 Corinthians 11:24

[9] 1 John 3:15; 1 John 4:20; Matthew 5:21-22

[10] Hebrews 12:2

[11] Nehemiah 8:10

[12] At least two translations use the word “happy” in the Beatitudes. Nope. It’s “blessed.”

[13] Turns out it was written in 1929 by Albert E. Brumley J

[14] https://biblehub.com/commentaries/john/14-27.htm

[15] Matthew 14

[16] Matthew 6:34

[17] Matthew 10:14

Practicing Righteousness (1 John 3:4-10)

We tend to use the word “practice” two different ways. 

• First, we might refer to how we do things. “It is our practice to….” That’s why attorneys practice law or doctors practice medicine. 

• Second, we do something over and over to get better at it (think learning a sport or a musical skill). 

John is going to use the word poieo (poy-eh-o) numerous times in today’s passage, a word often translated as “practice.” I think that the two meanings for practice put together capture what he is trying to say: poieo is how we do things, or it’s something we do over and over and get better at it. Keep that in mind as we read. 

 Everyone who practices sin (lives a life of habitual sin)[1] is living in moral anarchy. That’s what sin is.[2]  Jesus came to take our sins, but there is not the slightest bit of sin in Him. The ones who live in an intimate relationship with Him do not persist in sin, but anyone who persists in sin has not seen and does not know the real Jesus.[3] 

“Taking on our sin” has an interesting image associated with it. It’s the idea that someone picks something up and takes it with her, like what the lame man did with his bed (Matthew 9:6), or like a transferred yoke from one cow to another in farm work (Matthew 11:29). Remember how Jesus asked people to take his yoke upon them?[4] He was asking them to “take” his mission, to join him in where he was going. More on this later, so keep that image in mind. 

Children, don’t let anyone deceive you. The one practicing righteousness (persistently doing the right thing and getting better at it) is just imitating Jesus, the Righteous One.  The one who practices sin (persistently doing the wrong thing and getting better at it) belongs to the diabolical one, who has been all about sin from the beginning. That is why the Son of God came into our world: to destroy the plague of destruction inflicted on the world by the diabolical one. 

No one who has been born into God’s family practices sin as a lifestyle because the God’s children are the spiritually generated offspring[5] of God Himself. Therefore, a child of God has the power to reject a life of persistent sin.  So it is not hard to figure out who are the children of God and who are the children of the diabolical one: those who do not practice righteousness (what God approves) and those who don’t practice agape love for one another do not belong to God.

 Practicing righteousness vs. practicing sin.  

 Poieo.  

 Getting better at righteousness vs. getting better at sin by doing them.

Last weekend I was talking with a young man from Russia (one of Braden’s friends.) I was reminiscing about how last summer he cooked us borscht. I thought I was doing pretty good with my English pronunciation, but when he started rolling those r’s to show me how it was really pronounced, I was in trouble. He was good at it because he grew up doing it. He got better and better because he’s done it millions of times. I, on the other hand, have not. I have practiced ‘hard’ r’s, and I’m good at those. 

 Poieo.

I was watching a new series on Neflix. In episode one, a boy hides from bullies. A nun tells him, “If you want to be the kind of boy who runs from bullies, you might last until you are 20.” It was harsh world. She was probably right. It morphs into a scene 10 years later where he is fighting the equivalent of MMA, taking on all comes, with a reputation of a guy who was not afraid of anything. 

Poeio. Practice.

This is not in opposition to the reality that God gives us gifts. It’s in conjunction with the reality that God gives us gifts. Something can be given to us freely, and we still have to practice.

My dad gave me a basketball, a bike, a BB gun. I still had to practice to get good at them. I had good singing voice when I was younger. I had the ability to find the rhythm with a bass. I could speak in front of others without fear and trembling. I could write good – sorry, I could write well J I had the genetics to be relatively successful at a few sports. I did not earn any of these things. They were in some sense given to me. I had to practice if I wanted them to grow. 

It’s Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour/10 year rule. You do something for 10,000 hours, you are probably really, really good at it. The more poieo, the more accomplished you become at. It begins to feel natural because you get used to it and the exercise of that gift becomes more and more natural. 

John does not claim we earn our righteousness. Biblical writers are clear that our being declared righteous is a free gift from God. But he still says we must practice it. And our practice is guided by our yokes.

Eventually, you get used to the yoke you wear. You get better at following the direction of the yoke, fulfilling the mission of the yoked.

The yoke is something farmers would hook up to two oxen for plowing a (hopefully) straight line. There were good combinations and bad.  Ideally, they moved in a straight line toward a common goal. We yoke with something or someone for everything. We have all picked something up and taken it with us wittingly or unwittingly; we have all willingly joined the formation or course of our life with something or someone else.  

•  I was an Auburn fan when I was a kid for no reason other than somebody got me an Auburn jacket. Then, when I moved to Ohio, I (by the grace of God) became a Buckeye fan.

•  I like food you find in the south because I grew up in the south.  Boiled crawdads and fried catfish and grits, man. I even like dried okra.

•  I speak English - for a while with a good Southern accent. 

 Those are all things I unwittingly took on. It was just a natural thing based on the social ecosystem in which I lived. There are other things – yokes, if you will - I chose wittingly: 

•  I became a Christian – I took on that yoke.

• When I got married, Sheila and I yoked together.

• When we started coming to church at CLG, we yoked with the people here. 

We constantly ‘put on’ things, and when we do, poieo will follow. We will inevitably practice. From the moment we get out of bed, every day, we are practicing righteousness or sin based on who or what shares our yoke. 

Paul addressed this reality with the church in Corinth. When Paul first went to Corinth, he had apparently warned them about associating with people who were sexually immoral. Unfortunately, they did not understand what he was trying to say.  In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul clarified his command: “I didn’t mean people who aren’t following Christ. You would have to leave the world.” In other words, of course you are going to have friends and relate to people who don’t agree with you or live like you.

In his second letter, he gives them a little more clarity on how not to be “of” Corinth even while they live “in” Corinth:

“Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers. What common interest can there be between goodness and evil? How can light and darkness share life together? How can there be harmony between Christ and the devil? What business can a believer have with an unbeliever? What common ground can idols hold with the temple of God? For we, remember, are ourselves living temples of the living God.” (2 Corinthians 6:14 - 7:1)

You may have heard this passage used about marriage, but it’s not about marriage specifically (it applies to all relationships). Everybody yokes. Be careful with whom you yoke.

There are some things that will either guide us on a straight path in the Kingdom of God or try to pull us around into a different Kingdom altogether. Every yoke works with us or against us as we move toward a goal. If we want to practice righteousness well, we must yoke with the righteous. Be careful who shares your spiritual yoke.

During the Roman persecutions, Christians were commanded to cast a little incense on the altar of a pagan god. They refused to do it, and thousands were killed.  Just a little incense. Why was this such a big deal?This was a question of allegiance and partnership. It seemed like one small thing, but it was practice. It was the first step in poeio.

This is the idea behind the imagery of the infamous “mark” in the book of Revelation (as I understand it). What marks you? What are you known for? Where is your allegiance? With whose identity does your practice yoke you and thus mark you?[6]

·    Who gets your conscious, deliberate sacrifice?  Not of incense, but of time, money, energy, thoughts, priorities? Who yokes you into supporting them in thought or in practice? And how does that mark you? If something is going to give in your schedule during the day, what gives? Poeio. If something is going to give in your week, what is it? Poeio.

·    For whom or what will you go out of your way, rearrange your schedule, bump other things?  Who or what yokes you into prioritizing them, and their agenda, and their schedule? Poeio.You are practicing something that will make you a particular kind of someone. 

·    With whom are you willing to unite to avoid hardship or discomfort or get what you want? How much are you willing to compromise for pleasure and comfort? Will you walk into or away from tension with others? Poeio. 

·    Who or what forms your view of world events, and thus orders your thoughts and speech and actions? Who yokes you into thinking like they do?  You can find out what leading Christian thinkers say about it first, or you can start with leading politicians or talking heads on TV. Every one is poeio. You are practicing. 

John has already told us the importance of yoking with Jesus, with the Word, with God’s people, through the power of the Holy Spirit. For the rest of the book, John is going to tell us how yoking in this way will mark as one of God’s righteous children. The mark is the practice of showing the righteous love of the Father to others. [7]  Those who practice righteousness and those who practice agape love for one another belong to God (v.10). We bear the mark of Christ when we live the love of Christ.

·      1 John 3:11  “For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.”

·      1 John 3:14  “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other.”

·      1 John 3:16: “We ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”

·      1 John 3:23: “And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.” 

·      1 John 4:7  “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.”

·      1 John 4:11  “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

·      1 John 4:21  “Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”

·      1 John 5:2  “This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.”

That which leads us to practice a greater righteousness and display the fruits of the Spirit (starting with love) is of God; that which leads us to practice sin and show contempt, disdain, or hatred to others is of the devil. 

You want to know with whom you are yoked? Are the fruits of the Spirit growing or fading, beginning with love?[8]

When we survey the cultural landscape and see all the things that stand in opposition to the Kingdom of God, are we marked in our internal and external response by the fruits of the Spirit that proclaim us to be a child of God and a practitioner of righteousness, and does it call out of us a desire to agape love those both near and far from Christ? 

When we watched or read the coverage of George Floyd’s death, and then the trial of one of the officers this past week, and then news stories with an intersection of violence and race, what increases in us? Was it a practice in righteousness? Did our thoughts, emotions, or words bear the mark of Jesus and show that we have partnered with him in spirit and in truth? Did it call out of us a desire for all those involved to experience the agape love of Christ, beginning with the embodiment of that love as displayed in His people?

As COVID rolls on with all of its devastation and frustration, are we increasing in peace, joy, hope and love, or are we increasing in anger, bitterness, judgment and fear? Is our voice and presence stabilizing and soothing a tumultuous world, or inflaming it?  Is the love of Christ for others growing in us for all of the following:

·      maskers and anti-maskers

·      COVID vaxxers and COVID anti-vaxxers

·      lockdown fans and lockdown opponents

·      people who have lost loved one; people who have lost jobs

·      exhausted health care workers in hospitals

·      people longing for unmasked faces – or masked faces

·      people wrestling with mental health issues more than ever

·      politicians whose decisions will always put them in somebody’s sights

·      that person walking through this church door that we think is living in fear because they wear a mask or don’t get a vaccine, or living in arrogance because they don’t wear a mask or brag about their vaccine

Do you feel it after that list? Something is rising within you? Are the fruits of the spirit bubbling up more than ever?  Did you feel agape love?  Did any of that take your joy?  Are you at peace even if something on that list triggered you?  Are you planning how you can show patience, kindness and gentleness to “that person?”  Were you considering how your presence around others on this list can be characterized by faithfulness and goodness?  Is your self-control being tested? What’s winning?

Is the love of Christ moving in us so that we are seeing all of these people as Christ sees them, thinking of them as Christ thinks of them, speaking to and of them as Jesus would speak if they were here? 

“How can we avoid sin? By keeping the commandments of Christ. And what is that commandment? It is that we should love. Love, and sin is undone.” (Augustine) 

Keeping the commandment of love. Poeio. 

Practice love, as one who has passed from death into life (1 John 3:14). 

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[1] A. “The present tense of the Greek suggests behavior that is characteristic or usual. In this way John acknowledges, but does not excuse, the possibility of occasional sin. Another possibility is that John has in mind the specific sin of apostasy, mentioned in 2:19 (cf. also 5:16–18). If so, John means that true believers will not totally abandon their faith.”   B. “John is not teaching sinless perfection (see 1:8, 10; 2:2). He speaks here of habitual practice of known sinful acts. The true believer’s actions will conform to the character of his true father, either God or Satan. The person born of God will reflect this in his behavior.” (Both quotes from commentary on Bible Gateway.)    C) “Christ in himself is most pure, and he came to take away our sins, by sanctifying us with the Holy Spirit, therefore whoever is truly a partaker of Christ, does not give himself to sin, and on the contrary, he that gives himself to sin does not know Christ. (Geneva Study Bible) 

[2] That moral anarchy is disregard of known law, or acting as if one has no law when if fact the law is known. (Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges)

[3] “Hath not seen him - It is no unusual thing with this apostle, both in his gospel and in his epistles, to put occasionally the past for the present, and the present for the past tense. It is very likely that here he puts, after the manner of the Hebrew, the preterite for the present: He who sins against God doth not see him, neither doth he know him - the eye of his faith is darkened, so that he cannot see him as he formerly did; and he has no longer the experimental knowledge of God as his Father and portion.” (Adam Clarke)

[4] Matthew 11:29

[5] “3:9 God’s seed. A daring metaphor employing the word “seed” (Greek sperma) to depict the Spirit’s work in believers. Unlike the children of the devil (in this case the secessionists), the children of God do not go on sinning because the Spirit dwells within them. There is an apparent contradiction in 1 John concerning sin in the believer’s life: those who claim not to have sinned are liars (1:10); those born of God do not and cannot sin (3:6, 9). A possible resolution is that, in context, 3:4 defines the latter sin as “lawlessness” (Greek anomia). In the NT this word refers not to breaking the law but to rebelling against God (like the devil’s rebellion). If this is the case, John is saying that those who claim to know God and yet sin in this way certainly do not know God and are, in fact, in league with the devil. This is the sin that those born of God do not and cannot commit. It is possible for believers to sin in other ways, as 1:8—2:1indicates.” (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

[6] Question to the Bible Project guys: Is there a relationship between the engraving of Yahweh’s holiness on the golden plate of the priest’s turban in Exodus 39:30 also described in Exodus 23:28 as a mark on Aaron’s forehead, and the mark of God’s name on his bondservants’ foreheads in Revelation 7, Revelation 22? ? And is there also a counter relationship to the mark of the beast?

Their answer: “The descriptions of priests’ attire in the Hebrew Bible specify that priests are to wear the phrase “belonging to Yahweh” on their foreheads. And all Israelites are instructed to bind the words of the Shema, a prayer they learned to recite morning and night, on their hands and foreheads (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). In Ezekiel 9, there’s another instance of Israelites having their foreheads marked. In this case, the mark is a sign of people who are grieved by the idolatry of Babylon and therefore spared from Yahweh’s judgment. John had all of these images in mind when he described the forehead markings of God’s servants in Revelation, which are indeed an anti-mark to the mark of the beast.  (https://bibleproject.com/podcast/mark-priest-or-mark-beast/).

[7] All disobedience is contrary to love; therefore sin is the transgression of the law, whether the act refers immediately to God or to our neighbor. (Adam Clarke)

[8] “No man is of God who is not ready on all emergencies to do any act of kindness for the comfort, relief, and support of any human being. For, as God made of one blood an the nations of men to dwell upon the face of the whole earth, so all are of one family; and consequently all are brethren, and should love as brethren.” (Adam Clarke)

Seeing, Being, Doing, Becoming (1 John 2:28 – 3:3)

So now, my little children, abide and endure in Him, so that when He is revealed when he returns, we will have trusting confidence and not have to shrink back and hang our heads in shame before Him. If you know that He is just and faithful, then you also perceive[1] that everyone who lives faithfully and acts justly in conformity to his will[2] has been born into a new life through Him as one of his children.[3] 

 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the people of the world do not comprehend us is that they do not know him. 

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see[4] him (spiritually perceive him) as he is.  All who have this hope in him purify themselves from moral defilement[5], just as he is pure[6].

Seeing – Being – Doing – Becoming

There is something about this pattern embedded in what we know about life starting with when we see something. 

• “I’ve been watching you dad, ain’t that cool. I’m your buckaroo; I want to be like you.” “Watching You,” Rodney Atkins

• “You, I wanna be like you, I want to walk like you, talk like you, too. You’ll see it’s true, and ape like me can learn to be human too.” – “I Wanna Be Like You,” The Jungle Book

• See someone working (fireman, when I was a kid) and we want to be like them (brave, strong, capable) and do what they do (put out fires and save lives).

 We SEE them; we want to BE like them so we can DO what they do and BECOME a particular kind of person. This is the pattern John unfolds in this chapter. 

• We SEE Jesus (the previous verses from last week’s message show us how Scripture allows us to do this with the guidance of the Holy Spirit)

• We want to BE with him by being born into new life in God’s family

• We want to DO things in conformity with his will

• We will increasingly BECOME like him 

 See. Be with. Do. Become like. That’s the order, the progression. So let’s look at these one at a time.

SEEING 

“Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away.[7] But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 

 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (from that veil).[8] And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”  (2 Corinthians 3:12-18)

In other words, “the more clearly we see him, the more we become like him.”[9] The Israelites in Paul’s day saw God through the Old Covenant in the Old Testament (“when Moses was read”), but they did not have the Holy Spirit’s illumination for what they were reading. The people of New Covenant do, and as we read “with unveiled faces” we are transformed into his image as we contemplate his glory. Jesus himself established this pattern after his resurrection when he was on the road to Emmaus with two guys who didn’t recognize him:  

“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself… “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:27-32)

Of course, Jesus was still there in the flesh, and so while he started with Scripture, he made sure they recognized him in the flesh later.  I mean, when Jesus was here, he was always the finale. But once he ascended, we see the pattern he used continued in Acts when Philip encounters the Ethiopian eunuch: 

“Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.” (Acts 8:35)

In this case, Jesus was not there in the flesh for the Big Reveal; instead, the Holy Spirit illuminates the Scripture. 

God has ways of making his presence known when there are no Bibles around.[10] But when you have access to a Bible, study the Jesus in Scripture. The Holy Spirit will do the work of turning knowledge of Jesus into an encounter with Jesus, but we need to see the Jesus we are encountering. 

I recommend the Bible (obviously), The Jesus I Never Knew (Phillip Yancey), The Chosen (TV series), the Bible Project videos, and Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (Kenneth Bailey), The Case For Christ (Lee Strobel) and Advent: The Once and Future Coming Of Jesus Christ (Fleming Rutledge) as starting points.

BEING

Tertullian noted that under the reign of Tiberius, children were sacrificed to Saturn; across the empire, children were killed “by drowning, or by exposure to cold and hunger and dogs.” [11]How different is God the Father, who has “lavished” love on his children (3:1) 

•  “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4)

•  “transformed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

•  “children of God” (John 1:12–13; 1 John 3:1-2).

•  brothers and sisters of our Savior (Romans 8:29; Hebrews 2:11-12) 

This is about identity. This is about our new state of being once we are in the family of God. He has lavished us with the privilege of being in his family. We are now a child of God and a spiritual brother or sister of Jesus.  If we have become something new, it’s because we first saw and responded to the One who can make us new. “I see who you are; now I want to be near you. If I am in the family, I want to bear the family resemblance.”

We can’t be another Jesus – there is only one God/Man – but we can be like him through a process called sanctification.  We’ve talked before about the image of baptism as similar to when a cucumber becomes a pickle. A cucumber is immersed in brine and ferments; over time, a cucumber becomes a pickled cucumber, but we just call it a pickle because that’s its primary identity now.  

When we commit our lives to Jesus, we ferment “in Christ” – we read the Word, the Holy Spirit works in us, we are in a family of God’s people, the power of God our Father and Christ our brother does a supernatural work in us.  In this state of being – in this new identity - we find rest, confidence, stability, purpose, dignity, value, hope, love. The first answer to the question, “Who am I?” is, “I am a child of God, invited into His family by great grace and at great cost because God wants me as His child.”

DOING

We do what we are. A cucumber does what a cucumber does (ever seen Veggie Tales?); pickles do what pickles do. We do what we are. 

·      If you fish a lot, it’s because you are a person who fishes a lot.

·      If you watch sports a lot, it’s because you are a person who watches sports a lot. 

·      If you find that you argue a lot…

·      If you give to others generously and quietly…

·      If you say things that tear people down…or build them up…

·      If you pray for your enemies or curse them…

We do what we are. Luke wrote that there is a treasury in our hearts, and we bring forth good or evil things from it.[12]

But now we are children of God. The lavish love of the Father moves God’s children to purify themselves, “just as he is pure” (3:3) because we want to do everything we can to honor the family. If we will do what we are, then if our hearts have been made newly righteous at salvation by God, we will do the things that people who love righteousness and holiness do. This is what it means that by our fruit we will be known.[13]

The Old Covenant Jewish worshipers went through purity rituals before approaching God or entering His temple.[14] Notice how the practice of purification continues in the New Covenant, but in a different way and for a different reason. 

“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.”( 1 Peter 1:22)

Now, we don’t purify ourselves in order to be worthy to approach the house of God, because we are already in the family of God. We purify ourselves because we are in the house of God, with his family, and we don’t want to track dirt into his house and get his family grimy.[15]

There is a huge difference between creating our spiritual identity by what we do vs. displayingour spiritual identity by what we do.  We can create a cultural identity by what we do – we can be known for something – but in the Kingdom of God, our identity is given to us, not created by us, and what we do displays that identity.  

•  I don’t try to love my enemies because I want to be a child of God; I do it because I am a child of God. That is what children of God are intended to do. 

• I’m not honest on my taxes, or kind to my wife and kids, or forgiving to those who wrong me, or gentle with my speech, or generous with my money, or careful with my sexual purity because I want to be a child of God; I do those things because I am a child of God, and that is what children of God are intended to do if they want to bear their Father’s image as He intended.

 A word of caution here. We want those outside the family of God to live as if they are in the family of God. Often this is because we see the wages of sin with clarity and our hearts break, or we have so experienced the goodness of the path of righteousness that we want others to experience it. Fair enough.

We want to live in a culture that shares our family values. They don’t. Why? They aren’t in the same family. What is the solution? They must see Jesus. Right now, that’s through His Word and through His people. 

If there is a cucumber side of you that feels like you were born to help bring order to that cultural chaos through politics or activism of some sort, cool.  It’s not like we can’t seek to offset the effects of sin while introducing people to Jesus. But don’t forget that your primary identity is that you have been pickled into the Kingdom (man, I love that I get to use that phrase in a sermon.) 

Right now, if I would ask the people who know you, “Talk to me about that person,” would their first, gut-level response have something to do with the new, pickled you – that is, the child of God soaked in the brine of the Word and the Spirit and the blood of Jesus, who is now characterized by Christ in you – or the cucumber you? 

I can think of a number of things that I increasingly worry characterize how people might identity me. I have been involved in a lot of things I am passionate about as a teacher, a blogger, and pastor who loves engaging the church and the culture in the pursuit of truth. 

But if my legacy among those who know me well starts with anything other than the equivalent of, “That dude loved Jesus and it permeated everything he was and everything he did,” what am I doing? 

You are welcome to say anything else at my funeral eulogy. You can say how much I bugged you, or how I talked about Crossfit too much, or how unorganized I was, or how I picked too many arguments, or how I imperfectly tried to start conversation on politics and ethics and cultural issues. You can say I talked too much instead of listening. You can say that I let you down or failed you, because if I haven’t already I will, and you can be honest in my eulogy. You can be nice, and talk about whatever cucumberish things you admired about me, and I mean, that would be cool too. 

But none of that matters if my legacy as a child of God is not defined by being known primarily as a child of God who saw the Father, and wanted to be in His family, and then lived as a child of God that just kept looking more like his Father.   

Everything else fades away. Only what’s done with Christ and for Christ will last. 

BECOMING

What are we becoming? There is coming a day when Christ will “transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philemon 3:21) and we will be as fully as possible like him, because we will fully and clearly see him as he is. That is who we are intended to become.  There are a lot of ways to talk about heaven. Here is one way. In heaven,

• We will see God fully and clearly. 

• We will be completely in His unfiltered presence. 

• We will say and do (doxology and worship[16]) whatever we say and do in the New Heaven and New Earth in perfect accordance with what God made us to do.

 The hard, messy work of sanctification will be over because our transformation into the image of Jesus will be complete. Finally J

___________________________________________________________________________________

[1] There is a change of verb from ‘if ye know’ (ἐὰν εἰδῆτε) to ‘ye know that’ (γινώσκετε ὅτι). The former means ‘to have intuitive knowledge’ or simply ‘to be aware of the fact’ (1 John 2:11; 1 John 2:20-21): the latter means ‘to come to know, learn by experience, recognise, perceive’ (1 John 2:3-5; 1 John 2:13-14; 1 John 2:18). ‘If ye are aware that God is righteous, ye cannot fail to perceive that &c.’ Comp. ‘What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt understand (get to know) hereafter’ (John 13:7); ‘Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou perceivest that I love Thee’ (John 21:17): and the converse change: ‘If ye had learned to know Me, ye would know My Father also’ (John 14:7; comp. John 8:55).  Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges

[2] díkaios (an adjective, derived from dikē, "right, judicial approval") – properly, "approved by God" (J. Thayer); righteous; "just in the eyes of God" (Souter).  See 1343 ("dikaiosynē). ["Righteous" relates to conformity to God's standard (justice). For more on the root-idea see the cognate noun, 1343 /dikaiosýnē ("righteousness").] 1342 /díkaios ("righteous, just") describes what is in conformity to God's own being (His will, standard of rightness); hence "upright."  HELPS Word Studies

[3] gennáō – properly, beget (procreate a descendant), produce offspring; (passive) be born, "begotten." HELPS Word Studies

[4] horáō – properly, see, often with metaphorical meaning: "to see with the mind" (i.e. spiritually see), i.e. perceive (with inward spiritual perception). HELPS Word Studies

[5] 1 John 3:3. The duty which our destiny imposes. ἐπʼ αὐτῷ, “resting on Him,” i.e., on God as Father. Cf. Luke 5:5 : ἐπὶ τῷῥήματί σου, “relying on Thy word”. ἐκεῖνος, Christ; see note on 1 John 2:6. ἁγνός also proves that the reference is to Christ. As distinguished from ἅγιος, which implies absolute and essential purity, it denotes purity maintained with effort and fearfulness amid defilements and allurements, especially carnal.

[6] hagnós (an adjective, which may be cognate with 40 /hágios, "holy," so TDNT, 1, 122) – properly, pure (to the core); virginal (chaste, unadultered); pure inside and out; holy because uncontaminated (undefiled from sin), i.e. without spoilation even within (even down to the center of one's being); not mixed with guilt or anything condemnable. HELPS Word-studies

[7] “Some think that Moses’ veil was to protect the Israelites from being harmed or frightened by the brightness. More likely, the veil was to keep them from seeing that the glory was fading away because of the temporary and inadequate character of the old covenant (Ex. 34:29–35). By contrast, Paul needs no veil, for the glory of the new covenant ministry does not fade away.” (ESV Reformation Study Bible)  The Old Covenant offered transient glory. (King James Study Bible Notes)

[8] “Wherever this Gospel is received, there the Spirit of the Lord is given; and wherever that Spirit lives and works, there is liberty, not only from Jewish bondage, but from the slavery of sin - from its power, its guilt, and its pollution.”  (Adam Clarke)  Charles Stanley adds we are free from struggling to “become righteous through self-effort.”

[9] Expositor's Greek Testament.  The Orthodox Study Bible adds more detail:

The work of the Holy Spirit brings liberty (v. 17), freeing us to behold God and have open access to Him. Created as the image of God, we see His uncreated image, the Son, the glory of the Lord (v. 18; see 4:4–6)… through the Son's deified humanity (see 1Co 13:12; Jam 1:23–25… in the power of the Spirit. As we behold Him, we become what we were created to be. 

[10] “When Muslims Dream Of Jesus.” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/muslims-dream-jesus/

[11] Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary of the New Testament

[12] Luke 6:45

[13] Matthew 7:15-20

[14] John 11:55 and Acts 24:17-18

[15] “Only he who habitually does righteousness is a true son of the God who is righteous; just as only he who habitually walks in the light has true fellowship with the God who is light (1 John 1:6-7).” Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges 

[16] Hat tip to last week’s message :)

The Christ and the anti-Christs (1 John 2:18-27)

I’m going to write today’s passage as if it were a letter –which, uh, it was J This letter draws from the passage, as well as the commentary that helps to unveil things that were written 2,000 years ago. The underlined portions are the heart of the text itself. Once we finish the letter, I will focus on an aspect that seems central to the entire discussion.

Dear friends, I don’t “know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority”[1] but I do know this: we are between the first and the second comings of Christ, so we are in “the last hour”[2]or “the last days”, the last era in God’s spiritual timeline before He wraps up history. And one of the things we know will happen in the last days is the rise of the anti-Christ.[3]

This is the one Paul calls the ‘man of lawlessness,’[4] the person who is the ultimate example of a leader who claims to be God in the flesh and/or leads people away from the church. This will be the greatest enemy to rise against God’s kingdom. Meanwhile, you are going to see a lot of anti-christspaving the way through the course of history (I'm talking to you, Antiochus Epiphanes[5]), some worse than others for sure, but all standing in opposition to Jesus.[6]

But the category of anti-christ is broader than you might think. The reality is that many anti-Christs are already here – and they have been rising from within the church rather than attacking us from the surrounding culture. You know who they are because, like all false teachers (as Paul made clear in his letters to Timothy[7]), they refuse to have their false teaching and corrupt lifestyles reined in. Fortunately, they have left. 

Their desertion tells you they were never truly part of our family. If they were truly our brothers and sisters, they would have  remained until the end with us,[8] accepting accountability and correction as their teaching and lives were held up to the Scripture. They would have endured with us as family members united around the true faith and the teaching of the apostles in spite of our other secondary differences. But when they left, they made it ever so obvious that they were not part of us.

I know it’s hard to go through this, so consider this analogy that I guy people call the Venerable Bede will eventually make in about 700 years. In the body of Christ we all wrestle with a form of spiritual sickness; that is, we all struggle with sin-sickness in these corruptible bodies. We keep opening the door to the sin that crouches outside.[9] However, we have sought and are surrendered to the healing of the Great Physician. 

God has begun a good and transformative work in us so that we increasingly bear the likeness of  Jesus, though that process will not be fully completed until the age to come.[10] But… there are also those who are malignant tumors. They too are sick, but this sickness is not surrendered to the Great Physician, and it is toxic to the spiritual and relational health of the church.  When tumors are removed, the body is spared. The departure of such people is actually of great benefit to the church.[11]

You know how priests and prophets in the OT were anointed to receive the gifts needed for them to perform their offices? You have been given an anointing too. It’s the ongoing reality of the indwelling presence and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, who works in every member of the Church to help us all defend, keep and live in the truth.[12]  You know the truth, because the Holy Spirit guides you into the truth of what is in the Scriptures: the Old Testament, as well as what the Holy Spirit inspired Jesus’ disciples and the apostles to record of his life and teaching.[13]

I am not writing to you in order to correct you because you do not know the truth; I am encouraging you because you do know it. Don’t let that knowledge be compromised. A lot of confusion is generated by false teaching[14] even among those of you who have the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit enables you to discern rightly by leading you to the truth of the Holy Scriptures that have been given to you. There, you will be able to discern good teachers from evil ones.

You are people of the one who said, “I am the Truth.”[15]  No lie belongs to the truth. All anti-Christs are liars[16] and deceivers[17] who deny that Jesus was God in the flesh, fully God and fully man.[18]The liars who left you are saying things like this:

 “Jesus might have had an anointing placed on him, but he wasn’t the Anointed One by nature. He’s just human. We could have been Jesus if we had gotten the same anointing![19] Or (they say) maybe think of his body as just like a shell, hosting the REAL Jesus inside, like a deity ghost in a meat machine. Anyway, I’ve got lot’s of cool alternative ideas about who Jesus could have been. Follow me on Twitter @gnosticandgnarly.”

This is the anti-Christ you should be worrying about: the one showing up in church circles denying or distorting the nature of both the Father and the Son. Yes, that’s right, anyone who denies the nature of the Son does not know the Father.  Because God is revealed in the incarnational Jesus, it is not possible to know God personally and truly without fully acknowledging  Jesus for who he is. Then, the one affirming the Son as He really is enjoys an intimate relationship with the Father as well.

Let the good news, the gospel, the story you have heard from the beginning of your journey following Jesus, live in and take hold of you. If that happens and you focus on the good news, then you will always remain in a relationship with the Son and the Father. This is the beginning of experience what He promised us: eternal life. New life begins now, in this age and hour, and continues into the age to come.

Back to my warning: there are still some attempting to deceive you. But you have an anointing of the Holy Spirit that illuminates the truth you have been given. You received this promised Comforter from Jesus,[20] and His spirit remains on you. If you follow the Holy Spirit into the teaching you have been given, you have no need for another teacher claiming to be an apostle or disciple when they are not, or claiming to have some new, previously unknown revelation from God. 

The anointing you have been given points you toward and instructs you in all the essentials you have been given: the truth of the ‘faith once delivered,’[21] uncontaminated by darkness and lies. If you follow and learn this teaching and let it transform your life, you will remain connected to Him.”[22]

* * * * *

One thing that stands out to me in this passage is the spiritually stabilizing effect of seeing and knowing Jesus as he is truly is. It’s the heart of our faith. When the Holy Spirit guides us into truth about Jesus, it is truth about Jesus that is revealed in Scripture. At the end of the day, as we sort out competing voices, or we stumble through a confusing world, the focal point that sets our eyes and steadies our hearts is Jesus.

The less we know Jesus, the more our lives and our words will detract, distort, or even actively undermine the message of the Gospel. The more we know Jesus, the more our words and our lives will function as a prophetic witness to the world.

Last week, I stumbled my way through a phrase connecting orthodoxy with doxology. I got some of the language wrong, so let me correct that this week. What I should have said was more like this: 

True theology (study and knowledge of God) is necessary for accurate doxology (expressions of praise to God) and righteous worship (lifestyle of loving obedience to God). [23]

God is not concerned with just one of those things. They are all deeply intertwined. 

Theology without doxology and worship is dead. It’s just true stuff in our heads that hasn’t moved into our hearts. True theology is necessary, but not sufficient for godliness. We can be the smartest person in the room when it comes to theology and have the least impact in the world if all we have is knowledge that puffs us up.[24] Even demons believe and tremble.[25] If what we know of Jesus does not lead to the fruit of the Spirit in our words and our lives, what’s the point? 

True theology (the study of God) is necessary for right doxology (expressions of praise to God) and righteous worship (lifestyle of loving obedience), but it is not automatically sufficient.

True theology must be accompanied by surrender to the Lordship of Christ (salvation) and the embrace of the work of the Holy Spirit (sanctification) in the community of the church (fellowship) so that we display the fruits of righteousness as we are transformed into the image of Christ. 

Doxology (expression of praise to God) without good theology can very quickly drift toward idolatry. Why do I say this? Because we can sing an expression of praise or repeat a teaching not informed by the truth of who God is. When we do, it’s worship – but not the kind of worship we think it is. And it will be formative in our thoughts about God. Let me give an example from a popular CCM song.

There is a song called “The Devil Is A Liar” (true) which contains this lyric: “Don't be dancing with the devil, don't believe a single word, 'Cause when we get to Heaven, we gon' sing and watch him burn.” No, friends, we will not do that. We will not take pleasure in heaven from the punishment of Satan. Even God says, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.”[26] This distorts who God is. This doxology trains you to believe that God will reward the faithful by entertaining them for eternity with the punishment of others. That is not an accurate representation of God. That is the beginning of an idol that shares a name (God) bot not a nature.

 This example highlight my concern about drifting toward idolatry that isn’t just true about music. It’s true about any verbal expression that claims to make true statements about God but distorts and re-creates in some way.

 I know idolatry is a strong word, but surely a false God includes a false image of God. It’s why we offer criticism of the theology of groups like Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses. As well intentioned as they may be in their attempt to worship the God of the Bible, it’s not the same. They are sincere believers with a false image of God. And if you are not worshiping God in truth, it’s not enough. It’s why at times we will talk about false teaching that is becoming popular in the American church. 

 The Psalmist says we become like our idols.[27] It is possible to fill ourselves with teaching from within the church and slowly begin to look less and less like the Jesus of the Bible and more and more  like the new Jesus we are constructing. 

And now, worship. If worship is a lifestyle of response to the God we serve, a lifestyle in which we walk in the footsteps of Jesus and are transformed into His image by His Spirit and His Word, then the more we know and speak of Jesus rightly, the more we truly worship “in spirit and in truth.” And this is why right theology (the study of God) and true doxology (expressions of praise to God) are sooooo important. If I am called to walk where Jesus walked, and have a heart and mind attuned with the heart and mind of Jesus, I have to know the actual path of Jesus, and what he thought and felt. 

Back to the song to show how what we think (and say) about God will impact our worship (lifestyle of response to God):

If part of our reward for eternity is to gloat over the punishment of Satan, why not take pleasure now in the punishment of those who do evil now? Finding pleasure not in justice but in punishment would just be us snacking right now on a reward that will one day be a feast. But that must mean God even now also enjoys watching the wicked be punished. And we forget about that pesky verse about “no pleasure in the death of the wicked” because we are starting to find pleasure in that exact same thing. I mean, when others experience it for their sin.  

You might think I am exaggerating. I might be J I am trying to make a point. Theology, doxology, and worship are deeply intertwined. Why does all this matter?

The goal as a Christian is relationship and connection with the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit grounded in God’s Word and experienced in the company of God’s people. 

* * * * *

This brings us full circle back to Jesus as the foundation. The goal is to know Jesus so that we know the Father. Everything centers around knowing, loving, and worshipping Jesus.  

• Does Christianity just feel functional and cold to you? Get to know Jesus as the Bible reveals him.

• Do your prayers feel empty? Get to know the Jesus in the Bible.

• Does your heart feel hard? Get to know Jesus.

• Do you struggle with giving in to temptation? Get to know Jesus.

• Have you given up on life? Get to know Jesus.

• Are you thoughts vile? Get to know Jesus.

• Do you harbor bitterness and unforgiveness? Get to know Jesus.

• Do you think our church family needs more mature believers? Get to know Jesus.

• Do you want to know the heart and mind of Jesus concerning all kinds of cultural controversies? Get to know Jesus.

•  Do you want the worship of people far from Jesus to look more like the worship of Jesus? INTRODUCE THEM TO JESUS.

 This is the start to everything, spiritually. This is the cornerstone[28] on which our faith and our lives are built. 

QUESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION

Are you confident that you are building true theology? Why or why not?

What does it look like to be conscious of the doxology of our lives - songs, prayers, etc?

Can you think of examples how the worship of your life (a lifestyle of obedience to God) has grown or changed as you have gotten to know Jesus (and understand His Word) better?

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[1] Acts 1:7

[2] Acts 2:17; 1 Corinthians 10:11

[3] A term only John uses in the Bible: 1 John 2:18, 1 John 2:22; 1 John 4:3; 2 John 1:7. 

[4] “Let no one in any way deceive or entrap you, for that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first [that is, the great rebellion, the abandonment of the faith by professed Christians], and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction [the Antichrist, the one who is destined to be destroyed].” (2 Thessalonians 2:3)

[5] He butchered a pig on the altar of the temple. 

[6] 2 Thessalonians 2:3–10; Revelation 13:11–18

[7] Here’s an example: https://www.clgonline.org/sermonblog/2021/1/24/itching-ears-2-timothy-41-5

[8] “The early church obviously had severe debates, with significant differences of opinion being expressed. Yet as far as we know, no one thought that "separation from the congregation" was an option for anyone professing faith in Jesus. Departure, like Judas's going out from the community of disciples, pointed to betrayal, denial of faith, and separation from God's grace. That is why John acknowledges that those false teachers, whom he now designates as antichrists, had been regular members of the congregation. "They went out from us," he says, but hastens to add, "they did not really belong to us." Like Judas, they had been nominal members of the community and had never truly shared its fellowship.” Expositors Bible Commentary

[9] Genesis 4:7

[10] Philippians 1:6

[11] Entire paragraph is a paraphrase from commentary on this passage by the Venerable Bede. 

[12] John 14:26; 16:13–15.  I. H. Marshall defines the anointing as “the Word taught to converts before their baptism and apprehended by them through the work of the Spirit in their hearts (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:5f).” The Epistles Of John

[13] “This unction, then, predisposes John’s readers to recognize and respond to God’s truth, but not to arrive at it independently of the biblical and apostolic Word. Had the readers been capable of knowing all things apart from written and spoken instruction, 1 John would not need to have been written.” – KJV Study Bible Notes

[14] Mattheew 24:24

[15] John 14:6

[16] 1 John 2:4, 22

[17] 2 John 7

[18] 1 John 4:1–3; 2 John 7

[19] Mormonism, for example, claims that “all the Father’s children (including humans) possess the same potential to become gods (like the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost) since they are of the same species.” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-you-should-know-about-mormonism/  “Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Jesus was created by Jehovah as the archangel Michael before the physical world existed, and is a lesser, though mighty, god... when Jesus was born on earth, he was a mere human and not God in human flesh.”  https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/the-11-beliefs-you-should-know-about-jehovahs-witnesses-when-they-knock-at-the-door/

[20] John 14:16

[21] Jude 1:3

[22] “Ye need not that any man teach you - The Gnostics, who pretended to the highest illumination, could bring no proof that they were divinely taught, nor had they any thing in their teaching worthy the acceptance of the meanest Christian; therefore they had no need of that, nor of any other teaching but that which the same anointing teacheth, the same Spirit from whom they had already received the light of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. Whatever that taught, they needed; and whatever those taught whose teaching was according to this Spirit, they needed. St. John does not say that those who had once received the teaching of the Divine Spirit had no farther need of the ministry of the Gospel; no, but he says they had no need of such teaching as their false teachers proposed to them; nor of any other teaching that was different from that anointing, i.e. the teaching of the Spirit of God. No man, howsoever holy, wise, or pure, can ever be in such a state as to have no need of the Gospel ministry: they who think so give the highest proof that they have never yet learned of Christ or his Spirit.” – Adam Clarke

[23] This idea comes from black evangelical hip hop artist Shia Linne, “Doxology Intro,” in Lyrical Theology Part 2: Doxology

[24] 1 Corinthians 8:1

[25] James 2:19

[26] Ezekiel 33:11

[27] Psalm 115:8; Psalm 135:18

[28] Ephesians 2:19-22

Silent Saturday: The Days We Wait

The Bible is full of ‘three day stories”[1]: Jonah in the big fish; Joseph’s brothers in jail in Egypt; the plague of darkness in Egypt; Rahab hid the spies for three days. Jesus was in the tomb for three days. On the third day is when the bad stuff ends. That’s the day we celebrate, and rightly so. But Third Day stories aren’t clear until the Third Day. On Day One and Day Two, it’s not yet clear how the story will end. The First day of Third Day story is often a brutal one.

Crucifixion Friday was the First Day of a Three Day story.  We talked last week about how Jesus understands our First Days. His entrance into the human condition showed that God is not a distant, uncaring and cold God. God understands us.  But there is still Saturday before Sunday. It’s not the day when the tragedy occurred; it’s not the day that Resurrection brings hope and life. It’s that troublesome (and often very long) middle day. 

Here’s what the Bible records the followers of Jesus were doing between Crucifixion Friday and Resurrection Sunday. (This is a combination of the details as they appear in Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20).

At the rising of the sun, after the Sabbath on the first day of the week, the two Marys and Salome came to the tomb to keep vigil. They brought sweet-smelling spices they had purchased to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. Along the way, they wondered to themselves how they would roll the heavy stone away from the opening…

[They encounter the Risen Jesus] 

They brought this news back to all those who had followed Him and were still mourning and weeping. They recounted for them—and others with them—everything they had experienced. The Lord’s emissaries heard their stories as fiction, a lie; they didn’t believe a word of it until Jesus appeared to them all as they sat at dinner that same evening (Resurrection Sunday). 

 They were gathered together behind locked doors in fear that some of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem were still searching for them. Out of nowhere, Jesus appeared in the center of the room and said, “May each one of you be at peace.” 

 What do we see the closest followers of Jesus doing?

·      Keeping a vigil of mourning

·      Planning how to perfume the body of the dead Messiah

·      Hiding in fear

·      Mourning and weeping

·      Refusing to believe that Jesus was alive

It’s not a great resume builder, really. You would think that the biblical writers might want to put a better spin on what happened here. “As the disciples were praying and rejoicing over Jesus’ impending Resurrection, Mary returned and told them the good news. And they said, “Of course! We knew it all along! This is why there are BBQ wings on the table! It’s a party!”

No, they were mourning the death of their long awaited Messiah. They thought he was gone. They thought he had failed – and in that failure had shown that he was not, after all, the promised deliverer. As far as they knew, he was never coming back. 

Crucifixion Fridays are hard, but Silent Saturdays may be even harder. Funeral days are hard, but they are at least full of adrenaline and crisis management and we are surrounded by support. But then the next day, when family drifts back home, and friends go back to their routine… that’s when Silent Saturday sets in. The loneliness and the emptiness…

It’s hard enough when it involves earthly things. But what about when our relationship with God is best described as a Silent Saturday kind of relationship? What if there is a spiritual loneliness and emptiness, a sense that God is aloof at best and gone at worst. What about the times when the heavens seem empty, and our prayers just seem to drift off into a void? What about the times when God is silent?

ANDREW PETERSON – THE SILENCE OF GOD

It's enough to drive a man crazy, it'll break a man's faith
It's enough to make him wonder, if he's ever been sane
When he's bleating for comfort from Thy staff and Thy rod
And the Heaven's only answer is the silence of God

It'll shake a man's timbers when he loses his heart
When he has to remember what broke him apart
This yoke may be easy but this burden is not
When the crying fields are frozen by the silence of God

And if a man has got to listen to the voices of the mob
Who are reeling in the throes of all the happiness they've got
When they tell you all their troubles
Have been nailed up to that cross
Then what about the times when even followers get lost?
'Cause we all get lost sometimes

There's a statue of Jesus on a monastery knoll
In the hills of Kentucky, all quiet and cold
And He's kneeling in the garden, as silent as a Stone
All His friends are sleeping and He's weeping all alone

And the man of all sorrows, he never forgot
What sorrow is carried by the hearts that he bought
So when the questions dissolve into the silence of God
The aching may remain but the breaking does not
The aching may remain but the breaking does not
In the holy, lonesome echo of the silence of God

John Ortberg tells the following story:

“From the time she was a young girl, Agnes believed. Not just believed: she was on fire. She wanted to do great things for God. She said things such as she wanted to "love Jesus as he has never been loved before." Agnes had an undeniable calling.  She wrote in her journal that "my soul at present is in perfect peace and joy." She experienced a union with God that was so deep and so continual that it was to her a rapture. She left her home. She became a missionary. She gave him everything. And then he left her. 

At least that's how it felt to her. "Where is my faith?" She asked. "Deep down there is nothing but emptiness and darkness …. My God, how painful is this unknown pain … I have no faith." She struggled to pray: "I utter words of community prayers—and try my utmost to get out of every word the sweetness it has to give. But my prayer of union is not there any longer. I no longer pray." 

She still worked, still served, still smiled. But she spoke of that smile as her mask, "a cloak that covers everything." This inner darkness continued on, year after year, with one brief respite, for nearly 50 years. God was just absent. Such was the secret pain of Agnes, who is better known as Mother Teresa.

So what do we do with the Silent Saturdays of our lives? I want to offer a number of suggestions not so that you will be immediately aware of God’s presence, but so you can be purposeful and grow from this kind of season of your life. 

1. Be honest with God. The Bible gives us permission to voice our hearts during Silent Saturday. Look at a few of the Psalms:

·      Psalm 6:2–3  “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing. Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. My soul is greatly troubled, but you, O Lord, how long?”

·       Psalm 13:1–2 “How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?” 

·      Psalm 90:13–14 “Return, O Lord. How long? Have pity on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love.”

·      “I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me.” (Job 30:20)

There is even a Psalm where David longs to bash the heads of the children of his enemies on rocks.  That is a terrible idea, of course, and God did not sanction that, but David wasn’t afraid to say it, as if he knew that God knew, and there was something important about naming the anger within. The psalms give us permission not to hide, as if we could anyway. Bring it into the light.  

A friend sent me a psalm of lament, full of anger and frustration that she had written as part of her process of coming to grips with why God had allowed what He did in her life. It was raw and beautiful, and it was bold. Those are good things. God knows your heart and mind; he already knows your deepest internal struggles. Voice them. God is big. He can handle it. 

2. Keep the vigils

In the spite of the pain of their loss, the Marys did what they had always done, which was part of the ritual life of living in Jewish community. What Jewish people believed and what they did in almost every aspect of life were so intertwined that it’s hard to imagine that the vigil was not considered part of what God called them to do. There is something to be said for keeping the faith through an active commitment to obedience and faithfulness. I would like to offer four vigils I believe are helpful.

A. Pursue Church community. Don't forsake gathering together (Hebrews 10:25). The disciples did at least one thing right: they hung together in the midst of their grief. It’s important that we remain connected and not withdraw. In community, others came back and reported their experiences with the Risen Christ. Even in the midst of doubt, there was hope. We stay in community so that we can be challenged, encouraged, and held close. We need to feel the nearness of God’s people when God feels distant. We need the hope that lives in others when our sense of hope is gone.

B. Pray and Read Scripture. I don’t know that there is a formula for the best way to do this. There are all kinds of cool ideas about how to read through the Bible or how to pray. I don’t think they are bad; I just don’t think there is a one-size-fits-all kind of approach. 

·    Listen to or read the Bible. 

·    Pray alone - or get together with others.

·    Pray for a block of time - or throughout the day.

·    Sing. There are theologically rich songs that    

     are good reminders of the hope we find in Jesus.

C. Dive Into Devotionals (podcasts, books, teachings, even songs). This is one way to experience the community of the church. It’s also a good way to find clarity about the Scriptures and to hear the testimonies of others. What did they do when they were in the First and Second days of their stories? 

D. Practice Obedience. One of the greatest dangers we face is giving up and saying to God, “You know what? If I can’t feel your presence, I am going to live as if you’re not there.” We shake our fist at the heavens and begin to sow sinful things that can be forgiven and healed but will nonetheless be harvested (Galatians 6:7). 

 The Bible describes the way of obedience as “the path of life” (Psalm 16:11). There is something about faithful obedience that is not just healthy; it is wise and stabilizing. This, too, is sowing actions that you will one day reap – but this time it won’t be the wages of sin. It will be the fruit of righteousness.  Also, I believe obedience is one of the ways we are conformed to the image of Christ – and in that conforming – as we begin to see what it means to ‘be like Jesus’ -  we begin to appreciate the wisdom of the One who guides our life. 

3. Learn to wait

·      Psalm 37:7  “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way.” 

·      Psalm 27:14  “Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord.”

 I’m not good at waiting. I want problem resolution. Give me a task! Sometimes that is what God calls us to do, but many God does not work that way. I like what Jon Bloom wrote in an article entitled, “When God Is Silent.”

Why is it that “absence makes the heart grow fonder” but “familiarity breeds contempt”? Why is water so much more refreshing when we’re really thirsty? Why am I almost never satisfied with what I have, but always longing for more? Why can the thought of being denied a desire for marriage or children or freedom or some other dream create in us a desperation we previously didn’t have?  

Why is the pursuit of earthly achievement often more enjoyable than the achievement itself? Why do deprivation, adversity, scarcity, and suffering often produce the best character qualities in us while prosperity, ease, and abundance often produce the worst?

Do you see it? There is a pattern in the design of deprivation: Deprivation draws out desire. Absence heightens desire. And the more heightened the desire, the greater its satisfaction will be. It is the mourning that will know the joy of comfort (Matthew 5:4). It is the hungry and thirsty that will be satisfied (Matthew 5:6). Longing makes us ask, emptiness makes us seek, silence makes us knock (Luke 11:9). 

Deprivation is in the design of this age. We live mainly in the age of anticipation, not gratification. We live in the dim mirror age, not the face-to-face age (1 Corinthians 13:12). The paradox is that what satisfies us most in this age is not what we receive, but what we are promised. The chase is better than the catch in this age because the Catch we’re designed to be satisfied with is in the age to come...  It’s the desert that awakens and sustains desire. It’s the desert that dries up our infatuation with worldliness. And it’s the desert that draws us to the Well of the world to come. 

Sometimes, the best way to hand over the weight of the world is to wait on Christ.

4. Don't confuse what you feel from what is real

I heard a wise man say once, “You will either judge truth by your feelings, or you will judge your feelings by what it true.” What is true is that God may feel absent, but He is not. God is with us always. Why does He feel absent? I don’t know. It could be that you are in rebellious sin. It could be that you are tired. It could be that God has removed the sense of His presence as part of transforming you into the image of Christ. It could be that you are distracted. I don’t know. 

But I know that God is near and faithful no matter how we feel. 

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RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

·      “Three Lessons to Learn When You’re Stuck in the Hallways of Life”  - Sarah Coleman


·      “When God Seems Far Away”  - John Ortberg

·      “When God Seems Silent” -  Jon Bloom

[1] I got this idea from a brilliant teaching called “Saturday: Living Between Crucifixion and Resurrection,” posted by Richmont Graduate Universityon youtube. I don’t know who the speaker was. You can access the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U90EKNZPKCU