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.

Spiritual White Noise.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. – 1 John 4:1 ESV 1 John 4:1-6

What's right and what's wrong? Who's telling the truth and who's lying? How do I know who to trust? There are so many people saying so many different things, how can I tell who I should listen to? Let's face it, we live in an age of confusion. There are so many voices shouting so many different messages and sharing so many different opinions, that it is hard to filter out the fact from the fiction, the heresy from the hearsay. Even the shelves in Christian bookstores are filled with an ever-growing selection of so-called religious titles on everything from finance to family devotionals, and losing weight to increasing your joy. Even the TV is filled with Christian broadcasters doling out an eclectic and ecclesiasticly confusing wave of “spiritual” messages for the masses. It can all become a bit overwhelming. And the same thing was true in John's day. Which is a big part of the reason he wrote his letter in the first place. He was addressing a group of believers in the local church in Ephesus who had recently experienced a divorce of sorts. A contingent of their brothers and sisters had left their fellowship over a disagreement over doctrine. There had been a not-so-amicable parting of the ways. One group had begun espousing a different message and teaching a variant form of truth. But there was enough common language and similarities to make it confusing for those who had been left behind. They were probably wondering, “What if they’re right and we’re wrong?” Some of what their former friends had been saying probably sounded reasonable and even attractive to them. They were most likely  asking themselves, “How can we be so sure of ourselves?”

The danger they faced was allowing their confusion to turn to compromise. Their lack of confidence in what they believed could be easily taken advantage of by anyone with a slightly different take on the facts. And we run the same danger today. There is no shortage of individuals espousing their opinions about all things spiritual. Which is why we have to be careful. John indicated that there is “the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:6 ESV) and we have to be able to know the difference. So he provided us with a very simple test. “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). This is the foundational requirement for determining truth. What do they believe about Jesus? Notice it is not whether they believe in Jesus, but what do they believe about Jesus. Do they believe He is the Son of God? Do they believe He was God in human flesh? Do they believe He was the Christ, the Messiah, sent from God to pay for the sins of mankind? There are many who use the name of Jesus and even write books about Jesus, but who refuse His deity and deny His role as Savior. Sometimes their messages are subtle and difficult to discern. They use familiar phrases and similar terminology to ours. They speak of Jesus in glowing terms and talk of the spiritual life in terms that cause us to let down our guard. But John called them false prophets. They claim to speak for God, but what they are saying is not from God. Which is why he said, “do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1 ESV). Test them. Put what they are saying up against the Word of God. Start with what they say about Jesus. Make sure they are confessing the same Jesus the apostles taught, the Holy Spirit confirms and the Bible reveals. Not every Christian book is Christ-centered. Not every Christian teacher is speaking on behalf of God. John warns us, “They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them” ( 1John 4:5 ESV). Which is why their books may sell in record numbers. It explains why many of these authors and speaks are so popular. Paul warned Timothy that this was going to happen. “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” (2 Timothy 4:3 NLT). Everybody wants to have their best life now, so if you write a book that tells you exactly how to have it, you'll have a best-seller on your hands. Everybody wants to be better, to improve their lives, so if you can tell them how God exists to make that happen, you'll be on the lecture circuit before you can say, “Become a better you!” But we need to test the spirits. We need to determine what they believe about Jesus. The spirit of the antichrist is all around us. And it is not always blatantly anti-Christ. It appears in subtle, beguiling forms as half-truths and slight variations on what God has said. Like the serpent in the garden, the enemy continues to say, “Surely God has not said.” Then he gives us his version of the truth. Close, but deadly wrong. But John reminds us, “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). We are the children of God. We have the Spirit of God. We must constantly return to the truth of God as revealed in the Word of God. We must not allow ourselves to be misled, misinformed or misdirected as we make our way through this life. Christ must remain our focus.

That’s the Spirit!

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

That’s the Spirit. Or is it? Eight times in these six verses, John uses the Greek word, pneuma. And like a lot of Greek words, this one has a variety of meanings. It can refer to a breeze or movement of air; the soul of a man; the source of any power, affection, emotion, or desire; or it can be used when talking about the Spirit of God. The definition is established by the immediate context, including the words around it. But not only do we need to determine which pneuma John is referring to, he wants us to know how to figure out the difference between the Spirit of God and the spirit of the antichrist.

Not only does John repeatedly use the word, pneuma, he keeps bringing up the topic of confession. He does so in a variety of way, referring to prophets, hearing, speaking, confessing, and listening. In other words, John puts a high priority in these verses on communication. Prophets, by definition, were to speak on behalf of God. They were to be His mouthpieces, declaring the words of God to the people of God. When they spoke, the did so on His behalf. But John also puts a lot of responsibility on those who hear. They weren't just supposed to listen, but they were to be discerning. Why? Because not every pneuma or spirit is from God. Not every influence or power that appears to be spiritual is from God. The Old Testament had some clear indicators as to whether a prophet was speaking truth or not. You couldn't just go by what he said or did. You had to dig deeper and look at the root of his message. God gave the people of Israel the following standard:

“Suppose there are prophets among you or those who dream dreams about the future, and they promise you signs or miracles, and the predicted signs or miracles occur. If they then say, ‘Come, let us worship other gods’—gods you have not known before— do not listen to them. The Lord your God is testing you to see if you truly love him with all your heart and soul. Serve only the Lord your God and fear him alone. Obey his commands, listen to his voice, and cling to him. The false prophets or visionaries who try to lead you astray must be put to death, for they encourage rebellion against the Lord your God, who redeemed you from slavery and brought you out of the land of Egypt. Since they try to lead you astray from the way the Lord your God commanded you to live, you must put them to death. In this way you will purge the evil from among you.” – Deuteronomy 13:1-5 NLT

If they dreamed dreams and talked about signs and wonders, but encouraged the people of God to worship false gods, they were false prophets. And the penalty for their deception was death. Pretty serious stuff. In the book of 1 John, the apostle gives a similar warning to test the spirits or spokesmen declaring to be representing God. And the criteria for the test was simple: What do they say about Jesus? Do they confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? Was He the Son of God? Was He the Savior of the world? “Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist” (1 John 4:3 ESV). It is the lie of Satan. People can claim to have the truth, know the truth, and speak the truth. They can claim to speak for God. But if they do not confess Jesus as the Son of God, sent by God to pay for the sins of man, they are not of God. They are from the world, John says. Not only that, they speak from the world, and the rest of the world listens to what they have to say. But John made it clear that he and the other apostles were from God. They spoke on behalf of God, because they confessed the same Jesus that God confessed. And they spoke to those who were also from God. The children of God recognize the voice of God. Over in his gospel, John recorded an incident that occurred in the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus found Himself surrounded by a crowd who demanded, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly” (John 10:24 NLT). Jesus responded, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father’s name. But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one” (John 10:25-30 NLT). John follows this up in his letter with the declaration, “greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4 NLT). We have the Spirit of God within us. We have the power of God available to us. We have the truth of God made known to us. All because we believe and confess that Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and the sole reason we have a right relationship with God the Father. And anybody who teaches anything else is dead wrong.

Kids In A Candy Store?

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. – 1 John 3:21-22 ESV

The two verses above sound almost too good to be true. They appear to be giving us some kind of divine carte blanche, providing us with a blank check from God to get whatever we want from Him. All we have to do is ask. Of course, there does appear to be some fine print attached to this too-good-to-be-true promise. John seems to indicate that we have to keep God's commandments and do what pleases Him. The condition is that I have to live obediently and keep God happy, THEN I can get whatever I want from Him. That explains everything. The reason I don't get all that I ask for from God is because I fail to measure up. Or is it? Is John saying my behavior is the key to getting what I want from God? A little bit later on, in chapter five, John brings up this matter again. “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15 ESV). Did you catch the condition John placed in these verses? “If we ask anything according to his will.” Ah, now it's all starting to make sense. I just have to figure out what God's will is, then I can get what I want from Him. But wait a minute. Think about that last statement. God's will and my desires are, in most cases, not one in the same. What I want and what God wants are not necessarily compatible. In fact, I would say that in most cases, our desires and God's will are naturally and normally incompatible and at odds with one another. Paul reminds us, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:17 ESV). We have a sin nature, and it is diametrically opposed to the will of God. It has a mind of its own. Its desires are contrary to the desires of God. Earlier in his letter, John warned us about three things that are constantly wreaking havoc in our lives: the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life. The New Living Translation describes them in plain language we can understand – “a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions.” So what I want is not always what God wants. And what I ask Him for is not always within His will.

So what is John trying to tell us? What is he teaching us about prayer that we need to know? First of all, he is NOT telling us that we can get whatever we want from God. God is not some kind of a cosmic genie required to grant our every wish. He is holy and righteous. He is sovereign and all-knowing. He is all-powerful and, while He is fully capable of giving us whatever we ask for, He is too loving to do so. He is our heavenly Father and is not going to give in to our every whim and sinful desire. God loves us too much to cater to us. Jesus had this to say about the Father: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11 ESV). But the key seems to be what we ask for must be within His will. So how do we know God's will? And how do we live obediently, doing what pleases Him? Those things seem to create conditions that make getting what we ask for from God impossible or at least, highly unlikely. As always, context is critical. John has gone out of his way to establish the non-negotiable necessity of abiding in Christ. Jesus Himself established it as the key to fruitfulness. “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 ESV). Abiding is the key to the behavior that is pleasing to God. God desires fruitfulness. Abiding in Christ makes it possible. But abiding also provides us with an intimate relationship with the Son and the Father that allows us to better know what their will is for us. As we abide, remaining dependent upon and energized by God, we discover what it is that He wants. We learn His will. And we begin to want what He wants. Our desires come in line with His desires. We become less and less driven by cravings for physical pleasure, cravings for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. So what we ask God for becomes increasingly more what He wants and less what we desire. Rather than ask for things that would simply make us happy, we begin to seek those things that would make us holy. Instead of simply asking God to remove the difficulties in our life, we learn to ask Him to use them to make us more like His Son. We begin to ask within His will. Our requests begin to fall in line with what God desires, not what we desire. As we abide in Christ, our hearts are slowly changed to reflect the will of God. So what we ask of Him, we receive. What we desire, He fulfills. Because our wills have come in line with His.

God Knows. Don't Panic.

Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything. – 1 John 3:18-20 NLT

All John's talk about sinning and unrighteousness, being of the evil one, and abiding in death could easily leave someone wondering if they were ever saved at all. After all, John makes it quite clear that Jesus “appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5 ESV). So the natural conclusion one might make is that if I have sin, I might not be saved. John even seems to confirm this conclusion when he says, “no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him” (1 John 3:6 ESV). This entire section of 1 John has caused many to question their salvation or at least begin to wonder if they could lose their salvation. Could the presence of sin in the life of a believer indicate a “falling away” or a loss of their “savedness?” John seemed to know that those to whom he was writing were going to struggle with the same issues. After all, there had just been an exodus from the body of believers on the part of some of their so-called brothers in Christ. These people had left the church over some major disagreements regarding the deity of Christ, the nature of sin and the truth regarding the gospel. So John was encouraging those who remained behind to remain or abide in Christ. He was telling them to keep believing in the message taught to them by the apostles and confirmed in them by the presence of the Holy Spirit. His letter was designed to build confidence in his audience, not instill doubt. Which is why he wrote, “And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink back from him in shame at his coming” (1 John 2:28 ESV). For John, abiding in Christ was the key to confidence. But it would be easy for us to draw the conclusion that our confidence lies in our ability to NOT sin. In other words, we somehow have to figure out a way to do MORE righteousness and LESS unrighteousness. We have to get rid of all of the sin in our life or we won’t measure up when the Lord returns. But this is not John's message. He is not out to cause doubt, but to encourage confidence. Which is why he keeps driving his readers back to Christ. Abide in Christ. Remain in Him. Place your trust in what He has done, not what you are trying to do.

But John did expect life change. He did believe that there would be fruit in the lives of those who had placed their faith in Christ for salvation and remained fully trusting in Him for their sanctification. In fact, their love for one another was evidence of that life change. Only Christ could have brought that about. John's argument seemed to be that those who had recently left the church were not of Christ because they did not love their brothers and sisters in Christ. They had walked away. They had left. And the inference seems to be that their departure was marked by hate. Which is why John warned, …We should not be like Cain” (1 John 3:12 ESV). Those who had left were more like Cain than Abel. They were marked by a love for the world, not the love of God. Their lives were loveless and marked by an abiding in death. In other words, they lived as if they had never passed from death into life. But John told those who remained to keep on loving one another, and to make it practical by caring for the everyday needs of those in their fellowship.

Then John deals with a very real issue for us as believers. Those times when we feel like we are not measuring up. When we aren't loving enough, doing enough, sinning less enough. In verse 19 John writes, “by this we know” and when he does, he is referring to when we love in deed and in truth. In other words, when we our love shows up in practical acts that are in keeping with Jesus' command to love as He loved, selflessly and sacrificially, “we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him” (1 John 3:19 ESV). I love the way the New Living Translation puts it. “Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.” The very fact that we love at all is proof that God is at work in us. His Spirit resides within us. So we can come before Him with confidence. The writer of Hebrews reminds us, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16 ESV). Even when our hearts condemn us and accuse us of not measuring up, of not loving enough, of not being good enough, John says, “God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:20 ESV). This isn't a threat, but a word of encouragement. God knows. Don't panic. We can come before Him confidently. Not because of what we have or have not done. But because of what Christ has done on our behalf. Remember, Jesus is our advocate, our mediator. He is our High Priest, who intercedes on our behalf before the Father. Enter His presence with boldness. He knows and He cares.

Love and Hate.

For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. – 1 John 3:11 ESV 1 John 3:11-24

Love and hate. God and Satan. Dark and light. Faith and doubt. Belief and disbelief. Children of God and children of the devil. John paints a black and white portrait of life in this world. There are two systems at work and at war with one another. As children of God, we have been placed in the middle of an environment that is opposed to our very existence. The world, as a result of sin, is in rebellion against God. Many in the world reject that very existence of God. Others, unable to explain their own existence and desperate to find meaning for life, have concocted their own versions of God. But to make your own god is nothing short of the rejection of the one true God. The point that John seems to be trying to make is that those who have a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ are going to find this world a place of conflict and contrasts. The very fact that we are His children puts us at odds with those who refuse to accept Jesus as the Son of God and the only way to be restored to a right relationship with God. The result is that the world hates us. John confirms that reality. “Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you” (1 John 3:13 ESV). Jesus gave us a similar warning. “This is my command: Love each other. If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you” (John 15:17-19 NLT). “You will be hated by everyone because of me” (Matthew 10:22 NIV).

John used the example of Cain and Abel – two brothers who should have naturally loved one another – to drive home his message of contrasts. Cain brutally murdered his brother. His act was an outflow of his anger toward and hatred for Abel. But it stemmed from his disbelief in God. He lacked the capacity to love Abel because he was devoid of a love for God. Cain's sacrifice was unacceptable to God because Cain lacked faith in God. “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain” (Hebrews 11:4 ESV). Abel was motivated by faith in God. He believed in God. “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6 ESV). John makes it clear a little bit later in his letter that God is love. “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8 ESV). Love is essence of God. But this is not some kind of sentimental, Hallmark-greeting-card kind of love. This is a selfless, sacrificial, lay-it-all-on-the-line kind of love that is not of this world. Without God, Cain couldn't manufacture this kind of love. But this kind of love is what sets the children of God apart from one another. It was what caused the early church to stand out from the crowd and set it apart as distinctively different. In the book of Acts, we read of the early days of the church as thousands of people from all walks of life and a variety of ethnic backgrounds are coming to faith in Jesus. “And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need” (Acts 2:44-45 ESV). That day, there were people from all over the world who heard the good news regarding Jesus Christ. “Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians” (Acts 2:9-11 ESV). And many of them came to faith and became part of a unique organism called the body of Christ. At that point, they became one in Christ. Their ethnic, economic, cultural, and idealogical differences were overshadowed by the love of God. Paul described the believers in Galatia in similar terms. “For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26-28 NLT). 

Our adoption as sons and daughters by God have placed us all into one new family. God's love for us manifests itself in a love for one another that is unique and distinctive. No longer is our love based on earthly standards. Our commonality and community is not based on ethnicity, language, economic status, country of origin or level of education. Our unity is based on our relationship with Jesus Christ. So Jews who love Jesus can love Arabs who love Jesus. Muslims who have come to know Jesus as their Savior can call Christians their brothers. Blacks and whites can love one another. Individuals who were once enemies can now worship together because of the transformative power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. “The way we know we’ve been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:14 NLT). Our capacity to love is our calling card. It is what sets us apart. And in this world, it is what sets us up for hatred. This world can't comprehend that kind of love. It makes no sense. It sees it as a threat. It views it as a weakness. The enemy can't stand it, because he knows its origin. It is of God. And anything of God is repulsive to him. But God is love and we are God's children. Love is the greatest expression of our God-likeness. Which is why Paul wrote: “Three things will last forever--faith, hope, and love--and the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13 NLT).

A Matter of Death and Life.

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. – 1 John 3:14-15 ESV 1 John 3:11-24

Life and death. These two ideas are just one more pair of contrasting topics that John has raised in his very short letter. But they are probably the most basic and fundamental ideas he has addressed so far. For John, death represents the fate of all those who have not believed in Jesus Christ or who believe in a different Christ than the one taught by the apostles. But not only is death their fate, it is their very existence at the time of his writing of this letter. They abide in death. The apostle Paul, comparing the first Adam with the second Adam, Jesus, wrote, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…” (Romans 5:12 ESV). In other words, the sin of Adam and Eve resulted in the sin of their offspring, as illustrated in Cain's murder of his brother, Abel. And with the sin came the penalty of death. Sin and death became the norm for mankind. But with the arrival of Jesus, that all changed. We read in the gospel of Matthew, “the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined” (Matthew 4:16 NLT). The Light shone in the darkness. The Life appeared in the midst of death. The writer of Hebrews gives us a clear explanation of what Jesus' arrival on the scene accomplished. “Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying” (Hebrews 2:14-15 NLT).

Because of Jesus' life, death and resurrection, we can have new life. By believing in who He claimed to be, the Son of God and the Savior of the world, we can move from darkness into the light and from the shadow of death to life. Our new life is God's doing, and Paul reminds us that not all will understand or even like the change the see in us. “Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume” (2 Corinthians 2:15-16 NLT). Even John says, “Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you” (1 John 3:13 ESV). They can't comprehend what has happened in our lives. Our transformation is a reminder to them of their own sad state. They hate the light and love the dark. Our very existence exposed the darkness of which they are so fond. They abide in death. We abide in life. The fruit of their lives is evident. The Message paraphrases Galatians 5:19-23 in this very stark way: “It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community.” Their lifestyle is open for all to see. But so is that of the one who lives in the light. Our fruit is different because we have the Spirit of God residing within us. “He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely” (Galatians 5:21-23 MSG).

Because we have passed out of death into life, we can and should live differently. Our behavior changes because our natures have changed. We are no longer of this world. We no longer abide in death. We have eternal life and that new life allows us to live and walk in the light as He is in the light. We become beacons of light in the midst of the darkness, shining forth the glory of God in a world that is trapped in death and living without hope. But as we live and shine, we will be hated. We will find ourselves despised, because our righteousness exposes their unrighteousness. Our joy reveals their despair. Our faith shines the light on their hopelessness. “For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true” (Ephesians 5:8-9 NLT).

The Cain Mutiny.

We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. – 1 John 3:12 ESV

John has a tendency to use terms and images that portray striking opposites. He loves the use of contrasts. Darkness and light. Sin and righteousness. Lies and truth. Old and new. Love and hate. The temporal and the eternal. Death and life. Abiding and forsaking. Then right in the middle of chapter three, he uses what appears to be a contrast between two Old Testament figures, Cain and Abel. At first glance, this is a very perplexing and difficult to understand passage. Seemingly, out of the blue, John brings up an event that happened all the way back in the story of beginning of the earth, recorded in the book of Genesis. The context is Jesus' command that we love one another. Then, all of the sudden, John tells us, “We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother” (1 John 3:12 ESV). That's quite a contrast. John goes from talking about love to warning about murder. In the well-known story of Cain and Abel, Cain killed his own brother. But why? John says it was “because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous” (1 John 3:12 ESV). So is John saying that Cain killed Abel because Abel was a righteous person? Did he murder his brother out of some form of jealousy or resentment? That was probably the surface cause. But there is something far deeper going on in this story, and we need to go back and look at the actual event to get a better handle on what actually happened and in order to see why John is using this story as an object lesson about love. Back in Genesis 4, we read, “Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,  but for Cain and his offering he had no regard” (Genesis 4:3-5 ESV). Both brothers brought offerings to the Lord. There is no indication that God had indicated the type of offering that was to be given, so God's rejection of Cain's offering does not appear to be about what he brought. But it clearly says, “but for Cain and his offering he [God] had no regard.” The word “regard” in the Hebrew means “to look on with favor.” So when it says God had “no regard” for Cain, it means He did NOT look on him with favor. Cain's offering was an extension of his heart. The offering was not the issue, Cain was. There was something wrong with Cain that caused God to reject him and his offering. You have to go all the way to Hebrews 11 to discover what was going on behind the scenes. There we read, “By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts” (Hebrews 11:4 ESV). Notice those two words, “by faith.” They are key to understanding the story and getting the point of John's inclusion of this event in his discussion about love. The motivation behind Abel's gift was faith. He believed in God. And his gift was directed at a God he had never seen. That is an important point. You have to remember that neither Cain or Abel had ever seen or heard God as their parents had. After the sin of Adam and Eve, they were banned from the garden and from God's presence. Their sons had never seen Eden or had the joy of intimacy with God. What they knew about God they had been told by their parents. Both had heard the same stories, but it would appear that only Abel believed what he heard.

What is interesting is that the writer of Hebrews goes on to say, “without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6 ESV). Abel had faith and his offering was pleasing to God. Cain did not have faith and his offering was displeasing to God. Cain did not believe in God. When it says that Abel offered a “more acceptable sacrifice than Cain,” the word “acceptable” in the Hebrew refers to “greater in quantity, greater in quality.” But it was not the sacrifice that was the issue. It was Abel's faith. His faith gave his sacrifice its value. His belief and trust in God was what made his sacrifice acceptable. And according the writer of Hebrews, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 ESV). Abel had faith in a God he had never seen. He had hope and assurance in God and gave his sacrifice out of love and gratitude. Verse 6 of chapter 11 of Hebrews says, “without faith it is impossible to please him,” but there is more, “for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Abel believed God existed. Cain did not. Oh, he gave a sacrifice, but it was not from the heart, and it was given in a spirit of doubt and disbelief. Interestingly, in early Jewish and Christian writings, Cain is used as a model for those who deliberately disbelieve in God. Cain lacked faith in God. Cain didn't love God. He didn't abide in God. Cain loved Cain. His inability to love God made it impossible for him to love his own brother. And John warns that we should not be like Cain. We need to abide in Christ. We need to remain dependent upon Him and believe that He exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Our faith in God will produce fruit. Our love for God will produce love for others. Cain didn't love God. Cain loved Cain. And Cain was incapable of loving Abel. The lack of love is hate. Love is saying “No” to one's own life so that others may live. The to key loving others is faith in God. It is when we believe in Him and know that He loves us that we will be able to love others more than we love ourselves.