What God Expects of Us (Part 1)
Written by Ed Allen
Saturday, 10 June 2006 19:00
What do you think of when I say "community builder"?
When we use the word community at Gateway, we are not talking about a physical location. This is a spiritual location. It is what John calls koinonia. John uses this word 4 times in the first seven verses.So now what do you think of? Someone who builds unity between people. Someone who ... These are good things, right? So how do I increase my capacity as a community builder? How do I become more like this kind of person?
Let me help motivate you. Applies to your family ... applies to your neighborhood, workplace ... We all want community. It is our deepest need. Most of us recognize that. When we talk about increasing our capacity to be a community builder, we are talking about our capacity to be a more effective husband, a parent, a co-worker, a church member, a friend. These relationships are the streets and sidewalks and houses of spiritual community. So what kind of person is an effective community builder?
Community builders are made not born. They have certain characteristics. These characteristics are built into us by God and chosen by us. They are added to our character.
Six characteristics - I will go over three today.
Listen for these characteristics as I read 1 John 1:5 - 2:6 . Also listen for the claims of the false teachers.
1. COMMUNITY BUILDERS ARE PEOPLE WHO REFLECT THE LIFE OF GOD.
Claims of the false teachers - look at the "if we claim" statements.They must have believed that:
- They had fellowship with God
- They were without sin
- He also says "yet walk in darkness" as part of the first claim, but ...
Unlikely that they claimed they walked in darkness, but neither do we claim to be justified in being vindictive and holding onto anger when we feel right in an argument but that's what we do.
If we walk in the light, if we reflect the life of God through our actions, we will be community builders. Let me make this more practical.
- When we sin, we break down community. We see this in marriages.
- When we walk in the light, when our character reflects the character of God.
- When we choose to act like God would act and to submit our actions to God, we build community.
2. COMMUNITY BUILDERS LIVE IN DEPENDENCE UPON THE CLEANSING FROM SIN PROVIDED BY THE DEATH OF JESUS.
The fakers who were causing trouble to John's disciples were claiming that they had no sin. We don't know much about these false teachers except by implication from what John says - but there are a variety of ways to make this claim. Some have claimed that sin does not really exist. By this they convince themselves that they have no sin. Others have claimed to be beyond sin because of some special touch or some special insight from God. It is likely that this is the form the teaching took among these false teachers.
Either way, the result is the same. If we are led to believe this, our natural tendency to justify ourselves and to deny our problems is aided and abetted.
- AA step 4: "Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves." Lamentations 3:40
- AA step 5: "Admitted to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs." James 5:16a
- CR Principle 4: Openly examine and confess my faults to God, to myself, and to another person whom I trust.
PAUL AND LEEANN'S TESTIMONY
Real community builders have taken an honest assessment of themselves. They understand their weaknesses, their shortcomings and their sin and they have begun to get a real sense of how those have impacted others.
Real community builders not only see their sin, but they depend on the cleansing from sin provided by the death of Jesus.
See the tension here between John's awareness that the true follower of Christ should not sin. We have experienced a better way. And yet we do sin.
Explain God's justice system... Jesus has taken care of our sin problem and aside from that we have no access to the Father.