Studies Through 1John - Lesson 10
1 John 3:11-24
11 For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
Starting at verses 19,20 we once again see John's reason for writing this book - to assure believers of their salvation. He is saying if your hearts or conscience, or voices of doubt are telling you, "You aren't saved", "You aren't a child of God", "You are a child of the Devil", etc. John gives you something to answer "your heart". Before we get to that answer, let's explore the reasons our heart might condemn us.
The first reason, and I get most of these courtesy of John MacArthur, is strong preaching from the pulpit. If a pastor is really preaching the truth of the Bible, it has to bring up not necessarily doubts in our minds but reasons to examine ourselves. Have I really repented? Is Jesus truly Lord of my life? Am I continuing in sin? Do I love? Am I living for myself or Jesus? Have I surrendered everything to Christ? If He told me to forsake everything and follow Him, would I? In soft preaching churches that teach psychology, practical Christianity, grace, etc all the time (I'm not saying those don't need to be preached) people are taught to feel better about themselves and their humanity rather than to ask the tough questions previously mentioned in order to examine ourselves. A preacher of God's word has to make his congregation uncomfortable and prick their consciences otherwise he isn't doing his job.
The second reason someone might question his salvation is because they can't accept forgiveness. For some reason they think that their sins are too bad, God could never forgive them. I believe this is one of the reasons God chose S(P)aul to be his chosen servant to spread the gospel to the world because if anyone was too bad to be saved it was him. He says in 1 Timothy;
" I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. 13 Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. 14 The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life."
Reason three is bad theology and let me camp out here a little and talk about assurance of salvation. If someone has been taught that they can lose their salvation, it is not surprising that they would question whether they are saved. The question is, Can a Christian lose their salvation? (I got most of this from GotQuestions.org) First off it is critical to define Christian. I believe that the passages used as defense for losing ones salvation refer to people who were never Christians. They may have been raised in a Christian home, went forward, raised and continue in church and know all about God but never received Him and been born again by the Holy Spirit. There are all kinds of testimonies like that including John and Charles Wesley who were missionaries when they got saved. But a true Christian cannot lose their salvation for the following reasons;
1) We are new creations - 2Cor. 5:17. A Christian is not just an improved person but a new creature. To lose your salvation you would have to be recreated to the old creature which is impossible.
2) We are redeemed. - 1Peter 1:18-19. This refers to a price being paid - being bought back. The price paid was to the justice of God. Our sin was a cosmic debt that had to be paid to God and it was paid through Christ's blood and death. As we learned in chapter 2, Christ is our advocate and goes before the Father and says, "You can't punish them for that sin because I already took the punishment". Is He going to say, "Nevermind, I untook it"? No. He paid our debt, He isn't going to unpay it
3) We are justified - Romans 5:1. To be justified is a legal act saying that your sins no longer count against you. Can you be unjustified. "I've buried your sins and iniquities and thrown them into the deepest sea. Oh wait, let me go look for those. I changed my mind." No, God remembers our sins no more.
4) We receive eternal life the moment we are saved. John 5:24 If we could lose our salvation, eternal life could be granted to us only after we die and that is not what the Bible teaches. We are already seated in the Heavenlies.
5) We receive the Holy Spirit at conversion and are sealed. Eph. 1:13,14. The Holy Spirit is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. Now God, who never breaks His promises, changes His mind, or breaks a guarantee will keep us secure
6) Can we be saved by grace and lost by works? Eph. 2:8,9 If salvation is by grace through faith alone not by works, then if we could lose it by works then we would have to be able to gain it back by works. This is actually heretical and a different gospel
7) The picture of salvation is adoption - Rom. 8:15 We become children of God. We get His name! We are brought into His family. Is He going to kick His children out? Is He going to unadopt? That is incompatible with who He is
8) The picture of salvation is marriage - Eph. 5:25-32 If God is going to divorce us, then why would He tell us not to divorce. The permanence of marriage is a picture of our permanence with Christ as His bride
This is such an essential doctrine to our Christian life. My praise and worship is directly related to it. To praise and worship a God who may or may not get me to Heaven would be tainted praise at best and probably fake praise trying to earn brownie points. My service is directly related to it. I would serve Him with more passion if I knew that He was for sure taking me to Heaven. Now my service is to earn His approval with fear that I've never done enough or blown it with a bad attitude. My love for Him would be with all my heart, soul, strength if I knew His love for me was permanent. My commitment to forsake all and follow Him might be easier if I knew that I wasn't going to fall off the narrow path at the end and waste my life. John talks about this starting in verse 21. "If our hearts don't condemn us", i.e. if we are secure in our salvation, we can love in freedom, we can go to Him in prayer and worship in confidence and we can obey Him in order to make Him happy not to earn His acceptance - we are already accepted!
The fourth reason people doubt their salvation is that they don't know the exact date or time. Now I think it is important to know that there was a moment in time when you crossed from death into life. A moment when you left one Kingdom for another. You can't just say, "Well, I've always been a Christian" because we know from the Bible that isn't true. We have had some revival preachers that make a living by having people get resaved because they don't have the time and date written in their Bible. The point isn't so much when but were you and are you currently showing proof that it took.
The fifth reason people doubt their salvation is the pull of sin and the flesh is strong in their life. If that is proof that you aren't saved then none of us including the Apostle Paul aren't as seen in Romans 7. This actually is proof that you are saved. Paul knew that he loved the Law of God and hated sin yet still sinned. Prior to Christ's work in our hearts we hated the Law of God and loved sin. The very fact that we are wrestling with this is a sign of salvation.
The sixth reason is that they have a false view of trials. They think, "How can I be a child of God when I keep going through all these tough times? Doesn't He love me? What they fail to understand is that trials often, if not caused by our own poor choices, are God's way of taking us from an immature status to the next level - from infancy to toddler to adolescent to teenager to young adult and so on. James 1:2-4 says -
" Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
and Hebrews 12:6-11
My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
So that leads us to the second half of the lesson - how do you answer your heart when it is sending you insecure messages for any of those six reasons? What you answer according to this portion of 1John is "I know I am saved because I have true love and compassion for the poor."
God says through the prophet Isaiah both in Chapter 1:10-17 and 58:1-7 that the people of Israel should stop doing all their religious rituals because without a heart for the poor, they are just pretending. James says, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in 2:15-17 that if we say we have faith but don't help the poor our faith is dead which I would interpret bogus. Finally the well known passage about the sheep and goats in Matt. 25:31-46 Jesus says that the truly saved, sheep, will take care of the poor. John adds his amen to these three mentioned passages.
Of all things, why is taking care of the poor so pathognomonic of being a Christian? Well lets look at it through the Bible starting with God's response to the poor. God is not biased towards the rich or poor (Deut. 10:17) but He is also not neutral and will get involved in the plight of the poor. He will cast down the rich if they become wealthy at the expense of the poor (Ex.22:22-24 ;Jer. 5:27-29) as seen in His punishment of the Northern Kingdom (Amos 2:6,7 ;6:4-7; 7:11,17), the Southern Kingdom (Isa. 3:13-15,25 ; 10:1-4; Micah 2:2,3), and Nebuchudnezzer (Dan. 7:24-27). He will cast down the rich if they neglect the poor (Prov.21:23) as seen in the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-25), Sodom and Gomorrah (Ezek.16:49,50), the aforementioned goats (Matt. 25:31-46), and the Pharisees (Luke 11:41,42). He will cast down the rich if they show contempt for the poor. (Prov. 17:5; Psalm 94:6-10)
We see that God sticks up for the poor when they are mistreated. Why? It is part of His character - it is who He is. When He reveals Himself to Moses he reveals Himself as a God who has pity on those being mistreated. (Ex. 3:6-8 ; 6:6-8; Deut. 10:14-18) When He reveals himself through the incarnation He revealed Himself to people as one who came to set the oppressed free (Luke 4:16-21) Not only is that in His character but He identified with them by coming as a poor person and chose poor people as His special instruments. (Acts 4:13; James 2:5; 1Cor. 1:26-29)
Since we are commanded to be like our leader, He commands us to have the same heart for the poor that He does. We are to make sure that they have equal justice in court (Ex.23:6-9 ; Ps. 72:1-4 ; Prov. 31:8,9), protection (Isa. 1:16,17 ; Ps. 82:3,4), and needs met (James 1:27 ; Luke 14:12-14; Heb. 13:2,3 ; Matt 14:16 ; the Good Samaritan Luke 10:30-37; Duet. 15:10,11: Prov. 14:20,21 & 22:9 ; Ps. 41:1-3). If we don't defend the poor when they are oppressed, don't identify with them or meet their needs, and if our heart does not go out to them, then according to John our hearts do have good reason to condemn us because they aren't beating in tune with God's.
So, not only do we truly care for the poor because we take after our Father, but secondly it shows that we understand grace. Tim Keller says in his book Generous Justice, When we come across a poor person "and see their tattered clothing and think: 'all my righteousness is as filthy rags but in Christ I can be clothed in robes of righteousness'. When you come across those who are economically poor you can't say to them, 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps!', because you certainly did not do that spiritually. And you can't say, 'I won't help you because you got yourself into this mess,' since God came to Earth, moved into your spiritually poor neighborhood, and helped you even though your spiritual problems were your own fault. In other words, when we who understand the grace of the gospel see a poor person, we realize we are looking into a mirror.... You might say,'My money is my own'. Christ could have said 'My life and my blood are my own.' You might say,'The poor are undeserving.' Jesus could have said, 'They are wicked rebels..shall I lay down my life for these? I will give it to the good angels'. But no, He left the 99 and came after the lost. He gave His life for the undeserving. You might say,'The poor may abuse it. Christ knew that thousands would trample His blood under their feet, that most would despise it... yet He gave His life anyway". If we truly understand grace we will care for the poor.
Thirdly, this is true, unadulterated love. If love is defined as the commitment of my will to your needs and best interests regardless of the cost, then the opposite of love is selfishness or self centeredness. There is nothing selfish or self centered about taking care of the poor because there is nothing to be gained.Since only God can produce this kind of love, to love the poor is proof that God is inside of us. Jesus talks about this concept in Luke 14:12-14 and that's why James calls it true religion in 1:27;
Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
" Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world"
Building on the concept of God inside us, the Holy Spirit produces fruit in and through us and gives us gifts. The fourth reason that taking care of the poor is a true sign of salvation is the fruit of the spirit of Kindness (Charity) being produced in us and fifth is the gifts of the Spirit of mercy, helps, service. The fact that we weren't previously like this in our younger years but are increasingly developing a heart for the poor is because of the Holy Spirit working inside of us.
True compassion for the poor is how we answer our hearts when they condemn us.
So, not only do we truly care for the poor because we take after our Father, but secondly it shows that we understand grace. Tim Keller says in his book Generous Justice, When we come across a poor person "and see their tattered clothing and think: 'all my righteousness is as filthy rags but in Christ I can be clothed in robes of righteousness'. When you come across those who are economically poor you can't say to them, 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps!', because you certainly did not do that spiritually. And you can't say, 'I won't help you because you got yourself into this mess,' since God came to Earth, moved into your spiritually poor neighborhood, and helped you even though your spiritual problems were your own fault. In other words, when we who understand the grace of the gospel see a poor person, we realize we are looking into a mirror.... You might say,'My money is my own'. Christ could have said 'My life and my blood are my own.' You might say,'The poor are undeserving.' Jesus could have said, 'They are wicked rebels..shall I lay down my life for these? I will give it to the good angels'. But no, He left the 99 and came after the lost. He gave His life for the undeserving. You might say,'The poor may abuse it. Christ knew that thousands would trample His blood under their feet, that most would despise it... yet He gave His life anyway". If we truly understand grace we will care for the poor.
Thirdly, this is true, unadulterated love. If love is defined as the commitment of my will to your needs and best interests regardless of the cost, then the opposite of love is selfishness or self centeredness. There is nothing selfish or self centered about taking care of the poor because there is nothing to be gained.Since only God can produce this kind of love, to love the poor is proof that God is inside of us. Jesus talks about this concept in Luke 14:12-14 and that's why James calls it true religion in 1:27;
Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
" Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world"
Building on the concept of God inside us, the Holy Spirit produces fruit in and through us and gives us gifts. The fourth reason that taking care of the poor is a true sign of salvation is the fruit of the spirit of Kindness (Charity) being produced in us and fifth is the gifts of the Spirit of mercy, helps, service. The fact that we weren't previously like this in our younger years but are increasingly developing a heart for the poor is because of the Holy Spirit working inside of us.
True compassion for the poor is how we answer our hearts when they condemn us.
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