1 John: A Summary of What I've Learned (Thus Far)
Wow, you know you haven't spent much time in God's word when...
1). You turn to the book you were in last and can't remember the last verse you read...
2). You place "reading the Bible" on the same priority list with "brush the dog's teeth"...
and
3). You turn to the Book you've been studying for so long only to realize you've finished it and forgot...
Yep, that's what's happened to me. It turns out I've already finished 1 John, I just never wrote it down or remembered. It was a little sad turning to p.1584 of my Bible, locating the last 5 verses of chapter 5, and beginning to read... only to have comprehension slap me across the face that I've read this already. It seems to me that the Bible is all too incomprehensible for an inexperienced servant who's just begun to clean one room in a magnificent mansion. In other words, I don't really know where to go next. Will there be another experience out there for me that will compare to the one I've had in 1 John? Is that the idea I'm after: an experience? No. I don't want to be afraid of picking the wrong book, there isn't one. I DO however want to ensure that I pick the timed book. Meaning, I want to seek God's face, and His will for this time in my life, and I believe that there is a place in the Bible that can help me uncover that truth in this moment. I don't know if that's a book, a subject, a character, a story, I'm not sure. But there's got to be something, I've gotten so comfortable in the wading pool that it's now uncomfortable and cold to take another step deeper. But, there's always more to decide, and more to surrender.
There have been countless revelations for me in 1 John. Not so much "new" material, but new perspectives, experienced truths that have just begun their growth in me. Here are some of my favorite notes:
Chapter 1:
1:6
If we profess to belong to God but still let our dark secrets, sins, and struggles define who we are, then we do not "do the truth." To “do the truth” means to express, with as much as we possibly can (with every fiber of our being), the conduct, the feeling, the action, and the thought.
1:8
When we deceive ourselves, it is more than being ignorant because we have an idea of what we are supposed to do but choose not to see it. Self-deception is not an accidental act.
Chapter 2:
2:1
The principle of sin as the power of darkness must be excluded from the believer’s life (and by the grace of God we are no longer in bondage to it). But personal acts of sin are still present in our lives and must be resisted (by the grace of God we are working to overcome our bondage to them).
The key to defeating the addiction of sin is not self-deceit. It is not telling the world that we are perfectly fine. It is not lying in bed at night and refusing to examine our lives’ content. These actions lead us to forsake the walk of light. Rather, the key to abandoning acts of sin is the forgiveness of God made available through Jesus Christ.
2:19
By saying that they did not really belong to us, that infers that many people thought they did. This is a much more deceptive reality. The church doesn’t really know who it’s true members are or not on the surface level. We think that they are a part of the body of Christ and they really are apart from the body of Christ. It doesn’t take long for a person’s true colors to come through, but when they come out of the church and reveal themselves to be of darkness, it makes it harder for the light to overcome the false impressions of hypocracy and so forth that the world accuses us of.
2:24
Reflect on what you heard and continue to let is affect your life. Remain is a key word conveying continuity, not a quick fix.
Chapter 3:
3:10-11
Loving is like evangelism in Acts 1:8. It starts close to home: “Love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Then, it reaches out a little farther: Love your brother (Your Christian brothers and sisters). Finally, it is carried to the ends of the Earth: It encompasses every part of your life, 1 Cor. 16:14. The command to “love one another” has its origin in the nature of God. The truth is that to eros is human, to agape is God. With all of my heart is a weak statement, because on my own I have not love. But with God, love dwells in my whole being because God is love, I am God’s, and I am loved.
3:20
We neither excuse ourselves from the sin we’ve done, nor accuse ourselves needlessly of failure. God is bigger than our feelings of inadequacy and He has come to tell us that through His strength we are equipped to do any good work He may require of us and that who we are is precious in His sight. Isaiah 43:4
Chapter 4:
4:10
The reality that we can live through Christ’s atoning sacrifice demonstrates the extent of God’s love for us. As it stands now, my fate is death, but my Savior’s intention for me is life. In order to grant me this amazing intention, He loved me. In order to claim this incomprehensible gift, I responded to His love. So, do I choose Death for a life or a life for Him? It’s a choice worth making and a love worth having.
Chapter 5:
5:2
By this we know... by the love we have for God, and our sincereness in surrender to Him, we are assured that we truly love those individuals that belong to God. It’s another way of saying, “don’t just talk the talk (I love you, I love you); walk the walk (I obey You, Lord, and I love Your children). Without God’s perfect love, we cannot say verily that we really love anyone. We FEEL love, we don’t have love.
5:13
This, then, is how we know: 1 John’s tests of faith.
1. Walk in the Light
2. Love one’s brother
3. Obey God’s commandments
4. Be steadfast in the community of faith
5. Do what is right
5:15
Knowing that we have what we asked for is dependent on the “what” we have asked for. If we have desperately longed to align our desires with God’s will, then our requests will reflect Him, and we will have them more as a “duh” moment than anything else. It is the “aha” of realizing that when we ask “of Him” we are seeking His heart, and recieving our requests as a natural fulfillment of God’s sovereign plan. God’s will must be done, so when our requests line up with His will, we need only to demonstrate faith in the “duh” that they will be fulfilled in His plan.
5:21
This verse seems, at first glance, out of place. It’s like John just threw it in at then end and it offers no closure. But, it happens to be the climax of what John’s been talking about the whole time. He has painstakingly been admonishing the believers to not fall away from God and to be assured in their salvation. It is the false teachers whom he has been warning against. Following the ways of the false teachers or allowing any of their sentiments to infultrate your walk is to follow after another God; to be under the complete control of the evil one. It is a plea to confession, and confession is simply realizing that what you did was not an err of judgment but an act of rebellion. It is seeing it in its full and ugly truth, as sin.
With this post, I bid farewell to 1 John, at least for a while. You may now breathe a sigh of relief because you, and I, have made it this far. I have studied my first book of the Bible, on my own time, with my own heart, and with the help of my Glorious God. Let me tell you, it was good.
...and it's not over...
1). You turn to the book you were in last and can't remember the last verse you read...
2). You place "reading the Bible" on the same priority list with "brush the dog's teeth"...
and
3). You turn to the Book you've been studying for so long only to realize you've finished it and forgot...
Yep, that's what's happened to me. It turns out I've already finished 1 John, I just never wrote it down or remembered. It was a little sad turning to p.1584 of my Bible, locating the last 5 verses of chapter 5, and beginning to read... only to have comprehension slap me across the face that I've read this already. It seems to me that the Bible is all too incomprehensible for an inexperienced servant who's just begun to clean one room in a magnificent mansion. In other words, I don't really know where to go next. Will there be another experience out there for me that will compare to the one I've had in 1 John? Is that the idea I'm after: an experience? No. I don't want to be afraid of picking the wrong book, there isn't one. I DO however want to ensure that I pick the timed book. Meaning, I want to seek God's face, and His will for this time in my life, and I believe that there is a place in the Bible that can help me uncover that truth in this moment. I don't know if that's a book, a subject, a character, a story, I'm not sure. But there's got to be something, I've gotten so comfortable in the wading pool that it's now uncomfortable and cold to take another step deeper. But, there's always more to decide, and more to surrender.
There have been countless revelations for me in 1 John. Not so much "new" material, but new perspectives, experienced truths that have just begun their growth in me. Here are some of my favorite notes:
Chapter 1:
1:6
If we profess to belong to God but still let our dark secrets, sins, and struggles define who we are, then we do not "do the truth." To “do the truth” means to express, with as much as we possibly can (with every fiber of our being), the conduct, the feeling, the action, and the thought.
1:8
When we deceive ourselves, it is more than being ignorant because we have an idea of what we are supposed to do but choose not to see it. Self-deception is not an accidental act.
Chapter 2:
2:1
The principle of sin as the power of darkness must be excluded from the believer’s life (and by the grace of God we are no longer in bondage to it). But personal acts of sin are still present in our lives and must be resisted (by the grace of God we are working to overcome our bondage to them).
The key to defeating the addiction of sin is not self-deceit. It is not telling the world that we are perfectly fine. It is not lying in bed at night and refusing to examine our lives’ content. These actions lead us to forsake the walk of light. Rather, the key to abandoning acts of sin is the forgiveness of God made available through Jesus Christ.
2:19
By saying that they did not really belong to us, that infers that many people thought they did. This is a much more deceptive reality. The church doesn’t really know who it’s true members are or not on the surface level. We think that they are a part of the body of Christ and they really are apart from the body of Christ. It doesn’t take long for a person’s true colors to come through, but when they come out of the church and reveal themselves to be of darkness, it makes it harder for the light to overcome the false impressions of hypocracy and so forth that the world accuses us of.
2:24
Reflect on what you heard and continue to let is affect your life. Remain is a key word conveying continuity, not a quick fix.
Chapter 3:
3:10-11
Loving is like evangelism in Acts 1:8. It starts close to home: “Love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Then, it reaches out a little farther: Love your brother (Your Christian brothers and sisters). Finally, it is carried to the ends of the Earth: It encompasses every part of your life, 1 Cor. 16:14. The command to “love one another” has its origin in the nature of God. The truth is that to eros is human, to agape is God. With all of my heart is a weak statement, because on my own I have not love. But with God, love dwells in my whole being because God is love, I am God’s, and I am loved.
3:20
We neither excuse ourselves from the sin we’ve done, nor accuse ourselves needlessly of failure. God is bigger than our feelings of inadequacy and He has come to tell us that through His strength we are equipped to do any good work He may require of us and that who we are is precious in His sight. Isaiah 43:4
Chapter 4:
4:10
The reality that we can live through Christ’s atoning sacrifice demonstrates the extent of God’s love for us. As it stands now, my fate is death, but my Savior’s intention for me is life. In order to grant me this amazing intention, He loved me. In order to claim this incomprehensible gift, I responded to His love. So, do I choose Death for a life or a life for Him? It’s a choice worth making and a love worth having.
Chapter 5:
5:2
By this we know... by the love we have for God, and our sincereness in surrender to Him, we are assured that we truly love those individuals that belong to God. It’s another way of saying, “don’t just talk the talk (I love you, I love you); walk the walk (I obey You, Lord, and I love Your children). Without God’s perfect love, we cannot say verily that we really love anyone. We FEEL love, we don’t have love.
5:13
This, then, is how we know: 1 John’s tests of faith.
1. Walk in the Light
2. Love one’s brother
3. Obey God’s commandments
4. Be steadfast in the community of faith
5. Do what is right
5:15
Knowing that we have what we asked for is dependent on the “what” we have asked for. If we have desperately longed to align our desires with God’s will, then our requests will reflect Him, and we will have them more as a “duh” moment than anything else. It is the “aha” of realizing that when we ask “of Him” we are seeking His heart, and recieving our requests as a natural fulfillment of God’s sovereign plan. God’s will must be done, so when our requests line up with His will, we need only to demonstrate faith in the “duh” that they will be fulfilled in His plan.
5:21
This verse seems, at first glance, out of place. It’s like John just threw it in at then end and it offers no closure. But, it happens to be the climax of what John’s been talking about the whole time. He has painstakingly been admonishing the believers to not fall away from God and to be assured in their salvation. It is the false teachers whom he has been warning against. Following the ways of the false teachers or allowing any of their sentiments to infultrate your walk is to follow after another God; to be under the complete control of the evil one. It is a plea to confession, and confession is simply realizing that what you did was not an err of judgment but an act of rebellion. It is seeing it in its full and ugly truth, as sin.
With this post, I bid farewell to 1 John, at least for a while. You may now breathe a sigh of relief because you, and I, have made it this far. I have studied my first book of the Bible, on my own time, with my own heart, and with the help of my Glorious God. Let me tell you, it was good.
...and it's not over...
its just the beginning...
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