How much do we need to obey in order to confirm our
relationship status with God? How much?
verse 3 says “we know that we
have come to know him if we obey his commands.”
and verse 5-6 says “This is
how we know we are in him: whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus
did.”
But exactly how much do we
need to obey? How many commandments should we follow? …
How do we know if we are in
the faith?
Here’s a story of how I knew
I was in a certain faith.
Currently, my favorite color
is baby blue. When I was 6 my favorite color was green. When I was 10 my
favorite color was red.
Now, I have two older
brothers. Can you imagine what their favorite colors were when I was ages 6 and
10? Green and red, of course…
My oldest brother Adam would actually
switch his favorite color just to see if I would switch mine….and I did!!
On top of that, I loved
playing with legos when I grew up. And I’ve always loved the San Francisco
49ers, as some of you know... Of course, I loved these things after my brothers did. Now why? Why
couldn’t I have just been myself and done things my own way?
…because I loved my brothers.
They were my role models. I adored them so much that I wanted to be JUST LIKE
them. How they lived and what they liked seemed like the best things in the
world. I wanted to experience what I thought were the best things in the world.
Now what does this have to do
with 1 John 2?
John wants his congregation
to experience the best things in the world: Christ’s world, a world of where the
victory of light has overcome darkness.
If we recall, there was a
schism going on within John’s church that was based on moral, social and
doctrinal issues. Issues of sin, love, and who Jesus is.
John is calling out those who
claim to be in the light by saying “No, you’re most definitely not”.
Because for John, you are
only in the light if you love the light as much as God does. Those disagreeing
with John did not love the light because their attitudes were filled with
darkness. It was that simple.
God is light. And my
brother’s favorite color was red. To adore
your role model is to want to be JUST like them. John is saying I should
want light just as I want red.
So now, as you go to
discussion groups, consider this: how much do we need to obey in order to
confirm our relationship status with God? And why is obedience the criteria for
assurance of faith?
Small Groups
1.
Begin by reading the passage out loud as a group. Then read it again.
2.
Do you think life
decisions can be ‘neutral’ or indifferent? For example, can you ‘nothing’
someone so that you do not love or hate them?
3.
Picture life as a
road. This road consistently turns into a fork. One direction is
light/love/righteousness/life and the other is darkness/hate/sin/death. First,
do you think it is accurate to say that each decision we make takes us down one
of those two paths? Second, which path do you find yourself on more often?
4.
John seems to be
encouraging his audience to pick a side: light or dark. Which side do you
prefer and why?
5.
According to
John, how can we know if we are ‘in Jesus’ (or in the light)?
6.
Why do you think
John chose that criteria?
7.
Do you think you
meet John’s criteria? Why or why not?
8.
What role does
Jesus have in our ‘accomplishment’ of John’s criteria? (According to John,
Jesus is the Advocate, atoning sacrifice, and Righteous One)
Yesterday, I woke up at 8am,
which is early for me. I spent a some time in prayer and read through some
scripture. I then went to day one of RedwoodDayCamp at FBC. I even had the
opportunity to lead a devotional for our staff. My job at camp is to be
surrounded by 15 5th and 6th graders. I had the chance to
lead them through some fun games, quiz them on bible verses, and encourage
their creative ability in making crafts.
However, by the end of the
day I was spent. It was like 2pm and I just wanted to sleep. I was so removed
that I began to ignore the constant onslaught of campers who wanted to show me
something or tell me a story. I screwed up and I was not loving enough. Does
this mean I didn’t obey enough commandments?
Because the most meaningful
question John raises in this letter is: how much do we need to obey to know we’re
in the light? What do you guys think?
SOLUTION-
I don’t think this question
can be answered without considering verses 1 and 2 about who Jesus. Most biblical
translations say Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. The Greek word
here is defined as “the means by which sins forgiven”. It’s not too clear what
those means are within the context of John.
I know I have found
complications in understanding why Jesus had to die to save us. But, I’d like
to offer some help. Here are two commonly held positions that identify how
Jesus acts as the ‘atoning sacrifice’ – the one who redeems us from sin and
death.
Now, there are two
perspectives on this because redeeming something can happen in two ways: 1) you
either pay a price, 2) to take it back by force.
1. Propitiation- Jesus as the propitiation bears
God’s wrath and turns it to favor if we believe.
This transaction is a result
of sin entering the world from the fall. The Bible says God cannot commune with
sinful nature due to His righteous anger, or wrath, against it.
But, since God loves his
creation so much, He gave his one and only Son to bear our sin on the cross. Jesus
can withstand the wrath of God against sin, so that God’s righteous anger is
‘satisfied’ and he remains Just.
As a result, we celebrate
communion with God because of this loving sacrifice. Our guilt has turned to
righteousness in the eyes of God.
Imagine you are a poor college student. By the time
the third payment of tuition rolls around you have no money. However, a fellow
student who loves you dearly decided to make this payment for you, because they,
unlike you, could handle the burden. This is grace. It’s God taking care of the
problem for us, by sacrificing Himself in our stead.
As a note, if you have a difficult time understanding
God’s wrath, I’d encourage you to consider the evil around the world,
especially in third world country’s. God’s wrath simply means that He won’t
stand for that kind of injustice.
2.
Christus Victor-That Christ’s victory over sin and death enables us to have
victory over sin and death if we believe.
The idea is that when Adam
was tempted by Satan into sin, humanity lost its natural likeness to God; since
God is righteous.
With sin comes death. This is
a vicious cycle where we are spiritually dying because we sin. However, we are
sinning because we don’t want to die (we sin for pleasure, which seems
life-giving).
As a result, Jesus, who is
completely sinless, chooses to die because He knows that death and sinlessness
do not go together (It’s like the deeper magic from before the Dawn of time in
Lion the, the witch, the wardrobe).
Jesus basically throws a
wrench in the sin and death cycle, so that we join him in everlasting life. He
literally ‘tramples down death by death’ in order to restore us to life. As a result, death, and therefore sin, is
forcefully removed from humanity as we become adopted children of light and
life.
So given those positions, we
have two beautiful ways of viewing God’s grace to save all humanity. And it
does not matter which perspective you relate to most…they are both good news!
Jesus died to set the sinners free! Done! Light has entered the world.
And so I ask again, how much
obedience is required to assure our standing with God?
Well, we have to understand
that John is not talking about perfect obedience. If you recall, verse 1 says
“if any body does sin…”. Clearly, John expects people to sin. Thank goodness!
And when they do, John says we
have Jesus, the atoning sacrifice. The one who pays the price for us, who is
victorious over death. Who brings the forgiveness of sins.
He is light, in him there is
no darkness. If we are to be a people who claim to abide in Jesus… we must be a
people who live in light.
Often, we conclude that the
best way to live in light, or to obey, is to remove all darkness. However, what
the heck is the absence of dark?! It’s light, and you cannot remove darkness
without BRINGING light.
So, how do we know we are in
the light?
We don’t simply omit darkness, but we commit to light! (consistency)
Look with me to verse 1 again:
But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the
Righteous One.
John is not just
telling us to stop sinning. He knows that the only way to actually stop sinning
is to follow the righteous one, and allow
Him to change us from the inside out.
This is why the omission of
sin is not exactly works-based. As humans, we should realize that we are always
worshiping something: a relationship, being a student, winning, or Jesus.
Because the question is
never: Am I worshiping something? It’s always: who am I worshiping? Who do I
follow?
In order to know we are in
the light, we need to omit the worship
of that which is not Jesus, BY worshiping Jesus. Because, if you agree that
humans are always worshiping something,
then all we need to do is transfer that worship and adoration from the
destructive things to Jesus.
As we do this, we’ll begin to
notice that perfection is not an indication of being in the light… the
indication is character transformation! If we are in the light, we should
notice some shift in character. John says one place of change is the presence
of love and compassion. Do we love those who are in need? Chapter 15 of the
Gospel according to John illustrates how Jesus stirs character change:
He says Jesus is the Vine, and we are the Branches. If
you want to look alive (ie bear fruit), connect yourself to the Vine. And stay
there for nourishment. The word John uses is abide, or remain.
Basically, we would look to
Jesus and say: “I wanna be just like you! YOU like red! So do I! you like
justice, love, mercy, forgiveness…. So do I! I LOVE it!”
And the beautiful part is
that we don’t need to force ourselves
to love these things. Instead, like a branch connected to a vine, we would
receive that transformation from Jesus, the True Vine. In other words, the
light-giver would feed us with his light. And as always, you are what you eat!
But, remember, if you are struggling in the darkness and struggling to love what He loves… just turn on the light. Turn to Jesus. Confess your need for him. It does not take all too much faith. Don’t try and shew away the darkness. Instead, commit to the beautiful, life giving, light!
Because Jesus has you covered. His sacrifice literally
means you can turn to the light at any moment and be made new. There is always
hope to live in the light. It simply requires trust that the light really IS as
good as advertised.
