Annette Blazé - 1 John 3:1-7

Lord, it is such a privilege to share your gospel with others. May our ears, eyes and hearts be prepared to hear, see and feel, what your spirit wants to share with us today.

In 1 John 1: 1 we behold the great love of the Father to call us children of God. Our response is to love life, live in the light, love the brethren, and keep God’s commandments. We are immediately out of harmony with the rest of the world ‘and the world knows us not”. We expect to be “persecuted for his name’s sake.” It is hurtful, but we stand with Christ who never lets us suffer more than we can bear.

In verse 2 we have a statement of confidence. We are children of God. Jesus is coming back. We will be like him. We will see him as he is. We maintain our relationship with Christ by abiding in him. What we will look like when Christ is revealed we do not know for as Paul says “we see through a glass darkly but then we will see him face to face.” (1 Cor. 13:12).

We live by the faith of the Son of God. The Greek translation tells us that we are co-crucified with Christ. Christ, the hope of glory, is within us. We have become born again of water and the spirit. We come to have growing faith in our faithful God. Eternal life is on-going as we abide in Christ. What a privilege to be a child of God!

That we still sin after baptism is inconvertible. Paul was not free from sin. In Baptism we have been born again with a new heart, but are constantly in tension with ‘rectitude of heart’, ie righteousness or morally correct behaviour or thinking. Jesus is the one with ‘rectitude of heart’. He is sinless. Jesus came that he might take away our sins. He was prepared to be born as a human, tortured, crucified, bear our sins on the cross and, on the cross, he experienced complete separation from his Father in heaven so that we might be reconciled with God his Father. What a sacrifice! He descended to the dead and triumphantly ascended into heaven after he had appeared to the faithful here on earth, whom he had carefully educated to continue on his mission.

The NIV translation of 1 John 3:6 says “No-one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No-one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.” The Greek translation is in the present continuous tense. It signifies that this is an ongoing process , not a once off and is correctly translated in the NIV version. As we seek to abide in the vine we struggle with our human heart which is ‘deceitful and desperately wicked” Jesus, the sinless one, is faithful and forgives us our sin as we repent of it and gradually we are transformed more and more into his likeness. When we are grafted into the vine we do not intentionally set out to sin, but is it not erroneous to say that once a person becomes a Christ follower the person never sins again?

Some of my friends believe that now that they have become a child of God they will not sin again. This is a misreading of 1 John 3:9. 1 John 3:9 is written in the present continuous tense in the NIV. This translation says ‘No-one who is born of God will continue to sin, (sins) because God’s seed remains in him, he cannot go on sinning, (sin) because he has been born of God.” If the present continuous tense is not used in translation it reads that those born of God do not sin. God’s seed is deep within us and therefore as children of God we cannot keep on sinning . Our conscience will tell us that we are sinning and need to ask for forgiveness. (See Romans 2:7-14). The bible tells us that when we become children of God our past sins are forgiven, not our future sins. As we listen to God’s word, spend time in God’s word, and wait on the Holy Spirit we grow stronger and are more able to withstand the attacks from the devil as we grow in purity and righteousness. All sin is lawlessness. Breaking of God’s laws, lust of the flesh and lies that deny that Christ is wholly God and wholly man are present in our society and in the church.

Story

In the early 1990’s we were ministering in a lower socio-economic area. The wife of the treasurer of the church was very ill. She was bed-ridden, crippled and had a sour expression on her face.She had much bitterness because her brother had taken their inheritance and had not shared it with her. Her husband had just retired as bank manager and for convenience they lived walking distance from the bank. If you are familiar with the TV serial “Keeping Up Appearances” you will have a snap shot of this couple who we will call Hyacinth and Richard Bucket (Bouquet).

After praying with Hyacinth it took about 15 months to get her out of bed back to church. She walked with a stick and still had a sour expression on her face. She took on the roll of manning the junk stall at the monthly church market and could sell you items you did not want by creating a use for them. Progress was slow, but as Hyacinth learned more about her faith and became more familiar with the bible she began to change. When we left the parish she had still not forgiven her brother.

About two years later the couple contacted us and invited us to their new home in a retirement village close to their son. In the meantime the brother’s wife had died and Hyacinth had travelled interstate to attend the funeral. While she was there she forgave her brother.

When we visited them in their new home we could not believe what we saw. Hyacinth was completely transformed. She had lost weight, stood erect, was running with no sign of needing a stick and was full of the joy of the Lord. The transformation was incredible and unbelievable! It was like a caterpillar being transformed into a butterfly!

1 John 2: 12-14talks about the progress from a new believer to a Father in the faith with the right teaching and discipleship. This was truly the transformation that we witnessed when Hyacinth was freed from the sin of unforgiveness.

Check out John’s gospel. It looks inside Jesus. We learn what he did, what he said and what he was. 1 John challenges us to look inside ourselves and measure ourselves against God’s righteousness, purity and truth which is the person of Jesus Christ, the logos (Word), fully God and fully human, our saviour and our Lord.

Jesus Christ has given us the right to be children of God. (John1:12). Let us, trusting him, embrace that right in his name. Let us search our hearts to be completely free of any unforgiven sin, and go forth boldly, in the power of the spirit, to serve Christ and proclaim his message.