CHARACTERISTICS THAT DISTINGUISH THE CHRISTIAN
Text: I John 3: 1-2
Intro: The characteristics of a thing help us not only recognize it, but also to define it. This is especially true with people. Our physical characteristics as well as our individual personality define who we are. There are certain traits about every individual or thing that makes them unique.
This same idea can equally apply to the year 2001. In the next few days, the major news agencies of our country will likely recount to the nation the outstanding characteristics of this year. They will seek to journalistically identify and define the qualities that make 2001 different from other years. They will do this of course, by looking backward.
However, the “talking heads” of our day won’t stop with a look backward. They will seek to look forward into 2002, and tell us what we can expect. Certain determinations and expectations will be formulated about the coming year based upon the events of this year.
God’s children need to do much the same thing with reference to their Christian life and testimony. We need to look forward as well as back. All of us will no doubt find failures in our lives as we look back upon this past year. But we must be careful not to permit our failures to destroy our determination to go forward for God in the coming new year. We need to ask God to produce some distinguishing Christian characteristics in us during the year ahead.
Theme: May God help us this coming year to distinguish ourselves by:
I. OUR LIFE
A. Our Life Must Have A Godly Pattern.
I John 3: 3 “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”
NOTE: [1] The word “purifieth” speaks of moral cleanness. This word speaks of “entire purification, not merely from unchastity, but from all defilement of flesh and spirit.” 1 In other words, this speaks not merely of surface purity, but also in the areas of ones life that are not readily seen.
[2] Christ is our pattern of purity. John’s basic thought here is that everyone who possesses the expectation of seeing Christ in heaven and being like Him, will seek to pattern their lives after His purity of life.
[3] The fact that you live better than someone else isn’t the issue. Other people aren’t the pattern. Christ is the pattern.
Lev.19: 2 “Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy.”
II Cor.3: 18 “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass (mirror) the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
[4] Of II Corinthians 3: 18, Matthew Henry says, “We behold Christ, as in the glass of his word; and as the reflection from a mirror causes the face to shine, the faces of Christians shine also.” 2
B. Our Life Must Have A Godly Practice.
Ps.19: 14 “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.”
NOTE: Mere words won’t cut it with the lost world.
Life’s Onlookers
A man’s life is always more forcible than his speech. When men take stock of him they reckon his deeds as dollars and his words as pennies. If his life and doctrine disagree the mass of onlookers accept his practice and reject his preaching.
C.H. Spurgeon
1. Sin is not the norm for the saint.
I John 3: 5 “And ye know that he (Jesus) was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
6a Whosoever abideth in him (Jesus) sinneth not…
7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he (Jesus) is righteous.
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9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
NOTE: [1] The words “abideth” and “sinneth” in verse six are in a tense of the Greek that indicate habitual and continuous action. In other words, what is being spoken of here is not merely an occurrence, but a practice.
[2] John is saying that since Jesus died to take away our sins, the “…Christian as a habit of life is abiding in fellowship with the Lord Jesus. Sin may at times enter his life. But sin is the exception, not the rule…The child of God as a habit of life, does righteousness, and sin is not a habit with him” 3
2. Sin is the norm for the lost sinner.
I John 3: 4 “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
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6b …whosoever sinneth hath not seen him (Jesus), neither known him.”
NOTE: [1] The words “committeth sin” can be translated, “habitually does sin.” 4 This speaks of the practice of ones life—something that is the norm.
[2] The words “transgression of the law” are actually one word in the Greek language; the word “anomia,” which means, “lawlessness.” 5 The idea here is that of rebellion. When the norm of a person’s life is to live secretly or openly in rebellion to God’s righteous standard, they simply prove that they have never been saved.
II. OUR LOVE
NOTE: Love should be the motivator of our lives, as this story points out:
A Great Motivator
Love reaches for the hurt and takes bold steps without self-interest. It can accomplish unbelievable things merely because it is so void of self-interest.
Some time ago, a teenager, Arthur Hinkley, lifted a 3,000-pound tractor with bare hands. He wasn’t a weight lifter, but his friend, Lloyd Bachelder, 18, was pinned under a tractor on a farm near Rome, Maine. Hearing Lloyd scream, Arthur somehow lifted the tractor enough for Lloyd to wriggle out.
Love was the real motivation.
Calvin Miller, “Rethinking Suburban Evangelism,” Leadership, 1988, p. 68
A. Love Determines A Person’s Association.
I John 2: 9 “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.
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11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.”
I John 3: 10 “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brethren.
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14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.”
NOTE: [1] Again, keep in mind that the words of action found in these verses such as “hateth,” “doeth,” and “loveth,” speak of habitual action—a practice of life.
[2] Jesus Himself indicated that love distinguished the believer from the unbeliever when He said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13: 35).
B. Love Determines A Person’s Attitude.
I John 3: 15 “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.”
NOTE: Hatred is the antithesis of all that Christ is. In the economy of God, hatred of another is an extremely serious sin. God computes hatred with a murderous attitude of the heart. One does not have to commit the act to have the attitude. I wonder how many so-called Christians would commit murder if they knew they could get away with it?
C. Love Determines A Person’s Actions.
1. Hatred produces negative relationships.
I John 3: 11 “For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.”
2. Love produces positive relationships.
a. Love is others-centered.
I Cor.13: 4 “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”
b. Love is self-sacrificial.
I John 3: 16 “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?”
c. Love is more than mere words.
I John 3: 18 “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”
III. OUR LOYALTY
NOTE: I wonder how loyal to Christ we really are today. I hope you’re not like this guy:
Within 50 Miles of Home
A young man in the army confided to his padre that he never went about with another girl if he was within fifty miles of home. His loyalty went fifty miles.
How far does your loyalty to Jesus Christ go?
Source unknown
A. Loyalty To God Produces Confidence In His Presence.
I John 3: 19 “And hereby (the practice of love) we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our heart before him (in his presence).
I John 3: 24 “And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.”
NOTE: [1] The words “assure our heart before him” in I John 3: 19 refer to being in God’s presence. When we are loyal and obedient to Him we have no cause for fear or condemnation.
[2] The words “dwelleth” and “abideth” in I John 3: 24 speak of fellowship and communion. We can have real communion with God only as we remain loyal to Him.
B. Loyalty To God Produces Confidence In Prayer.
I John 3: 22 “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.”
John 15: 7 “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”
NOTE: The words “should believe” in I John 3: 23 do not refer to saving faith, for John was talking to those who had already trusted Christ. Those words basically refer to the fact that “…the whole tenor of a saint’s life should be Christward.” 6
Theme: May God help us this coming year to distinguish ourselves by:
I. OUR LIFE
II. OUR LOVE
III. OUR LOYALTY
NOTES
1. Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies, Vol. II, published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan; In The Last Days, pg. 146.
2. Matthew Henry Concise
3. Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies, Vol. II, published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan; In The Last Days, pg. 147.
4. Ibid, pg. 147.
5. Ibid, pg. 147.
6. Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Real, published by Victor Books, Wheaton, Illinois; pg. 132.
