Because relationships matter most of all #13: concluding affirmations

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.

We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Dear children, keep yourselves from idols. 1 John 5:13-21

So here we are arriving at the end of John’s first letter of three, this letter that has focused on love and right relationships – with ourselves, with God and with each other – and on the indisputable truth of Jesus’ incarnation. John wraps up the letter with concluding affirmations, summing up what has already been said.

Believing in Jesus as the son of God is key. This is what leads to eternal life (and actually that eternal life starts right here, right now – John says ‘have’ in the present tense, not ‘will have’). This is what gives us the confidence to approach God.

I’ve heard people get hung up on this mention of a ‘sin that leads to death’. Here’s what I think: it is not helpful for us as humans to try to work out what that sin is, if it is indeed one particular act or belief. If we walk in the light and truth of God’s love, then we have nothing to fear. This is the overarching message of God’s love and grace that John refers to himself on many occasions. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. One way of looking at this then is that there’s no point praying for a person to be forgiven if that person has no desire to be forgiven – maybe they don’t think they’ve done anything wrong or are not prepared to turn away from this sin. God will forgive all those who approach Him in humility seeking to be put right with Him, whatever they have done wrong. We cannot ask God to forgive those who do not seek His forgiveness for themselves.

When Jesus said ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’, he meant it. The truth is to be found in him. The more we know him, the more we will know the truth – and the way and the life.

The very last sentence of the letter feels like a complete afterthought. This is not something John has thought to mention in the rest of the letter. I guess it’s hinted at in all that John has said about not being led astray by false teaching and the ways of this world. Idols in John’s context were more easily definable than in our present context: the Romans has household gods, all the surrounding peoples has gods that they worshipped and sacrificed to, and rituals and traditions to follow according to the desired request. Letting go of all that when it had been embedded in your history and tradition was hard. Turning away from a lifetime of appeasing the gods was scary.

And yet we are also being called to turn away from the idols of our world: the love of power and success and celebrity; the emphasis on external beauty; the desire for material academic things; valuing ambition and academic achievement above all else; that sense of entitlement and superiority;  love of money….the list goes on and on and on.

Basically, it’s anything that gets in the way of our relationship with God and with others, anything that has a higher priority in our world than relationships based on love.

It’s a weird way to end a letter and a weird place for us to end this series, but actually, a great point to think about as we go on into the rest of this month.

What/who matters to you most of all? After careful reflection, is there anything you need to do to change your priorities?