We know - we obey - we have confidence! 1 John 3:16-24
There’s this thing about love that is a feeling thing and I know I’ve discussed all sorts of love songs and their meanings before and the thoughts of love that people have for love another. I was somewhere recently where there was a conversation that came up that was about love, but it occurred to me how it quickly became a conversation about the physical, the kind if what I can get out of it side of things.
Did you know that there are some people whose perception of love is wrapped up in just the physical, that there is no understanding of love as anything other than an act of getting by giving? They believe that love is to do with a two way transaction…there is this thinking, that if I am to receive love, I am to give it and for someone to receive my love they must first agree to love me back.
The scriptures however point out that this kind of love is not the genuine article. Real love, the real deal, the love that is patient and kind that does not envy, that does not boast, that is not proud, or rude or self-seeking or easily angered, that holds no record of wrongs and all that 1 Corinthians 13 stuff about love.
John the Apostle in his letters says something that explains how we know what love is. John was possibly the only surviving apostle at the time he wrote this about love in 1 John 3:16-24, he had seen love displayed by the other Apostles as they gave their lives over to God, as they were martyred for Christ. A little bit of background on John was he was the only apostle not to be martyred and it’s quite likely he was Jesus first cousin. This whole cousin thing apparently puts a bit of a spin on the Judas kissing Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane as it is thought by some scholars that the two looked very much alike. But I’ve wandered from my point, what is love, ‘love is a many splendid thing’-but what is the real deal about love?
1) “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.”(vs 16)
Yip he did but what does that mean. Well for a start Jesus was not a martyr! He was more than that. In laying down his life he defeated sin and death because of his being truly and properly God and truly and properly man. This from the New Living Translation of the Bible. 1 Corinthians 15:55-57.
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?
For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
So we know what love is because Jesus laid down his life for us, this is a one way act of giving. It’s giving to the undeserving. It’s that kind of thing where we see someone in need, we give to them without the expectation of receiving anything in return. Now days it is seen in small ways in things such as a random act of kindness such as paying someone’s parking meter money or dropping some money through a needy persons letter box. It’s that kind of thing like, we have something and we know someone has a genuine need for it and we give it to them without expecting a return. This is an act of true love. So John this great man of God challenges his readers to see need and meet it. For this is what Jesus did, he saw the need of humanity to be free from sin and death and laid down his life so that the whole huckery bunch of us could be free.
2) Why did the Apostle John issue the challenge to the readers of his letter to respond to those in need? Because believe it or not; there were some people back in the day who gave lip serve to loving others, these people even went to Church and made all the right noises, they blessed and welcomed one another at the door, they sang all the hymns and songs of praise… but they ignored the injustice and needs of others around them. I’m so pleased that the church has moved on since then.
Their words spoken of love tended to drift off some cold and frosty breeze leaving behind the empty chill of sockless shoes, or the aching stomach of the person who had a need for a feed. These people praised God but ignored the need for warmth and a belly full of nutrition that their neighbours required.
By the love of Christ we know the truth of love! And by acting to stamp out injustice and meet material needs we know that we belong to the truth.
Remember there is no return on this investment to us personally but eternally and for the kingdom of God here on earth, dividends are paid, lives are changed and people become citizens of the King of Kings as they encounter Christ through the genuine generous actions of believers They too come to believe and encounter The Holy Spirit at work in their lives, advocating, helping, comforting them for they now know that God is their friend.
Because of Jesus we know what love is, we know that we belong to the truth because we give expecting no personal gain. Remember you don’t have to be a wealthy philanthropist to make a difference. Time for the lonely, a word of encouragement, a meal for the hungry or gentle encouragement of to struggling soul can make a considerable difference in a life where these things are lacking. Is this what we do as individuals; is this what we do as community? As we act in ways that bring an encounter with Jesus into the lives of those who don’t have him.
If we do there is no need for us to be feeling anything but joy that the Kingdom is coming to earth as it is in heaven. This leaves us in a place of confidence before God.
William Booth our first General was a remarkable man; I have recently been reading a book that was published last year on his visions, with strangely enough the name “William Booth’s Amazing Visions”. In it the editor David Ravenhill mentions that “For far too long the Body of Christ [for the untrained in Christian jargon that is the church] For far too long the Body of Christ has been asleep on the job while the harvest rots in the fields. The enemy [the devil] has blinded our eyes to the desperate needs around us and caused us to focus on temporal things rather than the eternal values we have been called to live by.”
Now that said it is estimated that two million souls were brought to the Lord through General Booths ministry. Two million souls, I have been thinking how get it would be in my ministry to led two thousand souls to the Lord, I now think it could be I think to small, two hundred thousand!. In the book General Booth describes how he has a vision of heaven where he talks of how he had attended church, visited with friends, the sick and in fact considered himself quite a shining light. These are his words as he recalled his vision. “But I seldom considered the claims of Jesus Christ and the poor, sinning, suffering world about me.” He goes onto mention that he “went on from day to day hoping that all would turn out well at the last.”
The vision he had related to an illness. This was a vision he had while he was the leader of The Salvation, the vision of a man who was daily leading people to the Lord. In the vision he ended up in heaven and we hear of people having these out of body post death type encounters. This is what he recalls in part. “A strange faintness seized me, destroying my consciousness…I was in heaven!” In heaven he was “reminded how, instead of fighting God’s battles, saving souls by bringing them to His feet. And so preparing them for admission to this lovely place, I had been intent on earthly things, selfishly seeking my own carnal interests, worrying about my own personal cares and anxieties, and spending my life in practical unbelief, disloyalty, and disobedience to all my most sacred obligations.” He then had a thought, “would it be possible for me to obtain a commission, or rather a permission, to go back to the world, to that very part of it from which I had come, clothed in some human form and live my life over again; live it in a manner worthy of my profession of Christ.”
Now I don’t know about you but I found that reasonably challenging. In fact I found that as one who knows what love is, as one who knows that I belong to the truth that there was a fair amount of truth in the Generals vision and realisation as to being tied up in my own reality that struck home and rattled my cage and my confidence before God. So how do we have confidence?
3) The Apostle John points out “we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.” The confidence comes from knowing that what we do is pleasing to God.
Now you may have picked up a line there about “receiving from him anything we ask.” The things to ask for are Spiritual fruits, Spiritual gifts, and necessary provision for living not in my case Mark One Zephyrs, not a twelve pound trout on the first cast or on any cast, not fame and fortune and everything that goes with it; But things necessary for life, things given by The Holy Spirit, things that are like they are in heaven, things that bring others to Christ.
So we know what love is, we know that we belong to the truth and we obey God, and have confidence before God! We know - we obey - we have confidence! (SBI)
As John the Apostle says “Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: we know it by the Spirit he gave us.” (vs 24). We know - we obey - we have confidence! (SBI)
We are established in Christ when we first come to him and confess that we need him in our lives, confessing also that sin that has been in our lives that sin that he has defeated is through our confession defeated. We are made new in Him.
I want to throw out a challenge today to those of you who may have had your confidence a little shaken by the challenging words of John. It is this, to ensure that you do know, as through obedience you play your part in changing the world around you, conforming it not to your own wants but to the needs of those who are currently part of that rotting crop that is ready to be harvested. As you share with them you’re your time and resources, of your knowledge of salvation. Then you will have confidence. For we know that when we obey we have that confidence!
For those who are not yet part of the Kingdom of God, who are not yet aware of their possibilities in Christ I ask you is it time you joined in His work? So that you too may know that God lives in you? If so we have a place of prayer a place to come and lay your life before God. Please come to the love and freedom that is found in Christ Jesus. Come to a life of confidence.
