In a time of mixed and cloudy messages about everything from politics to medications to religion, we began last week to look at the things we can KNOW and have confidence in from God. This short blog will finish up the book of I John. Once again, readers will get the most benefit from having their Bibles open and reading along.
Read I John 4:1-6.
John exhorts his readers not to be deceived by believing every teaching they come across. In our age of the internet, with the world at our fingertips, we need this exhortation more than ever. John gives us one simple test. It is important to know that for the original readers of this work, there was a teaching going around that Jesus did not truly come in the flesh. That Jesus could exist simultaneously as God and Man is too much for the human brain to accept when we insist on holding to our limited understanding of existence. So John’s litmus test to address this specific false teaching is found in these verses. He says we can KNOW true teaching, or the true Spirit of God, that which confesses that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. If you are familiar with false teachings today, you will know that the false teaching that Jesus was not truly a man is still part of false religions. John describes this teaching as “antichrist”, leaving no doubt that true followers of Christ must not subscribe to this teaching.
Also in this passage, we are reminded that as trusting, obedient children of God, accepting the true nature of Jesus on the earth as God and Man, the power of God in us overcomes the evil of the world. The heavenly perspective that limited unbelievers cannot accept will have the victory in the end.
Read 4:7-21.
This passage is so beloved, discussing how God is love and how we ought to love one another. But there are important reminders of things we can KNOW. In verse 7, we are told that whoever loves is born of God and KNOWS God.
In verse 14 of the reading, John reminds readers of the fact that he is an eyewitness of Christ as Savior of the world, giving the greatest credibility to his teachings. In verse 15 we are told that the one who “confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” We KNOW and believe the love that God has for us. In verse 17, as our understanding of and confidence in God’s love is completed or perfected we have increased confidence in the outcome for our souls in the day of judgment. This confidence overcomes the fear of death that so many around us are obsessed with. In verse 21 the passage is wrapped up with the reminder that loving God and loving one another as brethren cannot be separated. We can KNOW that we must demonstrate our love for God by loving our brothers.
The themes of this short epistle are easy to read, and they are repeated. In 5:2 we are reminded again that we KNOW we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. However, let us not make the mistake of easily passing over these principles for the sake of their simplicity, John repeats them to us as an eye witness of Christ because they are critically important to our salvation. John states that as we love our brethren and obey God’s commands we will overcome the evil of the world.
In verses 11 & 12, we can KNOW that “God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” We cannot gain eternal life by forsaking Christ in favor of human intellectualism, emotionalism, or materialism. We cannot gain it by our own virtue, our own will. We must take hold of the Son of God. In the shifting sands of human philosophy and false religions, Jesus Christ is the ONLY source of salvation.
Read 5:13-20.
These verses are such a comfort to Christians, consider them carefully. We KNOW we have eternal life in the name of the Son of God. We KNOW if we make requests of God according to His will he hears us and will grant our requests. We KNOW that if we do not keep on practicing sin, but rather practice righteousness, God will protect us from the evil one. We KNOW we are from God, we KNOW the World outside of God is in the power of the evil one. We KNOW that we have understanding of spiritual things from the most direct Source, the Son of God. We KNOW “he is the true God and eternal life.” We KNOW from the last instruction John writes in this letter that we have a responsibility to guard ourselves from evil, implying that if we are careless and do not guard ourselves, we can be lost.
As we face the growing uncertainties of this world, as evil marches ever more aggressively, let us seek direction and comfort from the Word of God. I pray that this brief survey will give you more curiosity and desire to study God’s Word that you may take on the full armor of God.