The Senses Make Sense
1 John 1:1-4
As this is the Easter season, we take time to reflect on the core of our Christian faith. We might ask the question: “What makes one a Christian? Is a Christian someone who admires the teaching of Jesus, and thinks if we would apply some of these teachings, the world would be a better place. Is it a means of gaining inner peace or some spiritual benefit. Is it merely the glue that holds Western civilization together? The questions one might ask about Christianity are not new at all. Even in the days following Jesus, people were asking questions about Jesus. This is true for the church or churches John addresses in the First Epistle of St. John.
We really don’t know much about the churches John addresses outside the contents of the epistle itself. His other writings such as the Gospel of John, the two other short epistles, and Revelation add a few more clues. Tradition says that this epistle was written to a church or churches in the area of Ephesus, and there really isn’t much evidence to the contrary. The content of the epistle shows a lot of overlapping themes with the Gospel of John, in particular with Jesus’ farewell discourse in chapters 14-16. It seems to me that these two works were written in close proximity to each other.
From what we read in 1 John, there seems to have been a split in the church. Some of the membership had left and formed an alternate church. These believers who left seemed to have thought themselves more spiritual than the others. Some think they were early Gnostics, a group which thought salvation came from having a secret knowledge. There was a spiritual or allegorical meaning to everything which was only known by a special group of people. These people despised anything sensual, which here means more than its common sexual overtones. The world and all material things were evil and created by a lesser evil god. The Gnostics, such as Marcion who came a couple of generations after John, thought this evil god was the creator in the Old Testament. By following these teachings, the followers could escape the flesh at death and become truly spiritual beings.
I don’t know if these believers were “Gnostics” in the formal sense, but a lot of these ideas were already present in Greek philosophy, especially that of Plato. Gnosticism just adapted some of the teaching of Jesus with these Greek ideas. But it does seem that this group which left had trouble with a human Jesus. The very idea that God could become a human being was scandalous. Why would God condescend to put on evil human flesh. They could see Jesus as a man who was filled with the Spirit of God, to show the way. They could see Jesus as an ordinary human being who was adopted and filled with the Spirit of God at baptism. This Spirit left Jesus to die on a cross. They could see a divine Christ who only appeared as human but was not really human. They would even consider themselves to be “Christian.”
It would seem that these people had little tolerance for those who were not initiated to the secret knowledge. These elitists saw them as stupid and irredeemable. They looked down with disdain at people who were too earthly. They would think these people as not being Christian at all. So they abandoned these “inferior” people and went out to form their own society. Those who left had no time for them. Indeed, wasting there time with them was probably seen as hindering their won advancement spiritually. They saw the race to perfection as being an individual attainment. If others could help them for a while, good. They would listen. But when they had attained all they could from them, they would go off from them. Apparently, some had gotten all they could from the teachings of Jesus and now could bypass Him and go to God directly. If they rejected Jesus, surely they had no room for John either.
The believers who were left behind were confused and hurt. Were they indeed inferior Christians or Christians at all? Some who had left might have been teachers in the church. What should they do? Somehow word got to John, and he responded with this epistle. He needed to assure them that they were the true “Christians” and that all who left were not.
This, I think, is the best way to understand why the Apostle John wrote this epistle. He comes right out to the facts of Jesus. The introduction to the epistle is elaborate like the introduction to Luke is. Luke wanted to make Theophilus sure of the facts concerning Jesus, what was true, as some accounts apparently contained inaccuracies. John begins by telling them that what he is saying goes back to the ministry of Jesus. We must remember that an apostle had to be an eyewitness to the facts about Jesus from the baptism by John the Baptist. We know from the Gospel of John that the apostle was originally a disciple of John the Baptist and followed Jesus after the Baptist had identified Jesus as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin f the world.”
John uses the editorial “we” to include the witness of the other apostles as ones who had seen Jesus with their eyes, heard Him with their ears, beheld His mighty works, and handled this “Word of Life.” This witness also included, when we read from the Gospel, eating with Jesus, touching Jesus, seeing His wounds, and hearing His voice after the resurrection. The apostolic witness to Jesus is foundational to the true Christian faith. John, as a witness to all these things asserts his special authority. The Christian must measure their faith against this witness. They along with the Old Testament prophets are specially called agents of God to speak His word.
It should be evident from first glance that what John writes here is totally at odds with what those who left. The way to eternal life was through a flesh and bones Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the will of the Father that those who would come to Him, come to Him only through His Son. John is careful to say that our fellowship is with the Father AND the Son. One cannot be in fellowship with God without being in fellowship with His Son. This shows that those who left the fellowship were the ones who were not “Christians” at all .With these words John introduces the letter to the church. From this, he addresses the issues that were troubling the believers.
John does not mention it in his introduction, but there is a second witness to the truth of Christianity. This is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit confesses the Son. The witness of Word and Spirit confirm each other. The word says to test the spirits to see if they are from God. If it is, Jesus will be confessed. If not, it is the spirit of antichrist. So the true believer is one who holds to the apostolic testimony about Jesus, the Scripture as the word of God, and is filled with the Holy Spirit who illuminates what Scripture says and confirms its truth. So one who just thinks Jesus as having some useful teachings and does not hold to Him as being fully human and fully divine is deceived and a deceiver.
As we can see today, the situation is no better today. The spirit of antichrist has come in and infected the church. And these people try to run the doctrine of unity in reverse. If you separate from a church, then you are a heretic. But if the church or denomination does not hold to the truth, is it a church at all? How can a church with doctrines which are contrary to Christian truth, or who give lip service to these doctrines while denying them in reality be a church at all? The people who left the church in John’s day were not heretics because they broke from the church. They were never part of the church at all. This is what is to be condemned. We should only pray that every person who would not adhere to the truth would leave. Let them call themselves whatever they want. It is God who will separate the sheep and the goats at the Last Judgment. The church really should root out these unbelievers and cast them out. Unfortunately, they have crept in unawares as Jude 4 days and are now in positions of authority in many denominations. They hold the levers of power. But they are poison to the church and will not stop injecting their venom until the denomination is dead.
It is under these circumstances, that believers should leave such an organization and come together in common confession of the truth. Human organizations corrupt over time and replace the teachings of Jesus with human inventions. The church needs to be continuously reformed. Sometimes the cry comes out “Come out from among her! Be not a partaker in their plagues!” In this, one is not being a heretic at all. It is not a sin to separate from a church organization which is Christian in name only. These organizations cannot be reformed. Let them die. God’s church will not be hurt, and only helped.
It is unfortunate that certain church organizations have left the truth and are now vociferous opponents of the gospel truth. But instead of wasting time and treasure to reform them, leave them to die. Pull as many from the fire as you can on the way out. God deserves a better church than these. Let us strive to be the church God calls us to be.
We are not called to be alone in this, but we must stand alone as Luther did at Worms if necessary. God has called us to be in fellowship with fellow believers. We might differ in some doctrines which are not central to our salvation, but we can have no fellowship with darkness. Those who deny the Son are not our brother and sisters at all. Those who do not hold to the absolute authority of Scripture and the leadership of the Holy Spirit only will serve to confuse us and drain the life from us. We must gather together and encourage each other nd stand together.
