Being From God

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER OF JOHN

BEING FROM GOD

1 John 4:4-6

4 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. 5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 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.

NIV

Can we get an Amen? We are from God! We were, without question, born in this world and we once lived as though we were part of this world. However, we died and we were born again in Christ, therefore we are now and forevermore from God. That is certainly what the evidence of our baptism bore out. We walked into the water and we died and were buried beneath the waters, as Christ was buried in the tomb. But we were raised up, as he was, and born again a new creature, the old is dead, and the new is alive in Christ. This means we are no longer of this world because we have overcome them because we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us and He is so far greater than the world. When someone of the world speaks, they can only speak from the viewpoint of the world and, of course, the world listens. It is like the old commercial when E.F. Hutten speaks, people listen. So here is the dilemma. If we are from God and those who are not from God, but from the world, then we should not partner with them in any matter at whatsoever. They do not listen to us, because they are not from God and we are. We should not listen to them because they are from the world and we are not. Does this apply only to spiritual matters? Does this apply to all philosophies, all ideologies, and all physical matters? What this boils down to is that we are supposed to base our lives on the principles of the kingdom of God rather than on the principles of this world. Paul puts it in this way:

2 Cor 6:14-18

14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." 17 "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you."  18 "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."  

NIV

Being yoked means being in partnership with, working together toward the same goal. How can we do anything like that at all? How can we take on any of the world’s way of life? How can we be in concert with the world? How can we have harmony with those of this world, when we are no longer a part of the world? Why would we listen to them instruct us in any of the ways of this world? We listen to the Spirit, we learn from him, for he instructs us in the ways of God. How can we listen to their advice at all? The Psalmist said it best when he said that we are blessed, happy, content, fulfilled, satisfied, when we do not walk in the advice of the wicked, stand in the way of sinners, and sit in the seat of mockers. So we are not to walk, stand, or sit in any way whatsoever like the world. No partnership with them, no harmony with them, also includes not sharing in their endeavors, which can apply to the way we handle our financial matters as well. This could get sticky, but we have to listen to God. How can we invest in the world if we are not part of the world? John makes it clear, we are not of the world anymore and therefore are from God and should live our lives as people from God. There is no question, we are different than the people of this world, therefore we do not listen to them.

The Examiner

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER OF JOHN

THE EXAMINER

1 John 4:1-3

4:1 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. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

NIV

There had to be some false teachers who were saying that Jesus Christ may be the Son of God but that he did not come in the flesh. The person appeared as Christ was just that only an appearance, but not a real person. This would invalid the whole of his death on the cross and the shedding of his blood for the forgiveness of our sins, and his resurrection and ascension leading to ours. There was teaching at the time that Jesus was only a man and that he was not the Messiah and thus again no sacrifice for sin, no resurrection, and ascension. The whole of the gossip message, the whole of our faith depends on the Trinitarian God. This is why John tells us to test every spirit. Any spirit, any teacher that is from God will teach God in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, each his own person, but all three are God. In order for a teacher, or preacher to be from God, that is called by God to preach or teach His Word will acknowledge that Jesus Christ is fully man and fully God. Jesus had to be fully man in order that he could be the perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus also had to be fully God, for no man who was not divine, not God, could serve as a Lamb of God. In addition, anyone who does not acknowledge Jesus Christ as God also does not acknowledge His resurrection and ascension. If Jesus was not raised from the dead, we have no hope of being raised either and if He did not ascend, then we have no one interceding before the Father for us. We have to believe it all or dismiss it all. There can be no compromise. There can be no belief in one aspect of Jesus and not in the whole of the truth concerning Jesus. Anyone who does not believe and thus teach anything other than Jesus came from God, and returned is an antichrist. We do not think John was referring to simply one person being the antichrist, for we know this singular antichrist will be Satan, as outlined for us in the revelation given to John sometime later. This antichrist, John is speaking about, most likely is a movement, or a group, such as the Judaizers, or Gnostics who went around teaching wrong doctrines. Today, we have different groups or even individuals who teach the wrong doctrine, and we have to test everything we hear against the Word of God. If what we hear is not the same as what the Word of God declares, what we read in the Bible than that person has not been called by God to teach or preach and they are operating completely in the flesh, and are a false prophet, an antichrist. We are the examiners, because we have the Spirit of God dwelling within us, giving us the discernment to test who is and who is not from God. So we administer the test to every spirit.

Pleasing God

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER OF JOHN

PLEASING TO GOD

1 John 3:21-24

21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 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.

NIV

The only reason our hearts would condemn us is if we truly did not believe in Jesus. Even when we do fail at times, and yield to some temptation, we are not condemning ourselves. We have to always remember that there is, therefore, no condemnation for those who are Christ Jesus, because through Jesus the law of the Spirit and life has set us free from the law of sin and death. It is always our desire to have this confidence before God. We do not want to sin. However, just as Paul also confessed, we do what we do not want to do, and we do not do what we want to do, all of the time. There are times we do restrain ourselves, and there are times we do that which is right, but neither of those is one hundred percent of the time. However, the fact still remains we are in Christ Jesus and He is in us, therefore we have been set free from the law of sin and death and we live in Christ and by the law of the Spirit and life. Because we have this confidence, John is reminding us that we receive from God anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do want pleases him. Here is where the plain and simple truth is. The first and foremost thing that pleases God is that we believe in his Son, Jesus. The second is that we love one another. Those are the two commands that Jesus gave us. To love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Here John sort of reverses that in the sense that God wants us to love Jesus, but that still is the same. We have looked at and are always aware of how God defines love. First, by sending his Son to lay down his life for us. Second, he defines how our love is expressed as he inspired Paul to write in his letter to the Corinthians. So then as we continue to live in Jesus, as we continue to trust in Him for our life, we desire to fulfill that which God desires in us. First, we believe in Jesus Christ with our whole heart. We trust in Jesus, first for our salvation. There is no other way for us to attain eternal life. We trust in Jesus, second for our very life itself. We cannot ever go back to that life of sin and death since we crossed over to the life of love and light, having the Spirit live within us. Once we lived in ignorance of the life in Jesus. In that ignorance, we were condemning ourselves to a life of sin and death. But praise be to God and to our Lord Jesus Christ, that he shone his light into our hearts and we were awakened to the truth and through his power, we put to death that old self and we were born again, a new creature in Christ Jesus, full of love and life and we have all the confidence we would ever need because the Spirit, we were given, bears witness to our life in Jesus and that we are pleasing to God.

 

Love in Action

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER OF JOHN

LOVE IN ACTION

1 John 3:16-20

16 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. 17 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? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

NIV

This is something that we may not practice as much as we should. Of course, we give to various causes from time to time, but it is doubtful that we even see someone who has a need such as John is talking about here. Usually, we tend to hang around people of the same social-economic position as our own. Our culture may have tainted us when we see someone standing on the street corner, or at an entrance to someplace with a sign saying they need help. So that question is as to how we can help someone in need unless we go out and look for someone who has a material need that we can meet. As a church, we do bring material items for several ministries who meet the needs of others. Does that count? Is that laying down our lives for our brothers? It would seem doubtful that giving from our abundance counts as laying down our lives. Even as a church it would seem there is a greater need to have a reserve of resources then to meet the needs of our brothers in need. John is telling us that it might be nice to say that we love each other, but the proof of that is in our actions toward our brother. How are we to put our hearts at rest when we know of a need that is not being met and we are not doing anything about it? Again, it might be easy enough as a church to offer a small amount of a gift to those in need, but is that the meaning here that John is declaring? Does this apply to us as a church or is this supposed to apply to us as individuals? Again, bringing a case of water, or rolls of paper towels to support a ministry is not what John is speaking to. This has to be a personal thing, giving to a brother in need. Again, we have to have a brother in need and that would require knowledge of the need. How can we know of the need unless we see it? It looks like that would mean we need to be living a little more of our lives together than we do. Sometimes it seems we live a little more isolated from each other than we should. Maybe we need to be more open if we have a need, so our brothers can have pity on us, or we can have pity on them. Maybe we need to be less critical of those on the street corner and just give anyway, all the time, whenever we see them. Maybe they are really in need, maybe they are scamming, but who are we to decide. They may truly have a need and we have just passed them by, staying safe and secure in our car and our wallet. Maybe it is just time we give whenever we see a brother in need. That would be love in action.

From Death to Life

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER OF JOHN

FROM DEATH TO LIFE

1 John 3:11-15

11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

NIV

John continues expanding on loving our brothers, but also includes the opposite of hating our brothers and that hatred is the same as murder. He used Cain and Abel as an illustration of the church and the world. The world may well hate us in many ways as we oppose so many of their moral choices. However, their hatred would be expressed far greater if we expressed more openly our opposition to their immorality. Sometimes it seems we do not want to make waves, so to speak, and remain silent, so as not to evoke too much of their hatred toward us in hopes we would have some influence on them to turn from their wicked ways. But how would they turn if they do not hear, and how would they hear if no one is sent to speak? However, there is still a bigger issue within the community of faith regarding loving our brother. John says that we have passed from death to life because we love our brother. Once again we have to examine Paul’s letter to the Corinthians to determine if we actually love our brother. Are we patient with our brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we kind to them? Are we envious of them in any way? Do we boast, or brag about what we have done or are doing, especially in the Lord? Are we proud of ourselves? Are we ever rude to them, which could be seen as simply ignoring them or not listening to them? Would we rather talk about ourselves, then them, thus being self-seeking? That could also be seen in other ways as well, such as always doing things that benefit ourselves, rather than them. Do we ever get upset at someone, just because we are offended or feel hurt? Do we always remember when they make a mistake? Do we hold that mistake against them and maybe even bring it back up when it serves our purpose? This may happen more in marriage than in the whole body, but then our spouses are also either a brother or sister in Christ. Still, we have witnessed this refusal to forgive within the body of Christ, which is keeping a record of wrongs. Certainly, we do not delight in evil, we do not enjoy seeing our brother or sister doing something that is evil, just as we do not delight when we do anything that is evil.  Do we rejoice in the truth? That is are we filled with joy when we hear the truth. Do we always protect our brothers and sisters in the Lord? To we always trust them, always believing in them, always thankful for them, and always having hope they are being blessed by our Lord? Do we persevere through anything and continue to love them, no matter what? Can we say this is the kind of love we express toward others? If we have passed from death to life, we would have to say that is how we love them. If we are failing to love in this manner, could we say we have not passed from death to life and we still remain in death? We pray this is not the case, that we do love our brothers and sisters. Let us remember to always love and live as we do because we all are in Christ, and are one as He and the Father are one. Therefore as one, we love as one, not as many, because we have passed from death to life.

Doing Right

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER OF JOHN

DOING RIGHT

 

1 John 3:7-10

7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. 9 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. 10 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.

NIV

Once again, we are faced with this instruction about sin. Whatever doctrines these false teachers or preachers were spreading included the idea is was alright to keep on sinning. That fact is, as children of God, as people who are born of God, we are to live a righteous life. That is to say, we are not to go about sinning as if we have no relationship with God whatsoever. We should hate sin, yes, even the sin that still creeps up within us at times. Sin is unacceptable, period. It might have been those who lived after the philosophy of Epicureanism who were leading them astray because of how strong John’s language is. It is not alright to follow our passions just because life is short and we should grab all the gusto we can, enjoying the pleasures of life. When left to our old nature, sin would have its way in us. Our old nature was indeed born of the devil, but our old nature died, and we were born again, born of God, so we now live with this new nature which no longer is captive to sin. John makes a very clear distinction here, that if we are born of God we will not continue to go on sinning. However, he does not say that we will never sin, but that we will no longer desire to live a sinful life, but will desire to live a righteous life. Because we are in Christ, we have been set free from the penalty of sin, free to live as children of God. John also adds, which he will develop further that anyone who does not do what is right in not a child of God, nor is anyone who does not live his brother. This doing right is not just about trying not to sin, or checking off a list of things not to do. It is about doing what is right. That could be a whole host of attitudes and behaviors. However, John singles out one very important attitude which controls our behavior, loving our brother. To love our brother carries much meaning. How can we do anything that would harm a brother, or have any ill feelings toward a brother? If we love than we have to always forgive our brother. If we love them, we would always do what is best for them. What we cannot understand is how there can still be cliques within the community of faith. We cannot afford this type of right living as it excludes other brothers. Loving our brother would mean we love all our brothers, and we love them equally without bias, without prejudice, without judgment or condemnation. Loving our brother means we love them, and that would have to fit with how Paul defines love in his letter to the Corinthians. Loving our brothers is not something we can fake, it has to come from our inner nature, which is from God. Certainly, we know God loves us so much that he sent his only Son to die for us. This is how much we should love our brothers. Freely, without reservation, without withholding ourselves, but freely and openly loving our brother. That is doing what is right.

Only One Hope

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER OF JOHN

ONLY ONE HOPE

1 John 3:4-6

4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

NIV

What are we to do here? John is asserting that every sin is breaking the Law of God and that is surely the case. There is no other way to interpret this meaning. It is also true that Jesus came to take away our sins. John is making the point that in Jesus there is no sin, therefore Jesus is the only one without sin and thus qualifies Him to be the sacrifice for our sins. However, this is very troubling that John also tells us that if we live in Christ we will not keep on sinning and that if we continue to sin we have neither seen Jesus or know Jesus. Our scholars of old comment on this passage as if they have indeed stopped sinning completely and are fully pure in their entire being, otherwise they would have to admit they do not live in Christ. There is also thought among some that this refers to habitual sin, to continue to sin willfully, knowingly and not caring about the law of God in that sense because the passions of self-gratification are too strong to overcome. The fact is all sin is in violation of the law. Sin is lawlessness. So how do we deal with the fact that we still live in the corruptible? How do we deal with committing sin, or have we been so purified that we are free of the commission of sin. Have we attained holiness to the fullest and no longer commit even the smallest of sin, which we would have to say all sin, no matter to what degree we classify sin, it is still sin. So then do we say that if we have one disobedient thought, word, or deed, we are not living in Christ and therefore are not saved? We could spend a whole day writing out the various ways in which we could be disobedient in thought, word, or deed. There are so many ways in which we would have to say we would be guilty of some sin, some violation of the law of God. How can that be? Do we fail at loving everyone equally? Do we fail at being patient? Do we have any envy, any jealously, any judgmental attitude, any doubt, any desire to store up wealth, any thoughts of want, which can be lust? Do we ever get upset, angry, or fail to forgive? The list could be enormous of the ways in which we can fail to be totally pure, holy, and blameless before God. That is if it all depended on us, if our salvation, our knowing Jesus was completely dependent on us being free of all sin. How can that ever be the truth? It is absolutely true that we do not make it our aim or goal to sin so that God’s grace can increase. Without a doubt, we want to keep from any willful act of sin, saying to ourselves, “well, after the sin, we will ask for forgiveness". Of course, we desire to keep from sin, but the fact still remains, in our corruptible state, we are going to fail at perfection. Our desire is to live for and in Jesus and have Him be the Lord of our life. It is our desire to live as free from sin as possible, to keep ourselves pure and holy. But that would mean everything depends on our ability to do so, our perfect control of self at all times in every situation. But then we would not be living in Christ, we would be living in self, and self is corruptible, in thought, word, and deeds, those of commission and of omission. Our only hope is to live in Christ, to trust in Him, to be in Him and have Him in us. In Christ, we are holy and blameless in the sight of God. We have no other to follow. This is what John is warning those he writes to, that they and we cannot follow some false teachings, or false doctrines such as the stoics, epicureans, or Judaizers, which all depend to some degree on the flesh, or acts of the self, which is then putting aside the act of Jesus. The truth is all our hope rests in the act of Jesus on that cross. He took away all our sins. He is our only one hope.