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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 - 2-28.mov
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Peter Englert
00:00 - 00:33
Welcome to the Reading First John podcast. I am here with my friend and professor, Ron Hall, and today we are continuing in this and we are going to be closing up First John 228, so that chapter two, and then we're going to walk into the first part of chapter three. And so before I read, I just want to remind you about the repeated themes that are throughout this book. And I think that this will help frame as opposed to reading this out of context.
Peter Englert
00:33 - 00:55
So as usual, I'm going to start reading and then after I read, uh, Ron's going to share some thoughts. So if you have your Bibles, whether it's your app or a physical Bible, turn to first John two 28. and we'll get started. And now, dear children, continue in Him so that when He appears, we may be confident and unashamed before Him at His coming.
Peter Englert
00:56 - 01:21
If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of Him. See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us that does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children, and what we will be has not yet been made known.
Peter Englert
01:22 - 01:37
But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves just as he is pure. Everyone who sins breaks the law. In fact, sin is lawlessness.
Peter Englert
01:38 - 01:52
But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
Peter Englert
01:52 - 02:10
Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who does what is sinful is of the devil. Because the devil has been sinning from the beginning, the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.
Peter Englert
02:11 - 02:32
No one who is born of God will continue to sin because God's seed remains in them. They cannot go on sinning because they have been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. Anyone who does not do what is right is not God's child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and their sister.
Peter Englert
02:34 - 02:40
Ron, we should be honest with people that the first text you gave me this morning was we were going to talk about the three-letter word.
Ron Hall
02:41 - 02:49
Yes. Oh, and I was thinking of capital S, capital I, capital N.
Peter Englert
02:51 - 03:22
We just want to make that clear for you, listeners. But before we get started, this this passage is kind of right in the middle of the book, and it's a very prototypical John passage. You know, we talk about light and darkness, children and rebels, righteousness and unrighteousness. So before we dive into the text, I think it's important, why don't you give a big picture of how this fits in the whole letter as a whole?
Ron Hall
03:22 - 03:45
Well, it's seeing continuity. That's why we do not take passages out of their context. And you and I would not appreciate someone taking a paragraph that we said and not thinking about what's gone before and after. So we're with somebody and they're telling only one slice of the event, but they're not getting the whole picture.
Ron Hall
03:46 - 04:08
And you say, oh, wait a minute, what you need to let them know is, here's what happened before that. So John has continuity, because remember, he's dealing with the incarnation of Christ in chapter 1. He is dealing with whether we're walking in light or darkness. And in this section we're in now, he's dealing with whether we're righteous or unrighteous.
Ron Hall
04:09 - 04:16
whether we're doing the will of God by walking and remaining in Him, or doing the bidding of the devil, as you just heard Peter read.
Peter Englert
04:20 - 04:38
So let's jump right in. So one of the things we want to repeat is chapters and verses were added later. Why do you have 2.28 and 2.29 in this section with 1 John 3.1-10?
Ron Hall
04:38 - 05:13
Because of the introduction in verse 28, and now dear children continue in him, and he's going to repeat that theme of dear children. The term is used seven times in 1 John. It's a term of endearment, so here John is an elder, he's way up there in years, he's probably 80 years old or more, and because of his given age and where he's at, these other people that are He's leading are called dear children. So it's a term of endearment.
Ron Hall
05:13 - 05:35
So that term is then going to be repeated when we get into the early verses of chapter 3 and continuing on in the letter. And the same themes are connecting about he's going to appear in verse 28. And then when we get into chapter 3, it's about when he appears, we're going to be like him, for we'll see him as he is.
Peter Englert
05:37 - 06:00
And again, something that I want to pick up for our listeners, we call this a chiastic structure. So A, B, C, and then you'll get a C and a B and an A. And if you imagine those as topics, they'll come back to that. Let's jump into a verse, verse one of chapter three, because I love the progression that you have and will have access to the guide.
Peter Englert
06:01 - 06:18
You know, as children, it's a place of assurance. And then in verse one, a place of love, a place of transformation, and a place of hope. So transformation is two, hope is three. Why don't you jump in anywhere you want to jump with that kind of outline?
Ron Hall
06:18 - 06:44
Well, and remember, it's that background of dealing with the return of Christ is coming right at the end of chapter two. And then in chapter three, he's going to continue on with that theme. And so that whole idea of a place of love is right there in verse 1 of chapter 3. How great is the love the Father has lavished.
Ron Hall
06:44 - 07:08
Other translations say bestowed. It's a loaded word that's what we say pregnant with meaning because it's the excess that the Father's love goes above and beyond all we could ask or think. in the language of Ephesians chapter 3. So it's boundless as to his love that he's willing to pour on us.
Ron Hall
07:08 - 07:27
And notice that at the end of verse 1, when you're having a chance to look at it, children of God. So we have dear children, now we have children of God, and that's what you and I are. We are children of God. And the saying came out years ago, God doesn't have any grandchildren.
Ron Hall
07:28 - 07:37
And it's true. You come by being a son or daughter. You don't come by being a grandchild. That's not the way it works in the kingdom of God.
Ron Hall
07:37 - 07:54
And so here we have that language. In verse 2, he switches to the idea of dear friends, but it's still, it's this endearment, and then repeating again, this children of God. So it's personalized. And that's the way God considers us.
Ron Hall
07:54 - 08:21
I'm thinking about other places in Scripture where we're adopted as sons and daughters in the language of Romans 8, that We call Father God Abba Father, which is the personalized name. It's like calling God Daddy. In the Jewish culture, they were repulsed that Jesus would be addressing the Father like that or instructing us, but not for Christ. It was the idea that it was personalized.
Ron Hall
08:21 - 08:32
So this endearment language is significant in 1 John, and this is our strong a presentation of it, and it will continue in Chapter four and into Chapter five.
Peter Englert
08:33 - 08:49
Hmm. Before we jump into the three letter word, let's talk a little bit about hope. So we focused a lot on the assurance love and then a little bit on the transformation. But, you know, three three is pretty powerful.
Peter Englert
08:49 - 08:55
All who have this hope in him purify themselves just as he is pure. How does hope purify us?
Ron Hall
08:56 - 09:17
Well, you know, let's first of all get some definition of hope and then frame it in the idea of Christ returning. Hope in the New Testament means confident expectation. 1 Peter 1, verse 3, we've been born again unto a living hope. through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Ron Hall
09:17 - 09:34
So hope is not a thing, it's not a noun. Hope in the New Testament is a living person. And so that language is significant. 1 Corinthians 13, 13 now abides faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.
Ron Hall
09:34 - 09:55
Paul addressed in the Thessalonians, in 1 Thessalonians, faith, hope, and love. They're the triad that are used. But here, John wants to drive home this idea of hope, and he ties it directly to the second coming of Christ, which is the doctrine that we have called the blessed hope. that Christ is returning.
Ron Hall
09:55 - 10:22
We don't want to get bogged down in whether it's pre-, mid-, or post-tribulation and all the complexities of that. Instead, we want to get wrapped up in the fact that he's going to return again. So, when we have that hope that Jesus is returning, it's rooted in a person, then there can be a sense of confidence, a sense of assurance within our lives. And so, when we have that hope within us, that brings purity.
Ron Hall
10:23 - 10:45
Because we have an anticipation. If we're not thinking about the return of Christ, we can go about our way and live whatever way we want. But in this case, no, it's we root ourselves in He's coming, and that's going to make the difference. Years ago, there was a guy that preached the same sermon for over 50 years, but he did it from all different angles.
Ron Hall
10:45 - 11:00
Living your life now in the light of eternity. And so he built the themes of all his evangelistic preaching around that. I want to say it again, living your life now in the light of eternity. Well, that's what this verse is like.
Ron Hall
11:00 - 11:04
Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.
Peter Englert
11:06 - 11:36
So I think that that's important before we go into the harder verses in verse four. You know, the week that we're recording this, I was I was at a individual's bedside that this person, you know, we were talking about death and she passed away this past weekend. And, you know, you John is not telling us this as an energetic 30 something year old. He's he's telling us this on his deathbed.
Peter Englert
11:36 - 12:01
And so I think that that's important to frame it, because when he talks about the love and the adoption and Christ returning. What he's doing in the first part of this chapter is this is the good news. This is how to live free. And then when he goes into verse four and talks about righteousness, you and I were talking about, you know, sometimes preachers, we talked about a specific situation.
Peter Englert
12:01 - 12:27
Sometimes preachers are super angry and there's not joy. And, you know, they talk about sin in a certain way. But if you see the grandfatherly-like figure that John is, talking about being a child of God, we don't want to fall into unrighteousness because that's not the freedom that life has. And I think that that's an important frame to his argument when he starts in verse 4.
Ron Hall
12:28 - 12:57
It is, and let's just tie a bow around those first three verses before we move into four. And that is the idea of the anticipation we live with. And I've referred to it, but I want to reinforce the fact we have this hope of Christ within us that should impact our daily lives. And we're going to be like him, for we'll see him as he is.
Ron Hall
12:58 - 13:23
And it's the promise that we are going to receive a new body someday, we are going to be completely transformed into the image of Christ. So, there's so many things you can unpack from different verses, Peter, that it's so loaded for all of us listening and processing. You know, you don't want to speed through it too quickly and miss that out. Oh, what is my future?
Ron Hall
13:24 - 13:50
It's a new body for those of us dealing with physical suffering, and which I experienced an accident with a spinal cord injury, so I live with daily pain and and anguish, but yet I haven't given up hope. I know whom I believed and persuaded. He's able to keep that, which I've committed unto him against that day, the confidence. So, verses like this just say, oh, man, someday I get a new body.
Ron Hall
13:50 - 14:07
There won't be any more aches and pains. And John's saying that day's going to come where we're going to see him and we're going to be like him. So, it's not yet fully known, but It will be, and that's the promise we have. That should be encouragement to us.
Peter Englert
14:08 - 14:46
Well, and I'm so glad that you brought that up, because whether you call it living on purpose, living with eternity in mind, that's what, knowing what God's work has done, that's what keeps us making the decisions that we make. We'll just throw, because again, as we transition to four, Why would we be greedy when we're going to live in God's kingdom now, but also in the future to come? And you can take any unrighteous act, and it's as if you can call it convenient. You can call it selfish or whatever.
Peter Englert
14:47 - 15:00
But the whole point of what John's saying, even in that, and you you call it this vision of transformation, is what I experience in eternity. I'm called to experience here. Why would I want something else?"
Ron Hall
15:01 - 15:15
Yeah. Well, and that should be it. That's why it was said—it was John Wimber who said years upon years ago, sin is stupid. Because why would we want to do something that stupid?
Ron Hall
15:16 - 15:37
of allowing our lives to fall prey to sin, and that's where John's heading when we have this opportunity to walk in righteousness, or picking up the language of chapter 1, that we walk in the light as he is in the light. So we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin.
Peter Englert
15:40 - 16:11
Well, let's keep going, because again, I think, you know, there is a little bit of a chiastic structure. We get the bad news, and then when we jump to seven through ten, you know, it's really an exhortation of not living in sin. But I think what's important to kind of jump into this is John is not talking about making yourself righteous. It's this whole passage is about how God adopts us.
Peter Englert
16:11 - 16:17
God acts and we respond out of what he's doing. And I think that that's an important frame as we read this.
Ron Hall
16:18 - 16:50
Yeah. And there's other passages that would reinforce that, you know, that it's Christ in us, the hope of glory, that Philippians chapter 2, you work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it's God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. So Christ is within us, and now his righteousness is being worked out. I love the way Paul said it to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1.
Ron Hall
16:50 - 17:00
Now Christ has made into us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. So Christ is our righteousness. He's our sanctification. He's our righteousness.
Ron Hall
17:01 - 17:28
And if you read this in 1 John rather than saying, oh, now I have to do this, this, and this. And instead, take it and say, my responsibility today is to yield to the Lord so that His righteousness can be expressed through me. That is so freeing, and that's going to bring perspective to this whole issue of capital S-I-N that's taken up here.
Peter Englert
17:29 - 17:37
Well, let's talk more about that. Let's jump in. What is John's logic? in having this conversation?
Ron Hall
17:39 - 18:01
Well, his logic is because he wants them to be living in the light. If you remember back in chapter one, if you were with us at that time, if not, going back and listening to that podcast would be helpful for us. John, there were people that were denying sin. We had the three ifs in the light, and we had the three ifs in the darkness.
Ron Hall
18:02 - 18:21
And the deniers of sin had this convoluted idea that they really didn't sin, that somehow they had arrived. And I have yet to meet a person that really has arrived. They might think they have. And I had fun with Peter this morning, jabbing at each other, and just a little exchange, you know.
Ron Hall
18:21 - 18:41
We haven't arrived, and we know that. We have so, so far to go. But these deniers of sin, and they were purveyors of a false doctrine of somehow being exclusive, and John is there again to just say, hey, wait a minute. You know, everyone who sins breaks the law.
Ron Hall
18:41 - 18:57
In fact, sin is lawlessness and he deals with the rebellion that is in people's lives. So he wants to, rather than saying light and darkness in chapter one, here he brings it into the realm of breaking the law, not following after God's ways.
Peter Englert
18:58 - 19:26
So let's lean on something here because I think this is important. You've already talked about you and I aren't perfect. Um, you know, I, I can think of, you know, sometimes when I lose my keys and my wallet, my first reaction is which one of my daughters took it. Um, you know, and I'm reactive, you know, we don't have a great parent moment and we still sin.
Peter Englert
19:26 - 19:35
But what's the difference between the habitual sin and then the kind of the continuum of sin? Because I think that that's really important as we read this.
Ron Hall
19:36 - 20:03
And that's exactly where we're heading. Because it depends on the translation that you're reading. Some translations bring it into the proper way, because it will give the idea anyone who sins really doesn't belong to the Lord. But this is dealing with anyone who continues to sin in what we call the present perfect, meaning an ongoing process within our lives.
Ron Hall
20:03 - 20:43
We all deal with sin, but are we in habitual sin, where it is a constant day in and day out of a binding vice that is gripping our lives? And I'm sure given our audience, there's all kinds of things that go on in people's lives of addictive behaviors. To be a genuine Christian, Christ in us breaks that grip of sin within us that leads to habitual sin. And in the language of 1 John, we'll experience conviction when we do sin because we want to be found in the righteousness of the Lord.
Ron Hall
20:43 - 21:07
So this is huge, Peter, in being able to pull together the idea of habitual sin. And how can you live a habitual life of ongoing sin as a Christian? And if you're listening, you're dealing like you feel like you're bound with a habit. that, how can the Lord forgive me?
Ron Hall
21:08 - 21:29
Well, the fact that you have that tells you there's hope because you're experiencing conviction. If you didn't have any feelings of guilt and conviction about what you're doing, that would be a scary place to be with the Lord. So instead, John is bringing it home. He's saying, look, there's got to be this awareness.
Ron Hall
21:29 - 21:38
If you're walking in habitual sin, where it's constantly gripping your life, then the question is, Where are you with the Lord? But probe some more at it.
Peter Englert
21:39 - 22:23
Well, I think I think that that's important because we're there's some of us that we're well aware of our shortcomings, and then there's others of us that are not so aware of our shortcomings. You know, I think the danger of sermons is the moment someone says this is good for someone else and the preacher can do that, too. And so even what John is talking about here, is, and this is kind of where I see Versed, do not be led astray. And I think that that's a powerful kind of question, you know, is my life being led astray by habitual sins?
Peter Englert
22:23 - 22:49
And, you know, we know a lot more like, let's just talk about alcoholism. We know a lot more about that. Um, there are individuals who are alcoholics, they choose not to see, they choose to live in denial. And then there's other individuals who are alcoholics that, they're going to go into recovery six or seven times like and they're going to do work, but they're they're not going to be perfect.
Peter Englert
22:50 - 23:14
And I think that that's important, even as you just kind of articulated is, am I aware and working towards a change? And even with that one, not that this is kind of out of the scope, but, you know, there is something about alcoholism that there there's something genetic and also physical. So we don't blame one or the other. As Christians, we're holistic.
Peter Englert
23:15 - 23:26
We don't deny the body, like what some people and John were doing, but we also don't over-spiritualize everything also. And I think that John is just giving us this complete vision, if that makes sense.
Ron Hall
23:26 - 23:39
Yeah, well, he is. And there's this whole idea of awareness. I'm thinking of Galatians chapter 6, and don't be deceived. God is not mocked.
Ron Hall
23:39 - 23:52
Whatsoever you sow, you'll reap. If you sow to the flesh, you'll have the flesh reap corruption. If you sow to the Spirit, you'll have the Spirit reap life everlasting. So what will be the product of our lives?
Ron Hall
23:53 - 24:34
And because John is heading that there's a real devil, and if you don't believe that there's a devil, well, just look around and you'll see his footprints all over. It's footprints of shattered people's lives and destroying people's lives of the addictive behaviors that they can have. And even at the time that we're recording, there's just been a terrible thing that's happened with a bunch of human traffickers capturing children, and children were rescued from that, that there's so much evil out there in the world of people that would mean destruction against someone else for their own selfish means.
Ron Hall
24:35 - 24:55
And so, if you don't want to say that there's really a devil, well, then what are you going to do with all these footprints that are all over? and the marks that he has. So John is saying, hey look, if you're really going to be a believer, then there's got to be that which marks your life. All of sinning comes short of the glory of God.
Ron Hall
24:56 - 25:19
The wages of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And again, I brought up the devil because that's where John is heading. I don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but in verse 8, he's driving that home as to what the devil is out to do. And we don't want to be pawns in his hands, so when you're falling in the sin, you're going down that road.
Ron Hall
25:19 - 25:27
I don't want to be an instrument in the hands of the devil. I don't want to be a pawn in his hands that he manipulates in order to accomplish his own purposes.
Peter Englert
25:28 - 25:53
Well, I actually think we should go there because I think what verses 7 to 10 do is they actually sum up everything that John's saying, and it's very comparative language. So there's children of God and children of the devil. The Son of God has appeared to destroy the devil's work. Righteousness and unrighteousness.
Peter Englert
25:54 - 26:14
You know, you either love your brother and sister, or you don't love your brother and sister. And I think at the end, John is, I like to use the word handles. You know, whether you're climbing a ladder, opening a door, I think John is giving us these handles to what does it mean to live in Christ and experience the righteousness of Christ.
Ron Hall
26:15 - 26:34
Yeah. And remember, and you're wanting to pick up down by verse 7, now you're down in there. You know, it's back to that frame again, dear children. So, it's the endearment and count that as a privilege that the Lord would call us his sons and daughters to be his children.
Ron Hall
26:34 - 27:05
That's exactly where you want to be. And he does, he gives us handles around it, but he's He's going to be smack in the face of the devil in verse 8, that the Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil. The devil, Satan himself, described as the god of this world. Lucifer was actually the better term of the morning star, but Satan deliberately rebelled.
Ron Hall
27:06 - 27:21
In the notes, I have references to Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28. Some of you will discover there's controversy as to how to exactly apply it. Obviously, the devil came from somewhere. He was found in the garden.
Ron Hall
27:21 - 27:43
So he's been, for the ages, working his destructive impact upon people. So Christ comes as the ultimate righteous one. John dealt with that back in chapter 2, verse 1. Christ is an atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Ron Hall
27:44 - 28:05
So you have the God of this world being crushed by Christ so that you and I could walk in the righteousness of Christ. Or in the terminology in other parts of the New Testament, in the holiness of God, there's such a parallel between righteousness and holiness.
Peter Englert
28:07 - 28:36
Well, this is a really deep passage. We might have to come back, but I do want to kind of close with verse 10, because I feel like it's really important. You know, we tend to talk about sin in individualistic terms, whether it's gluttony or greed or addiction, bitterness or resentment. But John does turn it back towards the community, which is, if you don't love your brother and sister, you're not of God.
Peter Englert
28:37 - 28:57
And I think that that's pretty powerful, even to say that he calls us children. And then in verse nine, no one is born of God that doesn't continue in sin. So I think there's a powerful community aspect to this verse in this section that it just, it not only affects us as individuals, but it affects us as a community.
Ron Hall
28:58 - 29:33
Yeah, and the love theme is just gonna be reinforced in the rest of chapter three. It's going to be dealt with in chapter four, that how can you say you've loved God whom you've not seen if you can't love your brother whom you have seen. So you're spot on, this whole idea of this community dimension that's taking place. And I think that really to focus this in, that if you are genuinely a believer, and John's going to deal with that, how can we really know if we're a Christian?
Ron Hall
29:33 - 29:54
And in chapter 4, he really nails it. And here, he's laying that whole groundwork for it. And one of the ways we can really know we're a Christian is, do we have a disdain in our heart, a reaction to sin? And we see it in its ugliness, and we want to be found in the righteousness of Christ.
Ron Hall
29:54 - 30:28
That's why he uses that phrase, remain in him, everyone who continues in him. And if we're not willing to continue in Christ, then what does that say about our Christian life? If we're willing to, Peter brought up the example of drinking, but think about the addiction with pornography that can be an ongoing habit. Think of the idea of people that are ongoing liars and manipulators and thievery, all kinds of sins we could start naming, but that would miss the point, because we'd say, oh, we missed one of them.
Ron Hall
30:29 - 30:37
But the Lord doesn't miss any of them. He knows in our lives, and He says He calls us to remain in Him so He can do the work in us.
Peter Englert
30:38 - 31:13
Well, and I mean, we talked about very visible sins, but there's sins, you know, the prodigal son, there's sins of gluttony and greed, but then there's the sins of the older brother, which is pride, self-righteousness, and, you know, There's actually something beautiful and we talked about Galatians. Galatians, like Paul lays it all out. Here's all the sins, here's the fruit of the Spirit. There's actually something beautiful when John doesn't lay it all out and just even having you wrestle with that.
Peter Englert
31:13 - 31:49
And I think, you know, I mean, Ron, recording this podcast is like recording our conversations. You know, we're going longer, but I think we need to a little bit, you know, there's a part of me that when I want to apply this, You know, my wife, who's a mental health therapist, there's a title of a book, Try Softer. And I think that sometimes there's two relationships in our life that we miss. Number one, we actually miss the relationship with ourselves where we either deny the sin in us or we overlook at the sin.
Peter Englert
31:49 - 32:22
And I think we need to look into ourselves. But ultimately, the reason you do that is so that you can see God. And I think the vision that we get is God is inviting us out of his lavish love, out of the hope that we have that he has come and he will come and that he's inviting us to this glorious life that's free from sin. And I think in some ways that pushes us, perhaps maybe we need to try softer as opposed to trying to earn God's love and acceptance.
Ron Hall
32:25 - 32:41
Because it's already there for us. He calls us dear children. Our part in the language of Romans 6 is to yield the members of our bodies as instruments of righteousness unto God. And as you reflect on that, it reminds me of the Reformers in the 1600s.
Ron Hall
32:41 - 33:00
They said God deliver us from sins of omission and commission. Omission are the ones that we really aren't aware of, and commission are the ones that we know that we committed. And instead, here it is, okay, Lord, here we are. We want you to do your work in us.
Peter Englert
33:02 - 33:29
I'll give you the last word and kind of give you a response to this. Number one, reading this in context is really important because, you know, John is not necessarily saying anything new, but he's building some themes. You could say he's even building an argument. But, um, my friend Steve often says the Bible is a Rorschach test and a Rorschach test is the ink blotter.
Peter Englert
33:29 - 34:10
And I think that, you know, when you read this passage, you know, wherever you go, it, it kind of says something about you. Um, and that's why even kind of looking into this passage and looking at you, what is the Bible actually trying to say versus what are we bringing to the text? And what the passage is saying is we go back to these things, you're a child of God, it's God's righteousness. And I think that that's important that I would encourage people to reflect on is that, is this a Rorschach test that's leading you closer to Jesus, or is it leading you to judge other people, or is it leading you maybe to look inward a little bit too much?
Peter Englert
34:10 - 34:12
Because that's not the point of the passage.
Ron Hall
34:13 - 34:25
Yeah. No, it's being able to put it in healthy perspective. What is John after? He's after us to walk in the light as he is in the light from chapter 1.
Ron Hall
34:26 - 34:58
He's after us living our lives out in the righteousness of Christ. He's after us. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. So, he wants us to be found in this incredible life that the Lord offers to us no matter where we're at in life, the privilege of Christianity is that it's there for us, and that the gnawing of sin in our lives can be so destructive, and it can
Ron Hall
34:58 - 35:27
be termites to our soul. and devour us from within. And instead, in the language of Hebrews 12, lay aside every sin and the weights which so easily beset you, and run with patience the race that's set before you. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, well, that's kind of the perspective here of what John has, and it's said in a different way, but it gives the same direction.
Ron Hall
35:27 - 35:53
Don't let sins hold you back, and cripple your lives, instead be found in the righteousness of Christ. So the verses, although they're hard-hitting, they give us this hope we've been talking about. They give us this promise and this assurance. And the language of being born of God is reinforced over and over again that we use among ourselves as evangelical Christians.
Peter Englert
35:56 - 36:04
Well, that's a good place to close. We're going to pick up with verse 11 next time, so thank you so much for joining us on the Reading 1 John podcast.