If you’ve been with us on our journey through 1 John, you’ll know that John wrote to some insecure Christians. Am I really a Christian? They’d recently had a split in their church. A group had broken away and started their own thing. They looked down their noses at the ordinary Christians. Am I somehow second class? Where do I stand with God?
John wants them to be sure. He wants us to be sure. So he’s written a letter with signs. Indicators that will reassure us we are genuine Christians. True Christians will see their lives changing to be more what God wants them to be. True Christians will show a genuine love for their fellow Christians. True Christians will not pretend they are perfect, but will bring their failures to God to forgive, because Jesus died for them. And so on.
The trouble is, they don’t always work. The more you stare at these marks of a true Christian, the more you start to wonder. You’re worried you might have some illness. So you get online, NHS Direct, Wikipedia, and you start to read up. You’re wanting reassurance. But the more you read, the more you begin to wonder whether you might be sick after all.
John wrote this letter to reassure us. Yet sometimes, as we think about the marks of a true Christian, we begin to wonder. Perhaps I’m not there after all. Perhaps I don’t meet John’s tests.
That is possible, of course. John did not write his letter to reassure every person on the planet that they’re alright with God. Plenty of people today do not follow Jesus. If that’s you, John would love you to start following him. He certainly doesn’t want you to read his letter and conclude that you’re fine the way you are.
But John doesn’t wish to unsettle the genuine Christian. And yet, by this point in 1 John, many true Christians are beginning to feel worried.
That’s the problem with a series of sermons like this. The danger that everything we say hits the wrong people. 1 John was written to reassure authentic Christians that they’re on the right track. Yet if we’re not careful, people who aren’t Christians at all read this letter and decide that there’s no need to follow Jesus. They’re fine the way they are. And all the while, the real Christians, the people John wrote to reassure, come away more anxious than ever.
Well John wants us to be sure. He wants us to know God. And then he wants us to know we know God. It may be that some of us have to start following Jesus for the first time to get to this point, but John would love us all to be sure that we truly know God.
Which brings us to today’s passage. If the things he’s said so far are starting to make you feel anxious, John wrote this for someone just like you. If this is all making you more anxious, less assured, then let’s see if this helps:
John breaks things down into two categories. Our anxiety could come from one of two directions.
Is my response genuine?
Firstly, you might be asking: Is my response genuine? Is my response genuine?
John’s answer is to show us how simple it is to respond to the Christian gospel. We don’t have to jump through countless hoops. We don’t have to do vast amounts of coursework. We don’t have to swat up and get 85% in a final exam. It’s just this: Chapter 3 and verse 23 – this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he commanded us. That’s it. Trust Jesus. Love the other Christians around you.
John is following Jesus very closely. In John chapter 6, verse 28, Jesus is asked this question: What must we do, to be doing the works of God? Here is Jesus’ reply: This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. That’s it. When Jesus taught the way back to God, it was sheer grace from start to finish. We don’t have to do anything. The word believe is the same as the word for trust. We just have to trust him. Take his word for it. Receive it as a gift.
That’s what this first paragraph of our reading is saying. We can have complete confidence of where we are with God. We can have that because we’ve done what God requires of us. We can be sure we’ve done what God requires because all he asks is that we trust Jesus and love his people. It really is as simple as that. So you can be sure.
The first part of the paragraph, verses 19 to 21, is a bit tricky to understand. I still can’t decide what I think he’s saying. There are two options. He could be saying this: If your heart, your conscience, nags at you that you’re not a real Christian, God’s much more reliable than that nagging doubt. Jesus said quite clearly that you only have to trust him. Trust Jesus, over your sensitive conscience, any day. Or he could be focussing on the command that we love each other. It might be you find it hard to be generous to other Christians. Your heart keeps objecting. Something deep inside keeps on saying that it’s foolish to give things away. But God is greater than your heart. God is never tight-fisted. So by focusing on God’s generosity to you, you’ll find a way to get over those nagging doubts.
Either way, it fits into overall thing John is trying to say. You can be sure about where you stand with God. When it comes to making a genuine response to Jesus, there’s nothing to it.
Not like lots of other relationships we find ourselves in.
A few years ago, lots of people tried to get a mobile phone on the cheap. Here’s how it worked. Sign up for a contract through a number of online retailers. Pay the full bill to the network. Send in certain month’s bills on particular dates, and the retailer would give you a sizeable part of your line rental back as cashback. Easy. Until people found that you had to get everything exactly right. Send the bill on the wrong day, and it doesn’t count. You could never be quite sure you’d done everything that they needed you to. You never knew you’d get your money.
Or in these uncertain times, holding down a job is harder than it used to be. You get a new job. It has a probation period. To graduate to a permanent post you have to work late at least once a week. And go the extra mile in a few other ways as well. And you can never be quite sure you’ve been the model employee they’re after. Until that 6 months is up and you’re safe. Or not.
It’s not like that following Jesus. All you have to do is trust Jesus, which will come out in the way you love his people. You can be sure. And John wants you to be sure.
Because being sure is a great thing! In verse 21, John says how good it is to be sure that we really are in God’s family. We have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him. The great thing about being sure is that we can pray boldly. Confidently. We don’t have to say: Dear God, I know I have no right to talk to you. Dear God, I don’t know whether you’re going to listen to little old me. Instead you can say, Dear Father, thank you for loving and accepting me. Thank you that I can talk to you now.
Is that what your prayers sound like? If you trust Jesus and if that is seen in the way you love his people, then it could be. Should be. Because you can be sure that you’ve truly responded to Jesus. Because he only asks you to trust him. And that’s it.
Is what I’m taught genuine?
That’s John’s answer to whether my response is genuine.
Then he comes at it from another angle. He tackles another reason we might worry about whether we really know God or not.
This comes not from my response, but from what I heard. Not “is my response genuine?” But “is what I’m taught genuine?” Is what I’m taught genuine?
He tells us in verse 1 why he has to tackle this one: Many false prophets have gone out into the world. Not everyone who claims to speak on Jesus’ behalf does so. Plenty of people are out there, talking about Jesus. But they’re making it up. Or they’re passing on the confused message that they heard. But it’s not the real Jesus. It’s not the real message.
Which is why John had to write the first 6 verses of chapter 4. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Don’t be gullible. Don’t believe everything you hear. If someone claims to be teaching under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, test their claim.
Which might seem more unsettling than reassuring. But actually, we knew this before John told us, didn’t we? We know that there are lots of people claiming to bring true Christian teaching today. Countless denominations. Different viewpoints within those. And these people don’t all agree with each other.
John’s point is not that there are false teachers out there. We know that. His point is that we should test what we hear, because we can tell the genuine article from the fake. We don’t need to be all at sea.
There are 2 simple tests, says John.
The first is what they say. Verse 2: By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. In John’s day, this was the big issue. The false teacher will deny some central aspect of the Christian message. The true teacher will uphold the central teachings of Jesus.
In our day, it may not be whether Jesus really became a human being; it may be something else. But John’s test still helps. What does this person deny? Or choose not to mention? Are there key and vital truths that just don’t get airtime, or get flat-out denied? If so, they’re not from God.
I studied Maths at university. We did all kinds of detailed and interesting things. But no matter how clever the teacher. No matter how winsome their manner. No matter how much I liked their theories. I wouldn’t have paid any attention to any lecturer who taught that 2 and 2 made 5. If you deny that, you’re wrong, whatever else you might think.
That’s John’s first test. What they say.
His second test is to ask who listens to them, and who they listen to.
Ask who listens to them: Verse 5: They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. Remember that “the world” in John’s writings is not all people everywhere. It’s a way of talking about people as they organise themselves against God. As they rebel. As they refuse to believe. Refuse to submit.
What these false teachers are saying is exactly what the world loves. So the world is all ears.
A friend of mine supports Everton. He’d never been to watch Everton at a live game, until another friend had two tickets for West Ham versus Everton, playing at Everton. He got to watch a home game. Over two thirds of the crowd were cheering Everton on. It gets better – Everton won. The crowd had lots of chances to erupt with cheers.
But there was a problem. This friend of mine was surrounded by a sea of purple. The other friend, who had the tickets, supported the Hammers. My friend was in the stand for away supporters. He watched his beloved Everton win, but could only cheer inside.
When the crowd cheers, and their all wearing purple, you know which side they’re cheering for. You know who’s just scored. It’s the team in purple. You can tell who’s got possession by which set of supporters are going wild.
It’s the same with Christian teachers. You can tell whether they’re on Jesus’ side by who their supporters are. If the world cheers whenever they speak, it’s not a good sign. If a Christian preacher, a pastor, a minister, a bishop, a theologian, a vicar – is loved by the press, invited onto the radio frequently, respected in parliament – it’s not a good sign.
I can think of cases in recent years where Christian leaders I’ve respected have since started to deny certain key truths from the Bible. It’s surprised me. Saddened me. Here are men or women I respected. And they’ve just failed John’s first test. They’re denying key truths.
But it shouldn’t have surprised me. Because long before, they should have flagged up the warning signs of this second test. They were immensely popular. Not just popular with Christians, but popular with the media and the unbelieving world as well. That’s not necessarily a sign of trouble, but it often is. If they hate you, Jesus said, keep in mind that they hated me first. That’s more what Jesus said we should expect.
Who listens to them, and who they listen to. Verse 6. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Once again in 1 John we meet this group called “we”. We meet the apostles. Jesus’ first disciples. The eye witnesses who have been charged with teaching the church authoritatively. They are from God. And you can tell the true teacher because they will listen to the apostles.
The teacher who sits humbly beneath the teaching of Scripture. Willing to correct their views based on what they find there. Who refuses to teach anything they don’t find in there. Who would never dare to contract it. That teacher is also from God. The teacher who won’t listen. Who won’t learn. Who thinks they know better than Paul, James, Peter and John. Matthew, Mark or Luke. That teacher is not from God.
Who do they listen to? Who listens to them? Do they listen humbly to the writers of the Bible? Or does the unbelieving world listen to them, hanging on their every word?
That’s how John tackles the second way we might worry. It’s how he answers our other doubt. Is what I’m taught genuine?
Conclusion
Can you be sure that you know God?
That’s the question John is writing about.
Not everybody does know God. Jesus calls everyone to trust him and to follow him, and not everyone has yet done this.
But for those of us who have, we can be sure where we stand. And John wants us to be sure.
We can be sure that what we’ve been taught is genuine. Have we been taught by people who hold to historic Christian teaching, as found in the Bible? Have we been taught by people who listen humbly to the Scriptures, willing to learn from them? Have we been taught by people who are regarded with some suspicion by the unbelieving world, just as Jesus was before them? We can be sure that we’ve been taught the genuine article.
And we can be sure that our response is genuine. All God requires of us is to trust his Son and to love his people. Have you done that? If so, you’ve responded to the Christian good news in exactly the way God wants you to. That really is all there is to it.
So don’t be unsettled as to where you stand. Trust Jesus. And be confident you’ve done so. And then enjoy the confidence and boldness this gives you before God – a boldness that will come out in the way you pray.