Permanent Love And Solid Truth: Series: The People Of God
1 John 2:15-27 Oct 2, 2005
Intro:
The question, “who am I?”, is really about two things – it is about our own identity, make up, personality, temperament, and priorities; and it is also about where we fit in relationship to others. It is about identity and belonging. In that second part, belonging, the question grows from “who am I?”, which can degrade to individualism, to “who are we?”
That second question is one we are pursuing together: “Who are we?” In community, in church, in relationships together, “who are we?” Who are we as the people of God; more specifically, who are we as the people of God who have covenanted together at Laurier Heights Baptist Church?
The book of 1 John provides a lot of answers to that “who are we” question. In the first chapter, we saw that we are forgiven, and that we are a fellowship. Last Sunday, in the first half of chapter 2, we saw that we are a people whose actions of love demonstrate a transformed heart. Today we look at the last half of chapter 2, and we are going to see this: we have a love that is permanent, and we have a foundation of truth revealed by the Spirit.
1 John 2:15-27 (NRSV)
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; 16for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live for ever.
18 Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour. 19They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But by going out they made it plain that none of them belongs to us. 20But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge. 21I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and you know that no lie comes from the truth. 22Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who confesses the Son has the Father also. 24Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25And this is what he has promised us, eternal life.
26 I write these things to you concerning those who would deceive you. 27As for you, the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and so you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, abide in him.
Who Do You Love?
We can learn a lot about a person or a group of people by looking at what they love. Some people love sports, and so they read about them and talk about them and watch them. Some people love crafts, and spend lots of time making beautiful crafty type things. Some love cooking and eating. Some love music. In all of these simple things, you would expect that a person’s actions would follow their words – a music lover would constantly have their iPod with them; a craft lover would have their home or work space covered with crafty little knick-knacks; people who love to cook and eat might carry an little extra weight around (how many of you trust a skinny chef??).
John applies the same basic principle to faith, and does so by way of command: “Do not love the world or the things in the world.” This is pretty blunt, though John gets more blunt in the next half of that verse: “The love of the Father is not in those who love the world”. And it forces the question on us – do we love the things of the world? What things, you might ask? John gives us the answer, summarized in three phrases: “the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches.” Let’s look at these a little…
1. “the desire of the flesh”: the NIV calls this “the cravings of sinful man”. Both of these are fancy ways of saying “the things I want”. These are not the things we need, but rather the things we want. The things that make us happy – not the things that give us joy. The things we want not because they will make us stronger, better, more loving, more others-centered, more Christlike, but the things we want because we want them. Most of you are quite familiar with the two-year old temper-tantrum which occurs when a child does not get what they want, which will bring them immediate satisfaction. John is asking us the adult version of the same thing – do you “love… the desires of the flesh”? Most of us, myself included, have our own adult versions of the “temper tantrum” when we don’t get “the desires of the flesh”, and most of the time those end with a resolve to find a way to get what we want. These are the desires that rise up from within us.
2. “the desire of the eyes”: here the NIV uses the word “lust”, which is a good one as long as we do not limit it to sexual desire. John’s idea here is wanting the things that we see – the desires that come from outside of us. You and I live in a culture that has become experts at creating desire – that is the heart of the field of marketing. Our culture is saturated with “stuff”, and our entire North American way of life is defined by creating, acquiring, and consuming “stuff”. We have been programmed, from our earliest age, to equate any need or feeling we have with some type of product or service which will satisfy. The problem is, it is all a lie. We will see why in just a moment.
3. “the pride in riches”: here I like part of the NIV translation better, “boasting of what he has and does”. This comes back to the identity question, and here it is answered not in relation to God but in comparison to those around us. We love stuff, and when we have more stuff then others we feel good about ourselves and are proud. The heart of this is security based on possession and position, rather than Biblical security based on the grace of God and conviction of His love for His children.
OK, now I have to say this: “ouch!” Doesn’t that make you squirm quite a lot? Against John’s standard, I do not measure up. I am far too controlled by the “desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches.” And John tells me that that reveals where my love lies – with the world, not with God. It is consistent with Jesus’ teaching: “You can’t love God and money” (Matt 6:24).
So what do we do with that? There is really only one thing to do: grow more in love with Jesus. Grow more in love with Jesus so that all these other desires fade in comparison. Grow more in love with Jesus so that the lie in each of them (which I promise, I will come to in a moment!) is brought into the light and is so blatant and obvious that it is laughable. Grow more in love with Jesus so that you can know what it is to be alive. How do you do that? At first I wrote “fall more in love with Jesus” and then realized that was wrong – it isn’t “falling” which requires no effort or investment, it is “growing” which takes deliberate choice to spend time investing in relationship. How do you “grow more in love with Jesus?” Spend time with Him – through prayer, through reading your Bible, through experiencing Him in creation, through loving and serving others (especially the poor, the sick, and the marginalized). Read a book, go to a Christian concert, listen to music that connects with you and that leads you to God, go on a retreat, anything, everything, so that your love for Jesus might grow.
The Lie:
Grow in love with Jesus, because that is the only antidote to the lie, and here it is: “the world and its desire are passing away.” The reason none of those satisfy is because they are temporary – “it’s all going to burn”, as one of my college friends used to like to say. They are marketed as meeting a need we have – to be loved, to be accepted, to belong – but those are all eternal needs that will never be met by things that are temporary.
How great would your life be if you spent time on the eternals rather than on the temporary? Can you imagine investing time and energy in the things that bring love, and joy, and peace, and patience, and kindness, and goodness, and faithfulness, and gentleness, and self-control? That is what it means to walk in the Spirit.
Who Are We As The People Of God?
We are a people who have a love that is permanent. It will not fade away, it will not pass, it is for eternity. And it begins now. We experience God’s love, we live in obedience not out of threat of punishment or rejection but in response to that incredible love.
That is an identity-shaper if ever there was one. We are a people who are loved with a permanent love, that is not a counterfeit, that never does a “bait and switch”, that will never pass away. That is incredibly freeing! Liberating!! Reviving!!! And that is the message of God.
Does your life have room for you to know that love of God? Or is your time devoted to “loving the world and the things in the world?” I know that is a pointed question, which you might not appreciate me asking, but I do because the alternative really is so much better! There is nothing better than knowing that you are loved completely by God, forgiven, restored, and filled with the Spirit. It is forever, and it meets the needs that we have that are also forever. We are a people who have a love that is permanent.
Solid Truth:
I have deliberately spent most of our time on the first few verses, because I think they are so incredibly applicable to our lives in the midst of our consumer culture. And because I believe that if we truly, deeply understood that our identity as the people of God is secure in the permanent love of God for us, we would be so much more free and alive. But I don’t want to completely neglect the rest, for there is another important idea here: we are a people with a solid truth.
Verses 18-25 give us a lot of insight into why John is writing – there were some problems in the church, caused by people who had left and who were “deny(ing) that Jesus is the Christ”. John’s response to that is simple: those who remain have the truth:
“18 Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour. 19They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But by going out they made it plain that none of them belongs to us. 20But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge. 21I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and you know that no lie comes from the truth. 22Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who confesses the Son has the Father also. 24Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25And this is what he has promised us, eternal life.
26 I write these things to you concerning those who would deceive you. 27As for you, the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and so you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, abide in him.
The truth we have is solid, it has stood the test, and it has come through the anointing of God. In the midst of lies, return to the truth.
Conclusion:
This past week I had the wonderful opportunity to share my faith with someone on a journey of asking questions about God and exploring faith. One of the things I shared was that Christianity is not about “right and wrong” from the standpoint of a list of rules to be kept. Instead, it is about the deep and permanent love of God for us – a love that is so deep and permanent that it refuses to stand idly by as we subscribe to lesser, temporary pleasures that will destroy. Our faith is, at its very basic, nothing more than our lives lived in response to that love that is not subjective or fleeting or emotion, but in response to a love based on a solid truth brought to reality in us through the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Who are we as the people of God? We are a people who are loved permanently, with a solid truth.
