1John 2:29 - Our (re)Birth.Right

"If you may have come to know that He is righteous, you [all] know that also that every the [one] doing the righteousness out of Him has been born."

-Litmus tests - John here gives us another, another way we can know if someone - if we truly belong to Jesus.  #1 - Confessing our sins.  #2 - Keeping His commands/Word.  #3 - Loving your brother.  #4 - Confessing the Son.  And now this, #5 - Doing righteousness.  It is broader perhaps than keeping God’s Word.  It is a heart and a desire and a readiness to do what is right, at the ready, in season and out of season.  We don’t run from it.  We don’t hide from it.  We don’t shirk from it.  And it flows from a true knowledge of the character of God, of Who God is, what He is like.

-John has aready affirmed that God is light (1John 1.5-7, 2.8-11), a recurring theme.  And here John affirms that God is righteous.  Not the first mention - this is another recurring theme (1John 1.9, 2.1).  But in other words, God does everything right.  He always does the right thing.  No rule breaking here.  No cutting corners, no short-sheeting the bed or anything else.  No compromise or shadiness whatsoever.  We’re not talking about being a lemon-sucking joyless prude who is taking all the fun out of life.  But fun ≠ rule-breaking.  The fun and freedom and thrill we may experience when we are doing something which is not right is 100% fleshy.  But it is possible to live a life of joy and adventure and still do what is right.  Because fundamentally we are talking about being like our Father in heaven, a deep heartfelt desire to be like Dad, Who happens to be the happiest Being in the universe AND always does what is right.  This goes hand in hand with the Light.  In Him, not even a glimmer of shadow.  In the Father of lights there is no shifting shadow, no variation whatsoever (James 1.17).  100% light, 100% right, 24/7.

-Of course, to have been justified in Christ means that in our Father's eyes we already are having done everything right (yes, breathe that sigh of relief!!!).  But this must (should) play out in our day-to-day.  True statement: it is always right to do the right thing.  And the heart which has truly come to know that this is what the Father is really like will inevitably, invariably want to do the same.  The heart which has been truly (re)begotten by our heavenly Father will want to be like Him, will want to and strive to do (it)(all of it!) right, just like Him.  This is indeed our (re)birthright, to be AND to do right.  It doesn’t mean you never mess up, it doesn’t mean you never sin - but it does involve making it right when you don’t manage to do it right.  And, what's more - we have a Helper!  But this is another one of the ways which we can know that someone has truly come to know the Father thru Jesus.  It is always right - and good - and god-ly - to do what is right.

1John 2:28 - Ready and waiting...?

"And now, little children, be remaining in Him, in order that if He should appear, we should have confidence and we should not be ashamed from Him in the coming of Him."

-We have a part to play in all of this.  And it’s more than merely naming the name of Jesus.  It’s more than just raising your hand or going forward in a meeting.  It’s more that simply being baptized and walking away with your fire insurance policy intact.  We’re not just talking about a get-out-of-jail free card that we pull out when the chips are down and we’ve exhausted all our other options.  Be remaining in Him, John says.  Be remaining, abiding in Jesus.  It's the ol’ vine and the branches (John 15.1-6), and Jesus is the Vine.  All of us branches, our goal, our primary job is, remain vitally connected to the Vine, to Jesus, drawing our life-giving fruit-bearing sustenance from Him.

-There are two sides to this coin.  There is God’s part.  He creates and secures the connection, right?  He connects us to Jesus, puts us in Jesus when we truly believe, when we put our trust in Him.  For those who have truly trusted in Jesus, that connection is secure.  And of course He brings the increase as we do the abiding thing.  But that’s where there’s this other side of the coin, the part we have to play.  Abide in Me, Jesus says (John 15.4).  And John repeats it here - be abiding in Him.  Any relationship must be maintained by both parties.  And for our part, we know full well when we are not doing our part.  The upshot of that is shame.  Isn’t that what happens when we get caught in the act?  If the Lord were to show up unannounced (which, by the way, He told us He is in fact going to do - Luke 12.40), and were to catch us in the middle of our lukewarm devotion and uber-distracted busy-ness with so many unnecessary things, would we not be ashamed?  Surely this is one of the reasons so many believers are not more eager for His return, is it not?  Sure, our eagerness meter goes up whenever brokenness rears its ugly mug, but how about the rest of our days?  Are we generally and increasingly ready and waiting for the return of our Bridegroom?  Or are we not playing around, making mudpies in a slum, settling for and scraping by on cotton candy, surviving on spiritual scraps, hurrying about our daily lives, work and school and friends and entertainment and barely a few minutes for our breathtakingly glorious Savior?  Nary a whiff of the supernatural.  I wonder how many of us might be willing to settle for just shooting the Lord a text?  We don’t even talk to each other as much anymore, do we?  Not railing on technology, mind you.  But isn’t our devotion too often more of just a tame humdrum monotony, while the multitudes outside looking askance at Christ, hungry for a reason to come crowding in, are left to wonder what’s all the hubbub about?  What’s the big deal?

-Jesus says be cold or hot (Revelation 3.15).  But not lukewarm.  Not life like this.  Church, are we hot and boiling?  Am I hot and boiling (cf Romans 12.11)?  Am I leaving it all out there, full-on and full-out for Jesus?  Little children, are we abiding?  Am I abiding in Christ with full-on dependence and devotion and desperation, fully aware that apart from Him there is nothing I can do, and that just one day in His courts is better than a thousand anywhere else (Psalm 84.10), that in His presence alone there is fulness of joy (Psalm 16.11)?  Do I truly know this?  Am I living into this truth?  Surely Lord, You are the air I breathe, and I’m lost without You...  But how desperate am I...?

1John 2:27 - Everything we need...(?) Exactly.

"And you [all], the anointing which you received from Him, it is remaining in you and you are not having a need in order that anyone may be teaching you, but rather as the anointing of Him is teaching you about everything and it is true and it is not a lie, and just as it taught you, you [all] are remaining in it."

-As we have already seen, we all, all of us who have believed in Christ, have an anointing, this special gift of God’s Spirit.  And this anointing, God’s Spirit, is our constant Teacher, always present and accounted for, our very own, complementary, personal in-home Tutor, comes to our house every day - never leaves, in fact!  He is with us (remains IN us!) always and forever (John 14.16), always guiding us into truth - again, that’s what He does (John 16.13).  Whatever He hears, He share with us.  Such that - according to John - even with all these deceiving antichrists running around we believers do not actually need anyone else to teach us about what is true.  We have THE Truth-Speaker always living right here in our hearts, teaching us about everything, what is true and what isn’t, and all we really need is to (slow down long enough to) listen to what He is saying.

-I suppose a valid question for us might be then, are we hearing from Him?  Are our ears tuned to the Spirit?  Are we taking the time to listen?  Do we even care to?    The Lord does indeed seem quite intent on urging His people to listen - cf Matthew 11.15, 13.9, 13.43; Revelation 2.7 et al.  But are the competing voices of the world and the flesh and the devil drowning Him out in our lives?  I wonder if the volume on the 70-inch flat screen of our hi-definition lives is turned up so high that we have a hard time hearing Him?  Sometimes it's simply that the Lord's blessings can make us feel less desperate for Him, and it might take a little "distress" to bring us to that point of turning and listening for His voice (cf Deuteronomy 4.30, 13.3).  Some refer to Him as the "Still-Small-Voice" - and it doesn't take much to drown Him out, really.

-Rest.  Solitude.  Silence.  Wilderness experiences - these were regular habits of our Lord when He walked on earth (Matthew 14.13; Mark 1.35, 6.31; Luke 5.16, 6.12, 9.28, John 6.15).  My Bible inserts the word ‘often’.  It was ongoing, constant.  Regularly (daily?), our Lord was getting away - to pray, to listen, to meditate, to feast, to commune, to rest.  Would we not need this just as much, if not more?  The hardest part, perhaps, is simply carving out a time - and (finding) a place.  A place of quiet rest.

-But the fact of the matter is, all we who have believed in Jesus have been given everything (and exactly what) we need to live a life of godliness which is pleasing to our heavenly Father (2Peter 1.3).  Everything.  We.  Need.  All of it!  (Wait - do we really believe that?)  Starting first and foremost with His Spirit, Who is with us forever to guide us in the way of truth and away from error and all that is false.  Indeed, all the resources of heaven have been placed at our disposal, if we would only avail ourselves of them.  If we will only... slow.... down..... and listen.......  Shhh - what's that?  Speak, Lord - your servant is listening... (1Samuel 3.10)

1John 2:26 - The Pernicious Primrose Path (and those who would lead you down it)

"These I wrote to you [all] about the [ones] deceiving you."

-Most sins which we commit against another person are right out there for them to see.  Anger, impatience, unkindness, selfishness, etc.  But if I deceive you, you don’t know it.  Is there any more pernicious, treacherous form of unrighteousness then when I am going to try my level best to convince you that you can trust that which is false, that my lie is true?  That you can trust me (when in fact you cannot)?  I am leading you down the primrose path, probably a friend, or person of influence, and you are going to trust my word.  You come to trust me, yet you will regret it, cuz not only do I not have your back I am going to stab you in it.  Yes, we call these people backstabbers.  And it's a long, sinister blade they use, cuz it actually goes all they way to your heart.  They fundamentally wound your trust, and can ultimately destroy it.  In the process they have quite possibly convinced you to make some unwise decision, a fateful choice which you may regret.  It’s double damage, especially because trust is not easily rebuilt.

-Trust is indeed a precious commodity.  Aristotle said, ‘Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope".  As we grow older, we give out trust more begrudgingly - or should?  Life teaches us that, sadly, people cannot be trusted.  Even Jesus was careful about putting His trust in people (John 2.23-25).  He knows our thoughts, everything that is in our hearts, our every thought, our motives, our intentions.  Are you aware of how Scripture over and over again states that He know our thoughts?  Here are just a few passages - Acts 1.24, 15.8; Matthew 9.4, 12.25; Luke 6.8, 9.47; John 6.64; cf Genesis 6.5!  And our heart is deceitful above all else (Jeremiah 17.9)!  Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue (Psalm 120.2).  Such a great prayer.  How significant it is when Jesus can’t help but announce publicly when He first encounters Nathanael that here is one in whom there is NO deceit!  That what Jesus says - John 1.47.  How blessed is the man in whose spirit there is NO deceit (Psalm 32.2).  Truly, this is to be a hallmark of God’s people, a people who tell no lies, no deceitful tongues will be found in their mouths (Zephaniah 3.13).  In the meantime, in the world, the default position of man IS deceit.  Deceiving and being deceived (2Timothy 3.13) and increasingly so, everyone deceives his neighbor (Jeremiah 9.5) and through deceit, they refuse to know me, declares the Lord (Jeremiah 9.6).  They deceive themselves, and they might not even know it!  What a tragic state, this.  Sadly it can even be a fallback position for believers, and particularly for professing-but-not-really-believing "believers".

-So John is writing these true believers - and us - to warn us about these deceivers.  There are definitely deceivers.  They are out there.  Misleaders.  Charlatans.  In John’s context, these are ones who have gone out from the assembly of believers, who are now saying that Jesus is not the way, that He is not the Son of God.  And as is the case with most rebellion, it loves company.  These anti-christs will no doubt try to get you to sympathize with them, go with them, to join in their apostasy.  But they don’t really care about you.  They do NOT have your back.  They are just trying to reinforce their own shaky position.  And if they can you get to go along with them, they will feel better about themselves.  Many of these deceivers, so-called antichrists, have gone out into the world, ravenous wolves.  Somebody needs to warn the flock to watch out!  That’s precisely what John is doing.  Be careful, brothers!  

1John 2:25 - Magnifying the Magnificent Promise(s of the original Promise Keeper)

"And this is the promise which He promised to us, the life eternal."

-He made a promise.  GOD made a promise.  Promises by their very definition are made to be kept.  It is (supposed to be) the assurance of what someone. Will. Do.  Now with people we observe that promise-breaking is more the norm.  We experience it early on - "but Dad, you promised...!"  We grow up and cease to be surprised when someone breaks a promise.  Disappointed perhaps.  Definitely so, in the case of bigger promises - like marriage vows, okay so for example.  But it doesn’t get any bigger than this one here.  Not your average run-of-the-mill promise, this.  Something more is in play here, something way more, out-of-this-world more.  This is a God-promise - and our God is a Promise Keeper.  He is the First and Foremost, the original Promise Keeper.  Not one word ever fails of any of His good promises (1Kings 8.56).  Not ever.  When God makes a promise, He is tied to it.  He cannot lie (Titus 1.2).  He is totally unable to not be true to Himself and to His Word.  If He said it, you can take it to the bank.  Always and forever.

-So here John brings us face-to-face with another facet of the the Word which was spoken to his readers, which they had heard from the beginning - God’s promise of eternal life.  Yes, they should love one another.  But even before that, they should believe.  They should steadfastly continue to trust in Jesus, believe IN Him, knowing for sure that God has promised eternal life to anyone - whosoever believes in Jesus.  John 3.16 - this is what we believe, the crux of it all.  And this perhaps is God’s most magnificent promise - eternal life.  Whoever believes in Jesus will most assuredly receive God’s promise of eternal life.  Again, you can bank on it.  Because the God of the Word always keeps His Word.  Always.  There will never be a single promise which God will not keep.  

-His magnificent promises - they are many.  These are the bedrock of our lives, the sure foundation, our anchors in the midst of life’s inexorable - and sometimes catastrophic - storms.  I am with you always.  I will never leave you.  I will fully supply all your needs.  I am working all things together for good.  I will answer you.  I will direct your path.  I am coming back.  My love will last forever.  I love YOU!  Yes, some of these are conditional, they are conditioned upon our faith.  Trust in Me, call to Me, ask Me, believe in Me.  But believe it or not, the key to unleashing the unbelievable promises of God in my life is not how much I believe.  It is the object of our faith which makes all the difference.  I do not need bigger faith per se - my view of God needs to grow.  We put our tiny mustard seed of faith in a BIG God, Who is faithful (forever) and Who is able (way more than we can even imagine).  And He made a promise - eternal life - which He intends to keep.  He can do no other.  This new unending life becomes mine the moment I believe, and will Never. Ever. End. Forever. Thank You, thank You, thank You, Father...

1John 2:24 - Is it in you?

"[That] which you [all] heard from the beginning, in you let it be remaining.  If in you should be remaining what from the beginning you [all] heard, also you in the Son and in the Father you will remain."

-What you heard from the beginning was God’s Word, the words of Jesus - so, a command here, and I do have a choice: let those words of Jesus be remaining/abiding in you.  Recall the words of Jesus: "If you remain in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine (John 8.31); you do not have His Word remaining in you, because you do not believe Him Whom He sent (John 5.38); if anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up and they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned. [But] if you abide in Me and My Words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you (John 15.6-7); remain in My love - if you keep My commands you will remain in My love (John 15.9).

-Clearly our Lord puts a huge premium on the idea of remaining in Him, in His love, in His Words.  And there are two ways to look at it, I suppose.  Two sides of the same coin.  The remaining is something we do.  It is a command, which is fundamentally an appeal to our will.  We have a choice.  Let it be remaining.  It is on us, our responsibility.  We devote ourselves to His Word and take pains to absorb ourselves in it, we learn it and memorize it and carefully apply it, turning not to the right or the left.  And so there are people who will apply themselves to this whole remaining thing, to remaining in God’s Word(s), and you will of course see it playing out in their lives in the form of a visible life and walk of faith.  We will describe them as faithful.  And that is clearly more of the language here.  But the remaining is also something which God does, which plays out in the life of the person whose heart is truly trusting in Christ.  The abiding/remaining heart abides.  This is broadly referred to as the perseverance of the saints, describing that life which has been regenerated by Christ, made new as the Holy Spirit applied God’s Word to their heart and brought forth brand new eternal life.  Regeneration.  Metapmorphosis.  Old things gone, all things made new (2Corinthians 5.17) - for any and all who are (having put their trust) in Christ.  The person thus transformed is a completely new creation.  And this change is permanent.  Forever.  They will remain forever.  You and I and all God’s people will see that their faith will persevere for the rest of their lives.  The Word which they believed will prove to be that which they believe forever.  IF they truly did believe.

-”Take care, brothers, watch out that there will not be found in any of you an unbelieving heart which (does not remain but rather) stands away from the living God (in unbelief)...” (Hebrews 3.12)

-Yes, there is a camp of those who will insist that a person can unbelieve, can undo this regeneration by choosing to no longer remain in the Word.  Others - this writer included - will maintain that "unregeneration" is not a thing, that it not possible and that such a "used-to-be-a believer" never truly believed to begin with.  That verse in Hebrews alone lands people on both sides of this discussion.  Suffice it to say, what both camps will prescribe, and what matters most is that right now, in this moment, such a person, any person must now (choose to) remain in His Word.  No matter where you (or anyone else) might think you may have been in this whole believe-and-remain thing, right now, simply believe.  Be believing.  Present tense, Continuing action in the present.  Now and continuously.  That is precisely what John says here, nothing more, nothing less.  And the person thus remaining in God’s Word will genuinely be that person who is remaining in both the Father and the Son.

-But what John is really getting at here is what he already aluded to back in 1John 2.7, the new/old command to love one another.   These words of Jesus, which these believers had heard from the beginning, John is saying that THESE words from John 13.33 specifically need to be remaining in them, remaining in them not as guests, as words which they had heard but did not heed, but rather remaining in them as permanent residents, as family members, as words which influenced them and defined who they were, words which colored their thoughts and words and deeds.  Love one another.  These were the words which they had heard from the beginning.  These were the proof of the pudding.  Loving one another - remaining steeped in these words - goes hand in hand with remaining in the the Son and the Father (and of course those Two go hand in hand as well - there is no abiding in just one of Them...).  The person who is continuing to love their brother is one whom you can know is in the Father and the Son.  Is it in you?

1John 2:23 - What if I told you that I am a poached egg...?

"Every [one] denying the Son neither has the Father, the [one] confessing the Son also has the Father."

-The ultimate litmus test, this then.  Jesus - what say you?  Who is He?  Who is He to you?  Do you know Him?  Do you know who He is?  John puts is rather succinctly - if you deny Jesus, if you agree with that spirit of antichrist and say that He is NOT the Son of God, the One God sent to bring us back to Him, if you are not IN Him, if you don’t have Him, then you don’t have the Father either.  It's a package deal, people.  If, however, I am confessing the Son, if I am agreeing with what God’s Word says about Him, with what He says about Himself, then I also have the Father.  It really quite simple.  It doesn’t require some advanced degree.  It is not necessary to understand Greek or Hebrew.  It’s not necessary to know where you stand on dispensations or Calvin vs Arminius.  It all comes down to one point...

-So then, it all begins with Jesus.  You start with Him, again because He is the Way.  He is the only Way back to God.  His is the only Name given under heaven by which we can be saved from eternal separation from God.  There is no other.  There are not many ways to God, as some insist, many paths to the same goal.  Jesus said it quite plainly.  He said, "I am the Way... no one comes to the Father BUT THRU ME" (Jn 14.6).  So that’s what He said.  The question then becomes, what do I say about what He said?  That is THE question, for each of us, the question of questions.  Jesus - what say you?

I love how C.S. Lewis puts it in Mere Christianity: 

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”