MORE THAN LIP SERVICE

By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.  
(1 John 2: 3-6 – NAS)


John makes his point so earnestly in these verses that it seems clear that even in his time – within the lifespan of someone who had actually walked  with Jesus – there came to be “followers” who were declaring that they “knew the Lord,” but whose actions certainly did not show that to be the case. How heart-wrenching that must have been for John, to see that there were people who wanted to be “in with the In Crowd,” as it were, but who were not really interested in doing those things Jesus had taught and commanded.

And it still happens, of course.

Why is that? Why would people declare themselves Christians and yet not live according to the guidelines Jesus gave His followers?

It’s human nature to want to be well-thought-of. We do crave the respect of others, the admiring and appreciating regard. And certainly, the type of person who follows the commandments of Jesus would be a very admirable person: peacemaker, merciful, generous, caring, attentive. Who would not want to have such a cloak around their shoulders?

And to gain that respect and admiration, why, all one has to do is claim  to be a follower of Jesus. Right?

We walk the fine line between the issue of salvation by declaration of faith and salvation by works. Arguments had been made, even in the days of the Apostles, that all that was needed to gain salvation was a confession that Jesus is Lord. Because Jesus died for our sins, all our erroneous actions were paid for by Him, and we are allowed into the presence of God. But the expectation is that gaining that salvation would change us so much that we would now live according to the commandments of Jesus (or at least try to do so).

But even in John’s time, apparently there were plenty who merely gave lip service to being followers of Christ.

“Lip service” is one of those phrases we use a lot without thinking much of it. It means to vow adherence or allegiance to something, saying the words but not following through with the actions that would actually show the allegiance. The only thing “serving the cause” are the words of the declarer.

John makes it clear that when it comes to following Christ, that’s not good enough. “Talk is cheap,” we like to say. It’s very easy to say we follow the Lord, to say we believe in His sacrifice. But John says that if we say these things, and yet do not act according to the commandments of Jesus, we’re lying about our faith.

For John, who had been in the living presence of Jesus, who had walked the dusty roads with the Lord, sat in fields while Jesus spoke to crowds, been squashed into corners of houses packed with people who wanted to see Jesus, it must have seemed sad and strange that there would be “followers” who would claim to love the Lord and yet not be so transformed by that love that they did not start trying to act like Jesus. Their love, it seems, went no further than saying words.

Even now it is very easy to say we are “in the Lord” to mean that we have a certain circle of friends who share a certain outlook. And that that circle can include people we’ve only just met, but who we allow in because they make the same declaration. It becomes just a social designation, and we don’t think about what John really was saying about “abiding in the Lord.”

After all, what does “abiding in the Lord” really mean?

I think it means that Jesus has taken each of us into His heart -- deep into His heart, to that place where no defenses are raised, where love is unconditional and always available. He allows us into that place to dwell forever.

How can we not be changed by such an experience? How can we not grow in a desire to become more and more like that which surrounds us, there in the heart of the Lord?

But we don’t, not always. Because it is not such a visible, tangible thing to us as we want. We have only the assurance of the words left to us and the presence of the Holy Spirit. And the presence of the Holy Spirit is (usually) something invisible, and thus easy to dismiss if not exactly ignore.

John wants to shake us up, to wake us up. He knows that if we are not reflecting the nature of Christ in our actions, we aren’t really inside His being: we are not abiding in Jesus.

He’s not claiming that we have to be following the commandments of Jesus perfectly. Of course we’re going to stumble, and fumble, and get some things wrong. But if our intention truly is to be like Christ, the Lord will handle our missteps (as noted previously, He is the propitiation for our sins and errors). The Lord’s love becomes perfect in us. It’s something He does because we have opened our own hearts to the experience of being inside His heart.

But inevitably, there should be some evidence of it. The transformation that God’s love works on us should show up in our actions, not just our words. And it’s not like we don’t know what the Lord’s commandments are: there’s a whole Sermon of the basics of what our live should look like.

What it comes down to, in a popular phrasing, is – Don’t just talk the talk: walk the walk.

We should give the Lord much more than lip service.