Last night’s Bible study (the last till September, as there are no midweek meetings during August) looked at 1 John 3:19-24. So far in this chapter, we have looked at

• God’s lavish love (1 John 3:1)
• who we are in God (‘children of God’ 1 John 3:1-2)
• doing what is right (‘The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous’ 1 John 3:7)
• developing the family likeness (‘God’s seed remains in them’ 1 John 3:9)
• practising love in action (1 John 3:11-18)

Now, John reminds us that when our actions match our beliefs, there are 3 benefits we receive:

1. Assurance (1 John 3:19-20)
2. Answered prayer (1 John 3:21-22)
3. Abiding (1 John 3:23-24)

Assurance

Loving with actions and in truth means we know that we belong to the truth. Truth can only characterise the behaviour of those whose very character originates in the truth, so that it is by our loving others ‘in truth’ that we know we belong to the truth. The outward actions reflect the inward reality of our relationship with God. Truth, of course, is a topic that is much debated nowadays, with the idea of absolute truth scorned by our humanistic society. Nonetheless, truth remains unchanged (see Is 45:19, John 14:6) and is found in God’s Word (John 17:17) and is a key topic in this letter (see also 1 John 1:8, 1 John 2:4, 20-21).

Sometimes our hearts condemn us and leave us fearful and doubting. If this arises from sin, John has already given us the strategy to deal with this. (1 John 1:8-9) We need to be able to distinguish between true and false guilt (2 Cor 7:10), for sometimes false guilty arises – either from our own hearts, from the condemnation of other people or from the lies of the enemy, who is the accuser of the brethren (Rev 12:10), the slanderer (the meaning of ‘devil’) who accuses us daily (see Job 1 & 2, Zech 3:1). At such times, we appeal to God’s omniscience and trust to His mercy.

Answered Prayer

Taken out of context, 1 John 3:22 may seem to promise us anything we want, but we need to understand that answered prayer results from our relationship to God; it is not something that can be demanded! Answered prayer is a great blessing from God, resulting from the confidence and boldness we have in approaching God as our loving Father (see Luke 11:1-11.) We don’t ‘earn’ the answers to prayer because of our love. However, our love means we are fulfilling God’s law (Rom 13:8-10) and so obeying Him and therefore He is able to answer these requests, for love is the fulfilment of the law. Answered prayer results from our abiding in Christ (John 15:7), from our relationship to God.

Abiding

Abiding in Christ (see John 15:1-4 and 1 John 2:27) is key to our spiritual growth. This results from our faith toward God and love toward men, which are two sides of the same coin. God’s requirements for us are to believe in His Son and to love others, something He enables us to do through the gift of His Spirit (see John 14:16).

Flotsam and jetsam are not everyday terms. Technically, they refer to specific kinds of shipwreck: flotsam (from a word originally meaning ‘to float’) is the floating wreckage of a ship or its cargo, whilst jetsam (from the word ‘jettison’, meaning to discard or throw away) is part of a ship, its equipment, or its cargo that is purposely cast overboard or jettisoned to lighten the load in time of distress and that sinks or is washed ashore. Lagan is another technical word (rarely used nowadays) which refers to cargo that is lying on the bottom of the ocean, sometimes marked by a buoy, which can be reclaimed.  These words, once used frequently in the 17th century, for example, are not used as much these days and the two words are usually found together, but clearly had different meanings originally, and even now there are differences, for jetsam becomes the property of the finder while flotsam continues to be owned by original owner and marine salvage rules apply to both.

I can’t remember where I first encountered these words, probably in some pirate novel or narrative about an adventure on the high seas. The similarity in sound between the ends of the words mean they go together well and a secondary meaning of ‘useless and discarded objects’, ‘odds and ends’ has been added over the years.

The idea of jettisoning cargo in times of distress is found in Jonah 1:5 and Acts 27:18. The principle of jettisoning cargo is obviously to lighten a ship’s load. and insurance companies reimburse the owner of the dumped cargo because his cargo was sacrificed to save the ship and the rest of their cargo; the captain has the right to act in this way because of the greater need of the ship. The whole principle of jettisoning rests on value judgments, however. What we choose to keep and what we choose to jettison matters. It was with great reluctance that the other sailors threw Jonah overboard (Jonah 1:7-15) because they recognised the value of a man’s life in comparison to inanimate objects.

Paul warns us against those who ‘made shipwreck of their faith’ (1 Tim 1:19) by not holding on to faith and a good conscience. Life is made up of choices every day. Many of these choices seem insignificant to us, but we have to learn to distinguish between things that are truly valuable and things that can be jettisoned without affecting our eternal souls. There is a ruthlessness required in the life of discipleship; we have to take up our cross daily and die to self; we have to count the cost, as Jesus warned us (Luke 14:28-33, see Rend Collective’s ‘The Cost’.) Sin is deceitful and often that which we prize so highly turns out to be not worth the effort of holding tightly in the long run.

The consequences of flotsam and jetsam in the natural world are obvious. Ocean debris accumulates at the centre of  ocean gyres and on coastlines. Flotsam and jetsam found in oceans include anthropogenic artefacts like fishing nets, balloons, plastic bags, wastes from cruise ships, oil rigs and so on. Biomagnification is the most profound and evident effect of marine debris.

Far more worrying, though, are the consequences of spiritual flotsam and jetsam, when God’s people discard the things that are really important to spiritual growth or hold on to things which are only temporal. 2 Cor 4:18 reminds us to fix our eyes not on what is seen, which is temporary, but on that which is unseen, since this is eternal. That requires a daily sifting of priorities and a careful listening to God’s still small voice which helps us to prioritise. As Matt Redman reminds us, ‘All that really matters is You.’

Jesus was once asked (by a rather exasperated Peter, I always feel) “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”  (Matt 18:21) I always get the feeling Peter thought he was doing rather well to suggest as many as seven times! There is no background to the story, but I’m sure we don’t need it: we’ve all experienced that sinking feeling when someone keeps on making the same mistakes and our frustration and kindness are seeping away; we all know how hard it is to actually forgive someone.

Jesus’s answer was doubtless not what Peter was expecting (or hoping for!): ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.‘ (Matt 18:22) He then went on to tell a parable which illustrated important principles of forgiveness, the key point of which is the more you have experienced forgiveness, reckless mercy and undeserved grace yourself, the less likely you are to withhold forgiveness from anyone else.

Rend Collective’s song Second Chance captures something of the truths of that parable. As it looks at the second chances God gives us, perfectly wrapped up in Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross (where even though we were still sinners, Christ died for us), we see that God’s forgiveness changes everything and means we can never quite write anyone off. The God of second chances offers us all the chance ‘to rewind to innocence’, giving us the hope that life can be crafted even from our mistakes and that the ugliness of sin can never compare to the beauty of redeeming grace.

‘My future hangs on this:
You make preciousness from dust.
Please don’t stop creating me.
Your blood offers the chance
To rewind to innocence:
Reborn, perfect as a child.

Oh, Your cross, it changes everything:
There my world begins again with You.
Oh, Your cross, it’s where my hope restarts;
A second chance is Heaven’s heart/

When sin and ugliness
Collide with redemption’s kiss
Beauty awakens by romance.
Always inside this mess
I have found forgiveness,
Mercy as infinite as You.

Countless second chances
We’ve been given at the cross.
Countless second chances
We’ve been given at the cross.

Fragments of brokenness
Salvaged by the art of grace,
You craft life from our mistakes.
Black skies of my regrets
Outshone by this kindness
New life dawns over my soul.’ (‘Second Chance’, Rend Collective Experiment)

When I was a teenager and learning to cook, I would read recipes with a fair amount of bemusement. My favourite was the recipe for meringues, which said cryptically ‘whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks that just tip over when you lift the whisk.’ I would look at the liquid in the bowl and start whisking (by hand, in those days!), wondering what on earth a ‘soft peak’ was in this context and how long it could possibly take to create one! I would whisk for a few minutes and then ask my mother if it was ready. She would laugh, tell me to keep going, and then suddenly, magically (it seemed), the soft liquid would change colour and the soft peaks would start to form.

Cooking used to frustrate me because it was never quite as precise as I wanted it to be. Recipes were helpful in giving me the right amount of ingredients and the right amount of time to cook something in the oven, but they were also full of phrases which meant nothing to me until I had actually done them. ‘Lightly brown the onions’, ‘stir the sauce until it thickens’ and so on were phrases which did not mean very much to me until I had actually lived through the experience.

Our chilli-growing experience has reminded me of these first fumbling attempts at cooking. We planted the seeds as instructed in a pot that came with some soil and then waited. We waited a lot longer than the instructions said before we saw the first seedling appear. Then we watched as the seedlings grew. And grew. And we wondered how tall they would grow and how long it would take until they stopped just looking like a plant with leaves and actually sprouted chillies!

Then flowers appeared and Daddy Plant stopped growing, concentrating all his energies on blossoming. Mummy Plant became taller, still growing. And then chillies started appearing… tentatively at first, then almost more than we could count!

We still had more questions. How long before the chillies can be eaten? ‘When they start to turn red,’ we were told. I was puzzled. I’ve eaten green chillies. Why couldn’t I just eat one of these green chillies? However, we decided to wait, assuming that those with more experience of these things would be right.

Today, the miracle has occurred! The very first chilli (a loopy-loop one on Daddy Plant) to appear is starting to turn red!

This whole experience reminds me of Galatians 4:4: ‘But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son.’ God know the right time for everything. His timing is perfect. We look at life from our vantage point and often disagree. Many of the psalmists  and prophets ask the plaintive question ‘How long?’ (see Job 19:2, Ps 13:1-2, Ps 35:17, Ps 79:5, Ps 94:3, Jeremiah 12:4) God often seems deaf to that question, but still continues to work out His plans and purposes according to a timescale which, with hindsight, we see is perfect. If you’re in that waiting period, wondering ‘how long?’, look at the red chilli and know God keeps His promises.

When I was a child, one of my favourite toys was a kaleidoscope (a cylinder with mirrors containing loose, coloured objects such as beads or pebbles or pieces of glass.)

As you look through one end of a kaleidoscope, light entering the other end creates a colourful pattern due to the reflection from the mirrors.  When you turn the end of the kaleidoscope, the beads or pebbles are shaken into new patterns. The word itself is from the Greek words kalos (beautiful), eidos (form, shape, that which is seen) and skopeo (to look at or examine.) I could be entertained for hours by the variety of the patterns I could observe:

As we have been studying 1 John, we have discussed the question of perspective, meditating particularly on 1 John 3:2: ‘now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.‘ Now, we only see part of the picture (1 Cor 13:12). Our vision is limited and the patterns we see look sometimes as confusing as the pattern seen in a kaleidoscope. But though we only see things from our own perspective, although our vision is limited, God is making a picture from our lives which will be more beautiful than any mosaic we can ever imagine.

The second part of Yan’s sermon on the gift of godly wisdom looked at how we actually acquire such wisdom! Our growth in wisdom is largely determined by our attitude to it. Prov 4:6-8 shows us that we should love, exalt and embrace wisdom; we have to make it a priority in our lives. The better we know Jesus, the more wisdom we will have, for in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Col 2:3)

To get godly wisdom, we need to:

1. grow in the fear of God (see Prov 9:10)
2. be heavenly-minded (Col 3:1, Rom 12:2)
3. be whole-hearted (seeking earnestly for wisdom and valuing it as more precious than rubies or gold – see Prov 2:4, Prov 3:13)
4. be a student of God’s word (Prov 2:1-2)
5. be prayerful (asking for wisdom in faith, not doubting God’s heart to give this precious gift to us, as David prayed for Solomon. (1 Chron 22:12) God wants to give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation. (Eph 1:17)
6. be motivated by an awareness of the transitory nature of life (see Js 4:14, Ps 90:12), making the most of the time God gives us (Eph 5:15)
7. be obedient to what God says, putting into practice what we hear. Throughout the book of Deuteronomy, God’s people are given many promises, but these are often conditional on keeping God’s commandments. Obedience is important; we have to do more than hear the word, but put it into practice.