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Last week we began reading from a very interesting letter, the letter of 1 John. In the first part of this letter, John – the letter’s author and one of the closest friends of Jesus – defends the reliability of his message. The criticisms John was receiving are surprisingly the same ones we hear about the Christian message today.
John responds by reminding his readers that he was a first-hand witness to the things he was talking about, and that the desired outcome of his teaching was unselfish: he wanted nothing but fellowship and joy. These are the same things that we can respond to the critics of the Christian message today.
We learned last week that John was in exile when he wrote this letter. He had been serving the people of God, the church, for perhaps as many as 50 years after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. But now all that he loved had been taken away from him and he was on an island, writing a letter.
This brings us to one of the main themes of this letter: fellowship. It is not at all surprising that the exiled John desired fellowship. We learned last week that he was not talking about any ordinary kind of fellowship either. He was not calling his readers to have “a couple guys and a grill” kind of fellowship, nor “a couple girls going shopping” kind of fellowship.
Rather, we learned last week that he was calling his readers to a special kind of fellowship that is only possible through grace. Our relationships with God and with each other are hopelessly broken because of our own sinfulness. Why would God care to fix that? Why would he want to repair his relationship with me when I’m the one who is the problem? Grace.
And how then can our relationships with each other be fixed? Again, grace. Our relationship with God is repaired when we receive his grace, and our relationships with each other are repaired when we show that same grace toward others.
But we read about all that last week. But it is with this very same theme of grace that John continues writing in the second part of his letter.
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. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. [1 John 2.1-2, ESV]
In verse 1, John tells us that he wants us to avoid sin. Why? I don’t think our culture minds sin very much. We joke about this all the time – it even makes it onto t-shirts, bumper stickers, and the like. I’d rather be a devil than an angel. Hell was full so they sent me back. Rules were meant to be broken.
We’re Americans, after all – we pave our own path, we don’t like people telling us what to do, we need to do things our way. Even our heroes are like this: the rogue cop who goes by his gut no matter what the rules say. The CIA operative who does whatever it takes to get the job done, even if it “crosses the line”. The rock stars and athletes who live above the rules. The politician who does good work – who cares if his personal life is a bit shady?
Maybe this part of the letter is just hopelessly outdated. Maybe we’ve moved beyond these ideas. Maybe sin just doesn’t need to be a big deal anymore.
But remember John’s goal for writing: he desires fellowship, both with God and with man. And what destroys fellowship, both with God and with man? Sin. John wants us to avoid sin because sin destroys true, deep, meaningful, joyful fellowship.
We know this is true. If I do something harmful to you, we might continue to be citizens of the same country, we might continue to be coworkers, we might still have to be in the same family, and we might somehow even manage to still be friends, but if I’ve done something harmful to you, we cannot have fellowship.
This makes me think again of our culture: I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t characterize our culture as one of fellowship. Would you? We live busy lives in the suburbs, we drive to work all by ourselves, we have our own agendas and timetables, and if you want to spend time with me, maybe we can get together next month.
Is that fellowship? Perhaps friendship, perhaps something else, but it would seem to me that that certainly is not fellowship. And why is fellowship almost nonexistent in our culture? Perhaps it is because of our attitude toward sin.
Remember this: If we embrace sin, either as individuals or as a culture, we cannot have fellowship with each other.
Is that true of us here at All Saints? Does our sin exterminate our fellowship? Do we have a “see you next month when I can fit you in” mentality? We are all sinful, so unfortunately that is inevitable. But are we mindful of this? Do we pay attention to the effect our own shortcomings are having on this community?
However this leads us to the next thing: How can we avoid sin? John tells us:
And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. [1 John 2.3-5, ESV]
To love God is to keep his commandments. This is simply the opposite of what John has written previously. If sin destroys our relationship with God, then the opposite of sin preserves that relationship. If sin is rebelling against the things God has told us to do, then the opposite of sin is doing the things God has told us to do. Therefore, in order to have a loving relationship with God, we must keep his commandments.
Where did John get this idea? First of all, this would be one of those things he heard with his own ears, as he puts it early in his letter. He learned this idea straight from Jesus. In John 14.15, Jesus says, “If you love me, keep my commandments.”
But this idea is not a new one. The call to keep God’s commandments in order to preserve a loving relationship with him far predates even Jesus’ earthly ministry. In the historical records in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, and Nehemiah, God repeatedly commands, reminds, and pleads with his people to preserve their relationship with him by keeping his commandments.
This idea is not just found in the historical books either. In the poetry of the Psalms, which directly appeal to the reader’s emotions, the people of God are reminded to preserve their relationship with him by keeping his commandments.
Multiple times in the book of the Proverbs, God’s people are reminded of the way of wisdom: if you are to receive the rich blessings that will come to the wise man, you must keep the commandments of God.
So from the very beginning and throughout his relationship with his people, God has been communicating this message: in order to have a loving relationship with me, you must keep my commandments.
But the historical record informs us that throughout history, God’s people have been as bad about that as you and I are. In Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, Nehemiah, and even before the face of Jesus himself, the people of God have chosen to disregard God’s commandments, just as you and I have done many times.
Thus we have all chosen to terminate our relationship with God by following our own commandments instead of his.
But let’s get more specific here: What commandment is John talking about in this letter anyway? He answers that very question in verses 7-11.
Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. [1 John 2.7-11, ESV]
Just as the call to love God by keeping his commandments was not a new idea John dreamed up, he points out that this idea is nothing new either. In fact, this too is something John heard with his own ears from Jesus himself.
In Matthew 22.39 and Mark 12.31, Jesus says that loving your neighbor as yourself is one of the two great commandments, the two that sum up everything else that God tells us to do. The other great commandment is to love God with everything we have.
But this idea of the importance of loving our neighbor is also older than even Jesus’ earthly ministry. In Leviticus, in the books of the law, loving one’s brother is central to the law of God.
The idea was central also to the message of the apostles, who taught with John after Jesus’ earthly ministry. Three times is this command explicitly referred to in the apostles’ writings, and many other times is it implied.
So throughout the Bible, the two greatest commandments are to love God and love our neighbor. This is the very thing that John calls fellowship. Sin breaks fellowship; love restores fellowship. God graciously showed his love to us, thus restoring our relationship with him. And here John calls us to graciously show love to others, which will restore our fellowship with each other.
But in vv. 9-11 John reveals even more – this is something new: Loving our brother is even more than a means to fellowship; it is a mark of our salvation. If you hate your brother, John says in vv. 9 & 11, then you are in the darkness. It doesn’t matter whether you claim to be in the light. If you hate your brother, then you are in the darkness. Likewise, if you love your brother, you are in the light, John writes in v. 10.
In other words, this is an indicator of the state of your heart. Are you the kind of person who loves his brother? When it comes to our neighbor, are you characterized by love? If you do not love your brother, you are still in darkness. The selfishness of your heart has blinded your eyes, John writes in v. 11, and you cannot even know where you are going.
Isn’t it ironic? We are selfish because we want to pave our own way, to do our own thing. We don’t want someone else – either you or God or whoever – telling us what kind of person to be. But the result of this attitude is that we cannot pave our own way. We stumble around in the darkness, wondering where we are, and we don’t even know where we are going.
John tells us that it is only when we take our eyes off ourselves and love our neighbor as ourselves that we walk in the light. It’s a powerful irony.
What kind of person are you? Do you love your brother? Do you give preference to others? Do you assume the best of them? Do you default to showing grace and love toward the people in your life? If we as the people of God, as a church, are going to have fellowship and the joy that comes with fellowship, then we need to be characterized by gracious love.
But this leads us to the next question. You might be asking: How can I do this? What does it mean to love my brother?
I have two illustrations to answer that question. The first is from Jesus, and the second is my own. His is obviously better, but I’ll tell them both to you nonetheless.
Luke 10 tells us about a time when Jesus was asked this very question. Jesus had just told someone to love his neighbor as himself, and the other person asked Jesus how he was supposed to do this.
Jesus told him a story about a man who was ambushed by robbers, beaten, and left to die. Two supposedly “good” people found the victim; they had every reason in the world to help him, but they passed by and did nothing.
Then his enemy, a hated man, found the victim. Unlike the other two, he helped him, even at his own great expense. In this story, the hated man was the one walking in the light. The supposedly “good” people were still in darkness.
My own answer to the question, what does it mean to love my brother? is similar. Almost three weeks ago, my wife and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. While that is reason for celebration, I nevertheless groan inwardly when I think that it was only recently that I understood this idea:
When do I most love my wife? If I asked you that question, what would you say? When do you most love your wife?
If you’re like me, you would say that the most loving moments in your relationship involve walks on the beach, candlelit dinners, leaving notes for each other, and those mushy kinds of things.
But the revelation I had recently was this: Those aren’t the times when I most love my wife. It’s easy to love my wife at those times! The times when I most love my wife are when I feel like I hate her, when we are in the middle of a fight, when we are most at odds – and yet in that very moment, I choose to set aside my own selfishness and do what is best for her. That is when I most love my wife.
It’s when I accept blame, even if it’s mostly not my fault. It’s when I want to rest more than anything, but I choose to get up and do what needs to be done so that she can rest. It’s when I would rather do anything in the entire world except what she wants me to do, but I choose to do that for her anyway. That is when I most love my wife.
And that is what means to love our brother. That is what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves. If you heard that the person you dislike the most – not your best friend, that’s not really loving you neighbor – was having trouble, would you help them? If you discovered that the person who annoys you the most, the person you can’t stand to be around, if that person needed gracious love, would you give it to them?
That is what John is calling us to do. That is what it means to walk in the light. That is the mark of our salvation. Is that true of us? That’s what we’re supposed to be. Are we gracious and loving even those people?
That’s a horribly tall order. And sadly, we fall horribly short of that. And sadly, that’s true not only of our enemies, but even with our friends. We don’t even graciously love the people we care about the most, the ones we are powerfully predisposed to love, let alone our enemies.
Thankfully, even though we fall so short of what we know we should be, God is gracious. See what else John writes here.
But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. [1 John 2.1b-2, ESV]
The restoring power of the work of Jesus is so much greater than the destructive power of our maliciousness.
And look, the saving, restoring work of Jesus rolls back even the darkness of our sinful hearts: read v. 8!
At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. [1 John 2.8, ESV]
The darkness is passing away! It has been rolled back, and it is even now being rolled back. If you are in Christ, then this passage is true of you! By the grace of Jesus making up for your deficiencies, you can love your brother and you do love your neighbor. Certainly not perfectly, at least not yet, but the darkness is passing away! The true light is already shining!
And the promise that gives us such hope is that the day will come when you will do this perfectly! The gracious love of God is transforming! He has promised that the day is coming we will be what we are supposed to be.
See how happy John is about this: he writes a song about it! Verses 12-14 are in poetry form, which is somewhat rare for a New Testament letter and usually indicates a kind of song. John is so ecstatic about this transforming, gracious love that he wrote a song about it!
I am writing to you, little children,
because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.
I am writing to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, children,
because you know the Father.
I write to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you are strong,
and the word of God abides in you,
and you have overcome the evil one.
[1 John 2.12-14, ESV]
Listen to what John writes about us: Our sins are forgiven for his name’s sake! We know him who is from the beginning! We have overcome the evil one! We know the father! We are strong, the word of God abides in us, and we have overcome!
Are those things really true of us? When I look at the facts of my life, I can’t imagine that they’re true. But if you are in Christ, then yes! By God’s grace, they are true. We have even now been transformed, and we are even now being transformed into this poetic image, even if it’s just piece by piece, little bit by little bit.
And the promise is that he who began this work in us will complete it. Someday we will love God and our neighbor as we should. For those who are in Christ, fellowship has been restored, is being restored, and will be restored. Thanks be to God for his transforming, gracious, saving love!
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