One cannot deny the centrality of the deity of Christ in John's Gospel. So I find it very encouraging to read through this apostle's epistles to watch him put his Christology into action. In general, where the Gospels are foundational, the epistles are instructional, having accepted the Gospel message.
I the first chapter of 1 John, John goes to great length to defend the pre-incarnate Christ. When he says "we have seen with our own eyes", the point is made that they knew God existed, and that His Son would be divine, and therefore God. They actually got to witness God take the form of human flesh for a short time. He does not explain how, he simply states what he knows to be true.
Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God..."
John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word..."
1 John 1:1, "What was from the beginning..."
In the second paragraph of this chapter, John describes fellowship, using light and darkness metaphors. It would be very easy to mis-apply verse seven ("...if we walk in the Light...we have fellowship with one another...") to mean when we sin we fall out of fellowship with other believers. This is not the case here, nor is it the point John is making.
John was dealing with people who wanted to call themselves Christians, but who were denying Christ's deity and sole source of salvation. So while John was in fellowship with God, as a believer, others were not. By accepting Christ, one would thus join in fellowship with "us", that being John, God, and other believers.
The person who denies that Jesus, that man who is also God, who was incarnate in flesh, is God, is self-deceived. Likewise, the person who says he has no sin is just as self-deceived. Thus, if we do confess those sins, God is faithful and forgiving.
The point is this...It takes a complete denial of self to accept salvation. There is absolutely no other way to the Father but by accepting Christ as Savior, Christ as God, and John touched on that too in John 14:6. It also takes a complete denial of self to confess sin, to actually state what God states about that which He calls sin. When someone believes in another way of salvation, he is a liar. When someone says he has not sinned, he is just as equally a liar.
It is with this tone that John continues his epistles, and he'll begin to delve into love of God vs love of...
Holding Fast to the Name of the Creator
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Spirituality Matters
JAMES 5 (been working through James on Fridays, posting here on chapter 5)
James returns his thoughts toward the unsaved wealthy. They have been living for this world, and this world has paid them according to that. Eventually, eternally, their work and results have zero value. They have mistreated and underpaid workers, and they will get what is coming to them, at God's hand, not ours!
Verse 6 actually speaks of literal killing in courts. The wealthy would both accuse and mete out sentence at once, with very little, if any resistance.
So we get a HUGE "Therefore" in verse 7, turning the epistle back toward believers. The call to them, and to us, is for self-restraint, longsuffering, my Bible uses the word "patient". Indeed, we are to be patient, strengthen our hearts (our spiritual lives), and endure. We are told to be stronger spiritually, it is not optional. Job is listed as an example, staying consistent with James' touching on the Old Testament as he has already done several times.
ABOVE ALL - BE HONEST (v. 12). How often do we ask a question and get the run-around? Simple questions, especially about faith and salvation, should be able to be answered likewise. The "yes be yes and no be no" refers to a basic, common decency-based honesty. Integrity and character like that can be hard to find.
Verses 13 and 14 see James answering believers who are in various places spiritually. Suffering? Then pray. Cheerful? Then sing praises. Sick (literally weak, feeble), see spiritual counseling of elders/pastors and have them pray for you. There is an application to this referring to physically sick people, to use prayer and medicine, and I would agree with that. But James is tying in spiritual weakness with this as well, and the goal is SPIRITUAL healing, not necessarily just physical healing. There is countless prayer, diligent prayer by true believers, going up daily for physically sick people who may never be healed physically. Since that is the case, then the healing James speaks of can;t be physical, or this passage would not be true. But spiritual healing is always available, and we could certainly use the help and prayer of others to be so strengthened.
Verse 16 is a strong call to make sure sin does not weaken believers. Confession of sin is crucial. True salvation begins with confession, and true clean Christian living must involve confession of sin. If I expect others to confidently share with me, then I must be ready and willing to reciprocate. Some people are very good at being "needed", that is, they want to help others, and yet will not accept help from others. Maybe they feel others are not able or qualified to help them, maybe it is a spiritual thing, I don't know hearts. Other people are very good at "needing", they won't really help anyone, but they will unload cares and concerns on others.
In short, when you take James, and the rest of Scripture, we are called to encourage others, who may not be "worthy" of it. We are called to receive encouragement, too. We are called to be strong spiritually, not weakened by sin. We are called to endure, accepting other's shortcomings, knowing we have our own. Most of all, in James we are called to live as if God was our first priority. If He is not, then make changes.
Holding Fast to the Name of our Creator!
James returns his thoughts toward the unsaved wealthy. They have been living for this world, and this world has paid them according to that. Eventually, eternally, their work and results have zero value. They have mistreated and underpaid workers, and they will get what is coming to them, at God's hand, not ours!
Verse 6 actually speaks of literal killing in courts. The wealthy would both accuse and mete out sentence at once, with very little, if any resistance.
So we get a HUGE "Therefore" in verse 7, turning the epistle back toward believers. The call to them, and to us, is for self-restraint, longsuffering, my Bible uses the word "patient". Indeed, we are to be patient, strengthen our hearts (our spiritual lives), and endure. We are told to be stronger spiritually, it is not optional. Job is listed as an example, staying consistent with James' touching on the Old Testament as he has already done several times.
ABOVE ALL - BE HONEST (v. 12). How often do we ask a question and get the run-around? Simple questions, especially about faith and salvation, should be able to be answered likewise. The "yes be yes and no be no" refers to a basic, common decency-based honesty. Integrity and character like that can be hard to find.
Verses 13 and 14 see James answering believers who are in various places spiritually. Suffering? Then pray. Cheerful? Then sing praises. Sick (literally weak, feeble), see spiritual counseling of elders/pastors and have them pray for you. There is an application to this referring to physically sick people, to use prayer and medicine, and I would agree with that. But James is tying in spiritual weakness with this as well, and the goal is SPIRITUAL healing, not necessarily just physical healing. There is countless prayer, diligent prayer by true believers, going up daily for physically sick people who may never be healed physically. Since that is the case, then the healing James speaks of can;t be physical, or this passage would not be true. But spiritual healing is always available, and we could certainly use the help and prayer of others to be so strengthened.
Verse 16 is a strong call to make sure sin does not weaken believers. Confession of sin is crucial. True salvation begins with confession, and true clean Christian living must involve confession of sin. If I expect others to confidently share with me, then I must be ready and willing to reciprocate. Some people are very good at being "needed", that is, they want to help others, and yet will not accept help from others. Maybe they feel others are not able or qualified to help them, maybe it is a spiritual thing, I don't know hearts. Other people are very good at "needing", they won't really help anyone, but they will unload cares and concerns on others.
In short, when you take James, and the rest of Scripture, we are called to encourage others, who may not be "worthy" of it. We are called to receive encouragement, too. We are called to be strong spiritually, not weakened by sin. We are called to endure, accepting other's shortcomings, knowing we have our own. Most of all, in James we are called to live as if God was our first priority. If He is not, then make changes.
Holding Fast to the Name of our Creator!
Monday, June 4, 2012
It All Fits
Have you ever, as an adult, recalled something you learned as a child, but the truth of which is much more meaningful now? Or how about something you heard somebody else knew, and when they passed it along to you, you were thankful they shared knowledge with you? I'll spare you my examples, and I hope you have some thoughts running around in your head now of some specifics of your own.
It was no surprise to me, as I was reading the Bible last week, that God is un-changing, that the same God of the Old Testament was and is God in the new. Yet, as I was studying through James 4, thinking about the book of James being the "Proverbs of the New Testament", the realization of just how much continuity is in the Bible struck me as though the concept was fresh.
I had also just finished reading through 1 and 2 Kings, and I could not miss how idolatrous Israel and Judah had allowed their nations to become. Oh, they still claimed to be followers of God, but has replaced their worship of Him with so many other idols.
James seems to speak wisdom but with teeth, not poetic like Proverbs, but actually chiding with the Church, using metaphors you would find in the Old Testament narrative and poetry books. He calls the Church, allowing quarrels and struggles to mount due to self-obsessed interests, "ADULTRESSES". Realize that he uses the feminine form of the word. And notice the connotation. One in adultery is truly an unfaithful lover, trying to hold on to the right object of faithfulness, while actually living faithful to something or someone else.
In the Old Testament, God considered His covenanted people as married to Him, or at least He expected them to live faithfully, just as a wife does regarding a husband. In the New Testament, God is now dealing with the Church, believers in Christ, who as a group comprise the bride of Christ. So believers also find themselves in a marriage relationship to God, also expected to live faithfully.
By referring back to the Old Testament, James perfectly ties two completely different eras into one unifying concept: we are to be faithful to God. We are to put Him first above all else.
James nails the problem we see even today, or maybe I should say especially today. There is an ever-growing stack of idols in the lives of believers, obscuring the view of God, eclipsing, as it were, what should be the true object of our faithfulness.
When people looked at Israel, no doubt they say the idols, the high places, the pagan symbols, just like in any nation. The God-followers could no longer be distinguished from the pagans.
When people today look at the Church, when they look at the lives of believers, when they get to know you and me, they see...................
It was no surprise to me, as I was reading the Bible last week, that God is un-changing, that the same God of the Old Testament was and is God in the new. Yet, as I was studying through James 4, thinking about the book of James being the "Proverbs of the New Testament", the realization of just how much continuity is in the Bible struck me as though the concept was fresh.
I had also just finished reading through 1 and 2 Kings, and I could not miss how idolatrous Israel and Judah had allowed their nations to become. Oh, they still claimed to be followers of God, but has replaced their worship of Him with so many other idols.
James seems to speak wisdom but with teeth, not poetic like Proverbs, but actually chiding with the Church, using metaphors you would find in the Old Testament narrative and poetry books. He calls the Church, allowing quarrels and struggles to mount due to self-obsessed interests, "ADULTRESSES". Realize that he uses the feminine form of the word. And notice the connotation. One in adultery is truly an unfaithful lover, trying to hold on to the right object of faithfulness, while actually living faithful to something or someone else.
In the Old Testament, God considered His covenanted people as married to Him, or at least He expected them to live faithfully, just as a wife does regarding a husband. In the New Testament, God is now dealing with the Church, believers in Christ, who as a group comprise the bride of Christ. So believers also find themselves in a marriage relationship to God, also expected to live faithfully.
By referring back to the Old Testament, James perfectly ties two completely different eras into one unifying concept: we are to be faithful to God. We are to put Him first above all else.
James nails the problem we see even today, or maybe I should say especially today. There is an ever-growing stack of idols in the lives of believers, obscuring the view of God, eclipsing, as it were, what should be the true object of our faithfulness.
When people looked at Israel, no doubt they say the idols, the high places, the pagan symbols, just like in any nation. The God-followers could no longer be distinguished from the pagans.
When people today look at the Church, when they look at the lives of believers, when they get to know you and me, they see...................
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)