Years ago, I watched a preacher on TV who was preaching before a large church somewhere. He preached that those who questioned his theology were questioning God and would be condemned to hell for this behavior. I don't recall the topic now, but he then launched into his main theme, which sent my stomach to boiling. There was something about his take on the Scripture that set my "spidey sense" tingling. I remember I opened my Bible to the passage and read it, listened to about three-quarters of the sermon and then turned it off in disgust. Yes, I had questioned his theology and found it wanting. Somehow, I didn't feel like I was questioning God nor that I was condemned to hell for questioning this preacher. Now, I know that testing the spirits is required by the Scripture. My Holy Spirit-inspired sense of what was right has been validated by the Bible.

"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. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses Jesus as the Christ who has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, and this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now is already in the world.

You are from God, little children, and have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world’s perspective and the world listens to them. We are from God; the person who knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit." 1John 4:1-6

The Bible is full of warnings to exercise discernment. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, we are continually warned against error and its corrupting consequences. God reveals the truth in this world and Satan counters with lies in a great spiritual battle between truth and error. With all due respect to Frank Peretti (whom I enjoy as an author), spiritual warfare is not chasing demons around. It is a battle for the mind between truth and error. It occupied the greater portion of energy in the Scriptures and is a major objective of the church. We are to bring the bruth to people living in error. People live in fortresses of erroneous ideologies that have to be smashed to the ground by the truth so that people can be liberated (2Corinthians 10). Every lofty idea raised against Christ must be torn down and replaced by obedience to the truth of God in Christ as revealed in Scripture. This spiritual war can be called discernment.

My experience (and I'm not alone in this) is that people who don't like people scrutinizing what they proclaim are almost inevitably false teachers. Heretics know that they can't stand teh test of Biblical scrutiny, so they condemn the practice of discernment. That opposition is a dead giveaway that they fear being exposed.

When Satan came to Eve in the garden, he started by attacking God's Word. He introduced doubt in Eve's mind about what God had promised and the consequences of disobeying God's commands. He literally denied what God had said, despite the fact that what God had said was clearly stated and recorded.

Every religious ideology has a spiritual source, whether from the Spirit of God or from demons. Satan's entourage wages a persistent campaign agains the truth of God by propagating all kinds of deception. They desire to make people ignorant of the truth, to doubt or distort the truth, or, best, make them flatly deny the truth. Consequently the Bible is loaded with this level of conflict. Whether it was Moses passionately exhorting the Israelites to serve Jehovah and not forget His precepts, other prophets saying that Israel needed to obey God and His Word and not follow idols, David giving the same counsel to Israe and his son, Christ Himself warning to beware of false Christs and prophets (Matthew 24), Paul telling the Ephesian elders that wolves were going to attack their flock (Acts 20), or Peter warning about apostates who were literally stains on the fellowship of the church, clouds, the Biblical picture remains fairly constant. God's truth is under assault by Satan's lies.

Scripture traces this deceit beyond a human source to a deeper, spiritual source (1Timothy 4:1-2). Humans may speak the lies, but they do not generate them. Their consciences have been seared as they become agents of deceitful spirits. Therefore, you cannot consider any attack on Scripture that causes people to doubt, distort or deny the truth of God as benign. It's not even human philosophy. It's the doctrine of demons coming from the mouth of human sycophants (James 3:15). The purveyors of lies and false doctrine are attached and devoted to their false teaching that they can propagate it with passion and feel nothing. These people are merely the tools which the seducing spirits use to propagate the lies against the truth of God. You can blame the hypocritical liars who proclaim that, but behind the human is the demonic. Behind the earthly and the natural is the demonic. The teacher is only a mouthpiece for seductive spirits.

Unfortunately, they have a powerful influence on the world. Of the billions who are alive in the world today, the vast majority of them are under the full sway of the lies of seducing spirits. True Christians are a very small minority. Thus, this is a very successful strategy by Satan, who is the god of this age and the prince of this world. He rules over men in this world because they have bought into his lies which take many forms but all counter to the Word of God (1Corinthians 10:20-21). There is no form of religion or philosophy that speaks to the issues of time, eternity and salvation that is neutral or benign. It is either the power of the truth of God or the power of satanic lies. You can never make an easy truce with error because it is not static or inert. It is energized by the forces of hell. Paul wrote that an idol has no reality. The Greeks of his time thought they were worshipping the goddess Diana (or some other god), but that god doesn't exist. What does exist, then as now, are demons who have concocted this whole worship system (and many others) as an assault on the truth of God to capture men's souls in a fortress (really, more of a tomb) of their own deceipt. Any ideology, philosophy, theory, viewpoint or religion other than the truth is demonic!

In the community of believers where John lived and also in the churches he wrote to, there was an attack underway. We don't know all the details, but we can surmise that a specific group of seducing spirits had managed to find some willing hypocritical teachers who lacked a conscience to happily spread lies about God. These lying teachers had infiltrated the congregations and propagated denial of the gospel, claiming they had a higher knowledge and that those who did not believe as they did had a lower faith. John was very concerned about this assault. Jesus is the Truth incarnate and there can be no lies in the truth. Christians must know the truth and should be able to recognize a lie when they hear it.

I know people who get angry at the thought that those who have left the church were never Christians in the first place. They want to believe that they were legitimate in their faith claims. Yet, John had no such difficulty. He felt that if they could be so easily led to doubt, distortion, denial, and deceit, they clearly were never part of the body of Christ. We shouldn't be comfortable with that knowledge. We who have the anointing of the Holy Spirit must stand against that which we know is false, because the true church is made up of those who know the true gospel.

Let's be honest. The spiritual battle has moved inside of what we call "evangelicalism". There are "evangelical" churches that teach error. We must be discerning. We cannot afford to be gullible. Don't buy into everything you hear just because it proports to be the truth of God. Be skeptical! Don't believe everything you hear on Christian radio, Christian television, in this and that and the other church. Be like the Bereans who searched the Scripture to see if Paul was teaching the truth.

I think the church has been historically somewhat at protecting Biblical truth. Every generation or so seems to fall into error of one kind or another. Paul warned Timonthy to guard what had been entrusted to him (1Timothy 6:20), but I don't think those of us who have followed have done as good a job. That's frightening. We cannot pass on the truth unless we protect it. There are always cults who come along with deceptive schemes that purport to be Biblical, that quote Bible verses out of context or give them some new and unique interpretation, but which fail to meet the standard of truth.

We are called to be discerning, yet very often we opt to be non-committal instead. This must end! John, writing as God's annointed apostle, commanded us to test every spirit and not believe the ones who don't measure up. I know that there are those who teach that we should be tolerant of the errors of other religions because they're "doing the best they know how". John wasn't so kind. All teaching that presents untruth about Christ needs to be labeled as what it is -- lies from Satan. We should test every religious system or philosophy according to God's standard and, if we find error, we should label it as such and accept the worldly consequences. To do anything less is to disappointment God.

I think it must be some pernicious sort of heresy that teaches folks that Christians never doubt their salvation. This is nonsense! Many, if not most Christians, have episodes of doubt, sometimes even severe doubt. It comes with the territory of believing something that isn't rock-solid. Faith is about believing the little bit of evidence we see for the greater reality beyond what our senses can process. Of course, that's going to engender doubt from time to time. Fortunately, God has provided us with diverse means to judge our salvation and the truth of His words to us. Writing to a group of churches that had been besieged by heretics, John addressed doubts concerning salvation because he knew that fear that one is not a Christian is common among church people, particularly those who have been told they may not have the "full" gospel on their side.

All throughout 1John the apostle emphasized the marks of a true believer, enabling us to evaluate our own salvation and those around us. It was critical then and still remains that we be able to identify those who are not real among the crowd who are real Christians, but we must first examine our own hearts to assure that we are Christians.

"Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue but in deed and truth. And by this we will know that we are of the truth and will convince our conscience in his presence, that if our conscience condemns us, that God is greater than our conscience and knows all things. Dear friends, if our conscience does not condemn us, we have confidence in the presence of God, and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing to him. Now this is his commandment: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he gave us the commandment. And the person who keeps his commandments reside in God, and God in him. Now by this we know that God resides in us: by the Spirit he has given us." 1John 3:18-24

First, we must recognize that love is not an emotion or a word. It's an action. Love is not really love unless it affects someone else. However, love is also not love if it affects someone else for phony reasons. We are to love in action that is truthful and honest.

This sort of love will assure us that we are Christians. Such knowledge, however, is not necessarily intuitive. The phrase "We shall know" is from the Greek ginosko which is a future tense meaning "to know, to learn, to realize." Therfore, this knowledge of love is something we discover. As we experience it, we learn that we are of the truth. How do we come to know this reality? The simplest way is to start with the Word of God, Scripture, the Bible as it talks about the Truth incarnate, Jesus Christ. Christians are people of the Book. The truth has given us life and defines our existence. This grasp of the truth should fill us with assurance (Gr. peitho, meaning to persuade). Our relationship with the Truth incarnate persuades us that we are of the truth. That Greek word peitho has a connotation of persuasion that calms or pacifies a troubled heart. Our fears and doubt recede as we stand in the presence of God. The Bible and our salvation relationship with Jesus tells us that we are linked to the truth, which should completely pacify our fears and doubts and assure our hearts as we stand before God, Who knows everything about us.

How intimidating is that! The character of God is a frightening prospect! Read through the Old Testament. Wherever you see God exercising His character before the people of Israel, you see fear. People were overwhelmingly traumatized when God was in their presence because of His great holiness and righteousness. His perfection only served to highlight their sins in stark relief. Yet, we see the apostles and know in our own Christian lives that we have been turned from the path of unbroken, unrepentant sin to pursue holiness and righteousness. That we still have sin in our lives (mortal flesh is so weak!) causes us anxiety when we think of standing before God, yet John assured us that we will know that we are connected to the truth and that should pacify our fears even as we stand before God.

What an incredible promise!

I hang out with some Christians who believe that you can lose your salvation. It's important to address this belief because our entire discussion in 1John hinges upon that concept. Is salvation revokable? This brings the question -- what is the point of spending our time trying to develop an understanding of assurance if we really have no right to any assurance because our salvation is revokable?

Is eternal life really eternal? Is it possible to repent of your final destination, be headed toward heaven and do an about-face to head toward hell? Can you lose your salvation?

There are those who will submit that possessing a sense of assurance in salvation is presumptuous, even arrogant. You have no right to it because it doesn't exist. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, does not hold that anyone can have assurance of salvation. The RCC believes that assurance is an undesirable confidence that will make you careless about your sin and that carelessness will cause you to lose your salvation. My husband BJ, who was raised Catholic, calls this the "doctrine of mystification". If you're mystified about your salvation, you'll work harder in fear that you might not have it. (See the canons and decrees of the Council of Trent for the RCC official word on this). It's not, in all fairness, only the Catholics who believe this. My more Arminian-minded Christian friends also believe that you can sin so as to forfeit your salvation.

I find these theological perspectives frightening. If I have to keep myself saved by my works, then I'm standing on a slippery slope and I'm not sure there's a means of escape. Where's the joy in that sort of salvation? I don't know. What I do know is that Scripture is absolutely clear on the necessity of assurance for the purpose of enjoying your salvation and praising God (Hebrews 6:11; 2Peter 1:10). My praise of God is directly connected to the eternal nature of His gift of salvation to me. I believe assurance is crucial to Christian living. I have never met a productive Christian sold out to Jesus Christ who was in deep doubt of his/her salvation. If you doubt your salvation to that persistent level, you've got a problem with God's promises and your energy is likely going to be sucked away by fear, doubt and despair.

God is not a dishonest businessman Who includes fine print in His covenant. There is no escape clause for God (John 5:24, 6:27-37; Romans 8:28) in His contract with the human race. The Scripture is clear that God continues what He started and that all He has claimed as His own will be with Him in the end. The Father draws, the Father gives, the Son receives, the Son keeps, the Son raises (John 4). There is nothing temporary about what God has promised Christians. When you were born again, hope came alive in your. God is able to keep you from stumbling (Jude 24; 1Thessalonians 5:23).

There's an older Christian contemporary song where a man asks God about his sin and God replies "What sin?" Our sin has been paid for and we have total assurance of that according to Scripture. How can God hold sin against us that He has promised not to remember?

I am convinced that the question of eternal salvation is not legitimately debatable. It's not really arguable. Salvation is an eternal gift. On the basis of the fact that if you have it you have it forever. Having a secure salvation is a fact. It's not debatable. Feeling secure is something else. There are a lot of Christians who have eternal salvation but they don't enjoy it because they don't think they have it. They think they can lose it, so they live in dread and fear of some salvation-killing sin or demon-theft. They think God is like us with a short attention span. God is eternal; salvation is forever (Isaiah 32:17).

It should be noted, however, that doubt is not necessarily evidence of a lack of salvation. In fact, some of the most assured people don't deserve their certainty. There are lots of people who have walked aisles or raised their hands in a meeting and think that makes them saved. Your heart and mind must accompany your body down that aisle. Salvation is not a magic-words ceremony that you perform. It's a transforming experience of giving your life to God. Oddly, it's my experience that those who struggle with assurance, like those John was writing to, are almost always Christains because they're self-aware of their sin, whereas non-Christians are not. They figure they're good people or they did some ritual as a child and therefore, they've got their fire insurance. What's a little sin now and then? It's the true believer, self-aware of his sin, who struggles with assurance and worries that sin might somehow tarnish salvation to the point of being lost.

Some people mistakenly think that the theme of 1John is that God is love, but the actual theme is assurance of salvation. The Christians John wrote to had had their assurance shaken. The Gnostics said they weren't "full gospel" Christians because they didn't have the secret esoteric knowledge the Gnostics were claiming. John wrote to assure them that they were Christians, that they could test their Christianity and that they could test the Christianity of their opponents. Verse 19 explained that John wrote so that his audience would know they were of the truth, which would make their joy complete (verse 4). Knowing that you have eternal life, possessing assurance is necessary to complete joy. You cannot fully enjoy your salvation without the confidence that it is really yours (Ephesians 3:12; Hebrews 6:19; Colossians 2:2; Philippians 1:6; 2Timothy 4:18)

All Scriptural evidence indicates that God doesn't expect us to go through our lives worrying and wondering about whether we really belong to Him. There are theologies and teachers who teach otherwise, but they cannot do so on Scriptural grounds. Once God saves you, it is forever. Eternal life is eternal life. It is permanent. If you ever had it, you always have it. The work of Christ was complete to the point where there is no way you can forfeit salvation. That would undermine the efficacy and the completeness of the work of Christ. If His work was not sufficient to hold you, then it would be a deficient work. The intercessory work of Jesus at the right hand of the Father makes sure that no successful accusation is ever brought before the throne of God against a Christian. The work of the Holy Spirit also guarantees the eternal life of Christians. The Holy Spirit is the down payment (Gr. arrabon, meaning engagement gift) that will keep you until the day you see the Lord.

Eternal life is meant to be enjoyed now because we possess it now. We need not live in fear of losing it. Satan cannot come along and steal your salvation.That's not what God wants us to do, He wants us to enjoy the security that we have by being sure we are His.

As I mentioned before, it is very rare to meet a non-Christian struggling iwth a lack of assurance. Almost always, it's Christians who struggle with the question of assurance. Sometimes this is because they're steeped in preach about God's holy standard. Old-style evangelical churches tend to emphasize that standard while new-fangled "seeker oriented" churches sometimes downplay that, offering a minimalist kind of gospel that treats salvation as a magic-words ceremony. In those type of churches, people rarely question their salvation because they're rarely confronted about where they measure against God's holy standard. In churches where the holy standard is emphasized, you find quite a few people who at least some of the time question their own salvation. It's the duty of a preacher to create anxious hearts (2Corinthians 13:5). It is sad that so many do not do so.

Perhaps they lack in that area because they are aware of the second reason people might lack assurance. Some people have difficulty with forgiveness. They just can't accept it. There's too much garbae in the minds; too much sin they feel they can't get rid of.

I heard this story from an old Ozark preacher. There was a man, a non-Christian, who shared with a preacher that he had so many sins that he couldn't count them all, so he didn't think God would accept him. The preacher suggested that everytime he felt that he had committed a sin, he should hammer a nail into the barn door. A bit later, the man returned and said the door was full of nails. The preacher then said he would understand the forgiveness of God if he thought of it as pulling all the nails out. The man, grasping this analogy, became a Christian. The preacher suggested that now, everytime he did something in his life that was spiritually worthwhile, he go pull out one nail. Eventually, the man reported that all the nails were out and the preacher exclaimed that was wonderful. "Not really," the man said. "The holes are still there."

Some people never get over the holes, which we can identify as the scars of the past. The conscience speaks against forgiveness. It is the essence of conscience to accuse us, to hold us before the standard of God's perfection and find us wanting. Your conscience is not designed to mollify you and it does not go away when you become a Christian. In fact, it functions better after you've been saved than before because, the Bible says, it was purged and purified. It's clean now and its function is to waken your heart to sin. It will never let you off the hook because conscience knows nothing of forgiveness or mercy. The more you're exposed to the preaching of the Word of God, the more you're exposed to the Law of God, the more you know about sin, the more active your conscience is and the more your conscience berates you in a relentless fashion and yields nothing to the issue of forgiveness, the more possible it is for you to feel the loss of assurance.

Oddly, the way to get around this is to go through it. Let the Law do its work. It is a schoolmaster to drive us to Christ. Let conscience do its work to prevent us from sin by inducing pain over iniquity. Let the justice of God do its work to make us thankful for forgiveness and grace. Both strong preaching of the holiness of God and the requirements that He lays before us and the refusal to accept forgiveness cause people to have a lack of assurance.

Bad theology concerning the gospel and the plan of salvation contributes to a lack of assurance. If you believe you can lose your salvation, then, of course, you can't enjoy assurance. Somehow the whole reality of grace, mercy and forgiveness in Christ is not comprehended by some people. People do not understand the wonder and glory of justification. Most people sitting in most churches who think they're Christians don't even understand the doctrine of justification that is inherently to the gospel. They have had emotional experiences and come to Christ in a measure of faith. They prayed a prayer and experienced feelings of well-being. No matter how vivid, passionate and powerful feelings are at the moment of a magic-words ceremony, emotion is no safe storehouse for your assurance. Your assurance cannot be based upon an emotional experience, it has to be built on a true understanding of the saving work of Jesus Christ. I think many people people hold on to some kind of experience as the evidence of their salvation rather than a true and deep understanding of justification. Do you understand what really happened when God saved you? Do you understand that you were a sinner and God knew it? You were condemned by Him as a just, righteous and holy Judge. Do you understand that that penalty had to be paid and God substituted His Son to pay the penalty that His wrath required? He paid it in full and God was so satisfied with the Son for the payment, that He raised Him from the dead and exalted Him to His right hand and gave Him the name Lord, which is above every name. Do you understand that the work of Jesus Christ was complete? That sin was fully paid for when He died; He bore the punishment for all your sins. And when you put your trust in Him, God credits all His righteousness to your account and God Himself will never remember them again. You won't forget, but He does. Do you understand that?

Assurance then, not an emotional experience, it's a rational reality. I feel sure of my salvation because I understand the work of God in Christ. It's not a matter of holding onto my assurance emotionally. I hold onto it doctrinally. It's facts revealed in Scripture, historical realities in the Bible. It's not a feeling (Romans 8:38). Therefore I enjoy my assurance because Christ has guaranteed it to me, having become the perfect substitute Who paid the price for all my sins. That is the heart and soul of our assurance.

Can we talk honestly?

I think if we're honest with ourselves, we will admit that our fellow Christians sometimes get on our nerves. They are SO self-righteous, SO obnoxious! They have personal habits that are beyond the pale!. They sin on a regular basis, but than act like their excrement doesn't stink. If we're honest with ourselves, we know that we don't altogether like our fellow Christians.

"We know that we have crossed over from death to life because we love our fellow Christians. The one who does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his fellow Christian is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. We have come to know love by this: that Jesus laid down his life for us; thus we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians. But whoever has the world’s possessions and sees his fellow Christian in need and shuts off his compassion against him, how can the love of God reside in such a person?" 1John 3:14-17

We are called to love our fellow Christians. And most of us do a bang-up job of tolerating folks we don't particularly like. Still, if we hate our fellow Christian, how does that make us into murderers?

One, overt hatred of our fellow Christians tends to put non-Christians off. There is nothing more uncomfortable than being an outsider viewing a family squabble. Been there, done that, it wasn't pretty. The whole time I stood there watching my neighbor's daughters scream at one another, it kept ringing threw my teenage mind that I was SO glad not to be a member of that family. Make no mistake, non-Christians view our church-family squabbles in a similar vein. Why would they want to be Christians if squabbling, infighting, backbiting and gossip are what they have to look forward to? Afterall, they could engage in all of those negative activities in the secular workplace or their family of origin. Why join a bunch of strangers to get what they are already getting?

If you prevent someone coming to the Lord, you are condemning their eternal soul to Hell. You are indeed a murderer if that is what you do by not loving your fellow Christians. And, John was clear here. Murderers do not possess eternal life. It's not that Christians lose their salvation by engaing in hateful activities toward their fellow Christians. It's that it is evidence that you never possessed salvation in the first place.

Christians must realize to a deeper extent that many of us do that we were saved only because Jesus laid down His life for us. That example should drive us to be willing to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians. We're rarely called to do that, but if we can help someone in the church who is in need and we don't, we are evidencing a lack of love for that person and therefore, a lack of salvation in ourselves.

God is love and His love resides in His people. If we are truly Christians, we should not be able to contain the love within ourselves. It should spill over to all those around us. The form that love takes may not always be what the world expects to see, but that is a different issue.

There are times in our Christian walk where the love of God may be required in extremely difficult conditions. I've known Christians who have sinned grieviously and suffered horrendous consequences. Sometimes it is tempting to judge them by the same standard that the world would judge them. My fellow Christians have sometimes done so. I try not to. It's not because I am a better Christian than anyone else. In fact, I think I'm probably more of a sinner. At least I'm more self-aware of my sin. I may not have done what those fallen Christians have done, but my sin is no less ugly to God and I am very aware of that. It grieves me that sometimes my fellow Christians don't recognize that. They grade sins and sinners, when the Bible tells us that God does not. There is only one grade of sinner that includes the entire human race and all of our sins, no matter how "harmless" we may think they are, are worthy of eternity in hell from God's perspective. Therefore, those of us who have been saved from that eternity of torment should perhaps be more forgiving of those of our number who have fallen in "major" sin, because every "little" sin we commit is, in God's eyes, equal to anything they have done. We've all been gifted with the same salvation.

Clearly from this series of lessons, no one can say that I advocate allowing heretics and unrepentant sinners to remain in the church. I don't. I agree with Paul and John that such should be put outside the church so as not to harm the body and because it may bring a few to repentence. However, I also believe that repentant sinners should be forgiven promptly and allowed to return to the fellowship without having their past sins held over their heads.

Oddly, this kind of love for our fellow Christian does not endear us to the world, which judges sinners far more harshly than Christians do. I know a Christian man whose sin became quite public. Our church embraced him and helped him through it. We took criticism for that from other churches and from the community. Our pastor at the time advised that we pay no attention to the snipers. Not too long ago, however, someone in the community remembered that past behavior. It was odd to watch a group of secular acquaintances debate whether we should have taken the action that we did. They concluded that a "real" church should not have forgiven this man. (I would note that they didn't realize they were talking about my church, else they might not have had the conversation in front of me). The man in question has been a good Christian walking a clean walk for more than a decade, but the world doesn't often want to forget the past. Christians should because that is what Christ did for us when He laid down His life on our behalf. He set our pasts aside so that we could live without all that baggage.

That's love and that is how Christians ought to practice it.

It might seem odd that the discussion of love would focus on a murder, but God has a larger picture of life than we do. He recognizes the very real difficulty that true love presents for human beings. Our race wasn't even two generations old when we introduced murder into God's perfect creation. Clearly we don't, as a species, understand love.

"For this is the gospel message that you have heard from the beginning: that we should love one another, not like Cain who was of the evil one and brutally murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, but his brother’s were righteous." 1John 3:11-12

Cain and Abel should have loved one another. Not only were they brothers, they were among only a handful of humans on the planet. You'd think that living that closely together would result ina close bond. It didn't.

So what went wrong?

After 1John, I plan to turn my attention to Genesis, but here is a brief synopsis of what I've learned about Cain and Abel in my study there. God had evidently given instructions in proper sacrifice before the brothers brought their sacrifice, so Cain was without excuse if he got it wrong. We don't know the reason why he chose to bring vegetables instead of meat to the altar, but we do know it was in violation of God's prior command. God required a blood sacrifice. I think it is entirely possible that Cain believed his sacrifice was better than Abel's because it came from the product of his own labor. This should speak to us strongly and remind us that when we try to approach God on our terms rather that HIS, we are demonstrating gross arrogance. God has given commands as to our conduct before Him. All we have to do to know those commands is read His Bible.

John's take on Cain was pretty stern. He wasn't just misguided or foolish, he was "of the evil one." The word used for "the evil one" always denotes Satan. There was nothing redeeming in Cain, according to John. He brutally murdered his brother because his deeds were evil while his brother's were righteous. There's almost a flavor here that Cain was jealous of Abel's relationship with God. Yet the relationship Abel had was based upon his obedience to God. Cain could easily have possessed a similar relationship if only he'd obeyed God.

He chose not to and killed his brother instead. Clearly, that did not and I think he knew it would not, improve his relationship with God. What it did do, however, is express his rage and hatred of his brother and, ultimately, of God's rules.

"Therefore do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you." 1John 3:13

I love how straightfoward John was! He didn't mince around. After discussing Cain's brutal murder of the brother he should have loved, John told his audience that they shouldn't be surprised if the world hated them. It's been the way of humans ever since the second generation. Those who walk in darkness curse those who walk in the light. They find reasons to hate those who are righteous, not because the righteous are mean or anything negative, but simply because they are righteous.

Not so long ago, a neighbor was telling me how she really hates another neighbor. She had a litany of complaints that seemed sort of silly to me and the incredulity must have shown on my face. Finally, she said I wouldn't understand because Ann (the hated neighbor) and I are friends, but that's not entirely true. Among the complaints I noted that Julie (the complaining neighbor) doesn't like about Ann is that Ann is a Christian who lives her beliefs out loud. For example, she has a huge garage sale twice a summer to benefit missionaries in the Philippines. One of Julie's complaints was that Ann thinks she's better than the rest of us because she does that. Ann also grows a big garden every summer, far more than her family can eat, and she donates the excess to the Food Bank. Julie complained that Ann thinks she's more generous than the rest of us. Because Ann and I know each other fairly well, I know Ann constantly feels like she's not doing enough for the Lord and that she worries non-Christians will be turned off by her "poor" example. I also know, because I'm friendly with Julie, that she always compares herself to others in a competitive way. If she perceives herself as being less than someone else (not as capable, generous, whatever), she either does something to prove that she is equal to them or she denigrates their efforts so that she won't be found wanting. She therefore looks at Ann and sees someone to hate because, not being a Christian, she cannot compete as a Christian against Ann, who is a mature Christian woman. I ended up asking Julie if she thought Ann should stop doing those activities to make herself a better person. The proof was in her answer. Well, no, uh, maybe she shouldn't support the missionaries because missionaries are just forcing people to accept non-native religions, but the Food Bank really did need the food. Julie is wrong about the mission in the Phillippines. I know people who have worked there and the focus is much like our local Food Bank (a Christian organization). They use "rice missions" to present the gospel, but no one is ever forced or even strongly urged to convert. Still, Julie insisted that Ann is a hateful hypocrit who should change her ways.

What a comfort to know that when the world hates us, and they will and do, it is evidence that we are living righteous lives. Righteousness is like itching powder to the unrighteous. Although there are some self-righteous and bullying Christians, in general it is not necessarily anything we do that arouses hatred from our non-Christian acquaintances. It is most often simply that they reject the God that we live before and they are irritated to find that we enjoy living in a manner they reject.

Still, the world tells us that we're hateful, so how can Christians know if we are truly living as we should or if we are what the world claims we are?

"We know that we have crossed over from death to life because we love our fellow Christians. The one who does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his fellow Christian is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. We have come to know love by this: that Jesus laid down his life for us; thus we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians. But whoever has the world’s possessions and sees his fellow Christian in need and shuts off his compassion against him, how can the love of God reside in such a person?" 1John 3:14-17

John established that the world is going to hate Christians. Christians can know that they are truly saved because we love our fellow Christians. I know a few who are hard to love. Some are self-righteous and rude, others deal with noxious sins in their lives. We come to the Lord with our baggage and some of us don't leave it at the door. The church is more a clinic for sinners than a temple to perfection. Yet, we are called to love one another and very often, I have found that I do love these annoying people, even if I do not always like them. This is good, because it is evidence of salvation. If you don't love, you remain in spiritual death. John stated this very strongly in verse 15. A Christian who hates his fellow Christians is a murderer.

Ouch! How does that work? I mean, I cannot recall walking into a church and plugging anyone in the chest with a 357 recently or even in the distant past. How can I be a murderer simply because I don't love my fellow Christian?

This is a big subject, so I'm going to take it in a second lesson to focus more tightly on it.

John was ever a master at contrasts. From a discussion of hope, he turned to a discussion of sin. One is an evidence of Christianity, the other -- practiced consistently -- is evidence of fakery.

"Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; indeed, sin is lawlessness. And you know that Jesus was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. Everyone who resides in him does not sin; everyone who sins has neither seen him nor known him. Little children, let no one deceive you: The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as Jesus is righteous. The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was revealed: to destroy the works of the devil. Everyone who has been fathered by God does not practice sin, because God’s seed resides in him, and thus he is not able to sin, because he has been fathered by God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are revealed: Everyone who does not practice righteousness – the one who does not love his fellow Christian -- is not of God." 1John 3:4-10

The final verse in this passage (3:10) essentially sums up the entire passage. The children of God and the children of the devil are easily identified. Anyone who doesn't practice rigtheousness is not of God. That couldn't be more clear! I'm not sure why some modern evangelicals are confused on the issue. It is like a toxin that has spilled into the evangelical soils, threatening to poison all who come in contact with it. It affects the whole movement called evangelicalism with a massively debilitating approach to the gospel and salvation.

Some churches and seminaries teach a false idea of sin and salvation, submitting that repentence is just a synonym for faith and that no turning from sin is required for salvation, which might not last. A true Christian can completely cease believing, even cease to name the name of Christ or confess Christianity at all and still be a Christian. Saving faith is simply being convinced of the truth of the gospel at some point in your life. It is confidence that Christ can remove guilt and give eternal life. No personal commitment is required. Chrsitians can lapse into a state of permanent spiritual barrenness or lifelong carnality and still be Christians. Disobedience and prolonged sin are no reason to doubt one's salvation. God has guaranteed that He will not disown those who abandon the truth. Your salvation is secured forever, even if you turn away. Spiritual fruit is not guaranteed in the Christian life. Salvation does not necessarily place the sinner in a right relationship with God. All who claim Christ by faith as Savior, even active serious sinners, should be assured tha they belong to God no matter what. It is dangerous and destructive to question the salvation of professing Christians.Those who believe this will insist that the New Testament writers never questioned the faith of their readers.

I think those who believe this haven't read 1John. I was sincerely shocked when a friend who is a seminary professor sent me an article on this issue. I knew some of the names espousing these beliefs. How could Biblical scholars reach such conclusions? To them, faith is an existential moment of believing certain facts about Jesus and asking Him to save you based upon those facts. There is no necessary repentence, obedience, righteousness, turning from sin or spiritual fruit required. Have they never read 1John? How could Biblical scholars miss what he wrote?

In order to hold those views, Scripture must either be ignored or manipulated. 1John is among the most often manipualted books because 1John is primarily a series of tests that validate one's profession of faith. That makes it an antitoxin to the doctrinal pollution in modern evangelical soil. 1John was written during a time when heretics were everywhere in the early church, working Satan's lies against the truth of God. False teachers had infiltated the congregation(s) to which John wrote. They taught taht spirituality, spiritual knowledge and true religion were about the mind and the mind alone. The key to salvation was to achieve a sort of exalted esoteric elevated knowledge (therefore, gnostic); what happened to the body was immaterial. As long as you had this elevated knowledge, your theology wasn't particularly important. You could have a wrong view of God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and still be okay spiritually because you had this secret experiential knowledge. Not too surprisingly, that is a close descripiton of today's "faith movement".

John provided doctrinal, moral and ethical tests to determine the validity of your Christianity. If your doctrine isn't right, you can't be a Christian. You must have the right view of Jesus Christ, God and the Holy Spirit. The test of sound doctrine is trinitarian in form. Wrong doctrine equals damnation and the false teachers of John's day failed the doctrinal test.

Today, the preachers of the Faith Movement also present a wrong view of God. They have the wrong understanding of the cross and of faith. They aren't wrong on all points, but they are wrong on that which matters the most. What they present is not Christianity! John would have been outspoken in opposition -- acknowledging their error. Yet today, far too many who do have doctrinal truth on their side are loath to confront the heresy in our midst.

The 1st century heretics held wrong theology, but they also were wrong in their conduct. They denied sin. They believed they had ascended to God and attained this spiritual knowledge, so they could not have sin. Yet their denial was evidence of sin. They made no attempt at holy living because they deemed conduct to be of little spiritual value. They denied any necessity of obedience or righteous living and they failed utterly at loving others.

Knowing God has immense implications, yet there are supposedly evangelical professors at leading seminaries in our country who teach pretty much what the 1st century heretics taught. You can say you know Him without keeping His commandments. You can know Him and not love Him. You can not even believe in Him, but still have a saving relationship with Him. It is amazing that any believes this tangle of contradictions, but they clearly do since TBN doesn't seem to be declining in viewership. You will find this idea scattered throughout evangelicalism -- if you have ever prayed a prayer, raised a hand, walked an aisle, had some experience with Jesus, that settles your salvation forever and it doesn't matter how you live the rest of your life. I've met people who say they are Christians, but their lives are characterized by an unbroken pattern of sin. I am not saying that Christians never sin; we do. Some Christians struggle immensely with sin issues that reappear in their lives from time to time. However, true Christians feel shame over their sins and repent of them, seeking to set aside those destructive lifestyle choices. When you see people who claim to be Christians who do not regret their sin and do not see a reason to change their behavior, you must wonder if they really are saved.

Why? Because habitual sin is incompatible with the Law of God, the work of Christ, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. John wrote a masterful treatice here that touches on all three Persons of the Trinity. If you are a true Christian, you will believe the truth and you will behave in a righteous way. Sin is missing the mark -- a failure to be righteous. It is not a violation of the Law so much as it is an attitude toward the Law. Everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness from an indifference to the Law (Matthew 7:23). A life of rebellion against God is characteristic of unbelievers. There are no exceptions in the Greek allowed. There is no dual standard of morality. Everyone who practices sin as a lifestyle is living in lawlessness, which is proof that they are not Christians.

Don't ever underestimate sin. It is a whole that is much stronger than its parts. There are individual acts of sin, but they only reflect a deeper, more consuming, more captivating and dominating presence of lawlessness which is open rebellion toward God and His will.

I do not for a moment contend that Christians do not sin, but we no longer possess an attitude of lawlessness. We've denied all lusts and desires and submitted ourselves to the lordship of Jesus Christ. When a Christian accepts Christ as Savior, we bow our knee and our neck ot the lordship of Christ to obey His law. That is salvation's commitment. Once we were like everyone else, slaves to sin, but now we are obedience to God. For this reason, we love the Law of God. The Word becomes precious to Christians (Romans 7:6-22). Paul explained that he had come through salvation to love the Law of God and, therefore, had a spirit of conformity, not rebellion. He continued to struggle with sin, but the activities of sin were not activities he wanted to do. Paul longed to do what was right but he found himself falling into sin which was not what he wants to do, as evidenced by his penitence. Paul shared much in common with King David, who also fell into sin, but who repented and faced the consequences of his sin.

Habitual sin then is incompatible with the Law of God. Sin is incompatible with the work of Christ. Salvation is a mighty transforming work in the life of a person. It is permanent and evidenced by repentence, obedience and submission to the will of God. It is characterized by right living, love, faith, and hope. Christians confess Jesus. They are not ashamed of the gospel. Even though we fall short of the standard of the Law, we love it and that's why we hate the sin that we see in us when its violated. This proves where our truest and purest affections lie toward you; it is evidence that we are God's children. Anything less is reason for concern.

When our daughter was 7, BJ and I took her on a trip to Hawaii -- the island of Kauai. She loved the clouds that wreath the mountains there and one day as we were driving into the mountains, she wanted to touch the clouds. We drove up to a lookout where it seemed like the clouds were right there and we got out of the car. No matter how far Bri stretched out her hand, however, she could not actually touch the clouds. The mist would simply move away from the heat of her little hand.

"And now, little children, remain in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink away from him in shame when he comes back. If you know that he is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been fathered by him.

"(See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that we should be called God’s children – and indeed we are! For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know him. Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that whenever it is revealed we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is. And everyone who has this hope focused on him purifies himself, just as Jesus is pure)." 1John 2:28-3:3

We're jumping the chapter barrier again. It's that silly 7th Century monk riding the balky mule. He apparently didn't think very hard about how to break up sections. Verse 28 starts out referring to the appearing of Jesus Christ, which mirrors the latter reference in 3:2. The entire section is about our hope in the appearing of Jesus Christ.

What exactly is hope? It is one of the three great words, according to the apostle Paul -- sort of a triumvirate in evangelical terminology from 1Corinthians 13 -- faith, hope and love. We discuss love a lot and faith as well, but hope is a word we tend to skip over. Most of us don't know what it is and we don't really feel the lack. We should!

Hope is a bit like turning on a light in the darkness. It is joy in a sorrowful situation, life in the midst of death. It immediately brightens, producing joy. Life without hope is bleak. 1Corinthians 15:19 says "If in this life only you have hope, you are of all men most miserable." If you don't have anything to hope for beyond this life, you are mired in supreme misery because this life is like a wisp of mist that appears for a short while and then vanishes. This life is very brief and full of trouble. To have hope in this life alone is to have very little to push back the darkness.

Sadly, that is exactly the hope most people have -- they have no sure hope for the life to come. They may have wishes and fantasies, even some religious promises, but for most of the world and most of humanity throughout history, there has been no real hope as described in Hebrews 6 "Hope that is an anchor for the soul." Death brings the immediate realization that any hope outside of God was a false hope (Job 8:13; 27:8; 31:24; Proverbs 10:28). It's a terrible thing to put you hope in things that are ephemeral (Ephesians 2). There were philosophies in the 1st Century that believed there was no hope for the body and that the soul was imprisoned within the body. When the body died, the sould reluctantly left the body and would depart into the shade world where the dead would bemoan their existence without comfort. Their hope ended with this life, so they would drown their sorrow in sex, entertainment and acquisition.

Today's atheists and secularists are little different. Yet, it is very different for those who know God. In Romans 8:23-25 there is a wonderful section that looks at Christian hope, that we "wait eagarly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body for in hope we have been saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. Why does one also hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do no see with perseverence, we wait eagarly for it."

Christians have a salvation that is only partially realized. The joys of salvation that we experience currently are nothing compared to that which God has prepared for us when our hope becomes reality. The true benefits of salvation have yet to come to us in their fullness. We live in hope. This is why death is not an ending for a Christian. It is a loosening from bondage to sin and the flesh so that we may finally claim the full transforming nature that God wants to give us. Death for the Christian is liberation, so we eagarly look forward to it. Christians receive many benefits at salvation and during the process of sanctification -- forgiveness of sin and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, answered prayer, Christian fellowship, worship, service to the Lord, spiritual wisdom -- but none of this comes close to what we will eventually receive. This is why hope is a major component of our salvation, because we have not yet received the entirety of salvation.

The Bible tells us a lot about hope. Most important, hope comes from God as a gift of grace. It's not something Christians earn (2Thessalonians 2:16). We can and do nothing to earn our hope. God is the one Who gives us something to hope for and He does it entirely because He chooses to. Romans 15:4 affirmed that our hope comes from god by grace and is dispensed to use in the Scriptures. Just as our faith is believing God for what He said just because He said it, our hope is believing God for what He promised just because He promised it (Psalm 119:81; 1Peter 3:15).

The Bible is God's reasoned communication to human kind, so we can defend our hope. Our hope in eternal life comes from the Word of God, which any faithful and honest study will guide an open-minded reader to its truthfulness. The Bible can defend itself to anyone who studies it. It is therefore objectively defensible. It is a secure hope, assured by the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1Peter 1:3; John 14). We have a living hope because Jesus rose from the dead.

Christian hope is not merely an emotion, however. It is also a shield and armor (Ephesians 6; 1Thessalonians 5:8). As a Christian, you can assume that you are going to be attacked by Satan. We are going to be engaged in a real spiritual battle waged on many levels. One of Satan's favorite weapons is doubt. Every Christian has experienced doubt as some time in their Christian walk. It is not an indication that you're not saved. It is a sin, but like all other sin in the life of a believer, it can be forgiven. We overcome sin through study of the Scripture and the work of the Spirit. Hope is our helmet against the crushing blows of doubt that Satan would rain down on us.

Christian hope is the source of our joy, which is another element of hope. Hope is confirmed and strengthened as we face trials because we see God's hand at work in those difficult times. The pain we suffer makes us long even more for the fulfillment of our salvation.

I think this sort of hope is not something the world, those without Jesus, can truly understand. God has not given them hope. Because He has given us hope, sometimes it seems as though Christians manufacture hope out of thin air. Christian hope comes from God; it doesn't come from Christians. Christians are the beneficiaries of God's grace in giving this hope. We are not the source of it.

Christians have no reason to fear death. Really, what is there to be afraid of when death is a realease into the fulfillment of your hope? The sting of death is gone, because death simply ushers us into the presence of God (1Corinthians 15). Christians have nothing to fear in Heaven and death is merely the door into Heaven.

This hope has immense ethical implications. This hope affects our conduct. It purges and purifies. John's primary thrust in this section was the ethical implications of this hope because it verifies whether we are truly Christians. We already know that we're Christians. John provided tests and standards by which a person's spiritual condition can be determined. Here he expanded upon the doctrinal and moral tests to provide an ethical test of true Christianity. "A true believer, one who really has this hope in Christ purifies himself." It's demonstrable. Proof of being a Christian is what you believe about sin, what you believe about Christ, it is obedience and love and a personal persuit of purity. This is evidence that your are living in the light of a true eternal hope.

Unlike the Hawaiian cloud that would slip through Bri's little fingers, hope is evidenced by fruit in the life of a Christian. God has not given us the full picture yet, but He has promised it and provided evidence that what we hope for will be available at sometime in the future ... if we continue to hope.

Here's a fun party activity! It doesn't matter the composition of the crowd. It could be a group of conservative Christians, liberal social workers or construction workers. Throw out the word "antichrist" and see what comes out. I will bet that if you have 10 or 12 people, you'll come up with 20-30 different theories. Everybody has some idea of what "antichrist" means, ranging from horror movie fodder to some sort of amorphous "spirit of the age". I have a social worker coworker who insists that anti-christ is actually a force for good since Jesus Christ is a source of division. Actually, she's about half-right.

"Children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. We know from this that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us, because if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But they went out from us to demonstrate that all of them do not belong to us.

"Nevertheless you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. I have not written to you that you do not know the truth, but that you do know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This one is the antichrist: the person who denies the Father and the Son. Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either. The person who confesses the Son has the Father also.

"As for you, what you have heard from the beginning must remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. Now this is the promise that he himself made to us: eternal life. These things I have written to you about those who are trying to deceive you.

"Now as for you, the anointing that you received from him resides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things, it is true and is not a lie. Just as it has taught you, you reside in him." 1John 2:18-27

There's a lot going on in this section, and I'm just going to focus on the subject of antichrist. It is a well-known word today. As I said, there are many theories. We're looking at the Biblical example. The word in Greek is antichristos. Christos obviously means Christ, but anti can have two meanings. The Greek preposition can either mean against or in place of. When we read the word antichrist, we can either take it to mean one who is against Christ or one who tries to take the place of Christ. The opposition is clear in the first example, but more subtle in the second. Clearly antichrist is one on some fronts -- overtly against Christ, speaking lies concerning Christ, denying the nature, identity and work of Jesus Christ. On the second front, the opposition may be more deceptive. Rather than overtly denying or lying about Christ, these might hold an aberrant view of Christ, His nature, His deity, or His humanity. This too is an antichrist spirit. Antichrist is anything that attacks Christ, but it is not limited to open assault. Pseudo Christs works against Christ by presenting themselves as a different variety of Christ -- often teaching that they have improved upon the Biblical Savior.

The term "the last hour" tends to cause some difficulty for some folks. John wrote this letter nearly 2000 years ago. He remarked that there were antichrists then in the last hour. Yet, here we still are, two millennia later; we've still got antichrists and Christ hasn't returned yet. What's up with that?

God is an eternal being. We are finite. We are bound to time; He is not. Because God stands outside of time, 2000 years might be a blink of an eye for Him. That gives new perspective to the last hour. As I am a Christian who generally avoids end-time discussions because I don't find them spiritually expedient, I will simply say that John indicated we are in the last hour and in the last hour there will be a proliferation of antichrists. He saw that in his day. We continue to see it in our day. We are then likely in the last hour.

The Bible is very clear that there will be a single, powerful Antichrist at the end of time, but this does not mean he will be the only one. He's just the final one in a long line of antichrists who herald the coming end of time. When John wrote in AD 68, there had already arisen a crop of antichrists -- some were stridently against Christ while others set themselves up as pseudo Christs. Therefore, antichrist is not merely an individual, but also a spirit of the age, a way of thinking, an attitude toward Christ that personifies itself finally in one person, but in the meantime, is seen in many people. Any person who is against Chrst, who attacks the deity of Jesus, who is hostile to the true nature of Christ, or who calls attention to himself as if he were the true Christ is operating in the power of antichrist. This is another way to describe a Christ-rejecter, a non-believer. It certainly described false teachers and christs, but it was not limited ot them. Anyone who rejected Christ, particularly those who had been told the truth about Christ and rejected Him would therefore bear the name antichrist. However Mark 13:6 said..."Jesus said, "Many shall come in My name saying I am Christ. And they'll deceive many." There are few who actually claim to be Christ, especially today, but they're around; there are many who reject Christ.

John was trying to distinguish between believers and non-believers. The tests he gave throughout the letter were mean to help his readers evaluation their own spiritual condition and be assured of their salvation, but also to evaluate the spiritual condition of others and decide who was a deceiver and who was not. True Christians acknowledge their sin, recognize that it is an evil and repent from it. They believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, Who lived as a man and died for our sins. True Christians also live lives marked by a love for Christ and other Christians and obedience to the Word of God as well as a lack of love for the world. An overriding test is that true Christians confess Christ. False Christians deny Him. A wrong view of Christ is the diamond lane to damnation.

Jesus Himself was very clear on this in Matthew 12:30, "He who is not with Me, is against Me." There is no middle ground in that statement. You're either with Jesus or you're against Him. You're either a Christian or an antichrist. Think about that as your waitress serves you coffee at your favorite diner. She's probably an antichrist, because anyone who does not love Jesus Christ and embrace Hima as God, Messiah and Savior is guilty of the spirit of antichrist.

John was trying to finger the phony Christians, the false teachers, the heretics, so that his congregation(s) could spot them and reject their teachers. God is truth and in Him there are no lies. He cannot tolerate lies. The world we inhabit is full of lies. It is clearly antichrist. Jesus called His disciples to carry the truth throughout the world. No sooner was the church established than heretics arose and started hammering at it. They tried to infilitrate it and lead true Christians astray from the truth. Paul, Peter, James, and John all dealt with heresy. Amazingly, God actually allowed false teachers to enter the church and pull out people who weren't genuine. God allowed (and continues to allow) liars, deceiers and false prophets to purge the church. When the heretics left John's churches, they took people with them. It happens today whenever churches stand up against heresy. John didn't counsel grief over this defection. He reminded his readers that those who had left had never really been a part of the church. The defection was one way of knowing who was a real Christian and who was not. John reminded his readers of this so that they would not be shaken. Just because someone seemed to be a Christian when they were at the church doesn't mean they were. If they were, they would have remained. They were always phonies, it just took time to unmask them.

John doesn't counsel chasing after them and trying to persuade them of their error. Just as we toss bad apples so they don't ruin the whole barrel, the church is better when it purges heretics. It's painful, but it must be done. They are a negative influence on the church and the church is tasked with guarding the truth. Stand up for the truth and the heretics will become uncomfortable. Sooner or later, they will be exposed as false and they will depart. This is a good thing!

There are points of theology that Christians may differ on without rising to heresy. ValiantfortheTruth and I disagree on the meaning of election. We are both Christians and I suspect we would be fairly comfortable attending the same church. Others may claim the title of Christian and overtly or subtly change the nature of Christ in their doctrines. They may deny that Jesus was human or deny that He is God eternal, the same as the Father. You can't deny the deity of Christ without denything the God who is the God and Father of Jesus Christ because God is a trinity -- Father, Son and Holy Ghost. If you reject Jessu, you evidence that you do not know God because there is only one God and that is the God and Father of Jesus Christ. That is how He designated Himself in the New Testament.

There have always been some bizarre views of Jesus Christ. The Gnostics believed that Christ's spirit descended on the man Jesus at His baptism and left about three years later, just before He died on the cross. Therefore Jesus was not fully God incarnate in human flesh. He was just a man temporarily possessed by the divine spirit. This was what John combated. Gnosticism exists today, most notably in the New Age movement, which claims this "Christ spirit" can indwell all of us.

Heresy hasn't gone away, folks. Thank God (literally) that John gave us tests so that we can identify those who are not Christians so that we can be assured of what is and is not true.

In Billy Graham's early days in the ministry he had a partner who was a very close friend. They preached a lot of small crusades together. Later on, this man became an outspoken critic of Christianity and an avowed atheist. I have a friend in ministry who tells me that his ordination papers were signed by a man who now teaches as a major secular university and does everything he can to convince the young people under his tutulage to reject Christianity. Bruce Habermas certainly must have been saddened by Bart Ehrmann's defection into agenda-driven theology.

"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, because all that is in the world (the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance produced by material possessions) is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away with all its desires, but the person who does the will of God remains forever." 1John 2:15-17

The world is all around us, yet Christians are called to be in the world, but not of it. That's not so easy to do when the world keeps trying to drag you back into the cess pool that is at its core. Up to this point, John used love as a measure of Christianity, but not all love is Christian. Christians are to love God and love their fellow Christians, but they are not to love the world.

The apostle Paul provided a Biblical example of those I described above. Demas had been a follower of Paul, a ministry partner. In 2Timothy 4 (which is the last letter Paul wrote), Paul reported that Demas "loved the world" and abandoned Paul in prison as he faced a death sentence. Defection of the Christian life is nothing new or modern. It's been around since Paul's day. It doesn't just happen among the pew-sitters. Demas was working with Paul, Luke, Epaphras, Mark and Timothy. He discovered a love of the world and probably a love of his own life and deserted Paul in his hour of great need. You can be around the truth, you can even make a profession of the truth, you can associate with the world's great Christians and even work in ministry and still not really be a Christian. I don't think Paul or any of his ministry partners knew that Demas wasn't a Christian, not until he beat feet back to the world when Paul was about to be martyred. The price of associating with Paul and being a Christian became too high. Demas loved what the world offered, its ideas and conduct, more than he loved what God offered. That sort of love is deadly to faith (James 4:4).

James, the brother of Jesus and pastor at Jerusalem, described spiritual defection as a sort of harlotry, echoing Jeremiah 3:6, Ezekiel 16 and Hosea 1:2. Demas was a spiritual prostitute. He had become an enemy of God and returned to the life he used to live. He'd gone to Thessalonica, a large city where a former Christian could disappear into the pagan lifestyle. His defection showed that he was not a true Christian. He didn't love God and God didn't love him savingly. Demas had failed the test of Christianity. He loved the world.

True believers cannot love the world! The world is an anti-God system and you can't love God and love the world that is against Him. Salvation is deliverance from the world with its anti-God ideologies and viewpoints. This does not mean that you are immune from the world's temptations. Clearly, Christians still live in the world. In ideological terms, however, you have turned from the error that defines the world to embrace God and the truth of His gospel. You cannot believe two opposite things. Either you embrace the error or you embrace the truth. You are not given an option of being double-minded.

John wrote to churches infested with heretics. The heretics claimed to be Christians; indeed, they claimed to be a better kind of Christian. This confused some true Christians. To combat this, John provided tests that affirmed the salvation of true Christians and unmasked the heresy of the false teachers. False religion cannot produce love of the truth.

Unfortunately, most of the world labors in error. If you love the world, you are not a true believer. The world is a system of lies and deceptions that oppose God. It is contrary and hostile to the truth. Therefore, anyone who loves the truth is in conflict with the world.

John continued to make stark black-and-white statements. All unsaved people are in the world. Christians are not. We have rejected the world and embraced the truth. We have overcome the world's lies by believing the truth. The world is hostile to Godliness because Godliness represents everything the world is not. The world's aims are selfish and pleasure driven, sinfu and demoralizing. Its politics are corrupt; its honors are empty. Its smiles are fake and its love is fickle. Christians are to give no supreme affection to any other than Jesus. We are to be honest and open, eschewing hypocrisy. Christians cannot love the world because the very nature of the world is against God.

Moreover, we do not love the world because of who we are in Christ. Our sins have been forgiven and we are called to self-examination. We know the Father and the Word of God is strong within us. We seek a more intimate knowledge of the eternal God. As God's children, we cannot comfortably live in this world because it is the antithesis of who we have become in Christ.

Thirdly, we don't love the world because of what it does. It incites sin (verse 16), the lust of the flesh and eyes and the boastful pride of life. These are not from God, but from the world. The whole purpose of the world is to excite behaviors in us that are anti-God. This is not to say that we can't own anything or enjoy anything in this life, but we cannot have those things as the central focus of who we are. If that flashy new car is more important to you than going to church, you might have a problem with loving the world.

A long time before Newton gave us the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, God informed us in the Bible that the world is passing away. Christians are not. We have an eternal hope because of our salvation relationship with Jesus Christ. The world, however, is doomed. We can see that with our own observation skills. Is the world getting better or is it getting worse? No matter who we are, we're going to reach the end of the world and there will be more beyond. For the Christian, there will be eternity with God. For the non-Christian, who chose the world over God, there will be an eternity without God. Hell is anywhere God is not. While we have had the pleasure of living in this world, there have been touches of God here and there to lighten the mood, but when the end of days comes, God will step out of the world that the non-Christians inhabit and it will become Hell. Christians have stepped out of the system, so we're not going where it is going, into death. We are bound for life.

Don't love the world because it's going away. God is eternal and loving Him means you gain a love that will last for all eternity.

Growth is life. Growth is evidence of life. You plant a seed in the ground and it grows into a plant. Small puppies become big dogs. Babies eventually grow into adults. That's the way life works. Life is defined by growth. Where there is life, there is growth and where there is growth, there is life.

"I am writing to you, little children, that your sins have been forgiven because of his name. I am writing to you, fathers, that you have known him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, that you have conquered the evil one. I have written to you, children, that you have known the Father.I have written to you, fathers, that you have known him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young people, that you are strong, and the word of God resides in you, and you have conquered the evil one." 1John 2:12-14

^{It shouldn't surprise us to find that same dynamic in the spiritual realm. God, who gave us spiritual life in Christ, intends for that life to grow into maturity. The failure to grow spiritually is a tragedy because one does not grow spiritually cannot enter into all of the spiritual blessings that God has made available to mature believers. Spiritual growth is a privilege that God has provided to us, but it is also an obligation that we owe Him.}

^{The Bible tells us the goal of spiritual development is to become like Christ. The apostle Paul was very clear when he stated (Philippians 3) that he left the past in the dust and focused on the goal of becoming like Christ (Romans 8:29). To think about maturity is to think about Christ because mature believers are like Christ. The goal of spiritual growth is to become like Christ. This is true on the individual and corporate level. It is the goal of every individual Christian to grow toward becoming like Christ, but it should also be the goal of the church, both congregationally and univerally, to grow toward becoming like Christ. God has designed everything within the Christian experience of church, ministry and discipleship to encourage us to become like Christ (1Peter 2:2).}

<sup>Sometimes we hear the "church word" of sanctification to describe spiritual growth. I don't really like church words, so I note it and move on. Christians start out at a point of positional sanctification. When we are saved, we are set apart from sin into a new state in which we are covered by the righteousness of Christ. That's what happens at salvation. That is a past, one-time event. There is also a future kind of sanctification, which is the ultimate goal when we finally become completely seperated from sin when we join God in heaven. Between those two events is the process of sanctification we call spiritual growth. It is an increasing seperation from sin as we mature spiritually and become more like Jesus Christ.

Please don't misunderstand this. Spiritual growth has nothing to do with your standing before God in Christ. That is a settled historical fact. When you put your trust in Jesus, the righteousness of God covered you. God doesn't take that back and it never changes. You cannot become any more saved then you were the day that you accepted Christ as Savior. Spiritual growth also has nothing to do with God's love for you. God doesn't love mature Christians more than He loves immature ones (John 13:1). God loves all of His followers to perfection. The apostles who gathered for the Last Supper were quite immature, still arguing among themselves about their place in the hierarchy of the kingdom, but Jesus still loved each of them with a perfect love. He cannot love us more because we are more mature.

Spiritual growth also has nothing to do with time. You can't measure it on the calendar. I've met Christians who were old in the body who were less mature spiritually than some kindergartners. Apparently, the apostle Paul had met some similar (1Corinthians 3) as had the writer(s) of Hebrews (Chapter 5:12). People can know Christ as Savior for decades and remain spiritual infants, characterized by jealousy, strife, conflict, and lack of discernment. Spiritual growth is not a funciton of time as man measures it.</sup>

<sup>Spiritual growth is also not related to knowledge. There are people who have accumulated vast stores of Biblical information and still remain tragically immature in their faith. Unless knowledge is pure and applied in a way that conforms your life to Christ, it does nothing but fill your mind with facts. The Bible even warns that the more Biblical information you receive and don't apply, the more deceived you are about your true state of immaturity. If knowledge isn't life-changing, it becomes spiritually deadening.

Spiritual growth has nothing to do with activity, even church or ministry activity. I've met some tragically immature Christians who were in ministry. They were all exceedingly busy, but when I listened to them between rushes from one activity to another, I discovered no evidence of maturity.</sup>

^{Finally, spiritual growth has nothing to do with temporal success -- material goods, the size of the church or the level of influence. Prosperity is not proof of maturity. Paul the apostle was content with suffering, persecution and weakness and identified that as a true sign of his spiritual maturity.}

^{Another important point is that spiritual maturity is relative. It is not an absolute. It is a process that depends on whether you are walking in the Spirit at any given time. The Bible defines spiritual growth in a number of ways. You grow spiritually when you follow after righteousness (1Timothy 6:11). You grow spiritually when you allow God to transform your mind through renewal (Romans 12:2). Spiritual growth is defined by becoming more holy (2Corithians 7:1) and pressing toward the mark (Philippians 3:14). Colossians 2:7 defines it as being built up in faith. All of this should help us realize that spiritual growth is not mystical or psychological. It's not based on an experience or a decision. There are no secret insights that affect your growth. Just as physical maturity is not the result of a mystical experience but a process of growth, spiritual maturity is a process of feeling the spiritual dimension of your soul, of taking in the truth of God and responding to it. You cannot grow spiritually unless you grow in your understanding of God's truth. Jesus said it best when He said "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every world that comes from the mouth of God." Life is growth and relies on eating food; the food of the spiritual life is the word of God. Spiritual growth is directly related to an increase in your understanding of God's revelation.}

^{John provided us with a wonderful three-stage instruction on spiritual growth. There is a whole continuum of growth among these stages, but these three categories are illustrative. John described Christians as children, young people (he wrote young men, but this is the 21st Century and I'm a female; I think he was speaking to my gender as well as men) and fathers (or parents). He used the stages of human growth to illustrate spiritual growth.}

<sup>We've been discussing the tests for Christianity -- doctrinal tests about Christ and sin and moral tests about obedience and love. We've looked at the tests that verify one's spiritual condition. John was not doing this to engender doubt about the salvation of his readers. He was providing them with the means to prove to themselves that they were Christians. We must keep in mind that he was dealing with folks who had been confused by heretics who said you needed something special to know if you were a Christian. John was setting the record straight. No, if you passed these tests, you could know if you were a Christian. He wrote this epistle to confirm our salvation.

John wrote to people he knew were believers. We must accept the letter in that context. All those who have sound doctrine about Christ and their sinful condition and whose lives have been transformed so that they live in obedience to the Word of God from the heart and love their fellow Christians are believers. Yet believers can be at different stages in their spiritual maturity.</sup>

^{Note that John doesn't chide the spiritual children. They are still children of God who have been forgiven. The Greek word John uses (paidia) means "one who needs instruction." These spiritual children know God as a child knows his mother, but there is newness of life and resultant ignorance. Spiritual babies are more attached to the relationship with Jesus Christ than they are to doctrine (see 1Corinthians 3; Ephesians 4:13-14), so are easily deceived by emotion and rhetoric. They don't necessarily know how to make good choices. Cults and false teachers prey upon spiritual babies because they're easy marks. They're Christians, but they're babes in the wood -- lacking discernment and spiritual strength.}

^{The second category is young people. These are also Christians, but they are Christians who have a certain amount of maturity. They have faced spiritual trials and overcome them. They possess some level of knowledge, of theology. Their attachment is not so much emotional as doctrinal. They know the Word of God and have already conquered Satan. That's sort of a startling statement. We're led to believe that we cannot conquer Satan, but John would indicate otherwise. He indicated here that those who possess sound doctrine have overcome the evil one. Cults and false teachers cannot so easily lead young men astray because they know the truth and the truth abides within them. They recognize that which is not the truth as falsehood. This does not mean that they have overcome their flesh. Paul certainly admitted to struggles in that area. Mature Christians experience a reduction in the bent toward sin, but an increasing hatred toward sin makes them actually more aware of and intolerant toward sin.}

<sup>Fathers are the truly mature Christians, but even they had not "arrived" yet. They have reached a point in their spiritual walk where the relationship has become of first importance once more, but they have the knowledge to ungird that relationship. I have not yet reached that stage myself, I think, but my friend RV has. He talks about a deeper, richer relationship with Christ than the one he remembers from his physical childhood. He knows doctrine, but he also knows the God Who is behind the doctrine. He understands the heart of God. There is a depth that he experiences that is not easily explained; it can only be experienced.

In physical growth, food is the fuel that powers our engine. In spiritual growth, the Word of God is the food. You're not going to grow beyond a spiritual infant if you are not strong in the Word. You will never really know the God who wrote the Word until you know what He wrote. By repeated and continual contact with Scripture, you come to know the character of God in a richer, more vibrant way. The Word is life itself -- maturing, growing, empowering. Ultimately, the goal of Bible study is not just to know doctrine, but to know the One who provided the doctrine. It's not about knowing the facts about God; it's about knowing God Himself who stands behind the facts.</sup>

How do Christians know if they are really Christians? That's an important question and one I find asked by all sorts of people. There are folks who insist that it's pretty arrogant of Christians to say they are right with God. You can't really know that, they will claim. You can have an opinion, but you can't be certain that God is truly pleased with you. Usually they say this when Christians espouse an opinion that doesn't please them. If what you believe doesn't please the world, they say, then it certainly can't please God.

John, Jesus' best friend and one of the original 12 apostles, had a different opinion than the world. He believed that there were ways to know that you're a Christian and that God is pleased with you. There are doctrinal and moral tests that one can use to measure one's true spiritual condition. The doctrinal tests have to do with the nature of Jesus Christ and our view of our own sin while the behavioral (moral tests) have to do with how we conduct ourselves, particularly with regards to obeying God. By utilizing these tests we can know if we are truly Christians.

"Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have already heard.

"On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

"The one who says he is in the light but still hates his fellow Christian is still in the darkness. The one who loves his fellow Christian resides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his fellow Christian is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes." 1John 2:7-11

John returned to the now-familiar theme of light and dark, which represents eternal life and death. Love is the ruling mark that determines if you are in the light and possessing eternal life or in the dark and sentenced to eternal death. John is called the "apostle of love" because he had a tremendous tenderness about him and expressed his affections for others, particularly the members of his congregation(s). He loved those who were in Christ, to whom he wrote. It's interesting that he started his career with Jesus being called a "son of thunder" (Mark 3:17) and once in his early training wanted to call down fire from heaven to incinerate a whole village of people because they didn't comply as he thought they should. Yet by the time he wrote this letter, John had become the apostle of love.

John told his beloved audience that what he was teaching them wasn't new to them. He'd heard it from Jesus, they'd heard it from those who had preceded John (probably Paul or one of his surrogates). The old commandment was not some new doctrine John was trotting out, but something that he was reiterating.

Recognize that John was not writing philosophy here. There was no intellectual high ground. He was speaking of rock-solid, human ways of interacting. Christianity is not a philosophy; it's a way of life. If you've really been changed, regenerated, then there will be evidence in your life in the way that you obey God and love other Christians. You can define Christianity by those two character qualities.

This was not a "new" commandment. In the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 6:5 (the Shema) demanded that God's people love Him with all of their hearts, souls, minds, and strength while Leviticus 19:18 added that they should love their neighbors as themselves. That law goes way back. What John was commanding was not new. It was embedded in the Old Testament; it was taught by Jesus (Matthew 22:37); it reiterated by Paul (Romans 13:8-9); now, they were hearing it again from John.

I've read modern "Christian" writers who will insist that you don't want to put anything "legalistic" in the gospel. Just focus on pure grace, they say. Don't tell people they need to live a righteous life and obey the Word of God or love their brothers and sisters in the Lord. That is cluttering up grace with some kind of effort. The apostles apparently didn't agree. Whoever it was who had brought the gospel to these people (likely Paul) had been faithful to the intentions of God. They'd told the believers of Asia Minor that Christianity comes with a cost -- the gate is narrow and the path is uphill. The command to love was crystal clear from the beginning. It is an old commandment!

The following verse seems contradictory to the previous one for John says that the commandment is a new commandment. Actually, no contradiction exists at all. John had recast an old commandment in a fresh way. This commandment was made new in Christ. No one can really understand this love outside of Jesus Christ. The world had never seen perfect love until Jesus showed it. Everybody falls short of the standard except Him (Philippians 2).

Moreover, there is a freshness in this love because it is in the Christian. It's not some dry empty ritual that we perform in hopes of pleasing a distant God, but the manifestation of a intimate relationship with a personal Savior-God. There is a qualitative difference between the charity that comes from religion and the love that comes from Christianity. They may result in some of the same works, but the love of Christ goes above and beyond (Romans 5:5).

Yet, the love of Christ is not available to those who are still walk in darkness. The light of God (remember that lesson) is death to darkness. This new capacity for love is possible and real only because the light is already shining in your life. This old commandment to love others as yourself is also a new commandment because it is freshly empowered by the dawning of God's light in our hearts.

Love, John explained, must become a way of life. It isn't just philosophy or emotion. John made a very black-and-white statement here. The test of your Christianity is that you love your brother. I don't know how you can miss that. If you hate, you're not in God's kingdom. The Gnostics claimed to be enlightened and yet disdained any unenlightened (by their definition) folks. Christians aren't like that for we are truly enlightened. We know what the world desperately needs to know, more than all the wise men of the world. Where is the scribe, where is the wise man, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians -- line them all up. See how inadequate they are! The world by wisdom did not know God. Christians do, but that knowledge does not breed arrogance as it did among the philosophers who became so proud of their intellect and "secret knowledge". Instead, our hearts go out in love to others, even those who do not know the Lord. Our hearts break over their lostness.

Now, if we're honest, we have to admit we don't love perfectly. Our corrupt flesh continues to try to drag us back into the world with its imperfections. Although we do not, and cannot love perfectly, love should be the general direction of our lives. Christians have a heart of love for those around them rather than a heart of hatred or distain. They serve those around them rather than demanding service from them. This is particularly true within the church. If you don't have a love to be with God's people, it's a clear evidence that you're in the darkness no matter what you claim. John affirmed this very clearly. The one who says he's in the light yet hates his brother, is really in darkness. The evidence shows that no change has happened. God is not at work in the heart.

The one who loves his brother abides in the light. He's not going to stumble because he can see his path clearly. When you love God and obey His Law, you are walking in the light. Romans 13 says in these circumstances you're not going to violate people, committing adultery, murder, stealing, lying, and coveting.If you love people you don't sin against them. And, when we do this imperfectly, we feel remorse that we have failed to love as we ought.

Like the metaphor of light and dark, John cast true Christians against non-believers and heretics in black and white terms. If you meet the standard of loving your Christian brother, you're a Christian. If you don't meet that standard, you should be examining your claim to Christianity. The love for our fellow Christian is the heart and soul of our Christian testimony.

How's your love life?

As you might expect, Alaskans rivers are frozen for about five months out of the year. From Thanksgiving weekend to mid-March, it is perfectly safe to drive a 1-ton truck across the rivers in my town. People in one western subdivision make use of this to shave several miles and a 20-minute drive off their commute. A bar-restaurant that sits overlooking Pikes Landing runs a pool every spring on what date the first car will go through the ice. I don't think there's ever been a year when someone didn't go through.

We live in an uncertain world! Even things that seem trustworthy, that have been trustworthy for a while, cannot always be trusted to remain steady and certain. Which brings us to the very important subject of assurance of salvation.

"Now by this we know that we have come to know God: if we keep his commandments. The one who says "I have come to know God" and yet does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in such a person. But whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in him. The one who says he resides in God ought himself to walk just as Jesus walked." 1John 2:3-2:6

On a thread not too long ago, someone named Jeffrey insisted that I should not state Christainity emphatically. I had, in his opinion, no right to assurance. I should couch my words as opinion because others might disagree. His attitude was that I did not have the right to define Christianity in a country where people feel quite comfortable with defining Christianity. I guess only Christians aren't supposed to define Christianity.

My reply to him was that I do not have the right to define Christianity; no human has the right to define Christianity. Jesus Christ is the only one who has the right to define Christianity and He did so in the Bible, particularly in 1John. I can read there what His definition was and may state that emphatically because God's definitions are certain and unchanging.

Is it really possible to have full assurance of salvation? Can you reallly know that you're saved and you're on your way to heaven? The Scripture says such assurance is possible and commands we pursue the path wherein lies assurance. (2Peter 1:10). It requires diligence to reach that certainty, but we are commanded to pursue it. Assurance is our birthright and privilege as Christians. We ought to know that we're secure because it is the best blessing we can receive. Assurance is heaven on earth. Those who seek salvation, but who are never certain that they are saved are among the most miserable people in the world. You know who you are and you recognize those who are like that. That's why many find great resonance in Fanny Crosby's "Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine. Oh, what a foretast of glory divine." It's the taste of heaven to know you're saved and a taste of hell to think you're not.

Yet, contemporary Christianity very often ignores assurance, leaving people to assume that if you pray a prayer, walk an aisle, make some kind of statement, or get baptiized, then you're unquestionably saved. There's no need to speak of assurance, right? There are preachers who preach a sort of decisional or baptismal regeneration and neither talk about assurance because that might pose doubts where there shouldn't be any. It's also ignored by those who claim you could lose your salvation. They're rather you felt nervous about your salvation.

I'll be honest. There are probably millions of people in this world who believe they are saved, but they aren't. They've been told that they should not even ask the question and it's often okay to live however you want after that decisional or baptismal regeneration because, hey, you've got your fire insurance. We need to examine ourselves as the Bible tells us to so that we can determine if we are in the faith (2Corinthians 13:5). We must be careful to know if our hearts and minds accompanied our bodies when we walked that aisle. Christianity is not about following a ritual, attending church, praying a prayer or even believing in Jesus. This is dangerous ground. There are even some who will contend that anyone who believes in God (or Allah) is saved. In that scenario, I suppose there seems little reason to worry about assurance.

Yet, throughout history, assurance has been a major issue in the church. Roman Catholicism denies that you can have the assurance of salvation because that is a joint effort between God and the sinner. God will always do His part, but the sinner might not always do his, so no one can be assured of their salvation until he finally gets to heaven. Wesleyan Methodists and Arminians also assert that you can't really be certain of your salvation, that you can be saved and lost many times in a lifetime. The Reformation somewhat recovered the notion of assurance as the essence of faith. When you put your trust in Jesus Christ, you experience faith. You come to recognize the meaning of the death and resurrection Jesus Christ. Your dead spirit is awakened to your sinful condition, you repent and reach out in faith, embracing Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. You know what you're doing. Your intellect and emotion are involved. You feel such a powerful transformation in your soul that you feel assured of your salvation. Yet, assurance has its limits because it comes from the promise of Scripture. We do not just base our faith on emotions and vague metaphysical experience. We have intellectual assurance based upon the Bible and emotional assurance based upon our subjective interpretation of our experience, but there is also a behavioral assurance that comes as we start to live our Christian lives.

Unfortunately, for many in evangelical circles today, there is only the cognative and emotional experience. People pray a canned prayer and think that takes care of it all. Chrsitianity is reduced to 12 easy-to-follow steps. Very little is said about continued sin being evidence that you aren't really saved. There are few calls for holiness. Thus we have churches filled with people who have false assurance -- or worse, empty churches and streets filled with people with false assurance. They see no reason to change their behavior because they've got their fire insurance.

The Bible offers wonderfully solid assurance that you can know that you're a Christian. At the same time, 1John makes false Christians nervous by demanding that they examine themselves. Salvation is an event, but it has continuing processes connected to it. The Bible intends to make false Christians uncomfortable and fearful by attacking their shield of deception.

We are told in Hebrews 10:22 that Christians can have full assurance of faith by having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. There is no assurance of salvation without sanctification.

I hate church words. Sanctification is a church word meaning to become like Christ. It isn't enough to know in your mind that the Bible promises assured salvation if you put your trust in Jesus. You must also examine your behavior and see if there is any lack of holiness there. The Holy Spirit witnesses to our inner selves that our conduct is in keeping with that of Jesus Christ and that is further evidence that we are saved. Most of us are well-aware when we sin, especially when we examine ourselves. What are we looking for when we examine ourselves?

The first is the doctrinal standard. Do our beliefs line up with the Bible? Have we invested sufficient study time into knowing that for sure? The second is the moral test. We're not talking about being good to your neighbor, though that might come into it. We're talking about Biblical, Spirit-led morality. The work of the Holy Spirit in prompting us toward a deeper intimacy with God is one evidence of Christianity. The behavioral test is the cherry on this sundae. Verse 3 says that we can know we are Christians if we keep His commandments.

We can be assured that we are Christians if we obey God. That word "know" is used often in 1John. John was combating Gnostics who were very proud of the knowledge they thought they alone possessed. Yet here John indicated that secret knowledge didn't put you "in the know" as much as examining your own behavior to see if you keep God's commands. John stood against the flavor-of-the-month philosophers of his day and said "no, you aren't as bright as you think you are." Philosophy, then as now, has no connection to morality. Many of the great philosophers of the last couple of centuries lived indescribably wicked lives. All their high thoughts had absolutely nothing to do with their morals. Today, we have people who say we shouldn't judge the behavior of others because nobody can define what is moral.

Jesus can! He did! And, ultimately, someday we're all going to believe in God whether we want to or not. According to the Bible, there will come a day when denial will no longer be possible. Then we will know the definition of morality and Christianity and that definition will be God's. I prefer to get with His program now while I am still able. He gets to define Christianity and be Who He is. I will simply accept that, as is my station in life, being a mere creation while He is the Creator.

John made it clear that we can know who is a real Christian and who is not. Real Christians have God's law written on their hearts which controls how they live. That is the solid foundation of our assurance.

I doubt most people reading this have ever been in trouble with the law. I haven't myself, but I know a few people who have because my church used to have a jail ministry in which my husband ministered. I'm told that when one faces a trial, the most important thing a defendant can have is a good lawyer, an advocate. In the United States lawyers are required to give a defense if the person is guilty. I think this is rather strong proof that those who established our jurisprudence were students of the Bible, particularly 1John Chapter 2.

"If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

"(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 One, and he himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world." 1John 1:8-2:2

John had just established that God is light and those who walk in darkness do not know Him, even if they say they do. He especially emphasized that those who think they aren't sinners are not Christians. Christians acknowledge their sin and repent from it. The nexus of the gospel is the forgiveness of sin; therefore, the first step of a Christian commitment is acknowledging the sin that needs forgiveness. To have fellowship with God we must enter that relationship by His rules. We cannot continue to walk in darkness if we desire to enter the light.

A defining doctrine of John was Jesus Christ as our Advocate, our parakletos, the One who comes alongside to help. If we're thinking in court terms, He is our defense attorney. Interestingly, the Greek used there is legal; it presumes a courtroom setting in which sinners are accused before God, the divine Judge in God's hall of justice. The accused comes for the bar of God and Jesus Christ comes as the sinner's defense attorney. At this point, John focused tightly on salvation, introducing the very basic concept that salvation is a matter of divine justice, prosecuted before the holy Judge of all.

Usually, we think of salvation as an operation of divine grace and mercy, emphasizing the love and compassion of God, but here John introduced the necessary element of justice. There is more to our salvation than "God is love". Some wrongly think that God's love somehow overpowers His justice, but this is not true. Both love and justice are equally satisfied in God's salvation plan. Salvation is a matter of forgiveness and advocacy. John is laying down absolute standards to define a true Christian. We measure ourselves against these rigid tests to see the validity of our claim to Christianity. This would be an overwhelming experience if not for the initial emphasis on forgiveness and advocacy. If any of us sins (and we all do) we have an Advocate with the Father.

John wrote in very black and white terms in this epistle. God is light and there is no darkness in Him. If you claim the name of Christ and still walk in darkness, you are a liar because Christians do not walk in habitual darkness. Christians confess their sins; we don't keep secrets to protect our reputations; those who do are proving they are not Christians. Christians obey God's commands; those who disobey God's statutes are not Christians. These are stark statements without any leeway. Fortunately, when we fail to be perfect, we have an Advocate with the Father.

The God of the Bible is a perfectionist Who cannot look on sin; yet He loves a race of beings who are bent toward sin. By sending Jesus, God in the flesh, to be a human being, God was able to come to understand our imperfection, but He can never embrace it. He is the perfect God. Thus we need a defense attorney, that segment of the Godhead Who has lived as a human being and experienced the temptation inherent in being human. We do not need to be perfect to be the children of the perfect God.

God's standards are absolute, but John provided a respite from the starkness of that in 1John 2:1. "My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin, but if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ...." This epistle was not supposed to instill panic in you at the thought of your imperfections. It was supposed to set the standard where the standard needs to be -- on holiness, righteousness and love. You shouldn't be terrified, but joyful at that thought.

Take heart, you are guilty of sin, but your Defense Attorney has a get-out-of-jail card for you. If you acknowledge your sin and confess it, the trauma of self-examination will be rewarded with forgiveness of your sin.

The Greek construction here is helpful. It translates "And if anyone sins." The Greek language is a bit deeper than English because English no longer maintains cases with substantives, nouns, and adjectives. The Greek language does, giving nuances of meaning. There are classes of conditional statements in the Greek language that are discernable to scholars. A third-class conditional with the subjunctive means in Greek construction is that the "if" carries a sense of probability -- "if (and it is reality) anyone sins...." Sin is a high probability, it's saying.

John was writing to true believers, those who could pass the tests of Christianity. We aren't supposed to sin, but we do, yet God has provided an Advocate to defend us before Him. That is the key to salvation. It is God's duty to uphold the perfection of His holy law. God is just and He must render justice. We are the indicted sinners in the courtroom. Jesus Christ is our defense attorney Who pleads the case on our behalf. God's mercy did not overwhelm His justice; rather they work together in perfect harmony. Justice is not at all ignored or compromised. It is met and satisfied through God's provision of Jesus Christ.

I know that seems contradictory -- aren't mercy and justice at opposite ends of a spectrum? Either you get mercy or justice; you can't have both. They seem mutually exclusive because the common understanding of justice is that it requires the guilty to be punished. If God is just, then we ought to be punished. How can He be merciful and just to the same person at the same time? There is no trade off here. There is no sacrifice of justice for God to act in mercy. He is both merciful and just. Numbers 14:18, Nahum 1:3. He makes us face and acknowledge our sin so that we have the ability to recognize it next time and avoid it, but He also forgives our sin so that we do not have to bear the penalty of it any longer. This is justice acting in mercy.

What does this mean in today's world? Look at a sin -- drunkedness, for example. There is evidence that alcoholism is an inherited error in the processing of alcohol. Anyone who has spent time with those of Native American descent can readily acknowledge that there seems to be a genetic connection of some sort. Even those raised outside the culture who are of Native American ancestry tend to have problems if they drink alcohol. Yet, we do not excuse the wanton behavior of drunks, even if there is a genetic component at work. In our country we punish drunk driving, abhor public drunkenness, and in one trial in which I was a juror we were instructed that drunkedness is not an excuse for breaking the law. Disease or not, drunkedness is a sin.

The Bible, btw, does not deem the drinking of alcohol in moderation to be a sin. That is not the discussion at all. Drinking to intoxication is a sin because of what the lowered inhabitions of the drunk wroughts in society and the immediate folk around him/her. I'm just using it as an example.

No alcoholic ever found sobriety by denying that they have a problem. There are all sorts of methods for quitting that have efficacy, but all of them rely on the alcoholic admitting and acknowledging his problem and dealing with it. Treatment centers think they've got something new and special, but the Bible was there 2000 years ago. Admit that you've got a problem with sin (in this case getting drunk) and God will forgive you. Society should also, but humans aren't nearly as good at forgiveness as God.

Alaska is a contrast in light. For six month out of the year we don't have enough; for the opposite six months, we have more than enough. In the winter, night closes in mid-afternoon and the streets close down a short while after evening rush hour. My husband, who grew up in New York City and Houston (among other places) noted that after he'd lived here a few years. The town is a medium-sized city during the day in the winter and a ghost town at night. The opposite is true in the summer, however. In April, darkness doesn't close in until 10 pm and by Memorial Day weekend, we don't even approach twilight (though the sun does go below the horizon for a couple of hours even on the Solstice). People do yard work at midnight and we have baseball games and street festivals that last virtually all night sans artificial light. The local police note that people leave their things out in their driveways overnight in Fairbanks during the summer and the new people wonder why. The best explanation I've ever heard is that the light makes the criminals nervous.

"Now this is the gospel message we have heard from him and announce to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and yet keep on walking in the darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth. But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. 1John 1:5-10

Light is a truly amazing thing! It totally transforms a scene. It exposes what was hidden. It purifies and heals. It brings life. And, it drives away darkness. God is light and there is no darkness in Him. If we say we're Christians but continue to walk in darkness, we make ourselves liars by not practicing the truth. If we walk in the light as Jesus is the light, we have fellowship with God and we get along with our fellow believers. This is not to say that we're perfect, just that if we confess our sins, Jesus is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Alternatively, if we say we have not sinned, we're calling God a liar, which is evidence that Jesus is not in us.

In the first verses of John's letters, he affirmed that the incarnation was true. God had come in the flesh and born the name of Jesus. John had seen Him, heard Him, touched Him. His readers could be assured of their salvation because John could assure them of the central focus on their salvation -- Jesus was God come in the flesh. The rest of the letter deals with certain proofs of salvation, so that we might actually know that we're in Christ and are beneficiaries of the incarnation.

God is light. He's not just a light or the light, but He is essential light. That reality is presented throughout the Scripture. This is hard for many of us to understand. That God is a spirit is understood; God is immaterial; He has no physical form. Most of us think we understand that God is love (though we'll discuss our misunderstandings of this later). When we say that God is light, however, many of us don't know what that means, yet the reality of that is foundational to the nature of God. All throughout the Old Testament, God presented Himself as light. The first thing He created was light. Moses met Him in a burning bush. God led the Israelites through the desert as a column of light. The temple altar had a perpetually burning flame that represented the presence of God in the tabernacle. Jesus allowed the disciples to see Who He really was on the Mount of Transfiguration and the shining light of His true nature sent them into a panic. 1Timothy 6:15-16 described God as light. It is an abiding theme throughout the Bible.

God is light and He conveys that light to us, through Jesus Christ, the very light of God incarnate. God grants us light through our salvation relationship with Jesus (2Corinthians 4:4) and through the gospel. Jesus Christ, being God incarnate, is light. Christians become light through our association with Jesus (Colossians 1:12; 1Peter 2:9). God is light; Jesus Christ is light; and, we who come to Christ share in that light.

Light is the eternal life of God. He dispenses that eternal life to us so that we become the light, through the light incarnate Who is Jesus Christ (John 8:12). Light has no darkness in it. That may seem like an odd statement, but really, it's true. Light and darkness often intermingle, but where there is light, darkness is vanquished to the corners.

How do we know who has received that light? There are those who will insist that we cannot know even our own salvation status until Judgment Day, but John would not agree. John was quite willing to reject claims by those who had no right to claim the light and to affirm the reality of salvation for those who did have that right. This letter is a testiment to that willingness. John was trying to protect the churches to whom he wrote from deceivers, false teachers and prophets, and liars. John held a passion for the truth and wanted to expose the liars. This whole epistle was a safety net for the churches, to teach them how to distinguish among those who really had eternal life and those who did not.

John's opponents claimed that they had enlightenment, a special knowledge of God that others did not have. That was a powerful argument; thus, John presented tests for determining the authenticity of Christians. the first test to determine whether someone was really in the light was their attitude toward sin.

John directly attacked the notion that someone can have eternal life and deny sin. We know that some sects of Gnostics claimed that they did not sin. A very simple, black-and-white test for who possesses eternal life is: Do they confess their sin? John further stated that this was not his opinion, but a message from Jesus, the light incarnate, God in the flesh.

When we look at Scripture you will often find light associated with truth and with virtue. Truth is the intellectual understanding of light. In speaking of sin, it is the recognition of our disobedience of God. The light and life of God are inextricably characterized by truth. The denial of sin is a lie, so true Christians show that they possess the light and life of God by being truthful and admitting their sin as the Scripture enlightens their otherwise dark minds.

Light also appears in Scripture in a moral sense, referring to holiness, virtue, and righteousness (Isaiah 5:20). Darkness equates evil and light equates good throughout the Scripture. The characteristics of the Christian life are righteousness and truth. All things in our lives are exposed to the light. We have arisen from the dead and Christ is shining on us because we are living in the light; therefore, we should evidence truth and holiness. That is the essential nature of God that He imparted to us at salvation. If you have eternal life, it will show itself in a devotion to the truth and a commitment to holiness.

John clearly stated that those who claimed the had the eternal light living inside them, but who did not embrace truth and righteousness were lying about being Christians because there is no darkness or deceit in God. God is absolutely perfect in knowledge and holiness. This is at the core of His being. You can't have Him without evidencing His essential nature.

Obviously we fall short of being like God because that wonderful light and life is incarcerated in our fallen flesh. Still, the evidences of that life are seen in our devotion to the truth and holiness. As God has nothing to do with the darkness, we long to have nothing to do with the darkness of deception and sin.

Not too long ago, someone asked me why Christians feel the need to confess their sins. If God has forgiven our sins and will not even count the sins we've committed as Christians against us, what does it matter? And, here is the answer. We confess our sins because the light of God lives in us and so we must strive for righteousness because God is righteous. We cannot hide behind the deceit of denial, pretending that we have not sinned, because that would be a lie and God has no capacity for lying. Those of us who are in Christ should be very uncomfortable with lying even if it is to protect our reputations before the world.

The Christian life is meant to be an honest one.

As a journalist, I love first-hand accounts. They taught me in school that an eyewitness account is better than a second-hand account and this is very true. Police reports contain a lot of facts, but nothing beats talking to an eye witness. Eye witnesses remember trivial details that enrich a story greatly. You can glean the facts from those who heard of a story right moments after the event occured. John stood in a particularly interesting place upon the writing of 1John. He was the last remaining eyewitness to THE preeminent event in history.

1John starts without an introductory statement or even an identification of the author. John got right to the point and told his readers that the topic is the Word of Life. He explained that he was writing it from personal experience -- what he had seen and heard and handled with his own hands. By the time John wrote this book (about AD 68), he would have been an old man, now looking back some four decades on the events of Jesus' life and his personal journey with the Savior over all that time. Tradition tells us that John was the last apostle alive and he still had a vital ministry of preach and teach, leading the church and writing. His subject was always the Word of Life.

"This is what we proclaim to you: what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and our hands have touched (concerning the word of life – and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us). What we have seen and heard we announce to you too, so that you may have fellowship with us (and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ). Thus we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete." 1John 1:1-4

The churches of Asia Minor where John was writing struggled with heresy -- with error concerning the gospel. As the last remaining of the 12, John knew that it was his responsibility to confront that error with the truth. The greatest reality the world possesses is divine truth. We find that in the Word of God, John wrote. Nothing is as important or as valuable as divine truth. God's truth is the purest, most powerful, most valuable reality in existence. It alone provides eternal life, thus trumping any philosophy by man. It is the first responsibility of the servant of God to proclaim the truth and to confront anything threatening the truth.

It's sad that the church did not even get out of the 1st century with its doctrinal and behavioral purity intact, but clearly it did not. Jesus died AD 30. He sent the Holy Spirit to inspire the apostles to speak and write about the Truth, Jesus Christ, God come in the flesh. Writing it down should have established the gospel record for all time, but by the end of the second third of the century, heresy was already creeping into the church because it is human nature to want to question God and tell Him how to be our "god" and serve us rather than let Him inform us of Who He is. We are fortunate to have the Bible to keep us in sight of the truth of God, but we must realize that heresy has been trying to destroy the church since the sixth decade of the 1st century. The first great warfare over the course of Christianity was fought over legalism -- the attempt to turn Gentile Christians into Jewish proselytes. That battle is still with us today.

The second great battle for Christianity is also with us today, gnosticism, an attempt to spiritualize Jesus to the point that He is not human anymore. John wrote 1John to combat against the idea that there is some secret knowledge of God that results in greater enlightenment and that knowledge is that flesh is evil, so God did not come in the flesh. Jesus was either, to the Gnostics (then and now) either a man who just preached about God, a pure spirit that didn't even touch the ground, or a body God hijacked for an earthly ministry. I think this may explain why John, at this late stage in his life, relocated from Jerusalem to Ephesus. Gnosticism grew up around Asia Minor, particularly Ephesus. John had known Jesus; they'd been best friends. Imagine a Gnostic trying to insist to John that Jesus had no body or that He was merely a spirit indwelling a shell. John could provide specific personal examples to refute those contentions. Please note that John did not state all the particulars of the heresy he was dealing with; the assessment that it was Gnosticism is based on church tradition, but he did something else far more important. He assured his readers that they could know that they were Christians and discern what seperated them from the heretics. John framed the discussion as something wonderful that he was giving to his fellow Christians because they were all in the same boat together, not because he was special or particularly spiritual, but because he had been in the position to see Jesus alive and to know things about Him that the heretics and John's writers could not know.