Tag Archives: First Epistle of John

The Spirit Test

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I once met a man who had devoted his entire life to spirituality.  He was revered in his community.  His main responsibility every morning, was to go up on a high hill and perform a ceremony that would wake God up for the day.  In order to be punctual, so God would not oversleep, this man set an alarm clock.  You can probably spot some logical problems with his form of spirituality.  

To know that someone is “spiritual” is no guarantee that they are telling you the truth, or that they even have your best interest in mind.  Some “spiritual” leaders actually use their position to abuse others.  We have to be discerning.  Jesus told His followers to be “shrewd as snakes” because He was sending them out like sheep among wolves (Matthew 10:16).

Here’s how John taught us what to look for:

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.  This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,  but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.  (1 John 4:1-3)

At first glance, an odd test: Did Jesus Christ actually come in the flesh?  In John’s day there were all sorts of “spiritual” teachings that denied Jesus’ humanity.  Once they repackaged Jesus, they could make Him into a Messiah that conformed with their own ideas.  Others, over the years, have added and subtracted from the Biblical record of Who Jesus was, what He said and what He was like, in order to mold Him into a more understandable or comfortable Messiah.

But with Jesus, what you see is what you get.  He came in human flesh.  He lived a sinless life.  He claimed to be One with God.  He willingly died a bloody, agonizing death.  He was brought back to life by God.  He is God’s only plan to reconcile humans to Himself.  He is the Way, the Truth and the Life – for everyone who believes.

A teaching may be spiritual, but if it changes Jesus, it isn’t Holy Spiritual.

Dead or Alive?

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If you get trained in CPR, they frequently say things like, “Don’t worry about tearing their clothes or breaking a rib; they are dead; they won’t care – that is, unless you can bring them back to life!   Puts the whole deal into perspective.  It really matters when you go from death to life.

Jesus knew that humans were not connected to the Holy Spirit and were dead – “dead” like a cell phone is dead without a cell signal. (For another analogy, see Who Can Fix It?)  But Jesus came with spiritual CPR.  He said,

“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. (John 5:24)

Notice, that “eternal life” is not something given once a person dies, but is given at the moment of belief.  The crossover from death to life has already happened for those who believe. It is the Holy Spirit, living in their souls.  But this “new life” is given to people who had always assumed they were already alive!  But how can we be sure this new life is real?  How can we check?  On a phone, you make a call: if it goes through, you know your phone isn’t dead.  How can we know about eternal life?

John says:

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.  (1 John 3:14)

But what is “love?”  Anybody who has ever exchanged valentines in 3rd Grade knows that the word, love, is pretty loosey-goosey.  And everybody loves somebody in some kind of way.  But John doesn’t leave us wondering: He is talking about the kind of love that is the exact opposite of hate.

Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.   This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.  (1 John 3:15-16)

Hate is a response designed to protect myself from someone who I think wants to take something away from me (could be money, girlfriend, fame, prestige, an aisle seat…).  Love, John says, is a response motivating me to give myself to someone because they have a need.  This isn’t 3rd Grade valentine love.  It’s not “I love you, I need you, I wa-aaaa-nt you…”  Not even close.  This is, “I will give myself up for you.”  Even if you hate me.

But let’s face it: we are not often in a situation where laying down our lives would make any difference for someone else.  So, John makes it practical, …  and threatening.  He says:

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.  (1 John 3:17-18)

Are you dead or alive?  John says, consider your response when you see someone in need.  If we turn away, hoping someone else takes care of the need, or perhaps rationalizing why it would be wrong for us to help, then “how can the love of God be in [us]?”  Whose love?  God’s!  Where?  In us! This kind of self-sacrificial love is so contrary to our ordinary human impulse that, when we see it in ourselves, we know God is doing it, we know God’s Spirit lives in us.   God’s love doesn’t just say, “I love you;” it puts that love into action!

John is not claiming that everyone who believes in Jesus is  immediately transformed into the person Mother Teresa wished she could be.  John knows that receiving the Spirit does not make us suddenly perfect in every way.  However, if you habitually harbor an attitude of hatred toward someone, or if you habitually turn away with indifference from someone else’s need, you have good reason to question whether you have “passed from death to life.”

But, if you notice a change in your heart, and find yourself acting with self-sacrificial concern for others, the costly kind of love Jesus extended to us,

This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence  whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. (1 John 3:19-20)

Extreme Makeover

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If you knew this family you’d be rooting for them, even though there isn’t much hope for them.  Recently widowed by the war, the single mom struggles to raise her children, one of whom really needs a special wheel chair – the cost of which is beyond thinking about.  She’s just been laid off.  She’s doing her best but the house, damaged badly from a super-storm, is beyond repair… Enter Ty Pennington and the guys from ABC’S “Extreme Makeover, Home Edition.” (This popular show is no longer on the air.)   Within moments of their arrival, the surprised family has been sent off on a posh vacation, bulldozers have been called in, along with ant-like hordes of construction volunteers, to scrape away the house and rebuild it into the home of her dreams.

English: VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (Feb. 2, 2011) Sa...

English: VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (Feb. 2, 2011) Sailors assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) help build a home for a mother currently raising six foster children. The project is part of an episode of Extreme Home Makeover: Home Edition. Theodore Roosevelt is undergoing a multi-year refueling complex overhaul at Northrop Grumman Newport News Shipbuilding. (U.S. Navy photo by Lt. Cmdr. Karen E. Eifert/Released) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here’s the thing:  While they are gone, It doesn’t take long for hotel living to wear thin, especially with a bunch of kids who have special needs. But they all know that one day they will be back home. They don’t have any idea of what “back home” will be like, simply that it will be unimaginably better. One day soon they will see it. And tour it. And get the keys for it, along with a paid-up mortgage.  Imagine her anticipation.   If you’ve ever watched that show, you know …

Now read this:

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  (1 John 3:2)

John says, “Fellow believers in Jesus, we have been born into the family of God and one day we are going home. We don’t have much of a clue what “home” will be like, but it’s going to be wonderful.”  Maybe that seems like a fantasy to you.  If so, if you think God can’t pull that off, plant some wild flower seeds in dirt – dirt mixed with manure – and wait and watch to see what God does.   Consider whether a caterpillar has any inkling of what the future will be like as a butterfly.

John says we know, that one day we will be like Jesus; that one day we will be able to see Jesus as He really is!   Imagine having eyes that are not startled to see Jesus strolling on a lake or healing the blind. Imagine one day being able to think like Jesus!  We are in for an extreme makeover!

There’s more to this – keep chewing and stay tuned…

Slathered with Love

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When I think about the word “lavish” the first thing that comes to

English: Cinnamon roll as produced by cinnabon

English: Cinnamon roll as produced by cinnabon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

mind is Cinnabon.    I know, I know, you’ve never actually eaten one of these – just looked at them as you went by…  Right.  But if you work for Cinnabon, you need to know how to lavish.  You need to lay on the cinnamon and butter and icing without any restraint!  That’s my point.

Think about what “lavish” means as you read this next line from 1 John:

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. (1 John 3:1)

God lavished His love on us by bringing us into His family as His loved children.  Perhaps your experience with your dad was not ideal.  God’s version of fatherhood is perfect.  So much so, He encourages us to come to Him whenever we are in need, without formality or hesitancy (Hebrews 4:16).  He told us to call Him “Papa” (Abba, in Hebrew – Romans 8:15).  Most people, if they accept the idea of being a child of God at all, think of the relationship portrayed in the von Trapp family in the beginning of “Sound of Music,” with the kids all in uniform, standing at attention and responding to signals from a captain’s whistle.  God’s version is a lot more like the family interacts at the end of that musical.

John says “the world does not know us” and that is true.  Believers and followers of Jesus are commonly misunderstood and criticized.  They don’t get it because they are not (yet!) in the family. When the family gets together things go on that those in the world have never experienced.  I remember my childhood family, the kids lying around on the floor in front of a crackling fire, with my dad sitting in his favorite chair, reading a story.  Things happen in God’s family that are much, much better.

Such as Papa’s love, lavished on His children…

Greeting Jesus

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The monk hammers on the old wooden door, waking the abbot.  Blustering and stammering, he says, “There’s a man downstairs who says he is Jesus and has returned!  What should we do?”   “Look busy!”

Old joke, but it raises a good question.  If Jesus returned and came up to you, what would your reaction be?  If you knew that you were face to face with the Son of Almighty God, the Savior, what would you feel?  Fear?  Regret?  Shame?  Embarrassment?  Any of those strike a chord?  Quite probably so.  But what if you could be sure it was appropriate to run to meet Him with complete confidence and joy, without a trace of sheepishness or shame?  Turns out, that is what is intended for us, who have placed our trust in Jesus:

And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.  (1 John 2:28)

You have seen the videos: a child is in school, going through her daily activities, when suddenly Dad appears, home from his service in Afghanistan.  How does she respond?  She runs to him, embraces him with joyful tears.  That’s the idea for our response when Jesus returns!

But how?  How can that be possible?  I mean, … the Son of God…?  John shows us how.  First, our relationship to Jesus is that of a “dear child.”  By faith in Christ, we have been given the right to become a child of God.

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God... (John 1:12)

[Jesus said,] “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”  (Mark 10:15)

As a child of God, when you see “Papa,” run to Him!  He will be so glad to see you coming.

Secondly, John says “continue in Him.”   The word translated “continue” is the same word previously translated “remain.”  It means to make your permanent home in Him.  Abide in Him.  There’s more on this word in “Stay Home.”  You make your home in Jesus and He will make His home in you.  When you see Him coming toward you, it will be like coming home!

Chew on that…   The more you do, the more you will taste of its deep truths.  You are meant to sing this song as your own: “Joy to the world! The Lord is come!”

Stay Home

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It’s been mighty cold here in Colorado.  When I come home on subzero nights, I like to fix a warm mug of tea, kick off my boots and flop down into my easy chair.  I’m home.  Once I’m settled in, I’m secure.  I don’t have to keep checking to see if this really is my home, to see if I’m really still here, or to see if it is still here.  I live here.  To use the Bible word, I “remain” here (some Bible translations say “abide”).  This is my natural place of rest, my default position, the place in which I make my home.  That’s what the word “remain” means.

John writes:

See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.  And this is what he promised us—even eternal life.  (1 John 2:24-25)

“What you have heard from the beginning…” is the simple, uncomplicated truth about Jesus.  Jesus is the Son of God, Whose death has purchased the gift of eternal life for all those who will believe it and accept it.   John says, See that this simple truth “remains” in you, that it makes its home in you.  If it does, he says, your home will be in Jesus.  You will be at home in God.

If that sounds confusing, think of what happens when you move.  At first, your new house or apartment, isn’t really “home” yet; you are still getting used to it.  Gradually, as you allow it to become “home” in you, you find yourself “at home” in it, right?  John says, as Jesus’ simple truth begins to be at home in you, you will discover that you are “at home” in God.  This two-way relationship is reflected in Jesus’ teaching:

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (John 14:20)

John writes to remind and reassure his brothers and sisters in Jesus because, right from the first, some people have tried to twist the message of Jesus, to complicate it and make it say what they want.  In doing so, they attempt to lead people astray. 

I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.  

 John says, Remember where your “home” is and stay home. By “staying home,” he says, you don’t need to worry about being led astray.  Why not?   Because you have the Holy Spirit to guide you.  He makes His home in you, and you in Him:

As for you, the anointing [the Holy Spirit] you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.  (1 John 2:26-27)

So, wherever you go, stay home.

No Small Detail

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On Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, near Atlanta, GA, a new billboard now invites people to “Find Jesus in the Quran.”  Surprised?  Don’t be.  Most of the religions I checked have some form of belief in Jesus.  The problem is not what these religions (Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Buddhism, Baha’i, and even some watered down versions of Christianity!) believe about Jesus, but what they do NOT believe about Him.  They believe He was a prophet, an angelic being, a wise teacher, an incarnation of love, etc.  But they do not believe that Jesus, as the Son of God, is the human manifestation of God.

What difference does that make?  It’s no small detail, but a make or break essential.  Here is what this “wise teacher” said about Himself:

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. (John 14:9b)

I and the Father are one. (John 10:30)

Don’t avoid the meaning of this second, simple statement; the people who first heard it did not misunderstand what He meant.  As they picked up rocks to bash His brains out, they said they were doing so:

“… because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”  (John 10:33b)

To say that Jesus was merely a “wise teacher” is to ignore Who He claimed to be.  You can’t have a watered down version of Jesus without denying that He told the truth.  To deny Who He is, is to oppose Who He is.  Here is how John stated this blunt truth:

Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son.  No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. (1 John 2:22-23)

You might find someone called Jesus in the Quran, but you will not find The Son of God, The Savior in that book.  Make sure you know Who He really is!

Personal note:  Thanks for waiting; we had a great time visiting kids and grand-kids for Thanksgiving, arriving back in Colorado just as the state became freeze-dried by an arctic blast.  Brrrrrrrr…

Spotting a Fake – Part 2

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This world is full of false preachers, scam artists who seem to be following Jesus but who in reality are working to become wealthy and famous.  John calls these guys by the right name: “antichrists.”  Last time we considered one of the clues to look for in spotting this type of charlatan.  John says watch out for those who do “not really belong to us.”  (See Spotting a Fake).   But there is a better way:

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.   I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.  (1 John 2:20-21)

God designed humans to be intimately connected to Him by His Holy Spirit.  Sin destroyed that connection.  Jesus came to restore it.  (There is more detail about this in many of my earlier posts.  Click on the “New Here?” link above.)  To all those who would believe in Him, trust Him and follow Him.  He said:

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—  the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”  (John 14:16-17)

The reason Jesus called the Holy Spirit the “Spirit of Truth” is because:

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.  (John 16:13a)

John says, if you truly follow Jesus, He has “annointed” you (given you, filled you) with the Holy Spirit, the One Who guides you into all truth.  Listen to Him!  He will show you how to spot a fake!

I appreciate your tuning in to this “blog,” chewing over neat things from the Bible with me.  I hope you will share it with people you know who have never developed a “taste” for the Bible.  Let me wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving!  God is so good.  His blessings, His faithfulness are experienced new each day.  I’ll be taking a few days off from writing this as I spend time with family.

How to Live Forever

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The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:17)

The world  promises, if you just eat this, drink that, try this, buy that, build this, own that, then you will be fulfilled and happy.  The promise is a lie.  All those things of the world pass away; they are temporary.  That word, temporary, slaps us like the word, condemned, spray painted on an abandoned building.  Temporary.  They won’t last.

English: Artist's illustration of one model of...

English: Artist’s illustration of one model of the bright gamma-ray burst GRB 080319B. The explosion is highly beamed into two bipolar jets, with a narrow inner jet surrounded by a wider outer jet. Русский: Художественная иллюстрация одной модели яркого гамма-всплеска GRB 080319B. Взрыв представляется в виде мощных полярно направленных выбросов плазмы, состоящих из узких внутренних и более широких внешних струй. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Over coffee this morning, I read in the paper about a gamma ray burst that happened recently in space.  Astronomers calmly reported that it was so massive that, had it been closer to the earth, we would have been incinerated in an instant.  Thanks, guys…   Maybe I’ll get another cup…

The lusts of the flesh do not satisfy, except for the shortest of moments.  The “pause that refreshes” ultimately leaves you thirsty.  The finest meal is ultimately chewed, swallowed and eliminated.  The promise of sexual thrill can leave you stumbling around in the dark basement of self regret.  The newest computer quickly becomes too slow.  The bigger house soon becomes filled with junk.  Then it needs to be repainted.  Beauty, that comes at such high cost, ultimately slips away, cackling with cruel laughter.  The greatest achievement is quickly surpassed.

“But the man who does the will of God, lives forever.”  More literally, He abides forever.  He “makes his home” in God forever.  Jesus enables those who trust Him to connect to God like that – forever.

Doing the will of God is not a matter of knowing a list of things you should not eat, drink, say, do or buy.  It’s a matter of living in close harmony with God, naturally responding as He reveals His purposes in real time.  Living in the world, but not being consumed by it, is a matter of making your home, your true home, in God.  It’s a matter of knowing God and acknowledging God in all things, responding to His direction and looking ahead to His promises.  It’s receiving both good things and challenging things from His hand with the same attitude of trust and humility.

The one who hears and does God’s will discovers that:

Cravings are replaced with contentment.
Covetousness is replaced by gratitude.
Boasting is replaced by amazement.
“I need” is replaced by “I shall not want.”
“I want” is replaced by  “Thank You, Lord.”
“I matter” is replaced by “God shows His strength in my weakness.”
Sliding inevitably into death is replaced by abiding in God forever.

The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:17)

Don’t Settle for Stuff

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A very loving, generous and wealthy man invites you to come live with him as though you were a member of his family.  If you take him up on his offer, you can occupy one of the homes on his country estate, eat his food, and use his stuff.  You can ride his horses, race his ATV’s, swim in his pool, sail his boats; it’s all available to you.  Why?  Just because he loves you like a natural child.  He wants to wrap you into his family.

I know, I know, it’s not likely, but just humor me for a few lines here.

 You take him up on his offer and move in.  For awhile it is wonderful, but eventually you become discontent.  You would like different food, a faster ATV, more expensive horses.  And you really would like to own a few of these things.  Or a lot of them…    So, you watch for opportunities to steal from this man.  You are not caught – at least he doesn’t say anything about  your theft – but now you don’t really like to see him anymore.  It makes you feel bad to be with him. But you love your stuff.  It makes you feel superior.  You go to town and brag about how much you have.  Now others are envious of you and that makes you proud.   

Who would do such a thing?  Anyone, John says, who becomes dissatisfied with what he has and obsessed with getting more and better stuff.  Anyone, says John, who forgets the love and generosity of God who blessed him with everything he ever had – including life itself.  Anyone, says John, who thinks better stuff makes him more important.  Here’s how he said it:

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.  (1 John 2:15-16)

When someone ignores the One Who invited him (or her) to live in His “estate” and focuses instead on getting better stuff, he loses his love for his Father.  He trades in his relationship with his loving Father for a bunch of stuff.  That may sound like no big deal, until you realize that he also has traded in life for death.  John says:

The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:17)

There’s a story in Genesis about a guy named Esau, who gave up his birthright as the firstborn son so he could have something to eat (Genesis 25:34).  He could have had it all forever, but he exchanged his place in his father’s family for a temporary helping of stuff.  Dumb.  Don’t settle for stuff instead of life.  Jesus taught this principle with these words:

Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”  (John 6:27)

For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (John 6:33)

Don’t settle for stuff.