1 John 5:21
The very last statement of 1 John 5:21 makes this strange statement; strange because the framework of the book is written so these believers would know that they have eternal life (5:13). Why would anyone who has trusted Christ, living life under His leadership and mentoring, embrace idols??
Life can be filled with duplicity, and depending on your world view it can be profoundly exacerbated by how we view many things that others ignore. The struggle leads to feelings of hypocrisy and double-mindedness that often leave us feeling confused and experiencing a profound sense of guilt and doubting our relationship with Christ. Our present culture is so tolerant and relative that it is not hard to find people who will “believe” two contradictory beliefs or values at the same time and claim to be perfectly comfortable with it… people love living in ambiguity; well at least certain kinds of ambiguity.
The books of 1 John addresses numerous aspects of duplicity (contradictory doubleness of thought, speech or actions especially the belying of one’s true intentions by deceptive words or actions). John proclaims that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all – there is no duplicity with God, no deceptive “saying one thing and doing something opposite.” But when it comes to these Christians there seems to be a struggle with duplicity in what is said and done:
• If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth (1:6).
• If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us (1:8)
• If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word in not in us (1:10)
• 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.” (2:4)
• The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now (2:9)
• But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness….and does not know where he is going (2:11).
There are others but you get the point. We know this life is a struggle but there is an encouragement from the text too. The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked (2:6). Whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected (2:5).
What God calls us to do is hard for us to come to grips with. If we are honest we will often find duplicity in our life; where, what we claim about our walk with God is contradicted by something we are doing. At times, I suppose, this is born out of ignorance but often it is deliberate and intentional. That said, we need to know that there is great confidence in these passages of 1 John too – if we confess our sin He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1:9). God is gracious and forgiving and we need to eliminate idols from our life; we need to cleanse our lives of things that do not honor Him; we need to purify ourselves from things that the world embraces whole heart. We need to honor Christ above our own self-indulgences and certainly above the values of the culture around us.
Something to think about as we step closer to Christmas….
Pastor Brad
