LECTURE 3
LECTURE 3
I have before remarked, that in chapters 1 and 2 we have what, in regard to the unfoldings in the epistle, may be called preliminary; and in chapter 5 we get the witnesses and their testimony, what is in a sense supplementary; while in chapters 3 and 4 we have the substance of the apostle’s declaration. The object of the apostle is to unfold to the saints to whom he wrote, the great elements of Christian blessing, in order that they might know experimentally that they had it as a present thing, and that knowing what was genuine they might be able to detect what was spurious. Those to whom he wrote (who had probably been Jews,
[p. 173] brought up as such), had been accustomed to and understood promise; but in Christianity we have more than promise, we have substance; the blessing has come in, and it is the substance of the blessing (I do not know what better word to use) which the apostle unfolds to them in chapters 3 and 4.
I have said before, and am entitled to repeat it, that if I avow to have a thing in possession, I ought to be able to give some account of what I possess. It is difficult to understand a person unable to give any account of what he professes to possess. The apostle in chapter 5 says, “These things have I written to you that ye may know that ye have eternal life who believe on the name of the Son of God”. If anybody were to ask me to describe in what eternal life now consists, I should refer him to chapters 3 and 4 of this epistle. I do not think that eternal life is there unfolded exactly in the form in which we shall have it in heaven, for that is not the apostle’s point; but in the form in which it is given to us while on earth as a present thing.
It has often been noticed that with John eternal life is in the main viewed as present, and with Paul as future. The fact is this — in either case it connects itself with the particular line of teaching. Paul is always leading on to the full result in glory; he looks at the saint as associated with a glorified Christ according to the eternal purpose of God, who has predestinated us “to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Christ in glory), “that he might be the firstborn among many brethren”; and hence, speaking generally, we find that in Paul’s writings eternal life is referred to the future, “the end” is “eternal life”. But with John it is different. John’s point is that in connection with the lifting up of the Son of man, and the revelation of the Father’s name, the blessed truth of eternal life had come out as a present thing here upon earth; and it is the substance of it which he unfolds in chapters 3 and 4 of this epistle. Nobody,
[p. 174] I believe, really understands what eternal life means, in the sense in which John speaks of it, if he does not understand the teaching of these two chapters.
Now the leading point in chapter 3 is relationship, and in chapter 4, knowledge. In the one statement in Scripture which professes to give the form and character of eternal life as present blessing, we are told, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”. Anyone can thus see what an exceedingly important element knowledge is in Christian blessing; for the Lord Himself has told us that eternal life is to know the Father and Jesus Christ His sent One.
But what comes out in chapter 3 is relationship, and what is connected with it; for if God puts us into a new and heavenly relationship, He gives us at the same time the moral being which is suited to the relationship, and the being which is suited to the relationship will come out in the way of character here upon earth, for it is myself. And that is what I want to bring out; I want to show you, if I can, that we are in Christ for blessing, and Christ in us for character. The two things are bound to go together, and cannot properly be separated; because if we have His place before the Father, His character is to come out in us before the world. It is just the substance of the Lord’s prayer in John 17 in regard to the disciples; He puts them in His own place before the Father, and before the world. Thus there are the two things, relationship, and the moral being which is suited to the relationship, and it is impossible to have the one without the other. You will find those are the two great points which come out in this chapter.
The apostle opens the subject in the last verse of chapter 2, “If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed [p. 177] upon us, that we should be called the sons [children] [p. 175] of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons [children] of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure”. Now, dear friends, three distinct points are evident in this passage, and I want to speak for a moment of the character of each. First, there is the being born of God; secondly, there is a calling; and thirdly, a hope. The first is born of God, “every one that doeth righteousness is born of him”; then the calling “that we should be called the children of God”; and thirdly the hope, “every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” — it is a hope in Christ.
The first is the foundation, as I understand it, in the saint; the second is the superstructure; and the third is what I may call the actuality, that is, that we are looking to be actually like Christ as He is.
It is clearly revealed in the Old Testament in regard to Israel that when God takes up His dealings again with them in the future, He will begin with new birth. It is perfectly plain from Ezekiel 36 that though they have forfeited all claim by sin, God will resume His dealings with them, and having brought them to their own land, He will sprinkle clean water upon them, and they shall be clean. They will be born again. What it conveys to my mind is this, that God will lay a completely new moral foundation in His people here upon the earth. What is born of the Spirit is spirit — God will sprinkle clean water upon them and they shall be clean. Thus by the sovereign act of the Spirit of God they will be begotten again in view of the blessing which they are to enjoy upon the earth. And the necessity of it is evident, for very long experience in a vast variety of dealings with His people has made it manifest enough that God could not trust them. Just [p. 176] as in John 2, where many believed on Jesus when they saw the miracles which He did, Jesus did not commit Himself to them because He knew what was in man; He did not trust them. Where there is no new foundation, God cannot trust man. Man may be convinced in mind by outward signs, and may go on for a time, but is not to be trusted until the Spirit of God has begotten in him a new and spiritual foundation — that is what new birth is. The man thus begins morally from God.
When Nicodemus came to Jesus, the Lord brought before him a truth that he ought to have known — that even for the kingdom, which means blessing here upon the earth, new birth was an absolute necessity, that without it a man could not see the kingdom, and unless born of water and of the Spirit could not enter into the kingdom. Israel will never enter into the kingdom, nor obtain the promises until they are born again of the Spirit of God; there will then be what the apostle speaks of in this chapter, a seed of God abiding in them, a new and moral germ; that is, that their souls will really partake in principle by the divine action of the Spirit of God, of the moral character of God as expressed in His ways. And therefore Scripture speaks of “being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever”. This is the new foundation on which any superstructure that God may see fit to build up can rest. Nobody would think of building up a superstructure on a rotten foundation. Now the apostle says, “If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him”. New birth had come to pass. The time had not yet come for the kingdom, or the promises to Israel, but still there was the great fact made evident by doing righteousness, that new birth was here.
Now we will go to the next point, that is, the calling. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we the children of God. I change the word ‘sons’ to ‘children’, for the word ‘sons’ rather obscures the sense; the real word is that commonly used in the New Testament for ‘children’. I will give you two other passages where the word occurs. In Romans 8: 14-16: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God”. Here we have both words, ‘sons’ and ‘children’. We can understand, if we think for a moment, that the Spirit is the Spirit of sonship, because the Spirit has come down from Christ as Man in glory; to give effect to the purpose revealed in Hebrews 2. “It became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory”. The Spirit is not spoken of as the Spirit of children; but “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit” — not that we are sons, because the Spirit is the Spirit of sonship — but that we are children, and that is what I should speak of as the present relationship. I do not mean to deny that “sons” is also present relationship, but ‘sons’ carries the thought of complete likeness to Christ in glory, which is hardly the force of “children”.
Another passage in which we find the word ‘children’ is Philippians 2: 15: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the children of God — not here the ‘sons’ of God, for the word is ‘children’ — children “of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world”. My conviction is that the title ‘children’ conveys the idea in Scripture of association with a rejected, suffering Christ. “If so be that we suffer with him” is said in Romans 8 in connection with children. So, too, in the epistle before us we have the same thought, “Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not”. That is, that the people of God, placed here in a blessed and peculiar relationship before God, but in association with a rejected Christ, are unknown of the world. The great principle of it is, “If so be that we suffer with him”. To suffer with Christ now, is what we are called to, and we shall partake, too, of His glory. We have part in His sufferings; everything witnesses to it; we are not reigning, nor have we rights; on the contrary we must be prepared to go to the wall, to let our yieldingness be known unto all men; we have to get down lower and lower, that is a great principle down here, because we are in association with a suffering Christ. But then in that association with a suffering Christ the Father’s name is revealed to us, and we stand here the objects of the Father’s affection.
I have said sometimes that there is one peculiarly blessed thing which Christ did, and that is, He brought the affections of the Father here into this world. I dare say you will ask me how. Why, by Himself being the object of them. How could He be here upon the earth without the Father’s affections being here? By the very fact of His becoming Man He brought the Father’s affections here to the earth, resting upon Himself as their blessed and sufficient Object. But I find also another thought, and that is that He left those affections here, not that He has ceased to be the object of them now that He is in glory; but He has left objects of them here in those for whom He gave Himself. That is the meaning of the prayer at the close of John 17, “That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them”. How little we enter into it! or rather, I will speak of myself, and say, How little I enter into [p. 179] the truth that here upon the earth, I am one of a blessed company, the object of affection, such as that with which the Father loved His Son as Man here upon the earth. On the other hand I am associated with a rejected, suffering Christ; not known of the world, from which I am thus morally separated.
That is the calling. How far do we accept it? It is no good talking about the relationship apart from the affections connected with the relationship. The great beauty of relationship is in the affections proper to it. There are affections which are peculiar to every relationship, which give sweetness and character to the relationship. It is so with children. It is useless to talk about being children before the Father if we do not know something of the affections which are proper to the relationship which the Father has given us, and that is the superstructure which God has been pleased to build upon the foundation of new birth in our case. We are not called into blessing as men upon earth — that is not our part — nor have we the kingdom, or the law written in the heart; but are called into the relationship of children, and as such are objects of the Father’s affections, even as Jesus was their object. I could not say the Father’s affections were here before. I believe there were those upon earth in Old Testament times, men of faith, whom God loved and for whom God cared, but what brought the Father’s affections here to the earth was the advent of His Son come of a woman. As a Man upon earth He was perfectly loved of the Father; and this is what He has left here, the Father’s affections.
The truth of relationship comes out in the preface of John’s gospel. In chapter 1: 10-12 it says, “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons [children] of God”.
[p. 180] We have gained immensely, if I might so say, by the rejection of Christ. If He had been received, there would have been blessing for men upon the earth, the kingdom and temporal blessings, the fulfilment of the promises, and so on. But what He has done consequent upon being unknown of the world and not received of His people, has been to put those who believe in Him into the blessed place of children before the Father by revealing to them the Father’s name! That is what came out in the pathway of the Lord Jesus down here (for He was that eternal life which was with the Father), and was shown to men in what He was, even when here upon earth. It was manifested to men by grace that the Father stood in relationship to a Man here upon earth. The eternal life which was manifested to the disciples was with the Father; and that is what was permitted to be seen. And now the apostle himself, and others, stood in this blessed place before the Father, and had to make it known for the benefit and blessing of others. So I can understand the apostle saying, “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons [children] of God”.
One word more about it. This calling is the gift of the Father, the Son brings us into it, and the Holy Spirit witnesses to it. That is the office of each divine Person in connection with this present relationship. It is the gift of the Father, that is the way in which the apostle speaks of it here, “What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us”; and Jesus brings us into it, to as many as received Him to them He gave the title to take the place of the children of God; and the Holy Spirit “beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God”, and then the character is to come out. It is not a relationship in which we are contemplated as being perfected. What I mean is this: it says, “Every man that hath this hope in him” — it is a relationship to which a hope is attached.
[p. 181] What is the hope? That we shall be fully like Christ when He appears.
The apostle lays stress on the relationship being present, and he says, “Now are we children of God”. It is a great point to bear that in mind. You will never have the relationship more really than now, and the Holy Spirit witnesses to it. A Christian will never be more entitled to enjoy the Father’s affections than he is at the present moment; but I am looking forward, and so I trust is every Christian, to being in the actuality of likeness to Christ as sons in glory, “When he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is”. Beloved friends, when we see Christ as He is, we shall be in His likeness. You will be made in His likeness by His word when He comes; you will be conformed to His likeness in order that you may see Him as He is. “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure”.
Thus there are three great things in this passage connected with our blessing, the foundation, the superstructure, and the hope. I believe that in glory the relationship of children will be merged as it were in that of sons; ‘sons’ is the term which describes the relationship in full result, though now the Spirit is spoken of as the Spirit of sonship; and we are “God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus”. But I have been trying to bring out the line of truth developed in John.
Now the things of which I have spoken are the blessings we have in Christ. We have no title to them in ourselves. If I look at myself as created for earth, I could not have title to be a child of God, it is what I have through grace in the Son; and to enjoy it we must abide in the Son. We have no sense of the relationship or of the blessings connected with it except as we abide in the Son. Faith must come in for the enjoyment of it, for it is in Him we have it.
[p. 182] How are you ever going to be like Christ? I will tell you the one way, and I am sure you do not know any other. It will be by the power of Christ. You will be like Christ when He is manifested, and it will be by His power. It speaks of this distinctly in the Philippians. It says, We look for the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven as Saviour, “who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself”. It is He that will do it. That shows you how the hope is in Him. I cannot effect it; but Christ will do it for me. And as to the enjoyment of the relationship which we have with the Father, we do not enjoy it apart from Christ. You may say the relationship is yours and God has given it to you. I quite admit it; but for the enjoyment of it, you must abide in Him; faith must be in exercise. It is not, so to speak, natural to me.
But again, in this relationship which we have with the Father, another truth comes in — We have passed out of death into life, for the relationship is expressive of life. And that is really what the expression “eternal life” conveys in Scripture. I have thus left by faith all connected with death, have passed out of death into life. Speaking about myself in flesh down here, I could not say I have passed out of death into life. Speaking of myself in the glory of a child of God, I say I have passed out of death into life; that is, faith has passed into a new place and relationship before the Father, where it is totally impossible for death ever to come. How could death ever touch what Christ was with the Father? Death could, when God so willed it, touch His life as a man down here upon earth, what He was after the flesh (though there was no liability to death), but death could not touch His relationship as Man with the Father. And so it is with the Christian. Death will touch me unless the Lord comes: but death cannot touch what I am with [p. 183] the Father. That is my glory — what is spoken of as the glory of the children of God. I have passed out of death into life. That is a great thing for faith to be able to say. While death can close everything connected with me as a man upon earth, and every relationship here, and will put an end to my path of service and Christian responsibility, yet I stand in that blessed relationship in the Father’s presence where death never can come, and can understand the expression, I have got eternal life. No person can rightly say they have got eternal life except as having passed out of death into life. Israel will enjoy eternal life here upon earth in the millennium, because the pressure of death will be removed from them, Christ will come who has the keys of death and hell. We get it in a different sense by passing for ever into a completely new and heavenly relationship in the presence of the Father. For the relationship is heavenly, though it is always looked at as enjoyed here upon earth, but it is a heavenly relationship, and nothing short of that, and “therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not”. Christ looked at as heavenly was not known of the world. In the wilderness, the furniture of the tabernacle in which Christ was foreshadowed was covered with blue when the camp was in movement. But the world understands nothing of the blue. The world was not conscious of the heavenly character of Christ. Only faith recognises what one may call the heavenly colour in Christ. You have to remember that the vessels were carried in the midst of the people of God, in the midst of the camp; and therefore the vessels, being covered with blue, presented the heavenly figuratively in the midst of the people, who typically represented the people of God by faith. That is what was true then. And to say now that the world could know the heavenly in Christ is against the passage before us, “The world knoweth us not, because it knew him not”. It is not in its nature to know Him.
[p. 184] I have tried to present to you the great reality of our blessing in Christ, and how, in that sense, we have passed out of death into life; we have eternal life.
Now I want to look at the other side of the truth, that Christ is in us, and that this must come out in the way of character down here. I want to show you that as we stand, in a way, in Christ’s place before the Father, there is a continuation of the character of Christ down here; He necessarily brought what was divine into the world, and there is the continuation of that character in us.
Just refer to verses 6-10 in the chapter. “Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother”. ... Again, “whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion [p. 188] from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him”. Now, dear friends, I trust I may be enabled to bring out a point that is very beautiful to me — how God has been pleased to meet the worst thing by the best. But first, I want to show you the effects of the fall — what it introduced into this world, and I need not go outside the chapter to show it. The fall brought two things into this world — lawlessness [p. 185] and hatred. Lawlessness is seen in Adam, because he did his own will in defiance of God. The principle of sin was there before the overt act occurred; lawlessness was there; he departed from God in listening to his wife; there was lawlessness. And a little later on, in the first descendant of Adam, we get the other principle, hatred; that is, Cain hated Abel. My conviction is that he hated Abel before he killed him. Before the provocation occurred, I believe the principle of hatred was there. You may say it is a terrible thing for a brother to hate a brother; but hatred has come into the human heart as the effect of the fall. These two great principles have come in and overspread the world. Now I believe it was of God to present, in contrast to the evil, the best things; qualities which came out in Christ Himself, as from heaven, and that is righteousness and love. He came here in righteousness to undo the works of the devil. He came here in righteousness in contrast to the sin that was here, and in love in contrast to the hatred. I think you will find that is the key to the understanding of this chapter. The very first principle of righteousness, as I understand it, is that God should have His rights. That was the case with Jesus here — He gave to God His rights, God had His full place with Jesus here as a man upon earth. It was not simply that as a living Man on earth He loved God with all His heart, and His neighbour as Himself; He went beyond that. God had the fullest place with Jesus here upon the earth. He could say, “As I hear, I judge” — He got every intuition from heaven — “As I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me”. He had title to a will as being a divine Person; but He had taken the place of subjection as Man down here, and, therefore, He did not seek His own will, but the Father’s. And you will find time after time, as you go through this epistle, Jesus spoken of as the righteous One: “If ye know that he is righteous”. He became flesh and came into this scene as the righteous One in contrast to the terrible principle of lawlessness that man had brought into the world. God met the worst thing by presenting in contrast to it the very best. What a word for Jesus to speak, for the eternal, the only-begotten Son, who was equal with the Father, to say, “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me”. “As I hear, I judge”.
But there was too the love which came out in contrast to the hatred seen in Cain. Cain hated his brother and killed him. The apostle says, “Hereby perceive we the love ...because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren”. That was love in contrast to hatred. Cain killed Abel, and the same principle prevails in the world, as the apostle says here: “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you”, because the world goes on the selfish principle of Cain, it hates what it does not understand, and it would kill if it could. But the opposite principle came out in Christ. He did not take the life of another, but He laid down His own life for us. You remember Jesus in the synagogue with the man before him that had the withered hand. The scribes were all zealous for the sabbath, and yet they had it in their hearts to kill Christ. And Jesus looked upon them with anger, and said, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” They were bent on destroying life, He was bent on saving life; and hence He told the man that had the withered hand to stretch out his hand, and He rebukes them. You must in principle do good or evil, you are either saving life or destroying it: that is the truth of things if we could trace them to the bottom. Love has now been witnessed to us. “Hereby perceive we the love...because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren”.
[p. 187] What the chapter looks for is this, that if by faith we are in the consciousness of the blessing we have in Christ, the character of Christ is to be reflected in us down here. I will refer to a verse which shows it: “Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness” — mark this — “is righteous, even as he is righteous”; that is, there is in the believer a moral being which is according to Christ, “He that doeth righteousness is righteous”, he is righteous, as I understand it, in nature. “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil”, because everything becomes manifest now. The advent of Christ has made everything manifest here. The children of God on the one hand, who give God His full place, which is the first principle of righteousness; and the children of the devil, who come out in perfect lawlessness, that is, in self-will, in what will culminate in antichrist. Antichrist is called the lawless one, that is, he is the full and perfect expression of the principle of lawlessness; but in the meantime Christ has come, the righteous One, and the children of God are now here, and they are righteous even as Christ is righteous. And hence the moment has come when the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.
We little think of it, but if I am doing my own will, I am practically denying my proper place before God, my place as a child, because if I am a child before God, I am righteous even as Christ is righteous, and then God has His place, and I am not to do my will; for that is the spirit of lawlessness. What we are left here for is that the character of Christ should be reproduced in us upon earth, and the first principle of it is righteousness, for God alone is said to be love.
But there is also love. “Hereby perceive we the love ... because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him, for if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight”. The way in which Jesus proved His love, was that He laid down His life for us; and we must not be inconsistent with it. The apostle maintains the obligation to lay down our lives for the brethren; for the principle of righteousness is that we should act as we have been acted towards; we are not always called upon to lay down our lives, but we are called upon to manifest our love in some simple way, as, “Whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” We are not often called on to do very great things, not to take the place of martyrs; but there is surely some way down here in which we have the opportunity of showing love. And the apostle urges that it is to take a practical shape. It took a practical shape in the Lord Himself. It was not only that He professed to love His people, but “having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end”. He manifested His love towards them by the greatest possible sacrifice, He laid down His life for them. And are not we prepared to make some small sacrifice for the sake of the brethren? I feel we need to have our hearts enlarged, and here I see the great importance of righteousness, which involves the complete setting aside of our own wills, so that the obligation to love may be fully recognised. I am not to question what God may allow to come before me, to call forth the expression [p. 189] of love, nor to shut up my bowels of compassion from a brother who may be in need. We are often in danger of getting chilled by the influence of the world and its ways, because there is a deal of imposture and all that kind of thing, which tends to chill sympathy and kindliness. But we have to beware lest we get our bowels of compassion closed. What we need to remember is this — the perfection of what has come out in Christ Himself as a man down here, the character of God really in righteousness and love, and that we are left here in continuation, that we should manifest the same character and ways in our walk down here. Because, these are the two things — we are righteous as He is righteous, and the love of God dwells in us: that is, that through Christ being in us, we partake of the divine nature, and the divine nature is to be expressed in us down here. We are blessed in Christ, but if so Christ is to come out in us in the way of character and walk.
We ought to be a perfect rebuke to the system of evil which prevails in the world. “Whatsoever doth make manifest is light”, and we are “light in the Lord”; the divine nature is to be displayed in Christians here in these great principles of righteousness and love, not coming out in anything very pretentious, but in the way in which we meet things that God in His providence may be pleased to allow to come before us. It is not for me to be searching about for opportunities to manifest love; the great point is that I manifest it in a practical shape in what comes before me. The apostle says, “Let us not love in word, neither in tongue” — not talking about it — “but in deed and in truth”. And then you get the effect of it. “And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things”. It is a serious thing for your heart to condemn you. It is not conscience here. I [p. 190] think that condemnation of heart is one thing and condemnation of conscience is another, and that condemnation of heart comes in where we have failed in Christian obligations. I have known what it is to have my heart condemn me; and it is a serious thought that if my heart condemn me, God is greater than my heart and knows all things. On the other hand, “If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God” — that is, the confidence of the relationship in which we are set — “and whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight”. We give expression to the character of Christ here in this world.
Those are the two great points which come out in the chapter — that we are in Christ and abiding in Him for blessing, and that He is abiding in us in order that His character may come out down here under God’s eye in contrast to the principles of evil which prevail in the world — lawlessness and hatred.
May God grant that we may be all much more conscious of our blessing and calling, and be in every way more distinct from the principles of evil which prevail in the world; for as the apostle says, “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil”.