ALFORD well says, If we knew God’s will thoroughly, and submitted to it heartily, it would be impossible for us to ask anything for the spirit or for the body which He should not perform; it is this ideal state which the apostle has in view. It is the Spirit who teaches us inwardly, and Himself in us asks according to the will of God. (A Commentary Critical and Explanatory, 1 John 5:14, p. 537)Also, 1 John 3:22 says, "And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight."
D.L. Moody often said, “Every Bible should be bound in shoe leather.” We show our love to God, not by empty words but by willing works. We are not slaves obeying a master; we are children obeying a Father. And our sin is a family affair" (Bible Exposition Commentary: Volume 2, 1 John 5:1, p. 524)One thing I have noticed throughout this time of reading the epistles by all these authors is that they are about maturing in Christ. What does that look like? It is beyond just knowing the Bible but letting the life of Christ live through us resulting in willing works and love for others.
Victorious faith is the result of maturing love. The better we come to know and love Jesus Christ, the easier it is to trust Him with the needs and battles of life. It is important that this maturing love become a regular and a practical thing in our daily lives.
How does a believer go about experiencing this kind of love and the blessings that flow from it?
To begin with, this kind of love must be cultivated. It is not the result of a hit-or-miss friendship! A previous study pointed out that a believer slips back into the world by stages:
Now turn that around and develop a friendship with Jesus. Let that friendship "spot" your life. Let that give you an even deeper love for Him (remember what we learned about "deeper knowledge" in 2 Peter 1?). Let that love conform you to His image (Romans 8:29). Complete conformity will come when we see Him face-to-face (1 John 3:1-3), but let's strive to reverse the influence of the world on us!
- Friendship with the world (James 4:4)
- Spotted by the world (James 1:27)
- Loving the world (1 John 2:15–17)
- Conformed to the world (Rom. 12:2) (The Bible Exposition Commentary: Volume 2, 1 Jn 5:4, p. 526)
When a believer loves, he is drawing that love from God’s Spirit (cf. Rom. 5:5), who is also the Source of his confession of Christ (1 John 4:2). Thus both the faith and the love enjoined in the dual “command” of 3:23 are products of the Spirit’s operation in a believer. A believer’s Spirit-led obedience becomes the evidence that he is enjoying the mutual abiding relationship with God that John wrote about. (The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Volume 2, p. 899)If we love, we need not fear (and can even be bold) in the coming judgment because "perfect love casts out fear" (4:18). If you do not love your brother or sister, John says you are a liar and not a lover of God.
Most of the eyewitnesses to Jesus' ministry had died by the time John composed this letter. Some of the second- or third-generation Christians began to have doubts about what they had been taught about Jesus. Some Christians with a Greek background had a hard time believing that Jesus was human as well as divine, because in Platonic thought the spirit was all-important. The body was only a prison from which one desired to escape. Heresies developed from a uniting of this kind of Platonic thought and Christianity.
A particularly widespread false teaching, later called Docetism (from a Greek word meaning "to seem"), held that Jesus was actually a spirit who only appeared to have a body. In reality, he cast no shadow and left no footprints; he was God, but not man. Another heretical teaching, related to Gnosticism (from a Greek word meaning "knowledge"), held that all physical matter was evil, the spirit was good, and only the intellectually enlightened could enjoy the benefits of religion. Both groups found it hard to believe in a Savior who was fully human.
John answers these false teachers as an eyewitness to Jesus' life on earth. He saw Jesus, talked with him, touched him -- he knew that Jesus was more than a mere spirit. In the very first sentence of his letter, John establishes that Jesus had been alive before the world began and also that he lived as a man among men and women. In other words, he was both divine and human.
Through the centuries, many heretics have denied that Jesus was both God and man. In John's day people had trouble believing he was human; today more people have problems seeing him as God. But Jesus' divine-human nature is the pivotal issue of Christianity. before you accept what religious teachers say about any topic, listen carefully to what they believe about Jesus. To deny either his divinity or his humanity is to consider him less than Christ, the Savior. (Life Application Study Bible NIVAPPLICATION, p. 2281)
Lust (epithymia) of the flesh - Desires that are sinful and particularly illicit bodily appetites.
Lust (epithymia) of the eyes - This means "man's covetous and acquisitive nature" (The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Volume 2, p. 891) and "the avenue through which outward things of the world, riches, pomp, and beauty, inflame us" (A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory: Volume 2, p. 529
).
The boastful pride of life - "an insolent and empty assurance, which trusts in its own power and resources and shamefully despises and violates divine laws and human rights" or "an impious and empty presumption which trusts in the stability of earthy things" (Strong's exhaustive concordance of the Bible, G212).
Do these three cautions sound like something we have discussed in the Old Testament? In the Genesis 3 post for the Bible Book Club, I drew a comparison between 1 John 2:16 and the temptation of Eve:
Eve saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and desirable to make one wise. Compare that with this verse:
For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh (good for food) and
the lust of the eyes (pleasing to the eye) and
the boastful pride of life (desirable to make wise - be like God),
is not from the Father, but is from the world.
(1 John 2:16)
2) Beware of Antichrists
The time between Christ's first and Second Coming is considered "the last hour." John warned against "antichrists." These were false teachers who would deny that Jesus was the Christ and lead them astray. John assured these believers that they had the Holy Spirit who would teach them all things (John 14:26). They were to hold on to what they had heard from John in the beginning. The truth of Jesus as God the Son was to abide ("be at home") in them so that they could abide in fellowship with God the Father and God the Son.
The actual "body" of this letter begins at 1 John 2:28. So, I will deal with the end of 1 John 2 tomorrow.Advocate (paraklēton) - John used this term when referring to the Holy Spirit in John 14-16. The word, in this context, carries behind it the thought of "a defense attorney who takes up the case of his client before a tribunal" (The Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament, p. 887)
Propitiation (hilasmos) - This word is used here and in 1 John 4:10. A noun form is in Romans 3:25 and the verb form is in Luke 18:13 and Hebrews 2:17. The NASB has the word "satisfaction" in the margin for this word. Because of God's justice, His only response toward sin can be wrath, but the cross has satisfied God and has met His righteous demands. The sin is covered and the guilt of it is extinguished (expiated). God shows his mercy on the one who believes in Christ as the One who provides this. This provision is made for the whole world, but it is only put into effect for those who believe. The fact that Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, shows God's great love toward us and should motivate us to love one another. Hilasmo begets love (4:7, 11, 20-21).
You can see on the left side of this diagram where propitiation fits into the whole scheme of things:
 |
| Diagram adapted from Romans, An Expositional Commentary: Volume 1 by James Montgomery Boice, p. 380-382. |
1) Forgiveness of sin (2:12)
2) True knowledge of Jesus who was from the beginning (2:13)
3) True knowledge and fellowship with God (2:13)
3) Overcoming the evil one (2:13, 14)
4) Growth in strength (2:14)
5) Abiding in the Word of God (2:14)
Satan's number-one objective is to destroy our joy of faith. We have one offensive weapon: the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17). But what many Christians fail to realize is that we can't draw the sword from someone else's scabbard. If we don't wear it, we can't wield it. If the Word of God does not abide in us (John 15:7), we will reach for it in vain when the enemy strikes. but if we do wear it, if it lives within us, what mighty warriors we can be! "I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one" (1 John 2:14). (Desiring GodAPPLICATIONby John Piper, p. 151)
- You too may have fellowship with us (1:3)
- Our joy may be made complete (1:4)
- You may not sin (2:1)
- You might not be led astray (by antichrists) (2:26)
- You may know that you have eternal life (5:13)
The two most difficult things to get straight in life are love and God. More often than not, the mess people make of their lives can be traced to failure or stupidity, or meanness in one or both of these areas.
The basic and biblical Christian conviction is that the two subjects are intricately related. If we want to deal with God the right way, we have to learn to love the right way. If we want to love the right way, we have to deal with God the right way. God and love can’t be separated (emphasis mine).
John’s three letters provide wonderfully explicit direction in how this works. Jesus, the Messiah, is the focus: Jesus provides the full and true understanding of God; Jesus shows us the mature working-out of love. In Jesus, God and love are linked accurately, intricately, and indissolubly.
But there are always people around who don’t want to be pinned down to the God Jesus reveals, to the love Jesus reveals. They want to make up their own idea of God, make up their own style of love. John was pastor to a church (or churches) disrupted by some of these people. In his letters we see him reestablishing the original and organic unity of God and love that comes to focus and becomes available to us in Jesus Christ.
Examination
Holy Spirit, search my heart and reveal to me any unconfessed sin you find in me:
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)
Lord, I thank you for the forgiveness you promised when you said:
“Come now, let us reason together:
Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red as crimson,
They shall be like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18)
(“Morning Affirmations” in Face to Face: Praying the Scriptures for Intimate Worship by Kenneth Boa, p. 4)
You can download these in print or audio mp3 format.
