The Doctrinal Test

The Doctrinal Test

1 John 4: 1-6

The Letters of John . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Max A Forsythe

Introduction: Some years ago at an Atlanta church conference, RC Sproul shared with our group of church planters a story of a liberal pastor who clearly demonstrated both the moral and social elements of John's evaluation in his first letter. At a funeral, the liberal pastor said kind words about RC's father and showed the depth of a fond relationship between the father and the pastor. However, as the funeral oratory continued, it was crystal clear that despite his love and concern for the family, that he had absolutely no knowledge that could have helped anyone face eternity with hope in heaven. “Why is it?” RC asked - that so many of those who can really demonstrate that kind of love and concern fall so far short of biblical standards of theology? Perhaps the situation is much like an early director of horror films who habitually cast his villains from the most beautiful people and his heroes and heroines from character actors who were not so worldly attractive!

Yes, in our day and age we are trying very hard to be winsome before the watching world even as we strive to maintain a biblical orientation for our beliefs. Never mind the bad press that believing evangelicals receive from the press, World magazine reports this week of the warm and winsome pastoral concern of a Southern Baptist speaker, whose comments were ignored in the liberal press, so that they could report the hatred element “all too common” in speeches like his.

It seems in our time, that no matter how carefully we phrase our comments on sin and the terrible consequences of that sin, Talabanic hatred is immediately presumed on our behalf. And in spite of all the evidentiary difference between the life and ministry of Christ and that of Mohammed – the world would by far prefer the spiritual madness of the Muslim prophet. And yet, in a world that will finally be judged by the Father of Jesus Christ, it is of vital importance that we do not cave in to the worldly demands to satisfy their spiritual preferences and instead tell them as tactfully as possible the absolute truth demanded from the doctrinal emphases of the Holy Scriptures.

All three of these test questions in our study of 1 John are of vital importance, but I do believe the one before us today is the most important because if we do not have Christ, we do not have anything at all! Earlier in our series, when we highlighted the sequence of questions, we read of 1 John 2: 22-23 "Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ ... No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also." In John's time, heretics were already arguing that the Spirit came upon Jesus at the time of His baptism and departed before His death on the cross. We have even used a popular spiritual song where that premise was the theme. To make the song kosher, we had to change the words describing Christ: “He became the Son of God” to “He was revealed as the Son of God.” This same heretical attitude was popular thirty years ago in the publishing of the fictional Jonathan Livingston Seagull and the popular pop-psychology devotional I'm Okay - You're Okay. The premise of these worldly accounts was based upon the idea of a less than divine person who like any other human could be filled with a Spirit. This is not enough; even the Muslims and many pagans can be comfortable with this premise!

Development: "Beloved", John writes, "do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God." Because of this encouragement, many early Gnostic writings were weeded out from the Scriptures. At the time of the Reformation, another half dozen or so books were pruned from the Scriptural canon to make absolutely certain that our understandings about the person and place of Jesus Christ remains absolutely in accordance with the revealed will of the Father. What is the essence of that revelation? Look at verses two and three. "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God."

Out in Iowa when I was assisting a very liberal pastor, a young lady wanted to join the Church. Her confession was that Jesus was a unique individual. But she would not go the next step and admit that He was indeed the Christ. I was horrified that she was admitted to membership in that particular congregation. But she was in closer agreement with the Pastor than anyone else in that Church, so she was in and more orthodox people, like me were harried out of the denomination.

Verse two in our passage today is critical to comprehend the nature of our doctrinal question. Like most liberals today, the heretics of John's time were comfortable with the words but not the implications of the sacred text. When we read from the Greek "Jesus Christ having come in [the] flesh, of God is", we understand that God Himself was incarnate. He, Himself dwelt among us, in the second person of the Trinity. The false teachers of John's time wanted to read it differently, "Christ came into the flesh of Jesus". Now, there is a world of difference there! This heretical teaching if accepted denies the clear witness of Christ reported in the Gospels. It also denies the essence of the faith. Even many of the Jews would be willing to allow Jesus the status of a wise human sage or prophet, as do the Muslims. But, to accept the claim of Jesus in John 10:30 "I and the Father are one", is a completely different matter.

The full acceptance of Jesus' claim to be One with the Father is the essential confession of true leaders and teachers in Christ's own Church. Now, in our day and time, very many Christians don't want to dwell too much on theology. There was a Church I candidated for over fifteen years ago. They refused to discuss theology because theology was divisive. Just give us the Bible and Jesus and we will be content they argued. But, I asked, "Who was Jesus?" They shrugged their shoulders, smiled and implied that they could really care less, just as long as they had their fellowship with each other that was what really counted.

Conclusion: What really counts for you today? Are the positive personal interactions of the moral and social questions primary in your adherence to the Church? Or is it the radical life changing impact of the love of God who gave His life on the cross so that we might have eternal life in Him? As the decline in the work and witness of the Church shows us in our century, doctrine is of vital importance.

John Calvin observed on the passage before us today, "unless the Spirit of wisdom is present, there is little or no profit in having God's Word in our hands." This is the message that John impresses upon us in the last three verses of our text. If we do not have Christ, then we do not belong to God. The world may very well function in that ignorance, but those who would be part of Christ's Church must be able to pass this doctrinal test to be counted as part of the Kingdom. Is Jesus the Christ? Is Jesus - God with us as He claims to be? If you can affirm that alone, then you have passed the test and have earned a D-! Just like one of my students observed one spring, a passing grade is at least enough to get you out of High School. In this test a passing grade is enough to keep you out of Hell. Next week, we will look at the relationships of the questions so that you can raise you grade to a more respectable C- or higher. May the Lord bless us as we continue to meditate upon the test questions in this letter of John. Amen.

Resources Used: Barnes, Peter. Welwyn Commentary Series: Knowing Where We Stand.

Stott, John. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: Epistles of John.

Calvin, John. The Comprehensive John Calvin Collection (Ages Software).

Good News Publishers. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.

11 August 2002 Box 13926 - Columbus, Ohio 43213-8049 m4syth@tulip.org

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