For the next few days, I want to look at the three letters that John wrote which come ALMOST at the end of the New Testament.
vv.1-2 have a similar "feel" to the first chapter of the Gospel of John. Christ was from the beginning speaks of His eternality. The Son of God did not just come into being 2,000 years ago. The God-man Jesus Christ was manifested at that time...but the Son of God (or as some scholars like to differentiate-- the 2d person of the Trinity) has always existed. In v.3, you see the "witness" element of the Christian Life. If v.3-4 are true, then many Christians live daily without being fulfilled. They fail to share daily that which they have seen and heard of Christ...so that THEIR joy would be full.
v.5-10 are pretty pivotal in my life. In v. 5 we see that God is not at all a "mised bag." He is all light, all good, all perfect, all faithful. We are not. We, as Christians, are a mixed bag at best. Sometimes...we want to "impose" our nature onto God as a way of understanding Him better. While this is not an unreasonable approach...we cannot define God by who we are. When compared with us...we see just how "other worldly" God really is.
v.6-7 then gives us a template to measure whether we (and others) are with God or not. Now John is speaking some to the "introspective" in the crowd. We should to. But...as we will see soon, he also is giving us this template to examine others by. We first look inward...then on to others.
If we walk with Him we are redeemed by the blood of Christ. If we say that we are with Him but walk in darkness...we lie. There is no gray area here. It is cut and dried. Now what does it mean to walk?
In focus is not the person who makes a mistake that is abnormal to their course of life. v.8-9 address that. To "walk" is to speak of the lifestyle we have chosen and pursue. "I do what I want, I choose what I want, I give what I want, I receive what I want, I live for what I want..." These are all statements of people who are walking in darkness. We serve, we give, we go, we act, we love...not because we "necessarily" want...but because we are walking with Him and He says to do so. As Christians, we have already submitted ourselves to His will and way.
v.8-10. These verses helped me get on track one day. I shared some in my last post about standing in front of the church. The sermon came from v.8-9. If we say we don't sin...we lie. All believers sin. We all mess up. It is a fact that will not change until heaven. We are not to become comfortable with it and just do it...we are to discipline ourselves to choose God over self. But when we sin, we are called to confess that to God. We cannot hide it from Him. We cannot trick him as it were. We simply and earnestly confess the sin and ask for forgiveness. This seems too "easy" to some.
The reason it is easy (if you will) is because our justification (right standing before God) is not based on our actions but on His actions. God is the faithful one. We will always fall short. We will always miss the mark. We just will. But...God is always faithful to forgive (consistent) and to cleanse from all our unrighteousness. He starts us fresh in His sight. He is faithful to forgive. We must be/become faithful to confess/agree with Him about our sin and receive His forgiveness/cleansing/restoration. What an incredible story to tell. No wonder it made John's JOY COMPLETE to do it!
Proverbs 20:13 is the takeaway today. "Do not love sleep or you will become poor; open your eyes, and you will be satisfied with food." Sometimes folks like to pull the "sovereignty card" with me in all the wrong places. They tell me that they have absolute trust that God will provide their needs. He does meet the needs of everyone who trust and follows Him. It is important to remember though...that God often meets the needs we have through the ability He has given us to till the land, cultivate the soil, perform a task, etc. To use sovereignty as an excuse for being lazy is to mischaracterize God and to miss what it really means for God to be Sovereign.
Grace,
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3 comments:
Thank you for sharing more about your testimony. I too understand this complete joy when we are honest with Christ. The sad humor for me is that I know that is what God wants from me but so many times I think I am so smart I can distract God with all my works and make Him forget the wrong I have done. This is simply not true but it is funny how we can convince ourselves this can happen. Good word. I am excited about this study.:)
You are not the first one to try to "psych" God out. Thanks for the post.
Heh, you picked two books I truly dislike to got through chapter by chapter. I don't know who put the chapter marks in 1 John, but they break the flow. As you pointed out, it will change from inner to outer. Which is what I find more and more, when I'm working and following, everything is easy, when I'm fighting it, everything gets hard.
Proverbs just demands to be taken apart verse by verse as a topical study. One way I look at Proverbs is like a grenade. If it is in Proverbs, then you will find the same thought blown all over the Bible, in many ways I find it to be the distilled essence of the Bible's teachings.
Of course, it may have been reading 1 John, but I picked up on Proverbs 20:6,11,17 and 27.
The difficulty of finding the faithful among those who fake it.
Even the children (or new in Christ) are known, which implies the adults (or mature in Christ) get the same scrutiny.
The false front makes you look good at first, but it will not profit you in the end.
A double thought, the first that God will examine you and convict you by what you know, the second that once you have that, you will be able to discern the motives of others.
Of interest was verse 21 since I've just heard the parable of the prodigal son mentioned. Not a direct correlation, but think how the Jewish hearers of that parable knew immediately of the reference to a hastily gotten inheritance not being blessed. The parable goes farther, showing the mercy of the father to the child who left him.
On verse 13, that kind of use of God's sovereignty smacks too closely to me of the Muslims use inshallah ("as God wills"), which did lead to fatalism and "waiting upon the Lord" in a negative sense. Sometimes you have to wait, but sitting there waiting limply for Him to pick you up and move you like a child's doll, not going to happen, ever.
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