John as he draws his letter to its close returns to the theme he opened his letter with, the assurance that what those he is writing to have come to believe is true, that it’s rooted in actual events and facts. But he’s moved from pressing on his own testimony, the fact that he is an eyewitness to what has happened in the life death and resurrection of Jesus, to leaning now on the testimony of God.
…And now we come to John’s final test. How do we know that we love God? He’s said earlier that we can’t claim to love God if we don’t love our brothers and sisters, so there’s one test. But here he’s flipped it. He says that we know we love our brothers and sisters by loving God. The two are tied up so closely together that one is always the evidence of the other. The two are in many ways inseparable.
But what does it mean to love God? What does loving God look like? How do we know we love God?
In the New Testament there are 4 declarations about God’s nature, 3 of which are recorded by John. In chapter 4 of the Gospel which bears his name he records Jesus saying that ‘God is Spirit’. In the opening of this letter he says that ‘God is light’. And the writer to the Hebrews quotes Deuteronomy that our God ‘is a consuming fire’. So we’re left with the 4th and probably most famous of the declarations in our reading today ‘God is love’. And it’s this and what it means for us that I want to focus on.
How do we know that we’re truly Christians. I don’t know is that’s something you struggle with. You believe the Gospel objectively but is it true for me? I know all this stuff, I assent to it, but am I really saved, am I really a Christian? Will I get to eternity and find that actually I didn’t have this one thing I needed and so too late lose out? How do we quieten our anxious hearts in those moments with the truth of the Gospel?
…I don’t know what you think makes a Christian. Someone born into a Christian family or in a Christian country. Someone who goes to church. Someone who believes certain things about God and Jesus and the world. And some of that, going to church, believing certain things, are part of what being a Christian involves, but they’re not what being a Christian is. No, for all who have put their faith in Jesus, who have believed in him and in his death and resurrection; we are changed, there’s something different about us John says.
…John’s first letter is a timely reminder to us of this because he doesn’t waver in his conviction. In complete contrast to how our society often feels at the moment this letter is marked by assurance, by knowledge, by confidence and by boldness. And how much do we need those things as a church for this age. Confidence and boldness, and not empty bluster but rooted in knowledge and the assurance that what we have received, what we have come to believe is true.