Revelation 8
KingCommentsRevelation 8:1
Characteristics of the Last Hour
1 John 2:18. After John has addressed the fathers and the young men, he now addresses the children or babies in faith. He ensures them that they live in the last hour. Of course that applies to all other believers, including himself. We all know that we live in the last hour. Nevertheless, the babies in faith are especially addressed because they in particular form a prey to the dangers that characterize this “last hour”. Actually the last hour is characterized by the coming of “many antichrists”.
You also come across expressions that are similar to the expression ‘the last hour’, such as ‘later times’ (1 Timothy 4:1) and ‘the last days’ (2 Timothy 3:1). In ‘the last days’ spirits will appear in professing Christianity that are of a more serious nature than the things of ‘later times’. The situation that is described here by John is even more serious, for it is about the antichrist here. In him you see the exaltation of man that takes the place of Christ.
The meaning of the word ‘antichrist’ is twofold. It means both ‘against Christ’ and ‘instead of Christ’. Both characteristics appear in 2 Thessalonians 2 (2 Thessalonians 2:4). There Paul speaks about the antichrist as the man of sin who exalts himself ‘against’ God and who displays himself ‘as being’ God, thus who takes the place of God.
The antichrist has not come yet, he still is to come, but he, as a matter of fact, has his heralds and trailblazers. These are the antichrists and they are many. As already said, the danger of antichrists is the greatest for the children. Antichrists are persons who bring false teachings about the Father and the Son. The antichrists for instance may possibly say sensitive things about the Lord Jesus, but they deny Him as the Son of God. False teachings about Christ are more easily accepted by new converts than by fathers in Christ, the matured believers to whom Christ is everything they need.
1 John 2:19. In the days of John the antichrists went out from the midst of the believers. That also caused the ‘children’ to be confused. They formerly had those teachers in their midst and had accepted their ministry. Now all of a sudden they were not there anymore. But John eases them. Their going out reveals that none of those false teachers belonged to the company of believers. They were deceivers who did not care at all about the children, but on the contrary they tried to catch them. They certainly did not belong to the children of God. If that were the case they would have remained. John uses this simple reasoning to make clear that they were wrong people.
You might wonder about that in relation to the times in which we live. The antichrists do not go out anymore, but establish themselves in professing Christianity. The antichrists do not go out anymore because of the confusion in professing Christianity. The Christians are no longer a unity and they have not collectively resisted against the false doctrines anymore for a long time already. At the time I am writing this, it is allowed (here in the Netherlands) that a reverend of the protestant church of the Netherlands, can even deny God in his teachings, and can still keep his position as a reverend. Nonetheless nothing changes the fact that such people are not from us from the beginning and do not belong in the Christian fellowship of the family of God.
1 John 2:20. As a young believer you may possibly meet all kinds of teachings. What is true and what not? What should you believe and what not? It often happens that a false teaching is brought in a pleasant way and by eloquent people. Still, I sometimes hear from the young believers: ‘I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t ‘feel’ right’. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. As a young believer you may actually be a favorite target of satan to deceive you in your faith, but through your conversion to God and your faith in the Lord Jesus you have “an anointing from the Holy One”, due to which you know all things.
With ‘the anointing from the Holy One’ is meant that you have received the Holy Spirit, He is ‘the anointing’. He is given to you by the Lord Jesus, He is ‘the Holy One’, when you came to faith in Him (Ephesians 1:13; John 14:26). The word ‘anointing’ implies that you have been enabled to discern whether something comes from God or from His enemy.
The Lord Jesus is called here ‘the Holy One’. That emphasizes the contrast to the unholy teachings that inevitably lead to unholy practices. In the Holy Spirit the Lord Jesus has given you a resource to recognize the lie. The lie is everything that goes against God’s Word, which is the truth. What is contrary to the Word of God, you can reject immediately. The Holy Spirit uses only the Word of God in order to teach you about the Father and the Son. In the light of the Bible you can reject all talks as lies from people who draw from other resources and who want you to believe that they can give you a deeper insight in Christ.
1 John 2:21. John does not write this because you do not know the truth. He confirms that you know the truth. You also know that there is no lie of the truth. It is not possible to mix lie with truth. But that is just the way the deceivers want to exert their influence on you. They will never come up with a plain lie, but they wrap the lie in truths. A person who says many true things and also a little bit of lie is not of the truth. His source is the lie and what he says comes from the devil, the father of the lie (John 8:44b). All good things are used by the devil to cover the lie and thus gain access to the children of God.
The truth is what you have in the Scriptures. Everything outside of it is lie. It is good to consider that believers may differ in insight in the truth. But that is an entirely different matter than what is at issue here. Here the point is the contrast between lie and truth. You are not to accuse a person for telling a lie if he thinks differently than you about a certain truth, nor is the other person allowed to do that with you.
1 John 2:22. “The liar”, that is he who uses the lie, can be recognized by a twofold denial. It is someone 1. “who denies that Jesus is the Christ” and 2. “who denies the Father and the Son”.
The liar is the antichrist, the top instrument of satan in whom his deceitfulness is fully revealed. The spearhead of his denial is the Lord Jesus.
First you read that he denies ‘that Jesus is the Christ’. That means that he denies that the Man Jesus is the same as the Christ of God. ‘Christ’ means the same as ‘Messiah’. As Christ or Messiah His relation to the Jewish people is in the forefront.
Then you read that he ‘denies the Father and the Son’. That means that he denies that there is a relationship of perfect unity in the Godhead between the Father and the Son. This relationship is the core of the Christian faith. Jesus the Christ is the Son of the Father.
1 John 2:23. The Father and the Son are inseparable from each other. Therefore, whoever denies the Son, neither has the Father. If you confess the Son, His Father is also your Father. The Son reveals the Father. There is no revelation of the Father outside the Son. The only way to know the Father is through the Son (John 8:19; John 14:7); only through the Son you can see the Father (John 14:9); honoring the Son is the only way to honor the Father (John 5:23). You see that it is all about the Son. The many talks about ‘God’ in professing Christianity is deceptive, because it often happens without any thought about the Son.
Speaking about ‘God’ also bridges the distance between Christendom and Judaism and islam. Orthodox Judaism and islam deny the essential truth of Christendom and are in the fullest sense antichristian. The rapprochement between the religions doesn’t change Judaism and islam, but it erodes Christendom by taking the core out of it. The big question to test the truth of a statement still remains: “What do you think about the Christ?” (Matthew 22:42a).
1 John 2:24. John presented the liar in his activity. It is important for you as a young believer, a child in Christ, to watch out for that liar. You must not let yourself be confused by the deceitful way in which he tries to present the truth to you. The simple protection for that, is that you let that which you have heard from the beginning abide in you. If you do that you will also abide in the Son and in the Father.
You are referred back to the beginning. What did you hear about the truth back then? Then you heard about Him Who is from the beginning, the Word of life that was with the Father and which was manifested (1 John 1:1-2). When you accepted what you have heard from Him from God’s Word, you received Him as your life. He is in you now, He abides in you. Because that is a fact you abide in the Son and in the Father. That implies that you live in fellowship with the Son and the Father. Be aware of that and don’t let yourself be robbed from that enjoyment by false teachers who want to tell you that it can all be more beautiful.
Now read 1 John 2:18-24 again.
Reflection: What is John warning you of and how does he encourage you?
Revelation 8:2
Characteristics of the Last Hour
1 John 2:18. After John has addressed the fathers and the young men, he now addresses the children or babies in faith. He ensures them that they live in the last hour. Of course that applies to all other believers, including himself. We all know that we live in the last hour. Nevertheless, the babies in faith are especially addressed because they in particular form a prey to the dangers that characterize this “last hour”. Actually the last hour is characterized by the coming of “many antichrists”.
You also come across expressions that are similar to the expression ‘the last hour’, such as ‘later times’ (1 Timothy 4:1) and ‘the last days’ (2 Timothy 3:1). In ‘the last days’ spirits will appear in professing Christianity that are of a more serious nature than the things of ‘later times’. The situation that is described here by John is even more serious, for it is about the antichrist here. In him you see the exaltation of man that takes the place of Christ.
The meaning of the word ‘antichrist’ is twofold. It means both ‘against Christ’ and ‘instead of Christ’. Both characteristics appear in 2 Thessalonians 2 (2 Thessalonians 2:4). There Paul speaks about the antichrist as the man of sin who exalts himself ‘against’ God and who displays himself ‘as being’ God, thus who takes the place of God.
The antichrist has not come yet, he still is to come, but he, as a matter of fact, has his heralds and trailblazers. These are the antichrists and they are many. As already said, the danger of antichrists is the greatest for the children. Antichrists are persons who bring false teachings about the Father and the Son. The antichrists for instance may possibly say sensitive things about the Lord Jesus, but they deny Him as the Son of God. False teachings about Christ are more easily accepted by new converts than by fathers in Christ, the matured believers to whom Christ is everything they need.
1 John 2:19. In the days of John the antichrists went out from the midst of the believers. That also caused the ‘children’ to be confused. They formerly had those teachers in their midst and had accepted their ministry. Now all of a sudden they were not there anymore. But John eases them. Their going out reveals that none of those false teachers belonged to the company of believers. They were deceivers who did not care at all about the children, but on the contrary they tried to catch them. They certainly did not belong to the children of God. If that were the case they would have remained. John uses this simple reasoning to make clear that they were wrong people.
You might wonder about that in relation to the times in which we live. The antichrists do not go out anymore, but establish themselves in professing Christianity. The antichrists do not go out anymore because of the confusion in professing Christianity. The Christians are no longer a unity and they have not collectively resisted against the false doctrines anymore for a long time already. At the time I am writing this, it is allowed (here in the Netherlands) that a reverend of the protestant church of the Netherlands, can even deny God in his teachings, and can still keep his position as a reverend. Nonetheless nothing changes the fact that such people are not from us from the beginning and do not belong in the Christian fellowship of the family of God.
1 John 2:20. As a young believer you may possibly meet all kinds of teachings. What is true and what not? What should you believe and what not? It often happens that a false teaching is brought in a pleasant way and by eloquent people. Still, I sometimes hear from the young believers: ‘I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t ‘feel’ right’. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. As a young believer you may actually be a favorite target of satan to deceive you in your faith, but through your conversion to God and your faith in the Lord Jesus you have “an anointing from the Holy One”, due to which you know all things.
With ‘the anointing from the Holy One’ is meant that you have received the Holy Spirit, He is ‘the anointing’. He is given to you by the Lord Jesus, He is ‘the Holy One’, when you came to faith in Him (Ephesians 1:13; John 14:26). The word ‘anointing’ implies that you have been enabled to discern whether something comes from God or from His enemy.
The Lord Jesus is called here ‘the Holy One’. That emphasizes the contrast to the unholy teachings that inevitably lead to unholy practices. In the Holy Spirit the Lord Jesus has given you a resource to recognize the lie. The lie is everything that goes against God’s Word, which is the truth. What is contrary to the Word of God, you can reject immediately. The Holy Spirit uses only the Word of God in order to teach you about the Father and the Son. In the light of the Bible you can reject all talks as lies from people who draw from other resources and who want you to believe that they can give you a deeper insight in Christ.
1 John 2:21. John does not write this because you do not know the truth. He confirms that you know the truth. You also know that there is no lie of the truth. It is not possible to mix lie with truth. But that is just the way the deceivers want to exert their influence on you. They will never come up with a plain lie, but they wrap the lie in truths. A person who says many true things and also a little bit of lie is not of the truth. His source is the lie and what he says comes from the devil, the father of the lie (John 8:44b). All good things are used by the devil to cover the lie and thus gain access to the children of God.
The truth is what you have in the Scriptures. Everything outside of it is lie. It is good to consider that believers may differ in insight in the truth. But that is an entirely different matter than what is at issue here. Here the point is the contrast between lie and truth. You are not to accuse a person for telling a lie if he thinks differently than you about a certain truth, nor is the other person allowed to do that with you.
1 John 2:22. “The liar”, that is he who uses the lie, can be recognized by a twofold denial. It is someone 1. “who denies that Jesus is the Christ” and 2. “who denies the Father and the Son”.
The liar is the antichrist, the top instrument of satan in whom his deceitfulness is fully revealed. The spearhead of his denial is the Lord Jesus.
First you read that he denies ‘that Jesus is the Christ’. That means that he denies that the Man Jesus is the same as the Christ of God. ‘Christ’ means the same as ‘Messiah’. As Christ or Messiah His relation to the Jewish people is in the forefront.
Then you read that he ‘denies the Father and the Son’. That means that he denies that there is a relationship of perfect unity in the Godhead between the Father and the Son. This relationship is the core of the Christian faith. Jesus the Christ is the Son of the Father.
1 John 2:23. The Father and the Son are inseparable from each other. Therefore, whoever denies the Son, neither has the Father. If you confess the Son, His Father is also your Father. The Son reveals the Father. There is no revelation of the Father outside the Son. The only way to know the Father is through the Son (John 8:19; John 14:7); only through the Son you can see the Father (John 14:9); honoring the Son is the only way to honor the Father (John 5:23). You see that it is all about the Son. The many talks about ‘God’ in professing Christianity is deceptive, because it often happens without any thought about the Son.
Speaking about ‘God’ also bridges the distance between Christendom and Judaism and islam. Orthodox Judaism and islam deny the essential truth of Christendom and are in the fullest sense antichristian. The rapprochement between the religions doesn’t change Judaism and islam, but it erodes Christendom by taking the core out of it. The big question to test the truth of a statement still remains: “What do you think about the Christ?” (Matthew 22:42a).
1 John 2:24. John presented the liar in his activity. It is important for you as a young believer, a child in Christ, to watch out for that liar. You must not let yourself be confused by the deceitful way in which he tries to present the truth to you. The simple protection for that, is that you let that which you have heard from the beginning abide in you. If you do that you will also abide in the Son and in the Father.
You are referred back to the beginning. What did you hear about the truth back then? Then you heard about Him Who is from the beginning, the Word of life that was with the Father and which was manifested (1 John 1:1-2). When you accepted what you have heard from Him from God’s Word, you received Him as your life. He is in you now, He abides in you. Because that is a fact you abide in the Son and in the Father. That implies that you live in fellowship with the Son and the Father. Be aware of that and don’t let yourself be robbed from that enjoyment by false teachers who want to tell you that it can all be more beautiful.
Now read 1 John 2:18-24 again.
Reflection: What is John warning you of and how does he encourage you?
Revelation 8:3
Characteristics of the Last Hour
1 John 2:18. After John has addressed the fathers and the young men, he now addresses the children or babies in faith. He ensures them that they live in the last hour. Of course that applies to all other believers, including himself. We all know that we live in the last hour. Nevertheless, the babies in faith are especially addressed because they in particular form a prey to the dangers that characterize this “last hour”. Actually the last hour is characterized by the coming of “many antichrists”.
You also come across expressions that are similar to the expression ‘the last hour’, such as ‘later times’ (1 Timothy 4:1) and ‘the last days’ (2 Timothy 3:1). In ‘the last days’ spirits will appear in professing Christianity that are of a more serious nature than the things of ‘later times’. The situation that is described here by John is even more serious, for it is about the antichrist here. In him you see the exaltation of man that takes the place of Christ.
The meaning of the word ‘antichrist’ is twofold. It means both ‘against Christ’ and ‘instead of Christ’. Both characteristics appear in 2 Thessalonians 2 (2 Thessalonians 2:4). There Paul speaks about the antichrist as the man of sin who exalts himself ‘against’ God and who displays himself ‘as being’ God, thus who takes the place of God.
The antichrist has not come yet, he still is to come, but he, as a matter of fact, has his heralds and trailblazers. These are the antichrists and they are many. As already said, the danger of antichrists is the greatest for the children. Antichrists are persons who bring false teachings about the Father and the Son. The antichrists for instance may possibly say sensitive things about the Lord Jesus, but they deny Him as the Son of God. False teachings about Christ are more easily accepted by new converts than by fathers in Christ, the matured believers to whom Christ is everything they need.
1 John 2:19. In the days of John the antichrists went out from the midst of the believers. That also caused the ‘children’ to be confused. They formerly had those teachers in their midst and had accepted their ministry. Now all of a sudden they were not there anymore. But John eases them. Their going out reveals that none of those false teachers belonged to the company of believers. They were deceivers who did not care at all about the children, but on the contrary they tried to catch them. They certainly did not belong to the children of God. If that were the case they would have remained. John uses this simple reasoning to make clear that they were wrong people.
You might wonder about that in relation to the times in which we live. The antichrists do not go out anymore, but establish themselves in professing Christianity. The antichrists do not go out anymore because of the confusion in professing Christianity. The Christians are no longer a unity and they have not collectively resisted against the false doctrines anymore for a long time already. At the time I am writing this, it is allowed (here in the Netherlands) that a reverend of the protestant church of the Netherlands, can even deny God in his teachings, and can still keep his position as a reverend. Nonetheless nothing changes the fact that such people are not from us from the beginning and do not belong in the Christian fellowship of the family of God.
1 John 2:20. As a young believer you may possibly meet all kinds of teachings. What is true and what not? What should you believe and what not? It often happens that a false teaching is brought in a pleasant way and by eloquent people. Still, I sometimes hear from the young believers: ‘I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t ‘feel’ right’. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. As a young believer you may actually be a favorite target of satan to deceive you in your faith, but through your conversion to God and your faith in the Lord Jesus you have “an anointing from the Holy One”, due to which you know all things.
With ‘the anointing from the Holy One’ is meant that you have received the Holy Spirit, He is ‘the anointing’. He is given to you by the Lord Jesus, He is ‘the Holy One’, when you came to faith in Him (Ephesians 1:13; John 14:26). The word ‘anointing’ implies that you have been enabled to discern whether something comes from God or from His enemy.
The Lord Jesus is called here ‘the Holy One’. That emphasizes the contrast to the unholy teachings that inevitably lead to unholy practices. In the Holy Spirit the Lord Jesus has given you a resource to recognize the lie. The lie is everything that goes against God’s Word, which is the truth. What is contrary to the Word of God, you can reject immediately. The Holy Spirit uses only the Word of God in order to teach you about the Father and the Son. In the light of the Bible you can reject all talks as lies from people who draw from other resources and who want you to believe that they can give you a deeper insight in Christ.
1 John 2:21. John does not write this because you do not know the truth. He confirms that you know the truth. You also know that there is no lie of the truth. It is not possible to mix lie with truth. But that is just the way the deceivers want to exert their influence on you. They will never come up with a plain lie, but they wrap the lie in truths. A person who says many true things and also a little bit of lie is not of the truth. His source is the lie and what he says comes from the devil, the father of the lie (John 8:44b). All good things are used by the devil to cover the lie and thus gain access to the children of God.
The truth is what you have in the Scriptures. Everything outside of it is lie. It is good to consider that believers may differ in insight in the truth. But that is an entirely different matter than what is at issue here. Here the point is the contrast between lie and truth. You are not to accuse a person for telling a lie if he thinks differently than you about a certain truth, nor is the other person allowed to do that with you.
1 John 2:22. “The liar”, that is he who uses the lie, can be recognized by a twofold denial. It is someone 1. “who denies that Jesus is the Christ” and 2. “who denies the Father and the Son”.
The liar is the antichrist, the top instrument of satan in whom his deceitfulness is fully revealed. The spearhead of his denial is the Lord Jesus.
First you read that he denies ‘that Jesus is the Christ’. That means that he denies that the Man Jesus is the same as the Christ of God. ‘Christ’ means the same as ‘Messiah’. As Christ or Messiah His relation to the Jewish people is in the forefront.
Then you read that he ‘denies the Father and the Son’. That means that he denies that there is a relationship of perfect unity in the Godhead between the Father and the Son. This relationship is the core of the Christian faith. Jesus the Christ is the Son of the Father.
1 John 2:23. The Father and the Son are inseparable from each other. Therefore, whoever denies the Son, neither has the Father. If you confess the Son, His Father is also your Father. The Son reveals the Father. There is no revelation of the Father outside the Son. The only way to know the Father is through the Son (John 8:19; John 14:7); only through the Son you can see the Father (John 14:9); honoring the Son is the only way to honor the Father (John 5:23). You see that it is all about the Son. The many talks about ‘God’ in professing Christianity is deceptive, because it often happens without any thought about the Son.
Speaking about ‘God’ also bridges the distance between Christendom and Judaism and islam. Orthodox Judaism and islam deny the essential truth of Christendom and are in the fullest sense antichristian. The rapprochement between the religions doesn’t change Judaism and islam, but it erodes Christendom by taking the core out of it. The big question to test the truth of a statement still remains: “What do you think about the Christ?” (Matthew 22:42a).
1 John 2:24. John presented the liar in his activity. It is important for you as a young believer, a child in Christ, to watch out for that liar. You must not let yourself be confused by the deceitful way in which he tries to present the truth to you. The simple protection for that, is that you let that which you have heard from the beginning abide in you. If you do that you will also abide in the Son and in the Father.
You are referred back to the beginning. What did you hear about the truth back then? Then you heard about Him Who is from the beginning, the Word of life that was with the Father and which was manifested (1 John 1:1-2). When you accepted what you have heard from Him from God’s Word, you received Him as your life. He is in you now, He abides in you. Because that is a fact you abide in the Son and in the Father. That implies that you live in fellowship with the Son and the Father. Be aware of that and don’t let yourself be robbed from that enjoyment by false teachers who want to tell you that it can all be more beautiful.
Now read 1 John 2:18-24 again.
Reflection: What is John warning you of and how does he encourage you?
Revelation 8:4
Characteristics of the Last Hour
1 John 2:18. After John has addressed the fathers and the young men, he now addresses the children or babies in faith. He ensures them that they live in the last hour. Of course that applies to all other believers, including himself. We all know that we live in the last hour. Nevertheless, the babies in faith are especially addressed because they in particular form a prey to the dangers that characterize this “last hour”. Actually the last hour is characterized by the coming of “many antichrists”.
You also come across expressions that are similar to the expression ‘the last hour’, such as ‘later times’ (1 Timothy 4:1) and ‘the last days’ (2 Timothy 3:1). In ‘the last days’ spirits will appear in professing Christianity that are of a more serious nature than the things of ‘later times’. The situation that is described here by John is even more serious, for it is about the antichrist here. In him you see the exaltation of man that takes the place of Christ.
The meaning of the word ‘antichrist’ is twofold. It means both ‘against Christ’ and ‘instead of Christ’. Both characteristics appear in 2 Thessalonians 2 (2 Thessalonians 2:4). There Paul speaks about the antichrist as the man of sin who exalts himself ‘against’ God and who displays himself ‘as being’ God, thus who takes the place of God.
The antichrist has not come yet, he still is to come, but he, as a matter of fact, has his heralds and trailblazers. These are the antichrists and they are many. As already said, the danger of antichrists is the greatest for the children. Antichrists are persons who bring false teachings about the Father and the Son. The antichrists for instance may possibly say sensitive things about the Lord Jesus, but they deny Him as the Son of God. False teachings about Christ are more easily accepted by new converts than by fathers in Christ, the matured believers to whom Christ is everything they need.
1 John 2:19. In the days of John the antichrists went out from the midst of the believers. That also caused the ‘children’ to be confused. They formerly had those teachers in their midst and had accepted their ministry. Now all of a sudden they were not there anymore. But John eases them. Their going out reveals that none of those false teachers belonged to the company of believers. They were deceivers who did not care at all about the children, but on the contrary they tried to catch them. They certainly did not belong to the children of God. If that were the case they would have remained. John uses this simple reasoning to make clear that they were wrong people.
You might wonder about that in relation to the times in which we live. The antichrists do not go out anymore, but establish themselves in professing Christianity. The antichrists do not go out anymore because of the confusion in professing Christianity. The Christians are no longer a unity and they have not collectively resisted against the false doctrines anymore for a long time already. At the time I am writing this, it is allowed (here in the Netherlands) that a reverend of the protestant church of the Netherlands, can even deny God in his teachings, and can still keep his position as a reverend. Nonetheless nothing changes the fact that such people are not from us from the beginning and do not belong in the Christian fellowship of the family of God.
1 John 2:20. As a young believer you may possibly meet all kinds of teachings. What is true and what not? What should you believe and what not? It often happens that a false teaching is brought in a pleasant way and by eloquent people. Still, I sometimes hear from the young believers: ‘I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t ‘feel’ right’. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. As a young believer you may actually be a favorite target of satan to deceive you in your faith, but through your conversion to God and your faith in the Lord Jesus you have “an anointing from the Holy One”, due to which you know all things.
With ‘the anointing from the Holy One’ is meant that you have received the Holy Spirit, He is ‘the anointing’. He is given to you by the Lord Jesus, He is ‘the Holy One’, when you came to faith in Him (Ephesians 1:13; John 14:26). The word ‘anointing’ implies that you have been enabled to discern whether something comes from God or from His enemy.
The Lord Jesus is called here ‘the Holy One’. That emphasizes the contrast to the unholy teachings that inevitably lead to unholy practices. In the Holy Spirit the Lord Jesus has given you a resource to recognize the lie. The lie is everything that goes against God’s Word, which is the truth. What is contrary to the Word of God, you can reject immediately. The Holy Spirit uses only the Word of God in order to teach you about the Father and the Son. In the light of the Bible you can reject all talks as lies from people who draw from other resources and who want you to believe that they can give you a deeper insight in Christ.
1 John 2:21. John does not write this because you do not know the truth. He confirms that you know the truth. You also know that there is no lie of the truth. It is not possible to mix lie with truth. But that is just the way the deceivers want to exert their influence on you. They will never come up with a plain lie, but they wrap the lie in truths. A person who says many true things and also a little bit of lie is not of the truth. His source is the lie and what he says comes from the devil, the father of the lie (John 8:44b). All good things are used by the devil to cover the lie and thus gain access to the children of God.
The truth is what you have in the Scriptures. Everything outside of it is lie. It is good to consider that believers may differ in insight in the truth. But that is an entirely different matter than what is at issue here. Here the point is the contrast between lie and truth. You are not to accuse a person for telling a lie if he thinks differently than you about a certain truth, nor is the other person allowed to do that with you.
1 John 2:22. “The liar”, that is he who uses the lie, can be recognized by a twofold denial. It is someone 1. “who denies that Jesus is the Christ” and 2. “who denies the Father and the Son”.
The liar is the antichrist, the top instrument of satan in whom his deceitfulness is fully revealed. The spearhead of his denial is the Lord Jesus.
First you read that he denies ‘that Jesus is the Christ’. That means that he denies that the Man Jesus is the same as the Christ of God. ‘Christ’ means the same as ‘Messiah’. As Christ or Messiah His relation to the Jewish people is in the forefront.
Then you read that he ‘denies the Father and the Son’. That means that he denies that there is a relationship of perfect unity in the Godhead between the Father and the Son. This relationship is the core of the Christian faith. Jesus the Christ is the Son of the Father.
1 John 2:23. The Father and the Son are inseparable from each other. Therefore, whoever denies the Son, neither has the Father. If you confess the Son, His Father is also your Father. The Son reveals the Father. There is no revelation of the Father outside the Son. The only way to know the Father is through the Son (John 8:19; John 14:7); only through the Son you can see the Father (John 14:9); honoring the Son is the only way to honor the Father (John 5:23). You see that it is all about the Son. The many talks about ‘God’ in professing Christianity is deceptive, because it often happens without any thought about the Son.
Speaking about ‘God’ also bridges the distance between Christendom and Judaism and islam. Orthodox Judaism and islam deny the essential truth of Christendom and are in the fullest sense antichristian. The rapprochement between the religions doesn’t change Judaism and islam, but it erodes Christendom by taking the core out of it. The big question to test the truth of a statement still remains: “What do you think about the Christ?” (Matthew 22:42a).
1 John 2:24. John presented the liar in his activity. It is important for you as a young believer, a child in Christ, to watch out for that liar. You must not let yourself be confused by the deceitful way in which he tries to present the truth to you. The simple protection for that, is that you let that which you have heard from the beginning abide in you. If you do that you will also abide in the Son and in the Father.
You are referred back to the beginning. What did you hear about the truth back then? Then you heard about Him Who is from the beginning, the Word of life that was with the Father and which was manifested (1 John 1:1-2). When you accepted what you have heard from Him from God’s Word, you received Him as your life. He is in you now, He abides in you. Because that is a fact you abide in the Son and in the Father. That implies that you live in fellowship with the Son and the Father. Be aware of that and don’t let yourself be robbed from that enjoyment by false teachers who want to tell you that it can all be more beautiful.
Now read 1 John 2:18-24 again.
Reflection: What is John warning you of and how does he encourage you?
Revelation 8:5
Anointing and Abiding In Him
1 John 2:25. As a child in faith, that which you have heard from the beginning abides in you and as a result of that you abide in the Son and the Father. There is not the slightest separation between you and the Son and the Father. It is not about whether you always experience it, but it is about how it is. Your feelings are not the measure, but that which God has promised to those who believe is the measure.
God has made to us a “promise”. That promise is: “eternal life”. It is not a promise of which the fulfilment is still to come. You have what is promised, that is eternal life, because you believe. God has promised that he who believes in His only begotten Son will receive eternal life (John 3:16). Do you think that God would promise something He would not fulfill? That is impossible and therefore there is no room for any uncertainty.
As I already noted at the beginning, there is, beside the aspect of eternal life as the new life in you, also the aspect of eternal life as a sphere of life in which you live. That too belongs to what is promised that you have received. The sphere you have turned into through faith and in which you abide is the fellowship with the Father and the Son.
1 John 2:26. John writes this all in order to arm you against those who seek to “deceive” you concerning you being a child of God. Even if you have been converted for only a short time, you have the new life in its fullness. Nothing is missing. It is not the beginning of something that is yet imperfect and to which by new truths outside the Bible one thing or another must be added to make it complete. The false teachers are assuming that there is a higher truth to be found in the mysticism of the invisible and that they have the key to it.
1 John 2:27. Do not let yourself be dragged by these deceptive guide spirits to look for the so-called missing things. It is totally different with you. You absolutely do not need such false teachers, for you are anointed with the Holy Spirit Whom you have received from God and Christ. God’s Spirit, Who abides in you and Who will never leave you (John 14:16), will guide you into all the truth (John 16:13).
You are not dependent on certain people who claim that you will not be able to come to the full knowledge of the truth without them. The Spirit teaches you all things (John 14:26). He testifies about the Lord Jesus and makes clear what is true and not a lie (John 15:26). Even if you would only know just a little bit of the truth and you are not able to refute a false doctrine, you will still be able to sense what is the truth and therefore be able to reject the lie (cf. John 10:4-5).
Of course this doesn’t mean that you would not need any teaching and that attending the meetings where the Word is explained and that reading Bible study books would be a waste of time. Christ has given gifts to His church, amongst others that of a teacher to edify His church (Ephesians 4:11). To disregard that gift by not making use of it, means to disregard the Giver of it and that will at least result in spiritual skewing.
The important thing here is that you are able to sense through the Spirit what God’s truth is. Through the Spirit you have the capacity to discern the lie from the truth. By what you have been taught by the Spirit you know that you abide in Him. The Spirit does not sow doubt but He affirms.
By the way, ‘Him’ in “abide in Him” may indicate both God and the Lord Jesus. It is one of the characteristics of the letters of John, that it is not always clear whether ‘He’ or ‘Him’ indicates the Father or the Son. That doesn’t matter, for both Persons of the Godhead are equal to each other.
1 John 2:28. John again as an old believer addresses all children of God as his spiritual children. He exhorts you to “abide in Him”. In that way He wants to exhort you to be aware of your fellowship with the Father and the Son and to remain in that atmosphere. This appeal of John is with a view to the appearance of the Lord Jesus. In that way he refers to His coming which he himself expects.
If you live in conscious fellowship with the Lord Jesus you will look forward to Him with boldness and also with eagerness. If you live for yourself and not in fellowship with Him, you will be ashamed when He comes. You will, as it were, turn down your eyes. You certainly do not want that, do you? Therefore remain aware of having your abode in Him. When the Lord Jesus appears and every eye sees Him (Revelation 1:7), each man will acknowledge that the Son is righteous and that He righteously exercises the judgment. You know that already now.
1 John 2:29. This speaking about the appearance of the Son on earth is a reason for John to continue with passing on characteristics that are typical for the children of God. From what he has written earlier you know that what matters to him is to make clear that everyone who has the Lord Jesus as his life, is characterized by that life. He who has that life, the eternal life, is “born of Him”. John uses this expression for the first time in his letter.
He who is born of God has the nature of God and shows it by practicing “righteousness”. The Lord Jesus is righteous and therefore you see that characteristic with each child of God. (Of the Lord Jesus, by the way, nowhere do you read that He is born of God, because He is God.)
With practicing righteousness is not meant doing a good deed every now and then. It is about what characterizes the new life, what is the practice of the new life. The new life practices righteousness and nothing else. Practicing righteousness is doing what is right to God and is manifested in your thinking, speaking and acting.
Here also it is not about living up to it for the full hundred percent in your life, but it is about what belongs to the new life, the nature of God. Practicing righteousness is only to be found with someone who is born of God. It is living as the Lord Jesus is.
Now read 1 John 2:25-29 again.
Reflection: What is the meaning of the anointing that you have received?
Revelation 8:6
Anointing and Abiding In Him
1 John 2:25. As a child in faith, that which you have heard from the beginning abides in you and as a result of that you abide in the Son and the Father. There is not the slightest separation between you and the Son and the Father. It is not about whether you always experience it, but it is about how it is. Your feelings are not the measure, but that which God has promised to those who believe is the measure.
God has made to us a “promise”. That promise is: “eternal life”. It is not a promise of which the fulfilment is still to come. You have what is promised, that is eternal life, because you believe. God has promised that he who believes in His only begotten Son will receive eternal life (John 3:16). Do you think that God would promise something He would not fulfill? That is impossible and therefore there is no room for any uncertainty.
As I already noted at the beginning, there is, beside the aspect of eternal life as the new life in you, also the aspect of eternal life as a sphere of life in which you live. That too belongs to what is promised that you have received. The sphere you have turned into through faith and in which you abide is the fellowship with the Father and the Son.
1 John 2:26. John writes this all in order to arm you against those who seek to “deceive” you concerning you being a child of God. Even if you have been converted for only a short time, you have the new life in its fullness. Nothing is missing. It is not the beginning of something that is yet imperfect and to which by new truths outside the Bible one thing or another must be added to make it complete. The false teachers are assuming that there is a higher truth to be found in the mysticism of the invisible and that they have the key to it.
1 John 2:27. Do not let yourself be dragged by these deceptive guide spirits to look for the so-called missing things. It is totally different with you. You absolutely do not need such false teachers, for you are anointed with the Holy Spirit Whom you have received from God and Christ. God’s Spirit, Who abides in you and Who will never leave you (John 14:16), will guide you into all the truth (John 16:13).
You are not dependent on certain people who claim that you will not be able to come to the full knowledge of the truth without them. The Spirit teaches you all things (John 14:26). He testifies about the Lord Jesus and makes clear what is true and not a lie (John 15:26). Even if you would only know just a little bit of the truth and you are not able to refute a false doctrine, you will still be able to sense what is the truth and therefore be able to reject the lie (cf. John 10:4-5).
Of course this doesn’t mean that you would not need any teaching and that attending the meetings where the Word is explained and that reading Bible study books would be a waste of time. Christ has given gifts to His church, amongst others that of a teacher to edify His church (Ephesians 4:11). To disregard that gift by not making use of it, means to disregard the Giver of it and that will at least result in spiritual skewing.
The important thing here is that you are able to sense through the Spirit what God’s truth is. Through the Spirit you have the capacity to discern the lie from the truth. By what you have been taught by the Spirit you know that you abide in Him. The Spirit does not sow doubt but He affirms.
By the way, ‘Him’ in “abide in Him” may indicate both God and the Lord Jesus. It is one of the characteristics of the letters of John, that it is not always clear whether ‘He’ or ‘Him’ indicates the Father or the Son. That doesn’t matter, for both Persons of the Godhead are equal to each other.
1 John 2:28. John again as an old believer addresses all children of God as his spiritual children. He exhorts you to “abide in Him”. In that way He wants to exhort you to be aware of your fellowship with the Father and the Son and to remain in that atmosphere. This appeal of John is with a view to the appearance of the Lord Jesus. In that way he refers to His coming which he himself expects.
If you live in conscious fellowship with the Lord Jesus you will look forward to Him with boldness and also with eagerness. If you live for yourself and not in fellowship with Him, you will be ashamed when He comes. You will, as it were, turn down your eyes. You certainly do not want that, do you? Therefore remain aware of having your abode in Him. When the Lord Jesus appears and every eye sees Him (Revelation 1:7), each man will acknowledge that the Son is righteous and that He righteously exercises the judgment. You know that already now.
1 John 2:29. This speaking about the appearance of the Son on earth is a reason for John to continue with passing on characteristics that are typical for the children of God. From what he has written earlier you know that what matters to him is to make clear that everyone who has the Lord Jesus as his life, is characterized by that life. He who has that life, the eternal life, is “born of Him”. John uses this expression for the first time in his letter.
He who is born of God has the nature of God and shows it by practicing “righteousness”. The Lord Jesus is righteous and therefore you see that characteristic with each child of God. (Of the Lord Jesus, by the way, nowhere do you read that He is born of God, because He is God.)
With practicing righteousness is not meant doing a good deed every now and then. It is about what characterizes the new life, what is the practice of the new life. The new life practices righteousness and nothing else. Practicing righteousness is doing what is right to God and is manifested in your thinking, speaking and acting.
Here also it is not about living up to it for the full hundred percent in your life, but it is about what belongs to the new life, the nature of God. Practicing righteousness is only to be found with someone who is born of God. It is living as the Lord Jesus is.
Now read 1 John 2:25-29 again.
Reflection: What is the meaning of the anointing that you have received?
Revelation 8:7
Anointing and Abiding In Him
1 John 2:25. As a child in faith, that which you have heard from the beginning abides in you and as a result of that you abide in the Son and the Father. There is not the slightest separation between you and the Son and the Father. It is not about whether you always experience it, but it is about how it is. Your feelings are not the measure, but that which God has promised to those who believe is the measure.
God has made to us a “promise”. That promise is: “eternal life”. It is not a promise of which the fulfilment is still to come. You have what is promised, that is eternal life, because you believe. God has promised that he who believes in His only begotten Son will receive eternal life (John 3:16). Do you think that God would promise something He would not fulfill? That is impossible and therefore there is no room for any uncertainty.
As I already noted at the beginning, there is, beside the aspect of eternal life as the new life in you, also the aspect of eternal life as a sphere of life in which you live. That too belongs to what is promised that you have received. The sphere you have turned into through faith and in which you abide is the fellowship with the Father and the Son.
1 John 2:26. John writes this all in order to arm you against those who seek to “deceive” you concerning you being a child of God. Even if you have been converted for only a short time, you have the new life in its fullness. Nothing is missing. It is not the beginning of something that is yet imperfect and to which by new truths outside the Bible one thing or another must be added to make it complete. The false teachers are assuming that there is a higher truth to be found in the mysticism of the invisible and that they have the key to it.
1 John 2:27. Do not let yourself be dragged by these deceptive guide spirits to look for the so-called missing things. It is totally different with you. You absolutely do not need such false teachers, for you are anointed with the Holy Spirit Whom you have received from God and Christ. God’s Spirit, Who abides in you and Who will never leave you (John 14:16), will guide you into all the truth (John 16:13).
You are not dependent on certain people who claim that you will not be able to come to the full knowledge of the truth without them. The Spirit teaches you all things (John 14:26). He testifies about the Lord Jesus and makes clear what is true and not a lie (John 15:26). Even if you would only know just a little bit of the truth and you are not able to refute a false doctrine, you will still be able to sense what is the truth and therefore be able to reject the lie (cf. John 10:4-5).
Of course this doesn’t mean that you would not need any teaching and that attending the meetings where the Word is explained and that reading Bible study books would be a waste of time. Christ has given gifts to His church, amongst others that of a teacher to edify His church (Ephesians 4:11). To disregard that gift by not making use of it, means to disregard the Giver of it and that will at least result in spiritual skewing.
The important thing here is that you are able to sense through the Spirit what God’s truth is. Through the Spirit you have the capacity to discern the lie from the truth. By what you have been taught by the Spirit you know that you abide in Him. The Spirit does not sow doubt but He affirms.
By the way, ‘Him’ in “abide in Him” may indicate both God and the Lord Jesus. It is one of the characteristics of the letters of John, that it is not always clear whether ‘He’ or ‘Him’ indicates the Father or the Son. That doesn’t matter, for both Persons of the Godhead are equal to each other.
1 John 2:28. John again as an old believer addresses all children of God as his spiritual children. He exhorts you to “abide in Him”. In that way He wants to exhort you to be aware of your fellowship with the Father and the Son and to remain in that atmosphere. This appeal of John is with a view to the appearance of the Lord Jesus. In that way he refers to His coming which he himself expects.
If you live in conscious fellowship with the Lord Jesus you will look forward to Him with boldness and also with eagerness. If you live for yourself and not in fellowship with Him, you will be ashamed when He comes. You will, as it were, turn down your eyes. You certainly do not want that, do you? Therefore remain aware of having your abode in Him. When the Lord Jesus appears and every eye sees Him (Revelation 1:7), each man will acknowledge that the Son is righteous and that He righteously exercises the judgment. You know that already now.
1 John 2:29. This speaking about the appearance of the Son on earth is a reason for John to continue with passing on characteristics that are typical for the children of God. From what he has written earlier you know that what matters to him is to make clear that everyone who has the Lord Jesus as his life, is characterized by that life. He who has that life, the eternal life, is “born of Him”. John uses this expression for the first time in his letter.
He who is born of God has the nature of God and shows it by practicing “righteousness”. The Lord Jesus is righteous and therefore you see that characteristic with each child of God. (Of the Lord Jesus, by the way, nowhere do you read that He is born of God, because He is God.)
With practicing righteousness is not meant doing a good deed every now and then. It is about what characterizes the new life, what is the practice of the new life. The new life practices righteousness and nothing else. Practicing righteousness is doing what is right to God and is manifested in your thinking, speaking and acting.
Here also it is not about living up to it for the full hundred percent in your life, but it is about what belongs to the new life, the nature of God. Practicing righteousness is only to be found with someone who is born of God. It is living as the Lord Jesus is.
Now read 1 John 2:25-29 again.
Reflection: What is the meaning of the anointing that you have received?
Revelation 8:8
Anointing and Abiding In Him
1 John 2:25. As a child in faith, that which you have heard from the beginning abides in you and as a result of that you abide in the Son and the Father. There is not the slightest separation between you and the Son and the Father. It is not about whether you always experience it, but it is about how it is. Your feelings are not the measure, but that which God has promised to those who believe is the measure.
God has made to us a “promise”. That promise is: “eternal life”. It is not a promise of which the fulfilment is still to come. You have what is promised, that is eternal life, because you believe. God has promised that he who believes in His only begotten Son will receive eternal life (John 3:16). Do you think that God would promise something He would not fulfill? That is impossible and therefore there is no room for any uncertainty.
As I already noted at the beginning, there is, beside the aspect of eternal life as the new life in you, also the aspect of eternal life as a sphere of life in which you live. That too belongs to what is promised that you have received. The sphere you have turned into through faith and in which you abide is the fellowship with the Father and the Son.
1 John 2:26. John writes this all in order to arm you against those who seek to “deceive” you concerning you being a child of God. Even if you have been converted for only a short time, you have the new life in its fullness. Nothing is missing. It is not the beginning of something that is yet imperfect and to which by new truths outside the Bible one thing or another must be added to make it complete. The false teachers are assuming that there is a higher truth to be found in the mysticism of the invisible and that they have the key to it.
1 John 2:27. Do not let yourself be dragged by these deceptive guide spirits to look for the so-called missing things. It is totally different with you. You absolutely do not need such false teachers, for you are anointed with the Holy Spirit Whom you have received from God and Christ. God’s Spirit, Who abides in you and Who will never leave you (John 14:16), will guide you into all the truth (John 16:13).
You are not dependent on certain people who claim that you will not be able to come to the full knowledge of the truth without them. The Spirit teaches you all things (John 14:26). He testifies about the Lord Jesus and makes clear what is true and not a lie (John 15:26). Even if you would only know just a little bit of the truth and you are not able to refute a false doctrine, you will still be able to sense what is the truth and therefore be able to reject the lie (cf. John 10:4-5).
Of course this doesn’t mean that you would not need any teaching and that attending the meetings where the Word is explained and that reading Bible study books would be a waste of time. Christ has given gifts to His church, amongst others that of a teacher to edify His church (Ephesians 4:11). To disregard that gift by not making use of it, means to disregard the Giver of it and that will at least result in spiritual skewing.
The important thing here is that you are able to sense through the Spirit what God’s truth is. Through the Spirit you have the capacity to discern the lie from the truth. By what you have been taught by the Spirit you know that you abide in Him. The Spirit does not sow doubt but He affirms.
By the way, ‘Him’ in “abide in Him” may indicate both God and the Lord Jesus. It is one of the characteristics of the letters of John, that it is not always clear whether ‘He’ or ‘Him’ indicates the Father or the Son. That doesn’t matter, for both Persons of the Godhead are equal to each other.
1 John 2:28. John again as an old believer addresses all children of God as his spiritual children. He exhorts you to “abide in Him”. In that way He wants to exhort you to be aware of your fellowship with the Father and the Son and to remain in that atmosphere. This appeal of John is with a view to the appearance of the Lord Jesus. In that way he refers to His coming which he himself expects.
If you live in conscious fellowship with the Lord Jesus you will look forward to Him with boldness and also with eagerness. If you live for yourself and not in fellowship with Him, you will be ashamed when He comes. You will, as it were, turn down your eyes. You certainly do not want that, do you? Therefore remain aware of having your abode in Him. When the Lord Jesus appears and every eye sees Him (Revelation 1:7), each man will acknowledge that the Son is righteous and that He righteously exercises the judgment. You know that already now.
1 John 2:29. This speaking about the appearance of the Son on earth is a reason for John to continue with passing on characteristics that are typical for the children of God. From what he has written earlier you know that what matters to him is to make clear that everyone who has the Lord Jesus as his life, is characterized by that life. He who has that life, the eternal life, is “born of Him”. John uses this expression for the first time in his letter.
He who is born of God has the nature of God and shows it by practicing “righteousness”. The Lord Jesus is righteous and therefore you see that characteristic with each child of God. (Of the Lord Jesus, by the way, nowhere do you read that He is born of God, because He is God.)
With practicing righteousness is not meant doing a good deed every now and then. It is about what characterizes the new life, what is the practice of the new life. The new life practices righteousness and nothing else. Practicing righteousness is doing what is right to God and is manifested in your thinking, speaking and acting.
Here also it is not about living up to it for the full hundred percent in your life, but it is about what belongs to the new life, the nature of God. Practicing righteousness is only to be found with someone who is born of God. It is living as the Lord Jesus is.
Now read 1 John 2:25-29 again.
Reflection: What is the meaning of the anointing that you have received?
Revelation 8:9
Anointing and Abiding In Him
1 John 2:25. As a child in faith, that which you have heard from the beginning abides in you and as a result of that you abide in the Son and the Father. There is not the slightest separation between you and the Son and the Father. It is not about whether you always experience it, but it is about how it is. Your feelings are not the measure, but that which God has promised to those who believe is the measure.
God has made to us a “promise”. That promise is: “eternal life”. It is not a promise of which the fulfilment is still to come. You have what is promised, that is eternal life, because you believe. God has promised that he who believes in His only begotten Son will receive eternal life (John 3:16). Do you think that God would promise something He would not fulfill? That is impossible and therefore there is no room for any uncertainty.
As I already noted at the beginning, there is, beside the aspect of eternal life as the new life in you, also the aspect of eternal life as a sphere of life in which you live. That too belongs to what is promised that you have received. The sphere you have turned into through faith and in which you abide is the fellowship with the Father and the Son.
1 John 2:26. John writes this all in order to arm you against those who seek to “deceive” you concerning you being a child of God. Even if you have been converted for only a short time, you have the new life in its fullness. Nothing is missing. It is not the beginning of something that is yet imperfect and to which by new truths outside the Bible one thing or another must be added to make it complete. The false teachers are assuming that there is a higher truth to be found in the mysticism of the invisible and that they have the key to it.
1 John 2:27. Do not let yourself be dragged by these deceptive guide spirits to look for the so-called missing things. It is totally different with you. You absolutely do not need such false teachers, for you are anointed with the Holy Spirit Whom you have received from God and Christ. God’s Spirit, Who abides in you and Who will never leave you (John 14:16), will guide you into all the truth (John 16:13).
You are not dependent on certain people who claim that you will not be able to come to the full knowledge of the truth without them. The Spirit teaches you all things (John 14:26). He testifies about the Lord Jesus and makes clear what is true and not a lie (John 15:26). Even if you would only know just a little bit of the truth and you are not able to refute a false doctrine, you will still be able to sense what is the truth and therefore be able to reject the lie (cf. John 10:4-5).
Of course this doesn’t mean that you would not need any teaching and that attending the meetings where the Word is explained and that reading Bible study books would be a waste of time. Christ has given gifts to His church, amongst others that of a teacher to edify His church (Ephesians 4:11). To disregard that gift by not making use of it, means to disregard the Giver of it and that will at least result in spiritual skewing.
The important thing here is that you are able to sense through the Spirit what God’s truth is. Through the Spirit you have the capacity to discern the lie from the truth. By what you have been taught by the Spirit you know that you abide in Him. The Spirit does not sow doubt but He affirms.
By the way, ‘Him’ in “abide in Him” may indicate both God and the Lord Jesus. It is one of the characteristics of the letters of John, that it is not always clear whether ‘He’ or ‘Him’ indicates the Father or the Son. That doesn’t matter, for both Persons of the Godhead are equal to each other.
1 John 2:28. John again as an old believer addresses all children of God as his spiritual children. He exhorts you to “abide in Him”. In that way He wants to exhort you to be aware of your fellowship with the Father and the Son and to remain in that atmosphere. This appeal of John is with a view to the appearance of the Lord Jesus. In that way he refers to His coming which he himself expects.
If you live in conscious fellowship with the Lord Jesus you will look forward to Him with boldness and also with eagerness. If you live for yourself and not in fellowship with Him, you will be ashamed when He comes. You will, as it were, turn down your eyes. You certainly do not want that, do you? Therefore remain aware of having your abode in Him. When the Lord Jesus appears and every eye sees Him (Revelation 1:7), each man will acknowledge that the Son is righteous and that He righteously exercises the judgment. You know that already now.
1 John 2:29. This speaking about the appearance of the Son on earth is a reason for John to continue with passing on characteristics that are typical for the children of God. From what he has written earlier you know that what matters to him is to make clear that everyone who has the Lord Jesus as his life, is characterized by that life. He who has that life, the eternal life, is “born of Him”. John uses this expression for the first time in his letter.
He who is born of God has the nature of God and shows it by practicing “righteousness”. The Lord Jesus is righteous and therefore you see that characteristic with each child of God. (Of the Lord Jesus, by the way, nowhere do you read that He is born of God, because He is God.)
With practicing righteousness is not meant doing a good deed every now and then. It is about what characterizes the new life, what is the practice of the new life. The new life practices righteousness and nothing else. Practicing righteousness is doing what is right to God and is manifested in your thinking, speaking and acting.
Here also it is not about living up to it for the full hundred percent in your life, but it is about what belongs to the new life, the nature of God. Practicing righteousness is only to be found with someone who is born of God. It is living as the Lord Jesus is.
Now read 1 John 2:25-29 again.
Reflection: What is the meaning of the anointing that you have received?
Revelation 8:11
Children of God
1 John 3:1. In chapter 3 John continues describing the characteristics of the new life by which you can identify the children of God. Before he goes on with that it seems like he is overwhelmed by the thought that we have become children of God. Does that ever happen to you, that it suddenly dawns on you how wonderful it is that you are a child of God? If you think about it like that, it can deeply touch you. That you are a child of God is a gift of the love of the Father! The Father expresses His love to you by calling you His child. He openly declares that you are His. You could never and would never have thought of that yourself. The fact that you definitely are a child of God, can overwhelm you with feelings of gratitude and admiration. You are really a child of God!
I address you as a child of God, in order to bring the message closer to you. Nevertheless it is right to point out that John speaks always about “children of God”, in plural. You are a child of God together with others who also are. Together with them you form the family of God. You belong to a company that is not known by the world. It doesn’t mean that the world would not know who you are, but that the world does not recognize you as someone who belongs to its company. That is because the world did not know the Lord Jesus. Since you belong to Him, the world doesn’t know you either.
However, that notably applies not only if you are faithful to the Lord and go your way separated from the world. It also applies if you – which is hoped not to be – would become unfaithful. You see that with Lot, who I believe is the most unfaithful believer that you meet in the Scripture. When he makes a disgusting proposal to his wicked fellow citizens whom he even called ‘my brethren’, to stop them from committing a disgusting deed, they refer to him by calling him ‘a resident alien’ or one who ‘came to sojourn’ (Genesis 19:4-9). But also Peter, who has found himself in the company of enemies of the Lord Jesus, is being recognized as a person who does not belong there, but that he belongs to the Lord (Matthew 26:69-75).
1 John 3:2. Once again John speaks out the assurance of the fact that we are children of God. He emphasizes that it is indeed “now” already. By addressing them as “beloved” he underlines their common blessing. He loves them, and the Father and the Son love them even more. It is a love that is enjoyed in the family circle of God. That’s something the world does not know anything about or has any insight in.
That will change when the Lord Jesus “appears”. Then the world will recognize that He has loved us (John 17:22-23). That recognition is, because “we will be like Him”. When the world will see us then, they will see Him. And that we will be like Him, is because we then “see Him just as He is”.
To be able to see Him just as He is, it is necessary for us to be like Him. When we are like Him, the result will be that we will radiate His glory. Beholding Him will cause that transformation (2 Corinthians 3:18).
1 John 3:3. This hope that we have in Him, to see Him, can have nothing else than a purifying effect. If you think of Him and look forward to Him, you will definitely want to be pure “just as He is pure”. You will inwardly sense that certain things cannot go hand in hand with the coming meeting with Him. Therefore, you will remove all those things from your life. By doing so, you are already rejoicing His heart.
Now read 1 John 3:1-3 again.
Reflection: What effect does the thinking about the coming meeting with the Lord have on you?
Revelation 8:12
Children of God
1 John 3:1. In chapter 3 John continues describing the characteristics of the new life by which you can identify the children of God. Before he goes on with that it seems like he is overwhelmed by the thought that we have become children of God. Does that ever happen to you, that it suddenly dawns on you how wonderful it is that you are a child of God? If you think about it like that, it can deeply touch you. That you are a child of God is a gift of the love of the Father! The Father expresses His love to you by calling you His child. He openly declares that you are His. You could never and would never have thought of that yourself. The fact that you definitely are a child of God, can overwhelm you with feelings of gratitude and admiration. You are really a child of God!
I address you as a child of God, in order to bring the message closer to you. Nevertheless it is right to point out that John speaks always about “children of God”, in plural. You are a child of God together with others who also are. Together with them you form the family of God. You belong to a company that is not known by the world. It doesn’t mean that the world would not know who you are, but that the world does not recognize you as someone who belongs to its company. That is because the world did not know the Lord Jesus. Since you belong to Him, the world doesn’t know you either.
However, that notably applies not only if you are faithful to the Lord and go your way separated from the world. It also applies if you – which is hoped not to be – would become unfaithful. You see that with Lot, who I believe is the most unfaithful believer that you meet in the Scripture. When he makes a disgusting proposal to his wicked fellow citizens whom he even called ‘my brethren’, to stop them from committing a disgusting deed, they refer to him by calling him ‘a resident alien’ or one who ‘came to sojourn’ (Genesis 19:4-9). But also Peter, who has found himself in the company of enemies of the Lord Jesus, is being recognized as a person who does not belong there, but that he belongs to the Lord (Matthew 26:69-75).
1 John 3:2. Once again John speaks out the assurance of the fact that we are children of God. He emphasizes that it is indeed “now” already. By addressing them as “beloved” he underlines their common blessing. He loves them, and the Father and the Son love them even more. It is a love that is enjoyed in the family circle of God. That’s something the world does not know anything about or has any insight in.
That will change when the Lord Jesus “appears”. Then the world will recognize that He has loved us (John 17:22-23). That recognition is, because “we will be like Him”. When the world will see us then, they will see Him. And that we will be like Him, is because we then “see Him just as He is”.
To be able to see Him just as He is, it is necessary for us to be like Him. When we are like Him, the result will be that we will radiate His glory. Beholding Him will cause that transformation (2 Corinthians 3:18).
1 John 3:3. This hope that we have in Him, to see Him, can have nothing else than a purifying effect. If you think of Him and look forward to Him, you will definitely want to be pure “just as He is pure”. You will inwardly sense that certain things cannot go hand in hand with the coming meeting with Him. Therefore, you will remove all those things from your life. By doing so, you are already rejoicing His heart.
Now read 1 John 3:1-3 again.
Reflection: What effect does the thinking about the coming meeting with the Lord have on you?
Revelation 8:13
Children of God
1 John 3:1. In chapter 3 John continues describing the characteristics of the new life by which you can identify the children of God. Before he goes on with that it seems like he is overwhelmed by the thought that we have become children of God. Does that ever happen to you, that it suddenly dawns on you how wonderful it is that you are a child of God? If you think about it like that, it can deeply touch you. That you are a child of God is a gift of the love of the Father! The Father expresses His love to you by calling you His child. He openly declares that you are His. You could never and would never have thought of that yourself. The fact that you definitely are a child of God, can overwhelm you with feelings of gratitude and admiration. You are really a child of God!
I address you as a child of God, in order to bring the message closer to you. Nevertheless it is right to point out that John speaks always about “children of God”, in plural. You are a child of God together with others who also are. Together with them you form the family of God. You belong to a company that is not known by the world. It doesn’t mean that the world would not know who you are, but that the world does not recognize you as someone who belongs to its company. That is because the world did not know the Lord Jesus. Since you belong to Him, the world doesn’t know you either.
However, that notably applies not only if you are faithful to the Lord and go your way separated from the world. It also applies if you – which is hoped not to be – would become unfaithful. You see that with Lot, who I believe is the most unfaithful believer that you meet in the Scripture. When he makes a disgusting proposal to his wicked fellow citizens whom he even called ‘my brethren’, to stop them from committing a disgusting deed, they refer to him by calling him ‘a resident alien’ or one who ‘came to sojourn’ (Genesis 19:4-9). But also Peter, who has found himself in the company of enemies of the Lord Jesus, is being recognized as a person who does not belong there, but that he belongs to the Lord (Matthew 26:69-75).
1 John 3:2. Once again John speaks out the assurance of the fact that we are children of God. He emphasizes that it is indeed “now” already. By addressing them as “beloved” he underlines their common blessing. He loves them, and the Father and the Son love them even more. It is a love that is enjoyed in the family circle of God. That’s something the world does not know anything about or has any insight in.
That will change when the Lord Jesus “appears”. Then the world will recognize that He has loved us (John 17:22-23). That recognition is, because “we will be like Him”. When the world will see us then, they will see Him. And that we will be like Him, is because we then “see Him just as He is”.
To be able to see Him just as He is, it is necessary for us to be like Him. When we are like Him, the result will be that we will radiate His glory. Beholding Him will cause that transformation (2 Corinthians 3:18).
1 John 3:3. This hope that we have in Him, to see Him, can have nothing else than a purifying effect. If you think of Him and look forward to Him, you will definitely want to be pure “just as He is pure”. You will inwardly sense that certain things cannot go hand in hand with the coming meeting with Him. Therefore, you will remove all those things from your life. By doing so, you are already rejoicing His heart.
Now read 1 John 3:1-3 again.
Reflection: What effect does the thinking about the coming meeting with the Lord have on you?