Several years ago I traded at a dry cleaner that has since gone out of business. One week I intended to drop off my clothes, but for some reason or other I never stopped by. Finally, on my way to the office that Friday morning, I had time. When I walked in, two ladies were at the counter. They turned, smiled, and moved aside for me to put my clothes on the counter. That is when I saw the Bible they were holding. Apparently feeling awkward to continue their witness, they left. The dry cleaning lady knew me and knew I was a Baptist pastor. I, too, had talked to her about God. She told me the two women were Jehovah’s Witnesses. They came by every week to talk to her. She did not believe the things they taught, but she did not want to be rude. I said, “Yes, you want to stay away from that.” She had grown up in a Baptist church but did not really hold to any particular church at the time. I told her that the main issue in determining if a religious teaching is true is what they teach about Jesus: do not be sidetracked by discussions on the reality of heaven, or hell, or any other topic; keep it on Jesus. Make them explain clearly what they teach about Jesus. If they are wrong about Jesus, it does not matter what they are right about. The book of 1 John helps me understand this truth.
The practical nature of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John goes beyond religious questions. These letters apply to events as current as Denny Hastert, the former Speaker of the House, and his lying to the FBI to cover up extortion payments for sexual misconduct. Bruce Jenner would probably have made a very different decision about his sexuality if he knew the teaching of these books. Have you ever wondered how smart people can make such foolish decisions? They either do not know, or refuse to follow, the guidelines in John’s letters.
John is writing to the churches of Asia Minor, which is present-day Turkey. The churches are being divided by false teachers. John gives them the evidence of true faith. The basic message of 1 John is, if you have a personal relationship with God in Christ, the outgrowth of that relationship is truth, love, and morality.
1 John is the most difficult book in the New Testament to outline, because John speaks in concentric circles. What I mean is that the first circle is on obedience, and then John transitions to a discussion on love which leads to right belief. Then he picks up those subjects again and gives more detail, finally doing this a third time.
Here is an outline to help you see these circles, and to help you know what is happening as you read 1 John.
I. Obedience as Evidence of Faith (1:1-2:6; 2:28-3:10; 5:4-21)
II. Love as Evidence of Faith (2:7-17; 3:11-24; 4:7-5:3)
III. Right Belief as Evidence of Faith (2:18-27; 4:1-6)
These three evidences are rooted in three assertions John makes about God. He says God is light: God reveals righteousness and the way to live holy lives. God is love: people who have this God living within them will love Him and others. God is truth: people who believe this will believe correctly about God. God is light, God is love, and God is truth. People who have fellowship with God will be moral, loving, and believe correctly about Jesus Christ.
John has three cycles of applying these three tests, and mentions four purposes of the cycles in this letter. Please open your Bible to 1 John, and I will show them to you:
1. To have fellowship with believers and God (1:3)
2. To experience full joy (1:4)
3. To prevent sinning (2:1)
4. To give assurance of salvation (5:13)
The overall message of 1 John is a personal relationship with God through Christ, which is revealed in having the right belief about Jesus, loving God and others, and living a righteous, moral life. The outcome of living this way is fellowship with God and others, joy, holy living, and confidence about your salvation.
There are four kinds of people here this morning. There are those who are saved, and know they are saved. There are those who are saved, but are uncertain of their salvation. There are those who think they are saved, but are not. (I have read a quote by Billy Graham where he believes this category describes half of all church members in the United States.) Lastly, there are those who think they are not saved, and are not. 1 John will clarify where a person stands in his relationship with God.
The first evidence of someone having true faith is obedience.
I. OBEDIENCE AS EVIDENCE OF FAITH (1 JOHN 1:5-10; 2:28-29; 5:18)
One example is 1 John 1:5-10:
(5) Now this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him. (6) If we say, "We have fellowship with Him," yet walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. (7) But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. (8) If we say, "We have no sin," we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (9) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (10) If we say, "We don’t have any sin," we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
Another example is 1 John 2:28-29:
(28) So now, little children, remain in Him, so that when He appears we may have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. (29) If you know that He is righteous, you know this as well: Everyone who does what is right has been born of Him.
A third example is 1 John 5:18:
(18) We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the One who is born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.
Saeed Abedini is an American pastor from Boise, Idaho. Pastor Saeed was visiting his family and the secular orphanages he had started in his native Iran, when the Iranian government pulled him off a bus to face charges of breaking Muslim law by evangelizing. The court declared him guilty, and he is sentenced to eight years in prison. I heard his wife tell in an interview that her husband has missed the last three birthdays of their children. Because pastor Saeed is a Christian, the jailers have beaten, tortured, and denied him medical care. He is being held in one of the worst prisons on earth. His actions under extreme conditions reveal that he is a true believer in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of the world.
Some people who claim to be Christians are humble and generous. Others are selfish, greedy, and judgmental. Both say they trust Jesus, both think they trust Jesus, but their actions reveal what they truly believe. Actions produce two different kinds of people.
John is saying that the best indicator of our true beliefs and our true devotion to Christ are our actions. We might say we believe something, but do not do it. We might think we believe something is true, but cave when the pressure is on. We never violate our true beliefs.
One of the tests John gives to get at the truth of what our fellowship with Jesus is really like is obedience. The best indicator of our true beliefs and our true devotion to Christ are our actions. When you evaluate your past week, what priority would your actions reveal you give to Jesus? Look at your speech: He said stop passing judgment on others. He taught that you are to look out for others instead of always looking out for number one. He taught that we are not to lie, nor discriminate between the rich and the poor. What does the obedience test reveal about your fellowship with Jesus?
The second evidence of true faith in Jesus is love.
II. LOVE AS EVIDENCE OF FAITH (1 JOHN 2:15-17; 3:10b-15; 4:7-8)
(15) Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. (16) For everything that belongs to the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one's lifestyle—is not from the Father, but is from the world. (17) And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God's will remains forever.
John comes back to the subject of love in 3:11, but we will begin in verse 10b:
(10b) Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother. (11) For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another, (12) unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil, and his brother's were righteous. (13) Do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you. (14) We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death. (15) Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.
Next, he writes this passage in 4:7:
(7) Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. (8) The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Sometimes Christianity is accused of being just a bunch of rules and commands. Yes, there are a lot of rules and commands, but did you ever wonder why we have rules and commands? What we discover in the Bible is that the rules and commands were not meant to tell us what to do and what not to do; they were given to us to show us how to draw close to God and relate to Him. This is true in other areas of life. Rules and commands are given to help us achieve what we want to accomplish. For example, in order to be the best, the best athletes and the best students put in more time and effort than their peers. Their discipline is the means to achieving their goal: victory and/or excellence.
The people of Israel came to Joshua and said they wanted to follow God’s commands. Joshua turned them down. He rightly said they did not have what it would take; they would turn away from God, so they should not commit to it. Israel insisted they truly wanted to love God and follow Him. So what did Joshua have them do to express this desire of love? He led them to be bound to a covenant to follow God.
I come home, ring the doorbell, and Carol answers. I pull from behind my back a beautiful bouquet of flowers, almost sending her into a faint. She says, “Ed, you shouldn’t have! In fact, you never have. Why did you do this?” I answer, “Well, it is my duty!”
Anybody want to guess her response? Me neither. But suppose I say, “You are the love of my life. There is nothing I enjoy more than our sweet fellowship.” Anybody want to guess her response now?
Christianity does not start with rules, but the rules make sense. They are put in place for us to fulfill our desire to love God, not to coerce our love for God.
Is your Christianity described by desire or duty? Have you lost your first love, or is there this yearning to know God more? One test of God’s love is we love like He loves. He loves people. He loves the church. Do you love people and the church?
The third test of true faith is right belief.
III. RIGHT BELIEF AS EVIDENCE OF FAITH (2:22-23; 4:1-3)
(22) Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. (23) No one who denies the Son can have the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well.
True to his method, John brings this up again in 4:1:
(1) Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (2) This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. (3) But every spirit who does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist; you have heard that he is coming, and he is already in the world now.
The fundamental test of the professing Christian concerns what a person believes about Jesus. Imposters either diminish the humanity or deity of Jesus. The real Christian goes beyond believing Jesus is the Son of God, Savior of the world, and Lord of the universe. The real Christian has a relationship with Christ that shows up in their behavior.
Jesus is the criteria we use to evaluate every teaching or way of life that comes our way. We reject the evangelism of the young Mormon elders or the woman and child of the Jehovah’s Witness, because they reject the full deity and full humanity of Jesus. We reject the casual sex of Hollywood productions, because Jesus said that to even look at a woman with lust is to commit adultery, and it is He who determines our morality. We reject materialism that takes every dime and spends it on accumulating things, but ignores the desperate plight of others’ suffering. We know that a new world is coming, and we live for eternal values. Christ shapes our view of the future.
Professor Douglass John Hall taught systematic theology at McGill University in Canada. Many students would show up at his office to ask him questions about the theology he taught. One of those students asked, “Why Christian?” In a world of so many spiritual options, and in a world with so many reasons given for rejecting any religion, why choose Christianity? The question could have been easily answered from his vast knowledge of the Bible and apologetics. Instead he wrote to the student, “I confess, I [am answering] as much for myself as for you. You made me realize that after all these years I needed to face that question in the quite basic and personal way you put it to me.”
Something like that happened inside of me during Vacation Bible School this year. I was explaining to third through fifth graders the gospel: God loves them, sin separates them, and Jesus provides them forgiveness. He lived a sinless life, died on the cross for their sins so they could be forgiven, and then He came back from the dead three days later. It hit me again: there is no one else in all of human history like Jesus. Only Jesus conquered the dead. Only God can do that.
Why Christianity? When I am standing over a corpse, that question takes on an altogether different meaning. I can say to a family that if this person was a believer and if you are believers, you will see them again. I can tell them this person’s destiny: they are in heaven with Jesus. I can tell them they are free of the suffering and sin of this world. No Imam, Hindu or Buddhist priest, or Jewish rabbi has such confidence. The reason for this confidence is the belief that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man; anything less puts that confidence at risk. The truth is that choosing Christ is not just a matter of rearing or preference. The proofs of Christ are undeniable to anyone who is willing to be objective.
There are three tests for the evidence that you have saving faith: obedience, love, and faith. Is there enough evidence to convict you in a court of law that you are a genuine Christian? What about in the courtroom of your own heart?
There are four kinds of people here this morning. There are those who are Christians, and they know they are Christians. There are those who think they are Christians, but are not. There are those are Christians, but think they are not. There are those who are not Christians, and know they are not. Which one are you?
According to John you are to be certain where you stand with God. 1 John 5:13 says, “I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
In the back of the chair is a connection card. If you are having questions about your faith and your relationship with God, write that on the card and turn it in; give me some contact information. Only two people will see the card and they will give it to me. God meant for you to be confident in your relationship with Him. Do not go another day wondering; let us talk.
1. Step By Step Through The New Testament, Thomas Lea & Tom Hudson, p. 203.
2. Love and Rules, www.rzim.org, Nathan Betts, November 13, 2014.
