Epistle – 1 John 4-5

Thank God for giving His precious Holy Spirit to at least two souls this Spiritual Meeting! Did you have a fruitful time in fellowship with the brothers and sisters and God? Did we practice true fellowship and show true love as we have read in 1 John 1-3? Besides true fellowship and true love (as opposed to hypocritical worship and lawlessness), John cites several other contrasting examples in the last two chapters of 1 John to illustrate the clear distinction between true and false teachings.

Let us read 1 John 4-5.

Bible Passage:  1 John 4-5

I Think Therefore I Am

God’s expectations of His children are stated very clearly in the Bible. If we are sincere in learning His word and put what we’ve read to practise (James 1:22), God will reveal to us His intents and cause us to begin to understand the truth. Is there a need to comprehend the truth? Or are we contented with living in a world full of deceit and evil just as long as we can indulge and be ‘happy’? David as a shepherd boy was able to fight against all the fierce beasts, but God still put him through some tough training in moulding him to be the future king after Saul. Dealing with human beings seems a lot harder than warding off the attacks of beasts! God has given us the ability to think and make sound decisions but we have become more cunning and deceptive than the beasts.

Think Gnosticism?

We notice a lot of emphasis in this epistle on believing that Jesus Christ son of God, came in the flesh (1 John 4:2-3). Those who believed that Jesus came in the flesh were of God, those who did not, belonged to the antichrist and were teaching falsehood. The Bible states this clearly. Such a pronouncement and label against those teaching another concept is necessary. As convincing or appealing as other philosophies and ideas may sound, we MUST discern between what’s true and what’s not.

Many decisions that society makes for us today (and which we conform to fit in our social circles) are based on man’s ideas on what’s best for himself. Hence we hear inspirational quotes like ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’, ‘happiness is the key to success’, ‘follow your heart’ etc.

While the intent is good – there are universal values like honesty and bravery in society – we need to examine carefully the context of the application of such values, the intents and the consequences.

John here was writing to believers who were dealing with the false teaching of Gnosticism. You can read more about Gnosticism here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism

A form of Gnosticism is Docetists-Dualism which teaches that Christ does not have a physical body, so He did not actually die and was never resurrected. They denied Jesus coming in the flesh. One of the false teachers who propagated Gnosticism was Cerinthus. Followers of Cerinthus claimed that Jesus and Christ were two separate beings, one physical and one spiritual.

They had additional scriptures, which varied. All Gnostics said the physical body did not matter, only esoteric spiritual knowledge. Libertine Gnostics concluded that it was fine to sin all you wanted in the body. Ascetic Gnostics concluded that you should be celibate, never marry, and treat your body harshly.

Think to Overcome the World

1 John 5:19 tells us the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one, but we know that we are of God. We need a plan to overcome the world and all that it brings into our lives (1 John 5:4). There are pull and push factors. Pressure to conform? Not wanting to be seen as conservative and dull? The need to keep pure and holy? To abide in the One who loved us even before we know how to love? (1 John 4:16,19)

Think to Love, Practise the Truth and Keep the Faith

John wrote amidst all these contagious, sometimes appealing heresies (but full of lies) to encourage the believers to abide in what they had heard from the beginning so they could learn in their fellowship with God and grow in their love for their brethren.

John continued to write about knowing God through love. In loving one another, we live through God and know more about His selfless love. And although we can’t see God, but if we learn to love, we feel His abidance and know He is here with us.

Think Wise

Humans have been blessed with the ability to think. We must seek wisdom from God when in doubt. Our physical beings are limited, we don’t have the solutions to all the problems that we have to deal with in life, but we have God. And God who loved us continues to watch out for us even as we go through life’s training.

Wise people usually have long-term goals and foresight. They don’t just ‘live for the moment’ or invest all their efforts on the ‘now’. We want to be able to see that our eventual goal is to be qualified to enter into God’s kingdom, and our ultimate joy is to be able to enjoy eternal life in heaven. 🙂