Why Our Hope Matters Now

This past Sunday at our church our study through 1 John took us into chapter three. There John writes about the significance of us becoming God's children. This is due to the lavish love of God toward us: "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are."

It was quite a humbling experience for us to meditate for a while on how deep the Father's love for us must be to not just atone for our sins but also to make us his children. We observed six things that are true for all believers thanks to God's adoption of us whereby he makes us his children.

One of those observations came from the astounding words of verse three. John writes, "And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure." I struggled for some time to understand John's logic. Why does our hope in being made like Christ at his appearing cause us to "purify ourselves" right now? How is it that our hope for this future transformation makes a practical difference in our lives now?

I think the answer is indicated by those final four words: “as he is pure.” That’s the connection to verse two, where our final salvation is achieved by seeing him “as he is.” We will miss the entire force of this passage if we don’t follow John’s assumption here, namely, that those who are born of God and have his nature will yearn to become just like Jesus. And knowing that the only way we will become like Jesus is by seeing him, we, who have this hope of becoming like him, will now be purifying ourselves in order to become just as he is pure.

In other words, those who are born again are the kind of people who are moving toward perfection, though they will not be there until Christ appears. Conversely, those who are not God’s children are moving away from the purity of Christ.

The way to become like Christ, according to the implication of verse two, is by seeing him. But in verse three John refers to this process as an act of purifying. Interestingly, that word in the Bible means "to cleanse and so make acceptable for religious use." Purification, then, is what one does as preparation. So what John is saying is that those who have this hope in Jesus, the hope that his appearing will be our final salvation as we become like him, will pursue the typical Christian behavior of striving to become like him now by striving to see him. That’s what perseverance is all about. It’s about wanting to become like Christ and so striving to see him and to know him. And all of that becomes a sort of “prerequisite” to seeing him on that final day as one of his children.

Let me remind us all that our only hope of seeing Jesus now is by looking where he has revealed himself. We ignore the disciplines of Bible study, prayer, service to others, and Christian community to our peril. Let us take up these disciplines and the others so that we might catch a glimpse of Jesus and there find the full and everlasting joy of communion with him.

In Search of Authentic Church

In our church plant efforts our group has often talked about our desire for authenticity. Over the past couple of weeks, as I've shared this quest for authenticity with others, I've had two people ask me to clarify what we mean by "authenticity."

When I talk about being authentic I am usually referring to an openness about our spiritual progress. I find that there are two disciplines that help foster this kind of openness. First is confession of sin. The Bible encourages us to "confess our sins to one another" and "to pray for one another" (James 5:16). What would it be like if in our Christian communities our intercession for each other consisted mainly in praying for victory over sin for our brothers and sisters? I'm talking specific sins. But most Western Christians I know are really good at putting on the appearance that we have things together for the most part. While very few of us would claim to be sinless, the fact that we very rarely confess our sins to each other suggests that we are acting as though we were sinless. Confession of sin is, by the way, connected with forgiveness of sin (1 John 1:9). It is a dangerous thing to neglect the discipline of confession.

Our group is doing a project together right now to help us identify a particular "growth area" for the next year. The idea is to identify just one area in which we are struggling in our Christian life, confess it to the group, and then work on it over the next several months. My growth area (here's my confession) is "Giving Away My Time." My stinginess with my time has contributed to me not being very compassionate. It is a sin in my life. And I am going to battle against it every week now.

The second discipline we are emphasizing for the sake of authenticity is inviting accountability. I also know some professing Christians who readily admit their sins to others but then seem to not care enough to do anything about it. I remember a couple of years ago at a previous church, I had selected a young guy as a potential small group leader. He "looked" like an authentic Christian. He gave the appearance of a guy who had a good relationship with the Lord. Imagine my surprise when he admitted to our leadership training group that he couldn't remember the last time he had read the Bible and prayed on his own. How could I expect him to lead others spiritually if he was not feeding his own soul?

That woke me up to how far we've drifted from an authentic faith. Most of us can show up to church week after week and look and talk like a Christian, but really we are just a replica. We are not the real deal.

It was C. S. Lewis who said, "The one thing Christianity cannot be is mildly important." Yet, this seems to be the problem most American Christians are in. Call it nominalism if you'd like. The truth is that most of us do not sense how significant Christianity really is. It matters to most of us, but not too much.

And I'm as guilty as the guy sitting next to me or behind me this Sunday. So, I have invited accountability into my life on a daily basis. I want someone else to be in the know about how I'm doing spiritually day by day. Some days I'm really struggling. Other days I feel I'm doing pretty well. Every day I need to fight.

And I don't want to fight alone.

Pursuing God in Spiritual Disciplines

During our Sunday worship gatherings, we have been studying the book of 1 John together. We have noticed that fellowship with God is the goal of the gospel that John proclaimed, and we have noticed that sin is what prevents fellowship with God. I have found myself convicted about not taking sin in my life with enough seriousness and gravity, and wonder how much I assume that I am in fellowship with God.

So, along with a friend of mine at Crosstown, we came up with a plan to fight against sin and to fight for fellowship with God. We decided that if we really believed that fellowship with God was worth fighting for, we could not take too lightly our struggle with some of the spiritual disciples (namely, Scripture reading, memory, meditation and prayer). The early church met for encouragement and exhortation every day (Acts 2:46). Why couldn't we meet together every day?

I don't mean actually see each other every day, but we could meet on the telephone easily enough. We could ask each other if we had been in the word and in prayer that day. So that's what we have done for the past two weeks. Every day one of us calls the other and we ask each other about these spiritual disciplines.

The result? Well, neither of us has missed a day of devotion the past two weeks. I am quite sure I would have missed at least a couple of days if it hadn't been for the daily accountability. We know that there is much more to the Christian life than this, but we figured we should start somewhere. Our study of 1 John has already convinced us that we dare not assume anything about our fellowship with God. We must fight for it. And God has been gracious to help us in our perseverance.

At Crosstown we value Intentional Spiritual Formation. We like to say that we value church growth--that is that every believer demonstrates genuine Christlikeness. Our goal is to see Christ formed in one another. For too long many of us have only passively participated in our sanctification. And I'm afraid the church has become anything but a place where authentic exhortation of one another is happening. Consider these words from Hebrews 3:12-14:

"Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end."

So why not team up with another believer and exhort one another every day in the spiritual disciplines?

Behavior and Sanctification

I do not doubt the sincerity of most Christian legalists. Having been one, I know that what drove much of my legalistic views was a sincere desire for holiness. I wanted to be separated from the world so that I could be holy. But there were certain things about myself and others that made other Christian legalists feel like we were not completely dedicated to this quest for personal holiness. I was (and still am) quite competitive, and my desire to win on the basketball court was sometimes mistaken for carnal pride. Others who did not as readily display such emotion were occasionally mistaken to be further along in their sanctification. Unfortunately, my passionate personality for winning a basketball game seemed incompatible with my quest for godliness.

I am beginning to read from the Puritan theologian John Owen, and today found this helpful comment.

Remember that of many of the best Christians, the worst is known and seen. Many who keep up precious communion with God do yet oftentimes by their natural tempers of freedom or passion, not carry so glorious appearances as others who perhaps come short of them in grace and the power of godliness. (Quoted in Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor, eds., Overcoming Sin and Temptation: Three Classic Works by John Owen, p. 30).

We must beware of the all-to-common temptation of judging spirituality by external behavior. While I do not mean to advocate a holiness without externals, I am learning that behavior is impacted by temperament as well as sin.