Test the Spirits
The spirit of the antichrist is here and now, not to be reserved for the “last days.” John clarifies that the spirit of antichrist is something we have to deal with now in the present tense. It will continue to be a problem until “that day” when all evil will be judged and done away with, never to enter the New Heaven and New Earth.
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Are we people lovers or man slayers?
The message of God and the mission of God extend from Genesis through the Revelation of John. The message is not understood if we decouple the Old Testament from the New Testament. In today’s passage, John refers to the message his audience has heard from the beginning. Some commentators understand this beginning to refer to when they first heard the gospel. However, I believe the beginning is in Genesis due to the context referring immediately to the murder of Abel by his brother Cain, the first story following the ouster of Adam and Eve from the garden in Genesis three. The message is to love one another and not be like Cain. The message to love was not explicit but implicit because immediately after the murder, God communicated with Cain and cursed the ground in relation to Cain, who was a farmer.
Read MoreIs antichrist here already? Or is he yet to come?
John exhorts us not to believe every spirit but to test the spirits. Paul also warns about what spirit motivates certain teachers when he writes, “…some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons…” These same exhortations or warnings are necessary today. These same spirits are well and active in the world today. These spirits are not discerned broadly today because our culture has bought into the enlightenment mentality that all is material. There are no spirits, including God.
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The overcoming power of abiding
Everyone who practices casually and brazenly sinning not only practices sin but is also practicing lawlessness. Lawlessness (Greek anomia) refers to a more heinous and diabolical level of sin than we might think of as ordinary daily infractions against the Lord, which John has already addressed.
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How glorious shall we be?
God’s great and glorious love produces results in us that can only really be seen or understood by divine revelation.
We’ll do a little word study today. The Greek word (potapos) translated here as “what kind” is also translated as “how great” and “glorious” according to Bauer, Arndt, & Gingrich’s A Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament. So, the Father’s love is of a particular kind, is a great love, and I believe the context warrants the adjective a glorious love.
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How to resolve your doubts.
Every Christian believer, especially those young in the faith, has times of doubt, especially those John has already called “little children.” As one grows up from being a “little child” to a “young man” and then to a “Father,” those times of doubt naturally fade.
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Is the antichrist now or not yet?
Many antichrists have come and provided proof that we live in the last hour. I regularly hear people referring to the Hamas/Israel war and state that they believe this is a sign that we are living in the last days. This may be true, but we lose track of the absolute statement by John that he and his friends were already living in the last hour. The last hour indicates that there won’t be another one. The last days or last hour is not something we are looking forward to; we are living in the last hour just as John and his disciples were.
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To love and to love not
“If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” sounds like a big contradiction with “God so loved the world that he gave his only son.”
Read MoreChildren, young men, and fathers in Christ
Regardless of how long one has been a believer in Jesus, there is always more to know, to grow, and to mature in intimacy with God.
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Would you rather have a pot of gold or a gold mine?
Would you rather have a pot of gold or a gold mine? Would you rather have a pot of silver or a silver mine? Gold and silver that is already refined are easier to use, but when it is used up or spent, you are done. A gold or silver mine requires lots of work to extract the metal and then refine it, but assuming it is a rich mine, it won’t run out and be done after the first pot of gold or silver. It will continue producing wealth for the mine owner willing to work the mine. This is like the proverb, give a man a fish and feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and he can feed himself forever. Is it better for someone to give you a fish or to teach you to fish?
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