Walking in the Light – Continued

1 John 2:7-11. (NIV)

7Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

9Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. 11But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.

Living in light means loving my fellow Christians, for who is my brother here if not those who belong to the body of Christ? The truth is seen in us when we love one another, just as Jesus had earlier said (John 13:35).

Remember that John is writing this to the church. If I hate other Christians, even the young earthers, or the loudmouths on the internet who think that everybody except them is a heretic, then I’m stumbling around in the darkness myself. If I love them I will remain in the light so I’ll be able to see where I’m going and not stumble.

John writes that the true light is already here: the darkness is passing (v. 8). Soon there will be no darkness at all, only the light of God’s truth. What will the people still walking in darkness do when the darkness has passed away? Those people are my brothers and my sisters! If I am in the light, then I must also love those who are still walking in darkness. And I should not be surprised if they can’t see that I love them. How can they see when the darkness has blinded them?

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Walking as Jesus Did

1 John 2:1-6. (NIV)

1My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

3We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

The person who does not obey Christ’s commands is equated here with the one walking in darkness in v. 6 of the previous chapter. We walk in light by obeying God, and when we do, his love is made complete in us and we have fellowship with each other just as we do with the Father and the Son. Unity in Christ comes not from correct doctrine, but from obeying God’s commands and thereby letting his love shine in us. And when I desire to do this but fail, Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for my sins, so that I may be forgiven and purified of all sin.

This is the exact opposite of easy believism” John clearly says that if I am in Christ, I will live as Christ lived. Sanctification – becoming like Jesus – is not optional.

 

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The People Walking in Darkness Have Seen a Great Light

Matthew 2:1-23 (NIV)

1After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” 3When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. 5“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

6“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for out of you will come a ruler

who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’”

7Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

9After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. 12And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

13When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

14So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

16When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

18“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning,

Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted,

because they are no more.”

19After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

21So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: “He will be called a Nazarene.”

This is the world that Jesus came into; a world with kings willing to murder children simply to eliminate a possible future threat to their rule. A world in which the king’s soldiers were willing to obey such an order. A world in which it appears that nobody even imagined they could, or should, remove such a king from power.

Too often we overlook this part of the Christmas story, but I think that’s a mistake. As we celebrate the light coming into the world, we need to understand just how dark the world was without the light. How dark it still is in places, and in hearts, where the light has not dawned.

Isaiah 9:2. (NIV)

2The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of the shadow of death

a light has dawned.

The prophet is, obviously, speaking in metaphor, but there’s no hyperbole here.

 

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Walking in the Light

1 John 1:5-7. (NIV)

5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

Eternal life – fellowship with God – means walking in the light. Light reveals the truth; darkness hides it. Pretending to be someone that I’m not is walking in the darkness. So anything in my life that I feel the need to hide needs to go. Walking in the light also makes it possible to have fellowship with my brothers and sisters; I can’t truly be in fellowship with people that I hide from.

 

1 John 2:1-6. (NIV)

1My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

3We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

The person who does not obey Christ’s commands does not know him. We walk in light by obeying God, and when we do, his love is made complete in us and we have fellowship with each other just as we do with the Father and the Son. Unity in Christ comes not from correct doctrine, but from obeying God’s commands and thereby letting his love shine in us. And when I desire to do this but fail, Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for my sins, so that I may be forgiven and purified of all sin.

This is not easy believism! It clearly says that if I am in Christ, I will live as Christ lived. Sanctification – becoming like Jesus – is not optional. Holiness is not an optional add-on for super Christians; it is the standard for everyone.

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Knowing the Father and the Son

1 John 1:1-4. (NIV)

1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4We write this to make our joy complete.

John begins by proclaiming the eternal life that he has seen and heard. Eternal life is not fire insurance; it is relationship. Jesus said that eternal life consists of knowing the Father and the Son (John 17:3). Fellowship with the Father and with Jesus Christ is eternal life, and here in this passage, eternal life has now appeared on Earth and John testifies that he has seen and heard it.

I have not seen Jesus with my eyes, or heard his voice with my ears, or touched him with my hands, but I have experienced the presence of God in ways that I could not ignore or deny. I know from my own experience that he is real, that he is holy, and that he forgives sin. I know that when he met me at RAF Croughton in 1983, I was not worthy to stand in his presence or to call on his name, but he made me worthy through the blood of Christ Jesus. This is not just doctrine I have read, but the experience that I lived through. This is my testimony; not a theology of Christ that I learned in church, but what I myself have experienced.

 

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Living in Evil Times

Ephesians 5:15-21. (NIV)

15Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

21Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

The days are evil. That’s certainly as true today as it was for the Ephesians in the 1st century. Because the days are evil, I must be wise and not lose opportunities to do God’s work. I need to understand what God’s will is, be filled with the Spirit, sing and make music to God, and always give thanks to the Lord for everything. This is how Paul tells us to live in evil times. Not in fear, or in anger, but with singing and in giving thanks to the Lord.

One of the things that stands out to me here is the exhortation to understand the will of God (v. 17). There’s an echo here of John 15:15, where Jesus calls his disciples friends, not servants, because he has made known to them everything he received from the Father. And now that the work of redemption is complete, we are no longer just friends, but sons and daughters as well. The will of our Father is not supposed to be mysterious any longer, but something that we have both the privilege and the responsibility to understand.

And this section ends with yet another call for us to build one another up in unity, by submitting to one another (v. 21). This letter seems to say a lot more about how we treat one another in the church than it does about reaching those who are still lost. But then, if we don’t love one another, why would anybody want to join us? If we do, the world will see God in us (John 13:35) and be drawn to Christ.

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A Child of the Light

Ephesians 5:8-14. (NIV)

8For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10and find out what pleases the Lord. 11Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:

Wake up, O sleeper,

rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.

Jesus said that we are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14). Here, Paul tells us to live as children of light and to expose the deeds of darkness. It is shameful to even mention the things that the disobedient do in secret, yet we are told to expose those shameful things to the light; that is, to goodness, to righteousness, and to the truth. This is the fruit of the light, while the darkness, in contrast, has no fruit (v. 11).

Light doesn’t specifically do anything to make objects visible; they are visible simply because the light exists in the place where those objects are. In the same way, if I live out God’s goodness, God’s righteousness, and God’s truth, the result will be to make the world around me visible.

And once again, as so often before in this letter, this comes out of my identity. Once I was darkness, but now I am light in the Lord (v. 8). If my life reflects the truth of who God says that I am, the exposure of the deeds of darkness will happen as a natural result.

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Imitating God

Ephesians 5:1-7. (NIV)

1Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

3But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person – such a man is an idolater – has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7Therefore do not be partners with them.

Once again, this is coming out of who God has created and called me to be in Christ. In chapter 1, Paul says that we were chosen before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight (v. 4). Living the truth of who I am means living in righteousness. Sin is not a small matter! Sexual immorality, impurity, and greed are singled out here; the person who pursues these things is an idolater, and has no share in God’s inheritance. This is contrasted in v. 2 with living a life of love: an immoral, impure, or greedy person is not living in love.

God is making it very clear here that salvation is not just about going to Heaven after I die. It’s also about living out the truth of Christ here on Earth. It’s about imitating God – a concept that would sound blasphemous were it not found in the very words of Scripture. We must not only tell people what God has done, we must also show them who he is. Just as children grow to be like their parents in the way they speak and act, so must the children of God grow up to be like our Father.

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Living My Identity

Ephesians 4:25-32. (NIV)

25Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27and do not give the devil a foothold. 28He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.

29Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Now that I know who I am, the Scripture goes into how I need to live. It’s not accidental that this passage comes after three chapters describing who I am in Christ, and half a chapter calling for unity in the church. This is not just a list of rules, but a call to let my identity be reflected in my behavior toward others, and especially toward my brothers and sisters in Christ.

There are a lot of individual points in this list, but I think it can be summed up as; live in love. If the Spirit of God lives in me, than living in love is nothing more than living the truth. This is who I am; who God intended before the world was created that I would be. How amazing that I do not automatically and unthinkingly behave this way, but that God wants me to actively choose it moment by moment! I’m not going to get into the Calvinism/Arminianism debate, but it’s certainly not debatable that I do not always live the way this passage commands. But when I don’t, I am living a lie. And when I do, I cooperate with the Holy Spirit; not as a machine, but rather a partner and coworker with God.

 

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Attaining to the Whole Measure of the Fullness of Christ pt. 2

Ephesians 4:14-16. (NIV)

14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Continuing from my last post, this is what the fullness of Christ looks like. It doesn’t sound at all like something to look forward to in Heaven, but rather a goal that God wants us to attain here. To be filled with all the fullness of Christ is to be mature; not unstable or vulnerable to being deceived by false teachings. It is to be truthful, but always speaking in love. It is to be united, with every member doing its part to build up the kingdom, again always in love.

What happens if I treat this not as an unreachable ideal, but my actual goal for myself, and for my brothers and sisters in Christ? If I take maturity seriously as something God wants to build in me, and will build in me if I earnestly seek it?

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