The Outline. A key lesson I learned in
high school was how to write an outline. High school seniors should know how to
write an effective outline. It can help them organize thoughts before they
write an essay to a college for admission. Adults seeking employment use
outlines to write resumes. Pastors and playwrights draft outlines for sermons
and scripts.
John outlined his letter into three
primary headings.[i]
I.
WALK IN THE LIGHT
II.
LIVE AS GOD’S CHILDREN
III.
LOVE AND FAITH
Each contains secondary headings.
Today’s reading combines the last section of Live as God’s Children and the first section of Love and Faith. Charged with guarding
God’s flock, and following the example of the Good Shepherd, John warned Christians
to be on guard against the enemies of Christ; to be on guard against the world;
and to love.
Warning Christians to be on guard, John
instructed them to discern or test spirits to determine whether they were from
God or a false prophet. Was the teaching from someone who confessed Jesus
Christ came in the flesh or from someone who denied Jesus Christ came in the
flesh? As we see from the writings of the Apostles, discernment of spirits was
essential in the infant church.
In First Corinthians, Paul wrote, “Who
knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So
also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.”[ii]
In Hebrews, we read, “The
word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to
the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the
thoughts and intentions of the heart.”[iii]
Discernment of spirits was necessary
because not every spirit was from the Triune God. In Ephesians, we read, “You
were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the
course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.”[iv]
Evil spirits prompted dynamic people to
preach a false Gospel. In Second Corinthians, Paul warned against those who
proclaimed “another Jesus than the one we proclaimed … a different spirit from the
one you received … a different gospel from the one you accepted.”[v]
So concerned was Paul for Timothy that
he warned, “The Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from
the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.”[vi]
While there were many spirits in the
world, John was concerned that Christians identify the two opposing systems and
distinguish the spirit of truth from the spirit of error.[vii] Because John was an
eyewitness of Jesus Christ, his children could rest assured that God’s Spirit
abided with the Church. They had fellowship with Christ because the Holy Spirit
connected them to Him through Word and Sacrament.[viii]
Make no mistake, John made no room for
naïve acceptance of what felt good or seemed inspiring. Good vibrations did not
govern his assessment of the Spirit’s work.[ix] Rather, commitment to
Christ and His teachings assured Christians victory. Clarity reassured victory,
but also warned against wavering or accepting any alternative.[x] Those who preferred listening
to the teaching of this world passed judgment upon themselves.[xi]
John then turned his interest from Christians
confessing Jesus to Christians responding in love. Why? Because the
secessionists who walked in darkness damaged relationships among the remaining members.
John mended wounds by getting the remaining members to redouble their efforts
to create true Christian community. They rallied and pulled together.[xii]
Love is principal attribute of God that
defines believers. Love is a nonnegotiable in the household of faith. Love is
both from God and belongs to God. Beloved Christians extended that love to one
another.
By extending love to one another,
Christians demonstrated their love was not mere human love. Human love, however
noble, falls flat if it refuses to include our Triune God as the supreme object
of affection. Human love cannot balance the scale of sin and salvation. Human
love cannot save humanity.[xiii]
Our epistle teaches that God showed
himself to be a God of love. To refuse to love means not to know God, for love
accompanies confessing faith in Jesus Christ.[xiv]
Love accompanies confessing faith in
Jesus Christ. In this fellowship called the Christian Church, love accompanies
our confession. We embrace and confess our faith through three creeds: The
Apostles’ Creed, The Nicene Creed and The Athanasian Creed.
On Trinity Sunday, many congregations
speak their faith in the Holy Trinity through the Athanasian Creed. This creed
is thorough. It details who the Holy Trinity is and what He is not.
In all three creeds, we confess the Son
of God is begotten of the Father. The Father did not reproduced Himself to form
the Son in a biological way, like a human father begets a son, but the First
Person of the Trinity’s relationship with the Second is like that of Father and
Son. This is because the Son is eternally present.
The Son existed with the Father since
eternity. This is impossible to imagine, but the fact remains that before the
beginning of time there was Father and Son, together one God, yet in a
relationship to one another like that of Father and Son.
The creeds also express the relationship
between the Father and Son together and the Holy Spirit. But in this
relationship, the Nicene Creed confesses that the Spirit “proceeds from the
Father and the Son.” Again, it is impossible for us to imagine what this means
or looks like, but it affirms that there is a relationship between each of the
Three Persons of the Holy Trinity.
This inner relationship is at the heart
of the Godhead, which is why John wrote, “God is love.”[xv] To love, there must be
someone to love. St. Paul referred to this in Corinthians when he wrote, “Love
is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful.”[xvi]
Love is always directed at another
person. It is always a denial of oneself in favor of the other, their interests
and their life and being. In this sense, self-love is an oxymoron. Love is
always about the other.
When we confess the Athanasian Creed, we
see that God is never alone. God is a community, a relationship. He is One but
also Three and always One in Three and Three in One. God passed this love to us
when He created us in His image in a community with Him and one another. He
created us so that we could express our love in community with spouse and
children, friends and neighbors.[xvii]
Love accompanies confessing faith in
Jesus Christ. Martin Luther said as much when he wrote, “Consider the
inestimable love of God, and show me a religion that could proclaim a similar
mystery. Therefore, let us embrace Christ, who was delivered for us, and His
righteousness; but let us regard our righteousness as garbage, so that we,
having died to sins, may live to God alone.”[xviii]
Christians live to God alone through
love that accompanies confessing faith in Jesus Christ. I repeat that statement
because it was important in John’s day, in Luther’s day and in ours. Not
everyone who loves confesses faith in Jesus Christ.
In the early Church, syncretism was a
great danger, and we find evidence of it throughout the New Testament. Syncretism
occurs when you combine different or contradictory beliefs, assert an
underlying unity and allow for an inclusive approach to other faiths. John
wrote to his congregation to warn them of false teaching, even if it felt good
or inspirational.
Today, many false teachings are present
in our popular culture. Books like The
Shack and the Left Behind series
tempt Christians into believing false teaching. Incorporating these teachings is
into our beliefs is syncretism.
The
Shack promotes strange ideas about the Persons of the Trinity.
The Left Behind series stems from the
preaching of a 19th-century Anglican priest turned travelling
evangelical preacher named John Darby. Prior to Darby no Christian church
embraced the rapture doctrine. Rather, up until then Christians believed that
Jesus would come again visibly at some undisclosed time to judge—for the last
time—the living and the dead. This is what is affirmed in the Apostles’ and
Nicene Creeds.
My point is that while we may be
enjoying the latest spiritual reading material, if we are not careful, false
teachings can creep into our belief system. Therefore, when we petition God to
lead us not into temptation, we need to keep in mind that our enemies subtly attempt
to plant seeds of false teaching. Sometimes, this is accomplished by Satan;
sometimes, by the world (popular entertainment); and sometimes, by our sinful
selves because we say we would never take that stuff seriously and then we
start to wonder. That is when doubt begins to take root. So, test what you are
reading or watching against Scripture, and pray to our Father in heaven to give
you strength to resist and overcome these 3 temptations – Satan, world, sinful
self (#230).
In his Large Catechism, Luther reminds
us that even loving Christians can be lured into the deadly vices of
unchastity, laziness, gluttony, drunkenness, greed, deceit and acts of fraud
and deception against our neighbor. When we associate with people who regularly
engage in those practices, we easily slip into the mire of sin because we look
at our friends and say, “They’re not so bad.” It is this thinking when the
sinful self becomes the Trojan horse of our lives.
We are always going to face temptations
or what Luther calls attacks. That is why Luther, in his Large Catechism, wrote
this: To experience attack is different from consenting to it. We must all
experience it. … Strong Christians are
tempted by the devil. But no one can be harmed by merely experiencing an
attack, as long as it is contrary to our will and we would prefer to be rid of
it. … But to consent to it is to give free rein and neither to resist it nor to
pray for help against it. Accordingly, we must be armed and expect every day to
be under continuous attack. … Even if I am patient, kind and firm in faith, the
devil is likely to send an arrow into my heart that I can scarcely endure, for
he is an enemy who never lets up or becomes weary”(107-109). Hence, we need to
pray often to our Father to lead us not into temptation,
For those you love and for the world, profess
your faith in Christ and love one another. Live God’s Word and be God’s
Sacrament. Children of light, pray to the Holy Trinity for that grace. In
Jesus’ Holy Name, we pray. Amen.
[i]
See The Jerusalem Bible for the outline of 1 John.
[ii] 1
Corinthians 2;11
[iii]
Hebrews 4:12
[iv]
Ephesians 2;2
[v] 2
Corinthians 11:4
[vi] 1
Timothy 4;1
[vii] [vii]
Bruce G. Schuchard, 1 – 3 John. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House (2012), 418.
See fn 137.
[viii]
Ibid, 137, fn 138
[ix] Ibid,
420, fn 154
[x] Ibid,
422, fn 164
[xi] Ibid,
432, fn 228
[xii] Ibid,
442
[xiii]
Ibid, 445
[xiv] Ibid
[xv] 1
John 4:8
[xvi]
1 Corinthians 13:4-5
[xvii]
See http://blogs.lcms.org/2011/the-holy-trinity-and-life-together-6-2011
[xviii]
Schuchard, 448.
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