To see all the articles in this series on 1 John, please go to https://surrenderdaily.blogspot.com/
This series of short studies is
about our fellowship in Christ, which in the Greek is called koinonia. We are using the first epistle of John as our
roadmap to understanding Christian fellowship.
The key verse of this series of studies is 1 John 1:7, which says,
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we
have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us
from all sin. (ESV)
This particular article is the first in a two-part
mini-series within the larger overall series on fellowship. In this two-part mini-series, we will explore
another of the characteristics of someone who is a part of the fellowship. Specifically,
we see that.
Those
who are in the fellowship are righteous.
This characteristic comes directly
from the end of 1 John chapter 2, verses 28-29, which say,
28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he
appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.
29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who
practices righteousness has been born of him. (ESV)
However, there is far more to that
statement than meets the eye. First and foremost, we must remember that in our
flesh, we are most decidedly NOT righteous.
In fact, the Apostle Paul makes that very clear to us. Quoting Psalm 14 and Psalm 53, Paul tells us
in Romans 3:10,
As
it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one.”
Righteousness may be critical to
our being in the fellowship, but we are not ourselves righteous, so we need to
obtain our righteousness from somewhere else.
Our righteousness does not come from within us; it comes from Jesus. This
is an important doctrinal truth we need to fully understand.
We are not righteous, but Jesus is
righteous. Through our faith in what
Jesus did, however, God imputes Jesus’ righteousness onto us. That means when God looks at us, he does not
see our sinfulness, he sees the righteousness of Jesus. Even though we are not righteous, and even
though God sees Jesus’ righteousness when he looks on our hearts, John is still
trying to teach us an important principle about that righteousness here. It is
essential that we learn it and adopt it as part of our own lives.
Those
in the fellowship strive to become what they have been given.
In other words, if we have been
given the righteousness of Jesus, then our goal in life is to strive to become
the righteousness of Jesus. We can see
this by looking ahead slightly in 1 John 3:7, which says,
Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices
righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. (ESV)
Righteousness is as righteousness
does. We may not be righteous in our own right, but we have the righteousness
of Jesus imputed to us, and we must do our best to act that way. In other words, righteous people, whom we are
because we have the imputed righteousness of Jesus, behave like righteous
people. That means we do what it right always and in every situation. Maybe we do it imperfectly, but we strive with every ounce of strength that we have to always do what is right.
So the obvious question that arises,
therefore is why? If we have been
forgiven… if God doesn’t see our sinfulness, but rather sees Jesus’
righteousness… why does it matter? Why
should we strive to be perfect and holy when we know for certain that is an untainable goal. We will never be fully sinless until our
bodies are glorified and the sin nature is removed? Fortunately, John is going to tell us
why. In fact, if we look carefully, he will give us four reasons why.
In this article I want to briefly discuss
the first two of those reasons. The
other two I will discuss in the next article.
Jesus
is Coming Back
The first reason we see for why we
must strive to become the righteousness that has been given to us is simply
because one day soon, Jesus is coming back.
This is, in fact, our hope as believers. We have faith that one day Jesus will
return. Without that hope, and the
resurrection that comes with it, our faith would be vain and pitiful. So says Paul in 1 Corinthians 15. But if we look at what John says in verse 28,
he gives us a reason why we ought not to take our righteousness for
granted. He tells us plainly
that righteous living gives us cause for being confident in his return.
Just think about this a moment. Image how you will feel when Jesus returns and every single thing you have ever done is exposed by his righteous appearing. I think sometimes we have the wrong idea about what’s going to happen when we see Jesus. We think it is going to be this joyous reunion – “where have you been all my life, Jesus – so glad we can finally meet in person!” It will not be like that at all. I can’t say I know exactly HOW it will be, but based on my study of God's word, there will be an unexplainable mix of both joy and shame. When we see Jesus, we will see HIM for who he is – and in so doing, we will see how EVERY sin we have committed was placed upon him on the cross. We will understand for the first time the pain that we have caused him and the true cost of our sin. We say we understand it now, but I believe that we cannot possibly understand it in full until we have seen Jesus in full. And while we will be eternally grateful for the fact that he took on that pain, it will cause us immeasurable shame. This will be especially true for those sins we have committed SINCE we have become believers. We will see those sins for the betrayal that they are. Just as Peter, who after walking with Jesus three years before he betrayed him, wept bittery when he realized what he had done, we too will weep bitterly when we realize the magnitude of the pain we have caused our savior.
You may be thinking, “I thought
the bible said there would be no tears!” To be accurate, that is not what it
says. What it actually says is that first he will “wipe away every tear” from our eyes. THEN there will be no more tears. I believe we have these tears because of the
shame of our sinfulness. The moment we
first meet Jesus will be both joyous AND horrifying. Every prophet who speaks
of that day says so. Even John, when he
saw Jesus in Revelation chapter 1, was terrified of him. But then, after Jesus lifts us off the ground
and wipes away those tears, it will be forever glorious and we will truly
understand the Grace of God like we never could here on earth.
So, here’s the appropriate question: Why do we want to make that moment any worse than it already will be by continuing in our sin? This is not to suggest that we should stress over every little thing that we do. Heavens, no. That would be crippling legalism. But it does suggest that, with the freedom of forgiveness as our backstop, we ought to strive with all that we are to always do what is right.
We Are
Children of God
The second reason we are given for
why we ought to strive to live righteously is hinted at in verse 29 and then
stately plainly at the beginning of chapter 3. Consider 1 John 3:1-3.
1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we
should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does
not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God's children now,
and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we
shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus
hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
(ESV)
John is very clear about this. Children
of God practice righteousness.
We probably need to take a moment
here to define “practice.” When this word is used throughout this section of
scripture, it is not referring to occasional actions, whether they be good or
bad. Practicing sin does not refer to
occasional stumbles. Practicing sin
means actively embracing a sinful lifestyle.
Likewise, practicing righteousness does not mean we never sin. It means we actively embrace a righteous
lifestyle of always doing that which is right.
It is referring to intentionality and habitual actions.
Think about it. How do you get
better and perfect something? You
practice it. You do it on purposes on a regular basis. So, when it talks about
practicing righteousness, it means we regularly and consistently make a choice
to do the right thing. Likewise, when it talks about practicing sinfulness, it
means we choose to live in sin on a regular basis – not repenting of it – not
trying to overcome it – just accepting or even embracing it.
Therefore, when we say that Children of God practice righteousness, we mean that children of God are regularly and consistently choosing right over wrong. They do not embrace sinful lifestyles and they make a habit of always doing that which is right. Brothers and sisters, we are children of God now if we believe in Jesus. We do not become children of God later, we are so now. In John’s words “and so we are.” Therefore, we behave as his children now.
Of course, as his children, we don’t have everything now that we will have later. In fact, we know that eventually the Children of God will be perfected. We already mentioned one that that will happen when Jesus returns - that we will see our sinfulness in light of his righteousness. Fortunately, something else will happen when we see Jesus. When we see him as he is, we will become LIKE him in his perfection. Even though we don’t have that now, we hope in the fact that it will happen later. But therein lies the point that John is making here. Children of God pursue their hope today. That is what verse 3 is trying to tell us. We purify ourselves because he is pure. Precisely because we hope for the future perfection of our bodies, we pursue it now. We pursue it by making the conscious and consistent choice of right over wrong.
BUT…
If we are not pursuing it now, it
is because we do not desire it now.
And if we do not desire it now,
then we really aren’t hoping for it later.
And if we neither desire it nor
hope for it…
Can we truly call ourselves
children of God?
These are critical questions to
ask ourselves to test whether we are part of the fellowship. Do we honestly desire to be righteous as
Jesus is righteous?
Next time, we will look at two
more reasons to pursue righteousness as outlined here in chapter 3.
