Can I Get A Witness?

For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. – 1 John 5:7-8 ESV 1 John 5:6-12

Jesus is the Son of God. That has been John's assertion throughout his letter. He was countering the claims of those who had left the congregation there in Ephesus. Those people had cast doubt on the validity of Jesus' incarnation and divinity. They had denied that He was the Christ, the Son of God, and the Savior of the world. But John would have nothing to do with their false assertions. Over and over again, he wrote that Jesus was the Son of God. He even asked the somewhat rhetorical question, “Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:5 ESV). Then John backed up this bold statement with facts. He provided “witnesses” to the reality of Jesus' deity and humanity. “And the Spirit is the one who testifies because the Spirit is the truth” (1 John 5:6 ESV). Eight different times, John uses words that have to do with testifying and testimony. He uses the Greek words, martyreō and martyria. The first one is a verb and means, “to be a witness, to bear witness, i.e. to affirm that one has seen or heard.” The second one is a noun and refers to the testimony itself. John wanted his readers to know that the claims of Jesus had been backed up by expert testimony and it was not the testimony of men. First of all, the Spirit testified. But John added that the water and the blood were expert witnesses as well. “For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree” (1 John 5:7 ESV). The very fact that the Spirit of God indwells the people of God is proof that Jesus was who He claimed to be. He had promised the when He left, He would send the Holy Spirit. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever; even the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16-17 ESV). “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:38-39 ESV). John made it clear that the Spirit's presence in the life of the believer was proof that Jesus had come as the Son of God, died a substitutionary death on behalf of sinners, and rose again. His resurrection and ascension set the stage for the Spirit's coming. “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us his Spirit” (1 John 4:13 ESV). But what about the water and the blood? What is John referring to with these two seemingly obscure words? It seems that there were some in the early church who believed that Jesus, the man, was the literal Son of God. They taught that when Jesus was born, he was born as a man. But at His baptism in the wilderness by John, the Spirit of the Christ came on Him. He was still just a man, but had the anointing of God on His life. They further taught that when Jesus hung on the cross, the Spirit of the Christ left Him. So when Jesus died, He did so only as a man and not as the Son of God. John rejected this teaching – vehemently and decisively. In fact, he used the occasions of Jesus baptism and death as witnesses for the deity of Christ. “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:16-17 ESV). Jesus did not become God's Son at that point. He had been His Son from before the foundation of the world. But it was at His baptism that God used the beginning of His earthly ministry to confirm His deity and role as the long-awaited Christ. It is interesting to note that Jesus did not NEED the baptism of repentance, because He was sinless. But He was identifying Himself with sinful man. Just as Jesus did not DESERVE to die on a Roman cross, because He was sinless and without guilt. He was identifying Himself with the sins of mankind, and He “bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24 ESV). Jesus began His ministry at the Jordan and completed it on the cross when He claimed, “It is finished!” (John 19:30 ESV). The shedding of His blood culminated and completed His mission. His death was the crowning glory of His saving work for mankind. When we celebrate the Lord's Supper, it is a remembrance or commemoration of His broken body and shed blood. At the exact moment Jesus died on the cross, we are told, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split” (Matthew 27:51 ESV). There were other supernatural events that accompanied His death. But the tearing of the curtain that acted as a barrier into the Holy of Holies of the Temple was a stark visual illustration that Jesus' death had made access to God available to all. But John would have us remember, that it is belief in Jesus as the Son of God and the Savior of the world that makes access into God's presence possible. “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11-12 ESV). God has done something remarkable and great. He has provided salvation for sinful man through His sinless Son. And the Spirit, the water, and the blood testify to the reality of that incredible truth.

New Birth = New Life.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. – I John  5:1 ESV 1 John 5:1-5

His status as a child of God was extremely important to John, and he wanted his readers to understand and appreciate just how significant their position as God's children was as well. He did not want them to take it for granted. He also did not want them to assume that this was a condition for which they were responsible. Their spiritual rebirth, like his, was a work of God – from start to finish. They had been “born of God.” The Greek word John used is gennaō and it can mean “to be born or begotten,” but it can also be used in a metaphorical sense, “in a Jewish sense, of one who brings others over to his way of life, to convert someone.” Of course, Jesus most certainly had the first meaning in mind when He used the very same word in His conversation with the Pharisee, Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3 ESV). But Jesus also made it clear to Nicodemus that this new birth was a spiritual, not a human event. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:5-6 ESV). All men and women experience a natural birth. They are born of water. They are born of the flesh. But Jesus said that unless you are born of water AND the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. There is a second birth required and that birth is spiritual in nature and completely the work of God.

But it is interesting to think about that second definition for the word, gennaō. It refers to one who brings others over to his way of life, converting and changing them. With the new birth, we become children of God. We are given new natures and a new way of living. No longer simply flesh-based, we are spiritual creatures with the very Spirit of God living within us. Paul puts it this way: “So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord--who is the Spirit--makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NLT). In his letter to the believers in Rome, Paul puts it even more bluntly. “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29 ESV). To the believers in Ephesus he wrote, “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:4-6 ESV). God has chosen us. He has, through the death of His own Son, provided a means by which we could be brought over to His way of life, converting and changing us. It is NOT our faith that changes us. It is Jesus. He is the one who has provided us with new life. Paul put it so well when he wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 ESV). It is our faith IN Jesus that provides us with new life. Paul describes how that happened. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4 ESV). He goes on to say, “we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:6 ESV). “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV). Those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ have been been born of God. But even that capacity to believe has been given to us by God. In his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul wrote, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been save” (Ephesians 2:4-5 ESV). God made us alive (syzōopoieō) together with Christ. We were dead in our sins, incapable of doing anything good or right, but God “quickened” us, putting the capacity within us to open our spiritually blinded eyes and see the truth of His gracious gift of new life in Christ. God regenerated us. Yes, we chose Christ. We placed our faith in Him. But even that choice had to be made possible by the grace and mercy of God. We who are children of God have truly been born of God. He chose to adopt us, not the other way around. He has made us His sons and daughters. And as a result of that new birth, we have been given new life. And the life we now live in the flesh, we live by faith in the Son of God. Same old bodies. Same old world. But new life, new nature, new power, new hope, new relationship with God, new future.

Faith.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. – 1 John 5:1 ESV 1 John 5:1-5

Faith is an interesting subject. For many of us it is an all-too-familiar word that has lost much of its meaning. We use it easily in conversation, but would be hard-pressed to explain exactly what it is, if asked. We tend to use the word, faith, interchangeably with the words, belief and trust. We see faith referred to throughout the Scriptures. Paul writes, “The righteous shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17 ESV). The disciples asked of Jesus, “Increase our faith!” (Luke 17:5 ESV). Paul told the Corinthian believers, “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7 ESV). Jesus told us to “have faith in God” (Mark 11:22 ESV). And John has told us that faith is the victory that overcomes the world (1 John 5:4). As followers of Christ, we are sometimes referred to as people of faith. But there are people of other faiths. Faith is not exclusive or unique to Christianity. People live by faith each and every day. Some put their faith in the political process. The majority of us place faith in the banking system to keep our money secure. The Greek word for faith most often used in the New Testament is pistis, and it means, “conviction of the truth of anything, belief.” It refers to belief with the predominate idea of trust (or confidence). There are those who place their confidence or trust in themselves. Others are convicted that their particular concept of the truth is the right one, whether they believe in many gods or no god at all. Even atheists have faith that God does not exist. Faith is not what sets us apart as Christians. It is the object of our faith. Our faith is in Christ. Our belief, our conviction of the truth is solely based on Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. That is what sets us apart. Paul wrote, “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:8-9 ESV). It was the same message Paul and Silas had given the Philippian jailer. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31 ESV). Standing before the Jewish high priest and religious leaders, Peter declared, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12 ESV). Jesus is the object of our faith. Jesus is the source of our salvation. It is in Him we place our trust, hope, belief, and confidence. And when we do, we are born of God. We experience a spiritual transformation that is the work of God. Our faith does not change us, God does. It is not the depth or quality of our faith that brings about our spiritual rebirth. It is the object of our faith.

A big factor when it comes to placing our faith in Christ is that it requires that we turn from trusting in something else. When Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6 ESV), He was declaring that there was no other way by which men could be made right with God. No other religious system, belief, claim, or teaching was going to work. No matter how much faith you placed in it or how hard you believed about it. Part of what it means to repent is to “to change one's mind for better.” It is not just to turn away from your sins, but it is to change your thinking about everything you have known to be true. It is to have a change of mind regarding your own righteousness. It is to turn from whatever it is you have been trusting in and placing your confidence, hope and belief in Jesus Christ alone. When we place our trust in Christ, we are changed. God accepts us as His own and gives us a new nature. He places His Spirit within us. And He loves us as His own children. But our faith is not to stop there. Our belief and trust in Jesus is to last a lifetime, better yet, an eternity. It is our ongoing faith in Jesus that overcomes the world. We will constantly be tempted to place our trust in other things. Circumstances will compel us to turn away from Jesus and start placing our faith in something or someone else. But the Christian life is to be lived by faith in Christ alone. Paul warned the Galatian believers, “How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?” (Galatians 3:3 NLT). We are saved by faith. We are sanctified by faith. It is a spiritual endeavor, accomplished by the power of God. I must constantly remind myself that my faith must remain focused on Jesus as the Son of God and my source of salvation. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. But only if that faith is place in Jesus Christ. Any other faith in any other thing will prove disappointing in the end.

Nike.

Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? – 1 John 5:5 ESV

When John speaks of overcoming the world, he uses the Greek word, nikaō, which means {to carry off the victory or to come off victorious.’ It comes from the root word, nikē, which simply means “victory.” Of course, we know it as the name of a certain sporting goods manufacturer. John had a certain affinity for the word, using it five different times in his letter and 17 times in the Book of the Revelation. While exiled on the island of Patmos, John received a vision from Jesus Christ Himself, providing him with divine insight into the end times. John was instructed to write about what he heard and saw. Near the end of his book, he recorded these words from Jesus, “‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ And he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.  The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son’” (Revelation 21:5-7 ESV). Jesus used the same Greek word to refer to those who will come off victorious in the end. But the victory will not be due to anyone's efforts other than those of Jesus. He is the one who will declare, “It is done!” On the cross, He cried out, ”It is finished!” He work of sacrifice was completed. He had done what His Father had set out for Him to do. He had given His life as a payment for the sins of mankind. But He rose again, because there was still more for Him to do. At this very moment He sits at the right hand of the Father, mediating on our behalf. He is our personal representative before God the Father. It is His very resurrected life that allows us to come into the Father's presence and enjoy intimate communion with Him. We enjoy the love of the Father because of the love of the Son. In fact, Jesus loves us so much, that He is actively involved in the everyday affairs of our lives. He didn't just save us, He is out to transform us into His likeness. His goal for us is our ever-increasing holiness. In the Book of the Revelation, John recorded these words of Jesus to the church at Laodicea: “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 3:19-22 ESV). This was a church that Jesus described as “lukewarm.” They were neither hot or cold in their love for Him. They were contentedly complacent. In fact, Jesus went on to describe their attitude in less-than-flattering terms, “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17 ESV). They were blind to their own spiritual reality. Rather than see their need, they mistakenly assumed they were spiritually healthy and whole. But Jesus begged them to zealously repent. He described Himself as standing at the door of their fellowship, knocking and pleading to allow Him into their midst. He was offering to have fellowship with them.

It would seem that the key to our victory, our nikē, is an ongoing, uninterrupted fellowship with Jesus. Our relationship with Him did not end at the cross. He is not only our Savior, He is our Lord and King. He is our brother. He is our mediator and intercessor. It is He, along with the indwelling Holy Spirit, who makes it possible for us to live victorious. We can overcome the world, from its daily temptations to give in to “the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes and pride of life” (1 John 2:16 ESV) to its ongoing hatred for us (1 John 3:13). It is our faith in Jesus as Savior and our soon-and-coming King that gives us the victory we seek. It is our faith in Jesus as the Christ and the Son of God. There is no other means by which we can be saved and there is no other way we can experience victory over this world. Human effort will fail. While Nike's slogan, Just Do It, may sound reasonable and motivational, it will not work in the spiritual arena. Our faith must not be in ourselves and our own ability to pull off some degree of spiritual stamina. Our faith must reside in and remain in Jesus Christ. It is NOT our faith that makes the difference, but the object on which our faith rests: Jesus. We read these encouraging words from Jesus, spoken to the church at Laodicea. “I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see” (Revelation 3:18 ESV). He was speaking to believers. He was inviting them to come to Him for all that they needed. He was offering Himself as the source for all their spiritual deficiencies. Jesus stands ready to help us. He wants to make us victorious. But we keep our faith solidly placed on Him and nothing and no one else.

Unfinished Business.

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. – 1 John 5:3 ESV 1 John 5:1-5

When John wrote this passage, he more than likely had the words of Jesus Himself ringing in his ears. He had heard Jesus make similar statements on numerous occasions. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15 ESV). “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me” (John 14:21 ESV). “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23 ESV). And when John added the line, “and his commandments are not burdensome,” he was probably thinking of Jesus' promise, “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30 ESV). But he was likely speaking from experience as well. He had lived a long life and had probably spent more than five decades as a faithful follower of Jesus. He had watched the beginning of the church in those early days in Jerusalem. He had ministered as one of the apostles, spreading the good news of Jesus Christ and helping spread the message of salvation through Jesus alone throughout the known world. He had been exiled to Patmos and was now well up in years, still fulfilling his pastoral duties to the faithful in Ephesus. He had been through a lot over the years, but knew that the commandments of God were not burdensome or too heavy to bear. Living in obedience to God was not overwhelming or impossible to pull off. For the one who believes in Jesus Christ, obedience comes supernaturally. It is made possible by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had told John and the other disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:15-17 ESV). The Holy Spirit is made available to all who place their faith in Jesus as their sin substitute and Savior. He is, as Paul so aptly put it, the “down payment” or guarantee that we are in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:22). He gives us the strength we need to obey willingly. But as John has stressed repeatedly throughout his letter, the key is that we abide. We must remain dependent upon God and fully aware of our daily need for Christ's ongoing redemptive work in our lives. His work, while fully sufficient for our salvation, is ongoing and unfinished when it comes to our sanctification. God is still in the process of transforming His children into the likeness of His Son. Paul wrote, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6 ESV). Paul went on to tell the Philippian believers, “Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:12-13 NLT).

Our love for God shows up through our obedience to Him. And the amazing thing is that He has provided us with the desire and the power to do so. Obedience to Him not only reveals our love for Him, but it plays a part in His ongoing transformation of us. It also produces joy in us. Jesus said, “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. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:10-12 ESV). The love of God goes full circle. He has loved us by sending His Son. His Son has loved us by giving His life. We love God by obeying His commands, and one of those commands is that we love one another. As we love one another, we are effectively expressing our love back to God. The world would have us live selfishly, with the focus on our own wills. The world would have us love, but only if we receive love in return. The world would encourage us to live myopic, me-centered lives where the goal is our own self-satisfaction. But John says, “everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world” (1 John 5:4 ESV). As we live in faith, trusting in Jesus for our salvation as well as our sanctification, relying on the Holy Spirit for the desire and the power to do what pleases God, we overcome the world. We live in victory right here, right now. No, not perfectly or completely. For God is not done yet. We will fail and we fall. We will give in to temptations. We will occasionally turn the spotlight back on ourselves. We will even disobey and distrust God. But He is still at work. The words of Paul provide us with comfort and encouragement. “I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation — the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ — for this will bring much glory and praise to God” ( Philippians 1:9-11 NLT). God has unfinished business. But “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.”

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Born From Above.

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this its the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. – 1 John 5: 4 ESV 1 John 5:1-5

As he has done so many times before in his letter, John uses a comparison or contrast to make a point. He has used light and darkness, truth and falsehood, sin and righteousness, as well as love and hate. Now he brings up a slightly more subtle comparison. And yet, it is the key to understanding who we are, what it is we are up against, and how we are to come out victorious in the end. It is not exactly a new topic, because he covered it before. But this time he ties it to something highly significant: our victory. On one side of the comparison or contrast is John's term: “born of God.” This term is a differentiator for John. He is not referring to creation. All men and all things were made by God. But not all are “born of God.” That distinction is made possible only by belief in Jesus as the Christ. So for John, all mankind falls into one of two categories. They are either born of God or of this world. Or as he put it in even starker terms earlier in his letter: “By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil” ( 1 John 3:10 ESV). There is a clear line of demarcation that separates one group from the other. It is the new birth. We often refer to it as being “born again.” It is interesting to note that when Jesus was secretly pursued by Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish ruling council, that Jesus said to him, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above,  he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3 NET). The Greek word Jesus used was anōthen and it has a double meaning. The one we traditionally see rendered in this verse is “anew or again.” But the other meaning is “from above, from a higher place; of things which come from heaven or God.” It seems likely the Jesus was referring to being born of God or from above, and that Nicodemus, based on his response, heard Jesus to say he had to be born again. It would seems that Jesus is teaching us that our new birth is a work of heaven. It is not of this world. It is a supernatural, divine undertaking that is based solely on faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

Belief in Jesus as Savior and as the only means by which men can be made right with God results in a divine act of procreation. When one places his faith in Jesus, he is born from above. This is an incredible transaction that takes place at the very throne of God in heaven. Which is why Jesus said to a very confused Nicodemus, “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” (John 3:12 ESV). Jesus had tried to explain to Nicodemus what this heavenly birth meant. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6 ESV). Faith in Jesus as our sin substitute and Savior results in a new birth and a new identity. We become children of God who have been born from above by God. And then John gives us the encouraging news, “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world” (1 John 5:4 ESV). But what does that mean? We have been born from above, but we have been left below. We remain in this world, suffering with the same temptations, the same results of the fall, including sickness, disease and eventually death. So how have we overcome? What has our faith in Jesus given us victory over? The apostle Paul gives us the answer in words that are far to eloquent to attempt to paraphrase them.

What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?  Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?  Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:31-39 NLT

Our faith in Jesus results in our new birth. Our new birth makes us children of God. Our new status as His children makes us victorious. We win in the end. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Our own sins can't condemn us or remove us from our rightful place as His sons and daughters, because Christ has paid for our sins once and for all time. We are overcomers. We are victors. We are more than conquerors. We have been born from above.

Do We Really Love?

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. –1 John 5:2 ESV 1 John 5:1-5

Repeatedly throughout his letter, John has strongly encouraged us to love one another. But he has only given us one example of a practical application of this command. We find it in verse 17 pf chapter 3. “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?" Then John clarifies his question with a statement. “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18 ESV). Seems pretty clear, doesn't it. Our love is to show up in legitimate action. But no where else in this letter does John give us a list of acceptable actions that would prove we are loving correctly – as Jesus has loved us. He doesn't provide us with five steps to follow or ten iron-clad examples of godly love. Because if he had, we would turn those things into measuring rods of righteousness. Take John's example from chapter three. We might see a brother in need and write a check to help him get back on his feet. Or we might give him a handout of cash to help him bide his time. And in doing so, we might feel as if we had loved him. But notice that John says the problem to begin with is that the brother with the worldly goods “closes his heart” against the one in need. He sees the problem but doesn't allow his heart to engage. Writing a check can be a heartless activity. Giving someone cash can be as well. The King James Version paints a much more vivid picture of what is going on in this illustration. It reads, “and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him.” The Greek word John uses means “to shut up compassion so that it is like a thing inaccessible to one, to be devoid of pity towards one.” The word translated “heart” in the ESV is translated “bowels” in the KJV. It is the Greek word, splagchnon. Check out what Strong's Concordance has to say about it:  “the bowels were regarded as the seat of the more violent passions, such as anger and love; but by the Hebrews as the seat of the tenderer affections, esp. kindness, benevolence, compassion; hence our heart (tender mercies, affections, etc.).” This all ties back into Paul's great love chapter in 1 Corinthians. We can do a lot of great things, but if they are done without godly love, without mercy, compassion, kindness and a legitimate love for the one being helped, they are all worthless in the end.

John says we must not love in word and talk, but in deed and in truth. The word, talk, can also be translated, “tongue.” It is as if John is saying, “don't just act like you love someone by speaking words that come from nowhere other than your tongue.” Instead, we are to love in deed, in actions, but backed up by truth. Truth refers to “what is true in things appertaining to God and the duties of man, moral and religious truth.” It is to love as God has commanded us to love. Which brings us back to our passage for today. John tells us, “By this we know that we love the children of God” (1 John 5:2 ESV). Again, it's significant that John does not supply us with a list of acceptable deeds or actions to follow. But what he does give us is a way of knowing that we are truly loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is when we love God and keep His commandments. Then he qualifies it further by saying that to love God is to keep His commandments. I think this helps us understand what John meant earlier by deeds done in truth. It is doing what God would have us do, as made known to us in His Word. We show our love for God when we live our lives in obedience to His Word. And John lets us know that when we do, we will find God's commandments not burdensome. They won't feel heavy and oppressive to us. In fact, they will be a joy to obey because of the benefits and blessings they bring to us and to others through us.

When we remove the truth, God's Word, from the equation, we will tend to love one another according to the world's standards. We may end up showing compassion or mercy to a brother or sister in need, but to love them in truth is to love them as we have been loved by God. It is to care about them as children of God. It is to care as much for their spiritual well-being as we care about their physical needs. Worldly love tends to focus on the externals. But godly love focuses on the heart. So many of the issues we end up dealing with in our attempt to “love one another” are symptoms. And it isn't that we should ignore the symptoms, but we must look to the root cause of the problem. We must learn to look at the heart. This is where it can get messy. When we begin to learn to look past the surface issues and into the heart, we will find we are loving as God has commanded us to love. Paul writes, “Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important” (Galatians 6:1-2 NLT). Godly love is costly love. It requires sacrifice. It involves the heart. It is obsessed with the spiritual health of the other. It meets needs, but never on just a surface level. It digs deep. It obeys well.

Proof Positive.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. – 1 John 5:1 ESV 1 John 5:1-5

How does one really know they have a right relationship with God? Or to put it another way, how do you know that you're really saved? For John, there was only one answer to both questions: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. It is our faith in the message that Jesus is the Christ that determines our right relationship with God. To believe that Jesus us the Christ is accept His claim to be the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, sent by God as a substitute sacrifice for the sins of the world. John does not say that we have to fully understand every aspect of how God did what He did. We do not have to fully comprehend how Jesus was fully God and fully man. But we have to believe that Jesus was who He claimed to be, who the apostles taught Him to be, and who the Holy Spirit confirms Him to be. That word “believe” means “to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in.” When one places his or her confidence in Jesus as their Savior, they become a child of God. It is their belief in Jesus as the Christ that determines their right standing with God, not their obedience, social status, or right moral behavior.

John brings this matter up because there had been those who had left the local fellowship in Ephesus who did not believe that Jesus was the Christ. They refused to accept the divinity of Jesus. They believed in Jesus, as a man, but could not be persuaded that He was the Son of God, the Savior of the world. So John was making it perfectly clear for those who remained behind how to know who was truly born of God. For John, it all boiled down to a right relationship with God. And as far as he was concerned, there was only one way for anyone to be made right with God. It was through belief in the one whom God had sent to pay for the sins of the world: His Son Jesus Christ.

But John gives yet another way of knowing that one is saved – when we love God and other believers in Christ. Our love for one another is an additional proof of our right standing with God. Our ability to love them comes from God because love is of God. Our capacity to keep God's commandment to love one another is provided for us from God. Without Him, it would be impossible. The very fact that we love one another is evidence of God's work in us. No, we do not do it perfectly or constantly, but that we do it at all is proof of our relationship with Him. John goes on to tell us that loving God and keeping His commandments is “not burdensome” to us. I am reminded of the words of Jesus. “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light” (Matthew 11:28-30 NLT). Following Jesus is not easy, but He promises that walking alongside Him will be restful and not wearisome. Our life with Him will be bearable and even enjoyable. We will still have to walk through this life, dealing with pain and sorrow, temptations and trials, but we will have a power source available to us that will allow us to “overcome the world.” And it is all based on our faith or belief in Jesus Christ. “And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith” (1 John 5:4 ESV). Our faith in Christ. Our belief in Him as our Savior. You see, our faith must have an object. It must have a source. John sums it all up with these words: “Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 4:5 ESV). The key to our overcoming, to being victorious, is our continued faith in Christ, which takes us back to John's admonition to abide in Him. What makes our burden light and the yoke easy to bear is that we remain side-by-side in the yoke with Christ. We maintain our faith and belief in Him. As soon as we place our faith in us or in someone or something else, we find ourselves overwhelmed instead of living as overcomers. Belief in Jesus Christ is the proof of our salvation, but also the power behind our victory over the trials and troubles of this life. As the chorus of an old hymn so aptly puts it:

Faith is the victory! Faith is the victory! Oh, glorious victory, That overcomes the world.

Love Like God Loves.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. – 1 John 4:7 ESV 1 John 4:7-21

Throughout these 15 verses, John repeatedly reminds us to love one another. But he has not left it up to us to define what that love should look like. He has gone out of his way to make sure we know that the standard for the kind of love we are to show one another is a high one. It is the love of God. And that love was not simply an emotion or a response to something lovable in us. It was the outflow of His very nature, and an expression of His character. As John says, God didn't love us because we loved Him first. It was the other way around. He loved us when we were at our worst. He loved us when we were in rebellion against Him, existing as His enemies, and stubbornly content with our lot in life. Paul puts it this way: “you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions” (Colossians 1:21 NLT). Yet, in spite of our unlovely condition, God loved us. “Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault” (Colossians 1:22 NLT). God loved the unlovely and unlovable. And that love was costly. It required the death of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ. But that priceless payment was necessary in order that we might be restored to a right relationship with God. He paid the price we could not afford to settle a debt we owed. Now that's love. And it is that kind of love John has in mind when he says, “Love one another.” It was the kind of love Jesus had in mind when He told His disciples, “just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” ( John 13:34 ESV).

God loved us in order to restore us. Jesus loved us enough to die for us, so that we might live as sons and daughters of God. Their love was focused on our holiness, not our happiness. Their love was focused on our eternal well-being, not our temporary satisfaction. Jesus died to deliver us from this world of sin and death. His prayer in the garden on the night of His betrayal says it all. “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:14-17 ESV). His love was focused on our sanctification, our ongoing transformation in His own likeness. Ultimately, God's love and that of His Son is all about our future glorification. And our love for one another should have that same focus. Do I love my brother or sister in Christ enough to speak truth into their life? Do I love them enough to give up my own rights in order to see that they grow in Christ-likeness? Do I love them enough to want God's best for them? Do I love them enough to sacrifice my time, my resources, my comfort and my self-centered conveniences in order to see that they live lives that are pleasing to God?

The reason Jesus said the world would know we were His disciples because of our love for one another was due to the nature of that love. It would not be the kind of love with which the world was familiar. And let's face it, the world does love. Those who live in this world without Christ love their kids, express love towards one another, give their money to worthy causes, feed the hungry, help the needy, do service projects, sacrifice their time, and show love in a thousand different ways. But the love we are commanded to show is different. It is what sets us apart. It is what gives proof that we are His disciples. When John says, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11 ESV). In the same way. With the same focus. The reason we love is so that those we love might be restored to God. Any temporal aspect of our love should have an eternal focus. Meeting physical needs should always have a spiritual focus. Feeding the hungry, while failing to give them the bread of life, will provide temporary relief, but leave them with a much more serious problem. That's why Paul wrote, “If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3 ESV). The greatest love we have to give away is the love we have received. A love that was focused on our greatest need. The love of this world is temporal in nature. It seeks to solve immediate needs with temporary fixes. We attempt to fix broken relationships with flowers. We try to remedy sadness with some form of temporary gladness. We give the hungry a meal or a job. We give the poor a handout. But the kind of love the world needs is far more lasting and long-term in nature. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35 NLT). He said this in response to those who had demanded, “give us that bread every day” (John 6:34 NLT). They had been part of the crowd that He had fed the day before. They wanted more bread. They wanted their physical needs met. But Jesus was offering them more. His love was focused on something far greater. Their salvation from sin. Their restoration to a right relationship with God. And that should be the focus of our love. I love others most when I desire for them God's best.

Love Is Of God.

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. – 1 John 4:16 ESV

1 John 4:7-21

Love is a feeling. Love makes the world go round. All you need is love. Love is a many splendid thing. There are as many sayings about love as there are definitions as to what it is. But John wants us to understand that love is of God. In fact, God is love. Everything about love emanates from God. And because man was made in the image of God, all men have the capacity to love. It is a part of God's common grace bestowed upon all mankind. But only those who truly understand the love of God as expressed in the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, can even begin to grasp the true nature of what love really is. Left to our own devices, we will tend to redefine love in our own terms, focusing on ourselves and seeing love as something designed to fulfill us or bring us satisfaction. Which is why we tend to fall in and out of love. We have turned loved into little more than a feeling that can come and go based on whether we have the motivation to love the other person or the persuasion that they are loving us in the way we demand. Like everything else God has so graciously given us, we can somehow find a way to make it all about us. But true love is about God. Yes, God so loved the world that He gave His Son. Yes, God loved us while we were yet sinners. But what we have to remember is that God's love had nothing to do with our loveliness or lovableness. We did not deserve His love. We had not earned His love. Yes, we were the recipients of His love, but for no reason whatsoever on our part. And until we understand the significance of that reality, we will never understand the love of God.

John ties loving others and knowing God together. He writes, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7 ESV). Our capacity to love others the way God commands is directly tied to our knowledge of God. And what is it we are to know about God? His love. As believers in Jesus Christ, we have a unique perspective on the love of God because we have experienced it firsthand. At one point in our lives we were told about the love of God manifested or shown through the arrival of His Son here on this earth. Jesus was God in human flesh, sent by His Father to bring salvation to man by His death on the cross. “God sent his only Son into the world” (1 John 4:9 ESV), “to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10 ESV), and “to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14 ESV). And John sums it all up with the words, “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us” (1 John 4:16 ESV). We have come to know and believe in Jesus. It is through our acceptance of God's love as expressed through Jesus that we truly come to know who God is and what love is. Even as an old man, John was blown away by this kind of love. “What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are.” (1 John 3:1 MSG).

I love how the apostle Paul puts difficult concepts into language most of us can understand. Speaking of God's amazing love, he writes, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation” (Romans 5:6-9 NLT). You and I might be willing to sacrifice our lives for someone especially good. We might take a bullet for our spouse or one of our children, but we'd probably have to think long and hard about anyone else. Yet God loved us enough when we were at our worst to send His own Son to die in our place. Jesus took the bullet for us. D. A. Carson has this to say about the love of God: “Do you wish to see God's love? Look at the cross. Do you wish to see God's wrath? Look at the cross.” The love of God shines brightest when seen against the dark backdrop of the cross. The cross was and is a symbol of man's sin, guilt and just condemnation. It represents what we so justly deserved as usurpers of God's authority and rebels against His will. And yet, it is at the cross that we truly come to know God. We see His justice, wrath, righteousness, patience, mercy, grace, and love on display through the life of His Son. Because of His love, we are His children. Because of His love, we are forgiven. Because of His love, we abide in Him and in His love – constantly. Because of His love, we have His Spirit within us. Because of His love, we have our future determined for us. Because of His love, we can love others. But only as long as we remember how He has loved us. If we don't love, we don't know Him. That doesn't necessarily mean we aren't saved. It can simply mean we don't recognize and appreciate the unbelievable nature of the love with which He has loved us. To know God is to know God's love for us. Whenever we forget, all we need to do is look at the cross.

God Loved.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. – 1 John 4:11 ESV 1 John 4:7-21

How did God love us? John makes three very clear statements in answer to that question. The first is in verse 9: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” God's love of us was made known through His sending His only Son into the world. And John has already made it quite clear earlier in his letter that Jesus becoming human (incarnation) is a non-negotiable aspect of the gospel. In the very next verse, John gives us the reason “we might live through him.” “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Jesus was sent by God to be means for satisfying His own just and righteous judgment against sin. Jesus alone, as God in human flesh, could satisfy (propitiate) the Father's wrath against sin. This is the part that so many get uncomfortable with the biblical view of God. They can't accept that God can be loving and wrathful at the same time. Richard Rohr, a Franciscan Friar, seems to speak on behalf of those who refuse to accept a God who is loving and yet required to punish sin because of His holiness. “Most people I know would never torture another human being under any conditions. Yet people believe in a god who not only tortures, but tortures for all eternity. That is bitter vengeance by anyone's definition. Why would anyone want to be alone with such a testy and temperamental god? Why would anyone go on the great mystical journey into divine intimacy with such an unsafe lover? Why would anyone trust such a god to know how to love those who really need it? I personally know many people who are much more generous and imaginative than this god is. We have ended up being ourselves more loving, or at least trying to be, than the god we profess to believe! Such a religion is in deep trouble—at its core (Richard Rohr, My Problem With Religion, www.tikkun.org).” It seems to me that Richard Rohr is attempting to judge God based on human terms. He wants to establish the definition of love and, based on that definition, hold God to his standard. For Richard and others like him, love is the absence of wrath or judgment. But it is interesting that John gives us a different definition of love. In his third statement regarding the love of God, he says: “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14 ESV). Out of love, God sent His own Son to give us life, to be the propitiation for our sins, and to be the Savior of the world. As John wrote in his gospel, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 ESV).

And what is fascinating is that God's love required His own Son to die. In order for Jesus to give us life, satisfy His Father's judgment against sin, and fulfill His role as the Savior of the world, He had to die. He had to bear the sins of man and the judgment of God – in our place. Peter writes, “He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed” (1 Peter 2:24 NLT). Paul tells us the same thing: “Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said” (1 Corinthians 15:3 NLT). Paul had in mind the Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah. “But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed” (Isaiah 53:5 NLT). And all of this was done out of love. “He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God” (Romans 4:25 NLT). God sent His Son to die so that we might be made right with Him. It was the only way. You see, God is love, but God is also holy. His love does not and cannot trump His holiness. His love is a holy love. His judgment as a holy God required that the penalty for man's rebellion against Him be paid for. His love provided His own Son as the solution. Our problem is that we only want a god who loves. But that would not be the God of the Bible. God did not love man the way that man desired. Even when Jesus came, His entire life's mission was focused on His coming death. That was why He came. And yet, everyone around Him wanted to Him to do more miracles, heal more people, provide them with more bread, turn water into wine, overturn the Roman government, make their lives better and easier. But Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45 NLT). This famous statement of Jesus came right after James and John had asked Jesus, “When you sit on your glorious throne, we want to sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left” (Mark 10:37 NLT). They wanted Jesus to show His love for them by making them powerful and prominent. They wanted Jesus to “bless” them on their terms. But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink? Are you able to be baptized with the baptism of suffering I must be baptized with?” (Mark 10:38 NLT). Jesus was going to show His love for them by dying for them. He had come to fulfill His Father's desires, not theirs. But in doing the will of His Father, Jesus was loving them in ways they could never have imagined. He was going to do for them far greater things than they could have ever have desired. He was going to love them to death – His own.

Real Love.

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. – 1 John 3:16-18 ESV

I had an interesting thought hit me this morning. It was one of those thoughts that I couldn't get out of my mind. It had to do with the love of God and His command that we love others in the same way that we have been loved by Him. We like to use verses like those above to prove that our love for others is to be practical and tangible. We place them alongside other verses like those found in the book of James. “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” (James 2:15-16 ESV). From these passages and others like them, we conclude that our love must be expressed in real ways if it is to be real love. And while I would agree with this assessment, the thought hit me that we might be missing the point of these passages. We might be shifting the focus of what God is saying to us about His love for us and our love for others. Jesus told His disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35 ESV). He gave them this message during His final celebration of the Passover meal with them. And it came after He had washed their feet and shared the bread and wine with them. This was just prior to His betrayal, arrest, trials, and crucifixion. So at this point, the disciples would have concluded that his example of love, his meaning for “just as I have loved you” would have been from what they had seen Him do during the years He had spent with them in ministry. But Jesus was speaking with an eye on the future. He was focused on what was to come: His death. Not long after this scene in the upper room, Jesus would repeat His command, but with a qualifier. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12-13 ESV). Jesus was clarifying what He meant by love. And we have to stop and think about what the purpose was behind Jesus' death. Why did He lay down His life? He answered that question when He stated, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” Matthew 20:28 ESV). John told us earlier in his letter, “You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5 ESV). Paul wrote, “this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19 NLT).

So what's my point? What is the thought that I had this morning? It is this: What if the love we are to share with others is to be redemptive, restorative and regenerative in nature? What if our love is to be ever and always about the spiritual well-being of those whom we are loving? I am NOT suggesting that we look past the physical and emotional needs of others. But I think we may have missed the point of what John was saying when he wrote, “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?” I believe John was using this as an example or earthly comparison. He put love in terms that his readers could understand. They knew poverty well. They also knew that to have the resources to alleviate someone else's poverty and not do it was anything but love. You didn't have to be a follower of Christ to know that. That's just common sense. So John uses that scenario to make a more important point. If we, as believers, have the richness of God's love abiding in us and we fail to share that love with others, we are, in reality, loveless. But remember, what was the point of Jesus' love for us? Our redemption. Our restoration to a right relationship with God. Our salvation, sanctification, and, ultimately, our final glorification. We have heaven's goods and we are surrounded by those in spiritual poverty. Yet how often do we close our hearts against them. If all I give them are worldly goods to meet worldly needs, I leave them mired in spiritual poverty and death. Our love must have a temporal and practical side to it, but it will prove to be short-lived and ineffective if it does not lead them toward reconciliation and to the bread of life that will cause them to hunger no more. We must lead them to the living water that will result in them thirsting no more. The greatest love I can share with another human being is to be willing to sacrifice all that I have in order that they might enjoy all that I have received in Christ. I am reminded of the words of Paul in his great “love chapter.” “If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3 NLT). God is love. If those around us don't end up reconciled and restored to God, they will never know true love. Am I willing to give my life so that others might discover the eternal life that I have received? That seems to be the point. That's real love.

Abide In God (Love)

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. – 1 John 4:16 ESV

In the verse above, John makes the statement that “God is love.” It is His essence, not just a characteristic of who He is. For John and the other apostles, to have experienced the love of God was to have experienced God Himself. Why? Because God expressed His love for mankind by sending His own Son to die on their behalf and in their place, in order to satisfy the judgment of God against their sins. So when they accepted that gift by believing in His Son, they experienced a love like nothing they had ever known before. They became the recipients of an other-worldly kind of love, the love of God, and through Jesus, came to know God better than they had ever known Him before. They discovered what true love really looks like and they found out what it feels like to abide in that love. And their strong belief was that, to abide in God was to abide in His love. And vice versa, to abide in His love was to abide in Him. Remember, John has said, “No one has ever seen God” (1 John 4:12 ESV). But those of us who are in Christ have experienced and known His love. And when we love one another in the same way that He and His Son have loved us, we abide in that same love. We experience the love of God all over again. The love that we are commanded to share with one another is the same love we have received. But we must be careful to ensure that we do not redefine love to fit our temporal, human sentiments.

One of the dangers we face is when we wrongly conclude that if God is love, then love must be God. Notice that John did not say, “Love is God.” When we flip this around we end up with love as the supreme good, not God. And because we are human, we tend to make love all about us. We end up putting ourselves at the center of that love. And that love is best expressed in terms we define and dictate. In other words, we conclude, “I feel most love when __________________.” You fill in the blank. In other words, we make a list of things we believe will make us feel loved. If God gives me a good job that pays me good money and makes me feel fulfilled, then He loves me. If God heals my disease and gives me a long life, then I will know that He loves me. If God gives me someone to marry who is highly attractive and fun to be with, then I will feel loved by Him. But what's the problem with all of this? The natural conclusion is that if we don't get what we want, we feel unloved by God. We have defined love on our terms and if God doesn't love us the way we want to be loved, then He is unloving. Frederick Buechner wrote, “To say that love is God is romantic idealism. To say that God is love is either the last straw or the ultimate truth.” Sometimes the love of God will come across as hate to us. We will not feel loved. Because God's deepest concern for us is not for our happiness, but our holiness. There will be times when God does not give us what we desire. Because He does not love us? No, because He DOES love us, and He alone knows what is BEST for us. Paul prayed repeatedly that God would remove “the thorn in my flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7 NLT). But God did not answer those prayers. At least not in the terms Paul was expecting. But what was Paul's conclusion? “So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud” (2 Corinthians 12:7 NLT). Each time Paul had prayed for what he believed he needed, God had lovingly told him, “‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me” (2 Corinthians 12:9 NLT). God had something far greater He wanted to do in Paul's life. His love is always redemptive and restorative, but with an emphasis on the future. God did not promise us our best life now. His love has an eschatological or future aspect to it. These bodies are impermanent. They will not last and were not designed to do so. He has something far better in store for us. Ultimately, God's love is focused on who we are in Him and what we will be when His Son returns.

So what if we loved one another the way God loves us, the way Christ loved us? What if our greatest expression of love for one another was focused on God's desire to sanctify those that are His and redeem those who are not? I am NOT suggesting that we do not meet physical or emotional needs. John has made it clear that love must be practical and tangible. But as children of God, our love must have a greater, deeper focus than the alleviation of temporal suffering. To love as God has loved us is to care deeply about one another's spiritual well-being. It is to sacrifice all that you have in order to see another human being reconciled, made right with God. Paul reminds us, “Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19 ESV). Our love for others must ultimately be about their reconciliation to God. God's love is always redemptive, restorative, and regenerative in nature. It is about far more than our happiness or temporal well-being. And we must remain in, abide in that kind of love – embracing it, sharing it, displaying it, and spreading it to all those around us.

God = Love.

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. – 1 John 4:16 ESV

John has already told us that God is light (1 John 1:5). Now he lets us in on another significant reality about God's divine character. He is love. He doesn't just love. He is love. It is His very nature. In fact, all that He does is done as an expression of His love. But that raises some interesting and somewhat mind-boggling contradictions for us as human beings. It causes us significant confusion because we have a hard time reconciling the images of God's wrath, judgment, and punishment as revealed in the Bible. These seeming contradictions raise questions that usually begin with the words, “But how could a loving God …” We wrestle with stories from the Old Testament that picture God as demanding the annihilation of entire groups of people. We struggle with the concept that God would punish people by condemning them to an endless existence in a place of perpetual torment. Trying to comprehend these two extremes has caused many to either reject God altogether or to attempt to rationalize and reconstruct their image of God. Many believers, uncomfortable with the concept of God as a judge who metes out justice and judgment, have simply re-imagined Him, eliminating His less-attractive characteristics and recreating Him as the all-loving, all-accepting, all-inclusive, all-for-us, all the time God. Richard Rohr, a Franciscan friar and popular author and speaker, represents many who have chosen to rethink their view of God. “We must get this clear, together, to see real progress. Is God good? Is He Loving, Peaceful? Does God look like Jesus, who forgave 7×70 times, even to the point of death, and lived a non-violent, non-retributive life? Or… Is God angry? Is He violent and warring? Does God look like the god portrayed in the Old Testament, commanding wars, genocide and destruction? Does He look like a retributive, end-times Jesus who will ‘kill millions upon His return,’ seemingly having a cut-off point’ to His own teaching on forgiveness?” Unable to reconcile the two seeming extremes of God as portrayed in the Scriptures, Richard Rohr and others have simply chosen to construct their own view of God. They prefer to camp and count on the all-loving version. Why? Because they are uncomfortable with what they refer to as the schizophrenic God of the Bible. They say, “He cannot be a warring, genocidal maniac, and then a loving servant Savior who forgives and includes all – especially the most undesirable – and finally a bloodthirsty, horse-riding, sinner-slayer who enacts ‘justice’ in ‘the end.’” So they recreate Him in their own image. But doing so requires that they view the Sciptures no longer as God's revelation of Himself to man, but as man's attempt to reveal their marred and somewhat immature understanding of God. The Bible becomes nothing more than a collection of human stories revealing mankind's growing and progressively enlightening view of God. And Jesus becomes no longer a Savior from sin, but a seer who helps man see the truly loving side of God.

But the problem with all this is that John and the other apostles tell us, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10 ESV). John is not afraid to talk about sin. And he is most certainly not afraid to testify that mankind needs a Savior from sin. In fact, as far as John was concerned, the greatest expression of God's love for mankind was the selfless, sacrificial, undeserved death of His own Son. The brutal execution of Jesus was God's love on display. Hard to understand? Difficult to comprehend? You bet. Sounds harsh and barbaric doesn't it? It assaults our sensibilities. But just because we can't reasonably rationalize how a loving God could require the brutal death of His own Son in order to pay for sins He didn't even commit, doesn't mean we should totally reconstruct the scenario to better suit our sensibilities. Jesus Himself told us, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 ESV). Death as an expression of love. It is God's holiness, righteousness, and justice that make His love all that more incredible. Paul reminds us, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 ESV). Our sin separated us from God. Our sin required a just and holy God to do the right thing and mete out judgment and the deserved punishment. But God loved. When man couldn't live up to the holy standards of a righteous God, He stepped in and did something about it. He loved us when we were at our worst. But His love didn't overlook our sin. He didn't just dismiss our guilt and ignore our debt. To do so would have required Him to be less than God. No, God remained just, holy, and righteous while loving us at the same time. But to do so, someone had to die. Someone had to pay the penalty. His own Son. The sinless Son of God. And it is that remarkable act of LOVE that should motivate and inspire our love for others. We don't make God more loving by attempting to make Him less judgmental. For God to ignore our sin would not have been loving, anymore than a father to ignore the rebellion of a child. God's love shines greatest when we see man's sin at its darkest. Man is sinful. Sin is rebellion against God. The penalty for sin is death – eternal separation from God. But God loved. He paid the penalty by sending His Son to die – out of love. As an expression of His love. Because He loves. Love is at its most beautiful when juxtaposed against a backdrop of unloveliness and undeservedness. Loving the unlovely isn't just hard. It's impossible. Without the love of God.

Perfect Love.

No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. – 1 John 4:12 ESV 1 John 4:7-21

Twenty seven times in 16 verses, John references “love.” He tells us to “love one another,” that “whoever loves has been born of God,” that “God loves us first,” and that “God is love.” He also speaks of love being “perfected” and “perfect.” Those two words, when associates with love, come across as unachievable and impossible in this lifetime. How in the world are we, as believers with active sin natures, to love perfectly? Can our love really be perfected in our lifetime? Or is it something we have to wait for until Christ returns and we are glorified and made to be like Him?

John gives us the answer to these questions and more. He commands us to love one another. And where did he get that command? From Jesus Himself. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34 ESV). We are to love one another in the same way that Jesus loved us: Selflessly and sacrificially. Jesus reminds us, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 ESV). And this love that Jesus expressed came directly from God the Father. It was God's love lived out through Jesus' life. “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8 NLT). Jesus gave His life as an expression of the love of God. God loved the world through Jesus. He was the conduit of God's love. And God wants us to do the same thing through us. Starting with our brothers and sisters in Christ. He wants His love to be perfected through us. That word in the Greek is teleioō and is means “to carry through completely” or “to bring to an end.” God wants His love to flow through us to one another and not simply end on us. In fact, it was for this very thing that Jesus prayed in the garden on the night of his betrayal. “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me” (John 17:22-23 NLT). Jesus' death has made it possible for God's love to flow through us to one another. The same love God has for His Son has been poured out on us so that we might pour it out on each other, and so prove that we are His disciples. John reminds us, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10 ESV). As a result, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19 ESV). And when we love one another, we make visible the love of God. In fact, we make the transcendent, invisible God tangible and knowable. “ No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12 ESV). Men can't see God, but they can see God's love through us. Paul tells us that Jesus was “the visible image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15 NLT). John, in his gospel, wrote this regarding Jesus: “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known” (John 1:18 NIV). But the most radical expression of God's love was through Jesus' death. John puts it this way: “In this is love…that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10 ESV). Jesus' selfless sacrifice of His own life was a declaration and proof of God's love for man.

But let's take it back to us. Can we love like Jesus loved? Can we love perfectly or completely? I think the answer lies in our understanding of what John meant by “perfect love.” He isn't talking about something we manufacture or create. He is talking about God's love being carried through us to its intended destination: others. God's love was not meant to dead end with us. He loved us so that we might love others. Again, John puts it in very clear terms. “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 4:16 ESV). How do we know how much God loves us? Because of His Son's death in our place. We live in that love, counting on it daily, trusting in it regularly. “By this is love perfected with us” (1 John 4:17 ESV). As we live in His love, it begins to flow out of us. As we remember and rely on His unconditional love for us, we realize that there is no legitimate reason we should not share that same love with others for whom His Son died. We are not having to conjure up love for others. We are simply sharing or passing on the love that God has shown to us through His Son. I love the imagery Paul uses to explain the power that we have available within us. “For God, who said, ‘Let there be light in the darkness,’ has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17 NLT). It isn't our love that is perfect, but His love being made carried through to completion through us. Most often, in spite of us.

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Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?

Here’s how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ—the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person—comes from God and belongs to God. – 1 John 4:2 MSG

There are so many versions of Jesus being offered up today that it's hard to keep track. There is Jesus, the life coach, whose sole purpose was to provide us with a model for self-improvement. Just follow His instructions and you can be just like Him. Then there's Jesus, the moralistic monk, who gave us a host of wise sayings to quote and even to live out if we so choose. This Jesus was kind of a Hebrew Muhatma Gandhi, who spoke against social injustices and promoted peace and love. There's Jesus, the martyr, a radical peasant who tried to bring about a social revolution, but died while trying. His faithful followers picked up where He left off and kept the spirit of His cause alive. There's even Jesus, the Son of God, who whose a man chosen by God to be a living example of what it looks like when men learn to live in harmony with their Creator.

But the problem with all these versions of Jesus is that they are not the real Jesus. They may give us brief glimpses of some aspect of His life or a partial view of His nature, but they leave out the most important, life-altering point of His existence. He is Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God who took on human flesh, in order to pay for the sins of mankind and satisfy the just demands of a holy, just and righteous God. John made this point clear at the very beginning of his letter, stating, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life — the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us” (1 John 1:1-2 ESV). Jesus, the eternal life, had been manifested or made known to John and the other disciples. They had seen, touched, and heard Him. They had spent over three years living with Him. They had seen Him perform miracles, transfigured, walk on water, raise the dead, and suffer a brutal death by crucifixion. But they had also seen Him alive three days after He had been buried in a borrowed tomb that had been surrounded by guards. They had heard Him say that He was going away, but that He would be returning for them some day. And they had clearly heard His parting words as He gave them His great commission to spread the good news regarding Him to all the world. This is the Jesus John preached. This is the Jesus Paul proclaimed and gave his life for. This is the Jesus of Peter, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Titus, Timothy, the Philippian jailer, Lydia, Silas, Barnabas, James, Tabitha, Phillip and millions upon millions of others over the last 2000-plus years.

But we live in a society that has a difficult time accepting the truth about Jesus. So they re-invent Him. They come up with their version of Him that makes Him more palatable and acceptable. The Jesus of John and the disciples is too intolerant and demanding. Their version of the gospel doesn't come across as good news at all. So people reject it or simply revise it to suit their tastes. In his book, The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society, Lesslie Newbigin writes:

The gospel is news of what has happened. The problem of communicating it in a pluralistic society is that it simply disappears into the undifferentiated ocean of information. It represents one opinion among millions of others. It cannot be “the truth,” since in a pluralistic society truth is not one but many. It may be “true for you,” but it cannot be true for everyone. To claim that it is true for everyone is simply arrogance. It is permitted as one opinion among many.

The problem is that John and the disciples present Jesus as the only way. “Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ—the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person—comes from God and belongs to God” (1 John 4:2 MSG). Even Jesus Himself claimed, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6 ESV). He wasn't one way among many. He wasn't just another option. He was the only way. The exclusive, no-other-alternative-available way. It was A. W. Tozer who said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” But I would add, what comes into our mind when we think about Jesus is what will determine our relationship with God. Jesus was and is the Son of God. He is the God-man, 100 percent deity and 100 percent humanity. A mystery that is inexplicable by man, but essential for the salvation of mankind. Jesus lived a sinless life. Yet He was required to die a sinner's death, in order to pay the penalty due for the sin's of mankind. He died in our place. He took on our sin and the punishment we deserved, so that we might receive forgiveness, pardon, and escape from the condemnation of death. But we must believe that He was who He claimed to be. We must accept the gift that He so graciously offers. We must believe in and trust our lives to the Jesus Christ as sent by God, proclaimed by the apostles, taught in the Bible and confirmed by the presence of the Holy Spirit. No other Jesus will do. No other way will suffice. No other version of the truth will work. “And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:4-5 ESV).

Ears to Hear.

We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. – 1 John 4:6 ESV 1 John 4:1-6

This passage is filled with warnings about those who would deceive with false messages regarding Jesus and, ultimately, the Word of God. If they don't confess and believe in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God sent to take on human flesh and become the Savior of the world, their message is to be rejected. But John also puts a lot of the responsibility on those who hear. In other words, the ones who receive the message are just as responsible as those who give it. There is a need for us to listen attentively, warily and wisely. And that is where the Holy Spirit comes in. Jesus Himself once said, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!” (Matthew 11:15 NLT). John records Jesus using this phrase again in the book of Revelation when Jesus spoke to the churches, one of them being the church in Ephesus. “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches” (Revelation 2:7 NLT). In the Greek, there is only one word that John uses and it is the word, akouō. But this word means far more than just to hear. It conveys the idea of hearing and comprehension. It means “to understand, perceive the sense of what is said.” So we are to listen carefully to what we hear being taught, whether it comes from a pulpit or podcast, the TV, a book, a magazine, or the lips of a close friend.

As John is prone to do, he has once again set up a striking contrast between one thing and another. He provides us with no grey area. For him, it is a matter of truth or falsehood, black or white, fact or fiction. The messenger is either from God or from this world. The listeners are either children of God or children of the devil (1 John 3:10). The message is either the Spirit of truth or the spirit of error. There's the Word of God and everything else. The problem is that we live in an environment where everything is becoming increasingly grey and indistinct. It is becoming more and more difficult to know what is truth. Everything is relative. Tolerance is the law of the land. Anything goes. Everything is to be accepted. And if we are not careful, even as believers we can find ourselves buying into the lies. We are being bombarded with messages that sound so compelling. And many of them are coming from those who claim to be speaking on behalf of God. But anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. We must filter out the rhetoric and rationalizations and listen to what the more sinister, hidden agenda behind the message might be. We must probe behind the surface of what is being said and discover the heart of what is being taught. We must ask whether what is being conveyed is in keeping with God's Word. We must question whether their message is from God or from men. It may be appealing, well-worded, highly convincing, logical, and rational, but if it contradicts the Word of God, it is to be rejected. The problem is that much of what is being taught today doesn't come across as heresy. It comes couched in terms that speak of God's love, compassion, grace and mercy. It encourages us to be accepting, tolerant, and forgiving. It paints God as a cosmic force who exists to help men and women become all that they can be. He is portrayed as a life couch who wants to help each and every individual reach their full potential. He wants to give them heaven on earth, but based on their terms, not His. He is imagined as a God who wants everyone healthy, wealthy, happy, whole, and free to live their life according to their own standards. Sin gets redefined or eliminated altogether. Salvation becomes nothing more than a form of self-actualization. Holiness gets replaced with happiness. Jesus gets reduced to little more than a role model worth emulating, but not a Savior worth accepting.

What is amazing is the ease with which many children of God accept the messages of this world. Paul knew this day was coming and he warned his young protege, Timothy, about it. “For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4 NLT). I believe Paul was referring to those who claim to be believers in Jesus Christ. They would go from listening to sound and wholesome teaching to chasing after myths. They would be driven by their desires and seek out those who would tell them what they wanted to hear. And there will never be a shortage of those willing to tell us what we want to hear. They will gladly redefine sin, re-imagine God, reinvent the gospel, reduce the role of Jesus, remove the threat of hell, reject guilt, and revise the teachings of the Bible to fit our more modern, 21st-Century mindset. Their message is appealing. They use spiritual language. They quote Scripture. They talk of God. They speak of Jesus. They promise happiness and wholeness. They write best-selling books. They fill large auditoriums. They appear on national TV. They attract large crowds. And they teach a spirit of error. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand! “They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them” (1 John 4:5 ESV). Jude gives us an even more dire description of these false teachers. “…they are like dangerous reefs that can shipwreck you. They are like shameless shepherds who care only for themselves. They are like clouds blowing over the land without giving any rain. They are like trees in autumn that are doubly dead, for they bear no fruit and have been pulled up by the roots. They are like wild waves of the sea, churning up the foam of their shameful deeds. They are like wandering stars, doomed forever to blackest darkness” (Jude 1:12-13 NLT). Appearances can be deceiving. So can words. Listen carefully and discerningly.

True Confession.

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,  and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. – 1 John 4:2-3 ESV

1 John 4:1-6

“I believe in Jesus!” How many times have you heard someone make that statement? Does saying those four simple words make someone a “believer” in Jesus? The real question we need to ask someone who makes that claim is, “What do you believe about Jesus?” Belief in Jesus can run the gamut from the mere acknowledgement that He was an actual historical figure to the assurance that He was the Son of God sent to be the Savior of the world. And those are two extremely different views. So what someone believes about Jesus is critical to understanding what they mean when they say they believe in Jesus. The same is true of those who claim to teach truth regarding Jesus. Just because they use His name does not mean they believe He was God in human flesh, sent to pay the penalty for the sins of man. In fact, there are many today who are reinventing and redefining Jesus, creating a hybrid, more user-friendly version that better suits their own agenda.

Their Jesus is not the one we read about in the Scriptures. He is not the one the apostles wrote about and spent their lives teaching about. The same thing was true in John's day. Which is why he warned his readers to test the spirits. Not everybody who used the name of Jesus was speaking on behalf of Jesus, or teaching the truth regarding Jesus. Their message may have sounded plausible and even pleasing, but if they were teaching a different version of Jesus than what the apostles taught, they were to be avoided at all costs. John's criteria was simple. They had to confess “that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh” (1 John 4:2 ESV). Belief in the incarnation of Jesus was the foundational requirement for authenticity as far as John was concerned. If someone refused to believe that Jesus was the Son of God, sent to earth in human form, in order to live a sinless life and die a sinner's death on behalf of man, then whatever else they taught about Him would be false. Denial of Jesus' diety and humanity would be the equivalent of worshiping a false god. God's Word taught that Jesus was deity, the second person of the trinity, who left heaven, came to earth “in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin's control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins” (Romans 8:3 NLT). If anyone rejects that version of the truth about Jesus, they are not worshiping the God of the Bible. They are not believing in what God said regarding Jesus. “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy. Listen to him” (Matthew 17:5 NLT). They are not believing what Jesus said about Himself. “For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:33 ESV). He went on to say, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35 ESV). And Jesus completed His message concerning Himself with the words, “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:40 ESV). Jesus came to live, to die, to rise again from the dead, and to provide sinful men with a means by which they might be made right with God.

If Jesus was NOT God in human flesh, then He would have been unable to live sinlessly. If He did not live sinlessly, then His death on the cross would have failed to propitiate or satisfy the just demands of a holy and righteous God. A sinful sacrifice would not have sufficed. If Jesus had been only a man, He would have had a sin nature just as the rest of us. He would have been insufficient and unsatisfactory as a sacrifice. But Paul reminds us, “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT). Paul wrote to the believers in Rome, “God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God” (Romans 4:24-25 NLT). To believe in Jesus is to confess that He was the Son of God. It is to confess that He was God in human flesh, who lived a sinless life, died on the cross as payment for the sins of all mankind, who rose again and sits at the right hand of the Father, and is one day coming back. Any other version of Jesus is wrong. It is dangerous, deceptive and deadly. What we need to discern is not simply that others believe in Jesus, but what do they believe about Jesus. Paul put it simply and succinctly when he wrote, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9 NLT).

Listen Carefully.

They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. – 1 John 4:5-6 ESV 1 John 4:1-6

John made a fairly bold claim when he wrote, “We are from God.” He was telling his readers that he could be trusted because what he wrote, he had received directly from God. He was making it up. It wasn't his opinion or his fading recollections of how things had happened. John had received his message directly from the Spirit of God, just as Jesus had promised. “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative--that is, the Holy Spirit--he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you” (John 14:26 NLT). John had special help and assistance. So did Paul and the other writers of the Old and New Testaments. Paul made a similar claim when he wrote the church in Corinth, “When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truths” (1 Corinthians 2:13 NLT). Paul and John both believed that what they were writing, teaching, and proclaiming was the very Word of God. Paul reminded Timothy, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV). And Paul was not just referring to the Old Testament. The authors of what would become the New Testament believed what they were writing was from God. Peter said this of Paul, “just as also our dear brother Paul wrote to you, according to the wisdom given to him, speaking of these things in all his letters. Some things in these letters are hard to understand, things the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they also do to the rest of the scriptures” (2 Peter 1:15-16 NET). These men were penning the words of God. They were prophets acting on behalf of God. Listen to what Peter claimed:

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son,ⁱ with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. – 2 Peter 1:16-21 ESV

Peter was confident that what he wrote was from God, given to him by the Holy Spirit. So what they taught concerning Jesus was God's words, not their own. That is why they were so adamant that their readers, those who believed in Jesus, not be deceived by any other messengers who might teach a different Jesus, a different gospel, or a different Spirit. Paul and the other New Testament authors wrote under the divine influence of the Spirit of God. They were not just motivational speakers coming up with their own version of the truth or their own take on spiritual life. Paul wrote, “And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:4 NLT). He claimed, “When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truths” (1 Corinthians 2:!4 NLT). The things of God are impossible for the non-spiritual to discern or understand. “But people who aren't spiritual can't receive these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can't understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means” (1 Corinthians 2:14 NLT). But they can understand the things of the world. The non-spiritual, those who do not know Christ, are susceptible and receptive to falsehood, because they don't know any better. But believers have the Holy Spirit, who helps us discern the difference between truth and fiction, the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. But we must learn to listen carefully to what He is saying. We must spend time in the Word of God in order that the Spirit of God can educate us and equip us for life in this sometimes very confusing world. We have the truth, as revealed in the Word of God. We have the ability to understand God's Word because we have God's Spirit. And we have the promise that “the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world” (1 John 4:4 NLT). 

Holy Help.

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. – 1 John 4:4 ESV 1 John 4:1-6

Not everyone who claims to speak or write on behalf of God has been sent by God. But how are we to know the difference? When you walk into a Christian bookstore and see the shelves lined with titles that all claim to be written from a Christian perspective and worthy of not only your time, but your money, can you trust them to be trustworthy? John gives us the litmus test: Find out what they say about Jesus. In other words, check their message. Do they confess Jesus as the Son of God and the Savior of the world? That's the foundational test. But beyond that, is their message consistent with Scripture? To discover that, you will have to know the Scriptures. And you will have to be discerning, because false prophets do not usually deny Jesus. They simply do not confess Jesus. The danger is much more subtle. They may teach a slightly different Jesus. They may portray a redefined version of Jesus. But is their message consistent with the Scriptures? Is the Jesus they present the same one the apostles confessed? Has their Jesus been “modernized” to bring Him up to speed with current events and our culture’s changing views? Is the version  of Jesus they paint of a more tolerant, loving, totally accepting, non-condemning Jesus? Or is He the Jesus that loved sinners and said to the woman caught in the act of adultery, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more” (John 8:11 ESV). The problem today with many who claim to be speaking on behalf of God is that they want their Jesus to be accepting of both the sinner and the sin. They want a version of Jesus that is tolerant and totally accepting. And He is. But they forget that “he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5 ESV). “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8 ESV). When we start redefining Jesus and His message, we are on shaky ground. And when we start accepting the teachings of those who would portray a slightly different Jesus than the one the Scriptures reveal, we are venturing into dangerous territory. So what are we to do?

John would have us remember that we have help. Jesus has left us a helper, the Holy Spirit, who lives within us and lives to assist us and empower us as we make our way through this life. John tells us, “the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world” (1 John 4:4 NLT). Because we have the Spirit's help, we can overcome all the false teachers and confusing doctrine that is being spewed out all around us. The Greek word John uses that is translated “overcome” is nikaō, and it can mean “to carry off the victory.” When referring to Christians, it typically means that they are those who ”hold fast their faith even unto death against the power of their foes.” And the Spirit is the one who helps us do just that. We have to rely on Him to help us spot falsehood. He alone can help us discern fact from fiction. But here is the point many of us miss. He will not do it apart from the Word of God. Dr. Thomas Constable puts it this way: “We overcome Satan, his agents, and his influence as we resist his temptations to doubt, deny, disregard, and disobey the Word of God.” But we overcome only with the help of the Spirit. But it is so important for us to remember that He will use the Word of God as the means by which we evaluate and test what is being taught. It is far more easy for us to doubt, deny, disregard and disobey the Word of God when we don't know the Word of God. It is far more likely that we will give into false teaching when we don't know what the true teaching of Scripture is. The Holy Spirit helps us understand Scripture. But if we spend no time in the Word, we make it impossible for the Spirit to teach us, convict us, equip us or comfort us through the Word. Paul reminded Timothy, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right” (2 Timothy 3:16 NLT). Jesus promised us, “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative--that is, the Holy Spirit--he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you” (John  14:26 NLT). So we have everything we need to withstand the assault of the enemy that comes in the form of false teaching, deceptive doctrine, and tempting half-truths. We have holy help, in the form of God's Spirit and God's Word. So we can overcome.