A Bible study outline for Tangent Community Church by Pastor Dave Carlson
09-29-2013 My Heart, Christ’s Home 1st John 3:24
Review: John has made it plain that the one and only way in which a child of God can, or does, manifest himself is by doing righteousness. Indeed, righteousness is the only possible way for the child of God to truly and accurately express himself, since he (in his inward, regenerated self) cannot sin (2:29-3:10a). John has also been careful to define love sufficiently so that when we see it in action it can be recognized as such (3:10b-18). In its essence, it is the direct opposite of the murderous hatred of Cain. It finds its true Model in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who laid down His life for us,” and it leads to boldness before God in prayer (3:19-23).
Preview: As we come to the climactic section (3:24-4:19) of the Body of his letter (2:28-4:19), John will proceed to tell us precisely how we may reach the goal of living a life that leads to boldness at the Judgment Seat of Christ. This goal is reachable because the believer is indwelt by God Himself (3:24)! With this discussion of the subject of God abiding within the obedient believer we reach the pinnacle of the mountain up which John has been leading us.
John has just told us (3:22) that the key to boldness before God in prayer is obedience to His commandments. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. But something else is true of the believer who keeps these commandments ~ such a person abides in Him (i.e., in God or Christ), and in addition, He (God or Christ) abides in him (the obedient believer).
Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
Prior to this verse, the word for abide (meno) has occurred in the Greek text no less than fifteen times, yet surprisingly, John has not yet spoken directly of God, or Christ, “abiding” in believers.
The closest he has come to speaking of God “abiding” in us occurs when he tells his readers that “the anointing … abides in you (2:27) and when he affirms of the one who hates his Christian brother that “no murderer has eternal life abiding in him (3:15). No doubt John knew that his readers could identify “the anointing” as the Holy Spirit and “eternal life” as Christ (5:20).
So here again we meet the reciprocal relationship which is an integral part of our Lord’s doctrine of abiding (John 15:4-5).
If a Christian is abiding in Christ (or God) then Christ (or God) is abiding in that Christian.
Although John has not said so directly until this point in his letter, now this truth becomes a central fact in the progression of his thought, namely, that the obedient believer has God making “His home” within him. Such an experience fulfills Jesus’ words in John 14:23 ~ Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. Note that the word “home” or “abode” (Greek, mone, belongs to the same word group as meno ~ to abide, live, dwell). Obviously such an experience with God is the ultimate form of fellowship with God, which John declared from the beginning was the goal of his epistle (1:3). So now here in this climactic section of John’s letter, the theme set forth in the prologue (fellowship) and the one presented in 1 John 2:28 (abiding in Him) merge as John will develop the concept of the indwelling God. Notice also that along with the first direct mention of God abiding in us, there is also the first direct mention of the Holy Spirit. If God indeed abides in us, we can know this by the Spirit He has given us. Since all Christians possess the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9), they have the means by which they can discern the reality of God abiding within them. As we move on in this letter, we will learn to discern God’s Spirit (4:1-6) and God’s indwelling (4:7-16).
09-22-2013 Love-Enhanced Prayer 1st John 3:19-23
Review: In the Body of his letter (2:28-4:19), John speaks of the life that leads believers to boldness before the Bema (Christ’s Judgment Seat). In 2:29-3:10a he has shown us that a child of God is manifested only by righteousness. Last week (3:10b-18) we saw that this righteousness is inseparable from genuine Christian love for the brethren and is expressed in practical acts of love.
Preview: John will now conclude this unit of thought (3:10b-23) by showing how Christian love can embolden us in the presence of God in prayer. By resurfacing the concept of “boldness” for the first time since the thematic statement of 2:28, John signals an advance toward the climax of his theme of “boldness” at the coming of the Lord Jesus (4:17-19).
19a And by this we know that we are of the truth,
The introductory words And by this should be referred backward to the exhortation in verse 18.
18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
In other words, John is saying: And by doing this (by loving in deed and truth), by acting in love with deeds that reflect the truth about love as revealed in Christ, we can know that we are of the truth. Another way of saying we are of the truth is, that by loving in this way one can know that his actions have their source in the truth.
The words that follow in verse 19b, and shall assure our hearts before Him, are best taken with the words of the next verse. 20 For [= that] if our heart condemns us, [that] God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
Zane Hodges’ paraphrase of 1 John 3:18-20 gives a helpful summary of these verses:
My little children, let’s not love with words only or with our speech, but in action and in reality. That, you see, is how we recognize our participation in the truth and that’s how we can convince our heart – if our heart makes us feel guilty – that God is greater than our heart and He takes account of all we have done.
(Epistles of John, p. 165)
21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.
The word confidence (parresia) is the same one used in 2:28, and spells out John’s theme of confidence before Christ at the Judgment Seat of Christ, which reaches its climax at 4:17.
But obviously, if we don’t have confidence before God when we kneel before Him now in prayer, it is even less likely that we will have confidence in the future before Him at His coming.
22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.
No doubt John adds the phrase and do those things that are pleasing in His sight to remind us that God is pleased with our obedience. Thus, God’s pleasure in our obedience becomes a motive for His response to the prayers we offer. Christians sometimes forget the simple truth that God is pleased when we obey Him. He never takes our obedience for granted, or fails to appreciate it. But just as an earthly father is happy over an obedient son or daughter, so also is our heavenly Father as well.
23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.
God’s will, therefore, can be summarized as faith in His Son’s name and obedience to His Son’s commandment. Thus John concludes his thoughts in 3:10b-23, in which we have seen what love is not (3:10b-15), what love is (3:16-18) and what love does for believers (3:19-23).
09-15-2013 Doing Righteousness = Brotherly Love 1st John 3:10b-18
Review: The one and only basis on which a child of God may be manifested is by doing righteousness. Since “whoever is born of God does not sin,” and “cannot sin” (3:9), sin can be no part of such a manifestation. Abiding in Christ is the key because “whoever abides in Him does not sin” (3:6).
Preview: Granted that God’s children can only be manifested by the doing of righteousness, how can we recognize that righteousness when it is on display? Unique to Christian morality is its demand for a brotherly love based on our mutual faith in Christ. Up to this point in the letter, the Greek noun for love has occurred only 3 times (2:5, 15; 3:1) and the verb “to love” has occurred only 4 times (2:10; 2:15 [twice]; 3:1). But in this section of John’s epistle (3:10b-4:21), the noun occurs 14 times and the verb 21 times. The new theme is clearly love.
1. What Love Is Not (3:10b-15)
10bWhoever does not practice [do] righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.
Whatever is true of whoever does not [do] righteousness is true also of whoever does not love his brother. In both cases the person is not of God in the sense that God is not behind what he is doing. The phrase “not of God” does not equal “not born of God,” despite the NIV’s mistake.
11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,
The message about love had been given to them from the beginning or their Christian experience (cf. 2:7; John 13:30, 34-35).
12 not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.
The classic example of brother-to-brother hatred is the case of Cain and Abel (Gen 4:1-15).
Cain was of the wicked one in that what he did was derived from satanic influence rather than from anything related to God (3:8, 10b). Spiritual envy led to the first murder in human history.
13 Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. While John’s readers may well marvel at hatred from a brother, the world’s hatred is to be anticipated (John 15:18-19).
14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. If love is an experience of “life,” John is saying, hatred of one’s Christian brother is an experience of death (Rom 7:9-10). In a perfectly normal use of the word know, John declares that he and his fellow apostles experience their passage from death to life through loving their Christian brothers. The implication is that the passage from death to life, which occurs at the moment one believes in Jesus for eternal life (John 5:24), can be experientially and qualitatively known and appreciated through Christian love.
15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. John goes on to explain that hatred of one’s brother is also an experience of murder. The person who hates his Christian brother is really no different from Cain (3:12), even though he may not commit the overt act of physically killing his brother (Matthew 5:21-22).
2. What Love Is (3:16-18)
A. Love gives Sacrificially 16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
B. Love sees Compassionately 17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
C. Love is Action 18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
09-01-2013 Detecting Destructive Doctrine 1st John 1:1-3:10a
We are midway through verses 49 of the 105 verses in the letter known as 1st John, and although John did not specifically spell out the exact nature of the false doctrine held by the “antichrists” (2:18), we may detect some of the nature of their destructive doctrine from what he has written.
(1) God has no “dark side” to His character!
1:5 ~ This is the message that we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all (literally, “darkness is not in Him – none!” Greek double negative). We may infer from John’s emphatic exclamation here that the “antichrists” may have taught that there was darkness in the Deity, that God’s nature included both light & darkness, good & evil. If “evil” as well as “good” originated from the Creator, then moral distinctions were invalid, and could lead to a disregard for God’s commandments (1:6; 2:3-4). Thus, the conditional statement in 2:29 probably carried the nuance: if in contrast to some others, you do know that He is righteous … then you also know the following: that everyone who does righteousness is born of Him. God’s nature has no “dark side” so we should walk in the light. If you find yourself hiding from God, then you can be sure you’re not abiding in Him!
2:29 ~ If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who does righteousness is born of Him. The person who performs righteousness (rather than sin) indicates that he/she has a perfect inward righteousness. If the “antichrists” taught that they could express their participation in the very nature of God through doing either good or evil, they were sadly mistaken! Sin goes against who we now really are at the core of our being as a believer.
(2) Sin has no legitimate place in the life of a person who is born of God!
3:7 ~ Little children, let no one deceive you. He who does righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. Only righteousness arises from the inner nature of one who is already righteous as God is righteous. When we sin we do act not according to who we now really are!
The truth of 3:10a (In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest.) is anticipated in 2:19 ~ They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. In view of this, it is best to see the children of the devil (3:8) as referring to people like the “antichrists” who are revealed as such by their opposition to Jesus Christ (2:22-23 ~ 22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.)
Truths about our daily walk on the way to that Day when we see our Savior:
(1) Know what is true about your enemy: John 10:10a ~ The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.
The enemy seeks to steal your fellowship with the Father and with His Son.
The enemy seeks to kill your love for your brothers and sisters in Christ.
The enemy seeks to destroy your assurance of salvation and your abiding in the Savior.
(2) Know what is true about you: John 10:10a ~ I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
A believer’s security is sure and certain because the eternal life we’ve received is everlasting life.
An abundant experience of the eternal life we now have is available through fellowship with God
Our opportunity is now to invest in the world to come for future greatness in service to our King!
08-25-2013 Manifesting the New Me 1st John 3:7-10a
Review: 2:28 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears [phanerothe], we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. 29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices [does] righteousness is born of Him.
3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed [ephanerothe] what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed [phanerothe], we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness [wickedness], and sin is lawlessness [wickedness]. 5 And you know that He was manifested [phanerothe] to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him = Whoever sins [at that moment] is in a not-seeing and not-knowing condition with reference to God. In other words, I can’t be abiding in Christ and sinning at the same time. If I am sinning, then I am not abiding in Him [in Whom is NO sin] at that moment in time.
7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices [does] righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.
John addresses them as Little children (teknia, 2:12-14; 3:1-2) to encourage them to take a simple, child-like view of this matter by remembering the true character of their heavenly Father, who is righteous.
The concept of doing righteousness throws us back to 2:29. Perhaps this syllogism will help us understand what John is saying in 2:29:
Major Premise: Divine righteousness comes from God’s divine nature.
Minor Premise: Grover produces divine righteousness.
Conclusion: Therefore, Grover, who produces divine righteousness, has God’s divine nature (born of God).
Simply stated, the person doing divine righteousness must be born again, that is, he must have God’s divine nature. In 3:7 we have the same concept with slightly different words:
Major Premise: Someone producing divine righteousness is righteous.
Minor Premise: God’s divine nature is righteous.
Conclusion: Therefore, someone who produces divine righteousness must have God’s divine nature (born of God).
John is simply saying that a “born of Him” (2:29) person is a person who has been given part of God’s nature. This is expressed more explicitly in 2 Peter 1:3-4 ~ 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
His divine love (agape) is produced by His Spirit (Gal 5:22) in our new, born-again-with, divine nature.
8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested [ephanerothe], that He might destroy the works of the devil.
Major Premise: The devil’s work is to sin.
Minor Premise: Someone is sinning.
Conclusion: That person sinning is doing the devil’s work.
9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.
Like verse 6, this verse appears to say that a genuine, born-again Christian does not sin and cannot sin. But that contradicts 1:8, which says that Christians do sin. The best solution is to be found in the phrase His seed, which refers to God’s nature. His divine nature is passed down through His divine seed. The new birth places His seed in us. Just as my physical seed cannot produce something outside its genetic code, so God’s seed cannot produce something contrary to His nature, such as, sin. God’s nature cannot produce sin. God’s nature in us (His seed) cannot produce sin.
This passage may be best understood as a parallel to Paul’s statements in Romans 7:14-25 ~ 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Galatians 2:20 I have been [am] crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
10a In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest [phanera]. [not :]
V.10a is best taken as a conclusion to the discussion in 2:28-3:9 about “manifestation,” so ends with period.
John has been trying to motivate us to godliness by pointing out how sin in the life of a believer is incongruous with Christ’s purpose for being “manifested” (3:5, 8) at His first coming and will result in shame instead of confidence before Him when He is “manifested” at His future coming (2:28; 3:2)!
Sin in the life of a believer is also incongruous with the fact that we now partake of God’s nature. It goes against who we now really are at the core of our being as a believer.
1. When a Christian sins, he is acting contrary to who he really is and what he really desires.
“The section (2:28-3:10a) we are looking at is advancing the theme as stated where boldness in the presence of the Lord is offered to those who abide in Him (2:28). In doing this, i.e., by abiding in Him, believers can and do manifest themselves as children of God. But those who do not abide do not so manifest themselves. The reality of their regenerate inward man remains hidden.” (Hodges)
2. When a Christian sins, he is hiding God’s glory.
Leaves really don’t change color. The color is already there, but in the Spring and Summer cells of chlorophyll cover up the true color of the leaves. In the Fall, the chlorophyll cells fall away, and the true colors of the leaves are “manifested. There is no changing of the colors, it is an unveiling of colors. So also in our Christian walk, we can allow our true colors to be covered over with the chlorophyll of sin that hides the glory of God. As the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives peels away the chlorophyll of sin, there is an unveiling of Christ in us, the hope of glory
The world sees an open expression, a manifestation of God’s divine nature in us.
3. When a Christian sins, it is contrary to Christ, and he is doing the work of the devil, Christ’s adversary.
08-18-2013 The Cancer of Sin 1st John 3:4-6
Review: Following the thematic statement (2:28), which gives us a lens for our long term outlook, John describes the perfect righteousness that will be ours when we see Christ (2:29-3:2) and then gives us a lens to see up close by focusing us on our inward purity that is ours as a believer (3:3) due to His righteousness that is put to our account by our faith in Him.
Preview: 1 John 3:6 (6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.) seems to contradict 1 John 1:8 (If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.). We know that God never contradicts Himself in His Word. So how do we reconcile these two verses? The translators of the NIV attempt to do so by rendering the Greek present tense as indicating continuous action: No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
But there is nothing inherent in the Greek present tense that tells us this is continuous action. For example, Jesus refers to His single act of coming to earth at His incarnation in the present tense in John 6:33 ~ For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Is there anyone who would like to tell us that the present tense there means continuous action?
Was Jesus continually coming down from out of heaven? I don’t think so. The present tense can mean continuous action, but that is only one of its ten different uses, and it’s a fairly rare usage. There need to be other indicators in the context of the verb before we conclude that the meaning is continuous action. A solution will be suggested as we consider 1 John 3:6 today.
1. The Character of Sin (3:4 4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.) Sin is here set in stark contrast against righteousness (2:29) and purity (3:3).
Sin is the antithesis of the purity that belongs to Christ, and to everyone who has the hope of being like Him. In the LXX (Septuagint – Greek translation of the Old Testament), we find anomia (translated here as “lawlessness”) used to translate no less than 24 different Hebrew words. The most frequent one is the Hebrew word ‘awon, for which the English words “wickedness” or “iniquity” are good equivalents. The Confraternity Version (1961) thus translates the verse this way: Everyone who commits sin, commits iniquity also; and sin is iniquity. John’s intended point is to stigmatize sin as being “evil,” “wicked,” “iniquitous.”
John is trying to open their eyes to the wickedness of sin, all sin!
2. The Cancellation of Sin (3:5) 5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. This verse is not a statement of reality or unreality; it is a statement of purpose. Christ’s purpose in coming to earth was to take away sin. Now that our sins have been washed away by His blood in our position, we should also desire to see them wiped away in our condition. Known sin in the condition of a believer is incongruous with Christ’s purpose (3:5a; John 1:29) and Christ’s purity (3:5b, 3:3b ~ just as He is pure).
3. The Contradiction of Sin (3:6) . 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.
Why might an interpreter see the issue in this verse as being fellowship instead of relationship?
(1) The word abides refers to fellowship in John 15:5-11 – the very purpose of 1st John (1:3)!
5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.
6a Whoever abides in Him does not sin. The failure to recognize the logical connection between verses 5 and 6 is the reason that verses 6 and 9 have been so often misunderstood.
6a Whoever abides in Him does not sin. As Hodges points out (Epistles of John, p.134-136), in view of all that John has said thus far, since urging his readers to “abide in Him (2:28), it clearly and logically follows that the experience of abiding in a sinless Person means that such an abiding experience is totally free from sin.
No first century reader or hearer was likely to get a meaning such as the one that the NIV imports into this text, without the necessary additional words. The introduction of ideas like “continue to” or “to go on doing” require more than the Greek present tense. For this purpose there were Greek words available, such as diapantos, used in Luke 24:53 and Hebrews 13:15 and translated continually. Or the words eis to dienekes (continually) could be added (Hebrews 7:3, 10:1). But the Greek present tense did not by itself convey such an idea as continuous action.
All such explanations fly in the face of the context, especially of 3:5. The statement there in verse 5 that “in Him is no sin” is clearly absolute and cannot be qualified at all.
But since this is so, one who abides in the Sinless One cannot be said to be only “a little bit” sinful! If there can be no sin in Christ at all, one cannot take even a little bit of sin into an experience which is specifically said to be [an experience of abiding] in Him.
To be sure, no Christian can ever claim (in this life) to be experientially free from sin, as 1:8 makes emphatically clear (If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us). But at the same time we can say that the experience of “abiding in Him” is in and of itself a sinless experience. As such, it is not “contaminated” by the presence of sin in other aspects of our experience.
As we have seen, the “abiding life” is marked by obedience to Christ’s commands (2:3-6).
The fact is that, if I obey the command to love my brother, that obedience is not tainted in God’s sight by some different sort of failure in my life like unwatchfulness in prayer (Ephesians 6:18).
It is also true that when we are walking in fellowship with God and seeking to guard His commands, God is able to look past all our failures and sin and see the actual obedience that is there. We have already been told this in 1:7, where we are informed that even while walking in the light there is cleansing going on by virtue of the blood of Christ.
Thus as we walk in the light and do what He commands us, God sees us as people who are totally cleansed from whatever faults we may have and who live before God without any charge of unrighteousness.
Thus, when we abide in Him, the positive obedience is what God takes account of and recognizes. The sin which still remains in us is not in any sense sourced in the abiding life, and that sin is cleansed away in accordance with 1:7. The experience of “abiding” is therefore the equivalent of our experience of obedience. Obedience and sin are opposites.
Thus, sin is no part of the abiding experience at all.
So then, when I am sinning, I am not at that moment abiding in Christ/obeying His Word, and thus the new inner regenerate person is not being manifested. I am not at that moment acting like who I actually am inwardly in Christ. If sin occurs, it is not the new inward man who performs it.
(2) In fact, as 3:6b states, sin reflects both ignorance and blindness toward God and Christ. It follows then that Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. We should therefore not read has neither seen Him nor known Him as though these words implied a never. The flow of thought requires us to see an absolute antithesis between sin and Christ/abiding in Him. It should be noted that the statement that the phrase employs Greek verbs for “see” and “know” that are here found in the Greek perfect tense, which we might paraphrase as follows: Whoever sins is in a not-seeing and not-knowing condition with reference to God.
08-11-2013 How is your Eyesight? 1st John 2:28 – 3:3
Review: The material from 2:28-4:19 is the body or major unit of exhortation in John’s epistle, in which he will maintain that it is the “abiding” life which alone can prepare the believer to stand before Christ at His Judgment Seat with boldness rather than shame.
An Outline of 1st John*
I. Introduction: “The Joy of Fellowship” 1:1-4
II. Body: “The Principles of Fellowship” 1:5-5:17
A. Principles of Fellowship Introduced 1:5-2:27
1, Right Living – Dealing with our Sins 1:5-2:2
2. Right Loving – Dealing with our Brothers 2:3-11
3. Right Learning – Dealing with our Enemies 2:12-27
B. Principles of Fellowship Developed 2:28-4:6
1. Right Living – Dealing with our Sins 2:28-3:10a
2. Right Loving – Dealing with our Brothers 3:10b-23
3. Right Learning – Dealing with our Enemies 3:224-4:6
C. Principles of Fellowship Climaxed 4:7-5:21
1. Right Loving – Dealing with our Brothers 4:7-5:5
2. Right Learning – Dealing with our Enemies 5:6-13
3. Right Living – Dealing with our Sins 5:14-17
III. Conclusion: “Encouragement for Little Children” 5:18-21
Introduction: We need spiritual “monovision” to navigate the treacherous waters of this life. In this way, we can simultaneously keep one “eye” on this world and one “eye” on the world to come. We don’t have much choice but to look at this world, since we’re living here for now. But we will lose our Christian balance if we don’t put one eye on the world to come!
1. A Lens for Long Distance Vision (2:28)
28 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.
2. A Description of Perfect Vision (2:29-3:2)
29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.
29 If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.
3 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
3. A Lens for Seeing Up Close (3:3)
3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
* From MAXIMUM JOY: First John – Relationship or Fellowship? by David R. Anderson, pp. 72-73.
08-04-2013 Confidence When it Really Counts! 1st John 2:28
Parresia at His Parousia
Review: The previous section had stressed the idea of “abiding,” the Greek word (meno) being used seven times in 2:12-27. It is even used once of the antichrists who did not continue with the apostles in the Jerusalem church (2:19). The readers must allow the truth to “abide” in them and thereby will be able to “abide” in the Son and in the Father (2:24-27). The exhortation to “abide” (2:28) is the focal point of John’s deep concern for his readers to be abiding (2:12-27).
Preview: In this section (2:28 - 4:19), John will maintain that it is the “abiding” life which alone can prepare the believer to stand before Christ at His Judgment Seat with “confidence” (2:28) / “boldness” (4:17) rather than shame. John uses this major unit of his letter to elevate the significance of abiding in the Son and in the Father to the highest degree of spiritual significance, except for possessing the gift of eternal life itself. It is this life of abiding in Him that leads to confidence before Christ’s Judgment Seat.
And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.
To whom is John writing in this letter? [This letter is written to believers!]
And now, little children,
What should God’s children be learning to do? [To abide in Him and so be His disciple]
abide in Him,
Why should God’s children be doing this? [Jesus is coming again ~ maybe today!]
that when He appears,
To what kind of experience should we aspire? [Confidence from communion/fellowship]
we may have confidence [Earnest Expectation; Excitement; Enthusiasm!]
What kind of experience should we wish to avoid? [Shame! Embarrassment! Regret!]
and not be ashamed
Where will we have this experience? [at the Bema/Judgment Seat of Christ]
before Him
When will we have this experience? [after He raptures us with His church]
at His coming.
Main Idea: The life of abiding in the Son and in the Father is the life that leads to confidence instead of shame before Christ at His Judgment Seat. If we abide in Christ, then instead of shame, we can have confidence before Him at His coming.
Application: It is never a waste of your time to invest your life in that which is eternal!
Do you want to enjoy an experience of having boldness at the Bema? Abide in Him!
“Only one life, ‘twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” ~ 1 John 2:17, 28
07-28-2013 Accept No Substitutes! 1st John 2:18-27
Detecting and Defeating What is False
The Age of the Antichrist (2:18-19)
18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
Not only is “the world passing away,” but the apostle and his readers are living in the last hour. Note that the phrase it is the last hour occurs twice in 2:18. Though “hour” can refer to a portion of a day (John 1:39; 4:6; 11:9), it also is used to refer to an undetermined length of time (John 2:4; 4:21,, 23; 5:25, 28; 16:25). Here the last hour refers to when human history will climax with the rise and overthrow of Satan’s final great deception.
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.
The word us, used four times in 2:18, contrasts with the word you of 2:20.
The Apostasy of the Antichrist (2:20-23)
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. (See John 14:26; John 16:13 ~ the Holy Spirit would teach them the truth they need) 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
The word know is again in the perfect tense (have come to know in a deeper way).
The term anointing refers to the Holy Spirit. In the New Testament the Word of God is never directly connected with the idea of anointing, whereas the Holy Spirit is. Jesus was anointed as the Christ by the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:18; Acts 4:27; 10:38).
22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.
The lie that John has particularly in mind is the denial that Jesus is the Christ because this is saving belief (5:1; John 20:30-31) and the person who denies this truth is a liar who subverts the very basis upon which anyone is saved.
23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. Both Jesus’ words and works were those of His Father (John 14:10-11).
Our Armor against the Antichrist (2:24-27)
If we stand on God’s faithful promises … 24 Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.
… then we can stand strong in the Holy Spirit against false prophets! 26 These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. 27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. Note the two parallel statements in 2:27 ~ (1) as [it] teaches you concerning all things and (2) and just as it has taught you ~ show that the ongoing teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit is always consistent with what He has already taught. He will not negate or deny what He has previously taught by His ongoing teaching.
Application: Ephesians 6:13-18 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, … And take … the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always … in the Spirit.
07-21-2013 Living for What Will Last 1st John 2:15-17
Review: In 2:12-14 John set forth the spiritual assets of his readers noting the spiritual growth they had attained (as little children), the stability and sufficiency of their faith (as fathers), and the victory they had achieved (as young men). The victory their faith had won and the growth they had attained combined with their spiritual strength (through abiding in the Word and His Word in us ~ John 15:4,7) sets their feet on solid ground for dealing with the enemy.
Preview: In 2:15-27 John turns to two enemies with which they must contend: (1) the world system which is hostile to God, and (2) the antichrists who are hostile to Jesus Christ. Lurking behind both is their archenemy, the wicked one, Satan himself.
Speaking of the antichrists in 4:5, “They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.” So John deals first with the world because if his readers effectively resist the world, they may be expected to also resist the antichrists.
Even though John has just praised their spiritual attainments (2:12-14), he realistically realizes that they heed the following warning (2:15-17).
“The world, conceived of as a moral and spiritual system designed to draw people away from the living God, is profoundly seductive, and no Christian, however advanced, is fully immune from its allurements.” (Zane C. Hodges, p. 101, Epistles of John)
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
So we must not love the world as a whole, nor should we love any of its sinful components.
We cannot love God and the world at the same time! [Luke 16:13; James 4:4-5]
“Our love for the world is a touchstone of our love for God or of our lack of love for Him.”
What are the components of the world that we are not to love?
16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
The entirety of the world’s constituent elements can be summarized under three categories:
(1) lust of the flesh ~ includes every illicit physical activity (things that the flesh craves)that appeals to the sinful hearts of men. Includes immorality, drunkenness, gluttony.
(2) lust of the eyes ~ whatever is visually appealing (whether it be a person or a thing) but not properly ours to desire or obtain is included in this category. Covetousness.
(3) the pride of life ~ arrogance or pretentiousness such as one sees in a person who boasts about self, possessions, or accomplishments: boastful pretension in earthly matters.
Taken together, these three categories skillfully sum up the totality of the allurements this godless world system has to offer. None of these has its source in God (James 1:13).
The war against the lusts of this world is won by God’s Word! (Genesis 3:1-6; Matthew 4:1-11)
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
The world has only a brief existence within time and is destined to disappear when God’s purposes are realized on earth. This recalls 2:8 ~ “the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.”
The Christian’s identity in eternity will be determined by obedience to God in time. (p. 105)
Bottom Line: It is never a waste of your time to invest it in the eternal!
Only one life, ‘twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last!
1 Corinthians 10:12 ~ Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
Jeremiah 17:9 ~ “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
Luke 16:13 ~ “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
James 4:4-5 ~ Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
James 1:13 ~ Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
Genesis 3:1-6 ~ 3 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
Matthew 4:1-11 ~ 4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” 5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”
8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”
11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.
John 8:34Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 1 John 4:17 ~ Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
James 2:21-23 ~ 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.
John 14:14-15 ~ You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
07-14-2013 Prepared for the Spiritual Battle 1st John 2:12-14
Review: In 1:5 – 2:11 John reviewed the basic truths about fellowship with God. If his readers hold to these truths, they will continue to enjoy fellowship with the apostles and, above all, with God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ (1:3).
Context: In the section to follow (2:12-27) John will refer directly to the false teachers they will be confronting. The appearance of these “antichrists” on the scene is what has prompted this letter. The purpose of John’s epistle is to promote fellowship and to protect from false teaching that will attack and, if believed, will result in loss of fellowship. Before directly referring to these antichrists who threaten the church with their false doctrine, John first asserts the spiritual competence of his Christian readers (2:12-14).
Text: With a series of tightly constructed statements, John reminds his Christian readers of their spiritual assets:
12 I write to you, little children,
Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.
Literally, “Because sins have been forgiven you on account of His name.” Their forgiveness is dependent upon the effectiveness and efficacy of Christ’s name. Saving faith is belief in His name (1 John 5:13; John 1:12; 3:18). The readers have experienced forgiveness (1:5 – 2:2).
13a I write to you, fathers,
Because you have known (come to know) Him who is from the beginning.
Here, in addressing the readers as fathers, John has in mind the idea of knowing God (2:3-11). As in 2:3-4, John uses the perfect tense: “Because you have come to know Him …”
For the concept of coming to know God, John prefers to use the Greek perfect tense as it conveys the idea of a state or situation that results from what has been accomplished in the past.
13 b I write to you, young men,
Because you have overcome the wicked one.
It is the reader’s invaluable experience as little children (the forgiveness of sins) and as fathers (the knowledge of God) that makes them vigorous young men prepared to do battle with the wicked one (the antichrists of 2:18-27 who are obviously agents of Satan ~ 4:1-6, who have been overcome by these little children ~ 4:4).
13 c I write to you, little children,
Because you have known (come to know) the Father.
The statement made to little children is entirely changed and reflects spiritual growth over time.
14a I have written to you, fathers,
Because you have known (come to know) Him who is from the beginning.
The statement to the fathers doesn’t change, so he uses the past tense to denote the repetition. The only possible advance is in depth of knowledge of God as “everlasting Father” (Isaiah 9:6).
14b I have written to you, young men,
Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, {John 15:1-8!)
And you have overcome the wicked one.
They are viewed again as those who have conquered Satan, yet are not at all weakened by their conflict but instead they possess strength and God’s Word is vitally alive (abides, 2:6) in them.
06-30-2013 The Biggest Barrier to Fellowship 1st John 2:9-11
“THE DARKNESS OF HATE”
Review: 1 John 2:3-11 is concerned with one who has had some time in the faith, has learned what his Lord commands, and by obedience has come to know God and His love in a deeper, special way. This goes beyond the truth John deals with in 1:5 – 2:2, where he tells us that fellowship with God requires only openness to the light and a willingness to acknowledge (confess) whatever sin the light reveals. Even a believer who is a babe in Christ can live in harmonious fellowship with the Lord. But in time he will grow in knowledge (2 Peter 3:18) and learn God’s will, and if he does it (“keeps His word”), will enter a more advanced stage of fellowship in which he comes to know God and His love. In such an “abiding” Christian the love of God is “perfected,” that is, it has reached its “goal” in him. 5But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God (God for us and us for God) is perfected in him. By this – that is, by this experience of having God’s love perfected in us – it is by means of this experience of God’s love, we know that we are (abiding) in Him.
Exposition: THE BIGGEST BARRIER WE FACE IN GETTING CLOSE TO GOD (2:6-11)
1. THE LIGHT OF LOVE (2:6-8)
6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
7 Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. 8 Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
2. THE DARKNESS OF HATE (2:9-11)
It follows from what John has just said in 2:6-8 about the light of God’s love that hatred among Christians is completely CONTRARY to the light of the coming new age that is “already” shining. The opposite of love is hate. The opposite of light is darkness. Just as loving each other opens the floodgates of fellowship, so hating one another closes them. Thus, the biggest barrier to deep fellowship with God is to hate one’s brother.
9 He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.
The claim (He who says) by a believer that he is in the light is falsified by his hatred of his fellow Christian. The claim and the hatred taken together simply prove that the hostile Christian is in darkness until now. Many are unwilling to face the sad reality that hatred can and does exist among truly born again believers. The claim by some that this verse can only refer to “professing” believers is without one shred of evidence in the text. If John had been thinking about an unsaved false professor, he would not have written what he did. The word “his” would be completely unnecessary and even misleading had he meant to say this was a non-Christian hating a Christian. He would have said, “He … who hates a brother (i.e., someone who hates a Christian.) Furthermore, we have seen in the context (His commandment) that the subject matter is our Lord’s command to love one another (John 13:34). This is true throughout John’s letter where the command to love is in view. It is the love of Christian (brother) toward Christian (brother) that John has in mind (this will be especially evident when we come to 4:20 – 5:1).
Could a true Christian not ever hate another Christian? If this book is a test of relationship, then to hate a Christian brother is to fail the test and bring into question one’s salvation from hell.
What does John mean when he says that such a Christian is in darkness until now?
This does NOT mean that the person is not born again, that he’s unsaved.
We must let the context set the parameters of John’s statement here: From verse 2:3 on, we have been talking about the more advanced Christian (who both has and keeps his Lord’s commandments) and who thus has come to know God in an intimate sense.
The command to love one another belongs not to the passing “darkness” but to “the true light” of the coming age when His kingdom will be established here on this earth, and it says that true light is “already shining.”
Therefore, the obedient disciple, the loving believer, clearly lives in the light of the age to come.
On the contrary, the unloving believer does NOT live his life in the light of the age to come!
Indeed, such a believer has never really experienced that light (lived in the light of the coming kingdom age with regard to loving his brothers) and thus is in darkness until now.
That means that this believer lives in the spirit and ethos of the darkness that “is passing away”v.8
In this context, the claim to be in the light is the functional equivalent of the earlier false claim made by the believer who says 4He who says, “I (have come to) know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar; and the truth is not in him.
Both the claims of 2:4 and 2:9 are falsified by that believer’s disobedience, in v. 4 to “His commandments” and here to the all-encompassing command to love one another.
Thus, the Christian who claims to be in the light while hating his brother has never attained this level of experience. He has never learned to live in the spirit of the age to come, or to reflect “the true light” of that age. Thus, such a Christian is in darkness until now.
Hatred of a fellow Christian, combined with a claim to be in the light that heralds the new age, shows only too clearly that such a believer has a profound ignorance of that light.
By way of CONTRAST with the false claimant of 2:9, the Christian who loves his brother (v. 10) is not only in the light but also abides there.
10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
For John, then, the “abiding” life is one that is lived in the light of the coming new (kingdom) age – a light that “already shines” due to the manifestation of God’s Son, the resurrected and coming King. The person who walks in love is abiding in Christ and in this light.
By loving as Christ loved, he is walking “as He walked” (1 John 2:6).
The believer who lives this way is also a person in whom there is no cause for stumbling.
The words no cause for stumbling translate a Greek word (skandalon) which basically means a trap or a snare of some kind, and came in Christian usage to mean whatever ensnares a person in sin. In the person who loves his brother there is no such trap.
11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
Hatred of a fellow Christian reveals a terrible disorientation on the part of the one doing the hating. Not only is he in spiritual darkness, but that is where he lives (walks). Nor does he know where his chosen path may take him because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
“No course of life is more fraught with spiritual and temporal danger for a Christian than one that includes an attitude of hatred toward another Christian.” (Hodges, Epistles of John, p. 89.)
The Christian who hates has lost touch with “the true light” (2:8) which displays God’s loving nature. And he has also embraced “the darkness” which “is passing away” (2:8), with all its hostility to God and Christ and all who belong to Christ.
Such a Christian easily becomes a tool in the hands of Satan, as so many have in Christian homes and churches, resulting in divorces, broken homes, serious divisions and church splits.
It is with this sobering thought that John concludes this section of his epistle.
06-23-2013 Knowing God is Loving Your Brother! 1st John 2:6-8
Review: 1 John 2:3-11 is concerned with one who has had some time in the faith, has learned what his Lord commands, and by obedience has come to know God and His love in a deeper, special way. This goes beyond the truth John deals with in 1:5 – 2:2, where he tells us that fellowship with God requires only openness to the light and a willingness to acknowledge (confess) whatever sin the light reveals. Even a believer who is a babe in Christ can live in harmonious fellowship with the Lord. But in time he will grow in knowledge (2 Peter 3:18) and learn God’s will, and if he does it (“keeps His word”), will enter the more advanced stage of fellowship in which he comes to know God and His love. In such a Christian the love of God is “perfected,” that is, it has reached its “goal” in him.
5But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God (God for us and us for God) is perfected in him. By this – that is, this experience of having God’s love perfected in us – it is by means of this experience of God’s love, we know that we are (abiding) in Him.
Heads Up! The phrase “in Him” is not equivalent to Paul’s expression “in Christ” (by which he denotes the believer’s eternal position in the Body of Christ as a result of the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit). John is speaking here of the believer’s experience, not his position. John’s concept of being “in Him” refers to the experience a believer can and should have of “abiding in Him” (John 15:1-8) by which such a believer may glorify the Father, bear much fruit and be His disciple (15:8). Unlike the eternal relationship between the child of God and His heavenly Father, the relationship of a disciple to his Teacher can be lost: “If anyone (any disciple) does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch” (John 15:6). To be “cast out as a branch” means to lose the disciple/Teacher relationship, not to lose eternal life. As Jesus makes clear, the disciple must remain in his Master, just as the branch must abide in the Vine (As in John 15:4 ~ “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me”). In using the words in Him, therefore, John is referring to the “abiding” Teacher/disciple relationship. This fact is made evident in the very next verse of 1 John (2:6). Remember that a family (father/child) relationship is permanent (eternal) by its very nature, whereas a school (teacher/student, disciple, pupil) relationship is a temporary relationship.
Exposition: KNOWING GOD IS LOVING YOUR BROTHER (2:6-8).
1. THE LIGHT OF LOVE (2:6-8).
6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
If anyone claims (says) he abides in Christ (Him), this claim can be verified only by a Christ-like lifestyle. This is John’s first use in the epistle of a favorite word of his that he uses to describe the life of discipleship to Jesus Christ. The term “abide” (meno) means “to remain,” “to live.”
It is another of his terms he exports from the Upper Room (Last) Discourse (John 13-16).
The words of 2:5 about being “in Him” are functionally equivalent to the idea of “abiding” in Him (2:6). If we can “know that we are in Him” (i.e., that we are abiding in Him)
(1) by keeping His commands, and
(2) by experiencing the perfecting of God’s love, then the reverse side of the same coin is
(3) that we ought … also to walk (live) just as He walked (live as Jesus lived). This, of course, is discipleship truth, and the goal of a disciple is to be like his Teacher (Matthew 10:24-25).
An un-Christ-like believer is not living the true Christian life, not walking as a disciple ought to.
A Christ-like walk, the highest attainment open to a disciple, is not reached the moment one is born again. It requires time for instruction so that one’s heart is prepared to act on what he has learned.
This heightened experience of abiding as a disciple of Jesus is marked by three things:
(1) by obedience to the Lord’s commandments (2:3-4),
(2) by the experience of knowing Him (2:3-4), and
(3) by the experience of God’s perfected love (2:5) [God for us and us for God].
3Now by this we know that we (= have come to) know Him, if we keep His commandments.
4He who says, “I know Him,” (= “I have come to know Him,”) and does not keep His commandments, is a liar; and the truth is not in him. 5But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are (abiding) in Him.
6 Such a disciple abides in Him. That is, he lives, or dwells, in his Lord, just as a branch lives, or dwells, in a vine. So long as this connection is maintained, the experience of “abiding” in Christ continues. The “abider” is a believer who has learned to live like the Lord Jesus Christ.
But that leads us to the question: “How did Christ live?” “What makes us Christ-like?”
Notice the close connection between John 15:9-14 and 1 John 2:6-8.
John 15:9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
7 Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. 8 Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
Notice the connection with abiding, love, and full joy.
This should remind us of the stated purpose of 1st John: fellowship (1:3) with its full joy (1:4).
Indeed, the letter of 1st John is the flower that grows out of the soil of John 13 – 16.
The subject matter of 1st John 2:6-8 follows John 15:9-14 with exact correspondence.
This is no coincidence.
The reason is that the subject matter is the same: intimate fellowship (love and friendship).
The new and old commandment is referring to the same commandment that Jesus gave.
Jesus’ first reference to the commandment previously given is in John 13:34, the commandment to love one another as He has loved us. This commandment is old in the sense that they have heard it from the beginning (meaning that they had received it from the beginning, that is, in the very earliest period of their Christian lives). The old commandment still had the same content as before. It was the same word and not a new responsibility for the readers. They did not need any new information. But this commandment to love one another is also new, not in the sense of time, but in the sense of its freshness in light of the world to come. By this John is affirming that the “old” moral situation of the world is temporary and destined to pass from the scene. The “new” reality that will replace it, the true light, is already shining.
Clearly John is talking in terms of eschatology (things to come; teachings about “last things”).
06-09-2013 Knowing the God Who is Light! 1st John 2:3-5
So far in 1st John 1:1-2:3 the apostle John has been discussing the basic truths underlying true fellowship with a God who is light and in whom there is no trace of the darkness of sin. The heart of these truths involve walking openly before God in the light of His revelation of Himself and being prepared at all times to acknowledge any sin of which we become aware. When we fail, we are not to be overwhelmed by our failure, but rather to rely on the intercession of our Advocate with God the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
The next section (2:3-11) continues to speak of believers living in fellowship with God, but carries the subject to a higher level by focusing our attention on the result, or goal, toward which fellowship should always lead us: namely, to the knowledge of God.
3Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
The words by this are explained by the phrase if we keep His commandments.
In both English and Greek, words for “knowing” are polymorphous (used in many ways).
The most obvious goal of fellowship with “the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (1:3) is to get to know the One with whom we are having fellowship. This verse is not talking about the saving knowledge of Christ. It is true that all believers do know God and Christ at a fundamental level, but at the level of communion and fellowship, a believer may not know his Lord.
How can we speak of knowing someone and yet not really having come to know them?
See John 14:6-9 for a first century example!
Now a twenty-first century example: Think of a member of a local church who hasn’t attended a church service in more than a year. Does he know the church? Well, in his position he does, since he is a member. However, in his experience he does not, since he hasn’t participated in the life of the church in over a year. While the church is glad that he knows it in the first (positional) sense, it will greatly appreciate him knowing it in the second (experiential) sense as well.
1st John 2:3 is not talking about the saving knowledge of God or of Christ, but of the believer’s experiential knowledge of God and His Son.
To miss this point is to risk a complete misreading of the meaning of John’s epistle!
The English translation we know that we know Him, unfortunately obscures a slight shift in the verb forms in Greek that involves a subtle, but important, distinction! We might translate the phrase as follows to reflect the Greek verb forms: we know (present tense) that we have come to know (perfect tense ~ indicates the present state of affairs resulting from a past action) Him,
John’s point is this: The believer who has come to know the Lord (through fellowship and obedience to His commandments) can be assured that he has attained this knowledge.
The Greek word rendered keep (tereo) is used in 1st John six (6) times with “commandments” as its object (2:3,4; 3:22,24; 5:2,3); once with “His word” as the object (2:5); and in 5:18 with “himself” as the object.
The verb (tereo) fundamentally means to “keep watch over; guard.” The Greek verb (tereo) carries an additional connotation of being “observant” or “careful” about the commandments.
The English “to keep a commandment” does not suggest this additional idea found in the Greek. John is not thinking, therefore, about mere performance of the commands of God, but rather about that attitude of obedience which is marked by concern for, and attentiveness to, God’s will.
4He who says, “I know Him,” ( = “I have come to know Him,”) and does not keep His commandments, is a liar; and the truth is not in him.
5But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.
John 14:21 sheds much light on this passage in 1st John. There our Lord lays down two conditions for the self-manifestation of which He speaks. He says: “He who [1] has My commandments and [2] keeps (tereo) them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.
Obviously, a person must first have the Lord’s commandments before he can keep them.
When these two conditions are met, the self-manifestation of Christ brings true and intimate knowledge of God to the obedient disciple. Then, in John 14:22, when Judas (not Iscariot) asks Jesus about the statement He has just made in 14:21, our Lord repeats the statement in a slightly altered form. Jesus says, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep (tereo, guard) My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep (tereo) My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me (John 14:23-24).
It is important to observe that these statements are made only at the end of the 3 ½ years of teaching that the disciples had received from God’s Son. Now they did have His commands and were enjoined to show their love for Him by keeping them.
There is no reason to doubt that when John penned 1 John 2:3-5 he had in mind the statements of Jesus in John 14:21 and 23-24. Observe that even the change from “commandments” (1 John 2:3) to “word” (1 John 2:5) is reflected in that passage in his Gospel, where we find “My commandments” in John 14:21 and “My word” in John 14:23.
We are thus firmly planted in the soil of what may be called discipleship truth (John 13-17), in contrast to saving truth about how not to perish, but to get eternal life (John 3:16-17).
Love for Christ and obedience to His word are in no way a test of saving faith; instead, they are tests of genuine, heart-felt discipleship to the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.
According to John 14, obedience is an expression of love for Christ and disobedience is an expression of a lack of love for Him (John 14:23-24). But at the same time, the one who loves Christ will be the special object of the love of the Father and the Son (John 14:23).
So John tells us here that the obedient Christian disciple is a person in whom truly the love of God is perfected. The Greek word translated is perfected (teteleiotai) suggests ideas like “bring to completion,” “bring to its goal,” “bring to full measure.” Love’s goal is not reached until the believer returns that love (1 John 3:1) by obedience leading to intimacy (John 14:23).
The expression in Him (en auto) must not be superficially read as an equivalent to Paul’s concept of being in Christ (en Christo). When Paul spoke of being “in Christ” he was referring to being in the Body of Christ, to being “in Christ” in our position (Ephesians 1 – 2).
The context here makes it clear that John was referring to being “in Him” in our experience.
The seedbed for John’s idea is the Upper Room Discourse, especially John 15:1-8.
Unlike the salvation relationship, the relationship of a disciple to his Teacher can be lost: “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch (John 15:6).”
Think about it: A family relationship is permanent; a school relationship is not and may be lost.
In using the words in Him, therefore, John is referring to the “abiding” Teacher/disciple relationship, and not to the irreversible relationship of our heavenly Father with His child.
06-02-2013 Satisfaction! 1st John 2:1-2
Introduction: John has insisted so strongly on the sinfulness of all Christians that someone might draw the conclusion that he takes sin, or the inevitability of sin for granted. Thus, his words could be wrongly perceived as discouraging the believer’s resistance to sin. This isn’t his intent!
1My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
1My little children, Note again that the recipients of this letter are believers (2:12-14).
these things (in 1:5-10) I write to you, neither to excuse nor encourage sin, but rather,
so that you may not sin.
John has stigmatized sin as something contrary to the very nature of God who is light (1:5). If a person takes a lenient view of sin, he can easily make the false claim to having fellowship (1:6). Or, he may not take seriously the need to receive cleansing from it, even as he walks in the light where God is (1:7). Or, he may fall into the superficial view that since he is not conscious of sin, he therefore has none (1:8). He may also take lightly his need for confession of sin (1:9), or may rationalize his sin and deny it (1:10). Everything the apostle has just written is designed to treat sin as a serious issue between God and the believer. It is an issue on which God demands full openness and honesty from anyone who desires to have fellowship with Him.
Though sin is to be vigorously resisted, it can and does occur in the lives of believers. So John adds, And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. As a Christian, I should seek (with God’s help) not to sin. But when I do sin, I am not deserted. Instead, precisely at my moment of weakness and failure, I am assured that I have an Advocate before God who will take up my case with the Father.
In the NT, the word translated Advocate (parakletos) is used only five times, all by the apostle John (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7; and here in 1st John 2:1).
The four cases in the Gospel of John all refer to the Holy Spirit. Thus, this verse is a unique reference in Scripture to our Lord Jesus Himself as an Advocate.
While the Greek word can have the sense of “lawyer,” this usage is rare. The more general use carries meanings like: “one who appears in another’s behalf, mediator, intercessor, helper.”
How does our Advocate mediate for us when we sin?
The clearest biblical suggestion is found in Luke 22:31-33. The work of our Lord as He intercedes (But I have prayed for you,) for His own individual follower is directed
(1) toward the maintenance of their faith (that your faith should not fail;),
(2) toward their spiritual recovery (and when you have returned to Me,), and
(3) toward their future usefulness (strengthen your brethren ~ 1 Peter 5:10 “establish”).
2And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
John the apostle is here affirming that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in His own person is the propitiation for our sins. Of course, His sacrificial death is clearly in view.
But it is significant in this context that it is not His sacrifice per se that is called a propitiation, but Christ Himself! As such, our Advocate stands before God as One who is the visible and personal “satisfaction” for our sins. There in the very presence of God, the Father’s eye can rest on the Person of His Son with complete satisfaction!
This is not only because of what Jesus is ~ He is righteous ~ but also because of what Jesus has done at the Cross, the wounds of which are still visible in His resurrected body (John 20:25-27)!
Our Advocate is perfect! God looks upon Him with complete satisfaction! The Father is completely satisfied, propitiated or appeased by our Savior with regard to any sin we commit.
05-26-2013 Walking in God’s Light 1st John 1:8-10
PART TWO
Review: How can I get on my way along the pathway of fellowship with God and where will that path lead me as I travel along? John sets forth the answers to these questions. The pathway involves walking in the light (1:5-2:2) and leads to an ever deeper knowledge of and a greater intimacy with God (2:3-11).
What are pitfalls we face? Believers face the danger of living inconsistently with the message of truth that has saved us from perishing and will set us free from sin’s power if we abide in it.
(1) 6If we say that we (the “we” includes the apostle John and his readers) have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice (=”do”) the truth. To act in ways that are inconsistent with the truth of God’s revealed nature and character is to choose to live a lie.
To walk in the light is the better choice!
How do I walk in the light? To walk in the light is to live in God’s presence, exposed to what He has revealed about Himself through openness to His revealed Word and in prayer with Him.
It’s as daily as eating (Mt. 6:11-12)! Only as I walk in the light will it be true that we have fellowship with one another (us with God and He with us).
How can a perfectly holy God have fellowship with us, even in the light, since we remain sinful people (simultaneously justified yet sinners)?
and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses (is cleansing) us from all sin.
God is free to do so because when we walk in the light, we are being cleansed from all sin by the blood of Jesus Christ.
John now sets forth two further pitfalls that threaten to endanger our fellowship with God as we would seek to walk along in the light of His word:
(2) 8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
When we are open before God and walking in true fellowship with the Father and the Son, we may not be conscious of the fact that we need continuous cleansing from “the blood of Jesus Christ” but the fact that we are not conscious of any sin does not mean that we do not have any!
A sincere claim to sinlessness, even if intended to cover only a brief period of our experience, betrays the fact that the truth is not in us in any effective or dynamic way. This does not indicate that the person in question is not born again (1st person personal pronouns include John)!
As long as we walk in that light, we are in a position to be shown our failures; when that happens we should confess them.
9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The exposure of our sin by the light confronts us with a challenge to the fellowship in which we are walking with God. If we confess (Greek homologeo ~ “to say + the same thing”) “to agree, admit, acknowledge” the sins that the light reveals, we can depend on God to forgive them and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If this happens, fellowship with God continues.
(3) 10If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
If we deny what the light shows us, we’ve ceased to be honest and open with God and fellowship is broken. In other words, we have denied the testimony of His word regarding the sins in my life that the light has revealed. We thus, in effect, have charged God with untruthfulness and His word is not in us as an effective, controlling influence over my thinking and outlook.
05-19-2013 Walking in God’s Light 1st John 1:5-7
PART ONE
John wishes to set forth the grounds on which the readers (“you”) can experience the fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, about which he has just spoken in his Prologue (1:1-4).
John’s concern is that his readers might have fellowship with the apostles (“we, our, us”) and thus with the Father and the Son (1:3). So John now discusses the nature of true fellowship and the basic truths underlying true fellowship with a God who is light and in whom there is no trace of the darkness of sin (1:5-2:11). Unless a believer really knows how to have fellowship with God, he or she becomes an easy target for Satan’s efforts to undermine a believer’s harmony with the Father and the Son.
(1) Walk in the light as He is in the light (1:5-2:2)
~ Walk openly before God in the light of His revelation of Himself (1:5-7)
~ Being prepared at all times to acknowledge any sin of which we become aware (1:8-10)
~ Not being overwhelmed by our failures, but relying on the intercession of our Advocate with God the Father (2:1-2).
(2) Fellowship should always lead us to a more intimate knowledge of God (2:3-11)
5This is the message
which we have heard from Him and declare to you,
that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
(1) As light, God is completely holy.
(2) As light, God reveals Himself in and to His creatures.
This light exposes our own sinfulness (Romans 3:23)
This light exposes our human tendency to hide from the light (Genesis 3:8) to avoid exposure of our evil deeds by the light (John 3:20). If you hide, you’ll lose – fellowship!
6If we say that we (the “we” includes the apostle John and his readers)
have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness,
we lie and do not practice (=”do”) the truth. To act inconsistently with the truth of God’s revealed nature and character is to choose to live a lie. There’s a better alternative!
7But if we walk in the light as He is in the light,
How do I walk in the light?
If I enter a lighted room and walk around in it, I am walking in the light; I am moving in a sphere which the light illuminates as it shines not only on me but upon everything around me. To personalize the light, I could also say that I was walking in the presence of the light. To walk in the light is to live in God’s presence, exposed to what He has revealed about Himself through openness to His revealed Word and in prayer with Him. It’s as daily as eating (Mt. 6:11-12)!
Only as I walk in the light will it be true that we have fellowship with one another (us with God and He with us);
How can a perfectly holy God have fellowship with us, even in the light, since we remain sinful people (simultaneously justified yet sinners)?
and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses (is cleansing) us from all sin.
God is free to do so because when we walk in the light, two things take place:
(1) We experience fellowship with God and He with us.
(2) We are being cleansed from all sin by the blood of Jesus Christ.
05-12-2013 Our Magnetic, Motivating Messiah 1st John 1:1-4
Prologue: The Call to Fellowship (1:1-4)
First John begins with a first-hand account of what the author and his apostolic companions witnessed in Jesus Christ. This prologue announces both the subject matter and John’s purpose for writing the letter. John calls on what they have seen and heard as a way to refute false teachers, whose message does not ring true with the truths originally given to the apostles. If his readers were to adopt any of the doctrines these false teachers teach, it would both destroy their fellowship with the apostolic circle and with God (1:3), and decimate their joy as believers (1:4).
The impersonal form 1That which was from the beginning {of the Christian revelation}, is intentional. The person of Christ is not his theme here, but rather the “eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us” (v. 2). Although Jesus is indeed the true God and eternal life” (5:20), John is stressing here the realities of eternal life itself, that very life which his readers share (5:13).
which [1] we {John and his fellow apostles} have heard {perfect tense), which [2] we have seen {perfect tense) with our eyes, which [3] we have looked upon{aorist tense), and [4] our hands have handled{aorist tense),
The two perfect tense verbs imply the ongoing shared experience of the apostles, while the two aorist verbs do not. Their message was concerning the Word of life, or “concerning the message about (word of) life.” But since Jesus Christ is that life (5:20), one can also correctly say it means “concerning the message (word) about Life.” John is writing about what he and the other apostles witnessed in Jesus Christ, who is life (5:11-12).
The apostles have seen this manifested life, bear witness to it, and declare it to the readers.
– 2the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us – The revelation of this life was made only to the apostles themselves (to us), so they were uniquely equipped to share their knowledge of this manifested life.
3that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, What the apostles had seen and heard cannot be fully shared in this life. Believers must wait in anticipation for that day when in His presence we “gaze at” and “handle” Him. John has clearly stated his subject matter: the truth about eternal life that was revealed from the beginning of the Christian message to the chosen apostolic witnesses. Now John proceeds to state the purpose, or goal, of his epistle: that you also may have fellowship with us; Fellowship (koinonia), means “sharing,” as in shared experiences, shared undertakings, shared possessions, etc. Yet this is no ordinary kind of fellowship: and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
John and the other apostles are delighted when those they have led to Christ, or nurtured in the faith, are true to the faith. If the present letter succeeds in fortifying his readers by encouraging them to “let that abide in [them] which [they] heard from the beginning (2:24), then the joy of the readers will be full! 4And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.
True joy is gained through knowing Christ and God the Father through the apostles’ testimony.
Application: Churches today need a respect for the importance of divine truth, along with a rejection of doctrinal error. Revealed truth is the basis for all fellowship with God and for true fellowship with one another. One who departs from the original truths which the Lord revealed to His appointed witnesses will by so much depart from true fellowship with God. God will not have fellowship with a lie or with any form of spiritual darkness (1:5-6), so walk in the light!
05-05-2013 Staying Close to Christ John 13-17; 1st John 1:1-4
Review: John clearly states (1:1-4) that his subject matter in this epistle is the truth about eternal life that was revealed from the beginning of the Christian message to the chosen apostolic witnesses. John states in 1:3 that the purpose or goal of this epistle is fellowship. Fellowship translates the word koinonia, which basically means “sharing.” As in English, it can indicate shared experiences, shared undertakings, shared possessions, etc. The related noun (koinonoi) is used in Luke 5:10 of some of the disciples as being business “partners.”
But the fellowship John speaks of here is no ordinary kind of fellowship. The fellowship with us into which John invites his readers involves sharing the apostles’ own fellowship … with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
How do we know that 1 John 5:13 is not the purpose statement for the book?
The reason John has been speaking about the “testimony that God has given of His Son” (5:6-12) is to assure the readers that they do indeed have eternal life and to encourage continuing faith in His name. The usage of the phrase These things (Greek, Tauta) by no means refers to the entire content of the epistle, but rather to the immediately preceding context. This near reference is consistent with John’s style throughout the letter. For example, the words “these things we write to you” (1:4) refer to what has just been mentioned in 1:1-3. The statement “these things I write to you, so that you may not sin,” (2:1) refers to the discussion on sin in 1:5-10. The words “these things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you,” (2:26) refer to the immediately preceding discussion about the antichrists in 2:18-25. The logic of John’s argument in 5:6-12 is evident. Since the believers he writes to have believed in the name of the Son of God (whose identity is attested by “the Spirit, the water, and the blood, v.8), then they should rest securely on the testimony that God has given about and through His Son.
The Book of 1st John is a book about love. Another word for love is the word intimacy. If you have a growing relationship with someone, you are becoming more and more intimate with them. You are becoming closer and closer. God has given us 1st John to show us how to have intimacy with Him after the Fall, to show how we can have our most fundamental need for love met even though there is sin in this world, and even resident within us. John wrote this letter to show believers that through abiding in Christ, and thus getting to know Him better, we can enjoy that eternal life we were freely given as we walk in fellowship with the Life-Giver, our Savior.
Jesus teaches about relationship truth and fellowship truth in a symbolic way in John 13: taking a bath (relationship truth) and foot washing (fellowship truth). Once Peter yields, he asks Jesus for an entire bath (13:6-9). Jesus says Peter had already had a complete bath; now he simply needs his feet washed. Jesus says Peter is “completely clean,” but that if he doesn’t allow the Lord to wash his feet, Peter can have no part with Him. How could Peter be completely clean and yet still dirty? (simil iustus et peccator ~ simultaneously justified and a sinner) At the same time a believer can be justified (declared righteous, completely clean – our position in Christ) but also be sinful (in need of foot washing – our condition on earth).
If Peter was not willing to have his feet washed (cleansed in his condition from his daily sins), he could have “no part” with Jesus, that is, no intimacy, no fellowship, and no significant role in His mission. Dirty feet meant dirty hearts. Unless their hearts were cleansed, the gospel mission would die. Dirty feet do not spread the gospel. The eleven remaining disciples did not need a bath (they already had an eternal relationship with Him via faith ~ John 1:12) but they do need clean feet, that is, clean hearts. In order to have fellowship with Christ and be useful for Him the disciples needed to have their hearts cleansed as do we as we remember Him at His table today!
04-28-2013 1st John – Enjoying Fellowship With God Overview
The Writer: The author does not mention his name. That would be consistent with the Gospel of John. In any case, that the recipients knew from whom this letter had come and the apostolic identity of its author seems apparent from 1:1-4 and 4:6. Ancient tradition in the main assigns the epistle to John the son of Zebedee, one of the twelve apostles. The statement in 4:6 would be pompous, to say the least, if it were not penned by an apostle.
The Recipients: The readers are regarded as spiritually mature believers (2:12-14; 2:20). In that case, the epistle of 1st John was intended to fortify the leaders who would bear the major burden of resisting the false teachers (2:15-27). At the same time, John would have expected the letter to be read to the congregation(s) and, when that was done, the apostle’s expression of confidence in the competence of the leaders would enhance the esteem in which the believers held them. It would strengthen their hand against the false teachers.
Date & Destination: I believe 1st, 2nd and 3rd John were all written from Jerusalem (2:19 while he was back there with the other apostles) and sent out for delivery by someone headed for the province of Asia, probably Demetrius (3 John 12).
1st John was a circular letter intended to be passed around the circuit of churches for which John felt special responsibility (hence no specific addressees are mentioned), perhaps the seven churches of Asia (later mentioned in Revelation 2 – 3).
Purpose Statement: John clearly states (1:1-3) that his subject matter in this epistle is the truth about eternal life that was revealed from the beginning of the Christian message to the chosen apostolic witnesses. The phrase from the beginning refers to the readers’ earliest days in the Christian faith (cf. 1 John 2:7, 24; 3:11; 2 John 6). John states in 1:3 that the purpose or goal of this epistle is fellowship. Fellowship translates the word koinonia, which basically means “sharing.” As in English, it can indicate shared experiences, shared undertakings, shared possessions, etc. The related noun (koinonoi) is used in Luke 5:10 of some of the disciples as being business “partners.” But the fellowship John speaks of here is no ordinary kind of fellowship. The fellowship with us into which John invites his readers involves sharing the apostles’ own fellowship … with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
How do we know that 1 John 5:13 is not the purpose statement for the book?
The reason John has been speaking about the “testimony that God has given of His Son” (5:6-12) is to assure the readers that they do indeed have eternal life and to encourage continuing faith in His name. The usage of the phrase These things (Greek, Tauta) by no means refers to the entire content of the epistle, but rather to the immediately preceding context. This near reference is consistent with John’s style throughout the letter. For example, the words “these things we write to you” (1:4) refer to what has just been mentioned in 1:1-3. The statement “these things I write to you, so that you may not sin,” (2:1) refers to the discussion on sin in 1:5-10. The words “these things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you,” (2:26) refer to the immediately preceding discussion about the antichrists in 2:18-25. The logic of John’s argument in 5:6-12 is evident. Since the believers he writes to have believed in the name of the Son of God (whose identity is attested by “the Spirit, the water, and the blood, v.8), then they should rest securely on the testimony that God has given about and through His Son.
This “testimony” (found in John 5:24 and in so many other places in John’s Gospel) assures the believer that he does have eternal life. If Jesus said so, God said so – and there the matter should rest! Amen!
09-29-2013 My Heart, Christ’s Home 1st John 3:24
Review: John has made it plain that the one and only way in which a child of God can, or does, manifest himself is by doing righteousness. Indeed, righteousness is the only possible way for the child of God to truly and accurately express himself, since he (in his inward, regenerated self) cannot sin (2:29-3:10a). John has also been careful to define love sufficiently so that when we see it in action it can be recognized as such (3:10b-18). In its essence, it is the direct opposite of the murderous hatred of Cain. It finds its true Model in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who laid down His life for us,” and it leads to boldness before God in prayer (3:19-23).
Preview: As we come to the climactic section (3:24-4:19) of the Body of his letter (2:28-4:19), John will proceed to tell us precisely how we may reach the goal of living a life that leads to boldness at the Judgment Seat of Christ. This goal is reachable because the believer is indwelt by God Himself (3:24)! With this discussion of the subject of God abiding within the obedient believer we reach the pinnacle of the mountain up which John has been leading us.
John has just told us (3:22) that the key to boldness before God in prayer is obedience to His commandments. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. But something else is true of the believer who keeps these commandments ~ such a person abides in Him (i.e., in God or Christ), and in addition, He (God or Christ) abides in him (the obedient believer).
Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
Prior to this verse, the word for abide (meno) has occurred in the Greek text no less than fifteen times, yet surprisingly, John has not yet spoken directly of God, or Christ, “abiding” in believers.
The closest he has come to speaking of God “abiding” in us occurs when he tells his readers that “the anointing … abides in you (2:27) and when he affirms of the one who hates his Christian brother that “no murderer has eternal life abiding in him (3:15). No doubt John knew that his readers could identify “the anointing” as the Holy Spirit and “eternal life” as Christ (5:20).
So here again we meet the reciprocal relationship which is an integral part of our Lord’s doctrine of abiding (John 15:4-5).
If a Christian is abiding in Christ (or God) then Christ (or God) is abiding in that Christian.
Although John has not said so directly until this point in his letter, now this truth becomes a central fact in the progression of his thought, namely, that the obedient believer has God making “His home” within him. Such an experience fulfills Jesus’ words in John 14:23 ~ Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. Note that the word “home” or “abode” (Greek, mone, belongs to the same word group as meno ~ to abide, live, dwell). Obviously such an experience with God is the ultimate form of fellowship with God, which John declared from the beginning was the goal of his epistle (1:3). So now here in this climactic section of John’s letter, the theme set forth in the prologue (fellowship) and the one presented in 1 John 2:28 (abiding in Him) merge as John will develop the concept of the indwelling God. Notice also that along with the first direct mention of God abiding in us, there is also the first direct mention of the Holy Spirit. If God indeed abides in us, we can know this by the Spirit He has given us. Since all Christians possess the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9), they have the means by which they can discern the reality of God abiding within them. As we move on in this letter, we will learn to discern God’s Spirit (4:1-6) and God’s indwelling (4:7-16).
09-22-2013 Love-Enhanced Prayer 1st John 3:19-23
Review: In the Body of his letter (2:28-4:19), John speaks of the life that leads believers to boldness before the Bema (Christ’s Judgment Seat). In 2:29-3:10a he has shown us that a child of God is manifested only by righteousness. Last week (3:10b-18) we saw that this righteousness is inseparable from genuine Christian love for the brethren and is expressed in practical acts of love.
Preview: John will now conclude this unit of thought (3:10b-23) by showing how Christian love can embolden us in the presence of God in prayer. By resurfacing the concept of “boldness” for the first time since the thematic statement of 2:28, John signals an advance toward the climax of his theme of “boldness” at the coming of the Lord Jesus (4:17-19).
19a And by this we know that we are of the truth,
The introductory words And by this should be referred backward to the exhortation in verse 18.
18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
In other words, John is saying: And by doing this (by loving in deed and truth), by acting in love with deeds that reflect the truth about love as revealed in Christ, we can know that we are of the truth. Another way of saying we are of the truth is, that by loving in this way one can know that his actions have their source in the truth.
The words that follow in verse 19b, and shall assure our hearts before Him, are best taken with the words of the next verse. 20 For [= that] if our heart condemns us, [that] God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
Zane Hodges’ paraphrase of 1 John 3:18-20 gives a helpful summary of these verses:
My little children, let’s not love with words only or with our speech, but in action and in reality. That, you see, is how we recognize our participation in the truth and that’s how we can convince our heart – if our heart makes us feel guilty – that God is greater than our heart and He takes account of all we have done.
(Epistles of John, p. 165)
21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.
The word confidence (parresia) is the same one used in 2:28, and spells out John’s theme of confidence before Christ at the Judgment Seat of Christ, which reaches its climax at 4:17.
But obviously, if we don’t have confidence before God when we kneel before Him now in prayer, it is even less likely that we will have confidence in the future before Him at His coming.
22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.
No doubt John adds the phrase and do those things that are pleasing in His sight to remind us that God is pleased with our obedience. Thus, God’s pleasure in our obedience becomes a motive for His response to the prayers we offer. Christians sometimes forget the simple truth that God is pleased when we obey Him. He never takes our obedience for granted, or fails to appreciate it. But just as an earthly father is happy over an obedient son or daughter, so also is our heavenly Father as well.
23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.
God’s will, therefore, can be summarized as faith in His Son’s name and obedience to His Son’s commandment. Thus John concludes his thoughts in 3:10b-23, in which we have seen what love is not (3:10b-15), what love is (3:16-18) and what love does for believers (3:19-23).
09-15-2013 Doing Righteousness = Brotherly Love 1st John 3:10b-18
Review: The one and only basis on which a child of God may be manifested is by doing righteousness. Since “whoever is born of God does not sin,” and “cannot sin” (3:9), sin can be no part of such a manifestation. Abiding in Christ is the key because “whoever abides in Him does not sin” (3:6).
Preview: Granted that God’s children can only be manifested by the doing of righteousness, how can we recognize that righteousness when it is on display? Unique to Christian morality is its demand for a brotherly love based on our mutual faith in Christ. Up to this point in the letter, the Greek noun for love has occurred only 3 times (2:5, 15; 3:1) and the verb “to love” has occurred only 4 times (2:10; 2:15 [twice]; 3:1). But in this section of John’s epistle (3:10b-4:21), the noun occurs 14 times and the verb 21 times. The new theme is clearly love.
1. What Love Is Not (3:10b-15)
10bWhoever does not practice [do] righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.
Whatever is true of whoever does not [do] righteousness is true also of whoever does not love his brother. In both cases the person is not of God in the sense that God is not behind what he is doing. The phrase “not of God” does not equal “not born of God,” despite the NIV’s mistake.
11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,
The message about love had been given to them from the beginning or their Christian experience (cf. 2:7; John 13:30, 34-35).
12 not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.
The classic example of brother-to-brother hatred is the case of Cain and Abel (Gen 4:1-15).
Cain was of the wicked one in that what he did was derived from satanic influence rather than from anything related to God (3:8, 10b). Spiritual envy led to the first murder in human history.
13 Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. While John’s readers may well marvel at hatred from a brother, the world’s hatred is to be anticipated (John 15:18-19).
14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. If love is an experience of “life,” John is saying, hatred of one’s Christian brother is an experience of death (Rom 7:9-10). In a perfectly normal use of the word know, John declares that he and his fellow apostles experience their passage from death to life through loving their Christian brothers. The implication is that the passage from death to life, which occurs at the moment one believes in Jesus for eternal life (John 5:24), can be experientially and qualitatively known and appreciated through Christian love.
15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. John goes on to explain that hatred of one’s brother is also an experience of murder. The person who hates his Christian brother is really no different from Cain (3:12), even though he may not commit the overt act of physically killing his brother (Matthew 5:21-22).
2. What Love Is (3:16-18)
A. Love gives Sacrificially 16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
B. Love sees Compassionately 17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
C. Love is Action 18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
09-01-2013 Detecting Destructive Doctrine 1st John 1:1-3:10a
We are midway through verses 49 of the 105 verses in the letter known as 1st John, and although John did not specifically spell out the exact nature of the false doctrine held by the “antichrists” (2:18), we may detect some of the nature of their destructive doctrine from what he has written.
(1) God has no “dark side” to His character!
1:5 ~ This is the message that we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all (literally, “darkness is not in Him – none!” Greek double negative). We may infer from John’s emphatic exclamation here that the “antichrists” may have taught that there was darkness in the Deity, that God’s nature included both light & darkness, good & evil. If “evil” as well as “good” originated from the Creator, then moral distinctions were invalid, and could lead to a disregard for God’s commandments (1:6; 2:3-4). Thus, the conditional statement in 2:29 probably carried the nuance: if in contrast to some others, you do know that He is righteous … then you also know the following: that everyone who does righteousness is born of Him. God’s nature has no “dark side” so we should walk in the light. If you find yourself hiding from God, then you can be sure you’re not abiding in Him!
2:29 ~ If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who does righteousness is born of Him. The person who performs righteousness (rather than sin) indicates that he/she has a perfect inward righteousness. If the “antichrists” taught that they could express their participation in the very nature of God through doing either good or evil, they were sadly mistaken! Sin goes against who we now really are at the core of our being as a believer.
(2) Sin has no legitimate place in the life of a person who is born of God!
3:7 ~ Little children, let no one deceive you. He who does righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. Only righteousness arises from the inner nature of one who is already righteous as God is righteous. When we sin we do act not according to who we now really are!
The truth of 3:10a (In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest.) is anticipated in 2:19 ~ They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. In view of this, it is best to see the children of the devil (3:8) as referring to people like the “antichrists” who are revealed as such by their opposition to Jesus Christ (2:22-23 ~ 22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.)
Truths about our daily walk on the way to that Day when we see our Savior:
(1) Know what is true about your enemy: John 10:10a ~ The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.
The enemy seeks to steal your fellowship with the Father and with His Son.
The enemy seeks to kill your love for your brothers and sisters in Christ.
The enemy seeks to destroy your assurance of salvation and your abiding in the Savior.
(2) Know what is true about you: John 10:10a ~ I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
A believer’s security is sure and certain because the eternal life we’ve received is everlasting life.
An abundant experience of the eternal life we now have is available through fellowship with God
Our opportunity is now to invest in the world to come for future greatness in service to our King!
08-25-2013 Manifesting the New Me 1st John 3:7-10a
Review: 2:28 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears [phanerothe], we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. 29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices [does] righteousness is born of Him.
3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed [ephanerothe] what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed [phanerothe], we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness [wickedness], and sin is lawlessness [wickedness]. 5 And you know that He was manifested [phanerothe] to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him = Whoever sins [at that moment] is in a not-seeing and not-knowing condition with reference to God. In other words, I can’t be abiding in Christ and sinning at the same time. If I am sinning, then I am not abiding in Him [in Whom is NO sin] at that moment in time.
7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices [does] righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.
John addresses them as Little children (teknia, 2:12-14; 3:1-2) to encourage them to take a simple, child-like view of this matter by remembering the true character of their heavenly Father, who is righteous.
The concept of doing righteousness throws us back to 2:29. Perhaps this syllogism will help us understand what John is saying in 2:29:
Major Premise: Divine righteousness comes from God’s divine nature.
Minor Premise: Grover produces divine righteousness.
Conclusion: Therefore, Grover, who produces divine righteousness, has God’s divine nature (born of God).
Simply stated, the person doing divine righteousness must be born again, that is, he must have God’s divine nature. In 3:7 we have the same concept with slightly different words:
Major Premise: Someone producing divine righteousness is righteous.
Minor Premise: God’s divine nature is righteous.
Conclusion: Therefore, someone who produces divine righteousness must have God’s divine nature (born of God).
John is simply saying that a “born of Him” (2:29) person is a person who has been given part of God’s nature. This is expressed more explicitly in 2 Peter 1:3-4 ~ 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
His divine love (agape) is produced by His Spirit (Gal 5:22) in our new, born-again-with, divine nature.
8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested [ephanerothe], that He might destroy the works of the devil.
Major Premise: The devil’s work is to sin.
Minor Premise: Someone is sinning.
Conclusion: That person sinning is doing the devil’s work.
9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.
Like verse 6, this verse appears to say that a genuine, born-again Christian does not sin and cannot sin. But that contradicts 1:8, which says that Christians do sin. The best solution is to be found in the phrase His seed, which refers to God’s nature. His divine nature is passed down through His divine seed. The new birth places His seed in us. Just as my physical seed cannot produce something outside its genetic code, so God’s seed cannot produce something contrary to His nature, such as, sin. God’s nature cannot produce sin. God’s nature in us (His seed) cannot produce sin.
This passage may be best understood as a parallel to Paul’s statements in Romans 7:14-25 ~ 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Galatians 2:20 I have been [am] crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
10a In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest [phanera]. [not :]
V.10a is best taken as a conclusion to the discussion in 2:28-3:9 about “manifestation,” so ends with period.
John has been trying to motivate us to godliness by pointing out how sin in the life of a believer is incongruous with Christ’s purpose for being “manifested” (3:5, 8) at His first coming and will result in shame instead of confidence before Him when He is “manifested” at His future coming (2:28; 3:2)!
Sin in the life of a believer is also incongruous with the fact that we now partake of God’s nature. It goes against who we now really are at the core of our being as a believer.
1. When a Christian sins, he is acting contrary to who he really is and what he really desires.
“The section (2:28-3:10a) we are looking at is advancing the theme as stated where boldness in the presence of the Lord is offered to those who abide in Him (2:28). In doing this, i.e., by abiding in Him, believers can and do manifest themselves as children of God. But those who do not abide do not so manifest themselves. The reality of their regenerate inward man remains hidden.” (Hodges)
2. When a Christian sins, he is hiding God’s glory.
Leaves really don’t change color. The color is already there, but in the Spring and Summer cells of chlorophyll cover up the true color of the leaves. In the Fall, the chlorophyll cells fall away, and the true colors of the leaves are “manifested. There is no changing of the colors, it is an unveiling of colors. So also in our Christian walk, we can allow our true colors to be covered over with the chlorophyll of sin that hides the glory of God. As the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives peels away the chlorophyll of sin, there is an unveiling of Christ in us, the hope of glory
The world sees an open expression, a manifestation of God’s divine nature in us.
3. When a Christian sins, it is contrary to Christ, and he is doing the work of the devil, Christ’s adversary.
08-18-2013 The Cancer of Sin 1st John 3:4-6
Review: Following the thematic statement (2:28), which gives us a lens for our long term outlook, John describes the perfect righteousness that will be ours when we see Christ (2:29-3:2) and then gives us a lens to see up close by focusing us on our inward purity that is ours as a believer (3:3) due to His righteousness that is put to our account by our faith in Him.
Preview: 1 John 3:6 (6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.) seems to contradict 1 John 1:8 (If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.). We know that God never contradicts Himself in His Word. So how do we reconcile these two verses? The translators of the NIV attempt to do so by rendering the Greek present tense as indicating continuous action: No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
But there is nothing inherent in the Greek present tense that tells us this is continuous action. For example, Jesus refers to His single act of coming to earth at His incarnation in the present tense in John 6:33 ~ For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Is there anyone who would like to tell us that the present tense there means continuous action?
Was Jesus continually coming down from out of heaven? I don’t think so. The present tense can mean continuous action, but that is only one of its ten different uses, and it’s a fairly rare usage. There need to be other indicators in the context of the verb before we conclude that the meaning is continuous action. A solution will be suggested as we consider 1 John 3:6 today.
1. The Character of Sin (3:4 4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.) Sin is here set in stark contrast against righteousness (2:29) and purity (3:3).
Sin is the antithesis of the purity that belongs to Christ, and to everyone who has the hope of being like Him. In the LXX (Septuagint – Greek translation of the Old Testament), we find anomia (translated here as “lawlessness”) used to translate no less than 24 different Hebrew words. The most frequent one is the Hebrew word ‘awon, for which the English words “wickedness” or “iniquity” are good equivalents. The Confraternity Version (1961) thus translates the verse this way: Everyone who commits sin, commits iniquity also; and sin is iniquity. John’s intended point is to stigmatize sin as being “evil,” “wicked,” “iniquitous.”
John is trying to open their eyes to the wickedness of sin, all sin!
2. The Cancellation of Sin (3:5) 5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. This verse is not a statement of reality or unreality; it is a statement of purpose. Christ’s purpose in coming to earth was to take away sin. Now that our sins have been washed away by His blood in our position, we should also desire to see them wiped away in our condition. Known sin in the condition of a believer is incongruous with Christ’s purpose (3:5a; John 1:29) and Christ’s purity (3:5b, 3:3b ~ just as He is pure).
3. The Contradiction of Sin (3:6) . 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.
Why might an interpreter see the issue in this verse as being fellowship instead of relationship?
(1) The word abides refers to fellowship in John 15:5-11 – the very purpose of 1st John (1:3)!
5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.
6a Whoever abides in Him does not sin. The failure to recognize the logical connection between verses 5 and 6 is the reason that verses 6 and 9 have been so often misunderstood.
6a Whoever abides in Him does not sin. As Hodges points out (Epistles of John, p.134-136), in view of all that John has said thus far, since urging his readers to “abide in Him (2:28), it clearly and logically follows that the experience of abiding in a sinless Person means that such an abiding experience is totally free from sin.
No first century reader or hearer was likely to get a meaning such as the one that the NIV imports into this text, without the necessary additional words. The introduction of ideas like “continue to” or “to go on doing” require more than the Greek present tense. For this purpose there were Greek words available, such as diapantos, used in Luke 24:53 and Hebrews 13:15 and translated continually. Or the words eis to dienekes (continually) could be added (Hebrews 7:3, 10:1). But the Greek present tense did not by itself convey such an idea as continuous action.
All such explanations fly in the face of the context, especially of 3:5. The statement there in verse 5 that “in Him is no sin” is clearly absolute and cannot be qualified at all.
But since this is so, one who abides in the Sinless One cannot be said to be only “a little bit” sinful! If there can be no sin in Christ at all, one cannot take even a little bit of sin into an experience which is specifically said to be [an experience of abiding] in Him.
To be sure, no Christian can ever claim (in this life) to be experientially free from sin, as 1:8 makes emphatically clear (If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us). But at the same time we can say that the experience of “abiding in Him” is in and of itself a sinless experience. As such, it is not “contaminated” by the presence of sin in other aspects of our experience.
As we have seen, the “abiding life” is marked by obedience to Christ’s commands (2:3-6).
The fact is that, if I obey the command to love my brother, that obedience is not tainted in God’s sight by some different sort of failure in my life like unwatchfulness in prayer (Ephesians 6:18).
It is also true that when we are walking in fellowship with God and seeking to guard His commands, God is able to look past all our failures and sin and see the actual obedience that is there. We have already been told this in 1:7, where we are informed that even while walking in the light there is cleansing going on by virtue of the blood of Christ.
Thus as we walk in the light and do what He commands us, God sees us as people who are totally cleansed from whatever faults we may have and who live before God without any charge of unrighteousness.
Thus, when we abide in Him, the positive obedience is what God takes account of and recognizes. The sin which still remains in us is not in any sense sourced in the abiding life, and that sin is cleansed away in accordance with 1:7. The experience of “abiding” is therefore the equivalent of our experience of obedience. Obedience and sin are opposites.
Thus, sin is no part of the abiding experience at all.
So then, when I am sinning, I am not at that moment abiding in Christ/obeying His Word, and thus the new inner regenerate person is not being manifested. I am not at that moment acting like who I actually am inwardly in Christ. If sin occurs, it is not the new inward man who performs it.
(2) In fact, as 3:6b states, sin reflects both ignorance and blindness toward God and Christ. It follows then that Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. We should therefore not read has neither seen Him nor known Him as though these words implied a never. The flow of thought requires us to see an absolute antithesis between sin and Christ/abiding in Him. It should be noted that the statement that the phrase employs Greek verbs for “see” and “know” that are here found in the Greek perfect tense, which we might paraphrase as follows: Whoever sins is in a not-seeing and not-knowing condition with reference to God.
08-11-2013 How is your Eyesight? 1st John 2:28 – 3:3
Review: The material from 2:28-4:19 is the body or major unit of exhortation in John’s epistle, in which he will maintain that it is the “abiding” life which alone can prepare the believer to stand before Christ at His Judgment Seat with boldness rather than shame.
An Outline of 1st John*
I. Introduction: “The Joy of Fellowship” 1:1-4
II. Body: “The Principles of Fellowship” 1:5-5:17
A. Principles of Fellowship Introduced 1:5-2:27
1, Right Living – Dealing with our Sins 1:5-2:2
2. Right Loving – Dealing with our Brothers 2:3-11
3. Right Learning – Dealing with our Enemies 2:12-27
B. Principles of Fellowship Developed 2:28-4:6
1. Right Living – Dealing with our Sins 2:28-3:10a
2. Right Loving – Dealing with our Brothers 3:10b-23
3. Right Learning – Dealing with our Enemies 3:224-4:6
C. Principles of Fellowship Climaxed 4:7-5:21
1. Right Loving – Dealing with our Brothers 4:7-5:5
2. Right Learning – Dealing with our Enemies 5:6-13
3. Right Living – Dealing with our Sins 5:14-17
III. Conclusion: “Encouragement for Little Children” 5:18-21
Introduction: We need spiritual “monovision” to navigate the treacherous waters of this life. In this way, we can simultaneously keep one “eye” on this world and one “eye” on the world to come. We don’t have much choice but to look at this world, since we’re living here for now. But we will lose our Christian balance if we don’t put one eye on the world to come!
1. A Lens for Long Distance Vision (2:28)
28 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.
2. A Description of Perfect Vision (2:29-3:2)
29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.
29 If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.
3 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
3. A Lens for Seeing Up Close (3:3)
3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
* From MAXIMUM JOY: First John – Relationship or Fellowship? by David R. Anderson, pp. 72-73.
08-04-2013 Confidence When it Really Counts! 1st John 2:28
Parresia at His Parousia
Review: The previous section had stressed the idea of “abiding,” the Greek word (meno) being used seven times in 2:12-27. It is even used once of the antichrists who did not continue with the apostles in the Jerusalem church (2:19). The readers must allow the truth to “abide” in them and thereby will be able to “abide” in the Son and in the Father (2:24-27). The exhortation to “abide” (2:28) is the focal point of John’s deep concern for his readers to be abiding (2:12-27).
Preview: In this section (2:28 - 4:19), John will maintain that it is the “abiding” life which alone can prepare the believer to stand before Christ at His Judgment Seat with “confidence” (2:28) / “boldness” (4:17) rather than shame. John uses this major unit of his letter to elevate the significance of abiding in the Son and in the Father to the highest degree of spiritual significance, except for possessing the gift of eternal life itself. It is this life of abiding in Him that leads to confidence before Christ’s Judgment Seat.
And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.
To whom is John writing in this letter? [This letter is written to believers!]
And now, little children,
What should God’s children be learning to do? [To abide in Him and so be His disciple]
abide in Him,
Why should God’s children be doing this? [Jesus is coming again ~ maybe today!]
that when He appears,
To what kind of experience should we aspire? [Confidence from communion/fellowship]
we may have confidence [Earnest Expectation; Excitement; Enthusiasm!]
What kind of experience should we wish to avoid? [Shame! Embarrassment! Regret!]
and not be ashamed
Where will we have this experience? [at the Bema/Judgment Seat of Christ]
before Him
When will we have this experience? [after He raptures us with His church]
at His coming.
Main Idea: The life of abiding in the Son and in the Father is the life that leads to confidence instead of shame before Christ at His Judgment Seat. If we abide in Christ, then instead of shame, we can have confidence before Him at His coming.
Application: It is never a waste of your time to invest your life in that which is eternal!
Do you want to enjoy an experience of having boldness at the Bema? Abide in Him!
“Only one life, ‘twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” ~ 1 John 2:17, 28
07-28-2013 Accept No Substitutes! 1st John 2:18-27
Detecting and Defeating What is False
The Age of the Antichrist (2:18-19)
18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
Not only is “the world passing away,” but the apostle and his readers are living in the last hour. Note that the phrase it is the last hour occurs twice in 2:18. Though “hour” can refer to a portion of a day (John 1:39; 4:6; 11:9), it also is used to refer to an undetermined length of time (John 2:4; 4:21,, 23; 5:25, 28; 16:25). Here the last hour refers to when human history will climax with the rise and overthrow of Satan’s final great deception.
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.
The word us, used four times in 2:18, contrasts with the word you of 2:20.
The Apostasy of the Antichrist (2:20-23)
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. (See John 14:26; John 16:13 ~ the Holy Spirit would teach them the truth they need) 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
The word know is again in the perfect tense (have come to know in a deeper way).
The term anointing refers to the Holy Spirit. In the New Testament the Word of God is never directly connected with the idea of anointing, whereas the Holy Spirit is. Jesus was anointed as the Christ by the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:18; Acts 4:27; 10:38).
22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.
The lie that John has particularly in mind is the denial that Jesus is the Christ because this is saving belief (5:1; John 20:30-31) and the person who denies this truth is a liar who subverts the very basis upon which anyone is saved.
23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. Both Jesus’ words and works were those of His Father (John 14:10-11).
Our Armor against the Antichrist (2:24-27)
If we stand on God’s faithful promises … 24 Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.
… then we can stand strong in the Holy Spirit against false prophets! 26 These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. 27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. Note the two parallel statements in 2:27 ~ (1) as [it] teaches you concerning all things and (2) and just as it has taught you ~ show that the ongoing teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit is always consistent with what He has already taught. He will not negate or deny what He has previously taught by His ongoing teaching.
Application: Ephesians 6:13-18 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, … And take … the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always … in the Spirit.
07-21-2013 Living for What Will Last 1st John 2:15-17
Review: In 2:12-14 John set forth the spiritual assets of his readers noting the spiritual growth they had attained (as little children), the stability and sufficiency of their faith (as fathers), and the victory they had achieved (as young men). The victory their faith had won and the growth they had attained combined with their spiritual strength (through abiding in the Word and His Word in us ~ John 15:4,7) sets their feet on solid ground for dealing with the enemy.
Preview: In 2:15-27 John turns to two enemies with which they must contend: (1) the world system which is hostile to God, and (2) the antichrists who are hostile to Jesus Christ. Lurking behind both is their archenemy, the wicked one, Satan himself.
Speaking of the antichrists in 4:5, “They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.” So John deals first with the world because if his readers effectively resist the world, they may be expected to also resist the antichrists.
Even though John has just praised their spiritual attainments (2:12-14), he realistically realizes that they heed the following warning (2:15-17).
“The world, conceived of as a moral and spiritual system designed to draw people away from the living God, is profoundly seductive, and no Christian, however advanced, is fully immune from its allurements.” (Zane C. Hodges, p. 101, Epistles of John)
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
So we must not love the world as a whole, nor should we love any of its sinful components.
We cannot love God and the world at the same time! [Luke 16:13; James 4:4-5]
“Our love for the world is a touchstone of our love for God or of our lack of love for Him.”
What are the components of the world that we are not to love?
16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
The entirety of the world’s constituent elements can be summarized under three categories:
(1) lust of the flesh ~ includes every illicit physical activity (things that the flesh craves)that appeals to the sinful hearts of men. Includes immorality, drunkenness, gluttony.
(2) lust of the eyes ~ whatever is visually appealing (whether it be a person or a thing) but not properly ours to desire or obtain is included in this category. Covetousness.
(3) the pride of life ~ arrogance or pretentiousness such as one sees in a person who boasts about self, possessions, or accomplishments: boastful pretension in earthly matters.
Taken together, these three categories skillfully sum up the totality of the allurements this godless world system has to offer. None of these has its source in God (James 1:13).
The war against the lusts of this world is won by God’s Word! (Genesis 3:1-6; Matthew 4:1-11)
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
The world has only a brief existence within time and is destined to disappear when God’s purposes are realized on earth. This recalls 2:8 ~ “the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.”
The Christian’s identity in eternity will be determined by obedience to God in time. (p. 105)
Bottom Line: It is never a waste of your time to invest it in the eternal!
Only one life, ‘twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last!
1 Corinthians 10:12 ~ Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
Jeremiah 17:9 ~ “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
Luke 16:13 ~ “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
James 4:4-5 ~ Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
James 1:13 ~ Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
Genesis 3:1-6 ~ 3 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
Matthew 4:1-11 ~ 4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” 5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”
8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”
11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.
John 8:34Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 1 John 4:17 ~ Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
James 2:21-23 ~ 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.
John 14:14-15 ~ You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
07-14-2013 Prepared for the Spiritual Battle 1st John 2:12-14
Review: In 1:5 – 2:11 John reviewed the basic truths about fellowship with God. If his readers hold to these truths, they will continue to enjoy fellowship with the apostles and, above all, with God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ (1:3).
Context: In the section to follow (2:12-27) John will refer directly to the false teachers they will be confronting. The appearance of these “antichrists” on the scene is what has prompted this letter. The purpose of John’s epistle is to promote fellowship and to protect from false teaching that will attack and, if believed, will result in loss of fellowship. Before directly referring to these antichrists who threaten the church with their false doctrine, John first asserts the spiritual competence of his Christian readers (2:12-14).
Text: With a series of tightly constructed statements, John reminds his Christian readers of their spiritual assets:
12 I write to you, little children,
Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.
Literally, “Because sins have been forgiven you on account of His name.” Their forgiveness is dependent upon the effectiveness and efficacy of Christ’s name. Saving faith is belief in His name (1 John 5:13; John 1:12; 3:18). The readers have experienced forgiveness (1:5 – 2:2).
13a I write to you, fathers,
Because you have known (come to know) Him who is from the beginning.
Here, in addressing the readers as fathers, John has in mind the idea of knowing God (2:3-11). As in 2:3-4, John uses the perfect tense: “Because you have come to know Him …”
For the concept of coming to know God, John prefers to use the Greek perfect tense as it conveys the idea of a state or situation that results from what has been accomplished in the past.
13 b I write to you, young men,
Because you have overcome the wicked one.
It is the reader’s invaluable experience as little children (the forgiveness of sins) and as fathers (the knowledge of God) that makes them vigorous young men prepared to do battle with the wicked one (the antichrists of 2:18-27 who are obviously agents of Satan ~ 4:1-6, who have been overcome by these little children ~ 4:4).
13 c I write to you, little children,
Because you have known (come to know) the Father.
The statement made to little children is entirely changed and reflects spiritual growth over time.
14a I have written to you, fathers,
Because you have known (come to know) Him who is from the beginning.
The statement to the fathers doesn’t change, so he uses the past tense to denote the repetition. The only possible advance is in depth of knowledge of God as “everlasting Father” (Isaiah 9:6).
14b I have written to you, young men,
Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, {John 15:1-8!)
And you have overcome the wicked one.
They are viewed again as those who have conquered Satan, yet are not at all weakened by their conflict but instead they possess strength and God’s Word is vitally alive (abides, 2:6) in them.
06-30-2013 The Biggest Barrier to Fellowship 1st John 2:9-11
“THE DARKNESS OF HATE”
Review: 1 John 2:3-11 is concerned with one who has had some time in the faith, has learned what his Lord commands, and by obedience has come to know God and His love in a deeper, special way. This goes beyond the truth John deals with in 1:5 – 2:2, where he tells us that fellowship with God requires only openness to the light and a willingness to acknowledge (confess) whatever sin the light reveals. Even a believer who is a babe in Christ can live in harmonious fellowship with the Lord. But in time he will grow in knowledge (2 Peter 3:18) and learn God’s will, and if he does it (“keeps His word”), will enter a more advanced stage of fellowship in which he comes to know God and His love. In such an “abiding” Christian the love of God is “perfected,” that is, it has reached its “goal” in him. 5But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God (God for us and us for God) is perfected in him. By this – that is, by this experience of having God’s love perfected in us – it is by means of this experience of God’s love, we know that we are (abiding) in Him.
Exposition: THE BIGGEST BARRIER WE FACE IN GETTING CLOSE TO GOD (2:6-11)
1. THE LIGHT OF LOVE (2:6-8)
6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
7 Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. 8 Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
2. THE DARKNESS OF HATE (2:9-11)
It follows from what John has just said in 2:6-8 about the light of God’s love that hatred among Christians is completely CONTRARY to the light of the coming new age that is “already” shining. The opposite of love is hate. The opposite of light is darkness. Just as loving each other opens the floodgates of fellowship, so hating one another closes them. Thus, the biggest barrier to deep fellowship with God is to hate one’s brother.
9 He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.
The claim (He who says) by a believer that he is in the light is falsified by his hatred of his fellow Christian. The claim and the hatred taken together simply prove that the hostile Christian is in darkness until now. Many are unwilling to face the sad reality that hatred can and does exist among truly born again believers. The claim by some that this verse can only refer to “professing” believers is without one shred of evidence in the text. If John had been thinking about an unsaved false professor, he would not have written what he did. The word “his” would be completely unnecessary and even misleading had he meant to say this was a non-Christian hating a Christian. He would have said, “He … who hates a brother (i.e., someone who hates a Christian.) Furthermore, we have seen in the context (His commandment) that the subject matter is our Lord’s command to love one another (John 13:34). This is true throughout John’s letter where the command to love is in view. It is the love of Christian (brother) toward Christian (brother) that John has in mind (this will be especially evident when we come to 4:20 – 5:1).
Could a true Christian not ever hate another Christian? If this book is a test of relationship, then to hate a Christian brother is to fail the test and bring into question one’s salvation from hell.
What does John mean when he says that such a Christian is in darkness until now?
This does NOT mean that the person is not born again, that he’s unsaved.
We must let the context set the parameters of John’s statement here: From verse 2:3 on, we have been talking about the more advanced Christian (who both has and keeps his Lord’s commandments) and who thus has come to know God in an intimate sense.
The command to love one another belongs not to the passing “darkness” but to “the true light” of the coming age when His kingdom will be established here on this earth, and it says that true light is “already shining.”
Therefore, the obedient disciple, the loving believer, clearly lives in the light of the age to come.
On the contrary, the unloving believer does NOT live his life in the light of the age to come!
Indeed, such a believer has never really experienced that light (lived in the light of the coming kingdom age with regard to loving his brothers) and thus is in darkness until now.
That means that this believer lives in the spirit and ethos of the darkness that “is passing away”v.8
In this context, the claim to be in the light is the functional equivalent of the earlier false claim made by the believer who says 4He who says, “I (have come to) know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar; and the truth is not in him.
Both the claims of 2:4 and 2:9 are falsified by that believer’s disobedience, in v. 4 to “His commandments” and here to the all-encompassing command to love one another.
Thus, the Christian who claims to be in the light while hating his brother has never attained this level of experience. He has never learned to live in the spirit of the age to come, or to reflect “the true light” of that age. Thus, such a Christian is in darkness until now.
Hatred of a fellow Christian, combined with a claim to be in the light that heralds the new age, shows only too clearly that such a believer has a profound ignorance of that light.
By way of CONTRAST with the false claimant of 2:9, the Christian who loves his brother (v. 10) is not only in the light but also abides there.
10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
For John, then, the “abiding” life is one that is lived in the light of the coming new (kingdom) age – a light that “already shines” due to the manifestation of God’s Son, the resurrected and coming King. The person who walks in love is abiding in Christ and in this light.
By loving as Christ loved, he is walking “as He walked” (1 John 2:6).
The believer who lives this way is also a person in whom there is no cause for stumbling.
The words no cause for stumbling translate a Greek word (skandalon) which basically means a trap or a snare of some kind, and came in Christian usage to mean whatever ensnares a person in sin. In the person who loves his brother there is no such trap.
11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
Hatred of a fellow Christian reveals a terrible disorientation on the part of the one doing the hating. Not only is he in spiritual darkness, but that is where he lives (walks). Nor does he know where his chosen path may take him because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
“No course of life is more fraught with spiritual and temporal danger for a Christian than one that includes an attitude of hatred toward another Christian.” (Hodges, Epistles of John, p. 89.)
The Christian who hates has lost touch with “the true light” (2:8) which displays God’s loving nature. And he has also embraced “the darkness” which “is passing away” (2:8), with all its hostility to God and Christ and all who belong to Christ.
Such a Christian easily becomes a tool in the hands of Satan, as so many have in Christian homes and churches, resulting in divorces, broken homes, serious divisions and church splits.
It is with this sobering thought that John concludes this section of his epistle.
06-23-2013 Knowing God is Loving Your Brother! 1st John 2:6-8
Review: 1 John 2:3-11 is concerned with one who has had some time in the faith, has learned what his Lord commands, and by obedience has come to know God and His love in a deeper, special way. This goes beyond the truth John deals with in 1:5 – 2:2, where he tells us that fellowship with God requires only openness to the light and a willingness to acknowledge (confess) whatever sin the light reveals. Even a believer who is a babe in Christ can live in harmonious fellowship with the Lord. But in time he will grow in knowledge (2 Peter 3:18) and learn God’s will, and if he does it (“keeps His word”), will enter the more advanced stage of fellowship in which he comes to know God and His love. In such a Christian the love of God is “perfected,” that is, it has reached its “goal” in him.
5But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God (God for us and us for God) is perfected in him. By this – that is, this experience of having God’s love perfected in us – it is by means of this experience of God’s love, we know that we are (abiding) in Him.
Heads Up! The phrase “in Him” is not equivalent to Paul’s expression “in Christ” (by which he denotes the believer’s eternal position in the Body of Christ as a result of the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit). John is speaking here of the believer’s experience, not his position. John’s concept of being “in Him” refers to the experience a believer can and should have of “abiding in Him” (John 15:1-8) by which such a believer may glorify the Father, bear much fruit and be His disciple (15:8). Unlike the eternal relationship between the child of God and His heavenly Father, the relationship of a disciple to his Teacher can be lost: “If anyone (any disciple) does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch” (John 15:6). To be “cast out as a branch” means to lose the disciple/Teacher relationship, not to lose eternal life. As Jesus makes clear, the disciple must remain in his Master, just as the branch must abide in the Vine (As in John 15:4 ~ “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me”). In using the words in Him, therefore, John is referring to the “abiding” Teacher/disciple relationship. This fact is made evident in the very next verse of 1 John (2:6). Remember that a family (father/child) relationship is permanent (eternal) by its very nature, whereas a school (teacher/student, disciple, pupil) relationship is a temporary relationship.
Exposition: KNOWING GOD IS LOVING YOUR BROTHER (2:6-8).
1. THE LIGHT OF LOVE (2:6-8).
6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
If anyone claims (says) he abides in Christ (Him), this claim can be verified only by a Christ-like lifestyle. This is John’s first use in the epistle of a favorite word of his that he uses to describe the life of discipleship to Jesus Christ. The term “abide” (meno) means “to remain,” “to live.”
It is another of his terms he exports from the Upper Room (Last) Discourse (John 13-16).
The words of 2:5 about being “in Him” are functionally equivalent to the idea of “abiding” in Him (2:6). If we can “know that we are in Him” (i.e., that we are abiding in Him)
(1) by keeping His commands, and
(2) by experiencing the perfecting of God’s love, then the reverse side of the same coin is
(3) that we ought … also to walk (live) just as He walked (live as Jesus lived). This, of course, is discipleship truth, and the goal of a disciple is to be like his Teacher (Matthew 10:24-25).
An un-Christ-like believer is not living the true Christian life, not walking as a disciple ought to.
A Christ-like walk, the highest attainment open to a disciple, is not reached the moment one is born again. It requires time for instruction so that one’s heart is prepared to act on what he has learned.
This heightened experience of abiding as a disciple of Jesus is marked by three things:
(1) by obedience to the Lord’s commandments (2:3-4),
(2) by the experience of knowing Him (2:3-4), and
(3) by the experience of God’s perfected love (2:5) [God for us and us for God].
3Now by this we know that we (= have come to) know Him, if we keep His commandments.
4He who says, “I know Him,” (= “I have come to know Him,”) and does not keep His commandments, is a liar; and the truth is not in him. 5But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are (abiding) in Him.
6 Such a disciple abides in Him. That is, he lives, or dwells, in his Lord, just as a branch lives, or dwells, in a vine. So long as this connection is maintained, the experience of “abiding” in Christ continues. The “abider” is a believer who has learned to live like the Lord Jesus Christ.
But that leads us to the question: “How did Christ live?” “What makes us Christ-like?”
Notice the close connection between John 15:9-14 and 1 John 2:6-8.
John 15:9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
7 Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. 8 Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
Notice the connection with abiding, love, and full joy.
This should remind us of the stated purpose of 1st John: fellowship (1:3) with its full joy (1:4).
Indeed, the letter of 1st John is the flower that grows out of the soil of John 13 – 16.
The subject matter of 1st John 2:6-8 follows John 15:9-14 with exact correspondence.
This is no coincidence.
The reason is that the subject matter is the same: intimate fellowship (love and friendship).
The new and old commandment is referring to the same commandment that Jesus gave.
Jesus’ first reference to the commandment previously given is in John 13:34, the commandment to love one another as He has loved us. This commandment is old in the sense that they have heard it from the beginning (meaning that they had received it from the beginning, that is, in the very earliest period of their Christian lives). The old commandment still had the same content as before. It was the same word and not a new responsibility for the readers. They did not need any new information. But this commandment to love one another is also new, not in the sense of time, but in the sense of its freshness in light of the world to come. By this John is affirming that the “old” moral situation of the world is temporary and destined to pass from the scene. The “new” reality that will replace it, the true light, is already shining.
Clearly John is talking in terms of eschatology (things to come; teachings about “last things”).
06-09-2013 Knowing the God Who is Light! 1st John 2:3-5
So far in 1st John 1:1-2:3 the apostle John has been discussing the basic truths underlying true fellowship with a God who is light and in whom there is no trace of the darkness of sin. The heart of these truths involve walking openly before God in the light of His revelation of Himself and being prepared at all times to acknowledge any sin of which we become aware. When we fail, we are not to be overwhelmed by our failure, but rather to rely on the intercession of our Advocate with God the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
The next section (2:3-11) continues to speak of believers living in fellowship with God, but carries the subject to a higher level by focusing our attention on the result, or goal, toward which fellowship should always lead us: namely, to the knowledge of God.
3Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
The words by this are explained by the phrase if we keep His commandments.
In both English and Greek, words for “knowing” are polymorphous (used in many ways).
The most obvious goal of fellowship with “the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (1:3) is to get to know the One with whom we are having fellowship. This verse is not talking about the saving knowledge of Christ. It is true that all believers do know God and Christ at a fundamental level, but at the level of communion and fellowship, a believer may not know his Lord.
How can we speak of knowing someone and yet not really having come to know them?
See John 14:6-9 for a first century example!
Now a twenty-first century example: Think of a member of a local church who hasn’t attended a church service in more than a year. Does he know the church? Well, in his position he does, since he is a member. However, in his experience he does not, since he hasn’t participated in the life of the church in over a year. While the church is glad that he knows it in the first (positional) sense, it will greatly appreciate him knowing it in the second (experiential) sense as well.
1st John 2:3 is not talking about the saving knowledge of God or of Christ, but of the believer’s experiential knowledge of God and His Son.
To miss this point is to risk a complete misreading of the meaning of John’s epistle!
The English translation we know that we know Him, unfortunately obscures a slight shift in the verb forms in Greek that involves a subtle, but important, distinction! We might translate the phrase as follows to reflect the Greek verb forms: we know (present tense) that we have come to know (perfect tense ~ indicates the present state of affairs resulting from a past action) Him,
John’s point is this: The believer who has come to know the Lord (through fellowship and obedience to His commandments) can be assured that he has attained this knowledge.
The Greek word rendered keep (tereo) is used in 1st John six (6) times with “commandments” as its object (2:3,4; 3:22,24; 5:2,3); once with “His word” as the object (2:5); and in 5:18 with “himself” as the object.
The verb (tereo) fundamentally means to “keep watch over; guard.” The Greek verb (tereo) carries an additional connotation of being “observant” or “careful” about the commandments.
The English “to keep a commandment” does not suggest this additional idea found in the Greek. John is not thinking, therefore, about mere performance of the commands of God, but rather about that attitude of obedience which is marked by concern for, and attentiveness to, God’s will.
4He who says, “I know Him,” ( = “I have come to know Him,”) and does not keep His commandments, is a liar; and the truth is not in him.
5But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.
John 14:21 sheds much light on this passage in 1st John. There our Lord lays down two conditions for the self-manifestation of which He speaks. He says: “He who [1] has My commandments and [2] keeps (tereo) them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.
Obviously, a person must first have the Lord’s commandments before he can keep them.
When these two conditions are met, the self-manifestation of Christ brings true and intimate knowledge of God to the obedient disciple. Then, in John 14:22, when Judas (not Iscariot) asks Jesus about the statement He has just made in 14:21, our Lord repeats the statement in a slightly altered form. Jesus says, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep (tereo, guard) My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep (tereo) My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me (John 14:23-24).
It is important to observe that these statements are made only at the end of the 3 ½ years of teaching that the disciples had received from God’s Son. Now they did have His commands and were enjoined to show their love for Him by keeping them.
There is no reason to doubt that when John penned 1 John 2:3-5 he had in mind the statements of Jesus in John 14:21 and 23-24. Observe that even the change from “commandments” (1 John 2:3) to “word” (1 John 2:5) is reflected in that passage in his Gospel, where we find “My commandments” in John 14:21 and “My word” in John 14:23.
We are thus firmly planted in the soil of what may be called discipleship truth (John 13-17), in contrast to saving truth about how not to perish, but to get eternal life (John 3:16-17).
Love for Christ and obedience to His word are in no way a test of saving faith; instead, they are tests of genuine, heart-felt discipleship to the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.
According to John 14, obedience is an expression of love for Christ and disobedience is an expression of a lack of love for Him (John 14:23-24). But at the same time, the one who loves Christ will be the special object of the love of the Father and the Son (John 14:23).
So John tells us here that the obedient Christian disciple is a person in whom truly the love of God is perfected. The Greek word translated is perfected (teteleiotai) suggests ideas like “bring to completion,” “bring to its goal,” “bring to full measure.” Love’s goal is not reached until the believer returns that love (1 John 3:1) by obedience leading to intimacy (John 14:23).
The expression in Him (en auto) must not be superficially read as an equivalent to Paul’s concept of being in Christ (en Christo). When Paul spoke of being “in Christ” he was referring to being in the Body of Christ, to being “in Christ” in our position (Ephesians 1 – 2).
The context here makes it clear that John was referring to being “in Him” in our experience.
The seedbed for John’s idea is the Upper Room Discourse, especially John 15:1-8.
Unlike the salvation relationship, the relationship of a disciple to his Teacher can be lost: “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch (John 15:6).”
Think about it: A family relationship is permanent; a school relationship is not and may be lost.
In using the words in Him, therefore, John is referring to the “abiding” Teacher/disciple relationship, and not to the irreversible relationship of our heavenly Father with His child.
06-02-2013 Satisfaction! 1st John 2:1-2
Introduction: John has insisted so strongly on the sinfulness of all Christians that someone might draw the conclusion that he takes sin, or the inevitability of sin for granted. Thus, his words could be wrongly perceived as discouraging the believer’s resistance to sin. This isn’t his intent!
1My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
1My little children, Note again that the recipients of this letter are believers (2:12-14).
these things (in 1:5-10) I write to you, neither to excuse nor encourage sin, but rather,
so that you may not sin.
John has stigmatized sin as something contrary to the very nature of God who is light (1:5). If a person takes a lenient view of sin, he can easily make the false claim to having fellowship (1:6). Or, he may not take seriously the need to receive cleansing from it, even as he walks in the light where God is (1:7). Or, he may fall into the superficial view that since he is not conscious of sin, he therefore has none (1:8). He may also take lightly his need for confession of sin (1:9), or may rationalize his sin and deny it (1:10). Everything the apostle has just written is designed to treat sin as a serious issue between God and the believer. It is an issue on which God demands full openness and honesty from anyone who desires to have fellowship with Him.
Though sin is to be vigorously resisted, it can and does occur in the lives of believers. So John adds, And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. As a Christian, I should seek (with God’s help) not to sin. But when I do sin, I am not deserted. Instead, precisely at my moment of weakness and failure, I am assured that I have an Advocate before God who will take up my case with the Father.
In the NT, the word translated Advocate (parakletos) is used only five times, all by the apostle John (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7; and here in 1st John 2:1).
The four cases in the Gospel of John all refer to the Holy Spirit. Thus, this verse is a unique reference in Scripture to our Lord Jesus Himself as an Advocate.
While the Greek word can have the sense of “lawyer,” this usage is rare. The more general use carries meanings like: “one who appears in another’s behalf, mediator, intercessor, helper.”
How does our Advocate mediate for us when we sin?
The clearest biblical suggestion is found in Luke 22:31-33. The work of our Lord as He intercedes (But I have prayed for you,) for His own individual follower is directed
(1) toward the maintenance of their faith (that your faith should not fail;),
(2) toward their spiritual recovery (and when you have returned to Me,), and
(3) toward their future usefulness (strengthen your brethren ~ 1 Peter 5:10 “establish”).
2And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
John the apostle is here affirming that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in His own person is the propitiation for our sins. Of course, His sacrificial death is clearly in view.
But it is significant in this context that it is not His sacrifice per se that is called a propitiation, but Christ Himself! As such, our Advocate stands before God as One who is the visible and personal “satisfaction” for our sins. There in the very presence of God, the Father’s eye can rest on the Person of His Son with complete satisfaction!
This is not only because of what Jesus is ~ He is righteous ~ but also because of what Jesus has done at the Cross, the wounds of which are still visible in His resurrected body (John 20:25-27)!
Our Advocate is perfect! God looks upon Him with complete satisfaction! The Father is completely satisfied, propitiated or appeased by our Savior with regard to any sin we commit.
05-26-2013 Walking in God’s Light 1st John 1:8-10
PART TWO
Review: How can I get on my way along the pathway of fellowship with God and where will that path lead me as I travel along? John sets forth the answers to these questions. The pathway involves walking in the light (1:5-2:2) and leads to an ever deeper knowledge of and a greater intimacy with God (2:3-11).
What are pitfalls we face? Believers face the danger of living inconsistently with the message of truth that has saved us from perishing and will set us free from sin’s power if we abide in it.
(1) 6If we say that we (the “we” includes the apostle John and his readers) have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice (=”do”) the truth. To act in ways that are inconsistent with the truth of God’s revealed nature and character is to choose to live a lie.
To walk in the light is the better choice!
How do I walk in the light? To walk in the light is to live in God’s presence, exposed to what He has revealed about Himself through openness to His revealed Word and in prayer with Him.
It’s as daily as eating (Mt. 6:11-12)! Only as I walk in the light will it be true that we have fellowship with one another (us with God and He with us).
How can a perfectly holy God have fellowship with us, even in the light, since we remain sinful people (simultaneously justified yet sinners)?
and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses (is cleansing) us from all sin.
God is free to do so because when we walk in the light, we are being cleansed from all sin by the blood of Jesus Christ.
John now sets forth two further pitfalls that threaten to endanger our fellowship with God as we would seek to walk along in the light of His word:
(2) 8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
When we are open before God and walking in true fellowship with the Father and the Son, we may not be conscious of the fact that we need continuous cleansing from “the blood of Jesus Christ” but the fact that we are not conscious of any sin does not mean that we do not have any!
A sincere claim to sinlessness, even if intended to cover only a brief period of our experience, betrays the fact that the truth is not in us in any effective or dynamic way. This does not indicate that the person in question is not born again (1st person personal pronouns include John)!
As long as we walk in that light, we are in a position to be shown our failures; when that happens we should confess them.
9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The exposure of our sin by the light confronts us with a challenge to the fellowship in which we are walking with God. If we confess (Greek homologeo ~ “to say + the same thing”) “to agree, admit, acknowledge” the sins that the light reveals, we can depend on God to forgive them and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If this happens, fellowship with God continues.
(3) 10If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
If we deny what the light shows us, we’ve ceased to be honest and open with God and fellowship is broken. In other words, we have denied the testimony of His word regarding the sins in my life that the light has revealed. We thus, in effect, have charged God with untruthfulness and His word is not in us as an effective, controlling influence over my thinking and outlook.
05-19-2013 Walking in God’s Light 1st John 1:5-7
PART ONE
John wishes to set forth the grounds on which the readers (“you”) can experience the fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, about which he has just spoken in his Prologue (1:1-4).
John’s concern is that his readers might have fellowship with the apostles (“we, our, us”) and thus with the Father and the Son (1:3). So John now discusses the nature of true fellowship and the basic truths underlying true fellowship with a God who is light and in whom there is no trace of the darkness of sin (1:5-2:11). Unless a believer really knows how to have fellowship with God, he or she becomes an easy target for Satan’s efforts to undermine a believer’s harmony with the Father and the Son.
(1) Walk in the light as He is in the light (1:5-2:2)
~ Walk openly before God in the light of His revelation of Himself (1:5-7)
~ Being prepared at all times to acknowledge any sin of which we become aware (1:8-10)
~ Not being overwhelmed by our failures, but relying on the intercession of our Advocate with God the Father (2:1-2).
(2) Fellowship should always lead us to a more intimate knowledge of God (2:3-11)
5This is the message
which we have heard from Him and declare to you,
that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
(1) As light, God is completely holy.
(2) As light, God reveals Himself in and to His creatures.
This light exposes our own sinfulness (Romans 3:23)
This light exposes our human tendency to hide from the light (Genesis 3:8) to avoid exposure of our evil deeds by the light (John 3:20). If you hide, you’ll lose – fellowship!
6If we say that we (the “we” includes the apostle John and his readers)
have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness,
we lie and do not practice (=”do”) the truth. To act inconsistently with the truth of God’s revealed nature and character is to choose to live a lie. There’s a better alternative!
7But if we walk in the light as He is in the light,
How do I walk in the light?
If I enter a lighted room and walk around in it, I am walking in the light; I am moving in a sphere which the light illuminates as it shines not only on me but upon everything around me. To personalize the light, I could also say that I was walking in the presence of the light. To walk in the light is to live in God’s presence, exposed to what He has revealed about Himself through openness to His revealed Word and in prayer with Him. It’s as daily as eating (Mt. 6:11-12)!
Only as I walk in the light will it be true that we have fellowship with one another (us with God and He with us);
How can a perfectly holy God have fellowship with us, even in the light, since we remain sinful people (simultaneously justified yet sinners)?
and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses (is cleansing) us from all sin.
God is free to do so because when we walk in the light, two things take place:
(1) We experience fellowship with God and He with us.
(2) We are being cleansed from all sin by the blood of Jesus Christ.
05-12-2013 Our Magnetic, Motivating Messiah 1st John 1:1-4
Prologue: The Call to Fellowship (1:1-4)
First John begins with a first-hand account of what the author and his apostolic companions witnessed in Jesus Christ. This prologue announces both the subject matter and John’s purpose for writing the letter. John calls on what they have seen and heard as a way to refute false teachers, whose message does not ring true with the truths originally given to the apostles. If his readers were to adopt any of the doctrines these false teachers teach, it would both destroy their fellowship with the apostolic circle and with God (1:3), and decimate their joy as believers (1:4).
The impersonal form 1That which was from the beginning {of the Christian revelation}, is intentional. The person of Christ is not his theme here, but rather the “eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us” (v. 2). Although Jesus is indeed the true God and eternal life” (5:20), John is stressing here the realities of eternal life itself, that very life which his readers share (5:13).
which [1] we {John and his fellow apostles} have heard {perfect tense), which [2] we have seen {perfect tense) with our eyes, which [3] we have looked upon{aorist tense), and [4] our hands have handled{aorist tense),
The two perfect tense verbs imply the ongoing shared experience of the apostles, while the two aorist verbs do not. Their message was concerning the Word of life, or “concerning the message about (word of) life.” But since Jesus Christ is that life (5:20), one can also correctly say it means “concerning the message (word) about Life.” John is writing about what he and the other apostles witnessed in Jesus Christ, who is life (5:11-12).
The apostles have seen this manifested life, bear witness to it, and declare it to the readers.
– 2the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us – The revelation of this life was made only to the apostles themselves (to us), so they were uniquely equipped to share their knowledge of this manifested life.
3that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, What the apostles had seen and heard cannot be fully shared in this life. Believers must wait in anticipation for that day when in His presence we “gaze at” and “handle” Him. John has clearly stated his subject matter: the truth about eternal life that was revealed from the beginning of the Christian message to the chosen apostolic witnesses. Now John proceeds to state the purpose, or goal, of his epistle: that you also may have fellowship with us; Fellowship (koinonia), means “sharing,” as in shared experiences, shared undertakings, shared possessions, etc. Yet this is no ordinary kind of fellowship: and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
John and the other apostles are delighted when those they have led to Christ, or nurtured in the faith, are true to the faith. If the present letter succeeds in fortifying his readers by encouraging them to “let that abide in [them] which [they] heard from the beginning (2:24), then the joy of the readers will be full! 4And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.
True joy is gained through knowing Christ and God the Father through the apostles’ testimony.
Application: Churches today need a respect for the importance of divine truth, along with a rejection of doctrinal error. Revealed truth is the basis for all fellowship with God and for true fellowship with one another. One who departs from the original truths which the Lord revealed to His appointed witnesses will by so much depart from true fellowship with God. God will not have fellowship with a lie or with any form of spiritual darkness (1:5-6), so walk in the light!
05-05-2013 Staying Close to Christ John 13-17; 1st John 1:1-4
Review: John clearly states (1:1-4) that his subject matter in this epistle is the truth about eternal life that was revealed from the beginning of the Christian message to the chosen apostolic witnesses. John states in 1:3 that the purpose or goal of this epistle is fellowship. Fellowship translates the word koinonia, which basically means “sharing.” As in English, it can indicate shared experiences, shared undertakings, shared possessions, etc. The related noun (koinonoi) is used in Luke 5:10 of some of the disciples as being business “partners.”
But the fellowship John speaks of here is no ordinary kind of fellowship. The fellowship with us into which John invites his readers involves sharing the apostles’ own fellowship … with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
How do we know that 1 John 5:13 is not the purpose statement for the book?
The reason John has been speaking about the “testimony that God has given of His Son” (5:6-12) is to assure the readers that they do indeed have eternal life and to encourage continuing faith in His name. The usage of the phrase These things (Greek, Tauta) by no means refers to the entire content of the epistle, but rather to the immediately preceding context. This near reference is consistent with John’s style throughout the letter. For example, the words “these things we write to you” (1:4) refer to what has just been mentioned in 1:1-3. The statement “these things I write to you, so that you may not sin,” (2:1) refers to the discussion on sin in 1:5-10. The words “these things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you,” (2:26) refer to the immediately preceding discussion about the antichrists in 2:18-25. The logic of John’s argument in 5:6-12 is evident. Since the believers he writes to have believed in the name of the Son of God (whose identity is attested by “the Spirit, the water, and the blood, v.8), then they should rest securely on the testimony that God has given about and through His Son.
The Book of 1st John is a book about love. Another word for love is the word intimacy. If you have a growing relationship with someone, you are becoming more and more intimate with them. You are becoming closer and closer. God has given us 1st John to show us how to have intimacy with Him after the Fall, to show how we can have our most fundamental need for love met even though there is sin in this world, and even resident within us. John wrote this letter to show believers that through abiding in Christ, and thus getting to know Him better, we can enjoy that eternal life we were freely given as we walk in fellowship with the Life-Giver, our Savior.
Jesus teaches about relationship truth and fellowship truth in a symbolic way in John 13: taking a bath (relationship truth) and foot washing (fellowship truth). Once Peter yields, he asks Jesus for an entire bath (13:6-9). Jesus says Peter had already had a complete bath; now he simply needs his feet washed. Jesus says Peter is “completely clean,” but that if he doesn’t allow the Lord to wash his feet, Peter can have no part with Him. How could Peter be completely clean and yet still dirty? (simil iustus et peccator ~ simultaneously justified and a sinner) At the same time a believer can be justified (declared righteous, completely clean – our position in Christ) but also be sinful (in need of foot washing – our condition on earth).
If Peter was not willing to have his feet washed (cleansed in his condition from his daily sins), he could have “no part” with Jesus, that is, no intimacy, no fellowship, and no significant role in His mission. Dirty feet meant dirty hearts. Unless their hearts were cleansed, the gospel mission would die. Dirty feet do not spread the gospel. The eleven remaining disciples did not need a bath (they already had an eternal relationship with Him via faith ~ John 1:12) but they do need clean feet, that is, clean hearts. In order to have fellowship with Christ and be useful for Him the disciples needed to have their hearts cleansed as do we as we remember Him at His table today!
04-28-2013 1st John – Enjoying Fellowship With God Overview
The Writer: The author does not mention his name. That would be consistent with the Gospel of John. In any case, that the recipients knew from whom this letter had come and the apostolic identity of its author seems apparent from 1:1-4 and 4:6. Ancient tradition in the main assigns the epistle to John the son of Zebedee, one of the twelve apostles. The statement in 4:6 would be pompous, to say the least, if it were not penned by an apostle.
The Recipients: The readers are regarded as spiritually mature believers (2:12-14; 2:20). In that case, the epistle of 1st John was intended to fortify the leaders who would bear the major burden of resisting the false teachers (2:15-27). At the same time, John would have expected the letter to be read to the congregation(s) and, when that was done, the apostle’s expression of confidence in the competence of the leaders would enhance the esteem in which the believers held them. It would strengthen their hand against the false teachers.
Date & Destination: I believe 1st, 2nd and 3rd John were all written from Jerusalem (2:19 while he was back there with the other apostles) and sent out for delivery by someone headed for the province of Asia, probably Demetrius (3 John 12).
1st John was a circular letter intended to be passed around the circuit of churches for which John felt special responsibility (hence no specific addressees are mentioned), perhaps the seven churches of Asia (later mentioned in Revelation 2 – 3).
Purpose Statement: John clearly states (1:1-3) that his subject matter in this epistle is the truth about eternal life that was revealed from the beginning of the Christian message to the chosen apostolic witnesses. The phrase from the beginning refers to the readers’ earliest days in the Christian faith (cf. 1 John 2:7, 24; 3:11; 2 John 6). John states in 1:3 that the purpose or goal of this epistle is fellowship. Fellowship translates the word koinonia, which basically means “sharing.” As in English, it can indicate shared experiences, shared undertakings, shared possessions, etc. The related noun (koinonoi) is used in Luke 5:10 of some of the disciples as being business “partners.” But the fellowship John speaks of here is no ordinary kind of fellowship. The fellowship with us into which John invites his readers involves sharing the apostles’ own fellowship … with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
How do we know that 1 John 5:13 is not the purpose statement for the book?
The reason John has been speaking about the “testimony that God has given of His Son” (5:6-12) is to assure the readers that they do indeed have eternal life and to encourage continuing faith in His name. The usage of the phrase These things (Greek, Tauta) by no means refers to the entire content of the epistle, but rather to the immediately preceding context. This near reference is consistent with John’s style throughout the letter. For example, the words “these things we write to you” (1:4) refer to what has just been mentioned in 1:1-3. The statement “these things I write to you, so that you may not sin,” (2:1) refers to the discussion on sin in 1:5-10. The words “these things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you,” (2:26) refer to the immediately preceding discussion about the antichrists in 2:18-25. The logic of John’s argument in 5:6-12 is evident. Since the believers he writes to have believed in the name of the Son of God (whose identity is attested by “the Spirit, the water, and the blood, v.8), then they should rest securely on the testimony that God has given about and through His Son.
This “testimony” (found in John 5:24 and in so many other places in John’s Gospel) assures the believer that he does have eternal life. If Jesus said so, God said so – and there the matter should rest! Amen!