OVERCOMING, IN CHRIST (4:20-5:5)

John summarises the letter's three major themes about the marks of genuine new birth:

• Believing that Jesus is the Christ, & being born again

• Loving our fellow 'born-agains'

• Keeping Christ's commands despite the pull of the world

Then he focusses on the centrality of Christ as the ongoing source of our spiritual life.

In that sense, it's a pivot point in the letter: but it's more than just that. It sets the same three key elements into the context of our battle to overcome the world. His readers have won their recent struggle for doctrinal clarity, but there will be many more fights to come. And John emphasises that belief in Christ's incarnation and dual identity is essential if we are to 'endure to the end'. This then bridges into looking at the evidences for Christ's divinity.

BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN CHRIST

In Israel, family ties were very strong.  Kingship was dynastic, the priesthood belonged to the family of Aaron, land belonged to tribes, and there were clans much like Scotland used to have.  After their return from Babylon, proving one’s genealogy became really important to re-establish land ownership, priestly status and access to Jerusalem. Identity came from one's family, and loyalty to one's parents and siblings was a given. So when Jesus redefined His family as 'whoever does the will of My Father in heaven' (Mt 12:50) and kept His mother and brothers waiting outside, it was radical. Just as intense political loyalty to an individual can break up marriages in the USA today, He knew that His gospel would cause splits within families (Mt 10:35-37). For Him to call His disciples 'My brethren' (Jn 20:17) went way beyond calling them His friends (Jn 15:15).

There is a deep, strong bond between believers, that of spiritual rebirth. 'Love me, love my child', says the proverb. Since God is our Father, we are a band of brothers (5:1). Anyone who has believed that Jesus is the Christ, is a member of the same family: a brother or sister in Christ and a child of the same Father. To hate a fellow-believer who also carries the image of the invisible God, means we hate God Himself (4:20). We must love our brethren - it's a clear command (4:21).

This bond is the inevitable result of the love of God being shed abroad in our hearts. If you've ever been on mission to a church in another country, you'll know how you instantly feel at home. And when a church splits, or an individual pulls away, you'll know how painful it is; like a deep family rift. We are the Body of Christ, and individually members of one another. 'There is one body and one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all who is over all and through all and in all' (Eph 4:4-6).

By leaving, the heretics had de facto declared that they had never really been part of the body (2:19). As we'll see shortly, being an overcomer will often mean being uncomfortable in a given local church; but love means showing tenderness, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, tolerance and forgiveness to one another (Col 3:12-14).

THE NATURE OF CHRISTIAN LOVE

Lest anyone quibble about what exactly it means to love one another, John defines it as loving God and keeping His commandments (5:2).

• We could simply start from the Ten Commandments, which are the lowest common denominator of love. They define clear examples of what is not loving, such as lying, stealing, coveting, murdering, and committing adultery.

• But what love means in a positive, New Covenant sense, is much more clearly expounded in the Sermon on the Mount: reconciliation in place of anger, tolerance in place of judgement, forgiveness instead of murder, integrity of speech in place of spin, and generous love to those who treat you badly.

• The heart attitudes behind these prescriptions are laid out most eloquently in Paul's wonderful description of love, in 1 Corinthians 13. And what love means in relationships within the church, is further developed in Ephesians 4:1-6:9, and Colossians 3.

But how do we know what is the loving thing to do, in certain situations? For example is it loving to accept that a brother can’t overcome a certain sin, but is just ‘made that way’? Or should we be challenging, risking a breakdown of relationship? Should we put someone out of the fellowship if they continually cause trouble? How much should we put up with?

Love can sometimes require challenging sin. 'You shall surely rebuke your neighbour, and not bear (tolerate) sin because of him.... You shall love your neighbour as yourself' (Lev 19:17,18). Jesus prescribed a method, which starts by seeking to bring the sinner back into fellowship (Mt 18:10-14); but progresses to staged challenges, while seeking to minimise any damage to the individual (Mt 18:15-16); and can ultimately mean excluding someone who refuses to repent, with the authority of the church leaders and Christ Himself (Mt 18:17-21).

It is particularly important to rebuke someone whose sin represents a pitfall which might trip up other younger Christians. Left uncorrected he may bring severe judgement on himself by stumbling others (Lk 17:1,2, Gal 2:11-21).

So how should we rightly express love within the body of Christ, and discern when to woo and when to challenge? Jesus gives examples & principles, as he trains up the Twelve:

• We should check our own heart motives first; and only then ...

• Out of grace and purity, and non-judgementally, seek to correct (Mt 7:1-5)

• Guard our own hearts, as we are doing so

• We should not repay evil with evil, but 'come in the opposite spirit' (Lk 9:54).

• Protectiveness of our own 'brand' is wrong (Mk 9:38-41).

• Correcting someone who's at risk of damnation, is right (Mt 12:24-32)

• Lead & teach by example, whenever possible (Lk 22:24-27; Jn 13:12-16)

John, one of the 'sons of thunder', whose instinct was to call down the fire of God on an inhospitable Samaritan village, eventually became known as 'the apostle of love'!

TAKING CHRIST'S YOKE

Christ’s commandments are not burdensome. We may think them unachievable, for example when He tells us to pray for someone who’s done something terrible to us; or to be utterly faithful in our marriages, down to the slightest glance at another woman. But John says our faith enables us to overcome the world within us - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. We are freed from not only the penalty and the pollution of sin, but also its power. And this victory comes from believing that Jesus is the Son of God.

Becoming a rabbi’s disciple was referred to as ‘taking his yoke’. As a young ox is yoked with an experienced one so it can learn how to pull the plough, so a disciple must be closely bound to his rabbi by bonds of love and loyalty. The Pharisees’ myriad commandments were un-keepable and brought exhaustion from striving. Jesus condemned them as binding heavy burdens, hard to bear, and laying them on men’s shoulders; when they themselves would not lift a finger to help.

But Jesus said of Himself, “Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” When some Pharisees insisted that Gentile believers must be circumcised, Peter said, “Why do you test God by putting a yoke on the disciples’ neck, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” (Acts 15:4)

Christ's yoke is very simple: 'Love one another as I have loved you'.

OVERCOMING THE WORLD

This theme of overcoming the world, has already been flagged up. John has affirmed the young men in the fellowship for having already 'overcome the wicked one', through the indwelling power of the Word of God (2:13,14). He talks about the complete incompatibility of loving the world with loving the Father (2:15), and the transience of worldly achievements compared to doing the will of God (2:17). He crystallises how the world pulls at our bodies, souls and spirits - through the lust of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life.

What is less common knowledge, is that their doctrinal clash with those who deny Christ's nature as Son of God, is also part of this battle to overcome the world (4:4-6). When we read 'the world', our minds associate it to mean the material world. But there is a spiritual governing power behind the world: there is 'the Prince of this world', and beneath him are 'the world rulers of this present darkness'. And underneath them are a horde of antiChrist spirits who have been deployed to destroy believers' faith in the divinity of Christ. This 'new world order' of hidden governance and occult influencers was created at the Fall, when Adam put his God-given right of dominion under Satan's authority, by obeying him rather than God.

Whatever is born of God - this implanted seed of the divine life of Christ - overcomes the world (5:4). 'Whoever is born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in Him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God' (3:9). And no-one can overcome the world, unless they believe that Jesus is the Son of God (5:5). As soon as we believe into Christ, our faith means 'we have already overcome ... because He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world' (4:4). We can 'be of good cheer, for He has overcome the world' (Jn 16:33).

Because Jesus brought God's life and authority into a human body, He created a new manhood, free from the Devil's control. If He had been merely a prophet, He could have challenged sin but not broken its grip. If he were merely a supreme moral example, He could inspire us but not regenerate us. If He were merely a martyr, He could expose evil but not undo it. But as the Son of God, if we are joined with Him by faith, and participate in His zoe life, that life in us overcomes the world! Overcoming requires us to be joined to the living Christ, to participate in His life, before we can hope to imitate Him.

WHAT OVERCOMING MEANS IN PRACTICE

Overcoming implies a sustained struggle, not a Round One knockout. For Christians, it's a lifelong thing. We struggle to crucify the flesh, in some cases over many many rounds. We overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony (Rev 12:11). Every time the enemy thinks he's won, we confess our sin and claim the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, to cleanse our consciences and set us free to serve the Lord again. And we testify about our struggles; we are open with one another. We take Christ as our standard of purity, knowing that Father has called us His children, even though 'it does not yet appear what we shall be' (3:1-3).

We remain cheerful and undiscouraged in the struggle, knowing that Christ has already overcome (Jn 16:33) and that the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit will sustain us through the processes of tribulation producing perseverance, perseverance producing character, and character producing hope (Rom 5:3-5). In fact we learn to count it joyful when we go through such trials (Jas 1:3) - even to glory in them. We are sharing the fellowship of Christ's sufferings, learning obedience through them as He did.

Soon after writing 1 John, the apostle is sent to the prison-island of Patmos, where Jesus reveals how He sees the seven churches around Ephesus. After describing their good and bad points, Christ makes a specific promise to the individual overcomers in each church. What overcoming means in each case, is not accepting the church's area of weakness as being OK with Christ. In Ephesus for example, overcoming meant maintaining one's first love. in Pergamos it meant not compromising on sexual immorality and worshipping idols. In Thyatira it meant calling out a false prophetess. in Laodicea it meant not sitting on one's laurels, priding oneself on the church's wealth and self-sufficiency.

Overcoming means overcoming worldly attitudes and norms within the church, as well as within one's own heart. It means letting Christ teach you personally, rather than second-hand. Overcomers will rarely be fully at ease in their local congregation, except when the context is persecution à la Smyrna. And they will be uncomfortable church members, as far as the pastor is concerned: because they are pushing not heresy, but truth. But they will not seek to create a church-within-the-church, a fan club of their own; nor will they choose to separate, as the heretics did. Love for the church will hold them in place, praying, loving, living as Christ.

CHRIST'S LIFE IN US, IS THE KEY TO OUR OVERCOMING

As He faced the ultimate test of the Cross, Jesus’s very last teaching to His disciples was this: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16:33). And foreseeing His own resurrection, He said "Because I live, you will live also" (Jn 14:19).

If Jesus was merely a wonderful man, teaching a value system with a higher ethos than any other rabbi, imam, guru or saddle, we would be completely unable to live as He lived. It is only because ‘in Him was life’, and ‘because I live, you will live also’, that we can believe His indwelling will enable us to 'walk as He walked, in this world’. ‘He who has the Son has his zoe life; and he who has not the Son of God does not have life’ (5:12).

Paul describes his own journey thus:-

• 'I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me' (Gal 2:20).

• “What things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.  Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Phil 3:7-11).

• 'I can do all things, through Christ who strengthens me' (Phil 4:13)

PRIDE IS THE BARRIER TO CHRIST OVERCOMING IN US

James gives us a detailed account of how our inner struggle with the world and the flesh manifest themselves in everyday life, and how we can overcome them (Jas 4:1-10). Our fleshliness, and especially our 'lusts of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life' cause us to quarrel and hate, to covet etc. Our passions are at war within us, because we are friends with the world. In effect we are adulterers: married to Christ but having a longterm affair with the world. This grieves the heart of the Father.

Christ's life in us, is the Holy Spirit. He 'yearns jealously' for our hearts to be fully surrendered to Christ, and God. He increases the flow of grace into our hearts - but He can only do so when we humble ourselves and draw near to Him.

The process involves us

• 'cleansing our hands': washing our hands of any involvement in sin

• 'purifying our hearts': being single-minded in our pursuit of holiness

• 'lamenting, mourning and weeping' over our sinfulness, in ongoing repentance

• humbling ourselves before God, turning away from our independence

• learning to ask Him for things rather than fight for them in our own strength

When we submit to God, we have only to resist the devil, and he will flee from us. He knows that 'He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world'!

Learn to recognise when your flesh rises up within you, seeking to take over. Fits of anger, indulging yourself in 'eye candy', impulse-buying, victim mentality when criticised, controlling behaviour; all these and many other things are 'works of the flesh' (Gal 5:19-21). Once you can identify these patterns in your inner life and behaviour, you can lay them before the Lord and ask for the 'more grace' of the Spirit, to overcome.