How Do I Live a Truly Christian Life? (1 John 1:1-2:2)

The second reading, 1 John 1, 1 to 2.2.

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of light.

The light was made manifest as we have seen it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal light which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.

That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us.

And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

And we are writing these things so that our joy may be made complete.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you.

That God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.

And the blood of Jesus His son cleanses us from all sins.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

The word of the Lord.

How do you live a truly Christian life?

Let's say your neighbor caught you mowing your lawn and you got to talking, and your neighbor's not a believer, and they hear you do this crazy thing, you get up early on a Sunday morning and you go to church.

Or maybe you log in online with a muffin in hand.

And they ask you this question: How do you live a truly Christian life?

What does that mean?

How would we answer?

What's the response we would give?

We get up early, we go to church, that's true.

Might set aside some money we might give of our portion.

That's that's true as well.

We try to be kind, we try to spend time with one another, that's that's also true.

But I wonder if there's something in these answers, or if we follow this line of thought, that really ends up fitting the Christian life into something similar to a hobby.

I mean, we might enjoy golf or we might build model trains in our basement.

We don't want people to find that out about us, whatever that is.

We set aside time, we set aside money, we find others who have a similar interest.

Is that what the Christian life is about?

What does it mean to live a truly Christian life, top to bottom, inside and out?

What's the characteristic of a Christian life, after all?

What's the aim?

What's the goal?

What are we striving towards?

Is it going to heaven when we die?

Is it trying harder and harder not to upset this seemingly touchy God?

What's the Christian life about?

How do we live it?

I think that's what John is wrestling with in this letter of his.

John is a pastor living in Ephesus in the first century.

He was one of Jesus' disciples.

He wrote the Gospel of John.

He now has care of a flock, and he writes something of a letter, almost a sermon, that he wants to see circulated amongst the faithful.

You see, amongst the faithful in Ephesus and in Asia Minor in the first century, a number of voices have come up that offer doctrines that seem to contradict the doctrines that were taught to the apostles, false doctrines, misleading teaching, and John wants to offer a corrective.

False teachers have come up and given shallow answers for what the Christian life is about, denying the incarnation, denying the reality of sin.

John wants us to make no mistake.

He wants us to see exactly what the Christian life is all about.

He wants us to see the central proclamation of our faith.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, John says in chapter 1, verse 5.

What is that message?

That God is light.

And in him there is no darkness at all.

That means if we say we have fellowship with him, while we walk in darkness, we do not practice the truth.

The central claim of our faith is that God is light.

He's not just true, he's not just beauty, or he's not just beautiful, he's not just good, he is the truth.

He is goodness himself.

He is beauty himself.

His light shines out into the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.

Error and evil and sin and death cannot overcome this light.

But John wants to make something clear.

Christians understand that life is an either-or.

Either we walk in the light, we walk in that goodness, that beauty, that truth, or we walk in darkness, we walk in error and in evil and in alienation from God, and we walk that path to destruction.

There is no middle ground.

The Bible is quite unapologetic about this, as is John.

Might sound harsh, but just like a good doctor, he's not withholding the diagnosis.

See, if we truly walk in darkness, if we take seriously what John is saying, apart from grace, apart from heavenly intervention, if we walk in darkness, then any claims we make about God or truth or goodness are suspect, aren't they?

We don't know if we've apprehended the real thing.

The only way we can know that we're walking in the right way, that we truly know this God who is light, is if we ourselves are walking in the light.

C.S.

Lewis famously said that we know the sun has risen, not because we look at the sun, but because we see everything else by its light.

That's what John is talking about here.

We see the truth of all that is, by the light of this God who is truth and goodness and beauty.

This is the central proclamation of our faith.

So what does a truly Christian life look like for John?

It looks like walking in this light.

It doesn't look like it looks like rejecting darkness and walking in the light.

Well, what does that look like?

What does it mean to walk in the light?

I think John offers us two features, two characteristics of what it means to walk in the light, to live the Christian life.

The first is this what does it mean to live the Christian life, to walk in the light?

It looks like fellowship in this light.

It looks like finding true fellowship.

And the second thing I think John offers us, what is the Christian life, this walking in the light, look like?

It looks like being cleansed from darkness.

Fellowship in the light, cleansing from darkness.

See, this means the difference of the Christian life with the world around us should be a difference of night and day, of darkness and light.

It should be markedly different.

But this marked difference is good news because John promises that in this light, in this fellowship, we find joy, complete joy.

Jesus' words in John chapter 10 come to mind.

John 10 · chapter mention

Life and life abundant.

What greater joy could there be?

So how do we live a truly Christian life?

A life of fellowship, a life of cleansing, a life that leads us to joy.

Let's explore 1 John together today and in the coming weeks.

How do we live a truly Christian life?

Let's find fellowship in the light.

What is fellowship all about?

What comes to mind when you hear that word?

Maybe the world of academics or medicine come to mind.

Maybe Lord of the Rings comes to mind.

I'm right there with you.

For me, a very particular taste comes to mind, and that's the taste of a watered-down orange beverage we drink in the fellowship hall of so many churches.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

You truly grew up in church, if you know what I'm talking about, this orange beverage we all stood around in circles sipping together.

That's the taste of fellowship.

And you know what?

It's not bad.

What is fellowship all about?

Is it about Lord of the Rings?

Is it about academics or orange drink?

Well, no, it goes deeper than that.

This word that gets translated to fellowship is the Greek word koinania.

It means fellowship, it means a participation, a sharing, a holding in common.

A common form of koinania, if you were in the first century, was marriage.

Holding these things in common, sharing life together.

And this language gets picked up by the early church because they understand this is what our life is about now.

It's about a sharing in common.

It's about a participation together.

Not withholding anything, but joyfully giving ourselves for the sake of the other.

This is what fellowship is all about.

And John is all about fellowship here.

Look at verse 3 with me.

He talks about the proclamation that he's making here.

He says, We proclaim this also to you so that you may have fellowship with us.

And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, and we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

We find joy in the context of this fellowship, this context of fellowship with one another, this context of fellowship with Father and the Son.

Let's look at one another here.

See, the Christian life is a characteristic life of community.

There is no such thing as a lone wolf Christian life, as a me, my Bible, and Jesus Christian life.

If we are truly Christian, we live life together.

There is no solo Christianity.

That's a contradiction in terms.

If we are truly Christian, we share ourselves with one another.

John writes, fellowship with us means fellowship with one another in verse 7.

These words reflect what we find in Acts chapter 2, where Luke is describing the earliest church and the kind of fellowship that they shared.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

He says that those who received his word were baptized, and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, the koinania, and to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

See, there's a common life characteristic to Christians since the very beginning of the church.

That's the nature of being a Christian.

We have no choice but to share ourselves with one another and share everything in common.

See, in 2018, the UK appointed a minister for loneliness because it had reached such epidemic levels.

This should not be in the church.

Or if it need be, then we are all ministers of loneliness to one another.

Because there is no lone wolf Christianity.

We are brothers and we are sisters.

We share this life in common.

We do life together because we find fellowship with one another.

The Christian life is a life of community, a family of faith.

Well, Creighton, that's a funny thing to say to a camera right now.

That's fair.

Friends, there's many pastors saying, I shouldn't say many, I should say there's a minority voice of pastors and teachers right now, saying that unless we find our fellowship in person, in physical proximity with one another, then we forfeit that fellowship.

It's not true fellowship.

Or at least it falls short of the biblical idea and perhaps therefore falls into sin and disobedience.

Is that true?

I don't think it is.

I don't think the Bible would shy away from the ideal of finding that in-person fellowship, not at all.

But I suggest if we go that route, if we say this is where we find fellowship, then what we've done is sold our fellowship short.

Our fellowship goes far deeper than just our physical proximity.

And why is that?

It's because our fellowship is grounded in the very triune life of our God.

Our fellowship is not a matter of physical proximity.

Our fellowship is a matter of spiritual participation.

Let's look at what John says in the last half of verse 3 here.

He says that we may have fellowship with him, with us, he says, that is the apostles.

He says, indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

This is the grounds of our Christian fellowship, our koinonia.

We find our common life, not just in a sort of voluntary association.

We sort of show up together.

We have a common life because we share a common Savior, a common triune God.

We are all of us indwelt by the same Holy Spirit who draws us to the same Lord Jesus, who reveals to us the very same heart of the Father.

We get caught up in this triune life together.

That triune life is not something we can simply reduce.

This is what Paul is talking about as he concludes his, well, the second letter to the Corinthians.

He says this famous verse: the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship, the koinania of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Paul writes this letter from a distance to say we share a common fellowship.

We share the Holy Spirit.

We share the love and life and light of our triune God together.

See, the Christian life is a life of sharing this divine life and love and light together.

Peter puts it this way in his second letter.

This word partakers is a form of koinanea.

You become koinaneers of the divine nature.

You share a common life with your Savior, Lord Jesus, in the Holy Spirit.

Inseparably so.

Is this how we think about the Christian life?

See, if I'm honest, I'm I find the Christian life, we often frame it in terms of doing the right do's and don't in the right don'ts, so that we end up in heaven when we die, right?

Maybe.

I mean, it's not like it's completely false, but again, we sell our Christian life so short if that's where we end up.

What's the Christian life about?

It's about becoming koinaneaers of this common life that we share and the overflowing life and love and light of our holy triune God.

It's sharing that with one another.

And this life and light and love does not leave us where it found us, transforms us.

It renews us, it restores us.

This is why Michael Reeves, a British theologian, can write that the triune being of God is the vital oxygen of the Christian life and joy.

Do you think about it that way?

The fact that God is triune is your oxygen and joy.

That's what it is, because we are partakers in his divine nature.

That's where our fellowship is grounded.

It's a sharing of the mutual love between Father and Son and the personal union of the Spirit.

So the Christian life becomes so much more than going to heaven when we die, it's getting caught up in this koinanea, this koinanea in Christ with one another and our triune God of life, love, and light.

Friends, we practice this kind of koinania when we devote ourselves, like the first Christians, to apostolic, that is biblical teaching, and fellowship on that basis.

When we say, I want to be a disciple, but I cannot be a disciple without you.

We cannot be disciples unless we do this together.

And so we want to know what it is our Lord Jesus asks of us, and we want to do that together.

That's the basis on which we find our fellowship, and it is the basis that the Holy Spirit empowers us.

We practice this koinanea when we share a common life of family together.

When we call one another, we ask, How are you doing?

We are participating in this work of koinanea that the Lord is forming within us.

And we practice koinanea when we invite Jesus into our lives, into the very center of our souls to share his life and love and light with us by his Holy Spirit.

But if we make that invitation, it's a dangerous thing, because he will not leave us as he found us, but will transform us and will call us to further and further walk in this light.

How do we live the Christian life?

How do we walk in the light?

We find fellowship with one another and with our triune God.

But we must understand that this fellowship that John is talking about here in his letter is not accidental, it is not automatic, and it is not assumed.

Let's look at verses five and six.

I've read them already.

This is the message, John says, we have heard from him, and we proclaim it to you that if God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and we do not practice the truth.

Friends, that is a big if.

And we best not kid ourselves.

We best ask ourselves: do I walk in the light perfectly?

Am I holy as he is holy?

See, the darkness of sin breaks our fellowship with God.

And so we need to be cleansed.

We need to be cleansed from this darkness if we're going to walk in the light.

This requires a sort of contrition, a humble self awareness that results in the confession of sin.

Let's look at verses 7 to 10 here.

If we walk in the light, John says, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.

Amen.

And the blood of Jesus.

His son cleanses us from all sin.

There is no fellowship with one another without a cleansing of our own sin.

So how does that happen?

Well, John says, verse 8, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

So here's another either-or.

We either say we have no sin, or maybe we say, I don't really know, but the sin thing anyway.

It seems like we're taking it too seriously.

If that's what we end up saying, John is saying we live in a world of self-deception.

We end up making him a liar because we trust our own twisted intuition more than his word, which tells us exactly who we are.

So the Christian life deals honestly with the ugliness of sin, and sin is ugly if it separates us from fellowship with our triune God of love and with one another.

But there's hope.

Verse 9, if we confess our sins, that is, if we acknowledge, if we profess, if we declare, if this is what we hold to be true of ourselves, then he is faithful, steadfast, reliable, and just to forgive us our sins.

This is God's character.

From start to finish in Scripture, He is faithful.

He does not forsake us, He does not abandon His people, and He is just, He is holy, He is pure.

And friends, that's what the cross is all about.

How do we know when we go to God, He'll actually forgive us?

Because Christ has taken the curse upon Himself on the cross and put our sin and death to death.

That makes Him just to forgive us, because He has paid the penalty that is rightly ours.

The cross upholds God's justice.

And so it means when we go to Him in confession, we can rest assured that we'll leave forgiven.

But we won't be thrown back on ourselves.

Sometimes I think that's how we think about confession.

I go to God, I say I'm really, really, really sorry this time, and I promise to do better and better.

I better pull up my bootstraps and do my best.

When we go to God with a humble heart of contrition, we are not thrown back on ourselves to try harder next time.

We are met with a comforter.

We're met with a counselor.

We're met with a paraclete.

This is the word that's translated advocate.

Chapter 2, verse 1, my little children, John says to his precious flock, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

But if anyone does sin, because you know you will sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

You're not thrown back on yourself.

This word paraclete, helper, comforter, counselor, this word used of the Holy Spirit and Jesus both tells us that when a humble sinner comes to Jesus, Jesus takes up that sinner's case.

It becomes for us a comforting word.

Because Jesus is for us and not against us.

The image here is like a courtroom, and Jesus stands up not as the defendant leveling an accusation against us, or pardon me, not the defendant.

What is it?

The prosecutor, thank you, laying an accusation against us.

Jesus is actually our advocate.

He stands up for us.

Because he is for us.

This intercession, this advocacy, is what a hero of the faith of mine, John Calvin, he calls Christ's continual application of his death for our salvation.

We sin, and Christ says, my cross.

That's what he says to us.

It's what he says to his Father.

Unless we think that Jesus is advocating for, you know, these guys who are just trying so hard to a deity who is otherwise really ticked off at us, trying to say, no, it's cool, it's cool.

We need to understand that when Jesus pleads on our behalf to the Father, the Father is delighted to hear Christ plead this case.

Because let's remember that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

Pastor Dane Ortland writes that the Father's own deepest delight, the thing that makes God more happy than anything else, is to say yes to the Son's pleading on our behalf.

That's the comforter, that's the advocate we have in Christ.

He is our propitiation.

He's our sin offering.

Some of us have been reading our new song Bible reading plan, and we're in Leviticus.

This is what we're talking about.

Jesus' blood is shed for us to cleanse us from our sins.

His cross puts our death and sin to death, so that what was in darkness can be brought into light.

The Christian life, the walking in this light, is not a life of trying harder and harder not to upset God with sin, but a life of greater and greater assurance of Christ's cleansing us from this darkness through his cross and resurrection.

Friends, we receive this cleansing when we're honest enough about our sin to admit its ugliness.

When we desire fellowship with God and with one another more than the twisted and broken objectives that our sins promise us, we recognize that it cuts us off from fellowship with God, true, deep fellowship with our loving, triune God, and fellowship from one another.

So we receive this cleansing when we confess our sins to God, when we go to Him in honesty and in humility.

We take responsibility and we ask His forgiveness, not as those who are entitled to it, but as those who are promised grace.

Even that sin that we committed a thousand times over.

Perhaps this is a sin we confess to God, and perhaps this is a sin we even confess to another believer.

Because maybe we've sinned against a sister or a brother.

Perhaps we want to see strongholds of the enemy broken down in our life.

Perhaps we receive this cleansing when we practice confession as if our koinania with God and with one another depends on it.

Because you know what?

It does.

If we sin, if we say we have no sin, we walk in darkness and we deceive ourselves.

But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and darkness, to bring us into the light.

See, friends, we receive this cleansing when we approach Christ with humble hearts, as those undeserving of grace.

We come not as those who are confident in ourselves, confident that we can try harder this time, but as those who are confident in His blood to purify us, to renew us, to restore us, to cleanse us.

So how do you live a truly Christian life?

What does it mean to walk in the light?

If we walk in the light, we have fellowship with fellow sisters and brothers in Christ.

If we walk in the light, we have fellowship with our loving, holy, triune God.

If we walk in the light, we are cleansed from darkness.

As we confess our sins, and as we come to our Advocate with confidence that He is for us, that He will restore us, what greater joy could there be to know that our God is for us?

To know that our God wants to fellowship with us.

To know that our God wants to purify us from all that harms us.

Friends, come find your fellowship and your cleansing in Christ.

Set your hope on Christ.

He is your hope in life and death.

Amen.