The core message is that true Christianity is characterized by a transformed life, not by secret knowledge or adherence to strict rules, and this transformation is a result of God's light and grace, not human effort.
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this is the message we have heard from
him from christ
and announced to you that god is light
and in him there is no darkness at all
now there's two possibilities here or
maybe they just both blend together
and what are they there was a group of
teachers that eventually became known as gnostics
gnostics
now gnostics uh come from the greek
uh now gnosis which is knowledge
and and what they basically claimed was
salvation was found
in this knowledge that they had
and it was a secret knowledge that's why
we call it esoteric
it was dark okay and only a few
people really had it and there's a real
possibility that at least the roots of
this group
was starting to influence here
they were saying no no no you you simpleton
simpleton
christians who have this faith in what
you know
jesus who died and rose again that's
true but now there's this
deeper knowledge that you've got to get
from us
and if you don't get it from us who have
these secrets
you're not going to heaven and
and i think what john is saying here is
no no no
god is light he's not dark he's not secret
secret
he's not hidden he has shown us
in the person of christ he has shown us
who he
is and he has shown us what he desires
from us
okay so it's not some secret knowledge
you need that only a few you know
inductees have
it's very plain also
this group was kind of they had two extremes
extremes
some of these gnostics they were all about
about
rules and regulations and they had all
these different
things you you couldn't eat and you
couldn't do this
and you couldn't do that and if you did
these things you weren't right with god
so they had there was one extreme that
said that and there was another extreme
in the same group that actually said
no the body is you know
god hates the material world he hates
the body
and so it doesn't matter what you do
with your body so you can just sin
all day long and still be a christian so
you had two extreme groups one was saying
saying
in order to be a to real be a follower
of jesus you got to follow
all these little technical rules and you
can't eat and you can't do this and you
can't do that and everything's bad
and he had this other group saying the
body's bad anyway so
let's just sin and have a good time
and john is saying this is wrong
this is wrong christianity
we are not christians because we're able
to follow a
set of rules about eating and drinking and
and
all other sorts of things we're
christians because we believe in what christ
christ
has done for us yet at the same time
john's going to tell us
if we truly believe and our hearts have
been changed
he says we are going to follow a
christian ethic
and that christian ethic is primarily manifested
manifested
well jesus summed it up pretty well
didn't he in two commands
love the lord your god with all your
heart soul mind and strength
and love your neighbor as yourself you see
see
there's a commandment in the law that
says that i should not commit adultery
i'm married i shouldn't commit adultery
that's a law
and i shouldn't do it but even if that law
law
wasn't there if i really loved my wife
would i commit adultery no
if i really loved my friend would i lie
to him
steal from him cheat him
no so you see that's how we can say that
although there is an ethic and there are
rules in christianity
that it's all summed up in this to walk in
in
love if i love am i going to be selfish
greedy hot tempered impatient
proud no none of that
you see and so what john is going to get
at is this
if you've truly become a christian some
things are going to change in your life
but he's really clear you don't become a
christian because you changed
things and by changing things you've earned
earned
salvation he's saying he's going to tell
us this
you're saved only by trusting in what
god has done for you
in his son but if you truly trusted in him
him
your life is going to begin to change
and that's the same thing jesus said you
will know them by their
fruit do you see their fruit
now let's go on he says
this is the message that we have heard
from him and announced to you
that god is light and in him there is no
darkness at all
then he says if we say we have
fellowship with him
if we say that we're christians okay
if we say that we have a relationship
with god we have fellowship with god
okay and yet walk in darkness
then we'll we lie and do not practice
the truth
now let's look at this way
he's saying this god is light
god has told us who he is he's righteous
he's holy he's loving he's compassionate
do you see god has told us this about himself
himself
god has also revealed to us his will
there are commands there are principles
of wisdom
but they're all summed up in this love
the lord your god with all your heart
soul mind and strength and love your
neighbor as yourself
now what he's saying is if we claim to
be christians
and yet we walk we live in a way
that contradicts everything god has said
about himself
and contradicts everything god has said
about his will and his commands
then we're lying when we say we're a
christian now he uses a real strong word
he says you're lying
purposeful deception it can be self-delusion
self-delusion
but you're lying and that goes back to
what jesus said
again you will know them by their
fruits and that's a very very
important truth a very important truth
now a person who truly becomes a christian
christian
they will begin to bear the fruit of a christian
christian
does that mean that they become perfect
the moment they're saved
no does that mean they attain perfection
in this life
no does this mean they'll no longer sin
no we'll struggle with sin what it means is
is
there's not perfection but there's a
change of direction
and yes sometimes it'll be two steps
forward and three steps back
and sometimes it'll be two steps forward
and one step back
it'll be a struggle all our life but
when you look at a person you're going
to be able to see this
they're they're loving god they're
loving people
they're trusting in the son something
has happened to them
now a lot of times people will say
things like this and it's well-meaning
but it's not well stated
they'll say something like this when god
saved me he changed me
that's true but we need to look at something
something
when god saves a person
they are fundamentally a new creature
paul says that in ii corinthians if any
man if any person be in christ
he's a new creation okay
so believing in christ something happens
it's a new creation our hearts are
changed by the work of the holy spirit
okay so in that way yes the moment we
trust in christ we
are different
and yet that difference in us
begins to work itself out let me give
you an example
i hate to say this but before i was a
christian and even after i loved books
books were important to me and um
and also before i was a christian i was
a great liar
and i was a tremendous liar i'm not
kidding i had i would go in
with a friend of mine and lie and when
we would walk out he would go you know
you're the scariest person i ever met in
my life
and i said why he goes i knew you were
lying and i believed you
and and i remember after i became a christian
christian
went into the bookstore me and this
other guy
and there were only two books left of
what we wanted
okay and i pulled the books out and i
immediately saw
that one of them was tore a little bit
like that much on its jacket
well for me that won't work i love books
so i pulled them both
out and i handed him the tor one
and the moment i did it it was like i
wanted to throw up i mean it was
literally like someone stabbed me in the heart
heart
and it was so like what on i knew it was
wrong i couldn't stand it
but man i just i bucked up again you know
know
i love books he doesn't i started
reasoning he won't read it anyways you know
know
and i make it back finally to my dorm
room and i am so miserable we have cell
phones in that day we like send smoke
signals and things
but i had to i had to
get on the phone and call him and say look
look
i am so sorry i gave you a book i knew
that was tore a little bit because i
love books and he goes you are out of
your mind i don't care i won't even read
it i said it doesn't matter
i'm coming over right now and we're
trading books
why did that happen new creature
something happened did i did i sin as a christian
christian
yes i did i put myself first didn't i
did i fight against it even when i knew
it was wrong yes i did
could i hold out no eventually
i had to fix it do you see
it's the same way today i'm 57 years old
and i have a three-year-old daughter
oh my gosh call me abraham and
but i have i have my children and there's
there's
so many times that i will have to go to
them like
my my 12 year old daughter and say
hey rowan while ago in the kitchen i was
so impatient with you
and i'm so sorry and she'll always say
oh that's all right dad and i go no you
remember what i taught you it's not all right
right
you you have to forgive me and
to have your 12 year old daughter or
your eight-year-old daughter or son say
okay dad it's true you were impatient
with me
but i forgive you and they know that in
the greek it means
i release you you're free
i have nothing against you you see it's
not that we're perfect
it's not that we no longer have some
sort of a relationship with sin
it just means that our relationship with
sin has changed
before i was a christian it was like we
walked arm in arm i not only did i love
to sin i boasted about it i can outsin you
you
but then it's not that we were totally separated
separated
but it's like sin is going that way now
and i'm going this way and that's what
john's trying to get at them here
he goes look these people who are
telling you
that yeah you can know god and love god
and just
live in evil in darkness they're lying
to you
god is making a new creation he's making
new creatures okay
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