Be Holy

Good day

In the last two messages from 1 John 2:3-6 we have discussed the importance of obedience and the importance of walking like Jesus did. This should be imperative if we know Him and would like to know Him even better.

We are going to deviate slightly, but not really, because what we will discuss here is directly related to knowing the Lord.

Leviticus 19:1, 2: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.’”

The definition for being Holy is to be set apart, and we generally see it as being set apart for the Lord and His purposes. However, God declared in this passage that He is holy, and this is general knowledge to Christians. How then can He be set apart for Himself? This is exactly what it is. The Lord is totally set apart and devoted to Himself. His entire focus is on Himself and His purposes. We simply need to read through the Bible to see the many references of God to Himself.

Is this then a bad thing? No, if the Lord's attention has to be divided by non-godly things that distract Him, how would He accomplish the amazing plan He has with the world, with His Kingdom as well as with the salvation and development of souls for unification with His Kingdom and His purposes. The Lord separated Himself altogether from anything that is worldly. He is not involved when we engage with things of this world, and everything He does benefits His Kingdom. God is completely focused on and dedicated to His calling, character and the reason for His existence.

He expects His people to be Holy because He is Holy. We need to be set apart for that which we are called for within His purposes and Kingdom, simply because God is set apart for His purpose. We need to be dedicated and devoted to the calling with which we are called simply because He is dedicated and devoted to that for which He exists.

In our small group we have discussed the fact that an unholy lifestyle is too easily justified by the fact that the Lord is full of grace. Grace seems to be a cop-out for our lack of commitment and obedience. But what is the standard that Jesus set for us? We said in our previous message that we will answer to Jesus on judgement day according to the standards He set for us in the commandments He personally preached, as well as the commandments the Holy Spirit gave us via the pens of the apostles as recorded in the epistles.

I do, however, want to lift out a couple of Jesus standards that we find in the Bible. Jesus told us in Matthew 5:48: “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” This is written in the context of Jesus' command on loving your enemies. If you look at man in his natural state, who is quite accurately portrayed by worldly people, would you say that loving your enemies comes natural? How can you feel love towards, and pray for those who seek your downfall?

Neither can the Lord feel love towards any sinful human being, of whom many hate Him, but He chose to separate Himself from any form of human nature and be different. Therefore He chose to act love toward them and, in spite of feeling like destroying them, like he did with the flood (Genesis 6:6-7) and with Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18) and like He wanted to do with Israel in the desert when He spoke with Moses (Exodus 32:10), He acted in love by sending His only Son (John 3:16).

In the same way He desires of us to be perfect in separating ourselves from being human and being more godly. Therefore we are told is Philippians 2:12-16: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing (these are the things the Lord prompts us to do in order to change), that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life...”

Read the last passage carefully again. Is this not a description of the process of holiness, also called sanctification? The “salvation” referred to here is being saved or delivered from those things that keep us from becoming holy, i.e. separated from the earthly things.

Would you please consider the chilling passage in Hebrews 12:14: “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.”

Where do you stand?    

Lord, help me realise the essence of becoming Holy.

Getting to Know Jesus (Part Two)

Good day

Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked, (I John 2:3-6).

Last time we came to the conclusion that the way to get to know the Lord is to copy what He has done, through obeying what He has commanded as well as done. In that way we understand how He thinks and why He has given the commands, and therefore get to know Him.

When I read this passage once more another truth struck me and I was amazed once again at how alive the Bible actually is.

This passage tells me that if we really know Jesus we will keep His commandments. It portrays to me a characteristic of Jesus that is not often mentioned in Bible based messages. John, the apostle, knew Jesus very well. A few messages ago we discussed how John was very much loved by Jesus and that he probably preferred to spend time with Jesus rather than to fool around with his friends. It would therefore be safe to deduct that John knew Jesus very well and therefore cautioned in the passage above that ‘if you know Jesus, you would not dare to ignore His commandments’. As I read this passage recently I became so intensely aware that Jesus was and still is not to be fooled around with. Most good leaders I know are firm and do not fool around with their job or with their followers.

Paul referred to the Lord in 2 Timothy 2:3-4 as a commanding officer and in Matthew 7:21-23 it is very clear that the Lord does not take nonsense:  “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”

How do you perceive a commanding officer? Would he tolerate slackness and lack of discipline? Would a military commanding officer accept deliberate disregard of his instructions and commands? No, disciplinary action is bound to follow. No army is a democracy and it is so for a reason. If instructions are obeyed at the leisure of the soldiers’ discretion, how effective would such an army be on the occasion of an enemy attack? Therefore the soldiers are trained to respond to orders. When the commander says jump, a soldier does not ask why, but simply how high?

The Kingdom of God is not a democracy either. It is simply a case of God commands and we obey. But does it actually happen that way? I don't experience much of that kind of discipline among Christians. The Lord, however, is gracious while we are still on earth, but when judgement and reward time comes, we will experience the consequence of our level of obedience. Jesus compares Himself to a master who goes away for a long time in Matthew 25:14-28. I don't have space to quote the whole section here, but we see that Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is like this man who handed out the talents. A talent at the time was a form of money and we tend to compare it with what we call talents these days.

The message Jesus wanted to bring over, however, was that whatever we receive from the Master of the Kingdom - be it a talent, a gift according to Romans 12:6-8 or an on-the-spot instruction - need to be consciously multiplied faithfully and fruitfully to the benefit of the Master, and it usually requires work from everybody. As we read this parable we see that both received and reproduced according to his ability. We also see that the talents were returned to their original owner. It did not belong to the servants, but the owner rewarded the faithful servants with increased authority and the privilege to have brought joy to the Master. Our reward is the Master’s joy and this should be sufficient to us.

Our time and resources do not belong to us, just as a soldier in active service does not own anything pertaining to his calling. He just uses what is given him to the benefit of the commanding officer.

Something else that we need to keep in mind we read of in Revelation 20:12: “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.”

What has been written in your book? We will not be judged, for Jesus took the judgement for us, but we will answer to Jesus for what we did, because He took our judgement. He will follow the standards He set in His commandments when He measures our obedience and determines our rewards. Think of the standard He set for the person in the parable of the talents, who hid his talent instead of multiplying it, i.e. having been disobedient.

Lord, please give me grace to obey and have understanding of what Jesus expects of me.

Getting to know Jesus

Good day

Today we are going to have a further look at the 1 John 2:3-6: “And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. Whoever says "I know Him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps His word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in Him: whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.”

If a child copies his parent he will become very much like that parent. It is said: “Don’t tell me, show me.” This is exactly what Jesus came to do. Everything He told us to do, He did Himself. If we therefore do what He tells us to do, both in the Bible and on a daily basis through the Holy Spirit, we will have firsthand experience of what He is like and will have understanding of how He thinks, what He exactly wants and of His nature.

It is also said that we should not judge anybody until we have walked in their shoes for a while. Why is it so? Because then only can we have understanding of what such a person is like and goes through. If an expert in an interest similar than yours, comes to you offering you the opportunity to spend a few days with her while she shows you the ropes, giving you the chance to follow her actions and do things yourself, would you not learn much in the process about her and the interest?

Can you see why the church is weaker than it used to be during the time of the book of Acts? The apostles were fresh from a three year period of seeing Jesus in action. He allowed them to do some of the things He did, and by the time they were filled with the same power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, they knew Jesus so well that they literally did the same miracles and taught with similar power. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever,” (Hebrews 13:8), but we have allowed certain theologies to enter our hearts and minds that weaken us. We tend to follow authorities that do not teach what Jesus taught, and that keep the majority of soldiers in the pews as passive listeners to impressive messages. Many Christians are satisfied to simply follow the religious duties of going to church and giving a little in order to sooth their consciences.

We have all received at least one gift from Romans 12:6-8, of which Jesus had all. The only way to know how to use your gift effectively is to seek opportunity, in obedience to the Holy Spirit, to learn from Jesus how He did it. This happens through obeying the teachings of Jesus that relate to your gift. The church leaders should actually set up opportunities for everybody to learn to use their gift effectively. Not everybody is gifted to for example teach, but to those who can, Jesus gave guidance in the Bible on how to, and the Holy Spirit empowers them whilst they do what Jesus asks of them.

These teachings of mine are not pre-planned or researched. The Lord told me to write, so I enquire what the Lord wants me to write about. I then sit down, start typing and voila, an hour later I am finished, ready for editing. There have been times that I thought it a good idea to write about something, which was not the Lord’s will, and I sat in front of the keyboard with a proverbial mouth full of teeth, not knowing what to write. You see, I just obey and the Holy Spirit does the rest and in the process I get to know Jesus and receive more to give.

The same applies to each gift mentioned in Romans 12:6-8. We need to get to know Jesus by obeying His commands regarding our gift and walk in our gifting as He did in His, and do what He tells us today. If a team works together, they get to know each other so well that they don’t even have to communicate much. They just have to glance at the other to know what to do next. How about you and Jesus as a team?

The ideal church will equip their members (Ephesians 4:11-16) to do what Jesus did so they could get to know Him so well, that they would harmonise with Him as He moves along by the Holy Spirit, reaching out to the souls He dearly loves. If all Christians aim to do the above, each one only within his or her gifting, learning to know Jesus and walking as He did through obedience, pew warming would be of the past and every Sunday worship will become rejoicing due to the testimonies of God’s greatness that obedient people, who teamed up with the Holy Spirit during the week, brings.

Lord, please use me to help transform your body.

The Self Test

Good day

We read in Psalm 139:23, 24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

Ping, the test is on and your motives and attitudes are being monitored and gently you receive feedback through the spirit channel:

1.   This is why you go to church.

2.   This is why you are a pastor/elder/church leader.

3.   This why you use your money like that.

4.   This is why you have this attitude towards your spouse.

5.   This is why you have this attitude towards the government.

6.   This is what you know about Jesus:

a.   This is what Jesus’ commandments tell you about His character.

b.   This is how Jesus and the Holy Spirit feel in your company – uncomfortable or pleased.

c.   This is how Jesus experiences your attitude, obedience or disobedience.

d.   This is how Jesus feels about your attitude towards poverty, riches, sexuality, money etc.

We can go on and on. Can you see that the answer to the above could be either positive or negative? We can either have a right or wrong attitude and motive. What is right and wrong therefore? When do you sin and when not? In the last few discussions we have talked about sin and last time we have seen that, when it comes to sin, Jesus is our Advocate who covers for us with the Father, but in turn disciplines us to keep us in line with His standards.

We are not Christians so we can go to church, or to feel good about our good deeds, or to accomplish certain dreams and ideals or ambitions. Right and wrong is not established in our perception or that of our communities. The purpose of Christian life is to know Jesus and His idea about right and wrong.

We read in Jeremiah 9: 23-24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD,’” and in John 14:21 Jesus said Himself: “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him,” and then we see in our passage of this week, 1 John 2:3-6: “And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”

What is the Lord like? The trend of Jesus’ parables such as the shrewd manager, the talents and so on indicates that God has a businesslike thinking pattern. This also comes out in His making covenants with man, and the many times it is written “if you do this, I will do My part...”

If we look at all my messages from the first epistle of John during the last few weeks we see that our fellowship with God is important to Him, but that sin blocks that relationship. Jesus suffered much in order to obtain a position of Mediator and Advocate on our behalf and therefore, thanks to Him, we have been forgiven the sin of eternal damnation and have access to the Father through Him. By doing that He has kept His part of the bargain or the covenant. Now He expects of us to obey His commandments, as He obeyed His Father’s.

It is by grace that we are saved and we cannot work for it (Ephesians 2:8-10), but according to various passages, including these above, we cannot know and understand Jesus and thus share in His victory, if we do not obey everything He told us to do and walk like He did. There is no such thing as just getting saved and happily riding along on the glory train.

Once again we need to remember what Jesus said in Matthew 7:21: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

Lord, help me to keep your commandments. 

The Role of our Advocate

Good day

We continue with the first Epistle of John.

“My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world,” (1 John 2:1-2).

We have heard last time that no one is without sin and that there are many sins that we refuse to acknowledge, and therefore do not confess as we are instructed to do. We even sin wilfully for we know we are able to simply confess our sins and then reckon it is easy – live as you like as long as you just confess your sin. But what is the reality? Why do we not have the power the apostles had. We read in Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart,” and in Philippians 2:12, 13: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure”.

According to 1 John 2:2 above Jesus is our propitiation, our atoning sacrifice, as well as our Advocate when we sin. Our sins are forgiven by Jesus’ death on the cross as far as Father God is concerned. Jesus therefore covers for us when the wrath of God should be poured out on sin as it has happened so many times in the Old Testament. Should we therefore do as Paul stated in Romans 6:1: “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” He answers as follows: “Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”

Father God gave Jesus the highest authority (Philippians 2:9-11), and although we are made right with the Father, we should continually work with the Holy Spirit to align with Jesus’ commands throughout the New Testament (John 14:21, 23). If it were not so, the Bible should have ended at the end of the Gospels and Jesus would have wasted His breath teaching us.

Apart from being our Advocate, Jesus has another role. When we break the laws of the country, we are disciplined, are we not? If we do not feel the consequences when we do not listen, how will we know to comply? Therefore we are told in Hebrews 12:3-6: “Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.’”

 The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God (Hebrews 4:12 above) as well as discipline through our circumstances (Hebrews 12:3-6 above), to work in us (Philippians 2:12, 13 above) and form us to align with Jesus’ expectations.

How would you have felt (or maybe you know what I am talking about) when you have suffered much and have given everything to develop your children. Maybe you have built up an interest in which you hoped your children will share, preparing the way for them to succeed in this interest. But some of them are aloof and uninterested and the others ruin your interest by their selfish behaviour. How would you react? Would you not take disciplinary steps to save both your interest and your children’s future?

To Jesus the road towards bringing us salvation was not an easy one. Apart from the physical sacrifice on the cross He put a lot of energy and time into serving the needs of people and teaching, as well as suffering much persecution and ridicule for what He was doing. Our salvation cost Him a HUGE price and He was not going to just let us take it lightly. He has to bring us in line with His will through discipline.

If we continually refuse to acknowledge sin, repent of it and do something about it, He has to create consequences for our behaviour because He loves us. Then we ask why life is so hard – we bring it on ourselves.

I have attended many different church services in my life and have listened to many radio and television messages, and very seldom do I hear messages about sin and discipline. Lately the trend tends to be the love of God and sensations of His manifestation. Are we not deceiving one another?

We read in Jeremiah 9:23-24: “Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.’”

Note that the Lord does not only practice love, but also justice and righteousness.

Lord, please make me aware of sin that would prevent an abundant life for me with you, for you do not go along with sin and must deal with it.

I sincerely hope you are ready for what is coming next.

Subtle Danger

Good day

We continue with the first Epistle of John.

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us,” (1 John 1:8-10).

What is sin? One thing we must be very weary of, and that is to underestimate the enemy of our souls - Satan. The Bible says he “transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14), that he comes “to steal, and to kill, and to destroy” (John 10:10), and that “he was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it”, (John 8:44).

 

What is it Satan wants to steal, kill and destroy? Is it not our abundant life that Jesus came to give? What abundant life is Jesus talking about? Is it lots of money, a smart car, a mansion for a house and materially successful children, or fullness in Christ on earth and a treasure in heaven? In Luke 12:16-21 Jesus told the parable of the rich man who extended his material riches and then concluded with these words: “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” In the same way Jesus speaks at various other places against riches.

Sin in essence is disobedience. Therefore, if Jesus speaks against something and we still do it, don’t we sin? This is where the subtlety of the lie comes in. These sins will not be confessed, for they are not seen as sin.

Why did the Lord not accept Cain’s sacrifice back in Genesis 4? “So the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it,’” (Genesis 4:6-8). He simply did not do his best and it was considered to be sin. He was given opportunity to repent, but instead chose to take revenge.

We need to be wary of the subtlety of Satan’s lies. Many things, which we do not consider to be sin, we keep on doing, and in essence say that we do not sin. We are therefore lying and deceiving ourselves, as John put it above. For example those who disobey Jesus’ command on lusting in their thoughts after a woman, and therefore committing adultery with her, are quick to feel guilty and repent, but those who disobey His commands on living in riches for their own benefit, continue as if nothing is wrong and actually justify themselves with one single statement taken from the Bible – they say it is not money that is the root of evil, but the love of money (1 Timothy 6:10). Yet Jesus was quite outspoken on how money should be treated when He addressed the rich young man in Mark 10:17-22, the rich man in Luke 12:16-21 and in Matthew 19:23-24: “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’”

I simply used money, God’s greatest enemy (Matthew 6:24), as an example of the subtlety of sin and the enemy’s lies. Sins like stealing and swearing are easily identified and confessed, but there are many sins that we do not see as sin and therefore deny we are sinning.

Many say that all our sins are forgiven because Jesus died for them, in other words that it is an automating process, which is one of the biggest lies aimed at robbing us from our peace and joy and abundant life in Jesus. If this were the case, why would John then have stressed the necessity to confess our sins?

“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him,” (John 14:21). This includes all of the commands and not only the ones we have selected for our convenience.

Lord, please show us the sin we ignore.

Living in the Light

Good day

We continue with the first Epistle of John.

“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin,” (1 John 1:5-7).

There is an idiom that says something like ‘we all have a skeleton in the closet’ and another one that says ‘you are standing behind the door yourself’ if you judge someone. These refer to the fact that we all have something to hide. When we are sinning secretly we become experts in hiding our actions from people. In my life I have been hiding a lot of things from people, but the Holy Spirit is slowly but surely succeeding in getting it through my thick scull that peace equals transparency.  

What do you have to hide? What conscious sin are you entertaining that those around you should not find out about? What is your motive for doing and saying what you do? Do you have ulterior motives which people should not really discover? What is happening behind the scenes of your life?

Satan and your carnal nature do want you to live in undercover sin – keeping you in darkness. Our passage, however, states that the Lord is light and therefore wherever He is present light is present, which drives out any darkness. It is therefore impossible to have deeds, motives, attitudes and thoughts that are hidden in darkness, and have complete fellowship with the Lord, in His power, at the same time. He simply does not fellowship with sin, selfish motives, and in general with our carnal nature at all. John said that when we say we do it, we lie.

We know we always sin, so are we therefore ever going to get into fellowship with the Lord God? That is where Jesus comes in. In Jesus we are made righteous before Father God, which causes Him to be able to share our presence, but let us have a look at Philippians 2:12-16: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life...”

You may choose to be an orphan Christian, keeping your distance from God, because you actually want to do your own thing. If, however, you desire to walk in fellowship with the Light who cannot fellowship with darkness, and if you wish to receive revelation of what He is like, you need to get rid of anything you need to hide from people – in other words you need to change. The Holy Spirit helps with this by working in your life, like we read in Philippians 2 and you need to work consciously with Him, aiming to get to a point where the Light of God has nothing in your life to reveal.

Then “we walk in the light, as he is in the light, (and) we have fellowship with one another.” This is where we experience true fellowship and not the kind of pretence we often find in social gatherings.

Interestingly enough 1 John 1:7 concludes with these words: “and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin”. It seems that only when we live in the light as He is in the light, our sins will be cleansed by the blood of Jesus. We will be forgiven our sin every time we confess it, as stated in verse 9 later on, but to have fellowship with the light, we have to deal with continuous, conscious sin.

“Examine me, O God, and know my mind; test me, and discover my thoughts. Find out if there is any evil in me and guide me in the everlasting way, (Psalm 139:23, 24 GNB). 

Eternal Life Manifested

Good day

We continue with the first Epistle of John.

1 John 1:1-4: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— ² the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us.”

This is really a mouthful. I had to read it a few times to grasp the reality of what John said here. What is it that the disciples, to whom John is referring here, have heard, seen and handled? John said it was concerning the Word of life, which he told us in the first chapter of his gospel, was Jesus.

We learn that it was from the beginning, was from the Father and was manifested to the disciples through the Word of life, namely Jesus Christ. Do you remember what happened right in the beginning in Genesis? Once Adam and Eve were created, the Lord gave them instructions and told them they were not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17). We know that they messed it up for all of us, and in His resulting dealings with them in Genesis 3:22 “the LORD God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reaches out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever…’”

It would have been nice to know what history would have been like if Adam did not sin. What was the Lord’s initial intention with the man He created and had spent such intimate time with? Why was the tree of life in the garden?

We get a glimpse of Father’s eternal intention in our passage above. He had planned internal life with man from the beginning. That was the reason Jesus, the Word of life, was manifested to the disciples. But they did not only look upon it from a distance. They heard it, saw it, felt it, and handled it – they had a good taste of what eternal life was like. I am confident that if we were to ask one of them what it was like, words to describe it would be lacking.

As we read further in 1 John 1:3-4 we see: “That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. ⁴ And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.”

What did John tell his readers of the time? He invited them to come and rub off from the disciples as they had rubbed off from Jesus, through whom eternal life from the Father had been manifested, and were still rubbing off from both Him and the Father through their constant fellowship. They tasted eternal life through the way Jesus lived and lived themselves like that, and everybody who followed their example tasted the same eternal life. The Father, by His grace, made the Holy Spirit and the living Word of God available to us, so we can rub off from them and have fellowship with them, and with those people we know who have discovered the same.

Dear reader, eternal life is not for one day. Eternal life is to live like Jesus lived. If you desire to know how He lived, simply read the New Testament asking the Holy Spirit for revelation.

Holy Spirit, please teach us eternal life, so our joy may be full?

Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.

Please pass this on if you think others may benefit by it.

Introduction to the Epistles of John Series

Good day

After a longer break than anticipated my fingers started dancing on the keyboard again. I was not totally unproductive during this time, though. We have gotten involved with a wonderful fellowship and are working with them at some teaching projects, one of which is training children in basic spiritual truths.

I felt the Lord has asked me to continue with this blog and will therefore write as the Holy Spirit leads, but at least weekly. Please just remember that all the other posts are still awaiting your reading in the menu to the right of this teaching.

We are going to look at the letters (epistles) of John. John was the disciple of love. The Bible describes John as the disciple that Jesus loved. During the Passover meal we read in John 13:23: “Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.” It is generally accepted that it was John, maybe since he did not mention his own name. John’s gospel and his letters to the church speak of love for and understanding of the Lord. They are just so much different from and more intimate than the rest of the New Testament.

The Lord entrusted John with revelation about Father God and the love relationship He desires with His children. John understood it because of his own intimate relationship with Jesus. We have not been there to observe his relationship with our Lord, but it is easy to picture the relationship between a couple, two friends or a parent and child who are really in love with one another. I am sure that when the other disciples were bantering with one another during relaxing times in Jesus’ ministry, John probably was sitting chatting with Jesus, getting to know Him better, sharing with Him intimate secrets, enjoying Jesus’ personality and so did Jesus John’s. He seems to have bonded more than the others with Jesus.

Because of this relationship and special love, John would have heard more of Jesus’ heart that of His words when He taught. Due to all of this John were able to teach with authority on the subject of Father’s love, because he understood it. This why he was able to write in John 14:21, 23: “‘He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him. Jesus answered and said to him, “if anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.’”

The deeper our relationship with Jesus is and the more we love Him by living strictly in obedience to His spoken and written Word, the deeper our understanding of Him will be and we will be able to live out our particular gift with authority; be it teaching, evangelism, caring, serving, leading and so on.

The epistles of John in particular provide much teaching about a love relationship with Father God and we are going to see what we can learn from them in the next number of posts.

I will write as the Lord instructs, but will try to keep it short. Next time we will delve into the first epistle of John.

Lord please guide our hearts as we learn from you.

What Difference Does a Father Make?

Good day

Let’s chat about it! I hope to get some valuable suggestions from everybody and in the end a conversation leading to a solution to the problem. I would appreciate it if you could have a look at this article: A Million Children Grow up Without Fathers. It is written in the context of the United Kingdom, but is certainly a worldwide phenomenon and therefore something that all of us would have encountered in our countries.

 

The first question I would like us to discuss is: In your opinion, what difference does a father make in children’s lives, in other words why do children, who grow up without a father, end up with all kinds of problems?

 

Be bold people and let us get a byte of your psychological skills and knowledge! Let us get the conversation going, be it on Facebook or on the Word Bytes blog. Just keep in mind that the blog responses are being screened for spam and your opinion will not show immediately, but definitely soon and in the right order.

 

To avoid your opinion being removed as spam, please do NOT answer anonymously, but use your name or at least a pen name followed by the word ‘Fatherless’.

 

Thank you!