1 John 4: Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

Today’s reading is 1 John 4.

Perfect love casts our fear, John declared. And thus has ensued numerous debates and discussions about the nature of love and fear. We should note what John has already said about love, especially perfect love.

In 1 John 2:4-5, he wrote, “Whoever says, ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected” (ESV). In 1 John 2:15, he wrote, “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” (ESV). In 1 John 3:16-18, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth” (ESV). Then in 1 John 4:12, “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us” (ESV).

Then, after having said all this, he wrote, “Whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (1 John 4:16b-18, ESV).

Perfected love, therefore, is turning away from love of the world’s things–lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, pride of life–and turning to love of our brothers and sisters. Perfect love is abiding by God’s Word and will. We must grasp this. John is not saying because Jesus loves us, we can live however we want without fear. After all, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar, for he 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: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:20-21, ESV). Be aware, if we do not love our brothers and sisters, we should be afraid of judgment. We should be very afraid of it.

Considering all the arguing we’ve heard about these passages, we can be forgiven for being confused and struggling to understand. However, I think John is making a very simple point. Love. Truly love. Not be infatuated with. Not simply be a nice person. Not try really hard to externally keep a list of behavior rules. Love. Love as defined in 1 Corinthians 13. Love as described throughout God’s Word. Love God so much you will simply do whatever He says. Love others not by simply letting them have their way, but by seeking what is truly best for them. Love. Recall Paul’s warnings in 2 Timothy 3:2-4. We must not deceive ourselves when what we really love is self, money, and pleasure. Rather, we must love good, love God, and love others.

When we can say our actions are prompted by real, God-defined love, we have nothing to fear. Of course, that kind of love will be a growth process for us. As you choose the next right thing, choose the course of real love. We will never be punished for loving others the way God loves them. We will never be punished for loving God the way He loves us.

Tomorrow’s reading is 1 John 4.

PODCAST!!!

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PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does 1 John 4 prompt or improve your hope in God?

1 John 2: The Old New Commandment

Today’s reading is 1 John 2.

Preachers are accidentally confusing sometimes. They know what they mean by their words, logical leaps, and connections drawn. They assume every listener is right with them, even when the listeners aren’t. Sometimes, preachers are purposefully confusing. They use plays on words and purposefully sprinkle their talks with figures, paradoxes, oxymorons to grab the listeners’ attention and challenge them to wrestle with the teaching. By struggling with the conundrums of speech, the listeners learn more. John takes this second approach in 1 John 2:7-8. What does he mean when he paradoxically says he is writing no new command, but an old command, but really a new command?

He mentioned commandments in vss. 3-4—if we keep Jesus’s commandments, we know we know Him. He went on to say, “whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected” (vs. 5, ESV). Wait! Mentioning the love of God and keeping commandments rings a bell, doesn’t it? Do you recall what Jesus would say when people asked Him about the greatest commandment? Of course, the greatest commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Thus, when John mentions the new/old commandment, he has just called to mind the greatest commandment. However, that’s not all.

Merely by mentioning “new commandment,” he reminds of the commandment he himself recorded from Jesus in John 13:34-35:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (ESV).

In John 13, Jesus had washed the disciples’ feet and explained if He the Teacher and Lord would wash disciples’ feet, disciples’ ought to wash other disciples’ feet, “For I have given you an example,” Jesus said, “ that you also should do just as I have done to you” (ESV). Here’s a question: does that sound a bit like 1 John 2:6: “Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked”? It does to me.

John initiates no new commands. Rather, he repeats the greatest commands. We disciples must love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. That’s as old as Deuteronomy 6:5. Further, we must love our neighbor. That’s as old as Leviticus 19:18.  

However, for those in Jesus, these commands have new meaning. On the cross, Jesus demonstrated the two greatest commandments in deeper, more profound ways than any had ever seen or known. Jesus loved God to death. He loved the Father so much He would do anything the Father said, even die on the cross (cf. Philippians 2:3). On the cross, He went far beyond washing the disciples’ feet, loving them (and us) to the point of sacrificial death. He loves us so much He will do whatever it takes to benefit and bless us, even die for us.

On the cross, a new day was dawning. On the cross, perfected Father love and true brother love shone forth like the light of day breaking on the world’s long, dark night. As that love spreads from Jesus to apostles, from apostles to disciples, and from disciple to disciple, the day of Christ grows brighter while the darkness of night passes away. May we be in Jesus, walking as He walked, loving as He loved, shining as He shone. May the day grow ever brighter in and through us.

Tomorrow’s reading is 1 John 2.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does 1 John 2 admonish you?

John 13: A New Commandment

Today’s reading is John 13.

Judas left, the other disciples didn’t understand what he was going to do, but Jesus did. Then Jesus presented one of His most famous teachings:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

John 13:34-35 (ESV)

Oddly enough, Peter skipped right over this new command and asked about Jesus’s previous statement in which He declared, “Where I am going you cannot come.” We must not skip over Jesus’s statement. In this command, He provides the final explanation of the foot-washing display.

Jesus’s point in washing the disciples’ feet was not to establish a ritual of foot washing. His point was to exemplify love. If He so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

Yet, how can Jesus say this is a new commandment? We know already the two greatest commands from the Law itself are Love God and Love your neighbor. The newness of this command is not the charge but the standard. In the second greatest commandment, we are charged to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Jesus changed the standard. No longer are we to love one another the way we love ourselves, we are to love one another the way Jesus loves us. Of course, we couldn’t even understand the newness of this commandment until we had seen precisely how Jesus loves us. Jesus loves us way beyond washing our feet. He loves us by going to the cross for us. He loves us by going to the cross for us even when we have denied Him. He loves us by going to the cross for us even when we lift our heel against Him. He loves us by patiently enduring our sinfulness, striving to bring us to repentance, so we might be saved by His sacrifice.

The world will know we are disciples of Jesus, when we love one another like He loves us.

Might I add something significant in this point? God tells us a great deal about love. We are told in Scripture to love a great many people. We should love our parents, our spouses, our children, our neighbors, even our enemies. But in this passage, the disciple-defining love is love for one another among disciples. While it is true we love all people and folks in the world will learn a lot about us by how we love them, please notice this verse is telling us something about our one another relationship inside Christ. It is telling us something about the one another relationship between Jesus’s fellow disciples. We are supposed to have some kind of amazing relationship with one another that folks in the world say, “Look at how those people treat each other. Look at the relationship they have. They are so much like Jesus in how they treat each other. I wish I could have that kind of relationship with someone.”

Just before Jesus gave this new commandment, He said, “Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.'” Primarily, Jesus was talking about His death. The apostles couldn’t follow Him there because they didn’t understand His kingdom, His purpose, His love. That is, the apostles, despite their protests that they would die with and for Christ, could not, because they just didn’t get it yet. But we are left with another point in John’s arrangement of this conversation.

We all want to claim we will follow Jesus to death. Will we follow Him to love?

Next week’s reading is John 14.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

What do you want to share with others from John 13?

Psalm 59: God Sees, God Hears

Today’s reading is Psalm 59.

The dogs surrounding David bellow and growl because they say to themselves, “Who will hear us?” No one will hold them accountable. No God watches them. No God protects David. No God watches over Israel. They can do what they want with impunity.

However, David says, “You, O LORD, laugh at them; you hold all the nations in derision.” God does see. God does hear. God does avenge and judge. While considering David’s circumstance and Israel’s, I remember God’s law of loving our neighbor in Leviticus 19. Especially notice the following part:

You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God; I am the LORD.

Leviticus 19:13-14

People curse the deaf because, well, the deaf can’t hear them cursing. The one who curses will get away with it. People put stumbling blocks before the blind because, well, the blind can’t see them. The one who causes the stumble will get away with it. People keep the wages of a hired worker because, well, the worker has no recourse. The employer can get away with it. And so on. Yet, God explains to Israel, and to us, a judge watches. God watches. God judges. He is the LORD. He is our God. We want to be like Him. And if we don’t, we will answer to Him.

Sadly, many do whatever they think they can get away with. Many do so to us. Let us not despair. Though we presently and personally may have no recourse, our God sees. Out God hears. Our God judges. Our God avenges. We may cast our cares on Him and watch for His vengeance and victory.

Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 59.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

What in Psalm 59 admonishes you?

Who are You to Judge Your Neighbor?

Today’s reading is James 4.

Sometimes it seems like everyone, whether Christian or not, knows Matthew 7:1: “Judge not, that you be not judged.” Not as many know James 4:11-12: “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?” However, among all those who do know either of these passages, the majority pluck them out of their immediate and biblical contexts to lob as grenades against anyone who would rebuke them for sin.

Notice James brings this right back to doing the law. However, what law is James mostly concerned about? The royal law. The one that says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” No doubt, called the royal law because the King declared this is the second greatest commandment and that all other laws hang on this and the law to love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. Where did He get this law? From Leviticus 19:18. Leading up to that verse is a powerful description of loving your neighbor. It talks about leaving some of your harvest for your poor neighbor to glean. When we love our neighbors we won’t steal from them, deal falsely with them, lie to them. We won’t oppress or rob our neighbors. We’ll pay wages when we hire our neighbors (remember this one, it will come up in James 5). We don’t take advantage of our neighbors’ weaknesses like cursing the deaf or placing a stumbling block before the blind. We don’t slander or offer false testimony. We won’t take vengeance or bear a grudge against our neighbor. Make sure you notice Leviticus 19:15: “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor” (ESV).

Wait! What?

I thought James and Jesus told us we aren’t allowed to judge anyone in any way. Who am I to judge my neighbor? I’m a person who was told by God to judge my neighbor in righteousness. James has already given us insight into judging people in James 2:4. That judgment was not about accusing someone of committing a sin, but of looking down on someone because of their poverty. I’m not saying this particular illustration of judging others is all James is condemning. However, I think we can say with biblical certainty, he is not condemning rightly judging people as guilty of sin in order to lead them to repentance. After all, James himself judged some of his readers as sinners in this matter of judging their brothers and sisters with evil thoughts and motives. Further, he will end this entire book with the encouragement to bring those who wander from the truth back into the fold, saving a sinner from death (see James 5:19-20). That takes judgment.

Look again at James’s statement. We are not to speak evil against one another. He doesn’t say we are not to accurately assess someone’s sinful behavior or correctly determine if their teaching is error. This same word is translated “slander” in 1 Peter 3:16. It is used in the Septuagint (LXX) to describe false accusations made against God and Moses in passages like Numbers 21:5, 7; Psalm 78:19; Hosea &:13. Further, James says when we do this we have stopped doing the law and become a judge of the law. Why? Because the law says to love our neighbor. When we believe we are allowed to ignore the law and instead slander, speak evil, grumble against, and belittle our neighbor, we have judge the law to be invalid and unworthy of submission. Remember, we aren’t simply to hear the word, we are to do the word. How dare we judge God’s law! In fact, James told us we need to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger in relation to God’s Word.

How then do we answer James’s rhetorical question, anchored in Leviticus 19:15-18 as it is? Unless I can answer the question, “I am someone who loves my neighbor as myself,” then I have no ground in any way to judge my neighbor. When my judgment toward my neighbor is anchored in the royal law of loving my neighbor, then I’m a person who judges my neighbor in righteousness just as God commanded. That’s who.

But–and this is a really, really big “but”–this takes a great deal of self-awareness and self-honesty. Do you love your neighbor as yourself? Are you treating your neighbor the way you want to be treated? Only then will you judge with a righteous judgement.

Tomorrow’s reading is James 4.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. In what ways do people speak evil of others?
3. In what ways do we show love for others?
4. What kinds of judgment are actually loving judgments performed in righteousness?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

Pure and Undefiled Religion

Today’s reading is James 1.

James has already told us we must be quick to hear and slow to speak. In context, we know he isn’t simply talking about interpersonal relationships. He is talking about how we relate to God’s Word. Therefore, it doesn’t surprise us to find out if we don’t bridle our tongues, whatever religion we have is useless. If we speak more than we listen, our worship, our piety, our religion, and our religious actions aren’t doing either us or God any good.

However, James goes farther. We are not only to be hearers of the Word but doers. He defines some of the doing. Pure religion, undefiled religion is not walking through religious rituals mouthing the proper words, dressed in the right clothes, wearing the appropriate facial expressions. Pure and undefiled religion before God has two components. One, caring for others in their afflictions. Two, remaining unstained from the world.

Is this anything less than, more than, or different than the two greatest commands? We are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and might (remain unstained from the world) and we are to love our neighbors as ourselves (care for others in their afflictions). Don’t read these instructions in a vacuum. These statements James is writing to Jewish Christians are anchored in what they should have learned from the Law and the Prophets. In the Law, the Jews were to care for the widows and orphans among them as well as the poor and needy. Recall Isaiah 58. There, the Israelites couldn’t understand why God didn’t notice their fasting, their religious observance. God’s response was their fasting was nothing more than ritual. The purpose of fasting was not to wear sackcloth or bow the head. The purpose was to grow compassion for those in need among them. James will come back to this as he discusses faith in chapter 2. If we are the kind of people who tell our brothers and sisters in need to go be warmed and filled (even if we do this in prayer) instead of the kind of people who give them what they need, our faith is useless. So is our religion.

Further, we are to be unstained by the world. We must not let the world, its temptations, its ways distract us from God. We must not be defiled by bringing their gods, their ways of worship, their values, their perspectives into our hearts and minds. We must love God and not be friends with the world. James will come back to this in chapter 4 as he points out friendship with the world is enmity with God.

Yes, of course, we are to gather as churches and worship God. Yes, we are to go into our prayer closets and worship God. But if the rest of our day and week is spent pursuing our own pleasures instead of loving God and our neighbor, let us not think our times of worship are doing us a bit of good. May our times of devotion and worship be the beginning of a life in devotion to God and His people.

Next week’s reading is James 2.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. In what ways must we bridle our tongues for our religion to be worthwhile?
3. How can we visit orphans, widows, and others in affliction in order to have pure and undefiled religion?
4. How do we remain unstained by the world in order to have pure and undefiled religion?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

The Greatest Commandments

Today’s reading is Matthew 22.

I admit, this next test is confusing to me. I’m not sure what the Pharisees expected to happen with this question: “Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Perhaps they simply hoped to embroil Him in a controversy and make Him look bad for the argument. Perhaps they hoped He would confess ignorance and lose face before the crowds. Perhaps they figured the crowds would all have their own opinions, and many of them wouldn’t like His answer no matter what it was. I’m really not sure.

However, apparently His answer closed them down. And, frankly, I’m really not sure there is much more to write about it besides what Jesus said:

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 first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.

There you go. Every law and every principle gets back to this. Love God. Love your neighbor. This is not merely about emotions, but about actions.

You know, that first commandment was part of what the Jews called the Shema. They quoted it often. Perhaps we would do good to do that with this explanation from Jesus about the greatest laws. How would our lives changed if every day we woke up and reminded ourselves: Our God is one God, we should love Him with all we have. We should love the people around us because He loves them.

Tomorrow’s reading is Matthew 22.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. What do you think it means to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind?
3. What does loving your neighbor look like?
4. How does every other law rely on these two?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

A Case Study in Stewardship

Today’s reading is Luke 16.

Earlier in the week we saw Jesus’s three point sermon on stewardship. Now we see a case study of stewardship. Jesus’s earlier parable encouraged the sons of light to be as shrewd in their preparations for the future as the sons of this world are. Now we see an example of a son of light who was not shrewd enough. The rich man was shrewd enough to think and act like a son of the world. He had used his finances shrewdly enough to be prepared to live in this world. However, he had not behaved as a son of light should. He had not made friends by means of his unrighteous wealth so that he could be welcomed into eternal dwellings. He had left Lazarus on his very own doorstep, poor, destitute, hungry. In eternity, he begged for mercy from Lazarus, but he had been unwilling to give any mercy to Lazarus while on this earth. The rich man was not welcomed by Lazarus into eternal dwellings, but even worse, he wasn’t even able to receive the least service of hospitality from Lazarus. In life, there was nothing but a gateway between the rich man and Lazarus. In eternity, there was a gulf too wide to cross. The rich man wouldn’t be bothered to help Lazarus in life. In eternity, even if Lazarus wanted to bestow mercy on the rich man, he couldn’t. I know we are wont to make this story of Lazarus and the rich man about a response to Jesus and being baptized. However, whether this story is a parable or an account of real events (as some suggest), it was about people before turning to Jesus was even a possibility. This is about being a shrewd, faithful, loyal steward. The rich man was not. Jesus is placing an exclamation point on His sermon about stewardship. We need to see it. Israel didn’t listen when Moses and the Prophets said to love God and love your neighbor. Will we listen when the one who rose from the dead said so?

Monday’s reading is Luke 17.

Who Is My Neighbor?

Today’s reading is Luke 10.

In order to save face, the Lawyer asked, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus didn’t answer the question; He told a story. Then Jesus asked His own question: “Who proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” The Lawyer asked the wrong question. The Lawyer asked, “Who is my neighbor?” What he should have asked is, “How can I be neighborly?” That is the same question each of us needs to ask. But Jesus really takes it a step farther. Whenever people read stories or hear stories, we naturally place ourselves in the shoes of someone in the story. Whose shoes was the Lawyer wearing? Clearly, he was not the Samaritan. He would never rob anyone. As a lawyer, he would align with the Pharisees and would not see himself as either the Priest or Levite, whom the Lawyer would naturally assume were Sadducees. Who does that leave? The most likely person the lawyer would relate to is the robbed and beaten man. Recognizing this, we discover the very genius of Jesus and this story. The Lawyer asks, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus tells a story that essentially says to the Lawyer, “I don’t know, Lawyer. Who would you want to be your neighbor if roles were reversed?”

Tomorrow’s reading is Luke 10.

The Greatest Commandments

Today’s reading is Mark 12.

Love God. Love your neighbor. These are the greatest commandments. But what does that mean? Does that mean we can break all the others, but we better not break these? Does that mean these are the only ones that really matter? No. These are the greatest because they encompass all the rest. When we love God and love others, we’ll keep the rest of the commandments. All of God’s law is summed up in these two statements. They are the goal of all the other commandments. Keep in mind, however, the love described in these two commandments is not an explosion of emotion. Rather, this love is a seeking of the benefit of the other above the benefit of self. Seek God above self. Seek others above self. These are the greatest of all God’s laws.

Monday’s reading is Mark 13.