Balancing Law and Grace
The goal of following Jesus is to conform to Him. As we become like Christ, our lives should
take on less and less characteristics of sinfulness. Yet as we learned in the last chapter, sin is
still a part of our life. If we say we
have no sin we deceive ourselves. So as
we conform our lives to His life, we should experience less influence of sin;
but we should never think that we are free of it.
In those moments that we do encounter sinfulness, we have Christ. We have repentance and Jesus Christ. We have Him as an advocate before the
Father. He – and only He – is the cure
for our sinfulness. This is grace at its
greatest.
However, we also have expectations. Jesus does not call us to know grace so that
we can continue to wallow in sin. If He
is the model of the godly life, then we should be about following that
model. We don’t follow the model to be
saved; Jesus already accomplished that feat on the cross. We follow because we are saved. We follow as a demonstration of our
salvation. We follow because we know
that as we truly follow Him God’s love is perfected within us. That doesn’t mean we are perfect. It means that God’s love – relationship with
undeserving sinners – is perfected as we turn from our sin and turn to God.
Walk as a Child of the Light
As John writes this next section, he sets up an enormous
parallel. John equates love with light
and hate with darkness. He says
something rather bold and very refreshing.
If you hate your brother, you are in darkness. There is no escape clause. There are no conditions. If you hate your brother, you are not in the
light. Period.
The question is, “who is my brother?” Or, to make it modern, I should also ask, “Who
is my sister?” I believe it is fair to
quote Matthew 12:46-50, Mark 3:31-35, and Luke 8:19-21. Those are all retellings of the same story
with slightly different nuances in each.
The point of each, though, is that Jesus’ family – brothers and sisters –
are those who hear the will of God and who do it. So in answering the question, “Who are my
brothers and sisters,” I would have to say that it is those who are truly in
Christ.
Of course, this is no easy answer.
If you hate anyone who is truly in Christ, you are in darkness. That’s really a high bar. But again, it makes sense if you think about
it. If someone is truly in Christ, then
they have Christ within them. If they
have Christ within them and you hate them, then you are at some level hating
Christ. What greater definition is there
for spiritual darkness than hating Christ?
We see that John is correct here, even if he is rather challenging. If Christ is truly in someone, I must love
them. At the very least, I can love the
Christ that is in them!
Love of the World
In the next section we get the argument flipped on its head. John specifically tells us that if we love
the world, then we do not have the love of the Father within us! That’s pretty challenging as well. Are there things in this world that I love
and shouldn’t? Yes. That’s called sin. And I humbly come before God right now and
confess that in those areas of my life God’s Word is right. In those areas the love of God is not within
me. It is not God who desires for me to
love the things of this world. It is my
corrupt flesh within me that causes me to love the things of this world.
Why do I love it? Why do I
waste my time pursuing the things of this world? Why do I love things that prevent me from
being good – much less great?
The simple answer is that the desires of the flesh are great. That’s it.
Nuts and bolts right there. The
desires of the flesh are great and my will to resist the desires of the flesh
is small. That is precisely why I need
God.
Antichrist
I have no doubt that putting that word as a subheading will
increase readership for this post by about 10%.
The word antichrist is a hot button issue. Everyone wants to figure out, “Who is the
Antichrist?”
Let’s get a few things straight.
First, John tells us that many antichrists have come and there are still
more yet to come. So it’s not a matter
of speaking about “The Antichrist.” Second,
the word antichrist is really only predominant in 1 & 2 John in the whole
of the Bible.
Let’s look at what John has to say. An antichrist is someone who denies
Jesus. Period. Deny Jesus as Lord, and you are in the very
broad category of antichrist. In fact, if
you flip ahead to 1 John 4:3 you see that it might actually be more proper to
refer to such people as having the spirit of the antichrist. But John makes a very distinct claim here as
the chapter ends. Abide in the Son and
you abide in the Father. Don’t abide in
the Son, and you abide in the category of the antichrist.
Second, we must remember that the prefix “anti” can have two
meanings in the Greek. The first meaning
is “against.” The second meaning is “instead
of.” An antichrist is not just someone
opposed to Christ. It is someone who
chooses something instead of Christ.
This caused me to go back and realize a deeper meaning in verses
15-17. When I choose the things and the
ways of the world instead of the ways of Christ, I am technically being an
antichrist! That’s pretty powerful.
What I find even more striking is that the antichrist(s) John is
most concerned with in this chapter are those who no longer confess Christ but
who used to be among them. John is
concerned about people who used to be with them but who are now out proclaiming
something other than Jesus as the means to salvation! How dangerous such a testimony is to
Christ! Oh how we have failed Christ
when people can come into His fellowship but not see Him clearly through us! Oh how we fail when we let the testimony of
those who have chosen something instead of Christ to ring louder in the world
than our own testimony!
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