1 John 4:19-5:5

John writes to us to let us know that we can overcome the world.  Do you want to?  Do you want to overcome the world?  Do you even know what the world is that you are to overcome?  I have to ask this because it would be a waste of all of our times for me to repeat John’s message if you didn’t know what the world was, and after knowing, had no desire to overcome it.

I bring this up in part because I didn’t understand the reason for the abruptness with which the world was brought into John’s discussion.  Things we don’t understand cause us to study more.

Let’s look at the text.

1 John 4:19–5:5 (NIV84)19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

Notice how abrupt the world is brought into this.  He is talking about love and hate and then, boom, the world is brought into it.

What does the text say to us about the world?

First, everyone born of God overcomes the world.  Are you born of God?  You overcome the world.  That is what John says.

Second, faith is the victory that overcomes the world.  Do you have faith in Jesus?  When you do, you overcome the world.

Third, the person who overcomes the world is the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.  If you believe that, you overcome the world.

Understanding these three points is important.  I will tell you that if you are here and have not put your faith in Jesus, you have not overcome the world.   The one who overcomes the world is the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.  If you have not put your faith in Jesus, the world has overcome you.  You may be aware of that.  It might be the reason you are here.  You have lived in the world, you have tried things their way, and now you want to hear what God has to say.  Trust Jesus and you will overcome the world.  Faith is the victory that overcomes the world.

So why is John so abrupt?  Why is he talking in one moment about our need to love our brothers and sisters in Christ and then this bit about overcoming the world?

The connection between our love for believers and the world is very strong.  I want to explain this in this way:

First, there is no true love in the world.

John describes the world in this way. 1 John 2:15–29 (NIV84)

Do Not Love the World

15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

Notice what the world is.  The world speaks of what you crave.  The world speaks about what you lust after.  The world speaks of your boasting of what you have and do. 

What do you crave?  If the world overcomes you, then you crave sin.

What do you lust after?  If the world overcomes you, then it is what is coming through your eyes.

What do you boast about?  If the world overcomes you, you boast about yourself, what you have and what you do.

The problem with these cravings, this lust, this self-centered boasting is that the world leads us to hurt other people.

Have you seen what it looks like when a sinful man craves something?  Do the words “Enron” have any significance to you?  How many people were hurt by the actions of sinful men? 

We find it in business.  People who crave a position will knife a friend in the back to get it.  Where is the love?

We find it in families.  Someone craves the inheritance and will lie and cheat in order to get what they want.

Sinful craving can take place anywhere with anyone.  The results are that people are hurt.  Sin kills love. 

Have you seen what it is like when someone lusts after someone else, a neighbors wife or a prostitute on the street?

 I read a story the other day about a 30 something man who decided to visit a prostitute a short time before he was married.  Let me ask you a question, “Was that a loving act?”  The answer is no.  He not only broke God’s law, he fulfilled his desires on someone’s daughter or wife and he broke faith with the woman he married.  He didn’t tell her, by the way.  But when they both got AIDS the truth came out. One time, one selfish act, one incident was all that it took to impact the rest of his life.  What a loveless act.

Have you ever seen what it is like when someone boasts of what he has and does?  Professional sports brought this to the front for many of us.  Michael Jordon is without a doubt the most talented basketball player ever.  He would tell people how great he was and then go out on the court and prove it.  This has taken our culture in such a way that boasting is ok if you can back it up.  The New York Jets did a lot of boasting about their team before they played and beat the Patriots.  You talk to people today and they will tell you that boasting about themselves is ok if you can back it up.

This is the kind of thinking that comes from the world.  This does not come from the Father.  Proverbs 27:2 (NIV84) says, 2Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips.

Boasting is unloving.  Boasting only considers ones self.  A person who boasts about what he has and what he has done is not giving credit to all the people who helped him get what he has and worked with him to get done what was done.  Boasting is an attempt to have people think how great we are.  But the Christian boasts about how great God is.  Whatever you see around this place that has any value is what God has done.  I am having some difficulty finding out the early history of this church because the people involved want to give the credit to God for all that happened.  God has used many of you to bless all of us, but God was behind it all.  The minute any of us lose that perspective, trouble will start among the believers.  Selfishness will replace a heart for God.  We will become unloving because we will become more concerned about our recognition, our reputation, our needs and wants than we will in serving others in Jesus’ name.

Not only is there no true love in the world, but the false teachers were trying to bring the world into the church.  That is why in John 2:15 he goes right into a description of the people who were wrecking the church.

Warning Against Antichrists

18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

What were these false teachers teaching?

Let me start with a presupposition.  Scholars believe, though the book of 1 John does not say, that John was writing from Ephesus.  What a blessed church to have Paul, Timothy and John all minister there. 

When we think of Ephesus and John, we think of Revelation.  In the Book of Revelation, written by John, God speaks through John to seven churches in Asia Minor that were fairly close together.  One of these was Ephesus.

My presupposition is this:  1 John is dealing with essentially the same problems and people that are mentioned in Revelation.  I can’t prove it, but it makes sense to me.

So with that background, let’s look at the practices of the false teachers in Revelation to see how they give insight into what was happening in 1 John.

First, in Pergamum we see the lusts of the flesh or the cravings of the sinful nature in  Revelation 2:14 (NIV84)14 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality.

Second in Thyatira we find the lust of the eyes in Revelation 2:20 (NIV84)

20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.

Third, the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3:17 (NIV84) describes the pride of life.

17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

Within the Christian church the false teachers were trying to entice people to sin, promoting immorality and to boast about their wealth and position.  You can imagine the effect this had on families, on the atmosphere in the church and on the spiritual life of the church when people were taking care of their own needs in sinful ways. 

If you say to someone, “It’s ok to get an abortion,” you are overcome by the world and you are encouraging someone to sin.  If you say to someone, “homosexuality is an acceptable outlet for your sexual needs,” you are overcome by the world and encouraging someone to sin.  If you say to someone, “You don’t need to pay that person back the money you owe them,” you are overcome by the world and encouraging someone to sin.  If you say to someone, “It’s ok for you to live and sleep with someone to whom you are not married,” you are overcome by the world and encouraging someone to sin. If you say to someone, “you are a good person.  You will be in heaven,” you are overcome by the world and giving another person a false sense of peace.

This is why John tells us 1 John 4:19–5:5 (NIV84)19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

The false teachers were leading people astray.  They were encouraging behavior that was offensive to God and destructive in their personal lives.  How loving can you be if you give bad advice?  They may have felt warm feelings towards some of the Christians, but their actions were actions of hatred, not love.  Who can claim to love God and encourage people to be immoral or boastful?

So what does this love look like? 5:2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.

John has two commands in mind here.

1 John 3:23 (NIV84) 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.

Let me make this statement:  The most loving thing you can do is to trust Jesus and do what he says.  

Let me make this statement.  When you trust Jesus and do what he says, all you do will be loving.

Why trust Jesus?  Does he have a doctorate in psychology?  Does he have the credentials to make him more creditable than anyone else in the world?

Yes.  John says we must believe he is the Son of God.  In other words, he grew up in God’s house.  He lived with God.  He personally knew what God was like when God revealed himself and when God was in private.  If anyone on this planet was ever able to tell us what God was like, Jesus was.  He is the Son of God. 

This is the faith that overcomes the world when false teachers bring it into the church.  This is the faith that overcomes the world when you go into the classroom.  This is the faith that overcomes the world you find at work.

When the world promotes its cravings, its lusts, its boasting, when the world says, “We know more about the good life than Jesus,” we overcome that by trusting Jesus for he is the Son of God.

So I return to this question, “Do you want to overcome the world?”  The life of the world doesn’t work. Living a life based on your cravings, your lusts, your boastings will eventually bring disappointment.  Do you want to overcome the world?  Trust Jesus.  He is the Son of God.  Trust Him.