God’s grace, peace
and mercy be with you. … My focus is the First Letter of John where we read: “Beloved,
if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”[1] Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the
psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the
Lord.’”[2]
Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we
listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply
as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.
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.[3]
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.”[4]
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.”[5]
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.”[6]
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.”[7]
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.”[8]
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.[9] 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.[10]
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.[11] Rather, commitment to
Christ and His teachings assured Christians victory. Clarity reassured victory,
but also warned against wavering or accepting any alternative.[12] Those who preferred listening
to the teaching of this world passed judgment upon themselves.[13]
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.[14]
Love is the 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.[15]
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.[16]
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
reproduce 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.”[17]
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.”[18]
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.[19]
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.”[20]
Christians live for
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
into our belief 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 culture and 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.[21]
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 it free rein. …
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.”[22] 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, and when you do, may the peace of God that
surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1] 1
John 4:11
[2]
Psalm 122
[3]
See The Jerusalem Bible for the outline of 1 John.
[4] 1
Corinthians 2;11
[5]
Hebrews 4:12
[6]
Ephesians 2;2
[7] 2
Corinthians 11:4
[8] 1
Timothy 4;1
[9]
Bruce G. Schuchard, 1 – 3 John. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House (2012),
418. See fn 137.
[10]
Ibid, 137, fn 138
[11]
Ibid, 420, fn 154
[12]
Ibid, 422, fn 164
[13]
Ibid, 432, fn 228
[14]
Ibid, 442
[15]
Ibid, 445
[16]
Ibid
[17] 1
John 4:8
[18] 1
Corinthians 13:4-5
[19]
See http://blogs.lcms.org/2011/the-holy-trinity-and-life-together-6-2011
[20]
Schuchard, 448.
[21]
Luther’s Small Catechism, #230.
[22]
Luther’s Large Catechism, #107-109.
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