Faith and Love: A Meditation on John 3

Among the things I appreciate so greatly from the writings of St. John, is his ability to show the inseparability of truths in tension.  John begins his epistle with noting the unity between the Father and the Son, the Apostles and Jesus, the believers and the Apostles, and all of them bound up together in the Eternal Word of God.  No heretic of any time or place can withstand what John writes about the unity of God and Man in Jesus, and the unity of salvation offered to the whole world in Jesus Christ alone… even though history is littered with the vain attempts of selfish and small minds, who try to pit Jesus against the Father, the Apostles against the Prophets, the Apostles against Jesus, the Apostles against each other, or even the Word of God against itself.  John reminds us that God is Truth, and Light, and Life everlasting, and that our only fellowship with Him is through His Son who is His Eternal Word.  This unity of God cannot be broken by anything in all creation, nor can the unity of man with God through Jesus Christ be broken by anything other than our refusal to abide in Him.

Now turning to the life of the Christian in chapter three, John reminds us that our fellowship with God will show up in our lives.  Anyone who says they love God and hate their brother is liar, because to love God is to love one’s brother, as well.  Anyone who says they love God and denies Jesus Christ is a liar, because to love God the Father is to love His Only Begotten Son.  Anyone who says they love Jesus and willfully remains in sin is a liar, because loving Jesus is to abide in Him by faith and repentance.  Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of God, full of grace and truth, in whom there is no darkness or sin at all, came into the world to destroy the wicked works of the devil—not to encourage or support them.  Anyone who would abide in the life and salvation of Christ by grace through faith, will abide in His love.  There is no one who abides in Jesus, and does not abide in His love.

This is a hard pill to swallow for the modern Church.  Many of our communions have divorced the life of Christ from the life of the Christian, endorsing patterns of life that reject Jesus and His Word.  How can anyone honestly believe that they abide in Christ, and murder children?  Or indulge in sexual deviancy?  Or oppress the poor and downtrodden?  How can anyone who knows Jesus by His Word, claim to abide in Jesus while discarding His Word?  The truth that St. John points out to us is that no one can.  We should not be deceived, or deceive ourselves, into thinking that we have fellowship with God, when we have rejected the Word of His Son.

But such sins are not relegated to only the marquee blasphemies of our times.  Pride, malice, hatred, covetousness, sloth, lust, and all the dirty pleasures of our secret thoughts, are damnable, too.  Do you think that you have fellowship with Jesus, while you seethe with hate for your neighbor, even though you cover it up with a pious smile?  Do you think you abide in Jesus, when your lust boils just below your socially acceptable façade, hidden within your private internet web browser?  Do you think you share in Jesus’ life, when you allow your covetous eye to slowly and quietly disposes your neighbor of his goods or your company of money?  Have you convinced yourself that your sins are not so terrible, because nobody can see them, or because society has generally degraded to the point of embracing them?  St. John sends his warning to conniving and despicable sinners such as us, that no one who gives himself to such sins, has any fellowship with Jesus.

This is the clarity and severity of the Law and Gospel of God.  Jesus Christ has indeed died for the sins of the world, and He does indeed offer the grace of His forgiveness freely to all who will repent, believe, and trust in Him.  But such faith is a living and breathing thing, so that it must work out its life and trust in Jesus in the works of love which gave it birth.  Therefore there is no
Christian who does not live in both faith in Jesus, and repentance for their sins; there is no saving faith in Jesus apart from the love of Jesus lived out in the believing Christian.

And we, who live in this world as both sinner and saint, hear John’s words with both fear and hope.  That we are sinners down deep to our core, we know that we shall never have anything to boast of in ourselves, but that our whole life should be one of repentance:  the constant battle to subdue our sinful flesh, and brutally drown it in the waters of our Baptism.  And that we are saints, washed in the Blood of Jesus Christ, we will trust in the forgiveness of our sins for Christ’s sake alone, casting all our hope upon His crucified and risen shoulders.  Thus the Christian lives by grace through faith in Christ alone, in constant faith and vigorous repentance before the Cross of Christ.

Where does this severe yet beautiful Word of God meet you today?  If it finds you comfortable in your sins, whatever they are, be warned!  Repent, that you might not die in your sins, apart from the love and grace of God in Jesus Christ.  If it finds you broken and bedraggled, waging your daily war against the devil, hell, and your own sinful flesh, continually wrestling with the wickedness that goes all the way into your core, be comforted!  For Christ has come to save sinners, of whom we are chief.  And to all mankind, the Word of Christ calls, that we may leave the paths of death and destruction, abiding in Him forever, sharing His blessed communion with the Holy Trinity, the Prophets and Apostles, Saints and Martyrs, Doctors and Confessors of every time and place, who have found their faith and love inseparable in Jesus.  Hear the Word Made Flesh as He calls to you:  Repent.  Believe.  Live.

Amen.