Month: May 2022

2 John 1:9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Chrisr, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.

Once when I baptized a young lady, she asked me, ”Who is inside me, Father, Son, or Holy Spirit?” I hadn’t heard that question before, but I answered, ”All three, for where one is there also are the other two, for all three are one God.” The Third Person of the Trinity is assigned the role of dwelling in us, but He is One God.

In this verse, He plainly states that we have the Father and the Son, and we know from elsewhere that the Father and the Son sent the Spirit. Voila! All three, as one. So who do we talk to? To which one do we listen? It doesn’t matter. We just know that the Spirit moves us to talk to the Father in the name of Jesus. We know that the Father said, ”Listen to My Son.” We know that the Spirit glorifies the Son. We know that the Son commanded us to pray, ”Our Father.” And we know that the Spirit intercedes for us.

Regardless of which of which one dwells within, God says,”Listen to Me;” God says, ”Talk to Me.” In this promise the Lord says, ”Abide in the doctrine of Christ.” This means: Hear the Gospel; Believe the Gospel; Remain in the Gospel. He who does so has this promise: both the Father and the Son are living inside him. God’s Life is in us, and it is eternal. Believe the Gospel and be one with God, forever.

2 John 1:2 For the truth’s sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us forever.

The promise to us this: Truth will live in us and be with us forever. Jesus promises to send us the Spirit of Truth to dwell within our spirit and to be with us today and tomorrow and forever, even after we die from this world. When we believe in Jesus and confess Him as personal Savior and Lord we enter into the Kingdom of Truth, and Truth enters into us. This promise gives us great comfort, security, and strength for daily living in the present and a sure hope for the eternal future.

How do we know what we know? And how do we know that what we believe is true? We know because the Spirit of Truth, sent by the Person who is the Truth, convinces us of the truth through the Gospel. Truth says two things: that we are lost and condemned sinners deserving of death, and that Jesus died for us to forgive sins and give us righteousness and life. Indwelling Truth grants repentance and faith in the Gospel. This truth is alive in us today and forever.

As light pushes back darkness and life defeats death, so truth easily overcomes lies. And we hear lies all the time, so relentlessly that we begin to believe the Lie. The devil is a liar from the beginning and the father of lies and he ceaselessly prowls. The world is shouting lies at us all the time from all sides constantly. And our own sinful flesh within is deceitful above all things and ready to receive the lies from within and without. But Truth dwells within like a belt of truth and we hold up the Shield of Faith. Truth always wins and it is with us forever.

1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

The Son of God has entered our world as one of us humans, and when He finished His mission, He gave us an understanding. This is the Lord’s promise: we understand. We understand Life. We understand Truth. We understand what it’s all about. He promised us faith to see. This clarity of vision comes from knowing Jesus. Knowing is believing and having a relationship with Him; we are in Him.

When we believe in the Son we have Him; when we have Him we have Truth, Life, and Love. We have all of God. We know all that we need to know; we know what what God has revealed.

We do not understand all mysteries, but we personally know Him who does. We are in Christ, who is Truth and Life, who has promised us all the riches of God and His Kingdom. We need nothing more, but we spend the rest of our days seeking to understand Him better, to know Him more closely, to open up more of the gifts, to walk in His love, to enjoy Him, and to realize what we have been given. Then in eternity we shall know as we are known.

1 John 5:14-15 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

God promises to hear our prayers. “Ask and you shall receive.” We pray because God commands and because He promises to hear us. We pray because we have a need and we know Who to go to meet that need. ”What a Friend we have in Jesus.” We pray to the Father in Jesus’ name, as instructed, ”Our Father in heaven” means He can (He is Almighty God in heaven) and He will (He is our Father who cares) hear us and grant us what we ask and desire. We respond to the Gospel of forgiveness, life, and salvation by faith in prayer requests to the One who hears and cares.

There is a condition attached to this promise: “if we ask anything according to his will.” We do not have to append ”if it be Thy will” to the ask; we are to know the will of God ahead of time as we enter into prayer. God will always and only respond according to His will; and we know that it always good and gracious toward us. We surrender to the good will of God: ”Thy will be done.”

When we don’t know the will of God in a specific matter, we trust the Spirit within us to present our requests to God the Father according to His will. Romans 8:26-27: ”We do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes…for the saints according to the will of God.” In other words, we trust the Spirit to turn even misguided prayers into the perfect will of God. Then we know that he hears us and we have the petitions we desired.

This promise gives us great encouragement to pray and a holy desire to present our requests before the Father. The promise also prompts us to believe that we may happily surrender to the will of God, for it will always be good for us according to His purpose.

1 John 5:11-12 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

The simple and repeated promise is: God has given to us eternal life. The promise of Eternal Life is so fundamental that it can become trite, passe, over-used, and taken for granted. But it should not be, for it is awesome and powerful. God shares His very own life with us. It is God’s life, which is eternal, never-ending, going on forever without death. Technically, our life does not become fully ”eternal,” for eternal means without beginning as well as without end. But we had a beginning.

This life God gave us also shares and reflects many attributes of God, like love mercy, grace, kindness, and such. We are still creatures, limited in space and time, however, and cannot share in the attributes like all-powerful, all-knowing, and present everywhere. But it blows the mind to be aware that we live out God’s holiness and love, justice and mercy in our regular lives. We love because He loved us. We forgive as we are forgiven. Etc.

This life is in us. This life is in the Son, and the Son is in us. ”He who has the Son has life.” We have the Son, Life, by faith in the Gospel of Christ. Faith has live. Faith sees life. Faith identifies with Life. Faith enjoys Life. Faith lives Life now and forever. Remember and be reminded of what you have been promised.

1 John 5:10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

God promises that each believer in the Son of God has an “inner witness.” This inner witness that we have been given is a Person. He is the Holy Spirit, who is sent by the Father and the Son into our spirit causing us to be born again into a new life when we hear the gospel. The Spirit is a witness to the bodily resurrection of Christ, and He speaks that truth to us and in us daily. He saw Jesus’ resurrected body and bears witness of that in us. This inner witness lives in us. The believer “has the witness in himself.”

This is the promise: ”we have seen the Lord.” Just as surely as the Apostles and

1 John 5:5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

Jesus Christ is our Overcomer. He has won the victory over our enemies at the cross and the tomb for us. He has definitively defeated, destroyed, demolished, decimated, and decapitated Sin, Death, and the Devil once and for all. He continually intervenes in our present moment to defuse the temptations and threats of the Evil One through through the corrupt world and our sinful flesh. And He will finally and forever on the Last Day throw Satan, Death, Hell, and all Evil into the lake of fire. That’s a guaranteed promise.

The world and our flesh will have been completely transformed, while the Enemies will have been confined, eternally removed from our presence in the Forever Kingdom. Jesus has done, is doing, and will do all this overcoming work for us. There is nothing left for us to do, except receive the victorious gift by faith, which itself is a gift worked by the Spirit through the Word.

Yes, Jesus does it all; yet the promise states that “he who believes” overcomes the world. It is we, you and I, who overcome the world. Which is it? The mystery of “Jesus in me” is hard to unravel. Jesus does the overcoming, and I enjoy the benefits. The ”world” brings us down, defeats us, tempts us, makes us fret and worry, but Jesus says in John 16:33, ”Take heart, I have overcome the world.” And if He has, we have. Believe the promise: ”Who has overcome the world?” You have!

1 John 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

God promises: You shall overcome the world. The world is a pervasive value system that the Enemy uses to tempt us away from God. It offers money, pleasure, and fame, all of which leads us away from God and Life. The world is a deadly enemy that tempts to sin. It has the sentence of death written upon it. Though temporary, it has the allure of being seen and felt.

The spiritual world, the invisible kingdom, the things above, the eternal life offers and gives eternal spiritual riches, lasting power, and pleasure without end. This is the Kingdom that wins. We enter it, live in it, and enjoy it by faith. This is the victory that overcomes the world: our faith.

Jesus is the Overcomer. We overcome by faith in Him. The world, and the ruler of the world, is hell-bent on our destruction, death, and eternal separation from God and Life; Jesus is heaven-bent on our salvation, life, and eternal relationship with God and Life. Jesus’ overcoming and overwhelming Victory is ours, secured for us His resurrection from the dead. This is His gift. This is the Promise.

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

Fear and love are depicted as opposites, even as hostile enemies. There is no room for both fear and love to exist together in the same space. One must drive out the other. The promise is that perfect love drives out fear. God is ”perfect love.” That perfect love lives in us as a living Person. He overcomes our fears.

This promise is hard to believe because fear, doubt, worry, and anxiety are our daily companions, and at times worry gains the all-consuming upper hand. That is when we need to apply this promise, believe in the Love and let it cast out fear. Our love cannot cast out fear for it is not yet pure and perfect, but God’s love in us is perfect and strong enough to drive away worry and anxiety. Therefore, we need to hear, believe, and apply the Gospel as often as possible, even 24/7.

However, we still fear in the form of doubt, worry, and anxiety, which simply means we are not yet perfected in love. God isn’t finished with me yet. But we have the promise that one day we will be perfected in love, and then ”all fears are gone.” Meanwhile, we have the Perfect Love living in us who casts out fear and torment. Pay attention to Him.

1 John 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is so are we in this world.

The love that is God is in us and is being perfected, until the time when we die and are resurrected. For now, we can rest assured that when our love is made perfect we shall have boldness in the day of judgment. We know what the verdict will be: free, acquitted, and entry accepted into heaven. We are so confident of that verdict now that we are bold to stand in the presence of God. We are not fearful of judgment but eagerly looking forward to it.

The promise is that we will be as he is. While we wait for the final perfection in love, we are ”in this world” becoming more Christlike. This is a promise that the Lord is doing something in us. He is restoring the Image of God, which we lost in the Fall. We were created to reflect the image of God, His Love, back to God and to the created world. The Lord is in the process of restoring us to full perfection in love; and He will finish the job. It looks like Christ; it looks like giving, sacrificial, unconditional love.

The original temptation offered to us in the Garden was that we would be “like God.” That was tempting for we wanted the absolute power to control things and people for our own good. We did not want to be ”like God” in pure love for the good of others, for that would require self-sacrifice, service, and laying down our life, dying to self. Like Christ. So the Lord set in motion His Salvation Plan to redeem and restore us to His original design and purpose. He sent His Son to carry out His will, and then sent the Holy Spirit to perfect us in love.

The Good News is the promise that we shall be perfected in love and that we shall be as He is. We don’t see it happening, but we can believe His Promise. It will happen!