The Voice Of Experience Series

James Thurber tells the fable of the bear that use to go on a

spree of drunkenness, and come home at night and break up the

furniture, and frightening the children and drive his wife to tears.

One day he reformed and decided to never drink again, and from

then on he would come home and demonstrate how fresh and

vigorous his new way of life made him feel by doing gymnastic

exercises in the living room. In so doing, however, he broke the

furniture, frightened the children, and drove his wife to tears.

Thurber is pointing out that one extreme is no better than another in

its practical outcome in life. One has little to boast about who has

escaped falling flat on his face by bending over so far backward he

falls on his head. It is the man who keeps his balance, and falls

neither way that represents the Christian ideal. Neither the rider

who falls off the horse on the left or the right side is to be compared

with the man who stays in the saddle.

Albert Schweitzer said, "No man ever gets a great idea without

carrying it too far." He illustrates his statement as he makes it, for

he certainly went too far when he said, "No man," for Jesus as a

man showed perfect balance. What he said, however, is a valid

judgment on most men and movements. The Apostle John in

writing this first Epistle is combating a movement that has gone to

an extreme and has become a dangerous heresy. The Gnostics, as

they were called, were not trying to destroy Christianity, but were

trying to make it an intellectually respectable philosophy that would

appeal to the contemporary mind.

They were doing the same thing that we see being done in our day.

There are men and movements within the framework of

modern Christianity who are saying we need to cleanse the church

of old ideas, and make its message relevant to the contemporary

mind. Such things as the virgin birth, miracles, and the literal

resurrection of Christ are not acceptable to many modern minds,

and so they are saying we need to cut them off as branches that will

bare no more fruit.

The Gnostics in John's day had the same idea, and there have

always been men in movements to promote this way of thinking.

That is why you notice this Epistle is not addressed to anyone in

particular. It is called a Catholic Epistle, which means, it is a

universal Epistle. It is God's perpetual answer to all believers in all

generations who are being thrust into turmoil and confusion by the

muddled thinking and speculation of men. God gave the church this

teaching and guidance through the Apostle John, who was one of the

first chosen by Christ; who was uniquely loved by Christ, and who

lived longest in the service of Christ. When we listen to John we

listen to the voice of experience, for no man who has ever lived has

had, either in quantity or quality, a greater experience with Christ.

John does not answer the heretics on the level of debate and theory,

but on the level of experience.

The Gnostics were very spiritual people. In fact they fit into the

category of those who are so heavenly minded they are no earthly

good. The Gnostics were so spiritual, so fanatically spiritual that

they became anti-Christ, for Christianity is based on the fact that

Jesus, the very Son of God, did not remain Spirit, but came in

human flesh. The Gnostics were too spiritual to accept this. They

said that God was spiritual, but they wrongly concluded that all that

is not spirit is evil. They said flesh is evil, and all that is material is

evil, and, therefore, the Son of God could never become a real man.

He only appeared as a man. He was like a phantom. He seemed to

be a man, but was really not. They denied the incarnation, and that

is why John is so emphatic when he says, "Every spirit that

confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God."

The Gnostics had such a high view of the spiritually of Christ that

they actually became anti-Christ. They refused to balance their high

view with the belief in the incarnation, and so even though believing

Jesus to be divine, they were not Christians, but enemies of the

church. They illustrate that half the truth can be a whole lie. Half

truths are even more dangerous than lies, for they are often so

plausible. They deceive so many more people. Never be content to

ask is it true of a teaching, but go on to ask is this the whole truth.