1 John 4 give us some key considerations as Christians. While we could pick apart the chapter verse by verse...there seem to be two primary elements to the chapter.
In vv.1-6 we see that we must be discerning. Not everything is from God. Not everyone who claims to have a relationship with or a words from God actually does. John gives us a criteria to discern by..."What do you do with Jesus." As I have encountered many religious people with varying views...I have found that this is the fundamental question for all of them. The JWs and the Mormons sound pretty good. The Eastern religions sound pretty good. Even Islam sounds okay. At the end of the day though...Jesus is the litmus test...and all of them deny the uniqueness of Christ as God's only Son, and as the only means of Salvation by God's grace through our faithful response. Now discernment is not as difficult with the big things. Do I step into moving traffic or wait on the sidewalk? We can say without a lot of help that unless we are playing "Frogger" stepping out into traffic is bad. Discernment is trickier when we have to choose between two seemingly good things. (Remember that the enemy goes about like an angel of light.)
vv.7-21 tell us that we are to love people. We don't love people because they are loveable...or because we are so loving...but because God loved us. We were loved by Him when we were unlovable (vv.10-11). He has charged us to love one another. As we have received love, we are to be purveyors of love. All of this is summed up in vv.19-21. One cannot say that they love God (who they have not seen) and hate their brother (who they have seen). To love God...is to love what/who God loves. Now you may say...ok. I am cool with that except for that one guy in my life who really hurt me! I don't have to love him do I? Man have I asked that question of myself.
Here is the NY answer. Yes. Yes you have to. If you don't you're a liar and the love of God is not in you. Now for the Florida answer (which is the same...only more gentle and sweet). You and I will never move forward and become what God has called us to become as long as we refuse to deal with the past and learn to love unlovable people. Not because they deserve it...but because God deserves it...from us. The Scriptures teach us how to go about this...but the method is never to just ignore it and try to move on. We have to settle the issue in our heart to a point of satisfaction SO THAT we can love as God loves. For me...this is difficult, but possible with God's help. The same is true for you.
Proverbs 23:10-11 is the takeaway today. "Do not move the ancient boundary or go into the fields of the fatherless (orphans). For their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their case against you."
Moving boundary stones was a cheats way of stealing land from others. Sneaking onto another man's land to steal his harvest was possible and slimy...since who can see what is happening on the backside of the field. The thrust I took from these two verses is to stay away from seemingly secret sin or taking advantage of those who are unable to care for themselves. This can be something obvious...or as subtle as manipulating and leading people astray who are immature in the Lord and developing your own little flock. Either way...their Redeemer is watching. He is not ignorant or powerless against you...and He will defend them.
Grace,
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Ok, I am finally going to comment... satan uses a number of ways to trick us into believing that what we are doing or contemplating is of God. It is essential that we pray for discernment in all that we do so that we do not stray from the path the HE has us on. The tricks that satan dishes out can be in a number of ways... opportunities that sound too good to be true or just sound good, unsaved family members, and a whole host of other ways. We must be "on guard" and learn to recognize when satan is scheming and pray for God to enable us to make the right decision.
Ohhhh... loving. This is such a struggle for me. I am learning to let go of the past and forgive the people that hurt me because God has shown me that I can't move forward if I haven't given everything to Him... including my past. I know that we can't change the past, but sometimes, the past can change our future. We must let go of those hurts and give them over to Christ so that the TRUE healing can begin. If we can trust Him with our salvation we can surely trust Him with our past and our future.
I just loved the NY version... straight and to the point. No fluffiness! Just had to throw that in!
Finally, one thing for me is that knowing that God sees EVERYTHING that we do pretty much keeps me in line. Scripture tells us that we can't go ANYWHERE that He is not... so what's the point in trying to hide?
Thank you for taking the time to challenge us in reading... I enjoy reading your insight daily, even though I don't always post a comment. :-)
Val
Good comments Valerie.
The different faces of 'Christians', it is so frustrating. This is what vv. 1-6 shows me, that John is telling us there are many out there who will say look at me I am Christian I want the prize, on the outside but deep down there are no fruits showing that they are a Christ followers. I pray that Jesus break these folks and that I am a light to show them how much Jesus loves them.
I can so relate to the next group of scriptures... I have a lot of customers who are not loveable, it is hard but I am going to have to make myself love them. So moving forward, my takeaway today will be to love EVERYONE because that is what Jesus did and what He is still teaching today. Seems like a simply concept but it is easier said than done. Good Word:)
I thought about these verses all day yesterday in light of a recent conversation with my daughter when I could have used them to answer her questions much better than I did.
One of the homeschool groups that we belong to is open to any homeschooler, whether they are Christian or not, and we were at a lunch for that group a few days ago. Most everyone had left and there were just us Christians left when one of the mom's began to tell us that we need to call the Christmas party a "holiday" party so that we don't offend the atheists and agnostics in the group. Then it was decided that we should not pray before meals together and on and on. I was so surprised at this conversation and how the others listened and agreed. I'm all about including anyone who wants to come and trying my best to make them feel welcome, but not to the point of denying Christ. I thought this group was a good idea because it gave us the opportunity to make friends with unbelievers and be salt and light to them. Now I'm not so sure it's such a good idea....we may be more outnumbered than I thought and I want to protect my children from being deceived. Anyway, Gabrielle heard me talking to Steve about it. She became defensive of her friend's family and said, "So, you don't think they're Christians?" I had not said that, but once she put it out there, I had to say that I don't think they are because of many of the things I've heard the mom say lately. Gabrielle protested that they go to church and began asking some tough questions about how we know if someone is a Christian then. "What do they do with Jesus?" is a great litmus test and a much simpler answer for my 9 year old than the route I took!
As I was processing all of that, I was also doing history with Gabrielle and the following paragraph jumped off the page at me, "But Wilberforce's greatest asset was his true and heartfelt love for the people with whom he talked. He might be violently opposed to what a man was saying - and Wilberforce was never shy to state his own views on a subject - but he went to great lengths to treat his opponents with care." I thought, those verses about discernment and love are there together for a reason. We have to be discerning, but we also have to respond in love! Lord, help me to be discerning AND loving.
I always found it interesting that the first part of this speaks of discerning "spirits" here, but in chapter 3, he spoke of letting no "man" deceive you. This would not only apply to internal, but external discernment. Internally, to learn that what you are doing it right. Externally, to test any spirit that is leading a false teacher.
Asking about Jesus is a good start, but sometimes it takes more because error can come out in several places, but it always ends up in the denial of Christ. If you are wondering about someone, ask them. They may say all the right things when you refer to just Christ, at least initially. If they are not of Christ, they will condemn themselves (deny Him) out of their own mouths. I have encountered this recently and although they never denied Christ directly as far as the conversation went, it was obvious it was heading that way. First, I caught them bearing false witness, then as the discussion moved on, they ended up denying the inerrancy of Scripture by claiming that God didn't get a certain passage "right" until after the Hebrew had been translated into Latin and then translated into English. The third issue that came up was adding works to grace for salvation. Then they actively denied Scripture by "trumping" it with their "Holy Ghost feeling" that was "leading them".
Loving the unlovable is hard, but doable. The one that bothers me is the person who seriously harmed another that I love. It wasn't what this person did against myself or my spouse, that I have forgiven and moved on. In fact, we ended up greatly blessed in several ways after it got resolved, but I have not forgiven them what they did to the other person. This has not troubled my spirit, but I wonder about it. Perhaps it is that there is no repentance and false claims of innocence, but then there is no repentance and claims of innocence it what was done to my spouse and I also.
Proverbs 23:4 came up for me. The first part I have gotten down pretty much, but the second is one I have to guard against, although I've gotten better as time goes on.
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