It’s a funny thing, whenever someone is looking for advice on a part of their life where they really need help what do they do? They seek the guidance of a person who is neutral and has no stake in the decision that is made either way.
In theory this sounds like a really good idea but is it actually? When we say anything we very rarely ever say it without some sort of intention. There is always a point and there is always a bias in one direction or another. Like it or not. The way that we think and what we feel always comes out in what we tell others. Our life experience, advice we have taken from others and things that we have witnessed make us who we are. These are the things that we will draw on.
So the question really is not if we are biased or not, the question is in what direction are we biased?
Even as a think about this my bias is being revealed. I am a Christian and as a Christian I want all of what I think and feel to be completely biased by the gospel. As Christians the the absolute goal in its most simply said form is that we want to think, feel, respond and act just like Jesus did.
This is something that we will never achieve because, well we are sinful and Jesus wasn’t or isn’t and certainly never is going to be. As I read through the end of the gospel of John, the bias of the author is shown plainly. John 20:30-31. “ Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John hides nothing, why? Because he just like all Christians who are seeking their goal, wants to be just like Jesus.
Jesus is also very obvious about his bias. Jesus was never neutral guy. John 3: 17-19 “ For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.“ This statement and many other that follow the same idea are not statements that display a whole lot of neutrality.
In order for something to change, our thinking and feeling about that thing needs to change. If you want to lose weight you first have to recognize that you have a problem with your weight in the first place. This has to become a personal decision and something that you understand.
I am really really bad at math. It just does not make sense to me, but after repetition and questioning and working through it there is a point where it will click, the light come on and I get it. Only then can I sit down with a question and work through it. This does not mean that I am now allowed to become arrogant, because I always remember that I was taught this knowledge.
In a similar way if we want to be people who are honestly chasing that ultimate goal of being like Jesus we need to learn and strive until it clicks. This does not mean that when it does click that we have any reason to become arrogant because we must always remember that we were taught this knowledge.
When we read what John wrote in this letter and the others that he has written he displays this bias towards Jesus and he also displays that he was taught all that he knows.
1 John 1:3 “ That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us.” John doesn’t take credit for having all of this knowledge but rather he demonstrates that we suck and Jesus rocks and he gives us all that we have.
The Christian life is not one that is designed to show neutrality. If we want to be like Jesus we must do what should seem obvious, model ourselves after him while always remembering anything that we learn, that finally clicks is only because he taught it to us.
