No Doubt - July 17 Reading: 1 John 5

Today’s Readings

Context

John's first letter wraps up with a series of positive and powerful teachings about the victory and power of Christ, reminding his readers that Jesus is victor over all and that they can walk confidently in him. 

Note: If you are using the KJV, you have a verse 7 that doesn't appear in any other version. I wish that verse was in the originals - it is the most Trinitarian verse in any manuscript. Unfortunately, it is also absolutely clear that it was not part of the original letter of John, but was added about a thousand years later. It is TRUE but it is not scripture.

Devotional - No Doubt

We live in a world of moral uncertainty in which it is considered normal and honorable to be unsure of truth. No one knows what is right and wrong. There is no absolute standard; that is decided by each person for themselves. The only wrong is to assert that one is right, the only evil is to identify someone else's beliefs or actions as evil.

John said much in this letter about love - the love of God and the love we are to have for one another in the Body of Christ. It is easy for us to confuse love with a tolerance for sin and false doctrine that is actually destructive to the Body Christ died to redeem and sanctify. And in his concluding words he made it very clear that we need not live in doubt. We need not waver between opinions or wonder if we've chosen the right way.

We can live in a spiritual confidence that will offend our world!

Years ago I wrote an article in the Cedar Rapids Gazette defending our denomination's announcement that we would be making a special effort in Chicago to witness to Jewish people about the saving grace of Christ. I pointed out that the church began by telling Jewish people that their Messiah had come and our commitment had not changed. Jesus Christ is the Savior of the Gentile, the Jew, the Muslim - every person on earth. A man (a Baptist from another, more liberal group) wrote a letter to the editor excoriating me for my hubris and arrogance. How dare I say that Jesus is the only way! How could I be so certain that my way was the only right way?

But according to John, we can know! We are not meant to live in doubt and uncertainty. Look at verse 13, written to those who believe, who have faith in Jesus Christ.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

We are supposed to KNOW that we have eternal life. Know! How many times have you talked to someone about whether they would go to heaven and they answered, "I hope so." NO! We are meant to KNOW SO, not hope so. If you "hope so" you are trusting in yourself. But when we trust in Christ and his finished work we can know that we have eternal life. 

Verses and 11 and 12 made it absolutely clear what the basis for our confidence is. 

And this is the testimony, 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.

Are we arrogant? No! We are confident. But our confidence is not in ourselves but it is in the one in whom we have placed our trust. We have Christ! We placed our faith in Christ and there is life in him. He who has the Son has life - it's as simple as that. If you don't have the Son you don't have life, but you live under the wrath of God. 

We are not called to live in doubt and uncertainty about our eternal destiny, but in confidence - not because of who we are but because of Christ! He is life and we are his! If we have him (by faith) we have life. It's as simple as that. 

This kind of confidence will drive the world crazy but it gives a peace that passes understanding!

Thank you, Lord for the peace that comes from knowing Christ and knowing that in HIM we have life - life eternal and life abundant!

Think and Pray

Do you live in doubt and fear, because your confidence rests in yourself?
Or do you rest in Christ and his eternal work on your behalf? 

Testing the Spirits - July 16 Reading: 1 John 3:11-4:21

Today’s Readings

Context

1 John 3 and 4 are about love - loving God and loving one another. It is no accident then that the passage which will be the subject of our devotional is there at the beginning of 1 John 4. Too often our love becomes an excuse to abandon doctrinal and practical standards. To call something sin is "unloving" or to call someone's beliefs wrong is mean. But we must never let our love prevent us from practicing discernment. Of course, we must never all our discernment to keep us from practicing love - they tend to stand in conflict and the art of Christian living is to balance them. 

Devotional - Testing the Spirits

There has been much in the news about Christian celebrities - celebrity pastors and others. Some of them, seem grounded in the truths of the faith and hold fast to what is true, but many make me shake my head a little. One in particular, who loudly proclaimed faith in Jesus Christ also completely redefined what it means to be a Christian, who Jesus was and what is right and wrong.

John gave us a warning, in 1 John 4:1, that needs to be heard and heeded.

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

This verse asserts one fact and makes one command based on that fact. The fact is that there are man false prophets who have gone out into the world. These false prophets are not skeptics and atheists and teachers of false religions. These are people who claim to be Christians, who open the Bible and "preach the Word," who talk about how much they love Jesus, but they are false. Fake. Frauds. Scripture after scripture warns us about false christs who come claiming to be the "second coming," false prophets who claim new revelation that violates the teachings of God's Word, false apostles who claim authority over God's church and lead it astray and false teachers who twist the Word for their own purposes. These fakes are always going to be in the church of Jesus Christ. 

So, according to John, we need to be on guard. "Do not believe every spirit." Never assume that just because someone claims to love Jesus or to preach God's word, that he or she actually does so. Test it. Test that which is being spoken by the revealed Word of God. If someone either adds to or takes away from what God revealed to the apostles and prophets, then the alarms should ring. 

The key to discernment is found in verse 2. Those who are of God confess Christ, the real Christ, not some creation of their own imagination. They believe that Jesus is the Incarnation of God in a human body, the Messiah long promised come to inhabit human flesh. He lived a perfect life, died in our place to pay the eternal price for our sins and rose again as Lord over all. Anything less than a full confession of Christ is fully unacceptable. 

Christians ought to be people of grace and ought never let small differences cause schisms in the Body of Christ. But we must be willing to stand on what is essential. On the truth of the Word of God, the salvation offered by Christ, only by Christ, on the Lordship of Jesus over all things - on these we can never compromise. The courage of discernment is essential to the survival of the church. 

Father, thank you for Jesus Christ. May I be faithful to him and faithful in testing those who speak in his name but who do not speak his truth. 

Think and Pray

Finding the right place for discernment is difficult. Some become critical and judgmental; others refuse to make any biblical judgments at all.
Are you in God's word and using that word to guide you?
Do  you foolishly accept everyone who claims Christ and who claims to teach God's word as genuine? 

The World We Live In - July 15 Reading: 1 John 2:7-3:10

Today’s Readings

Context

Many see this letter as divided into four sections, which form a sort of chiasm (based on the Hebrew letter that looks like an X). The first section started n 1:1 and goes through 2:14. It establishes God as light and exhorts us to live in light and not to sin. Then 2:15-3:10 is a warning not to love the world. The next section, 3:11-4:13 calls on us to love God and love one another, and the last section, 4:14-5:20 returns to the life we live if we love God.

Devotional - The World We Live In

We Americans love our world, don't we? We love our country. We love our movies, our TV, our sports, our games. Despite all the things we complain about the world we live in is pretty good. It wasn't so great for the early church - they lived in suffering, opposition, persecution, deprivation. It was perhaps easier for them to hear verses like 1 John 2:15-16.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

Why is it that we are not allowed to love this world? Is God a cosmic killjoy who simply wants to make us miserable? Does our joy make him mad? No, of course not. But John knew what we sometimes forget. This world and everything in it stands in opposition to the will and ways of God. 

We cannot forget where we live - in hostile territory. We are loyal to heaven and we live in the domain of darkness. This world is under Satan's authority and he has sown it with his lies. He has blinded the minds and hearts of unbelievers and the world reflects those values. 

As we go through the day, we can enjoy life, love people, and experience pleasure in this world. We don't have to be hermits or practice doceticism. But we must realize that we are living in the enemy's realm and our loyalties are to the God of glory. We must walk carefully, wary of deception and temptation in the world. 

The good news is that Jesus told us to be of good cheer because he had overcome the world and its sinful system. He that through his love , sending his only son so that we could believe and be saved. 

Father, thank you for your love that caused you to send your Son to overcome this world and save us. 

Think and Pray

What is your attitude toward this world?
Do you love it and all the things that are in it, or do you put your hope in God?
Where are your loyalties?

Finding Balance - July 14 Reading: 1 John 1:1-2:6

Today’s Readings

Context

The history of heresy is interesting. By the time John wrote his first epistle, he was likely the only one of the Apostles still alive, and the heresy that would so dominate and degrade the church of the second century had begun to spread.

Most heresy roots in the person and work of Christ. In our day it is the deity of Christ that most often comes under attack but in the later First Century and early Second Century church it was often a docetic heresy that dominated - a belief  that the flesh was evil and denied that God would have actually taken physical form. It was the humanity of Christ, his physical existence, that was denied.

There is nothing personal in this letter - no references to friends, no identification of the other author. But it is well-attested to be the work of John, the disciple of Christ, the "Son of Thunder." Tradition holds it to have been written from Ephesus. 

Devotional - Finding Balance

 Remember Nik Wallenda walking across the Grand Canyon? To lean to the left or to the right would be deadly. Only by balancing perfectly could he stay alive. In 1 John 2:1-2 there are two truths taught that must be perfectly balanced. Many Christians hold to one of these truths and ignore or redefine the other - to their spiritual detriment.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

The first truth that John presents is the challenge for each of us - that we might not sin. We have been saved by God's grace from the slavery to sin that came naturally to us and given freedom in Christ to live righteously. We have the indwelling Spirit of God to empower us and we both should and can say no to sin. Yes, I am a sinner and until Jesus takes me to my eternal home I will always be so. But I must never make peace with my sinfulness and act as if it is no big deal. Every sin I commit is an offense against the righteousness of Christ and grieves the Spirit of God within me. God has empowered me to holy living and I must seek to walk in the power he has provided.

But, no matter how hard I try I will always fail. The "lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of one's lifestyle" will always have their pull on my lower nature and sin will rear its head. I will never be perfect. When I sin, I must not give up. I must not quit. I must not despair. I must, instead, remember that I have one who advocates on my behalf. Jesus died to pay for my sins. No matter what I do today, it doesn't matter - my sin is already paid for, my future is certain, and the love of God is secure.

Did you see the conflict in what I said? It matters whether or not I sin. I must not sin. But it doesn't matter when I sin because Jesus is my advocate. This is one of those inherent paradoxes in Christianity. I must always strive to walk in the holiness Christ has provided for me, but I must also rest in the security of his love even when I fail. It is a balancing act, but it is one that leads to glory.

Father, thank you for the absolute, eternal, and comprehensive forgiveness I have through the advocacy of your Son, Jesus Christ. May your grace through him move me to holy living, to purity and to freedom from a life of sin. 

Think and Pray

Do you keep these truths in balance?
Do you seek to avoid sin in Christ's power?
When you sin, do you confess that sin and rely on the power of the advocate that we have, Jesus Christ our Lord? 

Eyes Open - July 13 Reading: 2 Peter 2-3

Today’s Readings

Context

In these two chapters, Peter confronts, in vivid, colorful language, the false teachers who were destined to arise in the church to lead the followers of Christ astray. Similarities to Jude abound in Peter's metaphors.

Devotional - Eyes Open

It is assumed in many theological debates that the writings of the early church fathers must be reliable and true because they were so close to Apostles in time. But in reality, the church strayed quickly from the truth after the apostles were gone. The warnings of Jesus, Paul, and Peter here in 2 Peter 2-3 proved all too true. Gnostics. Mystics. Those who denied the dual nature of Christ (first denying his humanity, then soon his fully deity). Salvation by baptism. The church strayed into doctrinal error quickly.

That is why there are so many warnings in the New Testament about the increase of false teachers. In this passage, Peter reminds us that these spiritual charlatans will arise in the church. Friends - THEY ARE EVERYWHERE! Jesus promised us they would be. So did Peter. So did Paul. Just because someone says, "I'm a Christian and I preach the Bible does NOT mean they are." We have been promised wolves among the sheep - spiritual predators who would come among us not to feed the sheep but to devour them. We must stop being gullible, believing every person who claims Christ is a Christian.

But Peter also promised us that God could handle these false teachers. Yes, we need to be wary and careful, but 2:4-9 tells us that God will not only punish those who lead others astray but will also protect us from them. God is powerful - more powerful than those who twist the truth!

Those are the two errors we must avoid and the pendulum swings wildly between them. On the one hand we sometimes fail to realize that the wolves are among us. We are gullible. But on the other hand, some despair and become so focused on the false teachers that they forget that God's truth is stronger than the error.

Stay in the word. Know the truth and it will set you free. Keep your eyes open for the lying liars who are everywhere, but remember that God's truth reigns supreme!

Father, I thank you that your truth is powerful and real. May I know it and live it. 

Think and Pray

Do you walk in the place of balance - avoiding both gullibility and cynicism?

But, I Can't! July 12 Reading: 2 Peter 1

Today’s Readings

Context

Peter had a "word" from God according to 2 Peter 1:14 - it was just about time for him to see Jesus again. So, like Paul did in Titus and 2 Timothy, he poured out his heart to his readers. While skeptics question whether this letter actually came from the hand of the friend of Jesus we do not doubt its authenticity or its inspiration. It has some strange teachings but it is our duty to seek to understand them not to sit in judgment over them.

2 Peter has at least 11 OT references and contains many similarities to the book of Jude. Like his first epistle, it is written to Christians in Asia Minor and focuses not only on Christian living but the dangers of false teachers who would rise up when the Apostles died out.

Devotional - But, I Can't!

It's so hard; it's just SO hard! Living the Christian life is hard. 

Think about what God demands of us as we live the Christian life. We are called, as the redeemed and forgiven, to break free from slavery to sin and to walk in holiness. I've got a lot of sinful desires that still well up in my soul and it's not easy. I am called not only to imitate Christ but to actually become like him. Not to burst anyone's bubble, but I'm not that much like Christ - not nearly as much as I ought to be or would like to be. I have been commanded to love my enemies, rejoice no matter what is going on and to give thanks for everything that happens in my life, even those things I'm not so crazy about. And God has given us the responsibility to take the gospel into all the world and to make people disciples - followers of Jesus Christ - not just here where I live but to the very ends of the earth. 

No, I take it back. It's not hard, it's impossible. I can't do it. 

That's why I love 2 Peter 1:3-4. It is a great comfort to people like me who realize that the demands of the Christian life are beyond our ability. 

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

Okay, maybe it's possible after all! Jesus Christ didn't just save me then send me out and say, "Do the best you can, Dave." No, he fills me with his divine power, by the indwelling Holy Spirit, to do in me everything that is "required for life and godliness." He empowers me to do it all. 

That is really the story of the Bible. Abraham is called to be what he could never be, the father of many nations. But God did it. Moses was given a task far beyond his abilities, but God did it. Gideon fought the Midianites. David fought Goliath. Elijah faced the false prophets on Mt. Carmel. Each of them was overmatched. But God did it. The apostles were unlearned and ignorant men, demonstrably incapable of being the foundation stones upon which Jesus would build his church. But filled with God's Spirit, suddenly they were able to do what they'd never been able to do. God did it! 

I cannot conquer temptation and sin, but God can. I can't love my enemies. God can (he already does). I can't make disciples, but God can. Everything that is needed so that I can do all that God has called me to do is given to me as a gift from God. 

Father, I thank you that it's not up to me, but that the power I need comes to me by your Spirit. May I depend every day on your power, and not struggle in the futility of my own power. 

Think and Pray

Remember that whatever the challenges you face, it is the strength of Jesus Christ that is your power. You live on the basis of his resources. 

Glorious Suffering - July 11 Reading: 1 Peter 4:12-5:14

Today’s Readings

Context

Peter continues his exhortation to the scattered believers to endure and even prosper spiritually in spite of their suffering.

Devotional - Glorious Suffering 

Peter wrote to people who knew what it was to suffer for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I feel like I'm suffering when someone talks bad about me. I live in a nice house, drive a nice truck, but living so far from some of my grandkids - that seems like real suffering to me! But these people had suffered. Real suffering. Harsh. Pain. Even, at times, death.  And Peter desired to encourage and strengthen them.

In 1 Peter 5:10, he said,

Now the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will personally restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little.

This is similar to what Paul said when he described his sufferings in 2 Corinthians 4 as "light and momentary." In Romans 8 he said they were not worth comparing to the glory that would be revealed in us. There is a root principle these biblical authors were trying to get through to us here - two of them in fact.

First, we are comforted knowing that whatever suffering we endure in the name of Christ is, as Paul said, "light and momentary" and that compared to the glory we will experience in eternity, it is nothing. That is not to diminish our sufferings, but to magnify the glories of heaven. That is how great it will be in glory - even the worst of our sufferings will seem insignificant in the presence of Christ. It will be worth it all.

But we do not have to wait for glory to be comforted. Jesus Christ will restore, establish, strengthen and support us day by day as well. As we struggle through this world we have the promise of the constant presence of Christ in all that we do. Jesus is more than a ticket to heaven, he is our daily hope and sustainer. When times are hard, he will be there to carry you, to pick you up and to strengthen you for the work he has set before you.

No matter what comes in this life, I have unspeakable glory awaiting, and unlimited sustenance and grace for my life every day.

Father, thank you for your Son who not only secured my future but sustains my presence. 

Think and Pray

Thank God today that not only was your future guaranteed in Christ, but your present is empowered in him, in spite of what this world or the enemy can do to you.