Series on 1 John: "People of a Particular Sort": Becoming Obedient Rebels of Love

³ Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments. ⁴ Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; ⁵ but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached completion. By this we may be sure that we are in him: ⁶ whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk just as he walked.⁷ Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard. ⁸ Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

So in our last sermon we learned about how words matter, particularly that difficult and nuanced word – sin. Last week we learned how sin was a “we” word, a “when” word, and a “forgiven” word. Well, today our passage continues with a further language lesson as John teaches us about the word – obedience.

               1.      Obedience is a Jesus word.

It’s interesting to realize that John focuses his notion of obedience on knowing and imitating Jesus, vs. 6. Yet, if we were to describe Jesus – most of us and even many who claim no allegiance to Jesus personally – would define him as a rebel and religious rabble-rouser. He questioned and was disobedient to Torah when he healed (or gleaned from fields) on the sabbath, he flaunted tradition when he refused to fast or when he didn’t instruct his disciples to wash their hands, and he raised more than a few eyebrows when he commuted a lawful sentences of death for a woman caught in adultery. He challenged social mores in associating with gentiles, prostitutes, tax collectors, and other outcasts and appeared to relish in dismissing most religious authority, even the sacredness of the temple. So it may be a surprise to many that Jesus himself and the Apostle John define his ministry and spirituality in terms of a radical obedience. 

John 5:30: “I can do nothing by myself . . . my aim is to do not my own will, but the will of the One who sent me.”

John 14:10: “The words I say to you I do not speak as from myself: is the Father, living in me, who is doing this work

Jesus defines obedience not as some acquiescence to a domineering God nor a codified list of rules but rather hearing, speaking and acting on God’s loving word. Obedience is a gospel word, Jesus tells us, because it is the very foundation for his commitment to God’s mission to save sinners. He does all of this because God asks him to. We are helped in understanding this by the origins for the word obedience. It’s derived from the Latin word audire, which means “to listen to.” Obedience then, as it is embodied by Jesus, is a total listening, a giving attention with no hesitation or limitation, a being “all ear.” It is a listening with one’s whole self to God at work – in the scriptures, in people’s lives, in prayer, and in the world. You will never be able to listen if you don’t saturate yourself in God’s word. You will never be able to hear if you don’t offer yourself to God in prayer. So, to ask, “How can I be obedient?” Is not first a question of – “What should I do?”; but “Who should I know and listen to?”

So obedience is not first and foremost always a worrying about doing the right thing or following the right rule per se. Obedience is about adopting a posture of always trying to listen to the only one who always knows and does what’s right - God. This is C.S. Lewis’ point - “We might think that God wanted simply obedience to a set of rules; whereas He really wants people of a particular sort.” ~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity Rules, Lewis understands, actually aren’t enough for God. He demands the full attention of our whole lives.

Brennan Manning, in his book Ruthless Trust, relates a conversation between John Kavanaugh, the famous ethicist, and Mother Teresa. John had gone to Calcutta to work for three months at Mother Teresa’s “house of the dying”. At the time, he was seeking clarity about how to spend the rest of his life.

On the first morning there he met Mother Teresa. She asked, “And what can I do for you?” Kavanaugh asked her to pray for him. “What do you want me to pray for?” she asked. He said: “Pray that I have clarity.”

She responded firmly, “No, I will not do that.” When he asked her why, she said, “Clarity is that last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.” When Kavanaugh commented that she always seemed to have the clarity he longed for, she laughed and said: “I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.” Mother Theresa’s trust captures the meaning of Jesus and John’s vision of obedience – an attentive trust and intimate knowing (that’s why the verb to know is also a sexual word.)

The understanding of trust and obedience without clarity was brought home to me by my friend John Roth, a historian at Goshen College who encountered a gang of youth about to harm an elderly man on a train in Berlin one night. He started walking to help the man before he knew what he was going to do. He lacked clarity but acted with obedient trust (listen to the actual sermon to hear the full story at mcchurch.org).

In the beginning, obedience is properly about rules. Let me be clear – some of us are being disobedient by not knowing the Scriptures and Jesus’ commands well enough. This is, John says, an important part of what it means to know and love Jesus. But, the Pharisees also knew the Scriptures and refused to listen to Jesus, failed to recognize that he was the love of God. So in the end, obedience is about paying attention, about becoming a certain kind of person, which is both freeing and very demanding. That’s also John’s point in vs. 3 that obedience shows us that we “know him.” My friend John had to start walking toward conflict before he knew what to do. So love is not a code word for saying, “anything goes” or “rules don’t matter” but maybe that “rules aren’t enough” – and that may be the clearest summation of Paul’s message in Romans yet.  You do need to obey the word. But it might mean for the sake of love you go farther than any command of the Bible does. That’s Paul’s point about Christian freedom in 1 Cor. with regard to meat sacrificed to idols or my friend who said, “I don’t drink alcohol because my friend is an alcoholic.”

               2.      Obedience is a love word.

John is not arguing that our obedience saves us. It simply proves that we know God, that we have availed ourselves to him, that we listen to God and accept what he has done on our behalf. Christian obedience occurs not because we are better people but because we are fueled by a God who came to us first in obedience to himself. Jesus’ own obedience, in other words, was fueled by God’s love and willingness to obey. Maybe that’s why in John’s Gospel when Jesus uses the word “command,” almost every time it refers to loving God or others (John 5:15-20, 13:34, 14:23. 15:12. 15:17; 1 John 3:23).

1 John is right – do you want to learn obedience? Love like Jesus. Look at the picture of the altar piece above – love is the fork in the road. And if Jesus is our model for obedience, if we are to walk as he walked (vs. 6) – we should hardly imagine that our submissive posture will necessarily make us good citizens, delightful neighbors or mild-mannered friends. Jesus’ loving obedience to God led him break rules, flaunt taboos, skewer manners and disrupt traditions all for the sake of love. His obedience led him to the cross. 

Obedience to God is God’s spirit at work in us. And it’s the messy work of love which holds a bit of a paradox. It means that success, a great job, a beautiful spouse, well-respected reputation, nice kids, nicer car, are not necessary signs of obedience. The rejection and crucifixion of Jesus by those who knew the scriptures are proof of that. And to my few rebels out there who like to mix it up, fight the man, leer at authority, or brandish your rights, that’s not necessarily very radical either – Jesus’ own unfettered obedience to God is proof of that. Are you overflowing with love for God and others? That’s obedience, that’s social rebellion, that’s the obedience of the cross.

Jesus reveals that the question of Christian obedience is not, “What should I do?” but “How have I been loved?” Obedience, like sin, fits in a story of redemption. If you view obedience as following rules to be good you will either trick yourself regarding your own moral strength (we never sin) or find yourself in utter despair at your apparent failings (I’m only a sinner). Remember John has already told us that we can follow Jesus, know him, seek to emulate him, but do so as obedient sinners. This is true whether your smug in your morality or saddened by your lack of it. Vs. 5 tells us that obedience is made possible by a relationship of love initiated by God’s own love NOT our own. This is why identifying obedience with a rigid moralism fails to grasp the point. Notice that John doesn’t say that “whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love for God has reached completion” but as if we could attain it through our own obedience but that our obedience is God’s love at work in us, coming to completion.

God doesn’t love us if we obey, God loves us so that we can obey. And Friends, if we obey, our world would experience some of the most dynamic and glorious change that it has ever seen. It does not mean to say, “whoever obeys loves Gods” but “whoever obeys” reveals God’s love and word at work.

In Isaiah 50 is remarkable for the fact that everything this suffering servant of Isaiah does – listen, speak, be open – comes from God. And after having done so – being obedient – this one still suffers. So the challenge of obedience is not first and foremost pulling up our boot straps but willingly confessing that we must be supplied all these things. That God gives us the love necessary for obedience.

All that I’m saying here about obedience can be wrapped up on one word – Beloved (vs. 7) – agapētoi literally “Loved (by God) ones.” Those who receive God’s love – obey God – by loving others.

Four Quick Thoughts about being obedient, being Beloved:

Be plural (he doesn’t say agapētos in the singular) If you want obedience – spend less time asking, “What should I do?” and more time asking, “Who should we be?” or better yet, “Who are we in Christ?” We are the beloved. We are to be lovingly obedient together, to read scripture together, to pray together, to be beloved to one another. 

Be thankful! If you want obedience recognize that true obedience is fueled by being loved by God. God initiates the transformation by his redemptive . So obedience, John tells us in vs. 3, assures us of salvation it doesn’t secure our salvation. Salvation and obedience are God’s work, they need to be received not achieved – thank God for that.

Be single-minded! If you want obedience, know the Scriptures – all of them – and recognize that God is consistent in them – even single-minded - about love. The Great Commandment of Jesus (to love God and neighbor) are two Old Testament quotes – they’re not new, John tells us in vs. 7. The spiritual life, our knowing God, has always been about love.

Don’t be absurd! To be obedient, recognize that by listening to God in the scriptures, in prayer, in the presence of your daily life – you dissipate the dark (vs. 8). John says that this is true “in him and in you.” Myrtle Vanderlip told me that her pastor would always say that o\”our joy is to do the will of God.” We learned the Latin word obedience meant “to listen.” Interestingly enough, the Latin word for not listening or being deaf, is where we get our word “absurd.” How can you know him, experience his love, and not do what he says. How can you refuse such joy? That would be crazy.

Friends, be a people of a particular sort, be like Jesus, be obedient rebels of love.