ON THE OTHER HAND

On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining. The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.

(1 John 2: 8-9 – NAS)

 

John has earnestly tried to remind his readers that what he has been telling them in this letter is not really anything new to them as disciples. But as a way of shaking up their perceptions of what is expected of them as followers of Jesus, he now adds some thoughts, “On the other hand....”

So often, when we want to offer seemingly contrary perspectives, we like to turn to constructions like “on the other hand.” Most of the time what we are presenting are not flat-out opposite options, such as “Kill that man” or “Don’t kill that man.” More often, what we are considering when we use that phrase is that we want to put forward a secondary course that heads in much the same direction as the first. After all, when we physically extend both our hands at the same time, they generally point in the same direction. It is just that the specifics provide different outlooks and experiences.

This then is what John means when he tells us that he has a “new” commandment for us.

But what is it that makes it “new” compared to the commandments Jesus gave us? John has an answer for that as well.

He says, “the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.”

When Jesus came to teach His disciples, those who listened to Him were living in a darkness. Jesus is the True Light of God, shining into our lives. His presence among people, living as one of us, brought an entirely new context to the matter of our relationship with God. Before Jesus came, we did not have an advocate who would redeem us in the eyes of the Lord. But after Jesus came, we were given this new option, this new way to approach the holiness of God. After Jesus came, those who joined the body of believers lived in a world where the redemption of our unfitness was already accomplished – all we had to do as new believers was accept it and put our new life into action. We, as believers who have come to the Lord after the Resurrection, walk a path where the True Light already shines before us.

So what is this new perspective that John wants to bring us to about our walk as followers of Jesus?

He says that anyone “who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.”

This is a slightly different angle from what John has said before, about claiming to be walking in the Light while still sinning. He wants us to reconsider all the things that we think of as sin, because there are actions and choices that we can gloss over – such as how we treat those closest to us.

John puts it bluntly: someone who says he belongs to Jesus “and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.”

Does he mean our literal flesh and blood siblings? No, he does not. He means those who have been bonded to us spiritually by our shared commitment to the Lord. 

In the Lord’s eyes, when we become believers in Christ we are joined together in one family, as children of the Living God. We are given the status of His heirs. In God’s eyes, we are made closer than blood siblings.

So, is it possible then to “hate our brothers”?

Human nature is very fragile and weak. Yes, it is quite possible to fill our relationship with a particular person with negativity.

What does it mean, after all, to “hate one’s brother”?

Certainly, when we find ourselves actively disliking another believer, we have fallen into “hating our brother.” If we cannot question that person’s commitment to Christ, what are our grounds for “hating” them?

It is true that there are plenty of committed believers who are less-than-perfect when it comes to living out the commandments of our Lord. There are those who have fallen into dubious interpretations of the ordinances of scripture. There are some whose personalities will always rub us the wrong way for any number of reasons. But if at rock bottom we know that they are followers of Jesus (no matter how poor their understanding or thorough their application of scripture), they are our siblings in Christ – and we cannot hate them.

If we claim to be standing in the Light of Christ, the only criteria we may use to evaluate “kinship in Christ” is whether the other person claims Jesus as their Lord. Paul says elsewhere that that is all that is required to gain Christ in our lives. And it is that which makes the other person our “brother.” Not method of baptism, not the procedure for confessing of sins, not shared approach to worship.

“Jesus is Lord.”

If we allow ourselves to hate anyone who says that with all their heart -- if we allow distaste for their personal habits, their lapses in judgment, their poor understanding, or any such cause – then we have fallen into hating our brother. There’s no way around it.

In this day and age, we frequently see “leaders” in the Body of Christ take very narrow-minded stances. We see just prominent figures make declarations that are everything but pronouncements of the Love of Jesus. And we can condemn the foolishness of their behavior, and wonder about the depth of their so-called commitment to the Lord. But it is not our place to judge the reality of that commitment. We do not need to follow them, only the Lord. We should pray for them as straying siblings, but leave the evaluation of the reality of their commitment to our Ultimate Judge.

Our calling is to act in love toward our siblings in Christ – no matter how challenging that may be.

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.

TO WALK IN LIGHT


but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.  
(1 John 1: 7 – NAS)


John gives us this simple setting for being in fellowship with each other – to walk in the Light.

Yet, we know how easily we hold on to our secret darkness, and how difficult it is for us to let go of our petty sins. How can we possibly walk in the Light?

John reminds us that the blood of Jesus was sacrificed on our behalf. It has swept over us and carried away the darkness of our sin. That is what allows us to walk in the Light.

The thing about being in light is that we can see all that is around us. Darkness hides things, but light reveals them.

It is a curious thing that one of the most powerful of human desires is the desire to be known by others. I don’t mean “being famous” – although that compulsion is a shadow of the real desire. We want to be known for who we really are, what we are really like. We want to be regarded fondly, with affection. We want to be understood, to have our thoughts understood and have our jokes laughed at. But this can only happen by revealing ourselves. And that cannot be done in darkness.

Yet ....

Revelation is a painful process. It requires vulnerability. And we tend to equate vulnerability with weakness. They are not the same thing, of course. But the weak frequently are vulnerable.

To be vulnerable means being open to the possibility of being wounded. It does not mean that we will be wounded, though.

When we walk in the Light, those around us can see us as we are. Our strengths and our vulnerabilities. If we wish to be known, if we wish to be loved, we have to allow this revelation to occur. We cannot hide parts of ourselves in darkness. If we want to be in fellowship with others, we need to be open.

If we let the protection of Jesus cover us, we can walk in the Light. We don’t have to drag our personal darkness along with us. And by walking in the Light, we attract others to us. We gain fellowship with others who are also willing to walk the same way.

The fellowship we gain is not just with each other, of course. We gain fellowship with Christ. We gain the companionship with the One who manifests the power of God. What a marvelous travelling companion!

Once, when I was a ninth grader, I wrote a short story that I titled “Dark Journey” (at least, I think that was the title I gave it). In it, my character maneuvers himself through a number of obstacles in darkness. I used indirect description and never specified what any of the obstacles were, just his physical sensations and movements. Until he reached his goal, that is. He opens a door, and “the little light went on as it always did.” There’s a note there from his parents that if he has another midnight snack, he’ll lose his allowance. So the boy goes back upstairs to bed.

It was written for a class assignment, and I was rather pleased with what I’d done. But even now, when I look back at this piece, I am struck by how much suspense can come from simply not knowing or not seeing what is around us. The moment I finally defined the setting, letting the light shine on it, it lost all its power to alarm the reader.

When it comes to navigating our physical surroundings, we definitely prefer to have light about us. Why then do we continue to “walk in darkness” when it comes to our emotional, intellectual, moral and spiritual lives? Sometimes, I think it is simply because those aspects of our being are not physical. Oh, they can have physical consequences. But they are not, by nature, physical themselves. If they were, I wonder if we would keep the darker aspects around. I don’t think they would be comfortable.

That is just one reason I am thankful for the sacrifice of Jesus. That act, and my acceptance of it on my behalf, is the one thing that makes it possible for me to stay walking in the Light. As Christ is the Light, and His presence drives away the alarming aspects of darkness. It is the Light of Christ that lets me truly see my friends and be in fellowship with them, giving them understanding and love and receiving the same from them.

TO WALK IN DARKNESS


If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not practice the truth.
(1 John 1: 6 – NAS)


Why would anyone who announces that they are “in fellowship with Jesus” choose to still walk in darkness? It seems a silly proposition. And yet, it does happen. Should we just write it off to “human nature”?

But the fact remains that in this fallen world, figurative darkness has its attractions, its temptations. Darkness can hide many things. When we wish to keep someone from knowledge of a particular event or activity, we “keep them in the dark.”

Little children love to play peek-a-boo. The limited awareness of the world that such a child has leads him to believe that if he cannot see a thing, it is “out of existence.” If a thing is hidden from his sight or he closes his eyes, it is very easy for the child to think it is gone. That it comes back is always a delight to the child. Gone. Back. Gone. Back.

Some of that outlook tends to persist in our hearts and minds as we grow older. We hide parts of our lives, our activities, our attitudes and beliefs, from others – for all sorts of reasons. It might not even be because we are lying about anything. It may simply be that we wish to keep something secret. It’s nobody else’s business, right?

But what happens when we claim to be followers of Jesus, and we still hold on to such hidden things, such “dark secrets”?

John had previously said that “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”

If we claim to have fellowship with the Lord, what is it that we are bringing into the situation? It is said that as believers we are in Him as He is in us. Is it possible for us to bring our “little darknesses” into the Lord?

John says that no, it is not possible. There is, in Him, no darkness at all.

So, if we persist on keeping our dark secrets and choosing to “walk in darkness,” we cannot also claim to be in fellowship with the Lord. It just doesn’t work that way. We can’t be in the Lord and still hold on to our private darkness. There is no darkness in the Lord.

John is quite bluntly truthful when he says that anyone who claims fellowship and yet walks in darkness is lying.

There’s a phrase that people misquote a lot these days. People say, “He wants to have his cake and eat it too.” But the fact is, that is the ordinary sequence. You have to have a cake before you can eat it, after all. The original phrase is slightly different: “He wants to eat his cake and have it too.” It means that the person wants the pleasure of eating the cake, but that after eating it, he still also wants the pleasure of having the cake before him, enticing, promising yet more pleasures. It is the picture of greed. We want to consume and we want to have the prospect, the possibility, of continued consumption before us. We want no end of cake or the eating of cake.

That is what we are doing when we try to drag our personal darkness into fellowship with the Lord. Yes, we want that fellowship with Jesus, the closeness with God. But we also do not want to give up on our little sins and vices. We don’t really want to let go of all our angers (That guy really deserves my anger!) or pride or little greeds. “It’s a small thing. I’m just a flawed human – God loves me anyway, doesn’t He?” We try to use the great good nature of God against Him, in order to hold onto those things we want.

Yes, God loves us in spite of those flaws and darknesses. But having God love us is not quite the same thing as being in fellowship with Him.

Fellowship is so much more than just being in the presence of the other person. We can be in the midst of a huge crowd and not be in fellowship with a single person there. To be in fellowship with someone is to share an interest, to be engaged, to be a peer of the other person, an equal partner.

And we are invited to be in fellowship with God through Jesus. What an astonishing thing! The Creator of the Universe is willing to connect and engage with me, this speck on the surface of a small planet circling a small star on the edge of one of a myriad of galaxies. Fellowship!

But....

God is light and there is in Him no darkness at all.

I cannot hold on to my private darkness and still claim to be walking in the Light of the Lord. It just doesn’t work.

One year at Vacation Bible School, we whiled away the time learning the meaning of our given names. For some of the children, it made for an amusing game, because we wondered if their parents had known the meaning of the names (unlikely juxtapositions of personality and name-meaning seemed quite frequent).

Since I had been born into a church-going family, I of course knew the significance of my first name, Sarah. Much amusement was hand in my family, because of the Biblical story of the wife of Abraham. Originally, her name was Sarai, and I was taught that it meant “quarrelsome or contentious”. And I was contentious as a child, very much so. But the Lord changed Sarai’s name to Sarah, which means “princess.” (Many scholars do not hold that “Sarai” means “quarrelsome,” however, indicating that “Sarai” is not significantly different in meaning from “Sarah”.) To me, at that time, there seemed a particular responsibility in being designated a “princess.” I was not enveloped in visions of fairy tale princesses, being waiting on hand and foot. Somehow to me it had a weight of responsibility and authority, a weight I was not particularly eager to carry. What added to this weight, particularly for a child growing up in a Christian home, was learning that “Lucy,” my middle name, meant “light.” The combination of names, for a child of believers, had a haunting significance.

There have certainly been times in my life when I have wanted to clutch my private darkness and hide away from God. But when one’s very name does not allow that sort of escape .... I became resigned to it. I cannot escape the Light of the Lord. It is impressed into my very identity. I might as well learn to “walk in the Light.”

I am not so foolish as to claim that I have excised all my own inner darkness. I believe it is a life-long process, a life’s work, to reach that goal. But I do not want to lie, when I claim to be in fellowship with the Lord. I would much rather be in the Light than I would to walk in darkness.