True Love (1 John 4:7-21)
Who's Right and Wrong? (1 John 4:1-6)
Being Different (1 John 3:11-24)
- They think they're better than everyone else
- They think they're the only ones who've got it right
- They're arrogant and boring
Having said that, I also think that many others in the survey would say things like...
- They really care about people
- They think of others more than themselves
- They seem to be full of peace/love
What do you think? Maybe it's worth doing the survey to find out!
1 John 3:11-24
I think John suggests three big ideas about what marks Christians out as different from everyone else...
They believe in Jesus (v23). Not just that he existed but they believe in his name. That means they believe in who he is - the Son of God! And believing in doesn't just mean an intellectual agreement with but it means a total trust in and dependence on Jesus. It's like me saying I believe that a chair will hold my weight when I sit in it. It won't do me any good until I actually sit down in the chair! Believing in Jesus means being in Jesus! It's about complete love and trust towards God. Believing is the main command John talks about when he's describing what it looks like to do what Jesus says (v23).
They love people (v11, 14, 16-18). Not just people they like but everyone! Even people who mistreat them and mock them. Even strangers. In fact, anyone who has any kind of need should find that Christians are the first people to step up and care emotionally and help practically (v17). All hatred is gone because we have passed from death into life (v14).
They have the Spirit of God in them (v24). None of this is possible or sustainable without God himself living is the hearts of Christians. Not just his power or his life or some impersonal force, but God himself by his Holy Spirit living in Christians. All Christians have the Holy Spirit living in them and it is he that makes it possible for them to love God and love others the way they should - the way God has loved us first (v16).
If you're a Christian - How are YOU different from anyone else?
If you're not - How different can you be without a relationship with God?
Spot the Difference! (1 John 3:4-10)
How long before you gave up? It wasn't long for me. I think I found one before I couldn't be bothered with it.
Today John talks about spotting the difference, only it's much more important than the one shown above and it's far easier than people think too!
1 John 3:4-10
How do you spot the difference between someone who's a real Christian (forgiven, accepted, etc) and someone who isn't? Surely faith is a personal and private matter that doesn't involve others - wrong! Or at least according to John it's wrong. He seems to think that faith makes a BIG difference to our lives and others around us too. He says 'No-one who continues to sin has either seen Jesus or known him' (v6).
We need to be careful with this one. It's awful when people start judging everyone else about whether they're actually saved by God or not. We'd be wrong to judge other people's relationship with God because...
- We can't know for sure. All we can do is have a pretty good guess at where someone's at with God based on the way they live their lives. This can't be fool proof because even the most mature Christian will make selfish mistakes and even the most humanist person will do excellent Godly things for others. People's actions are clues of where they might be at with God and they do add up to quite a clear picture but they don't settle the case! That's between them and God - and even then, it's not about how good they are (because no-one's good enough for God!), it's about whether they've asked for forgivenes or not!
- Our motives would probably be wrong. John isn't writing about this because he wants his readers to start playing spot the difference with everyone they meet. He's concerned about people who might try and teach them wrong things about Jesus to trick them into following things that didn't come from Jesus himself (v7). He's saying the best way to spot these fake teachers is not by the eloquence of what they say but by the message of their lives.
It's impossible to have a relationship with God and not to have your whole life changed. Sure, we're not there yet, but if we've really encountered the living God, then the direction, reason and reality of our lives must be completely different from anyone who's living life for themselves or for the here and now.
In my school there's a poster with an old cliche question on it. It's cheesy if you've heard it before but a great question to consider if you're someone who claims to follow Jesus...
'If you were arrested with the charge of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?'
Remember John started this chapter talking about the amazing love of God that has been lavished on us? After meeting a God like that, how can we go on living the way we did before? It must be impossible for our old habits to continue the way they did. In the last bit of the chapter (which we'll look at tomorrow), John talks about what it looks like to live for Jesus and how people will know for sure that we belong to him.
Exeter Passion Play 2008
Amazing Love (1 John 3:1-3)
John talks about the amazing love that God has shown to us and the impact that it has on us and those around us...
1 John 3:1-3
I love the way John uses the word 'lavish'. It makes me think of something really huge and amazing being poured down on us. Maybe like 10 tons of strawberry jelly landing on our house - Brilliant!
What has God done that's more amazing than 10 tons of jelly?! He's made it possible for us to become his children - for us to be part of his eternal family. Awesome! Imagine the safest, best, most loving family ever and then multiply it by infinity and you might get somewhere close to picturing what John's talking about. You really can't explain it properly - You have to experience the reality of it! Having God as our heavenly Dad and best friend in reality is something I really struggle to put words on. It's amazing. I'll have to leave it at that.
Then John talks about some of the impacts that this amazing love has on us if we've received it...
- It means that people will give us a hard time for loving God because they don't recognise God's love for themselves (v1).
- It means we have an eternal future with God where we will be completely changed into the person we were created to be - just like Jesus (v2).
- It means the journey towards that complete change has begun already and we're learning what it looks like to be like Jesus now (v3).
So will I buy my line manager chocolates anyway? Probably. Even though she's 'lavished' chocolates on me already, I want to let her know I'm grateful. It's not about out-doing her - it's about showing her the kindness she's shown me. Unless I can think of a way I can drop 10 tons of stawberry jelly on her house... hmmm, I wonder...
She's Got Her Dad's Nose! (1 John 2:28-29)
1 John 2:28-29
John doesn't tell his Christian readers to start realising new things. He's not talking about stuff they don't yet know. Earlier in the chapter he's clear to them that they already know the truth. They've already put their faith in Jesus and trusted him for forgiveness and they have peace with God. John is writing to tell them to 'continue' (v28) in Jesus. It's about continuing on the adventure they've started, without getting distracted by other ideas that seem tempting but are actually not of God.
We all face things that would distract us from doing what God wants for us. The difference between Christians and everyone else is that Christians have asked God to forgive them because of what Jesus has done on the cross (and God has forgiven them like he promised). If you're not yet a Christian, it's about starting but if you are a Christian, it's about continuing.
Becoming as Christian about being 'born again'. Becoming like Jesus is not something we can achieve in our own strength because it flies in the face of our own sinful nature. But when God forgives us and gives us that fresh start that we've been talking about, it's like he creates us all over again, but this time we're born of the Spirit of God and we're a 'new creation' (2 Corinthians 5:17).
So when John talks about being righteous (living right), it's not about us trying our very best not to make mistakes. Instead, it's about being true to our new nature. It's about continuing in Jesus. It's about being our true selves, the way we were made and re-made to be. When we're living this way, it's more about relaxing and resting than it is about working and striving. God is changing us bit-by-bit if we are letting him in. It's about being open to God.
When this is happening, people will begin to recognise features in our lives that come from God (v29). Our lives will have characteristics that look like God's. They will be characteristics, attitudes and actions that point people to our heavenly Dad.
Question to think/pray about: Do you need to 'start' or 'continue' with Jesus and what will that mean in reality for you?
Who is the 'Antichrist'? (1 John 2:18-27)
Is our world really that bad? (1 John 2:15-17)
1 John 2:15-17
John's words here make it sound like God hates the world but we know from what John says elsewhere that God 'so LOVED the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not die but have eternal life'. God loves the world he made and the people in it but that's not what the word 'world' means here. He's talking about the sinful and evil WAYS of the world that is in opposition to God.
God made our world to be good and in the beginning it was perfect. But these days it doesn't take a genius to figure out that something's gone very wrong and there is plenty of evil around in our world today. Just watch the news or scan the front pages of the papers and we'll see stories of real evil stuff that is destroying lives all around us. And (perhaps on a smaller scale but no less serious) if we're honest with ourselves we can see the same destructive, selfish tendencies at work in our own minds and lives. Much as we might try to always do the right thing, sometimes we are selfish, lazy, rude or whatever.
John mentions 3 areas where we often go wrong:
1. The lust of the flesh - this is obviously about sex and all the ways we're tempted to be ruled by our sexual appetites, rather than by the one who gave them to us.
2. The lust of the eyes - this is about materialism and coveting or wanting more and more money and stuff. It's a real distraction from what truly matter is life.
3. The pride of life - this is about running our own lives with our own priorities and ambitions with no reference to the God who made us and loves us.
These are just examples of what is wrong with our world. It's sin: S-I-N:
Shove off God.
I'm in charge.
No to your commands.
John says the world and its desires will pass away. Everything and everyone that's in opposition to God will go in the end. And John says that followers of Jesus shouldn't be tempted to love the things this rebellious world loves. As Christians we're likely to stand out a bit if we're living life the way it's made to be lived.
It's about where our focus is. If we focus on only the here and now (like most people do) then we'll probably be concerned with things like money, jobs, houses, families, cars, etc. All these things can be excellent and precious but if this is all that our lives are about then we've missed the point - God. The eternal God (no beginning, no end) has to feature in our agenda in this life. In fact, he deserves to be no less than number one. Unless we put him first in our lives and receive his forgiveness and hope - we will die with this world and be away from him forever. God wants to give us so much more than what we can see now! He wants to give us himself. He wants to give us eternity with him! Life to the full and life forever. A fresh start. Forgiveness. Hope, help, comfort and love like we've never known. Security, peace and joy.
Let's take our eyes off this world for a minute and fix them on God. Stop for a minute and rest. Close your eyes and ask God to show you what he has for you! Don't just read this - try it! God might want to surprise you!
KNOW You Are (1 John 2:7-14)
Something similar is going on when Christians try in their own strength to follow Jesus rather than letting Jesus live in and through them. John writes to remind Christians of who they really are so their identity can shape their activity...
1 John 2:7-14
John says that what he's writing is not some new fad or trend but it's the same old God who has been around since forever. Jesus is this God. So he's not new, even though John's readers were new to Jesus. John wants his Jewish readers to know that trusting and following Jesus is exactly the way they can obey the commands of God they've grown up with. Their scriptures point to Jesus because Jesus is the same God who wrote them. So he's not new.
On the other hand, John says, perhaps it IS new in a way because for his first readers, the fresh expression of God's light and love in the person of Jesus Christ was a brand new experience altogether. And the idea that God's Spirit is living in all Christians was a brand new concept too! He says this truth is seen 'in him but also in you'! It's the same God that they had known all along but now a new depth of personal intimacy with that God was available and this would have blown them away. This was the new bit for John's readers. Trusting and following Jesus means that he lives in us!
John then talks about what it means to be walking in the light in terms of loving others, especially other believers and he says anyone who hates their brother or sister is still stumbling about in the dark. Isn't it sad that Christians so often squabble and fall out or judge each other and stay away from each other? Aren't we family because of Jesus? We should ask ourselves who it is that we will enjoy eternity with and then start practicing now! Why should we exclude those whom God has included? Why should we draw lines where God hasn't? Family isn't always easy, but if we're Christians, we ARE family and we should be learning to live like it more and more, refusing to give up on one another. This is part of what it means to be in the light, John says.
John reminds his readers (who are Christians) who they are in Christ so they can live from this knowledge as people of the light. He says Christians are a bit like children, a bit like fathers and a bit like young men:
- We're loved like children because we're forgiven by God
- We're wise like fathers because we know God who knows everything
- We're strong like young men because Jesus lives in us
Living in the Light (1 John 2:1-6)
Come into the Light! (1 John 1:5-10)
Is Seeing Believing? (1 John 1:1-4)
- Reasonable and logical evidence. Most historians agree that the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were all written within living memory of Jesus. If you read the start of Luke's gospel, you can see the care they took over getting their sources right. Saying something false and wildly wrong about Jesus in the gospels would have been discredited very quickly. It would be the same as writing a biography about John Lennon and claiming that he could fly like a bird and grow a pink beard! People would laugh at it because they knew him personally or knew people who knew him personally and they would know that it was a load of made up rubbish. The gospels were written this quickly after the life of Jesus and so any ridiculous statements about him would never have lasted for 2000 years!
- Personal experience. John's writing on a personal level. He's not just got his sources right but he's had a personal encounter with Jesus himself. In John's day, this could have meant that he actually and physically met Jesus Christ in the flesh while he was living on earth 2000 years ago. In our day, people have a similar kind of encounter on a spiritual level and they would say that this is just as real and vivid as meeting him physically.
Have you met God? What experiences have you ever had of him? What conclusions have you come to?
John's point is not to cause arguments or intellectual debates but to bring his readers joy and to 'complete' their joy! What joy do you have from understanding and encountering the living God? Think and pray on this!
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