They scramble for footholds and build strongholds to cement their place of prestige within a local church and to ensure their own influence. And gradually, over a time, a church is laid to rest because of it.

Many of you know what I’m talking about. Many of you have seen it or experienced it first hand and if you haven’t, then maybe you are the one placing your own prestige above everything else. Either way, it’s a shame to see, but very common.

So, one might wonder if it’s that common, how any church can fix their issues? The simple answer: they must attain unity.

That might be a simple answer, but putting it to practice is the real trick, right? Well, stick with me because thankfully, Paul addresses that very question in today’s passage!

If you have your Bible, open them to Philippians 2:1-11

Philippians 2:1–11 (NASB 2020) ~ 1 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross. 9 For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Before we continue…

Here’s a little point-by-point background on the occasion of the letter.

• The book of Philippians is primarily a thank you letter.

• While in prison (actually, house arrest) awaiting trial in Rome, the Philippians sent Paul a gift (he doesn’t say what this gift is, but he treasured it). They sent this gift along with a guy named Apaphroditus, who was sent to take care of Paul’s needs.

  • Apaphroditus was so committed to Paul he became ill and nearly died, so Paul wanted to commend his service to his church when he was well enough to travel back to them.

• While he’s thanking them, Paul takes some time to address some potential issues he sees developing within the church:

  • Judaizers (and maybe a couple of other anti-Paul groups) have been creeping into the church. Judaizers were a group of people (mostly Jewish Christians) who believed that Gentiles should be required to follow Jewish law in order to be saved (ie circumcision).

  • Paul had already taken care of this heresy among the other Apostles, but many Judaizers were never satisfied with the outcome, so they caused problems for him wherever he went.

• This group (and others) were causing some division among the church in Philippi.

• In this passage, Paul is asking the Philippian church to unify and wants them to know that by doing so, joy will abound!

The first thing we want to take a look at is the Joy of Unity!

The Joy of Unity

Philippians 2:1–4 (NASB 2020) ~ 1 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

From these four verses, what kind of Unity are we, as a church, suppose to have?

We are to have Unity of Mind

• It’s about being unified in attitude.

• …In purpose.

• …In mission.

• And most importantly, in theology.

  • If we don’t agree with what God says, how can we unite on anything? If we don’t know who God is (THEO-logy = The study of God (i.e. His character, attributes, nature, etc), how can we agree on what He expects from us.

  • If we say God is love, how can we agree on what love is if we don’t have an understanding of God’s definition of love?

  • When I talk about unity in the church, I’m not talking about ecumenical nonsense, by the way. Ecumenicism would say the Church Universal needs to have a unified front despite differences in theological ideas. If a church excuses sin or teaches a Jesus outside the confines of Scripture, we have no business unifying with them.

We are to have Unity of Heart

• We are to have the same love.

  • …love of God.

  • …love for one another.

  • …love for the community.

  • …love for a lost world.

We are to have Unity of Hands

This is essentially a church’s ministry. It’s service to the community. The Church has one dedicated purpose that is realized in various ways:

• To glorify God through reflecting Christ within our community.

• Tending to others’ needs above our own - our church’s needs, our community’s needs, our neighbors’ needs, etc.

So, the real question is, how do we attain this unity?

Attaining Unity

Philippians 2:5–8 (NASB 2020) ~ 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant andbeing born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross.

So, from these three verses, how do you think we attain unity? Well, if you’re a Star Trek fan, think of it like a ‘Christian Mindmeld!’ We attain this unity as a church by adopting the same attitude (or Mind) of Christ! The word translated as ‘attitude’ literally means ‘mind.’ That being said, the translators of the New American Standard Bible (as well as several others) felt that ‘mind’ was a little too archaic and might cause confusion, so they opted to get to the heart of the word by translating it ‘mind.’ Personally, I think a better word might be ‘mindset’ or even ‘worldview.’

So, what exactly is Christ’s mindset or attitude that we’re supposed to adopt? Well, let’s look at the text above again.

• First, Christ didn’t cling to his divinity. Although He was in every way God—pre-existent, all-powerful, omniscient, omnipresent, etc—He was willing to set that divinity aside for us!

• He emptied Himself. This doesn’t mean He stripped Himself of His divinity altogether. He certainly limited it during His time on earth, but it was always at His beck and call. Instead, He chose not to take advantage of His divinity and live just like the rest of us (only without sinning). He emptied Himself of His majesty…of His privilege and power and might.

  • If you want to fill a cup with a fresh beverage, you must first empty it or else, you’ll have a mixture of old and new. Christ emptied His cup so He might become fully Man, as well as fully God.

• Not only did He empty Himself, He lowered Himself and became a servant. Not just a servant, but a bond-servant. A slave. Someone whose rights have been stripped away and forced to work for a master. Here Jesus was…the Creator of the Universe…the one who spoke everything into existence…and we see Him at the end of His ministry washing the filth and grime from His disciples’ feet!

• He obeyed to the point of death on a cross. He emptied Himself. He became a servant. And He obeyed God to the point of giving up His life on a cross—the most appalling and humiliating form of capital punishment at the time.

Therefore, in order to attain unity within the church, we need to conform to Jesus’s example of all these things. We do that easily enough with starting at the beginning. In other words, we adopt the mind of Christ by emptying ourselves. No matter our position, prestige, or power, we must ‘empty’ ourselves of it all.

And by the way, that not only includes emptying ourselves of the positive stuff, but also the negative as well! Lamenting our misfortunes is no different than bragging on our triumphs. Both are different forms of pride. It is still putting ourselves above others. Still putting ourselves above Christ!

So, when I say ‘empty’ ourselves, what am I talking about exactly? Well, in essence, ‘emptying’ ourselves is dying to self. Not living for ourselves, but living 1) for Christ and 2) for others! Through that, we begin to serve obediently with humility. If each of us did that, we, as a church, would automatically become unified because no one would be doing anything for status or applause or self-interest. By emptying ourselves of our own desires and wants, we become unified in the mission itself. We become unified in Christ!

So, what happens when we start living with the Mind of Christ? What happens when we truly unify in Christ? There’s an exaltation!

Exaltation Through Unity

Philippians 2:9–11 (NASB 2020) ~ 9 For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

When a church comes together and unifies with the same mind as that of Christ, something miraculous happens. Christ is glorified in our lives! He’s glorified in our church. He’s glorified in our community. And most amazing, He’s glorified in our nation and the entire world!

There will come a time when every knee on earth will bow to Him in complete humility. Every tongue will one day confess His Lordship. It will happen to every man, woman, and child who lives and who has ever lived…no matter how rebellious they’ve been. No matter how prideful they’ve been. No matter how much they have despised Christ throughout their lives. Everyone single one of us will bow the knee at some point or another.

Isn’t it far better to do it now, voluntarily? Our lives were designed to be in communion with God. If we’re not in communion with Him, there is no way to fulfill our purpose. No way to fulfill the ‘meaning of life!’ Humbling ourselves now…bowing the knee now…confessing the Lordship of Christ Jesus now…is our first step in fulfilling that purpose for our lives.

And it’s not just a one-time thing either. Yes, salvation is forever. Once saved is always saved. But we need to continually bow that knee as a means of maintaining our fellowship with God. We should continually confess His lordship to remind us of our need for humility. In doing so, we grow and grow more to have the mind of Christ!

Picture it now…a single church that becomes unified with the mind of Christ!! Imagine what such a church could accomplish? That’s the kind of church your church could be.

All it takes is stepping out now and committing to have the same attitude as that of Christ. All it takes is one person to do this and set the example. All it takes is you!

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“Heavenly Father, keep our hearts soft and tender toward one another. Help us release irritations quickly before they harden into resentment. Give us the wisdom to forgive preemptively, extending grace before wounds deepen. Teach us to guard our hearts against bitterness.”

My dear friend texted me after reading this and asked: “Okay, question: How do you do this and balance not getting taken advantage of? I know I’ve let people do that because I’ve been ‘too’ forgiving and now I’m worn plum out and just don’t want to anymore. This one really spoke to me because I actually prayed about trying to not be mad, resentful, and hurt this morning as I have many times.”

So, to my friend, this is a fantastic question and one that bears some consideration. Forgiveness is hard enough, but preemptive forgiveness?

First, before we get into the meat of my answer, let me just say this: It took me a bit to truly understand what the writer of that prayer was saying. Not having read the the full devotion to see the prayer’s context, I thought they were suggesting ‘preemptive’ meant forgiving someone before they’d even had a chance to do us wrong. Which was weird to me because it assumed someone was going to do us wrong to begin with and that’s no way to live at all. Furthermore, such an attitude does a disservice to the transforming power of Christ in a regenerate heart. So, like a good scholar, I thought it best to take a look at the actual passage the devotional prayer was referring to and asked my friend to send me the whole devotion.

Here’s the verse:

Ephesians 4:32 (ESV) - “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

Ah! Great verse! And now, I understood. I realized what it’s saying. It’s saying that we should forgive before even being asked to forgive. To forgive without an apology. To forgive for Christ’s sake, not just for the sake of the one doing us wrong. In this, I wholeheartedly agree. But there’s some nuances I think we should discuss in order to paint of a picture of what that looks like or how it’s done.

But it’s only one verse, and what do we always say here at 4N6 Ministries? Using a single verse to teach a biblical doctrine is never a good idea. We need more context. So, let’s expand it a bit:

“25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” ~ Ephesians 4:25-32 (ESV).

Ah! That’s better isn’t it? It gives context to that one verse and fills in some gaps that helps us better understand how to carry that prayer out in our lives. The full passage itself easily holds the answer to my friend’s question. Can anyone guess what that answer is? I’ll wait a moment to let you ponder…

Ready for the answer? Take a look at verse 26a (‘Be angry and do not sin.’)

The way the devotional prayer is worded, it would lead one to believe we should be chipper and happy all the time, despite the pain someone inflicts on us. All one has to do is look at David…a man the Bible says was “after God’s own heart” to see how ridiculous this notion is. How many Psalms are written by David concerning his enemies? Often, he would ask God for justice against them. Sometimes, he asked for more than simple justice…the shepherd-turned-king was seeking outright vengeance. Thankfully, by the end of these same Psalms, he always seems to calm down and just ask for justice rather than the alternative. Or rather, he ends up seeking God’s will for David’s enemies.

Even Jesus didn’t act in a manner the devotional prayer implies. Despite popular opinion, Jesus got angry. He became disappointed. He was hurt emotionally. Point is, there is nothing sinful about being angry.

So, be angry…for an appropriate time, that is. Anger is a natural human emotion. We shouldn’t suppress those emotions for the sake of some ridiculous sense of piety. The Bible allows for anger. The key is the second part of that sentence: “…and do not sin.” We’re allowed to be angry, but we can’t allow that anger to dictate our reaction. Our response. In our anger, the propensity is to lash out. To attack. The seek retribution. And when there’s no immediate outlet for that anger, we store it up within ourselves and let it boil.

Doing these things is to place our own pain and discomfort over that of others. I’d say the key essential to “being a Christian” we all need to learn is that we are to put others ahead of ourselves. Philippians 2:1-11 speaks of this, but let me focus in on a couple of verses from that passage: “3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

Going back to the original passage of Ephesians 4, Paul helps us out further by giving us instructions on ‘how to be angry without sinning’ by stating the following things:

1) “…do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil.” (Verses 26b-27) - Essentially, if you’ve been given cause for anger, don’t go to sleep without TRYING to resolve the issue with the one who sinned against you. Go to them. Talk to them. Tell them how you feel and how they’ve hurt you. Make an attempt to resolve those issues so that Satan can’t use it to further drive a wedge between you.

2) “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” (Verse 29) - Are you passive aggressive? Do you hold things in, but complain about what’s troubling you to others? Do you talk bad about the people that have hurt you? This has to stop. If you can’t resolve the conflict with the individual as discussed in point one, purge it from your system. Forgive, even if they didn’t ask for forgiveness and if you struggle with doing that, ask God to remove it from you. He will. I often get angry without drivers around me on the street. I want to yell at them. Growl at them. Even cuss at them. Instead, I pray to God, “Lord, help me to love these people.” And before I’m even through with the sentence, I’m usually smiling at my silliness regarding the whole thing and a sense of love washes over me for the idiotic drivers around me. So, if you’ve have to bad mouth someone, bad mouth them to God. He’ll take care of the rest for you.

3) And finally: “31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” - I think this is pretty self-explanatory, but if it’s not, check out point two. I pretty much covered this on that one too.

So, friends, this is how we live in a spirit of forgiveness…even when no apology is forthcoming from the wrongdoer. And to my friend and her original question…specifically about being taken advantage of…this, I’m sorry to say, is something we can’t worry about. We will be taken advantage of. But that’s between them and God. You’re only responsible for your response to such moments. Remember what I pointed out from the passage in Philippians 2: “…in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” John the Baptist put it this way: “I must decrease and He must increase.” Our pains are only temporary. Momentary. Our rewards are eternal!

Let’s Pray

Father God, help us to rightly forgive. Help us, Lord, to learn how to be angry, yet not sin in our anger. Give us strength to forgive and take away any animosity we might struggle to hold onto. Help us each day to become more and more like Jesus. Amen.

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But nutshell idea goes like this: the king of Moab freaks out because the Israelites are heading his way. As the Israelites march, their God decimates the armies that stand in their way. Naturally, Balak (king of Moab) is concerned. He remembers hearing that in Midian, there’s a guy named Balaam claiming to be a prophet. It is said that whoever Balaam blesses will be blessed and whoever he curses will be cursed. So Balak sends an entourage to Balaam and offers him a ton of money to come to Moab and curse the Israelites. Balaam asks God if it would be okay to do this and God says “No.” God goes on to say that the Israelites are blessed and that God Himself is the one who blessed them. Balaam tells Balak’s entourage this and they go back to their king. Balak sends the entourage back with offers of even more money and this repeats another two times. Eventually, God allows Balaam to go to the king, but to tell him in person that the Israelites cannot be cursed because God has blessed them.

In the end, after several attempts by Balaam to convince God to curse the Israelites, he gives up and heads back home to Midian. What we find out, however, in chapter 31 is that Balaam offered Balak a little piece of advice before he departed. He told the king that if he wanted the Israelites cursed, he would need to do something that would bring God’s wrath upon his own people and then, he suggested two ways to do it. We’ll get to those ways in a bit, but for now, I wanted to begin today’s Bible study with this story to set up what we’re going to talk about today. The Church of Pergamum, the Compromised Church of Asia.

1. Blade and the Battlefield

Revelation 2:12–13 (NKJV)

“And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, ‘These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword: “I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

The Two-edged Sword

The first thing we notice when reading this passage is the reference of Jesus with a “sharp two-edged sword.”

This comes from Revelation 1:12–16 “Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.”

The question that probably immediately comes to mind to you upon reading this is, “What in the world is going on here? A sword coming out of Jesus’s mouth?” What is John seeing here? What did he put on his pizza before bedtime? Why a sword? Why is it coming from a mouth?

Short answer, because the sword is the Word of God!

Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV)

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

The thing we forget—and the thing we should never forget—is that God’s word is an offensive weapon. We should not be surprised when it offends so many people. It encourages and uplifts, yes, but it also cuts deep. It slices away sin and bad attitudes. It impales the wicked. It hacks away at the filth of this world (important to remember in the coming verses).

You might say, “But that sounds awfully violent. Why use such imagery? Jesus was all about peace, right? He was all about love and unity? A sword is a weapon of war. Why use it as a symbol for God’s word?”

Matthew 10:34–39 (NKJV) ~ “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

And if that’s not enough of an answer to you, understand this…the church at Pergamum was in the heart of Satan’s kingdom…a spiritual battleground of epic proportions.

Satan’s Throne - The Battlefield

A little background on Pergamum: It was a major multicultural hub, teaming with temples of all kinds to various Greek/Roman gods, chief among them the temple of Zeus. Zeus’s temple was built on the summit of a large mountain overlooking the city. One of its world-renowned features was an enormous throne in the center of the structure.

But Pergamum wasn’t just a one-hit wonder. It had temples to all the usual deities of the Roman Empire, as well, including an extravagant one to Caesar. And if you remember what we discussed last time about the Caesar cult, the Romans didn’t really care whether someone worshipped their gods, but worshipping Caesar was a test of loyalty to Rome. It was mandatory.

Another feature many of these temples had were that they would have had regular rituals of animal sacrifice. And many of them would have boasted temple prostitution as a form of worship. Finally, in this city was a temples dedicated to Aesculapias Soter, the Roman god of medicine. This temple itself included a working hospital for the ill. The term ‘Soter’ was a title—the Greek word for ‘savior’. The Romans had given the title to Aesculapias, which would have been blasphemous to the first century Christians because they associated the word with Christ.

The point is, Pergamum was one of the most pagan cites of all the Roman Empire with hedonism practiced with absolute abandon.

Holding Fast to the Faith

So, after Jesus identifies Himself to this church, describes the sword coming from His mouth, and telling them that He knows where they live…in the city with the Throne of Satan…He goes on to commend them for holding (grasping) to faith in Christ. Remember, from chapter one, Jesus is walking among the seven lamp stands (churches). Jesus is always within our midst. He sees our struggles. He sees our successes and He sees our failures.

Despite the evil that thrived in this city, Jesus has seen that the church at Pergamum are ‘standing firm in my Faith’ even when their brother, Antipas, was martyred for Christ. They didn’t renounce Christ when this happened, which might have been easier to do when faced with that kind of decadence and hedonism. But they held onto their faith and they stood strong.

As for Antipas, we know nothing about him as a person or his martyrdom other than what’s mentioned here, but his death must have been public (probably in the arena as a gladiatorial spectacle) and most likely a result of some perceived slight against the Roman religious system. No matter who Antipas was or how he died, Jesus’s words to this church is a worthy commendation indeed.

The problem is, there were apparently ‘a few’ within their congregation that had compromised themselves in regards to righteousness, which brings us to point 2: Balaam and the Blockades.

2. Balaam and Blockades

Revelation 2:14–15 (NKJV)

But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.

Notice the use of the phrase “you have there those who…” It implies that it’s not widespread. That it’s just a few of them who have fallen into Balaam’s trap. Or the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. But one or two germs are enough to infect the entire body.

So, what exactly are these ‘few’ doing? What are the doctrines of Balaam and the Nicolaitans? Well…

Balaam’s Doctrine

As mentioned at the story of this study, the story of Balaam can be found in Numbers chapters 22-25, and 31. Go and take a look for yourself. It’s worth the read through. But in discussing the doctrine of Balaam—or what I call ‘Balaam’s Trap’—it all boils down to the advice he gave King Balak after he finally gave up trying to curse the Israelites himself.

Once again, Balaam advised Balak to send a throng of harlots into the Israelite army’s camp and seduce the men. They did so and the men of Israel fell for it hook, line, and sinker. The women also got the men to eat sacrifices to Baal. And yes, God brought down a curse via a plague upon them because of it.

Numbers 31:16 (NKJV) ~ Look, these women caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord.

So, we can guess what the ‘few’ in Pergamum were most likely advocating given the Balaam’s doctrine reference and sexual immortality, along with the reference to eating things sacrificed to idols. At the very least, even if they weren’t actively participating in sexual immorality, they most likely weren’t speaking out against it. They might have been condoning it. Worse, the use of the word ‘doctrine’ here implies that someone in the church was most likely teaching that sexual immorality was okay. They might have been even advocating that temple prostitution was okay.

The question I have is: why? Why would we they do this? Why would they hold fast to ‘the faith’ only to turn around and participate in such activities? Well, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to figure that out. All it requires is taking a look at modern churches to see that many of them are teaching Balaam’s doctrine today. They tell their congregations that it doesn’t matter who they’re with. Doesn’t matter what their sexual or gender identity is. For the sake of bringing more people into their specific church, they lower the bar for the way Christians are told to live. They strive to be more tolerant. Not tolerant of sinful people, mind you, but tolerant of sin itself! Even worse, I’m afraid many of the pastors and overseers are participating in such activity themselves and use their doctrine as an excuse for their behavior.

Still though, why? How does such false teaching happen? Well, I have a feeling it had something to do with the doctrine of the Nicolaitans.

The Nicolaitans and Antinomianism

We talked about the Nicolaitans when we were discussing the Ephesians. They apparently despised the ‘works of the Nicolaitans (Revelation 2:6)” and Jesus told them that He did to. When we talked about that, I told you no one really knows what those works were. That being said, given the context of this passage, along with the few second century documents regarding them, a picture begins to emerge that might give us a little insight.

The most likely view is that the Nicolaitans advocated for an antinomian viewpoint. Antinomian is just a fancy five-dollar word to describe a heretical view that stated that because salvation is by grace through faith alone, there is no need to be morally upright. Antinomians are extremely anti-legalistic in nature and feel that morality (or immorality) is immaterial and doesn’t matter to God at all. They most likely espoused that morality should be done because the individual desires to do so and not because of some outside influence.

This makes sense given that the doctrines of Balaam would give free license to sin all they want with the temple prostitutes or eating things sacrificed to the Roman gods.

But Jesus expects the church of Pergamum to repent. Just because there were only a “few” advocating for Balaam’s doctrine, the thing we have to understand is that the rest of the church were most likely aware of these trespasses and were doing nothing about it. In the context of a local church, it is essential to maintain a church’s integrity and purity. That’s why God has given us steps for church discipline. If we see someone (or multiple people) behaving or advocating behavior contrary to God’s will revealed in Scripture, the church has an obligation to lovingly put a stop to it for the sake of the church body. And for those who do repent, Jesus promises certain boons to those who overcome.

3. Benefits and Boons

Revelation 2:16–17 (NKJV)

Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.”

In the context of a battlefield then, some of those within the Pergamum church were hanging out with the enemy and participating in fellowship with those in which they were to do battle. Although perhaps not outright traitors, they had compromised themselves to the point in which their loyalty and devotion could be questioned.

So many churches today have done the same thing. The ‘Come as you are’ churches. The ‘seeker-sensitive’ churches. Churches who tell their people it’s okay to love who you want as long as you love. There’s nothing wrong with with being sensitive to seekers as long as the truth of the gospel is always proclaimed. As long as the biblical Jesus is proclaimed.

As long as excuses for sin aren’t provided.

Excuses for sin are precisely the heresies of Balaam and the Nicolaitans.

Jesus calls the Pergumians to repent of these things. And if they don’t, what does he say He’ll do? He will ‘fight against them with the sword of My mouth.’ In a war, the last thing we’d want to be is an enemy of Christ. The Israelites found this out the hard way after falling for Balaam’s trap in Numbers when God sent a plague against those who consorted with the harlots. Balaam also found out in chapter 31 when God had the Israelites kill him along with everyone else in Midian.

And to those who do repent? To those who overcome? To those who win this battle in Pergamum…what does He say will happen?

1. First, He will give them Hidden Manna. As we know from Israel’s exodus out of Egypt, God provided manna (an unknown food substance that fell from the sky every morning. The food was sweet, like honey, and lasted for a single day. The next day, more manna would be provided. Therefore, for those who repent and overcome, Jesus promises to provide for all our needs.

2. Second, He will give them a white stone. A white stone? What in the world? What’s that? Well, remember last week when I told you that when someone was sentenced to die in the gladiator arena, it was legally required that they be incarcerated for at least ten days? I said that was to make sure there was enough time before death in case the Caesar or proconsul pardoned the convicted criminal. If they were acquitted, they would be awarded a white clay tablet with their name on it. This tablet was proof that their sentence had been rescinded. For those who repent and overcome, the death sentence intended for them is rescinded as well. The white stone is testimony to that. Isn’t that awesome? But here comes the best bit!

3. A new name given by God is written on that stone. This name is only known by two beings—the one who receives the stone and God, who created the name. This name was unique and specific to the individual. In ancient times, names had power. Know a full name of an individual and a witch could hex you. At the same time, names denoted a person’s essence. We get many of our surnames from aspects of our ancestors’ lives. Smith came from blacksmiths or metal smiths. Thatcher came from those who built roofs. You get the point. Names are important. And for those who repent and overcome, God will provide them with a brand new name completely unique…completely unknown to anyone else! Why? To provide unparalleled intimacy between us and the Creator of the Universe! Seriously. Imagine the intimacy of sharing a secret name with the one who made us!

   Ever share a secret with a best friend? You and that friend are the only two people who know it. What did that feel like? Didn’t it make your relationship all the more special? That’s what God is doing here with this brand new name.

And that, my friends, is something to praise God for! So watch out for the Trap of Balaam in your church. Watch out for the teachings of the Nicolaitans. If you see these things being practiced within your congregation, speak out. Hold people accountable…even your pastor if necessary (but only out of love and only by following the steps of proper church discipline as laid out in Scripture). Maintain your church’s integrity. And while we’re at it, let’s ensure our own integrity is properly tended and maintained as well.

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Sometime between the first and second centuries, at the end of the Apostolic Age, a young man named Polycarp sat under the tutelage of none other than the Apostle John. As Polycarp studies under the last remaining Apostle, his faith grows stronger and stronger. So does his knowledge. He shows in many of his writings a strong familiarity and understanding of several of the letters written by Paul, Peter, John, and others (he quotes many of them). Eventually, he becomes the bishop (or overseer/pastor) of a little church in the big important city of Smyrna in Asia Minor and the church grows in spite of (and maybe even because of) a growing danger of persecution by the Romans.

Around AD 155, Polycarp is brought before the Roman proconsul and given an ultimatum: renounce Christ, worship Caesar, or else he’ll be thrown to the beasts in the gladiator stadium. Polycarp’s response was to tell the proconsul to repent and turn to Christ.

The proconsul then threatens him with being burned alive if he doesn’t renounce Christ and worship Caesar. Polycarp famously proclaims: “Eighty and six years have I now served Christ, and he has never done me the least wrong; how, then, can I blaspheme my King and my Savior? You threaten me with a fire that burns for a season, and after a little while is quenched; but you are ignorant of the fire of everlasting punishment that is prepared for the wicked.”

After that, Polycarp is tried and convicted, becoming an early martyr for Christ. It is said that he was placed on a pyre and tied to a stake and set afire. Tradition and legend says the fire wouldn’t consume him, so the Romans ran him through with a sword.

I tell you this story to set up today’s message to the church of Smyrna as addressed in Revelation 2. Keep Polycarp’s story in mind as we study it.

Now, as you read it, you’ll notice this passage is considerably different than the one we read for the church of Ephesus, isn’t it? On the surface, you have to be wondering whether or not the Ephesians had it better off, right? I mean, this revelation of Christ to the church at Smyrna is pretty grim.

Background

Smyrna (the modern city of Izmir in Turkey) was considered by Rome to be the ‘Golden Jewel’ or Golden Crown of their Asian empire. The city itself was established roughly 3000 years before Christ and, unlike most cities of the ancient world, didn’t get thrown together Willy-nilly over the centuries. It was actually planned. Designed. Smyrna’s foundation was built at the foot of a large mountain called Mount Pagus and the buildings of the city—marvels of architecture—were built going up the side of the mountain until the entire city looked like an enormous crown.

Eventually, over the centuries, the city itself died and became somewhat of a ghost town for about 300 years until Alexander the Great and his men came. They rebuilt the city, bringing it proverbially back to life and as the Grecian empire gave way to the Romans, it prospered more and more.

Not only was Smyrna the Golden Crown of Asia for the Romans, a great temple to Caesar was built there and became one of the primary cities in which Caesar worship was established. While there were many temples in this city, none were as important to Rome than Caesar’s. In fact, it became so important that the Romans didn’t care whether you worshipped their pantheon of gods or not, but the worship of Caesar became mandatory. After all, if you didn’t worship Caesar, then how could you possibly be loyal to Rome?

Around the time John wrote the Revelation (circa AD 95), Domitian was emperor and he definitely demanded the worship he felt entitled to. Of all the religions out there, none gave him more hassle than that group of ‘atheists, incestuous cannibals known as Christians’ and he started a severe persecution against them because of it.

So, with all this in the backs of your mind, let’s take a closer look at the passage itself. We’ll start with ‘He Who Promises.’

He Who Promises

Revelation 2:8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, ‘These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life:”

Last week we discussed what ‘the angel’ of these churches are most likely referring to…their pastors/bishops/overseers. And the time in which this was written, we have a pretty good guess as to who the Angel of Smyrna was who would be reading this letter to his congregation…that’s right, Polycarp.

First and the Last

Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

This bring to mind the pre-existence and the eternity of Christ. While being born in the flesh two thousand years ago in Bethlehem, He has always existed. He was there at the beginning when God said, “Let US create man in our image.” He visited with Abraham. He wrestled with Jacob. He was seen time and again throughout the Old Testament.

A key component in the Gospel of John is his high Christology, especially in chapter one…’In the beginning was the Word (Logos) and the Word was with God and the Word was God.’ By starting this way, John introduced Christ not simply as a good and godly man/teacher, but as the Living God of the universe.

In the light of a pre-existing Christ and a Christ who will still be here when everything else withers away, temporary suffering seems almost trivial.

Who was dead, and came to life

A better translation is ‘I am He who became dead and is alive again’.)

Brings to mind Smyrna’s own demise several centuries earlier and its resurrection at the hands of Alexander.

The big difference here is that Smyrna is not eternal and Christ’s allusion to being ‘first and last’ reminds the church of this.

Why do you think Jesus begins his address to the church of Smyrna this way?

He’s giving his credentials. He’s about to provide great encouragement to them over the coming persecutions they will face. He’s about to make promises. He wants to assure them that of His position over the world and the power He has to work things out according to His will.

This should be a source of great comfort not just to Smyrna, but all of us who face trials and tribulations and suffering.

And with this assurance of just WHO is speaking to them, Jesus moves onto ‘They Who Persevere.’

They Who Persevere

Revelation 2:9–10 “I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

Works, tribulation, and poverty

Like I said, this is kind of heavy stuff. Honestly, it flies in the face of what’s called the Prosperity Gospel (people like Joel Osteen) that states God wants us to be happy, healthy, and wealthy.

Notice here that Christ doesn’t say in this passage, I know you your works, tribulation, and poverty, but don’t worry…I’m going to take that away from you.

In fact, He states in other places that this would be the norm for those who followed Him:Matthew 10:22 “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

John 15:18–20 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.”

Paul goes on to say this: 2 Timothy 3:12 “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”

Truth is, many pastors and churches bend over backwards to try to downplay this aspect of following Christ. I can understand the reasoning, after all, these things are only temporary and God has already won the War, so why dwell on the negative?

But I think glossing over these things is ultimately detrimental to the health of the Church. It produces fair weather believers. The moment the heat turns up, many often head for the hills. Or they simply give up altogether believing that Christianity is just another false religion.

But the cold hard truth is that if we are faithful and obedient and give ourselves over to Christ, we’re going to suffer for it.

Jews and the Synagogue of Satan

That’s an interesting statement isn’t it? At this time in church history, Christianity isn’t viewed as a separate religion, but a sect of Judaism. And yet, Jews, who were equally being persecuted by Rome for their refusal to worship Caesar as well, turned on the Christians. They began pointing the fingers at them to Rome. Making accusations against them.

So, the church at Smyrna was caught in a persecution sandwich of sorts: Romans on one side and Jews on the other.

In many ways this reminds me of the Baptist spiritual forefathers, the Anabaptists. They existed long before Luther and the Protestant reformation. The Catholics persecuted the Protestants, but both Catholics and Protestants persecuted the Anabaptists as a common enemy…merely because they practiced believers baptism.

Ever seen a lame dog be attacked by a pack of other dogs? The injured dog is unable to defend itself. The others take advantage of this and pounce. All too often, we as both Christians and churches have a tendency to do this as well. We see when a fellow Christian is struggling and instead of coming alongside them and helping them, we join in on the attacks. Same is true with struggling churches, denominations, etc.

How do you think Jesus feels about this? He called these legalistic ‘Jews’ a Synagogue of Satan, if that helps clarify His thoughts on the subject. He could just as easily call a church a Congregation of Satan or an Assembly of Satan.

We must be unified in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must share in each other’s sufferings as much as we share in our successes. We are not Local Baptist Church against Local Methodist Church. We’re not small country church vs big city mega church. We are the Church (collective)…the whole body of Christ.

Don’t fear the coming suffering…Faithfulness and the Crown

“…the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days…”

Jesus warns this church the persecution is going to get worse. Tribulation in the form of imprisonment for their beliefs is coming.

Worse, He tells them they will have ‘tribulation for ten days.’ What does this mean?

Ten days was the general amount of time someone sentenced by Rome could remain incarcerated until they were thrown into the gladiatorial games (the ten day restriction was set up in case new evidence came about to exonerate someone or if Caesar would provide a stay of execution). You see, being tossed into the arena was a death sentence.

Many Christians in Smyrna were going to die (the first well-known of which was Polycarp about 50 years later).

Augustine of Hippo ~ “The martyrs were bound, imprisoned, scourged, racked, burnt, rent, butchered—and they multiplied.”

It’s the weirdest thing. The more tribulation Christians face, the more and more the Church tends to grow. Third world nations where Christianity is illegal have a thriving underground churches.

Just last weekend, churches across America saw a surge in attendance due mostly to Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

So, how are we supposed to react to persecution exactly? How are we supposed to deal with it?

1 Peter 4:14 “If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.”

And how do we deal with those who are doing the persecuting??

Romans 12:14 “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” Seems REALLY hard to do, doesn’t it? But note that the verse here is an imperative statement. It is a command. There’s no wriggle room. This is how we are supposed to respond to such adversity.

I’m reminded of Stephen, who was stoned to death by a young unbelieving Paul and the Sandhedrin. Acts 7:60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Wow. That is an amazing testimony, isn’t it? How many of us could do that? And yet, that’s what Jesus means when he tells us that if we who prevail will be faithful unto death!

We Who Prevail

Revelation 2:10b–11 “…Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.”

Be faithful until death…

“The staying power of our faith is neither demonstrated nor developed until it is tested by suffering.” ~ D. A. Carson.

To be honest, it is only through suffering and persecution that any of us face real testing of our faith. Is our faith and our faithfulness dependent on circumstances in our lives? Do we serve Christ is name alone, or are we truly willing to take up our cross and follow Him? For some of us, ‘taking up our cross’ isn’t a metaphor. It could well be a real circumstance we’ll have to face.

Romans 8:35–37 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

Tribulation doesn’t tear us away from God’s love. Does it tear our love away from God? If we hold steady…if we endure…if we continue to trust in His mercy, grace, and love, we become conquerors against Satan’s mechanizations.

“Persecution is like the goldsmith’s hallmark on real silver and gold; it is one of the marks of a converted man.” ~ J. C. Ryle

Crown of life and Surviving the Second Death

James 1:12 “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”

Does this teach a works-based salvation? Absolutely not. It merely means our faith is true.

It also goes back to what those who live in Smyrna refers to their city as: The Crown of Asia or the Golden Crown. Some even called the city ‘the Crown of Life.’ Here, Christ is reminding the church that there is a crown far more glorious than that of man’s architectural marvels. One far more enduring…that will never crumble or fade away.

So, what about us? Are we ready for the tribulation that is to come, because friends, it’s coming.

The key to understanding biblical prophecy: there is almost always an immediate fulfillment and a future fulfillment. While the Smyrnans saw this prophecy fulfilled in their lifetimes, rest assured, another round is fast approaching. Another Rome is on the horizon. Already, we see the beginnings with anti-Christian laws surfacing in Canada (especially during COVID). We see it in the murder of Charlie Kirk (and the celebratory aftermath of it all).

And I’m not even talking about the persecution during the Great Tribulation either. As a pre-tribulation guy, most alive today will have been raptured up before that starts. But just because we live in the USA, doesn’t mean it can’t happen to us today. Doesn’t mean they can’t imprison us for preaching the Bible and being labeled Nazis and using hate speech. It’s on the horizon, my friends.

Are we ready? Are you ready? Will we endure the way Stephen did? Or Polycarp? Are we willing today to totally die to self, take up our cross, and follow Jesus? I hope so.

1 “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write,‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: 2 “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; 3 and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. 4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. 6 But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” (Revelation 2:1-7 NKJV)

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Recently, I accepted the call to become a church planter for the North American Mission Board (NAMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention. Along the way, something strange happened. I became aware of a growing issue with churches in our nation. I began to see just unhealthy so many of them were and how many of them were either dead or dying. I became burdened with this knowledge and wondered why on earth we would be focused on planting new churches when there was so many established churches out there that needed God’s healing touch.

You see, the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Christian denomination in the world with approximately 47,000 churches. Of those churches, recent statistics show that nearly 1200 to 1500 SBC churches are shutting their doors every single year. Nearly 40% of SBC churches are facing imminent closure within the next 5-10 years. Only around 18% of SBC churches are showing any signs of growth at all with a few that have plateaued. The vast majority, however, are dying.

And so, as my burden for struggling churches grew, the Lord led me to a ministry I’d never heard of before. Replanting. Instead of starting a church from scratch like a church planter, a replanter takes a dying or sickly church and nurtures it back to health. And that’s where my ministerial calling lies, I believe.

But you can’t nurture a church without first knowing what made it sick to begin with? Is this unhealthy trend because the world is increasingly antagonistic toward us? I don’t think so. The world has always been hostile toward Bible teaching/Bible-proclaiming Christ-centered churches. We know, by knowing the character of God and Christ’s promise that his Church will never be taken away that it’s not God who’s causing the decline. So if it’s not the world’s hostility, then what could it be?

Well, in the next few weeks, I am hoping we can explore that very question in depth. As we draw nearer and nearer to the return of Christ, I have a feeling the modern church will grow closer and closer in appearance to those churches mentioned in John’s Revelation…also known, by the way, as John’s Apocalypse (apocalypse, by the way, isn’t an event or a time period in the future…the word literally mean ‘the revealing’ or the revelation). So, with that in mind, I thought we’d take a look at each of those seven churches discussed in the Apocalypse by Christ himself for a possible answer to our question.

Background

We learn the origins of the church at Ephesus from Acts 19. Paul preaches in Ephesus for three weeks and baptizes around twelve believers during that time who had been baptized originally under John the Baptist (in other words, they’d been John the Baptist’s disciples, not Jesus’s). As the church grows, Paul moves from the synagogue into the quad at the School of Titanus (a kind of public space for teachers and preachers) and the church continues to grow from his teachings there. Eventually, the church catches the attention of several merchants who sold silver shrines for the temple of Artemis (Diana), which the city of Ephesus was best known for. As the church grew, people in Ephesus began to reject Diana and their sales began to tank. Naturally, this upset the merchants and a riot broke out one day.

It is through this foundation of the church of Ephesus we should remember when we study Revelation 2:1-7. The Ephesians started out with such passion for Christ that it led to a riot in the streets. By the time Jesus Himself addresses them, their passion seems to have fizzled. They are strong adherents to doctrine, orthodoxy, tradition, and purity…but Christ tells them they’ve got one thing going against them. And if they don’t change their ways, He promised to remove their candlestick (close down the church).

So, with all that being said, let’s get into the meat of the passage by taking a closer look at the first three verses.

The Commendation

Revelation 2:1–3 “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.”

In chapter 1, John sets up the vision he’s having while exiled on the island of Patmos. He explains being caught up in the spirit and being visited by Jesus in Heaven, who was walking among seven lampstands while holding seven stars in his hand. Jesus explains that the lampstands represent the seven churches of Asia and that the stars represented the seven angels of each of those churches. After this explanation, Jesus tells John to write seven letters to these churches and he starts with ‘the angel of the church of Ephesus.’

Many have speculated on who this ‘angel’ was. Is Jesus telling us that every church is granted their own guardian angel? [First of all, the Bible doesn’t even teach that individual Christians are given their own guardian angel despite what’s commonly believed.] And while Jesus could have been referring to a supernatural being, there is nowhere in the Bible where supernatural angels appear and ‘read’ a letter from God to a group of people. There’s no need for them to read a letter, afterall. They pass on God’s message because God has told them directly what to say.

So, the identity of this angel should best be interpreted in the strictest translation of the Greek word ‘angelos’, which literally means ‘messenger’. In the context of these seven letters then, a church’s angel…or messenger…most likely would be their pastor/bishop/elder.

They would be asked to read the letters written by John to their congregations, interpret them, and lead the congregation to repentance and change.

A local church is only as strong as their pastor. It’s only as strong as a given church allows their pastor to be. They have to have the courage to teach God’s word with boldness and without fear. They have to be given the freedom to be the church’s primary leader in discipling his congregation. This is probably the first mark of a healthy church. A strong, faithful pastor (faithful to God and His word).

High Marks for Ephesus!

Now, as to the message contained in the letter itself, at first glance, one would think the Ephesians church was top of its class. I mean, they received some very high marks from Christ in His assessment of them. If a Southern Baptist Church was going to be evaluated and critiqued by Jesus, what he says here would certainly be a source of pride for most of us.

Their ministry programs, patience toward each other, and intolerance for the things that are immoral and wicked are certainly commendable. Additionally, the Ephesians seem to be masters at doing what John commands Christians to do in 1 John 4:1 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” And they have persevered throughout tribulation and hardship (the Diana cult of Ephesus were extremely hostile toward them during their entire existence), and they seemed, despite all the trials, to not grow weary of it all. They kept going on despite the odds stacked against them! Seriously, this church seemed to be doing everything right! They had a strong work ethic. They were doctrinally sound. They refused to give up despite the animosity toward them in their city. Any modern day church would certainly be pumped for Jesus to say these things about them, right?

The Condemnation

Revelation 2:4–5 “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”

“Nevertheless” Ouch. How quickly a single word can bring elation to a crashing halt! “Nevertheless. However. But.” These three words and others like them have a way of letting the wind out of our sails, don’t they? After the glowing praise, Jesus gets real with the Ephesians church. He tells them he has a major bone to pick with them.

“…You have left your first love.”

Now, that’s an unusual turn of phrase. What do you think Jesus means by ‘you have left your first love’?

Well, we need to examine what a first love is before we can know what He means by it. Is it a first crush? A first romantic love? Well, since this is Jesus talking, I’m doubting that’s what ‘first love’ means. So, let’s take a look at something else Jesus said regarding love, shall we?

Matthew 22:34–40 “But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

The greatest and second greatest commandments: 1) Love God with everything you have and 2) Love your neighbors the same as you love God (ie, with everything you have).

So, the question is: what happened in the church of Ephesus? Of all the good things Jesus said about them, how had they lost this passion for Christ (the church was built on a riot in the city…that’s how passionate they were in the beginning about Christ). What happened? What does Jesus mean by this?

Well, It’s honestly quite an old story really. The church starts out strong with excitement and zeal. They begin doing everything right. They remain deep in the study of God’s word. They hold amazing worship services that draw more and more people in. They perform church discipline on those claiming to be Christians, but were really false teachers. Maybe they start a Sunday School program or Awanas to bring in the children. They have weekly visitation. They hold business meetings and vote on the color of the new church pews. In a short amount of time, they become experts in ‘doing church’.

And before they know it, everything about them can be categorized or pigeon-holed into some program. For the sake of efficiency, they have bureaucratized everything within the church. Things are run on committees. It’s almost autonomic now. Their Bible knowledge has increased, but now it’s mostly academic in nature. Maybe a little pride on who can memorize the most verses? Which Sunday school teacher is considered the most dynamic teacher or who has the highest attendance records. And all the while, they become more and more internalized. More inwardly focused. They view the church in terms of inside the building and in the internal dynamics and programs that are going. Their windows get stained glass maybe and they can no longer see outside into the increasingly wicked city in which they reside. Church has become a safe haven for them…a place to get in off the streets. A sanctuary they feel comfortable, respected, and needed.

And the more internalized they become, their zeal and fire for Christ dwindles until it’s little more than an ember. And as their focus on Jesus becomes less and less, so does their focus on the community. There’s no longer any outreach to the community and if there is, it’s because a program was established years ago and it’s just ‘what we do’. There’s no love behind it. No compassion. They have become automatons merely enacting their programming.

All those wondrous positive compliments Jesus gave this church? They’re all hollow because the motivation behind them has become more about programs and traditions than shining the love of Christ on a wicked, hurting world.

Christ’s Judgment

So how does Jesus address this issue with the Ephesians? He does so by offering a very stern warning of His coming judgment against them. Jesus calls the Ephesians to repent! To remember that love they once had and renew their zeal for God and their neighbors.

What does he say will happen if they don’t? He’ll remove their lampstand. He’ll close the doors to their local church.

Jesus promised that the Church (capital C/church universal) will never pass away (Matthew 16:18 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” ). But that doesn’t mean that a local church is protected when they have lost their first love. When they aren’t doing things for the right reasons or are doing right things for the wrong reasons. If a local church dies, Christ can easily raise up a new one in its place…but he would rather an established church repent and return to their first love again.

The Cooperation

Revelation 2:6–7 “But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”

Here, Jesus provides a bit of a praise sandwich. He once again commends them. What does he commend them on this time?

“…that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”

Now, who exactly were the Nicolaitans? Hate to break it to you, but no one knows for sure. At least, there doesn’t seem to be any agreed upon theories. The most prominent view is that they were the followers of Nicolas, a deacon in the Jerusalem church as described in Acts 6. Tradition states that Nicolas became apostate and began following a certain type of Gnosticism.

What they believed is unimportant. Take a closer look at the wording here: “…that you hate the DEEDS of…”

Jesus doesn’t say they hated the Nicolaitans. He said they hated their deeds. Their practices. Later, when we talk about the church at Pergamum, Jesus will mention the need to hate the TEACHINGS of the Nicolaitans, for the teachings lead to the deeds.

But it’s important to note here that we are not to hate the people (actually, quite the opposite), but rather the actions or deeds of those contrary to God’s word. This reinforces the attitude of FIRST LOVE that is so important in this passage.

Overcomers!

Finally, Jesus tells the church, “To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life…”

So what is Jesus saying here? Overcome what? Is he saying whoever ‘overcomes’ the issue of losing their first love? That would be a works-based salvation, wouldn’t it? It would imply you could lose your salvation. We know neither of those things are true, so overcoming must mean something else.

Let’s skip ahead a bit to see a possible explanation of this word ‘overcome’. Revelation 12:11 “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” In this passage, it’s talking about how Satan and the antichrist comes for the Church in persecution. And yet, the Church ‘overcomes’ the devil by…The blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony (Romans 10:9 “…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” )

Jesus further states that they ‘…did not love their lives to the death.’ (Matthew 16:24 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” )

This, my friends, is the gospel of Jesus Christ. We overcome the devil and our sinful nature by dying to self and confessing with conviction that Christ’s blood has washed us of all our sins. That confession is a confession of our first love…our love for Jesus Christ. For God in the flesh.

The Confession

So what does a church in such a state need to do? Jesus tells us exactly what to do in verse 5: repent and do your first works.

Repentance: changing directions. It’s recognizing we’re going the wrong way, so we turn around and get back on the right path.

We do this individually, but I also feel that we must do this as a body of believers as well. For a church to survive such a state, they not only need to rediscover their love for God and others individually, but also as a community of believers.

That means, not only looking inward and upward, but outward as well.

Let me ask you this (it’s something the director of Replant at NAMB asks in his amazing book ‘Reclaiming God’s Glory’): If your church was to close its doors this Sunday, who in your community would notice? Would anybody?

Of all the programs and ‘ministries’ a church boasts, how many of them are reaching the community around them? How many lives are being touched on a regular basis by a specific church? How is God’s glory being reflected in the community a church belongs?

Given that there is no longer a church in Ephesus, we can assume they didn’t do this. They didn’t repent. They didn’t rediscover their first love. And Jesus withdrew their lampstand from the world. They should be a warning for any church that has fallen into a similar state of folly. What folly? Doing church work for church work’s sake. If this is us, as an individual, let’s repent today. If it’s us as a local church, let’s agree together to put Christ first and the community a close second in everything we do…and consider our own wants and desires the least to be considered.

Focal Verse(s): 1Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (NKJV)

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When we first started John’s first epistle, I told you that the overall theme of the entire book was ‘blessed assurance.’ Assurance of our salvation. Assurance of God’s undying love for us. Assurance of our inheritance as heirs to the Kingdom. And assurance of the change that will come over us as children of God.

In today’s passage (our last passage will be studying in this book), John brings it all home again in his wrap-up. There’s much more he discusses in chapter five than a summary of what’s already been said, but given that this blog isn’t designed for super in-depth Bible study and is more a survey, I’ll leave it to you to read the rest. That being said, in these first five verses of chapter five, John does indeed wrap up everything. Especially when it comes to the overall theme of the book. You see, when you carefully read these five verses, you’ll see with crystal clarity that he gives us the best summary of assurance we could have hoped for. He gives us a checklist for knowing whether or not we’re truly saved. For knowing for certain that we are indeed Children of God.

In fact, he gives us three specific characteristics of a genuine child of God. What are these characteristics?

1. Right Belief

2. Righteousness (or Obedience to God)

3. Love

If you go back and re-read 1 John, you’ll see that these three characteristics are saturated throughout the text. The entire letter is about these specific three characteristics and it is by them that we can test whether we truly are children of God! No need to doubt. No need to worry. You can know a hundred percent one way or another if you follow this check list.

So, let’s explore these three characteristics so that we can apply them to our Kingdom Checklist, shall we?

Right Belief

Let’s take a look at verses 1 and 5 a little closer:

1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.

5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

From the previous messages, when I say ‘Right Belief,’ what is the question I repeatedly have talked about to answer what it means to have a ‘right belief’? If you said “Who is Jesus?”, you’d be absolutely correct. Only belief in the true, biblical Jesus—the perfect God-Man—can save and make us Children of God.

It’s not a question of whether you believe in Jesus or not. You have to believe in the right Jesus. The whole Jesus and not just the hand-picked elements of Jesus you might prefer. The Jesus who cared for lepers and sinners and the Jesus who turned over the money-changer tables and whipped people at the Temple. The Jesus who cried when His disciples didn’t understand something. The Jesus who laughed when children ran up to Him. And the Jesus who raged against the Pharisees for their greed and lack of understanding.

The whole Jesus. The biblical Jesus. One hundred percent God and one hundred percent man. The Jesus who was never created, but has always existed and will always exist. The Jesus who was miraculously born from a virgin. The Jesus who never sinned. The Jesus who died upon a cross transferring His own righteousness for our sins. The Jesus who rose from the grave three days later. And the Jesus who ascended into heaven to prepare a place for each and every one of us who believe.

Jesus…warts and all (he might have had physical warts, but we know he had no spiritual ones). That’s who we are to believe in.

What about you? What Jesus do you believe in? Is it the whole, complete Jesus of the Bible or some caricature that’s been concocted over the years by a society who despises God? Is it a Jesus who is bigger than your problems? Bigger than your medical issues? Bigger than the sins you’ve committed? Ponder that a bit, and if you’re not sure of the answer, the next characteristics might help!

Righteousness/Obedience

Let’s now take a look at verses 2 and 3 to see how righteousness plays into these characteristics:

2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

Lots to unpack here in these two short verses. But we can summarize it this way, “Those who believe rightly will obey God’s commands.”

And what did Jesus say were the two greatest commands?

37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” ~ Matthew 22:-37-40 (NKJV).

Many people would argue that obedience and love are rather diametrically opposed. After all, in our understanding of human love, neither side of a relationship should be commanding the other to do anything that would require obedience. We think of love as a partnership. An equal partnership. But that’s because we have a tendency to attach emotion to our view of love. Remember, as we’ve discussed in this book, Christian love has little to do with emotion. We love in spirit and in truth. Truth is, if we really examine the experience of human love, we’ll see that that is a rather flawed assumption.

When I was a kid, I loved my parents dearly (still do!). When I disobeyed them, there was a punishment far worse for me than a belt to the bottom (of which I received plenty!). It was disappointment. My greatest fear throughout my life in regards to my folks is that I would disappoint them.

This fear came out of a deep, deep love and respect for them. It kept me on the straight and narrow through much of my life (even to this day).

Same is true for the love we have for spouses too, friends. We might have fallen out of favor to say “honor and obey” in wedding vows, but at the heart of it, a godly husband and wife want nothing more than the happiness and joy from their partner. A godly spouse will do whatever it takes to ensure their partner’s well-taken care of and is happy. This is, whether you want to admit it or not, obedience to your spouse’s will.

Love and obedience, dear brothers and sisters, go hand-in-hand. They are inseparable.

Love

Now, let’s take a look at verses 1 through three again for a better understanding of ‘love’.

1Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

We covered most of this in our discussion with obedience, but put simply, in summary, let me just say this. If we rightly believe we will obey God’s commandments. Obeying God’s commandments means loving God himself (the one who begot), and by extension, loving the Children of God (those who are begotten by Him). It all goes together like puzzle pieces.

One final thought on this passage. John tells us “His commandments are not burdensome.” How is this true? After all, Christ came and died on the cross because we, as humans, were incapable of keeping God’s commandments.

True, genuine Children of God have victory over sin. That’s what John means in verse four when he said: For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

We have victory over the things of this world through Christ, therefore, we have victory over sin. Therefore, keeping God’s commandments—especially as we grow more and more like Christ—becomes easier and easier with time and as our love for God grows.

Point is our love for God drives our obedience. That drive is fueled by the Holy Spirit inside us. The more we grow…the more we love God and our brothers and sisters in Christ…the more capable of obedience we will become.

Through these three things we can no without doubt that we’re truly saved. As we examine our lives to determine whether we are His children or not, let’s do so with the understanding that spiritual maturity plays a role in this as well. A newborn Christian isn’t going to be able to love like a far more mature one. An adolescent Christian (spiritually, not chronologically) will struggle over keeping God’s commandments far more than someone who’s followed Christ longer. It’s all part of the sanctification. But we should all see these things working and growing in our lives to some extent or another. If we see no evidence of one or more of these characteristics, we might need to come to Christ in true repentance and ask Him to take control of your life as your Lord and Savior. He’ll do it in a heartbeat and you can truly become one of the Children of God!

Father God, thank you so much for the Apostle John and his deep love for you and the Church. Thank you for his wisdom and counsel as he sought to help us know without a doubt just who your Son truly is and have assurance in the salvation that You promised us.

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Last time in our study, John commanded us (yes, it was an imperative statement) to ‘test the spirits’ so we could know if an idea, concept, or a belief was of God or of the antichrist. He immediately follows up testing the spirits with this passage containing one of the most well-known verses in Scripture: Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.

One of the reasons it’s such a well-known verse, I believe, is because one of the most beloved hymns written in 1973 and sung by almost every denomination contains it at its core message. While I’m not going to sing it for you (none of us would want that!), I will share the lyrics of the first verse/stanza:

Greater Is He That Is In Me,
Greater Is He That Is In Me,
Greater Is He That Is In Me,
Than He That Is In The World.

Satan’s Like A Roaring Lion, Roaming To And Fro;
Seeking Whom He May Devour, The Bible Tells Me So.
Many Souls Have Been His Prey, To Fall In Some Weak Hour,
But God Has Promised Us Today, His Overcoming Power.

This hymn is a song of hope and encouragement. It promises that God, Who is in us, is stronger than anything the world or its ruler, Satan, can throw at us. And, it’s a hundred percent true in every way.

Except…

Some of you are tensing at that last word. You’re thinking, “Kent, don’t you dare ruin this awesome song that I’ve loved since childhood for me.” Don’t worry. I’m not. The song, like I said, isn’t wrong in, and of itself.

I just find it rather ironic that this passage with this particular verse would proceed from John’s admonition to ‘test the spirits’ because, friends, the song’s theology might not be incorrect, but its use of this particular verse missed the entire point of what John was saying.

‘Greater is He that is in me’ in this verse is a direct correlation to the previous passage about testing the spirits. About the things that are of God and the things that are of antichrist. This is a prime example of taking a verse out of context to make it fit something else. Yes, the Holy Spirit who resides in all Christians is greater than anything the devil might hurl our way, but within the context of this chapter in 1 John, it’s referring to something very specific. It’s referring to false teaching, false prophets, and bad doctrine.

As a Bible teacher, it’s not my job to simply teach the Bible to you, but to teach you how to teach the Bible to yourself first. Cherry picking and plucking a verse here and a verse there to prove one’s theology is the quickest way to embrace false doctrine. So many bad theological concepts have sprung up this way. Any verse needs to be understood within the context of the passage, the chapter, the book, the entire Bible, and the historic context in which it was written before theology can be accepted (testing the spirits). That’s why simply reading your Bible isn’t enough. We need to study it. We need to meditate on it. We need to truly learn it so we can recognize false teaching as John commands.

So, let’s take a look what this passage is really saying.

1 John 4:4 - You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

We’ve already discussed what this verse isn’t talking about. We’ve discussed how it’s used out of context. What’s often forgotten or not mentioned comes in the first part of the verse. Namely the words/phrases: ‘you are of God’ and you ‘have overcome them.’

We Are of God

John starts out with a compare-contrast statement in the passage itself. He tells us, “You are of God…” in verse four and compares us to “they are of the world” in verse five. Who are of the world? The children of the devil. Children of the antichrist. Anyone who has not confessed that Jesus is Lord who has come in the flesh (1 John 4:2).

What’s more, the fact that we “are of God” means we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us! That’s who John is referring to when he says “He who is in you is greater.”

Okay. That’s kind of obvious to many of us, but what does John mean when he says “we have overcome them”? I mean, we’re still living life. We’re still on earth. Seems like the Enemy is still ruler of this world and things look awfully dark right now. How can John say we’ve overcome them?

Remember, friends, I’m teaching how to study Scripture while keeping a keen eye on context within the passage itself. Don’t let your minds wander. Yes, the devil has already been defeated. The war was won on the cross of Calvary. But this isn’t what the apostle is referring to here. Remember…context.

What’s the context? Testing the spirits. Being vigilant against false teachers. Maintaining doctrinal integrity.

The word here for ‘overcome’ (also translated in some places as ‘victory’) is in present perfect tense. That means it (victory) has happened and is continuing to happen. We cannot be led astray if we test the spirits and listen to the only spirit that matters…the Holy Spirit.

Always remember the test John gave us: “Who is Jesus” in any given thought, idea, or teaching. That is the present-perfect tense victory we have against false teaching, friends. Just like we shouldn’t post so-called ‘news’ articles from questionable sources without doing a little Googling, so too should we not ask that question of everything that is thrown our way. And the amazing thing is, if we ask that question, the Holy Spirit will answer it for us! This is the victory we have!

They are of the World

Now, let’s take a closer look at verses 5 and 6:

5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Here’s where John goes into contrasting Christians against everyone else. We are of God. Everyone else is of the world system. And who has been given dominion over the world for a time? The devil.

And where as we have the Holy Spirit to guide us into knowing what is truth, the rest of the world doesn’t. They’re kind of like what James (the brother of Jesus) says of those with no faith: But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. (James 1:6).

The world is out there being cast about by every tide of the sea and every wind that blows in any direction.

As Christians, we have our own culture (as discussed a few weeks ago) and language. Being alien residents in the World, we know all too well that those of this world have their own culture and language as well. They speak the language of the devil (deceit and lies) and understand it.

Want to know why there’s such a huge push out there for any science that discounts the creation of the cosmos by God? Because the World doesn’t want God to exist. Therefore, they insist in things like evolution they think eliminates the need for any divine being.

Want to know why anyone who dares speak out biblically in truth about homosexuality, transgender, and a myriad of other sexual sins are labeled as detestable, fascists, and villains? Because the World doesn’t want to give God His due glory. Like their master, the devil, they seek to usurp God from His throne.

Evolution and LGBTQ+ are diametrically opposed to each other from a purely evolutionary point of view. After all, two males and two females can’t procreate, so therefore, there can be no survival of the fittest if that happens. And yet, the two join hands in a fight against God and the Bible out of a desperate desire for God not to be real.

Worse, they’ve begun spreading their message to the youth of our society. They approach them early and young to sway their ideology in hopes of spreading more disdain with God.

But it’s not just about these things. Men who claim to be from God also seek to influence the World with empty platitudes in hopes of filling the coffers and bolstering their own power and celebrity. Joel Osteen comes to mind here, not to mention many celebrity pastors out there who’ve recently come out with woke theology such as Andy Stanley and others.

Listen, brothers and sisters, if a teacher/prophet/idea man is popular with the majority of the world, it means they’re most likely speaking their own language and should automatically be suspect. Last week, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson sadly passed away. Within hours of the announcement, the Internet exploded with essays and blogs and posts about how vile this godly man was because he dared suggest the importance of a biblical family. Dobson didn’t speak the World’s language. They did not understand him and they hated him for it.

That doesn’t mean that popular always equals of the antichrist and unpopular always means of God. Sometimes, evil is just plain evil and not palatable to anyone. Sometimes, God moves through society for the purpose of revival and the things of God find new purchase among the masses.

That’s why it’s so important to always be testing the spirits by asking, “Who is Jesus?” The great news is that He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. We’re not alone, friends. God is with us and He brings victory in our vigilance against false doctrine!

Father God, thank you for the Holy Spirit who dwells within me…within all your children. Thank you for the victory is continually gives us against false doctrine and bad ideas. Help us, Lord, to be more vigilant in appealing to His help when faced with strange, new ideas…and even old ones. Help us to discern those things that come from You and those that come from the Accuser.

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As you might suspect, there can be a huge difference between the presentation of crime scene investigation, medicolegal death investigations, and autopsies on television shows like CSI and NCIS compared to reality. From a medicolegal death investigation standpoint, autopsies are one of those things I see on TV that have me shaking my head the most.

See, time and again, you’ll see a crime procedural in which the detectives investigate a scene of a death. The body will go to the medical examiner’s office. And within a short period of time, the results of that autopsy are being sent post-haste to aforementioned detective so he can solve the big crime.

This, of course, is necessary when you have a show that runs for about 48 minutes per episode. If you were forced to be realistic about time in such shows, a single episode might go on for weeks, if not months! Truth is, most of the time after an autopsy, the cause of death is listed as ‘pending,’ as in, pending further studies.

The reason?

Humans’ eyes (even pathologists’ eyes) are limited. While the word ‘autopsy’ literally translates to “see with one’s own eyes,” there are just some things the naked eye cannot see, and while the pathologist might have a general idea of what killed a particular person, they can’t be certain until they send specimens off for further testing. Toxicology. Histology (so they can view certain parts of the human body under a microscope). Even genetic testing, etc are some things that might hold up results.

The fact of the matter is, a medical examiner who wants to be thorough will examine all possibilities of a deceased person until they’re relatively certain their opinion is correct. This might hold up a criminal investigation a bit or it might put a pause on a family’s closure, but it is necessary to be sure a mistake isn’t made.

That’s kind of what John is saying in today’s passage. He begins by warning us to “not believe every spirit, but test the spirits.” He tells us that there are two types of spirits in this world: the spirit of God and the spirit of the Antichrist. And like an autopsy, until we really examine these spirits under a microscope, we might not be able to tell the difference because our eyes are limited. We are so easy to deceive. And by the way, it’s essential for a medical examiner to make such in-depth testing protocol for all cases at all times, lest they miss something when it’s least suspected.

As we go about our day to day lives, we’re constantly bombarded with ideas and concepts of varying degrees and conflicting rationale. Movies, TV shows, music, cartoons, video games…and don’t get me started on college courses, professors, politicians, and celebrities are all spouting a barrage of things at us on a daily basis. Even trusted pastors and Bible teachers pitch concepts we should test. Open theism, docetism, prosperity gospel, social gospel are just a few examples. How are we to know what is right? What is correct? What is from God and what is from the devil?

Take a look again at verse 2-3: By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

We’re to put these concepts and ideas tossed our way through a litmus test of sorts. We are to send them to a toxicology lab or view such notions through a microscope and examine what is being said. The question that must be asked for each and every idea?

Recently, I stumbled on an article in The Atlantic. Normally, I don’t read the magazine because in an almost cartoonish way, it oozes pretension. But the subject of this article was about the so-called “historical Jesus” and the myths of the gospels. I won’t go into the details of the article because they were so ridiculously inane, it doesn’t bear repeating. But I will say that within the first six paragraphs, I was able to refute each and every argument against the biblical Christ it laid out and I didn’t even break a sweat doing it. I mean, it was seriously dumb for such a highfalutin’ magazine. Point is, it was super easy also to test the spirits of the article to know that it was biased against Jesus from the very first word and therefore, not of God.

The same day, I stumbled on another article somewhere else that purported that a homosexual pastor of a church in Washington D.C. had proclaimed the notion that Jesus must have been “queer” (his word) because he was a male in his thirties who wasn’t married, had no kids, and hung out with twelve other dudes. Sure, pastor. Your logic is…well, if you can’t say anything nice... But still, we can easily test the spirits here to see it is of the Antichrist.

Discernment

Some of you might say, “Well, Kent, your examples are obvious. What if something doesn’t even touch on Jesus? What if it’s something that doesn’t blatantly go against Christ and even sounds about right, but I’ve got doubts about it. How in the world are we to know what its view on Jesus is?”

Recently, a pastor named Doug Wilson (apparently Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s own pastor) made controversial statements about women and the fact the media is claiming he said that women shouldn’t be able to vote. He’s been labeled a ‘Christian Nationalist’, a term that has become somewhat of a slur (or at least, it’s used in such a way). Like I said, I haven’t kept up with it because if I kept up with every controversial pastor or those mired in scandal, I wouldn’t have time to study and worship God or teach His word at all (which I think is why Satan uses such controversies, by the way). From the cursory glance I’ve given his statements, I can’t find where he actually says women shouldn’t vote, but rather that families should vote together. Personally, I don’t know how I feel about such a comment, but that’s the point. That’s why I bring it up.

So, what’s the answer here? Is Doug Wilson’s statements of God or of the Antichrist?

That’s where the word ‘discernment’ comes in. Discernment is something we gain from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But how do we development discernment? How exactly do we test the spirits? There are three ways:

1. Know God’s Word

I know you hear this over and over again from pastors, teachers, mentors, and more spiritually mature friends, but that’s because it’s so true.

But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. ~ Hebrews 5:14 (NJKV).

The writer of Hebrews says that ‘solid food’ (i.e. Scripture) is essential for the spiritual nourishment of mature believers. By doing so, he says, the mature believers is able to discern both good and evil.

So, study the Bible. Memorize verses. Learn theology. And most importantly, apply it in your life!

2. Pray

Whenever I have a question about something, first thing I try to do is pray. I pray for wisdom. I pray for discernment. I pray for understanding. Prayer, along with an active knowledge of God’s word, usually helps with discerning whether something is of God or not.

3. Stay Vigilant

Finally, do what John says to do in this passage. Test the spirits whenever something comes up in your life. If you don’t know for sure, stop, pray, and wait on God. Don’t automatically trust because someone is famous…and that includes being a famous preacher. And that goes doubly for your own pastor too, by the way. Don’t take anything he says at face value. When he preaches, test the spirits of his words and see if it jibes with the rest of Scripture.

The only words ever written that can be fully and completely trusted upon are those within God’s word. Everything else should be suspect. Stay vigilant, my friends!

So, Doug Wilson? Women and voting? Is it of God or of the Antichrist? I’ll be honest, I still don’t know and honestly, don’t know if I care because it’s all a distraction from things far more important than this earthly realm. It all seems predicated on special interests on both sides and none of those interests seem to be on God.

As Joshua said (and I paraphrase), as for me and my house, I will focus on God and the heavenly rather than the political affairs of the world.

Father God, help us have discernment in this confusing time where information is at our fingertips and knee jerk reactions abound. Give us wisdom and help us keep our eyes on you and not the things of this world.

In my last message, I glossed over today’s verse more as an aside than anything else. In an attempt to better teach you how to study the Bible…to think critically of word choice and such as you read it to glean more from you reading. I mentioned that today’s verse was a literal transitional device John employed to show a change of topic from living righteously and in the light to Christian love.

I wasn’t wrong in showing you this, but days later, after mediating on the passage throughout the week, I was hit with the knowledge of a huge missed opportunity. Keep in mind, by now, I’ve already moved onto chapter four. Already written the message for chapter four, verses one through six. I was just about to record that message when I had a powerful impulse to press pause on that and explore 1 John 3:10 with a bit more depth than a structural aside of the text.

You see, the verse itself speaks volumes all on its own. Specifically, in only thirty-two words (in the New King James Version anyway), it breaks down and answers one of the biggest questions/debates of the modern American church. In fact, it’s so precise…so spot on…I can’t help wonder if God didn’t include this verse specifically for this generation.

Let’s take a closer look.

The first part of the verse says this: “In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest…” The English Standard Version renders it this way: “By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil…”

This portion of the verse gives us the topic of what John is discussing here. The differences between ‘children of God’ and ‘children of the devil.’ Specifically, he tells us that he’s about to give us evidence for which of us belong to which family.

Did that catch your attention? Good. Stay focused because this is where it lays to rest on the big debates of the twenty-first century church. Look at the second half of the verse, which provides that specific evidence John is referring to:

“Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.”

Can you guess where I’m going with this? Can you guess the debate I keep alluding to?

While John sees only two classes of people (God’s children and the devil’s children), throughout the centuries, there has developed certain rifts within the body of the Church. Schisms, if you will. Areas of theological focus that keeps certain groups at arm’s reach.

And while there are many such debates among Christians today, one of the biggest that I see on almost a daily basis is the argument between those who believe holiness is tantamount and those who believe love is tantamount to the Christian faith.

Many theological conservatives, such as myself, tend to dwell so much on doctrine and righteousness so that sin can more easily kept at bay. Those of the more liberal theological schools of thought tend to think that our academic pursuits and puritanical emphases blinds us to what truly matters: love. Those on the left side of the fence see nothing within Christianity to be more important than unconditional love and acceptance. Tolerance. Charity. Mercy and grace. They view our fixation on holiness as a kind of idolatry in its own self.

Those on the right view the left’s emphasis on unconditional and tolerant love as a way of excusing sinful behavior and unrighteous actions and sin.

But here’s the thing! Here’s how God spoke to me this past week as I’ve pondered this verse…the two are not mutually exclusive. They are, in fact, according to John’s own logic, two sides of the very same coin. The children of God will be righteous and the children of God will love our brothers and sisters (by the way, context would suggest that ‘brothers’ here are fellow Christians and not necessarily humanity in general because all of this is within the confines of defining God’s children and therefore, family.).

What I’m trying to say is that neither side of the fence is wrong. Both are right! Children of God will love our brothers and sisters in righteousness! It doesn’t mean we condone sin or unrighteous behavior, but it does mean that we will love our brothers in both deed and truth and not just lip service as we discussed last time.

That might mean calling our brothers out when they are living in a lifestyle of rebellion against God, but it also means that we’ll be there to pick them up when they’re knocked down and help them get right back where they need to be with God in fellowship with Him.

Why did I say it that way? Why did I emphasize ‘righteous love’? Am I showing my conservative colors here? If I am, it’s only because John did it first. See verse ten falls smack dab in the transition between his discussion of Christian righteousness and Christian love, but by combining both in a single verse, the context suggests that ‘love’ is part of what it means to be righteous!

Isn’t that amazing? Such a huge, entrenched war going on within the Church over righteousness versus love. And from this single verse, we can see just how silly it is. There is no dichotomy with God or His character, therefore, He would never expect His children to be dichotomous either. Every command He gives us makes sense when we properly study and understand His word.

Father God, help us to live righteously. Help us to love as You love. As you continue to sanctify us…to grow us more and more into the image of Your Son, help us to love harder and more righteously than we ever thought imaginable. Give us, Lord, a burden for our brothers and sisters, so that through our love for them, we can lift each other up and help each other grow in the faith without compromise and without bickering over silly things.

Now that 4N6 Ministries has begun doing video and podcasts, we’re also changing up precisely what these studies are. In the past, we’ve designated these as ‘devotions’ and kept them relatively short due to respect for the amount of time people have to read such things. Now that we’re available in video and audio, we’re expanding. From now on, these little vignettes will be a deeper dive into Scripture and not just salient nuggets to glean from the passage. It won’t be a full blown Bible study, mind you. We’re hoping to keep the videos around 15 minutes in length each time. But we feel that exposing God’s word in more detail is what we’re called to do. It also means we might be returning to once a week studies as opposed to twice a week. I hope you enjoy!

In our last post, we talked about God’s love and how alien it is to the entire world system. We talked about how His love translates to us in a manner that makes us citizens of Heaven. Children of God. And therefore, alien ourselves to the world.

God’s love is so fantastical that it literally transforms His children from the inside out. It causes a transformation in us that the ‘World’ no longer recognizes us as one of its own. It no longer knows us. And it becomes hostile.

Last time, we looked at how God’s foreign and quite alien love changes us. In today’s passage, I wanted to take a look at what that change truly looks like. And as we go through it, I’d like you to bear one simple question in mind: “What country is my love from?” Is it foreign? Alien? Or is it a carbon copy of the rest of the world’s idea of love?

Holy Love

Before we proceed, let’s back up for a second and look at verse 10 of chapter three: By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

Up until this point, John has been talking with the Church about holiness. About living a righteous life. About living in the light and not in darkness. 1John 3:10 marks a bit of a transition in theme. He’s moving from the righteous life of a Christian to divine love and what it should look like. He started out the entire chapter with praising and admiring the love of God and now, he’s turning his sights to us. On our love. He tells us that not only can you tell a true believer by their righteous works, but also by the love they exhibit to their brothers and sisters. If we don’t have or exhibit love to others, there might be a major issue with our salvation…or worse, we’re not children of God, but children of the devil himself.

See How They Love…

Second century Roman theologian Tertullian is famous for the line: “See how they love one another!” It is a reference for the Romans’ view of Christians and their odd ‘love’, which was so different from their own culture. Tertullian remarked that his fellow Romans regarded Christian love with suspicion because of how different it was from their own culture, which was often accompanied by jealousy, hatred, and deceit. If you want to know how Romans loved, look no further than their own pantheon of gods and their behavior toward one another.

When Christians came along with their strange altruistic form of love, naturally it was quite jarring for the Roman world. So outside the norm. And it often led to outright animosity between the Roman hierarchy and the early Christians.

What is love?

So, the real question we should ask ourselves is, “What is love?” We all have our ideas of love. Many well-meaning Christians throw the word ‘love’ around like confetti at a ticker-tape parade. It’s one of those English words that can mean so many different things and yet not mean anything at all.

Case in point, the Greek has five different words that mean love: eros, philea, storge, xenia, and agape. Eros, of course, is sexual love…the love between a man and a woman. Philea is ‘brotherly love’ or friendship. Storge is familial love, or the love one has for his parents or children. Xenia isn’t really love at all, but rather a high concept of hospitality or helping strangers in need simply because they need help. And finally, there is agape.

Agape is the love the world system doesn’t understand. It is divine love. Perfect love. Unconditional love. It isn’t rooted in affection or sentimentality. It’s not predicated upon reciprocity. It is freely given. It is an action. A verb. And it goes beyond the world can possibly understand.

Agape is not about feelings. It’s about truth. The truth of who God is. Agape is a reflection of infinite God, who has no bounds or weaknesses. And it is agape that John is using here in this text. It is agape that is used in John 3:16. It is agape that Jesus commanded us to have with our brothers and sisters in Christ over and over again in the gospels. It is agape that Paul writes about consistently. And it is agape that is used by John here in this letter.

No Greater Love…

I’ve spent a great deal of time describe agape in metaphysical and poetic terms, but what is it in reality? What does agape look like? When John tells us in verse 18 that we shouldn’t just love in lip service, but in deed and in truth, what does he mean? What’s the practical application here?

Jesus gives us a pretty good real-world picture of what agape is when he told his disciples, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

Paul carries on this description when he talks about the relationship between a husband for his wife: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it…” (Ephesians 5:25). John the Baptist demonstrated agape when he told his disciples that he must decrease and that Christ must increase (John 3:30).

Get the picture yet? Agape (love) is sacrificial love. It is putting ourselves second or even last for the needs of others (especially our Christian brothers and sisters). It is about turning the other cheek seventy times seven and then some. It is about decreasing, decreasing, decreasing, so that our brothers and sisters can thrive and be elevated. It is about dying to self so that others are raised up.

These are all attributes of love that Christ displayed in His earthly ministry. It is the entire theme of the gospel message…the good news is that Jesus agapes us to the point of dying on a cross to redeem us.

No wonder the world can’t fathom such love! No wonder it mistrusts it and doesn’t appreciate its presence in its own pantheon of love. It is so foreign. So alien. So what about you? Is it foreign to you as well? Or do you embrace it fully and wholeheartedly with open arms?

Father God, help us to reflect your own unique love. Help us to demonstrate what it means to love perfectly, sacrificially, and fully. Thank you for giving us an example of that love in your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord, to be aliens in an alien world. Help our love to be so bold and so bizarre that no one can understand it. Amen.

One of the areas in which forensic death investigations I’d like to see drastically improved is in how we interact with different cultures and their diverse customs and rituals in regards to mourning and dealing with the dead.

In my thirty plus years on the job, I’ve seen law enforcement and other medical examiner personnel handle people of western cultures very well, but when it came to people of cultures very different from our own (the East, Caribbean, African, etc), they tend to flounder. I’ve seen cops and death investigators quaking at the knees as they enter a home to be greeted by the stone-like sentinels of Orisha guardians that protect a home’s threshold so prominent among Santeria practitioners. I’ve seen hardened, muscle-bound detectives turn white as a sheet when it is pronounced by some shaman or Santero that a death curse has been placed upon them. I’ve seen the nervous chuckles and foot shuffles when they discover what is colloquially, but erroneously called voodoo dolls on a death investigation. And I’ve seen crime scene technicians scratching their heads over lines of salt poured over the threshold of a door or a hand-woven straw broom hanging on the door itself.

As a forensic death investigator, this lack of knowledge of other cultures (known technically as ‘Cultural Illiteracy’) has always been a source of embarrassment for me and is what prompted me to make death rituals of other people groups my particular speciality in the field. I’ve spent the better part of the last five to ten years trying to educate others regarding these cultures so that 1) we’re able to serve these specific communities better without irrational fear and with respect, and 2) we’re able to do our jobs far more effectively when faced with customs far outside our comfort zone.

Truth is, culture is a weird thing. Every person on earth is part of at least one culture. Most are part of multiple cultures. For instance, I’m American. But I’m also Southern American. Appalachian American with our own set of customs, folklore, and mythos. I’m also part of author culture, death investigator culture, and pastor/Christian culture too. And chances are, you’re part of a myriad of cultures as well, although you might never have thought about it consciously.

Asked to define your own culture(s), you might struggle to verbalize what it is despite possibly being part of it your entire life. You might struggle to even provide one or two minor characteristics of it or why you belong to it. Why? Because we rarely ever think about it consciously. We’re just part of it. It’s like the air we breathe. It’s there. We know it’s there. But as long as it is there, there’s no need to ponder its properties.

So, imagine suddenly being thrust into a culture completely foreign to you. Imagine stumbling into a room full of bizarre relics, idols, talismans and charms, and behavioral quirks so far outside your own that it’s like stepping onto a different planet. Instantly, everything becomes suspect. Becomes sinister. Alien.

In today’s three verses (particularly verse one), John gets excited about a very specific culture…a very exclusive culture…and exactly what it means for us.

Yowzers!

First, as a show of excitement and awe over what he’s about to say, he tells the churches, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us…” Other ways of looking at this introduction might be the fancy King James, “Behold…!” Or “Can you believe this…?!” Or “Yowzers, this is so awesome!” Point is, John is super excited about what he’s about to say.

He then goes on to remind us that God’s love is so great that He literally adopted us into His family! Despite our peasant and filthy pedigrees, He brought us into His home and made us His Children! For those who come to know Christ, we’ve become princes and princesses in that family! How awesome is that? I can certainly understand John’s excitement!

Far Off Country

The brilliant Bible scholar John Stott put it this way in his book ‘The Letters of John’ (page 122): “The Father’s love is so unearthly, so foreign to this world, that [the Apostle John] wonders from what country it may come.”

That love that accepts us completely, not for who we are or what we’ve done, but for who God is, is a love so bizarre that it bears no analog or comparison anywhere else in creation. It’s a completely different thing altogether. Of a different culture entirely.

And because that ‘country’ or culture is so foreign to the rest of creation, the more we settle into our inheritance in Christ, the more bizarre our own customs will seem to the rest of the world. They hated Christ because His love didn’t fit humanistic standards of love. They’re going to hate us too because with our adoption, we begin to take on the exact same genetic traits as Christ. Or customs and behavior becomes diametrically opposed to conventional behavior.

In essence, we are foreigners in a foreign land. We’re not longer Southern or from the East or from the West. Ours is a Heaven culture. A princely culture. A culture filled with divine perfect love which makes human love appear to be little more than a facsimile of a facsimile of the real thing. And the world is going to despise us for showing the flaws in the way they “do life” from a world’s perspective.

So, rejoice in that! Rejoice in being different. Strive to stand out. Strive to be different. Love hard, while loving that you are hated for your culture. And then, turn around and love those who hate you…which will only make them hate you more.

Seriously, how amazing is God’s love for us that He would adopt us into His family simply because He desired to do so? Now that’s something worthy to be praised!

Father God, thank you for your love. Thank you for our adoption into your family. Help us, Lord, to continue to adopt your own culture in our own lives and to embrace the animosity that will bring down upon us. Keep us strong in this hostile, foreign world and let the light of your love shine through us every day. Amen.

Focal Verse(s): And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

~ 1 John 2:28-29 (ESV)

In my thirty-plus years as a forensic death investigator, I’ve discovered there is something far more disturbing than a decomposing body or the putrid stench of blood…more nauseating than severed limbs or body fluids splashed everywhere.

I am, of course, talking about the state of houses in which many of these dead people reside. I have smelled things that would make your eyes water just by describing them to you. I’ve seen things that would make your flesh crawl. I’ve stepped over things that would draw you into a series of dry heaves just at their mention.

I’ve walked into houses filled with stacks of garbage and human waste that rose toward the ceiling like Corinthian columns holding up the Parthenon. Homes filled with hundreds of cats and dogs (a few that even housed chickens and raccoons) and the waste that comes with them scattered along the floor and simply covered with paper towels by the home’s owner. I’ve seen tubs blackened by grime and toilet seats blanketed with mold and mildew. Refrigerators that have long stopped working, yet still contain left overs from Thanksgiving two years earlier.

And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Merely a skimming of the state of houses common in not only my area, but also in yours (whether you’re aware of it or not). And I’m not describing these things to gross you out or for shock value, but rather to make a point…

No matter how reclusive we are…not matter how few guests we ever have come to our house…there will, eventually, be someone who comes and tours your home whether you want them to or not. Some day, we all will have these visitors (as long as we’re not in a hospital or other medical facility at the time). And this realization leaves me with cold sweats at night from time to time.

Why? I’m not afraid of dying or what comes after. However, I do have anxiety about the state of my house when that day finally comes. It’s kind of the residential equivalent to your mother telling you to always wear clean underwear in case you’re in an accident. I know it’s silly, but I really do think about this quite often. When I die, and whether it’s law enforcement or my family that comes to my house afterwards, how will they find it? Will it be clean? Will it be a mess? Will I have anything on premises that I, as a Christian/Teacher/Pastor, shouldn’t have? Will my legacy be tarnished? Will I shame my family name? Will I be mortified in the grave over my slovenliness? Over that days old pizza box with three slices left that sits on my kitchen counter instead of just throwing it away?

This, my friends, is what today’s two verses are all about. Preparedness. Preparedness for what’s known as the Parousia (Greek word (pronounced paru-SEE-ah) for ‘a coming’ or ‘an arrival’), which first and second century Christians would have known to mean not only Jesus Christ’s second coming, but rather the Bema Seat of Righteousness…that day in which Christians will stand before Christ and be judged and awarded for their righteousness in life. It’s not the Great White Throne Judgment, which is for sinners. It’s not a place of punishment at all, but rather rewards. But still, it is the place we’ll most want to hear, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:23). It is where crowns will be given to us as rewards…crowns we will return to Christ to glorify Him. The more crowns, the better…not that it’s a competition, mind you.

But there are two words, I really want us to focus on today.

Confidence

The first word is confidence. In verse 28, John tells us to ‘abide in Him’ so we can have confidence at His coming. Abide. Back in verse 2:27, John tells us God abides in us through His Holy Spirit. Now, he’s telling us that we, too, should abide in God. That word ‘abide’ means ‘to remain in’. Are we ‘remaining in God…in Christ?’ If we are, then there will be evidence of that through our righteousness (v. 29). If we live in a lifestyle of righteousness, that means we’re being sanctified through Christ continually. We’re evolving to be more and more like Christ on a daily basis. It doesn’t mean we don’t sin at all. It just means that if we’re abiding in Christ, then we can’t abide in Sin with a capital ‘S’ (i.e. a sinful lifestyle).

If we examine ourselves and can see a pattern of righteousness in our life…if we are closer to Christ today than we were a year ago…then we are in pretty good shape and can be confident when we appear before Christ at the Parousia (Arrival/Bema Seat) that our fellowship with Him is good.

Shame

If, however, we aren’t abiding in Him, we might find that our house is filthy when He returns. If that happens, John says we will most likely “shrink away” from Him out of shame. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re not saved…although a continual lifestyle of unrepentant sin is a good indicator of being lost…but that we’re not abiding in Him. We’re out of fellowship with Him. And our lives have turned into a pig sty that brings shame to us in His presence.

Point is, John says if we are ‘born of Him’ we will practice righteousness. This doesn’t mean we do right all the time. It also doesn’t mean that people who aren’t born of him can’t live right. There’s a difference between ‘right behavior’ and ‘righteousness.’ The turn righteousness carries with it a connotation of being clean. Tidy. Presentable.

What about you? Are you confident in your abode today? Is there anything in your life that might cause you to shrink back when in Jesus’s presence? If so, I encourage you to take care of it today. Repent (recognize the wrong and turn the other way from it). And begin abiding in Him more and more each day.

Father God, help us to abide in you daily. Help us to live righteously and to live with confidence that on that great day we see your Son, we can stand boldly and joyfully over the lives we’ve led and the heart in which we’ve lived it.

Two things before we begin: 1) this is a continuation of the last devotion where we discussed the three signs of the spirit of antichrist. 2) I have changed translations since the last post, moving away from the CSB to the ESV. Why? While the Christian Standard Bible is an excellent translation, I find it to be a bit too dynamic for exegetical teaching and prefer to use a more literal translation. In the past, I would have used the New American Standard Bible, but in 2020, they revised their text using more gender-inclusive language, which (no matter what one might think of gender inclusivity) requires a more dynamic approach to translation, making it less effective in exegetical teaching as well. Therefore, I’m now opting for the ESV, which I find to be a great blend of classic KJV (I grew up memorizing KJV verses, so verses in other translations always throw me off for some reason) and a modern, very-readable translation. All that being said, let’s get on with today’s lesson/devotion!

Scripture Passage: 1 John 2:18-27

Focal Verse(s): But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. ~ 1 John 2:20-21 (ESV)

The world has its ‘truth’. Culture has its ‘truth’. Academia has its ‘truth’. The spirit of antichrist has its truth. And God has His. Is there a difference? Are they the same? Are the differences so minimal that for the sake of unity we can simply ignore them?

Referring to verse 23 (No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. (ESV)), let me ask you this question to answer the one above: what Jesus do you believe in? Is it the beatnik hippie all about peace and love that so many people espouse? Do you follow the Jesus that was a good man and good teacher, but really wasn’t the son of God and probably didn’t perform miracles? What about the Jesus who is secretly an alien from another world who came to bring human peace and wisdom to the masses (yes, there are those who espouse this view as well)? Or do you believe in the Jesus who was one hundred percent God and one hundred percent man simultaneously, lived a perfect sinless life, was crucified and died then resurrected three days later to absolve those who call upon His name of their sins?

See? There is a difference. And those differences are huge. As diverse as there are thoughts in the world, really. So, when we talk about Truth, it’s important to know what truth we’re going to hold to.

Fact of the matter is that God’s Truth is pure, objective truth. All others are based on opinions and false premises. I’ll go ahead and say it (although the Apostle John beat me to it in this passage), all others “truths” are nothing but lies.

This is why doctrine truly matters. It’s why it’s so important to be vigilant about what we absorb into our lives (what TV shows, websites, books, music, etc do we most consume and what view of Jesus do those things have?). It’s why we have to constantly be on the lookout for the spirit of antichrist and know it’s not something we only have to worry about in some future time, but also in the here and now.

Fortunately, John gives us great encouragement in verse 20. He tells us that we have been ‘anointed by the Holy One,’ and that we have ‘knowledge’ at our disposal (from context, that knowledge comes in the form of understanding, wisdom, and discernment).

The Holy One and the Paraclete

So, who is the Holy One and what does it mean to be ‘anointed’ by Him?

I believe this is a direct reference to Jesus telling his Disciples in John 15:26: “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.“

Jesus is the ‘Holy One’, who sent his paraclete (literally ‘helper’ (also comforter and advocate) in Greek), who is also known as the Holy Spirit.

How does the Holy Spirit help us in our vigilance against the spirit of antichrist?

Knowledge and Truth in All Things

In verse 20, John tells Christians that we “all have knowledge.” Does that mean we’re omniscient, knowing everything? Not at all. John tells us what knowledge we have in verse 21 when he clarifies that we know ‘the truth.’

And how do we Christians know the truth? Through the Paraclete. Through the Holy Spirit, who teaches us all things. And this, my friends, is where it gets so good!

In John 14:26, Jesus told his disciples during the last supper, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

And how does He teach us all things? Notice the last part of that verse: “your remembrance of all that I have said to you.” This doesn’t just include things Jesus said during His earthly ministry. It incorporates everything He/God has said from the beginning. In other words, the Bible! Scripture. This is why it’s so important to saturate ourselves in God’s word!

We consume Scripture and the Holy Spirit teaches us all things from that. He guides us. Through the Bible, He shines a light on anything that isn’t Truth! He exposes heresy, apostasy, and the spirit of antichrist to us through God’s word!

So, my friends, do not view studying Scripture as a necessary burden “we’ve got to make time for,” but rather an opportunity to have the greatest Teacher in the history of Creation at our disposal. An infinite well of wisdom and discernment is at our fingertips! Through the Paraclete and the Bible, we cannot be deceived. So, armor up against the antichrists and the Antichrist with a Capital ‘A’. Prepare yourself. Keep your eyes on the lookout. Be prepared. We, as Christians, have something the rest of the world doesn’t have. An intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit who makes things make sense for us.

Father God, thank you so much for the Paraclete. The Holy Spirit. Thank you for having Him resides within each and every believer and his role in guiding and protecting us from false doctrine. Help us, Lord, to listen to Him when He speaks and act upon what He tells us through your word.

Scripture Passage: 1 John 2:18-23

Focal Verse(s): Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. By this we know that it is the last hour. ~ 1 John 2:18 (CSB)

We are, Ladies and Gentlemen, living in the End Times. Don’t get too excited. Truth is, we’ve been living in the End Times for the last two thousand years or so. In fact, the End Times, from a biblical perspective is pretty much defined as the time period between the first coming of Christ and His second coming.

Jesus told his disciples as he prepared to ascend into heaven while on the Mount of Olives that it was not for us to know the day and hour of His return (Acts 1:7), and so, while we know it’s sometime between his ascension and the next tick of the clock, we have no idea exactly when that return will be. That being said, we’re definitely closer today than the disciples were when Christ ascended.

But one thing we’ve had to guide us are the signs. Prophecy. Little clues sprinkled throughout Scripture to give us some type of roadmap. And among the various markers along that roadmap are the antichrists. From 1 John 2:18-23, we know that John recognized that many antichrists were already among them, sewing their seeds of discontent among the Christians of that era. These antichrists have only multiplied in number throughout the millennia, and amplified their message. As Christians, it’s imperative that we know what to be on the lookout for in regards to such people and teachings. Fortunately, the same passage gives us hope that God has given us a helper to deal with such things (we’ll discuss that next post), but for now, John also gives us three signs of the antichrists I think are important to identify to help us down the road.

Before we talk about the signs, you might be asking, “Why are you making the ‘Antichrist’ plural (fun fact: this is the first time the word ‘Antichrist’ is used in Scripture. In fact, only the Apostle John uses this term.)? Why are you using lower case ‘a’ instead of the capital ‘A’ of a proper noun? Well, there will be one big Antichrist in the future (or maybe even today), but the fact is that there are many who have come with the spirit of ‘antichrist’ through the centuries. It are they we’re discussing today.

Come from the Church

First thing John shares about the spirit of antichrist is that it/they usually come out of the Church itself. Look at verse 19:

‘They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.’

The false teaching of the antichrists will begin within the Church itself. It might start out as reasonable sounding. Might even sound orthodox. But slowly, new ideas will be tossed into the mix to see how it tastes to certain Christians. More and more false teachings will be mixed into stew until before long, it’s no longer food that nourishes the Christian at all, but rather poisons us. From there, the antichrists tend to leave the confines of the Church and into the world to hawk their falsehoods to others and to a lost world.

They Are Liars

The second sign according to this passage should come as no surprise to any of us. John tells us they are liars.

Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. ~ verse 2:22.

The spirit of antichrist has one big lie among a plethora of many. In the context of 1 John, who is combating the influence of the Gnostics (“salvation through secret knowledge”), the lie is evident: Jesus is not the ‘way’ to salvation. He might point the way, certainly, but He wasn’t the means to the end, according to the Gnostics. That could only be obtained through cracking the mysteries of creation. The discovery of the ‘secret.’

In modern times, it might come down to the humanist view that mankind is god and that salvation is a state of mind. Or that science and advancement is the key to eternal life, and not some carpenter from Nazareth that might or might not have existed.

The spirit of antichrist will do anything and everything in its power to negate Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and its greatest weapon is doubt.

They Deny the Son

22 Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well. ~ verses 22-23.

“Jesus was a good man. A good teacher. A healer, philosopher, humanitarian. Jesus was all about love. But he really didn’t care about sin. And he didn’t really care what you did as long as you love others. And he most definitely wasn’t the living embodiment of a mean, judgmental god.”

Sound familiar? It should. It permeates almost every aspect of the secular and academic philosophies of the modern age. It can even be found in a number of churches and denominations.

The antichrists lie about Jesus and His relationship with God. His power and might. His holiness. And most of all His power over Sin and death.

Of course, these are only a few signs of the spirit of antichrist to look out for, but I think they encompass all the minutia the spirit espouses.

Fortunately, as we’ll discover next time (in the same passage), we’re not left defenseless. We’ve been given a Helper who will reveal all truth to us when we need it. We must learn to listen during such times. Be aware. And be ready for spiritual battle when such tests of our faith arise. Are you ready?

Father God, I pray now for the Church and those who call upon your name. Protect us in the coming days. Guard our hearts and keep our eyes open to the deceit of the enemy. Help us, Lord, to guide others to the truth as we, ourselves, gravitate toward it.

Scripture Passage: 1 John 2:15-17

Focal Verse(s): Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ~ 1 John 2:15 (CSB)

For the last several years, my TV watching has really taken a nose-dive. If I watch anything, it’s mostly vintage shows of my youth. The reason? Because most shows today try to beat me over the head with an agenda of some kind and frankly, I’m just getting sick of it.

But I’ll admit to catch a few modern shows from time to time. One such show (if you couldn’t already tell by the title of today’s devotion) is SyFy Channel’s sci-fi dramedy Resident Alien, which is about an alien from a warlike species who is sent to earth to destroy it (and consequentially, all humanity). Of course, as such things go, this alien bent on the destruction of our entire world crashes and is forced to take a human form while he gathers debris from his ship to finish his mission.

Along the way, he comes to a quaint little town in the Colorado mountains and becomes the town’s doctor (sans medical degree…but hey, he’s secretly an alien and therefore, far smarter than any human, right?). The cute and often funny series is then all about him trying to acclimate to humanity to prevent anyone from discovering his secret and that’s where the hilarity comes in.

Funny thing is, the more time Harry the Alien spends on earth with the people here, the more humanity begins to rub off on him. Until, eventually, he’s literally turned human without any alien essence to him whatsoever [thankfully, this was only a brief thread of the show and he eventually gets his alien essence back].

Now before you begin wondering if this devotional has suddenly evolved into a review blog for wacky television shows, have no fear. It’s not. I just found Harry’s antics paint the perfect picture of what John is telling the churches he’s writing in today’s verses.

“Do not love the world or the things of the world,” he says. “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

Now why do you suppose John would tell us that? After all, the same apostle also told us in his Gospel that “For God so loved the world…”

Should we not do the same?

First, the Greek word for ‘world’ in both verses is the exact same: kosmon. It comes from the Greek work in which we get cosmos, and is, in fact, the same word in Greek. So, if both words are the same, why is it okay for God to love the world and not for us?

It’s all about context of the passage. That’s how hermeneutics (the proper study of text to glean its true meaning) works.

You see, despite using the same word for ‘world’, John is actually talking about two different types of ‘worlds’. In John 3:16, where it says ‘…God so loved the world’, he’s referring to us. To mankind. To all humans throughout history.

From the context we’ve already seen in 1 John, we know that he’s not dealing with the world in terms of ‘people’, but about culture. About the fleshly realm. About false doctrine, materialism, hedonism, and human morality. In other words, the ‘world’ mentioned here is talking about the ‘world system.’ The same world system that is controlled and ruled by the Enemy.

So, knowing all that, let me repeat the question: why would John tell us not to love the world? For the same reason that Harry the Alien got in some real hot water in the final season of the show. Because he became so absorbed by humanity that he became human altogether.

The same is true for us as well. Love the world and the things of the world and we can’t help become more and more like the world. It draws us in. As verse 16 tells us, the world is alluring. It’s attractive. It grabs hold of us and drags us further and further away from God.

Think of ourselves like a mirror. We reflect what we spend the most time looking upon. Gaze into the world for too long and we’ll start looking more like it. Gaze into Christ and we’ll start looking more and more like Him.

Confession time. Recently, I’ve been feeling a bit down about the world around me. Feeling a bit lost. Confused. For a while now, I’ve just not understood it or anything that comes from it. I don’t know the jargon. Don’t understand the mentality. Scratch my head over it’s quirks. I can never seem to say or do the right thing, or rather, more often than not, find myself saying and doing the ‘wrong thing’ from a social point of view. And it appears as though I’ve become just as much an enigma to the world as it is to me.

For a while now, I chalked it all up to my age. I’m just getting older. Generation X has never really understood the Millennials. And the Z’ers? Don’t get me started on them! Get off my lawn, you kids!

But this past Sunday, my pastor reminded me of something that brought me even greater hope. He reminded me that this place is not my home. This world and I are at odds because I don’t belong here. C.S. Lewis put it like we’re spies behind enemy lines advancing the kingdom of God. I think Resident Alien might be an even better example. We’re aliens on an alien world. The culture is alien to us. Strange to us. Bizarre. Try as we might, if we’re truly God’s children, we just don’t fit in here. We’re not understood by the natives here or vice versa. We don’t speak the same language or have the same customs.

The danger, my friends, is the longer we dwell in the world (i.e. the world system)…the longer we try to blend in and fit in…the more like the world we’ll become and the farther from God we will grow. We don’t fit in and honestly, we never should fit in. The more and more God sanctifies us…grows us more and more into Christ’s image…the more alien we will become. As this happens, it’s only natural that the world itself will become stranger to us every day. And as uncomfortable as it might be to many of us, the more we grow in Christ’s image, the more alien we will appear to the rest of the world.

So be proud of your alien status! Take heart in it. It simply means that God is doing a mighty work in your life!

Father God, guide us through this alien world. Protect us, but lead us through strange territory. Help us, Lord, to keep on the road you have set aside for us and do not let us veer off into the mire and webs this world sets for us. Abide in us, God, and keep us abiding in you through all things.

Does James advocate for a works-based salvation like some claim? Absolutely not! Find out what he really means when he talks about works in this sermon.

Scripture Passage: 1 John 2:1-2

Focal Verse(s): My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous one. He himself is the atoning sacrifice[a]for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world. ~ 1 John 2:1-2 (CSB)

You’ve been accused of a horrific crime. The evidence has been piled up against you. And you are now in the courtroom for your trial.

The prosecutor glances over at you with a smug smile as you await the judge to take the bench. He’s got you dead to rights and you know he’s going to request the harshest penalty allowed by law once the jury comes up with the inevitable verdict.

You’re guilty after all. There’s no denying it. You know you committed the crime. You’re not sure why you did it. Maybe a lapse in judgment. Maybe it was the way you were raised. You’d watched your parents and grandparents commit the exact same crime throughout your life. You are, after all, from a family of career criminals spanning generations.

The bailiff announces the entrance of the judge. Everyone in the courtroom stands as he strides in and takes his seat behind the bench. After he sits, so does everyone else. You take a deep breath. It’s about to begin and you know all is lost before the charges are even read before the court.

You feel a gentle hand on your arm and glance over at your defense attorney. Like the prosecutor, he’s smiling too, but there’s no smugness behind it. Just understanding mixed with confidence. It alleviates some of your anxiety.

Yes, you’re part of a career criminals family who’s faced these exact same charges before. They were all convicted and sentenced and it hadn’t turned out so good for them. The one difference between you and the rest of your clan is your attorney. From what you hear, he’s the best in the biz. The cream of the crop. He’d make Daniel Webster look like little more than a first year law school student.

That warm and confident smile he gives you does more than ease some anxiety. It makes you think everything is truly going to be okay. You know you should be trembling with fear. The gallows, after all, should be part of your future. You deserved them after all for everything you’ve done. And yet, his smile and those twinkling eyes of his makes you wonder if he might just have a chance of beating this rap.

The charges are read aloud. Definitely some serious red in your ledger. But your attorney squeezes your hand now and a calm washes over you. He’s got to have some trick up his sleeve you’re not aware of. Some legal magic he’s going to pull out of a hat at the last minute. You hope.

The prosecutor goes through his arguments. He introduces all the evidence against you. The courtroom seems to dim, as if the overhead fluorescent lights had just lost some of their illumination. Your pulse quickens. You feel your own pulse thudding against your temples. It’s far worse than you ever imagined. Then, the prosecutor rests.

Your defense attorney stands up and addresses the court:

“Your Honor,” he says. “My client is guilty of the charges levied against him.”

Your entire world just drops out from under you. The courtroom spins uncontrollably. You feel feint. Did your attorney just sell you out? What kind of defense is this? You feel betrayed.

Your lawyer steps around the desk you’re both sitting and turns to the jury. “He’s most definitely guilty. There’s no denying it.”

Shut up. Shut up. Shut up, you think to yourself. What are you doing to me?

As if knowing your thoughts, the attorney glances around at you and offers a knowing wink and a mischievous grin before turning his attention to the prosecutor.

“My client was, after all, a criminal. As a matter of fact, he even admitted to me that he committed all those crimes and many more,” the attorney says and you can practically feel the hangman’s noose around your throat with every word. “But my client no longer exists.”

The jury murmurs amongst themselves at these words. The rest of the court erupts in exclamations of dismay. The judge brings down his gavel to bring his courtroom under control.

“And the same day my client confessed his numerous crimes to me, something happened,” the attorney says. “I went ahead and paid the court costs, fees, and even punishment in his stead. All out of my own pocket. Out of my own flesh.”

“I object!” Shouts the prosecutor. “That’s not fair!”

“Your honor,” your attorney says. “Check my record. I’ve never committed a crime. There are no fines against me in any way. I’m above reproach on this.” He nods at the bench. “Check the laws. See what the maximum penalty is for each of these laws my client committed and see if I haven’t met each and everyone of them.”

The judge scans the documents on the bench, and nods before turning to the prosecutor. “Objection overruled. The penalty has, indeed been paid. His client’s crimes have been taken upon by his attorney. The suspect’s crimes are forever transferred to the attorney himself. In effect, the suspect has a blank slate from this day forward. He is a new person without criminal record from this point forward.”

So, this parable of sorts took on a mind of its own. Wasn’t supposed to be a full story because I wanted some time to teach a little. But I think you get the drift.

In today’s passage, John tells the churches that everything he’d written up to chapter 2 verses 1 and 2 were to help believers not to sin. But being flawed humans who haven’t yet attained sanctification, we’re going to sin. Even though sin no longer has a slavehold over believers of Christ, it is still part of our fleshly nature.

John wants us to know that when those slip-ups do happen, it’s not the end of the world. While we should strive not to sin, it’s not the end of our relationship with God if we do. After all, in Christ we have the greatest attorney (‘advocate’) in history on speed dial who will always defend us against the Prosecutor (the biblical ‘accuser’ or ‘the Devil’). Always remember that, friends. He defended us from the Accuser on the cross and in the tomb and He is our eternal advocate in heaven to this day and beyond. That is definitely something worthy of praise, don’t you think?

Praise Him today for that.

Father God, thank you for the advocate you sent us. When we had no way of defending ourselves, you provided free legal counsel at your own expensive for each and every one of us. Help us, Lord, not to sin. But if we do, Lord, help us to remember that all is not lost. The Accuser hasn’t won in our lives. Help us to always look at the one who paid the price for our crimes and made us into new creations during those times we feel as though we let you down.

Scripture Passage: 1 John 1:5-10

Focal Verse(s): If we say, “We have no sin,”we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ~ 1 John 1:8 (CSB)

In our last devotion, we learned that John is going on the offensive against false teachings (mostly by a group known as ‘gnostics’ who believe in salvation through secret knowledge) right out of the gate of this letter. We see how he began his argument with a declarative statement about God: “God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him.” Then, he proceeds to, like a forensic investigator doing crime scene reconstruction, begin asking a series of what if questions.

No need to rehash the first two what-if questions, as we discussed those last time. Today, we’re jumping right into the next question he asks (in verse 8), and it’s a biggie:

“If we say, “We have no sin,”we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

John then follows this question up in verse 10 with this one (which has even bigger consequences):

“If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

One of the arguments the gnostics had in regards to salvation was that it was not about any kind of moral inadequacy that separates man from God, but rather intellectual. Knowledge. Understanding. This philosophical heresy had begun to creep into some of the churches in the first and second centuries.

You might be thinking, “But Christians are all familiar with Romans 3:23, which states the everyone has sinned and fallen short of glory of God. How can anyone think they haven’t sinned?

Think about it. Examine your own life for a moment. Be honest with yourself. Has there ever been a time when you’ve compared yourself to someone else in terms of morality and thought, “Well, I’m better than them anyway!” Or, in a moment of moral victory thought, “I’m not too bad a person, am I? I don’t drink. I don’t do drugs. I rarely lie. I’ve never killed anyone or even intentionally hurt someone. I’m a good person.”

Before I proceed and explain why that above paragraph is important, have you ever wondered why, in a court of law, there are typically only two verdicts available to a suspect? Guilty and Not Guilty. Have you ever wondered why it’s ’Not Guilty’ and not simply called ‘Innocent’?

In terms of jurisprudence, a defense attorney or prosecutor can never prove innocence. All they can do is prove beyond a shadow of a doubt—based on evidence and an influential argument—that someone most likely did or did not commit a particular crime. For a defense attorney to get a ‘Not Guilty’ verdict, all that has to happen is that the prosecutor fails to produce enough evidence to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the suspect is guilty.

‘Innocence’ is intangible and therefore, unprovable. It is a state of being, not defined by any particular action or lack thereof.

If we say “We’re without sin!” we’re saying we’re innocent. If we say “at least I haven’t murdered anyone. I’m nothing like Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer”, we’re saying we’re more innocent than someone else. But once again, innocence is a state of being. More than that, ‘innocence’ is a state of being with no shades of gray (remember the declarative statement: ‘God is light and there’s absolutely no darkness in Him.’). We’re either in the light or we’re in the dark. We’re either innocent or we’re not. We’re either without blemish or we’re not. A gallon of milk that’s been in the fridge for too long is either spoiled or it’s not. There’s no happy medium. Sour milk can never be turned to unspoiled milk anymore. It’s bad. Rotten to the core.

And if we only stumble one time in our life, we are forever soured. We’re now blemished. No amount of filtering, scrubbing, or cleaning will unspoil us. No amount of ‘good things’ we do can put us back to that ‘Sell by’ date on our jug.

Here’s the thing: Innocence is a state of being and has nothing to do with action. The same is true with the reverse. Sin is a state of being, not a verb or an action. The moment we breathe our first breath, our ‘Sell by’ date has already expired.

We know this is true because the Bible tells us so. We know this is true because God tells us so. We know this is true because Jesus told us so. And if we say, “Yeah, but…” or try to rationalize our state of ‘Sinness’, we’re effectively calling Jesus a liar. If Jesus lied about our state of being, what else has He lied to us about? If Jesus lies, then He’s not perfect and therefore, there is no hope of redemption for any of us.

So, we either make Christ out to be a liar, leaving us without hope or we take Him at His word and accept the fact that we’re spoiled. We’re rancid, rotten, and forever tainted and there’s nothing we can do to fix us. No amount of knowledge can change the molecular makeup of a glass of milk. And so, no amount of knowledge can change our own spiritual makeup either. The gnostics had it wrong. Those who claim they’re “pretty decent” or “basically good” are wrong.

In terms of ‘knowledge’, maybe this is the only knowledge any of us truly needs to know: we are sinners. We are spoiled. We are blemished and unable to stand before a perfect God without being utterly destroyed by his holiness.

Thankfully, John doesn’t leave it at that in verse 9 in our passage: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Focus on the verse. Meditate especially on the last part of that verse (…to cleanse us) and understand: He was able to turn water into wine. Therefore, I have no doubt He’s also the only being on earth with the power to unspoil milk. He is the only One capable of changing our state of being from ‘guilty’ to ‘innocent’. Even more amazing, He’s willing to do so. All we have to do is ask.

But more on this next time!

Father God, thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your unwillingness to give up on us even thought we deserve it. Help us to understand that we are born wicked and there is no good in us, no matter how our outward actions might be. And yet, you sent your Son to take us home to you.

You might be wondering, “What happened to the devotional this week?” Two answers to that, one more complex than the other. The simpler response is quite simply: Time. I ran out of it. My ‘day job’ caught up to me this week and I just didn’t have the time to get to it this week.

The more complex answer? A pain in my heart. Not a medical or physiological kind of pain, but something more sorrowful. The pain came from two different things that popped up on my feeds in the last few weeks and both have to do with professing Christians (more specifically, pastors) unapologetically embracing A.I. (for those living under a stone age rock in the last few years, that stands for ‘Artificial Intelligence’).

The first of these items that came across my screen was a post in a Christian sci-fi/fantasy writer’s group I belong to on Facebook. The posts was from someone claiming to have performed a “grand experiment” in true meta fiction by taking a previously published short story by another author (a story decidedly anti-AI) and running it through an AI grinder to have it spit out a new, revised version of the story that was pro-AI. This person, who I guess identifies as a Christian since he belongs to a Christian group, then turned around and published this regurgitated short story as his own. And he was oh so proud of his accomplishment. He was virtually patting himself on the back for this grand “experiment” (his words) in meta fiction. And while I’m happy to say the majority of responses from fellow Christian members of this group were negative with labels of plagiarism and theft bandied about, I was heart stricken at the number of other Christians who saw no harm in what he had done.

The second thing that popped on my feeds this week was a blog post about pastors utilizing the amazing tool of AI to help study and understand Scripture better and faster. This tool not only is designed to help pastors study, but also produce sermon outlines complete with nifty AI created analogies while simultaneously creating mindblowing graphics for those fancy screens in the front of the church that helps the congregation take notes.

So, yeah. Heartbroken.

Look. Let me make something clear. I’m not a tech guru. I don’t know all the intricate details of how AI works in the creative realm of things (AI for medical applications, etc is another subject entirely and I’m smart enough to leave that alone for now). What I do know about AI is that tech companies scoop up as much art (literary, visual, and auditory) as it can get online and use these things to teach their baby AI to do what they’re designed to do. I know these tech companies steal these items without paying the artists or giving them credit. And while proponents of AI (even among the creative community) are quick to point out that the art itself isn’t being replicated, only emulated in the same way that one artist learns to create art by emulating the masters, they’re missing the point entirely. As an author, I’ll admit, I started out emulating the style of Jim Butcher for my very first book, PRIMAL THIRST. The difference is that by the end of writing and editing and tweaking that same book, I had found my own voice and my own style and it was not an amalgamation of a Butcher and a multitude of other authors in the final product.

I’m also not a philosopher or a futurist or an ethicist. And while all Christians are called to be theologians, I’m not writing this as a theologian either. I’m writing this post simply as a Christian with a broken heart for so many other followers of Christ. You wouldn’t even remotely consider taking money out of another person’s wallet. To steal food off someone’s table is anathema to you. To rip off someone’s term paper or blatantly steal another pastor’s sermon would be a major no-no for you. So, why is it so easy to allay the theft ramifications of using AI simply for the sake of convenience?

Exodus 20:15 is something every pre-school Sunday School kid learns. It’s the eighth commandment. “Thou shalt not steal.” AI and creators of AI steal. Plain and simple. And to utilize AI software to make things easier for yourself is stealing. But not just stealing from someone else. You’re actually stealing from yourself as well. You’re stealing from from the privilege of using the gifts, skills, and talents God gave you to serve Him in the way He specifically intended for you from before the foundation of the world.

Pastors, if you need an AI app to help you study the Scriptures and glean a better understanding of them, there’s something seriously wrong with that. I hate to be so blunt, but I wonder if there’s something wrong with your very walk with Christ. I ran out of time to work on my devotionals this week because it requires a great deal of study and a great deal of thought and a great deal of creativity to put them altogether in a fun, forensically-themed way. I could have tossed all of it into a big AI blender and let it spit out the devotions for me. But that misses the point of our service to Christ. God doesn’t need us to preach. Jesus told the Sanhedrin that if the people stopped shouting “Hosannas” then even the rocks would cry out in worship of Him. God opened the mouth of a donkey and let it speak to chastise Balaam. God doesn’t need our mouths. He doesn’t need our brains or our creativity. He chooses to let US be part of His ministry. He allows us to be part of advancing the Kingdom here on earth. He doesn’t need us to be flashy (sometimes, I think He’d prefer it better if we went with far less flash, to be honest). He doesn’t need us to be polished. He doesn’t need us to be nifty with the, you know, words and stuff. He just wants us to be there. To show up. To put in the effort. To put in the time with Him.

Let me repeat that last bit…WITH HIM. That’s what He wants. Like a father letting his son ride in his lap as they mow the lawn. Quality time with the Father. He’ll take care of your congregation. He’ll take care of your flock. He just wants us to spend time with Him and I believe AI has the potential of stripping that time away from us.

So, pastors, do yourself a favor. Take the pressure off yourself. Give up the AI tools that might make things easier and faster and more efficient and just show up. Just spend time in Him. Allow Him to speak through us because I don’t think He’s going to speak through some computer simulated intelligence (although there’s no doubt He could if He needed to).

Christian brothers and sisters, AI isn’t just a tool to make life easier and give you magical writing or artistic skills. It’s a classic cartoon bag with ‘$$$’ on it disguised in a striped suit, mask, and wide brimmed hat like the Hamburglar…it’s theft. Plain and simple. So next time you’re tempted to take the easy road to art and riches, do yourself a favor and remember Exodus 20:15. It really is that simple.

Even now, among the Christians who read this post, I know I’m going to get flack. I know there will be defenders of AI. I know there will be those who won’t to argue. Let me say this: I’m not going to try to convince you one way or another. These are my thoughts. These are my convictions. Let this be a conversation between you and God and see where He leads you.

In the meantime, we’ll continue through 1 John next week, so stay tuned!