Monthly Archives: April 2022

A CLEAR DISTINCTION

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A CLEAR DISTINCTION

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love his brother or sister (1 John 3: 8b-10).

John makes a very powerful statement here: No one who is born of God will continue to sin because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning because he has been born of God. To what does this “seed” refer?

It’s amazing how many things begin with a seed. Take the natural world for example. God placed the blueprint of every plant and animal in its seed. There is a power pack of information inside every seed, from the biggest to the smallest and, given the right conditions, the seed will grow and become a replica of its parent.

God also has a “seed”. Jesus told a parable about a farmer who sowed seed in his field. In Luke’s version of the story, Jesus identified the seed as “the word of God.” Peter remembered and wrote in his letter:

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God (1 Pet. 1:23).

God’s Word has in it the DNA of everything that God is and, when it is sown into the heart of a human being, in the soil of faith and obedience, it grows and begins to reproduce the nature of God in the recipient. It is impossible for a seed to reproduce anything other than what its DNA contains. A bear, for instance, cannot reproduce lion cubs. In the same way, a person who has received the seed of God’s Word by faith cannot go on reproducing the fruit of Satan’s occupation in his life.

Being “born again” implies that he has begun a new life from a different Father. In this case, however, although he has a new nature, he still has the power to choose, and he can choose to follow the old nature which is still in him. But the new nature in him, the nature of God draws him towards doing what is right according to the DNA of God which is in His Word.

John concludes that it is impossible for those who are born of God to continue to rebel against God by doing what is contrary to the nature of God as a way of life, just as it is impossible for a lion, for example, to eat plants and to hibernate in the winter like a bear. A bear’s way of life has not been written into its DNA.

This has huge implications for those who claim to be children of God and yet still live like the children of the devil. It isn’t what they say that reveals who their father is, but what they do. Of course, this does not mean that the devil gave them natural birth. Satan has no power to create. He only has the power to deceive. Every person born into the world carries the spiritual DNA of the evil one since Eve was deceived into believing Satan’s lie that he, not God, is in charge. Adam was not deceived. He disobeyed God because he had received God’s instruction which he chose to ignore.

The first pair changed allegiance and took on a new nature – the nature of disobedience. Through the work of Jesus on the cross – His perfect obedience to the Father through His life and death – He undid the work of Satan. He revealed that He is Lord, which the Father confirmed by exalting Him to the highest place and giving Him the title of Lord. He destroyed the devil’s work, and gave those who believe in Him the right to be called children of God. God’s DNA was restored to those who believe in Him, enabling them by the power of His Spirit, to reflect God’s nature in the way they live.

There is a clear distinction, then, between the children of God and the children of the devil. Those who belong to God have the nature of God and do the works of God, not perfectly but purposefully because God’s Word is in them. What are the works of God? The way we treat other people – with love, mercy, and generosity – shows those around us whose seed is in us.

Malachi describes this distinction in the beautiful words of his prophecy 400 years before Jesus came to earth.

Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in His presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honoured His name. ‘On the day when I act,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not (Mal. 3: 16-18).  

God’s DNA is in us. Let us show the world who our Father is by the way we reflect Him in our lives.

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

WHOSE SON ARE YOU?

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WHOSE SON ARE YOU?

Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that He appeared so that He might take away our sins. And in Him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps in sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous. The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. (1 John 3: 4-8a)

Once again John has to address a subtle part of the false teaching circulating in the Roman Empire and undermining the pure gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Gnosticism was beginning to emerge at that time. One of the basic beliefs of Gnosticism was that there is a distinction between matter and spirit. Matter is evil in and of itself while the spirit is good. The material part of the human being, the body is therefore sinful and cannot be redeemed. .

Greek philosophers parted company at this point. Stoics taught that the way to deal with the sinful body is to punish it as much as possible. Epicureans taught that it was okay to indulge the body in all the sinful pleasures possible because it could not be redeemed anyway. These two opposing ideas, of course, threw doubt on the nature of the Son of God. If matter is sinful and the spirit is good, then Jesus could not possibly have been a true human being. His body was an illusion, not a real body.

John put the brakes on both of these false ideas. If the body is sinful and cannot be redeemed, then Jesus’ death on the cross was not a real death. Jesus could not have redeemed us from sin, firstly because nothing can redeem the body and secondly, because His death was only an illusion. If the spirit is essentially good, there was no need for Jesus to die because the spirit does not need saving. 

However, John pointed out by implication, human beings are not split up into separate compartments, matter and spirit. People sin, not bodies, and sin affects people, not some parts of them. The real issue is; not which part of us is good and which part of us is evil but what do we do with God’s commandments? Do we obey them or do we not obey them?

But Jesus Christ was a real person. He came to earth as a human baby born of a human mother. He came in the flesh to deal with sin by dying a real death in the place of the sinner. He came to do away with sin so that those who believe in Him can be free to do what is right. This involves both body and spirit as whole people.

How do we know who are the children of God are and who the children of the devil are? Look at their lives. Those who do the right thing – those who obey God’s Word – are the ones who have been born of God. What does that mean? They have been made alive by the Holy Spirit, they have God’s nature (2 Pet. 1:4) and they resemble God because they do what He tells them to do. “Children of the devil” does not mean, as some erroneously teach, that they have literally been born of the devil. Satan cannot create. Only God can and has created human beings. Every baby born is a unique creation of God (Psa. 139: 13) and is, in that sense, His son or daughter.

“Children of” refers to the one whom they resemble in their lifestyle and actions. Jesus accused the Pharisees of resembling the devil in spite of their claim to be the children of Abraham because they were planning to kill Him. Abraham was no murderer but the devil certainly is (John 8:44).

John takes up this thought here. Sinful lives are the great dividing line. Those who keep on sinning reveal their true nature. They are still under the devil’s influence. Those who claim to be the children of God but keep on sinning negate their claim by the way they live. “Sin” here is much more than doing really bad things – in our estimation – like lying, stealing or committing murder or adultery. It includes attitudes, moods, motives, refusing to forgive, harbouring bitterness and hatred and all the other hidden sins of the heart.

Sin, from God’s perspective, is everything that does not measure up to His perfection and His holiness. For those who are “in Christ” sin has been dealt with and removed, and we have received God’s gift of Christ’s perfect righteousness by faith. Our part is to live up to who we are – to confirm our righteous standing before God by obey His Word. As impossible as this is for us to do on our own, the Holy Spirit in us gives us the power to follow through on our decisions and choices to be God’s obedient children.

This is the acid test, not what we say but what we do.

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.

IT IS FOR REAL

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IT IS FOR REAL

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we could 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. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. All who have this hope in Him purify themselves, just as He is pure. (1 John 3: 1-3)

Children of God! This was an important truth to John.

He had once been a part of the world, even though he was a Jew, thinking like the world and behaving like the people of the world system. He knew what it was like to hate, to live by retaliation and revenge. He knew the ravages of guilt and shame, fear and anxiety. He knew the pain of broken relationships, the bitterness of resentment and unforgiveness. He knew the havoc his conscience caused when he refused to acknowledge his sin and tried to pretend that it didn’t happen. John knew what it felt like to be an orphan – estranged from God and afraid of Him.

Then Jesus came and his world was turned upside down. He was introduced to the Father he had never known, the Father who loved him as much as He loved His Son. He was invited follow a man who was different from any other man he had even known. This man was gentle, kind, forgiving and full of mercy. In the face of bitter hatred He remained unfazed, never seeking revenge, never retaliating in anger. He was powerful too. He healed the sick, cast out demons and even raised the dead. He never fought His enemies with emotion – He always spoke the truth and they hated Him for it.

One terrible night the religious authorities had Him arrested and, before his disciples could figure out what was happening, He was strung up on a cross and died. He kept telling them it would happen but they didn’t believe Him until it happened. Then an even more mind-boggling thing happened. Three days later He walked out of the tomb and they saw Him.

For forty days He came and went, appearing and disappearing like a phantom and yet He was real. They touched Him; they heard Him; they spoke to Him. He even ate with them. Then, one day, He disappeared for good. They saw Him leave but He gave them an instruction and a promise. “The Holy Spirit is coming. Wait for Him.”

On the Day of Pentecost, John was catapulted into a realm of living he had only heard about from the lips of Jesus. Power! They had power like they had never known. All the mysteries of their Master’s death and resurrection were cleared up. Their hearts and consciences were free. They felt clean inside. They were filled with joy. They preached His message with boldness and power.

Best of all, they were no longer orphans. The Father to whom Jesus had introduced them and whom He had revealed to them by His words and actions, was their Father too. The Holy Spirit witnessed in their hearts that they were God’s children, born from above, with new hearts and changed attitudes. His love gushed through them like a perennial spring. Jesus’ word came alive in their hearts as they went about telling all around them the truth that He really was the Son of God.

How John delighted to assure his readers that they, too, really were God’s children! The very same love that God had for His perfect Son, was now being poured out on them, His immature and imperfect children. God saw them as already perfect in Jesus. He accepted them and embraced them because of Jesus. He delighted to have fellowship with them. He guarded and protected them jealously, only allowing them to experience what was good for them, working in their hearts to teach them to think and act like His Son. Jesus was His blueprint. The Holy Spirit was to restore in them the same heart of a son that was in Jesus – loving submission and obedience to the Father to carry out the Father’s will.

However, it didn’t stop there. God, through His Son, had done everything to restore His family to Himself but they had to respond to His love. In simple terms, John urged them: “God has picked you up out of the mud and washed you clean. He has dressed you in the pure robe of Jesus’ righteousness which He earned at great cost. Now stay out of the mud!”

All He asks of you is to keep away from the things that defiled you. Don’t go back to your old ways. The realm you are now living in is the right way up. Jesus showed you how to live in it. He gave you His Spirit to guide and teach you and give you the power to obey Him. The world and its standards and practices are not forever. They will all be destroyed when Jesus returns. Selfishness, greed, hatred, bitterness, and anger will never be experienced in God’s kingdom where everything will be perfect once again.

You can’t take the mud with you. If you mess with worldly ways again, you will perish with them.

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For everything in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2: 15-17)

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.

RIGHTEOUSNESS REVEALED

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RIGHTEOUSNESS REVEALED

And now, dear children, continue in Him, so that when He appears, we may be confident and unashamed before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of Him. (1 John 2: 28-29)

After the turbulence of John’s emotions as he warned his beloved readers of the pitfalls and dangers of his times, he returned to the quietness of resting in the Lord Jesus and His work for them.

By this time, John was an old man and probably one of the few remaining apostles, if not the last, most of the others having perished in the paranoia of persecution, both from fanatical Jews and the Roman government, zealous for Caesar and for their gods. In the ferment of false teaching, John taught the truth and warned of the danger of deviating from what his readers had learned from him and from their leaders about the simplicity of following Jesus.

Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and obedience to what He taught was the solid rock around which the waters of error and unbelief swirled. Man’s wisdom and philosophy sounded sophisticated and drew the attention of so-called intellectual thinkers, but it had no substance and was destined to perish with all the false gods and religions that ungodly man had spawned.

Against the backdrop of all the conflicting contributions of man stands the unshakeable truth of God. God is light. God is love. In perfect balance of holy love, God provided a solution to the dilemma of mankind’s alienation from Him through their wilful disobedience and rebellion. God’s love for humanity moved Him to send His own Son, in human flesh, to live as a perfect Son and die as a rebel sinner to bring us back to God. His love and His justice satisfied; He can invite His estranged children back into fellowship with Himself.

Is there another philosophy or religion in the world, arising from human imagination, that can match the perfection of God’s involvement in human affairs to rescue humanity from its self-inflicted destruction? Not only did He do it through Jesus, but what He did has powerful effects on those who believe in Him and respond to His invitation.

There is not another teaching in the history of humanity that can transform sinners into trusting and obedient children of God. The human story is littered with evidence of God’s power to change hearts and turn sinners around, but what produced the change? Not adherence to some fanciful philosophy or religious gobbledygook. The Holy Spirit alone can change hearts as men and women entrust themselves to the one who died for them and rose from the dead. He, Jesus, is our Mediator, seated in power and authority at the right hand of the Father.

John’s simple counsel to his readers is: ”Remain in Him.” Just keep trusting Him. Don’t fall for the lies that complicate your simple trust in Jesus. Stay in His word and you will stay in the truth. Whatever anyone adds or takes away from who He is, what He said and what He did will draw you away from Him.

Our faith is founded, firstly, on the indestructible truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is fully God. He came from God, and He returned to God. He is also fully man. He was born of the virgin Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit but fully human. He lived in perfect obedience to His Father for thirty-three years. No one has ever responded to His challenge to find Him guilty of sin.

Despite His innocence, He was found guilty of blasphemy by the Jewish religious hierarchy and treason against Rome although Pilate declared Him innocent. He was crucified, died, and was buried in a borrowed tomb. He rose from the dead on the third day because death could not hold Him. His death paid the debt which the Father demanded as the penalty fro sin, freeing the sinner of his debt and offering forgiveness to all who receive it by faith.

The spinoff of Jesus’ death and resurrection for the believer is the right of access to the Father again. Where sin once barred the way, the barrier has been removed and we are free to approach the Father without fear. Those who believe in Jesus have been reconciled to the Father and restored to His family with full rights as His sons and daughters.

“Now”, said John, “stay in the simple trust in Jesus that bought all these benefits to you. Don’t fall for the strange teachings being offered to you as the truth. Continue with Jesus and what you were taught from the beginning.” John was echoing Jesus’ words, “I am the vine; you are the branches.” What does a branch in the vine need to do to be fruitful? Nothing! It simply stays there, connected to the vine stock and receiving its nourishment from the vine.

What does a believer need to do to remain in Jesus? Nothing except trusting Him and living in the truth we received from Him. Only if we do that can we be secure in our faith and be fully confident in Him when He returns. The righteousness we need to be acceptable to the Father is a gift from Him. When our new nature responds by doing what is right, we can be sure that we are “in 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.

A PERMANENT ANOINTING

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A PERMANENT ANOINTING

As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you will also remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what He promised – eternal life.

I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. As for you, the anointing you have 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: 24-27) 

We must never think that the early church was in any way idyllic. Satan had his emissaries everywhere, just as he has today. False teachers abounded and false teaching was rife. The same spirit that hounded Jesus to death through Jewish prejudice was at work, undermining the truth of the gospel, especially among those who came out of paganism as well as new Jewish believers.

A group of false teachers called Judaisers went about undermining the work of the apostles by teaching Gentile believers that people converting from paganism to Christianity had to be initiated into Judaism first through circumcision. Paul responded to this error very vehemently in his letter to the Galatian church. He insisted that, to go back to the law was to nullify the grace of God. 

Another subtle teaching arose out of Greek philosophy, called Gnosticism – that there was a body of secret knowledge only accessible to a select group of people.

“Gnosticism was perhaps the most dangerous heresy that threatened the early church during the first three centuries. Influenced by such philosophers as Plato, Gnosticism is based on two false premises. First, it espouses a dualism regarding spirit and matter. Gnostics assert that matter is inherently evil and spirit is good. As a result of this presupposition, Gnostics believe anything done in the body, even the grossest sin, has no meaning because real life exists in the spirit realm only.

Second, Gnostics claim to possess an elevated knowledge, a “higher truth” known only to a certain few. Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis which means “to know.” Gnostics claim to possess a higher knowledge, not from the Bible, but acquired on some mystical higher plain of existence. Gnostics see themselves as a privileged class elevated above everybody else by their higher, deeper knowledge of God . . .

“Gnosticism is based on a mystical, intuitive, subjective, inward, emotional approach to truth which is not new at all. It is very old, going back in some form to the Garden of Eden, where Satan questioned God and the words He spoke and convinced Adam and Eve to reject them and accept a lie. He does the same thing today as he “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). He still calls God and the Bible into question and catches in his web those who are either naïve and scripturally uninformed or who are seeking some personal revelation to make them feel special, unique, and superior to others.”

http://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-gnosticism.html (retrieved November, 2015)

The “spirit” of these false teachings is still very much alive today. Legalism insists that we adhere to certain rules in order to find favour with God; rules like food taboos and Sabbath adherence, for example. To follow these teachings is to move from grace to law – and once again to fall under the penalty of the broken law. If Christ is not sufficient for our complete salvation, He is not sufficient at all.

The other subtle error is to believe the lie that there is a select group of believers – the so-called “born-again-and-Spirit-filled-and-tongues-speaking” group who have attained something that others lack. There is no such category taught in the Bible. People are either followers of Jesus or they are not followers of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is given in full measure to all who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord.

It is more important that we know the truth of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ than that we understand all the ins and outs of these false teachings. John took his readers back to what they had heard from the beginning. By that he meant that they were to stick to what they had been taught by those who were with Jesus from the beginning.

What was their source of knowledge? Jesus had promised His first followers that He would send the Holy Spirit from the Father and that, when He came, He would lead them into all truth. He would take the truth about Jesus and reveal it to them. Unlike certain people in the Old Testament era who only temporarily experienced the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, He would be poured out on “all flesh” – so said the prophet Joel – and for all time.

Believers could rely on the Holy Spirit to teach them because He remained in them. They in turn could be sure of the truth if they remained in Jesus – held to what He had taught and not followed the false teachers whose intention was to draw them away from their confidence in and allegiance to Jesus as their Lord.

Beware, dear readers, of those who insist that they alone know the truth and who gather followers after themselves. Exclusivity is a sure sign of error. Jesus called people to follow Him. Every teacher or preacher who connects people to Jesus and not to themselves is worthy of trust. In the long run, however, we can rely on the Holy Spirit, the anointing who is on us forever, to teach us the truth if we hold to Jesus’ teaching and not fall for the errors of those who insist that they alone are right.

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.