We can all see that this church is pretty much a failure, and it isn't hard to figure out why. We are all basically baby Christians, none of us doing the things that it takes to make the church grow and be influential in our community. Sure we make some small contribution, but in my case, and probably yall's too, it isn't because we care. I get up here and talk because I like to take shots at the people who piss me off and I am hoping to offer some comfort to my fellow losers. In pretty much every church that I have been in there are two groups more or less. There are those who contribute to the church, time, talents, money what have you. The group of spiritually rich, mature Christians makes the institution of the church work, always busy with the work of the Lord's kingdom, they set a good example and know how blessed they are to not be like the tax collector types around them. And then there are the bums, the baby Christians, mooching off of God and our elder brothers, not contributing anything but just sitting staring at Jesus with an idiotic grin on our faces.
When you are reading the Bible, it is always important to know the context in which what you are reading was written. Now this is often overdone with respect to the New Testament. Often the so-called "higher criticism" resolves the whole New Testament into a battle between Jewish Christianity and Gentile Christianity, between Paul and his friends on one side and Peter and James on the other. The writings of John are usually considered to be written against the Gnostic heresy, and like I said this can be pushed way too far, but I think in understanding the first two chapters of 1 John, which is what I would like to talk about today, it is important to know what was happening to the people that John was writing to.
1 John starting at chapter 1 verse 4:
These things we write to you that your joy may be full. This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.The situation that this letter was sent into was one pretty familiar to most of us. As we learn from later in chapter 2, the Christians who were toting all of the weight had gotten tired of the freeloaders and had left to start their own church. The more spiritual people wanted to go deeper and not be held back by the materialistic half-Christians. John's message, and mine, is for the Prodigals, the Tax Collectors, the Marys, John's little children, the Baby Christians.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.Those who "went out" from John's "little children"-his babies, were those who Christian historians call the Gnostics, they separated themselves from the Baby Christians because they wanted to do more for God and go deeper with Jesus. They did so much for God that they decided He was dumb and evil to have created the world and went so deep with Jesus that they decided He couldn't really have been a man but only appeared to be. If I sound like the Prodigal taking shots at his older brother then you have pretty much got the idea. And I think that as we read the first part of John's letter the Prodigal and his brother are the two characters that we need to keep in mind. John's great contrast, the big antithesis that we need to see is between the Screwup Little Brother and the Jerk Big Brother.
But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all of this already. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ---The Jerk Brother, the Gnostics said that they were top shelf Christians, but they looked down on and despised the Prodigals, the Baby Christians.
He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. ---In other words, the ones who seemed to have all of the spiritual riches and maturity, those who appeared to be and claimed to be "in the light", didn't even know God at all.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. ---They probably didn't come right out and say that they had never sinned or that they weren't still sinners, but they thought that they were better than their brothers. They were Pharisees thanking God that they weren't tax collectors. And John's little babies felt like garbage and could only cry "God have mercy on me a sinner.", knowing that they hadn't done any of the things that Christians are supposed to do. They stood, we stand, before God with nothing but a cry for mercy not having done anything right but believing that Our Father loves us anyway.
Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.--- So, John isn't saying here that we have to do the right things to be what God has called us to be, He isn't placing Martha's works above Mary's staring at Christ like a baby at her daddy. The Older Brothers, the Jerks have been claiming to have this great knowledge about Christ, they were claiming to be advanced and spiritual, but John is pointing out here that if they were spiritual they would act like Christ, who instead of looking down on the babies declared that they were the kingdom of Heaven. And the New Commandment that they were not fulfilling was given in John 13 by our Lord, that of loving the brethren.
So what is the point of all of this? It is that we are all vastly overestimating our own maturity and spirituality. We think that we have gotten somewhere and made some kind of progress in the Christian life, but we haven't. The wisest, most mature, most spiritual Christian is in truth just a baby a few months old, and if He is looking down on the only minusculey less mature newborn Christian and thinking that He is contributing something to God's kingdom then he is being very infantile, which is only natural I guess. The only thing that any of us is contributing is to put a smile on our Father's face and I promise that daddy smiles at the newborn just as much as he does at the baby a few months old.
But John began by saying that he was writing so that "our joy may be full" what does any of this have to do with that? You all know how prone I am to depression and a grim view of the world, so I am probably the last person who should stand up here and talk about Christian joy, but you are just going to have to deal with it and be grateful that I am about to be done and not complain about how I close so long as I close briefly. I have never heard a good definition of joy. It is clear that it is something different than happiness, that it is possible to be joyful even in the midst of sadness, but no one seems to be able to explain why or what that means. I am about to take a shot at it. Recently Lily has taken to crying in her carseat a lot. And we have looked for what is bothering her, searching for any discomfort. I worried she was hot so I made this elaborate vent to get cool air around her carseat, Cheyenne had me adjust her carseat, we have made a point of making sure that she had toys in the car, we have stopped to feed her and stopped to burp her and finally are left with only one conclusion. Only one thing stops her crying. It is when mommy or daddy comes and sits beside her while she is riding. The whole thing seems pretty irritating, but as I thought about it more I realised that there is a kind of purity, a simplicity about it. Nothing in the world makes her happy except to have mama or daddy with her. And hence this definition of joy. It is simply knowing that when you cry your daddy will come and be with you. We've all grown too old, older than we really are, and we will only find heaven, in this life or the next by being babies again. So, John's message to all of the Baby Christians, is that you don't have to do anything to be close to God, He has already come close to you. That we all have to become like Christ is the Law and we have all been beat to death with it. The Gospel however is that Christ has become like us. You are God's baby. Helpless in His arms, as close as two people can be. You may not know it, you may not feel it. But you are just a baby what do you know about it anyway?
