1 John 3:18-20 *
Dear Friends in Christ,
We often refer to a gut-level, love-motivated conversation with family or friends as a “heart-to-heart” talk. You probably know what I’m speaking about. These are the kinds of conversations that are infrequent enough to remember because they deal with serious subject matters and things which need to be discussed…
I believe much of what we find in the first letter of the Apostle John can be classified as a “heart-to-heart” talk. Although scholars can’t set a certain date, it is generally accepted that John, the beloved disciple of Christ, wrote the three letters bearing his name in the New Testament sometime during the twilight of his life.
His first and longest letter, from which our text is taken, is written with a sense of directness and loving frankness. In it John addresses important truths about the Christian faith and life which he wishes to convey to God’s people. And today we’d like to listen and learn as
JOHN SPEAKS TO OUR HEARTS
In the verses immediately preceding those under
consideration today John addresses the issue of living out our lives of faith
in a very practical, noticeable way. Our
text for this morning begins with further words of encouragement along these
lines: 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but
with actions and in truth.
Let us first note that the Apostle addresses us for who and
what we are, i.e., “dear children”
of God. If you recall last week’s second
reading, John was literally gushing over the privilege of being able to refer
to ourselves in such a way. “How
great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called
children of God! And that is what we are!”
So, pivotal and foundational to everything else John has to say to us is this blessed truth: By God’s grace we are His children through faith in Jesus Christ. And the fact that we are God’s children – dearly loved and cherished by Him, saved by grace through the doing, dieing and rising of His Son whom He “lavished” on us – provides us with all the motivation we need to carry out the next words of our text…
18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. John is talking here about the Christian’s life of sanctification – meaning, the life of thankfulness and service to God we live out of appreciation for what God has done and continues to do for us. And what John is saying is essentially this well-known and oft-quoted proverb: Actions speak louder than words.
In other words, in a world which dearly needs to know Jesus and see in His followers the difference He makes in their lives, if I don’t live my faith, my testimony about my faith is (at best) compromised, (at worst) just plain ineffective and dismissed. Christianity, says John, is not a “Do as I say, not as I do” proposition. The life of Christian faith is to show itself in LOVE. And John identifies LOVE not merely with sentiment or feeling, but with ACTION.
We can never underscore enough the fact that the Biblical concept of love is something entirely different than the worldly definition of love. Generally speaking, the world sees love only as an emotion, whereas Scripture defines love as action. It’s something we do, rather than something we merely feel…
To see this clearly we need only turn to the great Love chapter of the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13. Notice how Christian love is described: 4 “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” The point once again: love is doing, not just feeling.
Acting in love and truth (meaning, according to God’s Word, which is truth) is what John encourages in each of us as Children of God. And we hasten to add that this is not a burden. Nor does it involve mastering a complicated method. Faith that shows itself in active love comes as a result of staying connected to Christ. It is just like Jesus says in today’s Gospel lesson. When we remain in Him (through consistent contact with Word and Sacrament) we bear much fruit. And active love is the fruit of faith…
Moreover, the Christian who richly and daily cultivates his or her relationship with the Vine at the same time develops the desire to become more and more of what Christ wants and asks us to be (more forgiving, more loving, more honest, more understanding, more giving, etc.). To be sure, we don’t always do this. In our weakness and natural rebelliousness we sin, we fail, we fall short. But in our hearts, it is our sincere desire to live for Christ…
Which brings us to the second point made in our text. Here John tells that we can look to this love which we have for our Lord and this desire in our hearts to live and love according to His truth as evidence that we are indeed “Children of God.” This is especially important because at times our consciences may trouble us or accuse us or lead us to question whether or not we really are Christians. Consequently, John writes: 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us.
Of special interest is the phrase, “whenever our hearts condemn us.” “Whenever” implies that this will happen from time to time. It is an indication that we will at times wrestle with a guilty conscience before God. Sometimes the accusations and guilt we feel in our hearts will be true accusations. Meaning, if we consciously sin or sin in our weakness, our hearts tell us about it in the form of a guilty conscience, and the accusations are just.
For example, if I go to a party and have too much to drink and bring dishonor or embarrassment upon myself and my loved ones and, most sadly, my Lord… or if I am a student and cheat on a test… or if I let my mouth run unchecked, practice no self-control and intentionally (perhaps even deliciously) hurt someone’s feelings (perhaps a family member, a friend, even a complete stranger)… or if, when nobody else is around, I allow myself to go places or see things I wouldn’t want others to know about… I should feel guilty. Because I have sinned and done something my Savior asks me not to do.
My guilt should then lead me to cross of Christ in genuine repentance. At the cross I find forgiveness and the blessed assurance that God, for Jesus’ sake, does not hold my sin against me. He has forgiven my sin and, as King David says in Psalm 51, “blotted out my transgressions.” And that assurance strengthens me in my resolve to not sin again…
Indeed, it is true that many of the times we feel guilty is because we are guilty.
However, equally true is the fact that sometimes the accusations of guilt we feel are false. And false guilt has as its root one of two causes. One is Satan, who works this angle in an attempt to drive us to despair. The other comes as a result of a tender conscience. Let’s examine this second cause a little more closely.
The fact of the matter is that the closer we draw to our Lord, the more tender our consciences become…
The story is told of a Christian young lady who came to her pastor with a perplexing problem. She had been regular in her church attendance, conscientious in her daily devotional life and prayers, and consistent in her attendance of the Lord’s Supper. Yet she had been unable to rid herself of a haunting sense of sin. This led to the following exchange…
“Why is it,” she asked, “that my girl friends who never go to church and who freely admit they don’t take religion seriously are never troubled by any consciousness of guilt?”
Her problem was not a new one to the pastor. “Tell me” he said, “If I were to lay a hundred pounds of steel upon a corpse, would it feel the load?” “No, I’m sure it wouldn’t,” replied the young lady. “Why not?” asked the pastor. “Because the corpse has no life in it and is unable to FEEL the weight.”
“Exactly,” replied the pastor. “And that is why the person who is indifferent to his or her spiritual needs can say they don’t feel the weight of sin. They are dead – spiritually.”
The girl in this story exhibited what is often common among devout believers – a tender, sensitive conscience… a sense of unworthiness… a recognition of our personal sin. The problem was that her tender conscience was eclipsing her ability to feel the full joy of what knowing Jesus Christ and the forgiveness He provided for us is all about.
So what’s the solution for dealing with a troubled
conscience and an accusing heart? Listen
again to our text: 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and
how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. “This then” refers to the love which we
have in our hearts for Jesus. John says
the love we have for Christ, rather than our sins and our troubled conscience,
is what we are to focus on. And then he
gives us this comforting assurance: For God is greater than our hearts, and he
knows everything.
What does this mean? It means God, who is greater than our heart, looks at us not in our sins, but in Christ. And in Jesus Christ there is abundant pardon and mercy. As the Apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 8: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Are we sinners? Yes. But forgiven sinners. Forgiven totally and completely through Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world…
And that causes us to not mope or be troubled or to question our standing before God, but to rejoice. Satan can’t heap false guilt on us because all our guilt has been removed. Whatever he’s throwing at us is just a figment of both his and our imagination. The knowledge of our forgiveness over against our heart’s accusations empowers us to move forward and not dwell on the past…
It’s just like all those movies we’ve seen or stories we’ve read about people escaping from prison or an enemy. They take off into the woods with the hounds hot on their trail. The barking gets closer and closer, when suddenly a stream appears. Plunging into the stream the trail is broken as the water carries the scent away, and safety is found on the other side…
The memory of our sins can be like those baying dogs. But a stream flows, red with the blood of God’s own Son. By grace through faith we plunge in and we are safe. No sin-hound can touch us. The trail is broken by the precious blood of Christ which carries our sins away. Now, in gratefulness for the redemption He provides, we desire to live for Him more and more.
And that pretty much summarizes the Heart-to-Heart talk the Apostle John has had with us today…
So, may the words which John speaks to our hearts today –
words of encouragement to live for Christ and words of comfort to trust Christ
for full and free forgiveness – strengthen us.
And may they also move us to increasingly play out our faith in active
Christian love, as we openly enjoy the blessings of being dear “Children
of God.” Amen.