Caricatures: Drawn with similarities to the real thing but distorted(Nose, eyebrows, eyes, mouth, hair, ears). Rarely are they mistaken for the real thing, except in Christianity. The work of the devil is always to twist and distort the truth into something close but far enough away to be of no value.
1. Caricature that Christianity is primarily a
religion concerned about the behavior of men while
the real picture is that it is not so much behavior
as it is being. Character & behavior change as a
result of our being new creatures in Christ.
2. Caricature that Christianity has a negative
attitude towards life: don’t do that, stop doing
that while the genuine article is that in a
relationship with Jesus Christ we discover the
secret to the fullest, freest, most satisfying life
that could possibly be experienced.
3. Caricature that Christianity is a mere collection
of myths, legends, and stories gathered around the
figure of Jesus Christ but the real truth is that
the actions of God in history can be tested by the
normal means of testing evidence and they form a
sold ground of faith.
4. Caricature that the goal of Christianity is a
heaven filled with starchy, stiff, hymn singing
saints while the real truth is the effect it has on
our lives now.
All these distortions and others have been effective in keeping us from what the Apostle John is most concerned about as he writes: That we are missing out on the life that God desires for us. Koinonia - Real Fellowship.
John’s epistle is written to warn us of the things we allow into our lives that build barriers between our experience and this kind of life.
a. Maintaining fellowship with Jesus Christ is the secret to living the abundant Christian life.
Verse 5 ’in him has the love of God been truly perfected’ This is the supreme goal of the Christian life. It is what John describes in verses 7-11.
Word are like coins, they can be in circulation for such a long time that the begin to wear out. ’I love my wife…..I love the Rams(I love you more than hocky!)….I love Strawberry Pie…..I love, l love….. Greeks would have bristled at the idea of using the same word to express such a deep relationship being used to express such a trivial one. Reason they had 5 different words for love.
a. Goal of our walk with Christ is to live in perfected love. An Agape attitude towards others. It is an evidence our our walking in Real Fellowship with Christ.
Fellowship with God means keeping God’s Great Command (7) Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. (8) On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.
(If you are not confused at this point then let me help to confuse you)
1. I am not writing a new commandment to you…..on the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you… Strange contradiction.
a. John says this is an old commandment which is really a new commandment?
R.G. LEE ’This commandment was old when the pyramids were new’
b. This is the commandment to love others: It is as old as the Pentateuch(5 books of Moses) Leviticus 19:18 You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
1) Jesus reminded the disciples of this principle when they asked what was the greatest commandment of all(He threw this one is for free)
MT 22:36-40 Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law? And 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. This is the great and foremost commandment. ANNNNNND The second is like it,(This is like loving God) ’You shall love your neighbor as yourself’(Done it to the least of these). On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.(You cannot love God without loving one another!)
c. QUESTION: How is this also a new commandment?
1. In upper room at Last Supper Jesus says in JN 13:34 ’So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other.(How is that new?) Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Then he pushes it farther by adding in Verse 35 ’By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another’.
2. It is not easy to love one another: Christians are some of the hardest people to love. Hard to love family. My brothers were the hardest people on this earth to love, mean as snakes, only thing they were more than mean was ugly. They had a need right now, I would sell my car to help(easy to say when you own a Geo with engine noise)
Disciples must have been hard to love: Peter was always boasting, he was overbearing and unreliable. James and John ’sons of thunder’ were spoiled and selfish. Wanted to call down fire on people, brought mom to try to talk Jesus into giving them the top two spots in the kingdom. Thomas would believe anything. He called Judas a devil. At one point Jesus must have been at the end when He said, ’How much longer must I put up with you’! You ever want to say that after being in church?
Luke 17:3-4 ’If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents forgive him; and if he sins against you seven times in one day, and repents, then seven times you are to forgive him’. You got to believe these guys were looking at each other and thinking of how hard it was to forgive even once. People in churches who have been at odds, been out of church, been carrying bitterness over one offence. The disciple response to Jesus is ’Lord, increase our faith!’
2. Key is the word ’New’: Greek word kaine.
a. It is not the word means new in an arithmetical sense, something added but it means to be new in quality instead of new in time.
b. Jesus added to this commandment of love to love, ’Just as I have loved you’.
1) Consider who He loved: enemies(Rom 5)
2) Consider how He loved: Self-sacrifice
c. Rom 5:5 ’the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit Who is given unto us’ We can love in a brand new way because within us is the power of the Holy Spirit Who loves others through our lives. John says, ’which is true in Him(He did it) and in you’.
d. …because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining. We still live in a dark word, it has not passed away, but the true Light(Jesus) shines through out lives.
Fellowship with God means Loving God’s Great Family (9) The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. (10) The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. (11) But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
You only love God as much as you love the person you dislike the most.
1. John against reminds us how we ’say’ one thing but how our lives are the true test of truth. Someone might say they are in the Light, walking with God where the true light is shining but they hate their brother in Christ.
a. What is a test as to whether I am walking with Jesus? Do I have an attitude of hatred towards my brother in Christ?
WW2 story of how some soldiers brought the body of a dead friend to a French Cemetary. The priest told them that he was bound to ask if the dead man had been a catholic. The said they did not know. The priest said he was sorry but the man could not be buried in the graveyard. They took the man and buried him outside the cemetery fence. The next day they came back to see if the grave was all right and to their astonishment they could not find it. They were about to leave in confusion when the priest came out. He told them that he had been so troubled about the event that he arose early in the morning and moved the graveyard fence to include the grave of the soldier who had died.
2. We abide in the Light(walk in fellowship with God) when we love our brothers and sisters in Christ.
a. End of verse 10 ’and there is no cause for stumbling in him’. How many people have stumbled because Christians have not gotten along and destroyed the testimony of a particular church.
Hatred is not necessarily a volatile word. It can be expressed actively or passively. Passively is becomes indifference, coldness, isolation, exclusion, unconcern
3. To not love our brothers and sisters in Christ is to lose our direction in life. Verse 11 The one who hates his brother is IN THE DARKNESS and WALKS IN THE DARKNESS and does not know where he is going because the DARKNESS HAS BLINDED HIS EYES.( I have been blinded by light but never thought of being blinded by darkness)
a. We live in a world that does not have any idea of where it is going. It is wandering aimlessly without God. It is in the darkness. \
b. Believers should never live that way. We are to ABIDE IN THE LIGHT and not WALK IN THE DARKNESS.
RAY STEDMAN describes a time when he was counseling a woman with a physical problem. He soon discovered that her problem were really spiritual in that she had had a hatred for years towards another woman in the church whom she felt had treated her unjustly. Her hate had turned her bitter and rancid and had poisoned all he thoughts. He told her, ’You must find it in your heart to forgive this person, as God has forgiven you’. ’But I can’t forgive her, I’LL NEVER FORGIVE HER!’ ’But God says you must’ ’But I can’t’ ’’If you CAN’T then you need to face the fact that you are not a Christian because if you CAN’T forgive then you have never been born again’. She looked and said, ’I guess you are right. I know I am a Christian, and I see I have been deceiving myself. I need to forgive’. Stedman said she did and the impact on her life was like turning from night unto day.
