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THOUGHTS FROM JOHN’S LETTERS

WE HAVE OVERCOME

In John’s first letter he teaches that Christians have overcome three different enemies: ‘The evil one’ – 2:13, 14; the ‘false prophets’, that is, ‘every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus’ and ‘the spirit of the antichrist’ – 4:1 – 4; and ‘the world’– 5:4.

The ultimate enemy is ‘the evil one’. But he does not normally confront us in a visible way. Predominantly he attacks at the level of what we believe. This is what John spoke of in 2:18 – 27, and again in 4:1 – 6. John and the other New Testament writers teach us that the evil one’s agenda is actively promoted by false teaching aimed at luring believers away from faith in the real Jesus, away from the salvation freely given to us in Christ, and away from the commands given to us by Jesus Christ. Similarly, the evil one’s agenda impacts us via ‘the world’, which is under his control. The world, either knowingly or ignorantly, does the evil one’s work for him by (1) in its secularity, making godlessness normal, and (2) in its ‘religion’, promoting a minimalised, non-exclusive Jesus, and invariably teaching ‘salvation’ by our own goodness.

Overcoming ‘the world’, overcoming the false teachers, overcoming the evil one – at the bottom line they are all the same.

If these are the enemies that Christians have overcome and continue to overcome, what is it about Christians that enables us to ‘overcome’ such powerful and pervasive enemies? And what does this ‘overcome’ actually mean?

John teaches us:

[1] That those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and only those (5:5), have overcome, and do overcome. In other words, every true Christian, everyone who is ‘born of God’ (4:4; 5:4) has already overcome, and continues to overcome.

[2] That our ‘faith’ ‘is ‘the victory that overcomes the world’ (5:4). John is not talking about the size or quality of our faith, or even faith that we will overcome. He is talking about the content of our faith, the truth that we believe – the truth that Jesus is the Son of God. It is this truth which we believe (5:5) that is the victory, that constitutes our overcoming. We now know and believe that Jesus is the Son of God – and that is the victory. To affirm that Jesus is the Son of God means that we have already, in that confession of faith, in that turning from unbelief to belief in Jesus Christ, overcome the deceptions and accusations of the evil one.

By this faith we have already conquered, and continue to conquer, the evil one and his deceptive denials of God and of Christ. By this faith we have already conquered, and continue to conquer, the evil one in his accusations, because we have embraced Christ the Righteous One, the atoning sacrifice, our Advocate, by whose death we are acquitted – cleansed ‘from all unrighteousness’. By this faith we have already conquered the evil one, and continue to conquer the evil one, in his destructive and deceptive suggestions that disobedience is okay, for in this faith we have acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord, our Lord, to whom we owe all obedience.

[3] That this overcoming is not something done in our own strength or by our own efforts, but by God himself who by his Spirit lives in those who acknowledge Jesus, his Son (4:4). He who thus lives in us is ‘greater than the one who is in the world’, the evil one.

This truth that we have overcome, and continue to overcome ‘the world’, is, John says, the reason that God’s commands are ‘not burdensome’. Why would John say that?

The world, including the religious world, deceived by the evil one, has an extremely twisted concept of ‘god’. It does not know that God is love. Because it does not know God’s love, it rebels against his commands. It finds them burdensome. But those who are born of God know that God is love and God loves them; we know that his commands are consistent with his love for us.

The world, in its religion, deceived by the veil one, has a twisted concept of how to be ‘right’ with God. It believes that it has to keep God’s commands, and its own twisted interpretation of and additions to his commands, in order to achieve the ultimate eternal destiny. But those who are born of God know that God has provided a way of salvation that is totally apart from law, through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. We know that his commands are not something we have to do to gain God’s acceptance.

The world, deceived by the evil one, does not understand that Jesus Christ is Lord: the one in the highest position of power and authority. It does not believe he has the right, the authority, to command obedience, to determine what is right and what is wrong. It sees his commands as an unjustified intrusion into its freedom. But those who are born of God know that Jesus is the Lord of glory, not only our Redeemer, but also our Creator, our Sustainer, on whom our lives, both physical and spiritual, depend. We who are born of God know that Jesus is for us, not against us, and that therefore everyone of his commands is given for our good.

The world, including the religious world, deceived by the evil one, does not love the true God, who claims to alone be God, and who is revealed by his Son, Jesus Christ. Because it does not love him it wants nothing to do with his commands. But those who are born of God love God. And because we actually love him, and we have, in loving him, overcome the evil one, his commands are not burdensome. They are, rather a gift by which we can express our love to him. They define what it means to love him; they define what it means to love his children, our fellow-believers.

© Rosemary Bardsley 2022