Sunday, November 11,
2012, 8:00 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me with the song “Seek the Lord” playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant
is listening. I read 1 John 5:1-13
(NIV 1984):
Everyone who believes
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father
loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God:
by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his
commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God
overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our
faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is
the Son of God.
This is the one who
came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by
water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the
truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood;
and the three are in agreement. We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony
is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his
Son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart.
Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has
not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the
testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who
has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
I write these things
to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you
have eternal life.
Born
of God
John not only uses multiple black and white
statements in his letter to describe the contrast between a lifestyle given
over to sinful indulgence and one that is living to please God, but he also
makes several short statements, each describing a characteristic trait of what
it means to be born of God or to know God. These statements cannot and should
not be taken out of context and a doctrine or belief built around any one
single statement, but they must be taken as a whole collectively within the
context of the entire letter.
So, when he said that “everyone who believes
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God,” we should not assume that a mere
intellectual belief or even an emotional belief is evidence that one is born of
God. John also said that if we claim to have fellowship with God and yet we
continue to live a lifestyle of sin, we are liars and the truth is not in us.
He said the way in which we know we have come to know God is that we obey his
commands. If we say we know him, and yet we don’t obey him, again we are liars
and the truth is not in us. If we claim to be in the light and yet we hate our
brother, we are still in darkness (sin). If we seek after, are passionate
about, and exert most of our time and energies to love the world of sin, the
love of the Father is not in us. This is some tough stuff here! But it is so
true!!
So, going back to the statement about
believing that Jesus is the Christ being evidence that we are born of God, we
must assume here that this belief is not merely intellectual or emotional in
nature, but it is a belief that is evidenced by what we do. We must discontinue
living a life of sinful and selfish pleasure, we must obey God’s commandments
and live to please God, we must not hate our brothers and sisters but we should
demonstrate God’s love to them, and we should not chase after the things and
pleasures of this world, but we should be followers of Jesus Christ in doing
what he says to do and say.
Love
the Children
I think in our society here in the USA that
we have such a skewed idea of the meaning of the word “love.” Television and
movies have certainly played a major role in our generation in developing our
way of thinking and behaving. Culture and tradition also play a major role in
molding our way of reasoning and acting. We tend to emulate the role models
that are set before us. Many of us have had to unlearn those influences through
careful study of God’s word. “Love” is often interpreted merely as an emotion
(feeling), sensuality or selfish pleasure and desire. Even some things we do
with the best of intentions, because that is the way we were taught, can fall
into one of these three categories mentioned here.
Yet John, in the Spirit of God, said that we
love the children of God by loving God and by carrying out his commands. Did
you know that? And, do we truly understand what that means? He said his
commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. So
love for God is to obey his commands, which involves overcoming the world, and
this is how we know that we love the children of God – interesting! Do you see
this? We have to set the right example, and we have to lead others to follow
God and his commands if we are truly to love the children of God. It is not
love for God or for the children of God, in other words, if we are living for self-pleasure
and gratification and/or to please men. It is love for God and for the children
of God if we are walking in the light of truth, are obeying God’s commands, and
we are overcoming this world of sin and self-pleasure and desire.
So many people think and even preach that
loving each other is only some kind of warm emotion we feel or is displayed in
some type of expression of affection or act of what they might consider
kindness, which could be, in some cases, culturally kind but scripturally
hateful. I love affection and warm feelings of emotion toward people, and I
love doing things for people that are kind and thoughtful and which make them
feel good, so these are good things, but they are not the totality of what love
is. Even the world loves like this. True Biblical love follows the role model
of Jesus Christ, is obedient to God and his commands, is separate from the
world of sin, and is in the process of overcoming the world, not embracing it.
True Biblical love is unselfish, thinks of the needs (not wants) of others,
reaches out to meet those needs, lays down its life (reputation, time,
energies, and possessions) for others, and speaks the truth in love, even if it
means being hated in return.
Water
and Blood
Jesus Christ came by “water and blood.” Now,
we all come into this world by “water and blood” through physical birth, so
there is one aspect in which this is saying that God the Son became man, i.e.
human flesh. He became human so that he could suffer what we suffer so that he
could become our compassionate and merciful high priest, and so he could also
become our perfect (without sin) sacrifice on the cross for our sins.
Yet, there is also a spiritual aspect to this
“water and blood.” The water has to do with his baptism, at which time he
accepted the cross in his life. His baptism looked forward to the cross,
whereas our baptism (physical) looks back to the cross, but in both cases we
are accepting what the cross will mean for us, which was/is death. For Jesus,
he died a physical death on the cross for our sins, but he also took upon
himself the sins of the entire world, and our sins were crucified and buried
with him. For us, when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we die to our old way
of living in sin and self-pleasure. We can do this because Jesus Christ paid
the penalty for our sin and he already conquered death, hell, Satan and sin on
our behalf. He did this by shedding his blood on the cross so we could go free
from slavery to sin on a daily basis, and so we would be free of eternal
damnation, so that we can live with God forever, beginning right now.
Seek
the Lord / An Original Work / July 20, 2012
Based off
Isaiah 55
“Come
to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.
Listen
to Me, and eat what’s good today,
And
your soul will delight in richest of fare.
Give
ear to Me, and you will live.
I
have made an eternal covenant with you.
Wash
in the blood of the Lamb.”
Seek
the Lord while He may be found; call on Him.
Let
the wicked forsake his way, in truth.
Let
him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely,
God pardons him.
“For
My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor
are your ways My ways,”
declares
the Lord, our God.
“My
word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.
It
will not return to Me unfulfilled.
My
word will accomplish all that I desire,
And
achieve the goal I intend.
You
will go in joy, and be led forth in peace.
The
mountains will burst into song… before you,
And
all of the trees clap their hands.”
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