1 John 3: 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

Sometimes I find myself looking at the lives of Christians , especially young Christians, wondering what I could say when I see the things they do and allow in their lives. Now it is very difficult sometimes to know whether things being done are simply cultural expressions of life today with no great significance to them, or if they are sin. Theologians often struggle when it comes to exactly defining what things constitute sin; they can define it as lawlessness and so on, but when it comes down to particular actions at specific times, it is not always so easy to say “That is wrong.” I know there are parts of the church that are negative about virtually any sort of pleasure and so in some quarters going to the cinema or watching DVDs is even prohibited, but that sort of isolation simply cuts off from the rest of society and means it is especially difficult to communicate with the world and impact it for good, and has very little to do with God's definitions of righteousness or unrighteousness.

Perhaps this verse, although not specific about specific things, is helpful. But let's not rush it; let's deal with it in an orderly way. John speaks here of “Everyone who has this hope .” What hope is he referring to? The hope spoken of in the previous verse: “But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” In other words, the hope we have is that one day we will be like Jesus. Now I'm not sure, if I'm being honest, if lots of Christians in their present state relish that thought.

Consider: Jesus is completely given over to his Father's will, at whatever cost – including that of giving up his life for humanity. Consider: Jesus put himself out to reach the poor, the sick, the destitute, the unbeliever, and even the blatant sinner. Consider: Jesus never got drunk, never over-ate, never had casual sex and never demeaned or spoke badly of anyone, except those in high places who were being hypocritical – and these he spoke fearlessly against. Jesus never lied, not even white lies, never sought favour, never pushed himself forward, was never violent, never competed with others and never sought to get to the top of the pile. Submit that ‘x-ray machine' to many modern Christian lives and how will they show up?

Perhaps we don't respond well to this sort of speaking because we don't actually think much about Jesus coming back and us becoming like him. John implies that if we did think about this then we would purify ourselves. Perhaps part of our thinking might be, well he's not likely to be coming back for a long time and I've got to live in this world while I wait, so what does it matter. I can always be cleaned up at the last minute. I would suggest that such thinking is second class thinking. What if Jesus wants to “turn up” not in the skies tomorrow, but simply in revival power by his Spirit? I am told that often in such times of revival, the first part of it is the Saints on their knees in floods of tears, as the things they tolerated are exposed by the purity of the light of the Holy Spirit shining with a power that is only seen from time to time in what we call ‘revivial'.

When John says this person “purifies himself” there is an echo there of the Old Testament, carried on into the New: “When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover.” (Jn 11:55) There was an outer washing and also, as much as they could, a heart cleansing. Peter spoke of being cleansed when we came to Christ: “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart” (1 Pet 1:22) Coming to the truth and now obeying it meant that their lives were being cleansed from the contamination of sin that we suffered previously, before we knew Christ. John has already touched on this in what may be considered takes place when we come to Christ in repentance and when we confess individual later failures: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 Jn 1:9)

This cleansing or purifying makes us pure like Christ, part of the general process of making us like him: “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.” (Rom 8:28) So part of the thing of being remade in Jesus' likeness means that the Holy Spirit is seeking to work the same purity that is in Christ, in us. When something is ‘pure' it is being free of impurities. When we came to Christ, he declared us free in this way, but in terms of practical, daily sanctification it is an ongoing process. Part of that process is becoming aware of things in our lives that are not Christ-like, and then part of that process is making an act of will that we will change and no longer tolerate the things that come to light, and the final part of the process is with the help and empowering of the Holy Spirit, replacing those things with Christ-like things.

On the negative side, the apostle Paul said, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” (Col 3:5) Those are un-Christ-like things. On the positive side he then went on to say, “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.” (Col 3:12,13) That is the purifying process. Let it work!

1 John 3:4,5 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.

I once bought a fairly substantial book, a theological book I hasten to add, about ‘Sin' . Although there are generalizations and even definitions from the Bible about sin, as I commented in a previous meditation, when it comes down to assessing individual thoughts, words or actions, it is frequently very difficult to know whether particular things are ‘sins'. Obviously there are lists of behaviour in the New Testament that are clearly things we are told not to do which must suggest they are sins, but in daily life it is not always easy to say this or that thing is a sin, and over the centuries Christians have often tied themselves in knots over these things.

When we come to our verses today, we find one of the fairly rare occasions where sin is defined. But we must, as always observe the context because one verse flows on from the other. In the verse before these today, we find John speaking about purity in the Christian life. This is just him expressing the same thing he's said before in a different ways.

John has used light and darkness (e.g. 1 Jn 1:5-7) to contrast godly and ungodly or righteous and unrighteous living. He's an old man and he wants to ensure that the Christian community is living in reality and reality declares that when you come to Christ and are born again you will start living differently. It's not theoretical, it's practical, it's about what you do. He doesn't want us to sin (1 Jn 2:1), he wants us to obey God's commands (1 Jn 2:3-6) as an expression of His love in us. You can't be light and darkness at the same time (1 Jn 2:9-11). The world is self-centred (1 Jn 2:15-17) and there are many antichrists (1 Jn 2:18,19) but we are different and know the truth (1 Jn 2:20-27) because we have been anointed by the Holy Spirit, and look forward to Jesus' return (1 Jn 2:28). So now we are children of God (1 Jn 3:1) looking forward to being like him when he returns (1 Jn 3:2) and thus we purify ourselves in preparation (1 Jn 3:3)

Now John is a good teacher and he repeats himself many times in different ways to drive home the point. He also uses contrasts to make it clearer, so having just spoken about purity in our lives, by stark contrast, he now describes the life of non-Christians, a life that should not be seen in us! He's already encouraged us to keep the Law or obey God's commands, so now he declares that, “Everyone who sins breaks the law.” If you are trying to follow all God's commands in the New Testament, you can't sin, because sinning is breaking the commands. In fact, he goes on, “sin is lawlessness.” There's the definition!

Let's try and get a bigger picture. When God designed this world, we said in an earlier meditation, He designed it so that we work in particular ways and to work best, we have to work in one way and if we work contrary to that we will ‘break down'. But working contrary to God's design is disregarding or rebelling against God's design. It is us saying that we know better than God. All the Law is, or the commands of God that we now find in the New Testament, is an expression of God's will or, in other words, the way He has designed us to live best.

To speak of us being ‘lawless' simply refers to our tendency or disposition to do our own thing, disregarding God's wisdom as revealed in His word. Sin, very simply, is anything that runs contrary to His will, to His word. It is us disregarding Him and what He has said. Now we must see that this is folly and must not be part of our lives. As we noted earlier, sometimes it is not always easy to discern what exactly is the Lord's will. When it is specifically stated in the text of the New Testament, that is easy, but sometimes things occur which do not seem to be tied down so clearly. At such times we need to seek him, asking for clarity, and then listen to the witness of the Spirit, who will seek to convey and communicate His concern when we do stray.

If we do stray, we must realise that it is contrary to all that Jesus came to do, as John says, “But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins.” Jesus life and death on the Cross and subsequent resurrection and ascension was all to deliver us from sin and enable us to come back into a right relationship with the Father. If we continue to sin, we are pushing all that work of Jesus aside.

But there is more than that for, “in him is no sin.” If we are supposed to be ‘in Christ' it is inconceivable that we can carry on sinning because there is no sin in Christ, it is alien to him and should be alien to his body. In all these ways, John is saying: you are different, so live differently!

1 John 3:7,8 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

Again, here's another ‘wave' coming in yet again. There was a brief mention of deception right back at the beginning: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1:8) but the main reference prior to our present verses was, “I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.” (2:26) and now he turns the warning into a command: “do not let anyone lead you astray”

Now those are the main verses that are obviously about deception but actually so much of what John has been saying is about this subject. A person is ‘deceived' when they have been led to believe something that is untruth. A con man may deceive you that he was a good, honest person with your best interests at heart, when in reality he was out to fleece you of your money. Satan deceived Eve by getting her to believe that everything would be all right if she sinned. He first challenged what God had said: “He said to the woman, "Did God really say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" (Gen 3:1) and then he got her to believe it would be all right if she disregarded God: “You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman .” (Gen 3:4). By his persuasive talk he deceived here into thinking that disregarding God's commands (sin) was all right – but it wasn't!

Twice above, we have seen John speak about those who might “lead you astray” meaning those who try to get you to veer away from living according to God's commands and do your own thing. That is what ‘deception' is all about and the moment we see it in these terms - veering away from living according to God's commands – we suddenly realise that this is what John has been on about throughout this letter.

Right back at the beginning: “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth,” (1:6) there it was! If we say one thing but do another, we have been deceived - and we're trying to deceive others! He repeated it a bit later: “The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” (2:4) There it is again – someone saying one thing but doing something that runs contrary to what you would expect from that thing. Deception! He follows it up in a different form: “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.” (2:9) Exactly the same: saying one thing but doing what is contrary to what you said.

After some more teaching, he varies it slightly: “No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.” (3:6) It's more by implication here. Living in Christ and sin don't go together so if you say you are in Christ (implied) but carry on sinning, you are deceiving yourself.

This is John's message that comes again and again into that period in which he lived when some people said they were Christians but clearly lived lives that were not. John has recently been reminding us that if we are ‘in Christ' then we will be like him, e.g. “Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure .” (3:3). So now he says, “He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.” ( 3:7). We have already noted a number of times that to be “in Christ” means that with his Holy Spirit living within us, we will start to be like him; it is a process that starts when we are born again and continues throughout our life, with the Spirit working within us. The person who now lives according to God's commands and is led by God's Spirit – “who does what is right” – is clearly a righteous person, a person ‘in Christ'. We can only claim to be righteous if God has made us so.

Yet again he makes a contrast to drive home the point “He who does what is sinful is of the devil” and he explains why that is so: “because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.” It is just the same as the other side of the coin when he said those in Christ will live righteously. Now he's pointing out that the (ongoing) sinner is like he is because he/she follows Satan and Satan has been a Sinner from the beginning when he rebelled against God.

If you like, John's teaching is learning to distinguish between chalk and cheese, good and evil, right and wrong, and realise that they cannot both exist in the same person as a driving force. Yes, we've seen we make an occasional mistake, we may get it wrong from time to time, but it is the overall life-drive that he's talking about. You cannot be given over to self-centred and godless living at the same time as being committed to Christ. They are obviously mutually exclusive. It doesn't matter what a person says, it is what they actually do that counts. A person might be nice, might be good, and say they are a Christian, but if, essentially, the rest of their life (apart from Sunday mornings) is self-centred and godless, they are deceived and if they try to get us to agree that their lifestyle is valid and in accordance with what they say about their beliefs, they are trying to deceive us! This is the message that John is bringing again and again through his letter.

1 John 3:8,9 The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.

There is a constant link that keeps appearing in John's writings here, that of the believer's behaviour being linked directly to Jesus, and it appears here again, in these two verses. However, before John brings the behaviour part, he refers to Jesus but we need to see it in context because, as is so often the case in the letters of the New Testament, the thought pattern flows on from one link to the next.

John in the previous verse has just referred to Satan: “He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.” Jesus, challenging some Jews who had appeared to believe but then had doubts, said, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire.” (Jn 8:44a) In their thinking had arisen thoughts of rejecting Jesus. Left to itself that thought develops into wanting to get rid of Jesus (modern atheists try and ‘destroy' Jesus intellectually) Jesus continued, “He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (Jn 8:44b) Satan wants to get rid of Jesus and he lies in his efforts to do it. (Modern atheists similarly want to get rid of Jesus and unwittingly speak untruths about him in their efforts to do that).

The truth is that those who are led by Satan express Satan's thoughts and ideas. Satan is both a liar and a murderer; and so he tries to deceive people into believing untruths and his ultimate aim is to bring about the destruction of people, still separated from the love of God. There is this same link in the apostle Paul's teaching. In respect of the magician, Elymas, he declared, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?” (Acts 13:10) Those who are led by Satan express Satan and work in his ways.

Now we come to the first verse above: “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.” Near the end of this letter John writes, “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” (1 Jn 5:19) It's that same contrasting style of teaching and he contrasts us who are in God's family and the rest of the unbelieving world who are under Satan's sway. Paul made a similar contrast: “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.” ( Col 1:13) Satan holds ‘dominion' (sway) over people's lives while God seeks to draw us into the realm of His rule where we can be freed to receive His blessing. Satan rules over spiritual and moral darkness. It is no coincidence that John refers again and again to light versus darkness

So Jesus has come to deliver people out of Satan's darkness, out of the place of self-centred and godless unrighteousness. He does it by forgiving their Sin on the basis of what he achieved on the Cross, and in bringing that forgiveness he opens up the way for them to be reconciled to the Father in heaven, free from guilt and shame, and he sets them off on a new path that is love-filled and Spirit-energised where we are no longer striving to achieve acceptance but just ARE accepted by God. No longer do we have to strive for meaning and purpose because God puts new meaning and purpose into our lives.

Then comes this cast iron logic again: If Jesus is working to set us free from Satan's lies and deception and free from sin led by him, then “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.” (v.9) No, says John yet again in a slightly different way, we've been born again by God's Holy Spirit and are new creations and the seed of God's Spirit and God's word lives in us, and as word and Spirit grow in us there is less and less opportunity for Satan to come back on us and lead us astray again. Note that same word again – “continue” – which refers back to the life we previously had where sin energised by self-centred godlessness means that we were continually sinning. Now, however, we have new lives, new purpose and we are new beings for whom sin is alien.

Do you remember the apostle Paul said the same thing: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor 5:17) We are new creations and the old life has gone and a completely new life has come that is diametrically opposed to the old life. No, we may occasionally trip over our feet, so to speak, and get it wrong, but sin motivated by self-centred, godless living, is no longer part of our equation. We are free and it has been the work of Jesus that has done it. Hallelujah!

1 John 3:11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

This is almost too simple and too basic as to be worth comment, and yet sometimes the things that are the most obvious are the things we miss out on. So here's the test. Think of all your family, every one who constitutes your family. First of all, is there anyone you don't like in this family group? Is there anyone you don't get on with in this family group? If you answered positively to either of those questions you may struggle with the next one: is there anyone in that family group you don't “love”.

Before we go any further let's remind ourselves of what ‘love' actually means. It isn't about having nice warm fuzzy feelings about someone (although it can include that) but it basically means having a determined sense of goodness and good-will towards a person, wanting the best for them and wanting to do what you can to achieve that . Now look again at your family group and consider, is there anyone in that group that you don't have that determined sense of well-being towards, wanting their best?

Now in case we get ourselves into a legalistic bind at this point, recognise that there may be those members of your family that you never see and when you don't see someone it is realistically difficult to think or feel these things towards them, so let's limit this consideration to those who we see (or purposely don't see because we don't like them!). The command is to love them. It's not an option, it is a command, and maybe we need to pray and seek God's grace for it.

OK, how about the people in your church? Some of your family may be non-Christians and it may take a lot of grace to love them, but the people in your church are supposed to be Christians, so shouldn't it be easier to love them? So, let your mind wander over the congregation on a Sunday morning. OK, perhaps with a big congregation there are people you don't know so it is difficult to assess your attitude and feelings towards them, but hopefully if you meet and touch their lives what flows between you is love. As your mind ranges over the people that you do know, are there any for whom you do not have that sense of wanting the best for them, thinking the best about them, and wanting to be a blessing to them so they are blessed by you?

We could repeat the exercise for workplace, college, or school. The call is not to be self-centred and self-concerned, but to be there for other people, wanting God's best for them, accepting them as they are and seeking to bless them. This is not pie in the sky; this is the practical teaching of the Bible.

Now I have a feeling when we put it like this that many of us start to feel uncomfortable and the reason is that with the passing of days and the busy-ness of modern life, it is very easy to forget this call upon our lives as Christians. We excuse ourselves giving reasons why we can't stand certain people but that still doesn't remove from us Gods call to love them, and loving them means accepting them where they are but wanting God's best for them, and to even feel that we WILL need to pray for His grace at the beginning of every day.

But this call to love is followed by an interesting warning: “Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.” (v.12) John is a pastor and John knows that if we are not careful, because we often feel insecure, we can so easily look at other people and feel jealous of them. In the family there are those who are favourites – and we aren't! In the church there are people who appear more spiritual than us and we feel inferior. At work there are people being promoted while we get passed over. At college or school there are people who appear more clever than we are, people who get the favour of the teacher or tutor while we get ignored. All of these situations are ripe and fertile ground for the enemy to come and whisper words of discord in our ear, words that stir jealousy or envy and before we know it, those paragraphs about love above, are like a millstone round our neck.

John knows we are vulnerable as human beings to being put down by life and other people and we fall before it and end up with low self esteem and negative feelings about ourselves, and then so easily become prey to the enemy when we encounter people who don't have low self-esteem and don't feel negative about themselves. At those times, thoughts of loving as a Christian go out the door. At such times we have to take hold of ourselves and take hold of the truth and reach for God's grace to reclaim our position – bringers of the love of God, peacemakers, those who are to be there bringing the blessing of God. These people need it just as much as anyone else. The command is to love them; it's not optional, and when we do and when we bless others, we too will be blessed, so it's worth working on it. Be blessed.

1 John 3:11 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.

I almost passed this little verse by but then was caught by one word – “if”. I have noticed a tendency in Christian circles sometimes that veers towards a martyr complex – the world is against us. But that isn't always true – but it is sometimes and there ARE grounds to believe it. Let's check them first.

We find Jesus speaking these words: “ Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” (Mt 10:21-23) That certainly looks bad! But actually the context seems to indicate he is speaking of the last days when things will get worse. Yes persecution is mentioned but again, I suggest, it fits that specific period more than any other – although as we will see it does fit other times as well. The last sentence of those verses indicates that when it does reach that time his coming will be speedy – they won't even have enough time to travel through Israel . Seen in Mark 13 it is even clearer that it refers to the last days just before he returns.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus declared, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Mt 5:10-12). Now in those verses we get a further clue as to why people might be against us – for our righteousness, and by that I take it to mean that our righteousness will show up their unrighteousness and that will evoke hostility in them.

At the Last Supper Jesus said, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: `No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name.” (Jn 15:18-21) Note again the word “if”. There will be times when they do and times when they don't. Here Jesus notes that the reason for opposition is himself. Satan is against Jesus and so if we are his followers, Satan will be against us, and will raise opposition against us. So yes opposition and even persecution are likely experiences of the Christian but, as I just observed, not always!

Consider when Jesus was exercising his healing ministry. At those times people thought he was wonderful. When he fed the five thousand, they even wanted to make him king. When he arrived at Jerusalem on the last week they heralded him as their champion. Oh yes, people will be for us when we do the works of God that bless them. Indeed Jesus taught, “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Mt 5:16) There are times when we are doing the works of God that people will see them, be blessed and will praise God. I am always amazed at the Queen of Sheba's response to Solomon in 1 Kings 10:1-10. She praises God for what He has done in and through Solomon. Clearly when Jesus was eating with the sinners, the tax collectors and prostitutes, they were blessed by him. Shortly after Pentecost we read about the church, that they were, “enjoying the favor of all the people.” (Acts 2:47)

Listen to this amazing record of the life of the earliest church: “The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed.” (Acts 5:12-16) The general people were blessed by what was happening; it was awesome (literally) but that didn't stop them coming to the source of God's blessing, the church, to receive of God. Hallelujah!

1 John 3:14,15 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

The word ‘life' appears 12 times in this letter. Death just appears twice here and three times in chapter 5. John's focus is, therefore, very much on life, but here he contrasts it with death. We have seen how a number of times he contrasts light and darkness; well now he does the same thing with life and death. Of course this is spiritual death he refers to because he says “we have passed from death”. We had been dead but now we are alive. Link this with the light and darkness concepts and think of death being like living in the darkness of a cave. That was not where we were designed to live but sin had imprisoned us there. Through the work of Jesus on the Cross we have now been delivered out of that cave into the open air, into the light where we are free to enjoy the world as God designed us to do.

Let's chew on this idea a bit more. The psalmist uses this idea of a big open place to contrast the imprisonment he felt when opposed or oppressed: “They confronted me in the day of my disaster… He brought me out into a spacious place ; he rescued me because he delighted in me.” (Psa 18:18,19) and “You have not handed me over to the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place.” (Psa 31:8) Life means enjoying the freedom of God's world in the way God has designed us to enjoy it and that includes enjoying Him. Spiritual death refers to being unable to sense things – a dead man senses nothing – unable to sense the goodness of God's world, unable to enjoy it as we're designed to, unable to sense God Himself. Yes, we have passed from death to life.

But that's only the start of what John is saying. He has been talking about being children of God (v.10), loving one another (v.11), evil Cain hating his brother in the same way the world sometimes hates us (v.12,13) and now he says that this expression of our love for our brother is a sign of how we have come out of death and live in life. In other words, now we live in this big place of light and freedom, we are freed from the things of darkness (hatred) and are free to enjoy and indeed love those close to us.

Of course the other side of the coin refers to those who don't love. Anyone who doesn't love, says John, is still in that old place of death. Real, genuine love is one of the indicators of just where a person is – in life – and if they do not have love it is obvious that they have not come into life and are still spiritually dead.

Spiritual life is the very presence of God Himself in our life, the presence of the Holy Spirit living out His life in us, and again, as we have noted before, later in the letter John says “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8,16). He brings life to our spirit and we start to become aware of the Lord and of His will for us, the wonder of His plan and purpose for our lives but if we have never invited Him into our life, then we are still spiritually dead. This is such a fundamental teaching in the New Testament. But when His life comes to us His love also comes to us. With God, life and love come together. Likewise death and the absence of love go together. Love is always outward looking, wanting the best for others. The absence of love is self-centredness, wanting the best for me. When we come to Christ we lay down our old self-centred life and it dies and it is replaced by the God-energised life which is always outward looking and looking for the wellbeing of others.

Now John pushes this a stage further to show how bad hating another is. He has already recently mentioned Cain who was jealous of Abel and hated him and eventually killed him. So now John says, “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer.” If you actually hate someone you want their destruction and so whether you have got round to achieving it or just think it in your heart, you are still a murderer, at the very least a potential murderer, but that is what you want to achieve at the end when you hate someone. When we get to this place of hating someone we want to get rid of them from our life, our wishes are for their destruction, for them to be removed from us. Hatred can be the outworking of upset and hostility and breakdown in relationship. When we have been deeply hurt we can want the source of that hurt to be removed from us, to end the hurt, we want their death and although we may not have done it, we hold the desire for murder in our hearts.

But, says John, you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. Eternal life is the life of God, of the Holy Spirit living within us. If we hold such feelings and desires, we stand in opposition to God who desires life and love for everyone. While we hold such feelings we quench the Spirit and deny Him access in us. Hatred is darkness and light and darkness cannot exist together. If we have been hurt and hatred arises in us, we must seek the Lord for His grace to be able to come to a good place and good attitude towards the one who has offended us, because until we do, we are living a stunted life. The amazingly good news is that in such situations the grace of God is still working to draw us back into a good place. We may not realise the darkness we are living in, the lack of His life flowing in us, but He will be working to show us our state and bring us to repentance to release that person so that they too might come to repentance and seek our forgiveness, but until they do we must ensure we hold a good attitude towards them because God's love wants to reach them as much as He wants to reach you. Let Him bring it.

1 John 3:16,17 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

You sometimes hear silly complaints about the Christian faith that it is ‘pie in the sky' or that it is of no earthly use to anyone. Communists make great play on caring for all classes but it is an enforced (and unreal) caring that is a poor copy by the enemy of the Christian faith. Our verses above lay the axe to the lie of the Christian faith being impractical and it all starts with love.

There can be much debate about what love is but you have to come to the Bible to find any real meaning. If you belong to the school of “no God, world just a chance accident, material is all there is”, then love is just an odd jumbling of the molecules in the body, something that somehow in millions of years has become a genetic oddity. But John challenges the world and says, “You want to know what love is all about? Then look at Jesus Christ! He, the perfect, sinless Son of God laid down his life for us very imperfect sinners, so that our sin could dealt with in such a way that justice is satisfied, and we can be forgiven and even brought into a living relationship with God Himself. This is a demonstration of what love is all about.” This brings me to conclude that real, genuine love is ‘selfless, sacrificial, unrestricted good-will towards all others'. Watch a mother's feelings towards her small child: selfless, sacrificial, unrestricted good-will towards her child. See a young man who has fallen head over heels in love with a young woman: selfless, sacrificial, unrestricted good-will towards her!

And the model for that love is Jesus. But it doesn't just stop in describing Jesus' love for us, because we have now joined his family and we are becoming like him and so “ we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” If he is like that, our goal is to be like that because we are becoming like him. But what does that actually mean, this laying down our lives for one another? Is that just a nice religious platitude? No, John doesn't allow us to make it that; for him it has very practical outworkings: If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? To lay down you life for another means you put others first. The apostle Paul writes, “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (Phil 2:4)

It has been this outlook that has stirred Christians through the ages to stand up for others, to care for the weak and the poor or as one writer put it speaking about the activity of the Church down through the ages, it was known for its “ care of widows and orphans, its alms houses, hospitals, foundling homes, schools, shelters, relief organizations, soup kitchens, medical missions, charitable aid societies and so on.” Yes, down through the ages it has been the church that has worked into society providing the things that today the Welfare State tends to provide. When there was no Welfare State, when no one particularly cared for the needy, it was the Church who stepped forward, expressing the love of Jesus to his world.

But let's apply this to our own church group, for it must have very practical outworkings right on our doorstep otherwise it is mere words. If there are people who come in with real physical or financial needs, how do we look at them? Do we leave it to the ‘church administration' to do something or does compassion move us to provide when we see need? Of course it is very easy to say, “Well here in the Western world there is no real need because the State provides for the really needy.” Is that always so? Are there people in your congregation who cannot do things they would like to do, because of lack of funds, things you can do because you do have the funds? What does love say?

Are there opportunities just waiting there, for us to bless young people who would love to enter some particular career but don't feel they can afford it? Is there someone yearning to set up a small business but just don't have the funds to do it? Yes, we not have the chronically poor with us, but we may have those not so well off as us whose lives are restricted because of that, restricted in ways that we could deal with. The difficulty here is getting people to open up and share such needs or desires, and that only comes about in a loving, caring, accepting and compassionate community of God's people, where each one feels sufficiently secure in the love of those around them, that they feel they can open up and be honest. There is the real challenge.

But the big challenge to all of us is to make love real, not just something we talk about: “ Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (v.18) The apostle Paul in 1 Cor 13 says we might have various spiritual gifts but if we don't have love we are just like a noisy gong. John goes further than that and challenges us to ensure we don't just talk about love, but make sure that our actions reflect love and flow from love, and that we are thus being truthful. If we say we have love but don't show it through our actions we are not telling and living the truth. Beware!

1 John 3:21,22 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.

In the previous meditation remember what we said about meditating in context? It applies here as well. In verse 20 John had written about, “ whenever our hearts condemn us,” and so now he deals with the other option – “if our hearts do NOT condemn us ”. If indeed our hearts are at rest or at peace before the Lord, then this brings a confidence in us that enables us to ‘cash in' on our relationship with the Lord – by asking for things. Now we need to be careful here because this doesn't give us a mandate to ask for just anything, but it does give us a confidence to ask.

Before moving on, let's examine why John says we have this confidence, why our hearts can be at rest. Very simply it is because “we obey his commands and do what pleases him.” If we are doing all we possibly can to obey all that we find in Scripture, and all that we sense the Spirit is leading us to do, then there is nothing more we can do and we can be at rest in the Lord and in His will for us. If we lack peace, assuming we have not been oversensitive as we noted before, then that may be a form of guidance from the Spirit to stop us moving in some particular direction, but in the absence of such ‘dis-peace' we can be at rest, and when we are at rest we can be confident in our relationship with the Lord.

But this confidence doesn't just end there, for John goes on to make an amazing claim: “and receive from him anything we ask”. This incredible claim seems to come more than once in the New Testament, for example: “Ask and it will be given to you,” (Mt 7:7) – though the tense indicates that it is ‘ask and go on asking' (We will only go on asking when we are sure that we are asking for the right thing. – but even that doesn't guarantee it in practice – so why? We'll see). A little later, Jesus said, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Mt 7:11) which is a further reason to have confidence in your Father's love and concern for you.

Jesus also said, “I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." (Mt 18:19,20) The same applies to what we said above – two or three are only going to agree if they are sure it is God's will. And yet… Jesus also said, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." (Mt 21:22) Do we really believe when we pray? Are we convinced about what we are asking for? John also records Jesus saying, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.” (Jn 14:13) in other words when we come to the Father asking things that we are convinced Jesus wants, we will get.

Further he said, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” (Jn 15:7) i.e. having an ongoing sense of Jesus' will because we remain in such close fellowship with him, will enable us to ask things in his will. He repeated this in an expanded form: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” (Jn 15:16) i.e. when we are doing the work of Jesus as led by him, we may expect fruit when we pray for it. He also added, “In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” (Jn 16:23,24) James was later to write, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt.” (Jas 1:5,6)

Thus, although there are one or two general verses, most of the time the promise of answers is linked to conditions – that together with others we discern God's will, if we genuinely believe and have faith (which means we've heard from God), if we are sure we're asking in line with Jesus' will, and it flows out of our fellowship with him, and we ask without doubting – then we can expect the Lord to answer.

The key to getting answers to prayer is that we ask in line with His will. When we discern that and ask accordingly, we see answers. May it be so!

1 John 3:23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

Remember our comments about context: they are here again. In the previous verses John wrote, “ we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.” (v.21,22). Thus now he writes, “And this is his command” just in case any reader or listener might ask, so what commands is he talking about? Well the answer to that is really for us now, all the commands of the New Testament but for them then, before the New Testament had come into being, John gives us this shorthand answer, and it is in two parts.

The first part is “to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ.” This is THE fundamental heart of Christianity and without it, it is impossible to become and be a Christian. It's all about Jesus. It is about believing that he came as a little baby, that he grew up as a human being, and yet was God! He showed this by the life he lived and his three year ministry, mostly in the area of Galilee, but his teaching, by his claims, by his miracles and by his healings.

On the day of Pentecost the apostle Peter preached, “Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him .” (Acts 2:22) and then, “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (Acts 2:36) Jesus summed up his own ministry: “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor,” (Mt 11:5) and later said, “Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, `I am God's Son'? Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father." (Jn 10:36-38) The works of Jesus' ministry declared to all who had eyes to see, that he was God's Son.

But then he was arrested, falsely tried and was crucified and died – and then three days later was alive again. That was the crucial message that came again and again in the early preaching in Acts: “This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead.” (Acts 2:23,24) and “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.” (Acts 2:32) and then later, “You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.” (Acts 3:15) and then to the Gentiles, “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem . They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.” (Acts 10:39,40) These are the foundational facts about what happened to Jesus.

But then there is the meaning behind them: “you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Mt 1:21) and “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! ” (Jn 1:29) and “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” (Acts 2:28) and “God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.” (Acts 5:31) and “All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” (Acts 10:43) and “I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.” (Acts 13:38) and “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” (Eph 1:7) and “he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col 1:13,14).

The fact that we have been forgiven our sins because of the work of Jesus on the Cross, now means that we can be reconciled to God, restored to a relationship with Him: “For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (Rom 5:10,11) and “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:18-21). There it all is: we are reconciled to God because our sins have been forgiven because Christ who had no sin, took all our sin on himself on the Cross.

This is what John means when he says, “ And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ”. It is all there in the New Testament, and this is the Gospel we are called upon to believe. Amen?

1 John 3:23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

In the previous meditation we considered the first half of this verse, what it means to “believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ.” But now there is the second part of the verse which constitutes a second command – “to love one another as he commanded us.” Now that second part may seem so obvious as to not be worthy of consideration but I don't believe that is true.

The ‘he' in this sentence is God, not merely Jesus, although it may also include Jesus who, of course, perfectly conveyed his Father's will. Our problem is that so often we want to rationalise everything and see it in its simplest form and so at first sight we see this command from God and Jesus to love, as a command to love those closest to us – our family perhaps and, as Christians, our church. Now I know we have been over this ground before but I am sure it is an area we need to look at again and again and again.

Only yesterday I heard of a group of ladies who met to pray while the deacons of that particular church met together to discuss contentious matters. Now I have no idea what those matters were but there was real concern that there would be disagreement, argument and upset and the ladies prayed with real urgency for peace to prevail – which it did. Love starts with humility, grace and caring acceptance of one another, so why should we be having to pray that our leaders get it so they can work together? It should be automatic, but so often it isn't. I know of at least three different local church leaders who are damaged by the upsets, criticisms and general conflict of local church life – it should not be so! This call to love one another is almost so familiar that we take it for granted and you know what they say – familiarity breeds contempt! So we forget about it or intellectualise it and do anything but allow it to be practical! I can understand it in secular organisations but in the church it should not be like this! (I spoke of family life I an earlier meditation so won't repeat it here.)

But of course the Old Testament command was to “love your neighbor as yourself .” (Lev 19:18) and in Jesus' time one legalist wanted to know who his ‘neighbour' was, how far should he take it? That's what I meant when I said we rationalize these things. Jesus' answer was the story of the Good Samaritan showing that it meant anyone, even though they were not part of our group, culture, tribe or nation. Thus loving is an outward godly attitude that expresses itself to whoever it meets – even enemies, said Jesus: “I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Mt 5:44).

Love is very practical. I recently read of “a long tradition of monastic hospitals for the destitute and dying, going back to the days of Constantine and stretching from the Syrian and Byzantine East to the Western fringes of Christendom.” This writer cited a number of leading Christian names through the centuries who had all done this same thing – expressed the love of God in very practical ways of caring for lepers, or the sick generally – hands on – and making ongoing provision for them. The writer spoke of the thousands of hospitals established by the church and commented, “in addition to medical care, these hospitals provided food for the hungry, cared for widows and orphans and distributed alms to all who came in need.” This was love in action through the church.

Thus when John reminds us to “love one another” it is to be a love without boundaries, love to bless whoever we encounter. Now I realise this is difficult. I remember when as a young Christian I sat in on a Bible study in a particular church where they were considering the Sermon on the Mount and considered it so impossible to do that really it was just an academic aim to be borne in mind. No, whether it is the Sermon on the Mount, or the call to love, it is a call that will require us to turn to Jesus and seek him for his grace. Without his grace, without his enabling, we will not be able to fulfil the command, but with it, we will be those expressions of God's love that John spoke about earlier in the letter.

So the practical question we may be left with is, who is it that God wants me to bless? To whom will His love be expressed through me? It may be individuals close to us, or it may be in setting up something to minister on a wider scale. I cannot tell you what or who – only God can, so the command leaves us seeking Him - yet again! Do ask Him, do look to see who He wants to bless through you, and by this the world will be changed. May it be so!