My friends were more novel.  This year a cowboy.  Last year a ghoul.  Probably next year a mutant ninja turtle.  But my Halloween costume strategy never varied.  I was a tiger every year.  I can’t really remember why.  I liked tigers well enough, but I don’t remember being fixated on them.  Perhaps I thought consistency would be the key to my concealment.  Surely my neighbors would not be able to guess that the portly tiger was the youngest Wheeler.

Maybe my strategy was not so surprising.  After all it is hardly uncommon for people to try to conceal their identity, personality or perceived shortcomings through a consistent costume of inauthentic speech, feigned behavior, or false conformity.  Therapists’ calendars are full of clients wanting to identify as everything except themselves. 

But it is fair to note that we all struggle with who we really are.  We all love to play “dress up.”  Even Christians.  Especially Christians.  Our identity struggle is rooted in assurance.  Are we really believers?  Or merely self-deceivers?  Is our faith mere intellectual assent? Or mere emotionalism?  Is it a mile wide but an inch deep?  Are we really “in-Christ?”  Are we really abiding in him and is he really indwelling us by the Spirit that bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God?”

All Christians struggle with this internal turmoil at some time or another.  But in God’s gracious providence this was also a major issue in the churches that made up the Apostle John’s beloved little flock. Anti-Christs, false teachers, gnostic heretics were denying the authoritative teaching of the Apostles.  They promised a knowledge of God through mystical, personal experience which made no moral or social demands.  They broke fellowship with the Church and encouraged others to do the same.  

So as a faithful pastor, the Apostle John wrote a brief but powerful letter to his flock and to us to encourage Christians in all times, places, and circumstances in our assurance.   To move us to confidence, assurance and clarity, the Apostle John writes them a series of tests to teach Christians how to grow the assurance of their faith as they learn to abide in Christ. 

John’s tests were theological, moral, and social.  The theological test was to trust in the Apostolic witness as the source of truth about the person and work of Christ.  The moral test was to live a transformed life in obedience to the commandments of Christ not the pattern of the world.  And the social test was to love our brothers, not just in word and talk, but in deed and in truth. 

Nowhere in scripture are we exhorted more to love one another than in chapter 4 of 1 John.  Twenty-nine times in this short chapter, John uses some form of the word ‘love.’  In a world where it is easy to dress up in the costume of false spirituality or live in fear that we are self-deceivers rather than believers, John comforts us by showing how our love for one another reveals the reality of our abiding faith in Christ and fellowship with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Francis Schaeffer noted, “brotherly love is the “final apologetic” for the Christian faith.”  But even more, it is powerful evidence of an abiding, saving faith in Christ. 

Join us as we examine 1 John 4:7-12 and consider how brotherly love reveals the reality of our Christian faith to ourselves and others.  We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join our livestream on YouTube.