1John 2:14 - The Ultimate Dad Effect

"I wrote to you, children, because you have known the Father.  I wrote to you, fathers, because you have known the [One Who is] from the beginning.  I wrote to you, young men, because you are strong and the Word of God is remaining in you and you have conquered the evil one."

-Reason #4: Children need a dad.  It has been called the Dad Effect.  From the very beginning, children with involved dads tend to be more emotionally secure (for the sake of conversation we’re just going to assume that dad is involved in primarily good and healthy ways - understanding of course that there are no perfect dads).  These children are more confident, more sociable, more successful.  Cuz Dad has their back.  What better way then to grow as a person than to have a restored relationship with the Dad of dads, THE heavenly Father!  To be able to relate to Him as Abba Father, call Him “Daddy” (if you like).  The ultimate Dad Effect!  John here reminds us his readers that we who have believed have come to know HIM.  We know the Father.  He is OUR Father.  He is no longer some strange far-off deity, the God out there somewhere.  He is here, the God IN HERE, in my heart, always present, never absent.  God WITH us!  No paternal absenteeism here.  He is always with me, will never ever leave me.  He comes to every game, every recital.  Cheers me on - He’s my biggest fan!  and He is able.  He’s got this.  No matter what life throws at me, He can handle it.  So this whole forgiveness thing - no sweat.  Like all little children who really do better when dad is around, Daddy is here, and NOTHING is too difficult for Him (Jeremiah 32.27).  Letting go of wounds and missteps, boldly owning my own warts and boo boos, boldly coming out of hiding in the dark and into in the light - the confidence and security and freedom to be(come) who I have always been (re)created to be - is fueled by this awareness of God, my heavenly Father, incredibly present and deeply involved in my life, always, now and forever.  I know the Father, and He is MY Father!

-Reason #5: Similar, almost identical to reason #2.  The only difference is verb tense.  John is not now writing - he wrote.  He is saying, this is why I wrote to you, even tho as I write it is present for me, when you read this my writing (and reason for doing so) is past.  Reasons 4-6 all use the (aorist) past tense instead of the present tense used in reasons 1-3.  But John is not refering to some other letter which he authored previously.  He is using what in writing is called the epistolary past.  It is like coming home and finding a note saying, ‘went to the store’.  The one who wrote that had not yet actually gone to the store when they wrote the note.  The writer is putting themselves into the present tense of their future reader, but the sense is roughly similar.  If the note instead said, ‘going to the store’, the meaning changes little.  It is simply the author wishing to take their reader into consideration for some reason.  John actually uses both tenses in this section - and we are not really sure why.  But if nothing else, if John is simply restating what he said previously, he is doing so for emphasis.  He wants to emphasize WHO these folks know.  You know almighty God, the omnipotent Maker of heaven and earth and all that is in them.  For all and everyone you know, take courage and rest assured that you know HIM.

-Reason #6: Back to the young men, those doers of daring deeds and mighty exploits.  John says, ‘you are strong’.  He adds that the Word of God is remaining in them, and that they have overcome the evil one (which is also a repeat - of reason #3).  Yes, you are strong, young men, believers, you’ve got what it takes to get through this, to rise above this - and the secret to your power is not the samsonian length of your hair nor the size of your muscles but rather the size of your God.  It is His mighty power unleashed in and through you as you take your stand on and in His Word.  Is this not how Christ Himself found the power to resist and overcome all the temptation of the tempter in the wilderness?  How He defeated the devil in the desert?  It was the living and active Word of God.  "It is written", He said.  Over and over again.  He took up the Sword of the Spirit (cf Ephesians 6.17, Hebrews 4.12), this Word which lights our path and nourishes our souls, which revives and sustains and guides us and makes us wiser than our teachers and our enemies.  You want victory?  You want success?  You want power?  You want fruit (and who doesn’t?) - it begins right here.  Ground zero of the Christian faith.  All that we are and all we believe, whatever we may become - it is all founded on this Word of God, these God-breathed living and active Scriptures which comprise our Bible.  And here it is not enough to simply "know" the Word.  The Word must be remaining in us.  Abiding in us.  Not taking an unceremonious back seat in our minds, mostly relegated to the bench, an after-thought, a little dab’ll do ya, leftovers regurgitated by the preacher once a week.  Take pains, be absorbed in this Word (1Timothy 4.15).  Meditate in it day and night, (Psalm 1.2, Joshua 1.8).  Day and night.  Every day.  And every night.  Impress it on your heart and soul and write it on the door of your house and the gates of your city.  Hang it on your forehead and wrap it all up indoor gray matter.  All up in there.  Don’t let it depart from your mouth, tell it to your kids (Deuteronomy 11.18-20).  Be super careful to do according to all that is written in it, do not turn from it to the right or to the left.  For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.  You want to be ready for anything, for every good work?  You want to grow in your faith, grow strong in your faith, like the young men to whom John is writing here?  Let an abundance of God’s Word take up residence in your life. (2Timothy 3.16-17, Colossians 3.16, Romans 10.17).  It all begins here.  It’s not about some diploma hanging on my wall, some class I took in middle school, some sermon I heard last week or last Easter.  It all begins again today, with fresh feasting on the Words of almighty God, milk and meat and bread for my soul, sustenance and power and wisdom for overcoming all the schemes of the enemy and all the brokenness the world will bring my way today.  It all begins right here.  The very words and Word of God.  Abiding in me today.  Let it be so.

1John 2:13 - Dad knows a Guy, and the Feats of Strength

"I am writing to you, fathers, because you have known the [One Who is] from the beginning.  I am writing to you, young men, because you have conquered the evil [one]."

-Reason #2: Fathers, you know, you have come to know, and you still know, the One Who is from the beginning.  And is it not true that one of the things for which Dad is known, is what and who he knows?  ad (usually) "knows a guy".  And if you want an answer, ask your dad.  A treasure trove of knowledge and wisdom, your dad.  Now he may tell you to go ask your mom, who by the way also knows a lot.  Which begs us to point out that the text here most likely has some cultural bias to it, as education in the ancient world was generally for men only.  Women didn’t typically go to school.  It was the men - particularly the older men, the wiser older dads, who would be hanging out in the town square, playing games of strategy and sharing stories and recounting history and accumulating knowledge.  And Dad usually knew a guy... And don't they say, it's who you know...?

-In this case, the "guy" happens to be quite a guy, quintessentially so.  The Guy of guys, this One.  The God of gods, the King of kings.  The One Who is and was, Who was in the beginning, and has been ever since.  He was BEFORE the beginning, in fact, and He is the God Who is to come.  John likes to talk about beginnings - this is the beginning of creation he’s referring to here.  This Guy Dad knows - He’s the One Who made it all.  Everything.  That’s right - all things were made by Him and for Him.  This is Who Dad knows.  This is Who we all know, all believers.  We all know this Guy.  This is the God with Whom we have to do.  It is both connection AND accountability.  We know a Guy with serious means, with resources (unlimited), and power (limitless), for Whom nothing is too difficult or impossible.  We are seriously connected.  But this Guy, He has very high standards, and He happens to be watching everything we do.  He knows our every thought even.  He is highly vested in who we are and what we do, ultimately so, in fact, as He has made the ultimate investment in us.  He cares tremendously about the outcome, because ultimately it reflects back on Him.  We bear His image, and we’re accountable to Him for how we do that.  And, again, we’re connected to Him.  So, this whole forgiveness thing - we can do this, we can fix this, we can get it done, just like Dad, cuz we know a Guy.  We know a Guy Who can (and will!) help us, and Who seriously wants to help us.  He is in fact the One Who can get it done.  And rest assured, He wants it done.

-Reason #3: Young men, you have overcome the evil one.  Young men, known not as much for what/who they know, but for what they can DO.  Feats of strength, daring exploits.  This is the domain of young men.  And in truth, is there any greater feat or exploit than that which our first dad was unable to do (nor could his first-born son)?  Overcoming the evil one?  Defeating the enemy, the crafty serpent of old?  This enemy who would steal and kill and destroy all the glorious work of God, most notably the pinnacle of God’s creation - man himself, God's image-bearer elect.  The evil one would gladly destroy all men, all vestiges of celestial glory, and is surely hell-bent on doing so.  Deceiving and blinding and holding men captive to sin and death and all forms of brokenness.  Broken relationships first and foremost - preserving a state of separation between man and God and between man and his neighbor.  In place of love for God and neighbor (the "great commands" of Scripture, surely the highest calling and deepest desire of God’s heart), there is brokenness and strife... and unforgiveness.  This is the fundamental problem of humanity.  We need forgiveness with the God Who made us, and we need to walk in forgiveness with our fellow (wo)man.  The enemy of our souls, this one would expend all resources at his disposal to prevent such a thing.  Well, guess what.  He has been defeated.  He lost - at the Cross.  His hold and his power over us was (and is!!!) completely negated by the blood of Jesus.  Young men, guess what?  Your boldest move, your most daring exploit was coming to Jesus.  Your greatest feat of strength was surrender, admitting your impotence, your powerlessness and inability to overcome anything apart from Jesus (John 15.5).  Truly, apart from Him there is nothing, not one thing we can do, certainly not of a significant spiritual nature.  No possibility of overcoming the power of sin and death and the evil one, no chance of ever becoming the forgiving forgiven.  But young men - all who are in Jesus - we have overcome the evil one!  Nothing is impossible for those who have put their trust in Him.  This whole forgiveness thing - it is not too difficult for Him.  You and I - we know Him, almighty God, and we have overcome the one who would oppose Him (to his own destruction).  Thru Jesus!

1John 2:12 - The Brotherhood of the Forgiving Forgiven

"I am writing to you, little children, because the sins have been forgiven to you because of His Name."

-Six reasons.  John now proceeds to give us six reasons for why he is writing this letter to those who are following Jesus, to us.

-Reason #1: forgiveness.  Forgiveness.  He is writing to those who apparently are harboring hate in hearts towards their brother, an oxymoronic state if there ever was one (at least in heavenly terms), and he knows that the starting point, the healing salve, is forgiveness.  It all starts here.   Your sins have been forgiven you.  Because of His Name (let’s not forget that either).

-First, your sins have been forgiven you.  Um, that is one sizeable tab which God paid in full for me and for you.  A monstrous gargantuan mountain of a sin debt which we never could have paid off in a million gazillion lifetimes.  Because, you know, SIN.  It’s the quintessantial elephant in the room.  The payment for sin is death, the shedding of INNOCENT blood.  To pay it first of all means separation from God, but in order to fully and satisfactorily pay it one must be sin-less.  So it’s unpayable, because ALL have sinned.  Not gonna happen.  You and I could never have paid it.  Nobody could.  We would be paying it off FOREVER.  But the eternal God against Whom we had sinned, He stepped down out of eternity and out of heaven and into time and space, He became a baby and lived a perfect sinless life and then laid it down - for us.  He freely, willingly chose to lay down his life and pay the penalty for each and every one of our sins, which we deserved to pay (but again, could not ever do).  And it wasn’t simply some quick and painless bullet in the head execution.  He endured the most gruesome form of human torture and execution ever devised - Roman crucifixion.  And even worse, (somehow) He endured separation from His eternal Father, something which is beyond the ability of our finite minds to even comprehend, yet a state so horrific we cannot even imagine the suffering and anguish it produced for our Savior as He bled out and died.  And purchased eternal forgiveness.  For me.  For you.  For those who were killing Him!  And even as He died, He implored His Father to FORGIVE His executioners.  He was - and is - forgiveness waiting to happen.  This is what John is trying to bring to our minds.  It must be received, but we have been forgiven EVERYTHING.  Every last big and small transgression and misstep, all the multiplied sins, the worst and the ugliest evils of all mankind - they have all been paid in full.  But to be sure, my debt alone, the darkness and brokenness and evil in my own heart, the things which just me-myself-and-I have done and said and thought, the eternal death penalty which I deserved to pay myself - those alone are enough to create a mountain of sin debt so unimaginably high as to set my level of indebtedness - and gratitude - at maximum.  Infinite.  Such that when I, or you, or anyone receives that gift of forgiveness - by faith - when we enter in to the brotherhood of the forgiven, we enter in as equals.  Equally bankrupt to begin with.  But we are under obligation to let go the faults and missteps of others to the same n-th degree to which God has done that for us.  Seventy times seven (Matthew 18.21-22) and then some.  John says, you have been forgiven.  You need to likewise be forgiveness waiting to happen, waiting to be unleashed on your brother who has sinned against you.  I gotta let them go.  My ability to let go of the sins of others is a pretty good indicator of whether or not I have actually received forgiveness of my own sins (Matthew 6.12-15, 18.32-33).

-And this forgiveness we have received because of His Name.  Not one thing we have done or could ever do to earn or deserve it, other than call on His Name (Matthew 1.21; Luke 24.47; Acts 2.21, 10.43).  We call on His Name, we believe in His Name, we are forgiven by His Name, healed by His Name, saved by His Name.  Yes, His very Name means, God saves.  The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.  Jesus.  Forgive me.  Against You I have sinned.  Yes, forgiveness does not depend on the offender.  It is always up to the offended.

-So yes, it is the name of Jesus on which we have called, and it then becomes the name BY which we are called.  The forgiven people become the forgiving people.  We (are to) reflect to the unforgiven world what our forgiving God is like, this One Who would gather an assembly of people who have called on His Name (for forgiveness) and who are zealous for His Name, zealous for it to be honored and shown off in a way that truly displays the greatness of our God, and how great is His heart and readiness to forgive.  His Name - the means of forgiveness, and the goal of forgiveness.

-In reason #1, John calls us "little children".  No doubt there is tenderness and care in his heart, yet could it be that somehow children have a greater need to be taught and reminded of the principles of forgiveness?  Surely we all need to be reminded, need to understand this truth at deeper levels.  But John says, little children.  Little brothers (and sisters!) who are family because we all have the same Daddy - live into this forgiveness, for His Name’s sake...

1John 2:11 - Hate. Brother. Darkness. Time for Sesame Street...

"But the [one] hating the brother of him in the darkness is and in the darkness he is walking and he is not having known where he is going, because the darkness blinded the eyes of him."

-Something ain’t right here.  That’s John’s whole point.  Hate and brother do not belong together.  It’s the old Sesame Street song - one of these things is not like the other.  Hate, brother, and darkness.  A hating brother is an oxymoron.  Hate dwells only in darkness.  Which is where this brother himself really dwells - professing brother, not a brother at all most likely.  He is in the dark, and can’t see where he is going, cannot see a thing.  His hate has blinded him - the hurt, the woundedness, the animosity, the intense aversion - blinded not BY the light but TO the Light, to the love and forgiveness and joy which could be his, found only in Christ.

-You might be harboring hate in your heart.  Is there hate there, festering, lurking somewhere, someplace dark, someplace hidden (or so you think)?  It will eat you alive.  It will steal your joy and sap your spiritual vitality.  And it may hide a heart of unbelief (Jesus Himself said our forgiveness is an indicator of God’s forgiveness in our lives - Matthew 6.14, 18.35).  Every time you see that person, (you feel) you need to avoid them (or you just avoid them entirely).  Anger rises up in your throat and chokes you, chokes out the love and joy of the Spirit.  It's palpable.  When you merely think of them even.  It’s a joy-stealer.  They steal your joy - or so you think - but it's the hate and the unforgiveness which are doing this to you.  And things should not be this way.  Put an end to it.  Drag that hate out into the Light and own it.  Recognize what it's doing to you - and let it go.  That's what forgiveness is.  Let go of the hurt, let go of the need for justice and vengeance, let the Lord heal you by forgiving that person.  No, they are not perfect, but then neither are you and I.  Tell them you forgive them if you need to, but you forgive them in your heart.  And when the enemy, the prince of darkness comes back around and tries to get you to go there, to descend back into the pit of darkness and hate, don’t you do it.  Resist him (1Peter 5.8-9, Ephesians 6.13), and stand strong in the strength of the Lord, in His love and forgiveness.  No, you and I cannot do this in our own strength, but there is a Power which is greater still, greater by far than whatever wound or damage has been inflicted on any of us, a divine magical forgiveness which is deeper still, older deeper magic from before the dawn of time which governs our own Narnia, set in place by the Emperor-beyond-the-sea Himself.  He was - and is - forgiveness waiting to happen.  Next verse...

1John 2:10 - Like a Good Neighbor, Joe Light-Walker is there...!

"The [one] loving the brother of him in the light is remaining and a stumbling block in him there is not."

-Here we find one who is loving their brother.  The New Command (John 13.34)!  Love is a positive action.  This one does not simply have positive feelings towards their brother.  It is not mere tolerance.  This person is laying their life down for their fellow believer.  He/she is moving towards their need to meet it (cf 1John 3.17, James 2.15-16, Luke 10.33-37).  It could be a physical need, or emotional, or spiritual.  He/she is giving, with no expectation of return, giving of their time, their ability, their finances, sure.  But we’re talking about mercy in action.  This is entirely what Jesus was doing when He flipped the question of who is my neighbor on it’s head.  it wasn’t about verifying the who of another (who is my neighbor?), it was about Validating the who in me (am I a good neighbor?).  In this case, we’re not going around trying to assess who might be my brother.  We are going around acting like a brother.  We are going around - walking - in love (i.e. in the light!).  Doing the love thing towards those in need, specifically towards those who are of the household of faith.  Loving shows that we are light-walking.  Joe light-walker - that’s me and you...!  Or should be.

-The command to love - since it is a positive action - then creates the possibility for a sin of omission.  You transgress by NOT doing what has been commanded.  And here is where the bar gets set really high.  It’s not a zero sum game.  We’re not merely trying to eliminate a finite number of missteps, to clean up our act, so to speak.  No, God’s love is everlasting.  It is infinite.  There are no limits or boundaries whatsoever.  There is no end to those who need to be loved, to the needs which can be met, to the love which can be shown to others.  Which is why we measure this not in terms of deeds, not in terms of individual steps, but in terms of a walk.  An innumerable number of step strung together in and out of season and over the course of a life.  A lifestyle.  A life wherein there is an inexhaustible storehouse of love at the ready, ready and waiting to be poured out, would-be compassion-in-action which just can’t wait to be energized and unleashed, opened up on my (unsuspecting?) brother, stirred up by simply seeing his need (cf Matthew 9.36)(seeing is feeling!).  But then, we gotta stop...!  We gotta be willing to stop and drop what we’re doing.  I haven’t done anything if I fail to stop.  Feelings are a dime a dozen.  So are those who don’t stop, who just keep going about their business, their busy-ness, too busy to be bothered with things like needs and neighbors who have them.  Brothers and sisters, let us not be other-side walkers.  Let us be love walkers.  Light-walkers.  Failing here, we fail ultimately.

-This stumbling block, this cause of stumbling - most commentators agree that it is not that I would be causing another to stumble altho that is certainly possible, if one who knows that I claim to have the God of everlasting love in my life happens to see me stop short of love in some way, yeah, they could stumble over my sin of omission and quite possibly be more inclined to question the validity of my faith or of Christianity in general.  But the other possibility is that since I am the one who is doing the walking - whether in darkness or in the light - that I am the one who would stumble.  Or not.  Since love-walking is in fact light-walking, living into a lifestyle of love is the means to lighting my own path.  As I live (increasingly, steadfastly) into what God wants, I find illumination for the rest of life.  Bonus!  Got love?

1John 2:9 - When love is hate...

"The [one] saying to being in the light and the brother of him hating in the darkness is until now."

-Sadly, there are those who say they are in the Light, but they are not.  They say that they know this God Who is Light, Who is Truth.  They say (or think) that they believe the truth which He has given to the world.  They believe in the Son Whom He has given to the world (or at least they believe things about Him).  They claim to be in the light, but in truth, they are in darkness.  They don’t know Him.  They don’t really believe.  And how do we know this?  How can we tell they’re not really in the Light?  They hate their brother.

-"How did I hate my brother?", they will ask as they protest their innocence in eternity, just before the Lord says, "Depart from Me, I never knew you".  How is it that I can hate my brother?  Yes, there are all the expected negative feelings and actions, the intense dislike or aversion or predjudice, the desire for revenge, etc.  But hate can manifest in more subtle ways.  I can hate my brother simply by not loving him.  I don’t (demonstrate) care for him, I don’t take time or an interest in the things which concern him, I don’t listen to him, I don’t build him up.  There is a love which makes all other loves look like hate, and I can hate my brother merely by loving first the threefold-self, by living into me-first me-better, putting my needs and my wants and my self before and above his needs.  Greater love has no man than this, that he lays down his life for his brother (John 15.13).  John will get to this in the coming verses, but for now, we see some who profess to be Christians who in fact do NOT lay down their lives at all.  They are mostly into themselves, looking out for number one.  And by this we know that they are still walking in darkness, their mind is darkened to the truth, the shades are pulled and drawn by their steadfast devotion to themselves.  First they need to lay down their life - their wants as well as their sins - at the foot of the Cross, and let the Lord of Light bathe them in His restoring healing life-giving love and grace and forgiveness.  They need to come to that place where they put Jesus first.  First things first...

1John 2:8 - Truth, Light, and the Proverbial Proof of the Pudding

"Again, a new command I am writing to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing by and the true light already is shining."

-As John was writing this letter, the command in question had been around for some time, decades in fact.  Nevertheless, it was still new, this new command given to the church by Jesus Himself.  Something which the world had never before seen or heard...  God was doing a new thing in the world, gathering together an assembly of worshippers from every tribe and tongue on planet earth, and they were not only going to be different, a different "heavenly" quality of life, they were going to treat one another differently.  Radically different.  The way they would relate to one another in SPITE of their differences would be the proverbial proof of the pudding.  The way the new command would be implemented in their midst would shine the light of verifying truth on this new divine endeavor.  A world adrift in darkness would behold a great light (Matthew 4.16), lit by His Son, and fanned into a global inferno by the ones thus gathered like moths to a flame.  But not to their doom.  Gathered to glory!

-Darkness abates, it goes away when light begins to shine.  It happens every morning like clockwork (aka sunrise), or whenever you light a candle or turn on a light in a dark place.  And the brighter the light, the more it penetrates and eliminates the darkness.  To that end, John has already established that light is all that which corresponds to truth.  True truth.  And this new command - it is true truth, and it is already shining.  It had been shining in Jesus from the beginning (of His ministry)(He did indeed walk in truth and love well those who had been given to Him - John 13.1), and it had been shining forth in and thru the lives of those who had believed in Jesus from the beginning (of the church).  Dispelling the darkness wherever the gathered ones would let it shine.  So many mentions in Scripture of darkness and the need for light to illuminate and guide (2Samuel 22.29; Job 29.3, Psalm 139.10-12; Proverbs 4.18-19; Isaiah 9.2, 42.6-7, 60.1-3; Matthew 5.16, 13.43; Luke 1.79).  In truth, those who have insight will shine brightly, like the brightness of heaven.  Arise.  Shine.

1John 2:7 - The "Old" New Command, and the Three Beginnings

"Beloved, not a new command I am writing to you but rather an old command which you have had from [the] beginning.  The old command is the word which you heard."

-John directly channels the words of Jesus here, Who on the night before He was crucified gave to His disciples (and us!) what He called a ‘new commandment’ (John 13.34).  John’s gospel is the only one which records that specific scene - clearly it is for him something something of significant import.  It was a kainos new command - not a neos new command, not just a fresher version of something old (i.e. fresh wine - Matthew 9.17).  No, this is completely new.  God was doing a brand new thing, creating an entirely new spiritual family, one comprised entirely of fallen selfish people, and assembling together a body consisting of Jews and Gentiles alike, peoples of many different cultures and widely divergent values and preferences.  This new family, this new assembly was to be His primary means for disseminating the Good News about Jesus to the entire world - thus this command was to be vital to the success of this new endeavor.

-By this time, when John is writing this, this ‘new’ command was actually decades old, something which the church of Christ had heard since its inception, since its very ‘beginning’.  There are actually three significant beginnings referred to repeatedly in Scripture, particularly in John.  One is the beginning of the world, of space/time creation, generally viewed as a singular event (Genesis 1.1 Proverbs 8.23; Isaiah 40.21; Mark 10.6; John 1.1-3, 8.44, 9.32; Hebrews 1.10; 2Peter 3.4; 1John 1.1, 3.8).  Another is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry on earth (Matthew 4.17; Luke 1.2-3, 3.23; John 2.11, 8.25, 15.27; Act 1.22), generally beginning around the time of His baptism and when He subsequently began to preach and do miracles.  But there is another crucial beginning in play here, and that is the beginning of the church (Acts 11.15; 1John 2.24, 3.11; 2John 5).  We see the church in larval form as those few disciples began to follow Jesus and trust in Him for eternal life.  And we see it birthed on the day of Pentecost when God poured out His Spirit into the hearts and lives of all those who had believed in Christ, the body of Christ now empowered to journey together in community in the world as witnesses to the Good News about Jesus.  And this new command, which as John is writing here is now no longer new per se but is one which has been around for quite some time, was given specifically to and for the church.  Mission critical.  What is it exactly?  Let’s not miss it...!

1John 2:6 - All In... (for a permanent Son-tan!)

"The [one] saying in Him to be remaining is obligated just as that One walked also himself to be walking."

-Our goal is more than simply to make His acquaintance, this One Who loves us so.  It’s more than just a foot in the door, so to speak.  One toe in the water.  The goal is to get all the way in.  Way in, unashamedly so and with abandon.  Like Reepicheep.  "My own plans are made.  While I can, I sail east (towards Aslan's land) in the Dawn Treader.  When she fails me, I paddle east in my coracle.  When she sinks, I shall swim east with my four paws.  And when I can swim no longer, if I have not reached Aslan’s country...I shall sink with my nose to the [Sonrise]..."  Further in (and further up!).  And to stay in.  It is to be so in that we are remaining in Him now and forever.  It is the soul so enduringly and thoroughly saved as to have a permanent Son-tan.  Ours is not a fading glory (unlike Moses - cf 2Corinthians 3.7).  We’re talking about an eternal, ongoing relationship which endures and produces real glorious transformation in my life (2Corinthians 3.18), such that it can truly be said that "Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2.20).

-Just as that One walked.  JUST AS He walked, Jesus, Messiah.  This One Who came, and served, and bled, and gave His life a ransom for many.  He is our Guiding Star, our True North.  We fix our eyes on Him and run with the quickness to walk just as He walked.  nd we’re not talking about "being like Mike".  The old commercial said, "I wanna be like Mike".  Michael Jordan.  But what’s here is more than pulling on a pair of Nikes and eating your Wheaties.  We’re talking about metamorphosis.  Total transformation arising out of total commitment.  He must increase, I must decrease.  All in... and all gone.  No longer I who live but Christ Who lives in me.  All replaced...!

-So there is that which I ought to do, which I am obligated to do, not because I am trying not to lose something but rather because it is who I am.  I go all in, because I am having been (re)created to be an all in-er.  And it (re)begins as it began, with surrender.  Daily dying to self, to what I want.  Living into "not what i want, but what You want".  Which is precisely how Jesus lived, right up to the end, always doing that which pleased His Father.  Again, we’re not talking about perfection, we’re talking about mindset.  It’s about our heart.  One of gratitude and surrender, because He is worthy, He is deserving of nothing less than our all.  All of me.  And while the language here speaks to a debt that is owed, one which we are definitely under obligation to pay, ours is not a heavy load of debt.  It is not the obligation of a slave.  Rather it is the freedom of a son or daughter (who wants to be like their dad - or their older Brother).  Freedom IN the Son.  His yoke is easy, His burden is light.  Truly His loves compels us to live unto death for this One Who lived and laid down His life for us (2Corinthians 5.14-15).  And we are not trying to paying Him back.  That would be ludicrous.  We owed a debt we couldn’t pay to begin with - that’s why He stepped down out of heaven and took our place.  So we essentially now owe a double debt.  But we are not paying Him back.  We are not really paying Him anything.  We’re certainly not talking about cracking open our miserly little hands and dribbling out a measly 10%.  There, I've done my duty, now I can do whatever I want.  No.  A thousand times no.  Jesus paid it all.  What we owe to Him now is our lives - He bought us.  Everything.  My life is not my own - I belong to Him.  All of it, every last cent and second and ounce of strength, all in (like Reepicheep).  Christ doesn’t get my spare change, my spare time.  It’s all His.  Surely in Him we live and move and have our being.  We owe everything to Him, all that we have, our salvation - not to mention our very existence - to Him.  And if we are truly in Him, and He in us, there will be this steady perseverance.  Abiding and increasing Christ-likeness.  Following Him, wherever He leads, in His steps.  I wanna be like Jesus...

1John 2:5 - Love hotspots!

"But whoever may be keeping His Word, truly in this one the love of God has been perfected.  in this we are knowing that in Him we are."

-Keeping His Word, His commands.  John repeats himself once again here, emphasizing and driving home this point - there are two kinds of people: those who truly know the Lord, and those who do not.  Those who are truly in Him, and those who are not.  Those in whom the everlasting love of God has truly been perfected, and those in whom it has not.  Only two kinds of fruit - good and bad (Mt 7.17).  He leaves no quarter for any other option.  There’s no such thing as semi-rotten spiritual fruit.  He stakes out no place for any kind of a middle ground.  You’re either in, or you’re not.  Either Christ is in you, or He is not.  Either you know Him, or you don’t.  And there are many indeed who think they are in, or who may appear to be in, but they are not.

-Look at their life.  Or rather, look at your own life.  Inspect your own fruit - a tree is known by it’s fruit (Mt 12.33).  Whoever keeps His Word - that’s the standard, That’s how you know if you’re truly in.  Whosoever.  Anyone who may be keeping, observing, obeying, respecting the Word of God.

-And I love the imagery here.  John is talking about the amazing love of God truly having been perfected in the life of a fallen, broken sinner (how can it be?).  A completed action in the past, with continuing results in the present.  It’s like a love hotspot.  But instead of being an access point to a worldwide web of information, we are talking about an access point for the universal amazing everlasting love of the God Who so loves.  Connect here, click here, and you get love.  Or it's like a repository, a kind of Fort Knox, but instead of gold we are talking about something far better, far more valuable.  The God of love Who so loved from everlasting has lavished this love on one so unlovely, has loved so completely and thoroughly as to meet every need and fully supply all that is necessary for eternal life and godliness (as well as all good things to enjoy, to boot!), and has so loved this one as to transform them into an inexhaustible resevoir of His unconditional selfless love - love for Him and for my neighbor and for the world.  His love in me.  Poured out in my heart, spilling over to all around.  Living in to the great commands of Scripture, fulfilling them, bringing them to life to light the darkness... Each and every day, an ongoing experience and adventure of the blessed assurance of knowing that He is in us and we are in Him.  He has accepted us, accepted us into His forever family.  So how about you?  Where are you in relation to His Word?  To His love?  Is it in you?  In this we know...  Do you know?

1John 2:4 - The Unbended Knee and a Fake ID

"The [one] saying that, 'I have come to know Him' and His commands not keeping, a liar he is and in this one the truth is not."

-Variation on a theme here (1John 1.6).  John addresses this again, that there are some - too many - who profess to know the Lord, but in truth they do not.  They say they believe in Jesus.  They say they received Him at some meeting.  They prayed a prayer.  The Lord says, "Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord', and do not do what I say?’ (Luke 6.46)  We’re not talking about intermittent disobedience, Occasional missteps - there are no perfect Christ-followers.  No, we’re talking about a lifestyle, an ongoing pattern of choices which are in direct opposition to the commands of Scripture.  This person may actually be convinced that they know the Lord.  They had some religious experience.  They were raised in a Christian home.  Perhaps they even went to seminary, received some form of religious education.  Lots of head knowledge.  They know a lot of facts about Who God is.  But they don’t know Him.  All that knowledge never made the arduous 12-inch journey from their head to their heart.  And in fact, their heart is many miles away from the Lord, hard and unsurrendered.  A classic case of cardio-sclerosis.

-The truth is not in them, John says (neither is the One Who IS Truth).  They have not received a love of the truth so as to be saved (2Thessalonians 2.10).  Their ship has run aground somewhere, caught on a volitional sandbar.  It is possible that in spite of their profession of belief that they are choking on the trustworthiness of Scripture, or more likely they are ultimately unwilling to surrender to the God of Scripture.  Theirs is the unbended knee.  They would very much like to prolong their reign as king (or queen) of their castle.  Lord of the manor.  Master of their domain.  And so, John just calls them out.  Liar!  You don’t know Him.  You can’t truly know Him and not do what He says.  And it is not that they are simply telling a lie, but their identity is that which is fundamentally false.  They're passing off a fake ID.  You can’t trust what they say.  But this is about some would-be underage party-er trying to fool some bouncer or bartender at a club.  This is the one and only true almighty God of the Universe.  And they don’t know really Him.  Their life, their deeds, their fruit - is not consistent with a life which has been invaded by the God of Heaven.  Their ID - as well as mine and yours - is their life.  To be sure, we will know them by their fruits, Jesus said (Matthew 7.16-20).

1John 2:3 - (re)Wired For Pleasure

"And in this we are knowing that we have come to know Him, if His commands we may be keeping."

-Very simple litmus test, this.  Do I want to know if I have eternal life?  Want to know for sure that I am in a right relationship with the Lord?  It’s quite simple.  Am I keeping His commands?  Am I doing the things He has told us to do?  Am I not doing the things which He has told us not to do?  That’s all it takes, John says.  Oh do this abominable thing which I hate, says the Lord (Jeremiah 44.4, cf Zechariah 8.17, Isaiah 61.8, Malachi 2.16).  

-But that which we hold in our hands is the Word of the Lord.  All Scriipture is inspired by Him, God-breathed (2Timothy 3.16).  These are the very words of almighty God, our God.  They are true.  Diligently keep them, guard them, observe them carefully, obey them, do not turn aside from them to the right or to the left, listen to them, write them in stone (Deuteronomy 27.8) and impress them on your heart and on your soul, bind them on your hand and wear them on your forehead (Deuteronomy 11.18), write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates (Deuteronomy 11.20), teach them to your children and to your grandchildren (Deuteronomy 4.9), let them be on your lips when you lie down and when you rise up and wherever you go (Deuteronomy 11.19), be absorbed in them (1Timothy 4.15) - for it is not an idle word word for you; indeed it is your life (Deuteronomy 32.47).  Give heed to them - and give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget these things and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life (Deuteronomy 4.9).  Herein is found a heart that has truly come to know the One Who IS the Word...

-But to be sure, again we’re not talking about life-sucking joy-stealing works-based righteousness with God.  We cannot earn or maintain right standing with Him by trying to obey the law.  No, this is a matter of the heart, it starts with the heart.  A heart which is truly His, which has turned back to Him and has trusted in His provision for our sin, will naturally want to do the things which please Him, and increasingly so (2Corinthians 5.9, Colossians 1.10, 2Timothy 2.4, Hebrews 11.6, 1John 3.22).  Like Christ Himself (John 8.29).  This is the theme which redounds throughout Scripture.  We are wired for pleasure, because we are made in His image.  God is a pleasure-seeking God, the consummate hedonist if there ever was one - not in the sense that pleasure is ultimate.  God is ultimate.  But the pursuit and experience of pleasure, the mass-production of joy, is central to Who He is.  he Lord does what He pleases (Psalm 135.6).  He makes all manner of things which are pleasing, which bring pleasure (cf Genesis 2.9), and He commands that we would find our highest joy and pleasure in Him - truly in His presence alone is fulness of joy.  In His right hand are pleasures forever.  And His words, His commands, they are a delight to our heart (Psalm 1.2, 19.7-10, 119.16; Jeremiah 15.16), sweeter than honey (Psalm 119.103).  His commands are in no way burdensome, they are no buzz-kill joy-stealers, but note that we learn to enjoy them.  His Word is an acquired taste.  We actually need to be re-wired for pleasure - by the very Word itself.  For when I have truly come to know this pleasure-seeking God in Whose presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16.11), I find that there is no greater joy than in discovering and learning to do what He wants, what pleases Him.  Such that in the end I find myself going out of my way and bending over backwards to do these things, to be absorbed in the commands which are contained in His Word, not only because there is such great joy in bringing my Daddy pleasure, but also because doing these things, living like this - like Him - is what I was always meant to do.  It’s who I was made to be.  In coming home to Him in my heart, I find myself.  I find peace.  Contentment.  Satisfaction.  And joy.  Not some counterfeit fleeting version cooked up by the world, but inexpressible, deep, thirst-quenching, overflowing everlasting joy, joy made full and full of glory (John 15.11, 1Peter 1.8, cf Acts 13.52), which no one can take away.  Enter in to the joy of your heavenly Father...

1John 2:2 - The Cross and the Caboodle...?

"And He Himself is [the] propitiation about our sins, but not only the [sins] of us, but rather also about the whole world."

-This One Who is our Helper ‘if’ (when) we sin - Jesus our Righteous Savior - He is in fact the propitiation for our sins.  The be-all end-all ultimate sin-help, right there - but that word is a religious mouthful.  Shew!  But what does it mean?  The Greek word is hilasmos, which traditionally refers to that person or thing, some sacrifice or offering which appeases the wrath of whatever god or spirit needs to be appeased.  In this case we are not talking about some petty deity who is merely hacked off at the local denizens.  It’s not some insecure or struggling demiurge whose power somehow is dependent upon the slavish devotion of his subjects.  Rather we understand that we are talking about the one true almighty God, infinitely powerful and wise and loving and holy, and His righteous wrath is naturally directed towards our sins which we have committed against Him, things we’ve done, things we haven’t done - all the ways in which we fall short of bearing His image and loving Him with all our hearts.  And this wrath - which we justly deserve - He poured out ON HIS SON, at the Cross, because He loved us.  The sin-help began right there.  He put our sins on His only begotten Son, Jesus, Who is this perfect once-and-for-all hilasmos for our sins (Hebrews 10.12, 1Peter 3.18).  All of them (1John 1.7).  That’s what God’s tells us.  Jesus paid the penalty for every single one of them, past, present and future.  And in fact, not only all our sins but also all the sins of all the whole world.  That’s the word - do not miss it - whole. The. Whole. Wide. World.  The whole thing, the whole shebang, the whole kit-and-caboodle, the whole ball of wax, the whole enchilada, every part of it - Jesus paid it all, He propitiated all of it, for all.  And that means everyone (2Corinthians 5.14-15, 5.19; Hebrews 2.9).

-With all due respect to Brother Calvin, there appears to be nothing here which requires one to restrict the scope of this propitiation.  At least not in this verse - no limited atonement here.  "You too are a part of the whole world - let not your heart deceive itself, and think, the Lord died for Peter and Paul, but not for me" (Martin Luther).  Certainly this sacrifice avails nothing for Satan or fallen angels, as is envisioned by Calvin in the straw man objection he erects in suggesting that John here is not referring to the whole world but rather only to the elect.  This is for human beings, image bearers only.  Now we’re not suggesting that all has been forgiven which has been propitiated .  No, forgiveness must also be appropriated, received - by faith.  But that, to as many as receive Him, whoever believes in Him.  No believe-y, no forgive-y.  But whoever - anyone in the whole wide world who - believes in Him will never be condemned and will never perish.  Yes, Jesus paid it all for all - all to Him I owe...