“By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.” (I John 4:17)
The Day of Judgment is coming for all men. People should tremble at the thought of it. Yet it is possible to have a confidence about that day, John tells us here — not a worldly self-confidence, but a trust in who the Lord is, and what HE has done for us. Continue reading
It has been very interesting to say the least, to watch the first week of the Presidency of Donald Trump unfold. He has made appointments and issued executive orders which have pleased some, but have infuriated others. But there was, to me, a very telling statement on the CNN news website this week. CNN, as you might expect, has pretty much lambasted President Trump all week. But one day the lead story read that, love it or hate it, President Trump is doing just what he said he would do. And there’s something to that. In an era where we’ve almost come to expect empty words and empty promises in just about every arena of human life, it is somewhat refreshing to see someone actually DO what they said they would!
Last week we saw that John the Baptist came to the people of Israel with a strong message: after 400 years of silence, God sent him with the call to repentance: make a “u-turn” from what you have been doing, and come back to God. And the Bible tells us that people responded to that message. But when they did, John greeted them in an unusual way. Verse 7 says, “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”
We need to understand that the response that John had for those who came out to the Jordan River that day is the message that GOD has for many of us here in America today: “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” Don’t just make an empty “commitment” to God; DO what you say you are going to do. If you say you are really repenting and coming back to God, then DO it. “Bring forth the fruit of repentance.”
“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” (I John 4:15)
Despite the apparent simplicity of this verse, one should be careful not to take it in a woodenly literal fashion, as a minimalist means of salvation: just confess that Jesus is the Son of God, with no commitment of your life to Him, and you will be saved. For “Exhibit A’, we need only look as far as Mark 5:7: Continue reading
“No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.” (I John 4:12)
“No one has seen God at any time.” Not God in His fullness and glory, Whom Paul tells us “no man has seen or can see” (I Timothy 6:16). But John says here that there IS a way that people can “see” God — and amazingly enough, they can see Him through US: Continue reading
“We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” (I John 4:5-6)
It is easy for a Christian leader or teacher to feel badly when people don’t respond to God’s word through them, as if they were teaching or doing something wrong. But John has a word for all godly teachers here: if you are truly teaching God’s word, and people are not responding, the problem is not YOU, it is THEM! Continue reading
“They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.” (I John 4:5)
It’s not all about numbers in the work of God’s Kingdom — although judging “success” merely on the basis of the increasing numbers of those in attendance is a trap that many Christian workers do indeed fall into. And unfortunately by focusing merely on these outward standards they end up implementing all kinds of ungodly changes in order to increase attendance. But John reminds us here that all “attendance” is not good. Continue reading
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (I John 4;1)
Here John addresses what has become one of the weaknesses of modern evangelicalism: the lack of spiritual discernment. He commands believers to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” Unfortunately, not many Christians today seem to be heeding his command. In fact, the tendency of many is to do the opposite: Continue reading
“Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us, for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.” (I John 3:18-20
People often say things like “trust your heart”, or “follow your heart.” But although that may sound good, it is not the best policy. The truth is, our own hearts often mislead us. Continue reading
I hope that you are among those who had a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year — but I know that not everyone did. Our lives are often very difficult, and if you’ve never noticed, problems don’t usually take off for the holidays! I think of my mom & step father. He has just finished his treatments for a kind of bone cancer, and is doing ok with it right now — but his son is struggling with cancer as well — and over the holiday they discovered that his daughter now has a serious brain tumor. My Mom told my sister that if she came up for the holiday, she was going to have to bring Christmas with her, because there wasn’t much Christmas at their house.
And that is the world we live in, isn’t it? There is pain, there are hardships, and sickness, and death — even for the Christian. We are not exempt from suffering just because we follow the Lord — in fact, to be honest, sometimes we have MORE of those difficulties because we are His. But it is important for us as we face these things, to keep our eyes on the Lord, and to trust & obey Him. Our passage for today is very fitting for this time of year; it is a followup from scriptures that we often associate with the Christmas season: the visit of the magi to the young Christ, and the gifts they brought Him. We find here in the aftermath of that sweet visit a tragedy the likes of which many of us may never see — but we also find that even in these tragic times, God is still working in His Providence. And we need to learn here that we can trust God as we walk through our fallen world. Continue reading
I'm a retired Southern Baptist pastor of almost 40 years. My wife Cheryl & I moved to Norman, OK in March of 2025. I share a weekly overview for Sunday School teachers of the weekly Lifeway "Explore the Bible" lesson, as well as texts of my sermons and other articles.
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