At
the church where I serve, we are in the middle of a sermon series entitled
Connect. During this series, we are looking at a letter that is recorded for us
in the New Testament of the Bible, called the book of 1 John. During this
series, we are going to discover the components that make for true connection
and community. During this series, we are going to discover the landmines and
roadblocks that keep us from true connection and community. And as we go
through this series, our hope and our prayer is that God would move by the
power of the Holy Spirit in our heads, hearts, and hands, in a way that moves
us to the place where we can experience the connection and community with God
and one another that we were created and designed to experience.
Now this week, I would
like for us to spend our time together picking up where we left off last week.
And as we jump into the next section of this letter that has been preserved and
recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible, called the book of John, we
will see John reveal for us another timeless truth when it comes to how we can experience the connection and community
with God and one another that we were created and designed to experience. So
let’s jump into the next section of this letter together, beginning in 1 John 3:4-6:
Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is
lawlessness. 5 You know that He appeared in order to take away sins;
and in Him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one
who sins has seen Him or knows Him.
Now to fully understand what John is communicating
here, we first need to be reminded of the context in which John was writing
this letter. As we talked about earlier in this series, John, as part of this
letter, was addressing an issue that had arisen as a result of some people who
had left the church at Ephesus and were trying to influence others to leave the
church at Ephesus. There were some people who had attend the church at one
time, but had left the church, who were claiming that you could have close
connection with God while living their day to day lives in a way that is marked
by moral and spiritual darkness as a result of selfishness and rebellion
against God.
There were some people who had attend the church at
one time, but had left the church, who were proclaiming that they were not
guilty of selfishly rebelling against God and others. There were some people who had attend the
church at one time, but had left the church, who were proclaiming that one
could have close connection with God while living a life that was in
disobedience to the commands and demands of God.
Once again John is circling
back to an earlier claim that he had made in this letter that the person who
has a genuine and authentic relationship with God will persist in obeying the
commands and demands of Jesus, as opposed to the claims of those who left the
church at Ephesus that one could have close connection with God while living a
life that was in disobedience to the commands and demands of God.
Now with that context in mind, John begins that
section of his letter by explaining that everyone who practices sin practices
lawlessness. Now this word practice, in the language that this letter was
originally written in, means to carry out an obligation of a moral nature. As
we have talked about earlier in this series, when John uses the word sin, this
word refers to acts of omission and commission against God and others that flow from our
selfish love that places us above God and others in rebellion against God and
others.
So
John is explaining that everyone who engages in a lifestyle that is committed
to selfishly rebelling against God and others is engaging in a lifestyle of
lawlessness. Now this word lawlessness literally means to be anti-law. This
word conveys that sense of a person who lives in lawless rebellion against
someone or something.
And
because of that reality, John explains that sin is lawlessness. John is
revealing the reality that, at the end of the day, acts of omission and
commission against God and others is ultimately about a lawless rebellion
against God. And because of that
reality, everyone who engages in a lifestyle that is committed to selfishly
rebelling against God and others is revealing the reality of a lawless
rebellion against God.
However,
as John points out in verse 5, Jesus, as God in a bod, took on flesh and
entered into humanity in order to take away, or remove, such acts of omission
and commission against God and others that flow from our selfish love that
places us above God and others in rebellion against God and others from
humanity. And, as John points out, Jesus us able to do that because in Him
there is no sin. In other words, Jesus, in His very nature and character, has
no sin. And Jesus, in His conduct here on earth, never selfishly
and rebelliously did anything that He should not have done, and never did not do
the things that He should have done that hurt God and others.
And
because of that reality, in verse 6, John states that no one
who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. But this
morning, what does that mean? Is John saying that Christians should never sin?
Is John saying that if a person really has a relationship with Jesus, that they
would never sin?
To understand what John is communicating here, we
first need to be reminded of what John means when he sues the phrase abides in
Him. As we have talked about throughout this series, abiding refers to someone
who does not leave a certain realm or sphere of existence. This is the idea of
remaining in connection and communion with God as we are mystically and
spiritually united in Jesus as followers of Jesus. John’s point is that that
the person who remains connected with God as they are mystically and
spiritually united with Jesus will not engage in a lifestyle that is committed to selfishly
rebelling against God and others.
In addition, when John states that no one who sins has
seen Him or knows Him, the phrase has seen Him literally means to mentally or spiritually
perceive Jesus for who He truly is. The phrase knows Him
literally means to arrive
at the knowledge of someone so as a means of identifying or relating to them.
This phrase conveys the sense of having a past
experience that has ongoing and continuing results.
John is talking about a person who has entered into a
relationship with God that is an ongoing reality in their lives. Once again John
is answering the question “How do I know that I have a genuine and authentic
relationship with God?”
The point that John wanted to drive home to the
readers of his letter throughout history is that the person who has truly recognized Jesus for who He truly is;
the person who has identified themselves as having a genuine and authentic
relationship with God will not engage in a lifestyle that is committed to selfishly
rebelling against God and others. And as John continues this section of his
letter, we see Him warn the members of the church at Ephesus of a timeless
danger that they were facing.
Tomorrow we will discover that timeless danger…
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