Series on 1 John: Brother Tiger & Sister Dolphin: Finding Family in the Kingdom of God ~ 1 John 2:9-11

⁹ Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. ¹⁰ Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling. ¹¹ But whoever hates another believer is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.

My mom’s family is big – one of five of poor sharecropper parents in Granger, TX. I’ve got more cousins than you can shake a stick at. Some live in the country and some in cities. Some are very religious and others not. Some talk like this and other like this. Some are wealthy, some not, some highly educated, others not. But we know the same stories, we love the same grandparents, we spent summers working on the same farm side by side and complaining about it. We know what a combine is, have watched chickens being slaughtered and de-feathered, knew NOT to throw rocks down the well (but did it anyway), and we all cried when they died. You’d look at us and see a motley crew of individuals who seemingly had nothing in common and you’d be wrong. The kingdom of God is like that – a group of people that you would never put together: different backgrounds, countries of origin, diverse worship practices but a shared story, a common book, One Lord. And John assumes a family here – “brothers and sisters”, “believers” but acknowledges some family tension, even hate. Where should we look for family resemblance? How should we behave as brothers and sisters?

               1.      When it comes to family, where you look determines what you see.

1 John uses familial language to describe all of us in the church. He uses the term “brother” which many translators rightly connect to “sisters” and “believers.” What makes us brothers and sisters is an important question – particularly as we think about Christian unity. John argues that what makes us a family, marks us Christian, connects directly to Jesus – the Son of God, come in the flesh as atonement for our sins (c.f. 2:22-23; 4:2; 5:5-8). So if we have any hope of finding and loving each other as fellow Christians we have to look to Jesus. Thankfully, while the Apostle John will use the term “brother” he does not the word “twin.” So Christian unity isn't asking how can we all look alike, sound alike, worship alike – that would remove the beautiful and (almost) necessary diversity of the kingdom of God; no, we need to ask, how can we be more centered on him? How can we advance his work? Or in the words of 1 John, how can we be brother and sister with one another?

A good paternity test in line with 1 John for having God as our father and Jesus as our brother is the Apostles’ Creed – it’s the oldest creed and represents the conclusions to which the first Christians were driven when they sought to formulate the summary truths about God, Christ, the Holy Spirit and humanity. It provides the basic essentials and serves as a reminder that we have a vital and rich tradition that runs long and deep and that does not require constant reinventing.  This is not to say that creeds cannot be abused nor that they should replace the importance of the Bible or a personal relationship but rather that they rightly serve as a precise theological summation of Christian identity and a guide for reading Scripture.  Moreover, it is generally the case historically that heretics have always used the Bible. Let’s say the Apostles’ Creed together. What do you notice about it?

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

It is no accident that the part of the creed dealing with Christ is the longest. The creed centers us by summarizing the story of Jesus before speaking of a few particular doctrines. We simply cannot talk about who God is, how we know God, what God is like, what God wants with us, and what it means to be human, without telling the story of Jesus Christ. And it says, “catholic” – little “c” catholic means “universal” – this is the universal story that we can all affirm.

1 John and the Apostles’ creed are also fairly modest. Allowing for a diversity on what the Bible is not entirely clear about or what is not about salvation. They do not tell us how to vote, what to eat, which form of baptism must be practiced, which type of music should be sung in worship, or even when to expect the second coming of Christ, etc. This is not to say that these issues are not important but that we can embrace diverse responses and wrestle with them with a certain ease because they are not our core identity.  It does not mean that Christian existence is not, at times, controversial, but it does help us frame what is truly worth fighting about and what is not, what should divide us and what should not. To understand this unity in diversity, I often ask believers to consider the definition of a mammal. These are animals that are warm blooded, give birth to live young, have hair, and a backbone or spinal column. While the definition is certainly exclusive, knocking out a whole range of creatures, it, nevertheless, maintains an amazing inclusivity that would describe a horse, tiger, dog, monkey, dolphin, or human being. That’s the beauty of God’s kingdom – A delightfully diverse family centered on Jesus Christ.

               2.      When it comes to family, love and hate are orthodox matters.

For John, however, doctrinal unity is not enough to establish Christian identity or help us “walk in the light.” Light to walk by can’t simply be enforced uniformity or theological toleration. Diverse ideas and strong disagreements can be present but the absence of love, however, cannot. John goes on to say that the absence of love isn’t simply darkness, however. He warns us that it is something far more scary than that. To not love another believer, to hate them, to deny their rightful connection to God and us, is to become blind. Darkness is external to us – I turn a light on and then off – my eyes still work, it’s the darkness that obscures my vision. If I turn off love, though, I become blind and now the darkness is internal- I carry it around with me. I cause myself to stumble and don’t know where to go. It’s important, however, to not replace “hate” in this passage with “disagreements” that cause one to walk in darkness. John does not say, “Whoever disagrees with another believer walks in darkness.” The beauty of Christian love is that it’s wide and spacious enough to hold differences and disagreements within in its borders. Lovers can still fight! We can disagree, our worship today reveals, and sing the same songs.

So disagreements can be a part of what it means to walk in the light. Love centered on Jesus creates a context for real dialogue, understanding, even change. I remember the first time I voted for a candidate that was different from my father and the tensions that ensued. Looking back now I can also see that while I claimed to hate conflict I was often spoiling for a fight by focusing on our differences rather than beginning with the love and respect that we held for one another. I don't love my political ideologies but I do love my dad. That's an important difference.

It’s important to remember that we’re NOT in love (or hate) with ideas no matter how good they are. We’re in love with a person – Jesus Christ and with fellow believers. When the church reads 1 John or professes the creed, we do not say, “I believe in the virgin birth, the atonement, the second coming” but “I believe in God the father . . . and in Jesus Christ, God’s only son . . . and in the Holy Spirit.” It’s that relationship which makes love an orthodox matter. And the love of God moves us from being simply about ourselves or our own people to work and serve with others. For example, M-4 (the four churches of Montecito)– once we served together we discovered that we could worship together as well.

Whether in the four churches of Montecito (M-4) or with the person who sits next to us in the pew, Christian unity exists precisely because we share the belief that Christ has freed us from the binding power of sin and our own selfishness not to be twins but in order that we might become who we were created to be - a community that is free to love God and one another (Lev. 19:33; Gal. 3:28; Acts 15:19-20; 1 Cor. 8:12). When we love each other, we can walk hand-in-hand even when we don’t see eye-to-eye.