Henry: Welcome To Immerse: The Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day 73
Immersed in First John.
The letter known as First John was written to a group of believers in crisis.
False teachers had begun preaching that Jesus was not the Messiah and
claimed their teaching was based on a revelation from the spirit of God.
Many followers of Jesus began believing these teachers.
And the community was being torn apart.
In response, John wrote a letter to all of the churches in the
community, as in the gospel of John.
The author doesn't state his name in this letter, but tradition ascribes
it to the Apostle John, and much evidence in the letter supports it.
John urges the remaining believers to stay faithful to what they had
been taught from the beginning.
He combats the claims that the false teachers were making, showing how their
lives discredited their own message.
John reassures the faithful believers, the holy one has given you his
spirit and all of you know the truth.
One thing the false teachers denied was that Jesus Christ came in a real body,
like many people in the first century who were influenced by Greek philosophy.
They thought that spiritual things were good, but physical things were bad.
They believed that if Jesus had really been the son of God, he could never
have come to earth in a physical body.
But John offers eyewitness testimony that Jesus was both genuinely
human and the Messiah sent by God.
John warns the recipients of his letters who test all those who claim
to speak by the spirit if they deny these basic truths about Jesus.
Then they are false prophets and are following the spirit of the
antichrist, which John says is already present in the world.
John adds that the people who are leaving the community of faith are
also discredited by the way they live.
For one thing, they are living impure lives, possibly because they
now believe that whatever they do in their physical bodies doesn't
affect their spiritual condition.
The false teachers and their followers also lacked Christ-like
compassion for the poor and suffering.
They didn't care about the practical needs of others.
The true path had been taught and shown by Jesus.
Those who claim to know and love God will obey his commands.
They will faithfully live in the light and love of the Messiah's way.
It can be somewhat difficult to track John's pattern of thought
in this letter as he seems to move back and forth between ideas.
He sometimes raises a topic briefly, then shifts to another thought followed
by a return to the previous topic.
However, both his desire to maintain the integrity of the gospel message
and his attentiveness to living in the light permeate the entire letter.
He summarizes his entire message at the end of the letter This way.
And we know that the son of God has come and he has given us understanding
so that we can know the true God.
And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in
fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ.
The letter of First John, we proclaimed to you the one who
existed from the beginning.
Whom we have heard and seen.
We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands.
He is the word of life.
This one who is life itself was revealed to us and we have seen him and now
we testify and proclaimed to you that he is the one who is eternal life.
He was with the father and then he was revealed to us.
We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard, so
that you may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship is with the
father and with his son, Jesus Christ.
We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.
This is the message we heard from Jesus, and now declare to you God is light.
And there is no darkness in him at all.
So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God, but go on
living in spiritual darkness, we are not practicing the truth.
But if we are living in the light as God is in the light, then we have fellowship
with each other and the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin.
If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves
and not living in the truth.
But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that
his word has no place in our hearts.
My dear children, I'm writing this to you so that you will not sin, but if
anyone does sin, We have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father.
He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.
He himself is the sacrifice that atone for our sins and not only our
sins, but the sins of all the world.
And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments.
If someone claims, I know God.
But doesn't obey God's commandments.
That person is a liar and is not living in the truth.
But those who obey God's word truly show how completely they love him.
That is how we know we are living in him.
Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.
Dear friends, I'm not writing a new commandment for you, rather.
It is an old one you have had from the very beginning.
This old commandment to love one another is the same message you
heard before, yet it is also new.
Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it.
For the darkness is disappearing and the true light is already shining.
If anyone claims I am living in the light, but hates a fellow believer,
that person is still living in darkness.
Anyone who loves a fellow believer is living in the light and does
not cause others to stumble.
But anyone who hates a fellow believer is still living and walking in darkness.
Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the
darkness I'm writing to you who are God's children because your sins
have been forgiven through Jesus.
I'm writing to you who are mature in the faith.
Because you know Christ who existed from the beginning.
I am writing to you who are young in the faith because you have won your battle
with the evil one I have written to you who are God's children because you know
the Father I have written to you who are mature in the faith because you know
Christ who existed from the beginning.
I have written to you who are young in the faith because you are strong.
God's word lives in your hearts and you have won your battle with the evil one.
Do not love this world nor the things it offers you for.
When you love the world, you do not have the love of the father in you.
For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving
for everything we see and pride in our achievements and possessions.
These are not from the father, but are from this world.
And this world is fading away along with everything that people
crave, but anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.
Dear children, the last hour is here.
You have heard that the antichrist is coming and already many such
antichrist have appeared from this.
We know that the last hour has come.
These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us.
Otherwise they would've stayed with us.
When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.
But you are not like that for the holy one has given you his spirit
and all of you know the truth.
So I'm writing to you, not because you don't know the truth, but because
you know the difference between truth and lies and who is a liar?
Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ.
Anyone who denies the father and the son is an antichrist.
Anyone who denies the son doesn't have the father either, but anyone who
acknowledges the son has the father also.
So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning.
If you do, you'll remain in fellowship with the son and with the father.
And in this fellowship, we enjoy the eternal life he promised us.
I'm writing these things to warn you about those who want to lead you astray, but
you have received the Holy Spirit and he lives within you, so you don't need anyone
to teach you what is true for the Spirit.
Teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true.
It is not a lie.
So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.
And now dear children remain in fellowship with Christ so that when
he returns, you'll be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame.
Since we know that Christ is righteous, we also know that all who
do what is right are God's children.
See how very much our father loves us for.
He calls us his children and that is what we are.
But the people who belong to this world don't recognize that we are God's
children because they don't know him.
Dear friends, we are already God's children, but he has not yet shown us
what we will be like when Christ appears, but we do know that we will be like him,
for we will see him as he really is, and all who have this eager expectation will
keep themselves pure just as he is pure.
Everyone whose sins is breaking God's law for all sin is contrary to the law of God.
And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins and there is no sin in him.
Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin, but anyone who keeps on sinning
does not know him or understand who he is.
Dear children, don't let anyone deceive you about this.
When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous,
even as Christ is righteous.
But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the
devil who has been sinning since the beginning, but the Son of God came
to destroy the works of the devil.
Those who have been born into God's family do not make a practice of
sinning because God's life is in them, so they can't keep on sinning
because they're children of God.
So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil.
Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other
believers, does not belong to God.
This is the message you have heard from the beginning.
We should love one another.
We must not be like Kane who belonged to the evil one and killed his
brother, and why did he kill him?
Kane had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous.
So don't be surprised.
Dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you, if we love our brothers and
sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life.
But a person who has no love is still dead.
Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart.
And you know that murderers don't have eternal life within them.
We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us,
so we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.
If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in
need, but chose no compassion, how can God's love be in that person?
Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other.
Let us show the truth by our actions.
Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we
stand before God, even if we feel guilty.
God is greater than our feelings and he knows everything.
Dear friends, if we don't feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence.
And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him
and do the things that please him.
And this is his commandment.
We must believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one
another just as he commanded us.
Those who obey God's commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he
with them, and we know he lives in us.
The spirit he gave us lives in us.
Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the spirit.
You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God for there
are many false prophets in the world.
This is how we know if they have the spirit of God.
If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus
Christ came in a real body.
That person has the spirit of God.
But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about
Jesus, that person is not from God.
Such a person has the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard is coming
into the world and indeed is already here, but you belong to God my dear children.
You have already won a victory over those people because
the spirit who lives in you.
Is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.
Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world's viewpoint and the
world listens to them, but we belong to God and those who know God, listen to us.
If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us.
That is how we know if someone has the spirit of truth or
the spirit of deception.
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another.
For love comes from God.
Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God, but anyone who
does not love does not know God.
For God is love.
God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only son
in into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.
This is real love.
Not that we loved God.
But that he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.
No one has ever seen God, but if we love each other, God lives in us, and his
love is brought to full expression in us, and God has given us His spirit as
proof that we live in Him and he and us.
Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the father sent
his son to be the savior of the world.
All who declare that Jesus is the son of God, have God living
in them, and they live in God.
We know how much God loves us and we have put our trust in His love.
God is love and all who live in love, live in God.
And God lives in them.
And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect.
So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face
him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.
Such love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear.
If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have
not fully experienced his perfect love.
We love each other because he loved us first.
If someone says, I love God, but hates a fellow believer, that person is a
liar for if we don't love people we can see, how can we love God whom we cannot
see, and he has given us this command.
Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God.
And everyone who loves the Father loves his children too.
We know we love God's children if we love God and obey his commandments.
Loving God means keeping His commandments and his commandments are not burdensome.
For every child of God defeats this evil world and we achieve
this victory through our faith.
And who can win this battle against the world?
Only those who believe that Jesus is the son of God.
And Jesus Christ was revealed as God's son by his baptism in water and by shedding
his blood on the cross, not by water only, but by water and blood, and the Spirit who
is truth confirms it with his testimony.
So we have these three witnesses, the spirit.
The water and the blood and all three agree since we believe human testimony.
Surely we can believe the greater testimony that comes from God.
And God has testified about his son, all who believe in the Son of God, know in
their hearts that this testimony is true.
Those who don't believe this are actually calling God a liar
because they don't believe what God has testified about his son.
And this is what God has testified.
He has given us eternal life and this life is in his son.
Whoever has the son has life, whoever does not have God's son, does not have life.
I have written this to you who believe in the name of the son of God, so that
you may know you have eternal life.
And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for
anything that pleases him.
And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know
that he will give us what we ask for.
If you see a fellow believer sinning in a way that does not
lead to death, you should pray and God will give that person life.
But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you
should pray for those who commit it.
All wicked actions are sin, but not every sin leads to death.
We know that God's children do not make a practice of sinning for
God's son, holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them.
We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is
under the control of the evil one.
We know that the son of God has come and he has given us understanding
so that we can know the true God.
And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in
fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ.
He is the only true God and he is eternal life.
Dear children, keep away from anything that might take
God's place in your hearts.
This concludes today's Immer Reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.