Care to Not Read too Deeply
In 1 John 4 we must take care to not read too deeply into these
words. It is easy to read this section
and think that John is saying, “So long as a person says, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ then
they are from God. Trust me, that is a
very dangerous conclusion to reach. I
have met more than a few people who would say to me that “Jesus is Lord” but
who had little in common with the Jesus that they seemed to be proclaiming as
Lord. Of course I cannot ever judge
their hearts and I would not presuppose that they were not “saved” any more
that I would presuppose that people I liked are “saved.” Who am I to look that deeply in their heart
and make that kind of decision? But I
can say that in my own judgment I would not – and did not – follow them.
So what Is John saying in these verses? Notice what John says. Verse 2 says, “Confess that Jesus Christ has
come in the flesh.” Notice the emphasis
of the flesh? John isn’t saying, “confess
Jesus Christ” or even “confess that Jesus Christ came.” John’s argument is that “Jesus Christ came in
the flesh.” In other words, John is
battling a theological battle against people who are teaching that Jesus was
only a spiritual being. John is battling
those people who teach that Jesus was not both fully human and fully
divine. John was battling those who say
that Jesus was only fully divine. In
short, John was battling the early stages of a heresy called Gnosticism.
Let me tell you why this is a danger. First, if Jesus was not fully human, how can
He be any sort of example for us? If He
was only fully divine, then how can we even hope to aspire to His model? Second, if Jesus was not truly flesh and
blood, then how can we possibly hope in the resurrection? If there was no real body to raise, then what
hope do we who are only flesh and blood have in the resurrection? Third, if Jesus was not fully human and fully
divine, then what hope do we have at all that God and human can ever meet much
less coexist? If Jesus couldn’t come and
be both fully human and fully divine, what makes us think that God can take us
fully human folks and make us live spiritually with Him forever?
No, Jesus had to have come as fully God and fully human. To remove the humanity of Jesus Christ is to
make the message of hope impotent. {For the record, to remove the divinity of
Christ makes it equally impotent.}
John is not saying that we should trust anyone and everyone who
verbalizes that “Jesus Christ is Lord.” What
John is saying is that anyone who does confess Jesus’ divinity and humanity
should not be listened to. Our hope of
eternal life rests completely in the fact that Jesus was fully human and fully
divine.
Love
Now we come to one of the more famous passages in 1 John. “God is Love.” “In this we know that God loved us …” “Beloved, if God loved us, we should love one
another.” “If we love one another, God
abides in us and His love is perfected within us.” What an incredible set of verses.
At the very least, these verses should inspire us to love. If we desire God to abide in us, we should
love each other. If we are at all
grateful that God’s love can reach us, we should love one another. If we have any hope in Christ, we also know
the love of God. If we know the love of
God, we can share the love of God. Yes,
it is that simple. Yes, it gets far
messier in practice than on paper.
So how do we know that the love of God is within us? We have the Spirit. Jesus loved us enough to send the Holy Spirit
to dwell with us. What’s cool about this
is that we not only have the testimony of Christ – who lived external to each
of us – but we also have the testimony of the Holy Spirit – who lives
within! How awesome is that?
What is the purpose of God’s love?
That answer is two-fold. First,
we are to share that love with others. That’s
how this chapter ends. We should love
our brothers and sisters in Christ. That
is without question.
But that love within us also gives us confidence in the coming
judgment. You see, every single one of
us deserves to hear a “guilty” verdict coming from God. Every last one of us does not deserve to
escape judgment. Without God’s love, God’s
judgment would be a horrible day of fear and wrath! But because we have God’s love – and the Holy
Spirit as evidence of God’s love – we can look to that day with
anticipation. God has removed something
horrible and turned it into a day to which we can look forward. Yes, it will still be a difficult day. But because of God’s love we know that on
that day we will hear words of forgiveness through Jesus Christ rather than
words of condemnation through our sin.
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