1 John 3

Bible Passage:  1 John 3

Come on…  Admit it!  What came to mind when you read 1 John 3:1?

Maybe this youtube video will jog your mind a bit 🙂

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Were you singing along?

Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us?
Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us?
Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us?
That we should be called the sons of God?
That we should be called the sons of God!

This is a great way to start a new week!  A reminder that no matter what challenges, heartaches or problems we may face this week… nothing can take away the fact that our Heavenly Father loves us… and He loves us so much that He calls us His own son!  What a blessing!  What a privelege!  And what great love!

The epistles of John are one of my favourites as it John focuses on many practical aspects of love.  It also gives me lots of reminders about how far short I am to His standard of love and what I need to really work on.  Perhaps you can also share with me some of the things you have learned but today, I would just like to share on 2 things which came to my mind as I read this chapter.

Sinless Perfection?

We all claim we love God.  At least we hope we do.

Elder John said a few things which caused me to pause for abit and wonder if my love for God is really real….

And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. ~ 1 John 3:3

Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. ~ 1 John 3:6

Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. ~ 1 John 3:9

In fact there are a few more other verses in this chapter but just this 3 already made me quiver with shame…  especially verse 6.

We all would agree that we should pursue a life of the highest moral standards… but Elder John seems to have raised the bar to an impossible level – sinless perfection.    In fact, if the person who sins “has neither seen [Christ] nor know Him,” then what hope is there for believers who fail?

I struggled with this understanding until someone pointed out that English word “sin” here conveys a sense of finality and absoluteness, as in … one sin and you are cut off from God!  But the Greek verb here (hamartanei) conveys a sense of continuous action.

So if we understand it that way, verse 6 would now say that “No one who abides in Christ makes a habit of continually sinning”.

Whew!

But that does not mean we can still sin multiple times.  As a true Christian, as we grow in Christ, we should gradually decrease our tendency to sin.  We replace our old patterns of sin with new patterns of faith and love.

Just like a person who wants to lose weight (no matter how much you think I am talking about myself, I am not (:).  In order to lose weight, a person must change his eating habits.  One cannot expect instant weight loss.  Instead, over time and sticking to a disciplined diet, one can gradually reach ones goal.

The key thing is that one must work at it.

Of course the idea that we cannot obtain sinless perfection in this world is not an excuse of us to continue in our sin.  To do so would be an offense to God and it could end up destroying ourselves.  Yes, God forgives us of our sins.  But if we persist in our sin, we are distancing ourselves from God and do not allow Him to work in our loves.  Worst still, we run in to the grave risk of losing our salvation (Heb 6:1-12).

Therefore Elder John tells us that the only way out of this predicament of sin is to learn to continually abide in Christ.

Can Our Work Affect Our Love?

Maybe this subtitle is not so appropriate but when I read 1 John 3:11-13, I was reminded of something that I had thought about previously when the Katong Home Fellowship was discussing about Cain and Abel.

For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, ¹² not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.
¹³ Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you.

Have you ever thought about this?

• Why do mediocre workers often resent excellent workers?
• Why do people who live to and steal from their employers and customers resent honest co-workers?
• Why does the person who cut corners on the job feel ill at ease with someone who does an honest day’s work?

That is in the work place.  But what about in church?

I am sure you can think of real life examples in church… I could quote you some of my own examples but am too ashamed to do so 🙁

But the fact of the matter is this…

Unrighteous hates the Righteous (1 John 3:11-13).

They can’t stand someone who has integrity.  That person’s honest lifestyle and working habits exposes their evil and wrong doing – like a light that penetrates moral darkness.

The reference to Cain is quite sobering.  Cain killed his brother Abel out of resentment (Gen 4:3-8; Heb 11:4).  In the same way, a worker with a poor attitude and substandard work usually resents a co-worker whose ethic and performance are consistently higher. What about in Church matters and work? Do we also harbour such resentments because we fall short of standards when we compare ourselves with others?

Let us not be like Cain – we murder with our mind and heart – simply because we are not happy that someone else ‘exposed’ our inadequacies by showing a better attitude and ethic in service to God.

So let us “not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth”.

May you all have a blessed week ahead.