A test and a testimony

Thursday 7 January 2010 – Holy Communion at St Giles

Reading 1 John 4,5

Faith in the Incarnate Son of God

¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ If we say we love God yet hate a brother or sister, we are liars. For if we do not love a fellow believer, whom we have seen, we cannot love God, whom we have not seen. ²¹ And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love one another.

¹ Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. ² This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. ³ In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, ⁴ for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

Sermon

Remember lawyer in Matthew 22 who asked “...which commandment in the law is greatest?” Jesus answered “Love God with all your soul ... and your neighbour as yourself.” Love God – love others” appears over and over again throughout gospels. Our Christian faith can be summed up in these few words. Faith should be simple not complicated.

In the middle of John’s first letter he takes abiding in God and loving one another a stage further. Love becomes the test of our faith.

We know we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death.” I John 3:14

God is love. That is God’s nature. So anyone who does not love does not know God. This applies also to Jesus, for in Jesus God revealed his love to us. Jesus became the atoning sacrifice for our sins through God’s love. That’s basically what I John 3 is all about.

But in I John 4, the test follows, and we would do well to apply this test to ourselves, as indeed should many of the factions of our church whose arguments about many issues have become increasingly personal.

Those who say ’I love God’ and hate their brothers or sisters are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen cannot love God whom they have not seen.I John 4:20

So the exhortation in the greatest commandments is turned into a test. A test of faith. And not only a test, but a testimony. The test is twofold – a personal test, in that we can examine ourselves: do we love others as well as loving our maker? Secondly, a test we can apply to those we meet. If they claim to love God but appear to hate their fellow Christians, they deceive themselves.

The testimony is that of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is Truth, and has testified to Jesus Christ. Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life: whoever does not have the Son does not have life.

So that’s what these two chapters in I John come down to. A test and a testimony. The first is a test of faith through love, and the second leads to life through the love and grace of God. Amen