Archive for February 2007
The Old New Command (1 John 2:7-8)
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When I was in fifth grade, my best friend Darren Norris gave me J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings for my birthday. In the fall season, when the rain begins to pour, you can find me in an easy chair, re-reading the pages of my second favorite book. Every time, I find something new to ponder in this old, familiar story.
There is an older, more familiar story that is my favorite. It is the gospel, the good news about Jesus. In 1 John 2:7-8, John writes about this story, which despite its age, always seems fresh, contemporary, and relevant. Here’s what John writes:
Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
Notice several things about what John writes:
First, he addresses his readers as friends. The Greek word is agapetoi, literally, “beloved.” To whom are these people beloved? The most obvious answer is to John. He is the senior Christian leader in their community. But John’s love for them is not merely personal, it is spiritual. He loves them because they are loved, first and foremost, by God. It is a loving God who draws us into fellowship with himself and with one another. The church, then, is the beloved community.
Second, John reminds them that his teaching is old. According to 1 John 2:18-19, a group of false teachers had seceded from the church and was trying to convince other church members to do the same. Evidently, these secessionists argued that John’s teaching was “new.” John replies by pointing out that his “command” and “message” are “old,” the same command and message he taught at “the beginning” of his ministry. First John 3:23 summarizes both the message and the command: “to believe in the name of [God’s] Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.” This is basic Christianity, the old message of Jesus and his apostles.
But third, while old, this basic Christianity is also always new. John seems to contradict himself when he says, “I am writing you a new command.” How can the same message be both old and new? Simple. Its origin is old, but its application is new. Every time a person believes in the old story of Jesus, he or she begins to live a new life. In powerful metaphorical language, John writes, “the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.” Today, I will see the 13,795th sunrise of my lifetime, and it will be beautiful. But more sublime is the change that takes place in life because of the rising of God’s Son, who spreads the light of salvation over the darkness of sin.
Today, make sure to see the Son rise on you.
P.S. And check out my new blog series on The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.
Friends of God?
Alexandra Pelosi has a new documentary about evangelical Christians, Friends of God. Its title is derived from an Israel Houghton worship song that forms the background music for much of the film. Although the film has drawn the predictable ire of evangelical groups such as Focus on the Family, Michael Linton suggests that it reveals some real weaknesses in evangelical culture. Make sure to read his lengthy post at the First Things blog.
Behavior, the Test of Belief (1 John 2:3-6)
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One of the most common complaints about us Christians is that we are hypocrites. We believe one way but behave another. Unfortunately, this complaint is often true.
In 2005, Ron Sider published The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, which sifted through numerous studies on the belief-behavior gap of American Christians. Here’s his conclusion:
Whether the issue is divorce, materialism, sexual promiscuity, racism, physical abuse in marriage, or neglect of a biblical worldview, the polling data point to widespread, blatant disobedience of clear biblical demands on the part of people who allegedly are evangelical, born-again Christians.
What are the causes of this “widespread, blatant disobedience”? Several come to my mind very quickly: Preachers who don’t talk about ethics and morality, church leaders who don’t provide accountability for their members, a greater desire for personal pleasure than principled living, an ingrained sin nature that’s just plain hard to eradicate, and a pervasive easy-believism among people in the pews.
John takes aim at easy-believism in 1 John 2:3-6, so let’s focus on that cause. Here’s what he writes:
We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
Easy-believism begins with a claim to know God. And it is compatible with knowing quite a bit of theological information about God. But scratch beneath the surface of that knowledge and you’ll see that it’s only head deep. It doesn’t affect the heart and its desires nor the hand and its behaviors. That’s why it’s easy. Anyone can acquire information about God—whether trivial or profound in nature. True knowledge of God is not just knowledge about him, however; it is knowledge of him, it is a life-changing, personal relationship. And that relationship changes the way you behave.
John states his basic principle in verse 3: “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.” The test of belief in God, in other words, is godly behavior. If we have faith in God, then his power should begin working in our lives to root out sin and plant seeds of holiness.
This is not just a passive process for us, however. When God saves us by grace, he asks us to do some work. John writes, “if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him.” In Greek, “the love of God” may refer to God’s love for us or our love for God. While the NIV opts for the former, I think the latter is the more appropriate sense here. Our obedience to God helps us love him more.
The primary example of such perfect love is Jesus, of course. He is the model for our lives, which is why John writes: “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” Jesus was not an easy believer. There was no belief-behavior gap in his life. And if we follow him, that gap should start to close in our lives as well.
The God Delusion?
Peruse the bestsellers table at any Borders or Barnes & Noble and you are likely to see a copy of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, which argues that belief in God is both false and pernicious. Next Wednesday, February 14th, I’m going to begin to write a blog series on my reactions to Dawkins’ arguments, taking them one chapter at a time. Although Dawkins is a world-renowned scientist, ardent defender of evolutionary naturalism, and excellent literary stylist, I find his arguments against belief in God generally unpersuasive and on occasion (such as when he writes about historical Jesus research) just plain wrong. In my series, I hope to provide reasonable counter-arguments. If you’ve got questions about belief in God or knows someone who does, this may be a good series for you to read.
Liberator, Defender, Sacrifice (1 John 2:1-2)
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Sin has a powerful grip on us humans, which we do not have the power to break free of. Only God has that kind of power. So how does he break the grip of sin on our lives? Answer: through the death of Jesus Christ.
We find a brief description of how God overcomes sin through Christ in 1 John 2:1-2:
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
First, God announces his intention to overcome sin. When John says, “I write this to you so that you will not sin,” he is not merely stating his personal opinion. Rather, as an apostle of Jesus Christ, he is proclaiming a truth of the gospel. Indeed, according to 1 John 3:8, “He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” But Christ’s appearing was also constructive. According to 1 John 5:18, “We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God [that is, Jesus] keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.”
From all this mention of the devil, you might conclude that the problem of sin is a problem of victimization. We are innocents who have been enslaved by an evil power. That is part of the biblical message. But the Bible also uses a legal metaphor to describe the problem of sin. We are criminal defendants—victimizers—who are guilty as charged, and God is the Judge in whose hands our sentence rests. Building on this legal metaphor, John writes that Jesus is “one who speaks to the Father in our defense.” Jesus Christ, in other words, is the advocate who makes the case for our innocence.
But how can Christ make a case for the innocence of his clients when they are patently guilty? It is here that John introduces a third metaphor, which is religious in nature. Jesus, he writes, is “the atoning sacrifice for our sins, not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” In the ancient world, religious worship often included the sacrifice of an animal. The worshiper laid his hand on the animal’s head, symbolically transferring his guilt to it, and then the animal was killed in ritual punishment for the person’s sins. John uses this metaphor to describe what Jesus actually did. Through his death on the cross, Christ exchanged his innocence for our guilt so that we might get out from under the grip of sin.
In summary, Jesus Christ is our Liberator, Defender, and Sacrifice. That is how God overcomes the power of sin in our lives.
Two Mistakes about Sin (1 John 1:8-10)
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When it comes to the issue of ongoing sin in the life of the believer, Christians often make one of two mistakes: either they claim an easy victory over sin or they concede an early defeat to it. A careful reading of 1 John 1:8-10 is the cure for both mistakes.
In the history of Christian theology, people who claim an easy victory over sin have come to be known as perfectionists. They believe that God’s Word and Spirit are so powerfully at work in the life of the believer that he or she can attain sinlessness in this life. In 1 John 1:8-10, John refutes pretensions of perfection when he writes:
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
John’s argument is two-fold: First, perfectionism contradicts the truth about ourselves. We are sinners. Whether atheists, agnostics, spiritual seekers, or mature believers, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” according to Romans 3:23. Human sinfulness is both a biblical assertion about us, as well as an empirically verifiable fact. But who are the “we” John is writing to? It is tempting to claim that they are unbelievers, but that temptation should be resisted. The context of these verses demands that “we” includes us. John is writing to Christians about their ongoing sin.
Second, perfectionism contradicts the truth about God. If we claim perfection in this life, then we make God a “liar” and “his word has no place in our lives.” In Romans 3:9-18, the Apostle Paul quotes a litany of divinely inspired prophecies about human sinfulness. And this litany is about both unbelievers and believers. “Are we any better?” Paul asks. “Not at all!” If God tells the truth, if his word is to have any place in our lives, then we Christians must acknowledge that we are sinners.
But if an easy victory over sin is impossible, should we concede an early defeat to it? I once had an extended conversation with a very thoughtful young man who, if I understood him correctly, doubted that believers could make any progress in holiness in this life. While we should not underestimate the powerful grip sin has on us, we also should not underestimate the far more powerful grip God has on us through his Son, Jesus Christ.
The solution to sin is not anxiously striving for perfection or guiltily wallowing in defeat. Rather, the way out is confession: “If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” How does he do this? According to 1 John 1:7, by “the blood of Jesus.”
More on how Jesus overcomes sin tomorrow.
Belong, Behaving, and Believing (1 John 1:6-7)
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Many Americans claim to have a personal relationship with God, but how do we know whether they actually do?
First John offers two tests of belonging to God: behaving and believing. How we behave is an ethical test. First John 1:5-2:2, which we will begin studying today, is an example of such a test. How we believe is a theological test, and 1 John 2:20-23 and 4:1-3, which we will study later, are examples of it.
These tests of relationship with God are not only biblical, they are also common sense. Consider your own relationships. If you belong to an association of professionals—whether doctors, lawyers, or teachers—your behavior must conform to a professional code of conduct. Violate that code, and you will be kicked out of the group. Or if you are the best friend of someone, you will hold true beliefs about that person. By contrast, holding false beliefs about that person—not knowing their likes and dislikes, the names of their family members, etc.—probably indicates that you don’t know them as well as you think, if you know them at all. Similarly, belonging to God requires behaving like him and believing the truth about him.
As noted above, 1 John 1:5-2:2 offers an ethical test of relationship with God. Verse 5 tells us about God’s character: “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” Verses 6-7 go on to speak of the necessary connection between God’s character and the believer’s behavior:
If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
The issue in these verses is the “claim” of “fellowship with [God].” According to John, this is a testable claim. If people make the claim “yet walk in darkness,” then their claim is empirically false. On the other hand, if people “walk in the light,” then that is evidence that they have “fellowship with one another” (i.e., the church) as well as “fellowship with [God].”
But what happens when we don’t behave like God, when we sin? And let’s be honest here, even life-long, spiritually mature Christians struggle with sin. Do we fall in and out of relationship with God? No, for as John puts it, “the blood of Jesus, [God’s] Son, purifies us from all sin.” We belong to God not because of what we have done for him, but because of what he has done for us through Christ.
But if this is the case, does the ethical test of relationship with God have any real force? If we belong to God regardless of past behavior, does future behavior matter? Absolutely! Christ’s death on the cross “purifies us from all sin.” It sets in motion the process by which our behavior begins to conform to God’s. If we belong to God, then we will behave like him. Or as John puts it, “walk in the light, as God is in the light.”
God Is Light (1 John 1:5)
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When I was a boy, I was afraid of the dark. Who knew what bogeyman lurked in its shadows, or what under-the-bed monster went bump in the night? Not I. But I always knew the solution for my fears.
And what was the solution? God, obviously! Whenever I found myself trembling in bed with fear, I would pray to God or sing a hymn. (I admit I was a weird little kid.) Martin Luther’s A Mighty Fortress Is Our God was particularly effective in dispelling my fears, especially this lyric:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.
There was (and still is) a great deal of comfort to be had from knowing that “the Prince of Darkness grim” is not strong enough to withstand “one little word” from God. As a boy facing monsters and bogeymen, and as a man worried about terrorists and suitcase nukes, such a truth helps keep my fears in perspective.
What is it about the dark that makes it so fearsome, or the light that makes it so welcome? For me, it is ignorance and knowledge, respectively. In the dark, we do not know because we cannot see; but in the light, we can both see and know. And that is why darkness and light are such spiritually suggestive metaphors. We do not know what evil the darkness hides, but in the light we see that goodness prevails.
Jesus evidently used the metaphors of darkness and light to describe our Heavenly Father. We do not find his usage of them in the Gospels, but 1 John 1:5 is quite clear that he used them nonetheless: “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”
Notice that Jesus engages in both positive and negative theology in this verse. Positively, “God is light.” Negatively, “in him there is no darkness at all.” These two statements amplify each other. God is not the first sliver of dawn, nor is darkness the gloaming. Rather, God is high noon in summer, and the darkness is pitch-black midnight on a cloudy, moonless night. They are the spiritual antitheses of one another.
According to I. Howard Marshall, light symbolizes both the “revelation and salvation” that God provides us, as well as the “holiness” he possesses and requires of us.[1] Psalm 119:105 captures the intimate connection between revelation and salvation when it says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” God reveals so that he can save.
But it is holiness that is paramount in 1 John 1:5, as the verses that follow (and which we will study later) make clear. God has no secret sins. He is neither monster nor bogeyman. He is the absolute contradiction of those terrorists who do violence in his name.
Knowing this, whether young or old, we can sleep in peace.
Our Happiness, Others’ Wellbeing (1 John 1:4)
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In 1 John 1:4, John writes something that at first glance seems self-centered, but a second look shows us an important truth about the relationship of our happiness and the wellbeing of others.
Here’s what John says: “We write this to make our joy complete.” At first glance, doesn’t that look self-centered? What if I said to you, “I write The Daily Word for you in order to make myself happy”? Wouldn’t that strike you as more than a bit narcissistic? Shouldn’t I have some higher motivation than my own positive feelings? In the Christian tradition, the highest virtues are faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians 13:13). Let’s plug each of them into John’s short sentence and see what comes out.
First, “We write this to make our faith complete.” In other words, John wrote what he did as an expression of trust in God. But is faith emotionless? Obviously not! Trust always involves an emotional element. Is that element positive or negative? Obviously, it’s positive! Doubt or distrust has a negative emotional element, but not faith. So, if you trust in someone, aren’t you, in a sense experiencing a form of happiness or joy?
Second, “We write this to make our hope complete.” In other words, John wrote what he did with the hope of eternal salvation in mind. But obviously, hope has a positive emotional element to it. Shouldn’t salvation make us infinitely and eternally joyful? Of course it should!
Third, “We write this to make our love complete.” In other words, John wrote what he did as an expression of his commitment to God and to his readers. But again, don’t we take delight in the object of our love? Of course we do! If we love people, our hearts race faster and our smiles grow broader just thinking of them. Those are the physical phenomena of joy.
My point is this: We may think there is a higher motivation for our actions, but in the end, no matter what that higher motivation may be, at some level, it involves joy. Joy, it turns out, is inescapable.
But is John’s joy self-centered or other-entwined? It is obviously the latter, for as he writes in verse 3: “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” John’s joy is wrapped up in the fellowship of God and others. It is threatened whenever those relationships are threatened. It is complete whenever those relationships are perfected.
This is the important lesson John teaches us about the relationship of our joy and the wellbeing of others. We do well when they do well. We rejoice when they succeed. We are happy when they experience the blessings of God. Far from being narcissistic and self-centered, then, John’s words are an expression of deep-seated care for his readers.
If we take joy in anything, then, like John, let us take joy in the wellbeing of those we love.
The Test of Effective Preaching (1 John 1:3)
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As a pastor, I often wonder whether my sermons make a difference in anyone’s life. Do hours of preparation and thirty minutes of delivery change anyone’s mind, feelings, words, or actions? Even more importantly, are those changes made in the right direction?
First John 1:3 offers a simple test for effective Christian preaching. “We proclaim to you,” John writes, “what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” According to this verse, the test of effective preaching is fellowship.
But what precisely is fellowship? In his commentary on the three letters of John, I. Howard Marshall writes, “‘Fellowship’ renders a Greek word which literally means ‘having in common.’ Two or more persons can be said to have fellowship with one another when they have something in common.” In the New Testament, Marshall continues, “fellowship has two aspects. There is the element of participation in some spiritual gift or in Christian service, and there is the element of union with other believers as a result of common enjoyment of some spiritual privilege or common sharing in some Christian activity.”[1] In other words, fellowship refers to a shared purpose or a healthy relationship.
In 1 John 1:3, fellowship clearly refers to relationships, both human and divine. John speaks of fellowship “with us” as well as “with the Father and with his Son.” Notice the order of these relationships. John lists human fellowship before divine fellowship. Why?
First, in the church to which John is writing, schism is a pressing issue. According to 1 John 2:18-19, several church members had seceded from the church and were teaching false doctrine. As if this was not enough, they evidently were attempting to lure other members away from the church too. Staying in the church—remaining in relationship to other believers—was thus a mark of orthodoxy or “right belief.”
Second, by listing human fellowship before divine fellowship, John reinforces an important truth about the sociology of evangelism. We come to faith through the actions of others. And to a large degree, we grow in faith because of the actions of others. God is the ultimate Evangelist and Discipler of believers, but he uses the efforts of ordinary Christians such as you and me to accomplish these important purposes.
And third, John teaches us that Christ and his church are ultimately inseparable. In modern America, many people love Christ and hate the church. They are spiritual, but not religious. But in Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” If you love Christ, you must love the church, which Christ loves and died to save.
The test of effective preaching, then—or any form of Christian communication for that matter—is relational. When you and I speak to others, dowe draw them closer to one another and to God, or do we push them farther away?
