1 John 2:1-14
What motivates?
Last week when I started this series I finished on verse 2 of chapter 2 of 1st John. But hey I’m doing the Sermon overlap thing here as we can all do with a reminder of our sins being forgiven. John’s purpose for writing was so the people he was writing to would not sin.
Sin! What is it? - That thing that takes us from a right place before God, the result being that we end up struggling in it, struggling in our relationship with God and with others. John has already in this letter described it as darkness, the dark stuff, that scuzzy stuff that interferes with our relationship with God, the darkness that obstructs in the blessed relationship we can have with God, and ultimately leads to eternal death. Johnny Cash talks of how his “mother used to say, ‘God has his hand on you. “Never ignore the Gift.”” He also says “I never knew what she meant by the gift, until I felt the gift leave me. When the gift comes back, it’s so sweet.” (Johnny Cash, Unchained. (American Records), 1998. That might sound familiar to those of us who have sinned with the result that it felt like God’s Spirit was distant from us. Oh the joy, when The Holy Spirit returns!
1) The interesting thing that comes out of these first two verses of chapter two is that we have someone who speaks on our behalf to God the Father. The apostle John calls him “an advocate”. Which as I said is flash term for someone who speaks on behalf of someone else, as one of the Community Ministries team might do for one of their clients who wants help with dealing with say W.I.N.Z (Work and Income New Zealand). So when we sin Jesus our advocate speaks on our behalf with his Father, our Heavenly Father. Jesus is “the Righteous One”. Jesus was and still is the atoning sacrifice for all sins. Jesus is uniquely qualified to advocate, being truly and properly man and truly and properly God.
2) Interestingly we have a dynamic going on with God that is something we can picture as two-way. Because while Jesus is mankind’s advocate with the Father, the Holy Spirit is God’s Advocate on Earth with mankind. Jesus is also uniquely qualified in another way to advocate, as he is both the priest and the sacrifice.
This from Hebrews 9:14 “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ [Jesus] who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”
As we come to Jesus, in our initial relationship with him, in prayer, in our continuing relationship with him, our sins are forgiven. That forgiveness is something to truly celebrate; it is freedom, true freedom from sin and ultimately death. The wages for our sins have been paid, cashed up; the debt collector has no place calling. When you are reminded of forgiven sin; by the one who is our accuser in the spiritual realm, the devil, remind him that Jesus has already paid the price and advocated on your behalf with the Father. Celebrate this truth!
Now to completely head off for a moment or two in a different tack and I’m going to use an example that I never thought I would. Why do you support the Black Caps in cricket, and I know some people do? For those who aren’t into Cricket, why do you support the All Blacks?
Now those are all good answers but can I just say here that the reason you support either of those teams is because you are a New Zealander. If I was to ask a non-New Zealander who they support for instance Simone or Sala the answers would be who in Cricket? And The Springboks in Rugby for Simone. Manu Samoa in rugby for Sala. Am I right? The reason you support who you do is because of your nationality, this is what motivates your support for your team. So what is it that motivates you in your Christian walk?
Well John in this letter says things about God like this, “We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands” and “If anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” These are the words of John. So i living, we are to live as Jesus did, in relationship with the Father, without sin.
There are some huge implications in those words “if anyone obeys his word”. This is not something that is exclusive to a denomination, a race, an age group, a certain group that went to specific schools, studied theology or even limited to a group of people who fit the bill financially.
3) If anyone – who anyone? “If anyone obeys his word, love for God is complete in them.” Now this might be a bit of a shift in thinking for some and certainly was at this time. A good number of Jewish people believe that they were exclusively God’s people. At this time there was a group of people who believed everything made of matter, i.e. a) the human body was evil. The Spiritual - God was good that sort of makes sense. But, they also; b) believed that salvation came by escape from the body, and this was not achieved by faith in Jesus but by special knowledge or in Greek ‘gnosis’. The belief was called Gnosticism. c) They denied Jesus was human, that he just seemed to have a body and that the divine Christ joined the man Jesus at baptism and left before death. d) They also believed the body is evil and it should be treated harshly. There was also a few other interesting sort of beliefs tied up with Gnosticism also that allowed the believers in this thinking to behave immorally. John was confronting this in his letters and putting this type of thinking right.
John wanted believers to be assured that though Christ Jesus who he had seen, heard and touched, Jesus - God incarnate they had salvation if they were obedient and followed God’s word. Christianity was and is no exclusive club. “If anyone obeys his word, love for God is complete in them.”
So if anyone obeys! It appears obedience to God’s word is vital. There’s a story about a business man who was well known for his ruthless behaviour [who] once told Mark Twain, “Before I die I mean to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I will climb Mount Sinai and read the Ten Commandments aloud at the top.” Mark Twain said, “I have a better idea. You could stay in Boston and keep them.” (Illustration 105 in Something to Think About). Loving God, loving one another shows our love for God is complete.
John tells his, “dear friends” this, “I am not writing you a new commandment but an old one.” This was a message that they had already heard. It sounds a lot like our Corps Vision statement. For the old command is the great command, of “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ’Love your neighbour as yourself.’" (Luke 10:27). Love God, love one another! (SBI) Living for God, serving all people.
How, why? What motivates you to do this?
4) John puts it this way: “I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him [Jesus] and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.” Now there’s a fair old amount of flash English in that. So where does that leave us, take us, what was that about?
Well the new command is really living out the old command by “walking as Jesus did,” now this is not about long strides or having a skip in your step, or even walking with a group of disciples following you. Walk loving God and loving one another. Live for God serve all people. Often this walking is not done with our feet and legs but with our actions and the warmth of our words. We are to be motivated to act this way as we take up nationality in the Kingdom of Heaven, as heaven becomes our nation. As we find forgiveness of our sins. Just as we support the team of our earthly nation, we are to love God and support his people as we come into kingdom living.
So who are God’s people? Well if my brother and sister are believers I guess that it includes them but what if they are not, does it? We are called to walk as Jesus did, he shared his God’s kingdom with the Romans, with the Samaritans, men, women and children, Jews and gentiles, the least, today Jesus invites every person into his kingdom. The light of Jesus is shining in the lives of those being served by his followers, those who are motivated by the forgiveness of the King of Heaven. Those who practise the grace of God they have been shown.
5) The ones who live in the darkness are those who hate, their neighbour, their brother or sister that they know or are even yet to meet, those that ignore need and God’s call to do something for others. I ask why they stay in the darkness when the darkness is already passing and the true light is shining. John answers this way “They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.”
So they stumble, darkness and lies trip them.
There are even some people within churches who are bent out of shape, the term is twisted! Twisted over something someone has done or said to them, twisted because they hold God responsible for something that happened. There are others who judge people harshly not knowing their circumstances.
Love God, love one another and when you do the love of God in you is complete. You walk in the light of life. Walk in the knowledge of your forgiveness.
John started the chapter by saying why he wrote “so that you will not sin.” He spends a few verses again reminding the reader that their sins are forgiven, because they know him who is from the beginning, and because they have overcome the evil one. Because they know God the Father and his son Jesus who is from the beginning; because they are strong, and the word of God lives in them, and they have overcome the evil one.
The recipients of John’s letter were a people who were loyal and committed to Jesus Christ accepting forgiveness through their knowledge of Jesus atoning sacrifice, walking in his light and they had defeated the darkness of evil in the world. Loving God, loving one another! They were victorious, motivated and living for the kingdom of God.
So what motivates your actions of love, is it love for God because of sins forgiven, is it actions of love for others because of the act of love of Jesus for you. None of this is a huge thing.
But it is the biggest thing! For in living this way the love of God in you is complete.
If we act in ways that support others by our actions, lifting the down trodden, perhaps buying the fairtrade chocolate or bunch of bananas at a cost that is more for our pocket but does great things to reform society and the world. We are showing love.
Freeing the oppressed is to walk as Jesus walked! Did you know that worldwide every year, 800 000 humans are trafficked. Every year and seventy seven percent of them are female. It does not sound much if you say it fast but that’s twice the population of Christchurch with Blenheim and Queenstown added for good measure The value of a female human life is between $1000.00 and $16000.00, often they are trafficked to be sex slaves. These are lives that don’t get choice, don’t sleep in a warm comfortable bed after a nourishing meal. When they can no longer preform they are often disposed of. The figures came from the English Salvation Army web site. (http://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/Trafficking) Grim statistics, but as we are made aware, we are able to show love for others by being involved in the fight to stop such things.
Famine in the world continues, World Vision have partnership programmes going on with governments and the United Nations that mean for “every dollar donated they can distribute six dollars of life-saving food or other aid to extremely vulnerable children and their families.” (Personal correspondence from World Vision; 17 August 2012). They go onto say that one eighty dollar donation allows eleven families to be feed for a month in many countries.
All big things, even small ones such as reaching out to a lonely neighbour, a struggling class mate, a new work colleague, being their friend. Sharing the message of hope that is the gospel of Jesus Christ the light of the world, with friends and family in a caring; non condemning way and perhaps pulling someone back from the very gates of hell, and introducing them to citizenship in the Kingdom of God. All these things show you are living as Jesus did and that the love of God in you is complete.
What would motivate you to do this, the love God has shown you, in forgiving your sins, your being a citizen of the kingdom of heaven?
There are only two thoughts I would like to leave you with this week – Love God, love one another. This is how Jesus walked, this is his game plan.
