Thought For The Week

THOUGHTS FROM JOHN’S LETTERS

THE EVIDENCE OF TRUE FAITH - 1

In chapter 1 John introduced the concept of walking in the light, that is, living on the basis of the truth, revealed in and by Jesus Christ: That if we are walking in the light -

We have a right understanding of who Jesus Christ is (and therefore of who God is).

We have a right understanding of our own identity as sinners who sin.

We have a right understanding of the substitutionary death and representative mediation of Jesus Christ on our behalf.

In this light, on the basis of this light, we have fellowship with the Father, with the Son and with each other.
John has already presented us with a few bench-marks by which to assess the integrity of our ‘faith’. He has told us that we are not living by the truth:

If we claim to have fellowship with God, but are still walking in the darkness (1:6).
If we claim to be without sin (1:8).
If we claim we have not sinned (1:10).

John now presents us with two additional tests by which to assess our claim to be Christian. These tests of our faith are not big, traumatic events – things that we might assume would test or prove our faith. Rather they are ordinary, on-going, everyday things, that John says show our claims to know Jesus Christ to be either real or false. These two tests, which John refers to several times in his letter, are:

That we obey God’s commands.
That we love one another.

The first test - obedience
John refers to obedience as the evidence of true faith in several ways:

We have come to know Jesus Christ if we obey his commands – 2:3.

The person who says ‘I know him’ but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in him – 2:4.

We know we live in him if we walk as Jesus walked – 2:5, 6.

At first glance this test of a valid relationship with Jesus Christ would appear to exclude everybody: Everybody would fail this test, because there is no one who actually obeys all of Christ’s commands and there no one who lives exactly as Jesus lived.

But it is important here to understand that John makes a distinction between our acts of individual sins and the overall quality/characteristic of our life.

It is obvious that John is not making perfect 100% obedience a test for the integrity of our claim to know Jesus Christ. He has outlawed all claims to perfect obedience in 1:8 & 10, where he said that to claim such sinlessness is not part of walking in the light; it is actually being self-deceived and calling God a liar. In those verses John used the Aorist tense – referring to individual sinful actions. But here in 2:3 – 6 he repeatedly uses the Present tense, referring to our habitual practice – the on-going characteristic – of our lives.

Verse 3 – ‘obey’ is present tense.
Verse 4 – (where the Greek has ‘keep’ not ‘do’) ‘keep’ is present tense.
Verse 5 – ‘obey’ (‘keep’ in the Greek) is present tense.
Verse 6 – ‘walk’ is present tense.

While John has stressed that Christians are still sinners who sin, he also stresses, as did both Jesus Christ and the other apostles, that a life of on-going habitual sin is totally inconsistent with knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Later in his letter John again refers to keeping God’s commands as the evidence of true faith:

‘...those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them’ – 3:24.
‘This is love for God: to obey his commands’ – 5:3.

John’s teaching that obedience is the evidence of true faith reflects the teaching of Jesus Christ:

‘If you love me, you will obey my commands’ – John 14:15.
‘Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me’ – John 14:21.

Obedience does not cause our reconciliation with God. Rather, it is the evidence that we do indeed know him, and have been reconciled to him by the death of his Son.

© Rosemary Bardsley 2022