Caffeine . . . need caffeine . . .

“Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber;”
-Proverbs 6:4

So we’re going to get two lessons for the price of one here. In the first, we will see how importance context is to biblical interpretation. I quoted this verse, as usual, without any verses around it. If you take the verse as it stands, you may start believing that to sleep is to sin.

Obviously, that is not what is going on here. But it stands as a good warning in an age when certain preachers will speak on a single verse, ripped out of context, to support what they wanted to say. Does the context support that, or has the loss of context caused the verse to lose its meaning? After all, I could do a whole sermon on this verse, telling people that sleep is evil and you have to stay up all night, and I would seemingly have biblical support.

Except that’s not what the verse means.

So next time I or any other teacher tells you to look at a verse, look at the verses around that verse to test us. It’s very easy to lose the meaning when the verse is not supported by the context.

So what IS this verse talking about? Let’s get to the real meat of this one.

Solomon has been talking about what to do if you make a mistake with your finances or in the way you speak to another. He advises us to go immediately to the person to explain and repent. Don’t even put it off until tomorrow, he continues in this verse, but do it today.

So often we put off things that are critically important. Everyone has good intentions, for example, with his money, but plans to do something about those intentions sometime in the future. That future never seems to come. When we have wronged someone, we try to put off apologizing as long as possible. I suppose we hope the other person will forget what was said. Fairly often, that does happen. I’m not sure it makes it right.

My wife and I had a little skirmish last night. It wasn’t a bad one, but it was bad enough. It was pretty late, which meant I was exhausted, and I really wanted to put off the rest of the discussion until morning. I’m glad we didn’t, because we ended up talking about things we never would have mentioned today. I didn’t get to sleep enough, but it was worth it.

It doesn’t turn out like that all the time. Repentance in this fallen world does not always mean you will be forgiven by the other person. But it just may be worth it anyway. As Paul tells us in Ephesians, “do not let the sun go down on your anger.”

Repentance is at the heart of the Christian faith. Being a Christian does not mean that we are more moral than everyone else or that we follow a bunch of rules. Hopefully, we are more moral, but that’s not what makes us Christian. We are Christian because we are forgiven. In faith we repent of our sins, and we are forgiven because of the Blood of Christ, who died on the Cross to pay the price for those sins. We have offended God with our thoughts, words, and deeds, but like Solomon bids us go and repent – this very night – God bids us to approach Him in faith to be forgiven.

This is something a lot of people put off, but we don’t know if we’ll have a tomorrow. My advice is to give no sleep to your eyes before going to the Lord for forgiveness.

Podcast: 1 John: Antichrist!

This is a transcript of one of our recent podcasts. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here. To listen to the podcast without iTunes, please follow this link.

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. . . . Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.
-1 John 2:18-19, 22

Welcome to the Christian Pilgrimage Podcast; I’m your host, Paul Lytle. You heard it right. Today’s episode is entitled, “Antichrist!”

We’re going to go about this one a little differently. John, in this section, is alternating between instruction about the antichrist and antichrists, and contrasting them with the faithful Christians within the Church. Now, this is a bit too much for us to tackle in our short episode today, so we’re going to handle the verses this time about the antichrists, and next time, God willing, we’ll look at the faithful.

This is a huge topic. We always see the antichrist in those big Christian apocalyptic movies and books, even if they seem a little ridiculous. He’s super charismatic and charms everyone with cheesy dialogue, and before long, oops, he’s taken over the world and killing Christians. No one really cares, of course, because he’s handsome, but so it goes. This word, antichrist, only appears in John’s epistles, but it is a word that has permeated our culture.

I don’t think a year goes by when some Christian group doesn’t stand up and say that some political leader is the antichrist, and they’re going to be raptured up pretty soon now. I am not one of these people. Frankly, I think most of their picks are pretty silly and their understanding of the end times probably a bit off. I heard of one guy in my childhood church who said that Reagan was the antichrist. The reason he thought this was because there are six letters in each of Reagan’s three names – Ronald Wilson Reagan. 666. Obviously, Reagan didn’t turn out to the antichrist.

But John here is telling us to watch out for that. Now, we don’t need to do it stupidly, going on talk shows and calling in radio programs to make fools of ourselves and Christ, but we need to watch out. And in addition, we need to watch out for antichrists – plural. Let’s examine how these two relate.

John defines antichrists as those who lie and deny Jesus is the Christ. They will often come out of the church, but were never true believers. And there will be many. We should remember that we’ve been in the last days since Jesus ascended into heaven, and antichrists will permeate the last days.

There are a lot today. Some of them preach in supposedly Christian churches.

I think we’ve really missed the boat on this one. Evangelical Christians are so busy sometimes looking for THE antichrist that they fail to see the little ones. We have so many religious leaders who either deny or don’t even understand the Gospel. We have people saying that Jesus died so that we can be rich. We have people saying that Jesus died to end imperialism. We have people saying that Christianity is all about helping the poor, not as much trusting the Blood of Christ for forgiveness for our sins. We have people telling you that you have to be super-holy, or God will be mad at you.

These are antichrists, who have read the truth of the Bible, the truth of Jesus, but deny it. We forget to look for these guys, and so Christians are taken in under their false theologies. Evangelicals actually embrace these people as though they were brothers. If you want proof, look at a list of the biggest churches in America. At the very top is a church that does not preach the Gospel, but instead talks about getting promotions, getting rich, and having a wonderful life. That is a lie about who Christ is and what He accomplished. Look at the list of most influential preachers. You will find names on there of people who twist God’s word so that it seems like the Bible is about finding purpose rather than telling us about Jesus.

It is astonishing and frightening to me how many wolves we have in the churches today pretending to be shepherds. And the people in those churches will come up with the wildest excuses for them. They don’t want to have any conflict in the church, and they see the biblical Christians who point out the wolves as people making waves. Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Hold fast to the Gospel that saved you. Hold on to it for dear life. There is nothing that should be more important than Christ. There is no compromise that is worthwhile if you are giving up something of Him. I don’t care how popular a preacher or movement is – if it isn’t Gospel-centered and Christ-focused, then it is of Satan. It exists under the spirit of the antichrist.

We know these people because, while they claimed to be Christian, they separated themselves from the truth of the Gospel. They went out from sound doctrine. By walking away from the Gospel, they prove that they never believed it. This verse is often used to prove the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints, and rightfully so. If you have come to an understanding of your sin and have been saved by Jesus, there isn’t anything that could pry you back. It is the strength of Jesus that saves us, and the effort of the Spirit to keep us until the Day of Judgment. You cannot encounter God in this way and not be forever changed. He makes sure of that. “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” If you have been saved, then you have been saved, are being saved, and will be saved. You will sin, yes, but you will not fall away. And those who walk away from this faith probably only do so because they never had it in the first place.

Finally, let’s look at the antichrist. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter announced that we were in the Last Days. We are still in the Last Days, and it is a mercy to all those who are unsaved that Christ has not yet come. He will come, amen, but it is a mercy that He has not yet.

As we are in the Last Days, we must understand that the antichrist is coming. While the word itself is peculiar to John, his concept here seems to be connected with other writers, such as Paul’s in 2 Thessalonians 2:4-5:

For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

We’re going to talk more about this antichrist in episodes to come, but there does seem to be coming a man or organization that will seek to draw people away from God and toward himself. And it looks like he will be largely successful. At least until our Lord returns.

I say that it could be an organization specifically because of a tradition amongst some of the Reformers that the antichrist is not one man, but rather the office of the Pope. As much as I love and respect my Roman Catholic friends, the Pope does not teach the Gospel, but instead denies it for a works-based salvation that is contrary to Scripture. He denies the finished work of Christ on the Cross, but rather claims that Christ must be re-crucified in the Eucharist, and that His death can only get us so far. For the rest, it must be achieved by our own righteousness. And if that doesn’t work, then we will spend time in purgatory to pay for our sins. I don’t know if the Pope is THE antichrist, but he does teach a false gospel, and we should be aware of that.

Christ teaches us something else, and those who deny His Gospel and teach another are anti-Christ. The Bible is clear that we cannot earn our own way to Heaven. We cannot repay all the wrong we’ve done by a little while in purgatory. The wages of sin is death, not a temporary punishment. We all deserve death for our rebellion and offense against God. We all deserve Hell for the evil we have thought, said, and done.

The Gospel teaches us that Jesus died in our place so that we could be reconciled with the Father. He lived the life we could not live, but still died, even though He did not deserve it. In that death, He took the punishment for our sins. If we repent and believe in Him, we will be justified, forgiven of our sins. He clothes us in His righteousness so we will be found innocent on the Day of Judgment.

As we’ll see next time, if you know this Gospel, you ultimately do not have to fear antichrists. Let us watch for them, speak against them, and teach people the truth of the love of God. But for yourself, cling to this Gospel, for it has the power to save you, no matter what the rest of the world believes. Let’s pray.

I was wrong!

“then do this, my son, and save yourself, for you have come into the hand of your neighbor: go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor.”
-Proverbs 6:3

There are few things more difficult in life than admitting you are wrong. I hate it. I still hate it. I’ve been a Christian for several years now, and while I can see the Spirit working in my life toward more humility (which is a relative term, considering the vast amount of pride with which I started out), I can’t stand to admit I’m wrong. Whenever I get into a situation where I might my wrong, my mind immediately starts looking for excuses or ways to make my failings seem less drastic.

My wife has picked up on this. Whenever we argue, she always brings up that I never want it to be my fault. She does this too, which isn’t always a good combination. No matter whose fault it is, we tend to argue that it is the other person’s fault.

This verse comes right after Solomon brings up a couple of situations – the first is where you cosign on a loan you shouldn’t have or made a bad financial decision, and the second is when you say something you shouldn’t. In either case, there can be dire consequences.

His solution is very straightforward – go to the source and repent. Go right away. Don’t wait. Confess your wrong and ask for forgiveness.

In this age, there are a lot of people who won’t forgive on a bad financial decision. There are a lot of people who will not forgive an ill-chosen word. There are some who will.

The purpose of this verse is not to show us a sure-fire way to get out of a bad decision. It’s to promote a principle of honesty and integrity, even after you’ve made the bad decision.

In many cases, you will be forgiven. In others, you will not. Either way, the best course of action is to be honest and humble. It’s not the most comfortable one, but it’s the best one. It’s strange, but when I’m with my wife, the argument usually ends very quickly once someone admits fault. That pride will cause us to bicker for some time, but once that pride is broken and honesty is restored, we’ve come very near to the end of it.

In a greater sense, this strategy ALWAYS works with our Heavenly Father. We sin so often against Him. We break His Holy Law every day. We sin against Him in our pride, our selfishness, our hard-heartedness, and our lust. We don’t deserve to get out of that debt. And yet, when we confess and believe in the One sent to die on our behalf, thus taking our sin and debt upon Himself, we will be forgiven.

Go to Him. Be honest. Seek His forgiveness in true repentance. Then look to the Cross for your salvation, because Jesus paid the debt we owe to God.

Podcast: 1 John: Lust and Pride, Part 2

This is a transcript of one of our recent podcasts. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here.

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. For all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions – is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
-1 John 2:15-17

Welcome to the Christian Pilgrimage Podcast; I’m your host, Paul Lytle. Today we’re going to be finishing up in our discussion on “Lust and Pride.”

If you were with us last time, you’ll probably remember that we were talking about these three categories of sin listed by John in this passage. They are “desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions.” Let’s quickly review them.

The “desires of the flesh” are simply those urges of your senses. It is the desire for sex, food, drink, or the like. None of these things are inherently bad, but they become idols when put before Christ.

The “desires of the eyes” can be described as coveting. We desire things that we see, but are not ours. We desire things, women, families, or even a full head of hair. Again, this is a form of idolatry, because instead of being content with what the Lord has given us, we desire more.

That last one, “the pride in possessions,” is normally translated “pride of life,” which I think is a better translation. This isn’t just being proud of what you have, but also who you are, your abilities, etc. This is the category of sin that tells you that you deserve better pay or a better house. It tells you that you know best in certain situations and do not need God’s direction.

I wanted to a take a second look at these three categories because of what they teach us. The first thing they teach us is that we aren’t good enough. We fall for these three things daily. If this is the definition of loving the world, then we have fallen flat on our faces. But the second thing it teaches us is of the character of Jesus.

To learn that, let’s turn quickly over to Matthew 4. This is a familiar passage for us, one in which Jesus is tempted by Satan in the wilderness. Let’s start reading from the beginning of the chapter.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Let’s stop right there for a minute. What just happened? Satan has tempted Jesus based on the desires of the flesh. He is trying to get Jesus to turn from His Father and, in essence, love the world.

It’s not wrong to eat, but it is not okay to put that before God. That is the temptation here. The Holy Spirit has led Jesus out into the wilderness, but Satan is trying to get Him to turn away from his purpose there, which is to walk in submission to the Father. So Jesus turns to the written Word for His answer, reminding Satan that it is by that Word that there is true life. Let’s continue.

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

“Declare yourself!” says the devil. “Teach all these crowds who You are by letting your angels take you up. In this You will prove to everyone that You are the Christ.” Surely Jesus is the Christ, and surely He deserves to be recognized as such, but in this Satan tempts Him with the pride of life, to be recognized immediately and worshipped.

But Jesus came not to be served, but to serve. He came not to receive accolades, but to lay down His life for us. No, He tells Satan. He remains humble and in submission to the Father.

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

Finally, Satan tempts Him with the lust of the eyes. He puts everything in front of our Savior’s eyes to try to get Him to swerve off His mission. Think about this. We covet over simple things like our neighbor’s new lawnmower. Think of that! Satan offers Jesus all – every bit of it.

Jesus will not have it. Remember this – all of that is Jesus’ for the taking! It all belongs to Him. He created it all. But He will not be tempted into blasphemy. He will not bend a knee to the devil. He will not look away from the Father for even a moment!

Satan tried to get Jesus to love the world in the same ways that he tempts us to love the world. But Jesus stood firm, living without sin.

Oh, how I wish I had even half such resolve. I wish I had half so much faith! I fall for these same lies every day. Every day I let food and sex become my focus. Every day I get puffed up about what I have accomplished and desire for others to be impressed by me. Every day I falter and covet after something I see. Every day! Every day I do it.

I do not deserve His grace. I do not deserve His mercy. I have failed my Lord and my God in every way imaginable. I have chosen the world over and over again.

But the good news is this – that when Jesus walked through this life without sin, He was walking it for me. When Jesus resisted the devil in the wilderness, He was resisting for me. When Jesus was raised upon the Cross, He died for me. And when they buried Him, they buried Him in my place.

I owe a debt that would take me eternity to pay, and yet Jesus, perfect and sinless, paid that debt for me with His Blood. It is a free gift to those of us who repent and believe in Him. By His death, we can have eternal life.

This passage teaches us that we are not good enough for Heaven. This passage also teaches us how Jesus lived a life that WAS good enough so that we could have the Heaven we could not earn. Let’s pray.

Watch your mouth!

“if you are snared in the words of your mouth, caught in the words of your mouth,”
-Proverbs 6:2

My mouth gets me into trouble quite a bit. There have been quite a few times when I have inadvertently insulted someone. On a few occasions, it was quite on purpose. There have also been times when I told someone I would do something, to help in someway, or to make some purchase, that I regretted later. But I had already agreed, so what could I do?

The first verse of this chapter warns us against getting caught up too much into debt. Many people connect these two verses, saying this one speaks to your word when entering into that debt or becoming a cosigner for another.

There is certainly that aspect. We’ve probably all gotten into sticky financial situations simply because we spoke to hastily at some point. I recall quitting one job too hastily (as in, before I had secured another), and I was left unemployed for a few months.

But those are not the only situations we can get into with a hasty word. We have made promises before that we shouldn’t have made. We have told people things and turned out to be wrong. We have insulted one another out of anger and pride.

James, in his letter, spends more time on the tongue than any other topic. He goes as far as to say that if someone is perfect in what he says, then surely the rest of him will be perfect too (3:2). It’s a safe bet, because we’ve all stumbled in lies, gossip, and insult. We have all sinned in those areas.

The next verse will give a good plan of action – go to the person you wronged in this way and pled with them. If you insult someone, go apologize. If you have made a bad decision, go to the person involved and explain what is going on.

Confess what has happened, in other words. Sometimes it may work out. Other times it will not. But do not be so prideful as to stand by every flippant remark. Go make it right.

When we sin, the one we most wrong is God. He has created us, given us all things, and provided for us. And yet we insult Him in sin by turning away from Him, but rejecting Him. Every sin is a rebellion against God.

Verse three works well in this case too. In sin we have offended God. Go and speak with Him. Repent upon your knees. Throw yourself on His mercy. He is faithful to forgive.

It was Jesus who made this possible. We cannot make up for our sins. We cannot just pay a fine and get out of them. But on the Cross, Jesus took our sins upon Himself and paid the price for them. When we repent, God accepts the price Jesus paid on our account. Jesus also clothes us in His righteousness so we will be seen as sinless before a holy and just God.

Go to Him in repentance. Do not stand pridefully by your sins, but go to Him. By the Blood of Jesus, it will be made right.

Cosigner beware!

“My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger,”
-Proverbs 6:1

There are a couple of stories I could tell with this one, one of which is a little close to home right now. Many years ago, I helped a woman get a car and put my name on the title as well as hers. Just today, though I haven’t spoken with this woman in years, I was on the phone, trying to get my name off of a fine incurred when she was caught by a red light camera.

Most of the other stories I could tell, however, come from my own debt. I was more foolish with my money when I was coming out of college. Add to that the fact that I wasn’t really making very much of it, and we have a problem. The problem wasn’t terrible – I didn’t have tens of thousands of dollars in debt or another (unless you count student loans) – but it was bad enough.

Except for those student loans and a car, the debt is gone, I am pleased to say. I have to say, the difference is tremendous. There’s a definite freedom to not having a credit card payment. The car should be (God willing) paid off in a couple of months, which should prove an even greater freedom.

Money is an important topic in the Bible, but not in the same way that many think. The Bible is not a how-to guide to getting rich. God doesn’t promise that we will be rich. But it does give us some instruction on stewarding money.

And that’s the big concept. We have no money of our own, really. It’s all God’s money, and He lets us use it. He encourages us to be wise with it, not to waste it foolishly. He wants us to be generous, but also smart. He warns against debt or being a cosigner for a debt simply for greater spiritual reasons.

The reason is that our lives are borrowed from Him just as much as our money is. If we are Christians, then we have been bought by the Blood of Christ. Paul reminds us that “You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men” (1 Corinthians 7:23). Isn’t that what we do when we borrow foolishly or cosign a loan for someone else foolishly? Become slaves of men?

When we enslave ourselves financially, our efforts become directed to that rather than directed to Christ. So Solomon tells us to work toward freeing ourselves. Don’t refuse to pay your debts or something like that, but work toward freedom.

And in all of this, we should remember the biggest debt of them all. In sin we owed a price that would take eternity of torment to pay. In our lust, pride, hatred, and greed we have offended a just and sinless God. It is a debt terrible to consider.

Jesus came to earth and died upon the Cross to free us from that debt. In death, He took our sins upon Himself and paid the price we owe. If we repent of our sins and believe in Him, He will wash us clean by His Blood and give us eternal life. To flee this debt, we need only flee to Him.

Justice for the wicked

“The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.”
-Proverbs 5:22

The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike. That frustrates us quite a bit. I know it frustrates me. I see so much wickedness in the world, and usually the worst people are those with the most money and the most power.

Sure, some crimes are punished in this life. Sometimes we catch the bad guys and give them what they deserve. But sometimes they get a great lawyer who gets them out of the punishment.

I think we would all wish for a more just world. One where there’s always a cop around right when someone cuts you off. One where every criminal leaves behind a vital clue to his identity. One where nice women stop going out with total jerks.

But the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike, and it doesn’t seem like that is ever going to change.

That phrase is based on something Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount. It is in the context of loving your enemies. That’s a difficult thing to command, but it comes because of an important truth – vengeance is the Lord’s.

Bad guys aren’t always going to have it so sweet. One day, they will have to stand before God and give an account. They will be punished for their sins. And not just their overt crimes, but also their thoughts and words. Every moment of their lives will come under examination, and they will be punished.

I take comfort in that, but it also concerns me. See, I haven’t really committed any crimes (besides speeding once in a while or something like that), but I have certainly committed sins, which is far worse. In crime we offend as fallen law, but in sin we offend a perfect God. When the Bible tells me that my thoughts will be judged, I suddenly remember all the times my thoughts were drenched in lust, pride, and hatred. What is it that I deserve from God? Nothing good – that is clear. I may not have killed anyone, but I have wanted to before. I may not have committed adultery, but my thoughts have not been pure. And Jesus tells us that to look with lust on someone is to commit adultery in your heart, and to be unduly angry at someone will be liable to Hell.

On second thought, I don’t want justice. I don’t want justice at all, because that rain is falling on me not as a just man, but an unjust one. I don’t even deserve that much. If I get judged by my own sin, then I am a dead man.

Death would be the right punishment for me, but that doesn’t mean I have to pay it. In love, Jesus came to earth to die in my place, so that I may have eternal life. On the Cross, He took upon Himself my sin and clothed me in His righteousness, so I can stand before the Father unashamed.

We are given this gift through faith. If you repent of your sins, rejecting them and turning toward God, and believe in Jesus, you can be saved.

The other option is to be ensnared by your own sin. You may feel the rain on your today, but there is a day coming where you will have to answer for what you’ve done.

Podcast: 1 John: Lust and Pride

This is a transcript of one of our recent podcasts. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here. To listen to the podcast without iTunes, please follow this link.

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. For all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions – is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
-1 John 2:15-17

When I was a senior in high school, I had a weekend routine I would always follow. When I got home from work, I would watch The X-Files and MASH, and then I would play video games until I fell asleep. On Saturday morning I would watch The Tick, and then play video games until I needed to go to work. I usually played role-playing games like Final Fantasy, and when I would finish one, I would stop by Wal-Mart to get another.

I still like video games, but I don’t play them nearly as much. Frankly, I have more fun now reading about theology and working on my seemingly futile quest to learn Biblical Greek.

The Tick and Final Fantasy are my examples here of “the things in the world,” but not great examples. I do believe that Christians can play a video game without sinning. Christians just can’t love them.

There are better examples in my life, and some that have not drifted away into my past. There are things I try to be prayerful of every day, because I don’t know when particular sins are going rise up in my heart again. Pride is a big on for me. When production reports come out at work, and I’m higher on the list than I expected, I get a little grin that is pure pride. I want everyone to see it. I want everyone to recognize what I did.

That’s something we can remember right off the bat – John is not saying that Christians do not sin. He’s already made it very clear that we do. But he’s putting forth a standard here by which we can look at our lives.

Right before this, he was listing some reasons why he is writing to us. These reasons include that we know Christ, that we have been saved from our sins. These are all reasons why we should not love the world. These are all alternatives, in fact, to the world.

And here’s where we will get a better understand of what John is saying. He is not saying – “You claim to be Christians, so throw away your television!” Rather, he is saying this – “You’ve experienced God! That television shouldn’t look as good now. And if it still does, then you may want to figure out if that was really God you experienced.”

See, the experience of Jesus is something that will profoundly affect us. If we really experience Jesus, we will be forever changed. And in that experience, the things of this world won’t have nearly the same appeal. The more we experience Him, the less attractive the world will seem.

I don’t play as many video games today. Why is that? Is it because I beat them all? Of course not! It’s because I have better things in my life. My wife is much better than a video game, and God is better still than that. It’s not that I don’t like them; it’s that I have other things I like more.

This is what happens in the Christian life. God reveals something of His glory to us, and the stuff around us just isn’t the same. We can’t say we love the things of the world, because our love for Him overshadows everything.

And if the world remains more important, then it may be that we never experienced Christ in the first place. If you say you found Jesus, but Final Fantasy still is first in your life, then you probably didn’t meet the real Jesus.

John will define “the world” a little for us here – “the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions.” Let’s look at these individually.

The desires of the flesh are, quite simply, those things that seem good to the senses. Sex is our prime example here. How many have put God aside for a romp in the sack? How many seek after sex almost exclusively rather than seeking God? But don’t think this warning ends with only that sex-crazed guy at work. No, we have sought our own pleasures above God. Many times it is sex, but it can be with food or drink. These things are not bad things, but the world tries to make them more important than God. When we do this, we have loved the world, and we have sinned.

The desires of the eyes may be more insidious. A lot of times we can control our appetites so that we do not indulge in sex outside of marriage, or gluttony, or drunkenness. But who can keep his eyes from roaming? Who has conquered lust, greed, selfishness, ambition, and covetousness? When we desire something above God, we have loved the world, and we have sinned.

The pride of possessions is a big one. A lot of translations will use the phrase “the pride of life,” which I think is closer to the original. It’s not pride in the stuff you have, though it can be. It is PRIDE, plain and simple. Pride is the sin that got Satan booted out of heaven, and it’s still the sin that gets us every day. Every day at work I think that I deserve some recognition for something I did. Every day I think I deserve a raise. Every day I think that I’m doing well with my finances, or my home life, or something of the sort. Every day these thoughts go through your head too. Instead of humbling ourselves before God, we are exulting ourselves above men. When we have such pride, we have loved the world, and we have sinned.

These things of the world are passing away. Sex doesn’t last that long. Food doesn’t last that long. The nice house will fade away. You job will be gone some day. Your money will be gone someday. God will not.

And here is the great foolishness of it all. God is the greater joy, the greater life, and He is forever. He is the Creator of this world, its purpose and its maintainer. By His Grace we can live forever. And we trade that for Final Fantasy.

Jim Elliot was a missionary in the 50s who was martyred at the age of 28. In his journal, he wrote these words – “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” The truth of this is profound. Elliot realized something that should be obvious to us all – that this life is temporary. That this world is temporary. But the things of God are forever.

“Whoever does the will of God abides forever.” This promise ends our passage for today, and the implications of this are staggering. Whoever does the will of God will not fade away, like every tree, blade of grass, book, video game, or house in this world, but will live forever with God.

The question must come – what is the will of God? Is it to renounce all the things of the world, live on top of a pole, and whip yourself? No. Is it to burn your Beatles albums and watch nothing but the Trinity Broadcasting Network? Heaven forbid! Is it to not sin? That would be nice, but we’re already failed at that, haven’t we? If we look back at the previous verse, we’ll find that we’ve indulged the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions. Lust and pride pretty much makes up our lives. We’re already neck deep in sin and sinking.

So what is the will of God? Faith. John 6:29 tells us this: “Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’” Look, there are a lot of commands in the Bible, but if you don’t have this one, you don’t have anything, and if you have this one, you have it all. Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that “without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

You can’t earn your way into His good graces. You can’t try hard enough to please Him. Take another look at those three categories of sin that John listed out for us. We are guilty of all of them. And frankly, the idea that we can be good enough for Heaven is pride, which is sin!

We have already failed to earn our way to Heaven, but there is still a way. In the greatest act of love in history, Jesus came to earth to die in our place. On the Cross, He took our sin upon Himself. He paid the price that we owe. In exchange, He can clothe us in His righteousness so we will be judged blameless on the Day of Judgment.

This is why the work of God is to believe. We’ve already failed in keeping God’s Holy Law. But in repentance and faith we can be saved. By looking to the Cross for our salvation, He will save us.

We will fall for these three temptations over and over again. The solution is not to try harder and maybe it will work out better. The solution is to do the work of God – to believe. In that belief we will be cleansed. In repentance the Holy Spirit will guide us to greater holiness. It is His work to change us. Our work is to believe.

Many people are amazed at this teaching, saying that it is a license to sin! If all we have to do is repent, then we can do whatever we want! You misunderstand what repentance is. To repent is to turn away from sin. By the help of the Spirit, we will be hardened against sin and softened toward the Lord. By sheer force of will, we will have ups and downs, moments of weakness and strength. But by His power we will persevere. We will not be able to help but to change, because the experience of God is something that cannot leave you unchanged.

Repent. Believe. Look to the Cross for your salvation. This is the work of God.

He knows if you’ve been bad or good

“For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths.”
-Proverbs 5:21

I used to pride myself on being a good kid. I didn’t sneak out or sleep around or even cuss. Outwardly, I was a moral kid. I grew up in the church and knew all of the rules, and I followed them. Even after I left the church, I still kept myself away from those blatant sins.

It’s really not that hard to keep sins hidden, even if they are blatant. People have affairs for years and are never caught. People do drugs for years and no one ever knows. People will lie every time they open their mouths, and we will elect them to public office. If you are careful, you can keep a public image that is very different than your private one.

Sometimes these sins are exposed, and we, as the public, gasp in surprise and horror. We had no idea that person was like that! The tabloid papers live for this sort of thing.

I was like that. I had my private sins that no one knew about. My thoughts and desires were littered with pride, lust, hatred, bitterness, and ambition, but I didn’t let on in front of others. To everyone else, I was a good kid.

You can get far in life hiding your sins, but there’s a big problem – you can’t hide them from God. Verses like this remind us that God knows even our thoughts.

This verse is in the context of sexual sin. Don’t have sex outside of marriage, it tells us, and a good reason why not is because God sees you, even if no one else does. Even if you are just looking at porn in a dark apartment with the shades drawn, God knows. Even if it is only in your thoughts, He keeps record of it.

A lot of people question whether a good God can condemn people to Hell. The real question is this – how could a good God NOT condemn you to Hell after what you were thinking about yesterday? See, goodness cuts both ways. God is good, yes, but you are not. What is God supposed to do with you?

What He does with us is the most loving act in all of history. He sent His Son to die on our behalf. Jesus, when He was on that Cross, took the penalty for our sin upon Himself. In repentance and faith, we can accept His free gift of eternal life, even though we don’t deserve it.

I haven’t stopped sinning since I became a Christian. I don’t try to hide them nearly as much, but I fear that people still think I am a good person. I’m not. I’m just a FORGIVEN person. There’s a huge difference.

In that moment I was saved, I was given the Holy Spirit to help guide me. While I still sin, He is there to help me not to sin. He is molding me into something better. He is molding me into someone who actually gets excited by the thought that God is watching. I know He is taking care of me. I know He has secured me for forever. And I know that I am still forgiven, even when I stumble.

Drunk on sex

“Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?”
-Proverbs 5:20

It’s interesting that this passage contrasts two feelings of intoxication. In the previous verse, we are urged to be intoxicated on the love of a spouse. In this one, to avoid the intoxication of extramarital sex. The first intoxication is seen as something really wonderful; the second something not so great.

What strikes me immediately is the source of the intoxication. With your spouse, that intoxication should be because of the fullness of sex, which includes love, the joining of two into one, the spiritual and physical, the caring and compassion. It is an intoxication from the full expression of what God created for our satisfaction. It is not just a roll in the hay, but something so deeply spiritual that it takes two people and makes them one.

The world urges us to do something else with sex. It wants us to remove it from the context that God intended and turn it into something cheap. It wants us to remove all the things that make sex special and turn it into something quite ordinary. We’ve become drunk on it – but not in that way of being intoxicated with God’s provision and love, but in the sort of way where we act like idiots, throw up, and don’t remember any of it in the morning.

So many of the sins we commit are committed because we have a small view of something. Our pride comes from a small view of the world – we think we’re actually worthy of something. When you begin to understand the power and majesty of the Father, it is hard to have pride anymore. Greed comes about when we have a small view of wealth. If we had an inkling of the power of the love of God, a love that last forever, money would begin to seem like a very small matter.

C. S. Lewis once used an analogy of a boy playing in the dirt. His father told him that they would go to the beach. The boy was not excited. He had never been to the beach, but he enjoyed his dirt pile very much. At last the father had to tell him, “Son, you must trust me. The beach is much, much better.”

So it is with God. We are so content with money, pride, casual sex, lust, etc., when He intends so much greater. Our problem is that our desires are too weak, not that they are too strong.

Ultimately, the greatest joy, the greatest provision, the greatest awe we can experience is in Christ, and in Him we have all of these things eternally. So great is His gift to us that it is not something we could earn or ever pay back. His is a love so great that He died for us, even while we were distracted with so many small matters. When we were willing to trade His love for a little sex, He still died on our behalf.

He does not tell us to work harder or do better to gain His forgiveness. Instead He bids us repent and have faith in Him. By Grace we are saved.

We have all betrayed Him in sexual sin. Even those who have not had sex outside of marriage have still betrayed Him with lust, which Jesus said was adultery of the heart. None of us deserve the life He offers. Yet He gives it. Don’t trade it away for something so small as sin.

Drunk on love

[The wife of your youth is] “a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.”
-Proverbs 5:19

My wife’s alma mater is in a rather undeveloped area of Laredo. Basically, it’s the school and some wilderness around there. That will change in time, but for now it’s a wonderfully peaceful place. There are deer all over the campus, and if you drive around in the mornings or evenings, you will see them in the grass, eating or resting. One night we sat in the car, just watching one particular doe walk around. There is something magnificently beautiful about deer. They are amazingly graceful, strong, vibrant, and, frankly, cute.

Solomon picks up on these characteristics when talking about our wives. See, he’s already talked about sexuality as a fountain that should remain clean. Now he will speak of it with a metaphor of animals. Don’t go messing around with other women, he is saying, because something really wonderful is waiting for you at home.

This is sex the way God intended it. He is not a prude who forbids us from enjoying ourselves in that way. He created sex to be enjoyed. The trouble is not that people concentrate too much on sex – it’s that they think to lowly of it.

Sex within a Christian marriage is something beautiful, graceful, satisfying, intoxicating, pure, refreshing, and spiritual. It is the joining of two into one. God’s intention for sex is so much better than we ever consider.

We often reduce sex to just something satisfying, leaving off all of the things that make it truly wonderful. When it is only something to do to be satisfied, our view of sex becomes very cheap. It becomes very small.

And that’s the sin of it – we are taking something that God has given as a gift, to be experienced and enjoyed in a loving and spiritual way, and dragging it through the gutter. We are taking this thing He has given, something so big and wonderful that it can barely be explained, and making it small.

A lot of us have cheapened it in the past. Some of us are doing so right now. It’s not too late for you. This sin does not have to ruin everything. It’s interesting that Ephesians 5 describes a marriage as a symbol of Jesus’ love for the Church. Think about that, because one party in that marriage is pure and innocent – Jesus. The other party is unworthy, unclean, and defiled. That’s us – the Church.

It is Christ who cleans us. By His Blood He washes away our sins. He does not turn away His bride because of her sins, but cleans her, dresses her in fine clothes, purifies her, and marries her.

We have all sinned in the past, but in repentance and faith we can be forgiven and washed clean. In the same way, it is not too late to repent of sexual sins. Whether you are having sex before marriage, or committing adultery within a marriage, or looking at porn, or are a practicing homosexual, it doesn’t matter. Repent for the forgiveness of sins. Repent and be washed clean.

If you are married, go home and enjoy your spouse. Be intoxicated by her, and let her fill you with delight.

See? Who said reading the Bible wasn’t inspiring?

Podcast: 1 John: The Child, the Young Man, and the Father

This is a transcript of one of our recent podcasts. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here. To listen to the podcast without iTunes, please follow this link.

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
-1 John 2:12-14

In a lot of ways I’ve never grown up. I still like video games, Star Wars action figures, baseball cards, etc. I like stupid comedies more than serious dramas. I would much rather have pizza rolls for dinner than a gourmet meal.

These are minor things in my life though. Most of my day is spent at work. I come home and try to help with the house and spend time with my wife. I go to sleep rather early, because I have to get up early to head back to work. I have a budget and a car payment.

A lot of things I used to do as a child have been put away. I have other priorities now.

There are undoubtedly stages in life. As a child, certain behaviors and activities are expected. We don’t expect a five-year-old to be working a 40 hour-a-week job. But we do expect that five-year-old to get there within about twenty years.

We have these same sorts of stages in the Christian life. When we are reborn in Christ, we start off as a spiritual child. Unless you grew up in the church or something, you’re not going to know much about propitiation or hermeneutics or eschatology. To use another phrase in the Bible, you are still sipping on the milk of doctrine, not having moved on to solid meat yet.

John here addresses three groups, and these groups line up exactly with these stages of spiritual maturity. You have children, young men, and fathers. And for each he has a different reason for writing.

And let me point that out again – he’s writing to all of them at the same time. You know, it seems like some people think that certain parts of the Bible are only for the spiritually mature. Or that some doctrines are more for the very learned rather than the new Christian. That’s not it at all. All doctrines are for all people, but it may take some training to get into the depth of it. Think of a particular doctrine as a pool. This pool of ours is the doctrine that Jesus died on the Cross for our sins. Maybe that’s as far as you get when you are a new Christian. You are in the shallow end. But as you study, you begin to understand phrases like “penal substitutionary atonement” or how Jesus takes the place of a priest for us. As you get into the deep end, you start learning about the Aaronic priesthood verses the Melchizedek priesthood. You start learning about Limited Atonement. You haven’t left the pool. No, we never leave the pool. Jesus has still died for our sins, and that sacrifice is still what saves us. We’re just starting to get into the deep end.

So this letter is for all of us. This letter is our pool, and he has written it for different reasons, depending on the maturity of his audience.

The mature Christians are called “fathers” here. The reason behind that is that these people, assumedly, have brought other people up in the faith. They are spiritual fathers. John writes them for two reasons: “because you know him who is from the beginning” and “because you know him who is from the beginning.” No, I didn’t stutter. John repeats this reason twice.

Truly these mature Christians do know him who is from the beginning, who is Jesus. They have spent time walking with Jesus, being formed into something more like Him. The Spirit has been sanctifying them, molding them in love and truth. They know Jesus, and know who He is – the Christ, the Savior, the Messiah. These men are probably the ones teaching the church, and they are passing this knowledge on to the young men and children. So John is writing to them because they know Jesus. They will see the truth of what John says, and they will teach others the truths of this letter.

To young men he also writes. These are people in the church who have been Christians a while, but are not quite mature enough to be Elders yet. To them he writes “because you have overcome the evil one” and “because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”

To these people he reminds them of their youth and strength. They are beginning to put away the sins of their old ways and walk with the Lord. They are beginning to learn more fully the truth of the Gospel. They are starting to take larger roles in the church, spreading the message in evangelism, serving others, and using their strength and energy to expand the Kingdom of God. Their eternities were secured in their salvations, but now their lives have begun to show fruit as well. The Spirit has shown Himself in their lives.

John is writing to them so that they can be yet more secure by the power of Jesus, and to teach them more on how to love their neighbors. This group is moving from that milk into the meat of the Word, and so John’s instructions on how to be sure of their faith and loving one another would find a good appetite.

The new Christians are addressed for two reasons, as stated in the text – “because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake” and “because you know the Father.”

Does it strike you how even the youngest Christian, the newly converted, is promised the greatest promises in the Bible? I think of cults like the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, who have their followers climb a ladder of succession, promising bigger rewards the more you work. That seems natural, doesn’t it? You have to spend a little time in the organization to work your way up. Jesus addresses this in one parable in Matthew 20, in which a landowner hires some men to work the day with him. Throughout the day, he adds people to his workforce, even up until evening. At the end of the day, everyone is paid the same amount, whether he worked all day, or just an hour.

So it is with the Kingdom of Heaven. All Christians are co-heirs with Christ of this Kingdom, whether we worked our whole lives for God, or repented on our death beds. These incredible promises – that you know God and are forgiven – are true for every single person who repents and believes in Jesus. This speaks to the nature of Grace, because Grace is not something we can earn. Jesus earned it for us. So it’s impossible for us to “earn more” of something we could never earn in the first place. Jesus did the work, and we get the reward. And it will be our reward no matter when you repent, so long as you have faith in Him.

Notice also that this is the same reason John gives for writing to the fathers – that you know God. That “know” there is used in a slightly different way, but the parallel should be noted. The mature Christian knows the theology, the character, the attributes of God. But the youngest Christian knows the same God – the one who died on the Cross for us.

If you know Christ, your sins are forgiven. I don’t care how long you have been a Christian, your destiny is to be united with Him in paradise. It is not by your maturity, your good works, or some sort of point system that will get you into a higher heaven. It’s by Jesus alone. That is the wonderful message to even the children amongst us. If you know Him, you are forgiven.

Here’s another very practical point to this passage, and that is to tell us a little bit about where we are spiritually. Have you confessed Christ as your Savior? You are in this group, if only a spiritual child. Has God’s work in your life begun to drive out sin and to change you? Has your zeal for His Word and Gospel begun to take root in you? Perhaps you are now a young man. Has your study become advanced? Do you teach others in the faith? Are you raising up spiritual children? You may be a father in the Church.

Where are you in this group? Where are you in the pool? Learn from those who are swimming father out than you are. As you learn more, invite more people into the water. Look back and help those who are in shallower water. But do not be confused – if you are in the pool, then you are a child of God. He has adopted you, and this wonderful message is for you.