In a far too long-overdue update to my blog I thought I would revisit the topics I feel are most relevant to the widest possible audience. I have a tested faith that a protective, nurturing relationship with our Creator God is not only possible in his gracious love for us, but is also his ardent desire. These topics are deftly explored in the work I review below, which I recommend without hesitation for its content and as a launching pad to related scripture.
Anderson, David R., Maximum Joy
ISBN-13 : 978-0988411258
Anderson gives us a particularly accessible work of meticulously considered theology in Maximum Joy. Doggedly pursuing the call to fellowship with God in the intimacy available to our relationship with Him (our position already established in justification by grace through faith in Christ), Anderson carefully dispatches popular misconceptions while uncovering the consistent message of 1 John. Moreover, this is done with the engaging metaphor of three waves containing three dolphins to depict the principal thrusts of the epistle and their recurring applications. A well-orchestrated work, it also enjoys the attractive strength of testimony from his life deftly connected with relevant literature. Anderson has constructed a set of tremendously impactful biblical truths that succeed in reaching the heart and inspiring the reader to love, and be loved by, God.
The three waves of instruction from John discerned by Anderson are demonstrative of the apostle having learned the excellent teaching practice of storytelling at the feet of Jesus himself. The waves make use of the natural process of apprehending new ideas by introducing, developing, and climaxing the principles of fellowship with God. Anderson demonstrates how, in each wave, John describes these "porpoises" of right living, right loving, and right learning riding the momentum of the successive surges.
The aim and precision of the book of 1 John is meant to fully explicate the appeal of Christ from the Upper Room Discourse for his disciples' careful adherence to their fellowship with God. The emphasis in 1 John stems from the "abiding" so earnestly taught by Christ in John 15, of cleaving close to intimate relationship with God by obeying his will. In this, we are taught, the original disciples and all that come after can have God's intimacy with them in the Holy Spirit. Abiding in Christ brings fellowship with God, which is experienced through the Spirit. This intimacy is possible because careful attention to relationship with God requires daily cleansing of our sin. We are reassured that our justification in Christ allows for the recurring atonement of the sin in our daily lives that dogs us in our old fleshly nature. This is the importance of the object lesson given by Christ at the Last Supper in washing the disciples' feet.
Anderson tells us that John introduces the principles of fellowship with God in his epistle in the verses 1:5 to 2:27. The first principle he explores is what he calls right living, which means dealing with our sin. We are reminded that being sanctified does not mean we never sin (with 1 John 1:10 as a stark statement of this). This comes directly on the heels of assurance that regular confession of our sins brings God's cleansing of "all unrighteousness" in 1:9. Certainly this would not be possible if we were not first fully justified by God's powerful grace to save, but the sanctification it makes possible must be sought in this washing of the daily dust of sin from us.
Next, the introduction of the principle of right loving is made in 1 John 2: 3-11. Anderson relates that right loving is dealing with our brothers, as hating a brother is a clear bulwark to close fellowship with God. We are commanded to love our brothers, so in doing so we are obeying God and abiding close in him. This is also another confirmation that this treatment of sin is for believers, as unbelievers do not have "brothers" as these. Anderson spends some effort in encouraging us not to let our fear of rejection keep us from loving our brother as we ought.
Thirdly, the principle of right learning is introduced: dealing with our enemies. Verses 2:12-27 bring this concept into focus. The lure of the world to our lustful eyes and the pride of life can draw us in and crowd out our desire for closeness with God, or convince us we don't need forgiveness for living life the way we want. We are warned in scripture who teach that Jesus is not the Christ (earning the appellation "antichrists). Anderson makes sure we comprehend the implication of this warning by pointing out its danger in any teacher or church that denies that the bible is the infallible, inerrant Word of God. There is also a discussion of God's nature in this as outside time as we experience it, allowing an understanding of antichrists in the "latter days" as any such denier of Christ in the Church Age.
Anderson discerns a second wave of John's treatment of the principles of fellowship with God in chapter 2:28 to chapter 4:6, which he considers an exposition of their development in the epistle. The order is repeated, with right living addressed in 2:28-3:10a. This section again underscores the importance of abiding in Christ as closeness with him as our guide and source of strength. Those abiding in him have this "seed" of God that is the power of life from the Spirit in them, so they do not sin when operating from this power. Those operating from the power of the world sin, remembering that this is implicitly directed to the Disciples and so remains true for all disciples. These are presented by Anderson to again demonstrate that 1 John is not a set of "litmus tests" to see who is sanctified and who is not.
Development of the principle of right loving (dealing with our brothers) is drawn from 3:10b-23. Loving one another is put on par with believing in the name of Jesus Christ, underscoring the importance of living out this love in action. We are reminded that we should be prepared to lay down our lives for our brethren and take most seriously the meeting of their needs. Anderson again reminds us that Christians are capable of sin, even the sin of murder as referenced here, and that loving a brother is hard sometimes because they can hurt us more deeply. He admonishes us that we must bear in mind that seemingly lesser transgressions like envy, jealousy, and judgmentalism are from the wicked one (167). Anderson also devotes considerable effort to show that John is reassuring us of our identity as beloved of God because he knows how our deep feelings of unworthiness to be loved can keep us from loving others in this fear. He notes that we are again encouraged in abiding, to receive the absolution which clears a conscience that would otherwise be stilted with guilt and unable to love a brother.
The principle of right learning receives development in 3:24 to 4:6. In these verses, we are instructed to be vigilant against any teaching that Jesus is not the Christ, the mark of false prophets and antichrists. Anderson notes that the strong juxtaposition in this passage of believers versus those who are "in the world" is meant to underscore the transforming power of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Available to us in our fellowship with God by abiding in Christ, the Holy Spirit baptizes us into the Body of Christ with a permanent seal on our spirit, leads us in all things in our walk with God, and fills certain of us for a short time for particular service.
Anderson begins his exploration of the climax of John's principles of fellowship with God as unraveled in 4:7 through 5:21 of his epistle. [B love 4:7-5:5-C learn 5:6-13 -A live 5:14-17, Satan's attacks on Creation and Redemption (the Word), unbelievers of God's testimony about his son] He changes the order somewhat, addressing right loving first, as found in 1 John 4:7-5:5. Anderson has special emphasis for the phrase "no one has seen God at any time" in addressing showing love to one another, because it encapsulates the intimate nature of abiding fellowship with God and our reward. Obeying God closely by abiding in his Son is intimacy with Him, pleasing him as nothing else; his intimacy with us comes in the gift of his Holy Spirit, which allows us be imbued with his love and love others far better and more confidently than we could as our old selves. The invisibility of God himself, his full glory, remains but we can see his true nature in the work of his Spirit within us when we love others in response to the love we've received. Anderson writes in appreciation of this perfect love to celebrate it and help us appreciate and feel it more deeply. Loving one another is the evidence of his divine work in us, his love perfected in us. For Anderson, this is nothing less than the climax of John's efforts in this epistle to describe the life of the Father available to us in our human lives as abiders in Christ and receivers of the Holy Spirit. This is the right relationship between cells of the Body of Christ on earth, and in it we are the fiery stuff of stars just as He is.
Anderson shows how this command to love one another is the command to love God as he first loved us: they really are the same! Anderson takes time to highlight the importance of God's love described here as a very unusual statement of God's character: God is love. This agape love is of such constitution that anyone that has it is necessarily emoting the seed of God within him, and necessarily because he knows Him. Again, that this is part of fellowship with God and not required evidence for justification: as shown in Anderson's comparison, 4:8 does not say that someone who does not agape is not born of God and does not know him. To return to the Upper Room, vines that do not bear fruit are tended by God (they are connected to the vine but not abiding closely like the fruitful others). Though it is not "us" when we sin, our fleshly nature is still restless in our bodies even if the sin it works has no dominion over us. This incredibly dense statement of theology, from believing in Jesus to loving as he did, landing in victory over the world in the power that that obeisant love brings in faith, is laid before us in 4:21-5:15.
The climax of right learning is found in 5:6-13, a treatment that Anderson says comes to the heart of the gospel itself. Anderson reminds us that the heart of the gospel draws attacks from the enemies of Christ attempting to dilute or undermine it pointed and determined, and that the Body of Christ draws attacks on its metaphorical lungs God's Work and God's Word (238). The work, for Anderson is encapsulated in 5:6-9. It tells us that Jesus came by water and blood, testified-to by the Spirit who is truth, signifying that God himself testifies to his Son. This is seen at Christ's baptism with water and receiving the Holy Spirit and the voice of his well-pleased Father. The blood testifies to the cross, definitive proof that Christ was a man. Anderson considers well the MO of Christ's enemies in preferring to attack God's work of creation and of redemption. He restates what many of us have seen with respect to attacks on creation, that trying to explain life, the universe, and everything as an expression of fortunate chance requires more faith than Christianity. Redemption, he tells us, has received a more sustained and pointed attack in subsequent human history. He uses the remarkable foil of the book of Revelation which relates that even the sins of the false teachers has been paid for by Christ, but it will not avail them if they do not accept the offer of redemption.
The attacks on God's Word are described in 5:10-13, which characterize the testimony of the Father for the Son as so complete as to make any man the accuser of God as a liar who does not believe in the Son. These attacks of enemies of Christ assail the work of God in Christ as impotent to redeem, and Anderson reminds us they slander the Word of God as unreliable because they dismiss the testimony given to Christ.
Anderson tells us the climax of the principle of right living for fellowship with God comes in 1 John 5:14-17. In it, we are instructed that God's provision for us is such that we can pray confidently for what is encompassed by his will, including for our brothers in Christ caught in sin. Anderson reminds us that this prayer in confidence of Christ brings a full experience of real joy, echoing the bow placed on the gift conveyed in the Upper Room Discourse in John 16:22-24. He reminds us that this is an expression of experiencing the quality of the eternal life offered in Christ, experienced again and again in our walking in faith. This reminds me of the phrase I taught myself when I first apprehended this truth: "Eternity starts now."
It may well be that the point of Anderson's work in sifting 1 John is that eternal life in Christ is a quality of life, experienced freshly and yet comprehensively when we cleave closely to God's will for us, which is to believe faithfully in His Son and and walk in the illuminated life his Holy Spirit brings in response to that obeisance.
#RealLife #Struggle #Activist #HeGetsUs
