Text: 1 John 4:1-21
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
St. John writes, “Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.” The apostle clarified what it means to “confess Jesus” – and that is to confess “that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.” In other words, the spirit of antichrist denies the Incarnation of Jesus, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, refusing to believe, as John wrote in his Gospel, that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
Already in the first century, the spirit of antichrist was in the world and was claiming to be part of the church. Satan is never too far away from Christians and their churches. And this time of year is repulsive to the devil and to antichrist. For the entire world is covered with images of the baby Jesus. And if unbelievers ask too many questions about the meaning of Christmas, they will be led to our confession that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt 16:16). Jesus is not just a great teacher, not just a prophet, but is “very God of very God” in the flesh.
John is urgent, dear brothers and sisters, because antichrist is already here, and so we must not “believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God.” He warns us about “false prophets.” Too often, Christians are quick to listen to preachers who deny the Real Presence in the Lord’s Supper. Too often, Christians are quick to take instruction from those who may not believe that Jesus is divine. Too often, Christians themselves reduce Jesus to a teacher whose message is “be nice” and “accept everybody.” This is the Jesus of the world, the Jesus of antichrist. For when we confess Jesus as the Christ, as God the Son in the flesh – we are anti-antichrist – just as we should be.
John stresses that we Christians are to “love one another, for love is from God.” But again, Satan and the world’s spirit of antichrist distort the word “love” to mean perversion, and then bully Christians away from their confession of the Word of God and of the Word Made Flesh into the world’s confession that any kind of perversion is a kind of “love” – and that we must accept it, tolerate it, and even celebrate it. But this is not love, dear friends. The apostle himself defines what love is: “In this is love… that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” And “we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”
So, dear friends, let us Christians love one another – confessing together that “God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16). For this is what it means to love: to confess God’s love for us in Christ, and to tell the world about this love – even when the world hates us in return, even when antichrist tells the world that Jesus is not the Son and not the Christ, that love is something other than what the Word of God teaches us that it is.
“Whoever loves God,” says the apostle John, “must also love his brother.” Dear brothers and sisters, we love one another when we hold to our confession of Jesus, when we reject the spirit of antichrist, when we believe, teach, and confess the Trinity and the two natures of Jesus Christ, who is the propitiation for our sins. Let us love one another fervently by strengthening one another in our confession of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: for this is to “know God,” and indeed, “God is love.”
Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment