Category: 1 John

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1 John

A sin that leads to death

1 John

John has a somewhat curious thing to say in verses 16-17. He says,

If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life.

I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is a sin that leads to death. (1 John 5:16-17)

It seems to me that John is referring to something that James also talked about. James said,

Is any of you sick…The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. (James 5:14-15)

Most times, illness is not the result of a person’s sin, but is merely the result of living in a fallen world.

But James leaves room for the judgment of God as being a reason for a person getting sick. And he says that if you pray for such a person, God will not only heal them, but forgive their sin.

But in this passage, John adds a caveat to James’ words. He says don’t bother praying for people whose sin leads to death. What does he mean by that?

I think we find the answer in verses 18-19.

We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.

We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. (1 John 5:18-19)

One thing that John warns us of again and again is willful, deliberate sin. Again and again he tells us that a true child of God does not make a practice of sin.

In verses 18-19, he says the reason for this is that Jesus himself works in us, and that though the whole world is under the control of Satan, we are not.

The world may not be able to resist the temptations Satan throws at them, but through the power of God, we can.

For the brother, then, that makes a constant practice of sin, with no sign or remorse or repentance, they are headed for death.

That can mean one of two things. First, that God will bring physical death upon them for their sin. We see this in more than a few places in scripture (Acts 5:1-10, I Corinthians 5:5, 11:27-30)

The other thing it could mean is that such people were not truly ever saved, and that they are headed for eternal death.

They knew the truth, they claimed to believe it, and yet by their lives proved they never belonged to God. And he holds them especially accountable because they know the truth. There is no excuse for their behavior. (Hebrews 10:26-31)

In short, not all sins are alike. All of us sin. And as John said, all wrongdoing is sin. But there is a difference between falling into sin and deliberately plunging ourselves into it.

If you fall into sin and repent, God will forgive you. But if you refuse to repent and turn from your ways, there can be no forgiveness for that, only judgment, either in this life or the next, and possibly both.

But John has better hopes for us. He says,

And we know that Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ.

He is the true God and eternal life. (20)

In other words, Jesus has come and has opened our hearts and minds to his truth. Now we know God and are in Jesus Christ. He abides in us and we in him, and because of that, we have life.

And so John concludes,

Little children, keep yourself from idols. (21)

John’s telling us, “You belong to the truth now. You belong to the true God. So don’t deliberately offer yourselves to sin and the things of this world. They are mere counterfeits of all that God wants to offer you.

Run from sin. And run to Jesus, offering yourself to the one who truly is Life.”

Who are you offering yourself to?

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1 John

When we have confidence in God’s love

Child praying

I have to admit, it seems at times that John jumps around a lot in his thoughts. And the jump between verses 13 and 14 seems a bit startling as well.

How do we go from talking about the confidence we have in our salvation and God hearing our prayers and answering them.

But in this case, perhaps the jump isn’t as big as we might first think. The apostle Paul wrote,

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

In other words, if God loved us so much that he would give what was most precious to him, his Son, won’t he give us all things we need?

And I think John is making the same point here. He says,

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

And if we know he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him. (1 John 5:13-15)

Sometimes we are reluctant to come to God with our requests. Perhaps we feel we are being too selfish or self-centered.

But as children of God, we should come before God with confidence no matter our request. Why?

Because if we loved us enough to save us when we cried out to him, he will love us enough to listen to us whenever we come before him with any request we may have, large or small.

And because he saved us, we can be confident that he is looking out for our best. That means he will never give us anything that would harm us, but only the things that would benefit us.

That’s where the caveat comes in. If we ask anything according to his will, he will hear us. If what we ask for is something he knows is for our good, he will hear us and grant our request. If it is not, he will not.

So let us not hesitate to come before God with our requests. But let us come before him as trusting children. And as his trusting children, let us always believe that he desires our best through his yeses and nos.

After all, through the cross, he has certainly proved himself worthy of that trust.

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1 John

The testimony of God

1 John

It is very interesting to me that God in trinity testifies to the way of salvation. I’d never really thought about that before. John tell us,

This is the one who came by water and blood — Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood.

And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. (1 John 5:6-8)

I think for most people reading this, John’s words can be confusing because they don’t know the background.

But there were people in John’s day that said that Jesus wasn’t always the Christ. Instead, they had this weird teaching that “the Christ” descended as a spirit on Jesus at his baptism, but departed at his death.

So according to them, Jesus wasn’t the “Christ” when he died and thus he didn’t truly pay for our sins.

But the truth is Jesus proved himself to be the Christ at his baptism and death. At his baptism, the Father expressed his approval of him and the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove. Then at the cross, he paid the price for our sins, just as the scriptures predicted that he would.

So we have Father, Son, and Spirit all testifying to the way of salvation, and that is through Jesus the Messiah.

Why is this important? Because if God says something, there’s no room for argument. And that’s what John tells us in verses 9-10.

We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart.

Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. (9-10)

In short, we often believe people’s testimony. How can we not believe God when he speaks?

And now because God has spoken, we cannot reject God’s testimony and still claim to be following God.

What is God’s testimony? John tells us in verses 11-12.

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. (11-12)

Many people, however, don’t like this testimony. They want to believe there are many ways to God besides Jesus. But John tells us that for us to say that is to call God a liar.

But if we will only believe it, we can have peace and confidence concerning our salvation.

Why? Because our salvation is not based on anything that we do. It’s based solely on the grace of God and the work Jesus did on the cross for us. All we have to do is to accept it.

In John’s words,

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. (13)

Note that John wrote not that you might think you have eternal life, but that you would know it in your heart.

How about you? Have you accepted the testimony of God? Do you know that you have eternal life?

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1 John

The love God has for us

1 John

I said yesterday that I wanted to get back to some verses from chapter 4 that I skipped a couple of days ago. And they are absolutely vital because it goes back to something I said yesterday.

I said yesterday that as we come to drink more deeply of the love, our whole perspective on ourselves and others change.

Let’s take a deeper drink of that love today.

John writes,

This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10)

Think about these verses for a minute.

God could have let us all go to hell. He would have been perfectly within his rights to do so. He didn’t have to save anyone.

He certainly didn’t send Jesus to save any of the angels that sinned against him.

And when he sent his Son into the world, he could have sent him in judgment. To destroy all of us who had rebelled against him. But that’s not why he sent Jesus. He sent him that we might have life.

The amazing thing is, it’s not like we were looking to be saved. It’s not that we said, “God I really messed up. But I truly do love you. Please save me.”

Rather, we were perfectly content living in our sin. We had no intention whatsoever of turning our eyes toward him.

But God’s eyes were already turned on us. Not to judge us. But to save us.

And so he sent his Son to be an atoning sacrifice for us.

I’ve mentioned before that atoning sacrifices were usually made by people to appease an angry God. But God didn’t even wait for us to do that. The truth is, we didn’t care enough to make one, nor could we make any sacrifice that could appease him even if we wanted to.

But God made that sacrifice for us. John’s words here echo Paul’s when the latter said,

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

As I write this, Good Friday and Easter are coming up soon. And it would be so easy to just take for granted all that God has done for us.

Don’t do that. Memorize these verses in I John and Romans. Meditate on them. Drink them in.

And they will transform you forever.

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1 John

If we truly know and love God (part 2)

1 John

Just a quick note. There were some verses in chapter 4 that I skipped last time and I really want to get back to. But before I go there, I want to complete my thoughts from yesterday.

As I said yesterday, if we truly know and love God, love for others should be the natural outgrowth that comes from that. For as John says,

Everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. (1 John 5:1)

And as John said at the end of chapter 4, how can we claim to love our heavenly Father who we cannot see and not love his children who we can see. (4:20)

Still, this is not to say that if come to know Christ, we will automatically love everyone God puts in our path. The fruit of love is like all other fruits of the Spirit. It takes time to grow. And yet…it should grow.

Verse 2 here is very interesting. John tells us,

This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. (5:2)

From what we saw in chapter 4, we would have expected John to say the opposite. That is, “This is how we know that we love God: by loving the children of God.”

But instead, John says, “This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.”

It’s almost the same, but there is a subtle difference between the two. The difference is the focus.

In the first, we put our focus on trying to love others as proof that we love God. And that can be a burden, because not all of his children are so lovable.

But in the second, the focus is not on loving the children of God, but on loving God. He, not others, is the focus.

But in focusing on God, his love for us, and our love for him, we naturally start wanting to do the things that please him. And so we keep his commands.

What are the two greatest commands? To love him first and foremost. And then to love others. So again, by focusing on loving God first, love for others becomes the natural outcome.

It also becomes less of a burden to love others when we put our primary focus on God. Why?

By focusing on God, we come to know his love for us more deeply. And as we drink in of his love more deeply, as I said yesterday, our whole perspective changes. Our perspective on ourselves changes. And our perspective on others changes.

We no longer judge ourselves or others by our or their loveliness. Rather we see ourselves and others through the eyes of God. And he sees through all the ugliness that mars us to the true image of himself that he instilled in us from the very beginning.

When we come to see that image in us, it then makes it easier to love ourselves and others.

That’s why John can say of keeping God’s commands, and especially of keeping the command to love,

His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. (5:3-4)

Everyone born of God grows in their knowledge of his love for them, and it is only natural that they respond with love back for him and for others.

The result? We overcome sin in our lives. We overcome hatred. We overcome everything that the world throws at us because it hates us.

But remember the key.

Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (5:5)

How about you? Do you believe that Jesus is God’s Son? That God loved you enough to send him to die for you? That is the truth you need to soak yourself in. For if you do, it will change your life.

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1 John

If we truly know and love God

1 John

Jesus once said of false prophets,

By their fruit you will recognize them. (Matthew 7:16)

And while Jesus was specifically talking about false prophets, we can say the same of all those who claim to be Christians.

Many people claim to be followers of Christ. They claim to know and love God. But what does the fruit that comes out of their lives show?

The number one fruit that should come out of their lives is love.

And so John tells us,

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.

Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:7-8)

A few verses down, he says again,

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (11-12)

According to John then, what is the proof God lives in us and his love is complete in us? It’s that we love one another.

He then expands on this idea. After proclaiming that God sent his Son to be the Savior of the world, he shows us the natural outcome of coming to know this truth in our hearts. He says,

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. (15-16)

That second part of verse 16 almost sounds as if our relationship with God depends on our ability to learn to love. But actually, it is the exact opposite. Because we live in God and God in us, we start to live in love. Why is that?

The reason is that if we truly understand what God has done for us, our whole way of thinking changes. We no longer live wondering about our self-worth. We no longer base our value on what others think of us.

Rather, we have full confidence in the love God has for us, and that confidence transforms our lives.

And that will also show on the day of judgment when we stand before God.

John tells us,

In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (17-18)

John then sums this all up by saying,

We love because he first loved us. (4:19)

For this reason, John tells us,

If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. (1 John 4:20-21, 5:1)

“His child” seems to be referring not only to Jesus, God’s Son, but all of God’s children as well. In short, if we truly know and love God,we will also love his other children.

Is this saying then that if we struggle to love others in our lives that we are not Christians?

No.

Love is a fruit of our relationship with God. And like all fruit, it starts small and then grows. But as we grow deeper in our relationship with God and understand his love more fully, our love for others should grow as well.

More on this tomorrow.

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1 John

Testing the spirits

1 John

There are many today who claim to follow Christ, to have the Holy Spirit, and to preach the gospel. The question we always need to be asking, however, is if they follow the true Christ, have the true Holy Spirit, and preach the true gospel.

Paul once wrote with great concern to the Corinthian church, saying,

But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. (2 Corinthians 11:3-4)

It was with this same kind of concern that John wrote to his readers. After telling them that we can know God dwells in us by the Spirit he gave (3:24), he immediately warns them,

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)

I don’t think there’s a disconnect in thought between 3:24 and 4:1. I believe they’re strongly connected.

John’s saying on one hand that we as Christians are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

But then he swiftly warns us to watch out because the Holy Spirit is not the only spirit around. There are a lot of evil ones out there too, and most times, they come portraying themselves as “angels of light.”

And just as there were many false prophets in the Old Testament days, there were false prophets in John’s day and there are false prophets even in our day, all powered by these spirits.

So John says, when someone claims to speak for God, test them. Don’t be fooled by sweet sounding words or by spiritual experiences.

How can we discern the false spirits from the Holy Spirit?

One thing is to test what they say about Christ. In John’s day, the big thing was whether Jesus had actually come in the flesh or not. Many people claimed that he hadn’t. That he had just appeared to have flesh, but was not truly human.

Not many deny Jesus’ humanity nowadays, but many do deny his deity, that he truly was God come in human form. But John says that anyone who fails to confess Jesus as he truly is, both God and man, is not from God. (4:2-3)

The other test is if they contradict the things that the apostles have already taught about Jesus and the gospel. He says,

We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. (4:6)

Those are strong words, and they show the authority that God had given the apostles. As a result, you cannot claim to follow God and yet deny or contradict what the apostles taught.

So if you hear anyone who does that, you know he cannot from God.

The sad thing is that many people do not test what they hear. They believe everyone who says they follow Christ, and because of that, they fall into darkness. They are in fact following antichrists, not the true Christ.

But if we test the spirits, we don’t need to fear about falling into confusion or darkness. For John tells us,

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (4:4)

Are you testing what you hear?

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1 John

But am I really saved?

1 John

“But am I really saved?”

I’ve mentioned before that I really struggled with this question when I was a child.

And to be honest, it’s a hard question to answer. It’s hard because only God truly knows the human heart. And it’s hard because though we’ve looked at all the marks of a Christian in the past three blogs, we can all see our failures. Our failures in righteousness. Our failures in love.

About the only thing we can say with any conviction (I would hope), is “Yes, I truly do believe in Jesus. I have trusted in him for my salvation.”

One word of comfort I can give to you is this: the fact that you can see your faults and are concerned about them makes me think that you are probably saved. It is the people who don’t care and yet claim to be Christians that worry me.

As I’ve mentioned before, true Christians long to be like their Lord. They long to be like him because they love him so much. And so when they fall short, it bothers them.

False Christians have no such desires to be like Jesus, so when they fall short, it doesn’t bother them at all.

It is the false Christians that repeatedly make excuses for their sin and lack of love. It is the true Christians that mourn over these things and repent.

That said, as you look over your time as a Christian, you should be able to see some change. You should see some change in your attitudes toward those around you, namely an increased compassion and love for them.

And you should start seeing a sheer discomfort with sin that you never had before. Sin that never bothered you before, should start bothering you now.

It’s striking to me that John does not even entertain the thought that a Christian would not see these changes.

But there’s one more thing, and it is reflected in some of the newer translations, particularly the new NIV. It translates verses 19-20 this way:

This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 1 John 3:19-20

In other words, if you are really feeling under a load of guilt because you feel you haven’t changed enough, or you constantly feel guilty despite seeing the changes in your life, understand that your feelings aren’t the final judge of whether you’re saved or not. God is. And he knows everything.

He knows if you truly love him or not. He sees the changes he has worked in you. And that’s all that counts.

The encouragement I would give to you if you are laboring under guilt is to simply keep pursuing him.

Seek to become more like him each day. Share the love he’s given you with those around you.

If you fall, confess and repent. Then get up, and keep on going.

Know that he is on your side. He’s not constantly condemning you. If you truly love him, he sees that, and will never give up on you.

And as you come to understand his grace more deeply in your life, that feeling condemnation will fade. And at that point, John says,

Dear friends, if your hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. (21-22)

In other words, your fears will fade, your confidence in his love for you will increase, and you will see change in your life, leading to an even deeper relationship with  God.

Why? Because your thoughts will start aligning with the Father’s to the point that you start praying things according to his will. And as you do, he will answer, bringing you joy and even more confidence that you are truly his.

But until that day, pursue him, remembering the words of James.

Come near to God, and he will come near to you. (James 4:8)

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1 John

The mark of a child of God (part 3)

1 John

Actions speak louder than words.

That is true of anyone who is truly a child of God. We saw that in James, and we see that here as well.

Jesus’ actions spoke volumes.

John said,

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. (1 John 3:16)

In other words, true love is fiercely practical. Jesus showed his love by dying on a cross for us. In the same way, we are to show love for others by laying down our lives for them.

In case we missed the point, John goes on, saying,

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. (17-18)

In short, true love does not stand still. When it sees others in need, it has compassion and reaches out.

And that should be the mark of any child of God. Not just words of love. But deeds of love.

If we can see those who are hurting around us and have no compassion at all, if instead we think solely of ourselves, how can we say that we are God’s children? Especially in the light of the love we have received from him.

How about you? Does love mark your life? Do you have compassion for those who are hurting around you? Or do you not even care?

Remember the words of Jesus,

I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me….whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. (Matthew 25:40, 45)

What does the love you have for others say about you?

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1 John

The mark of a child of God (part 2)

1 John

We saw yesterday that the mark of a child of God is righteousness. That true children of God seek to be pure as the One they love is pure.

And that when they sin, they can’t do so without feeling remorse for it and repenting.

I remember the one and only time I ever swore in my life. I was just a kid at the time, and I remember making a very deliberate decision to do it. I felt so awful about it afterward that I never did it again.

I think that was a sign that I truly was a child of God. No Christian can make a practice of deliberate sin and not eventually repent of it.

It is possible for them to sin, however. So John encourages us,

And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. (1 John 2:28)

How do we “continue in him?” He tells us at the end of chapter 3.

And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. (1 John 3:23-24)

The words “continue” and “live” are actually the same word in Greek. And John is saying, “If you want to be confident and unashamed when Jesus comes back, obey God. Do what he says.”

What has God told us to do? First and foremost, to believe in Jesus. To put our trust in him for salvation.

That actually is the first mark of a Christian. The whole problem with the human race is that we have turned our backs on God and said, “I’m living for myself. I’m doing things my way.”

The first thing a Christian does is to turn their back on that way of thinking. To say, “Not my way, any longer, Lord. But Your way.”

And the first step to doing that is to embrace the gift of salvation that God offers in Jesus Christ. To stop trying to earn your salvation through your own efforts or through other religions. But to put your faith in Jesus and his work on the cross alone.

But the second part of his command is to love one another. John makes it crystal clear:

This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:10)

Why is John so strong on this point of loving our brother?

For one thing, it is part of the very core of the Christian message. He says,

This is the message that you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. (3:11)

This is not advanced Christianity. This is Christianity 101.

For another, if we truly know the love of Christ in our lives, it should naturally flow out from us.

John says,

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. (3:16)

So a sure mark of a Christian is the love they have for others.

John tells us,

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.

Anyone who does not love remains in death.

Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. (3:14-15)

How about you? Do you have the marks of a child of God?

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The mark of a child of God

child of God

How can we know we are truly children of God? That we are truly saved? I remember having that question when I was a kid. I had received Jesus when I was about 7 years old, but for a long time, I was never quite sure if I was truly saved.

Here in this passage, we find the answer.

John says,

If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him. (1 John 2:29)

The ESV puts it,

If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

In other words, if you are truly saved, righteousness will mark your life. This is not to say that you will ever be perfect, but when people look at you, they will see someone who makes a practice of doing what is right.

This is in sharp contrast to how the rest of the world lives. And so John says,

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are!

The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. (1 John 3:1)

When we live as children of God, practicing righteousness, the world has a hard time figuring us out. They can’t understand why we don’t live like they do. Why? Because they don’t know God. And if they don’t know him, they won’t understand us.

John then tells us,

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as [Jesus] is pure. (3:2)

What is our motivation for righteousness as children of God? Is it that we are trying to earn our way into heaven? Is it that we’re trying to impress other people?

Not at all. Rather John tells us that our motivation is our love for God. He has lavished his great love upon us and called us his children.

Not only that, we have the hope that we will one day be like the One we love. When Jesus returns, we will receive new bodies that will reflect the glory of Jesus himself and we will be like him, perfectly righteous in every way.

Some people think, “Why bother fighting sin? I will never overcome it.”

But if you are a Christian, that’s not true. The day will come when we will be made perfect. There is hope. And John tells us that because true believers have that hope, they desire even now to be pure as Jesus is pure.

So all true Christians long to be pure as the Lord they love.

If you don’t have that longing, can you truly call yourself a Christian?

John tells us that Jesus came to take away our sins. That in Jesus himself there is no sin (3:5)

More, Jesus came to destroy the devil’s work. (3:8)

How then can anyone who claims to be a Christian just sin without conscience, promoting the very work that Jesus came to destroy? They can’t. If anyone does, you have to seriously question if they are saved or not.

Do you think I’m being judgmental? Look at what John says.

No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. (3:6-8)

And again,

No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. (9)

Again, this is not to say that true Christians will never sin. This is saying a true Christian cannot just sin and feel no remorse over it. They will repent and seek to turn from that sin.

So John concludes,

This is how we know who the children of God are, and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:10)

Whose child are you?

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1 John

The anointing we have

1 John

One of the things the false teachers were apparently telling the people was, “What you have learned from the apostles is not enough. We have a special anointing from God that neither they nor you have.”

But John tells his readers,

 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. (1 John 2:20)

And again,

 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you.

But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit — just as it has taught you, remain in him. (27)

What is this anointing John is speaking of? He’s speaking of the Holy Spirit whom God gives to all believers.

And what John says here echoes strongly the words of Jesus himself. Jesus said,

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you…

When he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears and he will tell you what is yet to come.

He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. (14:26; 16:13-14)

Two things here: First, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit is ultimately our teacher.

What will he teach us? Things clearly contrary to the things Jesus has said? Of course not. Instead he reminds us of what Jesus has said. And if he does not speak on his own, but speaks only what he hears, he will never contradict anything Jesus said.

So if you hear anyone saying, “I have a special anointing from God,” and yet they contradict what Jesus has said, you can safely ignore them.

Second, in bringing us the words of Christ and making them known to us, he always brings glory to Christ. He will never, as some of the false teachers did in John’s day and do even now, deny that Jesus is God or degrade him in any way.

John is not saying then that we don’t need teachers in the church. (He himself was teaching the people in this very letter.)

What he is saying is you don’t need these teachers with special “anointings” who try to teach you something contrary to what you have already heard.

Instead, just as the Holy Spirit taught you from the very beginning, remain in Jesus. Acknowledge him as Lord and God, and surrender your life daily to him.

Are you listening to the Words of the Spirit today?

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1 John

What Satan tries to sell us

1 John

I think it is easy sometimes to think of Satan merely as that roaring lion. The one who out and out seeks to destroy us.

But the truth is that as often as he takes that tactic, he also takes the tactic of the harmless sheep. That’s clearly seen in the Antichrist.

We hear the word Antichrist, and we immediately think of him as this terrible figure who will wreak havoc on the world. And he will.

But before he does so, he will appear to be like Christ. As someone who is looking to bring peace and salvation to this world.

He has yet to come (so far as we know).

But throughout history, even in the time of John, there were many antichrists, people who appeared to be harmless, who in fact seemed be a blessing to the church, but who instead spread deadly poison in the church and who had to be cast out.

John says of them,

They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. (1 John 2:19)

What kind of poison were they spreading? The same kind of poison that’s spreading even now: a denial of Christ.

There are many people who have no problem saying, “I believe in God” or “I believe in a higher power.” That concept is not offensive to them at all. But bring up Jesus Christ and their whole tone changes. He is an utter offense to them.

But John tells us,

Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist — he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. (22-23)

In other words, you cannot truly claim to believe in God if you reject Jesus. To deny Jesus is to deny God himself. Why? Because Jesus is God.

That was one of the things that the Jews failed to understand in Jesus’ day. That the Christ is divine.

And so when Jesus asked them, “Why, if the Christ is David’s son, does David call him Lord? If David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son,” they were stumped. (Matthew 22:42, 45)

The answer is that not only is Christ the son of David, but he is God himself. Jesus said as much. (John 8:58, John 10:30-33).

But people will go out of their way to deny that. They will call him a prophet, a good man, even the Son of God. All of them are true. But he is also God, and has been from all eternity. And to deny that is to swallow the poison that Satan is selling.

So John tells us,

See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us — even eternal life. (24-25)

The ultimate question that everyone has to answer is this: “What do you think of Christ? Whose Son is he?”

Your eternal destiny rests on your answer.

Who do you say that he is?

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1 John

In love with the Father? In love with the world?

crossroad

As I read this, I can’t help but think that John was reflecting back to Jesus’ own words when He said,

No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money…

What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight. (Luke 16:13, 15)

Remarkably close to what John says in this passage.

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world. (1 John 2:15-16)

Imagine telling your wife, “Yes I love you. But I love this other woman just as much. So I will give of myself to both you and her.”

How would your wife respond? How would you respond if you were the wife? Not well, I would suspect.

But that’s just what so many Christians try to do. All week, they are pursuing and clinging to the things of this world. They chase after money, possessions, power, and pleasure, trying to grasp all the things this world offers. Temporary things. Fleeting things.

And then on Sunday they go to church and sing with tears in their eyes, “I love you Lord.”

But John says that’s not love. You cannot love the things in this world and still truly love God. Your spouse would never accept that kind of love. And neither will God.

He desires our whole heart, not half of it, not three quarters, not even 99 percent. Anything less is unacceptable to him. He needs to be first in our lives, and everything else a distant second.

John says,

The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (17)

In short, we can pursue what is fleeting or what is eternal.

Why pursue a world that is fleeting and will ultimately leave you empty? You might as well pursue a long-term, loving relationship with a prostitute. Both will eventually cast you aside, having taken everything from you and ultimately leaving you with nothing.

But when we pursue God, that’s when we find true life, true love, and true joy. Life, love, and joy that are lasting.

Which will you choose?

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1 John

As we mature

1 John

As I read John’s words here to his different readers, it strikes me that there are different stages that we go through in our Christian lives.

First, as children.

John writes,

I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. (1 John 2:12)

And again,

I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father. (13c)

I think that when we first become Christians, two things strike us above all things.

First, that God has forgiven us.

So many of us come to God weighted down by our sins. We see what a mess we have made of our lives because of our choices, and in our desperation we turn to God. And John tells us, “Your sins are forgiven.”

I think of the woman who came to Jesus, a woman who had been burdened by her sins, weeping and wetting his feet with her tears. And Jesus said to her gently, “Your sins are forgiven.” (Luke 7:36-50)

That’s the joy that all new Christians know.

Second, we come to know God as Father. It’s a theme that John will come back to later in this letter. (3:1-3)

The thing is, we don’t come to know God first as the awesome other-worldly being that transcends the universe. As the great King of all kings. As someone so far removed from us that we couldn’t possibly draw near to him.

Rather, we come to know him as Father. As someone who is approachable because he truly loves and cares for us. As someone who is never too busy for us, but will stop whatever he is doing when we come to him because he delights in us as his children.

But as we grow as Christians, we don’t remain mere children. We become mature and strong.

So John says,

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. (14b)

In other words, as the word of God lives in us, as we get beyond the milk of the gospel and take in the solid meat of the word, and by our constant use of it train ourselves to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:12-14), we overcome the evil one and all his attempts to destroy us.

We learn to recognize the false teaching he throws at us to lead us astray from God. And we learn to overcome the temptations to sin that would destroy us. We will see more of these themes throughout the rest of this letter.

Finally, as we become mature in our faith, we start to see God as he truly is. John writes,

I write to you fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. (2:13a, 2:14a)

As C.S. Lewis put it, the more we grow, the bigger God becomes to us. Not because he actually grows bigger. But because we see him more clearly as he truly is.

We see that he is not just our loving Father, but the creator of all things and ruler of the universe. That he is the eternal one, with no beginning or end. And we bow down at awe of him.

But we will bow, not just because of his greatness. But because of the fact that as awesome as he is, he still loves us and calls us his children.

Because at the end of the day, no matter how much we may grow and mature as Christians, we will never outgrow our Father or our need to see him as such.

So each day, let us grow in the grace and knowledge of him who loves us and calls us his children.

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1 John

When we fall

1 John

We saw yesterday that though we are children of light and are called to live that way, we do fall at times. And when we do, if we confess our sins and repent, God will forgive us. (1 John 1:9)

Here in these two short verses, we see the basis of that forgiveness.

John tells us,

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense — 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. (1 John 2:1-2)

Again, John emphasizes here that as children of light, we are not to live in darkness. But he then comforts us by saying that if we do fall into darkness, we have someone who defends us. That Jesus himself stands before the Father as our defense attorney.

What is the basis for his defense of us? His atoning sacrifice for us on the cross. What does that mean exactly?

For a lot of pagan cultures, they made sacrifices to appease the wrath of the gods and regain their favor.

John uses the same picture here…with one huge difference. It is not us who makes the sacrifice that appeases the wrath of God and makes him see us with favor once again. Rather, it is God the Father himself who sent his Son as a sacrifice.

As Abraham once put it in a story that foreshadowed his heavenly Father’s work,

God himself will provide the lamb for the [sacrifice.] (Genesis 22:8)

And so God did on the cross. He provided the lamb, Jesus Christ the Righteous One. Jesus who never sinned or did anything wrong, took the punishment for our sins. And as Jesus was on that cross, God poured all his wrath on him.

The result? Jesus now stands with us before the Father and says, “Father, I have paid the price for their sins and failings.”

And the Father answers, “That’s right.” And not only does he dismiss our case, he pours out his love upon us once again.

That’s mercy. That’s grace. It belongs to all who are truly his children. And it comes to us through Jesus Christ.

How then can we not live lives of gratitude for the one who saved us? How can we not want to be like him?

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1 John

Our struggle with sin

Child of light

It would be easy, having seen the last two blogs I have posted, to get the impression that I’m saying a true Christian should be perfect. That there should be no sin in our lives at all.

And John does seem to have this tendency to put these things in black and white. But one thing that is also crystal clear from his writing is that though we are children of light, and that true children of light walk in that light, we still sin. We still fail.

In fact, John tells us,

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8)

And again,

If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. (10)

How does this all fit into what we have said before?

Several things, some of which we have already touched on.

  1. A true child of God does not make excuses for their sin. They do not try to explain away scripture to justify their sin. They do not try to say their case is an “exception” to the rule.
  2. A true child of God does not blatantly ignore scripture. When they read it, they do their best to follow it.
  3. A true child of God struggles with their sin. They don’t simply say, “This is the way I am. I’m never going to change.” Rather they mourn over their sin. And they long to be different.

This is not to say that true Christians never do any of the above. Sometimes they do make excuses. Sometimes they do blatantly ignore scripture. Sometimes they do say, “This is the way I am. I’m never going to change.”

And sometimes, Christians simply have blind spots. They simply can’t see their sin for what it is. They haven’t reached the point of maturity where they can discern all that’s good and evil. (Hebrews 5:13-14)

But a true Christian will not simply continue living this way. The Holy Spirit will not allow it. And if the Christian will not listen, he will bring discipline into their lives.

The good news, however, is that when we repent, God will forgive. John tells us,

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (9)

Are you a child of God? A child of the Light? Then stop making excuses for your sin. Stop ignoring God’s Word. When God chastises you, repent. And God is gracious. He will forgive you.

We will never be perfect while in this world, but that should always be our goal. If we truly love Jesus, we should long to be like him.

Do you?

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1 John

To have fellowship with God (part 2)

1 John

We saw yesterday that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. So if we are going to claim to have fellowship with him, then we need to be walking in that light with him.

If we try to explain away his commands or blatantly ignore them and still claim fellowship with him, we are liars.

John then gives one specific example which he will get back to again and again in this letter. He says,

Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you had since the beginning. This old  command is the message you have heard.

Yet I am writing you a new command; it’s truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. (1 John 2:7-8)

What is this old/new command?

I think John is specifically referring to loving your neighbor, although as we will see in later passages, loving your neighbor goes a long way to proving your love for God too.

In Moses’ law, God said to love your neighbor as yourself. That was the old command.

But the new command as seen in Jesus is this: to love one another, not merely as we love ourselves, but as Jesus himself loved us. (John 13:34-35)

In short, it is to know the love of God so much in our lives, that his love can’t help but flow out of our lives to others.

And so John says that this truth is not just seen in Jesus, but in us who truly believe in him. For his true light of love is already shining in our hearts, while the darkness which formerly marked our hearts is departing.

Therefore, John says,

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.

Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.

But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in darkness; he does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded him. (2:9-11)

All this links right back to chapter 1 verses 5-7. There is no way we can claim to have fellowship with God if we hate our brother. A person who hates is still walking in darkness, not light.

This hatred can manifest itself in bigotry or racism of course. It can also manifest itself in jealousy or envy.

But one place it most often manifests itself is in unforgiveness. And many people stumble around in darkness, bound in bitterness and hatred because they can’t forgive.

And like I said before, for such people, it can be very easy to either try to explain away scripture or blatantly ignore it, all the while holding on to their hatred toward the person that hurt them.

But if we truly understand the love God has for us and the forgiveness he has extended toward us, can we truly hold on to that hatred?

A true child of God can’t.

Now I’m not saying that Christians should never struggle with unforgiveness. They do. And it’s not easy to forgive, especially when the pain is deep.

But if you are truly born of God, you cannot simply stay in the darkness. You cannot make excuses for your hatred, saying things like, “What he did was unforgiveable. I can’t forgive. I won’t forgive!”

To say such things is to step out of light into utter darkness. And to claim to still have fellowship with God in that state is to make yourself a liar.

A true child of light will step out into the light and receive the healing touch of Jesus. And by his grace and power, they will forgive.

How about you? Is there someone you hate? That you can’t forgive? You can’t hold on to those things and have fellowship with God.

Healing will require time. It will require prayer. It will require emotional support from your brothers and sisters in Christ. It may require counseling. And it will definitely require the love and power of God’s Spirit working in your life.

But stop making excuses, and step out into the light.

Until you do, you will find your relationship with God stunted, if not impossible.

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1 John

To have fellowship with God

1 John

In a lot of ways, the word “Christian,” is applied to far too many people. Many people claim to be Christians, but by their lives show themselves to be anything but.

At this point, many people may scream at me for being judgmental. But Jesus himself said,

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ (Matthew 7:21-22)

In a modern context, people might say, “Lord, Lord, didn’t I go to church? Didn’t I put money in the offering basket? Didn’t I do this good thing and that good thing?”

But Jesus will say to them,

I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers! (Matthew 7:23)

In short, your life cannot be divorced from your actions. And your actions prove who you are.

That’s what John is saying in this passage.

He says,

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. (1 John 1:5-6)

Too many people live in their sin, explaining away scripture in some cases, blatantly ignoring it in others.

But John tells us that God is light. There is no sin in him at all. And so if we live in utter rebellion to what he has taught in his Word, explaining it away or blatantly ignoring it, and we still claim to have fellowship with him, we’re liars.

John is very straight here. He says, “You are a liar. Truth is not  in you.”

But then he says,

If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (1:7)

If God is in light, then if want to have fellowship with him, we need to walk in light too. Because God certainly isn’t going to join us in the darkness of our sin. But if we will step out of our rebellion to him and submit to him as Lord, then Jesus’ blood will purify us from all our sin.

But we need to step out of that rebellion. To stay in rebellion against God and to claim fellowship with him is pure impossibility.

In case there is any doubt as to what John is saying, he goes on.

We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in him.

But if anyone obeys his Word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. (1 John 2:3-6)

In short, we can tell if a person has a relationship with God by their attitude toward Him.

Is God’s love so complete in them that they respond with loving obedience? That they desire to be more like their Lord and to walk as he did? That they mourn over their sin when they fail and repent?

If not, then there should be serious doubt as if they are truly saved or not.

How about you? What does your attitude toward God show about your relationship with him?

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1 John

Proclaiming the One who is life

John

And so we come to the last “long” letter of the New Testament. Or at least the last letter with multiple chapters, anyway.

And from the very beginning, you can almost hear the emotion coming from the apostle John who wrote this book. From this man who was called the beloved disciple.

He says,

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched — this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.

The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. (1 John 1:1-2)

It never really struck me until very recently that everything in here is pointing to Jesus himself. He is the Word of life. He is the very expression of life itself. All that life is supposed to be is found in him: whole and complete in every way, with no defects.

And he is the expression of Life himself. The Author of Life expresses himself to us in Jesus. And Jesus himself is Life.

So when John says in verse 2, that the “life” appeared,” he’s referring to Jesus in his incarnation. He came to earth as a man, and John and the other apostles were able to hear his voice, see him with their own eyes, and touch his nail-scarred hands after the resurrection.

And John calls Jesus, the “eternal life.”

He was with the Father before time began, having no beginning or end. And now he gives life to those who are dead. He gives life to those who are spiritually dead, living apart from God.

And the day will come when he will give life to those who are physically dead, giving them new bodies that are like his own.

With that in mind, John says,

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

We write this to make our joy complete. (3-4)

In short, John and the other apostles weren’t content to revel in the joy they had because of their fellowship with God.

Rather, they didn’t consider their joy complete until others could join them in that fellowship. And so they were bold to proclaim all that they had seen and heard.

In that, as well as many other things, we are to follow in their footsteps.

Too many Christians are just happy to be saved. To revel in the love that God has for them and the forgiveness he has imparted to them. To rejoice in the healing God has brought in their lives.

But we can’t simply be satisfied with that. To be satisfied with that and that alone is pure selfishness when many other people are dying apart from Christ.

They don’t know his love. They don’t know his forgiveness. They don’t know his healing in their lives. How can we not weep for them?

And so like John and the other apostles, we need to go out and proclaim this Life that has been given to us that they may share in that fellowship with Him too.

How about you? Are you so focused on rejoicing at your own salvation that you can’t see those around you that need that salvation just as badly?

Let us go out. Let us proclaim the gospel to our loved ones. To those in our neighborhood, workplace, and schools. And when we do and see people come into God’s kingdom, that’s when our joy will be made complete.