MESSAGE – THE TWO PILLARS OF GODLY SUPPORT: BELIEF AND LOVE - 1John 3:23
We will be looking at a verse in the first letter of John but just to place it into context we will look at 4 verses – {{1 John 3 v 21-24, but it is verse 23 that is our focus. 1John 3 v 21 “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God, 1John 3:22 and whatever we ask we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight, 1John 3:23 AND THIS IS HIS COMMANDMENT, THAT WE BELIEVE IN THE NAME OF HIS SON JESUS CHRIST AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER, JUST AS HE COMMANDED US. 1John 3:24 The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.”}}
THE FIRST PILLAR - BELIEF
There are two verbs of importance in verse 23. The first is “believe” – “believe in the Name of His Son, Jesus Christ”, and the second is “love” – “love one another”. The first verb is wider than the second. It is God’s commandment that we believe. Is this just for Christians, for John wrote this to Christians? No, it can’t be, because Christians are believers and believe already. There is a sense where Christians must keep on believing, and in that understanding, it means to keep on trusting. It is a failing by some, that in their early days with the Lord, they keep trusting like a child who keeps walking with a parent, hand in hand, but after a while, drops that hand, and goes it alone. Some Christians, when they are more established, very imperceptibly, lessen the trust in the Lord, and place it more in their own ability and decision-making. Not consciously, but bit by bit, they take back control of their own lives, and wonder why God seems absent.
The very worst situation is when you take control of your own life, and then try to take control of God’s people. It is vital that our continual trust in God is the same as when we first used that God-given trust to put our lives in God’s hands at the start. Our end must be as our start – focussed, child-like faith, or trust in our Saviour.
John writes to Christians in his letter, not to unbelievers, so the primary application of believing in His Son, Jesus Christ, is for Christians and in the sense I just stated – the ongoing measure of believing. We begin by faith; we must end the same way. There is a very sobering verse in the New Testament – {{Hebrews 3 v 12 “Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart in falling away from the living God,”}}
To transfer continual trust from God to our own efforts, spells disaster, not only for us, but for others. However, I feel this commandment John speaks about in this verse, the commandment to believe, is also wider than just for Christians. It is for the whole world. In Acts 17 v 30, God is declaring through Paul – {{“Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent.”}} Repentance leads to faith and trust. The great gospel verse of John 3 v 16 has the same theme. It is encumbered on men to believe; and to believe not, is to one’s own peril.
MAN IS WITHOUT EXCUSE
To assist mankind, God has placed before mankind, such a display of His power and wonders, that any rational, honest person, can only make one conclusion – that there is a God, and He rewards those who seek Him earnestly. Romans 1 concludes all people guilty if anyone rejects the declaration of God in creation. Man gropes in his own utter foolishness to dismiss God. The continual discoveries in the universe of colossal power and majesty, is clearly before this generation as never before. The discovery of the absolute complexity of life through the analysis of DNA and the double helix, is astounding – all in our generation.
The unexplained behaviour and insight of plants and animals is put down to random evolution. Who taught the sun bird to build its nest? What school did baby sunbirds go to, to learn? Who taught a flock of birds to dart effortlessly at great speed through a tangle of branches? What aviation certificate did they study for? Who taught the salmon such skills that it is able to return from the ocean to the very stream where it was born? Do they all study cartography at university? I could go on all day about the absolute marvels of creation; and all this dismissed by those who try to tell us that life arrived on earth on some comet. Of course, the searing heat of friction when entering the atmosphere, would have melted it so much that any organic compound that might have been on the comet in the first place, would have been instantly destroyed. The evolutionists say that life developed from the slime in a pond. Slime is also life, so where did the slime come from?
Man is without excuse. God commands that all believe. He who believes has eternal life, and he who does not believe, does not have life, but the wrath of God abides on him, and he will have all eternity in hell to think about the majesty of God. Don’t be one of those. Repent while there is time given to you. God is not mocked; whatever a man or woman sows, that they will reap also.
Belief does not stand without an objective. It must have a target, a focus point, a loci. The word “believe” is used so carelessly these days such as in, “I believe it was around July sometime.” That is so misapplied. Belief in the biblical sense is always connected with commitment. Abraham believed God and his faith was counted as righteousness. In John’s gospel, the expression used over and over “believe in” uses the Greek preposition “eis”. “eis” is best understood as “into”; into the heart of, so “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is to believe “into” Jesus Christ.
Picture it this way – a person sits on a seat outside a specialised zoo for the rarest of animals, and says, “I believe in those wonderful, rare life forms in that zoo. I know they are all real and so extraordinary. I believe in that zoo.” He then gets up and goes home. Another person sits outside that zoo and says, “I believe in those wonderful, rare life forms in that zoo. I know they are all real and so extraordinary. I believe in that zoo.” He gets up and goes inside to experience all those wonders. What is the difference between those two persons? They said the same thing, didn’t they? Well, no, they did not! They both said, “I believe in those wonderful, rare life forms in that zoo”, but one used “eis” - “I believe into those wonderful, rare life forms in that zoo.” Belief must result in a committed action. Too many professing Christians have head knowledge, but not the trust commitment.
THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE GOSPEL
In our verse 23 it says, “that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ”. The commitment must be to the Name, and all that Name stands for. God declares this about that Name – {{“God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the Name which is above every name, Phil. 2:10 that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, Phil. 2:11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11).}} That Name is Jesus Christ, His salvation, His abiding Presence, and everything else that is associated with that glorious Name. We must believe into Him, and that sincerity of belief must be ever ongoing, and in humility and in honesty.
Not all who confess to believe in Jesus are genuine. The road to their experience was faulty. If it is not done God’s way, but by the scheme of man, then it is a false gospel. There is a large church in Sydney that likes to boast that each year another 3 000 or so are joined to the church, but its numbers remain somewhere around the 5 000 mark. How can that be? Well, for the simple reason that while 3 000 came in through the front door, 3 000 exited through the back door. How can that be? Well, when examined as some have done, it is found the gospel is one of “easy-believism”. That is, get entertained by the hype, and noise and carrying on, then respond to a call to “just believe in Jesus”. That gospel is nothing more than a type of acknowledgement of who Jesus is. It might be the gospel of assenting to the figure of Jesus, but it is not a gospel of service-commitment through the conviction of the Holy Spirit and repentance of sins. In time, the whole Christian confession holds little depth or meaning, making the back door very appealing. In the parable of the sower, these are the ones who fell among the rocky places and sprang up then died away.
Two things I want to emphasise to you. (1). Never lessen or lighten the cost to the Saviour of our salvation, or the depth He had to go to procure our salvation. Read Psalms 22 and 69 to gain an insight into these prayers of Christ from the cross. (2). Never falsify the road to the cross. In other words, NEVER lessen the steps of conviction, repentance, belief and commitment for those wishing to be saved. Do not have any part in making illegitimate children in the spiritual sense, who have a false hope of heaven and don’t belong to the Lord. Spurious belief is the way of man. Saving belief is God’s way. {{John 3 v 36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”}} In that verse, the “in” in “believe in” is this preposition “eis” again. Helps Ministry which does bible word studies defines “eis” as this ? [[eis (a preposition) – properly, into (unto) – literally, "motion into which" implying penetration ("unto," "union") to a particular purpose or result.]]
Now, just to end this first part, the command in verse 23 of our verse for this morning, is to believe in the Name of His Son, and it is implied that we must keep on believing. Having begun the walk well, let us finish well.
THE SECOND PILLAR - LOVE
PART 2 - AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER, JUST AS HE COMMANDED US.
The second theme of the verse we are considering is that we love one another just as He commanded us. Two questions arise here. Where did the Lord command us to love one another? and “How do we love one another?”
This is where the Lord commanded us to love – {{John 13 v 34 A new commandment I give to you that you love one another, that you also love one another even as I have loved you.” And also here - John 15 v 12 “This is My commandment that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” And here as well - John 15 v 17 “This I command you, that you love one another.”}}
We don’t have to struggle with the bible to find references to loving one another. Where do you think the first one is found? Of course, it is in the 10 Commandments, repeated by the Lord Himself in this exchange – {{Matthew 22 v 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Matt 22:37 He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ Matt 22:38 This is the great and foremost commandment. Matt 22:39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ Matt 22:40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”}}
Love covers a multitude of sins meaning it is not continually judgemental. However the opposite is very true. Love does not excuse sin, or lessen it, or make excuses for sinfulness, or dismiss sin. Love must hold sin to account. That is totally portrayed in Jesus who did not excuse man’s sin, but His love prevailed to make a way for the sin of mankind to be forgiven. Sin condemns. Love seeks to find the solution. The ugliness of sin was on display at Calvary, but the love of God conquered that ugliness. It did not lessen that ugliness, but it raised itself up to overcome sin forever, and to defeat its effect for those who are saved in the Lord Jesus Christ. For the ones not in Christ, sin still has the mastery and rules the lives of the unconverted. However, just to stress again, through love, sin is defeated in the believer, for the one who is in Christ is a new creation, and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Love carries with it responsibility. The one who is loved must live in responsibility.
HOW DO WE LOVE ONE ANOTHER?
Now to look at the second question I asked a little while back - “How do we love one another?” This comes into the area of practical Christianity. I guess a basic start is to say we love in thought and deed. In thinking about a fellow believer, we don’t wish bad things to happen to him or her, or for ourselves to become more important or more popular. Our thought attitude should be to desire the very best for the other person, and pray God would bless each one as a brother or sister. To wish evil on someone is of the devil. To leave a wrong with God is a Christian action, for vengeance is Mine says the Lord. About 2 years ago some bicycle people stole about $120 or $140 from my car. Even yesterday, the thought came back into my head. For a quick second the wrong conclusion flashed past me – “May something happen to them,” but it is only momentary, and the matter is handed to God. I know in the long term they can’t gain from that. It is not so much about them as it is about me.
Loving one another has both a mental and practical side, but both these sides are to be controlled by a spirituality that is governed by the Holy Spirit. I have covered a little bit of the mental side, but it is in the practical aspect where many struggle to be effective. To understand that better, I think some of the biblical examples will help. If we had to choose a passage from the bible dealing with our own position on love, where would we go? There are dozens of excellent passages, but probably the best known passage on love is that in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. I want to read that from the NASB –
1Corinthians 13 v 1 “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal, 1Cor 13:2 and if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 1Cor 13:3 If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. 1Cor 13:4 Love is patient. Love is kind, and is not jealous. Love does not brag and is not arrogant, 1Cor 13:5 does not act unbecomingly. It does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 1Cor 13:6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. 1Cor 13:7 (It) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1Cor 13:8 Love never fails but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away. If there are tongues, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will be done away. 1Cor 13:9 We know in part, and we prophesy in part, 1Cor 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 1Cor 13:11 When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child. When I became a man, I did away with childish things. 1Cor 13:12 Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known. 1Cor 13:13 Now abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.”
The Apostle John says a lot of things about love applying to Christians. Tradition says that when John was very old – and he wrote the Gospel and Revelation when he was around 96 – that he was carried to the gathering of Christians at Ephesus where he lived his last days after Patmos, and all he would say was “Love one another.” That is John’s theme in his three last letters, especially the first of them. Love is outgoing. Love leads to submission. Love is continual. We love God because He first loved us. May the Lord instruct us. Amen.
HERE IS A TRUE INCIDENT REPORTED ON THE NEWS –
“A Saudi-Arabian woman loved her husband so much that she donated one of her eyes so that he could see. The operation was a success, but in only a short time he rejected his wife for another woman and divorced his wife.
Why? Because, he said, he could not stand the sight of her without her eye! Immediately on hearing this I wrote a poem” –
HIS HANDS, HIS FEET AND HIS BROW
Blessed wounds of the Saviour
In His hands, His feet and brow,
Speak to me of love's endurance.
And tell how much I love Him now.
Hands that made the universe;
Touched the blind, the lame and deaf -
Tireless hands that worked salvation,
Worked for others and not for self.
Roughly-fashioned iron spikes,
Centred through His palms were nailed;
Displayed Him naked to the world,
For mankind’s sins He was impaled.
* * *
Feet that spanned the universe,
Walked in gentle steps, Earth’s ground.
Washed by Mary in devotion;
Carried Him where sinners were bound.
Roman soldiers drove a spike -
Pierced His feet and anchored Him.
Knew nothing of the reason why.
Judgment and sins met at the brim.
* * *
Glory of the universe;
On His brow that glory shines.
Perfumed oil that brow anointed;
Sweetness cascading down in lines.
Flexible lengths were woven,
By soldiers of coarse, sharp thorn.
Man’s diadem upon His brow -
Mockery! “Their king” they adorn.
* * *
Israel will ask Him one day,
Of the wounds in His hands and feet.
“Received in the house of My friends,
When all they showed Me was conceit.”
Face and form were marred for me.
Bore my sins upon the tree.
E'en if His eyes He'd given for me,
I'd love Him for eternity.
(Ron Ferguson. Copyright but can be used for Christian service)
God bless you all. May the love of God be your occupation for all your lives.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
