Proclaimer Blog
1 John (talk 1, part 3)
Exposing the false and encouraging the true
Now what it shows is that in this letter (and this is very important for the preacher) that John both exposes the false and encourages the true. He does the two together all the time. I would suggest to you that that is an ideal for anybody who is speaking in Christian service. All good Christian teaching must encourage the faithful but must also expose the false. I want to suggest to you that that is the perfect pattern for the Christian preacher and it is fascinating how John does this. For example, “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.” (1:6) There is a plain exposure of those who make that bogus claim. “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, purifies us from all sin.”(1:7) There is a great encouragement. Then we have another exposure: “If we claim….” And then verse 9, an encouragement: “If we confess…” He does this alternating: first an exposure, then an encouragement. Don’t listen to that, do listen to this. There is a hard evangelical preaching that exposes unceasingly but doesn’t do much positive encouragement. On the other extreme there is a soft evangelicalism that encourages wonderfully clearly and warmly but seldom if ever exposes error. John does both all the time.
So one very interesting characteristic of John in this letter is the use of the negative. You’ll find exactly the same in John’s Gospel. It is something I think we need very badly today on the fringes of evangelicalism where often the negative is avoided. John says, quoting Christ: “I am the way and the truth and the life.” (John 14:6) Then comes the negative: “No-one comes to the Father except through me.” You see, the negative interprets the positive. You can’t have the positive without the negative. Otherwise you’re not being a faithful preacher. And so he does that exactly in 1 John 1:5, 6 and 8. He shows the negative and then the positive, the negative and then the positive, and you’ll find that he does that all the way through his letter. We lie and do not practise the truth – those two are different, aren’t they? They balance each other. It means we’re telling a lie about ourselves and we’re not in accordance with the truth of the gospel. They’re the same thing, but there’s a balance there; they are two sides of a coin.
John’s principle is first century truth
Now let me make a comment here having given you these five signs of the antichrist, without which we would get into a dreadful muddle. The concept, of course, that they have left the orthodox churches must not be institutionalised. We live in a time of churches grouped together in formal denominations and so on, and there’s a very great danger of institutionalising first century truth in a way that’s quite improper. For example, the Exclusive Brother is taught that if anybody leaves their assembly they are going out into the world and are no better than pagans. This has led to infinite suffering because people have left the Exclusive Brethren Assembly and therefore have had to leave all their relatives who remain behind. I remember going to see one of the chief mandarins of the Exclusive Brethren in 1960 when there was the break-up in Reigate and some of the men were coming to St Helen’s, Bishopsgate. They were an enormous help because they were used to hard work and they knew their bibles. I remember a senior member of the Exclusive Brethren, saying to me, “Mr Lucas, when you receive the Holy Spirit you will agree with us.” The implication is very plain. ‘We are the true church and nobody outside these boundaries will ever understand the things of God.’ Now, that is wicked really, isn’t it? Technically and historically, of course, Rome has taken the same position, though they wouldn’t say so largely today. Nevertheless historically they have said, ‘Move outside these boundaries and you are outside the true church.’
Leaving gospel churches
But what John is saying is in principle. He’s not talking about denominations; presumably they didn’t exist. He is saying in principle, ‘If you leave gospel churches and gospel beliefs and gospel people, that is a very serious sign that something is wrong.’ I want to make that clearer. If a person who professes to be a real Christian leaves a gospel church and gospel beliefs and gospel people, that should be to them and their friends a very serious sign. It’s not a matter of leaving a particular denomination – a Baptist or a Methodist church; it’s a matter of leave behind a bible church. A real Christian church.
Remaining in the Son
That’s why you get so many comments in 1 John about ‘remaining’. It’s a key word. He loves this word and he plays with it in all sorts of different ways. For example, in 2:24-27, “See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us – even eternal life. I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you.” Well, he doesn’t mean that they don’t need pastors and teachers in their church. The secessionists were saying, ‘You need us to teach you this new way’. And John is saying, ‘You don’t need these new teachers – the teachers you have always had have led you into the truth’. “But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit – just as it has taught you, remain in him. And now, dear children, continue in him…” (2:27-28)
It’s the same all the way through. It’s a key word and of course, it is in close connection with what the New Testament is saying all the way through. One of my favourite verses in Colossians is 2:6 “So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” What Paul says there, John also says in his letter. So, remaining in the truth and letting the truth remain in us is the same idea as remaining in these true communities in which people first heard the gospel and were regenerated by the grace of God.
Again, we’ve got to be careful. I’m going to make little warnings as I go along so you won’t misunderstand me. If you’ve been around as long as I have, you will know many who have at one time professed the faith of the gospel but have, as they would put it, moved on, grown up beyond these elementary beginnings. I think of the Cambridge University Christian Union Mission of 1949 with Dr Barnhouse. What a wonderful mission it was, with many people in the university being really converted. I think of one of the men I knew who was converted. I think he did move on from the truths that brought him face to face with Christ at that mission, but I would be very surprised to hear that he had denied the Son. He’s still within the boundaries of the orthodox church so I don’t want to push him outside those boundaries. So it is possible, isn’t it, to grow beyond those early truths that led you to Christ and still be a Christian. On the other hand, it’s a dangerous signal and may mean that you’re moving out further and further, and will then cross the boundaries. We shall have to have discernment here. We shall have to be clear what is secondary and what is primary, and we shall discover that the antichrist cross primary boundaries, not secondary boundaries.