Real Christianity: God is Light (1 John 1:5)

The Bible is a theocentric (God-centered) book, because God is the main Character in it. Christianity, therefore, is a theocentric religion and fellowship with God is theocentric, too, for the same reason – it is all about God. Whether men realize it or not the universe and all of life is theocentric. Therefore, our fellowship with God depends on who and what God is, not on what we are. In fact, as we shall see, what we are is a hindrance to fellowship with God.

John’s message that he declares to us simple folk who hold to the apostolic teaching of the New Testament is that “God is Light, and darkness is not in Him at all.” (1 John 1:5). John defines the basis of fellowship with God in terms of light and darkness. Under the figure of light John presents to us the absolute and undiluted holiness of God. God is holy, righteous and true. Therefore, God Himself is the standard by which we enjoy fellowship with Him. God expressed this to Abraham when He said, “Walk in My presence and be complete in your conformity to Me” (Gen.17:1). In order to walk acceptably in God’s presence one must conform to Him and to His will. This only makes sense. God is our Creator and Provider. He has every right to tell us how to live. He told Adam and Eve, and He tells everyone else. God has not surrendered His right to sovereign mastery of men.

If I am to walk in fellowship with God I must conform to His light and reflect it back to Him as well as to those around me. Obviously this will mean dramatic change in me, in my thoughts and in my actions. But cheer up. There is Light on my path to lead the way and to make the changes I need.

More to come, with God’s help…

Real Christianity: By the Book (1 John 1:4)

Today people are enamored with personal experiences. The New Age movement is all about experiencing super-human spirit forces that can give meaning to life. The basic hedonist is all about experiencing pleasure and fulfillment from the joys offered by the creation. The bias of the “Me” generation (which is really every person still dead in transgressions and sins) is like a black hole that pulls everything in life into the vortex of self. But this self-centered perspective on life is not peculiar to unbelievers. It can infect Christians, too. We can be so involved with the “me-my-and-mine” in this world that our time, energies and resources are exhausted by “just living.” Yet, at the end of the day we have to confess that what we have been occupied with isn’t really “living” at all, but only maintaining our existence. For the Christian, life is not defined by personal experiences, but by fellowship with God. Personal experiences are just that, personal, and therefore different for everyone. Fellowship with God is the constant of Christianity – basically the same for every child of God.

If we are to avoid that selfish pre-occupation with the things of the present life, one thing we will have to do is make sure we have “God” time whether we have our own personal “me” time or not. In other words, the face of God comes before Facebook.

John says, “we are writing these things (about Christ and about fellowship with God) to you so that your joy may be completely filled up.” In verse 3 John says his purpose in declaring these things to us was our having fellowship with God. However, John has not only “declared” these things to us, he has written them down as well. In fact, the testimony of John and the other apostles was very carefully written down in the Gospels and Epistles. These books were written, Jesus said, “for those who will believe in Me through their word” (Jn.17:20), that is, in the New Testament. The apostolic testimony declares, explains and applies the Person and work of Christ in redeeming us. God gave us that revelation so that we might have fellowship with Him – that we might know Him through Christ, be accepted by Him, love Him, trust Him, follow Him and enjoy Him.

At the end of the day, fellowship with God is an experience, one that will last forever. But it is entered into and enjoyed only as we read, study, meditate on, believe and follow His revealed Word in the Bible. The measure of your joyful fellowship with God’s Book will be the measure of your joyful fellowship with God.

More to come, God willing…

Real Christianity: Background to 1 John

Before we go much further into 1 John it might be helpful to look at the background of this epistle. Tradition (history) tells us that John wrote his epistles, his Gospel and the Book of the Revelation in the last decade of the first century (A.D. 90-99). This most likely made him the last surviving apostle. Thirty or forty years before this, the church saw the great Jewish controversies battled by the apostle Paul. The issues of justification by faith, of the status of Gentile believers, and of meat sacrificed to idols, etc. had all been resolved. By this time the Jewish connection with the church had largely disappeared for two reasons. Jerusalem and the Temple had been destroyed, and the gospel had been taken all over the Roman Empire and won numerous Gentile converts, thus taking root in the Hellenistic world. The growing number of Greek and Roman converts naturally resulted in an ever-increasing Hellenistic influence in the church. As the church had previously been infected by Jewish sentiments in its early years, it now felt the sway of Hellenistic thinking.

Scholars tell us that the more we learn about the first century, the more groups we find who were following mystical (mystery) religions. Just who had been troubling the believers in Ephesus and its environs is hard to say. However, their basic teachings are fairly clear both from historical studies in ancient religions and from John’s writings. The religions appealed basically to those who considered themselves intellectuals. Greeks were proud of their wisdom and considered the gospel “foolishness” (See 1 Cor. 1:22-23). The idea of a “crucified god” was preposterous to them. Therefore, in order to make the gospel more palatable to these erudite heathen, some felt they could “contextualize” the truth and modify certain distasteful notions. Furthermore, certain mystery religions held to the separation of the spiritual from the physical. The spiritual was good and the physical was viewed as evil. Therefore, the true God did not “become flesh,” He only appeared to do so. On top of that, they concluded that what one did in the physical realm really had not effect on the soul, and so they denied the possibility of committing sins with the body. The result was false gods and false lives. Those who adopted these ideas left the church and caused great trouble for those “simple” folk who clung to the teaching of the apostles.

Much of what John wrote was to counteract these pagan influences. Among other things he insists on both the humanity and propitiatory death of Christ, the necessity of obedience to God’s commands, the impossibility of the regenerate believer continuing in sin, and the fact that every believer has true knowledge of God. John refers to those who left the church and teach heresy as “they/them,” and identifies himself with the other apostles as “we/us.” John wants his readers to fellowship with “us,” the apostles, who teach the truth about God and Christ. Therefore he wrote this epistle to expose the falsity of the claims of the departed intellectuals and to strengthen the assurance of those who had Real Christianity. 

Real Christianity: Fellowship with God Through Jesus Christ (1 John 1:1-2)

John begins his epistle with a long and convoluted sentence. Grammatically the subject and main verb of the sentence do not appear until verse 3. “We [subject] declare [verb] to you [indirect object] what we have seen and heard [direct object].” Sorry for the grammar lesson, but grammar can help sometimes (!). Verse 1 is an expanded explanation of the direct object and verse 2 is an aside to identify “the Word of Life.” Clear as mud? {This is what an advanced degree can do for you.} If so, read it again looking at your Bible. If you still have trouble leave a comment below.

Verse 1, then, tells us the content of John’s declaration to us. The content is what the apostles witnessed as they followed Jesus through His ministry “from the beginning” to end. They are bearing witness to us what God revealed to them (verse 2). And they are identifying this “Word of life” that they witnessed. Of course we know that John is talking about the incarnate Second Person of the Trinity. The apostles heard, saw, beheld (looked upon, viewed attentively, contemplated) and handled (remember the loaves and fish?) what Jesus did. His point here is that they were physically involved with a physical Jesus who is also the “Eternal Life” who “was with the Father.” [More on that later.]

Everything that the apostles witnessed of Jesus revealed the Father. What Jesus did included securing our salvation. Everything Jesus did in revealing the Father and securing our salvation was so that we might have fellowship with God. This tells us what God thinks of our having fellowship with Him. This is our purpose in life. We exist, are saved, and live out our days here to have fellowship with Him, not just to miss Hell and land in Heaven. Of course, Heaven will be more and better fellowship.

More to come, God willing…

(Here is a diagram of verses 1-3a:

We are declaring to you what we have seen and heard.

                what was from the beginning

                what we have heard

                what we have seen with our eyes àconcerning the Word of Life

                what we beheld                                (This prepositional phrase

                and our hands handled                       can modify each clause.)

[And

             The Life was manifested (this is why we could witness Him), and

             We have seen and

    bear witness and

    declare to you the Eternal Life

                                                            Who was with the Father,

                                                            And was manifested to us.])

Real Christianity: Fellowship with God (1 John 1:3)

What is real Christianity? You will get different answers to this question, depending on whom you ask. Charismatic Christians might say that speaking in tongues and the display of supernatural gifts were essential elements to real Christianity. Others might insist that keeping their rules and conforming to their standards was critical. Yet others might say that social action and outreach were of the essence of true faith in Christ. Some would put traditional forms at the center and others would promote contemporary expression. Messianic Christians hold that all things Jewish are essential to faith and worship. If that is not enough, to add more variables to the pot, simply go to other countries and study the churches there. In the end, whoever answers this question is probably describing himself and then pronouncing his form of Christianity as the “real thing.” And although they would never say it, what they imply is that to be a real Christian, you have to be like them. While each of us believes that all his positions are right, the almost endless variety in the Church on earth suggests that many of the differences among us are not really all that essential to Christianity. At least that is what the Scriptures seem to suggest. When all is said and done, the real answer to the question must be sought in God’s Word. Christianity is His “religion” after all.

Among other portions of Scripture, the First Epistle of John was written in answer to our question. Believers in John’s day were being distressed by massive defections from their churches. Former teachers in the church had left because they had rejected apostolic doctrine and were teaching “another Jesus.” Simple folk in the churches were asking how they could know they had real Christianity. John answers them by giving infallible proofs of the possession of faith in Christ, eternal life, and sonship with God. He tells them what real Christianity is.

John’s ultimate purpose in writing the letter is found in verse 3:“What we have heard and seen we declare to you so that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” [My own translation]. From man’s perspective God’s aim in sending Christ to be our Savior was that we might enjoy fellowship with Him. This is His aim for every one of His children, regardless how we might differ from one another on other matters. This is the reason both for my existence and my redemption. This is why I get up in the morning – to have fellowship with the Father through Jesus Christ my Lord. Real Christianity is fellowship with God. Now that is something worth living for!

More to come, in the will of God…