“We out of God are, the [one] knowing God is hearing us, [he] who is not out of God is not hearing us. Out of this we are knowing the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
-Here we have the ultimate true/false question. And you had to like those odds in high school when you for sure didn’t know the right answer. Only two choices, and you had a 50/50 chance. Much better than a mulitple choice question - esp those ones with the D) All of the above, and E) None of the above. Those were killers. But no multiple choice here. No 50 shades of grey, either. No, not even one. What we have is truth and error. True and false. Right and wrong. Black and white. No grey area to be seen here. John stakes out the boundaries in no uncertain terms. True or false: Jesus is the Way. And note John’s confidence - we are out of God, which means we on the side of truth. If you know God, you therefore know and listen to the truth. I.E., you listen to us and what we’re saying about this One Whom we saw and heard and touched (John 19.35, 1John 1.1). It does come off as sounding somewhat circular - you are listening to truth, ‘cuz what we are saying is true - but John and his companions were actually eyewitnesses. We SAW Him, with our own two eyes, he says. We saw all that He did, for three years. We TOUCHED Him - and He touched us, and healed us. And we HEARD Him. We heard what He taught. And we heard God Himself speak from heaven, at least three times (Matthew 3.17, 17.5; John 12.28)! What’s more, we have signs and wonders to back up what we have been saying (Acts 5.12, Hebrews 2.3-4)! What we are saying about Jesus is true, this is the spirit of truth which is from God Himself. Thus we and all those who believe in Jesus are on the side of truth and can be said to be “out of God”. It’s not at all about me and what I might bring to the table - it’s all about Jesus. Do I believe in Him? Am I following Him? But this extends to both teachers and hearers (follower/believers). True follower/believers (ones who truly believe in Jesus) listen to true teacher/believers (who also truly follow/believe in Jesus), whereas false followers do not.
-”Error” is a wandering. That is the picture in the Greek. This person has strayed from the path. They are lost. They have been led astray somehow, possibly from childhood even, and very likely have been or will be leading others astray. And everyone gets lost at some point. Maybe you were taking a test, or doing some homework, and got lost. You didn’t know how to proceed. Maybe you were going somewhere, and you took a wrong turn. It helps to have clear directions. Or a map. Used to be, you had your "map people" - or used to before GPS. Going someplace new? You needed a map. Map people would have dozens of maps (I did!). Now you’ve got your GPS people - can’t go out of the house without their GPS. The thing about being lost is getting UN-lost, getting found. Getting back on the path, back on track. It can begin with making sure you’re not following someone who is lost themselves (and pity the one who copies a test answer from someone else who got it wrong!)! But we’re not talking about making a wrong turn in Albuquerque. This isn’t some bonus question on a pop quiz, some simple sophomoric mistake likely to be graded on a curve. No, we’re not talking about some roadtrip or grade school hijinks, here - this is a matter of life and death, and this error, this fateful, fatal wandering will cost you your very soul. Surely one would want better than 50/50 odds. That’s pretty much hanging your eternal destiny on a coin flip. Spiritual russian roulette - who in their right mind would play that? Except with 50/50 odds you've got THREE bullets in the gun. Surely one can do better. And this is John’s point. We CAN know, for sure. No guesswork here. No hint or shade of grey.
-This is also why we see Jesus’ half-brother James being so keen to stress the importance of turning people from their erroneous wandering ways (James 5.20). Helping them to get on the right track, helping them move from lost to found. There is an art to doing this, of course (cf Galatians 6.1, 2Timothy 2.25) - cautious gentleness. And unlike that grade school test, in this instance, we ARE actually looking for red marks - the crimson blood of Jesus which in truth covers up and takes away all our mistakes, all our wanderings and spiritual error. He is the Way, and the Truth. Do you and I believe this? Are we listening?
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