Sunday, May 8, 2005– Mother’s Day
“Relationships that encourage righteousness”
1 John 3:1-24
7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous. 1 John 3:7 NIV
------
One November day in 2002, Jim Sulkers, a 53-year-old retired municipal worker from Winnipeg (Manitoba, Canada), climbed into bed, pulled the covers up, and died.
Nearly two years later, on August 25, 2004, police who had been called by concerned relatives entered Jim Sulkers’ apartment and found his body in a mummified state. Everything else in his tidy one-bedroom apartment was intact, although the food in his fridge was spoiled and his wall calendar was two years out of date.
Mr. Sulkers’ death went undiscovered for several reasons: he was reclusive, estranged from family members, and had a medical condition that prevented his body from decomposing and emitting odors. In addition, automatic banking deposited his disability pension and withdrew utilities and other expenses as they came due, and so people thought that he was alive when in fact he was dead.
What a sad story. To think that a person could be dead for nearly two years before anyone noticed his absence is an incredibly heartbreaking story.
This is not what God intended for Jim Sulkers. It’s not what He intends for anyone of us. You and I have been created by God to live in community, in relationships. Humans are social creatures. We are significantly influenced by our relationships. And, incredibly, we significantly influence others.
But it is so very important that our relationships are guided by love and righteousness. We see far too many people who suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder, ADD. O, I’m not talking about the typical meaning of that phrase. I’m nottalking about a person who has a difficult time focusing his or her attention on a particular subject or activity. I’m talking about a person who has been deprived of attention and deprived of love from those who had a God-given responsibility to give him attention and love. I suppose we could call it Attention Deprivation Disorder.
There are any number of social consequences that result when love and attention are withheld from people.
The Apostle John, in his first letter, third chapter, states God’s desire in how He wants our need for love and attention met. This 3rd chapter is all about relationships that encourage a lifestyle that is righteous, that is pleasing to our heavenly Father.
So, throughout this chapter, we need to be asking, “How does this relationship encourage us to do the right thing, the loving thing?”The answer that comes will tell us quite clearly whatour role in that relationship should be. If we are in a relationship that in no way encourages us to live a righteous life, we absolutely need to be the influencers in that relationship or we need to get out of that relationship.
When God calls us to do ministry on His behalf with people who are not yet interested in turning to God in obedience, He does not intend for our obedience to minimize simply because we aretrying to relate with unbelievers.
The baseball coach sees an opportunity for one of his best hitters to give some pointers to a younger player. So, he assigns him the task of functioning as a hitting coach to the younger player. If the younger player has no interest in learning new skills or making adjustments in his stance or swing, it would be absurd to suggest that the more skilled batter change his swing or stance to better relate to the unskilled batter. O, he might change his mentoring approach, but certainly not take on the bad habits of the less skilled player.
If that’s the kind of influence the weaker player has on the stronger player the coach would not encourage the relationship.
So, the question we should be asking often as we work through this 3rd chapter of 1 John is: “How does this relationship encourage us to do the right thing, the loving thing?” So, let’s try it on the first paragraph.
1 John 3:1-3 (NIV)
3 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
So, does our relationship with God the Father encourage us to do the right thing, the loving thing?
Well, that’s almost a ridiculous question. But, let’s not misshow our heavenly Father encourages us.
In verse 1 we see that He has a great love for us. I like the way the NIV expresses it, love lavished on us. We are the recipients of a great love from our heavenly Father. Certainly, that encourages us to do the right thing and the loving thing.
God calls us His children. He gives us an identity that is shaped by our relationship. The child who has a loving father is so much more likely to want to imitate that love.
Not only do we have an immediate identity that links us to God, our Father, i.e., we’re His children, but He sets before us the hope of an even better identity. We will be like His Son, Jesus Christ, when He appears.
Talk about a powerful influence on us to do the right thing and the loving thing – that is the whole thrust of God’s relationship with us. If He can instill within us the identity that we are His children and place within our hearts the hope to be like His Son, then He has us pointed in the right direction.
In this relationship, God models for all of us how to be a godly encourager.
The sentence in this first paragraph that gave our community group the most difficulty was at the end of verse 1.
The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
It seems to be implying that beforean unbeliever can have a friendship with a believer, he has to first become a believer. So much for our evangelistic relationships, then.
The key is in the word know. That word can refer to intimacy of relationship, the kind of intimacy reserved for marriage. Now, with that meaning, we can read the sentence, The reason the world does not have intimacy of relationshipwith us is that it did not have intimacy of relationshipwithHim.
It’s the sameprinciple in the Bible teaching that we should not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Until a potential partner has an intimate relationship with her heavenly Father, she cannot truly experience a similar intimacy of relationship with another follower of Jesus Christ.
One of the illustrations we came up with Wednesday night was that of a dad’s relationship with his daughter. Before a young man can date or court the daughter, he has to get the approval of her dad. Thus, the relationship with the dad is a requisite for a relationship with the daughter.
Next paragraph.
4 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.
So let’s apply our question to this paragraph. “How does this relationship encourage us to do the right thing, the loving thing?”
First of all, John is helping us grapple with the problem of sin. He tells us that sin is lawlessness, a breaking of the law. Verse 5 speaks of “our sins.” Thus, in grappling with the problem of sin we need to recognize that sin is our problem because it is our sin. We have broken the law. We are being lawless.
Second, John shows us what Jesus has done to help us with our sin problem. He who had no sin appeared to take our sins away.
Thus, our relationship with Jesus Christ very much so encourages us to do the right thing, the loving thing.
What does our relationship look like? It’s an abiding relationship. It’s an ever present relationship. Wherever you see me you see my Lord because I am abiding in Him, continually. As a result of that kind of relationship, it is not possible for me to make a habit of sinning.
Let me illustrate. Jesus and I are walking down the road together. We come upon a temptation. Jesus says to me, “Keep on walking, Dan.” And, I obey Him and I get past the temptation. We keep on walking down the road together and we come upon another temptation. This time, I step away from Jesus and inquire more of the temptation. Jesus beckons me to come back. He urges me, but I stay under the influence of the temptation. I have separated myself from my Lord, at least in the aspect of fellowship. Jesus continues to call out to me to walk away from the temptation, or what may now be, outright sin.
Evidence that I amtruly a child of God is that I eventually listen to my Lord’s urgings and I repent, turning away from my sin and return to walking along side my Savior. Because, as John tells us here, No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him.
Our relationship with Christ is characterized by His encouragements to us to do the right thing and to do the lovingthing.
Next paragraph.
“How does this relationship encourage us to do the right thing, the loving thing?”
7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 He 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 him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has 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 a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
What relationships is John speaking of here? Relationships with those people who either encourage us to do the right thing or encourage us to do the evil thing. John is cautioning us about those who would lead us astray, who would encourage us to participate in sin and in evil. We must be alert to our own vulnerabilities to sinful people. If we can’t stay pure while showing ourselves friendly to a sinner, then we had better move on from that relationship. If we stop doing the right thing because we are in the presence of an evil person, then, we had better get away from that person. If we cease loving because the pressure is too great from those around us, then physicallymoving oneself away from that influence is the wise choice.
8 . . . The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
Again we see a restatement of themission of Jesus: to destroy the devil's work. His (the devil) work is to bring people on board with him in the work of evil.
The way John is speaking here is very much in the language of war, in that there are two sides. We are either on God's side or the devil's side. The leader of lawlessness, of sin, is the devil. The leader of righteousness and love is Jesus Christ. So, when we are engaged in lawlessness and sin, we are doing the bidding of the devil. When we are engaged in righteousness and love, we are doing the bidding of Christ.
Getting on God's side takes place by virtue of a birth process. We need to be born of God to get on God's side. When we are, characteristic of us will be that we do not continue in sin; we cannot go on sinning. It is contrary to our nature as children of God to live in continual sin.
(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 a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.)
In verse 10 we have atest that will determine whose child we are. Are we God's child or the devil's child? It’s a test, not of intellectual knowledge, but of obedient behavior. 1. Do we do what is right? 2. Do we love our brother?
Love with actions is love that cares, love that supports, love that does something. It is picking up a telephone and letting someone know that you are thinking about her. It is writing an email saying that you are praying for him. It is inviting someone over to your home just because you care. It is rearranging your schedule to help take care of an emergency.
Some relationship inspire us to do the right thing. Other relationships tempt us to do the evil thing. If we’re walking with Jesus, He will greatly encourage us to do the right thing.
11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
Cain is an illustration of what it means to belong to the devil, the evil one. He not only did not do what is right, he did not love his brother. Had he asked himself, “How does this relationship encourage me to do the right thing, the loving thing?” he possibly would have walked away from the temptation and not become a murderer.
The birth process of becoming a child of God takes us from death to life and is evidenced by our love for our brothers. Murder is evidence of not doing what is right and hatingour brother.
The spiritual journey is not a solitary walk, it’s a personal relationship with Jesus Christ lived out in community with other Christians, lived out through Jesus Christ’s Church. The idea that spiritualityis private is not found anywhere in the Bible. The Bible says that in the spiritual journey of the Christian life we walk together, usually in the context of being part of the local church...the only real question is how we walk together. Do we walk together in love, forgiving each other when we blow it, lifting each other up when one of us falls? Or do we walk together in anger, lashing out when a companion on the journey disagrees with us, blaming others when we stumble and fall?
John wants us to ask ourselves, are we encouraging others to do the right thing, the loving thing? Within the relationships that we have a part, do we cheer on our brothers and sisters in Christ to live godly lives? Are we following the example of our Lord in how He encouraged others?
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.
Jesus sees the deficits in our lives. He sees those of us who have not been loved as we ought or who have not been given the attention we so desperately needed. And He does something about it. He made personal sacrifices for our benefit. He gave what was lacking in ourselves.
Now, He urges us to follow His example.
Following His example may mean we give up a job promotion in order to keep being an encourager of doing the right and loving thing within the closest of relationships we have. Life is not about the acquisition of material goods or the accumulation of money or the stock piling of awards. Life is about pleasing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What does He want?
He wants first and foremost that our relationship with Him is growing strong, that we are responding to His encouragements to do right and love others.
In the middle of the 18th century, John Fawcett was preparing to move. At age 32, he was leaving the small Baptist church in Wainsgate, England for the prestigious Carter’s Lane Church in London.
Fawcett was orphaned at the age of 12. He was forced to work fourteen hours a day in a sweat shop. He taught himself to read by candlelight and studied continuously. When he was ordained at the age of 25, he moved to Wainsgate. For seven years he served the church of 100 members before receiving the invitation to become the pastor of the prestigious church in London.
The last of his possessions were loaded on to the moving cart as Fawcett began saying his good-byes. Tearfully, he bade farewell to the church family he had loved for the past seven years. They returned his tears and his love. However, Fawcett discovered that he couldn’t break “the tie that binds.”