Marks of Maturity
1st John 4:17 – 5:5
Jeff Hughes
I. Introduction
a. Tonight we will be looking at maturity in our walk. Our text comes out of First John, chapter 4, verse 17, and continuing through chapter 5, verse 5.
b. In these 10 verses, we’re going to take a deeper look at our walk and how we are to progress in our walk with the Lord.
c. Follow along with me starting in verse 17.
d. 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also. 1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
e. At the end of tonight’s study you will know three main identifiers that characterize a mature Christian’s walk, and what the result of having that mature walk is.
f. Tonight, we will look at these in depth as we explore the text tonight.
II. PRAYER
III. Illustration
a. A young man who dives for exotic fish for aquariums told a story that one of the most popular aquarium fish is the shark. He explained that if you catch a small shark and confine it, it will stay a size proportionate to the aquarium you put it in. Sharks can be six inches long yet fully matured. But if you turn them loose in the ocean, they grow to their normal length of eight feet.
b. That is like what happens to some Christians. I have seen some little six-inch Christians who swim around in a puddle. You can look at them and comment on how fine looking they are just like fish in an aquarium. But if you were to put them out into a larger arena—into the broad view of a whole creation—they might become great. God help us not to be confined to a little puddle out of insecurity, but help us to grow to be over comers, and walk in the victory that you have for us all.
IV. Study
a. The Marks of Maturity
i. Confidence in our faith – 4:17-19
1. 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us.
2. Let’s look at verse 17. The key word there is perfected. Verse 16 clearly is talking about God’s love. This is a continuation of that thought.
3. It is God’s desire to perfect or complete in us His love in us and our love for Him. In the original language, it means to complete or to mature. 2nd Peter 3:18 tells us as believers to grow in grace and knowledge. We see here though, that we are to grow in our love for God.
4. We grow in this love toward God as a natural response to the love that He shows to us. We saw this in our last study.
5. How much does God love us? John 3:16 tells us that He loved us so much He sent His one and only Son to die for us. John 17:23 tells us that He loves His children in the same way He loves Christ.
6. Our life as Christians should be a daily process of growing more and more in love with the Lord. As we realize and contemplate on how much God loves us by reading His word that we grow in this love.
7. John tells us here that if we are mature, and have this perfected or completed love, we can have boldness in the Day of Judgment. That word boldness there means confidence or “freedom of speech” in the original language.
8. This confidence is a product of God’s perfecting of love within us.
9. We also see here that we can have that boldness or confidence in the Day of Judgment. As Christians, we do not have to face judgment. That judgment was already poured out upon Jesus on the cross.
10. In John 5:24, Jesus tells us, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
11. In Romans 8:1, Paul writes, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
12. For a Christian, judgment is something in the past, not something for us to look forward to. Our sins were already judged on the cross, never to be brought up again.
13. This is the source of our confidence, we don’t have to worry or dread judgment, because the Bible tells us right here in verse 17 that as He (meaning Christ) is, so we (the Christians) are in the world. This is talking about our position. We are members of the family of faith, loved just as Christ is by the Father.
14. Look down at verse 18, though. John is talking about fear and torment. Is John talking about believers? Yes, unfortunately he is.
15. Many professed Christians live in fear and torment every day. It is because they are not growing in their love of God. If we are growing, we are getting more confidence towards God; we just saw that in verse 17.
16. If we have that confidence, we have a healthy reverence towards God, not a tormenting fear. God loves us; He’s not some cosmic killjoy, just waiting to strike us down. We should be more like respectful children, and not like cringing prisoners awaiting a sentence from the judge.
17. God wants us to live in love and confidence, not fear and torment. 2nd Timothy 1:7 tells us that, 7 God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
18. We see at the end of verse 18, that if we are living in fear, we haven’t been made perfect yet. God is still working on us.
19. It’s a process that all believers go through. When we are lost, we fear God and His fiery judgment. When we get saved, we live with this weird mixture of fear and love in our hearts, but as we grow, the fear begins to fade, as we become more confident children of the Lord.
20. We can get that confidence because He loved us first, just like verse 19 says. With the confidence comes two other marks of our maturity. The mark is honesty. We’ll look at this subject in the next two verses.
ii. Honesty of our faith – 4:20-21
1. 20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
2. We see in verse 20, “If someone says”. This is the seventh time we have seen this phrase in 1st John. Just like all the others, John is going to give us a warning against those pretending to be genuine mature Christians.
3. What is interesting to note, is that fear and pretense usually go together. Think about Adam and Eve. They did what God commanded them not to do – they sinned. Their reaction was to fear his judgment and hide, covering their nakedness.
4. That is exactly what we do. We sin. We are afraid of what others and God think about it. So, we try to cover it up, and hide it, pretending it never happened. But, just like Adam and Eve, we can’t hide from God’s all seeing, all-knowing presence.
5. A Christian growing in his love of God does not try to impress others with his “spirituality”. This turns him into a liar and a hypocrite. He is not living a life of freedom in Christ, but acting in his own little play. God, in His mercy often closes the curtain on these pretenders. He did mine.
6. Pretending is something that little children love to do. It is not something a mature Christian should engage in. Liars are not mature Christians. We have to be showing love to other believers and growing in our love of God to be honest. Mature Christians are marked by honesty.
7. This honesty brings peace and power to all those who walk in it. This is where God wants us to be. Honesty is something that shows up in the life of mature Christians.
8. So, we have seen that mature Christians are confident children, and honest children. The third mark of maturity is obedience – mature Christians are obedient children. We will see this in the next three verses.
iii. Obedience by our faith - 5:1-3
1. 1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
2. In verse 1 of chapter 5, John goes back basics for a minute and “covers his bases” in a sense. Remember that verse 20 and 21 of chapter 4 was talking about a mature Christian having an honest, loving attitude towards God and others.
3. Personally, I think this was a bad chapter break here. John didn’t put it there. The scholars who translated the epistle put it there.
4. Nevertheless, what John is giving us here is a definition of our source of love. That source is being born of God. We are born again if we believe that Jesus is the Christ, or Messiah. We have to believe that Jesus is our Messiah, not just the Messiah in the generic sense. John is not talking about a mere intellectual assent to Jesus being Messiah, but a trust in and reliance on Jesus as Messiah. If we take Him as our personal savior, we are born again.
5. Being born of God also has this effect on our lives: it is assumed that we will love God, because we are born again into His family; but it is also assumed that we will love others who are begotten of Him - our brothers and sisters in Christ.
6. Verse two is where John changes gears. He is talking here about God’s love being perfected, about mature Christians.
7. We will know that we love God’s children when we love God, and love His commandments. In other words, God’s love is perfected in us, when we love God’s children, love God, and love His commandments.
8. He further goes on to explain this in verse 3.
9. This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
10. It’s not just keeping His commandments, or obedience, but a joyful obedience, because they are not burdensome. Joyful obedience is the third mark of a mature believer.
11. A Young couple had major problems in their relationship.
a. They didn’t really love each other. The man was very demanding, so much so that he prepared a list of rules and regulations for his wife to follow. He insisted that she read them over every day and obey them to the letter. Among other things, his "do’s and don’ts" indicated such details as what time she had to get up in the morning, when his breakfast should be served, and how the housework should be done. After several long years, the husband died. As time passed, the woman fell in love with another man, one who dearly loved her. Soon they were married. This husband did everything he could to make his new wife happy, continually showering her with tokens of his appreciation. One day as she was cleaning house, she found tucked away in a drawer the list of commands her first husband had drawn up for her. As she looked it over, it dawned on her that even though her present husband hadn’t given her any kind of list, she was doing everything her first husband’s list required anyway. She realized she was so devoted to this man that her deepest desire was to please him out of love, not obligation.
b. God wants our obedience towards him to be motivated by love as well.
12. God’s love perfected in us is the key to joyful obedience. If we are obeying God out of fear or necessity, we are not there yet. Are we simply obeying because we are afraid of what others will think? If we are, we are missing out on what God has waiting for us. So, what is waiting for us when we do get there, when we are mature Christians? One word – VICTORY. We will see that in verses 4 and 5.
b. Victory with our faith – 5:4-5
i. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
ii. John begins with a principle that is so simple, yet so powerful - if we are born of God, we will overcome the world - the idea that anything born of God could be defeated by this world is strange to John, and should be strange to us.
iii. The fact is though, we live in a fallen world. It is much easier to “do our own thing”, and get dragged down than to obey. But, we are Christians. We have a new nature. When we follow our new nature, we obey, and it isn’t burdensome. When we walk in our old nature, we walk in disobedience, and we feel it. The commands of God seem like thousand pound weights.
iv. But God is calling each one to something better – a victorious faith. Hebrews chapter 11 tells about faith, and about some men and women who had it. The writer to the Hebrews tells us about Enoch, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses, just to name a few.
v. The faith these men had was a common bond. The victory they experienced in their lives over the world was a result of that faith.
vi. Faith is always God’s key to victory.
vii. Some of the evangelists I see on television tell me that in order to get results, I need to speak it. That is not faith. Faith is not simply saying what God says is true. Faith is acting on what God says because it is true.
viii. Someone once said that faith is not believing in spite of evidence, it is obeying in spite of consequence.
V. Conclusion
a. Victorious faith is a product of maturing love. The more we come to know and love Jesus Christ, the more confidence we have to walk toward Him without fear. Because fear is cast out, we can live open and honestly, without a need to pretend. With fear gone, we can walk in obedience to his commands out of love, and not obligation or torture. We find that God’s commands are not burdensome, but make our lives better. Armed with the confidence, honesty, and obedience that this close walk brings, we face the world with a victorious faith. At this point we can be over comers instead of being overcome.
b. When I read the story I am going to close with tonight, I wept not only at how moving the story of victory was, but also just how far God has brought me, and how much further He has to go.
c. Ugandan Bishop Festo Kivengere’s gave an account of the 1973 execution by firing squad of three men from his area:
d. February 10 began as a sad day for us in Kabale. People were commanded to come to the stadium and witness the execution. Death permeated the atmosphere. A silent crowd of about three thousand was there to watch.
e. I had permission from the authorities to speak to the men before they died, and two of my fellow ministers were with me. They brought the men in a truck and unloaded them. They were handcuffed and their feet were chained. The firing squad stood at attention. As we walked into the center of the stadium, I was wondering what to say. How do you give the gospel to doomed men who are probably seething with rage?
f. We approached them from behind, and as they turned to look at us, what a sight! Their faces were all alight with an unmistakable glow and radiance. Before we could say anything, one of them burst out:
g. “Bishop, thank you for coming! I wanted to tell you. The day I was arrested, in my prison cell, I asked the Lord Jesus to come into my heart. He came in and forgave me all my sins! Heaven is now open, and there is nothing between my God and me! Please tell my wife and children that I am going to be with Jesus. Ask them to accept him into their lives as I did.”
h. The other two men told similar stories, excitedly raising their hands, which rattled their handcuffs.
i. I felt that what I needed to do was to talk to the soldiers, not to the condemned. So I translated what the men had said into a language the soldiers understood. The military men were standing there with guns cocked and bewilderment on their faces. They were so dumbfounded that they forgot to put the hoods over the men’s faces!
j. The three faced the firing squad standing close together. They looked toward the people and began to wave, handcuffs and all. The people waved back. Then shots were fired, and the three were with Jesus.
k. We stood in front of them, our own hearts throbbing with joy, mingled with tears. It was a day never to be forgotten. Though dead, the men spoke loudly to all of Kigezi District and beyond, so that there was an upsurge of life in Christ, which challenges death and defeats it.
l. The next Sunday, I was preaching to a huge crowd in the hometown of one of the executed men. Again, the feel of death was over the congregation. But when I gave them the testimony of their man, and how he died, there erupted a great song of praise to Jesus! Many turned to the Lord there.
m. God has that same victory available to each and every one of us here tonight. It is up to us if we are going to grow in our love of God and lay hold of it in faith.
