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https://vimeo.com/101333455
https://vimeo.com/101333455
Meditation on 1
John 3
July 20, 2014
***
I have been neglectful of my flower garden this year! Usually, by now, I
am enjoying the fruits of my labor—seeing the beauty of the blossoms and the
lush green growth, if I have been weeding and watering faithfully. Well, this year, I have been busy doing other
things and I allowed the weeds to grow so high that you can barely see some of the
flowers beneath them!
Feeling frustrated about my flower beds and
annoyed with myself for not doing more sooner, I sprayed with Round up this
week—and not just around the edges of the beds, but inside them where the weeds
grow amidst the black-eyed Susans, pink and white coneflowers, hasta, lamb’s
ear, daylilies, bleeding heart, and blanket flowers.
And guess what happened? Yep.
The Round up came in contact with some of the perennials, and I may have lost a
few of my good plants. And only some of the weeds died. Some don’t seem to be
affected by the weed killer at all!
As I read this and consider my gardening experiences, I think about the
wheat fighting to live and grow amidst the weeds, competing for food,
water, space, air, and sunlight. When the Master allows the weeds to grow and
thrive, the wheat may be forced to struggle for its very survival!
This is how it is with persecution in the Kingdom
of God that begins here on earth. When we seek to be like Jesus, when we follow
after Him, we are beautiful plants in His garden, but not yet mature and in
full bloom. The Spirit is nourishing us and working in us to transform us into
Christ’s likeness. We aren’t what we used to be, and we aren’t yet what we shall
be—when we see Him face to face.
And while we are being nourished and cared for by the Spirit, we are also struggling in a world that would rather we were not living here at all! We sometimes feel as if we are fighting to survive! Our “enemy” is not a human being; he is the devil. And the accuser does truly hate
us, just as he hated Jesus, who came to save us from our sins and bring us back
to God. But those who trust in Jesus as their Lord are His “beloved.” We are God’s
children now!
***
I John chapter 3 begins, “See what love the
Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.” And this is the message of
this chapter—that we can have confidence in what we are because of what God has
already done for us through His Son.
Salvation is God’s gracious gift; it cannot be earned through good works! But
the confidence we have in Jesus Christ should lead us to be more faithful and
obedient to God.
The question for us today is the same one John posed to his flock. Are
we more faithful and obedient because of what God has done—or do we take our
salvation for granted? Do other people know we are Christians by our love?
Living in a world that rewards selfishness and other forms of sin, we
struggle with temptation. And yet we are not discouraged. We anticipate with
hope and joy the revelation of what we
shall be.
The author of 1 John, perhaps an aging disciple of Christ, writes to his
churches around 100 A.D. He urges them not to listen to the false teachers attempting
to lead them astray. Rather, they should live “in Christ,” focused on Him and following
in His loving ways. These “antichrists,” as John calls them in chapter 2, want
to exclude others from the kingdom; they do not believe that Jesus is the
“atoning sacrifice for … the sins of the whole
world.” They also deny Christ’s humanity and are teaching that it doesn’t
matter if they sin!
John comes down hard on the “antichrists,”
whoever they are, who have caused conflict and strife in the community. Some
people have left the church; those who remain are hurting and confused. After reassuring
his flock to whom they belong—“we are God’s children now,” John contrasts believers
with unbelievers, whom he calls “children of the devil.” Then, beginning at
verse 4, the word “sin” (amartia) or
a form of it appears 10 times in 5 verses! Sin is important to John! But he
sends out some mixed messages with his discussion. He says, “Everyone who
commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he
(Christ) was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who
abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little
children, let no one deceive you.
Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. Everyone
who commits sin is a child of the devil.” Then John adds in verse 9, “those who
have been born of God do not sin,
because God’s seed abides in them.” What’s more, they “cannot sin!”
My first thought as I am reading this is what
does he mean that believers “do not” and “cannot sin?” This comes after he
declares in 1:8 that everybody sins and if we say we don’t, we are lying to
ourselves! Then in 2:1, he says, “My little children, I am writing these things
to you so that you may not sin.
But if anyone does sin, we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the
atoning sacrifice for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of
the whole world.”
Scholars have different ideas about what John means in his discussion of
sin. Most agree that John is not saying that some people can be
“super-Christians, living a Christian life of a higher quality than is possible
for other believers.” [1]
Some believe that John speaks of “willful and deliberate sin… as opposed to …
involuntary sins and errors...” [2]
committed against God. Another theory is that John, with present tense verbs, doesn’t
mean that Christians “cannot sin”; he means that true Christians cannot continue in sin. [3]
But John isn’t the only one who gives mixed messages about sin and the
Christian life. So does Paul. The apostle admits to his own struggle with sin
in Romans 7:16-19 and speaks of his relief in 2 Cor. 12:9 at Christ’s
revelation, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect
through weakness.” Then, in Romans 6:12-15, Paul teaches that temptation is
inevitable, but Christians, with the Spirit dwelling inside them, can and
should choose NOT to sin. “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you
are not under law but under grace. What then? Should we sin because we are not
under law but under grace? By no means!”
The sin John points out is the churches’
failure to obey Christ’s command to love one another. John, in his only OT
reference in 1 John, warns them not to be “like Cain who was from the evil one
and murdered his brother” because of jealousy. He echoes the teaching of Christ
in Matthew 5:21 and 22—that murder begins in the heart. He says in 1 John 3:15,
“All who hate a brother or sister are murderers.” He gives the supreme example of
Jesus Christ to teach us what love is in verse 16, “We know love by this, that
he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.”
But before we conclude that John is calling everyone in the church to
die, let us read on. John clarifies how love is shown in verses 17 and 18 through
simple, practical acts of generosity and kindness. He says, “How does God’s
love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in
need and yet refuses to help? Little children, let us love, not in word or
speech, but in truth and action.”
John sounds much like James, who wrote his epistle perhaps half a century
before I John. James says in 1:11, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.”
And in James 2:15 and 16, we read, “If
a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them,
‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their
bodily needs, what is the good of that?”
By loving in “truth and action,” we demonstrate to the world that we
belong to Christ. And we reassure “our hearts before him, whenever our hearts
condemn us,” says 1 John 3:19. For just as it is in our nature to sin, it comes
naturally for us to struggle with self-doubt and wonder, “Are we truly ‘God’s
children’ now?”
***
Friends, we mustn’t be fearful or discouraged by the weeds that live amid
the wheat in this world. With news reports of hatred, war and oppression raging
on around the globe, it is not hard to believe that the devil still has power
and the desire to destroy. But let us be comforted by God’s Word, knowing that
the Master is still in control and has a plan. He knows who is “wheat” and who
is “weed.” When God’s Kingdom comes to fruition, the weeds will be no more!
Let us demonstrate God’s love through our acts of generosity and
kindness to people in need—placing the needs of others before our own. This is
what John means when he says, “We know love by this, that he laid down his life
for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.”
And though we still struggle with sin and self-doubt, God’s Word assures
us that His grace is sufficient for our sins! Be encouraged that although His
Spirit isn’t finished with us, we are already God’s “beloved,” like beautiful
plants growing in His garden, not yet mature and in full bloom. Let us be
joyful in what we are—as we are God’s children now! Let us look toward the
future longing for what we shall be—like Him!—when we see Christ face to face!
Let us pray.
Holy Lord, Loving Master, thank you for
creating us for love—because you loved us and wanted our love and companionship
in return. Thank you that you call us your children! That we are your beloved!
By your Spirit, shape us into what you plan for us to be, what has not yet been
revealed to us. Stir us to joy as we anticipate our lives when your Kingdom
comes to fruition and we become like you as we see you face to face. Forgive us
for our many sins and doubts. Help us to live righteously, abiding in Christ
and walking in his loving ways. Keep us from continuing in sin. And we pray
that light will come to the dark places of this world. We ask that your peace
and love would spread until there is no more evil, war, fear, poverty, and
oppression in this world. Lead us to be instruments of your peace and love. In
Christ we pray. Amen.
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