1 John 5:13-21

well…we made it.  a study all the way through 1 john.  i don’t know about you, but i feel like i know a little more than i did before we started this journey.  

this past sunday, was interesting, though.  there were two places in the text that i couldn’t fully wrap my head around.  the first was the reality of measuring my personal life experience with the words of the letter.  john writes…or at least appears to write that if we are praying the right way, whatever we ask of god, he will not only hear our prayer, he will do whatever we ask.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us–whatever we ask–we know that we have what we asked of him.  1 John 5:14-15

i know that god does not give me whatever i ask from him.  is it my fault for not asking the right question?  am i not asking according to his will?  am i not praying with enough faith?  is god merely protecting me from my own shallow or destructive requests?  do i just need to keep asking until i get the question right?  is it really all about the fish sandwich?

why shouldn’t prayer be as simple as saying, “god, i am good with whatever you deal.  whatever you deal!  thank you.  amen.”

i’m still laughing about the minor epiphany i had while trying to decode the meaning of the sins that lead to death and sins that don’t lead to death.

If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that.  1 John 5:16

in my relentless pursuit to figure out what it meant, i almost missed the point.  when we see a brother commit a sin, we need to pray for them.  don’t gossip…don’t judge…don’t condemn…don’t confront…don’t jump to conclusion…don’t ignore…don’t follow their example…pray.  pray that god will give them life.

hope the study was good for you.  i’ll be preaching a couple of sermons the next couple of weeks to help lay a foundation for where we are heading this fall.  you need to be there.  

 

1 John 5:1-13

at the end of this text, john writes about the real foundation of our personal faith.  it is astounding in its simplicity and profound in its depth…

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.  (10-13)

there are three pillars of practicality of our faith.  the first is that anyone who believes that jesus is the son of god has a testimony.  we have a story that is just a valid, just as real, just as credible as anyone who walked with jesus 2000 years ago.  if you know jesus, your life has been radically changed.  you didn’t get a better life.  you got a new life.  new lives speak volumes.  its a story worth telling.  its a story worth hearing.  what’s your story?

the second pillar is that we received the gift of eternal life.  unending, unlimited, undefinable life…right now.  eternal life doesn’t begin when we die.  it begins whenever we receive it by faith.  without an understanding of this theological jewel, there is no radical transformation.

the final pillar is assurance.  we can know we have eternal life.  we can grab it…hold it…possess it.  we can live our lives with absolute confidence and assurance that eternal life is ours.  it is the life jesus promises.  it is the life he died for.  it is the life for which he promised his holy spirit.  now.  right now.

do you have this assurance?  if you don’t, why not?  what needs to change?  get busy.

1 John 4:11-21

love.  what amazing topic.  what a profound lifestyle.  what a way to miss the point!

the most important thought that i still have lingering from yesterday’s sermon is how easy it is to miss the point.  language is so significant.  how we define the words in the bible can completely change the meaning of the text.  we need careful study and interpretation.  and the cool thing is that it can be done!

two words, if improperly defined, can undercut this entire passage…but if properly defined can revolutionize our lives.  the first is the word ought.

john writes in verse eleven, “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”   the way i was raised, when my parents said that i ought to do something, it meant it was optional…a choice…a good idea that i was free to use or reject as i saw fit.  you ought to clean your room or cut your hair or do your homework or help mom with the dishes or stop calling your little brother names.  it might have been implied that it was something that i had to do, but as long as they included the word ought, it was still optional.

not so in the greek world.  in the mind of john, the word opheilomen (in greek) means “to owe money or a debt that is due”.  the love that we are to show to each other is not optional.  it is a debt that is owed.  the right translation totally changes the command from optional to imperative…essential…urgent…a must.

the other word is agape.  selfless, sacrificial, unconditional action given in the best interest of another person…not earned, or deserved, or merited in any way…with no expectation of anything in return.  it is a choice…a deliberate action of the will…not a feeling…not an emotion…the example of jesus on the cross.

that’s the kind of love we “owe” to each other.

1 John 4:1-10

wow.  what a great text!

i realize that i departed from looking at the details of this passage.  but the more i studied, the more obvious it became to me that sometimes we can miss the big picture if we focus too much on the details of the smaller pictures.  i hope that makes sense…

it’s not that the smaller pictures of this text are not important.  quite the contrary.  they are huge and incredibly important ingredients to understanding right doctrine.

• don’t believe every spirit.
• test the spirits.
• false prophets are everywhere.
• we can recognize the spirit of god.
• the spirit of antichrist is everywhere…then and now.
• we (children of god) have overcome antichrist.
• the spirit of god lives in us.
• the spirit in me is greater than the spirit of antichrist.
• we can listen to the spirit of antichrist or the truth of the apostles.  our choice.
• real love comes from god.
• real love can only come from one born of god.
• no love, no god.
• know love, know god.
• god showed us what real love is.
• jesus is real love.
• real love is defined by the atonement.

lots of details in this passage.  in spite of that, there is one consistent message: it’s all about jesus.  jesus is life.  jesus is love.  jesus is real.  jesus is the atonement.  jesus is the answer.  jesus is the remedy.  is this true for you?