Original Blessing
1 John 4:7-21[1]
One of the things that we in the church are “known” for is
our emphasis on “sin.” Many would call it an “obsession.” You simply don’t find
the word “sin” used much in our culture outside the church. So it’s no wonder
that the church has come to be associated so closely with “sin.” And that’s not
necessarily a good thing. People who have no church background tend to view our
emphasis on “sin” with a kind of puzzled curiosity. They know that we “confess”
our “sins.” But the whole concept just doesn’t compute. It’s almost as if they
wonder why, with all the challenges that life in this world brings, anyone
would choose to add to that burden by heaping guilt on themselves with all this
talk about “sin”!
One of the great challenges throughout the ages for
thinkers of all varieties is how to explain human nature. It’s obvious that we
have great potential for good. And many people maximize their potential for
good in so many ways. But at the same time we also all have potential to cause
harm. It’s this combination of our inherent goodness with our inherent capacity
to misuse our potential in ways that harm others that creates the mystery of
sin.[2] Sadly, we tend to want to simplify that mystery. We either blame it all on the
“devil,” or we blame it on human irresponsibility, or some combination of the
two. But the mystery remains: people can be both incredibly good, kind, and
loving, and also incredibly selfish, mean, and cruel.[3]
One of the ideas that the church has used to explain this
mystery is “original sin.” In the Bible, the stories about the origins of sin
emphasize that sin includes everyone, and it always has, but that’s not what
we were created for.[4] But the church’s teaching has been very different. Due to a mistranslation of
the book of Romans in the Latin Vulgate, the idea arose that Adam’s sin was
literally handed down to each generation through the physical nature of human
sexuality. Although that idea could not be more contrary to biblical teaching,
it has persisted to this day. To this day, thousands of people take vows of
celibacy as priests, monks, and nuns, in the notion that they are devoting
themselves to a “more spiritual” life. Despite the Bible’s teaching that our
creation in God’s image is something “very good,” including our sexuality,
these notions of “sin,” and particularly “original sin,” continue to make
people believe that being fully human is something “bad.”
While the Bible clearly emphasizes that we’ve all fallen
short of our potential for goodness, that whole way of thinking couldn’t be
more contrary to biblical teaching. I think we see this to some extent in our
lesson from 1 John for today. To be sure, the Elder John is dealing with
internal divisions in his community, where Christians are turning against one
another. And he sees this as something that contradicts God’s love. But I think
if we only look at that part of our passage, we may miss out on something more
fundamental that could help us with all of that wrong-headed thinking about our
being sinful creatures by design. I think we miss out on what I would call the
“original blessing”: God’s essential nature as loving, and the gift of that
love to the whole human family from the beginning.[5]
We see this reflected in our lesson for today in various
ways. The Scripture says that “love comes from God” (1 Jn 4:7). I think we can
read that statement to include all love. The reason why “love comes from God”
is because “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8, 16). That’s the most fundamental statement
about who God is in the whole Bible. More than that, we see God’s love
reflected in Jesus: “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and
only son” (1 Jn 4:9) to “give up his life for us (1 Jn 3:16). That love defines
who God is, always has and always will. And one of reasons why God sent his son
was so that we all would share in that “original blessing” of love. The whole
purpose for God giving us his love in the first place is so that we would
reflect it in the way we show love in our lives. Notice that the Scripture
says, “Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God” (1 Jn 4:7) Anyone who
loves! While I do believe that statement is meant to be interpreted as broadly
as possible, I would say that we shouldn’t read this to mean that anyone who
shows love in any way is a follower of Christ. But I would say that it means
that any time anyone shows love in any way they are reflecting God’s love,
because God’s love is the source for all love. So it is that Scripture can say,
“God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them” (1
Jn 4:16). Not only is God’s essential nature defined by love, but God’s love
defines and shapes our love. And the point of it all is that our love is to
reflect that “original blessing”: “if we love each other, God lives in us, and
his love is brought to full expression in us” (4:12). God blessed us with his
love in the beginning so that we would love others.[6]
You may have noticed that I don’t talk a whole lot about
sin. I don’t care to heap burdens of guilt on people and browbeat them into
breaking down and admitting they’re sinners in need of salvation. I think the
world does more than enough of that. I much prefer to focus on God’s mercy,
God’s grace, God’s love that never fails. That’s an intentional choice on my
part. As I’ve said before, where you start out with your theology makes all the
difference in where you wind up. If you start with the message that all people
are “sinners” by nature because we’ve all been infected with the “curse” of
“original sin,” that’s inevitably going to lead to a response of guilt, shame,
and fear toward God. The focus on “original sin” leads to the very “fear of
punishment” that our lesson warns against (1 Jn 4:18). We’ve had far too much
of that already. By contrast, the Scripture teaches us that when we truly
understand and experience God’s “perfect love” for us, it “expels all fear.”
Think of it, what do we really have to fear if God is love and God has given
this love to us all?
I much prefer to emphasize God’s “original blessing.” It
was God’s love that motivated him in the first place to create all things and
us as his human partners. It was God’s love that kept him coming back to a
wayward people he had chosen to share his love with the world. It was God’s
love that Jesus lived out though his mercy and compassion, and in giving his
life for us all. And it’s God’s love that is the “original blessing” we can all
claim as the true purpose for which we were created. That’s why I prefer to
focus on God’s love as the “original blessing” that we’re all learning to live
into. For some of us it may take a lifetime to fully embrace the good news: God
loves us all, unconditionally, undeniably, and irrevocably! And whenever we
show love to anyone, brother or sister, parent or child, friend, neighbor, or
stranger—and I would even say to any of God’s creatures as well—we’re
participating in God’s “original blessing”: the love that the Bible tells us
God bestowed on the whole human family before anything was created!
[1] ©
2024 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 4/28/2024 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] In
part, of course, the “mystery” of sin goes beyond that which is human. There is
a cosmic dimension to it that is also a mystery in the context of God’s “very
good” creation.
[3] Cf. Hendrikus Berkhof, Christian Faith, 192-215. After a thorough
analysis, he concludes: “Sin is still as mysterious as before: a senseless and
mortally dangerous rebellion against the purpose of God.”
[4] Cf.
Berkhof, Christian Faith, ?
[5] I
realize that I am taking this passage in a direction that is likely very
different from the theology of 1 John. In I John, love for one another is a
mark of a true believer. He is arguing against those he would consider “false
believers” or “antichrists” because they have broken the bonds of love in the
community. And yet, I would insist that, despite the conflict in the Johannine
community and it’s influence on the theology of the Johannine writings to the
effect that he sees the “world” as a threat, 1 John can still recognize that
Jesus Christ died for the whole world (1 Jn 2:2). While the rhetoric against
“outsiders” is harsh in 1 John, when taken in consideration with the Johannine
writings as a whole, it must be acknowledged that the term “world” is complex
in this context. I would also argue that while the intent of 1 John is
influenced by the situation of conflict, the theology of God’s love transcends
that particular setting. Even if 1 John cannot recognize the full expression of
the theology of God’s love to the whole human family through their creation in
God’s image, it is a point that theologians have recognized in 1 John (cf. e.g.
Gregory of Nyssa, De hominis opificio, 5.2; cf. On the Making of Man
in P. Schaff, H. Wace, & H. A.
Wilson, Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers series 2, vol. 5: Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises, 391).
[5] Cf.
Jürgen Moltmann, The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation, 250: “For
Christian experience, the spirituality of the love of God is to be found in the
vitality of true human love.” He applies the same approach to friendship with the
“wholly other” God and friendship with the “other” whoever that may be (ibid.,
259). He applies this line of thinking to human love in general, asking (ibid.,
260), “In experiencing human love, are we not supposed to think of the
experience of God? And in experiencing God, are we not supposed to think of the
experience of love?”
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