1 John 2:1-14: What Use Is A Staking A Paper Claim

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.

I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.

I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.

I write to you, dear children, because you know the Father.

I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. - 1 John 2:1-14

In the hills of El Dorado County, you could stake a claim for gold. The claim was filed with the county for up to a certain amount of land and the claim gave the miner the rights to all of the gold found in that area. Then the miner would go and drive stakes into the ground at each corner of their claim to let everyone know the boundaries of their claim: they literally "staked their claim" But the miner, all properly staked and filed, never drew any benefit from that claim until they did the hard work of actually digging for gold. They might even fight to defend their territory and exclude all others from its benefits, but the hard work of mining was required to "claim" the gold.

John was writing to people who had heard all about wispy claims of loving Jesus with their whole heard and loving their neighbor as themselves. They might even protest loudly and argue with their claims about how it was good and right and proper to do these things. But they never did the hard work of living like Jesus did and loving their brother and sister and therefore never struck gold.

And there is gold. There was forgiveness. There was knowing God. There was overcoming the devil. There was strength. But it is a only a paper claim-it is a barren, rocky soul-that will not try to get closer to the very Jesus who saved us and the very people for whom he gave his everything.