The Beloved Disciple's First Letter - Pt 10

 

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life. (1 John 2:18–25 ESV).

 

As we have seen in earlier devotionals, the false teachers who were troubling the original audience of John’s epistle were probably proto-Gnostics. That is to say, the things they taught had much in common with the teachings of Gnostics, even though their false teaching did not flourish until the second century. Gnosticism, we have noted, viewed salvation primarily as an acquisition of secret knowledge. However, this knowledge was only available to a select few. It was a so-called “higher” knowledge the ordinary person could not acquire.

 

Though John’s audience was able to resist these teachers to the point that they were forced to leave the community (1 John 2:19), these claims of special knowledge caused many of the truly faithful to doubt the reality of their redemption. That is why, in today’s passage, John reminds his audience again that they have true faith. We read in verses 20–21 that unlike the false teachers, John’s audience had been anointed by the Holy One and did know the truth.

 

It is a fatal flaw of many denominations when they seek to “add” actions or deeds to the work of Christ in the redemption of an individual. And, we all know there is some of that in all of us as individuals. We can’t believe that we could possess such an incredible gift without paying for it in some way. However, John assures his audience (v. 20) that they all have been anointed by the Holy One. That is to say, all of them have received the outpouring of the Spirit. The false teachers claimed to possess a “higher truth,” but this “truth” denied the elementary truths of incarnation, love, and personal righteousness, revealing they were not indwelt by the Holy Spirit. But those in John’s faithful audience did not deny these truths — truths that are available to all who will believe them — revealing they had the Spirit and thus true faith. There is nothing else that must be done to have eternal life. Jesus has done it all!

 

The Beloved Disciple's First Letter - Pt 9

 

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life. (1 John 2:18–25 ESV).

 

As I wrote in yesterday’s devotional, there are several principles the apostle uses in our reading for these days. We looked at his meaning for this being the last hour and “antichrist coming” yesterday. Today the key passage is on “the perseverance of the saints”, or true versus false faith, and the spiritual anointing of believers. This is a key principle for those who hold to a more reformed view of Scripture and practice. Here John states that false teachers ("antichrists") "went out from us, but they were not of us". While these individuals were visibly part of the visible church community, they never possessed true, regenerating union with Christ. He explains that if they had truly belonged to the body of believers, "they would have continued with us". Their eventual departure and apostasy (falling away from the faith) serves to make it plain that they did not possess genuine saving faith.

 

It is a basis to support the doctrine of eternal security—true believers will never finally fall away, and those who permanently abandon Christ demonstrate that their inward nature was never truly transformed. In the surrounding context, proto-Gnostic false teachers claimed a "higher" or secret knowledge available only to an elite few. This notion is countered by declaring that ordinary believers have "an anointing from the Holy One," meaning the indwelling Holy Spirit. Because of this divine anointing, all true Christians possess a fundamental understanding of the truth of God and do not need to rely on worldly or false teachers for secret spiritual insights

 

It is always a quandary when we observe people who appear to be believers but then walk away from the faith. Since Scripture teaches that all who truly believe in Christ are justified and will never fall away finally so as to be cut off from salvation (cf. Romans 8:29–30). Many of you may have known or will know someone who appeared to be a genuine believer but then renounced Christ. This “falling away” from the Christian faith is known as apostasy, and there are examples of this reality throughout church history. Even the Apostles had to deal with individuals who abandoned their profession of faith. We can think, for example, of Hymenaeus and Alexander, two men who made shipwreck of their faith during Paul's ministry (cf. 1 Timothy 1:18–20). Certainly, these examples prove that it is possible to renounce one's profession of faith. But do they demonstrate that Christians who actually possess faith can commit final apostasy? We should consider two important matters that will help us answer this question.

 

First, we must consider whether the falling away that we see is actually final. After all, Scripture gives us examples of people who fell from grace only later to repent and return to a life of discipleship. Just think of the Apostle Peter, who denied Christ and then was later restored (John 18:15–27; 21:15–19). If early church tradition is correct, he even was martyred for his faith under Emperor Nero. King David, similarly, had a great fall into adultery and murder, but he later repented and was forgiven (cf. 2 Samuel 11:1–12:15a). In both cases, the man who fell was ultimately restored to a right relationship with God and His people.

 

Second, we need to understand the difference between professing faith and possessing faith. Remember that many people claim the name of Christ without ever actually having the gift of faith in Jesus for salvation (v. 19). They were never one of us; that is, they never possessed living faith in the Savior. Only God can see the heart, so we should not be surprised that some people can make a good show of faith without truly believing in the name of Christ. Not all who profess faith in Christ really believe in Him, and those who fully fall away never had true faith.

 

As creatures, our view of others is limited. We can only evaluate outward appearances. Thus, when someone seems to fall away, all we can surmise is that the faith we thought we saw was likely an illusion. Yet even here we must not assume that a fall from grace is final. There is always the chance for repentance and restoration up until the point of death. Thus, we should pray for people who seem to have fallen away, asking God to grant them repentant hearts. It is never just a matter of what we do or don’t do; it is a matter of the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a person. That is where true, eternal faith begins. It is always a work of God, not man (cf. Ephesians 2:8-10).

 

If you are struggling with doubt or guilt, please understand that is a good sign that the Holy Spirit is calling you to life through faith. Repent and keep walking in the path He leads you!

 

The Beloved Disciple's First Letter - Pt 8

 

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life. (1 John 2:18–25 ESV).

 

Today we begin a passage that has so much to offer us in understanding and encouragement. It will take us a few days to touch on each of the points the apostle makes in these verses. So, as I have said on occasion, “Buckle-up buttercup and get ready to ride!”

 

The first declaration of the Apostle John is that we are in the last hour and “antichrist is coming” (v. 18). The Apostle Paul writes of the coming of a “man of lawlessness” who will set himself up in God’s temple and proclaim himself to be God (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:3–4). John later will write of a coming “beast” who will wear out the saints of God and be known by the number 666 (cf. Revelation 13). Here John simply warns of “antichrist.” Naturally we want to know who these people are, or are they all the same person?

 

As always we were are trying to interpret prophecy, there are a variety of views. The older historicist approach usually identified the beast (“out of the sea”) as the Roman emperor, while the second beast (“out of the land”) of Revelation 13, together with the false prophet of that chapter, were associated with the papacy. The man of sin was also the pope, for he sat in the temple (the church) and exalted himself. Modern futurism links the man of sin and the beast, and says that this is a man who will arise in the future just before Christ returns. He will be the false Christ, the antichrist, and will unite the world in a new tower of Babel against the remnant of the faithful. Preterists usually see 666 as a symbol for the name “Nero Caesar,” and thus they identify the beast as Nero, while the second beast and false prophet are identified with the Sanhedrin and Judaizers who sought to stamp out the early church. The man of sin is taken by some to be Nero, and by others identified as the high priest, who literally sat in the temple and opposed Christ. Modern futurism tends to have a very political understanding of this figure. Beast/antichrist/man of sin is a world leader, not an ecclesiastical opponent of the faithful. The older views (preterist and historicist) focus attention more on the church. The greatest enemies of the faith, they say, are in the church, as the serpent was in the Garden.

 

So, where does that leave us? Let me ask a different kind of question. Did John intend for us to envision some particular person as the antichrist, or did he mean that any self-conscious opponent of the faith is an antichrist (cf. 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7)? AS you may surmise, I tend to think in terms of this meaning. That is not to say there will not be a physical being who opposes Christ and the faithful. However, as we are going to see, the biggest danger John is writing to prevent in these beloved friends is the failure to recognize the danger of those who would oppose Christ and His faithful in every age and generation. There will always be political beasts and ecclesiastical antichrists who seek to oppose the truth, and we must always be on our guard against them.

 

We must remain vigilant. We can only do so as we immerse ourselves in the truth of the gospel.

 

The Beloved Disciple's First Letter - Pt 7

 

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:15–17 ESV).

 

Route 66, also known as U.S. Highway 66 or the “Mother Road,” winds across a twenty-four hundred plus mile-long swath of America from Chicago to Los Angeles. Route 66 passes through eight states and more than three hundred communities. There are many sites along Route 66 that are individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and over 5.5 million people live along the route. Route 66 once provided a vital transportation corridor connecting the Midwest with southern California after it was established in 1926. It includes a cross section of urban areas, panoramic scenery, Native American communities, small rural towns, and, of course, quirky roadside architecture to comprise a “living, evolving thoroughfare of American discovery.” Over the years, Route 66 came to symbolize freedom and mobility. Following World War II, it epitomized the new optimism that pervaded the nation’s postwar eco-nomic recovery. While Route 66 was officially removed from the U.S. Highway System in 1985, it has continued to be a nationally and internationally popular heritage tourism destination, providing an appealing alternative to Interstate highway travel for recreational motorists seeking an authentic American experience. However, it is not near what it once was. Some sections are impassable and in ruin.

 

It is another example of how people matter more than stuff - the things, the trinkets, of this world simply do not last. It is only God who matters more than everything else and anything else. Jesus commanded us to love God and love our neighbors and not crave the stuff of the world. The love of worldly things crowds out our love for God and leads us to neglect the people we love.

 

In our verses today, John echoes Jesus' teaching in telling us that we must not love this world and its stuff! This command seems contradictory to John 3:16 - that God loved the world so much that He sent His only Son to save us. In this statement, John is emphasizing that God loves the lost people in the world and wants to save them. In our verses today, however, John is teaching against loving the stuff in this world. Rather, we are to do what pleases God, and that means loving God and the people around us.

Notice how the Holy Spirit identifies the world's things we must not love: the craving for physical pleasure; the craving for everything we can see; the pride in our human achievements and possessions along with the status they bring us. John wants us to know that these false loves ruin our lives, destroy our relationships, and lead us away from God. They come from the fallen world that is opposed to God, and its works are evil because it is under the power of Satan. This is the world that hates followers of Jesus.

 

I can imagine you are asking, “So, Don, what's the point?” Well, let me be very clear to help us see how this principle applies to relationships! If we love God and follow Jesus with all our heart, the Holy Spirit pours God's love into us so we can love each other fully, correctly, and sacrificially. But if what we love means satisfying the cravings of our worldly nature, we will destroy our relationship with God and ruin our relationships with other people. We love God, then we love each other. When we build our relationships on these two loves and not the cravings of the world, Jesus promised that God would give us all the other things we need as His added blessings. The world is going to pass away, but those of us who love God will enjoy God's love, forever!

 

The Beloved Disciple's First Letter - Pt 6

 

Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new comman4dment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. (1 John 2:7–11 ESV).

 

John was very wise in his recognition that the previous instructions might be misinterpreted by false teachers (cf. 1 John 2:1-6). So, he gets very detailed in this paragraph today. Love for others is the guiding principle. During His earthly ministry, Jesus often dealt with His disciples’ love for others. Understandably, they often had trouble accepting the fact that they were to love their enemies, but the disciples also had difficulty understanding that they must truly and deeply love their Christian brothers and sisters. Peter, for example, tried to limit the times one must extend love and forgiveness toward his brothers when he asked Jesus if forgiving someone seven times was enough. Jesus, however, would put no limit on forgiveness and love, telling Peter that he must forgive a repentant offender an infinite number of times (cf. Matthew 18:21–35). Today’s passage makes it clear that the commandment we read about here is the commandment to love our fellow Christians.

 

One of the ways we can be assured we are in the light — that we know Christ — is we do not hate our brothers. If we do not love our fellow believers, we remain in the darkness of sin (vv. 9–11). This commandment is both old and new (vv. 7–8). It is old in the sense that the people of God were commanded to love and forgive their brothers and sisters from their hearts long before John wrote this letter (cf. Leviticus 19:17–18; John 13:34). It is new “in him” (v. 8) — in Jesus — meaning that the command to love others finds its fullest expression, definition, and example in the life and ministry of Jesus. As we are obedient to the Spirit, we will live out Jesus’ example by performing new acts of love toward others.

 

In Jesus we see the depth of love that we must extend to others. This depth is certainly revealed in the old covenant but is more clearly revealed in the new. Jesus defines love as forgiving others an infinite number of times (cf. Matthew 18:22) and in going the extra mile. Jesus Himself is the fullest expression of love since God is love, and Jesus is God. Jesus is the greatest example of love in that He laid down His life for the sake of His brothers. Abiding in Jesus means walking in the way He walked (v. 6). This means the command to love the brethren must be true in us as it is in Him (v. 8). Let us then love our fellow Christians.

 

When we are honest with ourselves, some Christians are easier to love than others. We all find certain people less offensive than others, and as a result, we will gravitate toward those we consider lovable. But Christ does not call us to love only those easy to love. After all, He Himself died for sinners. If we walk in the light we must love all of our fellow believers!

 

The Beloved Disiple's First Letter - Pt 5

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. (1 John 2:1–6 ESV).

 

We return to the passage we have read the last few days to explore what the apostle has to say about walking “in the same way he walked” (v. 6). Context and historical background become extremely important if we are to understand the apostle’s message for us from this reading. Remember during the second century, the church of Jesus Christ found itself having to deal with the Gnostic heresy. The heresy of Marcion, which attempted to purge all references to the Old Testament from the letters of Paul and the gospel of Luke, is just one example of the widespread assault of Gnostic theology upon the church in those days.

 

The movement known as Gnosticism is difficult to assess precisely because a variety of different Gnostic groups were active during the early centuries of the church. Typically, all Gnostic believers based salvation on acquiring some kind of secret, “higher” knowledge that was not available to the uninitiated. Though Gnosticism did not emerge in the fullest sense until the second century, many of its ideas can be found, at least in primitive form, in the first century. Interestingly, many early church fathers said that Simon the Magician (cf. Acts 8:9–25) was himself a Gnostic.

 

This epistle makes it clear that certain proto-Gnostic views of knowledge flourished near the end of the first century. In today’s passage, John tells us how we can be sure that we have come to know Christ. Evidently, many of his opponents falsely claimed to know the Lord, and so John had to counter these claims and assure His audience of ways a believer might be confident of his knowledge of Jesus. If we pay attention to these truths we may have a deeper affirmation of our faith as well.

 

Our reading today tells us, in a variety of ways, that we can be sure we know Jesus if we keep His commandments. In John’s day, as in our own, many like to confess Jesus as Savior without submitting to Him as Lord. The tendency of Gnostics to dismiss the deeds done by the body as unimportant as long as they possessed the “right knowledge” made it easy for the false teachers troubling John’s original audience to deny the need to obey Jesus and flee from sin. However, as John reminds us, if Jesus is not your Lord, He is not your Savior. If we confess the name of Jesus without a concern to follow Him, we lie when we say we know Him (v. 4). John Calvin agreed: “We cannot know him as Lord and Father, as he shows himself, without being dutiful children and obedient servants.” Some in church history have advocated perfectionism based partly on verse 5 of today’s passage. 1 John 1:8 will make it clear that this cannot be the case, thus, we must scrutinize our lives to see if we are keeping His commandments.

 

The real key is in our understanding of what John is pointing us toward when he says “Jesus’ commandments.” I would point you to the words of Jesus:

 

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:34–40 ESV).

 

It is not a matter of using the Ten Commandments as our checklist. It is our complete faith and trust in Christ. Are you obedient, albeit imperfectly, and are you repentant whenever you do not? If so, you can be sure that you know Him. God does not demand perfection, Jesus has already done that on our behalf! 

The Beloved Disciple's First Letter - Pt 4

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. (1 John 2:1–6 ESV).

 

Yesterday we looked at this passage from the Apostle John where he writes that we have an “advocate” with the Father who is Jesus Christ. If that were the only declaration of the apostle it would be incredible; however, he goes on to say that Jesus is the “propitiation” (v. 2) for our sins. The Greek word here translated as “propitiation” is ἱλασμός (hē-läs-mos'). It is a very interesting word. It is only used twice in the New Testament, both times by the Apostle John in this letter (cf. 1 John 2:2 and 4:10).

 

Strong’s Greek 2434 this word denotes “the divinely-provided means by which God’s righteous wrath against sin is averted and fellowship with Him is restored. It presupposes both the holiness of God, which cannot ignore sin, and His love, which has made a way for sinners to be reconciled without compromising His justice.” It is also important to note that it is used in the Septuagint as a cognate noun which is frequently linked to the sin-offering prescribed in Leviticus (cf. Leviticus 25:9 LXX). There are two underscoring ideas here. First, sin incurs liability before God, and, second, a God-appointed sacrifice removes that liability. Jewish writers between Malachi and Matthew adopted the term to describe the annual Day of Atonement as well as daily Temple offerings, preparing first-century readers to understand the concept as satisfaction of divine justice rather than mere appeasement of a capricious deity.

 

The Apostle John is very clear. Not only is Jesus our advocate, but He is the atoning sacrifice necessary to satisfy the just nature of God. That atonement is foundational for Christian assurance and fellowship. Early church fathers such as Athanasius highlighted propitiation to defend the incarnation’s necessity. Only God could save, yet only man must pay the debt, thus the God-man achieves hilasmos. Reformers reclaimed the term to emphasize penal substitution over the medieval view of repeated sacrificial oblations. Contemporary orthodox theology continues to affirm hilasmos as essential to the gospel, resisting both moral-influence and governmental theories that minimize substitution and wrath.

 

Jesus Christ, out of the Father’s love, voluntarily became the decisive sacrifice that satisfies divine justice and secures eternal fellowship for all who believe. This truth supplies the bedrock for Christian faith, worship, mission, and hope. What great God we have as our Savior!