1 John 3:19-24

1 John 3:19-24

Those who are farthest from Christ are the least aware of their sin. Those who are drawing near the Lord have a more profound understanding of both their sinful nature and the individual sinful acts that they commit. A deep awareness of sin can lead a serious, faithful disciple to a worrisome situation or state of mind, asking, “Do I love God and my fellow man? Am I at all in a right relationship with the Lord?” John’s comments in verse 19 look back to verse 18. We can answer the question of the hypersensitive conscience this way: “Do I love my God, my fellow man, and the truth of the gospel message and express that love in action, specifically meeting the needs of fellow Christians?” How we live is a pretty good reflection of our inner heart’s condition. Do we genuinely want to serve Christ by meeting the needs of our fellow believers because of our faith? That is a very good indication of our heart's condition.

Versus 20-21 brings us a point of concern. “If I am trying to love God and man and to serve Him, but I'm still bothered by what I've done, what shall become of me?” These verses are both a warning and comfort. God is greater than our conscience, so if we are pleading for His grace and living faithfully, God is bigger than our falsely guilty conscience. He knows our true heart. If we are indifferent to the truth and the needs of other believers and are unconcerned that our conscience never bothers us, that very likely indicates a serious spiritual problem. Such a soothed conscience doesn't mean God is pleased with us. Our conscience is a useful, but not perfectly reliable guide. It may give us general directions, but it can never give us the complete address.

The first phrase of verse 22, taken out of context, sounds almost like a magic wand. The promise of answered prayer is only in the context of doing the things that please God. To ask for God's power, grace, and blessing to occur in loving Him, our fellow believers, and helping our brothers and sisters in their need is different than asking for a sports car because I like to drive fast. When the agenda of our life is to love God and our fellow believers and express that love in practical service and obedience, our hearts are set at ease. If for some reason they aren’t, we know God is greater than our hearts. And God is actively giving us our heart's desire to love, serve, and give.

“Lord, give me the grace to practically serve my brothers and sisters in Christ because I love You. AMEN”

1 John 3:11-18

1 John 3:11-18

The supreme way to resemble our heavenly Father is by the character or the virtue of love. We might expect John to give a teaching about the nature or expression of love, but instead he gives us a reference to Cain. Why the reference to Cain? Because repeated action or behavior becomes the pattern that dominates our lives, whether that action is virtuous or a vice. Habits of evil are called “a vice” because, like a bench vise, once we are in them, we cannot escape. Cain’s problem was not the murder of his brother; that was the symptom and was in itself no worse than murders done by Moses or David. The murder, prompted by the exposure of his bad worship, reflects something deeper. John writes, “Because his works were evil.” The verb “were” indicates a continuing, ongoing pattern. The character of Cain's life was not a basically good guy who lost his temper in a fit of rage. Cain’s life was marked by a pattern of evil works. His worship was not a sincere but misguided effort to please God. It was rather, in some way, evil, self-seeking, and rebellious. In Abel, Cain saw a living, walking, and fruit-bearing rebuke to everything wrong in his own life.

This helps us answer the question, “Why the vicious hate for Godly Christian?” We see an irrational, crazed hate for simple people of faith because the character of Christian infuriates those who are like Cain. One example will do. To peaceably stand at an abortion clinic and pray will prompt evil people to respond with unrepeatable words and, in some cases, assault. Because the mere presence of good is a cutting rebuke to evil, the harsher the reaction, the more entrenched the evil.

The opposite of Cain is a life of love, not as a sentimental feeling or emotional rush but rather as actions of practical self-giving. That was expressed in Christ in his death on the cross. Most of us will never face the challenge of being a martyr. However, we face the challenge of rejecting selfishness and instead giving to the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is disingenuous for a person to imagine great acts of self-sacrifice if they have never developed the pattern of small acts of loving-kindness. Love must never be big talk; it is more becoming for it to begin with many small acts of love repeated over and over. 

“Lord, may the pattern of my life be acts of love. AMEN”

1 John 3:1-10

1 John 3:1-10

Sometimes we say of a child, “I can see the family resemblance.” As members of God's family, we need to bear the family resemblance of our Father. Being a of child of God is not a title or a label that is accidentally stuck to us. It is the reality of our lives. Because of our relationship with the Father, we are unknown to the world; we are unrecognizable.

But best of all, God is not done with us. As we mature, the family resemblance grows stronger and stronger. When the Lord returns, that family resemblance will come to its completion. While not obvious at first, this brings up an important challenge or question: why live and be holy? If when Jesus returns we will be like Him (let's assume both in body and character), what is the point of a righteous life now? It might be said that with this coming perfection and all our flaws replaced and purified, it would make things easier to not worry about being like Christ now. Why not get saved, do what we want, and then wait on Jesus to come back and make us right? This may have been what the false teachers advocated at the practical level. We can imagine some saying, “I'm okay at a spiritual level, so my behavior doesn't matter.”

John points out that the person who is living a holy life is reflecting that inner character. So too the one who is unholy is showing what is inside. We are not saved by good deeds, not by our acts of charity in a new kind of law that we have to keep. Rather, righteousness is the practice of being like our Father in Heaven. So are our good deeds the result of the Spirit living in us or the works we are doing to be righteous? In a word ‘Yes’. In the life of a disciple, we do not wait idly by while the Lord makes us righteous by himself. Nor do we perform vigorous self-improvement. Rather, it is a cooperative effort. A boy may look like his dad because of genetics, but as he watches and imitates his dad, he picks up on his mannerisms, his habits, or his gestures. A newborn may show only some signs of the dad's appearance, when he grows to be a young man, the genes are on full display, and so also the mannerisms. A toddler may offer a poor imitation of his dad, but later he will copy the dad's actions more completely. So as we mature in our spiritual life, we will look like our spiritual father, whoever that may be.

“Help me, Lord, to display the family resemblance.  AMEN”