CHRIST CHURCH
Oct 16,2005,6pm
1 John 3:18-4:6
That passage from John's first epistle, from chapter 3
verse 18 to chapter 4 verse 6. comes from two different sections
in our NIV Bible. The first section is headed 'Love one
another, the second 'True and false spirits'. And we may
feel these are making very different types of
statement. 'Love one another' is- well, loving. God is love
and weare told to love one another. Then we are told about
the true and the false spirits. lt seems a big leap to make,
going straight from one to another!
It helps a bit, perhaps, to remember that John, in
writing this epistle, writing people facing heretical
teaching, is dealing with three big themes, and he seems to
come at these themes from various different directions. lt struck
me once that there's a mnemonic to remember these
major themes in 1 John- the word 'Lot'. There's a 'lot' in
1 John. Love, Obedience and Truth, so the mnemonic is in an
acronym. These are the three main themes to
which John, in writing this epistle, comes back to again and
again.
1. Love, the special 'agape love' , the special love
of God, the love which he showed in Jesus, the love which his Holy
Spirit imparts tom us.
2 Obedience, obedience to God's Word, obedience to his command:
John often uses that expression that'we obey his commandments', ihen
3. The truth. Not truth in a cold, intellectual
sense, but truth in the reality that is in God, that
is in Jesus, and the reality that he brings into our life,
remembering that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth
and the Life (John 14:6) He is the only truth.
I want to begin this evening by looking at the
first three verses of chapter 4. Let's remind ourselves of what the
apostle is saying there.
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the
spirits to see if they are from God, because many
false prophets have gone out into the world- This is how you can
recognise the Spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledges
that Jesus Christ has come
in the flesh has come from God.
Every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from
God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard
is coming, even now is already in the world
John is first of all making that big distinction between
the two spirits: the spirit that 'acknowledges that
Jesus is come in the flesh'and every other spirit, which
does not recognise Jesus is from God. lf we think
this is something very far removed from us, way above
our heads, and not for 6 o'clock on a Sunday evening,
let's remember that John had to write these words to
everyday Christians in the first century. At the end of the first
century he had to write these words warning people to
'test the spirits', not to be deceived by false spirits; to
distinguish between the true and the false.
There are many people who would claim to speak from the
Spirit of God, but we have to test whether their words are true
or not. Otherwise we can so easily be led astray. So many people
say, "God told me this", "God told me to do this".
Just recently it was in the papers that George Bush said
that God told him to go to war in lraq. Well, l'm not
here tonight to say whether of not this was the case. I
think we might well have our opinions on that! Let's just
say that the consequences of that have been very great, very
grave, and hardly very godly. So we must be very careful as we
listen to people who say, "God told me to do
this, or that"; people really claiming to speak
prophetically from God,
Can we trust them? Well, John's saying there are these two
spirits, or two types of spirit. There is the one
spirit, the Holy Spirit who acknowledges that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh, and is from God, and every other
spirit. The apostle Paul said very much the same sort of
thing. Writing to the Corinthians he says Therefore
I tell you no- one speaking by the Spirit of God says "Jesus be
cursed", and no-one can say "Jesus is Lord", except by the Holy
Spirit. (1 Cor 12:3)
There is that clear distinction, that clear water-line between
the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth (Jesus
speaking to his disciples just before his betrayal,
promised to send to them the'Spirit of Truth')- he is
the spirit of Truth, and teaches us the truth about God, and
brings the truth of God within us, and one of ihe greatest truihs
he brings is that 'Jesus Christ is come in the flesh', that God came in
the flesh, and every other spirit.
This is the way we can test a person's spirit . Only those
with the Spirit of God within them can from the heart and
openly confess that Jesus is the Son of God, fully
the Son of God, God and man come together in the
ffesh. Jesus is not simply some spirit that passed
into some man, and then returned to heaven. No,
it was God taking human flesh on himself and coming for the
salvation of the world. That is the truth as John would
know the truth and not something cold and intellectual, but
something which touches the heart of man, which changes the heart
of man, for only those who are born again witi have
the Spirit of God tiving within them, and will truly be
able to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord , that Jesus Christ is
from God.
And this is where, in a multicutural, multifaith
world, we have to be careful to stand firm. Yes, we
must have dialogue with people of othet faiths, we can't
just shun them or pretend they don't exist, but there must
be that clear dividing line between the truth that Jesus Christ
brought, the truth which Christianity, in its creeds, confesses
and the so- called truths, the abstract intellectual
truths of other religions. Yes- lslam is one of the three
monotheistic religions in the world, but the Koran teaches that
Allah has no son. Yes, Jesus is mentioned in the Koran as
someone who did live, but Jesus was just one among many
prophets" This is the big dividing line, the clear water
between Christianity and lslam" Let's not be in any two
minds about that,
John says that the other spirit is the 'spirit of antichrist'. We
tend to identify' Antichrist' with the book of Revelation,
but'antichrist' simply means the 'alternative to Christ'. Many
spirits will actually appear to announce themselves as the spirit
of Christ, but they are the spirit of antichrist- altematives to
Christ, who are actually againsi Christ. Sacily, as John
had to warn his readers, the spirit of antichrist can come
from within the church. Earlier in his epistle in chapter 2, John
says this:
This is how we know it is
the last hour. They (that is the antichrist) went out from us,
but they did not really belong to us. For, if they
had belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but their
going showed that none of them belonged to us.
There are within the church those who do not belong to Christ.
Increasingly they will come out of the church into the
world and set themselves up as false prophets. John is really saying,
"Be on your guard! Beware!"
In addition to that commenatator Thomas Hale reminds us, "a man
can lie, in order to deceive us, and such a lie will in
time be exposed by a man's actions". Yes, a man can lie and
say that "Jesus Christ is the Son of God", but doesn't
really believe it. I don't think too many people would do that, but
there wil be those. They will be found out.-'
How then do we test this. Is someone a member of
Christ or not? Am I really a member of Christ,
or aml deceiving myself? lf we say "Jesus Christ is from
God" is that from our hearts or just from our lips? Actualty the
ealier verses that we read tonight tell us a lot
about what's within us.
So, what was the apostle saying in those earlier verses?
Well, first he says, Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
Do we show that true Christian love in our lives? And this,
says John in verse 19 is how we will know if we belong to
the truth. Whether we belong to Jesus Christ- by our" actions, by
our love, by our deeds. ls our Christianity just a verbal
confession or is it something which touches our lives;
touches our lives in a sense of bringing love in our lives?
After all, it was Paul, who in 1 Corinthians 13 said if I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
lt's not just our deeds, but the love behind those deeds,
which will find us out, which will test the truth of
our claim to be a Christian. Of course, we can't always
dispassionately examine our lives. We can so easily just
look at our deeds wihtout really knowing the
motivation behind. So often a deed of love will be performed, and
just come spontaneously, if the love of God's Spirit is
behind it. At bottom, I think we know if God's love controls our
lives or not.
lf it does, then as John says in verse 19, we can set our
hearts at rest. Even if our hearts do seem to eondemn us,
verse 21, we have confidence before God.
Our hearts may condemn us. Sometimes we may not feelwe are
good enough. We may feel we are poor Christians. But, if
the love of God is within us, then we shall have peace. We
shall have confidence before God. And we shall be obeying his
command. And what is his command.
In verse 22, it is to believe in the Name of his Son Jesus Christ and to love one another as he commanded us.
These are the two great things which God looks for in
us, looks for in our lives: to believe in the Name of his
Son, which is the test that his Spirit is within us, and to love
as he commanded, to love in deed, and beyond deed in truth, to love
because the Holy Spirit is producing his fruit in our lives.
Tonight. let's not look at our'spiritual navels', but within and
know whether that fruit of the Spirit is within our lives, whether
the love of God is wihtin, controlling out actions. lf it
is,'fie know that the Spirit of God is within and we can set our
hearts at rest; we can have confidence befor God.