As a parent
one of my most repeated lessons to my children is to strive for balance in
their lives. It really doesn’t matter
what the issue of the moment is. It
could be video games, eating, sleeping, drawing, riding a bicycle, hanging out
with friends, or any other conceivable activity in the life of a child. On any and all of these fronts the tendency
is to go to extremes. More food than is
really necessary. Too much gaming that takes
away from worship, education, companionship and other healthy and productive
ways to spend time. Favoring friends
over family members to the extent that the family is side-lined and
marginalized. The children will
inevitably push the limits of decency.
And the adults should inevitably push back with rules, defined
boundaries, and consequences.
The issue of
a lack of balance leading to extremes is not limited to the sphere of parenting
either. As I write this it is less than
two months until the next U.S. presidential election. The entire campaign has been unprecedented on
many levels. The unpredictable nature of
the whole thing has left more than one analyst scratching their heads and
wondering how we arrived where we are.
The polarizing nature of the candidates, both their personalities and
policies, either past or promised or both, have led to sharp divisions in the
fabric of American society. And in the
minds of many people it seems that neither option that the two dominant
political parties are offering is acceptable.
In this
climate the wild and undisciplined swing from one extreme to the other is on
full display; nowhere as clear and obvious as in the mainstream media. I have two news apps on my smart phone. They sit right beside each other. CNN is on the left. Fox News is on the right. The placement is intentional. But I rarely use either one. The reason is bias. Any time a hot news item relating to the
election hits the airwaves I am guaranteed two truths. One is that if I open Fox News I will see a
biased spin of the situation that favors the party and candidate on the right
side of the political spectrum. The
other is that if I open CNN I will see the story spun in the other direction. I have found that truth is usually somewhere
in between those two extremes.
This
tendency extends into the realm of entertainment as well. We live in a period of history where
consumerism is a raging, devouring beast driven by greed and
self-indulgence. The few individuals who
are motivated enough to make things happen and greedy enough to lust after
wealth capitalize daily on the self-indulgent laziness of the general
populace. We want to be entertained and
catered to. They want to be wealthy and
powerful. It’s a match made in
hell. One of the recent examples of this
is something called “binge watching”.
This is where, through the convenience of Internet based subscription TV
services such as Netflix, entire seasons of shows are available instantly to anyone
who is interested. Missed that super-hot
trendy show last year the first time around?
No problem! Just flip on the TV,
fire up the Roku/Apple TV/Fire TV, grab some junk food, throw on the PJs, and
turn off your brain for a few hours.
While you’re at it why not go for the entire series over the course of a
weekend? After all, you’ve worked hard
all week long and you deserve it, right?
So why do I
continue to guard against (and sometimes fail) the tendency in myself to be out
of balance? Why am I determined to teach
this principle to my children? And why
is my assessment of culture and entertainment so negative in light of the fact
that both are shockingly out of balance?
Because being balanced in what we do is a Biblical concept.
Solomon is
described as the wisest man who ever lived.
The specific description from Scripture is found in 1 Kings 4:30-31: Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of
all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men, than Ethan the
Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was known in
all the surrounding nations. In some
ways Solomon is the biggest irony in history.
Because unfortunately, this wisdom was still bound to the faulty nature
of the human race. And in spite of his
superiority Solomon demonstrated amazing levels of foolishness by pursuing
earthly pleasures and false gods for the affection of his hundreds of
wives. That last phrase alone is enough
to reveal his staggering level of imprudence.
Any man who is married knows the mystery and the challenge of properly
understanding, honoring, and cherishing even a single woman let alone more than
one.
Toward the
end of his life Solomon wised up a bit.
He realized the error of his ways.
And he desired to warn others of what to avoid and what to strive for in
life. One of those principles is found
in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8: There is an
appointed time for everything. And there
is a time for every event under heaven.
A time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to
uproot what is planted. A time to kill
and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to
mourn and a time to dance. A time to
throw stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to shun embracing. A time to search and a time to give up as
lost; a time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; a time to be silent and
a time to speak. A time to love and a
time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace.
That was a
long passage to include in its entirety.
But I really wanted to capture the all-encompassing sense that Solomon
is going after here. His point is that
in all walks of life, at all seasons, in every relationship, every activity,
every conflict, every interaction, every life and every death, there is a
proper time and place for all things.
Life is not all about planting.
Nor is it all about harvesting.
Sometimes it is best to refrain from speaking. Other times talking is the most appropriate
course of action. In all of these
situations and circumstances the wisdom of God, flowing through the author, is
that balance must be maintained.
The king
echoes these sentiments with a delightful little passage found in Proverbs
30:7-9: Two things I asked of You, do
not refuse me before I die: keep deception and lies far from me, give me
neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is my portion, that I
not be full and deny You and say, “Who is the Lord?” or that I not be in want and steal, and
profane the name of my God. If we
have too much in life, the natural tendency of our rebellious heart is to be
overly satisfied in and of ourselves and forget God. If we have too little in life, we are
predisposed to rail against Him in anger and selfishness, either through
irreverent words spoken of Him or evil actions done in defiance of Him.
What does
all this have to do with 1st John?
Last week we looked at John’s call to discernment. He warned us to test what we hear about God
against the truth that is found in the knowledge of Christ. The emphasis was on rational thought
predicated on the ability to recognize and sort fact from fiction. But John recognizes that even in this most
important of tasks we can fall into error by pursuing it too blindly, too
fixedly, too dogmatically. So the apostle
gives us the next several verses of chapter 4, five of which we will look at
today, to balance the scales of the Christian life. He wants us to behold the necessary
equilibrium between truth (or doctrine) and love (or practice). Love is the visible element of truth and
truth is the invisible component of love.
In other words, doctrine is what you know. Love is what you do.
We can see
this in Revelation 2:2-5 in Christ’s letter to the church at Ephesus. This church had truth in the bag. They worked hard and persevered through
trials. They had no tolerance for evil
people. And they even put so called
apostles to the test to see if they lined up with Scripture. Yet their discernment was sadly lacking when
it came to their own hearts. They had
lost the love they started with. Truth
remained yet it was devoid of the necessary component of love. And as a result, this church was condemned by
the Lord Jesus Himself.
As it
relates to 1st John, it would be exceedingly easy to walk away from
the first six verses and be convinced of the necessity to fight against the lies
of this world. We might be fired up and
energized to go to war with the agents of Satan wherever they might be
found. And in so doing it is possible,
even likely perhaps, that we might pursue this agenda completely devoid of the
loving and gentle demeanor that is called for throughout the Bible. We would be like the Jews, Paul’s countrymen,
who he said in Romans 10:4 had “a zeal for God, but not in accordance with
knowledge.” I think John is quite
concerned about this possibility. And so
he balances the hard charging truth crusade of verses 1-6 with a sharp reminder
to stay grounded in the love of God.
But the
question has to be asked, how in the world can he possibly visit this subject
of love yet again without putting his audience to sleep? After all, it seems like he has pounded on
love until surely he has extracted every bit of teaching on the topic
possible. To answer that question, I
will turn to antiquity. Aristotle, one of
the greatest of the ancient Greek philosophers had this to say about repetition
in teaching: “it is frequent repetition that produces a natural tendency” and
“the more frequently two things are experienced together, the more likely it
will be that the experience or recall of one will stimulate the recall of the
other.” Quite apart from Aristotle, the
Bible itself, predating him by at least 1,000 years, is a master of
repetition. Exhortations to worship God,
reject the world, be thankful for blessings, the need for prayer, calls to wisdom
and so on resound over and over again throughout the pages of Scripture.
I think that
is essentially what John is doing here.
Like a master tactician he is strategically circling back around to the
same topic over and over, giving us a different angle on it each time, adding a
different emphasis here, a fresh nuance there.
I think John recognized that the best method to teach an important
concept is to parcel it out in bite sized portions. If he tried to deluge us with everything he
wanted to say about love all at once in chapter 2, or chapter 3, we would be
left reeling and probably forgetful of what we had learned. But by doing it a little bit at a time John
intends for the sum of what he is teaching to add up to more than the total of
the individual components. And here in
chapter 4 I think he rises to a crescendo that we have not seen before.
Let me show
you what I mean by examining the points John has made about love so far in the
letter. In 2:5 he revealed that the love
of God is perfected in us. We are going
to see this point again in a few minutes.
But the basic idea is that God’s love is a communal quality. It is not completed unless it has an object
for its affection. Then in 2:10 John
equates love with light and sure footedness, which really go hand in hand. By loving we dwell in the light and because
we are in the light we can see where we are going. A few verses later in 2:15 a negative aspect
of God’s love is revealed, in that if we love the world He will not love us and
we will have no love for Him.
Continuing
the exposition into chapter 3 and verse 1 John encourages us to gauge for
ourselves the quality and worth of God’s love by considering what He has done
for us as a result of His great love. The
practical application of love is touched on in 3:10 where we find that love is
the evidence of righteousness. Following
that up in the next verse John clarifies that we have always had a mandate to
love, from the very beginning of creation.
In 3:16 love’s definition is given by referring to Christ’s sacrifice on
our behalf as the ultimate example of love.
Right on the heels of that we are reminded to be authentic in our
love. In fact, the implication is that
if we love in word only and not in deed our love is not actually genuine at all
and is a fraud. Finally, in 3:23 God,
through His messenger John, commands us to love.
The
culmination of all we have seen so far is that in a single letter John has
given us a host of information about biblical love; enough to last more than a
lifetime in fact because while understanding may come fairly rapidly,
application and practice often lags far behind.
But with all we have received so far I feel like John still has not
revealed the ultimate motivation behind our love. Don’t get me wrong. He has given a lot of motivating factors
already. God has been more than gracious
to explain as much as He has. But
consider what John now reveals about love as it relates directly to God in
chapter 4, verses 7 and 8: Beloved, let
us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of
God and knows God. The one who does not
love does not know God, for God is love.
I think
there is a finality and a resounding crescendo in these verses. It is a three-part harmony beginning in verse
7 and culminating in verse 8. Love is
“out of” God. It is sourced from Him and
emanates from Him. Therefore, people
that love like He does are born of Him; we have seen this before in chapter 3,
verses 1 and 2. If those that love are
born of God the inverse would logically be true as well; namely, those that
don’t love are not born of God. Again
returning to chapter 3, verses 8 and 10, we find the awful truth; they are born
of the devil. But here in 4:7 an
additional twist is given; not only are these ones not born of God but they do
not even know Him. God is a stranger
to them just as the sacrificial love which defines His existence is foreign to
their way of thinking.
This is
powerful enough truth on its own. But I
believe the true impact of these verses lies in verse 8 and it has to do with
the final phrase; God is love. The
implications of this are astounding.
Typically, when we think about love it is as an action. It is something we do or experience or
receive. But when love as a concept is
considered in light of God it transforms into something greater, something
grander, something infinitely more majestic.
God does not merely do love. God
does not simply experience love. God
does not only receive love. His
relationship to love is at once greater and subtler than any of those
descriptions; because He IS love.
Think about
that for a minute. Love is actually an
adjective the Bible is using to describe God.
We might say “the sky is blue” or “the mountains are high”. But we would never say that something in this
material world is love. This is
completely contrary to the way in which we perceive the universe. Love is a noun or a verb. It is not an adjective. It cannot be used to describe something. It can only be used in the context of action
or emotion. But a descriptive use is
exactly how John applies love to God. To
exclude love from our contemplation of God and therefore our knowledge of Him
and consequently our emulation of Him is to malign His character and completely
mis-understand Him. If we have an accurate
understanding of every other aspect of God’s character and we fail to properly
evaluate His love, then we have failed to see Him as He truly is.
Furthermore,
I think in these two verses, and the passage as a whole, we have come to a
profound reality of biblical love; why we should practice it. As has already been mentioned, we have been
given a tremendous amount of information about how to love, the ramifications
and implications of love, and some level of detail regarding why we should
love. But I think this truth that God
literally is love trumps them all.
Perhaps our minds would prefer something more tangible as a rationale;
perhaps “love like Christ or you will go to hell” or “love like Christ and you
will be content”. But to me this theme
of God embodying love is at once more powerful, of greater urgency, and
infinitely more primal of a motivating factor than any “cause and effect” style
motivations we could come up with.
To say that
we should love because God is love skewers whatever human pride and reluctance
we might bring to the table. All of our
petty concerns fall to the wayside in the overwhelming and unrelenting face of
the presence of God Himself. I think of
Job, who for 37 chapters remained focused on himself and his concerns. But then at the end, faced with the awful,
terrifying, and overwhelming presence of Almighty God, Job’s griping
immediately faded into insignificance in his mind. He had encountered a being of far greater
substance than he had ever considered, even after a lifetime of serving
God. And he knew that there was nothing
left to say except repentance and homage to his master.
If we can
adopt the same attitude Job had it should lead us naturally into the picture
that John gives in verse 9: By this the
love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into
the world so that we might live through Him. There are two components to this verse. We will tackle them in reverse order.
First John
reminds us of our life in and through Christ.
This is truly a radical concept.
We might continue to live based on someone else’s actions, were they to
save us from imminent death. And in
fact, there is a sense of this with the cross.
It is because of the Son’s sacrifice that we are guaranteed eternal life
with Him and with the Father. But the
dynamics of what Christ did go far beyond mere actions. Not only do we live on account of something
He did, but we continue to live in and through Him. We saw in 2:2 how He advocates for us with
the Father. Hebrews 7:25 explains it
like this: Therefore He is able also to
save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to
make intercession for them.
Were Jesus
to ever cease pleading our case with the Father we would instantly be doomed
because our sin stained lives testify against us. There is a sense in which Christians, prior
to glorification, hang onto their justification and righteousness by a
thread. But this is not a thread made of
fabric. It is of a stuff stronger than
steel and surer than bedrock. Do you
understand, Christian, that the freedom from guilt that you presently enjoy and
your ability to come into the presence of God in repentance are solely
maintained because Jesus is literally covering you every moment of every day
with His shed blood? This reality should
be at the forefront of our brains each day of life.
The second
component of verse 9 is the first one presented. When we begin to live through Christ we are
transformed into living breathing pictures of God’s love. We visit museums to view various types of
exhibits. One such is the Creation
Museum in Florence, Kentucky. As a
visitor moves through the facilities of this amazing place they are confronted
by animatronic models of dinosaurs.
These artificial creatures move, make sounds, and are intended to convey
some sense of what they may have been like in the flesh.
But everyone
who visits, with perhaps the exception of very small children, understands
completely that what they are seeing is fake.
In fact, to even a thoroughly careless eye these creatures are clearly
made of plastic, metal, and circuitry.
By contrast, when we receive the gift of salvation from the Lord
everyone we come into contact with is given a front row seat to the spectacle
of God’s love shining magnificently from a flesh and blood real life
image. If students visit museums to
learn about history or science, then when they come into contact with
Christians they should be treated to a VIP lesson in the love of God. It is my continual shame and ever present goal
in my personal sanctification that when people encounter me this is not what
they see. What do they find when they
cross your path?
What they
should see is a person so humbled by the undeserved love of God that arrogance,
impatience, frustration, anger, selfishness, envy, etc. are the furthest things
from their mind. I think that is John’s
point in verses 10 and 11: In this is
love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if
God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. The love of God that John is describing to us
is in no way, shape, or form a thing that stems from us. We most certainly did not love God
first. In fact, we are openly hostile
and rebellious toward Him. This is
John’s point and it echoes across the pages of the New Testament.
Colossians
1:21 tells us that: although you were
formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds. Romans 5:10 reveals that: if while we were enemies we were reconciled
to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we
shall be saved by His life.
It is not
only that we were hostile. We were
completely incapable of turning in a different direction. Romans 8:6-7: For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit
is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for
it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. Human beings apart from the love of God
extended toward them purely of His own volition and pleasure, are mindlessly
devoted to the sin that enslaves them and for them it is totally impossible to
demonstrate love to God.
It is in this
sorry state that Christ came and did His unfathomable work of showcasing the
love of God for the entire world to witness.
Romans 5:6-8: For while we were
still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man;
though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us,
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
This is the
refrain of God saturated salvation that John takes up from his fellow Apostle
Paul in 1st John 4:10. The
love of God that shines through us into the faces of a watching world is not
from us. We did not love Him. He loved us.
In fact, He loved us so much that He sent His only son to be the
propitiation for our sins. We have
looked at propitiation in previous weeks, but briefly, it is the means by which
favor is gained. God was formerly
against us. But because of the
propitiation of Christ He is now for us.
Think about
how this came to pass. God in effect
designed the means by which He would be appeased and then made it happen by His
own power and authority. That would be
like one of us having a thousand dollars stolen by a neighbor. We know they did it but the money has already
been spent; therefore, it is not so easy to get it back. The offense against us is great. The only means of reparation is to restore
the stolen cash. So we go to our neighbor
and give them a new thousand dollars, explaining that if they are to return
this second thousand back to us we will consider the debt repaid and the
offense forgiven.
That
probably sounds completely ridiculous.
But that is essentially just what God did in order to bring about the
demonstration of His love that has been brought to completion in our salvation. If you were the thief in the above scenario,
would you feel astonishment at your neighbor’s incomparable capacity for
forgiveness and gratitude for his unchained generosity? I think you would. And that is what we should feel boundless
amounts of toward the Lord our God. What
He has done for us is of such a towering magnitude that we should be compelled
to turn around and display that love toward the people around us.
Don’t miss this point friends! If you accurately value the love of God that
has been freely given to you then your reasonable and customary response should
be to pour that same love, or at least as close a copy of it as you can, onto
others. If you have no desire to do that
then what does that say about your evaluation of the love God has shown to you?
Jesus was
and is the master of communication and Bible teaching. And I think He expresses this point better
than anyone else in the parable of the unforgiving steward found in Matthew
18:23-35. I am going to close with this
and put it here in its entirety to let the words of Christ resonate in your
heart alongside the words of His beloved disciple that we have already read.
“For this reason the kingdom of
heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his
slaves. When he had begun to
settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to
him. But since he did not have the
means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his
wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated
himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you
everything.’ And the lord of that slave
felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. But that slave went out and found one of his
fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to
choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ So his fellow slave fell to the
ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have
patience with me and I will repay you.’
But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should
pay back what was owed. So when his
fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and
reported to their lord all that had happened.
Then summoning him, his lord *said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave
you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also
have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on
you?’ And his lord, moved with anger,
handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. My heavenly Father will also do the same to
you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”
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