September 23, 2014 1st John Chapter 3

1st John Chapter 3

Originally posted Wednesday November 19, 2008

General comment: John has introduced the image of the antichrist (Greek antichristos). While the letter's readers have heard that an antichrist is coming John qualifies the term as a plural - many antichrists. As the title suggests the antichrists are against the Christian Messiah, the Christ (Messiah = Christ). By the end of the 2nd century and beginning of the 3rd there will be literary references seeking to identify a single antichrist. It is from this development that the popular sport in succeeding centuries to identify the antichrist as a particular person arises. In our own time we can find any number of screeds purporting to prove that the current Pope Benedict XVI and Barack Obama are the antichrist, neither of whom appears in the Bible. One denomination has a long list of candidates for the antichrist which is updated every year. The reality is that the only Biblical reference to "antichrist" defines the term as any person who denies that Jesus is the Christ and seeks to deceive others to think the same. Based on the current world population the number would be somewhere over four billion antichrists.

1st John, Chapter 2:28-3:10 Children of God

Having issued warnings to his readers about the deception of those who deny that Jesus is the Christ (2:22), he urges them to remember their anointing by the Spirit of Christ (the Paraclete of 2:1, 20). This anointing, which has not been given to the deceivers, is true and has taught them what they need to know about Jesus (2:20, 27) to protect them against deception. If they will abide in these teachings and in Christ, "they may have confidence" when Christ appears (2:28), for those who have lived righteously as Christ is righteous have been "born of him" (2:29). Some writers suggest the "him" of vs. 29 is God and that is certainly the inference of texts in John's Gospel (Jhn. 1:12-13, 3:3). However, in all uses of this metaphor of birth, Christ is the agent of the anointing and new birth of the believer. Particularly in 2:29 all the previous verses have pointed to Christ or the Spirit of Christ as the subject. Even in Paul who writes of our adoption as God's children it is through the agency of Christ (Rom. 8:15, Gal. 4:5, see also Eph. 1:5).

Having been born of faith in Christ, the readers have become the children of God and this is a sign of the love God has given them in Christ. John's spiritual world view is based on the existence of two concurrent worlds: one constituted of the anointed who abide in Christ and Christ's teaching and the other that denies Jesus is the Christ. The two groups correspond to those who remain in fellowship with the Elder's authority and those who do not. This latter world does not know the former because they do not know God. This is not literally so, since they certainly know who God is. They are (or were according to the Elder) Christians. His meaning is derived from the word "know." In the religious sense to know is to accept as valid and to believe. To know God (or Christ) is to believe in and to follow God's will (Christ's teachings).

Focusing on the time of Christ's return John writes that those who do know God (those remaining in fellowship) are already God's children even though they are in this present earthly form. However, there will come a time when they will be changed. What that change will be is yet to be revealed. This is Paul's "for we see still through a mirror indistinctly, but then face to face (1 Cor. 13:12) and "...at the last trumpet...we will be changed" (1 Cor. 15:50-51). Whatever the change, John knows that the believers will see Christ as he is and will become as he is.

Vss. 4-10 have presented a number of interpretative difficulties. Several statements seem to indicate that sin is impossible in the Christian life. On its face this statement is irreconcilable with any understanding of human reality, Christian or otherwise. John begins with the obvious: "Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness" (3:4). But Christ has come to "take away sins" (3:5). So, John seems to reason, those who know (believe in and follow) Christ do not sin (3:6). In fact, those who are born of God cannot sin (3:9). Only the unrighteous children of the devil sin (3:8). The key to understanding John's reasoning is to recognize that he is not using hyperbole. He is not exaggerating the idea of sin for affect, or an "as if it were." Nor is he using the word  to mean the day to day sins (small "s") one commits. For John, Sin with a capital "S" is synonymous with the world that does not know God. Sin is not knowing God (see Jhn. 15:21-24), not abiding in God and not being born of God. Taken together, John equates the Sin which is not knowing God with those who have denied Jesus as the heavenly Messiah sent by God. They have broken fellowship with those who know and abide in both Jesus and in God. Their Sin has been revealed in that they do not love their fellow Christians.

1st John, Chapter 3:11-24 Love One Another

The antitheses to those who have broken fellowship are those who follow the commandment to love one another. Love is the supreme commandment and marks the divide between those who know God and those who do not. In an interesting analogy taken from extracanonical Jewish writings John compares the two camps with Cain and Abel. Cain, the murderer of his brother, is from the devil. He broke fellowship with Abel (to the extreme) because his own works were evil (the hallmark of not knowing and abiding in God) while Abel's were righteous (the hallmark of knowing  and abiding in God). The unrighteous hated the righteous (see Jhn. 15:18-25). This, John writes, is why the world that does not know and abide in God hates those who do know and abide in God. They, like Cain, are murderers cut off from God.

The depth of love for one another is modeled after Christ. As he gave his life for believers they should be prepared to do the same for one another. John gives an example of the lack of this sacrificial love translated into personal action. He asks if such a love is demonstrated by the refusal of those who have much being unwilling to share with others who have little. Or course it does not. It represents selfishness, a lack of knowing and abiding in God. It is not enough to mouth the words of generosity or to pray for the other's need while doing nothing about it. One must act. Not to act is to reject the one in need. To reject the one in need is to reject Christ. To reject Christ is to reject God. This may be acceptable to those who do not know or abide in God. It is not, John writes, acceptable for those who do. As the old saw goes, "Actions speak louder than words."

John asserts that those who love one another in "truth and action" know when they have failed to live up to the commandment. He suggests that guilt (the heart) will tell the person of his fault but that reassurance (forgiveness) is available from God who "is greater than [the] heart." We might speak of a guilty conscience that nags the soul when we err and motivates us to correct the error. John believes that those who know and abide in God will strive to do what is right while at the same time knowing that when they fail God is still near at hand.

In vss. 23-24 John restates God's commandment: The Christian is to believe in "the name" of God's Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another. These are the two commandments broken by those who have denied Jesus as the Christ and have broken fellowship (did not love) others. To obey is to abide in God as God abides in them as confirmed by the Holy Spirit.