Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Dr. Ron Hall, professor and pastor, and Peter Englert, pastor, help you delve into 1 John. Understand the context and background while applying this practical book of the Bible to your life.
1 John - 4-1-6.mov
Generated using Transcript LOL
=========================================
Peter Englert
00:00 - 00:28
Welcome to the Reading 1 John podcast. I am here with Professor and Pastor Ron Hall, and we're past the halfway point of 1 John. If you're listening to this, whether it's for your devotion time or you're listening as a Bible study for a small group, however you use this, we just want to help you understand this powerful book And today we are going to go a little slower because there's a lot here.
Peter Englert
00:28 - 00:51
But I'm going to read first John four, one through six, and then Ron and I will interpret and help discuss it from there. So it says this. Dear friends, 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. This is how you can recognize the spirit of God.
Peter Englert
00:52 - 01:16
Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist. You have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You dear children are from God and have overcome them because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
Peter Englert
01:17 - 01:41
They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world and the world listens to them. We are from God and whoever knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood." Well, Ron, that's... Seems pretty self-explanatory.
Peter Englert
01:41 - 01:42
We don't need to talk about that.
Ron Hall
01:44 - 02:04
Oh, this one needs lots of attention. I think one word to summarize it is discernment. and we need discernment. Hebrews chapter 5 verse 14, strong meat is for those who by reason of use have exercised their conscience to discern between both good and evil.
Ron Hall
02:04 - 02:29
So this is an issue of discernment and that's why we need to saturate ourselves with truth so that you handle truth long enough you'll be able to recognize the counterfeit. So this passage is taking it on and It fits so well, Peter, and everyone listening to the theme that John has already been dealing with from chapter one and right through to this point.
Peter Englert
02:30 - 02:57
Well, one thing I just want to say about discernment, because I think it's important. Every year I pick a word for the year, and for one year I picked the word discernment. And I think the biggest thing that I've learned about this word discernment that's actually in this passage is we think of discernment about the big issues, the quote unquote, where do I work? Who should I marry?
Peter Englert
02:59 - 03:15
You know, this big life decision, how should I engage these medical practices? You can think about any of those big decisions. But really, discernment is a series of smaller decisions that you make. And I'll even go for the negative.
Peter Englert
03:16 - 03:40
It's, you know, people that drift from Jesus, however, wherever your theology is, it's never a huge decision. It's a very small decision. And even what this passage is saying, it's saying if they're not preaching Christ, then you're headed in the wrong direction. And I think sometimes we overlook, even though this is a meaty passage, it's the little decisions.
Peter Englert
03:40 - 03:59
It's the little moments of discernment that God begins to work, that we build our faith in him, that we do the things that he called us to do. And I think this passage, if we're going to sum it up in the word, it's the small, the seemingly small decisions of discernment from there. Yeah.
Ron Hall
04:00 - 04:27
and understanding why we have to sensitize our conscience, that if we're not sensitized and we're not exposed to truth, we're not going to know error. So John really drives home the idea of truth. And I'm reminded of John 17, 17, "'Father, sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.'" And we're told to walk in the truth, just as walking in the light is in chapter 1.
Ron Hall
04:27 - 04:46
Well, now John is in that vein of saying, OK, so you've got to walk in the truth. And it fits well with what you're talking about, the little decisions, because the Christian walk is so daily. You know, that any man would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. And it's daily.
Ron Hall
04:46 - 04:52
That's Luke 9.23 focus. It's a daily walk. You say, well, that sounds boring. No, no, no, it's not boring.
Ron Hall
04:52 - 04:58
That's something that we do it day by day, step by step, being able to put that in perspective.
Peter Englert
04:59 - 05:20
Well, let's let's kind of zoom out, because I love I think now you can understand the power of this passage. So you've got three sections of discernment, which I think is helpful. So in verse one, it's understanding what is of God and what is not. And then discernment in verses 2 to 3, it's listening to the message, so the message of the gospel.
Peter Englert
05:21 - 05:34
And then verses 4 to 5, it's knowing who is of God and who is of the world. So let's start with verse 1 of what is from God and what is not. Why don't you explain that to us?
Ron Hall
05:34 - 06:06
Well, first of all, we have that word test in there, and you being one of my former students, and present friend, there are tests that people have to face, the test of life. And in this case, we are told that we administer the test by what are people saying, what do they believe. And so it's understanding what's really of God and what is not comes by, we put it to the test. Don't believe everything you hear, and we know that.
Ron Hall
06:06 - 06:16
Don't be gullible. You know, you believe everything you hear. You'll fall for anything. We don't want to be there, but you go ahead and test the spirits to see whether they be of God.
Ron Hall
06:17 - 06:36
I found it interesting when I was reviewing for today of the false Christ, the false apostles, false prophets. Jesus spoke about all of them. that there would be people that would be peddlers of false doctrine. And the New Testament was, I mean, it happened back in Acts.
Ron Hall
06:36 - 06:54
You take letters where they're taking on false teachers that are there. Paul would reprove. He'd say, watch out for the teaching of, say, Hymenaeus and Philetus, of how they would lead people astray. false doctrine was in the Church and needed to be tackled head-on.
Ron Hall
06:54 - 07:07
So John is saying, you test the spirits to see whether they're of God. And we'll get to it in a minute with the Antichrist, but it's the idea there are going to be those that will seek to lead us astray.
Peter Englert
07:09 - 07:25
I think it's important to to talk about. So in screw tape letters, they talk about, you know, the demons, they're going back and forth. They want people to either believe that there's a demon behind every rock or. demons don't exist at all.
Peter Englert
07:26 - 07:57
And I think that that can be true about theology and heresy is you have some people that are literally looking for any false teaching whatsoever, and then you have people that will just read anything. And so what I love about this passage is there are things that people theologically disagree with. you know, without going too long. But there's Arminianism, which tends to lean towards human free will.
Peter Englert
07:57 - 08:13
There's Calvinism that leans more towards election and God's choice. And again, I'm grossly stereotyping these. I don't think that that's what this verse is talking about, or there's theological disagreements. People love Jesus.
Peter Englert
08:13 - 08:31
But, you know, you think about something like the prosperity gospel, which basically says, It's flat out heresy. Like, hey, if you love God, you're not going to suffer. God wants to give you millions and millions of dollars. So these seeds, I think that those are the types of teachings we're talking about.
Peter Englert
08:31 - 08:51
And we always want to want to think and pray and read the Bible and engage in community. But I think we have to be careful. We're not looking for every theological disagreement and problem, but really what this verse is saying is, is this leading to a direction that's going to bring you away from Jesus?
Ron Hall
08:53 - 09:14
And that's why verse two fits in so well. So the first one, you're testing the spirits to see whether they're of God, and you test by having to evaluate. That's why we are saying discernment is so crucial here. So in verse two then, it's what are people saying then about Jesus?
Ron Hall
09:14 - 09:29
What is the proclamation? And right from chapter one, verse one, we have to drop back to that. that the one that we have touched, we have tasted, we have handled. It's the idea of the incarnate Son of God.
Ron Hall
09:29 - 09:50
And if someone is going to deny that Jesus is fully God and fully man, it is considered to be false doctrine. And so John deals with that in his gospel. And now here he is some years later. We don't need to go into the dating of the gospel of John.
Ron Hall
09:51 - 10:32
But here he is writing 1 John, and he's dealing with the same issue of those that were deniers of Jesus being literally God. And so there's different words that are used theologically, not to overwhelm our audience, but there's a word, doceticism, of the idea, was Christ possibly too, or was it more of an apparition, and it just appeared as though Jesus had a real body? And then there's Gnosticism that claims super-spirituality. Jesus couldn't have had a real body, because the body's evil, and they could do what they wanted with their body, because it didn't affect their spirit person.
Ron Hall
10:32 - 10:53
So these false doctrines that were present in that day were coming together. But with saying that, Peter, it's understanding that that hasn't changed. that the same false view of the deity of Christ exists today. And we'll elaborate on that in a minute.
Peter Englert
10:55 - 11:20
Well, yeah, well, let's go to two and three, because even what you're saying, most of the false beliefs in the ancient times, again, it goes back to what you're saying was was Jesus real? And then we're you know, you might be listening to this six years from now. We're recording this during the Advent Christmas season. And so the incarnation is really important.
Peter Englert
11:20 - 11:54
It's, it's important that John says, we touched him, we felt him, you know, we, he was here and, and, you know, without going too far, you know, the church spent hundreds of years trying to articulate this doctrine. that that God is that Jesus is fully God and fully man and how important that is. And, you know, someday, you know, my dream with you is to do Hebrews because that was my favorite class I ever took with you. But they talk all about that, that of Christ's divinity and humanity.
Peter Englert
11:54 - 12:12
And it's beautiful in doing that. And again, coming back to this passage, you know, with the false teachers, you know, John is addressing them. And so in saying that, we're gonna come back to what you're saying there, but let's jump to two to three. This is where we actually talk about, you know, discernment in listening to the message.
Ron Hall
12:12 - 12:36
Yeah. And let's remember our backdrop since you brought the Christmas season we're moving into. It's John 1, 14, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us that we beheld him, the only begotten of the Father. And in John 14, it was driven home, Jesus said, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father, because he reflected it.
Ron Hall
12:37 - 13:08
And just a couple weeks ago, we went to a Messiah concert with the orchestra here in Charlotte, North Carolina, and they're doing the Messiah. I don't know how they do it without being believers, but somehow they pull it off. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and his name shall we call Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting Father, all of the descriptions of absolute deity. And so Christianity is built on Jesus is God.
Ron Hall
13:09 - 13:54
And if you don't have that right, you don't have the message right. So you and I dialogued a couple weeks ago about this, and I was thinking about the different types of false teaching that have come out regarding the deity of Christ. so close to Rochester, New York, with Palmyra, New York being where Mormonism was founded, supposedly in the infamous golden tablets discovered by Joseph Smith and the rose-colored glasses in order to properly interpret them on a drumlet. I mean, You go over there today, they have the place where the pageant is held every year, and there's the false doctrine that Jesus is really not God.
Ron Hall
13:55 - 14:31
Jesus just somehow attained to a higher life form, but he's not God. And I don't know if you've had encounters with the false teaching. I have had encounters with different people, and it's so unfortunate the way it is distorted, because they do not accept Jesus being God. If you don't have that right, then that would mean Jesus was just a man who attained perfection, but that means if he was able to do it, then another just a man.
Ron Hall
14:32 - 15:09
could attain that. And one other note, Peter, you and I talked about it. The Fox sisters over in Arcadia in Wayne County, not too far from where you're located there at Browncroft, they had the false doctrine of imitating that there were spirits, and you could come in touch with this spirit world, and you didn't need Jesus as God. And they led a hoax that started a worldwide movement of spiritism, made its way across the ocean, England, into Europe, and then finally they were exposed.
Ron Hall
15:09 - 15:38
But by then, they were purveyors of this false idea, and it gained roots in the idea of the hoax being exposed at work. And then there's Jehovah Witness doctrine that denied the reality of Jesus Christ as being God. They fly smack in the face of passages like this. You test the spirits to see whether they're of God, because what do they believe about Jesus?
Peter Englert
15:41 - 16:03
Well, and I think why we're talking about this is what verse two says, that every spirit that has acknowledged that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. So we see the humanity and divinity. And then verse three, really, you can call it cause and effect. Just kind of what's the outcome of that?
Peter Englert
16:04 - 16:29
that every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God, the spirits of the Antichrist. And, you know, before we even just jump deeper in that verse, I I think it's important is that during this time in history, They the Jewish people were looking for messiahs. You know, there was a number of people. So I think that that's there.
Peter Englert
16:30 - 17:04
My my daughter is reading Percy Jackson of the Greek gods like it's it's really weird because You know, the Greek gods are very different than Jesus in the sense of you can kind of understand. Last night, we were just reading about Poseidon, who isn't as important as Zeus, but is with the water. when you start studying the Greek gods, you can kind of understand the world that they're living in. Like these Greek gods didn't have integrity.
Peter Englert
17:04 - 17:24
They lied and they fought each other. And so you meet Jesus, who is God comes into the flesh. I think that even just having that context is just really helpful because this was in a lot of ways countercultural to what people were experiencing. Yeah.
Ron Hall
17:25 - 17:53
Yeah, it's huge. I mean, you bring it up about the god Zeus in Titus on the Isle of Crete. Zeus was the master god, and so Peter said that, you know, you Cretans are liars, and that's what you're known for. Well, that was the reputation of their god, to which I say, be careful of the god you serve, because you might become like him, and that's the danger that's there.
Ron Hall
17:54 - 18:13
Yeah, so you're bringing out good points on that third verse. We think about Matthew 10, whoever acknowledges me before men, I'll also acknowledge him. The idea of who he is. I like the 2 John 7, verse 7, many deceivers are gone out in the world.
Ron Hall
18:13 - 18:27
Jesus, they don't acknowledge Jesus as coming in the flesh, gone out into the world. Any such person is a deceiver and the Antichrist. So it boils down to, what do they say about Christ? Is that the emphasis?
Peter Englert
18:29 - 18:35
Do you want to say a little bit more about 2 and 3, or do you want to jump to verse 4?
Ron Hall
18:35 - 19:00
We can. I just want to drive home, though, that I want to draw attention to any organization that is not planting itself clearly on the deity of Christ. That makes a difference, and I talked to you about this before. The roots of the social gospel started there in Rochester, New York at Colgate with a man by the name of Walter Rauschenbusch.
Ron Hall
19:01 - 19:31
And his whole idea was the social gospel where you could have Christianity without a divine savior. It was the idea, as long as we did good, and you've heard of the idea of good works, and then people thinking that good works somehow save you, it would do it. But the social gospel is a violation of this very section that we're dealing with. What do they say about Christ?
Ron Hall
19:31 - 20:21
Is that the main focus? And so, not to get bogged down in this denomination and that denomination, but mainline denominational churches embraced the social gospel, and the teaching of Walter Rauschenbusch, that at first seemed palatable, ended up being a dispenser of false doctrine. That was in contrast to, say, Salvation Army, founded by William Booth, where William Booth wanted to take the social needs of people that existed And he wanted to then merge them together with the gospel. So when you look back at the history of William Booth and Salvation Army, they were evangelistic, but they were also humanitarian.
Ron Hall
20:22 - 20:37
So if you have a real compassion for humanitarian things, fine, have that, but make sure you embrace it with the legitimate gospel of Jesus having come in the flesh, being Son of God, Son of Man. That was love, but I hope that gives enough.
Peter Englert
20:38 - 21:14
Well, I and I think the point before we jump to the other versus is, you know, when you are three degrees off. you know, you won't notice it until you've walked two miles. And with with some of the heresy and some of even the false teaching or misteachings or misunderstandings, I want to want to be careful how we couch this. Sometimes when they're three degrees off, I think the question is, is how is this leading us towards Jesus or away from Jesus?
Peter Englert
21:15 - 21:36
And I, you know, even with someone like Walter Rauschenbusch, if You know if you could have a conversation with him. in a very kind and polite tone, you'd say, hey, I totally want to affirm the image of God and other people. I totally want to affirm compassion and the fruits of the spirit. But we we need to be clear at some point.
Peter Englert
21:36 - 22:03
Our motivation for that is Jesus. And, you know, we we do this for the good news. And I I think that that's kind of what John is driving at, you know, just as a comparative passage, because I think It's worth taking some time here. It's funny, Paul in Philippians, one of the weirdest verses is he goes, Hey, I know that there's these people that are preaching the gospel for wrong game, but you should be happy that they're preaching the gospel.
Peter Englert
22:04 - 22:28
So I, I think, you know, here you can kind of use that as a comparison, which is God works within the brokenness of humanity, whether their motivations are wrong or the message is flat out wrong. You know, there is a call to be discernment and just. discerning doesn't always mean that you have to be reactive. And so I think that that's the power of this passage, and even comparing that with Philippians.
Peter Englert
22:28 - 22:29
Yes, yeah.
Ron Hall
22:30 - 22:53
And that's good. What matters is that the Holy Spirit can apply the truth, even in the midst of a church that's wayward, to bring someone to the saving knowledge of Christ. But they're going to have to come to the place that Jesus is God. We confess him as Lord, but not as just a person, but as God himself.
Ron Hall
22:54 - 22:59
There was a second part of verse three I still want us to pick up to before we move on.
Peter Englert
22:59 - 23:00
No, let's do it.
Ron Hall
23:00 - 23:52
And that was dealing with the idea of the spirit of the Antichrist. It's important that we pick that up because the Antichrist against Christ, because we have that word anti in there, And so the idea, the spirit of the Antichrist, in chapter two, John said, many Antichrists have gone out into the world. So it's representing a spirit, but then we have the Antichrist of Revelation 13 and 2 Thessalonians 2 of this man of lawlessness. So there is the arch nemesis of the Antichrist himself emissary directly from Satan, and yet then you have all of these little minions that are out running around.
Ron Hall
23:52 - 24:26
And that's what John is hinting at here. There are many antichrists that have gone out into the world, and it is a spirit, and the spirit is permeated and pervasive with the idea of false teaching of denying that Jesus has actually come in the flesh. And you were referring to, before to screw tape letters with C.S. Lewis, there, you know, the Dominions, I mean, they're doing everything they can to nag and claw in order to disrupt an understanding of the truth.
Ron Hall
24:27 - 24:47
So this reminds us, I was reading again 2 Thessalonians, of the idea of this deceiver leading people astray. Folks, we've got to be discerning. We have to be handling the truth so much that we recognize the counterfeit. And that's what matters.
Ron Hall
24:48 - 25:08
Years ago, I was at a bank and A woman kept rubbing money as she was counting it coming in. And she would then take it and sometimes put it under a light. So I stepped up in the bank line and I said, well, what's that about? And she said, well, we're trained on what the real feels like.
Ron Hall
25:08 - 25:26
And if something doesn't feel right, we put it under the light to see if it's counterfeit. And what a powerful spiritual illustration for us. Make sure we put it under the light so we can we can discern it. We don't want to be deceived, so the Antichrist is active and the Spirit's going out.
Ron Hall
25:26 - 25:28
God, put a check on us and help us.
Peter Englert
25:30 - 25:55
Well, and that moves us to the next. So like we talk about what the message said, that was verses two and three, and this brings us to four and five, knowing who God is and who is of the world. And so, you know, I think too, there's, as you pointed out, there's a discernment rhythm to all of this. to what's been said, you know, is it coming from the Antichrist?
Peter Englert
25:55 - 26:11
But then and again, we're not talking about the revelation type Antichrist. We'll save that for whoever wants to do a revelation podcast. But what we're talking about is who is of God and who is of the world based on this message.
Ron Hall
26:11 - 26:27
Yeah. And that's why I love verse four. Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. that sense of, there it is, what gives you discernment is the presence of Christ within our lives.
Ron Hall
26:28 - 26:44
Because if you have the Son, you have life within you. So there can be that inner confidence of just knowing. And if we have that in us, then we know that we're able to overcome. Again, greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.
Ron Hall
26:44 - 26:57
We overcome false teachers by the presence of Christ in us. and the truth. Remember John 14, 6, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. That's the way we overcome.
Peter Englert
27:01 - 27:23
Well, and again, this goes a little bit more positive, but something that I want to touch base on is, you know, we've heard it before. John says, you know, they were they were from us, but they weren't with it. Like so he does this over and over again. And, you know, and you got to think about the listeners.
Peter Englert
27:23 - 27:46
The reason why what you just said there is so positive. is you have these listeners that probably feel insecure, probably feel anxious, am I believing the right things? And that's why what you said is so powerful, because, hey, you know, when God is with us, it's greater than anything in the world. But again, going back to that point, hey, they might have been with you, but they weren't really with you.
Peter Englert
27:47 - 28:11
And I think that that's what John is trying to point out in this passage is, you know, look at the results of their ways, which we see that in other parts of the Bible. In Galatians, it talks about whatever you sow, you reap. And so I I think that that's what what they're talking about in this passage, that, you know, being that they're really from the world. And, you know, we see that in Christianity.
Peter Englert
28:11 - 28:37
I mean, I'm not against self-help. I think that there's some great things, but sometimes when you mold self-help together with the gospel, it just gets messy, and you have to be discerning. You and I joke. We love that Saturday Night Live clip with Stuart Smiley or whatever his name is.
Peter Englert
28:37 - 28:55
And he's telling Michael Jordan, I'm smart, I'm good looking, I'm intelligent. Gosh darn it, people like me. There is an essence of the gospel that we need that self-confidence. There's also an essence of the gospel that we're like, holy cow, that's really pride centric.
Peter Englert
28:55 - 29:16
And we have to wrestle with that. And so I think that that's, even here, it's not always this insidious teaching that Jesus was only a spirit, but he wasn't in flesh. Sometimes it's this teaching in the world that has bits and truths of the gospel, but doesn't have the full gospel in it, so to speak.
Ron Hall
29:16 - 29:38
Yeah. And sometimes it's blatant, and then sometimes it's subtle as to how it comes across, because the world can seep into us. And if we allow that to happen, you know, it's going to lead us astray. We've got to realize how vulnerable we are.
Ron Hall
29:38 - 30:13
Remember, out of the Song of Solomon, it's the little foxes that spoil the vine. And, you know, cockroaches come out in the dark, termites work behind the scenes, and so our lives, and sorry for the dirty illustrations, but it's the idea, termites are gnawing away, cockroaches come out at night, and those things that we're exposing ourselves to and that are underneath find their way out. But John says, hey, greater is he that is in the world, and that's the hope that we have.
Ron Hall
30:13 - 30:29
So are we going to have our doctrine right, Peter, to really nail this down? I know that a lot of Christians don't want to talk about theology, but Here is a case in point to speak about theology, it's necessary, namely, the doctrine of the deity of Christ.
Peter Englert
30:31 - 31:06
Well, and I want to move to our closing, and you know, Ron, you and I have talked about, we might even do an episode of things that we didn't get to, but I think it's worth spending some time here because verse six actually closes up with one through five, and you know that we are from God and whoever knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the spirit of truth. I think what I want to point out here is that this is not John micromanaging saying, you need to listen to me.
Peter Englert
31:06 - 31:31
But, you know, I think that sometimes when we even when we talk about theology, Um, we don't always connect the dots. So take for instance, we'll just use this passage, the incarnation. Um, why is it so important that we believe that, that Jesus, uh, you know, became human flesh? Well, CS Lewis, again, we, I don't know why we're just quoting him today.
Peter Englert
31:31 - 31:39
You know, he makes a comment about Christmas. He said, the son of God became man. So men could become the son of God. And there's, someone's probably going to correct me on that.
Peter Englert
31:40 - 32:35
And in essence, like that is a very, very practical point of when you're listening to this message that that is God created us in human flesh, giving us the gospel that we are supposed to become like him. And so you begin that that is an important theological point that if you don't have the incarnation and then even to jump to Hebrews, you know, there there's a point in there where it talks about Jesus is a high priest, and a high priest would be the mediator between God and man who understands our weaknesses. So when we pray in the most applicable, powerful way, when we feel betrayed, when we feel forgotten, when we feel hurt, when we feel grief, these are all things that Jesus experienced, and that's why it comes back to this closing verse.
Peter Englert
32:35 - 32:41
Hey, listen to good teaching, and it's not just to acquire knowledge, but it's actually practical to your life.
Ron Hall
32:43 - 32:57
Yeah, definitely to put that in perspective. Well, just so you don't get questions about saying sons of God, it's really, we are sons and daughters of God. That's the privilege. We are not the son of God.
Ron Hall
32:58 - 33:50
But remember, I've said before, God has no grandchildren, so that puts us as sons and daughters, so He'll cover you for that. Well, maybe what we need to do then, as contrast to the spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood, be able to identify more clearly what we're talking about. And to, as we're at the end here, the idea of what is the true teaching of Scripture regarding Christ? His virgin birth, we've already referred to Isaiah chapter seven, you know, his sinless life, you know, his miracles, his substitutionary work on the cross, that's a theological word meaning he died in our place, you know, his bodily resurrection from the dead, his exaltation to the right hand of
Ron Hall
33:50 - 34:01
God. These are the core teachings of Christianity, and if we don't have it right there, then we don't have it right at all for what the message should truly be.
Peter Englert
34:03 - 34:28
Well, and I think that that's important, too. You know, I've heard a pastor say this and I say it, too. There's certain things that are closed handed that if you don't believe it, like the resurrection, that is a closed handed belief that if you don't believe Jesus Christ rose from the dead, the gospel is going to fall apart. So First Corinthians 15, there's like 70 verses on that.
Peter Englert
34:29 - 34:45
But then there's other teachings, like even I think about mercy. You know, I love in the Bible, and you can probably correct me because you know more about it. Jesus doesn't tell us how to be merciful. He just says, be merciful.
Peter Englert
34:45 - 35:20
And and I think the power in that, why that's an open handed topic is the way that I give mercy to others is probably different than the way you give mercy to others. Um, and that's even you go back to John one, we talked about there's grace and truth, you know, with grace and truth. Um, we all lean, I probably lean a little bit more towards grace and Ron leans a little bit more towards truth. And so I think that what this passage is saying is going back to the bigger things is there are very clear cut commands.
Peter Englert
35:20 - 35:36
There are also very clear cut impressions and convictions, you know, we all have experiences. Hey, don't go there. Don't say that, you know, and it might not be chapter and verse. You know, there's no chapter and verse on social media.
Peter Englert
35:36 - 35:50
Hey, don't post that. Don't comment that. But there's other things that are a little bit more open handed to conversation where this passage is powerful is, hey, is this leading me closer to Jesus or is this leading me away from Jesus?
Ron Hall
35:52 - 36:21
Yeah, and in this case, balancing it out, this is not a gray area, just as you've been describing. This is a black and white. It is the idea either you hold that Jesus is the Son of God, he's God manifested in the flesh, or you don't, so it's either you have it or you don't. John is not showing any in-between when it comes to this.
Peter Englert
36:24 - 36:35
Well, my friend, we're gonna have to pick up with Seven a little later, but I'm glad we spent the time here, and thank you for joining us. We'll see you next time on the Reading 1st John podcast.