Saturdays, Fat Tuesday, and the Counting Crows

I bought the Counting Crows’ new album first thing last Tuesday morning on iTunes. I was eagerly looking forward to it since they had not put out an album with new songs in 6 years. Also, I think Adam Duritz is one of the better song writers around today, easily making the Counting Crows one of the top 2 or 3 bands of the last 20 years. Though they are worldly pagans by their own admission in the album, Duritz profoundly understands some things about the corky nature of our diligence to be happy that is directly connected to sensuous and immoral desires. Their new album, ‘Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings,’ intends to show that idea of living it up wildly on Saturday nights, but then waking up shameful and sorry on Sunday morning.

“The album’s emotional arc runs from a wild and raucous Saturday night of debauchery into a more somber Sunday morning filled with regret and longing, a structure which allows the group to flex a little rock muscle on the top half of the record, then settle down for a soak of emotional balladry that closes it” (from iTunes).

So after a while, I got to thinking. Isn’t that similar for so many ‘nominal’ Christians? Should not the idea of ‘nominal’ even be pushed onto those who come to church, offering some expression of repentance every weekend, but abide in the world as a mistress all week long? Should we put forward that a repentance like that is likely insincere? So, I pushed it further. There are whole so-called Christian-ly connected carnivals and parties that celebrate sin for a day or a week with a weird kind of intensity, only to stop abruptly the next day. Fat Tuesday is that kind of party before Lent. Halloween is that kind of celebration before All Saints Day. But even those are obviously disjointed and affected by pop culture. Still there remains Saturday nights, or it could even be said that the 6 day week banked by Sundays serves the same purpose.

So how do we deal with that kind of attitude biblically? 1 John 2:28-3:3 lays a special foundation for the answer, and that is what I intend to show in this post. John intentionally cautions us to avoid sinful behaviors and do the opposite—practice righteousness. I believe his caution in 2:28 is divine genius because it connects it to abiding in Christ and the all-satisfying love of God in 3:1. In the rest of this post, I will aim to show how believers should continually keep these few verses in mind while also keeping a proper view of Christian liberty in order to avoid adding to the Law.

The beginning of chapter 3, which will be the focus of this post, is actually a continuation of 2:28-29, which says, “And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink away from him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.”

“I don’t want no . . . religion because I’m not prepared to die. But I’ve been wrong, sometimes baby you can’t hide” (Counting Crows, ‘Sessions’ from Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings, 2008).

John’s counsel in vv. 28-29 should not be taken to mean, “You better not do this or that on Saturday night just in case Jesus comes back before Sunday.” But that is how many take it. There is an alarming separation in our churches today on both sides of the coin. One audaciously says, “I don’t want no religion, because I’m not prepared to die.” The other sinfully tries to keep the Law in order to avoid shrinking away in shame from Christ at his return out of a love for survival rather than a love for their infinitely glorious and precious Savior. Do you see the problem here? Too many Christians separate their lives abiding in Christ on Sunday from their lives abiding in the world Monday through Saturday. But John gives a warning for that kind of behavior. If Jesus returns on Saturday night, abide in him always rather than the world. When he comes, you should want to be one who is attracted to him in joy, not one who shrinks away in shame. But the key to John’s counsel here is v. 29, which is later clarified by 3:3. “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.” What does this mean? It means that those who have been born of Christ should love to practice righteousness because he is righteous. In the latter part of this post, I will return to v. 29 in light of 3:2-3 to show how abiding in Christ and practicing righteousness go together and are intimately related to being conformed to the image of Christ as a ‘what we are declared to be’ by the blood of Christ and ‘what we will be’ when we see Christ face to face.

Before pushing any further, I believe we should keep 3:1a at the center of this post. “See [or, behold] what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” Without this, if you asked, “Is it really possible to practice righteousness consistently while we live in this world?,” the answer would be ‘no.’ John puts forward the gospel here by saying, “. . . what kind of love is this that we should be called children of God—that sinners should be forgiven forever and legally adopted by God the Father into his household.” Does that rivet your heart and affections toward the beauty of Christ? It should, especially since the beginning of the verse is followed by the words, ‘and so we are.’ Therefore, all who bank all their hope in all that God promises to be for us in Jesus Christ can be sure that ‘what we are declared to be’ by God—we really are.

In what manner should we cherish Christian liberty in light of 1 Cor. 10:23-11:1 and 1 John 2:28-3:3? While you are reading this post, I imagine you want to know how 1 John 2:28-33 relates to texts like 1 Cor. 10:23-11:1 and Gal. 5:1, “For freedom Christ has set us free . . .” In order to understand these verses, it is important to include their qualifying verses. 1 Cor. 10:23-11:1, in its context, should focus on v. 31, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Also, the beginning of Gal. 5:1 should be tempered by the end of the verse, which says, “. . . stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Christ has set us free from our bondage to sin and death and folly under the Law so that we might be free to practice righteousness and enjoy God forever. That is why he set us free. He set us free to enjoy his gifts, including food and drink, but the manner in which we should enjoy those things should be to the glory of God. Similarly, Paul’s counsel in Gal. 5 is given so that we might be free and stand firm instead of sinfully strapping on a new yoke of slavery. When put that way, nothing is amoral. Either what you do glorifies God or it does not, it pleases God or it does not. Now, we do not add to God’s glory when we glorify Him. Why? God is glorious. Instead, we magnify his glory in us to the world when we enjoy who he is more than enjoy his gifts (cf. Rom. 11:34-36).

Now, how should we exhort and teach ‘nominal’ Christians to consider the important caution of 1 John 2:28 in the wider context of Christian liberty and practicing ‘what we will be’ when we see Christ face to face? Before answering, I want to clarify my use of the label ‘nominal’ for a Christian. At the beginning of the post, I asked, “Should not the idea of ‘nominal’ even be pushed onto those who come to church, offering some expression of repentance every weekend, but abide in the world as a mistress all week long?” In view of that, I am using the label ‘nominal’ for a professing Christian who either is confused or very immature in their faith (cf. 2 Pet. 1:9). I am not using the label ‘nominal’ in an effort to refer to those who attend church only on Easter and Christmas Eve or those who would profess to be a believer because of the culture they are a part of. For the first group, I believe some may be believers. But I would not say that about any in the second group.

In either case, the church is called to preach the gospel. The first step necessary to exhort and teach ‘nominal’ Christians to abide in Christ is to caution them to “be all the more diligent to make [their] calling and election sure” (2 Pet. 1:10a). How do we do that? We do it by preaching the gospel. All preaching should be Christ-centered in scope and purpose, so no matter the text we are preaching, we should always endeavor to proclaim the gospel when preaching the Word of God. That is the aim of God’s revelation. It was given to display the bountiful splendor and kingly glory of God and to proclaim the fallen nature of man and their need for redemption that is only offered and given through Jesus, and that is what we should preach. We should also offer tests to help them know whether they are saved by grace through faith in Christ (e.g. the test of obedience in 1 John 2:3-6, the test of love in 2:7-11, or the test of fruit in 2 Pet. 1:5-10).

Secondly, we also need to explain 1 John 2:28-3:3 in order to exhort immature believers and help steer them away from ungodly, worldly attitudes, sexuality, idolatry and abuse of God’s gifts. 3:2a says, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared.” I think the majority of young Christians struggling with sin understand this, but a few will continue to wonder, “Why do I still sin?” John answers this by pointing out that ‘what we will be’ has not yet appeared. It is true, we will still struggle with sin. But for every child of God, we can be sure we have an advocate praying for us before the Father (cf. John 17:9, 1 John 2:1).

But this does not excuse sinful behavior. That is why 2:29 says, “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.” It is important we teach young, immature believers this verse. However, with compassion and love, we should keep in mind that they “shall be like [Christ when he appears], because [they] shall see him as he is” (3:2b). Though there is never an excuse for sin, a believer is Christ’s both in body and soul. He will never leave nor forsake his sheep, so neither should we. With that in mind, it is important we teach them v. 3, which repeats and clarifies 2:29. “And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (v. 3). What does this mean? I believe v. 3 clarifies the counsel of 2:29 because those who practice righteousness as he is righteous are the same people who are banking all their hope in the promises that God is for us in Jesus Christ. In other words, it is Christ who purifies us as he pure. That is why John is able to exhort us to practice righteousness and abide in Christ as we patiently and anxiously await his coming so that those who are declared righteous by God through Christ may also have confidence in approaching their Savior in joy rather than shrinking away in shame.

In order to keep this post relatively brief, I am going to stop here. It is my hope and prayer that you will take notice of those who make a practice of living in the world only to fulfill their ‘duty’ to repent on Sundays. If you go to a church anything like the churches I have known so far in my life, I am sure you know plenty of ‘nominal’ believers who need to be taught the caution, beauty, and gospel of 1 John 2:29-3:3. If not, at the very least, we can learn from it too.