By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments... whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked (1 John 2:3-6).

2015 is upon us. The other day I had eight kids sitting before me, from 5 years old to 18, my daughter and my nephews and my niece, wishing me a blessed new year. What word of counsel could I give them?

All the other parents gave the standard encouragements to live well and "obey your parents", but I could only think of one most meaningful thing to impress upon them, and that was to know God and to serve Him in every way. I sounded awkwardly "spiritual" in what was a light-hearted moment, particularly with my raspy, quiet voice, the result of a lingering cold. Yet, of all the hours of conversation that day with various family members, these few words to these kids were the only spiritual thing I said all day. 

The apostle John wrote his letter to encourage his readers to grow in their knowledge of God. He warned them against being led astray by false teaching. He warned them against the enticements in the world. He warned them against bitterness against their brothers. His stated purpose in writing his letter to them was so that they might not sin (cf. 1 John 2:1).

This is a good word for us looking into this new year. Is there a greater resolution than growing in our knowledge of God? Is there a greater purpose than keeping ourselves from sin? Is there a greater goal than living in the same manner as Jesus lived?:

By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked (1 John 2:6).

Therefore, dear friends, in 2015 let us make it our goal to please Him in every way. Let us live this year with an eternal perspective, so that we might not be entangled again in temporal affairs, concerns, pursuits, interests and distractions. Let us live as though Jesus were living through us, always considering, "What would Jesus do?" so that our decisions would be motivated by the will of God.

If you are considering resolutions for this year, I hope that chief among them is to either begin or continue to be daily in God's Word - to read it, to meditate on it, to share it, to memorize it, to obey it. Then be also daily in prayer, for God has given us this privilege to help us to align our will with His. And as you pursue these things, I pray the Lord will encourage the progress of your faith.

The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked (1 John 2:6).

Peter gave a similar instruction in his epistle:

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps (1 Peter 2:21).

John's emphasis is to walk as Jesus did by loving one's brother. Peter's emphasis is to walk as Jesus did by faithfully enduring suffering. In both instances the point is to follow the teaching and example of Jesus. In this way we can be said to abide in Christ because Christ abides in us.

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I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one (1 John 2:12-14).

Through virtually parallel ideas John is declaring to his readers, both young and old, that they are saved. Certainly, only the saved can claim their "sins have been forgiven". Only the saved truly know the Father and the One "who has been from the beginning" (i.e. Jesus Christ). Only the saved "have overcome the evil one". Only the saved can be said to have "the word of God" abiding in them. This affirmation of salvation occurs throughout this epistle, juxtaposed by unequivocal commands to hold fast to true doctrine and pursue a practical love for one's Christian brothers and sisters. It is as though John were saying. You are no doubt Christians; therefore, I wholly command and expect you to live like it. 

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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... 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. (1 John 4:1,6).

John Piper and others seem to take the expression "test the spirits" as something less than a clear differentiation between believers and unbelievers, true prophets and false prophets. In other words, they add an element of "gray," so that there are not simply the true and false but also "mature" and "immature" prophets. 

The only problem with this view is that there is no biblical warrant for it. What is more, John's language makes clear that the testing is not to discern different levels of maturity among believers but to ferret out "false prophets" from the true. These false prophets are not immature believers but those who are of "the world" and "not from God". 

Now, I'm not saying that every Christian today who claims to have a prophecy and is proven wrong is an unbeliever. As I've argued before, John often writes in very absolute terms. He writes that Christians do not and cannot sin. This is true in our inner being but our daily bodily experience is fraught with struggle and failure. I think the same scenario is found among certain self-proclaimed prophets today. They are deluded, misguided and leading many astray, but it is possible that they are saved. Nevertheless, I would not simply label them as "immature Christians" by virtue of being sometimes right and sometimes wrong in their claims. They need to be gently but sternly told to stop, and if they do not, to be shunned altogether by the rest of the Christian community.

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Happy (belated) New Year!  I am sharing this post as an encouragement as it has encouraged me.  I first heard it at a friend's church service about 7 years ago as I was just getting back into the church.  It nearly made me cry.  The link below will take you to a song "The Greatest Command".  I hope it blesses you as it did me:

http://youtu.be/QDRLrz_Hf_c

Those of you who know me may hear it again someday.  ;)

Blessings!

This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands (1 John 5:2-3).

Do you follow the logic here? How do you love the children of God? By loving God and keeping His commands. How do you love God? By keeping his commands. Therefore, both love for God and love for His children come down to this one thing: keeping God's commands.

This sounds very much like Solomon's conclusion in Ecclesiastes 12:13,

Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the duty of all mankind.

The whole duty of mankind, especially believers, is to fear God and keep His commandments. Put another way, it is to believe and obey God.

Friends, as you begin this New Year, and you consider what resolutions to make, I hope that chief among them will be to make it your top priority to more perfectly trust and obey God this year. I hope that this resolution will rise above considerations like losing weight, spending more time with family, being more frugal, enjoying life more, etc. As "good" as these may seem, they are really peripheral details, the best of which will naturally flow from trusting and obeying God. After all, Jesus taught,

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own (Matthew 6:31-34).

And in your endeavor to trust and obey God this year, I can think of nothiing more practical and helpful as lengthening and deepening your time in God's Word. If you got off track in 2012, get back on track in 2013. This is one of those resolutions that ought not to be sidelined because of difficulty, frustration or failure. It is like eating, drinking, and breathing for our spirit. It cannot be long neglected without doing serious damage to our souls. Therefore, I encourage you to drink deeply from the Word of God, for in so doing, you will have all the tools you need to fully trust and obey God:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Another great question one of our members asked:

Here is my reponse... By a simple reading of this verse,  it appears to me that John is counseling against praying for the dead. In other words, pray for the sinner while they are living and not after they have died, which is in keeping with the message of Hebrews 9:27, where we read, " Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment." If their sin kills them, no amount of prayer will help. Recall David's prayer and fasting for his son with Bathsheba while the child was living. But when he found out the child was dead, he ceased his fast and prayers (2 Samuel 12:15-23). 

Friends, one of our members asked a very thoughtful question:

1 John 2:2:He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world...Did Jesus die for the sins of the whole world? or for the sins of those were are saved, the elect?

Here is my response:

Excellent question! Let me take them one at a time. On the first matter of 1 John 2:2,

And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? 

There are two reasons Paul gives here for God's "longsuffering." In this context the longsuffering is God's delay in judging the "vessels of wrath prepared for destruction" (i.e. self-condemned, unelected unbelievers). First, God wanted to display His power. We saw this exemplified in the miracles of the ten plagues and the Red Sea against Pharaoh and Egypt. God could have wiped out the entire Egyptian people in an instant, even as He did Sodom and Gomorrah; however, He delayed His judgment in order to show His power to Israel, to Egypt, and to a watching world. Second, God wanted to make His grace towards "the vessels of mercy" (i.e. elect believers) appear even more glorious. There is nothing like a black background to show the brilliance of white. Believers can appreciate the grace of God much more after they have experienced the awfulness of sin in the world. Against the backdrop of wickedness God's glorious riches for His chosen vessels stand in relief.

For God in this way loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 

Therefore, we can say that Christ's atoning sacrifice, while it is sufficient for all, it is only effective for some.

Friends,

1 John is one of those books that will encourage those who lightly read it, confuse those who carefully read it, and enlighten those who persevere even further. It is to the second group that I turn today. You may be confused because you read verses like 1 John 3:9, "No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." and 1 John 5:18, "We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him." And there are other verses in 1 John like these. You may be thinking, "I still sin, even quite often. Does this mean that I am not born of God?" So there seems to be a disconnect between these Scriptures and our experience. Another problem is that these verses seem to contradict earlier ones, like 1 John 1:8-10,

If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

These verses suggest that believers do sin and anyone that says otherwise is a liar or, even worse, makes God a liar. Therefore, what are we to make of all this?

Let us move from the second category of readers to the third, from those who carefully read to those who persevere even further to understand. John is not contradicting himself, nor is he negating our experience. Instead, he is accomplishing his stated purpose, namely, "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin" (1 John 2:1). He's already clarified in chapter 1 that believers sin and that sin breaks a believer's fellowship with the Father, but believers can be restored to a right fellowship by confessing their sins, because God is always ready and willing to forgive on the basis of his faithfulness to His promises in Christ.

But from chapters 2 through 5 John's focus is not so much on forgiveness but on the righteous life that should characterize every believer. And in these verses he highlights the command without exceptions or reservations. He does not want to give anyone an excuse for sin. There is a reason why he addresses his readers as "my little children." He is teaching them as children, not with intricate explanations, as he would with the mature, but with clearcut commands, black and white characterizations, that affords no exceptions. This is why we read such strong expressions, that believers "do not sin" or that they "cannot sin." 

Paul from time to time also makes these kinds of black and white statements, as in Romans 6:1-2,

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

In other words, since believers have died to sin, it would be against their nature to sin. And again in Romans 8:1 he writes,

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the sinful nature, but according to the Spirit.

But just before this, Paul spent an entire chapter giving a detailed testimony of his own failing struggle with this very sinful nature (Romans 7:21-25). In passages like Galatians 5:17 he even argues that the Spirit and the sinful nature are always in conflict within a believer so that the believer does not do what he wants. So what can Paul mean when he writes that those saved "do not walk according to the sinful nature"? It is the same thing that John means when he writes in 1 John 3:9,

Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

There will be a point when a believers sinful nature, often referred to as "the body of death," (Romans 7:24; 8:10, 13), will be redeemed, that is, completely transformed into a sinless nature like that of Christ (1 John 3:2-3; Romans 8:23; Philippians 3:20; 1 Corinthians 15:50-58). This is the believers hope of resurrection. This future hope of redemption and perfection is what John speaks of as if it is a present reality.  It is tied to a believer's new birth by the Spirit. It is connected with the promise of the Gospel, which guarantees not only their justification but also their glorification (Romans 8:29-30). So within the believer there is an incorruptible spiritual side that "does not sin," and indeed "cannot sin."

Now, John's exhortation, as Paul, is that believers live in keeping with their hope of sinless perfection. To live now as "citizens of heaven" in incorruption rather than as corruptible citizens of earth. As Paul also writes, 

Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God (Romans 6:11-13).

In other words, even though we have not yet become perfect, even though we live with a frustrating conflict with our sinful nature, we have an incorruptible hope, even the Holy Spirit, who lives within us as the guarantee of our redemption (Ephesians 1:13-14), through which we are perfect and righteous and holy before God. Yet, for this very reason we should persevere to live in keeping with the Spirit, who has accomplished such a righteous standing for us in Christ. So Paul writes in Galatians 5:25, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." He could very well also have written, "Since the Spirit lives in us, let us walk in the Spirit." And he does so in Romans 8:9-14,

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

I highlighted some key thoughts. There is within the believer two natures. One is the sinful nature ("body"), which is counted as "dead," and the other is the Spirit, who represents life in us. And the death of one and the life in the other are both accomplished by Christ, "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). Therefore, we are counted as perfect in Christ.

Now, the second thing I highlighted above reveals that since we are perfect in Christ, we are in a sense "indebted" now to live in keeping with that perfect standard by daily putting to death the deeds associated with our sinful natures (Romans 8:13). Paul elsewhere says something similar, namely, that as Christ has died for us, we should now live for Him:

For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again" (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

Friends, we are already perfect in Christ, which will be fully realized at the redemption of our bodies, our resurrection, when our corrupt sinful natures will be completely swallowed up by the incorruptible and glorious nature of Christ. However, in view of this, while we are still living with our sinful natures, we are inwardly compelled by the Spirit to struggle and strive to mature into Christ-like perfection.

Know then that God is glorified in our struggle with our sinful natures. In our inward groaning for the redemption of our bodies, God is glorified. Even in the acknowledgement of our helplessness against sin and our unceasing gratitude for the hope we have in Christ, God is glorified. In truth, until Christ returns, our daily and unceasing testimony will be this:

O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:24-25)

All praise and glory be to God our Father and to our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!