EPISODE 160 1 JOHN CHAPTER 2 "Sin Matters, The Moral Test"

Welcome to Share the Word. In 1 John chapter 2, I encourage you to look inward and ask, how resolute is your faith and your walk with Christ? What are the fruits of your behavior? There's been a spiritual battle that this world and the false teachers are constantly attempting to confuse and separate us from God. What comes next is thought-provoking, as always. Paul, 1 John chapter 2.

Sin matters: the moral test. Do you know the story of the search for Anastasia, Princess of Russia? During the Russian Revolution in the early 20th century, Tsar Nicholas II and his family were imprisoned by the Bolsheviks. As the war for control of the country raged between royalists and communists, the Tsar, his wife, their son Alexei, heir to the throne, and four daughters who had been captured by the Red Army were summarily executed in a basement room of the house where they were being held. The communists wanted to definitively end the Romanov dynasty, which had ruled Russia for 300 years, as well as demoralize their supporters. They announced that they had killed the Tsar for crimes against the Russian people, but vaguely hinted that the rest of the family had been removed to a safe place.

Family and supporters held out hope that the Tsarina and the children were okay. When the royalist army retook the city where they had been imprisoned, a seasoned investigator was hired to find out what really happened to them. After finding some witnesses who worked at the house where the family had been held, the investigator unfortunately concluded the whole family had indeed been executed. Or had they? The location of their graves was unknown. And then, in the 1920s, a young woman in Germany began claiming she was the youngest daughter of the Romanov dynasty, Princess Anastasia, and had quite a story about how she had survived.

She knew details of the family and bore a striking resemblance to the last pictures of Anastasia. She had scars on her body consistent with Anastasia's and consistent with being shot, and other things that convinced many, even some of the late czar's relatives, that she might indeed be the young princess. This young woman seemed to many mentally and emotionally unstable. Her supporters, though, said, Of course she is. Think what she's gone through. Think what she witnessed.

Lawsuits dragged on for 30 years in Europe as she tried to prove her identity. The woman, who now called herself Anna Anderson, eventually moved to the United States, but never stopped insisting that she was really the Princess Anastasia. It wasn't until 1989 that the Soviet government admitted they knew where the Romanov family's remains had been dumped, and through careful analysis using DNA and dental records, it was proven that the bodies found there were in fact the Russian royals who had been slain in 1918. But two bodies were not in that mass grave, including the youngest daughter, Anastasia. I remember reading all about this fascinating story when I was young. Finally, in 1984, Anna Anderson died, never being able to definitively prove she was really Anastasia Romanov.

So what do you think? A real princess with a tragic life story, or a very determined impostor? Most wanted to believe Anna's story, in America anyway. But in the 1990s, a DNA test of a lock of her hair revealed she was no relation to the royal family in Russia whatsoever. Anna Anderson was really a Polish woman named Franziska Schanzkowska. Surprised?

The DNA test told the truth, no matter what Franziska claimed or maybe even believed. We were learning last time about the false teaching of the early Gnostic heretics, who already in John's day were confusing and distorting essential Christian doctrine. We focused in on the Christian claims about the person and work of Jesus, who Jesus really was, and what salvation really means. The heresies taught by the false teachers like Cerinthus misled spiritually hungry people and fed them a counterfeit gospel. But it did not stop there. As we'll see in chapter two, their heresies were also influencing those who had already responded to the gospel, wrongly influencing young Christians' understanding of what it really means to live out the Christian faith.

Remember, dualism was a key idea in Gnosticism, which taught that matter is evil and spirit is good. Physical things evil, spiritual things good. In the Gnostic world, the two realms are distinct and do not overlap. How could that idea confuse young believers that John was concerned about? How did it kind of overlay Christianity and the ideas in fundamental Christianity? Well, here's one big way.

Because of dualism, some Gnostic heretics taught that whatever people do in their lowly physical bodies really has no bearing on their higher spiritual souls. The soul or spirit of a person is not tainted by what they did in their physical body. You can probably understand how this logically led to some pretty wrong conclusions, and ultimately wrong behaviors among people who bought into that lie. If whatever I do in my body is not really affecting my soul, the part of me that relates to God is not really being affected by how I live here on this planet, I guess I can live as immorally as I want. I can live as self-indulgently as I want, however I want. It's irrelevant because my higher self is not going to be affected by the things my lower self does.

Wrong! Listen to how the apostle John reacted to that kind of teaching. These verses from 1 John chapter 1 and 2. This is the message that we have heard from Jesus and declare to you: God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out 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, purifies us from all sin.

If we claim that we are without sin, we're deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and the word of God is not in us. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the atoning sacrifice for sin, not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

We know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commandments. Whoever says, I know Him, but does not do what the commandments say, is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. I am writing these things to you, he says, about those who are trying to lead you astray. John knew that he had to respond to this false teaching. They're wrong, he says. This is one way we can know that we are in Christ.

We know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commands. Therein is test of life number two. Last time we discussed the doctrinal test, what we really believe about Jesus, and now John turns to, we'll call, the moral test. Does your obedience to God's commands support your claim to be a Christian? I titled this lesson, Sin Matters. The Gnostics were teaching the exact opposite.

You can gather that from what John just wrote. They said, in essence, sin doesn't matter. Live however you want. In fact, it sounds from John's refutation of them that they were actually teaching that, for their initiates anyway, there really is not such a thing as sin, because he says, if we claim that we are without sin, we're deceiving ourselves. And again he says, if we claim that we have not sinned, we make God a liar. He's referring to the heretics' false claims, probably quoting their very lines.

Several times, just in the verses I read to you, he uses the word sin. In his understanding of God, which he learned from Jesus Himself, there definitely is such a thing as sin, and sin matters. Jesus actually came out of heaven because sin matters. Let me clarify for you what the Bible says sin actually is. It defines sin for us a couple different ways. One actually is later in this letter where John writes, 1 John chapter 5, verse 17, Sin is the violation of God's law.

God's moral law is not only written in the Bible; it's actually written on our consciences, on our hearts. We know it's wrong to steal and lie or commit adultery and many other things, even if God had never written it down in His law. We know because He implanted a conscience inside us. When we do what we know is wrong, it's sin, John says. But on the other side of that coin, we're told this in the epistle of James chapter 4, verse 17: When we know to do good and don't do it, that is sin. So we don't even have to break any specific laws.

We can just fail to do good things when we have the opportunity to do them, and that failure is sin. Think of these as two sides of the same coin. They're often referred to as sins of commission and sins of omission. That is, sins we do when we do things that are bad, when we break God's laws, and sins when we fail to do what we know is good. I hate to tell you this, but that means that we are sinners coming and going. It's true that believers today, since the cross, are not strictly speaking under the law of Moses in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

Those laws were part of the old covenant for the ancient nation of Israel, but the moral laws of God are repeated in the New Testament, and they are for us. We're told clearly in the New Testament the kinds of things that offend God in several places, like this one in Galatians 5. The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. And the like. I like that. He's saying this isn't a complete list, but, you know, stuff like this.

There are a lot of things that are wrong that we think and do, but we don't really need to memorize a list. If we're really believers, we want to please God. So our conscience, aided by the Holy Spirit, lets us know when we haven't pleased God. And as we grow in our faith and learn more from God's Word, we internally begin to recognize sin better and better and become more sensitive to it. Sin matters, and as sin has consequences, it negatively affects us whether we immediately realize it or not. And it affects those around us that we sin against, and it affects those we fail and hurt, and it affects those we wrongly influence and lead astray.

But beyond any of that, and maybe more important than any of that, it affects our relationship with God. It puts a distance between us and our heavenly Father. This is what David meant when he wrote in the Psalm, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. So yes, sin matters. The Gnostic teachers were blatantly spreading lies from hell when they told people differently. Here's an enlightened tidbit of higher knowledge for you.

You may have been told this or that is out of bounds for your life, for those who know God. But reality is, there's no such thing as sin for those of us who understand the higher truths. The things we do in our physical bodies, they don't affect our souls. Our souls are operating in a higher realm. You can almost hear the hiss of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, can't you? Hath God really said you can't do that?

Satan asked Eve. Get this straight. Jesus didn't come to save us in our sin. He came to save us from our sin. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, we're told. John is very black and white on this subject.

He wanted to be very clear. God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him and we walk in the darkness, we're liars and we're not living out 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 sin. Imagine you have a buddy you met at work recently who says he, like you, is a big Pittsburgh Steelers fan. I'm using the Steelers in my illustration because I'm a big Steelers fan.

You can substitute whatever lesser team you want. Anyway, imagine you meet this guy who claims he's a big Steeler fan, but then you notice he has a Baltimore Ravens bumper sticker on his truck in the parking lot, and you think, Well, that's odd. And then you bump into him at Walmart one day, and he's wearing an ugly purple Ravens jersey that says L. Jackson on the back. What? That doesn't add up.

Then today at work, you overhear him on his phone excitedly telling his girlfriend, You'll never believe it, but I scored some great seats for the Ravens game next weekend. You want to go? Wait a minute, you're thinking. He's not a real Steelers fan. John only sees two teams in the spiritual battle: team light and team darkness. If you claim to be a Christian, you had better look like you're on team light.

If all the evidence points to you being on team darkness, something is badly wrong. Something is not adding up. Real Christians walk in the light, he says. Real Christians don't blithely live in sin and enjoy darkness. He's not saying in absolute terms that real Christians never sin. In fact, he makes that clear.

But he's saying real Christians don't live like sin doesn't matter. Instead, we show what team we are on by our good behavior. Genuine faith produces a real desire to turn away from darkness and walk in the light. John learned that from Jesus himself, who declared, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness. He also said, Watch out for false prophets who will come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ferocious wolves.

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. These Gnostic heretics that John was exposing, they are the very wolves Jesus warned his disciples about. Remember, the theme for this letter is the tests of light. We discussed in our last episode the doctrinal test: what do we believe about Jesus?

Who was he really? What did he really do? A genuine Christian believes the right things about Jesus' identity and the meaning of his death and resurrection. Now, what John is describing here is the moral test. It asks, are you facing toward the light and seeking to walk in the light, or are you obviously living in darkness? Do you excuse sin and have little regard for what God says offends him, or do you sincerely want to please your heavenly Father?

John wants us to confront those questions honestly. Passing the moral test doesn't mean I've conquered all sin in my life. The struggle against sin goes on, but real believers have the indwelling Holy Spirit and the desire from their new nature to overcome it. We walk in the light, but I do mess up. What happens after that, John? Remember what he wrote here: My little children, I write this to you so you won't sin.

But if you do mess up, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And further he added, 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. When we come to Christ in genuine faith, we're born into God's family, and like a child may well take some time for growing believers to learn what pleases God and some time to overcome things that have been ingrained sinful patterns in their lives. That's part of the process the New Testament calls sanctification. But a genuine believer, John is saying, is on that path. They're not claiming, Yes, I'm a big Jesus fan while living like a big Satan fan.

Not saying, Yes, I'm on team light, while too many things, in fact, point to the fact they are really on team darkness. Yes, there will be times we mess up, even possibly periods of our lives when we get deceived and wander off track for a while. But when we realize we have messed up, thank God we have an advocate—that means an attorney in heaven—who is our defender. John is referring to Jesus, of course. He's our advocate. When we confess our sins, God will forgive them for Jesus' sake, because he will say to the judge, Father, this one has received me.

This one belongs to me. My atonement on the cross covers their sins. And I even understand this passage to be saying that when we fall short and aren't even aware of how, the blood of Jesus Christ is cleansing us anyway, because God knows it's our intention to walk in the light. By the way, the word John used in chapter 1, verse 9, translated confess, if we confess our sins, doesn't mean we recite them to a priest, like going into a confessional booth and listing our failures since the last time we visited the church. Confession doesn't require an earthly priest. Our advocate, John says, is Jesus Christ.

Confession means agreeing with God about what has occurred. It means coming to God through Christ in prayer and agreeing that you have disappointed him, fallen short of who you need to be, and that you want to do better. It's the desire to turn away from things that you know are wrong and a renewed commitment to walk in the light. It's a good discipline, I think, to train ourselves to stop and confess sin to God whenever we realize we have disappointed him. It's beyond the scope of this passage, but it also sometimes is necessary, if our sin is against someone else or has affected someone else, that we sincerely seek their forgiveness too. I'd suggest every night before you fall asleep, mentally replay your day and ask God to show you any ways that you have failed Him or others that day.

David gave us a very good blueprint for that prayer in Psalm 139. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my thoughts, and see if there is anything wicked in me. When things come to our minds, make them right with God through confession, and follow through and make them right with others too. Keep short accounts. It's very reassuring to know, as God's children, that He wants our relationship to Him to be one of close fellowship, like a good father who dearly loves his children, and that He always stands ready to forgive us when we are ready to confess our sin.

With this moral test, John is again pointing out a major fallacy in the Gnostic's teachings. He's saying, I'm writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. It may not be as clear-cut as the DNA test that showed Anna Anderson was not who she claimed, but the moral test John gives us is telling. Those heretics who claimed they were enlightened and had secret knowledge from God about how things really work, they exposed themselves. They exposed that they are on Team Darkness by their sinful lifestyles, by contradicting Jesus Himself about the importance of obeying God's commandments. When they try to convince others that sin didn't matter, they were disguising themselves as agents of Satan, leading people toward destruction.

And John felt a need to put a light on that. That's what John, a true apostle here of Jesus Christ, is stressing to the early Christians who first read this letter. Those who walk in the light, those who obey His Word, those who keep His commandments, those who confess their sins, those who seek to walk as Jesus walked, these are the ones who are passing the moral test. These are the ones whose faith is genuine. These are the ones who can know they have eternal life. This is Paul for Share the Word.

So according to what you've heard from Paul in this episode, what's your team, darkness or light? And would you pass the moral test? And if you don't remember what the moral test is, go back to around 22 minutes of this recording. This episode made me reflect through Paul's lens. I looked at what team I was really playing for by examining all of my actions. Two important points for me.

First, sin does matter. We often trivialize sin and look at it through the lens of this world, and we brush off some of our sins as just not that important. But it is. Sin is sin. We claim to know Christ, and yet we disobey Him. Christ is our advocate.

And the second is that Jesus didn't come to save us in our sins. He came to save us from our sins. Here's my challenge. Take time to examine your faith. Is it superficial? Do you switch team jerseys, as Paul said, so that you fit into the world?

Are you a chameleon in order to find favor among your friends and coworkers? Or are you steadfast in your fellowship with Christ as grounded in truth and evident in your life and actions? Thanks for joining us, and we hope that you check out all of the episodes at ShareTheWord.org.