In reading through the book of 1 John I noticed some powerful bookends that are worth looking at carefully. The book begins with the following:
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life - the life was manifested, and we have seen, and we bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father was manifested to us - that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
And ends with the following:
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
If we look at these two statements we see some striking ideas. First that there is one thing that is true. Second that our choice is between two things that are known. Third that our confidence and love is bound by two poles.
There is one thing that is true, and that one thing is God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). Truth is often defined in terms of correspondence; that truth is that which corresponds to reality. In the opening lines of 1 John we have a description on what has been since the beginning and which has been seen, that has been heard, that has been touched. We do not believe in something imagined in the minds of men with no physical manifestation in based in reality. We believe in something manifested physically in our time and space and history - Jesus the Christ. We remember that the child was born, the Son was given. He, the Word of Life, walked among us and was seen, heard and touched. He was crucified, died and was buried having been touched. He rose again and appeared to many witnesses, for forty days walking, eating, talking and being touched. The Son of God was handled. Idols were fashioned by men as objects of worship, and remain today, being fashioned by men in the factories of our minds - oftentimes as the works of our hands. We are told at the beginning of 1 John to follow the truth of what man has handled that was given by God, and likewise are told at the end of 1 John to not follow the lie of what man has handled that is fashioned by his own hand. Do follow that which is true, do not follow that which is a lie. These are the two poles that bind our love - the positive pole of the truth and the life, the love of God in which we abide and find our redemption; that Jesus is Lord and Christ - and the negative pole of lies and death, that we can be God and fashion for ourselves the objects of our worship. There is but one way to life everlasting, and it does not flow through the hands of men. Our love and confidence is in that which is testified to in heaven by the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit and on earth by the Spirit, the water and the blood. This Jesus is both Lord and Christ and we have life if we abide in Him.
The challenge is to take up the truth and abide in Christ daily, not in ourselves - in so doing we will know what love is, we will be confident in that which we know that has been revealed to us, we can be faithful to do all things as unto the Lord and glorify Him in all things which is our act of worship (in all things all day long) in living in accordance with the purpose for which we were created and brings true meaning in our lives.
It always fascinated me that John ended so abruptly with "Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen." Umm ... John ... is that it? Don't you have more to say on that?
ReplyDeleteI don't think he had more to say on that. I think that, given the contrasts throughout the book, he had already explained it. With all the "ifs" in that epistle, those who fall on one side of those "ifs" are worshiping God and those who fall on the other side are worshiping idols. No ambivalence. No two ways about it.
Stan,
ReplyDeleteIn reading the whole letter each morning, in the last few readings when I get to that last sentence my mind has gone immediately back to Chapter 2 verses 12-14. In those verses John uses the same address "dear children" and states that he is writing to them "because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name," and "because you have known the Father."
In that stead it seems a fitting final warning for those new in the faith to never forget the one responsible for forgiveness of sins and whom we have known (with whom we have an intimate relationship). Because we generate everything else under the sun to worship or to use as works to gain the atonement already provided at Christ's death and resurrection, we need that reminder. Sort of like the backhanded condemnation inherent in the statement "Do this as often as you will in remembrance of me". Why would need to do it in remembrance of Him if we were not predisposed to forgetting Him.
It's amazing how woefully short we fall, is it not?