Sermon Tone Analysis

Before You Go…

1 John 5:18–21

 

©April 22, 2007 Rick Goettsche

This morning we pick up the last four verses of 1 John.

After several months studying this letter, we draw to a close.

As John closes out his letter to the church, he is intensely practical—he uses his last words to communicate explicitly some of the truths he has mentioned earlier in his letter.

I imagine this is much like a parent who is sending their child off to school for the first time—they will seek to instill some final words of advice and wisdom before they leave the child.

For example, when dropping the kid off at kindergarten, you might say, “You know I love you and I’ll be back to pick you up this afternoon, now play nice and don’t eat glue.”

On the first day of college, you might say, “I know you’re ready for this, and you’ll do great.

You know that if you need help, I’m still only a phone call away, and you know I’ll be praying for you.

Don’t get involved with the wrong crowd; remember you’re here for an education first.”

On your child’s wedding day, you might say, “You know, you’re finally going to be on your own now, and you will now have to take care of someone else in addition to you.

I know you love this person and you’ll take care of him~/her for the rest of your life.

You know it won’t be easy, but you can make it through the tough times.

Put God at the center of your marriage and defend your marriage from anything that can harm it.”

In each situation you want to be sure to communicate some important things.

Usually there are some facts that you want to remind your child of—things like, I love you, I’ll be back for you, I’ll be praying for you, I’m only a phone call away, or marriage won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.

You want to make sure that your child remembers these important facts.

You also want to take this opportunity to pass along a warning, or advice on what to beware of, how to avoid the biggest temptation they will face—whether it’s play nice and don’t eat glue, or don’t get involved with the wrong crowd, or defend your marriage, we try to give an important last bit of wisdom before we part company.

It’s no surprise that John does the same thing here.

John has spent all this time instructing these people, and now it’s time to go.

But before he does, he seeks to remind them of a few truths—things they should already know, things he’s probably told them before, but things are important as they continue in life.

He also seeks to warn them about the biggest temptation they will face, the thing that can cause them the most pain.

So, much like a parent, John’s last words are very important and immensely practical.

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We Won’t Continue in Sin

In this concluding passage, John uses the words “we know” three times.

He is communicating three truths to us, things he shouldn’t have to explain to us, because we already know them.

The first thing we know is found in verse 18,

We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.

This seems to be similar to what John said earlier in his letter in chapter 3, verse 9,

No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.

So, John is reiterating a truth he has already stated to them.

He says that anyone who is born of God does not continue to sin.

Why?

Because the one who was born of God (which in this instance is Jesus) keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.

The issue that we must address here is the same issue that we needed to address in chapter three, which is, is John saying that Christians do not sin?

Or even stronger, that Christians cannot sin?

There are many teachers today who would tell you that is exactly what John is saying.

They would say that as believers, we have been delivered from sin, and as a matter of fact, we are kept from sin by Jesus, therefore we do not or cannot sin.

This is an absolute corruption of this passage—and we should not interpret the passage that way.

In cases like this, I’m very fond of a simple axiom that, “a text out of context is a pretext for a prooftext.”

In other words, if you take some piece of Scripture and interpret without looking at the rest of Scripture, you are in grave danger of misinterpreting and possibly of building an entire doctrine (or worse, a religious sect) on a piece of misapplied Scripture.

Many false teachings and cults have had their beginnings in this way.

We certainly want to avoid that, and in this case it’s easy, because we really only need to go back a few verses to see that John isn’t saying that believers don’t sin.

Look at verse 16, which we covered last week.

If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life.

John says that if we see a brother (a Christian) commit a sin that doesn’t lead to death, we should pray that God restores him.

So, if Christians can’t sin, or Christians don’t sin, why in the world does John tell us to pray for those Christians who do sin?!? Obviously, he must not be saying that believers don’t sin.

What John is saying is the same thing he said in chapter 3, that no one /continues/ to sin.

In other words, the governing rule of our lives before we were saved was sin, but now sin should not be the governing rule.

Rather than sin being our primary desire, our default action, our primary desire is now to please God—we will not continue living in sin, because we desire to get rid of it.

Now, we will certainly fall into sin, we will have times of weakness, but these times are the exception, rather than the rule.

Let me illustrate this for you.

It’s kind of like our immune system.

Before we are saved, it’s as though we have no immune system—we are simply at the mercy of our environment.

As believers, we have a fully functioning, healthy immune system.

We are on guard against and actively seek to eliminate those things which are harmful to us, those things which are sinful.

That doesn’t mean that we won’t still get sick, but we won’t be sick all the time because we’ll resist the harmful things in our environment.

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We are Children of God

So, the first truth about which John reminds us is that no one who is in Christ continues to sin because God set us free and sustains us in our struggle against sin.

The second thing we know is closely related—that we are children of God, and the world around us is controlled by Satan.

Verse 19 says exactly that,

We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

In order for us to best understand this truth, we should examine the second half of John’s statement that “the whole world is under the control of the evil one.”

This seems like a pretty harsh statement, one that we may initially try to deny.

You may say, “What an arrogant thing to say!

How dare we claim that the world is evil, and that we are so much better than they!

After all, aren’t we also sinners?”

Note that this is exactly the argument the world has conditioned us to make.

Any sort of statement of absolute truth is politically incorrect, or as the current buzzword is, intolerant.

This statement is neither inaccurate nor intolerant—it is an assertion of the truth.

Remember the person who is writing these words!

It is John, the apostle who spoke more about love than almost anyone else.

John’s statement certainly isn’t one of arrogance, because we also know that we have done absolutely /nothing/ to merit adoption into God’s family—it is something God has done of his own accord.

We have been taken out of the world, and as we can see it from the outside, we realize that it is under the control of the evil one.

Let me read you something that David Martin Lloyd-Jones, the mid-twentieth century Welsh preacher wrote on this subject.

“Men and women were made for God and were meant to serve God and enjoy Him; but they are in the grip of Satan.

So they hate the name of God, and because of this they are unhappy.

They are unhappy within themselves; they cannot find satisfaction; they are unhappy with other people because they blame them for their trouble.

They do not say that it is in themselves—they are all little gods fighting with one another, jealous and envious of one another.”[1]

John’s statement is not harsh, it is true.

We see this attitude throughout the world, there should be a distinct difference between us and the world, because we are children of God.

When the Church is indistinguishable from the world, it fails to fulfill its mandate to be salt and light.

When the Church becomes like a club, only inviting those we think are worthy to join, we fail.

When the Church becomes like the rest of the world, gossiping, slandering, and backbiting, we fail.

When the Church looks at marriage as simply another relationship that can be ended when it becomes inconvenient, we fail.

When the model of how we lead our church becomes a Fortune 500 company instead of the Bible, we fail.

We are set apart, we are not part of this world, because the world is under the control of the evil one.

John reminds us that we have been set apart as children of God—so we are in the world, but we are not of the world.

He’s also warning us that it will be a struggle to live in the world.

He tells us this so that we can remember that we are supposed to be separate, even though it will probably be uncomfortable at times.

We know we shouldn’t fit in, so we shouldn’t worry when we don’t.

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We Have Understanding

So, we know that anyone born of God doesn’t live a life of continual sin, and that we have been set apart as children of God.

In verse 20, John now gives us a third thing that we know.

We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true.

And we are in him who is true—even in his Son Jesus Christ.

He is the true God and eternal life.

John tells us that God has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true.

And how do we know him who is true?