Believe, Receive, & Know; First John

May the mumbling commence!

Christ is risen!  (He has risen indeed!)  I bid you welcome to the day that Christians set apart as holy to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus – what is commonly known as Easter.  Happy Easter!

Do you believe in Jesus as the Christ – the Anointed One of God?  Christ lived a perfect life.  Christ taught us the Way to please God with total obedience.  Christ died a shameful death upon the cross for the forgiveness of the sins of the whole world.  Christ rose from the grave.  Christ lives today at the right hand of God.  Christ will come again.

Do you believe these things?  Do you accept the testimony of God?  Read from First John chapter five (NJB):

If we accept the testimony of human witnesses, God's testimony is greater, for this is God's testimony which he gave about his Son.  Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him, and whoever does not believe is making God a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. 

This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.  Whoever has the Son has life, and whoever has not the Son of God has not life. 

I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. (Verses 9-13)

Believe in Jesus as the Son of God, and you have the testimony of God written within you… on your very heart and soul.  And that testimony from God is that the Lord has given us eternal life.  This eternal life is in Jesus.  Embrace Jesus into your life, and you have eternal life… life that is the best both quantitatively and qualitatively.

And in this passage from First John, the author gives his final reason for writing.  He writes to let those who believe in Jesus know that they have eternal life. 

Believe.  Show your belief by actively receiving.  It’s that simple.  You are saved.  So am I.

Rejoice!

Christ is risen!  (He has risen indeed!)

Know it to the depths of your heart and soul.  Receive the promise of eternal life.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

Sin is... Separation & Apathy; First John

May the mumbling commence!

What is sin?  According to the author of First John, sin is lawlessness, denial, hatred, and disordered desires.  Now the definition of sin is becoming more various and subtle – harder to get a hold of.  Hmm…  That is the nature of sin, isn’t it?

So we can be safe if we love and avoid contamination from the lusts and disordered desires of this world, right?  Well, there are a couple other dimensions of sin that the author of John brings up.  The first has to do with separation.  Read from First John chapter two:

Children, this is the final hour; you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and now many Antichrists have already come; from this we know that it is the final hour.  They have gone from among us, but they never really belonged to us; if they had belonged to us, they would have stayed with us. But this was to prove that not one of them belonged to us. (Verses 18-19)

Sin separates.  Sin divides.  Sin isolates.  These truths are equally true for our relationship with God and our relationships with our brothers and sisters.  Think of all the many and various things that have caused churches to split – that have caused the body of Christ to be fractured.  How can that not be sin?!?

And Satan rejoices in separation.  Separation causes lone rangers, who are easier to conquer.  In this world of ours, Christians needs to be in good relationship with one another to attempt to live in the Way of Jesus.

Let’s review our list.  Sin is lawlessness, denial, hatred, disordered desires, and separation.  So, if we love one another and stick together, we will be safe, right?  No, it is not even that easy.  The author of First John also includes apathy in his definition of sin.  Read from First John chapter three:

If anyone is well-off in worldly possessions and sees his brother in need but closes his heart to him, how can the love of God be remaining in him?  Children, our love must be not just words or mere talk, but something active and genuine. (Verses 17-18)

The true love from God does not end in a thought or concept.  True love does not give into apparent hopelessness.  True love never despairs.  True love displays itself in actions, in deeds.

Sin is lawlessness, denial, hatred, disordered desires, separation, and apathy.  There it is – sin as the author of First John defines it.  Let us live with this knowledge as we complete Holy Saturday, thinking of the death and burial of our Lord Jesus.  Let us think about how we participated in his death.  

And let us anticipate the joy of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus tomorrow.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

Sin is... Disordered Desires; First John

May the mumbling commence!

What is sin?  According to First John, we have found that sin is lawlessness, denial, and hatred.  We have found that hatred is opposed to love…  So if we love, then we will be alright, right?

Not so fast!  When we allow the world around us to define love, then we can get into trouble.  Read from First John chapter two (NJB):

Do not love the world or what is in the world. If anyone does love the world, the love of the Father finds no place in him, because everything there is in the world – disordered bodily desires, disordered desires of the eyes, pride in possession – is not from the Father but is from the world.  And the world, with all its disordered desires, is passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains forever. (Verses 15-17)

Disordered desires can contaminate our concept of love.  Other translations mark these words as lust.  This contamination transforms the concept of love from selfless to selfish.  And that contamination of the truth leads us to pride in who we are, what we do, and what (and who) we have.

These disordered desires and lusts are like a mirage to those hungry for God presence in their lives.  It cannot last.  In fact, it cannot stand up against close scrutiny.  We can deny this truth, but denial is a part of the definition of sin.

When it comes right down to it, these disordered desires and lusts have the wrong spirit.  We cannot trust every spirit.  Read from First John chapter four (NJB):

My dear friends, not every spirit is to be trusted, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets are at large in the world.  This is the proof of the spirit of God: any spirit which acknowledges Jesus Christ, come in human nature, is from God, and no spirit which fails to acknowledge Jesus is from God; it is the spirit of Antichrist, whose coming you have heard of; he is already at large in the world. (Verses 1-3)

There it is – the litmus test of a loving spirit.  Our sense of love must be tested by the love that Jesus showed us while he was in the flesh.  And that love was selfless not selfish.  That love put God first.

To put anything or anyone else above our relationship with God is to create a false god, an idol.  It is an important distinction for the author of First John.  Read the last thought of the entire letter:

Children, be on your guard against false gods. (5:20c)

The author left his audience with the last word of be on your guard against false gods.  Let us take that thought to heart when we think about sin.

What is sin?  According to the author of First John, sin is lawlessness, denial, hatred, and disordered desires.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

Sin is... Hatred; First John

May the mumbling commence!

We continue our inquiry about sin in First John.  We have learned so far that sin is lawlessness and denial/lying.  That is not all that First John says about sin.  Sin is also about hatred.  Read a couple of passages from First John that deal with this truth about sin (again from the NJB):

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

Hate is equated with darkness, a blinding darkness.  Even a good spiritual GPS will be confounded by the deep darkness caused by hate.  By why is hatred so bad?  Hatred is bad because of what it leads to.  Read from chapter three:

Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. 

Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.  We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 

Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. (3:12-15)

Hatred leads to evil actions.  Hatred leads to murder.  In fact, hating someone is equal to murdering them in the eyes of God.

Hate is put in opposition to love.  In many ways the letter of First John is a book of opposites – love and hate… belief and denial… obedience and lawlessness.

Many of the high school students probably wonder why I am so adamant about not hear the word hate of the school bus that I drive.  It is because of the depth of evil in that word.  Hate is almost used flippantly as love in our society.

We do not fully realize the power of those two words – hate and love.

What is sin, according to the author of First John? Sin is lawlessness, denial, and hatred.  Those things seem obvious and easy to pick out.  But wait… there’s more.

And that’s for another day.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

Sin is... Denial, Lying; First John

May the mumbling commence!

Yesterday, we underscored that sin is lawlessness.  And lawlessness is the opposite of obedience to the law of God.  The lawlessness of sin separates us from God.  We cannot abide in God when we sin.

So, if we ignore sin, then it will go away, right?  Yeah, let’s hide the sin so no one else can see it.  Then, let’s stick our heads in the sand.  Let’s live in denial.  Then we can embrace and abide in our God, right?

Not so fast!  Read from First John chapter one (from the New Jerusalem Bible):

This is what we have heard from him and are declaring to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.  If we say that we share in God's life while we are living in darkness, we are lying, because we are not living the truth.  But if we live in light, as he is in light, we have a share in another's life, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 

If we say, 'We have no sin,' we are deceiving ourselves, and truth has no place in us; if we acknowledge our sins, he is trustworthy and upright, so that he will forgive our sins and will cleanse us from all evil.  If we say, 'We have never sinned,' we make him a liar, and his word has no place in us. (Verses 5-10)

Oops!  Denial is not the way.  Denial is lying, and lying is another dimension of sin.

Sin is lawlessness.  Sin is lying…

And we can fool some of the people all the time.  We can fool all of the people some of the time.  But, we will never fool all of the people all of the time.  And we can fool ourselves much better than we would like to admit.

But remember this: You will never fool God.  God is light.  In Him, there is no darkness at all.  And God’s light will illuminate our sin even in the midst of the darkest night, thousands of miles underground or undersea.

So, do NOT deny.  Do NOT lie.  Admit where you have sinned.  Admit where we have sinned.

To admit our sinfulness is to take the first step in the healing process so that God will forgive our sins.  To admit to sin is to painfully acknowledge the wisdom of God.

To deny our sinfulness is to call God a liar.  And God’s Word will find no place to live in our lives.  There will be a perceived famine of God’s presence in our lives.

What is sin?  Sin is lawlessness and lying – lying to others, to ourselves, and to God.  Lying or denial is a futile attempt.

Let us rest in the light of God.  Let us rest in the trustworthiness and uprightness of our Lord.  There is no safer place to be.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

Sin is... Lawlessness; First John

May the mumbling commence!

We have spent a number of days working on the concept of the perfect love of God.  Now, I want to spend at least a couple of days exploring the opposite of obedience.  What does it mean to sin?  The letter of First John gives us some clues on that.  Read from chapter three (New American Standard Version):

Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.  And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.  No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. (Verses 4-6)

Love of God is shown in obedience to His commands.  Sin is the opposite.  Sin is lawlessness – living as if there is no law.

Sin has no place in Jesus.  Look at how Jesus lived his life.  That is the opposite of sin.

If we abide in Jesus, we will find it difficult to sin.  In fact, the author of First John tells us that those who abide in Jesus do not sin.  That is an extremely high bar.

How do we live with that statement as fallen human beings who are also Christians?  Sometimes we wander from abiding in Jesus.  We need each other for accountability.  We need to confess our sins so that they can be removed from our lives.

Yes, we are on a journey of being sinless like our Savior and Lord, but we have never arrived at that state – not in this world at least.  We need each other on this journey of faith.  That is why we need to stick together through thick and thin.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

Love Holds All Together; First John

May the mumbling commence!

We have spent several days exploring the depths of the meaning of the true love that come from God.  There is at least one more pertinent passage on this caliber of love from First John.  It is found at the beginning of the fifth chapter.  Read it from the Bible in Basic English translation (BBE):

Everyone who has faith that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God: and everyone who has love for the Father has love for his child.  In this way, we are certain that we have love for the children of God, when we have love for God and keep his laws.  For loving God is keeping his laws: and his laws are not hard. (Verses 1-3)

What a dense trio of verses!  They are rich in meaning and give shape to the important commands of God.  List them off:

1.     Have faith/belief that Jesus is the Christ… and be a child of God.

2.     Love God… by keeping His laws.

3.     Love the children of God.

There they are – the great threesome.  Let’s compare them to the last list that we made:

1)    Believe in Jesus.

2)    Abide…

A) In Jesus.

B)    In God.

C)    In the Holy Spirit.

D)    In the Word of God.

3)    Stick together.

4)    Love one another.

5)    Confess Jesus Christ.

6)    Allow nothing to contradict the anointing you have received through God.

Now, how do they match up?  Number One from today matches up with One and Two from our last list – the previous two give more detail to what belief in Jesus as Christ means.  Numbers Two and Three from today match up with numbers Three through Six from our last list.  There is some overlap between today’s number Two and Three because to love God’s children is to obey a law of God.

Yes, I believe strongly that belief comes first… belief in Jesus as God’s greatest Word, God’s greatest expression of love.  Then out of belief comes love.  Out of love comes obedience.

Yes, belief comes first, but love is central.  Love holds it all together.  Without love of this caliber… we are nothing.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

Know, Believe, Abide; First John

May the mumbling commence!

Know.  Believe.  Abide.  Do these things in the loving embrace of God.  Know God’s love.  Believe God’s love.  Abide in God’s love.

We have been plumbing the depths and measuring the breadths of God’s love.  It is an endless task.  We have only looked closely at one short epistle of the New Testament.

So, we have no choice than to intellectually know God’s love.  But that cerebral knowing must blossom further into believing in God’s love to the deepest crannies of our soul.  And that belief must find a place to abide in our hearts.

Once this process has been begun, we weep with joy at the audacity of God’s love and mercy.  God loves me.  God loves you.  I want to cry out to all creation that God loves her.

And the best way to cry out such a message of Good News is to… love one another.  There it is again.  There is no getting around it.  Love one another.  Read from First John chapter four (from the English Standard Version):

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.  By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 

We love because he first loved us.  If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 

And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (4:16-21)

Understanding sets in.  Belief sets in.  Then we abide with God, and the Lord abides with us.

And fear melts away as a deception of Satan.  Fear is often based upon ignorance.  When we learn about the love of God to the depths of our souls and hearts, ignorance is banished. 

So, let go of fear.  We don’t need it anymore.  God loves us and wants the best for us.  Where is fear in that?

Even when the world gives you good reason to fear, rest in the knowledge of God’s love.  Abide in God’s love.  Fear need rule us no more.

So, love one another.  If we cannot love the people who we can see, how can we love our God, whom we cannot see?  See people for what they are – beautiful creatures created in the image of God.  Love one another – sacrificially.

That kind of love will set us apart as children of God.  People will have no choice but to see God manifest in our healthy relationships with one another.  It is so different than the hate and competition of the world, where only the strong survive.

We know that we are weak.  We know also the strength of God’s love, and we abide in it.  That is the belief that saves us.  Believe in the name of Jesus, God’s Son.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

GOD IS LOVE; First John

May the mumbling commence!

Love comes down from heaven.  That is truth.  But, where specifically does love come from in heaven?  Is it the angels or other heavenly beings?  Is it the great cloud of witnesses of our ancestors who have passed before us?

We need to dig deeper to find the specific source of love.  Read from First John chapter four (from the Darby Bible):

Beloved, let us love one another; because love is of God, and every one that loves has been begotten of God, and knows God.  He that loves not has not known God; for God is love. 

Herein as to us has been manifested the love of God, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son a propitiation for our sins. 

Beloved, if God has so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has seen God at any time: if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us. (Verses 7-12)

Love one another.  It is a command that brackets this passage from First John chapter four.  It is essential to the Christian life – love one another.

Where do we go for love?  Love is of God.  God is love.  It cannot be plainer.

Love is of God.  God is love.  God manifested His love for us by the gift of His Son Jesus.  God’s love is sacrificial so that we might live.  Jesus died and rose again so that we might live through him.  Through Jesus, our sins our forgiven…

What does propitiation mean anyways?  That’s a lot of syllables!  Propitiation means to win somebody’s favor.  Jesus won God’s favor for us through his sacrifice and suffering and resurrection.

The wrathful God of the old covenant was being redefined in a new covenant.  With Jesus, God is fully appeased and we are reconciled with God.  Praise and glory to God!

Love is of God.  God is love.  But no one has ever seen God.

That is why we are told repeatedly to love one another.  When we love one another, the world will recognize that we follow Jesus.  When we love one another, we illustrate the love of God to the world – we put flesh on the love.

Then the world will begin to see the perfect love of God through us.

God is love.  Love is of God.  God loves us.  Let us love one another and show the world an illustration of the God of love.

Celebrate this perfect love of God as we approach the valley of Holy Week that ends in the crescendo of Resurrection Sunday.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

To Love is to Live; First John

May the mumbling commence!

To love is to live.  It is really that simple.  Read from First John chapter three (NIV):

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. (Verse 14)

To love is to live.  To refuse to love is to die.  What would your choice be?

Spring is the season for love… or is it?  What is love exactly?  From where does it come?  Read a little later in First John chapter three (NIV):

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.  If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. (Verses 16-18)

Love comes down from heaven.  Love’s greatest expression is found in the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Love is sacrificial. 

And love is an action verb.  Love starts in the depths of our soul, but it cannot be complete without full expression – with action based in truth.  Love is not just a temporary flutter in our hearts and a spring in our steps.

Love is sharing sacrificially with people in need.  That is what love is.  Even the simplest minds among us can understand that – even I understand it.

Oh, Holy Spirit, give us the love and truth that comes down from heaven so that we may live the love and truth wherever we find ourselves.  Help us to acknowledge that the basics of love are learned quickly, but to know the depths of love is a never-ending process of trial and error and discovery and surprise.

Give thanks to God by putting the love He has showered upon us into practice.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

The Paternity Test; First John

May the mumbling commence!

Yesterday, we thought about adoption into God’s family.  We are God’s children…

But what happens when questions arise?  What is the paternity test?  Read a couple of verses from First John chapter three (the NIV translation):

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

This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. (Verses 10-11)

So, here is the paternity test:  Does the person do right..?  Then she or he is a child of God.  Does the person love other people..?  Then he or she is a child of God.

Think about this:  To love someone is to do right by them.  Let that thought sink in.  How can you love someone if you seek to wrong them?  My dear friends, it cannot be!

Though love does not always precede doing right, doing right is unsustainable without love.  The effort that it takes to do right will quickly wind down without the heart condition of love.  Love makes a pull to the righteous as the world goes ‘round. 

Unfortunately, we have all seen graphic evidence that the world will continue to spin even when heinous acts have marred us and our society.  So let’s mix in small acts of random kindness – random rightness.  Then let’s add love – the only thing that can make love and rightness sustainable in our human-stained condition.

Alas!  In this world filled with hatred and suspicion and ignorance, where will we find love?  The author of First John tells us in a number of places.  That will be the focus of tomorrow’s mumblings.

Whose child are you?  Are you the child of the devil or are you a child of God?  What signs and proofs can you offer to support your claim..?

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

Love is Adoption; First John

May the mumbling commence!

What observations can we make about love from First John?  Love is indeed an important concept.  Love is about choice not based upon result.  Read again from the beginning of First John chapter three, where love is first mentioned in a positive way:

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. (Verses 1-3)

Love starts with God.  Love is adoption without reservation.  God knows us as we are yet chooses to adopt us as children.  Only God know what we will become.  It is hidden from our eyes.

But all that is hidden will eventually be made known.  When Christ comes again, we will know our true natures because we will see Jesus as he really is.  No more weak constructions of our own – we will know Jesus face to face.

Such an awesome love that God has for us!  The Lord sees not where we are but sees where we can be.  And God invites us down the path He constructed for us.  God has made His choice.  Now, we must make our choice.  Will we choose to take the path God has created before us?

Love is adoption without reservation and without any guaranteed success.  Rejection is an ever present specter when one chooses to love.  Will we make that choice to return the love of the Father?

If we do make that choice, the world will see the beauty of mature godly love!

May it be so!

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

Belief, Love, Obedience; First John

May the mumbling commence!

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is One.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength…  And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

There we have the greatest commandment as defined by Jesus, God’s Word.  Love God with all you have and love your neighbor/brother/sister as yourself.  It is a message that God has consistently been saying from the very beginning (1 John 3:11). 

I had postulated that the ancient command was to obey and the new command to love…  Perhaps, I got them turned around.  Love comes first; then, obedience follows.  But, where does love come from?  Read a succinct flow chart of this progression from love to obedience.  Read from First John chapter three (NIV):

And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.  Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. (Verses 23-24)

Can you see the simple flow chart? 

1)    Believe in Jesus, God’s Son.

2)    Love one another.

3)    Obey God’s commands.

In this way, we live in God; and God lives in us.  In this way, we receive the anointing of the Spirit of God.  And the Holy Spirit helps us to do these very things.

So let’s review the commands of God found in First John: 

1)    Believe in Jesus.

2)    Abide…

A)     In Jesus.

B)    In God.

C)    In the Holy Spirit.

D)    In the Word of God.

3)    Stick together.

4)    Love one another.

5)    Confess Jesus Christ.

6)    Allow nothing to contradict the anointing you have received through God.

That’s a nice list.  But, where is our love of God?  I believe that in doing these commands of God we show our love for God.

We should look further into love, for it is an important concept if we are to understand God.  But that searching is for another series of mumblings…

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out