Gadfly's Muse

3 John 1-14 Heartaches

Image: Work Waiting, 2015, UK

9 I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us.  10 Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church. (3 Jn. 1:9-10 NKJ)

It provides little comfort to know that "twas ever thus" when we think of the pain, suspicion, pride and pettiness that too often show themselves within our churches.  Christians are not exempt from hurting or getting hurt by those who profess the same Lord.  Yet as we progress in our spiritual journey, each of us grow more and more sensitive to this unhappy reality.  It burdens our hearts... 

We sense that in our brother, the apostle John, as he wrote the words above.  Here is John, the disciple whom the Lord 'loved', the most sensitive of all the 12, the man who penned the beautiful prose and content of the gospel that bears his name.  I picture him as such a kind, overtly spiritual man.  There are those Christians whose love for the Person of their Savior seems to flow out of the pores in their skin.  I imagine John as one of those.

And yet, here is this guy Diotrephes.  I don't know anything else about him other what is written here but I know his type.  There is even a category of people like him: "well intentioned dragons".  These folk are convinced of the righteousness of their cause but it goes beyond that.  The righteousness of their cause begins to be conflated with the assumed righteousness of their own person.  They cannot stand any threat to their position of influence and power and they interpret any arguments or views that oppose their "cause'" as ultimate being counter to themselves.  It is an easy trap into which to fall, especially for highly motivated, energetic and intelligent people.  What is sad is that the potential for much good is always present but it is turned toward evil and divisive deeds. Here Diotrephes actually puts people out of the church who support John.  Isn't that astonishing... yet it happens... in every age.

All of us have to take a very realistic attitude toward this kind of thing.  The very last thing we should do is give up on Christ's visible church.  John didn't give up on it.  Jesus never gives up on it.  It is the temple of the Holy Spirit and is the pillar of truth in the world.  We cannot let Satan win.  Where he raises up a Diotrephes, the Holy Spirit raises up folks like John or those who follow him.  Giving up on the church because there are sinners in it is like giving up on hospitals because all the people in them are sick.  We have to do our part to build up the church and that means, on occasion, dealing with people who are divisive and self-serving.  We must not jump to conclusions but the leadership has to be alert to those who have tendencies to this kind of arrogance and deal with them with grace as appropriate but with firmness when required.

It will always be a judgment call.  Martin Luther was a divisive man... he was also right.  Diotrephes was not Martin Luther.  It takes wisdom and humility to distinguish one from the other.

2 John 1-13 It's Just That Serious....

Image: Texas Wildflowers, 2010, Highlands Area of Texas

2 John 9–11 (NKJV)  ⁹ Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. ¹⁰ If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; ¹¹ for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.

The closing paragraph of John's very brief 2nd letter jars us with its strong admonition.  "Do not receive him into your house.... don't even greet him"????? Wait a minute.  Aren't we Christians supposed to be open, embracing, loving.... even to our enemies?  Is the Holy Spirit telling us that we are to practice a form of discrimination?  That certainly wouldn't meet our current standards of political correctness nor does it fit with the modern liberal sensibilities that our schools and public institutions enforce.

But there they are... the words of John.... on the page in the Bible....  this is the Word of God, right?

Well, indeed it is and we have to come to grips with it.

John is not speaking of our general interaction with people in the wider culture.  He is not saying that we should not have anything to do with the pagans, heretics, atheists, low-life's and other folk who share our planet with us and with whom we daily interact.  He is talking about a very specific and precise application.  He is talking about those professed Christians who seek to bring false doctrine into the Holy Church of Jesus Christ.  He is talking of the very real threat of people who are actually serving Satan by seeking to introduce a perverted idea of Jesus and the doctrines that Scriptures actually teach.

These people are deadly enemies and the people of God have to be alert to their threat.  Ordinary Christians have to be sufficiently equipped with the Word of God in order to test the spirits and the teachings of people they encounter so that a generally accurate assessment of just exactly what kind of "Christian" they are can be made.

I am currently reviewing a book on 20th century theological movements.  In that book I was reminded of the teachings of Paul Tillich, a highly influential "Christian" whose ideas and false doctrines have swayed many.  It was he that said that "God does not exist" (meaning something very abstract and obscure in his formulation).  He taught that Jesus the human gave up his life so that He, Jesus, could become the Christ.  Even now I get disturbed when I read it. 

I have to read what such people are saying because we Christians have to proclaim the truth about these things and we can only show something to be a lie when we know what it is.  But this is a man who should not have been welcomed in any Christian fellowship much less allowed to teach these things to our college children.  Yet he did.

This is the kind of threat that John warns us against and there is no room for a wishy-washy attitude toward such men or their teachings.  There is no common ground for fellowship with them.  They must be recognized, identified and rejected.  The Church of God must be kept pure of such bilge.

Other than that... it's a beautiful day... the flowers are blooming .... the spring chill refreshes my weary bones and I refuse to be discouraged by the worms that try to destroy the beauty.  That applies to God's beautiful Church also.

1 John 5:1-21 Victorious!

Image: Working, 2008, Severn Run E. P. Church

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

What a marvelous thing is this "faith" of which the Bible speaks and which our Lord commands of us.  By it, according to Jesus Himself, we can move mountains.  It is so powerful that even if we possess it only as a "grain of mustard seed" yet it sufficient to preserve us to eternal salvation.  Our sense of its presence in our lives ebbs and flows as do the rippling ocean waters lapping at the beach, yet when it recedes, when it is at low tide (to continue the metaphor), it does not completely leave.  

When Paul tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus he, by direct corollary, tells us that nothing can strip us of our faith... once we have been born of God as John says (v. 4), faith is the natural and necessary reality of that new mode of existence.  We are born again, of God, and absolutely, without fail, we believe "that Jesus is the Son of God!" (vs. 5)  God can no more abandon us as His children than any loving parent among us would willfully abandon his or her own child.  No matter how much our teenagers may disappoint us yet the parent in us never disowns them.  So it is with God... He seals us as His own by causing us to be born again into faith in His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

This, John says, is the victory that we have.  "Faith" by its very nature is a rejection of the "world" as John uses that term.  John's dualism confines his meaning of "world" to that way of life, of thinking, of aspiring, of desiring, of pursuing... which is opposed to the "spirit".  He uses it to describe carnal preoccupation... of being chained to the fallen culture of man in such a way that we are enslaved by our own hearts.  

Faith comes and breaks those chains.  It has to.  Faith registers our shift of focus, away from the world and its allures, to the supreme beauty and attractions of Jesus of Nazareth, the Risen Christ of God, who was crucified for our sins yet lives as our High Priest in the heavenly, spiritual realms.  The world pales in comparison... in fact, that is not said strongly enough.  The world ceases to exist as a gravitational force pulling us back into its ways and horrors.  Faith has stripped the world of its allure and its victory, though experienced as only partial in our continuing journey, yet it persists.. and proves its overwhelming power.

Thus we are preserved through the Holy Spirit's continual stoking the fires of our faith.  So, it is God's work in us, yea and amen, but in that often apparently paradoxical manner of the Scriptures, it is credited to us.  It is "our" faith which overcomes.  It is that "faith" that is unique to us individually as each of us, individually, has been uniquely created, uniquely guided, uniquely endowed, by God.  No two person's faith is identical yet each conforms to the same necessary standard.  

Faith is life... not something that is added to life.  And the life of faith is the living faith, that justifies us as God's adopted children and is the victory that gains us eternal life and all the benefits of Christ.

 

1 John 4:1-21 Love Like You've Never Loved Before

Image: Mallow, 2008, "Uncle Tom's Cabin", Northern PA

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

1 John 4 is the "other" Love chapter in the Bible after, of course,1 Cor 13.  It is a power-packed set of verses.  In its main theme John effectively tells us that "love" is a validating Christian state of being.  That bears some explaining.

First - John clearly tells us that we are to "test the spirits, whether they are of God." (vs. 1)  He says that there are many "false prophets" out there and we have to be careful.  We have to test those who teach by the simple sounding but deeply complex criterion that they confess that "Jesus Christ has come in the flesh...." (vs. 2).  Here's the kicker.  He goes on to develop the premise that to "confess" Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is to "know" Jesus Christ and to "know" Jesus Christ is to know Him as the Love of God made manifest.  It is through Jesus Christ that we come to "know" God and (vs. 7) that means to know God as love (vs 8) with the corresponding and necessary result that we love in return.

Second - How can we "know" the love of God and not "love" Him in return?  It's simply not possible.  God's love is what causes us to be "born of God" (vs. 7).  God's love is the "seed" of God that remains in us and grows and bears fruit in our love for Him in return and for our brothers and sisters also.  We love God because we are overwhelmed with the reality that before we even knew Him much less loved Him, He sent His Son "to be a propitiation for our sins." (vs. 11)

Today is Good Friday.  Today we think of the Cross.  Today, as we should every day, we need to let the truth of God's love for us flow into our souls.  We need to "abide in Him" (vs.13) through the Spirit He has given us.  We need to experience what John calls elsewhere our "first love" for God all over again.  We need to remember when we were first overwhelmed with the simultaneous realization of the depth of our own sins and yet the mercy of God in Jesus Christ in cleansing us of those sins.  Good Friday was a day of physical darkness, not light, as the earth shook, the sun hid its face and the veil in the Temple was split.  But Good Friday was a day of incredible light for those of us who know that in Jesus Christ God has come in the flesh and broken the chains of sin binding us to Satan and his kingdom.

We need today to think of the cross as God's judgment on sin... our sin.  And we need to be reminded of just how awful that judgment was.  And then, by extension, we must remember that for all those whose sins remain on them due to unbelief, that there is another day of judgment coming and it will be awful indeed.  But John here says that this day holds no fear for us (vs.17-18) because perfect love casts out fear... it casts out the basis of fear...  and we love God because He first loved us and saved us through His Son so that we may rejoice in the day of judgment and enter into the Kingdom He has prepared for us through His Son.

As a friend of mine is fond of saying "It's Friday but Sunday's a-coming"... yes indeed... Good Friday and Easter are two sides of God's Salvation coin.  

1 John 3:24 Our Deposit, Our Comforter, Our Guarantee

Image: Softly, 2008, Severn Run E. P. Church, Millersville, MD

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

Behold, indeed, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us.... John begins this chapter with those stirring words. (vs. 1)  What grace we have received!  What privilege has bestowed on us!  It is the most humbling and yet, at the same time, the most up-lifting reality we can imagine.  We have become "children of God"! (vs. 1 & 2).  

This thought lay so close to John's heart that it continually resurfaces.  Back in John 1 he talks of those who became "children of God" by being "born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God!"  It is these and these only who are rightly and truly God's children.  All others are mere pretenders.  "You must be born again", Jesus solemnly intoned back in John 3:3.  This is the key idea on which all of our hope, our confidence in Christ and the possibility of one day seeing Christ and on that day being like Him (1 Jn. 3:2) rests.  There must be a change... there must be a movement from one reality of our person to another.  We must become a different type of human being who "practices righteousness" (vs. 7) because we are no longer "of the devil" (vs. 8) but "of God."  John, in a challenging bit of hyperbole, even goes to say that as this new creature we "cannot sin, because (we) have been born of God." (vs. 9)  

John doesn't really mean that we live lives of sinless perfection in every particular.  What he means is that because we have God's "seed" (vs. 9) in us and that this "seed" represents our true core of being, that we necessarily cannot sin in that core reality.  Our trespasses and sins have been removed from us through the shed blood of Jesus Christ and that reality is now that of which John speaks.

So... boy... this being born again business is much to be desired, much to be wondered at, much to be appreciated.  It is not something we do.  We did not give birth to ourselves on the day we were delivered by a nurse or doctor, nor do we give "birth again" to ourselves in regeneration.  It is purely an external act, administered by the Triune God on those whom that Triune God bestows it.  It is a gift in which we are adopted into His family and become co-heirs with Jesus of Nazareth, our big Brother, of all the wonders in God's Kingdom.

In verse 24 John sums up this state of being born again for us.  He is, of course, speaking of a mystery.  The reality of being born again cannot be absolutely communicated to anyone in description.  It can be defined, it can be spoken of by analogy, but its reality has to be experienced.  That's the only way to truly "know" what it is.  But John gives us a great deal of help in understanding it.

To be born again is to have our lives, our will, our hearts, our longings transformed in such a way that we are motivated and enabled to "abide in Christ."  This is what John says in vs. 24.  We "abide in Him" and Christ "abides" in us.  Further more John says that we can "know that He abides in us".  We know this because we have the "Spirit whom He has given us."  

This points to something beautiful and critical for us.  Our goal in life is to abide in Christ through the Holy Spirit's Presence in our lives which we can recognize and in which we can rejoice.  His Presence is discernible .... it is possible for us to know Him in the Holy Spirit... and the knowledge of His Presence then works to seal us (as a deposit) for our eternal future, comfort us in our struggles, doubts and fears and then guarantee us that we cannot fall nor can we fail.

All that is possible to say in this post is that seeking to recognize and know the Spirit in us is important for us in every way.  We need to spend time in quietness and meditation for it to gain strength.  It is vital to our entire growth as a child of God.

1 John 2:1-29 Antichrist

Image:  Fruitless, 2008, Covenant Village, PA

1 John 2:22–23 (NKJV)  Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. ²³ Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

1 John 2 is one of those chapters that should have sermons preached on virtually every individual verse.  It is packed with solid encouraging exhortation as well as serious warnings.  In it, John's dualism, his emphasis on seeing the world in polar opposites, finds concrete expression for our daily walk.  He calls us to not walk in darkness which is the way of the world.  We are, as children of light, not to "love the world or the things of the world." (vs. 15) This needs careful explanation because John is not talking about good food and drink or the comforts of prosperous living.  He is talking about how the world understands the purpose of life, the purpose of pleasure, the purpose of money, the purpose of power, etc. etc. etc.  John is talking about the way each and every one of us, growing up in these United States, have been influenced to think about virtually all of life without consciously being aware of it.  This is walking in darkness and John is quick to point out that the light of Jesus Christ illuminates us to see just how sinful this way of living and thinking truly is.  He tells us (vs. 16) that any who continue to "love" this way of living and thinking does not love the Father... and if they do not love the Father, they do not love the Son and that is a serious, damnable situation indeed.

It is in this context that John mentions the Antichrist.  Again, we have to see things from his dualist perspective.  John saw a new, much more malignant spirit rising in the world.  Before Jesus of Nazareth came, before God was born in the flesh, there was (in my opinion) no "anti-Christ" as such.  The forces of darkness waged spiritual warfare for the souls of men, yes absolutely, and it was fierce indeed.  But when God shook the very heavens themselves and rocked the foundations of the earth by entering into history, taking on the form of a servant, doing the will of His Father in every detail, bearing from the time of His birth the weight and guilt of the sin of His people, and proceeded to defeat Satan at every turn... scoring His ultimate victory in the apparent defeat of the Cross, then... then .... the forces of darkness, personified in the Prince of Lies, Satan Himself, became even more enraged.

Spiritual warfare took on a much more pointed and narrow focus.  This "Christ" must be opposed... He must be humiliated... He must be fought at every turn... His continued work in space and time must be discredited and subjected to scorn.  Human beings must be brought to deny that Jesus of Nazareth was or is the "Christ."  This is the Spirit of the Antichrist and there will, according to scripture, come into history an individual who is the "incarnation" of this evil force and he is properly called the Antichrist in his person.  John distinguishes between the Spirit of the Antichrist and this person himself but only to the point of historical reality.  What is important for us is to deal with the Spirit of the Antichrist as it is spoken of in verses 22-23.

The continued warfare that rages in our culture, our colleges, our politics, our communities, even sadly, in our churches, is the attempt to strip Jesus of Nazareth of His title of Christ.

Oh, I know, that the words "Jesus Christ" are used so often that it has come to mean just the name ascribed to the man born so long ago.  When Christians do this, they, by over familiarity, lose something important.  The "Christ" as a title has a much longer history than the name "Jesus of Nazareth."  The "Christ" points us toward the eternal Being of the 2nd Person of the Trinity who was there when the worlds were made (the Alpha) and will judge the world in righteousness when history is brought to a close (the Omega).  The "Christ" is God... not just a form of God... not just a manifestation of God... but God Himself in some mysterious, incomprehensible manner.  The Trinity exists in three Persons but each is God.

In John's day as in ours the forces of the Antichrist were directed toward stamping out this world shattering truth.  In the passing centuries it has been derided as "irrational", dismissed as "superstitious", condemned as "bigotry" and persecuted as "heresy."  This is still an on-going situation.  Christians must not turn their eyes away from this reality.  We like to think the best of folks, and within certain parameters we should, but our overall estimate of the "world" as John uses that term is that it is deadly earnest in its murderous intent.  The world of the flesh and the devil is a sphere of darkness that, paradoxically, is perceived as the brightness of human possibility.  It shines in the blackness like the glittering neon image of Las Vegas shines in the desert.  Its promises are empty and the horror of its grip on our souls is real.  It is the spirit of the Antichrist and its purpose is death.

 

 

1 John 1:1-10 Light in the Darkness

Image: Sunrise, Covenant Village Retreat, PA 2008

1 John 1:7 (NKJV) ⁷ But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

We notice in all of John's writings that there is a distinct difference in not only what he says but the overall framework from which he forms his statements.  John, of all the New Testament writers, is most distinctly "dualist" in his world views.  We shouldn't be put off by that term.  It's very important.  Christians must see the world around in them in a dualist perspective.  We must think in terms of physical / spiritual, eternal / temporal, right / wrong, etc.  Most of all we must think in terms of God (as Some One wholly other, a Person beyond our comprehension) and all of creation, including ourselves.  When we speak of God this way we speak of His "Transcendence", His "beyond-ness" to all else.  One simply cannot be a Christian without adopting this basic stance toward the world.  

But there are degrees of this dual way of conceiving things.  All the New Testament authors write from a dualist perspective but there is a fair difference between James and John, Peter and John and even Paul and John, in their insistence.  John is completely overwhelmed by the "light" that he obtained from the Lord Jesus Christ.  This "light" was in His Person... John saw Jesus and did not see Jesus as "having the light" but rather that Jesus / God was light and "in Him there is no darkness at all" (vs. 5).  What does John mean by this?  What did Jesus mean when He said that He, in His Person, was the "light of the world?" (John 8:12, 9:5)

This is a crucial question because it points us toward the essence of true Christian spirituality.  Paul speaks of 'carnal' Christians and 'spiritual' Christians and he is pointing out the same thing as John does.  John tells us that we are to "walk in the light" and John links this whole way of living ("walking") necessarily and irrevocably to having "the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son" cleansing us from our sins! (vs. 7)

This is not a by-product of faith, according to John.  "Walking in the light" is the very fabric of faith.  We are saved by grace through faith but that faith is synonymous with "light".... it is synonymous with understanding everything.... all things... the entire universe... and ourselves in that universe... from a dualistic, light / darkness, perspective.  In Jesus Christ light "dawned" in the world, physically and eternally.  This world can no longer claim that the light has not shown forth in it.  The world stands under condemnation (the whole point of the Gospel of John, especially chapter 3) already by the manner in which it receives that light.

In the same way we must understand that "faith" is the dawning of Jesus as "light" in our lives.  In Jesus, faith sees the dark clouds illuminated by the Risen Son... we see the true colors of everything.  We now understand, perhaps for the first time, who we truly are! We know ourselves as truly broken and at the same time truly and eternally healed.  We know the blackness of sin and the brilliant whiteness of righteousness, the absolute contrast of righteousness in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God.  

Faith shows us the world around us as still 'dark' but no longer blacked out.  Where previously there was no light we could not see the Powers and Principalities harshly oppressing mankind.  We thought of the evil in men's hearts as it is everywhere manifest and we thought... "they ought to change!"  We thought of people in the same way as we thought of ourselves, as basically "captains of our own souls", in charge of our lives and with the power and the authority to do whatever we want.  

Faith comes and we see powerful spiritual forces around us.  We live in a world where Satan still walks and where demonic forces trap men, women and children into depravity beyond comprehension.  Jesus Christ illuminates our souls and opens our eyes to the reality of what is... and He shows us how, through the indwelling Spirit He provides, how we are no longer in bondage to the forces of darkness and how we can walk in righteousness, the righteousness He accords to us, as a witness against the powers of the air.

Sitting and watching a sunrise is like being 'born again' in a small way.  We feel the sun before we see it.  We sense the lifting of the night.  The birds begin to sing. Creatures begin to move around.  Our hearts and our eyes are drawn to the east where the first edges of darkness begin to become visible.  So it is with faith.  Faith is, in John's metaphor, "seeing the light, embracing the light and walking in the light."  It is a different way of living, thinking and feeling.  Apart from that total change in our lives we are still walking in darkness. 

2 Pet. 3:1-18 My Lord, What a Morning!

Image:  Cloud Formation, Tornado precursor, Hurricane Katrine, Vicinity of Hattiesburg, MS. 2005... photographer unknown.

Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.  (2 Pe 3:13)

Peter closes out his 2nd letter with one of the most ringing clarion calls to Christian conviction and zeal found anywhere in Scripture.  He continues the theme of "Bad News for Bad Bears" that he started in chapter 2.  He again points to the surrounding culture with its cynical and scoffing dismissal of fundamental Christian teachings and reminds us that such was the way of things even in the days of Noah.  Yet God was true to His prophetic word spoken then and He will be true to it now.  He lumps both the "words spoken before by the holy prophets" and the commandment of "us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior" (vs. 2) and teaches us that they constitute one, sustained, coherent and complementary exhortation.  There is a day coming in which God will again bring history as we currently know and experience it, to an end.  Our present "heavens and earth" are being "reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men."  This is Peter's main thrust in these paragraphs and we would do well to remember it.

We ought to note that he states categorically in vs. 6 that the "world which then existed  perished, being flooded with water".  We know that the physical created world continued under the flood and that the "world" that perished was the entire culture of depravity that then existed.  We should thus understand that in the coming Day of Judgment that when Peter says that the "heavens... and the elements will melt with fervent heat" (vs. 10) that he is speaking of a world wide fiery catastrophe will effectively destroy all the monuments man has built to himself and all "ungodly men" (vs. 7) will perish.  But just as the faithful remnant was preserved in the days of Noah, so the faithful remnant that constitutes the true people of God will also be preserved on this same physical earth when the fire passes and the sunrise of the New Morning is established.  

"My Lord, What a Morning" goes the old Gospel song and right it is to think that way.  Like the fresh breeze of spring revives our spirits after an exhausting and depressing winter, so that day will sweep over the earth in the power of the Holy Spirit and all of God's children will rejoice with joy unspeakable.  We cannot really describe that which we cannot truly know until we experience it but Scripture gives us many metaphors to help us get an idea.  

This "new heavens and a new earth" (vs. 13) will be just that.  Noah and his family carried sin into the "new world' that dawned after the waters receded.  God is not going to allow that this next and last time.  The time of redemption will be passed and with that passing all sin which separates man from God must be abolished.  It will be an earth and heavens in which "righteousness dwells."  

Imagine that... an entire human culture consisting of transformed men and women who have been given eternal bodies with amazing potentials.  The only thing these men and women will not be able to do is to sin because that will no longer be an option.  Their changed wills and their changed affections will not incline to disobedience in any fashion.  They will love justice... they will love the Lord their God with all their heart, mind, soul and body.  They will love their neighbors as themselves and they will cheerfully and completely devote themselves to the eternal task of bringing joy, glory and honor to their King.  I think we will have tasks to do, things to learn, universes to explore.  I think infinity will yield infinite secrets to us and in every conceivable fashion we will grow in our wonder and appreciation of God's power, majesty and perfection.

Oh my... that will be a day to sing and it is coming just as certainly as God's promises are unfailingly true.

Only those too blind to see can not understand the need for such a day, and only those whose hearts are too committed to the passing world of sin and grief will not long for it to come soon.  Maranatha Lord Jesus, come quickly.

2 Pet. 1:1-2:22 A Bleak House Indeed

Image: Bleak House, 2019, Bertram, TX

the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, (2 Pe 2:9)

There was little of the bumbling, cocky young fisherman left in Peter when he wrote these two chapters.  I am reminded of Abraham as he, in his later days, responded to the Lord's leading in such a more settled, wise and trusting manner.  Only the Abraham who had nearly shamed his wife on a couple of occasions and had given up on God's promise of a seed through his very own body on another, etc. etc. could with such equanimity accept the command to go and sacrifice his son.  As far as Peter goes, only a man who had felt the Lord's rebuke and experienced His blessed reconciliation, who had trembled at the darkness after the crucifixion and could not believe his eyes at the empty tomb, could speak the words in these chapters with such force, clarity, humility and expectation.

He comforts us on one hand and then solemnly warns us on the other.  He knows the importance of his words.  He knows how easy it is to ride the mountain tops of confident loving trust in the Lord and then sink into temptation at the drop of a hat.  He knows... personally... and his words strike us hard.

In chapter 1 he reminds us of our need to give all diligence to add Christ-like virtues to our faith.  He exhorts us to be fruitful and to make our "call and election sure."  He reminds us that "blind faith'" is not faith at all.  Rather, our faith is to grow and be "established in the present truth" (vs. 12) so that we can guard against the "cunningly devised fables" (vs. 16) that our enemies proclaim even as they accuse us of following just such things when we cling to the "prophetic word" (vs. 19) that Peter assures us will guard us.  Holy men were moved by the Holy Spirit to give us the Word we embrace and it is to it that we must cling.

But, then as now, false prophets are gnawing away at the faith passed down to the church through the generations (2:1).  The horrible truth is that many will follow them to perdition and because of them the "way of truth will be blasphemed." (2:2).  Can we deny that this is the sorry state of affairs that dogs the church of Jesus Christ today?  There are men and women who are actively undertaking to pervert all the wholesome doctrines of the Christian faith and turn them into something hideous.  Peter is not shy about telling them what is in store for them.  This chapter has some very scary teachings in it.  When Sodom and Gomorrah are held up as mere tokens of what is coming then we know that the fierceness of God's wrath is something that no man should take lightly.

God's day of judgment is coming, Peter tells us.  And it will be a bleak house indeed that the unjust will discover is waiting for them.  There will be no joy in it... they will "receive the wages of unrighteousness" (2:13) and "utterly perish in their own corruption." (2:12)  Are these not terrifying words?  Can we read them and not have a momentary catch in our throat and an icy apprehension touch our hearts?  We should have some sense of that fear even as we trust we will never face the judgment the false teachers will receive.  

But God's severe sentencing is just.  These folks are consciously or unconsciously seeking to subvert the faith of the weak... promise them liberty (vs. 2:19) and entangle them in a false gospel.  This is the height of perversity and radical evil and God is not slow to assign them the just deserts appropriate to their actions.

Peter brings these two chapters to a close in this way.... leaving us hanging ... so that in the next chapter we can be reminded that the God of Judgment is the God of Mercy for those who love Him and keep His commandments.  This is Peter at his best... the mature apostle who has spent a lifetime discovering the depths of God's grace to him.  I can't help but smile and look forward with warm anticipation to the day when, Lord willing, I will meet him.

1 Pet 5:1-14 Humbled, Hopeful and Happy

Image: Heron, 2016, Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, Delaware

1 Peter 5:6–7 (NKJV) ⁶ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, ⁷ casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

It is a source of deep comfort to me when I am reminded how consistent the New Testament teachings are with that of the Old Testament.  Considering these verse I was immediately reminded of:

Micah 6:8 (NKJV)  ⁸ He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God? 

I could throw others in there such as Psalm 1 but there is no real need.  Every serious Christian is acquainted with the Old Testament and recognizes Christ and His Kingdom throughout its teachings.  

And at the heart of the Scriptures' teaching about Christ and His Kingdom is the idea of "blessedness."  God has chosen a people for Himself that are the object of His blessing.  Biblical "love" is nothing if it is not a fundamental, zealous desire for the "beloved's" well being and a commitment to do everything one can to facilitate the "beloved's" well being.  God has instituted His Son and His Son's Kingdom on earth to achieve just that goal: for His people to live a life blessed by God.  In the Old Testament Hebrew this is the central idea behind "shalom" and it is the goal that God has set before His people in every age.

Peter, following MIcah and other writers, adds his contribution to that continuing theme.  He opens to us the bedrock principles on which a spiritually flourishing pathway to contentment is discovered amidst the chaos and darkness around us.  He is writing to  beleaguered audience so we should not jump to conclusions about physical wealth, health or even continued earthly life it self.  But the very point he makes is that where all of those things are absent or threatened, yet it is possible to have a measure of contentment, of shalom, and thus fulfill our Lord's desires for us.

He tells us to "humble ourselves" under God's "mighty hand!"  This is a call for patience in the face of adverse circumstances that we know, in our hearts, are where God has placed us.  We are soldiers in His army and going in harm's way is part of the job.  God uses us to show the world that Christ's benefits far outweigh any earthly comforts or hopes and therefore that the loss of those things will not break us nor defeat us.  A Christian knows that God is there... He is indeed mighty... He is indeed working out our salvation... we can trust Him... and Godly humility is not only accepting that premise it is embracing it.

In the Old Testament this was called "waiting on the Lord." (Psa. 27:14, 37:9 & 34 and famously, Isa. 40:31)  The idea of "waiting" is to be humble before God knowing that whatever He is doing He will ultimately bring justice and vindication for His people.  Humility is our submitting to God in trust... no matter what.

In my own life I sum it up with the idea "Don't worry about things you can't change."  At its root it is the hopeful expectation that God will "come through" in those things that I can't fix.  It helps a lot.

Next Peter tells us that our humility is unto the end that God "may exalt you in due time."  Now that's hope.  If God exalts us then we are exalted for sure.  God's plans for us, both in this life and the one to come, is that of "showing us off" to all the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.  God bragged about Job to Satan because Job was righteous.  Satan was not happy about that nor is he happy about God exalting sinners like us, but that is God's great plan and it is our hope.  No matter what we face, God will bring us through it and we will see victory in it.  That is a rock solid promise consistently proclaimed throughout the Scriptures.

And lastly, in summary, God calls us to be "happy" in our lives by casting all our cares upon Him in full assurance that He cares for us.  Ever notice how a child will run to his or her mother when they have encountered some minor scrape or bruise?  Do you remember the look of contentment, even in the tears, that comes to them as they receive her warm embrace and feel her tender love.  They may still sob but they know that it will get "all better."  That is what God's love does for us.  We are happiest, even in the presence of tears, when we spiritually run to Him, throw our cares in His lap and receive His tender touch to our heart.

This is probably too long... but sometimes the sheer wonder of God's Word and its immediate application to our lives overwhelms me and... it's just hard to stop talking about it.