This is eternal life - 1 John 5:19-21

"And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, guard yourselves from idols." (1 John 5:20-21)

Jesus came for many reasons. One of them being to enlighten our minds and, most specifically, here in the Greek, our intellect, that we might know God. It's not that we did not know God before, for the reality of His existence was evident all around us. It's not that His word was unknown to us before, for it had been written and passed down for centuries and millenniums previous. It was that the truth of Him and the understanding of His word was hidden until a time of revealing. A time which had come to maturity with the coming of Christ.

To Isaiah God said, "The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, 'Please read this,' he will say, 'I cannot, for it is sealed.'" (Isaiah 29:11) To Daniel He said,, "Go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time." (Daniel 12:9) And when Jesus taught He said, "Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand." (Matthew 13:13) However, after His resurrection, all things changed and He set out to enlighten our hearts and to give us an understanding that we might know and understand both Him and His truth, On the road to Emmaus Jesus talked with two of His disciples. "Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures." (Luke 24:27) Then later with the rest of His disciples, it is written that, "He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures." (Luke 24:45) Later, when John was receiving his revelation in heaven, he was weeping for none was found worthy to break open the seals and reveal what was written until, "one of the elders said to me, 'Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.'" (Revelation 5:5)

Jesus came to open our minds and our intellects that we might know and understand God. Not only that we might know who God is but that we might also understand who we are in Him and who we are to Him. When we believe in Jesus, we are in Jesus and, when we are in Jesus, we are in God and, when we are in God, we are in Him who is true. We all want to give our lives to something that is true. If we understand that life is short and that we have so precious little time on this Earth, shouldn't we seek to give our lives to something that matters? What a horrible state for someone to live their life for something that is false or of no consequence; to waste their life on what does not matter at all. Worse than that, to find that in squandering this life we have actually forfeited the life to come. We have lived for the temporary at the expense of the eternal. All that is true and all that is eternal is found in God. To live our lives for what matters and for what lasts forever is to live our live in Christ, for He is the truth and he is eternal life.

John ends his letter with a simple command, "guard yourselves from idols." This command seems almost out of place or placed there as an after thought. However, if we understand that we are in the one who is truth and who is eternal life, why would we resort to idols? Paul, saw in many cases, the reality of people turning form idols. Speaking of those who witnessed the conversion of the Thessalonians, he wrote, "For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come." (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10) Seeing what a glorious salvation we have received, and having received knowledge and understanding from God, what more use do we have for idols? God is enough! Keep yourselves from idols!

David Robison

Born to not sin - 1 John 5:18-19

"We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one." (1 John 5:18-19)

At first blush, this verse is also difficult to understand and to accept. I know that I have been born of God yet, from time-to-time, I still sin. So how can John say that those born of God do not sin? Fortunately, we only have to look back a little way in John's letter to understand what he is saying. John previously said, "No one who is born of God practices sin." (1 John 3:9) John is not saying that, once having been born again we will never stumble in sin, rather he is saying that those who have been born again have laid aside the practice and habit of sin. Temptation may over take us but we no longer sin as a mater of course, habit, or practice.

This change is what is often most immediately apparent to those around us upon our conversion. Peter expresses this same sentiment when he said, "Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries. In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you." (1 Peter 4:1-4) Those who have been united with Christ in His death and resurrection have "suffered in the flesh" and as such have "ceased from sin." They no longer live their lives for the fleeting pleasure of sin but for the eternal pleasures that come from a life lived for God. They no longer live for their own will and pleasure but for the will and pleasure of God.

The reason we can live apart form sin is because of Christ. Darby translates this verse, "he that has been begotten of God keeps himself," (1 John 5:18 Darby) but I believe the above translation to be more accurate, especially when John is comparing the one who keeps us from the one who tempts us. This world lines under the dominion of the evil one. However, we have now chosen new loyalties. However, for a while, must remain and live in his realm even though our allegiances are somewhere else. Before He died, Jesus prayed, "I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." (John 17:15-16) Having now ascended, He now keeps us by His power and grace. Our hope of righteousness is no longer in ourselves but in the One who is more than able to keep us.

The evil one can try, but he can no longer assert his dominion over us. Jesus said of Satan, "the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me." (John 14:30) The same can be said of us. As we have died to this world so has those things in our lives that Satan once laid claim to. There remains in us nothing that is his. We have been set free. We may be in his kingdom, but we are no longer under his dominion. Thanks be to God!

David Robison

Sins not unto death - 1 John 5:16-17

"If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death." (1 John 5:16-17)

This is a difficult verse to properly understand and to apply to our lives today. It's hard for us, or at least for me, to understand what kinds of sins John is talking about and our role in praying for them or not praying for them. It is tempting to think that John is speaking of the "unforgivable sin," where Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter;  but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin." (Mark 3:28-29) However, of the four Gospels, John omits these remarks of Jesus. It is hard to imagine that John would have refereed back to something he had never written. It is my opinion that this is not what John is referring to here,

The scriptures are clear as to the consequences of sin. God, speaking of how the son should not be held accountable for his father's offenses, says, "The soul who sins will die." (Ezekiel 18:4) Also, Paul reminds us of the price we pay for sin, saying, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23) So, if the penalty for sin is death, then how can there be a sin not leading to death?

James reminds us that "we all stumble in many ways," (James 3:2)  yet the promise of God is that, "When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand." (Psalm 37:24) Furthermore, God, knowing that even the righteous will stumble and fall at times, says, "For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, but the wicked stumble in time of calamity." (Proverbs 24:16) We all, from time-to-time, stumble in our faith and revert to unrighteousness in our words and deeds. We forget our salvation and our deliverance from our former ways and former allegiances and belie the truth that we have been born again and translated into a Kingdom of light. We sin the sins of the past rather than living in the righteousness of the present. At times like these we need to be washed. It's not that we have lost our previous salvation, but we have been soiled by the world and our propensity to continue to live according to its ways. When Jesus washed His disciples feet, He said, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean... You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you." (John 13:10, 15:3)

At times like these, whether in our own lives or in the life of someone else, we ought to pray or them and God will restore them and keep them in life abundant. God has given us the privilege of interceding on their behalf, to appropriate life for those who have stumbled into unrighteousness; to receive life from God for them on their behalf. However, when some have chosen a deliberate path of sin and have turned their backs on their faith, their restoration requires more than our prayers. While we should pray for their restoration, the life the seek will never be theirs until they return and make it right before God. Where in one case we might intercede for the stumbler to obtain from God, these must come to God themselves and intercede for their own sin and unrighteousness that they may be restored to forgiveness and fellowship with God. These have chosen a path leading to death and only an encounter with God will save them. While we pray for them, our prayers are not for pardon but for salvation; it's not for the continuation in life but the salvation from death.

David Robison

If we ask - 1 John 5:14-15

"This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him." (1 John 5:14-15)

The Greek word used here for "confidence" means to have all outspokenness towards another; to not be afraid to approach, request, or supplicate. Darby translates this verse as, "And this is the boldness which we have towards him," (1 John 5:14 Darby) The point is that we do not need to be afraid or timid in our prayers towards God, rather, we can come with boldness and confidence, asking of Him the things we need and desire. The writer of Hebrews put it this way, "For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:15-16) When we have needs or desires, God wants us to be bold in our approach to Him; not holding back, not being shy about what or how to ask, but to ask that we might receive.

For some, prayer has become a religious duty; one by which they show forth their discipline, piety, and reverence. However, the kind of prayer God is inviting us to is one of asking and receiving; asking for what we need and desire and receiving them from Him. God is not calling us to prayer as a matter of discipline but as a mater of receiving those things we need and want. We all need and want things, many things that we cannot provide for ourselves. How else are we going to receive them unless we ask from the One who is able to provide them for us? Speaking of prayer, Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full." (John 16:23-24) God bids us to prayer, not that we might develop discipline in some new religious work or habit, but that "our joy may be full!" God wants us to pray so that He might give and that we might be made joyful. Many times, when we need joy, the answer to our need is asking and receiving. Much of our lack of joy can be traced to a lack of receiving and James says, "You do not have because you do not ask." (James 4:2)

God is a God who hears and answers prayer. Isaiah prophesied for God saying, "It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear." (Isaiah 65:24) God only asks that we ask according to His will. But how can we know God's will and how can we be certain that we are asking according to His will? John previously told us, "Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." (1 John 3:21-22) The first key to asking according to His will is to ensure that we are walking according to His will. We cannot pray according to His will if our lives are lived contrary to that same will. The second key is to make sure we are asking for things for which our hearts do not condemn us. This means to make sure we are not asking for things that we know are wrong, or for which we know we will use them for wrong. For example, we know that it's wrong to ask for things that we intend to spend on our own selfish lusts. For these things our hearts condemn us and we ought to ask for pardon rather than their fulfillment. However, if we do these two things then we know we are asking according to His will and, if we know we are asking according to His will, then we know He will answer our prayers and, if we know He will answer our prayers, then we know joy is on its way. What a great reason to pray!

David Robison

That you might know - 1 John 5:13

"These things I have written 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)

John writes, not only to our spirit, but also to our rational mind that he might inform us and convince us of the truth. Sometimes, in our pursuit of things spiritual, we learn to disdain the things of the intellect. We forget that, as being made in His image, we were made rational beings with the ability to think, know, and reason. Many of the early church writers understood this and wrote passionately to the rational mind that we might understand and learn to reason right.

It concerns me that, at least in some of the circles I move in, it is more important that people feel right than it is that they learn to think right. God is a rational being and when He sent His Son to Earth, He sent Him as His Logos. The early Greek philosophers understood the Logos to be that faculty of mankind that reasons and is rational. They understood that, in sending His Logos to Earth, Jesus represented the thought, message, and reasoning of God. In Jesus they could see what and how God thought and reasoned about the world He created. Even Christ's message was an expression of the thoughts and reasons of God's mind towards us. Clement of Alexandria put it best.

"Everything that is contrary to right reason is sin. Accordingly, therefore, the philosophers think fit to define the most generic passions thus: lust, as desire disobedient to reason; fear, as weakness disobedient to reason; pleasure, as an elation of the spirit disobedient to reason. If, then, disobedience in reference to reason is the generating cause of sin, how shall we escape the conclusion, that obedience to reason—the Word—which we call faith, will of necessity be the efficacious cause of duty? For virtue itself is a state of the soul rendered harmonious by reason in respect to the whole life. Nay, to crown all, philosophy itself is pronounced to be the cultivation of right reason; so that, necessarily, whatever is done through error of reason is transgression, and is rightly called, sin. 

And Christian conduct is the operation of the rational soul in accordance with a correct judgment and aspiration after the truth, which attains its destined end through the body, the soul’s consort and ally. Virtue is a will in conformity to God and Christ in life, rightly adjusted to life everlasting. For the life of Christians, in which we are now trained, is a system of reasonable actions—that is, of those things taught by the Word—an unfailing energy which we have called faith." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 13)

In trying to be spiritual, we must also learn to be rational. God has given us our mind to contemplate things both spiritual and natural. It is through our mind that we come to understand and know God, to receive wisdom and guidance from Him, and to learn the lessons of living godly lives in a world that is anything but. When feeding you spirit, don't forget to feed your mind. Our minds are important and are meant to encounter God both directly through His Spirit and directly through the written Word. Open your minds as you open your hearts and receive God as a whole person in Christ.

David Robison

The testimony within us - 1 John 5:9-12

"If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son. The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life." (1 John 5:9-12)

There is much we can say and much evidence we can proffer giving testimony as to who Jesus is. There is the evidence of men who were eye-witnesses to His life and times on this Earth. There is also the testimony of the Spirit revealing both what the Father said about the Son and demonstrating the Father's power through the Son in the Miracles he did while on this Earth. Both of these give powerful evidence that Jesus was both the Son of God and that Jesus was, in fact, God. However, here, John says that there on one more piece of evidence that God has given to us in testimony of who Jesus was and is.

The particular Greek word used here for the "testimony" that God has left concerning His Son can refer to legal evidence given in a court of law. This is evidence we can examine, consider, and decide for upon ourselves regarding the validity of its witness. In the end, we will be judged based on how we respond to the evidence given. Will we accept it and believe God as truthful concerning His evidence, or will we deny the evidence, accusing God of a falsehood and a lie concerning His evidence. The choice is ours.

So where is this evidence? This evidence is within us; within those who have been born again as Children of God. Those who have believed God now have this evidence within themselves, It is not an evidence amenable to scientific examination or experimentation, but it is evidence none the less. It is evidence that we carry with us everywhere we go; at all times and in all places. All those who see and know us should be able to perceive and recognize the testimony and evidence that God has placed within us.

So what is this evidence? "God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son." The evidence that God has chosen to leave the world concerning who His Son was and continues to be is the witness of the changed lives of those who have chosen to receive Him and believe in Him as their Savior and Lord. God could have orchestrated a sign in the sky or could have personally appear before each individual testifying of His Son, but He has chosen rather to demonstrate to the world the effective power of redemption revealed in His Son by the changed lives of those who have been transformed by Him through faith in His Gospel. When we believe God then His eternal life enters into us and changes us from the inside out and our lives begin to testify to the truth of God, His Son, and His Gospel. Anyone who wants to know if God is real and if there is any saving power in His Son needs only to examine the lives of those who have been changed by Him.

So here is the question. Have you received God in a way that has made you a witness and a testimony to the world today? Are you obscuring the truth of God though unrighteousness or unbelief in your life today? What better time than today to let "your light shine" for all the world to see.

David Robison

These three agree - 1 John 5:5-8

"Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement." (1 John 5:5-8)

Our salvation is more than just our ticket to heaven, it is the means by which we overcome the world to live godly and righteous lives here and now. It is a salvation for the present as well as a promise for the future. At the center of this salvation is our faith in Jesus Christ. What we believe about Jesus determines the salvation we receive from the Father. Most believe that He existed, some believe that He was a prophet or at least a good teacher, but do we believe that He was the Christ of God? Who was Jesus and what shall we believe about Him?

John draws thee symbols together to enlighten us as to who Jesus was: the blood, the water, and the Spirit. It's unfortunate that John just didn't spell out in detail what he was talking about, but this is what I understand from the symbolism he uses.

The blood speaks of His natural birth. Jesus was born a Man. He was not an apparition or some phantom appearing as man, He was fully human. To deny Jesus' humanity is to deny His association with us and His ability to save us. Only by becoming human, suffering along side of us, and dying in our place, could Jesus effect our salvation and restore us once again to the Father.

The water speaks of the water of baptism and reminds us of Jesus divinity. While Jesus did not require the waters of baptism, the symbol of the water reminds us that He was not just born human but that He was also divine. He was not just a man of this realm but He was God descendant from heaven. To deny Jesus' divinity is to deny is ability to pardon and to offer a sinless sacrifice. All men are born into sin, but Jesus, being also divine, was born without sin, lived without sin, and died as a sinless man. Therefore, His sacrifice was able to satisfy the righteous judgement of God in regards to our own sinful lives.

The Spirit speaks of His mission and His anointing. He was not just man and not just God, He was also Christ, the anointed one of God. Jesus came, not just to forgive us, but to rain down salvation upon every area of our lives: body, soul, and spirit. Jesus did not just come and go, but He remains with us and lives within us by His Spirit. The same Spirit that testified of Him when He walked this Earth and the same Spirit that still testifies to us of His reality and His power to save, heal, and aid our lives today.

The blood, the water, and the Spirit. Jesus became all things to us that He might minister to our entire being. We have no need of another; Jesus Himself is complete and sufficient. When you have Jesus, you have everything life needs.

David Robison.

Loving through obedience - 1 John 5:1-4

"Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith." (1 John 5:1-4)

When Jesus came to restore us back to God, He did not come to restore us as subjects but as family. Jesus came, not to make us subjects of a king, but to make us children of our Father. John wrote of Jesus, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:12-13) God has plenty of subject, most walking in rebellion, but what He wants is children; children born of His grace and love; born into a new life with Him.

Jesus is the door way to this new life with God. Jesus said of Himself, "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." (John 10:9-10) And, speaking of our access to the Father, He said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." (John 14:6) Our new life with the Father and our new birth as children of God begins with our faith in Jesus. He is our Savior and He is our way back to God. There is not other way, no other salvation, and no other name by which we may be saved.

Having been born of God, we love Him and, if we love Him, then we ought to also love those who are born of Him. I believe that, here, John is not speaking specially of Jesus but of all who are born of God. In the very next sentence, John shows us how we can love the children of God; love those born of Him; showing us that he speaks not of Jesus alone when he refers to those born of God. In loving those born of God, it is not enough to just love Jesus. We ought to also love our brothers and sisters in Christ.

So how do we love our brothers and sisters? By obeying God's commandments. To love God is to obey God. If we say we love God and yet disobey His commandments, then we lie and do not know the truth. By obeying God's commandments, we are loving God, and in loving God through obedience, we will also be loving the family of God. Paul said of love, "Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." (Romans 13:10) Obedience, obedience to God's will and word, is the expression of Love.

John reminds us that the commandments of God are not burdensome, not because they are trifling, but because the Father has made us able to keep them. The commandments are substantial and many are weighty. They require us to deny ourselves and the world and to live by a new standard of living. We are called to exchange our worldly way of living for a heavenly one; to lose our conformance to the world for our conformance to God. Such commands are momentous and not without contest against the flesh. However, He has granted us His grace and has made us to be overcomers in all things that we might rule and "reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:17) We are overcommers and by His overcomming power whereby His commandments have been rendered unburdensome to our lives.

This victory over the world that we have won is not a victory of might, strength, will, or endurance but a victory of faith. Victory is not found when we win but when we believe. At the moment of faith the battle may still be before us but victory has already been assigned to our account. Faith will carry the day. Let us not fear to take upon ourselves the commandments of God in an expression of loving God and loving one another for in these things He has made us "more than conquerors." (Romans 8:37 NKJV)

David Robison

Love those you can see - 1 John 4:20-21

"If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also." (1 John 4:20-21)

John is not saying that loving our brothers and sisters is a prerequisite to loving God, rather, that anyone who loves God will, by nature, also love their brothers and sisters. Love for one another is, in part, the fruit of loving God.

It is much easier for us to love those whom we can see; we love our families, our friends, our heroes but how does one love God? How does one love someone whom they cannot see, hear, or touch? How do we love an invisible God? Furthermore, how do we love one who is self-sufficient and who needs no love? Someone has everything they need and possesses infinite love within them, how do we love such a one? We love them by loving the things they love and care for. We love them by loving their creations and the works of their hands.

Jesus, speaking of the judgment at the end of the age and of the reward for those who loved Him, congratulates them saying, "For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me." (Matthew 25:35-36) Yet, when the righteous failed to remember when they had done such things to Jesus, He said to them, "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me." (Matthew 25:40) Truly, we love God when we love those whom He created in His image.

When loving those who God has created, we must be careful not to only love those who can love us back, but to also love the unlovely and the unlovable. Jesus warns us, "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same." (Luke 6:32-33) It is easy to love those who love us back and to love those from which we receive some benefit in return, but when we love the unlovely and unlovable because they are God's children, then we are loving God as well.

Herein lies the truth of what John is saying: we cannot separate the love of God from the love of people; they are one and the same. We cannot love God and, at the same time, ignore those whom He has created. One must lead to the other. If we say we love God but fail to love His people, then we have failed to understand love and the God who is love. Those who truly love God will also love those created by Him. This is an immutable truth.

David Robison

Made perfect in love - 1 John 4:18-19

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us." (1 John 4:18-19)

Love is more than a feeling. It is a process that works in our lives to bring us into conformance to the image and nature of Christ. It is a process that does not start with us, nor originates within us, but a process whose genesis is God and which advances in our lives from above. It is a process for which our dependence, and thanks, belongs to God.

John writes of us being perfected in Love. Perfection, in the Greek, has the idea of hitting the mark, maturing to full stature, and being complete in every aspect of our lives, including relationally, vocationally, intellectually, and morally. To be perfect is to be full-grown and to reach the zenith of our existence. The process of God's love is a process to complete us from within that we might be full-grown men and women of God. The degree to which God's love has its way within us is the degree to which we have matured and grown in God.

One of the hallmark characteristics of love is found in its opposition to fear. Not only is love absent of all fear but it actively and decidedly seeks to dispel it from its presence. There is no fear in love nor can it tolerate fear in its presence. Either love or fear must go and love is greater than fear. The degree to which fear still remains in our lives is the degree to which love has yet to concur our loves and to be made perfect and complete within us.

Specifically, the kind of fear that John is talking about is the fear of punishment. The Greek word for this punishment is used only one other time in the New Testament in referring to our eternal punishment and torment in Hell. "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (Matthew 25:46) This punishment is a judicial punishment from having been weighed in the balance and found wanting.

There are things we fear because they are fearful, such a standing before a wild beast or an army in battle array. There are things that we fear because we understand their risk, like standing on a cliff or crossing in the middle of a busy street. However, there are other things we fear because of their ability to judge and diminish us in the sight of ourselves and others. We fear public speaking because we are afraid of what people might think of us. We fear sharing our thoughts and ideas with other people because we are afraid that others might laugh at us. We fear making mistakes because we are afraid that people will judge us. All these fears are fears of judgment; fears of how people will judge us and condemn us for our failings and shortcomings. Chief of all these fears is the fear of being judged and condemned by God; the fear of being found guilty and a sinner and less than what God demands or desires us to be. We all fear judgment.

However, when we were at our worst, the love of God came to cast out our fear and to begin a process of conforming us on the inside to His image and nature. God did not wait for us to become perfect before He loved us, He loved us that we might become perfect in love. In Christ, God put away His judgment upon us leaving only His love to rule and reign in our lives. Where their was once judgment, Jesus took that judgment upon Himself, returning love for judgment in our lives. We no longer need to fear God nor His judgment as long as we have His love in our lives. Let us learn to live in His love rather than cower in fear; in fear of a judgment what He has already satisfied.

David Robison

Knowing and Believing - 1 John 4:16-17

"We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world." (1 John 4:16-17)

There are two aspects to the love of God in our lives. There is the knowing and there is the believing. Sometimes it seems that the love of God is everywhere. We feel His presence and we see His loving care for us all around us. Everything we do seems to be dripping with His love. Then there are those other times... times when God seems distant, when we cannot feel His presence, when we long for His love but cannot perceive it in the circumstances that assail our lives. These are the times when we must believe His love. There are times of experiencing His love but there will also be times when we are called upon to believe His love even though, at the moment, we are not experiencing it.

In some of the circles I move in. there is a premium place upon experience. We sing songs like, "I'm desperate for your presence," and "I cannot live without your presence," and, while in one since it is true, if we are refereeing to experiential Christianity, then these songs are wrong. God wants to bring us to a place where we are no longer dependent upon an experience but have come to a place of maturity where we can navigate life by faith; believing in God's love even at times when we cannot seem to "feel" His love. Believing in God for the reality behind the experience even while the actual experience is eluding us. In fact, sometimes the blessing of experiencing only follows after the work of believing. David said, "I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." (Psalm 27:13) Many times, David experienced the love of God in the Land of the Living, but often that experience cam subsequent to the believing of it.

The key to God's presence in our life is not to sit and wait for it, or to strive to produce it, but to step forth in a life that has been brought into conformance with His. God is love, and when we live our lives in expressing that love to other's, then we are abiding in God and He in us. Regardless of how keenly we "feel" that presence, those who abide in love abide in God. The writer of Hebrews said, "Make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed." (Hebrews 12:13) Sometimes we must order our lives aright before we get to experience what we desire. Sometimes we must show the love of God to others before we experience it for ourselves. If we abide in love then we know we abide in God and those who abide in God will, over the course of time, also experience that same love. However, those who wait for love to show love may never experience the love they so desperately desire.

Love is perfected in us when we become like Him in the world; when we learn to love in this world like He too loved in this world and continues to love though He is now seated in heaven. To become like God in this world is to become loving and to love. The closer we reach this goal, the more it is shown that His love has been perfected in our lives. In the end, when we stand before the great judgment seat of Christ, we will have confidence in same measure to the amount of love we were able to show while alive. To those whose lives were conformed to Christ and conformed to love, great will be their confidence on that day for, as He was in the earth, so were they while alive. Let us not wait to show forth God's love, neither waiting to experience it or to release it to others. Let us believe in the Love of God and set out to show it to all who long to experience it in their lives.

David Robison

He abides in God - 1 John 4:13-15

"By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God." (1 John 4:13-15)

The promise of Jesus is the promise of God with us. Matthew wrote, "Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 'Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel,' which translated means, "God with us.'" (Matthew 1:22-23) Since the days of Adam and Eve's sin, God has been distant from us; separated from us by our sins. However, God longs to have fellowship and communion with us as He once did in the Garden of Eden when he openly communed and walked with our first parents. Sin had separated us from God but Jesus was the plan to reunite us once again in vital relationship with God our Father. No more would God be external to us but He would be one with us; living in us and communing  with our souls. Jesus prayed this very thing when He said, "The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me." (John 17:22-23)

Such a recommendation of Jesus, as our savior and reconciler to God, does not come to us third-hand but comes to us from the eye-witnesses of these events; from those who lived and travel with Jesus; those who saw His ministry, miracles, and heard His teaching; from those who saw Him die and saw Him resurrected to life again. These are the ones who testify of Jesus and recommend Him to us. John himself was an eye-witness to Jesus and he wrote of his own testimony saying, "This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true." (John 21:24) Our faith is not in fables but in actual events related to us by those who saw and experienced them.

Jesus is the door and without Him we have neither the Father or the Spirit. Jesus testified of Himself, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." (John 14:6) To receive the Spirit of God into our lives we must first receive Jesus and His saving work in our lives. To know the Father we must first know Jesus who is the image of the Father. As Jesus told Philip, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?" (John 14:9) Our spiritual life begins with Jesus. To deny Him is to Deny all of God and to close ourselves off from His Kingdom, power, and salvation. Many have come claiming to be Jesus or to be a savior to mankind but Jesus said of them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." (John 10:7-10) Jesus is the only way to life abundant. If we desire to live abundantly and in relationship with God then we must enter through Jesus. Have you confessed Him today?

David Robison

We ought to love - 1 John 4:11-12

"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 is perfected in us." (1 John 4:11-12)

Jesus, speaking about how we should expect to be treated in this life as He was, said, "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household!" (Matthew 10:24-25) It is the goal of a disciple to be like his teacher, a slave his master, and children their parents. The role of a disciple is to discipline their lives in imitation and conformity to their teacher; to grow to one day be like them in all ways. Speaking of how we ought to love one another, Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even 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." (John 13:34-35) Love was one of the distinguishing factors of Jesus' disciples. Jesus loved so His disciples love. They loved because they had become like their teacher who Himself was loving and good. If we are His disciples then we will be those who love. If we love not, then we are not His disciples.

We live in a world where people long to see something real. They long to know of the spiritual realities around them. They long to know God that the world around them might make since. They want to seek and know the creator of the universe and of themselves, but how can they know and see someone who is invisible. It's like trying to see the wind. However, Jesus said of the wind, "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going." (John 3:8) You see the wind by seeing its effects. You hear it blowing, you see the trees swaying, and you see the birds suspended in its midst. The same is true of God. We see God through His effects in our loves. One of the primary ways people see God is through the effect of His love in their lives and we are often the vehicle He uses to show that love to people. People see God's love in our lives and they experience His love through our lives and they know He is real. We ought to love, not just to be like Him, but so that the world might come to know Him and His love.

But how can mere man come to love like God loves? God has given us two special endowments to aid us in loving like He loves. First is His abiding within us. If the very Spirit of God who is love abides within us, how can we help but love? The God who is love lives within us to give us His love that we might love others with it. Our love is insufficient for the task, but His love is boundless and, if we will let it, will flow through us to those who need it. Secondly, God has given us His love for ourselves. Most of us come to Jesus as broken and hurting people. Often times, hurting people hurt other people. However, if we allow the love of God to heal us on the inside then it will help us to be more loving and gentile on the outside. As we grow to experience the love and healing of God for ourselves we will find it more natural to be loving and helpful to others around us. When these two things combine and mature in our lives, His presence within us and His love healing us, then we will become like our teacher. We will be people who have become love.

David Robison

Love loves first - 1 John 4:9-10

"By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so 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." (1 John 4:9-10)

When love is something that resides only in our hearts, it does little good to anyone. Solomon said, "Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed." (Proverbs 27:5 NKJV) Our affections and attitudes towards others find their meaning when they are expressed and communicated in a way that others can experience and understand. It does no good to love someone if you never communicate that love in both words and actions. Love must be demonstrated to be understood.

The same is true with God. God loves us and we experience and recognize that love when it intersects with our lives in ways that makes a difference in us. The greatest expression of love was shown when the Father sent His only Son to live and die in our place that we might be reconciled back to God. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16) The phrase, "God so loved," is not in reference to how much He loved us, rather it depicts the manner in which God demonstrated His love for us: "For God in this way loved the world..." God loved us by doing something for us.

There are two important thing we must understand about the nature of love. First is that love loves first. The love of God was demonstrated towards us, not after we first loved God, but before our hearts were ever turned in love towards Him. God loved us even before we loved Him. Sometimes we withhold love waiting for the other person to make the first move. For example, we withhold forgiveness waiting for the other person to be the first to say "I'm sorry." However, true love does not act so. Love is not a reaction but a choice to do what is right and good towards another person even if they don't respond in kind. Love reaches out without regard to how the other person is feeling towards us. Love chooses to love first.

The second import truth about love is that love loves without regard to the other person. God loved us, not when we were perfect, but when we were sinners and enemies of His kingdom. "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us... For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." (Romans 5:8, 10) Sometimes we only love when those who receive our love are worthy of our love. We love those who are lovely and loveable. However, God loves the unlovely and the unlovable. God loved us even when we weren't lovely, lovable, or worthy. He loved us when we weren't deserving of His love. Love loves, not because someone is worthy or deserving, but because it chooses to love.

Love loves first and love loves the unlovely. Is this the nature of our love?

David Robison

God is love - 1 John 4:7-8

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love." (1 John 4:7-8)

There are many things that God is and isn't, among them: "God is not a man" (Numbers 23:19) "God is a consuming fire" (Deuteronomy 4:24) "God is gracious and compassionate" (2 Chronicles 30:9) "God is righteous" (Daniel 9:14) "God is spirit" (John 4:24) "God is faithful" (1 Corinthians 1:9) and "God is Light." (1 John 1:5) Here, John adds one more, "God is love." John does not say God is loving, though He is, but rather that He is love. His whole existence in both words and deeds expresses the very nature of love. He is the very definition and measure of love. He is the standard by which our love is measured and understood. That which conforms to God conforms to love. To love and to be loving is to be like God, for God is love.

Love is a quality that is unique to God and originated with God. We share in this quality because we are made in His image. The rest of creation is devoid of Love. A rock, a tree, and a bird cannot express love for, though created by God, there weren't created in His image. However, mankind was created in His image and, as such, is capable of feeling and expressing true love. When we express love we are expressing a quality of God that He has placed within us as part of our creation. To be loving is to be Godlike.

While all of mankind is capable of expressing love, not everyone does so in equal measure. Some express little love and others only to those who love them back. Jesus said, "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them." (Luke 6:32) Others, while knowing how to love at one time, have let circumstances and events chill the love they once had inside. Jesus warned us that as we approached the latter days, "Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold." (Matthew 24:12) The truth is that we all have the capability to love but not all of us love, at least not at all times and in all ways. How can we grow in love and become more loving?

If we are to grow in love then we must grow in our knowledge and understanding of God. The more we know God the more we become like Him and, the more we become like Him, the more we will bear His image, and His image is an image of love. Love is not something we can achieve by ourselves. We can never overcome our own self-interests and self-love to actually love others without the transforming influence of God in our lives. We need Him to teach is how to love and how to deny ourselves that we might be available to love others. Growing in God is the only way to grow in love. Those who do not know God cannot and will not love, but those who know God are being transformed into love itself until one day it is said of them that they too are love.

David Robison

You have overcome them - 1 John 4:4-6

"You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error." (1 John 4:4-6)

We were not always from God. Even though God had created us, we, for a time, spent our lives as being from the world; living according to its dictates, its interests, and its plan. We lived our lives subject to the forces and influences of the world, doing their bidding, and suffering the loss. We were "slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness" (Romans 6:19) and not truly free within ourselves. While from the world we were subject to the spirit of anti-christ and our lives were lived in opposition to Christ and His Kingdom. However, now we have been born from above. We have been, "rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son." (Colossians 1:13) We are no longer from the world. We are now from God.

Now that we are from God we are no longer subject to the spirit of anti-christ but have overcome them by the grace and power of the Spirit that resides within us. We no longer need to fear the world or the world system for something greater is within us. We are destine to win. We are destine to overcome. We have risen above the world and are now free to live a life spent pursuit of God and in obedience to His will and calling. While we used to be slaves of sin, we are now free to become "slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification." (Romans 6:19) A new life has been opened up to us and we are free to enter in.

Where you are from makes all the difference in the world. Those who are from the world hear those who are also from the world. They cannot hear or understand those who are from God because they are earthly and natural. Those who are from God hear those who are also from God. They can hear and understand those who are from the world but they choose rather the message that is from above. They have rejected the message from the world and have chosen to follow that which is from heaven for they too are heavenly in their regeneration and calling.

We know where people are from by what message they listen to. Those who follow the message of the spirit of anti-christ are of this world and are following error. Those who listen to the message of God are from God and following truth. To tell the difference you need only to see who is following what. Are you following the spirit of truth?

David Robison

Watch out for the antichrist - 1 John 4:1-3

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from 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 from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world." (1 John 4:1-3)

As we have previously seen from John, the antichrist is not a person but a spirit that pervades over the Earth. There are many who are antichrist, not because they fulfill some prophetic office or role in the end times, but because they represent the opposite of what Jesus came to teach and to do. Even so shortly after the formation of the church, false prophets and false apostles had already risen teaching things that were not right. They claimed to be christs, in that they claimed to be anointed, but their teaching and deeds were opposed to Christ. They were anti-Christ. Even today there are many who claim enlightenment and who purport to speak for God, yet their actions and words deny Him and they themselves are following the spirit of antichrist.

The problem for the early church, and for us today, was to know how to tell the difference between the true prophets and apostles and the false ones. Much of the heresy the early church had to face centered around the question as to who Jesus was in His nature and His relationship to God. The heresies were broadly split between those who claimed that Jesus was purely God and only appeared in human form but never was born or suffered as a man and those who claimed Him to be solely a man, perhaps an enlighten man, but not God and certainly not perfect or unique. The issue boiled down to that of spirit and flesh. Did God's Spirit really come down and take on human flesh becoming both God and man? The unequivocal answer of the early church was "Yes!" Jesus was both God and man therefore He could redeem us as God because He suffered for us as man. Though such a composition of the human and divine may be beyond our ability to comprehend or fully understand, it was nonetheless the true nature of Jesus and the exact formulation that was necessary for our salvation.

In helping the church distinguish between the two, I believe that John was not giving an exhaustive list of challenges to prove if a profit was false or true, but rather was answering their need for discernment according to the need of the day. Today, those heresies we face may not turn around the question of Jesus and His nature; they may be new heresies focused on new doctrinal issues. However, the proof is still the same. Those who set themselves against and in opposition to the words and deeds of Christ set themselves against Him and His mission. They are too antichrist!

Just as there were antichrists in John's day so there are today, yet me must not yield to them nor give them our attention. Jesus, speaking of the antichrists, said, "So if they say to you, 'Behold, He is in the wilderness,' do not go out, or, 'Behold, He is in the inner rooms,' do not believe them." (Matthew 24:26) Our's is not to hunt them out but rather to avoid them. They do not participate in the work of God and we have so much work to do. Let us recognize them but not be distracted by them. Let us be devoted to the work of Christ and leave them to the opposite,

David Robison

Abiding in God - 1 John 3:23-24

"This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us." (1 John 3:23-24)

Someone once asked Jesus what was the greatest of all the commandments of God. Jesus replied, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40) Here John repeats these words of Jesus substituting belief for love. Belief is often the starting point of love. If we believe Jesus and the things He spoke and promised, then we will begin finding ourselves loving Him for who He is and what He has done for us. When Jesus forgave the sinful woman at dinner, much to the displeasure of the Pharisees, He said, "For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little." (Luke 7:47) Because of their unbelief, the Pharisees were unable to receive of His forgiveness or to find love in their hearts for Him for what He had to offer them. Their unbelief rendered their love for God dead.

The second part of the commandment of God is that we should love one another. This kind of love is a love of action. It is more than words or sentiment, but it is deeds and requires choosing for others rather than ourselves. It is a love that distracts us from our own selfish needs and wants to the needs and cares of other people. Some may ask, "How can you truly love God?" Jesus responded, "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me." (Matthew 25:45)

Furthermore, John says that we should be careful to keep these commandments of God. The Greek word for "keep" means to "guard" and has with it the connotation of a military deployment to keep a city or nation safe and secure. Our lives do not automatically tend towards keeping the commandments of God. It is something we must give effort to and be watchful over. We must ever be diligent to remain firm in our belief and constant in our love. The commandments of God take doing, not just hoping or assuming.

These commandments, believing in God and loving others, is the key to abiding in God. Some believe that we abide in God when we abide in prayer, worship, fasting, or some other individual form or spiritual devotion. However, John says that we abide in God when we love other people. There is a time for prayer but there is also a time for action. How can we expect to abide in God if we seek to withdraw ourselves away from the very people we were meant to love? I think this misconception was at the heart of what was wrong with the monastic movements in the centuries gone by. If we are to abide in Christ, then we must engage the world and those in it.

Finally, John reminds us that God abiding in us is not a mere concept or poetical wish. God abides in us through His very real and present Spirit. God's spirit is more than an impersonal force, more than a thought or idea, more than power or energy, it is the true and abiding presence of God in our lives. He abides in us by His person through the Spirit. In our abiding in God we must never forget nor neglect His abiding in us through His spirit.

David Robison

Confidence with God - 1 John 3:19-22

"We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." (1 John 3:19-22)

It is unclear, at least to me, whether John is looking back, when he says, "by this", to our loving our brothers and sisters in deed and truth, or if he is looking forward to our "doing the things" that please Him. Either way, John reveals to us the benefit of a confident heart. Confidence fuels our hope and emboldens our faith. When we are confident before God then we are confident in our faith and in the things we ask of Him. At times like these, we know He hears our prayers and we know He will answer them.

However, our confidence should not be the false light of presumption or an empty trust in ourselves. Our confidence should be based on the reality of our lives as demonstrated through our deeds and actions. We have confidence, not because we feel confident, but because our life gives us reason to be confident. When we live according to righteousness, and do always the things that please God, then our confidence is real and its benefits are tangible.

Jesus lived such a life. He said, speaking of His Father, "And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him." (John 8:29) Jesus's life was a life lived in consistency; consistently good, consistently loving, and consistently just. His life gave Him complete boldness and confidence in God. In what ever He asked, His Father heard Him and answered Him. It is, our ought to be, our goal to become like Jesus in this manner; that there should be nothing in our lives that would condemn our hearts before God. That our hearts and lives would be free and clear of all things that offend and grieve the heart of God.

However, while this is our goal, our lives often fall short. We are not perfect people and our lives are often far from being lives of consistency. What does one do when, because of their own failings, their heart finds things to condemn them before God? How does one move from condemnation back to confidence? Some propose to do this by hiding their sin or denying the sinfulness of their sin. However, this only compounds the problem. David said, "When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;

My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer." (Psalm 32:3-4) Concealing our sin is not the answer. God has a better way. God already knows what we have done. He knows our sin and the hidden things of our heart. If we will but confess them to the Lord He will forgive them and restore confidence to our heart. There is no sin within our heart that God is not great enough to conquer. David went on to say, "I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord'; and You forgave the guilt of my sin." (Psalm 32:5) Confidence with God is but a prayer away!

David Robison

Love in truth - 1 John 3:17-18

"But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth." (1 John 3:17-18)

There will always be those in need. Jesus told us "you always have the poor with you." (Matthew 26:11) Even in the church, among our own brothers and sisters, there will be those in need; those towards whom we have the opportunity to practice our Christian charity. To some God has given extra, and to others He has given need, that together we might jointly care one for another. Paul says that, "God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another." (1 Corinthians 12:24-25) The term Paul uses here for "care" carries with it the connotation of distraction. God desires us to be distracted from our self-absorbed lives that we might become attentive to the needs of others.

However, God has not called some to be burdened so that others might be eased, but He has called us to equity; those who have sharing their extra with those who lack. We are not called to give away our own necessities so that others might become idle in regards to their necessities. Paul writes, "For if the readiness is present, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. For this is not for the ease of others and for your affliction, but by way of equality —  at this present time your abundance being a supply for their need, so that their abundance also may become a supply for your need, that there may be equality; as it is written, 'He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little had no lack.'" (2 Corinthians 8:12-15) As believers, we are called into a symbiotic relationship with each other; allowing our excess to supply their lack and receiving with thanksgiving the supply of others when we lack.

Our motivation for equity is not for the sake of social justice but for the sake of love. Justice does not care for inequity, but love does. What should motivate us is the love we have received from God. If God has so loved us and cared for us then ought we not to love and care for others? If we see the needs of others, and possess the means to meet those needs, ought we not to give of our excess to help them in their need? To withhold such help is to withhold love and to deny the love of God that fills our hearts. How can we abide in God's love and, at the same time, deny it to those around us?

The expression of our love also needs to be tangible. Those in need need the tangible expressions of love more than they need the emotions of love conveyed in words. To love only with words is to love with falsehood. It says of God that "He gave His Son;" (John 3:16) a tangible act to a genuine love. God did not just tell us He loves us, He demonstrated it by His actions and His gifts towards us. Let's be honest with ourselves; love that is in truth is a love that is expressed tangibly. Love is a verb!

David Robison