Because He First Loved Us

1 John 4:13 - 21

¹³ We know that we live in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son

to be the Saviour of the world.

¹⁵ If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.

¹⁶ And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

¹⁷ In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence

on the day of judgement, because in this world we are like Him.

¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear,

because fear has to do with punishment.

The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

¹⁹ We love because He first loved us.

²⁰ If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar.

For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen,

cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

²¹ And He has given us this command:

Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Do you ever wish that you would know what to do in every situation? Do you wish for wisdom to make the right choices? I do. But then so often I leave it at wishing, and I go on wondering in my own mind, my own strength, just what it is that I should do, which choice I should make. I forget that the King, the God of the whole creation dwells inside me, ready to guide me and help me!

God has given to every believer a gift that is beyond comprehension! He has given us the Holy Spirit to live inside of us! 1 John has been full of passages that tell us this, and again, in the verse I am starting with, I am reminded that I live in Him, He lives in me, and His Spirit is given to me, designating me as a child of God!

"But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth."

chapter 2:20          

"As for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you..."

chapter 2:27         

"And this is how we know that He lives in us:

We know it by the Spirit He gave us."

chapter 3:24         

"... the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."

chapter 4:4           

I try to comprehend it, but I just can't. Why would God look at His creation, seeing our stubborn hearts of rebellion, and decide to give us a part of Himself, so that we would have an easier time of it? Why would a perfect king decide to live inside of a wretched sinner? I won't stay here, at this point in my writing until I understand it, because, to tell you the truth, I don't think that I will ever understand it! But the very knowledge of that - that I won't be able to grasp it - is exactly what makes me so very grateful for it. It humbles me. I feel unworthy, and yet at the same time, so very thankful that all powerful God would give of Himself so fully to me, little old, undeserving me (and to everyone who believes). 

Going on, John reminds his readers that they (I think he means himself, and the other disciples of Jesus) had seen and now testified that the Father sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world. I would have to say that I believe and testify, but they really did see Jesus with their own eyes. In Matthew 16:15, when the disciples were asked by Jesus,

"Who do you say I am?"

Simon Peter answered and said,

"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Matthew 16:16               

The disciples had walked with Jesus, and lived with Him through some absolutely mind-blowingly amazing times at this point. I believe that Peter spoke the words that some of the others were also thinking by this time. They were yet to be tested to an extreme in this belief, because Jesus was going to be murdered at the hands of evil men, and they would not see the miracle that they would hope for from the Son of God in that moment. John (the author of this book), along with his brother James, once suggested to Jesus that they could call fire down on a town because it did not welcome Jesus. They believed that Jesus deserved to be greatly honoured and highly esteemed. Nothing in His death went as the disciples originally thought it should go for the great Deliverer, the Messiah, the Christ. He didn't go about destroying death in the way that they would have thought. Thankfully, because John was receptive and teachable, as the events of the crucifixion and then the resurrection unfolded, and as he witnessed all of this firsthand, he came to a point where he understood. John 20:8 has John standing by Jesus' empty tomb. He follows Peter inside, and it is as he stands in the empty tomb, looking at the burial cloths, the one that had been wrapped around Jesus' head laying by itself, neatly folded, that

"He saw and believed"

We read this passage in John 20, and if we try, we can imagine it, but John was there! This was a real life event in his own personal life that he was recording. He had spent so much time with Jesus that he knew His ways, His behaviours, the little ways that He did things.

There's a little story about the way a cloth lays, from my own real life experience... I often misplace my kitchen towel when I'm busy preparing a meal. It may lay in any old corner on my cupboards while I'm at work, because I use it so often, and just toss it down as I bustle about. But when I'm done my work, I'll eventually hang it back up over my dishwasher or oven handle, signifying that my work for now is done. But there is one certain place, one certain way that it often lays when I come into the kitchen, and if I see it like that, I just KNOW who put the towel there! My one son often washes his hands at the kitchen sink, and on his way out, he will grab the towel to dry his hands and then toss it on the very edge of my island countertop. When I see it there, I always know without a doubt that it was him and only him. It is the farthest that it can be from my meal making workspace, so I know it wasn't me, but it's also the very last place it can be put (and not end up on the floor) as he's on his way out. No one else in our house does this! I know my life, and I know my son, and this is taken right out of my real life memory bank.

When writing the words in chapter 4, verse 14 in this book all those years later, John was remembering a very real time in his own life. He had seen God's Son in action. He knew the touch of the Saviour, the way He did things that only He would do. He knew he had seen God's Son alive after He was crucified. "He saw and BELIEVED"!

There were people at the time who saw what John saw and chose not to believe. There are people today who will read what I read and choose not to believe, but I believe it is because they didn't know Him like John knew Him! I too believe! Maybe I didn't see like John did, but I have heard it and I have read it and I believe! Because I believe it, I acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, and because of that, I get to literally become a part of who God is! He lives in me, and I in Him. Colossians 3:3 says,

"...your life is now hidden with Christ in God."

I used to joke with my husband, when my love for him was overflowing but we had to separate for a day of work or whatever, that I wished I could just crawl inside of him and be a permanent part of him, getting to go with him wherever he went, and not having to be apart from him at all. That's what love does, I guess :). And although that obviously isn't possible with my husband, I'm reminded of that as I meditate on the words, "God in him, and he in God". What a picture of fellowship, intimacy, closeness, togetherness...

This love that causes God to give Himself to us so fully, that's our sure thing. We can depend on it, because God's Word is true, and if He said it, it will remain true, because God is unchanging and infinite in His love. We can depend on His love. We can rely on His love. But I do notice a condition. Now, there are verses all over in the Bible that clearly show that God loves EVERYONE. But being able to know that love and rely on it is for those who believe. We have to believe in Jesus as God's Son. We have to acknowledge Him. Those that don't are still loved, still invited to come to Him. He longs for every soul:

"God our Saviour...wants all men to be saved

and to come to a knowledge of the truth."

1 Timothy 2:4                   

"He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish,

but everyone to come to repentance."

2 Peter 3:9                       

Once a person comes to the point of coming to repentance, they are saved and will learn to know Truth. Knowing truth is knowing Jesus, for Jesus is "the Truth" (John 14:6). We repent of unbelief, and we acknowledge Jesus as being the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. He is the only Way that we can be saved! Without Him we are in need of being saved. Some people don't realize that they need saving. When the Spirit shows them their need, they are able to choose to believe! This is the condition - the believing. We must believe!

Once we believe, we are secure in God's love. No longer do we need saving; we are saved, by His love and His grace! 

"God Is Love"

Three small words. God is Ight. God is Faithful. God is truth. We see a lot of who God is when we study Scripture. Now we see that God is love. To me, that's different than saying that God has a whole lot of love. He IS love! Without Him, there wouldn't be a capability to love. For anyone!

After this phrase we read that "whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him". This reminds me again of real love versus counterfeit love (see my previous blog titled "Love, Love, Love", as I talk about this there). There is a real love that is lived out in a life that has nothing to do with personal gain, even the small gain of making a person 'feel good' for having given something to another. It is a love of total, humble service for another's good, especially another's eternal good. This is that real love that a believer is given access to when his or her life is "hidden with Christ in God". Verse 17 hints at a mystery that I am still trying to understand. "In this way, love is made complete among us". I've been studying Latin recently, and although I don't have a huge grasp on it, I've learned that the meaning of the word complete can be synonymous to the meaning of the word perfected, or finished. So...wanting to understand this verse more fully, I pulled out the humongous concordance my husband recently bought for his own study, and spent a bit of time making sure I knew how to use it. Then, as I looked up the words 'made complete' in this verse, I was rewarded with the Greek to English translation literally meaning "to perfect, complete, finish; to reach a goal, be fulfilled, completed, made perfect". The same Greek word appears again in verse 18, which in English reads "made perfect".

This is what God does among the body of believers as they give themselves over to Him! He allows us to be a channel of His love, and with His Spirit giving us life, we are able to love with the kind of love that He is. This is profound! Right now, even in this life, we are already being sanctified to become like Him! This wonderful work that is going on is what gives us confidence on that day of judgement when we will stand before Him. We will be reminded that God's life in us, and the way we lived our life in Him, was making us complete. His life was perfecting us (slowly, maybe). It was helping us to reach the goal, which is being like Him! When we stand before Him that day, we will be able to see the fruit of love, and that will be the proof that we truly are His children.

This perfect love, you see, overtakes all of our 'natural man' tendencies. Don't we often tend to fear? Don't we often tend to wonder if we're doing enough, if we're really, for sure-ly saved? There is this natural fear in me of standing before perfect God on Judgement Day, and as I gaze on His perfection, suddenly realizing that I didn't quite 'make it'. That's my natural tendency - to be just a little bit (or a whole lot!!) scared of being punished for my wrongs, which will all be so clear in contrast to His sinlessness. Verse 18 says it: "...because fear has to do with punishment". Why are we scared? Because we actually know now that our wrongs, our sins, need to be punished. Deep down, I wonder, do we all actually know this? I'm convinced that if we say now that we don't, we will be proven wrong when we stand before God on Judgement Day. That day, we will see clearly, even if we refuse to see it now. But the miracle of it all is that, remembering the condition, which is that we have to believe, we can be spared that fear of punishment! If there is still fear, it just shows me that I haven't yet been made perfect in love. I'm still on the journey. When I arrive - when I am made complete - I will realize that God's perfect love makes it possible for me to live without fear. Fear will be driven out by this perfect love.

"For God so LOVED the world that He gave His only begotten Son,

that whoever believes in Him will not perish

but have everlasting life."

John 3:16 (NKJV)                 

Jesus is the answer to our heart's unrest. Our fears, our anxieties, whatever it is that steals our peace - all of that can be erased, "driven out!", when Jesus comes in! If there is a reader out there that has not believed, Oh Lord, that that reader would believe today!

"Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts."

Hebrews 4:7b                 

My heart is deeply aching at this moment, wondering if maybe there is someone who needs to hear this! My prayer is that if that person will ever come across this little, old blog and read these words, that they will lay aside the only hindrance that keeps them from experiencing God's rest - unbelief - and that they will surrender their hearts to a God who loves them perfectly!

_________________________________________________

I want to end with a quick focus on the last few verses of 1 John chapter 4...

"But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: 

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 5:8                  

Our love for God can only be a response to His love already freely given. We are able to love only because He has already loved us. He loved us first. I used to think that this meant that we loved Him because of His love for us, which is true, but today I felt that this verse was maybe more specifically referring to our treatment of the people around us. Why do we love them? Because He loved us. He planted His love in us, remember?, making love complete among us. I am convicted to look around at the people in my life. These are people I can see, and these are the people I get to practice with. I am told that if I do not love these brothers (which I consider to be the people that make up the body of Christ - other believers), whom I can see, then I cannot love God, whom I have not seen.

We cannot profess to love God if we hold on to a deep bitterness or resentment (hatred) towards someone else. This is, and has been, such a convicting thought! It has literally changed the course of my life in the past, and probably will a hundred times more in the future as well. I confess that I have held hatred in my heart for another. I may not have wanted to call it hatred, for that is such a strong word, but that's what it's been, if I'm honest. But the cold, hard truth is just laid bare before me in this passage. If I hold on to those thoughts and feelings, meanwhile professing to love God, I am a liar! Liars who refuse to repent do not inherit the kingdom of Heaven (there are multiple references in Scripture that show this).

We've been given a command: "Whoever loves God must also love his brother". There's no way around that command that I see, except to surrender it to Christ. He will help us in our struggle. He will trade in the weeds of unrighteousness in our hearts for the fruit of the Spirit - love. He has done this in me many times. Each time it happens, it's as though a heavy weight has been lifted from my soul. It's a miracle - the miracle of the new life that Christ lives in us when we allow Him access. It reminds me of the verse in 1 John 5:3 that says:

"And His commands are not burdensome"

The threads of obedience to God, of loving those around us if we profess to know and love God, are repeated themes in 1 John. That's why this is such a practical (and sometimes painful) book. Love for our brothers is mentioned in chapter 2:9-11, again in chapter 3:10-15, and now again at the end of chapter 4! Obedience is a constant theme, and it is the mark of true faith. It calls for regular confession (ch. 1:9), and makes me see my constant need for Jesus' cleansing blood. It makes me so thankful to know that when I stumble and fall into sin, I can rest in the "atoning sacrifice" of "Jesus Christ, the Righteous One" (ch. 2:1,2). 

In wrapping this up, I want to end with a warning. I have both seen and experienced what hatred can do to a person. Like I mentioned before, I have been guilty of this. I have also witnessed it as an observer, looking at it from the outside. I have seen the way it robs a person of joy. It robs people of all the fruits of the Spirit actually, which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Each one of these wonderful qualities eventually has to flee in the path of hatred. Hatred is a cruel master, and it ends up enslaving you. In the end, no one may suffer the ill effects of hatred as much as does the hater.

My prayer is that those of us who are saying "I love God" will show our depth of love for Him by loving the people He has put in our lives. Some people will be harder to love, but I'm starting to see that I think those are the ones who often need our love so much more (there's this really interesting thing I've found too, and it's that the people that have sometimes been harder to love initially are the ones you end up loving so fiercely with really a very deep and genuine love - right to the very core! I've been rewarded this way from time to time, and am deeply grateful for people in my life where this great and wonderful thing has taken place! How these people have blessed me!). I can say from personal experience that the reward God gives us as we learn to love others is great and oh so freeing! It opens up the gateway for all those fruits of the Spirit to come flowing back into our life. It is a sweet way to live! May God bless all of us in our journey to becoming perfected in love; in becoming more like Him!

    

                  

Love, Love, Love!

1 John 4:7-12

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.

Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son

into the world that we might live through Him.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us

and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another,

God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.

As I start to read the opening verse of the passage I have been studying, I am reminded of a child imitating the parent he wants to be like when he grows up. This reminds me of one of my favorite verses, which happened to be the verse we picked for our wedding when we got married almost 15 years ago! It is all about imitating our Father in Heaven:

"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children

and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us

as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

Ephesians 5:1, 2          

As children of God, we are to imitate the example of love that Jesus Christ left us when He walked on this Earth. In these Scriptures I see God's love for me, and knowing that love motivates me to love like He does, to imitate Him and to pass that love on to others around me. We are His dearly loved children, and hearing that makes it easier for me to respond to His call. I want to give back of what I have been given!

When I stop and consider who I am called to love in these verses, it says to "love one another". It reminds me of the story in the gospels where a knowledgeable scholar was trying to get Jesus to specify to the people who was their neighbour (since they were commanded in the Law to love their neighbour as themselves). Jesus answered this question in the form of a parable, with one of His more famous stories, the story of the Good Samaritan (read about it in Luke 10:25 - 37). At the end of the story we see that it doesn't really matter where we are, or who we are dealing with, we are to use Jesus' example of love and kindness to those around us no matter what the situation. The verse above, from Ephesians, puts it out in even broader terms, saying that we are to live a life of love, or like another version puts it, to "walk in the way of love".

So now that I have reviewed these things, I have to examine this:

What Is this Love, and what is it going to Look like?

Here I feel completely inadequate to even pen any words. Countless works have been written on this topic, and many wise people have made many profound statements! Who am I to speak? One who has so often failed to love... But like the countless others, I too will give it a try.

Love comes from God. He IS love, and the love He gives is a gift freely given to us. We may receive this love and let it fill our hearts, and when it does, it should start to overflow and spill into the lives of the people around us. One thing love is, is a rapid multiplier. Where there is love, more love will grow! It is like a healthy vine that entwines itself around everything it touches, and like those vines when they have been allowed to spread, it is hard to remove. It wants to keep growing and multiplying, filling all the space it is given.

One thing that impacts me when I read this passage is that love is reserved for those who are born into God's family, for those who know Him. Those who do not have love show that they do not belong to God's family. Just like darkness, or evil, cannot exist where there is light and righteousness, a lack of love cannot exist where God - Love - is. So I think that true love must be tested and tried. If we say we love when circumstances are good and the living is easy, it might be that we are just feeling good about how things are, and we are actually only loving the benefits that we see in our own life because of that relationship.
In Luke 6:32, Jesus challenged that kind of 'love for return', when He said:

"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?

Even 'sinners' love those who love them."

He went on to tell us in the verses that follow:

"But love your enemies, do good to them and lend to them

without expecting to get anything back.

Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High,

because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."

I wonder how much of the 'love' we see these days is real, according to God's standard, and how much is a cheaper, counterfeit version of what He talks about in His Word? In the verses above, I see the connection between being a child of God, and acting the way He acts. Since He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked, when we are that, we show our 'sonship'.

The 'Good Samaritan' gives a great visual to the model Jesus laid out in these verses. The Samaritan man was probably hurrying along, hoping to get to where he was going before the same fate would befall him as what had come to this man who had been beaten and robbed. When he saw this injured man lying on the side of the road, he stopped. Even though it was inconvenient for him to stop, he did. That was the first step. Or maybe the first step was actually looking upon the man, not just turning his face away and hurrying by, trying not to notice him. This man lying in his path was from a neighbouring people group whom Samaritans despised, and vice versa. Had the man been less injured, he might even have refused help from this Samaritan! These men would have been enemies, and in Jesus using this example in His parable, He was probably upsetting the mindset of the 'expert of the Law' who was questioning Him. But, as the Jubilee version of this passage points out,  "when he saw him, he was moved with compassion" (Luke 10:33). He was willing to lay aside any prejudices, to strip away the cultural differences, and to just be merciful! So in my attempt to love like Jesus, I need to still myself from my hurried pace, and I need to SEE the situations others are in, especially those less fortunate than me. I need to allow my heart to be moved with compassion when I see people in situations that cause them pain. I need to be willing to stop, even if it upsets my schedule and challenges my thinking.

The next thing that the Samaritan man did was to go to him. His compassion moved him to act, which is direct obedience to the instruction that we receive when we read the passage previously studied in 1 John 3:16-18, where we are told to love, not with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth. This true love comes from the core of our being, convincing us to lay aside our own interests for the sake of others who need us at that time. It is "doing to others what we would have them do to us" (Luke 6:31), because we are placing their well being before our own. We are used to "looking out for #1" (that is, "me"), but suddenly, we place someone else in that place, and do for them what we would do for ourselves, or want someone else to do for us.  

The Samaritan used provisions he had packed for himself in order to help the man on the road. He gave up his comfort, and set the man on his own donkey - his mode of transportation. He stayed with the man through that first night, taking care of his needs. Ministering to an injured person who cannot function for himself is not an easy task, even when it is someone you love. Imagine taking the time to do that for someone you had never met! I wonder, would I give up my rest? Would I give up a night of comfortable sleep in order to help someone for no return? Would I do this when it wasn't expected or demanded of me, even if no one was watching, and I could not even benefit by gaining any praise or glory for my sacrifice made? I might say that I would, because saying so is easy to do. But when such an opportunity comes, will I offer myself? Will I do it?

When morning came, the Samaritan had to be on his way. But he didn't shirk the responsibility he had taken on. He gave of his riches. Paying the innkeeper a decent amount to take care of the injured man until he was well enough to travel again, he promised to come back again to check up on the situation, and to add to the amount he had already given, if more should be needed. He was free with his time, his resources, his heart. He was a neighbour to a man he had no obligation to love, and who may never have given anything back in return. That is the story Jesus used to show us how vast our responsibility is to love the people around us. A failure to love endangers our Christian testimony, and causes others to wonder at the truth of our words when we say that we know Jesus, because, remember, we show we know Jesus when we choose to live in obedience to His commands (1 John 2:3-6)

Jesus challenged us when He gave the example of the Good Samaritan's kindness towards a hurt and helpless man, and now, in the book of 1 John, the author challenges us by giving the example of God's love towards a hurt and helpless world! God gave of His resources too, and His was the gift of giving His only begotten Son, Jesus. Jesus is a mighty, all powerful King, sitting in Heaven at the right hand of God, yet He was given (Himself fully willing to go) to go live as a man among the people of the world. He lived and suffered in the trappings of a limited, human body, and then He died, so that He could be the perfect sacrifice that would pay for our sin and save us from spiritual death. He was the atonement needed to bring us back to life, out of the spiritual death that has been the fate of all mankind since the garden of Eden, unless we come under the redemption offered through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The word atonement always stumps me a little bit. It's like I can't fully grasp a definition that gives it the full value of what I know that word truly means. I went looking again (like I so often have) for a definition that would do this word, and this act of God through the life of Jesus, justice. I liked this synonym:

Restitution - restoration to the former or original state or position

This would mean that the atonement that Jesus gave in dying for us restored us to the way we were before sin. Before Adam and Eve sinned, they enjoyed joyful communion with God. I imagine it as being a childlike free trust in God; in what He said to them, in who He was. They didn't doubt or question Him, they just took joy in being His. But then, after they sinned, there was this wall. The humans tried to hide from God. They didn't realize that He was the only help for their sin. There was a tension between them and God, and it shows up all over the Old Testament, as we read so many stories where mankind doesn't know how to come to God, how to relate to Him, how to view Him anymore. This is also prevalent throughout time, after the Old Testament and until today. But atonement was the act that broke that tension, restoring us (through Jesus) to the way that it was before. One site I looked on for a definition defined atonement as "a condition without tension. When Christ died on the cross for us, He removed the tension between us and God. His shed blood reconciled the conflict between us and the Father." This gives me a bit of a better idea of the reason for the gift God gave, and in it, it shows the love He had for us. He wanted to give us that untainted, beautiful, free relationship with Him again. He wanted us to know Him again, rightly. As He is. We were the wicked and ungrateful (from the verses from Luke 6), and He was extending a life-saving kindness, on a much greater scale than the kindness of the Samaritan towards the Jew.

So now, "since God so loved us...", what do I do with this love? God wants us to receive it and to let it change us, and then, to pass it on. He wants us to reflect His love to others. Those touched by this kind of love will hopefully examine the source, and find out that in looking at God's people, they are really being directed to look at God Himself. When they do that, then our life has been the ministry that God had in mind. He wants us to be vessels that carry His love to a lost and hurting world, but that always, they will eventually see Him at the centre and realize that He is the true fulfillment of what they need and are searching for.

As the moon shines beautifully in the sky, yet holds no light of its own, so it is with the love that we hold in our hearts. What we give, as far as love goes, is just a reflection of what and Who He is. It starts with God as the Source, and it finds its completion when it has come full circle back to Him. Our love for each other, whether it is for our brothers and sisters in the family of God, or whether it is for those souls who yet need to find salvation, is the evidence of God's life alive in us. It is evidence that we are attached to the Vine, that we are legitimate children.

I am reminded that as we learn to truly love each other and to show this with our actions, His life will live in us, and this is how the world will see Him. We are the tools He chooses to work through, and it's humbling. We all have so far to go! But our God is a patient God, and willing to work with us in those areas of failure, because love is patient and love is kind (1 Corinthians 13:4). Love doesn't keep a record of wrongs, and as I come to accept that this is true of God and how He sees me - through Jesus - maybe I will learn to love like that too, to reflect His kindness to the people I know. To let the grace He extended to me, just like He extended it to the thief upon the cross, flow freely through me into the lives of those who need to see it most. And as He works to make that perfect love complete in us, as He turns these caterpillars into butterflies, O Lord, may You have Your way with us!

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o’er my being absolute sway!
Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see
     Christ only, always, living in me.   *

* taken from the hymn, "Have Thine Own Way, Lord", by Adelaide A. Pollard

   

Recognizing The Spirit Of Truth

1 John 4:1-6

"¹ 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.

² 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,

³ 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.

⁴ You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them,

because the One who is in you is greater

than the one who is in the world.

⁵ They are from the world and therefore speak

from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.

⁶ We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us;

but whoever is not from God does not listen to us.

This is how we recognize the Spirit of Truth

and the spirit of falsehood.

What do we believe? How do we know what is true and what is false? Can we trust what we read, what we see in the media and the world around us as truth? How easily are we deceived into believing something that is not true? Are we able to discern what is true and what is a lie?

Among other reasons for putting off the writing of this blog entry (some would classify as valid reasons, and some, well, maybe they would be more like excuses), one big reason for why I have put it off is that I really did not know how to write about this passage of Scripture before I had thoroughly thought it out. So many angles one could try to write from, so many questions I had that I first wanted to try to answer in my own mind! I felt that I needed to first come to a point where I could more confidently know the answer in my own mind to some of the questions I asked in my opening paragraph.  
I will mention that I have a previous entry, entitled The Last Hour, which will likely be similar to this one. It is based on 1 John 2, starting from verse 18, and in many ways is a parallel passage to this one. Check it out!

Sometimes, to determine the strength of a certain piece of equipment or even a piece of furniture, one puts it through a series of tests. This might also happen with a vehicle, or any number of things, to ensure that it is safe and reliable, and that it is what one wants and expects it to be. This testing will reveal whether the thing is trustworthy to be what it is expected to be. We are told, at the beginning of 1 John 4, to "test the spirits", to see whether they are from God. The problem which is revealed as we read on is that there are many false prophets that have gone out into the world. These false prophets proclaim a false message, and that obviously concerns John, who is writing to a group of believers whom he considers to be his spiritual students, or children. He has taught them of Jesus Christ, as a first hand witness of the life and the authenticity of Christ, and he does not want them to be misled in their faith in the truth of the gospel of Jesus! But...these false prophets are deceptive enough in their message and teaching that it might be possible for them to persuade believers to listen to them. This is why his letter contains this warning!

So now that we have the problem, we need to know how to deal with it. We are given tools to help us do this right away, in verse 2, when John identifies some ways to recognize the true Spirit of God. To help me come to a fuller understanding, when I saw the word "spirit" (lowercase 's') in this section of Scripture, I decided to replace it in my mind, for a moment, with the word "teaching", or "doctrine" (*please note, I would never want to give the idea of changing words in Scripture, but only that as I was spending time meditating on this Scripture trying to glean the depth of its meaning, I felt that this word seemed to be somewhat synonymous with the word "spirit" used in these verses). 

So, this far into the passage, I have again been warned that there are false, deceptive teachings or beliefs taught by false messengers whose purpose is, for some reason, to derail our faith in God and to cause doubt in our minds about the true teaching that we received when we heard the good news of Jesus Christ. I am not surprised then, when I read further and find that where those teachings are actually coming from are from the "antichrist", the spirit that opposes God. The great Antichrist who is yet to come in the future, opposing God in his fullest force, is the devil, and it is obvious that that same spirit is already at work in the world around us. I don't have to look very far to see the effects of evil and deception that he leaves as a trail behind him. Sometimes though, in order to blind and derail even those who would seek to know God, the devil will work in sneaky and conniving ways to draw people from the faith. These he cannot get with blatant sin that is easy to recognize, and so he uses his cunning to twist the message just enough to get someone off the right track. Once he has even a small foothold in someone's mind, he has a starting point, and he will not stop! That is something that we must acknowledge and recognize - the devil wants to destroy God's kingdom, and he will go to great lengths to do it! He will gladly blind and deceive if that will work his way into gaining one more soul, and he will use whoever is willing to allow him room. We just have to look back to Genesis 3, in the garden of Eden, and mankind's original fall into sin, to see that Satan is no respecter of persons, and deception is his game. That is why so many cults and false beliefs ravage our world. So many of them look really good, at first glance, because they are really good. They are meant to catch us and trip us up without realizing it, as we seek to know God. 

BUT, truth is the absence of deception, and the antonym to falsehood. Truth acknowledges  Jesus Christ coming to Earth as a man. I believe this, and every Christmas season, I celebrate the humble beginning that Jesus had when He came to Earth as a baby, in much the same way that every other person comes into this world. But truth does not stop there. Truth acknowledges that the man Jesus was, and was sent by, God. In its fullest, God as the Son came down to Earth, fully God, yet fully man. He left behind His glorious title and what it all encompassed when He became a man who would feel hunger, feel the weariness in His bones after a long day, feel what His creation feels, and not just know it. I find this hard to describe, but I think of Jesus, perfect because He was God, yet willing to take on the form of mankind after mankind had been tainted from its original magnificent creation by the effects of sin. He was sinless, yet He was willing to bear the effects of sin by 'wearing' an earthly body, in order to save us from an eternity spent living under the weight of that effect of sin, which He had never intended for man to have to bear, but which man had fallen into when he strayed from God's protective plan. Though I have probably quoted this before, I must quote it here again, because of the perfect word picture it creates. Philippians 2:6-8 speaks of Jesus this way:

"Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God

something to be grasped [clung to]* [held on to]*, but made Himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself

and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!" 

                     *some other versions use these words, and I find 
 that they clarify this statement very well.    

There was only one way God could save us, and that was to take our sin, and the punishment we deserved because of our sin, and to die for us. Romans 6:23 says that "the wages of sin is death". Sin earns a wage, and that wage IS paid! The wage is death! Jesus stepped in and took that wage for us - from us. Because God in His perfect fullness could never die, God's Son came down and allowed Himself to be trapped by His own choice in a human body, obedient to His Father's will because of His limitless love for all mankind. Now, in this form, He could actually die for us, because He had left His glorious power ("being in very nature God") behind for a time, as He dwelt on Earth as a man. So, taking our 'wage' (death), He gave us His gift (eternal life *see Romans 6:23), through Jesus Christ!

All of this, to the best of my understanding, is what the true Spirit of God teaches - that Jesus came from God to live as a man to fulfill His perfect plan to redeem us. We acknowledge this, which means we confess this (we speak it and agree with this statement), and we believe it with all of our heart! If there is some part of this that is changed, tainted, taken from or added to, we must be very careful and aware. We must examine and test any alternate teaching, because every teaching that strays from this "is not from God" and will lead us from the truth! As has been made clear to me over and over again as I have studied the book of 1 John, there are only one of two places that I can be - and that is, either as a child of God, or if not that, then I am, by default, a child of the devil. We are born in sin, belonging to the dominion of darkness which is the devil's domain. Only when we come to salvation through Christ are we transferred into God's kingdom of light, where no darkness can dwell, and are adopted as His children (chapter 3:1).

As God's children, even though we remain for now in this world where evil still comes at us from all angles, in the next verse we have a wonderful reminder of the power we have because we are His. We have been given a clear picture of what we are up against, we can start to separate the truth from the deception by putting what we hear through this test - who do they say Jesus was? We are given words which should surely encourage us if we are worried about whether we will be able to stand up against, and correctly test and discern the different spirits (or teachings/beliefs) that are coming at us. In verse 4, God's Word tells His children that we are "from God and have overcome them, because the One who is in [us] is greater than the one who is in the world". Through our faith in Jesus Christ, God's Son, the way to God the Father is opened up to us. I remember from chapter 2:23 that "no one who denies the Son has the Father" but that "whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also". I also remember from chapter 3:24 that the third member of the Triune God, the Holy Spirit, lives within me. He gives me assurance of my standing with God, and the joy of life with Him. The Holy Spirit is my Guide into all truth, and so I am assured that no matter what comes my way, I may do battle against the forces that oppose Christ with the very power of God working inside of me. I like how it says "we have overcome", not that we will yet overcome, but that we have! It makes me want to live like that - as though I have already overcome. Because Jesus overcame the power of death when He rose from the dead, He is already the Victor, and through Him, we are already victorious over the ploys of those who oppose Christ. We live in spiritual victory, with the sure promise that when the set time comes, it will be a full and total victory. Sometimes, yes, it is hard to patiently wait for that day, but those who are His will stand firm to the end and reap the benefits.

This is another difference between the message of truth which is from God, and the message of falsehood which is from men who twist His Word. Those who twist His Word, it says, are controlled by the one who is in the world. "The world" is used many times in the Bible as a stark contrast to God's kingdom (His ways, His people, His dominion). The world is all about a hungry or lustful desire or craving to satisfy self, and to satisfy it now (see chapter 2:15-17). Hidden within the messages of false prophets, many of whom are trying to deceive true believers, and therefore, speaking from the pulpits of churches, will be things spoken from the perspective of the world, which is controlled by the devil. Because of this, they may gain popularity quickly. The world will listen to them because it likes what they say. A false prophet's teaching might be much more widely accepted by the world than what the man of God teaches. The world looks at what it can do for them, and loves it. God's child looks at what He can do, and loves Him.

"Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season;

correct, rebuke, and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction.

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine.

Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them

a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry."

2 Timothy 4:2-5    

Those who know God, in contrast to those who follow false teaching, will listen to His teaching. They will read His word and actively listen to what it says; that is, they will hear it and obey. James 1:22-25 explains it this way:

"Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves.

Do what it says.

Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says

is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself,

goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom,

and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it -

he will be blessed in what he does."

I love this description of what it means to actually listen! I want to apply that way of listening to the last verse of this passage of Scripture from 1 John. If we are listening to God's Word - looking intently into His perfect law that gives us freedom from sin, if we are implementing what we are learning about walking with Jesus into our daily life, if we are slowly and surely turning from our own selfish ways, and following Him, then we are following the pattern of a believer! Whoever is not truly from God will not listen and obey like this. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth, and also, the spirit of falsehood, or as is used in some versions of the Bible, the spirit of deception. The dividing line will grow larger and clearer the further each of them travels in their journey. Even a small variation from the truth will end up misleading and taking its follower further and further away. There needs to be a full 're-centering' if that person who has been straying from the Word of Truth wants to get back on track, and that 're-center' has everything to do with Who they believe Jesus truly is, and with whether they truly listen to what the Bible has to say. 

Wrapping it up, I just want to add that at the time that these words were first written by the apostle John, he mentioned that "whoever knows God listens to us". God chose to include those words in His preserved and written word - the Bible. I believe that the "us" that is referred to here is the apostles, the authors of the writings that would eventually become our Bible today, and to those who teach Christ accurately to His people. People back then had to choose whom they would listen to, and though they had the Old Testament scrolls, and at this time were possibly even starting to collect some of the writings that would later become the New Testament, they did not have access to God's written Word like we do today. They had to be really discerning, as much of their teaching was spoken, and not as easily accessed or preserved in the same way that our Bibles are today. We are blessed to live in a time where, every time we hear someone speaking, we have the option of going to our Bibles and comparing what they are saying to what God says in His Word. So I would want to motivate anyone out there to do that! If you hear something that makes you wonder if it is grounded in truth, test that teaching, examine it to see if what it teaches is true. Remember, if you are a child of God, you have been anointed by the Holy Spirit, and He will lead you into all truth.

At the beginning of my blog I mentioned how products often undergo a series of testing to ensure that they will hold up and endure under any kind of use that they will get. I assure you, God's Word, His Spirit, the truth about the gospel of Jesus, has stood up under every test it has been given! It will not disappoint, He will not fail. He is truth, so go ahead, and step out in faith. In Him, we have overcome and all false philosophies will shatter when they are put under the pressure of the testing. With Him, we can echo these words of Scripture:

"...the One who is in [me] is greater..."

Praise His Name!!

___________________________________

There is so much more that could have been said about this topic, and therefore, so much I feel I left unsaid! I had collected a bunch of verses that I had meant to include throughout, that would show the intentions and the identifications of a false prophet. In studying and reading them, I became so aware again of the vast amounts of false teaching that is out there today even in 'Christian' circles. Maybe the quickest way to find much of that false teaching would be to go into a huge Christian bookstore and leaf through many of the popular books that are selling today. My husband and I actually like to do that from time to time, and discuss what we see, trying to point out which titles might raise red flags when put to the test. One of the most deceptive, and I think most easily fallen for these days, is the message that promotes our own self to a point where we believe that we can find the power within ourselves to overcome whatever we face. We must remember that the Bible teaches that it is only through the power of Christ that we have any strength! The message of the Cross is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18), and Christ crucified is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:24); we cannot overcome, but God, through Christ Jesus and His sacrifice for us at the Cross - has overcome in our place, and therefore, it is in Him that we find the power to overcome (as we will see later in chapter 5:4 and 5!). 

For sure it is certainly extremely important to be alert, aware, and discerning in this day and age. I feel inadequate in giving advice about what specifics to look for, except for those that were expressed in the verses I wrote about today, and also any others that God's Word clearly teaches. Here's a few more verses that I had thought to include, which do exactly that. May God's Spirit guide you into all truth!

"The Spirit clearly teaches that in later times some will abandon the faith

and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

Such teachings come through hypocritical liars,

whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron."

1 Timothy 4:1-2

"For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers,

especially those of the circumcision group.

They must be silenced, because they are ruining

whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach -

and that for the sake of dishonest gain."

Titus 1:10-11

"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy,

which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world

rather than on Christ."

Colossians 2:8

"...command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer

nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies.

These promote controversies rather than God's work - which is by faith.

The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart

and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk."

1 Timothy 1:3-5

"Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ

does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, 

do not take him into your house or welcome him."

2 John 1:9-10

Taking Up Our Cross, Laying Down Our Life

1 John 3:11-24

"¹¹ This is the message you heard from the beginning:

We should love one another.

¹² Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one

and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him?

Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.

¹³ Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.

¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life,

because we love our brothers.

Anyone who does not love remains in death.

¹⁵ Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer,

and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

¹⁶ 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.

¹⁷ 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?

¹⁸ Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue

but with actions and in truth.

¹⁹ This then is how we know that we belong to the truth,

and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence

²⁰ whenever our hearts condemn us.

For God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.

²¹ Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us,

we have confidence before God

²² and receive from Him anything we ask,

because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him.

²³ And this is His command:

to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ,

and to love one another as He commanded us.

²⁴ Those who obey His commands live in Him, and He in them.

And this is how we know that He lives in us:

we know it by the Spirit He gave us.

I want to start journaling my thoughts by quoting Galatians 1:10, written by the apostle Paul. I believe that this verse also really applies to John, the beloved disciple of Jesus Christ:

"Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God?

Or am I trying to please men?

If I were still trying please men, I would not be a servant of Christ."

God used both of these men (Paul and John) to write His words, to be read and applied by millions of people throughout the world, spanning thousands of years of time. What they wrote was not their own thoughts, used either to accuse or condemn men, or to tickle the ears of those who read. What they wrote was the message that God wanted to give to mankind, and they wrote as His Spirit revealed it to them. The men that penned the word of God could not worry about what their audience might think, wondering how they would accept the words they wrote. They could only be faithful to their King, the One they whole-heartedly served. And so, the words of Scripture that kick off this blog are the words of God, recorded by His faithful servant John, for us to read and learn from. The thoughts that follow are mere words written by a mostly uneducated person who just loves to think about these kinds of things. Though my prayer is that one day something that I write will point someone towards the Truth, they are just words and thoughts expressed. I too, would hope that in my writing, I would not be trying to win the approval of others, but rather, would be focused on Christ, my Master, and on serving Him with all of my heart...

As I became engrossed in my study, slowly trying to dissect it in order to gain understanding, I realized a pattern in the passage above, which I then realized is repeated multiple times** in this book.

John often gives a command (an instruction which a child of God should be following), and then, in the following verses he expounds on it. When he has given his wise insight, using many wonderful, eye opening examples, etc., he closes that section, or train of thought, by repeating the instruction again. Often, in closing, he will show us the benefit, or reward, for His true children as they follow this instruction. So, this is the pattern that I saw in this portion of Scripture:

God's Command: verse 11

Instruction: verses 12-22

              - both negative examples - of those who failed to obey His command,

                and positive examples - of someone who obeys His command.

              - helpful advice to teach and guide us, and reasons for why this will benefit us.
              - assurance that we may have confidence before God, as His children, when
                we follow this instruction.  

God's Command Repeated: verse 23

Closing: verse 24

              - Blessing for obedience. A reminder of the wonderful gift given to believers

God's command is to "love one another", and this has been His message to us "from the beginning" (these three words are also often repeated - 5 times - in 1 John, showing us that John is not presenting new or foreign ideas; rather, he is presenting God's original, familiar message to us yet one more time in hopes that our eyes will be opened to His truth).

"Do not be like Cain...". Cain is the first example we have, from almost the beginning of time, of someone failing to love his brother. Abel, Cain's younger brother, was a shepherd, and Cain was a farmer, working the soil. Both of these men at one point, brought offerings to the Lord (read about it in Genesis 4:1-17). The Lord was pleased with the sacrifice that Abel brought, but He was not pleased with Cain's sacrifice. As I studied more Scripture about sacrifice, trying to understand the lesson in this story more clearly, I found a lot of verses that showed me which kinds of sacrifices God is pleased with. First of all, because He is all-knowing, it is important to remember that though we often only see the actual events of a story, God knows the heart of each character intimately, as He did with Cain and Abel, and which motives were behind their sacrifices. Psalm 139:1-4, as well as parts of Hebrews 4:12 and 13 show this:

"O LORD, You have searched me and You know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue You know it completely, O LORD."

"For the Word of God is living and active...it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight."

1 Samuel 16:7b says:

"Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

Because He is able to perfectly read our hearts, I trust that God's judgements are always right and just. God, deeply involved in both Cain and Abel's lives, saw their hearts, and that Cain's was not obedient to Him. Therefore, He could not find pleasure in the gift that Cain presented to Him. 1 Samuel 15:22 tells us:

"Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord?

To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry."

There is a lot revealed in that verse, but what stands out to me is that obedience is the quality that God can work with. If we are willing to trust Him and to show that trust by submitting to Him in obedience, then God will be able to do much good in our lives. This kind of trust (which is what faith is built on) was something that Abel possessed, and it motivated him to seek to do God's will in what he did. In Hebrews 11:4, Abel is commended for his faith:

"By faith, Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did.

By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings.

And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead."

Abel has left a lasting example of what obedience to God looks like. Faith and obedience go hand in hand - they are the qualities that God can work with, favorable in His sight. These are also the very things that can stir up anger, or hatred, in the heart of someone lacking them, especially in those trying to put on a façade of faith, which was what Cain seemed to be doing.

Cain became "very angry" that Abel's sacrifice had been accepted and his had not. I believe that verse 12 in the passage above reveals why he was so angry. He was jealous, because he saw that Abel's actions were right before God because his heart was pure, while at the same time, it had been revealed that his heart was not pure, that his actions were not right. As jealousy festered and grew inside of him, he became an angry man. These wrong thoughts overtook him to a point where it "changed his countenance". It robbed him of joy, peace, and contentment, and followed him around like a black cloud. Jealousy and anger, if not dealt with, will easily lead to hate. Hate has a way of 'uglifying' things, of blinding us to the truth, which will escalate the severity of the problem, as it did with Cain. Jesus was familiar with this kind of hatred, and He warned His followers that they would also experience it from those who had the same mindset as those who had opposed Him.This kind of mindset is an 'earthly minded' one, as opposed to the 'heavenly minded' one we as believers will have. Jude calls this type of person "godless" (v. 4), men who "speak abusively against whatever they do not understand" (v.10), "grumblers and faultfinders", men who "follow their own evil desires" (v. 16). About such people, he says, "they have taken the way of Cain" (v. 11), showing that the same negative spirit that was in Cain at the beginning of time will still live on in those opposing God's perfect way until the end of time.  In John 15:18, after reminding His followers about the love they were to have for each other as His followers, Jesus said:

"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first.

If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.

As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.

That is why the world hates you." 

As a child of God who is living obediently for Him, following His commands and serving Him with a pure heart, we do not need to be shocked or worried if there is a dividing line between us and those who reject God. There are some who hate us. Those whose eyes have not yet been opened to the kingdom that Christ is building will likely hate us. Evil hates righteousness like it hates light - it does not like to have its deeds exposed for what they are.  

God does not easily give up on these kinds of people though. He pursues them, in hopes that they will forsake their sin and turn to Him. In His love and concern for Cain, the Lord sought him out, addressing Cain's anger and his "downcast face". In a way that is characteristic to God throughout the whole Bible, He showed Cain the way out of his sinful condition, telling him, "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?" It is never too late to turn from evil and do good (Psalm 34:14). God is patient, not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9), and is a great Giver of second (or third or fourth...) chances. But because God always allows us to make our own free choice, not forcing us into anything against our will, He warned Cain how it would play out if he kept on going the way he was going; "If you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it" (Gen. 4:5).

One thing that has been apparent from the beginning of time is that the devil does not wait for us to come to him. According to 1 Peter 5:8, "the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour". In God's words to Cain, I imagine that same imagery - a ferocious, hungry lion crouching, waiting to pounce on anyone that comes his way so that he may devour him. Thankfully, the Bible is full of reminders for us to be aware, to be watchful and vigilant, and so to avoid falling prey to our enemy the devil.

God's desire was for Cain to be victorious in defeating this sinful pattern of thought he had fallen into, but Cain rebelled against Him (opposite of obedience), choosing instead to give in to and follow the devil. Because he made this choice John, in verse 12 of the opening passage, could truthfully say that Cain "belonged to the evil one". Going back to chapter 3:10 (covered in my previous blog "Learning To Live 'In Him' "), his behavior was like that of "children of the devil", because he chose to "not do what is right", and his actions over a course of time progressively showed that he did "not love his brother". Cain's anger, towards God and towards Abel, turned into a hatred that was strong enough that it led him to killing his brother. This is the account of the first murder, and it is evidence of the truth of the words in verse 15, where John writes:

" Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer,

and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him."

Hate = Murder = Death.

The previous verse (v.14) contrasts this by saying that "we know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers".

Love = Life

Anyone who does not love remains in death. There is only one equation that fits us.

Love is a product, or fruit, of a child of God, and as that, we do have eternal life in us. Eternal life is the reward, or outcome for us, if we love as Christ commanded us to love. This kind of love only comes by laying down our own desires, and following Jesus' example. In the next verses, I see the positive example of love that we as believers are supposed to follow.

Cain's example was given, I feel, to show me what love is not! The example given of Jesus laying down His life for us - dying for us so that we could experience eternal life - shows me what love is (1 John 4:7-5:3 talks a lot more about what love is!).

John 15:13:

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

Romans 5:7:

"Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man,

though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this:

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

This love that Jesus Christ so willingly offered us while we were still living in rebellion towards Him, in our sin, should have us responding to Him. The best way we can show Jesus the love that we have for Him is by loving those around us like He loves us. As His child, we are blessed to have Him living inside of us, and that life that He wants to live through us wants to love! That is Christ's character.

So, "we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers". Does this mean that we should die for them? Well, I believe that it means that we should be willing to die for someone if the need arises. There are many stories that touch my heart about people who have laid down their lives for the sake of others in this way, and I am blessed to see such sacrifice! However, as I read the verses that followed, I realized that there is another, maybe even deeper, meaning to these words. We belong to God now and it is our desire to live for Him, which means we willingly set aside our own desires so that we can do what He desires. My possessions are not my own anymore, but God's. Therefore, if I see someone in need, I should care more about God's desire to provide for that person's needs than about my desire for my own gain. I should want to lay aside the life that I might want to build for myself in order to help my brother. If I desire to do any less, God's love is not flowing through me. It is easy to say "I love God", while it is often more difficult to do the things He would do through us because we love Him. James 2:14-17 provides a vivid example of "loving" in word only, but not in deed:

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?

Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.

If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed",

but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." 

Our actions will show whether what we say is true or not. Is our faith real? It will show itself as real or counterfeit depending on the kind of life we live. Yes, my prayer is that I would be willing to die for someone in order that they might live, if I would ever happen to be in such a situation. But my prayer also is that I would be willing to "die" to my own desires a hundred times a day in order to show someone in need Christ's life in me. This, for now, is maybe a more realistic prayer, for I know that I will be in this kind of situation many times almost every day that I live. There are so many people in need of experiencing Christ's love. Will I be willing to let Him give it to someone through my actions? A verse that came to mind over and over again as I was thinking about this was Luke 9:23, which says:

"Then [Jesus] said to them all: "If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself

and take up his cross daily and follow Me.

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?"

Romans 15:1-6, and Philippians 2:3-8 talk about emulating the example that Jesus gave while He lived on this Earth as a man. He did not live to please Himself, but rather, made Himself as nothing in order to give us salvation. Jesus humbled Himself to a point of total obedience, and died as a falsely accused, innocent man. He died a shameful death that He did not deserve, even though all the while He had the power to change His situation. Like a favorite Easter song says, "He could have called ten thousand angels...but He died alone for you and me." In John 10:18, Jesus says:

"No one takes [My life] from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord."

It was Jesus' spirit, His will, that was completely obedient to His Father, and He is our example.

Once I start loving in word, in action, and in truth, I will have a sure knowledge that I belong to the truth. Just like we are sure that the child who is the spitting image of the parent beside him belongs to that parent, when we start resembling our Father in Heaven, it becomes clear that we are His. If Satan comes at us with attacks, trying to make us doubt our salvation, we can examine our hearts, our motives, our deeds. As the Lord reveals, this is where one would confess and repent of anything that is not a product of genuine Christianity. Once we have done that, we are ready to go on to verse 21, where we start seeing the reward of loving Him, loving our brother, in our lives.

Once a person has reached this point in their walk with Christ, one is able to have confidence in coming before God (see Hebrews 4:16). We are told that we will "receive from Him anything we ask, because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him". This is an amazing promise!! Sometimes people who don't understand, or who want to abuse the Word of God, twist verses like this one, and end up confused, because they have asked something of God, and did not receive what they asked for. I feel that it is very important to remember who this promise is given to. This promise is given to Christians who have learned to submit themselves to God in total obedience. It is for people who's greatest desire is to follow Jesus' example of humility, of serving others and serving the Father; of wanting nothing more than what He wants. Will this intimate relationship of love change what we ask for? I believe that it will. People in this kind of relationship with God usually end up praying a lot differently than those who are still focused more on themselves than on Him.
I do not mean to discourage! Although I still find that my focus is often misplaced, I have been privileged to see the Lord giving me exactly what I asked for at times, and there is no feeling as joyous as realizing that a prayer of mine was answered because I was praying according to my Father's will!

Verse 23 reiterates what we read at the beginning. God's command is to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and it is to love one another as He commanded us. If that's me, then I am assured that I live in Him, and He lives in me (that is, my life is secure, and hidden in Him, and He has put His forever life that bears the good fruit inside of me, where before there was only fleeting life on this earth, filled with all the bad fruit, and then death - separation from my Giver of Life, and His love and His goodness. I don't really know how to explain that very well with words, but I sure know how it feels! It's something that, when a person has experienced it, becomes the most important thing in life!). And how do I know that Christ lives in me? I know it by the Spirit He gave to me.

"Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,

Who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those

who are God's possession - to the praise of His glory."

                    

Ephesians 1:13b,14

* I realize that this entry is really lengthy, which reflects on the amount of study I put into it. I
  felt that it took a long time for me to process this section, and by the time I had done so, I
  had studied so many things, from the life of Cain, to the life of Jesus, and many things in
  between. I don't know if, in the long run, it ends up being too lengthy of a read, but what I
  do know is that it was an excellent way for me to get digging deep into God's Word :). So,
  enjoy, and maybe grab a cup of coffee or take an intermission halfway :)! Thanks for
  reading!

** Some more examples of a similar pattern/format that I found (described near the
    beginning of this blog) are in chapter 2:24-28 'Continue/Remain in Him',
                                                  chapter 3:6-10 'Don't Keep On Sinning',
                                                  chapter 4:7-12 also themed 'Love One Another',
                                                  chapter 5:1-5 'Believe That Jesus Is God's Son' (or for a
                                                  broader example, one could possibly use chapter 5:1-13).    
    These, of course, are just things that helped me in my personal study; I have no idea
    if they would be recognized by actual Bible scholars :)! If any readers have time,
    go ahead and study this, and let me know what you think!