I read an interesting and sobering article this week, an insight article called “Pastors and Churches Face Historic Lack of Trust”. It was published by Lifeway research based on a Gallup poll and written by Aaron Earls, and as the research statistics from this article show in the article, and as Aaron Earls claims, “Americans increasingly don’t trust the church or pastors, as confidence and trust levels have eroded to historic lows for both.”
The research looks yearly at the confidence levels in institutions, such as the church or organized religion, small businesses, military, government, medical systems, police, etc. Here’s the startling statistics and bad news for pastors, me, and churches, you, us: only 31% of Americans say that they have quite a lot or a great deal of confidence in the church or organized religion. Only 37% say they have some confidence in the church. 29% have very little confidence in the church. 2% have no confidence at all in the church.
Even more startling to me is that adults in the 18 to 34 age group expressed that only 26% of them had confidence in the church, compared to the average 31%; and adults in my age bracket 35 to 54 only have 27% confidence in the church compared to that same average of 31%. That means that those in the youngest demographics of adults in this nation, those who are currently making decisions and raising children who will one day make decisions, only about a quarter of them trust the church.
It’s not much better for pastors. 36% trust that pastors are honest and ethical, but 48% think we are only just a little trustworthy, honest, and ethical. 14% says they have no confidence in pastors or clergy at all. Again, in those younger demographics, those percentages are worse than the average.
The bad news for you and me is that over the last 20 years, your average American trusts us less and less each year. Trusts the church, us, less and less.
Why? Well, I’m sure that answer is full of valid explanations that are all very nuanced. It is true that society is moving away from traditionally held values and beliefs that the church still holds on to. It is true that people are looking to fill their “spirituality” quota with more Eastern type spirituality teachings that promote truth of the self and inner light. It is true that society is declining because of an increasing lack of morality and ethics. It is true that more people are calling what is clearly wrong, “right”. All of this is true, and we are wise to know this. But the foolish person would look at all of these and just blame the world and that’s how it is.
A wise person looks at all these reasons for a lack of trust in the church and asks, “What can I do to change this?” Because the wise person knows that we cannot just withdraw out of the world completely, that we have been given a mission to make disciples of Christ, and so we must be in the world and working actively to bring people to a deeper relationship with Christ. So we have to change the perception. We have to change these numbers, and no, it’s not a lost cause because we are still here so our mission isn’t over yet. So again, the question, “What can I do to change this?” It seems like a tall order, an impossible task to change the minds of America…maybe it is…but we must try.
Let’s look at 1 John this morning to help us with this, 1 John 1:5-2:2, “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. 2 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (NIV)
Last week we saw the importance of our testimony, of being ready at all times to share about the personal experience we’ve had with Jesus. Through our story, we get the opportunity to share with others what Jesus has done and who He is. But, as we’ve seen through the article I shared, there is some sort of disconnect between what we think we’re portraying to others as a church, and what those in the world actually see when it comes to having confidence in us!
God is light. That’s the first thing that is said in this passage we’re looking at. God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. In order for us to gain confidence with others who don’t know God, we have to really know who He is and have a relationship with Him. God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
What does that mean that God is light? Light in the Bible is associated with truth, with purity, with righteousness, with good, with life. To say that God is light is to say that God is truth, pure, righteous, good, and life. All of those things are true.
Darkness then is the absence of all those things, or even in many cases, the opposite. Darkness is lies, impurity, immorality, evil, and death. It’s important for us to understand these two words and what they symbolize. Light is all things that are good, and so God is light, but all things that are not good are part of the darkness.
In this passage of 1 John there are three statements about Christians and what we claim in our walk with Christ, and how those claims that we make must measure up to who God is, remembering that God is light.
Here’s the first, in verse 6, “If we say that we have FELLOWSHIP with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;” Remember that fellowship means that you share something in common with someone. If we say that we have fellowship with God, what we are saying is that we have something in common with God. We share something in common with Him. We share a relationship with Christ and the Spirit, with God. That is one thing we have in common. We also share the light with God. Through a relationship with Christ, we share in God’s truth, purity, righteousness, goodness, and life. Through Christ, we are in God’s light.
What John is saying here is that if we claim to have a relationship with Christ, if we claim to have the Spirit in us, if we claim to share in God’s light, but we continue to walk in the darkness, we are liars and do not actually practice God’s truth. We can’t have it both ways. We can’t claim to love Jesus and still live in darkness. Remember that darkness isn’t just being immoral, it’s the absence of all that is good, all that is true. If you’re claiming to love Jesus, to love God, but you are doing immoral things, thinking immoral thoughts, doing what isn’t good or true, you are in fact lying about the love you have for Jesus and the Father.
That’s the truth. It might be a hard pill to swallow, but it’s the truth. I don’t want you to be deceived. I don’t want you to say you were never told. You cannot love Jesus and still walk in darkness. You cannot claim Christ and still do the things you did before you came to Him. The two lives are incompatible.
One of the many reasons that the world doesn’t have any confidence in the church or in pastors and clergy is because we’re seen as hypocrites! These are some things I’ve heard from those in the world who look at the church with a critical eye:
“You claim to be pro-life, but you won’t even make eye contact with the homeless man on the street corner.”
“You claim to love your neighbor but you only care about those who are like you.”
“You claim to be a good person but you talk nasty about people you don’t understand or don’t agree with.”
This should not be. John says this. If you claim to have fellowship with God, but walk in the darkness, you are a liar.
Here’s the second statement John makes about Christians, from verse 8, “If we say that we have no SIN, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” Another truth that we as the church are sometimes not great at admitting. We have sin. We are sinners.
We are too proud to admit this many times. We are too proud to admit we make snap judgments about the character of others. We are too proud to admit we think really horrible thoughts sometimes. We are too proud to admit that our words were said from a place of bitterness and anger. We are too proud to admit when we’ve been unkind and hateful. Instead, we sit from a place of self-righteousness and “holiness” and say things like, “at least I’m saved by grace!”
We all sin. Whether in thought or deed, even if you go through whole seasons of life doing pretty good, one day, sin will show its ugly self again in your heart. And our sins, even those that we just do in our heads or hearts are no less sinful than those whose sins are outwardly displayed for all to see. Sin is sin. Since we’ve all done it, we are deceiving ourselves if we say we don’t.
The third statement John makes about Christians is verse 10, “If we say that we have not SINNED, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.” We have all sinned. Past tense. It is the condition of the human heart. Each of us has done it, no matter how high and mighty we like to think we are.
We would be wise to remember Romans 3:23, that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We’ve all made decisions that removed us from God’s good grace. If we say we haven’t, when He clearly says we have, we call Him a liar, which we know can’t possibly be true. If we do this, we show with our attitudes and words that His Word doesn’t live in us.
All this sort of paints a bleak picture, even for Christians! If we’ve all been in a place where we’ve been hypocritical, or at least not honest about our “spirituality”, then surely we’ve been in darkness, we’ve deceived ourselves, we’ve called God a liar. The thing about this passage in 1 John, what John wants made known is that this is true for all of us…even if you’re too proud to admit it.
Each of us has experienced the truth of 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” If we are to have fellowship with God through Christ, how can we walk in darkness? Light has no fellowship with the darkness! Yet we constantly flirt with the darkness and wonder why the world doesn’t take us seriously when we talk about God’s love for them!
Do you want to make disciples? Do you want those lost people in your life to take your testimony to heart? Then you must be in the light! In every way. We must stop letting ourselves dance in the shadows, church, but we must do it in a way that draws others out of the darkness and into the light as well, not sends them further into the darkness. We have to be in the light. We must live in the light every day and not let our testimony be hypocritical. We must walk in the light and be humble and confess when we are sinning so as to not sin again.
The solution is, of course, JESUS. This is the solution that Jesus offers, going back to 1 John 2:1-2, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” John’s hope in writing this letter was so that we would stay in the light and be in the light and walk in the light all of our days, so that through Jesus we have the power to say, “no”, to sin. But…that if we do sin, 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We have the power to say, “no”, to sin, but if we do sin, we receive the forgiveness of sins that have been confessed to Jesus and He makes us clean.
It is possible to live a life completely in the light? Does that mean you won’t sin? No, not necessarily. You have the power through Christ to say, “no”, but if you sin, be quick to confess and turn from that sin. You will still be in the light, walking in the light, with a heart of humble confession.
How do we change the mistrust the world has in the church? We live lives of honesty, humility, confession, and love. This is the only way. Incidentally, we call this being like Christ, which is our calling.
1. Is it possible to be walking in the light and confessing sin without spending lots of time with God? Why or why not?
2. The person who claims fellowship with God while walking in darkness is lying (he knows his statement is false). However, the one who claims to be sinless is self-deceived. What is the difference?
3. Prayerfully make a list of what you can do to walk in the light this week, especially in areas where the world is watching for signs of trust. Review and add to your list every morning. Be alert during the day for failings you need to confess. Each evening, ask God to help you walk in the light the next day.