Simon Bowkett's Podcast

1 John 2:28-29 & 3:4-10

May 07, 2022 Simon Bowkett
Simon Bowkett's Podcast
1 John 2:28-29 & 3:4-10
Show Notes Transcript

         •        Introduction

‘Don’t judge’.

Yeah. 

Right. 

Fair enough.

Only the Judge should do the verdict and the sentencing.

But then again, there’s such a thing as jury trial and a whole lot of legal opinion in that court room … none of which is illegitimate unless it claims and seeks to EXERCISE final authority.

We are ALWAYS learning in the legal process how the Law gets interpreted. 

And those tentatively final views that exist in the court room before the judgement is issued, and in the spectators’ gallery too that are not yet declared to be the last word on the matter are perfectly legitimate ‘rule to live’ by … in fact NECESSARY ‘rule to live by’ … stuff, on that tentatively final basis.

So, John ENCOURAGES the people he is writing to, from this place he’s exiled to for his faith … these people in various house churches around Ephesus who are being led up the garden path by false teachers who’ve popped up amongst them … 

He’s writing to those folks and he is TEACHING them to develop sound judgement on a specified basis.

They ARE to be looking at those who’ve come along with fresh ideas and forming judgments on the validity of those peoples’ teaching.

And they’re to do that, amongst other things, by this fundamental question: ‘what actually IS their life like?’

And this isn’t a minor, peripheral matter.

It’s the key to continuing in Christ.

         •        1) The key to Continuing in Christ, vv. 28-29

“And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

 

29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.”

 


            •          What to do

V. 28 “And now, dear children, continue in him”

There’s John’s ‘dear children’ again.

He is starting a new section, a new train of thought.

But first he spells out the importance of it.

But the importance of what?!

The importance of CONTINUING in Christ.

Now, of course, the Lord spells out a really important, soul-securing truth in John 10:28-29 where He says:

“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”

But you need to bear in mind that He has already defined who these sheep of His are in the preceding verse:

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”

So the sheep that are not going to get plucked out of the Lord’s hand are the ones who:

i) Listen to His voice

ii) ones that He knows, and who

iii) follow Him.

That make it of the utmost importance, then, to listen to His voice, to have Him relate to you savingly and to continue to follow Him!

John KNOWS that.

And John is seeking to preserve that listening to the Lord’s voice, not the voice of a stranger, to stay within the Lord’s covenant community known and acknowledged by Him and therefore to CONTINUE to follow Him in His Way not some fine sounding, looking, feeling false teacher who works their way into the assembly.

It is crucial, says John, here is what you must be sure to do:

“And now, dear children, continue in him …”

Why?

Why so crucial?


            •          Why to do it

V. 28 “so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.”

There are End-Time consequences to be considered of remaining or not remaining in the truth.

Imagine standing there when Christ returns after a life of religious attendance and to stand condemned because you finally see the truth of Who He is after spending a lifetime of believing wrongly about Him all the while teaching others to do the same!

That would be something to avoid!

But what could be so awful an error that was going the rounds in those house churches around Ephesus at that time?

·       The error of rejecting Jesus as God’s one and only end-time Messiah and Saviour prophesied throughout the Old Testament Scriptures?

·       The error of rejecting Christ’s blood as the only acceptable sacrifice for all my real and present sin?

·       The error of believing that the Spirit leads away from the Biblically faithful teaching about Christ to some cosy feel good ‘generic spirituality’ - a comfy compromise with the spirit of the age?

·       The error of rejecting Jesus as God the Son, seeing Him as some moral teacher of religion but no more than that along with Guru this or that?

Well, it seems relevant that ‘Remain in HIM’ is a good summary of all John teaches everywhere about how a Christian should live in the light of everything that was going on amongst them.


            •          The crucial understanding

Now, remember, as we said a good while ago now, the first letter of John reads far less like a letter than a sermon.

2 John and 3 John read like letters to people, but this book reads like a sermon that revolves around themes that keep getting referred to again and developed a little bit further.

It’s a rhetorical technique called ‘amplification’ and it helps fix concepts in the mind because they’re not just mentioned once then moved on from and left but raised again to fix the idea in the memory better.

It’s like going back over your notes again when you are revising for an exam but not just looking at the way it was when you read it the last time … you write it out again in different words.

Well, enough of the revision technique … 

This theme of sin and obedience as one of the three keys to discernment in 1 John comes around getting ‘amplified’ again and again.

So we’ve looked at the key to continuing in Him, what’s the relevance of continuing in sin?

         •        2) The relevance of continuing in sin, 3:4-10

Now, bearing in mind that he is talking about how we CONTINUE in life, John writes:

“Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

 

7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.”

Notice first please the nature of what John is saying here.

What he says is totally and absolutely binary.

It’s binary.


            •          It’s binary, vv. 4-6

“Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 

5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 

6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.”

 


            •          The definition of sin in use, v. 4

John is working with a definition of sin for these Ephesian believers which is based around the concept of ‘lawlessness’.

The Greek word ἀνομία (anomia) is often translated “iniquity” or “lawlessness” and in the LXX (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible completed sometime in the second century BC) refers particularly to transgression of the law of Moses. 

In Jewish thought the ideas of sin (ἁμαρτία, hamartia) and lawlessness or iniquity (ἀνομία) were often equated because sin involved a violation of the Mosaic law and hence lawlessness. 

For example, the Septuagint translation of Ps 51:5 sets the two in parallel, and Paul in Rom 4:7 (quoting Ps 32:1) does the same. 

Now that’s well and good but John here is not talking about violation of the Mosaic law resulting in lawlessness, since he is writing to Christians. 

The ‘law’ for the author is the law of love, as given by Jesus in the new commandment of John 13:34-35. 

This is the command to love one’s brother, a major theme of 1 John and the one specific sin in the entire letter which the opponents are charged with (3:17). 

In Matt 24:11-12 Jesus foretold that false prophets would arise in the end times (cf. 1 John 4:1), that lawlessness (anomia) would increase, and that “the love of many will grow cold” (which would certainly fit the author’s portrait of the opponents here).

Now all of that is the very antithesis of the purpose in life of the Christ we’re supposed to be following (says John).


            •          The definition of Christ’s purpose in this life, v. 5

V. 5 “But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.”

The ‘He’ here is clearly Jesus because Jesus is the One Who does that … just as He was identified by John the Baptist at the beginning of the Lord’s ministry in John 1:29 “On the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”


            •           He came to take away sin

So Jesus came to take AWAY sin!

Why would an authentic follower of His let alone a would-be teacher of the Way of Jesus be continuing in sin any more.

It doesn’t ring true.

That bell is cracked and when it sounds it sounds hollow.


            •           He refused sin consistently Himself

Moreover, the Way Jesus showed us through the example of His life was one that CONSISTENTLY turned away from sin and repudiated it.

V. 5b “he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.”

His was a bell that kept its integrity and rang true!

If you are continuing to turn to His Him to follow in His Way, then you’re turning to follow the One in Whom there was no sin.

The point is not that ‘in you there will be no more sin’.

The point is that we live here a life of renewing repentance and faith, turning again to follow and trust the One in Whom there was no sin.

Now John sets out the logical consequence of what he’s been saying so far.


            •           The logical consequence, v. 6

V. 6 “No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.”

You see?

Here the verb μένω (menō) refers to the permanence of relationship between Jesus and the believer, as in 2:27 and 2:28.

NET translates it ‘resides’ in Him … which draws up all sorts of ideas of living in the same house and living in constant communion with Him and so on.

But the big deal is that if you are with Jesus, you don’t just carry on wilfully, habitually, unrepentantly remaining in sin, because you have your still-sinful heart set on following Jesus.

Now there’s a polar opposite there to be noticed …

‘Does not sin’. 

It is best to view the distinction between “everyone who practices sin” in 3:4 and “everyone who resides in him” in 3:6 as absolute and sharply in contrast. 

The author is here making a clear distinction between the opponents, who as ‘moral indifferentists’ downplay the significance of sin in the life of the Christian, and the readers, who as true Christians recognize the significance of sin because Jesus came to take it away (3:5) and to destroy it as a work of the devil (3:8)

There’s a very important point for our times here that really deserves to be noticed.

Back in 1969 Sakae Kubo took the false teachers in the house churches John addresses to be Gnostics who defined sin as ignorance. 

Now, of course, the errorists John is dealing with were probably not adherents of fully developed Gnosticism (which came along later) but Kubo is right that the distinction between their position and that of the true Christian is intentionally portrayed by the author here as a sharp antithesis.

Our era also attempts to define sin as ignorance … to excuse it … but the whole body of New Testament literature reinforces that sin is lawlessness and that we are all accountable for our own participation in it.

As Romans 1 makes clear, whether to the Laws of the Old Testament or the ‘Law’ written on our conscience, all humanity is held accountable by God.

And how a person relates to sin and lawlessness is a fundamental criterion of authenticity or inauthenticity of a counsellor or instructor.

You see the thing is this …

Authentic ministry is ‘binary’ on the subject of continuing in sin, vv. 7-10


            •          Authentic ministry is ‘binary’ on continuing in sin, vv. 7-10

“Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 

8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. 

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 

9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 

10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.”

 


            •           Solidarity with Christ, v. 7

Firstly, solidarity with Christ arises as a definite ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

“Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.”

Let’s be clear on the context in which John is here speaking of righteousness.

It is the righteousness that came to Abraham by faith when “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6)

But James 2:21-23 clearly spells out what demonstrated in real life the authenticity of how Abram trusted God:

“Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.”

It was a faith that affected a life, and the most courageous acts of faith and loyalty flowed from it.

So here, it is actual not theoretical solidarity with Christ that’s in view, and we have already had spelled out for us (v. 6) what a ministry in solidarity with Christ is going to look like.

HE didn’t continue in sin.

So here’s what  authentic ministry people will look like, v. 7, “The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous …”


            •           Solidarity with the evil one, v. 8

This is SO binary John goes straight on to talk of what solidarity with the evil one looks like.

Now bear in mind here please, he is talking about people who’ve been preaching in these people’s own house churches, which is what makes what John says here so utterly extraordinary:

“The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”

What we do reveals who we are, regardless of who we SAY we are.

To continue to sin is to identify with what the devil did in the Garden of Eden and has been doing since: to ‘Diss’ the validity and authority of what God says and stands for.

And as God and the devil stand for binary opposites … solidarity with Christ and with the devil are binary opposites.

You are going to be either one or the other, and your attitude to continuing sin or in repentance and faith is the place where someone’s identity is revealed (says John).

So the consequence of what he’s saying will be obvious …


            •          The obvious consequences, v. 9

“No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; 

they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.”

It is that ‘continuing’ to sin that marks the clear line of definition.

Someone born of God will not CONTINUE in a string of sin that is unbroken by repentance and turning back to God, trusting to the promise to individual faith of salvation by the blood of His sacrificial Lamb.

So this is also true, the person whose heart is genuinely changed by the new birth, shows up as the person who does not career onwards in an unbroken continuance in sin.

And NOW John is ready to make his big point …


            •          So here’s the criterion for discernment, v. 10

“This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.”

HERE is the particular criterion for forming a judgement about someone who is bringing you a message, or proposing to you a ‘Way’.

“This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.”

That is ASTONISHING, isn’t it?

This is John, the Apostle of Love, saying that those of their preachers who show up as continuing in sin (regardless of their other perceived qualities or abilities) are to be regarded and treated as the children of the devil.

It is all down to not persisting in sin and persisting in not loving your brother and sister.

And by now John states that in terms that leave nothing more to say.

So let’s come to a conclusion.

         •        Conclusion

Yes … ‘do not judge’ … in the sense in which Matthew 7:1 says that.

Here’s the verse:

““Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

There’s a general principle in that first verse there, but the rationale for that explains in the second verse that this is about being ready to be dealt with in judgement the way you deal with others.

When Jesus says in Mathew 7 ‘Do not judge, or you too will be judged’ He is saying you’ll be dealt with in the way that you deal with other people … He is emphatically NOT saying ‘do not form sound judgements about truth and error’!

He is reminding us that we will ourselves be judged by the standards we apply, as the following verse goes on to make clear.

Now then, what follower of the Lord Jesus us unwilling to be judged as to their faithfulness in ministry on the criteria that 1 John sets out here?

What ARE those criteria?

Well, across the book it is about three things, love, obedience to the Lord and adherence to sound doctrine but at this point in this passage it is about a life of general obedience to the Lord you are supposed to be following, and following Him means not continuing in known sin but continuing to consistently repudiate it whenever it shows its ugly head.

It means not going back on the repentance you showed at first, but continuing with it through your Christian life.

And here’s John’s point:

In a context that deals with ongoing patterns of  behaviour, John writes:

“This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.”

So here are the points from the passage that challenge us today:

Are we ACTIVE in discerning where ANY of our ministry is coming from in the life of the person who is bringing it?

And are we as keen on living in repentance and renewed faith as we were at first?

And here’s the key for us: have we the CONFIDENCE … the faith … in what happened at Calvary, to be able to live ourselves in such a self-critical way?