Underground Exiles

“We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”

I start our series on First John with this verse because it seems to provide the background and the setting for what will be taught by the whole letter. I know many people, both believer and unbeliever, that find this letter somewhat confusing and difficult to understand; there are numerous reasons for that. The message of First John is essentially quite simple; it’s author’s manner and style is one that will lead us to a certain amount of confusion if we don’t keep a very firm grasp on the the great principles of his teaching.
This letter absolutely illustrates the case of being in danger of missing the woods for the trees, so we start with one of the three great key verses to understanding what’s written. The other two are:

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.” 1 John 5.13

And,

“And we are writing these things so that our¹ joy may be complete.” 1 John 1.4

It is in these three statements that we have the great objective which was in the mind of the Apostle John.

In other words, the theme of this letter is the Christian in the world, what is possible to him; how is the Christian to face the world; how is he to stand up to it; what is his relationship to this world that he finds himself in?

So now the Apostle, writing as a very old man, was addressing a people who were in a very difficult world. I find this to be a deep sense of comfort. Half of our troubles rise form the fact that we always seem to think that it is only our world and our time that are difficult. But if history and the study of history, especially as we find it in the Bible, does nothing else for us, it should always give us perspective. When you look back across the story of the Church and her saints, you find the the world has often been as it is today. In a sense, we aren’t up against anything new. It’s all happened before, and, thank God, there is a provision for us here in our confusion and difficulties.

This is one of the things that makes Scripture so incredibly unique; it doesn’t matter what period of history you live in, or what may be happening in the world around you, you will find that the position has been met and dealt with somewhere or another in the Bible. Because Scripture is timeless it is always timely. So now this letter is written, by and old man, feeling perhaps just a little like his time is coming to an end, and anxious that his spiritual kids and grandkids would know what to do in such a world with all of it’s difficulties and contradictions.

I suppose I should point out how appropriate all of this is at our present time. I suppose that this is the biggest question faced by those of us that are Christians in today’s world. How do we relate to a world that we are in, but not in? How do we adjust ourselves? What is our duty with respect to this world, and how are we to conduct ourselves in it?

I could make a good case that the questions are answered, and answered well, by the entire New Testament. But the seem to be the perculiar province of the First Letter of John. Therefore, in a time of difficulty and crisis, that both we and the original readers are in, the first thing we have to do is grasp the teaching of the whole New Testament.

I don’t want to be misunderstood, or controversial, but in a situation of crisis the New Testament doesn’t immediately say, “Let us pray”. It always says first, “Let us think, let us understand the truth and take a firm hold on the doctrine.” Prayer can be quite useless. The Bible, of course, has a lot of things to tell us about prayer, and how to pray. Prayer is not a simple thing in one sense; it can be quite difficult. Prayer is sometimes an excuse for not thinking, an excuse for avoiding a problem or situation.

We’ve all known this for ourselves. There have been times for me that were difficult, and I prayed for God to deliver me, all while not putting something in my life right like I should have. Instead of facing the trouble and doing what I should have been doing, I prayed. I would suggest that at a point like that, our duty isn’t to pray but to face the truth, face the doctrine and apply it. It’s only then, and not until then, that we are entitled to pray. The New Testament method says, “You must become certain people before you can pray. There are certain preliminaries to apply, and you must know what you are doing when you pray.”

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