Many Voices, One Truth

We live in a very divided and polarised world. Unfortunately, the church is also divided and polarised.

When parliament was debating the Conversion Practices Bill, I watched some of the Select Committee process. The thing that distressed me most was seeing a person, or group, saying they were Christians and presenting their point of view, followed immediately by a person, or group, saying they were Christians and saying the complete opposite. It switched backwards and forwards between so-called Christians contradicting each other. I could understand the politicians not taking us seriously. We have lost credibility when we do not know what we believe.

Confession: I do not find 1 John easy to understand. I said that to Martin last week and he gave me a couple of pointers that helped a lot. And I did some more reading.

Here are some things we need to know if we are going to understand 1 John:

1. John doesn’t follow a straight line. He goes around in circles repeating certain teachings.

2. John is very black and white. He makes strong statements and he sees a very sharp distinction between good and evil, light and dark, and between Christians and non-Christians.

3. John is addressing a crisis in the church.

There was false teaching in the church. Greek philosophy (particularly that of Plato) said that everything that was physical was evil and everything that was spiritual was good. Therefore, some said, Jesus could not have been physical because the physical is bad. He wasn’t really a human being, Or, if Jesus was physical, he was not divine.

Also, some people seem to have left the church – maybe because they had adopted these false ideas.

1 John 2:19 They went out from us but they did not really belong to us. If they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them really belonged to us.

John says, those who had left were never really Christians! That’s a very black-and-white statement.

1 John 2:22 Who is the liar? [strong language!] It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Messiah.

There are all sorts of hints like that through the book that indicate John’s concern. People were denying who Jesus really was. Was He God? Was He truly human? Was He the Saviour, the Messiah?

1 John 1:1 That which was from the beginning [So that tells us that Jesus is God. He existed 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.

We touched Him. We were there. We know He came in the flesh. We were eyewitnesses.

1 John 2:26 talks about “those who are trying to lead you astray”. All these different views. Deliberate deception: “tyring to lead you astray”. Confusion. What were they to believe? Repeatedly in this letter, John says, “This is how we know…”. This is how we know that we are Christians. These are the tests of real Christianity.

John uses the word “know” 32 times in this letter. It is about knowing the truth. That is the theme that Martin has given us today. How do we walk in the truth – not in confusion, not in falsehood, not deceived – how do we walk in the truth?

We are going to read two passages. The first I’ve called “Knowing the truth about ourselves”. READ 1 John 3:19-23.

Notice how it starts with “This is how we know… that we belong to the truth”. Notice that “the truth” is a person: “and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence”. How do we know that we are in Jesus? This is one of John’s tests – true Christians; false Christians. How can our hearts be at rest about that?

Do you ever wonder if you are a true Christian? How can we know? It is not by listening to our hearts. It is very common in the world today to say, “Follow your heart” as if our hearts are the perfect guide. That is a lie. If we follow our hearts, we will end up in trouble.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

We can be full of all sorts of insecurities. Our hearts might say that God could not possibly love us. We might feel that we have sinned so many times that God has surely given up on us. We might feel that we are not as good as other people. Maybe God loves them but not us. Our hearts might condemn us. Certainly, Satan will whisper those sorts of things to us.

John says, “If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts”. God is greater, so what does God say? It doesn’t matter what our hearts say, what does God say? God knows the truth. If we are prone to feel condemned, we need to go back to the scriptures and hear again what God says. God does not condemn. “There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1)

This week I was looking at Psalm 34. The last verse says, The Lord redeems His servants. No one who takes refuge in Him will be condemned. Have you taken refuge in Jesus? Have you put your faith in Him because you believe He is the Saviour? Yes? Then do not doubt. No one who takes refuge in Him will be condemned. That is what God says and our hearts can, therefore, be at rest in His presence.

Plus, our prayers will be answered.

John links all of this to a theme that he has repeated several times - the theme of obedience. Have we been saved? Well, let’s look at our lives. Are we obeying Jesus’ teaching? Yes? Then be reassured.

1 John 2:3 We know that we have come to Him if we keep His commands.

That does not mean we have to be perfect. There is forgiveness for sin. Remember that he said earlier…

1 John 1:8-9 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

What is your basic desire? Even if you get things wrong, is the orientation of your heart to be an obedient follower of Jesus? Then be assured. Let your heart be at rest.

What does Jesus require? John says it means believing in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ and loving one another as He commanded. That is it: faith in Jesus and loving others in practical ways. That is what it means to obey Jesus’ commands. Do those two things. Believe in Jesus and love others.

Then John says it one more time. “Those who keep His commands live in Him and He in them.” If someone claims to be a Christian but is not obeying Jesus – not occasional failures but consistently not obeying Jesus; maybe proud of not obeying Jesus – is he/she really in Christ? No. look at their lives. Jesus said, :By their fruit you will know them”. Obedience is a test and the Holy Spirit also bears witness. Does the Holy Spirit speak to you? Does He open your eyes to God’s truth when you read the Bible? Does He prompt you with the right words when you are talking to people? Do you have some spiritual gift that God uses in surprising, perhaps miraculous, ways? Does He convict you of sin? All of those things are the Holy Spirit saying to you that you are a child of God.

The Truth About Ourselves is not what our hearts says but what God says.

The next section is The Truth About Jesus And Everything Else. READ 1 John 4:1-6

1 John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

There are people who claim to speak for God, but they are false prophets, John says. We know that non-Christians have a different point of view but there are those who claim to be Christians but are actually motivated by a different spirit. We must be discerning. Do not believe everything you hear. Test it.

My goodness, this is true today, is it not? There are all sorts of teachings. There are lots of people telling us what to believe and how to live. Who can you believe?

John says, “Don’t be gullible. Test every spirit.” Behind the words that a human being might speak there is a spirit that is motivating and influencing that person. John gives a very simple test. It ties right back to the false teaching that we talked about – the teaching that said that Jesus wasn’t really God, or wasn’t really the Messiah, or wasn’t really a physical man. Look at the test in 4:2: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. But every spirit that does not, is not from God.

The test is: What do people say about Jesus? Do they say that He is the Christ, the Messiah, God’s promised Saviour? Do they acknowledge that He came from heaven (i.e. is God) and came in the flesh?

What if we applied that test to the people who want to tell us what to believe? What if we applied that test to the media and the commentators and the influencers and all those who spout forth so confidently? What do they say about Jesus? Every spirit that does not acknowledge that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God. In fact, it is the spirit of antichrist.

Isn’t the Antichrist an End Times being? Does this mean we are living in the End Times? Maybe, but John says that the spirit of antichrist was in the world in his day and is still in the world. There is a spiritual battle going on. There are spiritual forces at work, who deny that Jesus is God incarnate.

He says that there is a consistency here and two quite different possibilities. If the spirit is not from God then it is from the world, and its teachings are false but the world listens and believes. On the other hand, you and I are from God. Those who know God will listen to us but those not from God will not listen.

Christians recognise God’s truth but other people’s eyes are blinded and their ears are deaf and their hearts are resistant to the things of God. Does this seem like a harsh way to talk about non-Christians – more particularly about people who claim to be Christians but are false teachers? Maybe we shouldn’t do this; maybe we should be more accommodating and affirming of all views. Not according to John. He is clear about the sharp distinction and he wants us to be clear and not led astray. He wants us to test the spirits – to know what is right and what is wrong. It doesn’t mean we do not love non-Christians. There is a lot in this letter about love. Just a few verses earlier John said that Jesus’ command is that we love one another. It just means we recognise what is not true. It is not the people; it is the spirits. We fight not against flesh and blood but against the powers of darkness.

There is one final encouragement in this section. You are from God and you have overcome the spirits that are not from God because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world (4:4). You have Jesus in you. He is far more powerful than these lying spirits. You have overcome them – you have remained faithful when others haven’t – when others have left the church – because of the power of Jesus at work in you. These might be confusing, disorienting times but you can remain faithful because, if Jesus is in you, He is greater than Satan. Disciples of Jesus want to walk in truth – not confused by all of the other things that are said – and Jesus can enable us to be discerning so that we can remain faithful.

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