THE TESTS OF AUTHENTIC CHRISTIANITY

A study of 1 John 2:3-11

3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

 The claim to know God is validated by Christlikeness – discipleship. John mentions 3 false claims to knowing God (vv.4,6,9): “Whoever says or claims”, and refutes them. Profession of faith must be supported by conduct. If not, it is spurious and the alleged Christian is a liar and does not know the truth of Christ. Here are the three tests.

The first test of authentic Christianity is that a Christ-follower, a Christian disciple, seeks to keep Christ’s commandments, to follow his teaching. A person who professes to be a Christian, but does not follow his teaching is living a lie and does not know the truth as it is in Jesus – cf. Matt.7:24; John 14:15,21.

“The word ‘obedience’ grates on modern ears; it leaves a bad taste in modern mouths. Some insist that the Christian life, being one of freedom, cannot be characterized by obedience, since each excludes the other; they have not learned that Christian freedom is found through obedience….It is important for us Christian people to recover this neglected aspect of our discipleship, obedience….there are some moral absolutes and more moral principles in the teaching of Scripture, which we need to hold fast. The Christian way of righteousness, humility and love is clearly enunciated in the Sermon on the Mount and in the ethical parts of the apostles’ letters, and beautifully exhibited in the fourfold portrait which the evangelists paint of Jesus himself. We have not been left to grope in moral darkness. The issue is this: what guides us in our moral decision-making?…every Christian is a pupil in the school of Jesus Christ. We sit at the feet of our Master. We want to bring our minds and our wills, our beliefs and our standards, under his yoke. In the Upper Room he said to the apostles: ‘You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am (John 13:13)…Jesus Christ is our Teacher to instruct us and our Lord to command us. All Christian people are under the instruction and the discipline of Jesus Christ. It should be inconceivable for a Christian ever to disagree with, or to disobey, him. Whenever we do, the credibility of our claim to be converted Christians is in doubt. For we are not truly converted if we are not intellectually and morally converted, and we are not intellectually and morally converted if we have not subjected our minds and our wills to the yoke of Jesus Christ.”(John Stott, Focus on Christ, pp.78-81).

The test of authentic Christianity and love for God is whether obedience to Christ is in their lives.

The second test of authentic Christianity is to imitate Christ in our lives. Being a Christian consists in essence of a personal relationship to God in Christ, knowing him, loving him, and abiding in him as the branch abides in the vine (John 15:1ff.). This is the meaning of eternal life (John 17:3).

Love for one another is the new commandment of Jesus (John 13:34,35) but is also the old and greatest of the commandments: love God and love your neighbor. The idea of love in general was not new, but Jesus Christ invested it with a richer and deeper meaning. It was new in the emphasis he gave it, and declaring that the whole teaching of the law and the prophets hung upon them. It was new in the quality he gave it. A disciple was to love others not just as he loved himself but in the same measure as Christ had loved him, with selfless self-sacrifice even unto death. It was new in the extent that he gave it, showing in the parable of the Good Samaritan that the ‘neighbor’ we must love is anyone who needs our compassion and help, irrespective of race and rank. The darkness of the old age is passing away and the true light of Christ has come. Christ is the true, or real, light – the heavenly reality. The new commandment remains new because it belongs to the new age which has been ushered in by the shining of the true light.

The third test of authentic Christianity is love for other believers. Love and hatred are set in opposition to one another. There is no twilight. Our love and hatred not only reveal whether we are already in the light or in the darkness, but actually contribute towards the light or the darkness in which we already are. The person of love, who abides in the light does not cause anyone to stumble. The light shines on our path, so that we can see clearly and so walk properly. If we love people, we see how to avoid sinning against them. The person with hatred in his heart is blinded by it. Hatred distorts our perspective. We do not misjudge people and then hate them as a result; our view of them is already jaundiced by our hatred. It is love which sees straight, thinks clearly and makes us balanced in our outlook, judgments and conduct. Those who have hatred in their hearts make wrong choices in life and don’t know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

Questions for Reflection

1. What do you think of the requirement for being a Christ-follower that we obey Christ? What do you think of John Stott’s comment on obedience?
2. Is it too easy to claim to be a Christian? Should being a Christian be more demanding? Justify your answer.
3. How do we know that our love for God completes us?
4. How can we live as Jesus did? How would he live in our generation?
5. How can we keep his commandments without becoming legalists?
6. Who is our neighbor that we must love? How can we love everyone without beggaring ourselves and allowing ourselves to be taken advantage of?
7. How can we avoid hating those who have harmed us or our loved ones?
8. How can we overcome our prejudices and dislikes of other people different from us?