Read: I John 5:1-21
Read: Galatians 5:13-6:6
There are so many problems facing our world today. That might just be the greatest understatement of 2020. I’d wager that nobody imagined how bad things were going to get, and we haven’t even made it to the election in November yet. All I can say is, brace yourself.
Whenever we are faced with challenges in the world, we often find our mind searching for an explanation or a solution to fix it. But with everything falling to pieces, who would even want the responsibility of putting it all back together again?
John, the beloved Apostle, has a lot to say about the world and what it’s going to take to overcome it.
How to Overcome the World
John has just finished up three chapters explaining the importance of loving one another, but before we start thinking of Jackie DeShannon’s song, “What the World Needs Now Is Love,” we have to observe what John says it really takes to change the world.
Jesus said that faith could move mountains. That would certainly change the landscape of the world, but Jesus isn’t interested in teaching us how to top David Copperfield. He wants us to understand the power of faith. Even then, we have to clarify what we mean, because we are tempted to think that faith is something we have to generate in order for it to work. The power is not in faith itself, like channeling one’s chi energy, it is in the object of our faith. That is why faith works even when it is the size of a mustard seed.
If we are grafted into the vine of God, we don’t have to worry about the photosynthesis or the osmosis. The power is coursing through us. As long as we are in the vine, the vine is in us. This is the work of faith and it is why it is not burdensome. God has already done the work, we simply have to trust and obey.
This is how we love God. We say we love Him, but we deceive ourselves because we don’t believe Him. He has promised to take care of us, but we still worry. We focus on the things of this world, instead of remembering the promises of God.
How do We Know?
In the movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the protagonist, Indy, has to cross a chasm in order to get to the Holy Grail. Taking a blind leap of faith, he steps out into the void to find that a narrow bridge had been camouflaged to look like it wasn’t there. Unsurprisingly, Hollywood has given us a terrible definition of faith. Believing in God does not demand that we suspend logic, but it does require us to be honest about ourselves and the evidence.
John later tells us that there are three witnesses to the deity of Christ: the water, the blood, and the Spirit. Most scholars agree on the blood. It is the testimony of Jesus’ death that cries out that God loves us. Likewise, the Spirit of God testifies within us that we are Children of God. However, there is a debate regarding what John means by the water bearing witness to Jesus. Most would argue that this is the baptism of Jesus where the Spirit descended upon the savior like a dove and the voice of God could be audibly heard saying, “This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased.” As compelling as that argument is, and it is really compelling, I tend to think that it is referring to Jesus’ incarnation. As John wrote in his Gospel narrative regarding the conversation with Nicodemeus, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Jesus was born of a virgin through the power of God, affirming that Jesus was both fully human, and fully God. Either way, what John is telling us here is that we can know the truth because of the historical record of Jesus’ life, death, and ministering Spirit.
There are so many things that we accept to be true without any evidence. If John were writing in the modern day he might even say that if we accept what we read on the internet to be true, why wouldn’t we accept the witness of God? Most of us won’t actually work through the process of researching the source evidence. We accept our initial impressions.
If we want to know the truth, we can explore it on our own. We can study apologetics and see the actual evidence of the claims of Christianity. But even more revealing, if we seek the Lord, He has promised to reward us with the confirmation of His truth. Read through the Gospel of John and find the compelling evidence that Jesus is the Son of God.
Those who deny the testimony of the Word, the evidence of history, and the work of the Spirit are calling God a liar. This is not a passive rejection of Christianity. John says that the world chooses pleasures over God, they mock and murder their savior, and they are dead and blind in their sins. Only those who put their faith in Jesus can overcome the world.
Test it and See
The Gospel of John was written so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and by believing in Him we may have life in His name. This epistle of John was written so that we might know that we have this eternal life.
It’s one thing to have empirical data to confirm the truth, it is another thing entirely to experience it. John invites us to come before the throne of God on our own with the confidence that He hears our prayers. This doesn’t mean that we should ask for anything we want. God is not a cosmic vending machine, bound by our incantations to grant our wishes. He is the sovereign Lord over all creation and He is our heavenly Father who has promised to give us all that we need.
This takes us back to the first chapter where we were instructed to confess our sins, knowing that He hears our prayers and is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all sins. This is God’s will. He wants us to be perfected in Christ. That is why He prunes us so that we will produce the fruit of love. He will complete the work that Christ began in us.
And if this is true for us, then it is also true for others. Somehow we tend to think that the people we have been witnessing to and praying for are a lost cause. We deal with our own sins before God, but when we see someone else sin, we are shocked and appalled. John encourages us to remember the gospel and know that God has forgiven us a greater offense than anyone has ever committed against us. As Jesus taught us in the Lord’s prayer, we should pray that God would forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. This is how we love others as Christ loved us.
However, John shows us that there are those who are so antagonistic towards God, who look for every opportunity to tear down what is good, and would pick a fight with the rocks if they cried out in worship. Those people, John tells us, should not occupy our prayer life. This is like saying, “Don’t throw your pearls before swine,” or “Don’t answer a fool according to their folly, in case they be wise in their own eyes.” Discernment is knowing when to speak and when to remain silent. In everything, though, we trust in God.
Pursue Purity
The last set of verses give us a great review, reminding us of all the ways John is encouraging us to not sin, to persevere in obedience as Children of God, to seek the Lord in our understanding, and to remain in Him so that we might flourish in bearing the fruit of love.
But the very last statement seems to come out of nowhere. John says, “Keep yourselves from idols.” While it might seem like an odd place to end a letter, it gives us a bit of a twist that, hopefully, causes us to go back and reread the letter with a different perspective.
John is telling us to not believe in lesser things when God alone is able to do what He said He will do. Don’t trust in chariots, trust in the name of the Lord our God. Don’t trust in politics, trust in the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Don’t trust in faith, have faith in the promises of God. Don’t trust in prayer, trust in the one who hears our cries.
This last statement shows us how easy it is to get one degree off course and end up far from God. John is writing so that we might have fellowship with God through Christ and love one another. That means that we have to constantly guard our hearts from any idols that would creep into the throne room of our hearts and destroy them before their roots drag us down.
Adam Miller is the president and host of Songtime Radio and serves as the pastor of South Chatham Community Church. This article is a condensed version of one of his sermons.