Having Spiritual Discernment

Posted on June 11, 2021 by russellmckinney

1 John series: (post #12)

This post marks the conclusion to our series from 1 John. As we have learned from the series, John uses his book to name at least ten identifying characteristics of authentic Christianity. In other words, if you, as a professing Christian, want to have full assurance that you really are saved, look for each of these ten evidences in your life. The legitimately born-again person should find them on full display. If they are not on display, it’s possible that you are an actual Christian, but it will be impossible for you to ever have full assurance about the matter.

I’ll relist the first nine evidences as my conclusion to this post, but for now let’s jump right into evidence #10. I’ll call this one “having spiritual discernment,” and the text for it is 1 John 4:1-6. John says:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God: because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (N.K.J.V.)

Did you catch the litmus test that John mentioned to those Christians of his day? It’s found there in the closing words of that passage. John says of himself and the other apostles, “We are of God (he could have added in, “We aren’t false prophets”). He who knows God (referring to the true Christian) hears us; he who is not of God (referring to lost people) does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

This would be like me standing in the pulpit of my church and saying to the congregation, “I am a God-called preacher, not a false prophet. Therefore, if you are a true Christian, you will listen to what I say, heed it, and apply it to your life. And if you won’t do that, well then, you obviously don’t have any spiritual discernment about you, you obviously don’t know how to test the spirits to see whether or not they are of God, and you obviously are a lost person.”

That’s some test, isn’t it? If I tried that with my congregation, they would say, “Boy, he sure does have a high opinion of himself, doesn’t he? How dare he make how we respond to his teaching the test of whether or not we are saved people.” But John and the other apostles could get by with laying down such a test.

Notice also what John says about false prophets just before he offers his test. First, he says they are “of the world.” That term “the world” refers to that Satanically driven, anti-God system that I talked about in post #6 from this series. Second, he says they speak as “of the world.” Third, he says the world (lost people) hears (listens to, heeds) false prophets.

Why do lost people listen to false prophets so enthusiastically and heed their teachings? It’s because the false prophets are speaking their language, the language of “the world.” The lost person hears the preaching of the equally lost false prophet and says, “Yes, that sounds right to me.”

John then follows all that up by saying, “But the true Christian will be able to tell the difference between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” Putting it another way, the true Christian will have spiritual discernment enough to differentiate between God-called preachers and false prophets.

How could John be so sure about this? The answer is: the Holy Spirit who dwells inside each born-again Christian. The Holy Spirit can tell the difference between false prophets and God-called preachers, and He can inwardly relay that information to the Christian. That’s why John says in the last part of verse 4, “…He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”

Now let me now wrap up this post and this series by quickly listing 1 John’s ten evidences of a real-deal salvation experience one more time. As I name each of these evidences, I’ll ask you to do a mental checkup and see where you are with each one.

  • #1: The true Christian desires to fellowship with other Christians.
  • #2: The true Christian walks in the light of Jesus.
  • #3: The true Christian keeps Christ’s commandments.
  • #4: The true Christian loves his or her fellow Christians.
  • #5: The true Christian doesn’t love the world.
  • #6 The true Christian continues in the Christian faith.
  • #7: The true Christian has the indwelling Holy Spirit.
  • #8: The true Christian works at purifying himself or herself from sin.
  • #9: The true Christian receives what he or she requests in prayer.
  • #10: The true Christian has spiritual discernment.

So, where does John’s list find you? Does your supposed salvation stand up well to the ten evidences? If it does, then praise God that you are saved and enjoy the assurance that comes with knowing that you are on your way to heaven. But if your supposed salvation doesn’t stand up to John’s test, there is some business that you need to do with the Lord because you are either saved but backslidden or just downright lost. Neither way is what the Lord wants for you. Not only does He want you to be saved, He wants you to know that you are saved and live your life accordingly. That’s what a “know so” salvation looks like in action, and it’s every Christian’s privilege to have one.    

Posted in Assurance of Salvation, Discernment, Preaching, Salvation, Series: "1 John", The Holy Spirit, Truth | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Receiving What You Request in Prayer

Posted on June 9, 2021 by russellmckinney

1 John series: (post #11)

So, you say that you are a Christian. Okay, that leads me to believe that you know how to pray. But let me ask you a question: “Do you regularly receive what you request in prayer?” According to the apostle John, you should. As a matter of fact, he even named it as one of the verifiable proofs of a true salvation experience.

We find this in two passages from 1 John. The first one is 1 John 3:21-22, where John writes:

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. (N.K.J.V., boldfaced emphasis mine)

The second passage is 1 John 5:14-15, where John says concerning Jesus:

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. (N.K.J.V., boldfaced emphasis mine)

Please notice that neither of these passages can be considered a “blank check” for the Christian in regards to prayer requests. To the contrary, John names multiple stipulations that factor into the whole equation. Those stipulations are:

  • The Christian must keep God’s commandments. (3:22) (This kicks back to post #4 in this series.)
  • The Christian must do things that are pleasing in God’s sight. (3:22)
  • The Christian must ask for things that are in accordance with God’s will. (5:14-15)
  • The Christian must have a heart that does not condemn himself/herself. (3:21)

I purposely listed that one about the heart last because it requires some explaining. What exactly does John mean when he says, “…if our heart does not condemn us…”? We find the answer in 1 John 3:18-20, the verses that come just before the stipulation in question. Those verses say:

My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. (N.K.J.V.)

In verse 18, John says that Christians should love in deed and in truth, not just in word or in tongue. (This kicks back to post #5 in this series.) Then, in verse 19, he says that if Christians love in this way, two things will happen. One, they will know they are of the truth. Two, they will have the assurance of their salvation in their hearts.

You see, the level of assurance a Christian has in regards to being saved, as well as the level of confidence that Christian has in regards to getting prayer requests granted, is dependent upon how that Christian lives. If he or she lives a life of merely talking about Christian love rather than actually showing it, his or her assurance of salvation and confidence in prayer will run low. John describes this as being condemned by one’s own heart. On the other hand, if that Christian loves not only in word but also in deed, his or her assurance of salvation and confidence in prayer will run high. This will keep that Christian’s heart from spitting out condemnation because of the hypocritical behavior.

Please understand that John isn’t suggesting that the Christian’s eternal standing with God is somehow swaying back and forth waiting to see whether or not that Christian shows love “in deed and in truth.” No, performance has nothing to do with a person either getting saved or staying saved. What John is saying is, “Even if you are a genuine Christian, if you aren’t showing love by your actions, you are giving yourself reason to doubt your salvation. That doubt, in turn, will cause your heart to condemn you, and that inner condemnation will keep you from having confidence that God will grant your prayer requests.”

By the way, don’t miss the fact that both of our text passages specifically use the word “confidence” in regards to the Christian asking for things in prayer. I must admit that I struggle in this department, not because I’m secretly living the life of a hypocrite but because I’ve asked God for many things that I just simply did not receive. Trust me, if enough of your prayer requests never become reality your confidence in prayer will take a hit, too. As I’ve had to do on several occasions, you’ll find yourself asking, “God, why didn’t you grant that request?”

It’s at that point that you will need 1 John 5:14-15, the second of those two passages that I cited earlier. The stipulating phrase in that passage is “according to His will.” John wants us all to know that God isn’t a cosmic Santa Claus who is only in business to grant our wish lists. For Him to grant a request, that request must be in alignment with His will. This basic tenet of prayer applies to every Christian, whether that Christian be backslidden on God or faithfully serving Him.

But let’s not get so bogged down in all these stipulations that we lose sight of the fact that receiving what you request in prayer is a major evidence of your salvation. Just as the proud earthly father of an obedient child will grant many of that child’s requests, the Christian’s heavenly Father will grant many of the requests made by His obedient child who keeps the commandments, does things that are pleasing in the Father’s sight, and lives a life of loving service to others. Even when the Christian has to wait for God to grant certain requests, God’s delays are not His denials. As James 1:17 tells us, every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from God the Father. Therefore, it shouldn’t surprise us in the least that it’s perfectly normal, even required, for a Christian to request things in prayer and have God grant those requests. That’s clear evidence of genuine Christianity.

Posted in Assurance of Salvation, Fatherhood, God's Love, God's Will, Grace, Prayer Requests, Salvation, Series: "1 John" | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Purifying Yourself From Sin

Posted on June 7, 2021 by russellmckinney

1 John series: (post #10)

Some people say, “There’s no way you can know for sure that you are saved because only God knows who is saved and who isn’t.” These folks have surely missed the purpose of the book of 1 John. The writer himself, the apostle John, says of the book, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13, N.I.V.). Knowing that you have eternal life is the same as knowing that you are saved and on your way to heaven.

We are now coming down the home stretch of our blog series from 1 John, a series in which we’ve been listing ten of the salvation evidences that John names. This post will be all about evidence #8 from that list. I’ll call this one “purifying yourself from sin.”

John talks about this evidence in just one passage from 1 John, but the passage is an extended one. It’s 1 John 3:2-10, and it reads as follows.

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself (boldfaced emphasis mine), just as He is pure. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. (N.K.J.V.)

Well, all of that is a mouthful, so let’s pick the passage apart by by pulling out some key thoughts from it. First, in verse 3, John says that everyone who has the hope of seeing Jesus just as He is (and that’s a reference to Christians) purifies himself. Second, the beginning of verse 6 says: “Whoever abides in Him (Jesus) does not sin…” Third, the beginning of verse 8 says: “He who sins is of the devil…” Fourth, the beginning of verse 9 says: “Whoever has been born of God does not sin…” Fifth, verse 10 teaches that lost people (people who aren’t children of God) do not practice righteousness.

And so what exactly is John teaching in all this? Does he mean that the true Christian will never commit even one sin after getting saved? No. We know that he doesn’t mean that because in 1 John 1:8-10 of this same book he tells Christians what to do when they do sin. Obviously, then, when he makes statements such as, “Whoever abides in Christ does not sin” or “Whoever has been born of God does not sin,” he’s not describing some kind of sinless perfection the Christian will live out on a daily basis.

Instead, the context of these statements is the key to understanding them. They come on the heels of the chapter’s 3rd verse, which tells us that everyone who has the hope of seeing Jesus face to face when He is “revealed” (N.K.J.V., N.R.S.V.) or “appears” (N.A.S.V., N.I.V., H.C.S.B., E.S.V., N.L.T.) purifies himself, just as Jesus is pure. The point is, the statements all elaborate on the idea of the Christian purifying himself or herself.

By keeping John’s train of thought in sequence, we see what he is saying. He’s saying that the true Christian will work continually (day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade) at purifying himself for the purpose of becoming more and more like Jesus. And as a natural evidence of that ongoing purification, that person’s life will be marked by righteousness rather than unrighteousness. The older that person gets, the more like Jesus he or she will become, which will inevitably translate to less and less sin in the person’s life. At least that’s how the Christian life is designed to work.

Admittedly, even the Bible indicates that it doesn’t always work that way. The scriptural examples of this inconvenient truth are numerous. The Christians of Corinth were an unholy mess who had a scandalous reputation. Jesus rebuked the church of Ephesus by saying to them, “You have left your first love” (Revelation 2:4). He rebuked the church of the Laodiceans by saying to them, “….because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16). Paul made no bones about the fact that Demas had fallen in love with the world and forsaken him (2 Timothy 4:10). These examples and others that could be named prove that even genuine Christians don’t always do a good job of purifying themselves (sinning less and less) to make themselves more like Jesus.

Still, though, John’s contention is that this is how the Christian life should work. In other words, this is what normal Christianity looks like. Therefore, show me a professing Christian who has no interest whatsoever in purifying himself or herself and attempting to become more and more like Jesus, and I’ll show you a person who has a right to doubt his or her salvation.

Will us true Christians ever purify ourselves to the point of living lives completely free from sin? Nope, that won’t happen as long as we are confined to these earthly bodies of ours, bodies marred by the inborn Adamic sin nature. Ah, but there is coming a day when Jesus will appear to us — that day when we will see Him as He is — and John says, “On that day we will be like Him.”

If we live to see the moment of the Rapture, we will see Jesus “as He is” in the sky above the earth (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:50-58). On the other hand, if we die before the Rapture occurs, we will see Him “as He is” in heaven (2 Corinthians 5:1-8; Philippians 1:21-23). Either way, when we see Him, our work of purifying ourselves will be finished. Until then, though, every honest-to-goodness Christian will have a basic desire to keep working at the job. He or she might not always act in accordance with that desire, but, nonetheless, the desire will always be there to some degree.

Posted in Aging, Assurance of Salvation, Christ's Return, Commitment, Death, Discipleship, Elderly, God's Holiness, Heaven, Personal Holiness, Prophecy, Repentance, Righteousness, Salvation, Sanctification, Separation, Series: "1 John", Sin | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Having the Indwelling Holy Spirit

Posted on June 4, 2021 by russellmckinney

1 John series: (post #9)

How many professing Christians are there in the world today? Figures place the number at approximately 2.3 billion. That’s 31% of the world’s population, and that makes Christians the most numerically dominant religious group in the world. Muslims currently stand in second place at approximately 1.8 billion, which amounts to a little over 24% of the world’s population.

Now, let’s think about what these numbers are telling us. Supposedly, Christianity is the most prolific religion in the world, with 31% of the world’s population classifying themselves as Christians. Admittedly, that 31% includes everybody from Catholics to Baptists, from Presbyterians to Pentecostals, from Lutherans to Orthodox, from Methodists to non-denominational, but the point is that Christianity is the world’s most popular religion by a pretty fair stretch.

Okay, now let me offer a quote from Jesus. It comes from Matthew 7:13-14, which is a part of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says:

Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (N.K.J.V.)

As we read those words and compare them with those statistics that I quoted earlier, we see a grand-canyon-sized discrepancy. If the way that leads to destruction is broad, and if the gate of salvation is narrow, and if there are few who find that gate, and yet the most prolific religious group in the world is made up on professing Christians, either Jesus was wrong in what He said or a whole bunch of people worldwide who think they are Christians aren’t. I, for one, will side with Jesus on that discrepancy.

We are in a blog series on the book of 1 John, a series in which we are identifying ten distinctive marks of salvation that John describes in this book. These marks aren’t the only ones that could be named from the Bible, but they are certainly ten good ones. And what is the next mark (mark #7) on our list? It is the individual having God the Holy Spirit literally dwelling inside his or her body.

If you read the previous post in this series, you know that I’ve already said quite a bit about this mark in relation to the authentic Christian being an overcomer. Now, though, I need to give the mark its own time in the spotlight. John mentions the mark in the following three passages from 1 John. I’ll quote them all from the New King James Version and use boldfaced type to emphasize a certain word in each:

Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. (1 John 3:24)

By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. (1 John 4:13)

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. (1 John 4:15)

As you can see, these three passages all teach that God literally dwells inside the Christian’s body. And how does He do that? He does it by way of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

If these three passages were all we had to go on for doctrine, there is plenty right here to teach us that the true Christian has God the Holy Spirit dwelling inside him or her. But, of course, these passages are not the only place where the New Testament teaches this truth. As a matter of fact, this specific mark is so necessary to authentic Christianity that Romans 8:9 goes so far as to say that if a person does not have the indwelling Holy Spirit, that person is not Christ’s.

Yes, you read that right. If an individual does not have the indwelling Holy Spirit, that individual is not a genuine Christian. You might ask, “But why is the New Testament so dogmatic on this issue?” It’s because it takes God the Holy Spirit taking up residence inside a person’s body to create what Jesus described as the born-again experience. And do you remember what Jesus told Nicodemus about being born again? He told him, “…I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3, N.K.J.V.).

Allow me to explain how this works. Ephesians 2:1 teaches that people, prior to salvation, are “dead in trespasses and sins.” That means they are physically alive but spiritually dead. Therefore, the salvation experience is the person passing from spiritual death to spiritual life. John himself uses this same descriptive language in 1 John 3:14 and 5:11-12 when he talks about Christians having life by way of having passed from death to life. Again, the point is that salvation is a REBIRTH. That’s why Jesus called it being born again and why John refers to it in 1 John 3:9 and 5:18 as being “born of God.”

However, just as a baby cannot create its own birth, a person cannot create his or her own spiritual rebirth. That’s the role that God the Holy Spirit plays. The instant a lost person places saving belief in Jesus, God the Holy Spirit comes to take up residence inside that person, and it is the Holy Spirit who creates the new birth inside that person and causes the person to pass from spiritual death to spiritual life. Then, following that moment of the new birth, the Holy Spirit continues to indwell the person and proceeds to do all kinds of other wonderful things. A partial list of those things could include:

  • He convicts the person when the person sins. (John 16:8)
  • He brings the nature of God into the person. (2 Peter 1:1-4; Ephesians 4:17-24)
  • He teaches the person. (John 14:26; 1 Corinthians 2:9-13)
  • He guides the person. (John 16:13)
  • He gifts the person with at least one spiritual gift, a spiritual gift being an ability to perform an act of service in the Lord’s work. (Romans 12:3-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-30)

Doctrinally speaking, this distinctive mark of having the indwelling Holy Spirit should be slotted first on any list of the evidences of salvation. I say that because it is the indwelling Holy Spirit who actually produces the other evidences in the person’s life. But for this series I have more or less followed John’s order in 1 John, and he doesn’t directly mention the indwelling Spirit until 1 John 3:24. He does refer to the Spirit’s “anointing” in 1 John 2:20, but that is merely an indirect reference to the Spirit, a reference that I’ll have more to say about in a later post.

So, for now, just know that if a person does not have God the Holy Spirit dwelling inside his or her body, that person is not an authentic Christian. No matter how long the person has been on the church roll, no matter how deep the baptismal waters were, no matter how honest or moral the person may be, if the indwelling Holy Spirit isn’t present, the person is still dead in trespasses and sins. I won’t even hazard a guess as to how many of the world’s more than 2 billion professing Christians fall into this category, but it is undoubtedly a large number. All I know is that Jesus, the universe’s leading authority on salvation, said, “The gate that leads to salvation is narrow, and there are very few who find it.”

Posted in Assurance of Salvation, Doctrine, Salvation, Series: "1 John", The Holy Spirit | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Being an Overcomer

Posted on June 2, 2021 by russellmckinney

1 John series: (post #8)

With this post we launch into the list of the final five evidences of salvation that are named in 1 John. The first five evidences were:

  • You desire fellowship with your fellow Christians.
  • You walk in the light (the light of Christ’s teachings).
  • You keep Christ’s commandments.
  • You love your fellow Christians.
  • You don’t love the world (the Satanic world system that dominates civilization).

Now, evidence #6 of salvation is what I’ll call “being an overcomer.” By this I mean that real-deal Christians will never lose their salvation by falling away from the truth about Jesus. Much to the contrary, they will continually persevere in the Christian faith. As the renowned preacher Adrian Rogers used to say, “The faith that fizzles before the finish had a flaw from the first.”

In 1 John 2:18-19, the apostle John writes:

Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. (N.K.J.V.)

Notice that John draws a clear line of distinction between THE antichrist (a man he says is coming) and antichrists (people he says have already come). So, who are these “antichrists” who have already come? They are people who exhibit what John calls in 1 John 4:3 “the spirit of antichrist.” As for what the spirit of antichrist is, he tells us in 1 John 4:3-4:

and every spirit that does not confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (N.K.J.V.)

What John describes here were the beginnings of a false teaching called Gnosticism that history proves would soon become a major doctrinal threat to the early churches. Gnosticism took its name from gnosis, the common Greek noun for “knowledge,” and was influenced by Greek philosophers such as Plato. Gnosticism was supposedly a higher form of knowledge that was even greater than apostolic teaching and God-inspired scripture.

Gnostic teachers taught that anything that consisted of physical matter was inherently evil while anything that consisted only of spirit was good. Based upon this erroneous belief, they denied the divinity of Jesus the man and asserted that He was just a human being until “the Christ,” whom they considered to be an angel or some other type of supernatural being or entity, descended upon Him at His baptism and departed at His death. To all that, John says, “No! Jesus Himself is the Christ, and He really did come in the flesh.” He then adds in that anyone who denies that Jesus Christ has divinely come in the flesh is not of God (implying that the person does not have God the Holy Spirit) but has instead the spirit of the coming Antichrist.

Concerning these antichrists who were energized by the same spirit by which the coming Antichrist will be energized, notice again that John says in 1 John 2:19: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us…” Evidently, these Gnostic teachers had once professed to be Christians. They had once claimed to believe in Jesus and had probably even been baptized and had attended the churches of the day. But their supposed Christianity hadn’t lasted. Somewhere along the way they had fallen away from the truth about Jesus, had embraced the doctrine of Gnosticism, and had abandoned their illegitimate Christianity.

A second passage where John touches upon this idea that the true Christian will overcome is 1 John 5:4-5. This is where John literally uses the word “overcome.” Those verses say:

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (N.K.J.V.)

You see, the true Christian is a person who has been born of God (“born again” as Jesus explained to Nicodemus in John 3:1-21). Since the Holy Spirit is the One who creates the new birth inside the Christian, this means that the Christian has God the Holy Spirit literally dwelling inside his or her body. As for how the indwelling Holy Spirit empowers the Christian to be an overcomer who never falls away from Jesus, John gives his answer in that 1 John 4:4 verse. There, he explains that the Spirit is greater than he who is in the world. Consequently, nothing about the world system — not even Satan himself or any other fallen angel — can make the true Christian quit the Christian faith.

Please notice also that John doesn’t say: “And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our performance.” If he had said that, it would mean that Christians would have to do good works in order to remain saved and become overcomers. But John says that what produces the victory that overcomes the world is “our faith.” That is a reference to each Christian’s initial saving faith (belief) in Jesus. It’s that initial faith (belief) that causes the Holy Spirit to take up residence inside the Christian and produce the inner born-again experience. The Spirit’s continuing presence then enables the Christian to persevere in the Christian faith by overcoming the wicked world system.

Of course, a Christian having the indwelling Holy Spirit and thus being an overcomer does not mean that Christian will never sin. As a matter of fact, John actually gives instructions for what the Christian should do after committing a sin. In 1 John 1:8-10, he writes:

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (N.K.J.V.)

Likewise, in 1 John 2:1-2, he writes:

My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. (N.K.J.V.)

Notice that losing salvation (failing to be an overcomer) is still not on the table even when the Christian sins. At some point following the sin, the indwelling Holy Spirit will compel the Christian to confess the sin, and Jesus will then provide the forgiveness and the cleansing. This forgiveness and cleansing will have nothing to do with the Christian either remaining saved or getting saved again. It will be, rather, all about the Christian getting back into right fellowship (not relationship) with the Lord.

Regarding sin in the life of the Christian, the absolute worst case scenario is a sin that John calls in 1 John 5:16 “a sin leading to death” (N.K.J.V.) or “a sin unto death” (K.J.V.), This isn’t a specific type of sin but can be any sin that causes God to end the Christian’s earthly life prematurely. The Christian couple Ananias and Sapphira committed a sin leading to death (Acts 5:1-11) as did some of the Christians in the church of Corinth (1 Corinthians 11:17-34). In the case of Ananias and Sapphira, their sin unto death was lying about how much they were donating to the church from a recent business transaction. In the case of those Christians in Corinth, their sin unto death was partaking of The Lord’s Supper (Communion) in an unworthy manner.

It should be understood, though, that even in the case of a Christian committing a sin that leads to death, that Christian’s soul still goes immediately to heaven at the moment of physical death. That is a benefit of being an overcomer. Again, it is that Christian’s initial saving faith (belief), not that Christian’s continued performance of good works, that makes that Christian an overcomer because that initial saving faith (belief) is what causes God the Holy Spirit to take up residence inside that Christian.

So, to sum up, one of the most decisive evidences for any Christian’s salvation, even a Christian who commits a sin that leads to a premature death, is that Christian’s ability to overcome the world and never lose salvation. If, at any point in life, a professed Christian falls away from the Christian faith, that should not be interpreted as a legitimate Christian losing his or her salvation. It should, instead, be interpreted as that person never having experienced genuine salvation, and that lack of salvation eventually manifesting itself.

I once heard a true Christian, a pastor, give his testimony. After serving faithfully as a pastor for a few years, he began to have doubts about Jesus, the Bible, and just about everything else. As a result, he quit the ministry, got a secular job, and backslid far away from Jesus. Looking back upon that time in his life, he said, “If I could have lost my salvation, I would have.”

But do you know what happened to that man? He eventually reached a point where he confessed his sins, repented of them, and got back into full-time service for Christ. He is currently serving as the pastor of a large church and enjoys helping fellow pastors who are struggling with certain aspects of their lives and ministries. How was it possible for that man to make such an amazing turnaround? It was possible because he got the real-deal salvation when he first placed his faith (belief) in Jesus as Savior, and there is an overcoming dynamic to such a salvation. It is the indwelling Holy Spirit who provides this dynamic, and just as He overcomes the world, so will the person whom He indwells.

Posted in Adversity, Assurance of Salvation, Backsliding, Belief, Confession, Encouragement, Eternal Security, Faith, Grace, Ministry, Pastors, Perseverance, Repentance, Restoration, Salvation, Series: "1 John", Sin, The Sin Unto Death | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Just Pray This Prayer…”

Posted on May 31, 2021 by russellmckinney

1 John series: (post #7)

We are now halfway through the list of ten evidences of salvation that are described in the book of 1 John. So, with this post, I thought it would be good if I pulled over here for a quick break and said a word about what is known as “easy believism.”

“Just pray this prayer with me: ‘Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I know that you died on the cross for my sins. Right now I accept you as my Savior and ask you to forgive me of all my sins. Thank you for saving me, Jesus. Amen.'”

How many times have you heard a pastor in a church service or a preacher on t.v., the radio, or the internet say this kind of thing at the close of a service or a broadcast? I’ll admit that I myself have made such statements many times during my own ministry. Over the years, however, I have become increasingly aware of the problems that are associated with this type of invitation.

First and foremost, such prayers say little to nothing of major points of doctrine such as: Christ’s divinity, His virgin birth, His sinless life, His resurrection, His ascension, and His current place at the right hand of God the Father. Instead, the whole focus is upon His crucifixion. You might ask, “But what’s wrong with focusing upon His crucifixion?” Well, nothing is wrong with it, but it would be really helpful if the person praying the prayer understood all the following about the Jesus that he or she is asking to save them:

  • He is God the Son and has eternally existed.
  • He voluntarily left heaven, came down to the earth, and was conceived in the womb of a virgin and born to her.
  • The fact that He was conceived in the womb of a virgin and born to her allowed Him to bypass the sinful nature of Adam with which all humans are conceived and born as part of Adam’s reproductive line.
  • Him being divine and not having Adam’s nature of sin allowed Him to live a sinless life.
  • He performed many miracles in His life as a way of verifying His divinity.
  • The fact that He lived a totally sinless life qualified Him to die as the substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of the entire human race.
  • He died on the cross as that sacrifice, shedding His blood as the payment for each and every sin that mankind had ever and would ever commit.
  • He was buried but arose from the dead in a glorified body on the third day afterward.
  • In His resurrected, glorified body, He made periodic appearances to His followers over the course of the next forty days, thus fully verifying that He had indeed arisen from the dead.
  • At the end of the forty days, He ascended back up to heaven and took His place once again at the right hand of God the Father.
  • He now grants salvation (the forgiveness of all sin, the guarantee of heaven) to every person who believes in Him as Savior.
  • He sends God the Holy Spirit to take up residence inside the body of each believer, and God the Holy Spirit immediately creates a spiritual rebirth (the “born again” experience) inside the believer.
  • Anyone who dies without having believed in Him as Savior will spend all eternity making their own payment for their sins by forevermore remaining cut off from God in flame, torment, and suffering.

Can you imagine a preacher, one who has about sixty seconds in which give an invitation, attempting to elaborate on all these doctrinal points with a lost person who stands ready to believe in Jesus? Can you imagine a pastor trying to explain them to a nine-year-old who attends a night of Bible school and says he wants to get saved? Can you imagine a chaplain trying to work through them all with a soldier who is lying near death from a battlefield injury? No, you can’t. That’s why the so-called “prayer of salvation” or “sinner’s prayer” usually gets reduced to two simplistic basics: Jesus dying on the cross for the individual’s sins and the individual believing in Him as Savior.

The good news is that millions of people throughout history have understood enough about who they were as sinners and who Jesus is as a Savior to pray such a prayer and through it legitimately get saved. The bad news is that millions of others have gained a false hope of salvation simply because they “prayed the prayer.” These false converts are the victims of what has come to be called “easy believism” or “quick prayerism.”

These false converts are why critics of such prayers say, “Merely praying a prayer makes it too easy to get saved.” While this criticism does hold some validity, the pushback is to ask the critic, “Just how hard do you want to make it to get saved?” Remember, the Bible speaks of the simplicity, not the complexity, that is in Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3).

The thief on the cross (Luke 23:39-43) certainly didn’t have time to get baptized and prove his salvation by performing a list of good works, did he? The Ethiopian eunuch only received one fairly quick scriptural lesson from Philip before getting saved, baptized, and never seeing Philip again (Acts 8:26-40). When the jailor in Philippi asked Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” they responded, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household (meaning that each member of the household could also be saved by believing).” That, you see, is a far cry from requiring the man and his family to pass a course in Christian apologetics before attempting to believe.

What we must always keep in mind about “praying a prayer” is that the prayer itself isn’t what produces the salvation. What produces the salvation is the voluntary, deliberate, inner decision to place one’s belief in Jesus as Savior. The prayer is nothing more than the vehicle through which the decision gets expressed. Truth be told, if a person has the inner belief, the prayer isn’t even necessary.

Those who would disagree with that last sentence would point to Romans 10:9-10 as proof that the literal mouthing of words is necessary. Those verses say: “…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (N.K.J.V.). Similarly, Romans 10:13 says: “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (N.K.J.V.). But there are literally hundreds of other passages that teach that it is the belief (or faith, as that word is used synonymously with belief) that produces the salvation. One prime example of these passages is John 3:16, the most famous verse in the Bible.

After Peter had preached on the Day of Pentecost, he didn’t ask his audience to pray anything (Acts 2:14-39). And yet some 3,000 of them still managed to get saved. When Jesus met the spiritually lost Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road and Saul asked him, “Lord, what do you want me to do?”, Jesus didn’t say, “Pray this prayer with me” (Acts 9:1-9). And yet Saul still managed to get saved during that encounter. When Peter was preaching to a group of lost Gentiles and it became obvious that those Gentiles had received the Holy Spirit (which was clear evidence of their salvation), Peter didn’t say to them, “Wait a minute, you can’t get saved yet because I haven’t led you in the prayer” (Acts 10:44-48).

Since the evangelistic efforts that are described in the book of Acts were oftentimes done outdoors, and since the early church congregations met in homes that didn’t have aisles or altars, a new believer did not publicly showcase his or her salvation by coming down an aisle, kneeling in an altar, and praying a prayer. Instead, it was done by way of a public baptism. That’s why the book of Acts emphasizes baptism so much. Baptism was an outward object lesson that showed what had happened on the inside of the individual. It was an outer profession, one without words, of inner belief. For that matter, it still is.

One problem with asking someone to pray a “sinner’s prayer” is the fact that there is no standardized version of such a prayer. This allows for tons of leeway as the prayers some preachers recite might include sections about Christ’s virgin birth and His resurrection while the prayers of other preachers might stick strictly with Christ’s crucifixion and the sinner’s need for forgiveness. While all this diversity might seem harmless enough, it can become a problem when a person begins to doubt his salvation and thinks to himself, “Maybe I didn’t really get saved because I didn’t say the right words when I prayed.” Do you see how that could become an issue if the person focuses more on the prayer that he prayed than the belief he expressed?

Still, though, with all this understood, I don’t want you to think that I’m against preachers asking people to, “Pray like this…” or “Repeat after me…” Like I said, I myself have done this kind of thing many times in my ministry. People being people, most of them do have a desire to vocally convey the inner decision they are making to believe in Jesus. And if the spoken words accurately describe the inner belief, there can’t possibly be anything wrong with saying them. For that matter, speaking the words out loud can even help the person in regards to feeling assured about the salvation.

At the end of the day, there is no magic formula that can ever allow us to be 100% effective in weeding out false converts from bona-fide salvation experiences. That’s why I’m glad that God is not only the one who does the saving but is also the final Judge in these matters. Our job is simply to present the gospel and let Him do the work of convicting and saving.

Thankfully, we can take great encouragement from the fact that each individual case of salvation has already been settled by God in eternity past. We know this because Revelation 13:8, Revelation 17:8, and Luke 10:20 all teach that the names of saved believers were written in God’s Book of Life “from the foundation of the world.” That doesn’t mean that God forces those people to get saved so that He can keep His Book of Life in order, but it does mean that He knew, by way of His perfect foreknowledge (Isaiah 46:9-10), from eternity past which individuals would voluntarily choose to get saved by believing.

As I once heard a Sunday School teacher say, “God will see to it that no one ends up in heaven who shouldn’t be there, and no one ends up in hell who shouldn’t be there.” That little piece of homespun theology has always helped me immensely, and it continues to help me anytime I sail into the murky waters of “easy believism” and “quick prayerism.” I don’t suppose that I will ever completely master the navigation of those waters, but if I faithfully do my best to share the gospel and try to lead folks to Christ, that’s all that God will ever ask of me. And if that includes me saying to someone, “Pray this prayer…” or “Repeat after me…”, so be it. If God knows that I’m sincere in what I’m doing and the other person is sincere in what he or she is doing, He will make sure that the salvation experience is legitimate. That, when all the dust has settled, will be good enough to get the job done.

Posted in Assurance of Salvation, Belief, Children, Christ's Birth, Christ's Death, Christ's Miracles, Church, Conviction, Election, Eternal Security, Eternity, Evangelism, Faith, God's Omnipotence, God's Foreknowledge, God's Sovereignty, God's Work, Grace, Heaven, Hell, Ministry, Missions, Pastors, Personal, Prayer, Preaching, Salvation, Series: "1 John", Sunday School, The Gospel, Trusting In God, Witnessing, Youth | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Not Loving the World

Posted on May 28, 2021 by russellmckinney

1 John series: (post #6)

Up until this point in our series on 1 John’s evidences of salvation, we’ve named things the genuine Christian will do. He or she will desire to fellowship with other Christians, will walk in the light of Christ’s teachings, will keep Christ’s commandments, and will love their fellow Christians. Now, for the first time, let’s name something the genuine Christian won’t do: he or she won’t love the world.

Here’s what John has to say on the subject (all of these references from the N.K.J.V.):

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:15-17)

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. (1 John 3:1)

Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. (1 John 3:13)

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:4-5)

We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. (1 John 5:19)

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. (1 John 5:21)

The word “world” in each of these passages translates the Greek word kosmos. This word can refer to this ball of rock that we call planet Earth (Acts 17:24; Romans 1:20) or it can refer to all the people who live on this planet (John 3:16; 1 John 2:2). Most frequently, however, the New Testament writers use it in reference to the world “system” that dominates life on this planet.

We do this same kind of thing with our language today. When we talk about “the world of finance,” we aren’t talking about just one bank or one banker, are we? No, we are talking about a system of banking that covers the entire planet. When we talk about the world of fashion, we aren’t talking about just one designer or one store, are we? No, we are talking about a system of fashion (the garment industry) that covers the entire planet. When we talk about the world of sports, we aren’t talking about just one player, one coach, one team, or even one sport, are we? No, we are talking about a system of athletics that covers the entire planet.

So, in these passages from 1 John, John isn’t saying that the Christian should hate God’s created planet or God’s created people; he’s saying the Christian should hate the societal system that reaches to all parts of the globe and drives human civilization onward. And what is this system? It is Satan’s system for opposing God’s work upon the earth.

Did you know that Jesus called lost people “the children of this world” (Luke 16:18)? Obviously, He wasn’t talking about lost people merely being inhabitants of planet earth. He was, instead, talking about them being the children of the Satanic system that opposes God’s work upon the earth.

As the children of this world, unsaved people are out there right now doing Satan’s bidding (either unknowingly or knowingly) in the realms of banking, fashion, sports, politics, entertainment, advertising, technology, etc., etc., etc. And since all of these realms are woven together to create the matrix of what we can call the world system, it isn’t hard to figure out who the ruler of it all is. It is Satan. This explains why Jesus called Satan “the ruler of this world” (referring to the world system) in John 12:31. It also explains why 1 John 5:19 says the whole world (the world system) lies under the sway of the wicked one.

It is this Satanically inspired and Satanically energized system that John says the authentic Christian will hate. The Christian will hate the system because the system hates the Christian (1 John 3:13). And why does Satan’s world system hate the Christian? It’s because it recognizes that the Christian isn’t a part of it. As John says of Christians, “…the world does not know us, because it did not know Him (Jesus).

As we’ve seen with some of John’s other quotes from 1 John, all he did with that one was play off something that he’d once heard Jesus say. In John 15:18-19, Jesus says to His apostles, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (N.K.J.V.). John was personally present to hear Jesus say that, and so, years later, writing under the inspiration of God, he picked up on that theme and ran with it.

I trust we can all agree that the case John presents for the legitimate Christian not loving the world system is a solid one. First, everything that is part of the world system can fit into one of three categories — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life — and nothing from any of those categories is of God (2:15-16). Second, the world system, complete with all its lusts and pride, is always passing away and never destined for eternal permanence (2:17). Third, the world system didn’t know (understand, acknowledge) Jesus and doesn’t treat His followers (Christians) any better (3:1). Fourth, rather than know (understand, acknowledge) Christians, the world system literally hates them (3:13). Fifth, rather than embrace the world system, the Christian will see it as something to be overcome by walking in faith in the midst of it (5:4-5).

By the way, you might have noticed that I included 1 John 5:21 on my list of references even though that verse doesn’t specifically use the word “world.” In that verse, rather than mention the “world,” John says, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen” (N.K.J.V.). I included that verse because an idol is very much a thing of the world system, whether that idol be a graven image in ancient Israel or a house, a car, a job, a sports team, or even a person in modern-day America. The bottom line is that if you are practicing some form of idolatry, you are unquestionably practicing a version of worldliness.

So, in closing, what have we learned in this post? We’ve learned that even though God remains sovereign over every nut and bolt of His creation, for now Satan’s work is humming along upon planet Earth by way of the Satanic world system that dominates all the various realms of civilization. This world system inherently hates Christians, and Christians will inherently hate it right back. We’re talking oil and water here, two separate entities that can never and will never jive. True Christians will always view the world system as something to be overcome on the way to heaven, but thankfully they can rest in the promise that their overcoming is guaranteed to happen through their saving faith/belief in Jesus. Remember that Christians are born again through Jesus Christ (John 3:1-8), and John says in 1 John 5:4, “…whatever is born of God overcomes the world.”

Posted in Belief, Faith, Lust, Pride, Salvation, Satan, Series: "1 John", The Devil | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Loving Your Fellow Christians

Posted on May 26, 2021 by russellmckinney

1 John series: (post #5)

In 2nd Corinthians 13:5, the apostle Paul says to the Christians of Corinth, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you — unless, of course, you fail the test?” (N.I.V.). In light of Paul’s suggestion, I submit that doing such an examination is a good idea for anyone who professes to be a Christian. I myself can truthfully say that I don’t doubt my salvation, but that doesn’t mean that I’m opposed to putting it under the microscope of God’s written word, the Bible. I mean, if there is one thing that I am absolutely, positively sure about it’s the fact that I don’t want to die and go to hell!

But where do we go in the Bible to find a good test regarding salvation? I can’t think of any better place than the book of 1 John. That’s because John says in 1 John 5:13, “These things (the entirety of the book) I have written to you (Christians) who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”

And so, under the inspiration of God, John wrote this book that gives us at least ten reliable evidences that mark a true salvation experience. Thus far in this series we have covered three of those ten. Those were: you have a desire to fellowship with other Christians; you walk in the light of Christ’s teachings; and you keep Christ’s commandments. Now we are ready to cover a fourth piece of evidence. I’ll call this one “loving your fellow Christians.”

This particular evidence is a big one with John, and he hits upon it in at least six passages in 1 John. Here they are (all from the N.K.J.V.):

He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. (1 John 2:9-11)

In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:10)

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love not his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, because He laid down his life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. (1 John 3:14-19)

And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. (1 John 3:23)

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. (1 John 4:7-12)

And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also. (1 John 4:16-21)

It isn’t hard to understand the idea that is being hammered home in these passages, is it? In John’s way of thinking, the true Christian will show a true love for his or her fellow Christians. While this evidence of salvation is similar to the first one we named in this series — having a desire to fellowship with other Christians — it runs much deeper than mere fellowship. You see, it’s possible to fellowship with someone without actually loving them.

Of course, this notion of Christians loving their fellow Christians wasn’t original with John. He himself had personally heard Jesus say the words that are recorded in chapter 13, verses 34 and 35, of John’s gospel. There, Jesus says to His apostles, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (N.K.J.V.).

Logically speaking, it does make perfect sense that Christians should love their fellow brethren. Christians are, after all, members of the same eternal family and all have God the Father as their heavenly Father. Furthermore, they are also all part of the same bride, the bride of Christ (the church). So, why shouldn’t they love one another?

The fact is, though, that there are many times when professing Christians don’t exhibit a love for one another. When we hear about church fights, church splits, denominational wars, and Christians just not getting along in general we have to wonder where the love is. These reports didn’t just start recently, either. In 1 Corinthians 6:1-11, we find that the early church’s Christians of Corinth were having so many problems among themselves that they were actually suing one another in the public courts of Corinth. Paul was just flabbergasted that they would do such a thing and said to them, “Do you not know that the saints (Christians) will judge the world?…Do you not know that we shall judge angels (referring to fallen angels)?….But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers!”

At this point I should probably mention that Christians loving fellow Christians doesn’t mean that we must accept sin, tolerate what is wrong, or promote what is ungodly in the lives of professing Christians. The reality is that rebuking error can be an act of love if it is done in the right spirit. Jesus often rebuked people, including His own disciples, and yet He always loved them. Likewise, Paul loved those Christians of Corinth even as he was rebuking them. It is only our undiscerning society that has created the wrong idea that factually calling someone’s behavior “sinful” can’t possibly convey love.

Getting back to our text passages, we find that John mentions certain things that happen when the Christian shows love toward his fellow Christians. First, that Christian will create within himself no cause for stumbling (2:10). Second, he will assure his own heart before God (3:19). Third, he will have boldness in the day of judgment (4:17). These benefits are all in addition to the primary benefit, which is that his life will provide definite evidence of salvation. So, to use the reasoning that John uses in 1 John 3:14, how can we know that we have passed from spiritual death (Ephesians 2:1) to spiritual life? The answer is simple: We love the brethren. That’s as good a piece of evidence as there is.

Posted in Assurance of Salvation, Church, God's Love, Reconciliation, Salvation, Series: "1 John" | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Keeping Christ’s Commandments

Posted on May 24, 2021 by russellmckinney

1 John series: (post #4)

By the apostle John’s own admission, he wrote the book (epistle, letter) of 1 John to help Christians have full assurance regarding their salvation (1 John 5:13). He said this assurance can be achieved by way of the professing Christian taking a self-examination. That examination centers around a list of ten practical evidences that John says will mark the life of the true Christian. Thus far in this series we have dealt with the two of these evidences. Those were enjoying fellowshipping with other Christians and walking in the spiritual light of Jesus’ teachings. Now let’s get to a third evidence, one John calls “keeping Christ’s commandments.”

Consider the following three passages from 1 John (each from the N.K.J.V.):

My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. (1 John 2:1-6)

Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. (1 John 3:24)

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. (1 John 5:2-3)

In these passages, John uses various types of terminology to describe the lifestyle of keeping Christ’s commandments. He refers to it as keeping Christ’s word (2:5), having the love of God perfected in the person (2:5), abiding in Christ (2:6; 3:24), walking just as Jesus walked (2:6), and exhibiting the love of God (5:3). This lifestyle doesn’t produce salvation — no lifestyle can — but it does showcase it. As John says, “Now by this we know that we know Him…” (2:3), and, “By this we know that we are in Him” (2:5).

While keeping Christ’s commandments is closely related to walking in the light of His teachings, it is slightly different in that keeping a commandment carries more force than walking in light. Admittedly, sometimes it’s hard to differentiate between a teaching and a commandment, but it can be done. For example, in Matthew 7:15-20, Jesus says to His followers, “Beware of false prophets.” That can be classified as a commandment. But then He follows up that command by saying of false prophets, “You will know them by their fruits.” That can be classified as a teaching. For the most part, Christ’s Sermon on the Mount consists of commandments while His parables consist of teachings. His Olivet Discourse (Matthew chapters 24 and 25) is also by in large a teaching, His most extensive one on prophecy.

It is surely no coincidence that John, in his gospel, quotes Jesus as saying to His disciples, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15, N.K.J.V.). It isn’t hard to imagine John thinking back upon that quote as he penned the words of our three text passages. To John, claiming to love Jesus but not keeping His commandments was a ludicrous contradiction. Not only is keeping Christ’s commandments proof of an individual’s love for Christ, it is also proof of that individual’s salvation if he or she claims to be a Christian.

Another quote from Jesus that John could have remembered is found in Matthew 7:21. There, Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father which is in heaven.” Obviously, keeping Christ’s commandments walks hand in hand with doing the will of God. Paul chimes in here as well when he speaks in Titus 1:16 of those who “…profess to know God, but in works they deny Him…” (N.K.J.V.).

Of course, the common pushback to equating keeping Christ’s commandments to authenticating salvation is the old line, “But God looks upon the heart.” Well, no one is disputing that God knows each person’s heart, but John would contend that if a person’s heart has been truly changed by the salvation offered in Jesus, that change will show up in the person’s outward conduct at some point.

John, in his typically blunt style, doesn’t mince words about this. He says, “He who says, ‘I know him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar” (2:4). Wow, John, tell us how you really feel. I dare say that if all pastors started using such dogmatic language in their sermons, many a church would be looking for a new pastor soon! Then again, maybe more of this type of language would help us identify the tares in our congregations (Matthew 13:24-30).

Lastly, it’s also important to note that John says that Christ’s commandments are actually not burdensome to the genuine Christian (5:3). Truth be told, many people, including many lost people, have enough willpower and intestinal fortitude to make themselves do certain things or keep various rules and commandments. But having to expend such effort will quickly become burdensome. By contrast, the genuine Christian, having been born again spiritually by the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, will desire to obey Christ’s commandments as a way of showing love and devotion to Him. In other words, keeping Christ’s commandments won’t be work and drudgery to the legit Christian. As Jesus Himself said concerning those who metaphorically get in yoke with Him, “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:30, N.K.J.V.). You see, with that being the situation, it’s no wonder that one of the practical evidences of salvation is the simple keeping of Christ’s commandments.

Posted in Assurance of Salvation, Commitment, God's Will, Obedience, Salvation, Series: "1 John" | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Walking in the Light

Posted on May 21, 2021 by russellmckinney

1 John series: (post #3)

In my previous post, I cited 1 John 1:7 as evidence of the first tell-tale sign of Christianity that John names in 1 John. That sign is Christian fellowship, the Christian having a desire to fellowship with other Christians. Now, for this post, I want to use 1 John 1:7 again as evidence of a second tell-tale sign. This time the sign is what I’ll call “walking in the light.” In order to quote the verse in its context, I’ll also provide the preceding two verses. 1 John 1:5-7 says:

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (N.K.J.V.)

In Matthew 5:14, Jesus says to His followers, “You are the light of the world.” That means that Christians are spiritual lights in a spiritually dark world. The apostle Paul hit upon this same theme in Philippians 2:15 when he said that Christians are children of God who walk in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation and shine as lights in the world.

Please notice, though, that in our text John isn’t talking about Christians shining as lights. Instead, he’s talking about Christians walking in the light. So, what does it mean to walk in the light? Walking in the light is all about the Christian continually taking those spiritual truths and spiritual lessons that he or she has learned from Jesus and applying them on a situation-by-situation basis in daily life.

Many lost people spend their days consumed with worry about paying the bills, putting food on the table, etc., etc. But such a lifestyle isn’t walking in the light of Jesus. Why not? It’s because Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25, N.K.J.V.).

Many lost have a definite hatred toward their enemies. But such a lifestyle isn’t walking in the light of Jesus. Why not? It’s because Jesus said, “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you…” (Matthew 5:44, N.K.J.V.).

Many lost people spend their lives doing nothing but trying to get ahead, trying to get to the front of the line, trying to make the most money, trying to drive the nicest car, and trying to live in the finest home. But such a lifestyle isn’t walking in the light of Jesus. Why not? It’s because Jesus said, “But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:11-12, N.K.J.V.).

You see, Jesus has left us with an incredible body of teachings — to say nothing of a life lived that exemplified them — that can be described as spiritual light. It is, therefore, the assignment of every Christian to get up each day and walk in all that spiritual light. Oh, and did I mention that walking in that light can be really hard? As a matter of fact, it can be hard enough to make us ask the question, “Who in the world would purposefully choose to walk in Christ’s teachings?” I’ll tell you who: the true Christian. That’s why walking in the light will always be one of the best evidences of salvation.  

Posted in Assurance of Salvation, Commitment, Discipleship, Doing Good, Extending Forgiveness, Needs, Persecution, Salvation, Series: "1 John", Service | Tagged , , | Leave a comment