Great Expectations

Summary

This essay argues that much Christian frustration springs from unbiblical expectations—about life, church, and even salvation itself. Drawing on 1 John, it contends that Scripture gives us the “normal” Christian life: assurance rooted in believing and confessing Jesus as the Son of God and Lord (1 John 5:13; Rom. 10:9–10), not in cultural myths or self-invented promises. Historically, even the first-century church faced false teachers and schisms, so we should expect weakness, failure, and sin in ourselves and others, while pursuing truth, repentance, and reconciliation. Reorienting expectations to God’s revealed will produces wisdom, steadiness, and assurance that eternal life begins now and continues forever.

Introduction

There are a lot of downsides to getting old; my advice is to avoid it if at all possible. Your body wears out, your eyesight fades, and your waistline increases no matter how many crunches you do or salads you eat. One day, you look into a mirror and wonder, “Who is that old geezer staring back at me?”

Yet there is one benefit; and at least from God’s perspective, this benefit outweighs all the physical deficiencies. He expects that as people grow older, they ought to grow wiser. Granted, this is not always true; some people never seem to learn. Yet, in the main, as people go through life, most of them learn something about the way things really work. Many of us can remember discounting or even rejecting the advice of our parents when we were teenagers (perhaps openly, maybe just under our breaths). Yet, as we grew up and learned something about life (often painfully), we usually discover that for all their faults and shortcomings, our parents were often more right than we knew. It is amazing how intelligent parents become as their children go from 16 to 36!

It is not an uncommon, wistful desire for people in their fifties to wish that they had known then what they know now. The best they can do is hope to pass on a little of that hard-earned wisdom to their children, perhaps helping them make better decisions than they made when they were young. Even the world acknowledges the necessity of wisdom, albeit cynically, with the secular proverb, “The only way to avoid mistakes is by experience. The only way to get experience is by making mistakes.” God, however, commands His people to search for wisdom, to learn from His Word and the experiences of others, just so they do not have to repeat the same mistakes over and over again (Prov. 1:8ff.; 2:1ff.; 3:1ff.; 4:1ff.; 5:1ff.; 7:1ff.; 13:1). Wisdom—the most valuable resource we could ever obtain—should build generation after generation, like compound interest.

And if one carefully examines the history of people who are successful in life, one often finds they had “successful” ancestors. Those ancestors may or may not have left their children an economic inheritance; but often, they left a heritage of wisdom—an understanding of how the real world works—which gave their children a great leg up in life. Sometimes these ancestors understood that their wisdom came from God, sometimes not; after all, even the Lord Jesus reminded His disciples that sometimes the “sons of this age” were “wiser” than the sons of God. Regardless, all wisdom comes from God; His creation operates according to His divine will, and He is a God of order, not chaos (1 Cor. 14:40). Every major scientific or technological advance ever made was a result of men studying the providential acts of God in daily life and learning how to conform their actions accordingly. “Fools,” according to Scripture, are those who refuse to learn from their mistakes and insist that their way is the right way—even when it leads to disaster after disaster. Like the old cliché definition of insanity, the “fool” of Proverbs “does the same thing over and over again but expects a different result.” He cannot learn from his mistakes because he will not learn.

One vitally important aspect of wisdom is developing the right expectations. Everyone has an opinion of how the world works and develops a set of expectations accordingly. Perhaps one of the most dangerous aspects of our modern addiction to television and movies is that many people have a completely skewed view of what real life is like based on what they have “experienced” on the screen. Young adults have all sorts of expectations that are often absurd: how much money they will make, how successful they will be in their chosen careers, even how talented they are. We’ve all seen those hopelessly naïve, tone-deaf “wannabes” on various “Idol” shows who really believe they can sing. Part of the fun of watching the program is seeing just how clueless these people are. Yet many young people have been given the false expectation that all they need to succeed in life is ambition and self-confidence; if they just really believe in themselves and try hard enough, they can do anything!

While we do not want to crush anyone’s dreams here, let us think about this for a moment. God providentially, according to His own good pleasure, created each of us for His own glory. And even a moment’s reflection shows that all of us are different, with different abilities, skills, and assets, as well as weaknesses, liabilities, and lack of opportunities. For example, it takes a certain IQ to be a rocket scientist, and no matter how hard one may work or how deeply one believes in oneself, if you do not have the brains, you cannot do the job. Not everyone has the physical abilities to be Olympic or professional athletes; remember, for every person who wins a gold medal or is drafted into the NFL, there are tens of thousands of people who “believe” just as deeply in themselves and work just as hard, but who just do not make the grade.

In earlier times, the American Dream was not that anyone could do anything they wanted, but that a person’s opportunities were not restricted just because of their social standing. The technical term for this belief is “meritocracy,” where it is ability, not one’s ancestry, that allows people to go to college, become doctors, lawyers, or even politicians. However, somewhere along the line, this very noble ideal was replaced by an egotistical humanism; and lives are shattered as a result. Just think about the tens of thousands of dollars the average young person will waste on a college education that they will never be able to use! Americans invest years of their lives, and often put themselves into serious debt, to obtain academic qualifications in fields that they will never be able to work in; though they may have an interest in that vocation, they are simply not talented or skilled enough to compete for the few positions available. There is a reason why some of us caustic, cynical types make the joke, “What do you say to a liberal arts graduate? ‘Why, yes, I will have fries with that!’”

The problem is neither the ambition nor the sincerity of the student, but a fallacious set of expectations; and, as a consequence, those false expectations can literally affect that person for the rest of their life. For example, many single young Christian men have completely unrealistic expectations of marriage; they really do think that their future wife ought to look like all the beautiful women they have seen in films and TV shows, and they immediately discount many fine, godly women who do not meet their fantasies. At a conference for single adults some years ago, I was talking with a group of Christian men. Knowing that many of them were eagerly looking to get married, I asked them why they were not socializing with all the lovely girls at the conference. They were shocked that I would characterize these young women as “lovely”! From my perspective, all of these ladies were intelligent, charming, and certainly above average in appearance. Yet the young men, borrowing their expectations of attractiveness from popular culture, saw these same young women as, at best, “below par.” Quite frankly, they did not have a clue as to how real women looked, nor that they themselves were not in the top ten percentile of attractiveness.

Now, it may seem trite to mention the unrealistic experiences of shallow young men, but it does raise an important issue. Many of these men wanted to be married and start a family but were frustrated that they could not find a “suitable” woman. They started with a biblical expectation—that it is not good for a man to be alone—but then added all sorts of other expectations, expectations that God never promised, and thus found frustration and disappointment. I have known men to spend many years single and alone when they could have been married and raising a family, if they had simply had more realistic (and more biblical) expectations. Eventually, of course, most of these men will wise up and learn that the most important quality is a woman’s character; but in the meantime, they are paying the price for their unrealistic expectations. They are alone, they suffer from temptation, and they are not able to start a family, which for most of us is the most important ministry we will ever have. And if young men are often shallow, young women’s expectations of marriage begin with “once upon a time…”

However, to be honest, all of us have developed expectations of what life is supposed to be like. These expectations vary with the individual: we expect wealth, power, popularity, personal peace, or whatever. Often, life itself has a way of smacking some sense into most of us; just the hard work of making a living, staying married, and raising children forces many people to “get real.” However, some people, cushioned by our affluent society, are actually able to live like perpetual adolescents—with predictable results. Despite enormous advantages, they never really accomplish anything with their life, other than to sedate themselves from the angst of a meaningless existence through narcotics, alcohol, or fantasy (movies, books, TV, computer games, etc.). OK, you are much more sophisticated than this; you manage to insulate yourself from emptiness by owning a luxurious home, driving an expensive car, taking fascinating vacations, or whatever. Yet is this what you ought to expect from life?

Francis Schaeffer said it over forty years ago: the two dominant values in modern society are personal peace and affluence. The average American does not want anything to disturb his sense of self-satisfaction and comfort; and he expects to make enough money that he can gratify his physical senses and stimulate his nerve endings. These two values are so deeply ingrained in our thinking that seldom does the average person actually reflect on the meaning of his life, or whether he is chasing a will-o’-the-wisp. Many people endure what is commonly called a “midlife crisis” where, upon reaching middle age, they will abandon their spouses, children, jobs, etc., in search of something that will give their life a sense of meaning and fulfillment. They look back over the previous twenty years of adult life and become terribly unsatisfied with who they are and what they have accomplished. Much of this dissatisfaction stems from their irresistible false expectations running into an immovable reality.

For some, this can be a helpful time of reassessment, wherein they can learn how to best utilize the gifts, talents, and opportunities they have been given in a mature and responsible way. However, far too many others refuse to grow up and assume that if they can change their situation, somehow they can deal with the gnawing emptiness inside. In the process of “changing their situation,” they leave behind shattered lives, bitterness, and emotional scars that will never quite heal. Usually, of course, these people find that their “new” lives eventually evolve into something very much like their old ones.

Christians, of course, are above all these things, right? We who have been redeemed and granted new life in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17) never experience frustration, anxiety, meaninglessness, and hopelessness—yes, I am being a bit facetious here. In the thirty-something years since God granted me faith in Christ, I have noticed that many of my brothers and sisters seem to be missing out on the fullness of His promises. I do not doubt either their salvation or their sincerity; but I have seen too many Christians living lives of “quiet desperation” partially because their expectations of what the Christian life is are something less than biblical. They expect God to work in and through their lives one way, and they are often frustrated, depressed, and disillusioned when He does something altogether different. Furthermore, these expectations govern how they use their time, their resources, raise their children, resolve problems, and determine the kind of church they attend. It affects how they view the world, politics, history, science, and culture. I have argued this point academically and pleaded it from the pulpit for decades now: if you want to understand how the Adversary has managed to so effectively destroy the remnants of Christian civilization, look no further than the way the average Christian lives out his faith.

Granted, depending upon God’s providential working in one’s life, Christians’ expectations vary. Some people expect transcendent, almost mystical, experiences of the living God. They demand that in their personal devotions and in the church services they attend, God will speak to them, much as He did to the ancient prophets—clearly, audibly, and personally. Others expect that God will grant them personal peace and freedom from guilt; particularly, that they will never have to feel bad at any time, for any reason. And there are those who expect that God, through His revealed Word, would tie all of life together into a coherent intellectual whole, finding meaning in a comfortable intellectual construct.

While in one sense all of these great expectations are legitimate, yet at the same time, many Christians appear to have had expectations of this life that failed them. As a pastor, I have had to comfort far too many bedridden Christians about to face eternity and seen them tremble in fear. I have counseled too many Christians whose marriages were breaking up, or held too many Christians overcome with grief over some personal disaster. And then there are those whose lives simply fall apart—losing jobs, suffering impoverishment, or witnessing the grief of rebellious children. Though many of them were “pillars” of the church and seemingly dedicated, sincere Christians, all were stunned by what was happening in their lives—distraught, depressed, and often despondent. Some openly wished that God would just kill them and get it over with.

And the root cause was that they simply could not believe that God would allow such a thing to happen to them! You see, somewhere along the line, they had come to develop a set of expectations about the Christian life that, though sincerely held, were not actually made by God. They expected that, as Christians, God had promised them that they would never have to suffer, never have to feel bad about anything, and that He would make them successful, wealthy, and “happy.” Then they made various life decisions (such as calling, marriage, family, relationships, even church membership) based on those expectations—and got something different.

Let me see if I can illustrate this: if you are about to run out of gas, you have a legitimate expectation that when you fill up at the local service station you can just go on your way. However, when I was younger, there were certain places that were notorious for having water in their gas. If you did not know about these particular places, you might fill up your tank with something other than just gasoline; and in a frigid, sub-zero Maine winter, that water in the gas line would often freeze, leaving you stranded by the road. You expected one thing, and in one sense that expectation was perfectly justified based on what you knew at the time; but the consequences could be devastating.

Now, in this case, the gas stations were not deliberately trying to cause anyone problems; as I recall, one of my older brothers explained that they could not afford to keep their underground tanks full, so when the temperature dropped, water vapor in the air condensed and could be unintentionally piped into an unwitting consumer’s car. Furthermore, in those days, drivers also could not always afford to fill up the tanks in their cars, making the problem even worse. Yet, even though the problem was not caused by malice, it still existed and could cause no end of frustration, irritation, inconvenience, and even, in some cases, disaster (say, if you were stranded on a lonely Maine side road during a blizzard).

And, of course, there are those who deliberately cause other people problems because they fully intend to profit from the ignorance of others. Again, using an illustration from the automobile world, you expect that when you take your car to a mechanic, they will fix the problem. However, there are wicked men who will actually create problems by slashing belts, puncturing hoses, or replacing perfectly good parts, just because they want to take advantage of the consumer.

I see this two-fold dynamic happening all the time amongst my Christian brothers. Many pastors and elders preach and practice a kind of Christianity that is inherently likely to cause people serious problems. Some do so just because they do not know any better; within the limits of their own education, life experiences, and understanding of Scripture, they sincerely try to teach people what God wants; but unknown to them, right along with the “good fuel” is a lot of nasty stuff they have picked up from the environment. And yes, there are others out there who deliberately distort the truth of God in order to tickle ears and manipulate people just so their churches are growing and “dynamic.” They know full well that they are teaching things contrary to God’s Word; they just do not care.

[Set Right Expectations] 

Many disappointments come from promises God never made. 1 John recalibrates us to what God actually expects and provides.

Either way, I suspect that the average evangelical, Bible-believing Christian in America today has developed a whole series of great expectations of what it means to live the Christian life that are completely contrary to God’s will. This suspicion was one of the primary motivating factors in my formal academic studies. As I began to learn something about the history of the Church—how we had conquered the Roman Empire, evangelized the pagan tribes of Europe, recovered the gospel during the Reformation, and built the freest, most prosperous, and civilized societies in human history—I had to ask myself, “Why have we lost so much over the past 150 years?”

Now, many of my brothers will answer, “Because we are living in the last days.” This is a tangent too broad to go into now; however, it does go back to the idea of expectations. Regardless of your personal views on the end times, just consider this: almost out of nowhere, within about a twenty-year span of time (1870–1890), tens of thousands of Bible-believing Christians suddenly changed their expectations of what God was going to do in this world before the Lord Jesus returns. Today, it is probably safe to say that the vast majority of Christians expect the world to become ever more corrupt and wicked and that there is nothing that can be done to stop it. In fact, perversely, when many of these Christians see some new perfidy, perversion, or such, they actually rejoice because for them it is a sign that the end is just that much closer.

And as a consequence, this expectation affected how Christians lived in this world day to day. Christians withdrew from the arts, politics, and culture as a whole, actually hastening the growth of anti-Christian humanism and the rebirth of neo-paganism. Christians stopped having large families (after all, we don’t want to bring children into the world only to have them “left behind”). Christians sent their kids to humanist schools where they were indoctrinated for sixteen years to hate Christ and reject the gospel; why build our own schools when the Lord could come at any moment? Then, when these children abandoned the faith by the age of twenty-five (which about 75% did), the parents saw it as another sign of the final apostasy and the imminent return of Christ. They never even considered that, by expecting their children to abandon the faith, they were actually creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. And no matter how many times the prophecy experts got it wrong (e.g., “88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Happen in ’88” and its best-selling sequel, “89 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Happen in ’89”), still there was a market for telling Christians that they did not have to worry or do anything constructive because Jesus was coming soon.

Now, this is not going to be a book about eschatology; in fact, my basic presupposition is that regardless of one’s millennial views, what God expects from us is exactly the same. I only mention the end-times issue to illustrate my basic point: Christians have certain expectations, based upon what they have been taught about what God expects. And whether they realize it or not, sometimes those expectations have actually caused the very thing they fear. Therefore, it seems logical to me to think that if we bring our expectations in line with God’s, then not only will we find the peace, joy, and fulfillment we are promised, but also, as a direct result, we will be salt and light in this world.

However, the issue is “What does God expect?” Let me put it another way: What does God want from you? Well, to answer that, I wrote this book. For years, the first letter of John has had a great hold over me; from the time I first read it as a baby Christian, through translating it from the original Greek (as a part of my own personal devotions), to today, when I go to it for comfort and hope, this simple little exhortation seems to put everything else in Scripture into perspective. In fact, in my opinion, John gives us a description of the normal Christian life; not the average (where most people today actually live) but the normal—or the way that this life is supposed to be lived. And John’s assessment of what this life is supposed to be about is dramatically different from many of the expectations I have seen so many Christians develop.

Historical Context

[ ASSURANCE OFFERED ]

“These things…that you may know you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13): assurance is experiential, grounded in believing and confessing Christ.

Over the years, either attending or ministering to various churches, Christians have often expressed to me how wonderful it must have been to have lived during the time of Jesus. This great expectation is that everything was perfect when Jesus was alive and how wonderful and exciting it must have been to be a part of that. Then this same Christian will often complain about how badly we have fallen from those days and that we need to “get back” to “original” Christianity.

Yet is that expectation necessarily true? The first letter of John was written by the brother of James, the “beloved” of Jesus, sometime around AD 90 (according to some scholars). While there is little doubt about the authorship, the dating, in my opinion, is probably twenty years off; all “late” dates for John’s writings are based on one comment by one church father which itself is ambiguous, referring either to the “appearance” of John’s Apocalypse or of John himself. Liberal scholars posited a late date for John’s writings (two to three centuries) because they assumed that the New Testament itself was a fraud. However, there is no reason to suppose from the internal evidence of the book that it was written any later than AD 67–70.

In other words, John probably wrote his letter after the deaths of Paul and Peter, and probably around the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Now think about that for a moment; John is writing within forty years of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The gospel has gone from a tiny sect of Judaism, unknown outside of the land of Palestine, to literally a worldwide religion. We know from the book of Acts that people from all over the Roman Empire had embraced the Lord Jesus, reaching even to Caesar’s own household. And during this time, though many had been martyred (especially under Nero), some of the original Apostles were still alive—men who had walked with the Lord Jesus, who had been given wondrous supernatural gifts to authenticate their message, and who knew, without question, what the truth was about any questions or issues we have today.

So why did John write his letter? The theme is summarized in 1 John 5:13: “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God in order that you may know that you have eternal life.” In historical context, John was concerned about various heretics who had infiltrated the church, teaching that Jesus was good, but not good enough. The word “heretic” does not mean “someone with bad doctrine,” but rather originally referred to schismatic people who were splitting the church with bad doctrine. John thus had to write this general letter (probably to the churches in Asia Minor) to refute those who were teaching that something other than Jesus was necessary for salvation.

Scholars disagree about who precisely these false teachers were, and John himself does not actually identify them by name. He is more concerned that Christians were being troubled by these men, losing confidence in their status with God. In essence, the entire letter provides an authoritative description of the normal Christian life so that people can know they already have eternal life.

However, notice this: already, within one generation of the ascension of the Lord Jesus, false teachers, bad doctrine, and schism are present within the church. Of course, we ought to expect this; the Lord Jesus Himself warned about “wheat and tares,” and Judas was a member of Jesus’ own intimate circle—yet the expectation remains somehow that the church is supposed to be perfect, without flaws or traitors in her midst. People still get angered, frustrated, and disillusioned when they see Christians failing to live up to the ideal life, or the church being torn apart by factions, bitterness, jealousy, envy, or just plain old incompetence.

You see, many Christians have failed to understand the very nature of what it means to be a Christian in this world! We are fallen creatures, redeemed by God to demonstrate His glory, love, and compassion. But we are all corrupt; every aspect of our nature has been stained by sin. And though we are forgiven for that sin and called to a new life of holiness, we are still tainted. Only in the eternal state will sin be fully removed from our beings. Until then, we will fall short; and that means that we ought to expect that people will fail us, disappoint us, and yes, even sin against us.

Furthermore, Christians—though they should know better—often fail to remember what kind of people God called into His kingdom. The Apostle Paul put it this way:

“For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things that are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God…” (1 Cor. 1:26–29).

Did you get that? The people that God called out of the world into His Kingdom are not wise, noble, or powerful, but foolish, base, and weak; in other words, people just like you and me. And He did so that foolish men could have no basis to boast; salvation is all of God, and nothing of man. God did not call us because we were something special, important, intelligent, or able to do things for Him; He called us—poor, stubborn, irascible weaklings—because through us, He demonstrates His own glory.

[ CHURCH REALITY CHECK ]

The early church had false teachers and conflicts. Don’t idealize; expect weakness, pursue holiness, and practice reconciliation.

Therefore, what should we expect from a community made up of these kinds of people? Well, how about your average Christian church? Is it just me, or have you ever been embarrassed by the antics of some of the brethren—especially those who manage to get on TV? If you have never winced at bad “special” music in church, some twanging “evangelist” spouting off nonsense, or the sheer inability of the average church to accomplish anything other than arranging a worship service—well, you are holier than I am. Let us be honest, though: the world often finds it easy to ridicule us because, quite frankly, we can be pretty ridiculous at times. No, I am not questioning the sincerity of my brothers here; just their ability.

OK, one admittedly silly example: every so often I receive email from concerned Christian brothers about some “dire menace” that I supposedly need to know about. It might have to do with the FCC closing down Christian broadcasting, a government plot of some type, or even something as ridiculous as Procter & Gamble’s logo really being a sign that the company has made a pact with the devil. Sometimes brothers want to let me in on some great deal (say from Bill Gates) that if I forward this email, I will receive money from Microsoft or something. Now, these emails all come from well-educated, highly intelligent, and successful men (some with international reputations). Whenever someone tells me something too good to be true, a little alarm bell goes off in my head. So when I receive one of these emails (either the dire warning or the great blessing) I immediately open up my internet browser and type into a search engine the claim with the word “hoax.” Within seconds, I can find any number of web pages dedicated to debunking the specific item.

Now, this action does not take complicated computer skills; anyone who uses email knows how to use a search engine. However, these highly intelligent, well-educated, successful Christians will pass on as true something that clearly can be shown to be false in just a few seconds. Since this happens so often, with so many different Christians, I can only presume this is a widespread phenomenon amongst Christians. And if they so easily and confidently pass on hoaxes by email, surely, they must also pass on naïve opinions in their own work, writing, and relationships!

Now, lest anyone think I am being smug or condescending, I have my own “ouch” moments. Though I like to think of myself as a fairly well-educated, widely read, and reasonably intelligent fellow, I also have made some huge gaffes, many of them in public. Hence, my point is not to ridicule my brothers, but rather simply to point out that none of us has anything to brag about. Yet many Christians seem to expect other believers to be better than the world when in reality we are often actually less!

Think about how this expectation affects relationships. I have seen Christians crushed and disillusioned when they have been treated badly by other Christians. Now, the definition of “bad” varies; some people can become quite upset simply if they are not treated as the center of the universe. As a pastor, I have had my share of people calling at very late hours because they were lonely or depressed about something and had to “talk to my minister, NOW!” It is one thing when one is rushed to the hospital, in physical danger, or something like that; it is quite different when one simply feels sad. Many times, Christians are unable to develop intimate, meaningful relationships with others because they feel other people do not treat them the way they demand to be treated. In reality, they are often lonely because they are selfish and egotistical.

 [ BELIEF = LORDSHIP ]

True belief is more than mental assent; it confesses Jesus as Lord and lives under His authority (Rom. 10:9–10).

Yet, if we have the right expectations about one another, then all these hurts and failings can be put into perspective. The first-century church, still under the leadership of the Apostles, was constantly being torn apart by controversy and schismatic false teachers. The church of Corinth was split into various personality cults; the situation was so bad that people were actually dying because they were taking the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner. The whole book of Philippians was written to deal with interpersonal conflicts splitting the church!

Therefore, we ought to expect that Christians are going to act inconsistently with their confession of faith; they are weak, foolish, and ignoble individuals called by God to demonstrate His grace and glory. These people will fail one another, disappoint one another, and even sin against one another. The beauty of the Christian gospel as it is worked out in real life is that only we have a way of resolving and reconciling these problems—more about that later. And in this little letter, John deals with all of these issues in giving us the right expectations.

Oh, yes; there is another important implication of this: if we are the weak, foolish, and base things of the world, we never have anything to brag about. This should take a lot of pressure off us; after all, what room do we have for pride? Yet, is it just me, or has anyone else noticed a lot of arrogance amongst the brethren? Many Christians, in my experience, are perfectly willing to acknowledge that they are sinners in general but will become most upset and angry if you ever point out any specific sins! I have wondered for years whether or not some meeting was held wherein average Christians got together and agreed that “I won’t point out your sins if you don’t point out mine.” I thought we were supposed to confess our sins to one another and forgive one another accordingly. I must have missed the memo on that one!

Relevance

Though John wrote to encourage the saints about the security of their salvation by giving them essentially what constitutes a character description of the normal Christian life, it is applicable to all Christians in all ages. Over the years, many believers have come to me with doubts about their salvation. I have always taken these questions extremely seriously; after all, the basic question that faces all men is “Do you have eternal life?” If someone answers “yes,” then the most important follow-up question would be “How do you know?” D. James Kennedy developed an evangelistic program for Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church (Evangelism Explosion) based on this question: “If you were to die tonight and stand before Jesus, and He were to ask you, ‘Why should I let you into heaven?’ how would you answer?”

Sadly, even evangelical, Bible-believing Christians cannot always answer this question properly. The most common response is “Because I invited Jesus into my heart.” Yet, never in Scripture is “inviting Jesus into my heart” taught as the means by which one becomes a Christian. Now, I know that is probably a shocker; but the only verse even remotely related to “inviting Jesus into one’s heart” (Rev. 3:20), in context, has nothing to do with salvation; it is part of Jesus’ letters to the seven churches, inviting Christians to renew their fellowship with Him.

Furthermore, the “invite Jesus into your heart” answer presupposes a work that we do as being necessary for salvation; a flat contradiction of the clearly stated message that salvation is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8–9). Good works, no matter how simple—even “praying a prayer to receive Jesus”—cannot save anyone.

Well, when John says we can know that we have eternal life, how do we actually get it? Paul puts it this way: “…that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved…” (Rom. 10:9–10). Read that verse again; do you see anything about inviting Jesus into your heart? Neither do I. Instead, there is an inner belief manifested in an outward confession. Now, in the grand scheme of problems, trials, and controversies afflicting the church in time, this issue of “invitation” is surely a tiny one. After all, what is it that a person actually does when “inviting” Jesus into their heart but express their faith in Him and their willingness to confess or acknowledge Him as Lord? However, this example does illustrate our main point: many sincere, dedicated Christians have the wrong expectations about how even to be saved—something that is at the very heart and substance of our faith. Is it not also likely that, if we got this wrong, we may well have gotten other things wrong as well?

As we continue this study, we will discover that the fundamental problem afflicting all men in all ages ever since Adam’s fall is that sinful men want to meet with God on their terms, not His. The entire religious, philosophical, and political history of the world is characterized by sinful men creating rituals, theologies, ideologies, and ethical systems to procure eternal life by what seems good to them.

The first-century Christians had come out of various pagan religions that promised some sort of future life and had extensive rituals to obtain that life. At the time that John was writing, some well-known people who had once been in the church had now left it, claiming that they had received “secret” knowledge that was necessary to really know God and have eternal life. In essence, these false teachers were saying that Jesus was a nice start, but that something else was necessary to get to the next level. Thus the question that many first-century Christians were asking was, “How do I know that I am saved?”

Hence, Christians needed to know that their faith in Christ was in fact what God required of them; that they were approved by God and adopted into His own holy household. John responds with this little letter, which in essence was written to remind them that in Jesus, they had all of God there was to have. Furthermore, they could know that they had eternal life. Let’s look at the theme in more detail.

Exegetical Comments on the Text

“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God in order that you may know that you have eternal life.”

The phrase “These things I have written…” refers to all that John has written thus far in his book. While it may seem strange to find the theme at the end of the book rather than at the beginning, in one sense this is John looking back over what he has written and clearly stating his purpose. Thus, it is a summary statement.

The next phrase, “…to you who believe in the name…,” addresses the audience. John was not writing to religious people, but to those who believed. The word “believe” should not be understood merely as mental affirmation. Salvation is not simply giving lip service to a series of theoretical propositions. In the historical context, by the time that 1 John was written, Christians had already undergone significant persecution—first in Judea and then under Nero. Both Peter and Paul had been martyred by this time. In other words, it cost them something to “believe” in Jesus.

Furthermore, it was not so much that they “believed,” but rather what they believed; namely, that Jesus was the Son of God. This put them at odds with both Greek philosophy (the dominant, academically respectable thinking of the age) as well as imperial religion. While formal emperor worship as law would come later, still, even in the first century, the claims of Christ were seen as treasonous. The Romans understood that when Christians professed their faith that “Jesus is Lord,” it implicitly denied Caesar’s claims; this could not be accepted! And Christians were persecuted for believing it. The Roman Empire did not mind people having various religious beliefs; they often put up shrines in their own temples to the gods of the various peoples they conquered. However, all nations and all “gods” had to acknowledge that Rome was ultimate; and starting in the time of Augustus, foreigners were encouraged to worship the Emperor as a personification of the rule and might of the Empire. Thus, believing that Jesus is the unique Son of God put Christians at enmity with Rome; there cannot be two rival claims of Lordship. If Jesus is Lord, then Caesar is not!

In the modern world, wherein many people reject the Bible’s testimony about Jesus, some Christians think that to get someone to affirm it is all that is necessary for eternal life. However, if you plead that you are a patriot but then sell secrets to the enemy, your confession is a lie. In the same way, if you affirm belief in Jesus but are not submitted to His Lordship, then you do not really believe. Remember, James said that even the demons believe—and tremble—but they are still demons.

Thus, the word “believe” here ought to be understood as more than mental assent; rather, it is those who “call on the name of the Lord” (Rom. 10:9–10). Granted, there is an intellectual component to belief in that John was probably indirectly refuting the false teachers who had offered many false theories about the nature of Christ. Remember, to believe that Jesus was the Son of God not only put one at risk of imperial persecution, but also of social ostracism. Greek philosophy was the dominant thought form of the day. The Greeks believed in “God” as a pure spirit of which the material world was a dim, faint, and inherently flawed picture. The distance between the pure goodness of this spiritual God and creation was so vast that it was impossible to breach in this life. Thus, many Greeks thought that salvation could be achieved through celibacy, asceticism, ethics, or intellectualism. Some even taught that one could overcome one’s physical nature by overindulging the senses so that one’s appetites would become jaded; I call this the “working in a candy factory” approach. Supposedly, people who work in a candy factory are allowed to eat all the candy they want. Very quickly, they lose all interest in candy and therefore are less likely to munch on goodies all day.

When the gospel was preached to the Greeks it was “foolishness” (1 Cor. 1:22ff.) in several different ways. First, the very idea of a resurrection from the dead was nonsense, given Greek presuppositions. If the physical world was inherently sinful and inferior to the spiritual world, why would one want to be resurrected? In the same way, the idea of the Incarnation made no sense to them. How could God become flesh without losing the very essence of His holiness? From their perspective, it just could not happen. Some people within the church tried to harmonize Greek philosophy with Christianity; and inevitably, the gospel was reduced as a result. John may well be addressing this issue; Christians are those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God—something that put them at complete odds with the best thinking of the day. Hence, to be a Christian required a complete reorientation of their worldview, the abandonment of everything that they had believed about life before, and the willingness to think differently—and suffer the ridicule, scorn, and contempt of the world.

The phrase “…in order that you may know…” has several implications. First, the mood of the verb is the subjunctive—the mood of possibility. In other words, there is an objective reality of which one may or may not be assured. However, whether we know or not does not change the objective reality.

Secondly, the word “know” is the Greek word oida, which has a different nuance of meaning from the more common word for “know,” ginosko. While we do not want to make the common error of making too much of what can be synonymous terms, at least according to most lexicons, to know by ginosko is to know something intellectually or rationally; to know by oida is to know by experience.

Thus, John is saying that the knowledge of eternal life he is offering can be experienced, not just intellectually apprehended. For example, we began this study by talking about wisdom as life experience. While a young person can know many things about life, there is a richness—a depth of understanding—that comes from actual experience. Watching a movie, or reading, or even taking a class in some subject can all give one knowledge about something. That knowledge can be true and accurate; but it is different from knowing something from personal experience. When I was in high school, our physics teacher gave us a complete breakdown of the inner workings of the internal combustion engine. Coming from a family where my older brothers were all “car nuts” who could rebuild anything with wheels, I found that section of class fascinating. The teacher went into considerable detail on how the carburetor mixed air with the fuel, how it was transported to the cylinder where the spark was applied to push the piston, etc. By the end of class I could diagram the entire process and comment meaningfully on the proper compression ratios of various octane formulations. I “knew” how an engine worked; but that did not mean I knew how to tune up a car.

“…that you have…”—present tense, something they presently possess.

“…eternal life…”—that which Adam lost for us through his revolutionary act, Christ has now won back for us through His submission unto death. Physical death is a sign or symbol of separation from God and His love; eternal life is knowing God (John 17:3). We often call it “salvation” or “redemption,” and these are good words. But we are saved from eternal death. And we are redeemed from our sins so that we can now live in peace with Almighty God. Eternal life is thus more than simple fire insurance; it begins now and extends to eternity.

Application and Conclusions

There are no more important questions than “Where will I spend eternity?” and “How do I know?”

However, true eternal life begins now with your relationship with God. This life is to be lived in humble submission to Almighty God as evidence that we have been redeemed. All that happens in this life has meaning only in the context of eternal life with the living God.

Everything else in the book of 1 John is written to develop this theme—to grant you confidence and assurance that God has saved you and that He is present with you, loving and caring for you as He prepares you for eternity. Therefore, let us study with reverence and fear, but also with joy and celebration; for He has granted us eternal life.