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Title: The Big Picture/The Specific Picture
Some things are just a matter of perspective.
The Big Picture
“Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God.”
First I want to focus in on the big picture this morning. In order to do that, we need to keep our focus on the first part of verse 9, “Whoever transgresses and does not abide…”
I want to be very, very clear this morning. John gives not one, but two distinct qualifications for a person that “does not have Christ.” Neither are easy to talk about, but in light of John’s desire that the Church be able to weed out and identify false teaching, it is necessary that look at what he says carefully, and then apply it to you lives.
Qualification One: Transgression.
What is transgression? Sin. Period. It is breaking God’s Law, either by and act of commission (doing sin), or by a lack of action (remaining still when you should act).
Somebody give me a simple quick example of a sin of commission.
Now somebody give me a simple, quick example of sinning by lack of action.
But if that was the only qualification that John gave for “not having God” we’d be in a world of hurt. Thankfully, he goes on to say the other part of the qualification is this:
Qualification Two: Not abiding in the doctrine of Christ.
Here, the issue comes back to John’s favorite word: abiding. The issue is this: does this person remain (abide) outside of the doctrine of Christ? If so, they do not, can not have God in their hearts.
We all transgress. We try not to, we try to improve, but we all still fall from time to time. For us though, this is when the Spirit within us breaks us and causes us to repent. We may even struggle for years with an addiction to the same sin, but if our heart is truly repentant after each failure, it is evidence that we are striving to remain in the doctrine of Christ.
The Specific Picture
“Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God.”
The first part of what we focused on was the big picture, applicable to all Christians at all time, everywhere. But I’d also like to bring something more specific to light than these generalities, and that involves focusing in on the original audience, time, and circumstance for John to write this letter. In order to do that, I’d like to shift our focus just a bit to the latter half of this verse where John tells us, specifically, what it is that this person is not abiding in: The doctrine of Christ.
I think John chooses his words very carefully here. He is writing to a first century audience and he is writing against a very, very specific form of false teaching.
Of course, he’s writing against Docetism, a teaching that suggests that Christ was flesh. If we take that into consideration going forward, is it not plausible that when John says these people “do not abide in the doctrines of Christ” that what he’s saying is that they are denying the essential doctrine that Christ professed to be BOTH fully human and fully God?
Essentially, what John is saying in this “zoomed in” specific context is this: if someone denies that Christ was flesh, they do not have God. They are are false teacher. They are an antichrist. That would certainly fit the repeated themes and teachings we’ve seen thus far in John’s writings, would it not?
This is why context is so vitally important when we study scripture. We run the risk of missing several layers of teaching if we only consider one perspective. Both of these options that we’ve looked at today are vitally important, especially considering what John says next about how we should treat these people.
And that is what we will look at next week.
Pray.
Q/A