Joshua 2 - Rahab the prosititute

Two spies were sent into Jericho. Somehow or other the king of Jericho heard about it, and even knew where they had gone. So the king sent a message to Rahab telling her to give the men up.

However, Rahab did not do this. Hebrews tells us that this was an act of faith, she saw that God was with the Israelites. The tales of what God had done for the Israelites had spread far and wide, and had persisted through many years (for it was now about forty years since the Red Sea incident). When Jesus came miracles were a key part of His ministry, as they were for the apostles. Presenting the gospel is not just a matter of words, but of actions. And it is not just our actions, but the actions of God Himself.

Rahab made a deal with the Israelite spies and they promised her safety when the invasion came.,

The report the spies gave to Joshua is in marked contrast to the report of the spies on the infamous expedition under Moses. Here they report that the enemy is in fear and trembling, rather than the converse which Moses' spies reported (or at least ten of them did).

Joshua 1:10-18 - The word goes to the people

Having received the word from God Joshua tells the officers to instruct and prepare the people. Following the word there is practical action.

The two and a half tribes that elected to stay on the other side of the Jordan are yet again reminded of their commitment to play their full part in the battle for the land. 

"Until the Lord gives them rest". We tend to think of the word "rest" in terms of not doing something, in terms of taking a break. However, it also means a state where one is free to pursue your goals. So after the sixth day in Genesis 1 where it says God rested, it means that everything was now in order and God could fulfil His purposes. So there would come a time when they had conquered the land and were then able to build the society that God intended for them.

The people respond with absolute commitment, and say they will obey Joshua just as they obeyed Moses. Given their record of frequent rebellions against Moses this isn't much of a promise!

Why do we do this? As humans we have a habit of making promises and commitments, and at the time we usually genuinely mean them, yet later they prove to be worthless. This is a symptom of our fallen condition, and is one that Paul talks about in Romans 7.

Joshua 1:7-9 - Strong and Courageous

Again there is the command to be strong and very courageous. We are to be confident in who we are in Christ. We are not to live as defeated people, but are to live with boldness. We will encounter all sorts of opposition and difficulties, but we are to be courageous in the midst of these times. This does not mean that we will not feel fear, but that we choose to do God's will anyway.

This is not just a matter of attitude. The next command to Joshua is to obey the law. We are to live by God's ways. Living by faith is not a matter of believing anything and seeing it happen, it is a matter of obeying God and seeing it happen. We need to walk in step with the Holy Spirit at all times. Only then will we be successful. See the promise here that we will be successful wherever we go. The blessing of God applies everywhere. 

So Joshua was to keep the Law close to himself, meditating on it, reading it, doing it. We need to apply the same principle to the whole word of God. Read it, ponder it, do it.

Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged. How can we do this? Knowing that the Lord will be with us always. Remember that this is part of what Jesus said right at the end of Matthew, I will be with you till the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).

Joshua 1:1-6 - Moses is Dead

Joshua had been Moses' assistant for many years, now he was to take over and to lead the people into the Promised Land. "Moses my servant is dead". Joshua had served under Moses for forty years, now he had to act differently, for now he was the leader. Moses was dead, so there could be no waiting for Moses to make decisions. Sometimes we try to live in the present as if circumstances were the same as they were in the past. We need to recognise when circumstances have changed, and to adapt accordingly. 

"Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them - to the Israelites". This highlights some important points about leadership. First, a leader has to take people with him. Secondly the promise is for all the people. Leading is not about fulfilling your own ambitions, it is about God fulfilling His plans for many people through you.

God was giving them all the land, everywhere where they set their feet. In order to take land we need to set our feet in the land. If we do not go somewhere we will never see the fulfillment of God's plans.

God promised to be with Joshua, just as He had been with Moses. So Joshua had to be strong and courageous. So again we see that Joshua needed to do something in order to experience the reality of God's presence.

Joshua - Introduction

The book of Joshua describes the conquest of the land, following on from where Deuteronomy left off. The precise author and date is uncertain, but it is highly likely that whoever wrote it relied heavily on sources direct from Joshua, and it may even have been Joshua himself who wrote much of it.

This is a book of conquest. Godless nations had occupied the land, now they were being ejected. As I mentioned on several occasions when writing on Deuteronomy, we need to remember that these other nations did not follow nice quaint religions. Their religions involved child sacrifice, gross sexual immorality and other detestable practices.  Israel's occupation of the land was dependent upon her adherence to the law of God. 

It is worth remembering that Israel should have been at this point some forty years earlier, she was not because of her sin. Yet the promised occupation was still about to take place. We all do things wrong in life, miss opportunities. Now we should not take this lightly, but we need to be fully aware that our lives and our futures are determined by the grace of God. There is no past failure that blocks us off from God's grace.

3 John 4-14 - Dealing with opposition

John prays a blessing on Gaius. Now verse 2 is beloved of prosperity teachers. Let’s be honest here, mostly they are making far too much of this verse than is merited. Look, the truth is this. God does want the absolute best for us; we are sinners living in a fallen world; we are being redeemed and sanctified; we share together with Christ’s sufferings in the work of building the kingdom. Any teaching needs to take into account all of these. To focus on any one of them to the exclusion of others leads to error. To focus on the blessings at the expense of others will give us a false and distorted view of life. Equally, to focus on suffering and sin part without the blessings will give an equally distorted and wrong view.

Gaius is then thanked for helping John’s workers, and is encouraged to continue doing so. Quite often in the various letters people are encouraged to continue doing good. We need to recognise that it is easy to become weary of doing good, there are times when we get discouraged, so we need to be continually encouraged.

Diotrophes was the bad leader. It is not clear what his exact role was, maybe he assumed a higher status than he actually had. Whatever the case, he was causing trouble, and had rejected John’s letters. He also slandered John and his co-workers. He was also refusing to accept Christian brothers who passed by.  His behaviour was not good, and Gaius is urged to recognise what is good and what is not. He need have no fear that Diotrophes is doing God’s will, for his actions clearly demonstrated that he did not know God.

Conversely, Demetrius is commended for his good works and attitude. John again closes the letter with the desire to see Gaius personally, and then to say a lot more to him.

3 John 1-3 - Problems in Leadership

This was written by John to a church leader called Gaius, and is largely about how to deal with another leader called Diotrophes. So again we see that a New Testament church had real problems, this time with at least one of the leaders acting against Christ. These things should not happen in the church, but sadly from time to time they will happen. So we need love, wisdom and power to deal with them when they do occur.

Why did God put this book in the Bible? Well, partly for the reasons outlined above, namely to give us a reality check and to ensure we do not have any rose-tinted view of what the church is like. Secondly, as I have said before, John is the Apostle of love, his letters deal a lot with love, yet he also instructs Gaius to take firm action. The two need not be in conflict.  There are two extremes we can go to. One is to just focus on “love”, the other is just to deal decisively with all opposition. Neither is right, we need both. The church in Ephesus that received the first letter in Revelation dealt firmly with false teachings, but forgot her first love. In this letter we have the love message tempered with firmness in handling false teachings and bad leaders.

2 John 4-13 - Truth, love and communication

John found that some of her children live in the truth. Notice that he says some, so presumably not all did. Yet John is still happy. The New Testament does not demonstrate any perfect churches. A New Testament church will be highly imperfect. So when you look at your church you can say at least we have got that right!

John goes on to urge them all to live in love, and then stresses that this means obedience to God’s commands. We really do have far too soppy a view of love. Love is tough and down to earth, and obedience to Gods commands is the litmus test of true love. Anything else is a lie.

Next John speaks of those who had gone out and were spreading false teachings, in this case that Jesus was not truly human. Note the similarities in this letter with 1 John, a clear indication of their common authorship.

They were to be on their guard against false teachers. Observe the juxtaposition of love and a firm attitude to the truth and correct teaching. The two are not in conflict.

“Anyone who does not stay with the teaching of Christ…” John now warns of those who go beyond the teaching Christ. We must not take away any of the truth, but neither must we add to it. Jesus is all that we need.  If people come who are not keeping to the truth we are not to welcome them. John even goes so far as to say if we do this then we are partnering with the devil! We really need to take this seriously.

How does all this fit with the teaching on love? It means that our approach is to confront errors in the church. We seek to put things right. This will require patience and wisdom, and will involve a cost.

There are times when it is right to leave a church, but we must not be quick to do so.

John had more to say, but wanted to do it in person. Today we have many more methods of communication, and all this is very valuable and useful, and should be used to the full. However, there is no substitute to personal contact. Online broadcasting of churches is good, but it is vital to actually be at a church. Personal communication gives so much more than e-mail, texting or any other means. We were created as people who need to be with each other.

2 John 1-3 - Loving the Church

To the dear Lady and to her children. This is probably a reference to a particular local church, though it could be taken as a reference to the whole church.  A feature of truly knowing the truth is loving the church. This is a crucial factor. We cannot treat church like a make of car, changing from one to another as we find fault with one church or another. We need to love the church. This does not mean being blind to its faults (and it is useful to remember that one of the faults in your church is you! Hopefully you are also one of the blessings in the church as well), but we need a deep commitment to the church.  We are here to make it work, and to see the grace of God work in the church, and so to reach the world. You see our church will not “succeed” because it is so wonderful, but because of the grace of God.  In verse three John talks about grace,  mercy, truth and love.

1 John 5:13-21 - Final Words

The purpose of John's writing was to reassure his readers. "That you have eternal life". Eternal life is not just a matter of what happens after we die, it is about the nature and character of life as well.

Asking is central to the Christian life, and not just asking, but receiving as well. Now this is not treating God as a slot machine, rather it is that the more our hearts and minds come into line with God's heart, then we will be thinking and desiring along the right lines, and we will receive what we ask for. We are never helpless, for we can always ask God.

It is not clear exactly what the sin that leads to death is. However, if we see someone sin we should pray that God will restore them, that they will come to repentance and turn back to God. However, if someone dies, then it is out of our hands. We are no longer to pray for the person then.

In the final paragraph John summarises the message he wants to get over. Note the frequent use of the word "know". They need have no fear of false teachers. We are completely secure in Christ, and in Him we have true understanding.

1 John 5:6-12 - Father, Son and Spirit

"Water and blood". What does this refer to. Some see it as referring to the blood and water that came from His side on the cross (John 19:34). Others as referring to his baptism and the cross, or His birth and the cross. Yet others put it down as referring to His human birth and to the Spirit. 

Whatever the meaning actually is, it is true that Jesus was born fully human, and died on the cross. Many heresies, including those around at the time of John, deny one or other of these. 

"There are three who testify". The Holy Spirit testifies to who Jesus is, but the historical facts testify as well. Today you will often here people talking about faith accepting things on trust, and not being concerned about the facts, or about evidence. This is nonsense. From beginning to end the Bible is concerned about evidence, and the evidence agrees with the testimony of the Spirit.

The truth is very simple, if we accept that Jesus is the Son of God then we are agreeing with the Father. Anyone who does not accept that Jesus is the Son of God is calling God a liar. 

Furthermore, if we have the Son we have life, if we do not have the Son then we do not have life. It is all about knowing Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

1 John 5:1-5 - Overcoming the world

"Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God". John is saying this to encourage his readers. They needed to know that they were in no way inferior to the false teachers who were going around. We are rightly concerned about appearing, or actually being, superior to others, but it is at least equally important that we  are confident in what we believe.

We should also note that "believe" here is not a mere intellectual assent, but a person who is a follow of Jesus Christ.

It is impossible to love the Father without loving the children of God. So how do we love one another? Primarily by loving God and carrying out His commands. See that it is still God centered. 

Loving God is not an emotion, but is a matter of obeying His commands. And it is possible to do this. We can overcome the world. and the victory is won by our faith.

1 John 4:16-21 - God is Love

God is love. Love is the essential nature of God. The very essence of His being is to seek out the best for us. Now we need to know that this is the best based on His wisdom, not on our limited and short-sighted vision. 

So if we live in God then we too will love. In every situation, and every relationship, especially the ones with people we don't like, we should be seeking the way of love. Now this is not a way of softness, but of seeking God's best for them, even if we have to pay a price.

If we want to live in love we need to become more and more like Jesus. His life, all of it, is the embodiment if what it means to live in love.

There is no fear in love. Fear has to do with judgement. At the root of all our fears is that God ultimately has it in for us because this is what we deserve. The cross has overturned this. The cross is the basis on which God looks at us, and so He holds nothing against us. 

If we know the love of God then we will love our brothers and sisters. It is a nonsense to say that we love God, but then fail to love those whom we can see.

1 John 4:13-16 - Jesus is the Son of God

We live in God and He lives in us. This is the way it is for anyone who truly knows the Lord. So how do we know that this is the case? It is by the presence of the Holy Spirit.  The active presence of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life is central. Being a Christian is not just a matter of some theological truth, it is a matter of being in a relationship with the living God.

Having said that, theological truth is also vital, for John immediately goes on to talk about another theological test of authenticity. The "we" so far in this section have applied to all believers, it seems that in verse 14 the "we" is more specifically targeted at John and the apostles. He is doing this to contrast himself with the false teachers. John and the apostles had seen and heard Jesus directly, they had lived with Him for three years. The testimony was that the Father has sent the Son into the world to be the Saviour.  Then this is applied generally again. The test of authenticity is whether or not someone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God. If so, God lives in them and they in God. Such a person depends upon the love that God has for us, not on any "special knowledge".

1 John 4:7-12 - Love of God

Love is the essence of God. A problem we have is that we really do not know what the word love means, we so easily associate it with sentimentality, or romantic love. The love of God is much deeper than this. 

If we are born of God, then His love will start to be reflected in our lives. We need to understand that the Holy Spirit will be working in our lives so that more of His love starts to become evident in us. This will often go against our human nature, so our flesh will need to die. This can be painful at the time, and we can fear that we are losing something. Instead we need to realise that actually we are gaining something of infinite worth.

The cross is the ultimate expression of God's love. We need to understand that the cross is not about Jesus persuading a reluctant God to forgive us. Rather it was the plan that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit agreed upon to save us. The Father sent His Son. 

Love originates in God. "This is love, not that we loved God, but that He first loved us". We need to remember where the origin is. It is not in us, it is in God. The starting point for any progress in our lives has to be God's love for us. This will result in us having love for God and for others, but if we make our love for God the starting point we will fail.

1John 4:4-6 - Godly wisdom, worldly wisdom

We have overcome them. We have overcome the spirit of the antichrist because of the Holy Spirit who is in us. We will face opposition of various sorts. In other places the Bible speaks of direct persecution, here it is more an assault of ideas. The gnostic types may have appeared sophisticated and wise, but they were in fact fools. Today there are many intellectual challenges to the gospel, particularly from the new atheists. However, we need have no fear. The wisdom of God is greater than the wisdom of the world.

"They are from the world and the world listen to them". The atheists and humanists speak from a worldly perspective, and that is why the world listens to them. Many social commentators and opinion formers speak from a worldly perspective, and again that is why the world listens to them. 

The world seems to give all its attention to these worldly commentators and opinion formers. We should not be surprised, but nor should we fear. And we should definitely not lose confidence in what we believe. What we have received, we have received from God.

1 John 4:1-3 - Jesus, fully God, fully man

We now come to doctrinal tests of truth. 

"Test every spirit". Just because someone claims to speak on God's behalf, or claims to be inspired, does not mean that they actually are. Could be talking complete nonsense, they could be deluded, they could seeking to deceive. In Deuteronomy were saw that there were two key tests of the genuineness of a prophet. One was whether what they said turned out to be true, and the other was whether or not it led people to worship only the Lord. The Bible is consistent in urging a level headed approach to all forms of teaching and inspired utterances. We are to test things, for not everything is from God.

A particular test is given here, namely whether or not the teaching/prophecy acknowledged that Jesus came in the flesh. What does this mean? Well it means that Jesus is fully God and fully human, and that He came as a man,right from conception. One of the false teachings going around was that the spirit of God came upon Jesus. Ie He was not God until the Spirit came upon Him. There were other variations that all denied the incarnation of Jesus, ie that God became man. We still get versions of this around today. Any teaching that denies that Jesus was fully God and fully man is wrong. 

These sorts of teachings are the spirit of antichrist, ie they are are opposed to Christ.

Now this test is equally true today. However, it is not the only one. The Gnostic type teaching was the heresy that John's hearers were encountering at the time, so it is the one that John addresses here.

1 John 3:16-24 - Knowing God

Jesus Christ is the supreme example of love, and His supreme act of love was to lay down His life for us. He did this while we were sinners, He did this while the crowds were shouting our "crucify him", he did this while His disciples had deserted Him. He did this when there was nothing in us, nothing about us, to commend ourselves to Him.

John then immediately makes this practical for us. We should be generous with material goods to one another. Love is not just about feelings, it is not sentimentality. True love shows itself in selfless actions.

When false teachings come they seek to induce insecurity in people. They try to make people feel guilty. So how do we set our hearts at rest? First we remind ourselves that God knows everything, and knowing everything He sent His Son to die and rise again for us. There is no sin in our lives that God does not already know about, there is no failure in our character of which God is not already fully aware, and yet He still loves us.

However, we should seek to move on from feeling condemned. Our confidence is not based on feelings, but part of the life of Christ is freedom from condemnation. We should expect to live in times of not feeling condemned. This gives us confidence before God to receive answers to prayers. 

Our faith is not academic, it is not theoretical, rather it produces fruit, it changes our lives, and our relationship with God. And our relationship with God is a living and active relationship. It involves us doing things, it also involves God doing things. We do things in response to Christ, but the wonder is that He also does things in response to us!

This applies only to those who are dedicated to God, and the root of obedience to God is faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The fruit in our own lives that we do know Him is obedience, and it is through the Spirit that we are enables to obey Him.

1 John 3:11-15 - Love

Cain and Abel are an example that serves as a warning, and an indication of how things will be.

We are not to be like Cain. Abel gave the first fruits of his work to God, whereas Cain just gave an offering to God as an afterthought. The real problem arose in Cain's reaction when it became apparent that God approved of Abel's actions, but  not of his. Instead of learning from this, repenting and seeking to become like Abel, he killed Abel. We need to avoid this reaction in ourselves. Now we may not be tempted to go as far as killing someone, but when we do something wrong, and someone else does things right, we very easily react by trying to defend ourselves, or to do down the other person. We need to be on our guard, and if we find this sort of reaction emerging in us, then we need to repent quickly.

Cain and Abel is also an example of how things will be. There will be those who condemn us for doing right. 

Conversely, love for each other is a reliable sign that we know Christ. The absence of this love is a sign that there is a major problem.

1 John 3:7-10 - Destroying the works of the evil one

Our actions are a sure indicator of where we stand. Now we are saved by faith, not by works, but this is often misunderstood. It most certainly does not mean that our actions do not matter. You cannot read any of Paul's letters and come away with the message that actions do not matter. Being saved is NOT a ticket to heaven, that is not what salvation or the gospel is about. It is about a whole new life, about being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said that a true disciple is identified by their fruit (Matt 7:20), and that obeying the Father is the decisive issue (Matt 7:21), where He also said that not everyone who claims to be a Christian actually is. In John's gospel Jesus said that it is by our love that all men will know that we are His disciples (John 13:35).

Sin is the work of the devil, and Jesus came to overturn the works of the devil. When we are born again an immediate change takes place and a process begins. That process is one of our nature and behaviour being changed. We do less and less of the devil's work (sin), and more and more of God's work.

This verse on overturning the works of the evil one is often interpreted in the wrong sense. It is often applied in the context of healing. Now I fully believe that God can heal and that we should see more healing miracles in this day, but this verse is not talking about healing here. Looked at in context here its primary application is the overturning of sin in our own lives. That is why John is focusing on a test of discipleship being the actions in someone's life. If sin remains unchanged then there is precious little evidence of the activity of the Holy Spirit in that person's life. Conversely if the Spirit is truly in us, then His presence will show itself by changes in our character, our attitudes, and our actions.

We have been called to obedience, and saved for obedience.

1 John 3:2-6 - Stop sinning

We should not be surprised that the world does not understand us, for it does not know God. Now this is not an excuse for being obscure or religious nuts. What it means is that the we need to appreciate that there is a clash of kingdoms: God's kingdom and the world's kingdom. 

So what are we to do? John reminds us that we are children of God. After Christ returns we shall be transformed and will be totally Christlike. That transformation will only be completed when Christ returns, but it has already started. So we are to purify ourselves, we are to seek to be more and more like Christ, in attitudes and actions.

Some of the false teachers indulged in all sorts of sinful behaviour. Sin is not an option for us, for it is lawlessness. This does not mean we will never sin (see chapter 1), but sin should be something we seek to avoid. Jesus came to take away sin. He was totally without sin, so anyone who claims to follow Christ yet deliberately and persistently keeps on sinning is a liar.

1 John 3:1 - You are a child of God

Why would anyone want to abandon faith in Christ? What or who could possibly give us anything better? The Father has lavished His love upon us. He not given us a mere morsel, but has pored out His love on us in abundance. We start to drift, or worse, when we forget how much God has done for us, is doing for us, and will do for us. That is why in the Psalms we are encouraged to meditate on the Lord's love and goodness. We need to spend time thinking and contemplating about these things, let the reality of it soak into our very being. 

We are children of God. We need to shout this out. We are children of the living God! Consider anything that is opposing Christ, or is tempting you away from God. What are they offering? What does atheism offer? It tells you are you are the product of blind random chance. What do things like Buddhism offer? They deny your personal identity. What does materialism offer? A few baubles that will one be destroyed (along with you).

We are the most blessed people on earth. May God open our eyes to realise this and to see its implications for everyday lives.

1 John 2:24-29 - Remain in Christ

The message we heard is the one we need to ensure remains in us. This is the message of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other way to salvation. Jesus Himself commanded us to remain in Him (John 15:4).

There is a close relationship between the word and the Father and the Son. If the word remains in us then the Father and Son remain in us and we in them. Conversely, if the word does not remain in us we will not remain in the Father.

Eternal life consists of knowing God. The Lord gives us a whole new life.

John reassures them again about the validity of what they first heard. The gospel is true and utterly reliable.

One day Christ will return. On that day all alternatives, and all of man's wisdom and pride, will come to nothing. Anyone who has trusted in them will look foolish on that day. If we remain in Christ we will not be put to shame on that day.

1 John 2:18-23 Denying the Son

"This is the last hour". Now this was written almost two thousand years ago, so clearly we are not mean to take this in a literal chronological sense. What it means is that we are in the final phase of history. The work of Jesus Christ on the cross and the sending of the Holy Spirit marked the time when people are being saved. It means we are in a crucial phase.

The antichrist is a very popular term in films and various nonsense that is put about on the web. It is actually a term that is little used in the Bible (in fact only by John). Literally it means one who opposes Christ. So there is actually little need here to interpret it in wildly apocalyptic terms. All he means is that there are many who are offering alternatives to Christ as the way of salvation. Some of them had started off in the church, but had then gone away.

We know the truth and have an anointing from the Holy One. This may strike some as arrogant, but we need to be confident in the truth of the gospel. The gnostic type teachings would have tried to make the believers think that they were lacking something, lacking some "secret knowledge". John was writing to them to reaffirm the truth, to encourage them to have confidence in the truth. 

The antichrist is the one who denies the Son. And anyone who denies the Son is also denying God the Father.

1 John 2:15-17 - Not loving the world

We are not to love the world. Now we need to be careful about what John means here, which is essentially loving the world system. The way that God works and the way the world system works are completely different. The world system is man-centered, not God centered. If we are to be fully human we need to be God centered.

Now saying this will cause atheists and humanists to react, but the truth is that Satan has duped humanity into an enormous con-trick. He says that by ditching God and deciding for ourselves we become free. The reality is that by doing this we become slaves and lose freedom. When we give God His proper place in our lives we actually gain more freedom, more ability. 

John then names the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,  and the pride of life as three key principles of the world system. 

Man without God is driven by natural desires. This includes what we might think of as sinful desires such as sexual lust. It is interesting and saddening when listening to debates in the media on sexual morals, that the very concept of exercising self-control seems so utterly unreasonable and unacceptable to many people and so-called experts. Conversely, part of the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. If we want true freedom then we need to follow Christ.

The lust of the flesh also includes things that we might not immediately think of as sinful. It includes anything where are are driven or led by natural desires.

The lust of the eyes is a life driven by what we see. Notice how much of today's culture is celebrity driven and driven by appearances. It is so superficial, and only destroys and demeans lives. It also applies to politics. There is such an emphasis on PR aspects of politics, and little on the substance of issues.

The pride of life includes thinking that we are totally self-sufficient. This again is futile. As John says the world and its desires will pass away. It is only the one who does the will of God who will live forever.

1 John 2:12-14 - Confidence

"I am writing to you ..." 

Why does John list these three groups and give the various "reasons" for writing? We need to think about the situation, which was one where false teachers were seeking to make inroads. Why do people fall for false teachings? It is not for pure intellectual reasons, though these are important, but for emotional reasons as well. False teachings play on people's insecurities, so John is trying to build up the esteem of his hearers, to make them confident in what they believe.

"Dear children" could refer to all the people, not just those that we think of as children. One of the things that false teachers play on is guilt, so John assures them that through Christ their sins have been forgiven. All people long to be free from guilt. Some seek the solution in denying that there is anything to be guilty about, but only the cross has the true solution to guilt.

Fathers are those who have been around a bit, maybe contemplating the end of their lives. They can be utterly confident in the one in whom they have believed, for He is from the beginning. 

The young men are assured that they have overcome the evil one. Moreover, they are are strong and have the word of God in them.

We can be confident in the one in whom we believe.

1 John 2:3-11 - Living in the light

We are not saved by our works, but the Bible is clear that obedience to Christ is a key sing of knowing Him. To say that we know Christ, but then to live a totally ungodly life is a nonsense. Change in our life is the sign that we belong to Him. It is the sign that everyone can see.

Now this does mean that we are perfect, far from it, and at the end of chapter one John made this point, but there must be change.

There is both continuity and a quantum leap between the old and new Testament. The God who is revealed in the Old Testament is the same God that is revealed in Jesus Christ. There is no difference. Equally there is no difference in the way that we should live. What is new is that on the cross Jesus defeated sin, death and the devil. So what was once impossible is now possible in Christ. There is an enormous amount of grace in the Old Testament, yet people focus on the judgement. Conversely, there is an awful lot of judgement in the New Testament, yet people focus on the grace. The grace and the judgement go together.

Loving each other is a key sign of living in the light, and hating each other is a sing of living in the darkness. The light must affect our attitude towards people, especially those closest to us.

1 John 2:1,2 - Forgiveness of sins

The forgiveness of sins is not an excuse for sinning, it does not mean that we can sin and it does not matter. Yet this is how the gospel is sometimes caricatured. This letter, along with the whole Bible, makes it clear that we cannot treat sin lightly. Sin is bad for us and bad for other people, and we need to be set free from sin. There are two components to this: (i) we need to be forgiven, to be set free from the judgement on sin that we deserve; and (ii) we need to be set free to live life as we should, to be set free from the enslaving nature of sin. Both of these are achieved through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

The being set free does not take full effect immediately. Hopefully we sin less than we used to, but we still sin from time to time. We have an advocate, Jesus Christ. His death on the cross turned away God's wrath. Now God's wrath is not rage, but His righteous, considered, and just judgement upon our sin. Hell is what we deserve. Christ took the punishment upon Himself in our place. So we are no longer under judgement.

This death was for the whole world. Now this is not universalism in the sense that everyone is automatically forgiven. We have to appropriate that forgiveness for ourselves by putting our faith in Christ. What it does mean is that the atheist, the Muslim, the Hindu, the humanist, the nominal Christian, or whoever you might care to mention, if that person turns to Christ he or she will receive full forgiveness.

1 John 1:5-10 - Sin

The message was received directly form Jesus, and was declared to John's readers. Today we declare the same gospel. When people make up another message they are no longer declaring the message of God. 

God is light, and in Him there is no darkness. Jesus often referred to Himself as the light of the world, and used other light analogies. There is no darkness in God. 

So if we know God, then we will walk in the light. People sometimes make a virtue of not knowing, this is nonsense. We are not to be proud or arrogant, but Christ has given us the truth. Likewise, if someone's behaviour has not altered, then it shows that they do not really know the truth.

Walking in the light gives us fellowship with each other and with Jesus. The gospel brings unity between believers. We are purified by the blood of Jesus from all sin.

Some claim to be without sin. This is patent nonsense, and is deception. The truth reveals our sin. The correct response to sin is to confess it and to repent. Then we receive forgiveness and cleansing. Only the gospel is honest about sin. 

1 John 1:1-4 - God is real

The opening verses are reminiscent of the opening of John's gospel. Christ has always been, He was not part of creation for He is God and all things were created through Him. He was also physical. The gospel is no mere set of ideas, thoughts, or notions. Jesus is 100% real. John and the other apostles had seen Him, heard Him, touched Him. The gospel is about Jesus Christ, in fact the gospel is Jesus Christ. It is Jesus that we proclaim.

Now why does John use terms such as "the life appeared"? He probably did this to counter false gnostic type teachings. They would speak in ephemeral ways about life. We are not talking about anything ephemeral, we are talking about the living God. This God came to earth, He was born, He walked on earth and lived among people. We need to remind ourselves about the reality of our God. 

Eternal life is not just what happens after we die. Eternal life starts the moment we believe in Jesus. It is a whole new way of life which starts to take effect the moment we believe.

John wanted his hearers to have fellowship with him. This meant sharing in the same experience of the living God. Being a Christian is not a matter of adhering to set of beliefs, though beliefs are vital. It is not a matter of following a moral code, though how we live our lives is vital. It is about having fellowship with the living God. 

Today let us make it our ambition to know Christ better.