Episode 1428: We Purify in Hope

[00:00:00] Lyn Barrett: Thanks

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: for joining me on episode 1428 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:08] Lyn Barrett: I'm Lyn Barrett. I challenge you to invest yourself, invest in others, develop your influence, and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to live an integrated life is the key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

[00:00:47] Scott Maderer: Yes, there's a destination, but it's also the trip that we're on, and we're on it together as a community. But it only comes apart when we stop focusing on the sin first [00:01:00] and Christ second and instead focus on Christ first and then the sin. becomes less and less of our lives. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:01:14] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you

[00:01:42] In today's Spiritual Foundation episode, I talk about 1 John 3, verses 1 7. I also share how we are not pure so we can find Christ, but rather how by finding Christ we move towards purity. And I also share how that is a constant journey we find ourselves on. [00:02:00] One. John chapter three verses one through seven says, see what love the Father has given us.

[00:02:07] That we should be called children of God and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now. What we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this. When he is revealed, we will be like him for we will see him as he is.

[00:02:29] And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins. No one who sins has either seen him or known him.

[00:02:51] Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. [00:03:00] This topic of purity and purifying and hope is a little bit of a weird one. For me, it brings up Mindsets around being raised in the Christian faith and being told things that there were certain behaviors that you abstained from certain things, you did certain things, and that is how you earned your way into heaven, and a lot of the focus was specifically on sexual sin and always on specific sexual sins, ones that perhaps the person that was sharing it would be less likely to participate in.

[00:03:41] There was an emphasis on shame and fear and abstaining from things and all of the focus was on sin and the negative context rather than a focus on redemption or grace. Purity seemed [00:04:00] unattainable in many ways. Because it seemed to be frustrating that this set of rules was always the focus, as opposed to being with each other, caring for each other, living with each other.

[00:04:16] And don't get me wrong, I do believe that there is ideas about right action and right belief that are inherent in what we do. I think the problem isn't the rules, the problem is the order or the focus that we do it. Right here in this passage, it talks about Jesus is the model for purity and we purify ourselves as Jesus is pure.

[00:04:43] With Christ, he is pure and so it makes us pure. We are in a process of becoming like Christ. There is a destination, there is a, an end point, there is a striving, there is something that we're aiming [00:05:00] for, but we have to have grace for ourselves just as Christ has grace for us. This passage begins with, See what love that the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God.

[00:05:15] Notice the focus, the beginning is on love There's a joy inherent in this, that we've been given this incredible gift and we need to be happy about it. We need to be focused on the joy in that moment as opposed to the fear and the anger and the end result. It then turns and it says, we're given the standard here, in him there is no sin.

[00:05:43] But if you think about it, just last week we talked about that. We are all sinners, because if that's true, now we're in trouble. That joy seems to be taken away from us because now we begin to focus [00:06:00] on, Wait a minute, if we are sinners and in the followers of Christ there is no sin, No one who abides in him sins, then there's no place for us in this kingdom.

[00:06:10] We don't belong here. No one belongs here because all of us are sinners. And we begin to focus on the pain and the awareness of our own sinfulness. And I think it causes us to then lash out and look at other people and say see, they're sinning too. And they're sinning worse than me. It creates that combative relationship where we begin to attack other sin as opposed To looking first to love it focuses on the wrong things It makes us want to fake And pretend to be sinless to fake it till we make it so to speak to deceive ourselves But if we do that Last week it said if we say we have no sin, then we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us So it's telling us we can't lie to [00:07:00] ourselves.

[00:07:00] We can't lie to others. We have to admit our own sinfulness There's a, another way of looking at the ending verses five and six. I'm going to read them with a different translation. You know that he was revealed to take away sin, and in him sin does not continue to abide. No one who abides in him continues to sin, or no one who abides in him is defined by sinning.

[00:07:30] And no one who continues to sin, or is defined by sin,

[00:07:38] It's the idea that in Christ we become a new creation with a new identity. It's not that sin just disappears magically, but we are no longer identified by sin. We're no longer trapped by sin. by sinful acts and thoughts. Now, I suffer from clinical depression. This idea of being [00:08:00] trapped in our thoughts is very real to me.

[00:08:02] I've had times in my life where I'm trapped in this spiral of darkness brought on by my own thoughts, and it feels like being stuck in a web or on a glue trap where you just can't get out of it. And that's what I think we're talking about. The focus here is on the negativity as opposed to focusing on the journey away from that negativity.

[00:08:30] John is encouraging us to rid ourselves of the sin that remains, but in the power of grace that comes from Christ, then we can overcome those thoughts and deeds and choose a different path in a different identity. It's not, we purify ourselves so that we can find Christ. It's we find Christ so Christ can begin to purify us.

[00:08:55] We embrace Christ and it begins to move us in that direction of being more loving, [00:09:00] more kind, less judgmental. We stop focusing on How much sin we have and how much sin someone else has and do they have more? Are they worse? Do they mess up more than we do? Is there a judgment there? And instead It's about the community walking together Not in judgment or condemnation, but in encouragement and building each other up We are brought together as a body of believers so that we can lift each other up That is the purification that we are called to be on.

[00:09:36] That's the journey that we find ourselves on, and it is a journey. Yes, there's a destination, but it's also the trip that we're on, and we're on it together as a community. But it only comes apart when we stop focusing on the sin first, and Christ second, and instead focus on Christ first, and then the [00:10:00] sin becomes less and less.

[00:10:02] of our lives. Thanks for listening.

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[00:10:54] Until next time, invest your time and money. Your talent and your treasures develop [00:11:00] your influence and impact the world.