Monthly Archives: November 2015

Stable In A Sinful World

Bible Study, , , , ,

STABLE IN A SINFUL WORLD

I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of His name. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. (1 John 2: 12-14)

I’m not quite sure what John’s reason was for singling groups of people out and for repeating what he had to say to them. Perhaps they needed encouragement because of the particular issues they faced at their time of life. We need to examine the circumstances of his readers since their lives were always in great peril as believers in Jesus who had to swim against the current of Jewish fanaticism and Roman antagonism because they refused to bow to Caesar as Lord.

In the overwhelming tide of idolatry in the Roman Empire of that day, there were pockets of people all over the empire who had renounced the worship of idols for the truth that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and that He died for their sins. The worship of idol gods entailed the offering of sacrifices, temple prostitution and sexual promiscuity, all in the name of “worship”. The lives of their devotees were riddled with sinful practices while the children of God were called to live holy lives, separated from unclean things in the midst of the evil all around them.

John, then, reminded the “children”, most likely not literal children, but those who, through faith in Jesus, had been adopted into God’s family and were therefore no longer a part of sinful society and the world system, that their sins had been forgiven. For the believer, sin wasn’t just violating the customs and practices of society around them or the gods they worshipped. Sin was anything that fell short of God’s perfection and holiness. It was not their worship or their sacrifices that brought them forgiveness of sin, but the death of God’s Son who gave His life for them.

It was important that they keep this fact in mind in the face of the false beliefs of their neighbours and the hostility they faced for daring to put their faith in a Jewish rabbi who was crucified as a criminal and whom, they claimed, rose from the dead and was alive in them. In the face of the filth of the world around them, their sins had been forgiven.

Who were the “fathers” John addressed? Were they the literal fathers? Were they the “fathers” of the flock of God’s people? It doesn’t matter. John knew that they also needed encouragement. Their sins were forgiven – they knew that – but, more than that, they knew the Father. What does it mean to “know” God? Not intellectual knowledge or even casual acquaintance. This was about knowing the Father intimately like sons who spend time with, have fellowship with and live in submission and obedience to their fathers because they love them.

They were fathers because they were mature believers who were not troubled or thrown by the ungodly society around them. They had long since been weaned from the world and its allurements. Their faces were towards God. They enjoyed fellowship with Him, which meant more to them than fellowship with the world. Idols no longer held them in fear. They had tasted the goodness of God and the joy of living under His authority in His kingdom. They were comfortable and secure in the love of God and content to keep trusting Him in the face of severe trials and the constant threat of death.

And what of the young men John addressed? These were the ones who were of the age to serve in the military. Perhaps John saw them as the “soldiers” in the army of God who had learned to overcome the enemy and were called to stand guard over the people of God. Perhaps they had done time in the Roman army, protecting the borders of the empire and preserving peace and stability in its colonies. From their military experience they knew what it meant to keep the enemy at bay.

However, they also knew that soldiers in the army of God were not to fight – Jesus had already overcome the enemy. It was their task to stand – to identify the enemy’s subtle tactics and unmask him by exposing his lies. Their weapons were not of the world but spiritual, faith as a shield and the sword of the Spirit – truth which would reveal his lies and leave him naked and defenceless.

They knew that the battle was not in their circumstances but in their minds. The devil tried to lure them back under his authority by sowing lies into their minds, but they would use the truth of God’s word to expose his lies and neutralise his power over them.

Unlike the idols of their day who were no more than an expression and extension of the worst of human nature, John’s readers knew that the forgiveness of their sins was real, that they had come to know the Father intimately and that they had the weapons and the knowledge and experience to overcome the enemy within.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

 

Hatred Is doing Nothing

Bible Study, , , ,

HATRED IS DOING NOTHING

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves his brother or sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. He does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded him. (1 John 2: 9-11)

Isn’t it strange how many of us have moved the goalposts to soothe our conscience so that we don’t have to do anything about the rifts and schisms we are part of in our families or in the church family. But John is very clear about the standards within the family.

What are darkness and light and what are the implications of “walking in darkness” or “walking in the light”? Darkness is essentially the absence of light. Light reveals and makes visible what is there. When a light is turned off or a lamp extinguished in a room, everything that the light revealed is no longer visible. It is still there but it can’t be seen.

Before we came to faith in Christ, Jesus said that we were in darkness, walking in ignorance of God and His ways. Ignorance, for example, is a form of mental darkness. Our minds have not been informed. Unbelief keeps us in spiritual darkness. Everything we can know about God has been revealed but we have not received it and therefore remain ignorant about Him, His requirements for us and the life He promises us when we return to Him.

True light is to be found in God and in His Word. Paul said that what can be known about Him has been revealed through creation, but people deliberately choose to ignore what creation is telling them and choose to believe their own lies. David was conscious of the unceasing voice of creation, calling out the greatness and the glory of God in silent witness, day and night.

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world. (Psa. 19: 1-4a)

Wilful sin keeps people in darkness. Although they have the voice of creation and the voice of conscience, they choose to remain in the dark because they love their sin.

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. (John 3: 19-20)

It is easy for believers to sit back and think that we are okay because we believe in Jesus. We are not in darkness any longer. But Jesus warns us, “Not so fast!” From His perspective, walking in darkness is as much about not doing the right thing as it is about doing the wrong thing. We can congratulate ourselves because we don’t hate our brother or sister, either in our natural family or in our Christian family.

How many times did He fall foul of the Pharisees because He healed people on the Sabbath? On one occasion He released a woman from a disabling condition that kept her bend over and unable to look up for eighteen years. The synagogue leader announced to the people:

‘There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.’  The Lord answered him, ‘You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?’ (Luke 13: 15-16)

For Jesus not to do anything for her just because it was the Sabbath was as wrong as doing something really wicked.

To John, then, walking in darkness by hating one’s brother or sister was as much about ignoring their need as it was about actively holding grudges against them. In chapter 3 of his letter, he spells it out quite clearly.

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

When we choose to ignore a need we can do something about, we are as much in darkness as the pagan who bows down to an idol and calls it “God”.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

 

The Old Command Is New

Bible Study, , ,

THE OLD COMMAND IS NEW

Dear friends, I am not writing a new command but an old one, which you had since the beginning. This old command is the message you heard. Yet I am writing a new command; its truth is seen in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. (1 John 2: 7-8)

What is the old command that is now new? In the previous chapter, John highlighted the importance of walking in the light in order to maintain fellowship with one another and with the Father and the Son. This was nothing new to his readers if they were Jewish. All their lives they had been taught to obey God’s commands. They understood that they were to live their lives in the light of God’s Word.

The fact that their ancestors had failed to obey God’s Word did not change His requirements. Unfortunately, the pure word of God had been embellished over the centuries by the rabbis’ interpretations and by the addition of so many petty extras that the heart of God’s Word had been obscured.

What was new to them was the embodiment of that Word in a person. In his gospel, John had introduced Jesus to his readers as the Word – logos.

“Logos is the Greek term translated as “word,” “speech,” “principle,” or “thought.” In Greek philosophy, it also referred to a universal, divine reason or the mind of God . . .

“John’s Gospel begins by using the Greek idea of a “divine reason” or “the mind of God” as a way to connect with the readers of his day and introduce Jesus to them as God. Greek philosophy may have used the word in reference to divine reason, but John used it to note many of the attributes of Jesus.”

http://www.gotquestions.org/what-is-the-Logos.html (retrieved November 2015)

Jesus came from the Father in person, both fully God and fully man, to reveal the true nature of God by being God’s message to His people in person. They no longer had any excuse for not knowing what the true God was like and what He required of them because it was visible in Jesus.

Jesus said that He had not come to do away with the law – torah – God’s directions for living the life that pleased and reflected Him. He came to “fulfil” it – to live it out in person and in the spirit of torah, so that they would understand what God wanted and how to obey Him. It was in this sense that the commandment was both old and new.

Jesus did not come to change God’s standards or to do away with them. He only did away with that which obscured the true meaning of the way God wanted His people to live. The religious leaders of His day misled His people by placing so much emphasis on the petty additions to God’s instructions that they had thrown mercy out of the window for the rules of behaviour that were nothing but slavery to the people of God.

Jesus was the true light – the revelation of what God wanted – by living in loving submission and obedience to His Father. God did not want children who slavishly followed rules but had no fellowship with the Him, like the elder brother in Jesus’ story of the father and his two sons. Obedience to God’s requirements was not an end in itself. His laws were His prescription for keeping the lines of communication open between His children and Himself so that He could share intimate fellowship with them.

His commandments were never intended to be restrictive but protective because He knew our capacity to destroy ourselves when we make our own rules. Look where the rebellion of the human race against God has brought us. We have trashed His earth, wasted His resources, messed up the natural world and driven nations and peoples apart by our selfishness and greed.

God’s way promotes reconciliation, fosters forgiveness, harmony and peace among people. It teaches us to care for our world and for one another instead of leaving a trail of wreckage and devastation behind us wherever we go.

Our sin brings death; Jesus came to bring us life – to show us what real life is when we fall in line with who God is, what He requires and what He can do with those who come back under His authority. Life is about becoming fully human again. Sin dehumanises us. It makes us less than who we really are, and who we were created to be. Jesus came to restore us to our full potential as God children. That can only happen when we return to the Father through Jesus and follow our Master by walking in the light and truth of God’s Word.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

The Measure Of Truth

Bible Study, , ,

THE MEASURE OF TRUTH

We know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commands. Whoever says, ‘I know Him,’ but does not keep His commands is a liar and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys His word, love for God is truly made complete in him. This is how we know that we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did. (1 John 2: 3-6)

What a difference between the standards of God’s Word and the standards that are applied in many parts of the church today! In some denominations, doctrine has become the standard of acceptance. As long as its members adhere to the right doctrines – or at least to the doctrines they believe in – everything else is acceptable.

One denomination I know of makes infant baptism the test. If any of its members dares to be baptised by immersion as a believer in obedience to Jesus’ command, he or she is immediately excommunicated because he has “undone his salvation”. Others make premillennialism the criterion. Its members must believe in a secret rapture, an evil antichrist political world ruler and seven years of tribulation before Jesus returns.

Sometimes the standards of the church are whittled down to what is socially or politically acceptable, regardless of what the Word of God says about it. The gay agenda is a case in point. God’s clear condemnation of homosexuality is smoothed over by fine-sounding arguments and rationalisation until it sounds as though we know the truth and God is at fault.

Now I ask, “Where did they find those requirements among the commands of Jesus?”

Peter had blown it badly. He was in the depths of despair because his beloved Master, whom he professed to love, was dead, and he had no opportunity to seek His forgiveness for his terrible words on the eve of His death. Jesus had warned him about a coming test but Peter had brushed it aside with a cock-sure denial of his weakness. “Even though everyone else forsakes you, I will never do it!”

Then it happened. Peter was caught off guard by a servant girl in the courtyard of the high priest’s house. He lied, and he could not take it back. Instead of owning up, he lied again, twice more and then the cock crowed. It was Jesus’ look that undid him. He remembered Jesus’ warning – too late, and that look of compassion cracked him up. He wept as he had never wept before – big, tough, blustering, motor-mouth Peter!

No, it was not that he did not believe in the right doctrines, or that he failed to carry out the right rituals. He lied about his association with Jesus.

But there was a sequel to Peter’s failure. Jesus was back among them, alive, as He said He would do. He found His disciples in Galilee, back fishing. He prepared a delicious fish barbeque for them and invited them to join Him. After breakfast, when their hunger was satisfied, He turned to Peter with an unexpected question. “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

Not, “Why did you do it?” or “Do you promise never to do that again?” but a simple, “Do you me?” Jesus said nothing about Peter’s failure. Not a word of accusation. Not a whisper of reproach. Just “Do you love me?” Three times, “Do you love me?” Peter must have had to think very deeply about his response. Did he really love Jesus? Why did He ask him that question? Any other question would have been easier to answer.

But, you see, that’s the difference between belonging to a club or organization and belonging to Jesus. We don’t keep the rules because we love the club. We keep the rules so that we are not thrown out. But belonging to Jesus is based on a different criterion.

If you love me, show it by doing what I have told you. (John 14:15 – The Message)

We have already talked about the essence of God’s nature. God is love. Love is the energy that drives Him. Everything about Him is motivated by love. It stands to reason, then, that love is the glue that binds Him to us and, therefore, should bind us to Him.

Our love for Jesus is the power behind everything we do, or should be. If we find it difficult to obey Him, we need to ask the question of ourselves that Jesus asked Peter: “Do I really love Him?” Love is the only force that will keep us in union with Him. When we are driven to obey by the fear of punishment, we are still slaves at heart. When we are motivated by love for Jesus, we are the true children of God.

Not our belief systems or adherence to our church’s requirements, but our love for Jesus, demonstrated by our obedience to what He told us in His word, is the acid test. Our love for Him is expressed by the way we hate what He hates and care about what He cares about. It’s not about keeping rules or else . . . It’s about loving Jesus enough to uphold everything that is important to Him.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

 

 

Keep The Record Clean

Bible Study, ,

KEEP THE RECORD CLEAN

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2: 1-2)

John – from “Boanerges”, a son of thunder to “the beloved disciple” – a changed man if ever there was one! What transformed him so completely? Was it the discovery of a love so great that he could never be the same again? It was a love that paid his debt and set him free to live and love in the power of the Holy Spirit.

John’s first chapter, artificially subdivided, but nevertheless significant, is all about fellowship. What must we do to protect our fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ? “Don’t fool yourself if you have sinned,” said John. “Own up and come clean with God. You can’t fool Him, and you will be estranged from Him until you admit your guilt and receive His pardon and His cleansing.”

Sin is no longer an issue to God but it is still an issue to us because it affects our fellowship with the Him. “So,” John said, “you don’t have to sin any more.” God has taken care of our sin, once for all, through the death of His Son. He has not only removed it from us, but He has also broken its power over us. He has unmasked the devil who deceived us into believing that we owed allegiance to him, masquerading as Lord, and holding us captive by our bias towards sin.

However, we are still left with the responsibility of making choices, and that makes us vulnerable to the remnants of our sin nature. We can still be tripped up in unguarded moments, and we can still give in to the temptations of the flesh in weak moments. But that does not mean that we have to start all over again. God’s provision is complete. We have a legal expert, Jesus, the Righteous One, who continues to plead our case with the Father.

He has a watertight case for mercy – His own blood that He gave as an atoning sacrifice. What does that mean? Our sin did not only corrupt and pollute us so that we could no longer have access to our Father, but it also offended God. God is perfectly holy; just and righteous in all His ways. Our sin was a stench in His nostrils. It made Him very angry because it was an affront to everything He did for us.

Imagine a human father building a beautiful home for his family in a quiet and peaceful neighbourhood, tastefully furnishing it with comfortable furniture, and stocking it with every delectable food item for their pleasure and enjoyment. It has a games-room with comfortable couches, a huge flat screen TV, every imaginable kind of book to read and game to play, a bar with fruit juices of every flavour in a refrigerator and tasty snacks of every, and every facility you can think of in the house.

When it is complete, he invites his family to view the house and to move in. All they have to do is to bring in their clothing and live under his authority and guidance, and in harmony with one another in their beautiful home, sharing the blessing of everything he has provided.

What do his children do? They thumb their noses at him, refuse to move into the home which he had built for them at great cost, and choose to live in the garden shed which is full of clutter, rats and cockroaches because they do not want to live under his authority or keep his rules. But, even worse than that, they got into the house and trashed it from one end to the other, smashing the furniture and throwing the food and drink onto the floor.

Would that father not be justifiably angry with his children? He has done everything for them out of the love of his heart, but they reject his love because they did not want to be restricted by his authority. He turned his back on them and let them go their own way, and face the consequences of their choices, but he grieved for them because he still loved them and wanted them to return to him.

God was justifiably angry with the human race because we did that to Him. We sniffed at His love; we refused to live under His roof and we trashed the beautiful earth He created for us.  Worst of all, by making our own rules, we destroyed the bodies He created to be His home. He did not only want to live with us; He wanted to live in us, but we fouled up our hearts with so much sin that we became a stench in His nostrils.

So what did He do? He sent His own Son, made exactly like we were before we chose to rebel against our Father. He lived a pure life in a fouled up world with stinking people messed up by sin. They took Him and threw Him out, killing Him by nailing Him to cross because His life showed them up for who they were, and they hated Him for it.

But this was God’s plan because His perfect Son was to take our place. He poured out His wrath against our sin on His Son until His anger was fully satisfied. Now He was free to woo His estranged children back to Himself and clean them up when they responded to His love.

God’s remedy for sin was for all sin, for all people, for all time. Did you get that? Don’t let anyone ever tell you that Jesus only died for the elect. John stated very clearly that He atoned for the sins of the whole world. Everyone has been forgiven but it is only effective for those who have received His forgiveness by faith and come back to the Father to live in His house, under His authority and in obedience to Him.

So everyone is invited to return. And we don’t have to sin any more. Let’s keep the record clean so that we can enjoy fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?