Transforming Knowledge
Introduction
It’s been my habit for more years than I can remember to read the Bible in a Year, with Zoe, in the morning.
We follow various plans and just a few months back I was excited when we came round to reading 1 John. I’ve read it before many times, so it was great to refresh. It’s just five chapters so it was done in a day or two with the other readings in the plan. But there’s so much in this book.
There is an unending supply of spiritual truth that keeps revealing itself the more you study. The ideas and language seem simple but they are incredibly profound and helpful and the issues John was addressing and writing to the church in Ephesus are up to date for us, all these centuries on.
Reading it through again this last time showed me is that it’s possible to say we know some things about the Bible, but we can’t say we really know it just because we read it, or even because we studied it, as we are doing. We only know it if it transforms us, when we do it. John would say we only show what we really know, by what we do. By our lives.
In Chapter 1 the apostle John wrote about who Jesus really is, then what true Christianity is,
and now he’s showing us tests of who a true Christian is.
God doesn’t test us so he will know anything. God knows everything already! He tests, so we will know. To see if we really know.
We can test ourselves, and last time we saw that if we say we are not sinners who need a Saviour, we are deceived – we’re still walking in darkness.
And because the church was being infiltrated by false believers and teachers, John loved the people enough to tell them hard truths, and give various tests of how to discern the true from the false in this general letter.
Following this in 2 John and 3 John he’s added on a couple of personal PSs. Firstly, what to do with false teachers, then how to receive true teachers when you work out who’s who.
This is timely for us, when all kinds of worldly ideas from culture and theological opinions in church come at us. Even fundamentals about who God and Jesus are, what the church is and is meant to be and do, and who really is a Christian among all those who would claim the name are being attacked or eroded.
And we have in this letter laid out variations on two types of test.
Spiritual Tests: What Is Believed
What is believed about God and about people, and if it’s a teacher, what do they bring as their teaching in these matters?
No matter who is bringing a teaching, myself included, John’s going to say don’t believe everything and anything. You have to test it against who Jesus is, what the Bible says, and what the Holy Spirit says. Just because someone seems spiritual don’t swallow it. John says test the spirits, to see if they are of God.
Remember John started the letter saying he knows, from personal experience, who Jesus Christ is. As an Apostle, he knew him in the flesh for years. He was one of his closest disciples. John saw him die on a cross and rise again. So he knows because he has come to believe Jesus is the Son of God, who became fully human. Only one who is fully God and fully man could ever save us.
So, the spiritual test is about what you believe and what’s taught about Jesus Christ, and what is believed and taught about ourselves, that we’re sinners who need a Saviour.
He said the message we are to preach is what Jesus himself told him to say: That God is light, in him there is no darkness at all. We don’t need a better self-image, we need a Saviour.
Moral Tests: How We Live
Not that we are saved by trying to be a moral good person, but that we prove that we have been saved by living in the light not the darkness as he puts it. What we believe is shown in our lives by obeying and keeping God’s commandments, and especially the greatest commandment, to love—love God and love your neighbour.
(Read 1 John 2:1-14)
John starts by saying who Jesus is and what he has done to save us. This is the spiritual test of Christian teaching. What do you say about Jesus? What do you say about sin, and salvation? Key questions!
He finished the last chapter by saying if anyone says they haven’t sinned, we are calling God a liar. But if we own up and admit our sin, it can be forgiven. The only sin God can’t forgive is unconfessed sin. The Bible says if I treasure sin in my heart, the Lord won’t listen to me. If I conceal it and won’t reveal it, God can’t heal it. But if we confess, he will purify and cleanse us completely, from our sin.
John’s an old man now, a spiritual granddad. He is very tender in the way he speaks to the church as he calls them his little children. He literally says, “I’m writing these things so you would not sin at all.” Not that this would ever be completely possible in this life, but he says it because he knows that inevitably sin is a spoiler.
Sin spoils things doesn’t it? Whatever it touches. Relationships, our own peace of mind, everything. Even if you get something good but you get it the wrong way, sin has a way of spoiling it. We can be forgiven of sin but of course that doesn’t mean there are no consequences.
That’s why God hates sin. He sees how sin and its consequences spoils the lives of his little children.
But sin isn’t just an action, it’s an attitude and it’s a habit. Sin is ingrained imperfection in us from the very beginning. Even if we become a Christ follower and are forgiven, we’ll still fail and fall. God knows that, when he takes us on. He knew 2000 years ago when Jesus forgave us on the Cross that forgiveness would have to be for our past, present, and future sins.
‘I Am the Person Jesus Loves’
But what shows we have come to know his forgiveness, that love and acceptance—we start to change. The love changes us from people who love sin, to people who love.
Sin doesn’t have the same power now because we have a new master. Because God puts his power and his Spirit within us.
We don’t change so we can be forgiven, but we have been forgiven—so we can change!
Let me say it again. We don’t change so we can be forgiven, but we have been forgiven—so we can change!
When we realise how much we didn’t deserve it but we have been loved we don’t keep going back to that old life. Like in Luke 19, when Jesus invited himself over to the most notorious sinner in Jericho’s house. He called out to Zacchaeus up a tree and said, “I want to come to your home and eat!” Everyone freaked out because they knew he had a past. But Jesus had come so he could have a future.
And when Jesus came in, no matter what anyone else said and thought about it, when he ate at his table, which in those days was a sign that, “I love and accept you as you are, I’ll share my life with you,” something in the little tax collector’s heart shifted.
Later in this letter, John will say “We love, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). God doesn’t expect us to love until we get filled up with his love. Jesus’ love comes first and as Zacchaeus looked around his house and saw all he had been filling his life with that just made him empty, he said, “I’m going to be the person Jesus loves!”
By the way that’s what John called himself. He didn’t say ‘I’m John’, he said, “I am the one Jesus loves.” When you wake up and start to see that, you see yourself different! You see everyone else and everything else different too. Why don’t you say it? “I am the person Jesus loves!”
Zacchaeus, as the person who Jesus loved, then said, “You know what, God loves those people I have cheated, and he loves the poor. So right now I’m going to give away half of what I own to help the poor, and anyone I ever cheated is going to get it back four times over.”
Then Jesus said that life that had changed, to love others showed that he’d really believed. Evidence. What he was doing was the proof. So Jesus declared, “You are one of God’s chosen people!” Zacchaeus was a new man, forgiven and free and in the family of God, and it showed, in love.
God makes us his children, then he makes his children to be like him. He doesn’t want us to stay stuck in that old life of spoiling sin. Jesus came to seek and save us. You become a Christ follower the day you open the door like Zacchaeus did and welcome him in. But what happens after we have come to follow him, and we mess up again?
What Do I Do When I Sin … Again?
I mean, we have been saying, “If I confess he’ll forgive my past and give me that new life.
I can be happy about that and even get on a roll of being a little holier.” But guess what, and I know it’s not just me, when I think I’m doing well, I do something stupid. Something I thought I’d never do, or promised I would never do again. The accusing voice says, “Call yourself a Christian?” I spoiled it again.
God doesn’t want me to sin. I don’t even want to sin, but what do I do when I sin – again?
Well John says, “If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father.” The if is actually a when, a whenever… what happens then?
Here’s a picture to help us get this. The difference knowing Jesus makes. This picture is from a court room. If any of us stand before God accused of sin and plead not guilty, we are calling God a liar. We are in contempt of court, left to defend ourselves. And as the old saying goes “He who defends himself, has a fool for a client.”
But if I plead “guilty,” I have one who pleads for me. An advocate. When I stand before God in the courtroom of heaven, the accuser, which is what Satan means, is levelling a long list of charges at me and they are true, and I wouldn’t want you to hear them. So is that it? Am I done for? NO!
Because I am not alone. There is one who pleads for me. We have an advocate who speaks for us. You don’t need me as an ex-police officer to tell you that if in an ordinary court someone comes into the court and pleads, “guilty,” the defence would have no case, the judge would only have to decide the punishment to fit the crime.
But in heaven’s court, the only cases our defender accepts are those in which the accused one confesses his or her guilt. Then our attorney, our defence barrister, literally “Righteous Jesus Christ” our go-between—the Greek word here is paraclete (one of the titles of the Holy Spirit)—stands right alongside us. He silences Satan with a stare. Then he approaches the bench and speaks to the Judge on our behalf.
He says “My Lord, the plea today is guilty.” But then he reminds the Father of the case law he has written that cannot be repealed or argued—double jeopardy—which clearly states that we cannot be judged twice. We must be acquitted, because all the crimes have already been judged and punished.
When?! How?! Who?! The answer is in the second verse. Because “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins.” Other translations use the phrase “atoning sacrifice.” That’s how Jesus can be our defender. Because he is our propitiator. This is how I can be forgiven and set free, that there is no condemnation. Because he himself—“Jesus Christ, the righteous One”—is the propitiation for our sins, and not only ours, but the sins of the whole world.
From God’s point of view the case is closed, by Calvary. There is no sin problem anymore. There’s no forgiveness problem. Jesus’ self-sacrifice was enough to pay for every sin, of every sinner, ever born. Everyone who hears the gospel can be saved, no problem.
The only problem, is a confession problem. It’s not what you have done, but how do you plead? The Righteous One paid for the sins of all the unrighteous who will believe and trust him. But not all people will come and get the “cure” that’s freely offered.
Lots of cures have long names and this one is called propitiation, but it’s simple enough to understand. Propitiation. It’s not a word you hear every day, is it? You don’t have to know the name to take the cure.
The Greek word here hilasmos, means an appeasement. We know what that means. Something said or done to stop a war, or to placate somebody who is angry, so we are no longer enemies.
God is rightly angry at sin. How it has spoiled the world. He hates the hurt and the horror of everything evil and its consequences. It’s the opposite of all he is. He isn’t going to just say “It’s okay” even if we do, because it’s not. Imagine a judge who lets everyone off, no matter what.
Somebody has established a law and it’s been broken. A punishment, or a payment must be made. The window is smashed, the car is dented, someone’s got to pay for it to be put right. That’s justice. We know God is light. In him there is no darkness. He’s holy and just and God is love. So he has made a way, for the whole world and everyone in it.
The defence attorney shows the court the physical evidence. The nail holes in his hands, the wounds in his body he still bears. He declares:
My client is guilty! He has not denied it. Do not judge him on the basis of his life, but on the basis that I have laid my life down for him. In his place. He has pleaded guilty, but I the Innocent One, have already paid the price in my own blood. I am the atoning sacrifice. On the Cross, I have borne myself any punishment the court would impose. The death penalty for sin! And when I died, I said, “It is finished.” Paid in full.
Remember we are testing true from false teaching. Some people were teaching then, as they do now, “Well if Christians are forgiven, if we know we can be forgiven because God is loving, why not carry on sinning?” That’s what John is addressing. He wants us to see that only someone who doesn’t understand the cost of the cure would ever treat the sacrifice so lightly. Only someone who wanted to live in darkness would pervert God’s love into an excuse to carry on breaking his commands, his law, and his heart.
If that’s what we do, if we say we know God, but we don’t keep his commandments, verse three says we show we don’t know him at all. Right through to verse 11 he outlines the moral tests that show whether we are following the most important command or not, walking in love and in the light and in the truth, or whether we still live in darkness.
As J. John said, “Being a Christian doesn’t mean I am sinless, but it should mean that I sin less.” That’s maturing, growing in grace. Life means growth. No growth means no life.
There’s a growth progression John charts for us, from verse 12 to 14.
Three Categories of Spiritual Development
Where are we? This is a map of maturity.
It’s nothing to do with how much God loves you, he always loves his kids. Once he brings you into his forgiven family, he loves you the same at every stage like a good parent would. But growing has a lot to do with how much you love him. And it’s not like growing in a natural sense where it just happens automatically with time.
It’s all to do with what we rejoice in.
Little Children
John says the little children rejoice because your sins have been forgiven, and you’ve come to know the Father (vs 12, 13). This is spiritual infancy.
Do you know God loves you? Do you know you are God’s child? Born again into his family? It’s fantastic! The first stage is to be forgiven and in the family. It’s the first step and you can ask God to adopt you in today!
Jesus said, “You must be born again!” and on the basis of what he has done, every sinner and every confessed sin can be forgiven. That’s stage one.
I never want to stop rejoicing in that. The Father forgave me and brought me into his family in May 1986 and Jesus said whenever some prodigal comes back to the Father’s embrace the angels rejoice too! He’s my provider. He answers my prayers. I rejoice in that.
But you’re not meant to just stay a spiritual baby forever where it’s all about me and what God can do for me. That’s what little children are like. God wants his kids to grow!
Young Men and Women
The next stage is what he calls the young men. That’s when you rejoice in being an overcomer, you get angry at what the evil one is doing at the world and want to fight it, you are strong because you get into the Word and it gets into you.
This is rejoicing in living victoriously. Most Christians don’t even mature to that level. They just stay at the little child level. Maybe they don’t even fight that hard against sin. Don’t study the Word and seek to obey it. They’re just glad they got in the family of God.
Most Christian conferences these days aim at equipping people to go from stage one to stage two and use their gifts for God, fight some battles.
The Fathers and Mothers
But stage three, remember John is the elder here, a spiritual grandfather. He’s raising up some fathers and mothers in the family. He writes to the fathers. What do the mature rejoice in?
Not that you leave the other stages behind, because there’s a sequence here and I always want to rejoice that my sins are forgiven, I want to live as a victor not a victim. But the fathers rejoice in this, that they know the Father. Not just content with knowing about him. You just rejoice that you know him.
Him, who is from the beginning. The everlasting God, you can call him “Abba, Daddy, Father” and you’re becoming more like him when you do. You’re so in awe, so in love, you just want to know him more and more. To worship him with all of your life. That’s the true knowledge of God. What a journey!
Conclusion
If today you haven’t become God’s child, ask him. “Lord please adopt me as one of your own, may I be born again.” If you have become his little child, rejoice and never stop rejoicing but be aware that babies are vulnerable, feed on the Word and get strong, prepared for spiritual warfare. And may we never stop growing and becoming those mature spiritual parents of others. Modelling, mentoring, praying, serving and sharing what we are learning, as we know and love the Father more and more.
Anthony Delaney is a Leader at Ivy Church in Manchester. He is also the leader for New Thing and the LAUNCH conference. He is an author and hosts the television show “Transforming Life.”