Did you know that the phrase ‘damage control’ has been used in popular language since the end of the Second World War? The United States Navy developed damage control protocols after suffering massive attacks in battles. They had to move fast in an effort to contain or limit the amount of collateral damage that these events would bring. Now the Navy has a position for damage controllers on ships whose job is to assess a situation and limit destruction and mishaps. The phrase was picked up by the medical profession, which established a system of prioritizing treatment based on lessening the risk of death when dealing with multiple injuries at once. Today, we see government officials engaged in damage control when a scandal breaks out and every institution has a process for reacting to negative reports quickly in hopes of containing the bad press.
1 John 3 is a kind of literary damage control. Traditional thinking teaches us that the writer was the same John as the Gospel writer, but others think it was a follower of John known as the Elder. In any case, John was a man of advanced age who had oversight of the house churches near Ephesus. There was dissension among the members, (can you imagine??) and some had pulled away under the influence of an agitator named Diotrephes. John the Elder wrote to a leader of the congregation named Gaius with instructions and encouragement. Specifically, the subjects of righteousness, sin, spiritual parentage, and love were addressed.
1 John 3 (Common English Bible)
8 The person who practices sin belongs to the devil, because the devil has been sinning since the beginning. God’s Son appeared for this purpose: to destroy the works of the devil. 9 Those born from God don’t practice sin because God’s DNA remains in them. They can’t sin because they are born from God. 10 This is how God’s children and the devil’s children are apparent: everyone who doesn’t practice righteousness is not from God, including the person who doesn’t love a brother or sister.
The notion of the apple not falling far from the tree applies here. Those born of God don’t practice sin, but those born of the devil are neither righteous nor do they love their brother or sister. We understand righteousness in this context to mean being in right relationship with God, God’s creation, and God’s people. Righteousness involves obedience to God’s will and purpose for our lives: Not just avoiding sin but pursuing goodness. Habitual sin can be overcome by the blood of Christ, who came for the purpose of destroying the devil. The point is clear: Real righteousness is the greatest love we can experience, and real love is expressed in righteousness. Righteousness without love just makes you a Pharisee.
Is God trying to do damage control with your soul today? Are you lost in your practice of sin with nowhere to turn? Jesus was born so that the works of the devil could be destroyed in our lives once and for all. Is it time to get right with God? You can be a damage controller in your own life.
At Water’s Edge 