Meditation No. 46

Meditation Title: Not all Gold

Meditation No. 47

Meditation Title: Dear Children 

Meditation No. 48

Meditation Title: A Greater Source

1 John 4:4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

I repeat how I started the previous meditation because it still applies to this verse that we are going to look at in more detail now. There is often a danger in Christian circles, especially among younger Christians for fear to creep in, and especially when the talk is of the enemy or of enemy warfare or of opposition and persecution. It is very easy to get an unbalanced picture which Satan then plays on to create fear within us which them immobilises us. John started off what we have as chapter 4 with warnings about wrong spirits and antichrists. He's going to say some more about them in a moment but for this verse he establishes our base or our foundation, the thing which should hold us steady in the face of any wrong thoughts.

There may be all this work of the enemy in people around us in ‘the world' but we, he continues, “are from God”. How simple those three words are, but so meaningful. We are what we are because of God. Somehow (perhaps because He looks down from outside time) God looked down from the beginning of time and knew that we would be responders at some point in our lives to the good news of Jesus. Thus at some point, unrecognised by us at the time, the Holy Spirit started His work of convicting us of our need and of the truth of the Gospel. All we did was surrender to His convicting power and cried out for forgiveness and submitted to God. It was at that point God did what we had been unable to do, and we were ‘born again' by the Spirit of God (See Jn 3). At that point we were also adopted as God's children and justified – made right in His sight by the work of Jesus on the Cross. We were new beings, we were “from God”, the work of God, His workmanship (Eph 2:10)

Because we “are from God”, by its very nature it means that we have turned our back on the world, the ways of the world and on untruth and in this sense, when it comes to all those ‘antichrists' those people against Christ, we have already “overcome them”, we have beaten back their lies and deception from our minds and we have stood in the light of Christ's truth and been transformed – while they remain in the darkness.

Then comes the most marvellous truth of all and this part of the verse at least we should memorise and always remember. We are what we are and we have overcome the world, sin and the enemy, because “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” Whenever you hear talk about Satan or about his works or about the awful things happening in the world, remember this truth – that God, who is infinitely bigger and more powerful, lives in you! If you want a comparison, as poor as it may be, imagine all the oceans of the word – that is God. Now imagine a single drip from a tap – that is Satan. He is simply a created being, a being created by almighty and all-powerful God. He may be a powerful fallen angel as far as we are concerned but as far as God is concerned he is simply another created being and God could wipe him out with a single world. God could look at him and say, “Die!” and that would be the end of him and Satan would be able to do nothing to stop it happening. That is the truth. The Lord allows Satan to exist and do what he does, simply to use him to bring about His will. If you look in our ‘Spiritual Warfare' section of this site, and Part 1 – The Enemy – His Profile, and then part 5 of that page, “Why God permits Satan”, you will find NINE Biblical reasons why God allows Satan and how God uses Satan for His own purposes.

So, when you read about ‘the world' being under the dominion of Satan, keep it in perspective. Again think of another analogy. Think of the tiny country of Luxembourg . Imagine that is Satan's domain, and so if you lived there it would seem he is all powerful. But then you take a rocket and blast out into the stratosphere and are able to see all the countries of the world – and all the rest are under God's rule, this is how it is. Satan has been given authority over sinful human beings on this planet, but that is all. He has no sway elsewhere and certainly not in the kingdom of heaven. He is a tiny despot. Yes, he holds sway over those who are given over to sin and godless living, but he has no sway over the children of God. He may appear to shout loudly sometimes but the truth is what we are inhabited by almighty God Himself, we are part of the kingdom of God , living under His reign, under His protection and receiving His provision. We shine like lights in the darkness and the angels of heaven see this and rejoice – and they know the truth! Hallelujah!

Meditation No. 49

Meditation Title: Don't listen to them!

Meditation No. 50

Meditation Title: Back to Love

Meditation No. 51

Meditation Title: The Proof of God's Love

1 John 4:9,10 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

There are people who suffer from tunnel-vision. They focus on one little thing that has come to their attention and say, “God can't possibly be a God of love if He lets that happen,” and totally ignore the vast wealth of evidence that points to His love. John distils God's love down to one thing when he says, “This is how God showed his love among us.” He focuses us on THE one primary thing which above all else says, “This is an act of One who must love us with all His being.” It is, of course, the fact that “He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”

Now some of us may be so familiar with the Gospel that we've allowed the wonder of it to be lost to us. Others may be unclear about it and so have never seen the wonder. So, let's see some of the basics of what John has just put before us.

We must start with a fallen human race, a world that was designed and made perfect but which turned away from God to self-centred and godless living and which, therefore, soon meant unrighteous living, living contrary to the design of the Maker. Each and every human being is blighted, contaminated or infected by this self-centred, godless disposition and live out lives that are godless and unrighteous – and wrong! Justice (which we accept in any other context) demands that wrong doers be punished but the scale or enormity of the wrong of the human race is so great that we tend to either accept it as normal and forget issues of justice, or we just turn away from thinking about it because it is too big and too terrible to think about. Almost by definition, this self-centred and godless way of living means that God seems a million miles away (when you turn your back on someone you can make yourself believe they are not there – that's what little children do!) Put another way, there seems a massive division between us and God. If we do think about God, it is with a sense of fear because deep down we know we are in the wrong and He seems so great, so awesome, so powerful, and so wonderful that our natural response is to scurry away or flee from Him.

So there we were alienated from God, guilty and stuck with it, helpless to make ourselves any different. Even when we tried to ‘be good' it was still self-centred and it was still godless because He still seemed a million miles away. We were doomed to this for the rest of our existence. We needed help, we needed rescuing, and the only one who could rescue us was God Himself. But there is the problem, He is Spirit and He is in heaven.

It is at this point that we come to the beginning of the Gospels and Jesus being born in Bethlehem . This was the Son of God who had existed from before the beginning of time in heaven with the Father: see John 6 about coming down from heaven and John 17:5 for Jesus' reference to the glory he had before the foundation of the world. This is where we struggle in our minds, coping with the thought that Jesus the Son existed in heaven before he lived on the earth for thirty three years, two thousand years ago, but it is so. This is the plan originated in the godhead before even creating the world, knowing that if they gave us free will, we would turn away and Sin would become endemic in the world. Thus John reminds us that the Father sent the Son for us so that, through his death on the Cross, our sins could be dealt with, our guilt removed and our punishment taken so that, if we will be receive it, we can now receive forgiveness and a new Spirit-empowered life, a life that continues on this earth with the Father's blessing and then on into eternity in His presence.

If you want to start debating love, and particularly the possibility of our loving God, give up! The truth that “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Whatever we may feel towards God will come either out of ignorance or from the knowledge that He has sent Jesus for us. Ignorance allows silly people to say silly things about God, but once the truth has come to us we realise that it's all from His side – He loves us and has sent Jesus so that he could take all our punishment and sin and guilt and shame so that, now, we can be turned into children of God. How incredible! Hallelujah!

Meditation No. 52

Meditation Title: Love Expressed

Meditation No. 53

Meditation Title: Spirit Indwelt

Meditation No. 54

Meditation Title: The Son of God

Meditation No. 55

Meditation Title: Reliant on God's Love

Meditation No. 56

Meditation Title: Confident

1 John 4:17,18 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

Our verses start of with “In this way” which refers back to the previous verse: “ And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” It's all about love! We rely on God's love and live in God's love and because of this John is able to say, “love is made complete among us.” We are, if you like, a community of love. The word ‘love' comes up 33 times in this one letter. We might say that John is the apostle of love and, as we've commented before, that might be because of the awareness that he had had of being loved by Jesus (Jn 19:26, 20:2, 21:7,20) In an earlier chapter he had written, “But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him.” (1 Jn 2:5) i.e. this love is completed by our obedience to His word, but now his emphasis is on this love being completed because of its source – God Himself.

But this brings another confidence with it, the confidence that we will have on the Last Day, the day when we face the Lord.

On that day we will face the Lord, not as strangers or aliens, but as those who have been recipients and carriers of His own Holy Spirit, and who have been changing throughout their lives to become like Him with His character. There will thus be great similarities between us and Him on that day, and because of that there is no danger of Him rejecting us. There is often in Christians, a shying away from the day of destruction that the Bible speaks of, a final day when God winds up everything and destroys every person who has rejected Him. Such vivid pictures as are found in say Isa 34:1-4 leave no room for doubt. There will come a terrible day when God will say, “Enough!”

The other aspect of this confidence that we have because of who we are and what we have become, is that we will be without fear when we have to face Him on that day. But is it more than simply who we are and what we've become, it is to do with the very fact of love. He is love and He's filled us with love and where there is this love there cannot be fear. I love my wife deeply and to even think of fear between us would be ludicrous. When a young man or woman falls in love, fear is the last thing that they would think about in their relationship. Love and fear just can't exist in the same room; they are not compatible. So because we are certain of God's love and are filled with His love, there is absolutely no room for fear.

But there is yet another thing about fear: it is associated with guilt and punishment. A criminal on the run is fearful of being caught because he knows he is guilty and knows when he is caught he will be punished, and he fears that, and it is a right fear. But when there is perfect love, and when the punishment has already been disposed of (by Jesus' work on the Cross) then there is no fearing punishment because that has been properly dealt with and justice has been satisfied. So, because the question of punishment has been removed, so has fear been removed.

But John adds one more significant comment to this. “The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” If you fear it means you are still afraid of punishment and have not entered into and experienced the love of God through Jesus. This is the whole thing about God's love, it has done everything for us that can be done to remove our guilt, our shame and our punishment, so that none of these thing impinge on our relationship with the Father and we are free to just fully enjoy and experience to the uttermost, His love. If you haven't entered into that relationship then you will haven't experienced that love and you will not know the wonder of your guilt and shame and punishment being removed and you will still live in fear of one day having to face the Father and account for all those things.

There are so many aspect to this, aren't there! He has done all this for us through the work of Jesus on the Cross and when we accepted and received that finished work as applying to our own life, then He put His own Holy Spirit into us, the Spirit who is love. We experienced love by what God had done for us through Jesus and now we experienced it in a new way by the presence of love in His own Being, now living in us. And this has brought total transformation: we now live love-filled lives and because of that there is no room for any fear to exist any longer in us in respect of God. How wonderful! Hallelujah!

Meditation No. 57

Meditation Title: Recap - love one another

Meditation No. 58

Meditation Title: The Love Flow

Meditation No. 59

Meditation Title: Overcomers

Meditation No. 60

Meditation Title: Threefold Testimony

1 John 5:6-8 This is the one who came by water and blood--Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.

When the writers of Scripture move into using figurative or picture language, sometimes we find ourselves on less secure ground than before and have to speculate exactly what the writer was meaning (unless he spelled it out), and so this is true now of John as he starts writing about water and blood and the Spirit.

In the previous verses he had declared, “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” (v.5) Yet again he is focusing on the truth that the person known as Jesus was in fact the Son of God. In the first centuries there had been a variety of speculations about Jesus, for example, that he only became God at his baptism and that he ceased to be God before his death on the Cross. We might think that the reference to coming “by water and blood” might simply mean he came in a fully human form for these two elements comprise the human body and enable it to live, but when he continues it would seem to be more than that.

When John says, “He did not come by water only but by water and blood,” that would seem to suggest something more than a mere reference to his being a human being. Possibly the water element might refer to his humanity because Jesus himself had used this language when he said, “no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.” (Jn 3:5) If we took water to mean his human life, that in the same way we might take ‘blood' to refer to his death, so John would appear to be saying, he came and showed himself to us through living a human life and then revealing himself as God's Son by his death and resurrection.

Now if, as many do, we take the reference to ‘water' being a reference to his baptism and ‘blood' being a reference to his death, we have two instances that point to him being the Son of God. At his baptism, the Father from heaven acknowledged His Son: “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Mt 3:16,17)

John in his Gospel has John the Baptist explaining this: “Then John gave this testimony: "I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, `The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.' I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.” (Jn 1:32-34). Perhaps this is why John now says, “And it is the Spirit who testifies” and adds, “because the Spirit is the truth.” In other words, when the Spirit came down upon Jesus at his baptism He was acknowledging that this is the Son of God – and then the Father confirmed it in words spoken aloud.

As we have already noted, ‘blood' must be a reference to his death and subsequent resurrection, being THE all-important proof that Jesus was who he said he was. So John concludes, “For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.” i.e. listen to the Spirit, see Jesus' baptism and see his death and resurrection and all three confirm the same thing: Jesus is and always has been, fully the Son of God. He was the Son of God when he was born, he was the Son of God before and after he was baptized and he was the Son of God before and after his death. Nothing changed in respect of his being. These are the things John is pointing out to counter the heresies that existed in that first century. It would take hundreds of years before the various creeds were agreed by the early Church, laying down this particular truth.

It is a vital truth because it tells us that God has come down and shared in our humanity, that he revealed His character and nature in the three years of ministry recorded in the Gospels, and that He died in human form to take our sins. No one less than God could be ‘big enough' to take the sins of the whole world, past, present and future. This person we see in the Gospels was, is and always will be the unique Son of God.

Meditation No. 61

Meditation Title: God's Testimony

1 John 5:9,10 We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.

Perhaps we take the word ‘testimony' for granted. It appears mostly in respect of Court cases and witnesses share their testimony. They share what they have seen and heard. That is why the beginning of John's letter is so powerful, because it is a testimony to what John and the other apostles had seen and heard. It is also why the previously blind man's testimony in John 9 is so powerful because he simply tells what has happened – “I was blind but now I can see.”

When John says “We accept man's testimony,” he is not seeking to define something but is making a generalisation. Generally we accept what someone says when they were a witness. It's worth noting in passing that often a defence counsel may try to discredit a witness and that's what crusading atheists do with Christians, just like the Pharisees did with that man in John 9 we referred to who had been blind from birth. It's not possible, was basically what they said, such things don't happen. It's what the crusading atheists say about miracles – they can't happen! Well they can because there IS a God.

Now the point John is making in these verses is that we can believe about Jesus because of what God Himself has said. Human testimony is good, is what he implies, but God's testimony is better – because He is God and a) He knows and b) He only conveys truth. God knows everything and He knows all about Jesus and so if He says, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Mk 1:11) He means it – this IS my Son.

Then John says something very significant: “Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart.” God has testified that Jesus is His Son, and anyone who has come to that belief, believes what God has testified, because that's where this belief comes from, from God, which is why he goes on to declare, “ Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. If you say that Jesus isn't God's Son then you deny what God has said. Of course skeptics then say, “Well, I don't believe God spoke” at which point they are denying the testimony of those who heard His voice and so the skeptic then says, “I believe their testimony is wrong” and has to then go on finding reasons to discredit those witnesses, but ultimately in such cases, such people are denying because of their starting place: it is inconvenient for me to believe.

I have come across that in many forms over the years: “I like my lifestyle and so it is inconvenient to believe in a God who might challenge that,” or “I like being the sole ruler of my life and it is inconvenient to have a God who knows better than me and may point out my failings.” Of course they never say the second part, the part about being inconvenienced but that is the truth of the matter. So, for many, it is in their interests to discredit the testimony, the testimony of believers, the testimony of the Gospel writers, the testimony of the apostles, the testimony of Jesus Himself and, of course, the testimony of God. It is, for many, a case of not believing, not because it fails intellectually, but simply because it is inconvenient to believe, so they deny from the outset.

But John's testimony and John's argument does not let such people get away with it. His letter starts with that amazing testimony – we saw, we felt, we heard – and then continues on with this strong argument. I've seen, I've heard and so I know about God, is what he is saying. I know that God knows everything and I know that God only speaks truth and so I know that when God says that Jesus is His Son, we can accept that! If you don't, you've got a problem and you need to look inside yourself to see what it is.

Listen to the crusading atheists and so often you will find there was a silly person or a person who simply failed in some aspect of life, that they knew when they were a child, and on the basis of that person's silly words, or that person's failing to live up to expectations, that child was hurt and has grown up into an adult who doesn't judge on intellectual grounds but on the emotional bias they never got to grips with when they were younger.

Yes, it is a question of the veracity of the witnesses. So there were people with feet of clay when you were small who said silly things about faith, or who lived lives that were inconsistent with the Bible, but recognize them for what they were – poor witnesses. Put aside the emotions of those days of childhood and grow up and give fair assessment of the Gospel writers, of the apostles, of Jesus and of God, and maybe, just maybe, you will come to see that they are witnesses who can be replied upon and their testimony is true. But beware and be honest, you may prefer to avoid the truth because you know it will mean life change, an acknowledgement that you got it wrong before, or other changes, and you may not like that! But be honest about it at least and don't come up with any silly excuses about this not carrying intellectual integrity – it does!

Meditation No. 62

Meditation Title: Source of Life

1 John 5:11-13 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

John is strong on testimonies. We've seen it from the outset of this letter and now he refers to testimony again and again here – six times in verses 9 to 11. Remember what a testimony is – a record of what someone has seen or heard, what they know because they witnessed it. Now, says John, this is what I know because it has been conveyed to us: “God has given us eternal life.” Perhaps because we see this so often in the New Testament or we've heard it said so often, we take it for granted, but it is a question that worries people throughout the world: is this all there is? What happens after death? According to the testimony of the New Testament, for the believer at least, life carries on and has no end. That is what this says.

But, might come the question, how can this be? Why should life carry on after death? Is it automatic? Is it just how things are, or is it conditional? Back comes the answer: “this life is in his Son.” What does that mean? It means that Jesus is eternal, as part of the Godhead for God is eternal, He has no beginning or end (and yes, our minds cannot grasp that concept but that doesn't stop it being true). So when we became a Christian, as we've noted many times in these studies, He puts his own Holy Spirit into us and we are united with Him. Our spirit is knit together with His.

So when John goes on, “He who has the Son has life,” he means that he (or she) who has received Jesus into their life has Jesus ‘life' (eternal life!) in them, because he has been dwelling in them throughout their time on earth since they became a Christian. His presence in them takes the real them (the real us is more than just the body) on after what we call death when the physical body stops operating. We often refer to our ‘soul'. That is the personality aspect of our spirit and so the real me, that is more than just the physical body, continues to exist, linked with Jesus' spirit, after death. In fact it goes on and on. This is eternal life, life without end.

Does this happen for everyone, someone might ask. No, is John's answer, “he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” If you have not received Jesus into your life, if you have not received his Holy Spirit into your very being, you do not have this eternal energy within you to take you on into eternity. Is there nothing for this person, therefore, after death? Do they simply cease to be? No, the Bible indicates that each and every one of us will have to appear before God after death and account for how we have lived.

For those who have rejected God's overtures to them throughout their lives, there is a clear indication that there is nothing about God or living on in His presence that would appeal to them, and therefore He conforms to their wishes and they cease to live in His presence. The concept of hell is quite clear in the New Testament, as either a place of exclusion from God's presence or a place of destruction (views differ). The graphic pictures that Jesus painted of it, simply scream at us, you don't want this! Who, in their right mind, would reject the wonder of living in the presence of wonderful God in a most glorious existence? Only someone who is so blinded by sin and self-centredness!

But there may be believers who are uncertain about their future, which is why John continues, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” i.e. if you are a believer, if you have invited Jesus into your life, realise that this does mean that you have eternal life. After death you have the wonder of an incredible life continuing on with no restrictions of Sin, Satan or Self. There, united to God, you will enjoy the wonder of all the goodness that God brings to you without restriction. It is, in reality, beyond our comprehension, at this moment. It is rather like a blind man trying to understand colour. We hear or read the words of the New Testament, and our minds scrabble to grasp the wonder of it. But it will be ours and it will be wonderful!

Meditation No. 63

Meditation Title: Confident Asking (2)

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

In a previous study (No.42) we covered this same subject because earlier in the letter John had written “if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.” In that instance the confidence in asking was because of our lifestyle – obedience to Him. There we considered a variety of reasons why we may be sure that we get what we pray for, and we concluded that meditation with: “The key to getting answers to prayer is that we ask in line with His will. When we discern that and ask accordingly, we see answers.” Which brings us precisely to these verses we now have before us!

We might do well to pause and move slowly into these verses because they do raise questions pertinent to modern Christianity. John starts out, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God.” Now there appear to me to be two extremes in modern Christian circles. The first extreme comprises those people who have little or no confidence in the matter of prayer, and so pray rarely. To them John's letter, says, you can be confident, your heavenly Father delights in His children and in answering the good and right things they pray for!

The other extreme are those people who appear to be over confident in their praying and pray about anything and everything which may roam from asking for Aunty May in Australia to what shirt they should wear tomorrow. Now that may sound derogatory but I often sit in prayer meetings where the content is unguided ‘shopping lists', things people think would be a good idea for God to answer.

Now sometimes I believe that the Lord wants us to take responsibility for our lives and so He allows us to make our own decisions – the mundane things of life – what shirt to wear tomorrow!!! Other times I am sure His response, if only we could hear it, is “Whatever are you asking for? Why are you waiting? You know what my will is; it is spelled out quite clearly in my word! Just do it!” These tend to be behavioural things or grace issues. For instance you have someone who is not particularly easy to get on with. Don't pray for them to change, don't pray for grace – you know you have it because you have the Spirit of love living within you. Just love them. Be nice to them; look to bless them – that will change them! But it starts with you and God's will is quite clear. Jesus said, “Love your enemies” (Mt 5:44) so for someone who isn't exactly and enemy but just someone a bit difficult to get on with, it's got to be easier, hasn't it!

Why do we pray for things that we know we should be doing something about? Our starting point – to find the will of God, if you like – is to ask about any person or situation we might think of praying about, is to ask, what could I be doing in this situation? We need to stop telling God what we think He ought to be doing, and ask ourselves what He wants us to be doing – and then pray!

What does prayer then become? It becomes coming close to the Father, committing to Him what you believe is His will, and checking with Him in your spirit, that you've got it right. Prayer thus becomes submitting your will to His. Now isn't that exactly what John has said in our verses today: “if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” He then goes on, “ And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him.”

Do you see the logic of that? Check out His will, find out what it is (and sometimes that happens while we pray). Then pray and ask for it and know it is what god wants we know that He will hear and receive that request and then go on to bring it about – and we can have the confidence that it will work like that.

The crucial thing – and that is where we finished the previous meditation – is finding out what His will is and then asking for it, but the tricky bit is finding out what our part is in it all, because that may well be part of His will.

The one area where, it seems to me, that there will be difficulties, is when we pray for the salvation of someone else, because the Lord never forces the will of people. He may put so much before them that their hearts are opened to respond, but only He knows who such persons are. There are clearly other people whose hearts are set and will remain set for the rest of their time on this earth, but we never know who these will be (unless the Lord specifically shows us, which seems rare). Yes, we can pray for their salvation for we know that “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Pet 3:9) but that doesn't mean that every person will be saved. Pray for them by all means, but also ask, “Lord, is there a part you want me to play in drawing them to yourself?”

So there it is: find out God's will – read His word, listen to Him – and find out how it involves you, and pray and do it and then expect things to happen! May it be so!

Meditation No. 64

Meditation Title: Different Sins

1 John 5:16-17 If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.

There are two primary issues that arise in these verses: that of sin, and that of being accountable for one another. Let's start by considering the issue of sin. The general principle was stated by Solomon: “He who sows wickedness reaps trouble,” (Prov 22:8) and was reiterated by the apostle Paul: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life,” (Gal 6:7,8) who also stated, “ For the wages of sin is death,” (Rom 6:23)

In our spiritual blindness, caused by the very fact of Sin in us, we so often think we can ‘get away with it'. In fact that was the very lie that Satan put before Eve that led to Sin entering the human race: “You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.” (Gen 3:4). Yes, Eve, you will, and now we all will. The truth is that sin always has consequences.

But is every sin the same? The Scriptural answer seems to be, no. For instance we find Jesus saying, “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments,” (Mt 5:19) and later he chided the Pharisees, “you have neglected the more impor tant matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness,” (Mt 23;23) indicating variety of significance of both commandments and therefore, by implication, of breaking them. There are differences in sins by the effect they have. Suppose on one occasion I steal a pen from a colleague at work – that is sin. But suppose I commit adultery with his wife. The ongoing implications are different for the two things, although they are both sin.

Now there is a sense whereby all Sin leads to death as Paul noted in Rom 6:23, which is why we need the work of Christ on the Cross, but when it comes to individual sins, as we've just noted, their effects may be different. Indeed John speaks of “a sin that does not lead to death” but he also says, “There is a sin that leads to death.” One part of the church speaks of ‘venial' and ‘mortal' sins, sins that can be forgiven and sins that cannot be forgiven, but Scripture seems to indicate that physical death is not necessarily synonymous with loss of salvation. For example, Paul writing to the Corinthians said, “A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.” (1 Cor 11:28-32) In other words, people were dying because of their wrong attitudes, but that did not seem to imply that they lost their salvation, in fact to the contrary they seemed to be taken prematurely to heaven to ensure their salvation and to prevent them slipping further into sin (and also as an example to the rest of the church, and prevent this sin spreading).

It is more probable that the only distinction between sins is, therefore, that in relation to spiritual death. Some sins don't lead to spiritual death – and are simply dealt with by God's discipline – while there is a sin that ensures ongoing spiritual death, and that, of course, is the ongoing denial of God and of His Son, Jesus Christ. The person who does that is lost and spiritual death is the outcome and involves the loss of eternal life. This ‘death' involves eternal separation from God which is far worse than the mere passing from this existence into the next, which is what we normally think about when we speak of death.

The second issue raises by these verses is that of us being accountable to one another. John's opening statement was, “If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life.” This lays a duty on each member of the body of Christ, the Church, to be there for one another, and at the very least to pray for one another when we see another falling into sin. Paul taught something similar: “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens.” (Gal 6:1,2) God wants us to be there for one another, seeking to restore one another when we see a brother or sister going off the rails. Of course, John added, “There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that.” If we are right in our earlier assessment, if a person is set in their rebellion against God, we shouldn't pray for that to be forgiven for it can only be so when that person truly repents and comes to Christ. There our praying will be different; it will be for them to be helped to turn to Christ from their unbelief.

He concludes these verses with a simple definition: “All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.” All wrongdoing is sin. It is that simple, but in that, as we've noted already there are some things that are still sin but they do not lead to death. Now I once remember hearing of a farmer who watched one of his cows trying to get its neck further and further under an electric fence to reach more and more grass without getting a shock. Does this teaching of these verses say we can sin and get away with it? That's not the point. Stay away from all sin whether it is eternal consequences or simply spoils your walk today with God and with other people. Don't differentiate: all wrongdoing is sin and so stay away from all wrongdoing!

Meditation No. 65

Meditation Title: Witnesses (1)

1 John 5:18-19 We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

Perhaps one of the reasons that cynical unbelievers reject the Gospel and the teachings of the New Testament is that it is so explicit in its revelation, and it is ‘revelation' for we could neither know it nor teach it if it had not been revealed by God. The other thing about it, which is often missed, is that it answers the questions of the world and, in fact, without it these questions go unanswered, such questions as what is evil, why is there evil in the world and why do we need laws to protect the poor and weak, why do people do wrong, and why are people self-centred?

These questions respond to a state of affairs in the existence of life on this world that is highly questionable. In personal terms, why is it that I have aspirations to be good yet so often fail to be so? As the apostle Paul wrote, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Rom 7:15) and “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing.” (Rom 7:18,19) This doing evil that he spoke about is what the Bible calls ‘Sin', that propensity to be self-centred and godless resulting in wrong living, resulting in individual sins, individual acts of wrong doing and that, we find, we are stuck with and cannot break away from. Why, the earnest seeker might ask, am I like that? Why is life like this?

It is to these questions that the Bible speaks and explains we are all sinners because we were born tainted with this propensity called Sin. It was because of this that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came and died on the Cross to pay the punishment for our wrong doing and offer us a new way of life as children of God empowered by God's Holy Spirit. Paul again described this: “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins,” (Col 1:13,14) explaining that there are two rulers and that the individual lives either under the domination of Satan or in the freedom of the kingdom or rule of God. Those are the ONLY two options.

When we come to Christ we are delivered out of that dominion of darkness and, as John now says, “anyone born of God does not continue to sin.” i.e. anyone under the rule of God no longer is driven by that old power called Sin, is no longer self-centred and godless, but is Christ and God-centred and is led by God into right living.

But John also picks up this other aspect that was referred to in Paul's verse as ‘the dominion of darkness', the domination by Satan, when he says, “the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.” Satan is still there domineering over unbelievers, and wanting to lead astray the children of God, but Jesus is there, seated at God's right hand ruling, and he protects and guards the children of God, and his Holy Spirit within us is there countering the lies of the enemy. All we have to do is listen to Him. The enemy can no longer pressurize us into going his way and disobeying God and doing wrong; we have been freed from that and from him.

When John goes on, “ We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one,” he is, like Paul, making a distinction between the children of God and the rest of the world. The children of God, Christians, are under God's protection and are no longer under the control of Satan and so, as he said earlier, do not have to sin, but the rest of the unbelieving world still are under Satan's sway and so he is able to make wrong suggestions to them (as he did to Eve – Gen 3) and lead them astray and into wrong living.

This is one of the fundamentals that the world does not like, this claim that it is being led by the nose by an evil force, even though it cannot break free from self-centredness and godlessness and thinking, saying or doing wrong things. Indeed this way of life is so common that the unbeliever doesn't even think about it. It is so normal to think badly about others, to speak badly about them or to them, and to do things that are utterly self-centred and harmful to others, that that is all they know and expect. They might consider it normal – accompanied by the stress, worries and anxieties that go with that lifestyle - but that is a long way from God's design for humanity

Sadly in recent decades in the West, standards in the Christian community have fallen and so often it is difficult for the world to see the distinction that should be there. So we see divorces, we see drunkenness, we see over-eating, we see self-centred materialistic lifestyles, we see angry upsets and divisions, and it is no wonder that the world fails so often to see the distinctive lifestyle of love and goodness that should characterize the Christian community. It is time for it to change! John reminds us, we are children of God, different (or we should be!) from those who are under the control of the evil one. Check it out: are you?

Meditation No. 66

Meditation Title: He who is True

1 John 5:20 We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true--even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Every now and then in Scripture gems stand out, verses or phrases or words that leap out with great significance. Our verse above is one such hidden gem, tucked away at the end of this letter where it is probably missed by most. All around the world, world religions strive to make sense of their understanding of the unseen world. Through the centuries of human history, communities have wondered about and then worshipped ‘gods', the conclusions of their superstitious wonderings. Were there ‘powers', personal powers that influenced the world? Today we struggle to understand the powers of El Nina or El Nino in the Pacific Ocean but still don't understand the causes. One God, many gods, an impersonal force, or no God or gods? What is true? What is real? Who or what is there, or is there nobody? Such have been the questions throughout human history.

And then Jesus Christ came into the environment of Israel in history, an environment that already had history with Jehovah, the One Creator God, a God to be worshipped through the means of sacrifices, a God at a distance, a God who knew everything and was all powerful and everywhere. In a whole variety of ways – words and works – Jesus declared himself to be the Son of God, THE unique, one and only Son of God. We look at his words, we look at his works and we look at his life, death and resurrection and we marvel and wonder, and those who have not got such strong personal prejudices as to be blinded, see and realise that this is true. This one person was who he said he was.

John's starting point here is, “We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding.” We have knowledge – that which we just spoke about above – and that knowledge brings us understanding; yes this the Son of God, yes this is a true reflection of God, God showing Himself to us in ways that we can understand and cope with. This is like me taking a part of me and turning it into an ant to communicate with ants. That, of course, is impossible, but God is God and can do all things, and so He's come in human form, the form of a man, and lived and spoken and acted into our world to show us the sort of being that He is. To our total surprise He is completely for us: “News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them .” (Mt 4:24) He didn't write them off, he didn't reject them, he didn't chastise them for living such godless lives that they got sick and demon possessed – he healed them!

Now within this gem of a verse comes a gem in its own right: “so that we may know him who is true.” Remember what we pondered on earlier, about mankind's seeking for what or who is true? Jesus is true, Jesus is real. Most of us put on a face, we pretend to be something but Jesus was exactly who you see in the Scriptures, the unique, loving Son of God. Do you remember Jesus' description of Nathaniel: “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false .” (Jn 1:47) Likewise there was nothing false in Jesus. He was not pretending to be someone or something that he wasn't. When we look at Jesus in the Gospels we see the unique Son of God, exactly as he is.

And then John makes it even more clear: “ And we are in him who is true--even in his Son Jesus Christ.” So when he said before, “we may know him who is true,” we might have been confused about the ‘him' because, we might have reasoned, surely there is only one who is absolutely true – God. I'm speaking about Jesus, John says to remove any doubt and then comes his climax, the climax of this letter, the climax of the whole Bible even: “ He is the true God and eternal life.”

Wow! Absolutely no doubts there. He, Jesus, is the true God. Take it in word by word:

This is who Jesus is! He's not merely a carpenter of Nazareth . He's not merely a good teacher. He's not merely a miracle worker. He is the Son of God, He is God! That is the climax of the Biblical revelation! He is God and He has come to us to redeem us from our sins. Hallelujah!

Meditation No. 67

Meditation Title: Idols?

1 John 5:21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols

Of all the apparently strange ways to conclude a letter, this appears the most strange. It is short, abrupt and apparently right out of the blue – no warning of it at all! So why should John finish with such a command?

The answer is given by a quote from a Christian historian I recently came across when he wrote about the early church: “Though the Christianity of the first several centuries was merely one among many mystery religions — it differed from all other devotions in requiring of its adherents a loyalty not only devout but exclusive. The votaries of Dionysus, Cybele and Attis, Isis and Osiris, Sabazius, Mithras, or any of the other pagan savior deities were not obliged to derogate or deny the power or holiness of other gods, or to remain totally aloof from their rites or temples; they merely acquired a new, perhaps dominant, but in no sense solitary, god or goddess to adore. Only the Christian mystery demanded of the convert an absolute commitment to one God and a denial of all others.”

Within that quote he names a number of ‘gods' or objects of worship that were commonly worshipped in the world of the early centuries of the Christian Church, through ‘religions' that competed in the superstitious mind of the day. The writer of that quote was conveying the fact that all these religions and gods existed and happily existed alongside each other and were quite happy if you worshipped a whole variety of them. That was until you came to Christianity which stood out in the world's ‘faiths' as demanding allegiance to it and to the One True God alone.

This takes its roots right back into the early history of Israel when the Lord gave them the Ten Commandments (never rescinded or replaced) which included: “You shall have no other gods besides me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.” (Ex 20:3-5). For a simple answer to the question, “Why were these commands included?” we need only look at the verses we've just previously considered which included, “that we may know him who is true . And we are in him who is true --even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God .” (1 Jn 5:20). In other words, only the One we find revealed in the Bible is God and there are no others. Idols are merely man-made false representations of ‘gods' that don't exist.

Often the writings of the prophets focused on this. Isaiah wrote: “Bring in your idols to tell us what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were, so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or declare to us the things to come, tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods. Do something, whether good or bad, so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear. But you are less than nothing.” (Isa 41:22-24). That is just one of a number of instances in the prophetic writings that derides idols and gods. They don't exist except as a figment of your imagination, is the message of the prophets, so stop wasting your time making idols and worshipping things that don't exist. Instead worship the One True God.

But still, in the world of John's day they worshipped idols and superstition ran rife. The thing about an idol was that you could see it and it acted as a focus of your worship and was thus a great temptation. “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols,” was John's last call to his scattered flock.

Does such a call have any relevance to us today? Well if we consider ‘an idol' in more general terms, the answer has got to be yes. An idol is anything or anyone we esteem and lift up in our estimation and which has influence on us and which we allow to direct us (and that we ultimately ‘worship'.). Thus materialistic affluence and the pursuit thereof is clearly an idol of many. Ambition, the desire to achieve great things for oneself regardless of what it takes, is another. Superstars or ‘celebrities' may be genuine idols for the more gullible. An idol thus becomes anything which detracts from God, and that competes with God for His lordship. It is anything that you put before the Lord and in that sense there may be many things in the modern world that compete. Thus John's call is still valid today.

To slightly change the words of the last line of that quote I used earlier, Only the Christian faith demands of the convert an absolute commitment to one God and a denial of all others. That is just as true today as it was two thousand years ago. And the reason? It's what John has been talking about throughout his letter: we have knowledge of One who is supreme and unique and He has revealed Himself to us through His Son, Jesus Christ, and through him we have a salvation which can be gained through no other means, so don't look elsewhere. As the psalmist wrote for his day, “ Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.” (Psa 20:7) THAT is wisdom and it is the wisdom that comes through John's letter again and again. May we hold firmly to it! Amen? Amen!