Holy Wit – Reflections #9 Test the Spirits (Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John) Scripture References: 1 John 4:1–6 The visitor arrived at the church carrying a large Bible, a polished smile, and the sort of confidence that made ordinary conversation seem too small for him. Before the meeting began, he told several people that God had sent him with “a fresh word for this congregation.” He said it quietly, but not so quietly that anyone missed it. By the time he stood to speak, expectation had filled the room. He told stories of remarkable dreams, sudden healings, and distant places where crowds had listened to him for hours. His voice rose and fell at precisely the right moments. Even the ceiling fan appeared to slow down and pay attention. Near the back sat Miriam, who had followed Christ for many years. She had no theological degree, no dramatic testimony, and no gift for making a room lean forward. She did, however, have a Bible with loose pages, crowded margins, and a binding held together by determined strips of tape. The visitor began speaking about Jesus. At first, everything sounded familiar. Then the words shifted. Jesus, he said, had come mainly to show us the divine power hidden inside every human being. Sin was not guilt before a holy God but ignorance of our true spiritual greatness. The cross was an inspiring picture of sacrifice, not the place where Christ bore the judgment deserved by sinners. People nodded. The speaker was sincere, impressive, and very difficult to interrupt. Miriam looked down at her Bible. She turned to 1 John, then to the Gospel of John, then to several other passages. After the meeting, while others gathered around the visitor, she approached one of the church leaders. “He says many beautiful things,” she said, “but I do not think he is speaking about the Jesus the apostles knew.” The leader hesitated. “But surely you felt the power in the room?” Miriam glanced at the ceiling fan. “I felt moving air. The rest we should test.” That quiet answer brings us very near to John’s command: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God.” John does not tell Christians to despise spiritual claims, nor does he tell us to accept them simply because they sound sincere. He commands us to test them. Sincerity is not the same as truth. A person may be deeply convinced and deeply mistaken. Eloquence is not the same as truth. Error is often most dangerous when it is expressed beautifully. Spiritual intensity is not the same as truth either. Strong feelings may accompany what is true, but they cannot establish it. John places the decisive test on Jesus Christ. Does the teaching confess the Son as He has truly come in the flesh? This is more than repeating the name “Jesus.” It means confessing the eternal Son who became genuinely human without ceasing to be God—the Christ proclaimed by the apostles, crucified for sinners, raised bodily, and reigning as Lord. False teaching often keeps Christian words while quietly changing their meaning. It may praise Jesus as teacher, example, prophet, healer, or guide while denying His deity, His incarnation, His atoning death, His resurrection, or His exclusive authority. John does not permit us to replace the real Christ with a more fashionable one and then call the result Christianity. This is why discernment requires Scripture. The command to test assumes a standard outside ourselves. Our feelings, private impressions, traditions, and admiration for a speaker must all stand beneath the apostolic Word. The question is not merely, “Did this move me?” but, “Is this faithful to what God has revealed?” Discernment, however, should not make us proud or permanently suspicious. John writes to reassure believers: “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” Our safety does not rest on our cleverness. God preserves His people through His Spirit and His Word. We test humbly, knowing that we too can misunderstand and need correction. Not every mistake makes someone a false prophet. Faithful believers can be wrong and then receive correction. The deeper danger is persistent teaching that claims spiritual authority while leading people away from the apostolic Christ. Such a voice may be popular, warm, and persuasive. It may fill a room. It must still be tested. Miriam’s worn Bible was not impressive beside the visitor’s performance. But it gave her something far better than an impression: a trustworthy measure. True discernment does not extinguish joy; it guards the church’s joy by refusing to let a counterfeit Christ take the place of the living Lord who saves sinners. The church does not need colder hearts. It needs hearts warmed by truth, minds governed by Scripture, and eyes fixed on the Jesus who truly came in the flesh. #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John4

Holy Wit – Bible Study #9 Test the Spirits (Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John) Scripture Reading 1 John 4:1-6 (NKJV): 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. 1 John 4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 1 John 4:3 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. 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. 1 John 4:5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 1 John 4:6 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. 1 John 4:1–6 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+4%3A1-6&version=NKJV 1. The Command to Test Spiritual Claims John begins with both tenderness and warning: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit.” Christian faith is not gullibility dressed in religious language. Believers are commanded to exercise discernment because a claim to spiritual authority proves nothing by itself. A teacher may sound sincere, speak movingly, describe unusual experiences, or attract a large following, yet none of these things establishes that the message comes from God. The question is not merely whether a message feels spiritual, but whether it is true. The word “test” assumes an objective standard. John does not tell the church to consult private impressions or personal preference. The test is the revelation God has already given, especially the apostolic witness to Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit, who inspired Scripture, does not contradict Himself. Therefore, testing a teaching by Scripture is not resisting the Spirit; it is one of the ways obedience to the Spirit is expressed. Discernment is not suspicion toward everyone. It is careful submission to God’s truth. 1 John 4:1 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+4%3A1&version=NKJV Acts 17:10–12 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+17%3A10-12&version=NKJV 2. False Prophets Are a Present Reality John gives the reason for the command: “many false prophets have gone out into the world.” False teaching is not a remote possibility or a problem limited to openly hostile religions. False prophets often arise near the people of God and use familiar Christian words. Earlier, John described teachers who had departed from the fellowship because their doctrine revealed that they were never truly of it. Here he exposes the spiritual dimension behind their message. Human teachers speak, but their teaching serves either the truth of God or the spirit of error. This does not mean that every mistaken believer is a false prophet. Christians may misunderstand a passage and later receive correction. A false prophet, however, claims spiritual authority while leading people away from the truth God has revealed—especially the truth concerning Christ. Scripture tells the church to examine both doctrine and fruit. Character cannot make false doctrine true, and correct vocabulary cannot make corrupt fruit harmless. The church must refuse the choice between truth and holiness; faithful ministry requires both. 1 John 4:1 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+4%3A1&version=NKJV Matthew 7:15–20 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7%3A15-20&version=NKJV 3. The Decisive Confession: Jesus Christ Has Come in the Flesh John places the central test at the heart of the Christian faith: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. This confession concerns the identity of Jesus, not merely the sound of His name. The eternal Son truly entered human history. He did not merely appear human, temporarily inhabit a human body, or become divine through spiritual advancement. The One who was with the Father from the beginning became flesh while remaining fully divine. Jesus Christ is one Person with a true divine nature and a true human nature. The incarnation is not a secondary doctrine for specialists. If Christ did not truly assume our humanity, He could not stand in the place of human sinners. If He were not truly God, His saving work could not possess the infinite worth Scripture assigns to it. The incarnation safeguards the cross, the bodily resurrection, Christ’s present intercession, and the believer’s future bodily hope. To confess Christ is therefore to receive the apostolic testimony about the real Jesus—not to attach the name “Jesus” to a figure of our own making. 1 John 4:2 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+4%3A2&version=NKJV John 1:1–14 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A1-14&version=NKJV 4. The Spirit of Antichrist Denies the Biblical Christ John states the negative test with equal force: the spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ is not of God. It belongs to the spirit of Antichrist, whose influence was already present in John’s day. Antichristian teaching does not always begin with an open declaration of hatred toward Jesus. It may praise Him as a moral teacher, prophet, healer, example, or spiritual guide while denying who He actually is. Respectful language can still hide a rejection of the Son. John allows no neutral ground here. To deny the Son revealed by the Father is to stand against God, however religious the denial may sound. This is why doctrinal precision matters. Precision is not spiritual fussiness when the identity of Christ is at stake. The church does not preserve truth by being quarrelsome, but neither does it preserve love by treating every description of Jesus as equally faithful. Christian love rejoices in the truth and refuses to exchange the living Christ for a more acceptable substitute. 1 John 4:3 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+4%3A3&version=NKJV 1 John 2:18–23 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A18-23&version=NKJV 5. The Greater One Dwells in His People After warning the church, John gives strong assurance: “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them.” Their victory does not rest on superior intelligence, education, willpower, or experience. It rests on God’s presence: “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” The Holy Spirit indwells those who belong to Christ, preserving them in the truth and applying Christ’s victory to them. This promise is not a celebration of the power supposedly hidden within the human self. The greater One is God, not us. Nor does the verse teach that believers cannot be confused or temporarily influenced by error. John’s assurance is that the power behind the truth is greater than the power behind deception, and that God will preserve His people through the means He has appointed: His Word, His Spirit, and the fellowship of the church. Discernment may require courage, but it need not be driven by fear. Christ has already triumphed over the powers of darkness. 1 John 4:4 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+4%3A4&version=NKJV Colossians 2:13–15 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+2%3A13-15&version=NKJV 6. The World Listens to What Belongs to It False teachers are “of the world,” and therefore they speak from the world’s viewpoint. John is not saying that every unbeliever agrees with every false teacher. He is identifying a shared spiritual orientation. Teaching that protects human autonomy, minimizes sin, removes the offense of the cross, or reshapes Christ to suit the age will naturally find a hearing in the world. Error often succeeds not because it is carefully proved, but because it tells fallen people something they are already inclined to believe. Popularity is therefore an unreliable test of truth. A large audience may hear a faithful message, and a small audience may hear a false one; numbers alone settle nothing. Yet the church should not be surprised when biblical truth meets resistance. The gospel confronts the world’s deepest loyalties by declaring that humanity is sinful, Christ alone saves, and every person owes Him repentance and faith. The desire to be heard must never become permission to alter the message. 1 John 4:5 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+4%3A5&version=NKJV John 15:18–19 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+15%3A18-19&version=NKJV 7. The Apostolic Word Distinguishes Truth from Error John concludes, “We are of God. He who knows God hears us.” In context, the “we” points especially to the apostles and their authoritative witness. The church does not invent its confession in each generation. It receives the faith delivered through those whom Christ appointed and whose teaching is preserved for us in Scripture. To hear the apostles is to hear the testimony Christ authorized; to reject that testimony is to reject the standard God has given. This is how the church recognizes the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. The test is neither novelty nor antiquity, emotional intensity nor intellectual sophistication, miracles nor lack of miracles. The decisive question is whether the message agrees with the apostolic Christ of Scripture. Not every spiritual voice deserves trust simply because it sounds sincere. Sincerity may accompany truth, but sincerity cannot create truth. God’s Word judges every teacher, every claimed revelation, every tradition, and every impression—including our own. 1 John 4:6 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+4%3A6&version=NKJV Acts 2:42 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+2%3A42&version=NKJV Reflection Questions • When you hear a spiritual claim, what standards do you normally use to judge it: Scripture, the speaker’s personality, popularity, reported experiences, or your own feelings? • Why is the confession that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh essential to the gospel rather than a minor theological detail? • What is the difference between a believer who is mistaken and a false teacher who leads others away from the apostolic Christ? • How does “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” give confidence without encouraging pride or carelessness? • Are there teachings you have accepted mainly because they were popular, moving, or presented as spiritual? How should you test them now? Prayer Points • Thank God for revealing the true Jesus Christ through the apostolic Scriptures. • Ask the Holy Spirit to deepen your knowledge of Scripture and sharpen your discernment. • Pray for humility to receive correction when your own beliefs or impressions do not agree with God’s Word. • Ask God to protect local churches from persuasive teachers who distort the person or work of Christ. • Praise God that the One who dwells in His people is greater than the spirit of error in the world. For further study (NKJV): Deuteronomy 13:1–4 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+13%3A1-4&version=NKJV 2 Corinthians 11:3–4, 13–15 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+11%3A3-4%2C13-15&version=NKJV Galatians 1:6–9 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+1%3A6-9&version=NKJV 2 Timothy 4:1–5 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Timothy+4%3A1-5&version=NKJV #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John4

Holy Wit – Reflections # 8 — Love in Deed and Truth Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John Scripture Reference: 1 John 3:11–24 There was a man in the church whom everyone knew was struggling. He had not announced it from the front. There had been no formal appeal, no notice pinned to a board, and no carefully arranged collection. People simply knew. His work had become irregular. His wife had been unwell for several months. There were children in the home, school expenses had not stopped, and the cupboards were beginning to show the strain. On Sunday mornings, people greeted him warmly. “Brother, we are praying for you.” “God will provide.” “Keep trusting the Lord.” All of these things were true. God does provide. Prayer matters. Trust in the Lord is never misplaced. Still, when the service ended, most people went home. One man did not. He had noticed that the struggling brother’s shoes were coming apart. He had noticed the children no longer brought anything to the church meal. He had noticed the way the man’s wife declined invitations, not because she did not want fellowship, but because travelling cost money they did not have. So he went home, spoke with his own family, and returned later that afternoon. He brought rice, cooking oil, vegetables, soap, medicine, and enough money to cover several urgent expenses. He did not make a speech. He did not take a photograph. He did not describe his generosity to others. He simply placed the bags inside the house and said, “The Lord has given us enough to share.” The struggling man began to cry. It was not only the food. It was the fact that somebody had seen him. There is a kind of love that speaks well and does nothing. It knows the correct words. It offers blessings, promises prayer, and expresses concern. It may even feel sincere sympathy. Yet it never moves beyond the lips. John refuses to call that sufficient. “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” John does not despise words. Words can encourage, comfort, instruct, and strengthen. The gospel itself must be proclaimed in words. A silent church is not necessarily a loving church. But words that never become action are easily exposed as empty. John places Cain and Christ before us as two completely different pictures of the heart. Cain saw his righteous brother and killed him. Christ saw guilty sinners and gave Himself for them. Cain removed another person because that person’s righteousness troubled him. Christ laid down His own life for those who had rebelled against Him. Cain took life. Christ gave His life. That contrast gives us John’s definition of love. Love is not merely liking someone. It is not affection detached from duty. It is not politeness, friendliness, or warm feeling by itself. Love gives. Love bears cost. Love moves towards need rather than away from it. The cross is the supreme revelation of this kind of love. Christ did not love His people by offering encouraging words from heaven. He came into our condition. He bore our sin. He endured judgment. He laid down His life. We cannot repeat His saving work. His sacrifice was once for all. Yet those who have received that love are commanded to reflect its shape. That is why John immediately turns from Christ laying down His life to the ordinary matter of a brother in need. The move is deliberate. We may speak grandly about being willing to die for another believer while refusing to be inconvenienced by him. We may imagine great acts of courage while ignoring small acts of mercy. We may say, “I would lay down my life for the brethren,” while protecting every hour, every possession, every comfort, and every personal preference. John brings us back to the cupboard, the wallet, the spare room, the telephone call, the hospital visit, the meal, the journey, the forgiveness, the patient conversation. That is where love is usually tested. Not in imagined moments of heroism, but in ordinary opportunities to give ourselves away. This does not mean that every need must be met by one person. No believer has unlimited resources. Wisdom is necessary. Some requests are unwise. Some forms of assistance may encourage irresponsibility rather than relieve genuine need. Love must be “in deed and in truth”. Truth matters. Biblical love does not help someone continue in sin. It does not confuse compassion with approval. It does not call what is harmful good. Sometimes love gives. Sometimes love warns. Sometimes love provides money. Sometimes love provides counsel instead. Sometimes love comforts the suffering. Sometimes love confronts the wandering. But love never settles for indifference. John’s question is not whether we possess enough to solve every problem. His question is what happens in our hearts when we see a real need and have some ability to respond. Do we open our hearts, or close them? That question can trouble a sincere Christian. We remember occasions when we did nothing. We see the limits of our love. We recognize selfishness, impatience, resentment, and failure. Then the heart begins to condemn us. John understands this. He does not tell us to pretend we have loved perfectly. He directs us to God, who is greater than our heart and knows all things. God knows our sins more fully than we do. Yet He also knows the difference between a hypocrite who is content without love and a believer who grieves over lovelessness and desires to change. Our assurance does not rest on having performed enough acts of kindness to earn God’s acceptance. It rests first upon Christ. The same Christ who commands love is the Christ who laid down His life for sinners. Still, the presence of practical love gives evidence that His grace is at work within us. Not perfect love, but real love. Not constant victory, but a new direction. John then joins faith, obedience, love, and prayer together. We believe in the name of Jesus Christ. We love one another. We keep His commandments. We abide in Him, and He in us by the Holy Spirit. These are not separate compartments of the Christian life. They belong together. A heart being shaped by Christ begins to desire what pleases Christ. A believer walking in obedience approaches God with greater confidence, not because obedience has purchased an answer, but because the believer’s desires are being brought into agreement with God’s will. And so the question remains close to home. Who has God placed before us? Whose need have we noticed? What do we possess that could be shared? Perhaps the first act of love will not look impressive. It may be a bag of rice. A paid bill. A ride to a clinic. A meal carried across the road. An hour spent listening. A quiet gift no one else ever hears about. But heaven does not measure love by how impressive it appears. Love is measured by the pattern of Christ. He did not merely tell us that He loved us. He showed us. And now He calls His people to do the same. #HolyWitReflections #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John3

Holy Wit – Bible Study #8 Love in Deed and Truth (Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John) Scripture Reading (NKJV): 1 John 3:11–24 11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, 12 not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love [a]his brother abides in death. 15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 19 And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. 20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. 22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. 23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. 24 Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+3%3A11-24&version=NKJV 1. Two Ways of Life: Cain and Christ John presents two men whose actions reveal two entirely different spiritual families. Cain stands as the example of hatred, while Jesus Christ is the supreme revelation of love. Cain did not murder Abel because Abel had harmed him. He murdered his brother because Abel’s righteous life exposed the wickedness of his own. Cain’s hatred began in the heart before it appeared in his hands. His outward violence grew from inward rebellion against God. John therefore warns believers not to be surprised when the world hates them. The world’s hostility towards Christians is not always caused by something Christians have done. Sometimes faithful obedience itself becomes an offence because it exposes what people would prefer to leave hidden. This does not give Christians permission to be harsh, arrogant, or needlessly offensive. Believers must speak truth with humility and live peaceably wherever possible. Yet even a gracious Christian life may provoke resentment when it reminds others that God is holy and that all people are accountable to Him. Christ stands in complete contrast to Cain. Cain took the life of a righteous man to protect himself. Christ willingly gave His own righteous life to save guilty people. Cain sacrificed his brother for himself; Christ sacrificed Himself for His people. These two men reveal two spiritual directions. Hatred takes from others for the sake of self. Christian love gives itself for the good of others. Genesis 4:3–8 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+4%3A3-8&version=NKJV John 15:18–20 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+15%3A18-20&version=NKJV 2. Love as Evidence of Spiritual Life John does not teach that loving others earns salvation. He teaches that love is evidence that God has already given spiritual life. The natural condition of humanity is not spiritual neutrality. Apart from Christ, people remain under the power of sin and death. Salvation is God’s work of bringing sinners out of death and into life through faith in Jesus Christ. One visible result of this new life is a growing love for fellow believers. Christian love is not the cause of regeneration. It is the fruit of regeneration. A person may claim to know God, speak confidently about doctrine, participate in church activities, and display religious enthusiasm. Yet a settled pattern of hatred towards other believers contradicts that claim. John’s language is strong because the matter is serious. Persistent hatred belongs to the realm of death, not life. John compares hatred with murder because murder begins before blood is shed. Jesus taught the same truth when He traced outward violence back to anger and contempt within the heart. God judges not only what the hand does but also what the heart desires. This does not mean that a Christian will never become angry, speak wrongly, or struggle to forgive. Believers still battle sin. John is describing the settled direction of a life. The person who has been born of God cannot remain peacefully committed to hatred. The Holy Spirit convicts, corrects, and leads the believer towards repentance. Love for other Christians will never be perfect in this life, but it will be present. It may be weak, wounded, or inconsistent, but it cannot be entirely absent where spiritual life truly exists. 1 John 3:14–15 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+3%3A14-15&version=NKJV Matthew 5:21–24 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A21-24&version=NKJV 3. Christ Defines the Meaning of Love The world frequently speaks about love, but it often defines love as approval, attraction, affection, or personal fulfilment. John gives Christians a far more demanding definition. We understand love by looking at Jesus Christ, who laid down His life for His people. The cross does more than provide an inspiring example. Christ’s death was a substitutionary sacrifice in which He bore the judgment deserved by sinners. His sacrifice accomplished redemption. No Christian can repeat or add to that saving work. Nevertheless, the self-giving character of Christ’s love becomes the pattern for Christian living. Because Christ gave Himself for us, we are called to give ourselves for one another. John’s statement that believers ought to lay down their lives for the brethren includes the possibility of literal sacrifice, but it also reaches into ordinary life. Most Christians will never face a moment in which they must physically die for another believer. All Christians, however, will face opportunities to surrender time, comfort, money, attention, pride, and personal preference. It is possible to admire the sacrifice of Christ while carefully arranging our lives so that we never have to sacrifice anything for anyone else. John will not permit that separation. The love displayed at Calvary must begin to shape the lives of those who belong to the crucified and risen Lord. Christian love is therefore not merely warm feeling. Feelings may accompany love, but they do not define it. Love is a God-directed commitment to seek another person’s true good, even when doing so is inconvenient or costly. John 10:11 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+10%3A11&version=NKJV Romans 5:6–8 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+5%3A6-8&version=NKJV 4. Love Must Move Beyond Words John brings the discussion of love into a very practical situation. A believer sees a fellow Christian in genuine need and possesses the means to help. If that believer refuses compassion, words about love become empty. The issue is not that one person must meet every need. No individual possesses unlimited money, time, strength, or opportunity. Scripture does not command careless giving, nor does it forbid wisdom in distinguishing genuine need from manipulation. John’s concern is the deliberate closing of the heart. A person sees the need, possesses the ability to assist, and chooses indifference. Such a response raises a serious question: how can the love of God be dwelling in someone whose heart continually remains closed to the suffering of God’s people? Love in deed and truth is visible, practical, and sincere. It provides food when someone is hungry. It visits those who are lonely. It helps carry burdens. It forgives offences. It corrects gently. It listens patiently. It gives without demanding recognition. It remains present when a situation becomes uncomfortable. This love must also be governed by truth. Biblical love does not encourage sin, conceal destructive behavior, or treat every desire as good. Sometimes love comforts; sometimes it warns. Sometimes it gives material help; sometimes it refuses to support foolishness. Love seeks what is truly good according to God’s Word. Christian compassion therefore requires both tenderness and discernment. Deeds without truth may become harmful sentimentality. Truth without deeds may become cold religious speech. God calls His people to both. 1 John 3:17–18 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+3%3A17-18&version=NKJV James 2:14–17 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+2%3A14-17&version=NKJV 5. Assurance When the Heart Condemns Us John understands that sincere Christians sometimes struggle with assurance. A sensitive conscience may remember past sins, dwell upon present failures, and accuse the believer of hypocrisy. The heart may pronounce a harsher judgment than God has pronounced. John directs troubled believers away from endless examination of their own feelings and towards the character of God. God knows everything. His knowledge includes every sin, but it also includes every evidence of grace, every sincere act of repentance, every imperfect expression of love, and every hidden desire to obey Him. The believer’s assurance does not rest upon sinless performance. No Christian could stand before God on that basis. Assurance rests first upon the finished work of Christ and the promises of God. Yet John also teaches that the fruit of obedience and love provides confirming evidence that faith is genuine. A condemning conscience should not simply be ignored. Sometimes the conscience is correctly identifying sin that must be confessed and forsaken. In such cases, the answer is repentance. At other times, however, the heart continues to condemn after sin has been confessed. It may demand a perfection God has not promised in this life. It may treat every struggle as proof that no spiritual life exists. In such moments, the believer must remember that God is a more reliable judge than the fluctuating human heart. God knows those who belong to Him. He knows the difference between a hypocrite who protects sin and a believer who grieves over it. He knows the difference between a person who hates righteousness and one who sincerely desires holiness but often falls short. The Christian’s confidence is therefore neither careless presumption nor hopeless self-condemnation. It is humble reliance upon Christ, accompanied by the growing evidence of a transformed life. 1 John 3:19–20 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+3%3A19-20&version=NKJV Romans 8:31–34 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+8%3A31-34&version=NKJV 6. Obedience, Confidence, and Prayer John connects a clear conscience with confidence before God. When believers are walking in obedience, they are able to approach God freely in prayer. This does not mean that Christians earn answers to prayer through good behavior. God is not placed in anyone’s debt. Prayer is never a transaction in which obedience purchases divine favors. Rather, obedience and effective prayer belong together because the obedient believer is learning to desire what pleases God. A life shaped by Scripture produces prayers increasingly shaped by Scripture. The believer begins to ask for holiness, wisdom, strength, provision, forgiveness, the spread of the gospel, and the good of others. John’s promise that believers receive what they ask must be read alongside the rest of Scripture. God answers according to His will, wisdom, and purpose. He may give what was requested. He may delay. He may provide something different. He may refuse because the request would not serve His glory or the believer’s good. The obedient believer trusts God’s answer because prayer is directed towards a Father, not a machine. Confidence in prayer means confidence in God Himself, not confidence that every personal preference will be granted. Disobedience damages prayer because cherished sin hardens the heart and distorts desire. Obedience does not make a person worthy of blessing, but it removes the double-mindedness of asking God for help while deliberately resisting His authority. Psalm 66:18–20 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+66%3A18-20&version=NKJV 1 John 5:14–15 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+5%3A14-15&version=NKJV 7. One Command with Two inseparable Parts John gathers the Christian life into one unified command: believe in Jesus Christ and love one another. Faith and love must not be separated. Faith without love is merely an empty profession. Love without faith in the biblical Christ becomes moral effort without saving truth. Saving faith rests in Jesus Christ as the eternal Son of God, the crucified Savior, and the risen Lord. It is not merely agreement that Jesus existed. It is personal trust in who He is and what He accomplished. Those who believe in Christ are then commanded to love one another. This love does not replace doctrine; it grows from doctrine. The more clearly believers understand the mercy shown to them in Christ, the less reason they have to remain proud, bitter, or indifferent towards others. John also speaks of mutual abiding. The believer abides in God, and God abides in the believer. This does not mean that Christians become divine. It describes a real spiritual union and continuing fellowship created by God. The Holy Spirit confirms this relationship. He illuminates the truth about Christ, produces obedience, creates love, convicts of sin, and enables perseverance. His presence is known not primarily through passing emotion but through a life increasingly submitted to the Word of God. The Christian life is therefore not sustained by human determination alone. God commands His people to believe, love, and obey, and He gives His Spirit to work within them. 1 John 3:23–24 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+3%3A23-24&version=NKJV John 14:15–17 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14%3A15-17&version=NKJV Reflection Questions 1. Why did Abel’s righteous life provoke Cain’s hatred, and how does this help explain the world’s hostility towards faithful Christians? 2. What is the difference between occasional anger, which must be confessed, and a settled pattern of hatred? 3. How does Christ’s sacrifice define Christian love more clearly than emotion or sentiment? 4. Is there a need you have seen but avoided because helping would inconvenience you or cost you something? 5. How can a believer distinguish between the proper conviction of the Holy Spirit and continuing self-condemnation after repentance? 6. Why does obedience give believers greater confidence in prayer without earning answers from God? 7. In what ways does the Holy Spirit produce both truth and love in the life of a Christian? Prayer Points 1. Thank Jesus Christ for laying down His life to redeem guilty sinners. 2. Ask God to expose and remove bitterness, resentment, and hatred from your heart. 3. Pray for practical opportunities to love fellow believers through deeds of mercy and service. 4. Ask for wisdom to combine genuine compassion with faithfulness to biblical truth. 5. Pray for assurance grounded in the finished work of Christ rather than in changing feelings. 6. Ask God to bring your desires and prayers into greater agreement with His will. 7. Thank God for the indwelling Holy Spirit, who produces obedience, love, and perseverance in His people. For Further Study (NKJV): Genesis 4:1–16 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+4%3A1-16&version=NKJV Matthew 5:21–26 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A21-26&version=NKJV John 13:34–35 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+13%3A34-35&version=NKJV James 2:14–18 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+2%3A14-18&version=NKJV Romans 8:31–39 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+8%3A31-39&version=NKJV #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John3

Holy Wit – Reflections #7 Children of God (Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John) Scripture References: 1 John 2:28–3:10 At the edge of a busy market stood a repair shop owned by a man named Elias. He repaired clocks, lamps, radios, and nearly anything else that could be persuaded to work again. His son Daniel grew up among drawers of screws and coils of wire, listening to his father say, “Do it properly. Someone is trusting us.” When Daniel became old enough to work beside him, people began bringing smaller jobs directly to the boy. One afternoon an elderly woman collected a repaired lamp and handed him far more money than the work had cost. She left before he noticed. No one else had seen, and the shop needed new tools. The extra money could have disappeared quietly. Daniel ran after her and returned what she had overpaid. The woman smiled. “I thought you would come,” she said. “You are Elias’s son.” That sentence pleased him, but it also carried weight. He had not become Elias’s son by returning the money. He was already his son. Yet because he bore his father’s name, people expected to see something of his father’s character in him. His conduct did not create the relationship, but it revealed the family likeness. A week later Daniel damaged a customer’s radio and tried to hide it. His father discovered the truth. Daniel did not cease to be his son, but his deceit contradicted the name he bore. Elias corrected him, made him confess, and then stood beside him while the damage was repaired. Sonship was a gift; it was not permission to behave as though he belonged to another household. John asks believers to pause before the astonishing words, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” Human beings do not climb into God’s family by moral effort. The Father bestows this love. Sinners are brought into a real relationship with Him through Christ. They are born of God, welcomed by the Father, and given a future that ends in likeness to the Son. This order matters. Righteous living is not the price of becoming a child of God. It is the fruit of having been born of Him. We are accepted through Christ, not through an impressive record of obedience. Yet the Christ who saves also transforms. Grace does not leave a person untouched, as though forgiveness were a covering placed over a life still content to serve sin. Much modern thinking treats identity as something that may be claimed without moral consequence. John refuses that idea. “Everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.” He is not teaching salvation by works, but he is teaching that the new birth produces a new direction. The Father does not make us His children because we resemble Him; He makes us His children and then begins to form His likeness in us. That likeness is not sinless perfection in this life. John has already said that anyone claiming to have no sin deceives himself, and he has directed believers to confess their sins and trust Christ their Advocate. The difference is not between people who have never sinned and people who have. It is between those who excuse sin as their settled way of life and those in whom sin has become an enemy. A child of God may fall, sometimes badly, but he cannot make peace with the fall. God’s seed remains in him. The new birth creates a holy conflict where there was once surrender. Sin brings grief, confession, repentance, and a return to obedience. The believer does not defend lawlessness as freedom or demand that God bless what His Word condemns. John also turns our eyes towards Christ’s appearing. “When He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” Redeemed creatures do not become divine. God completes His work of glorification: sin no longer clings to us, and the family resemblance is no longer partial. We shall be fitted for the presence of the pure and righteous Christ. That future hope reaches into the present: “Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” Christian hope is not dreaming about heaven while remaining comfortable with corruption. The certainty of seeing Christ produces a desire to please Him now. We confess what is unclean, turn from what feeds sinful desire, obey what God has spoken, and measure holiness by Christ rather than the lowered standards around us. John finally speaks of two families: the children of God and the children of the devil. The devil is not God’s equal; he is a created rebel whose works the Son came to destroy. Yet those who persist in lawlessness display his likeness, while those born of God increasingly display righteousness and love. The test includes both our conduct before God and our treatment of fellow believers. Claimed love for the Father that produces neither righteousness nor love for His children is not the faith John recognizes. This passage gives assurance, but not false comfort. The question is not, “Have I reached perfection?” No Christian has. The question is, “Whose likeness is being formed in me? When I sin, do I defend it or confess it? Do I desire righteousness? Do I love the brethren? Does the hope of seeing Christ make purity precious to me?” The Father’s love gives His children both a name and a destination. We are His children now, and what we shall be has not yet been fully revealed. Until that day, He keeps correcting, cleansing, and restoring us. Like Daniel in the repair shop, we do not behave well in order to earn a father. We learn to live differently because, by an astonishing manner of love, the Father has made us His own. #HolyWitReflections #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John2_28To3_10

Holy Wit – Bible Study #7 Children of God (Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John – 1 John 2:28–3:10) Scripture Reading (NKJV): 1 John 2:28 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. 1 John 2:29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him. 1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 1 John 3:3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. 1 John 3:4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 1 John 3:5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. 1 John 3:6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. 1 John 3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 1 John 3:8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. 1 John 3:10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. 1 John 2:28–3:10 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A28-3%3A10&version=NKJV ________________________________________ 1. Abide in Him Until He Appears John begins this section by returning to the command that closed the previous one: “abide in Him.” Abiding is not a vague spiritual feeling or a momentary experience. In the setting of 1 John, it means continuing in the apostolic truth about Christ, remaining in fellowship with Him, and refusing the deception of those who deny the Son. The Christian life is sustained by the same Christ in whom it began. John also places this perseverance under the light of Christ’s appearing. The return of Christ is not an ornament attached to Christian doctrine; it gives urgency and direction to Christian living. Those who remain in Christ may face His coming with confidence rather than shame. This confidence is not self-confidence built upon a flawless record. It rests upon Christ our Advocate and is confirmed by a life that continues in Him. A profession of faith that abandons Christ cannot provide biblical assurance. John therefore joins perseverance, assurance, and the second coming: the believer keeps abiding because Christ will appear, and because fellowship with Him makes that appearing a hope rather than a terror. 1 John 2:28 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A28&version=NKJV John 15:4–5 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+15%3A4-5&version=NKJV ________________________________________ 2. Born of Him: Righteousness as Fruit, Not Root John’s reasoning in verse 29 is carefully ordered. He does not say that people become children of God by performing enough righteous deeds. He says that the practice of righteousness reveals that a person “is born of Him.” The new birth is the source; righteous conduct is its fruit. This protects the gospel from two opposite errors. Legalism treats obedience as the price of acceptance with God. Lawlessness treats grace as permission to remain unchanged. John allows neither. The righteousness of Christ is the believer’s only ground of acceptance, yet the Christ who justifies also transforms. Justification and sanctification must be distinguished, but they must never be separated. Good works do not create new life, but new life creates good works. John speaks of “practicing” righteousness because he is describing the settled direction of a life, not claiming that Christians reach sinless perfection. The question is not whether a believer ever sins; John has already said that believers must confess their sins. The question is whether righteousness has become the governing allegiance of the life. Obedience is not the purchase price of sonship. It is family resemblance. 1 John 2:29 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A29&version=NKJV Ephesians 2:8–10 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+2%3A8-10&version=NKJV ________________________________________ 3. “What Manner of Love”: Children Now, Glory Yet to Come John does not merely tell believers that God loves them. He calls them to stop and consider what kind of love this is: the Father has bestowed a love that makes rebels His children. This status is not earned, imagined, or merely honorary. “Now we are children of God.” What Paul commonly describes as adoption, John often describes as being born of God. Both truths declare that salvation brings believers into a real filial relationship with the Father. The world does not recognise this identity because it did not recognise Christ. Rejection by the world is therefore not proof that God has abandoned His people; it may reflect the same spiritual blindness that rejected the Son. Yet Christian identity contains both an “already” and a “not yet.” Believers are truly God’s children now, while the fullness of what they shall be has not yet been revealed. At Christ’s appearing, they will be like Him because they will see Him as He is. John is not teaching that creatures become divine in essence. He is speaking of glorification: complete conformity to Christ in holiness, freedom from sin, and life suited to His presence. The Father’s love gives both a present name and a future destiny. 1 John 3:1–2 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+3%3A1-2&version=NKJV Romans 8:15–17, 29–30 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+8%3A15-17%2C29-30&version=NKJV ________________________________________ 4. Purifying Hope The hope of seeing Christ is not meant to produce speculation without obedience. “Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” Biblical hope is not uncertain wishing. It is confident expectation grounded in God’s promise. Because believers know where salvation is going, they begin to live now in a manner consistent with that destination. The future likeness to Christ exerts a sanctifying pressure upon the present. John’s wording also shows that sanctification involves real Christian effort. The believer purifies himself, yet he does so only because God has made him His child, given him hope, and is transforming him. Grace does not remove human responsibility; it creates and empowers it. This purification includes confession of sin, the rejection of corrupt desires, obedience to God’s Word, and a deliberate refusal to make peace with what Christ came to remove. The standard is not the surrounding culture, nor comparison with other Christians, but Christ Himself: “just as He is pure.” John gives no support to perfectionism, but neither does he leave room for comfortable stagnation. The person who expects to see the pure Christ must desire purity now. 1 John 3:3 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+3%3A3&version=NKJV Titus 2:11–14 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Titus+2%3A11-14&version=NKJV ________________________________________ 5. Sin, Lawlessness, and the Mission of the Son John now defines sin with a severity that modern thought often avoids: “sin is lawlessness.” Sin is more than weakness, poor judgment, or emotional brokenness. Those things may accompany it, but at its heart sin is resistance to the authority of God. His law reveals His holy character and rightful rule; to sin is to act as though the creature may dismiss the Creator’s command. Against this lawlessness John sets the sinless Son. Christ was manifested “to take away our sins,” and “in Him there is no sin.” Only the sinless One could bear the sins of others, and His saving purpose cannot be separated from the destruction of sin’s rule. John therefore says that the one who abides in Christ “does not sin” and that the one who sins has neither seen nor known Him. Read alone, those words might appear to teach that a Christian never commits a sin. But John has already denied sinless claims and instructed believers to confess their sins, resting in Christ their Advocate. His concern here is the continuing practice and dominion of sin. A believer may fall into sin, but cannot settle into it as an accepted way of life. Christ did not come merely to reduce sin’s consequences while leaving its authority untouched. He came to take sins away and to destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:4–8 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+3%3A4-8&version=NKJV 1 John 1:8–2:2 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+1%3A8-2%3A2&version=NKJV ________________________________________ 6. God’s Seed and the Two Families Verse 9 presses the doctrine of regeneration to its moral conclusion. Whoever has been born of God does not continue in sin because God’s “seed” remains in him. John does not fully explain the image here, but its force is plain: the new birth is not a religious costume placed over an unchanged nature. God gives an enduring principle of spiritual life. The statement that the believer “cannot sin” does not mean a physical inability to commit an individual sinful act; John’s own earlier teaching rules that out. It means that the person born of God cannot live under sin as an unbroken, unrepentant, defining pattern. New birth creates a holy contradiction between the believer and the sin that still remains. John then speaks with startling clarity of two families: the children of God and the children of the devil. This is moral and spiritual lineage, not physical descent, and it does not make the devil a rival god. He is a creature and a rebel. Yet his children bear his resemblance through lawlessness, while God’s children increasingly bear the Father’s resemblance through righteousness and love. There is no morally empty Christian identity in this passage. Claims, labels, experiences, and religious language are tested by a life that practises righteousness and loves the brethren. John does not ask whether a person has achieved perfection. He asks whose character the person’s life increasingly displays. 1 John 3:9–10 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+3%3A9-10&version=NKJV John 8:42–44 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+8%3A42-44&version=NKJV ________________________________________ Reflection Questions 1. How does abiding in Christ produce confidence concerning His appearing (1 John 2:28)? 2. Why must the practice of righteousness be understood as evidence of the new birth rather than the cause of it (1 John 2:29)? 3. What does it mean to be a child of God now, and what remains future about that identity (1 John 3:1–2)? 4. In what practical ways should the hope of seeing Christ purify a believer’s present life (1 John 3:3)? 5. How do 1 John 1:8–2:2 help us understand the statements that the person born of God “does not sin” and “cannot sin” (1 John 3:6, 9)? ________________________________________ Prayer Points 1. Thank the Father for the love by which He has made believers His children. 2. Ask for grace to abide in Christ and to await His appearing with confidence. 3. Pray that the hope of seeing Christ will produce deeper purity and obedience. 4. Ask God to expose settled patterns of sin and to strengthen righteousness and love for fellow believers. ________________________________________ For further study (NKJV): John 1:12–13 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A12-13&version=NKJV Romans 6:1–14 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+6%3A1-14&version=NKJV 2 Corinthians 3:18 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+3%3A18&version=NKJV ________________________________________ #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John2_28To3_10

Sorry but I'm into a time consuming project at the moment. I don't think full Bible Study and Reflections are going to happen this week. But, I do offer up this brief Word Along The Way. God keep you!

Holy Wit — A Word Along the Way The Ministry of Showing Up There are mornings when the Christian life feels noble and purposeful. We rise with every intention of praying faithfully, reading Scripture carefully, encouraging the discouraged, feeding the hungry, forgiving our enemies, and perhaps understanding one of the minor prophets before breakfast. Then the kettle refuses to work. The dog brings something unpleasant into the house. A child cannot find one shoe. The electricity disappears. Someone telephones with a problem that began three years ago but has suddenly become urgent. By midday, our noble spiritual program has been reduced to finding the missing shoe and preventing the dog from eating it. It is easy to think that real Christian service happens somewhere else. Surely it happens in pulpits, mission fields, prayer meetings, hospitals, and places where people speak in quiet voices and nobody is carrying a leaking rubbish bag. Yet much of the Christian life consists simply of showing up. Showing up when someone needs to be heard. Showing up when there is no applause. Showing up when the work is ordinary, the room is hot, and the person we are helping has already told us the same story four times. Paul wrote: “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men.” — Colossians 3:23, NKJV “Whatever you do” is a remarkably broad phrase. It includes preaching sermons, certainly. But it also includes washing dishes, keeping promises, answering patiently, repairing what is broken, visiting the lonely, caring for ageing parents, and resisting the temptation to explain to everyone how much more sensible the world would be if we were in charge of it. We often imagine faithfulness as something dramatic. Usually, it is not. Faithfulness is returning tomorrow. It is praying again after yesterday’s prayer seemed to receive no answer. It is opening the Bible when our mind feels dull. It is doing good without checking every few minutes to see whether anyone has noticed. The world celebrates people who arrive with trumpets. The kingdom of God is often served by people who arrive with a broom. Jesus did not only teach crowds. He noticed individuals. He welcomed children. He touched lepers. He washed feet. He gave His attention to people whom others had learned to overlook. We will not save the world. Christ has already taken responsibility for that. Our task is smaller and, in some ways, harder: to be faithful in the place where God has put us today. Perhaps this week will not contain a grand spiritual victory. Perhaps there will be no remarkable testimony, no sudden breakthrough, and no moment when heavenly light shines through the window while music plays softly in the background. Perhaps there will only be work to do, people to love, prayers to pray, and one missing shoe. That is enough. Show up. Do the next faithful thing. And do not underestimate what God can accomplish through a willing servant carrying a broom. Luke 16:10 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+16%3A10&version=NKJV Galatians 6:9–10 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+6%3A9-10&version=NKJV

Holy Wit – Reflections #6 (Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John) Scripture References: 1 John 2:18–27 The man arrived just after the evening heat had begun to loosen its grip. All day the village had been busy with ordinary things. Children had been sent to buy onions, cooking oil, and bread. Men had returned from work with dust on their shoes. Women had been bargaining in the market with the calm seriousness of people who know the difference between a fair price and an insult. A few goats had expressed strong opinions about nothing in particular. Then the man came. He did not look dangerous. That is worth noting. Dangerous people rarely do us the courtesy of arriving with warning signs hanging from their necks. He was polite. He smiled well. He spoke gently. He carried a worn bag, a small book, and the peaceful confidence of someone who expected to be listened to. He began near the tea stall, where people naturally gathered. He spoke of God. He spoke of light, love, truth, freedom, and spiritual understanding. These are good words. Christians love these words. They are Bible words. They are church words. They are words that belong in songs, sermons, prayers, and quiet conversations under trees. At first, several people nodded. He said that many Christians were too narrow. More nodding. He said that God was greater than human doctrines. That sounded reasonable enough. He said that Jesus was a great teacher, a shining example, a holy man, perhaps even the highest of all messengers from God. Still, no one shouted. No one objected. It all sounded respectful. Then, almost gently, he moved Christ aside. Not all at once. Not with violence. Not with open mockery. He simply made Jesus smaller. Less central. Less final. Less necessary. Jesus was still mentioned, but no longer worshiped as the eternal Son. Jesus was still admired, but no longer confessed as the Christ. Jesus was still honored with words, but no longer received as the only way to the Father. And that is often how false teaching enters. It does not always begin by saying, “Let us deny Christ.” It begins by saying, “Let us appreciate Christ in a broader way.” It does not always throw the Bible into the fire. It places the Bible respectfully on the table, then quietly teaches people to look somewhere else for the real answer. By the time the lamps were lit, the man had gathered a circle of listeners. Some were curious. Some were impressed. Some were troubled but did not know exactly why. He had said many true-sounding things. He had used many spiritual words. He had spoken of love often enough that disagreement felt almost rude. But one old believer, who had followed Christ through many seasons, listened carefully and grew still. Finally he asked, “Do you confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, come in the flesh, Lord and Savior, the only way to the Father?” The man smiled, but his smile became thinner. He answered with many words, but not with that confession. That was the moment the matter became clear. John would have understood that scene. In 1 John 2:18–27, the apostle warns the church about “many antichrists.” The word can sound dramatic to modern ears, as if John is only speaking about some final dark figure at the end of history. Scripture does speak of final opposition to Christ, but John’s concern here is also immediate. The spirit of antichrist was already at work. It was not merely coming one day. It had already arrived in many forms. John’s test is direct. What does this teaching do with Jesus Christ? That question remains one of the church’s most necessary questions. Not, “Does it sound spiritual?” Not, “Does it use Christian language?” Not, “Does it attract people?” Not even, “Does it speak often of God?” The question is: Does it confess the biblical Christ? False teaching often sounds spiritual while quietly removing Christ from the center. This is why John speaks so plainly. “Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?” He does not treat Christ as one topic among many. He does not say, “Well, at least they are still religious.” He does not praise them for being sincere. The central issue is the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either. That sentence is uncomfortable in a world that prefers vague spirituality. But John is not being harsh for the pleasure of harshness. He is guarding life. Eternal life is not found in religious atmosphere. It is not found in spiritual vocabulary. It is not found in admiration for Jesus as a noble example. Eternal life is in the Son. John also tells us something sobering about these false teachers: “They went out from us.” They were not strangers to the church. They had been near the people of God. They had likely spoken the language of faith for a time. But their departure revealed what had been true underneath. They left not merely a gathering, but the apostolic truth about Christ. This should humble us. The church is not protected by familiarity alone. A person may know Christian songs, Christian habits, Christian phrases, and Christian manners, yet not abide in Christ. The issue is not outward nearness only, but inward union with the Son. John’s answer is beautifully simple: abide. “Let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning.” The church is not saved from deception by becoming cleverer than every false teacher. Most believers will never have time to study every error in detail. But the sheep know the Shepherd’s voice. The Spirit of God anchors believers in the truth of Christ. The anointing John speaks of is not a private license to become proud and unteachable. John himself is teaching as he writes. Rather, it is the Spirit’s gracious work of keeping Christ’s people in the truth concerning Christ. The Holy Spirit does not lead people away from the Son. He glorifies the Son. He confirms the word given from the beginning. He helps believers recognize the difference between spiritual language and saving truth. That is a mercy. Because false teaching can sound kind, intelligent, modern, ancient, humble, powerful, simple, or profound. It can come dressed in many garments. But if it reduces Christ, denies Christ, replaces Christ, or makes Christ unnecessary, it is not from God. So we return to the beginning. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He came in the flesh. He died for sinners. He rose from the dead. He is Advocate, Savior, Lord, and King. No one comes to the Father except through Him. Whoever has the Son has life. Abide there. Not because there are no clever voices in the world, but because there is no greater voice than Christ’s. #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John2

Holy Wit – Bible Study #6 Many Antichrists (Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John – 1 John 2:18–27) Scripture Reading (NKJV): 1 John 2:18–27 18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. 19 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 they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. 20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. 24 Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life. 26 These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. 27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. 1 John 2:18–27 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A18-27&version=NKJV 1. The Last Hour and the Many Antichrists John begins with urgency: “Little children, it is the last hour.” He is not trying to frighten believers into panic, but to sober them into watchfulness. The coming of Christ, His death, resurrection, ascension, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit have placed the church in the final stage of redemptive history. The Messiah has come. The gospel has gone out. The church now lives between Christ’s first coming and His return. John says his readers had heard that “the Antichrist is coming,” but he also tells them that “many antichrists have come.” This is important. Scripture does teach a final, climactic opposition to Christ, but John is also concerned with the spirit already operating in the world. Antichrist is not only future. Antichrist is also present wherever Christ is denied, diminished, replaced, or quietly moved away from the center. The danger is not always crude hatred of religion. False teaching often sounds spiritual. It may speak warmly of God, morality, enlightenment, love, wisdom, power, or blessing. But when it removes the biblical Christ — the eternal Son who came in the flesh, died for sin, rose bodily, and is the only way to the Father — it carries the spirit of antichrist. 1 John 2:18 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A18&version=NKJV 2 Thessalonians 2:3–4 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Thessalonians+2%3A3-4&version=NKJV 2. They Went Out from Us John does not describe these false teachers as outsiders who never had contact with the church. He says, “They went out from us.” That is part of what makes the matter so serious. False teaching is often most dangerous when it arises from familiar places, familiar words, familiar gatherings, and familiar names. Their departure revealed something. John says they “were not of us.” This does not mean every person who leaves a particular local church is an unbeliever. People may move, relocate, disagree over secondary matters, or join another faithful congregation. John is speaking about those who departed from apostolic truth. They left not merely a building or a group, but the confession of Christ handed down from the beginning. The visible church has always included mixed company. Some belong outwardly for a time but do not abide in the truth. When pressure comes, when doctrine becomes inconvenient, when the offense of Christ becomes too much, they depart. Their departure exposes that their attachment was external rather than saving. This is a serious warning, but also a mercy. God protects His people by making error visible. What was hidden comes into the light. The church is grieved, but not abandoned. Christ preserves His own. 1 John 2:19 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A19&version=NKJV Matthew 13:24–30 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+13%3A24-30&version=NKJV 3. The Central Lie: Denying the Son John does not leave false teaching vague. He identifies the heart of the matter: “Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?” The central issue is Christ. False doctrine may begin in many places, but it eventually shows itself in what it does with Jesus. To deny Jesus as the Christ is not merely to reject a title. It is to deny Him as the promised Messiah, the Son sent by the Father, the incarnate Redeemer, the One in whom all the promises of God are fulfilled. John adds that whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either. This is a vital doctrine. No one truly possesses the Father while rejecting the Son. Many religious voices are willing to honor Jesus as teacher, prophet, moral example, miracle worker, social reformer, or spiritual guide. But John gives no room for a Christ reduced to those categories. A lesser Christ is not the Christ of Scripture. A Christ who does not save from sin, reveal the Father, conquer death, and rule as Lord is not the apostolic Christ. The Father is not known apart from the Son. The Son is not optional. Christianity does not merely include Jesus; Christianity stands or falls with Jesus Christ Himself. 1 John 2:22–23 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A22-23&version=NKJV John 14:6–7 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14%3A6-7&version=NKJV 4. Let What You Heard from the Beginning Abide in You John’s answer to false teaching is not novelty, but abiding. He tells his readers, “Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning.” The safeguard against spiritual deception is not chasing every new claim, new teacher, new revelation, or new spiritual fashion. The safeguard is remaining in the apostolic gospel. “What you heard from the beginning” refers to the message of Christ delivered by the apostles. It is the same truth John emphasized at the opening of the letter: “that which was from the beginning.” Christianity is not improved by being detached from its foundation. The church does not mature by outgrowing Christ. It remains faithful by going deeper into Him. This matters because false teaching often presents itself as advanced spirituality. It claims to offer something deeper, higher, newer, freer, or more enlightened. But John says the true path is to abide in what was already delivered. The gospel does not need replacement. It needs to be believed, guarded, proclaimed, and lived. The Christian life is not a movement away from the first truths of Christ, but a lifelong settling into them. 1 John 2:24 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A24&version=NKJV Jude 3 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jude+3&version=NKJV 5. The Promise: Eternal Life John grounds perseverance in promise: “And this is the promise that He has promised us — eternal life.” The Christian is not merely defending doctrine for the sake of winning arguments. Truth matters because life is at stake. To have the Son is to have life. To lose the Son is to lose everything. Eternal life in John’s writings is not simply endless existence. It is life from God, life in Christ, life reconciled to the Father, life that begins now and continues forever. False teachers may promise freedom, hidden knowledge, spiritual power, or a more respectable faith, but they cannot give eternal life. Only Christ gives that. This also clarifies why John writes so strongly. Some modern ears may find his words severe. But love must warn when souls are in danger. A shepherd who sees wolves and speaks softly of “alternative sheep-care perspectives” is not being gracious. He is being negligent. John warns because Christ is precious, truth is necessary, and eternal life is found only in the Son. 1 John 2:25–26 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A25-26&version=NKJV John 17:3 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+17%3A3&version=NKJV 6. The Anointing of Truth John tells believers, “You have an anointing from the Holy One.” This does not mean Christians have no need for pastors, teachers, preaching, correction, or Bible study. John himself is teaching them as he writes. Rather, he is saying that true believers have received the Holy Spirit, who enables them to recognize and remain in the truth of Christ. False teachers often claim special insight. They suggest ordinary believers need their secret knowledge, superior experience, or spiritual advancement. John reassures the church that they are not helpless before such claims. The Spirit of God indwells Christ’s people and bears witness to the truth concerning Christ. This is not a license for private arrogance. It is not “I have the Spirit, so no one can teach me.” That would contradict the New Testament’s command to receive sound teaching. Rather, it is confidence that the Spirit does not lead the church away from the Son. The Holy Spirit glorifies Christ, confirms apostolic truth, and protects believers from fatal deception. Any claimed spiritual anointing that makes less of Christ is not from the Holy Spirit. 1 John 2:20, 27 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A20%2C27&version=NKJV John 16:13–14 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+16%3A13-14&version=NKJV 7. Abide in Him John closes this section with the call to abide. Abiding is one of the great words in John’s writings. It means remaining, continuing, dwelling, staying. It is not a passing religious interest. It is the settled life of faith in Christ. To abide in Christ is to remain in His word, depend on His grace, confess His truth, obey His commandments, and refuse any version of spirituality that separates blessing from Him. The Christian life is not maintained by cleverness, personality, emotional intensity, or constant novelty. It is maintained by remaining in Christ. This is both command and comfort. The believer is commanded to abide, yet the ability to abide is tied to God’s preserving grace. Christ does not abandon His sheep. The Spirit does not lead believers into soul-destroying error. The word heard from the beginning is not fragile. It remains true because Christ remains true. False teaching often sounds spiritual while quietly removing Christ from the center. John’s answer is plain: do not follow it. Do not admire it. Do not make peace with it. Let the truth abide in you, and abide in the Son and in the Father. 1 John 2:27 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A27&version=NKJV John 15:4–5 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+15%3A4-5&version=NKJV Reflection Questions 1. Why does John connect false teaching so directly to what a person believes about Jesus Christ? 2. How can teaching sound spiritual while still removing Christ from the center? 3. What does John mean when he says certain people “went out from us,” and how should that sober the church today? 4. Why is abiding in what was heard “from the beginning” a protection against deception? 5. How does the Holy Spirit’s anointing help believers remain in the truth without making them proud or unteachable? Prayer Points 1. Ask God to give His people discernment to recognize teaching that diminishes Christ. 2. Thank the Father that eternal life is promised in the Son and not in human wisdom or religious novelty. 3. Pray for pastors, teachers, and churches to remain faithful to the apostolic gospel. 4. Ask the Holy Spirit to keep you humble, teachable, and firmly rooted in the truth. 5. Pray for those being drawn away by false teaching, that God would bring them back to Christ and His word. For further study (NKJV): Matthew 24:4–5 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+24%3A4-5&version=NKJV John 15:1–8 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+15%3A1-8&version=NKJV 2 John 7–11 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+John+7-11&version=NKJV Jude 17–23 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jude+17-23&version=NKJV #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John2

Holy Wit – Reflections #5 (Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John) Scripture References: 1 John 2:12–17 There was once a man who bought a new chair. It was not a throne, though he may have looked at it with a throne-like fondness. It was not a family heirloom. It had not crossed oceans, survived wars, or been handed down by a serious-looking grandfather who used words like “stewardship” and “mahogany.” It was just a chair. But it was a fine chair. The man saw it in a shop window one afternoon while walking past on an errand that had nothing whatever to do with chairs. That is how these things often begin. No one wakes up in the morning and says, “Today I shall be gently ambushed by furniture.” But there it was. It had strong arms, good cushions, polished legs, and a look about it that seemed to say, “You have worked hard. You deserve a place to sit with dignity.” This was quite a bold claim for a chair, but the man was in no mood to argue with upholstery. He went inside. The shopkeeper, who had clearly dealt before with men who were trying to pretend they were only looking, said, “Very good chair. Very strong. Very comfortable. Will last many years.” That last phrase did it. Many years. The man imagined himself sitting in that chair through storms, festivals, quiet evenings, family visits, cups of tea, books, naps, and important thoughts that would surely come more easily once he owned the correct chair. He imagined grandchildren one day saying, “That was Grandfather’s chair,” with appropriate reverence, as though the chair had helped negotiate peace treaties. So he bought it. For the first few weeks, he treated it with the tenderness usually reserved for newborn babies and delicate machinery. No one sat in it without permission. No one placed food near it. Children were warned. Visitors were guided toward other chairs. Cats, who do not recognize human ownership structures, were removed repeatedly and with rising indignation. Then life happened. A seam loosened. One leg began to wobble. A visitor spilled tea. A child climbed onto it with shoes that had apparently been walking through every substance known to agriculture. The sun faded one side. The cat won. Within a few years, the chair was still a chair, but it had stopped speaking in the language of permanence. It had become more honest. It no longer said, “I will last many years.” It said, “Everything made of fabric and wood is slowly negotiating with dust.” This is not a criticism of chairs. Chairs are useful. Some are beautiful. A good chair at the end of a long day is one of those small mercies that reminds us the Lord understands knees, backs, and the strange collapse that overtakes human beings around evening. The problem was never that the man owned a chair. The problem began when the chair started carrying more weight than wood and cushion were ever meant to carry. John writes, “Do not love the world or the things in the world.” That can sound, at first, like a command to frown at creation, mistrust enjoyment, and walk through life suspicious of every mango, sunset, song, and comfortable place to sit. But John is not condemning God’s good creation. He is not telling Christians to hate beauty, reject work, avoid family, or treat ordinary human life as something beneath holiness. Scripture begins with God making the world and calling it good. The Christian problem is not that the world exists. The problem is the fallen world-system that trains our hearts to live as though God does not matter. John is warning us about love misplaced. The world, in this sense, is not the soil beneath our feet or the neighbor across the road. It is the order of human desire arranged without reference to the Father. It is life organized around appetite, appearance, status, pride, possession, and self-rule. It is the voice that says, “You will be complete when you have this. You will be safe when people admire you. You will be free when no one tells you no. You will endure if you attach yourself to what everyone else is chasing.” It is a liar with excellent marketing. John names three great currents running through it: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The lust of the flesh is desire that refuses to be governed by God. It is appetite climbing into the driver’s seat and insisting it knows the road. It may be sexual sin, drunkenness, greed, laziness, rage, or indulgence. But it may also look quieter than that. It may be the demand for comfort, the refusal to forgive, the need to be served, or the habit of saying, “I want this, therefore it must be right.” The flesh is not always found in dark alleys. Sometimes it sits politely in respectable rooms. The lust of the eyes is desire stirred and ruled by what we see. This is especially dangerous because sight feels so immediate. We see what someone else owns, where they live, how they dress, how they are praised, what they eat, where they travel, and how polished their life appears from a careful distance. Then the heart begins its little calculations. Why not me? What has God withheld? Why should they have that? The eye is a useful servant but a poor shepherd. It can notice beauty, but it cannot define goodness. It can see abundance, but it cannot measure contentment. It can observe success, but it cannot judge faithfulness. The pride of life is perhaps the most dignified-looking of the three. It boasts in what cannot last. It builds identity on position, money, education, achievement, knowledge, family name, influence, spiritual reputation, or the ability to appear untroubled while quietly falling apart. It does not always shout, “Look at me.” Sometimes it simply needs to be noticed. And this is where John’s warning becomes both severe and merciful. “The world is passing away, and the lust of it.” That chair will wear out. So will the house around it. So will the applause, the bank balance, the public image, the strength of the body, the fashion of the age, the reputation carefully polished, and the little kingdom each of us is tempted to build with ourselves at the center. The world promises permanence while actively decaying. It speaks in the tone of forever while already fading at the edges. It offers security but cannot stop death. It offers pleasure but cannot cleanse guilt. It offers identity but cannot give eternal life. John does not say this to make believers gloomy. He says it to make us sane. The Christian is not called to live with clenched fists against every earthly gift. We may receive the good things of this life with thanksgiving. Food, shelter, friendship, marriage, work, laughter, books, gardens, tools, music, and yes, even a comfortable chair may all be received as gifts from the Father. But gifts must not become gods. A gift points beyond itself to the Giver. An idol points back to itself and demands worship. That is why John first reminds the church who they are. Little children, your sins are forgiven. Fathers, you have known Him who is from the beginning. Young men, you are strong, the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one. Before John tells believers what not to love, he reminds them who has already loved them. Their sins are forgiven. They know the Father. They know the eternal Son. The Word abides in them. They have overcome the wicked one. This is not bare moralism. John is not saying, “Try harder to be less worldly so God may accept you.” He is saying, “Because you belong to the Father, do not give your heart to what is passing away.” The world is already fading. The will of God is not. “He who does the will of God abides forever.” This does not mean obedience earns eternal life. Eternal life is in Christ. But obedience shows the direction of the heart. The passing world produces passing desires. The eternal God produces enduring faith, enduring love, and enduring obedience. So we hold the chair lightly. We enjoy it, perhaps. We thank God for it. We repair it if we can. We let the cat have its small victories when resistance becomes unreasonable. But we do not ask it to be eternal. We do not ask anything in this world to be what only God can be. The world says, “Hold tightly. This is your life.” John says, “Look again. It is passing away.” Christ says, “Follow Me.” And the one who does the will of God abides forever. #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John2

Holy Wit – Bible Study #5 Do Not Love the World (Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John – 1 John 2:12–17) Scripture Reading (NKJV): 1 John 2:12 I write to you, little children, Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake. 1 John 2:13 I write to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, Because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, Because you have known the Father. 1 John 2:14 I have written to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have overcome the wicked one. 1 John 2:15 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 2:16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 1 John 2:17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2:12–17 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A12-17&version=NKJV 1. The Family of God: Children, Fathers, and Young Men John begins this section by addressing believers in three groups: little children, fathers, and young men. There is some discussion among interpreters as to whether these are literal age groups, stages of spiritual maturity, or affectionate descriptions of the whole church. The strongest reading is that John is speaking pastorally to believers at different points in their walk with Christ. The “little children” are reminded that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s name’s sake and that they have known the Father. This is foundational Christian identity. Before the believer is called to resist the world, he is reminded that he belongs to God. Forgiveness comes first. Adoption comes first. The Christian life is not an attempt to earn a place in the family; it is the life of those who have already been brought into the family through Christ. The “fathers” are those who have known “Him who is from the beginning.” Their maturity is marked not by novelty but by settled knowledge of God. They have learned, perhaps through years of walking, failing, repenting, suffering, and being kept, that the deepest truth is not new. God is eternal. Christ is sufficient. The gospel does not need replacing. The “young men” are described as strong, as those in whom the Word of God abides, and as those who have overcome the wicked one. Their strength is not mere energy, zeal, or personality. Their strength is the Word of God abiding in them. Spiritual victory is never detached from revealed truth. A believer does not overcome the wicked one by enthusiasm alone, but by the Word of God applied, believed, remembered, and obeyed. 1 John 2:12–14 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A12-14&version=NKJV Ephesians 6:10–17 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+6%3A10-17&version=NKJV 2. “Do Not Love the World”: What John Is and Is Not Saying John’s command is direct: “Do not love the world or the things in the world.” This does not mean Christians are to despise creation. Scripture teaches that God made the world and declared His creation good. Nor does it mean believers are to withdraw from human society, neglect their families, ignore their neighbors, or treat ordinary labor and culture as evil in themselves. The “world” in John’s warning refers to the fallen order of human desire, values, pride, and rebellion organized apart from God. It is the world as humanity arranges it when the Father is not loved, His Son is not honored, and His will is not obeyed. It is not trees, rivers, food, work, music, family, or honest beauty that John condemns. It is the system of life that says, “God is not necessary. His commands are burdensome. His promises are distant. His glory can be replaced.” This distinction matters. Christians are not called to hate people. God loves the world in the sense that He gave His Son for sinners. Yet believers must not love the world in the sense of embracing its godless desires and false promises. We are to love our neighbors while refusing to worship their idols. We are to live in the world without belonging to the world. John’s warning also confronts divided affection. “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” This does not mean a Christian never feels worldly attraction. It means that love for the world and love for the Father cannot rule the heart together. One will govern. One will define what we pursue, protect, excuse, and treasure. 1 John 2:15 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A15&version=NKJV John 17:14–18 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+17%3A14-18&version=NKJV 3. The Lust of the Flesh: Desires Detached from God John identifies the first mark of the world as “the lust of the flesh.” In Scripture, “flesh” can refer to human physical life, but here it points to fallen human nature with its disordered appetites. The issue is not that the body exists, or that the body has needs. God made human beings embodied creatures. Hunger, rest, marriage, work, and physical life are not evil in themselves. The lust of the flesh is desire detached from God’s rule. It is appetite demanding to become master. It says, “Because I want this, I must have it. Because I feel this, it must be right. Because restraint is difficult, obedience is unreasonable.” The flesh turns desire into authority. This can show itself in obvious sins: sexual immorality, drunkenness, gluttony, rage, laziness, addiction, or indulgence without self-control. But it can also appear in respectable forms. A person may be ruled by comfort, praise, convenience, entertainment, resentment, or the need to always have his own way. The flesh is not always loud. Sometimes it is well-dressed, religiously fluent, and careful to avoid embarrassment. The Christian response is not hatred of the body, but submission of the whole person to God. The body is to be presented to God as an instrument of righteousness. Christian holiness is not escape from creaturely life; it is creaturely life rightly ordered under the Father. 1 John 2:16 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A16&version=NKJV Romans 12:1–2 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+12%3A1-2&version=NKJV 4. The Lust of the Eyes: Seeing Without Worship The second mark of the world is “the lust of the eyes.” This is desire awakened and governed by sight. It is not wrong to see beauty, admire skill, enjoy creation, or appreciate what is good. The danger is seeing without worship, wanting without wisdom, and measuring life by what can be possessed, displayed, or envied. The lust of the eyes says, “If I can see it, I should have it. If someone else has it, I am diminished. If it looks impressive, it must be valuable.” This is why covetousness is so spiritually dangerous. It trains the soul to believe that God has been ungenerous. The first sin in Eden involved seeing. Eve saw that the tree was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise. Achan saw the forbidden spoil and took it. David saw Bathsheba and acted in rebellion against God. The eyes are not the only doorway of temptation, but they are a common one. In our own age, the lust of the eyes is amplified by constant images of wealth, pleasure, beauty, success, travel, possessions, and carefully arranged lives. The believer must remember that the eye is a poor shepherd. It can notice, but it cannot judge righteousness. It can desire, but it cannot define goodness. Only God’s Word can teach us what is truly worth wanting. Genesis 3:6 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+3%3A6&version=NKJV Matthew 6:22–23 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+6%3A22-23&version=NKJV 5. The Pride of Life: Boasting in What Cannot Last The third mark of the world is “the pride of life.” This refers to arrogant confidence in earthly status, possessions, ability, appearance, knowledge, influence, or security. It is the soul standing on temporary things and speaking as though they were eternal. The pride of life says, “Look what I have built. Look what I own. Look what I know. Look who I am.” It may boast openly, or it may quietly depend upon being admired. It may appear as ambition without humility, success without gratitude, leadership without servanthood, or knowledge without reverence. This pride is especially deceptive because many of the things it uses are not evil in themselves. Work is good. Skill is good. Education is good. Wise planning is good. Provision for family is good. But when these things become the foundation of identity, they become idols with polished shoes. They look respectable, but they cannot save. James warns against this kind of presumption when he describes those who confidently plan tomorrow without acknowledging that their life is a vapor. Scripture does not condemn planning. It condemns godless certainty. The mature Christian learns to say, in heart and practice, “If the Lord wills.” That is not a slogan. It is sanity. 1 John 2:16 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A16&version=NKJV James 4:13–16 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+4%3A13-16&version=NKJV 6. The World Is Passing Away John gives the reason believers must not love the world: “the world is passing away, and the lust of it.” The world promises permanence while actively decaying. It speaks in the language of forever, but it is already fading. Its pleasures pass. Its fashions pass. Its empires pass. Its applause passes. Its threats pass. Even its temptations are temporary. This is not pessimism. It is biblical realism. The world is not merely unstable; it is under judgment. The present order cannot bear the weight of eternal hope. To love the world is to fasten the heart to something God has already declared temporary. But John does not end with decay. He sets before us the contrast: “he who does the will of God abides forever.” The believer does not abide forever because his obedience earns eternal life. Eternal life is in Christ. Yet doing the will of God reveals the direction of a life that has been joined to the eternal God. The passing world produces passing desires. The eternal Father produces enduring obedience. The Christian life, then, is not a grim refusal of joy. It is the rescue of joy from false masters. God is not taking permanence away from us. He is calling us away from what cannot last into fellowship with Himself, who cannot pass away. 1 John 2:17 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A17&version=NKJV Matthew 7:24–27 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7%3A24-27&version=NKJV Reflection Questions 1. Why is it important to distinguish between God’s good creation and the fallen “world” John warns us not to love? 2. Which of John’s three descriptions — lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, or pride of life — most often appears respectable in your own life? 3. How does knowing that the world is passing away change the way Christians think about possessions, reputation, comfort, and success? 4. John describes spiritual maturity in terms of forgiveness, knowing God, abiding in the Word, and overcoming the wicked one. Which of these needs renewed attention in your walk with Christ? 5. What would it look like this week to “do the will of God” in one ordinary, practical area of life? Prayer Points 1. Thank God that forgiveness rests on Christ’s name and not on our spiritual performance. 2. Ask the Father to expose worldly loves that have become normal, respectable, or easy to excuse. 3. Pray for the Word of God to abide richly in believers of every stage of maturity. 4. Ask for strength to resist desires that promise life but lead the heart away from God. 5. Pray for a clearer love of what is eternal, and a looser grip on what is passing away. For further study (NKJV): Genesis 3:1–7 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+3%3A1-7&version=NKJV Matthew 6:19–24 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+6%3A19-24&version=NKJV Romans 12:1–2 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+12%3A1-2&version=NKJV James 4:13–17 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+4%3A13-17&version=NKJV 2 Corinthians 4:16–18 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+4%3A16-18&version=NKJV #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John2

Holy Wit – Reflections #4 (Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John) Scripture References: 1 John 2:7–11 There is a certain kind of household argument that can last so long nobody quite remembers how it began. It may have started over land, or money, or an insult at a wedding, or who failed to visit when somebody was sick, or who said what to whom after church while pretending not to say it. In some families, the quarrel becomes almost a member of the household. It sits at meals. It travels to funerals. It attends weddings dressed in respectable clothes and speaks to nobody except those who already agree with it. Children grow up hearing, “We do not visit them.” Nobody explains much. They just know there is a side of the family that exists somewhere beyond the river, beyond the road, beyond the market, beyond the village, beyond the church aisle, but not beyond memory. Never beyond memory. Memory, in such cases, is very well fed. The original offense may be thin as paper by now, but the bitterness has become strong as a tree root wrapped around a water pipe. Everyone agrees it would be better if it were gone, but nobody wants to dig. Then Sunday comes. The same people who have not spoken to one another in years stand to sing of grace. They bow their heads while prayer is offered. They hear Scripture read. They nod when the preacher speaks of forgiveness, though preferably forgiveness in general and not the costly local variety that has names, faces, histories, and perhaps a seat three rows away. This is where John walks into the room. John is not a man easily impressed by religious fog. He does not let us hide behind Christian language while we keep our private darkness carefully folded and stored away. He writes plainly: “He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.” That is not a soft sentence. It is not padded for comfort. It does not arrive with cushions, footnotes, and an apology for disturbing the family system. John simply says that if a person claims to walk in the light while hating his brother, that person is still in darkness. A bitter Christian is a contradiction John refuses to soften. This does not mean Christians are commanded to pretend they have never been hurt. John is not asking the wounded to call evil good. Love is not foolishness wearing a holy expression. There are times when boundaries are necessary. There are sins that must be confronted. There are dangerous people from whom others must be protected. There are wrongs that require justice, repentance, and wisdom. But hatred is not wisdom. Hatred is what happens when pain is enthroned. It is what happens when an old wound becomes an altar and the wounded person becomes its priest. Hatred does not merely remember. It rehearses. It does not merely grieve. It feeds. It does not merely say, “That was wrong.” It says, “I hope they fall, and I would like a front-row seat when they do.” John calls that darkness. The commandment to love one another was not new in the sense that God had never commanded it before. From the beginning, God’s people were never free to be holy in doctrine and cruel in heart. The command to love our neighbor was already written in the Law. But in Christ, the old commandment became new with blazing clarity. Jesus did not merely command love. He showed us what love is. He loved without approving sin. He forgave without pretending evil was harmless. He served the proud, corrected the foolish, welcomed the weak, wept with the grieving, rebuked the self-righteous, and laid down His life for sinners who had not yet learned to love Him. In Christ, love was no longer only a command written on a page. Love had a face, hands, tears, wounds, and a cross. So when John says, “love your brother,” he is speaking first of fellow believers. Christians are commanded to love all people, even enemies, but John is pressing the family matter. If we claim to belong to the Father, then we cannot despise the Father’s children. We cannot say we love the Head while hating the body. We cannot praise Christ while quietly wishing ruin upon those He has redeemed. This is especially important because the church is not made up of imaginary Christians. Imaginary Christians are easy to love. They are polite, grateful, tidy, spiritually mature, and always available at convenient times. Actual Christians are more complicated. They misunderstand. They talk too much. They fail to notice obvious things. They arrive late. They need help. They say awkward sentences. They disappoint us. Sometimes they sin against us. Sometimes we sin against them and then discover that being the offender is less pleasant than being the righteous observer of other people’s failures. The commandment lives there, among actual believers. Love your brother means refusing to gossip when gossip would be delicious. It means praying for the person we are tempted to criticize. It means helping when help is needed and we would rather not be bothered. It means apologizing without delivering a courtroom speech in our own defense. It means forgiving because Christ has forgiven us, not because the other person has earned the right to be released from our bitterness. It means telling the truth, but not using truth as a club. It means correcting when correction is needed, but remembering that we also stand by grace. It means giving quietly, visiting the sick, encouraging the discouraged, making room for the awkward, bearing with the weak, and refusing to treat the church as a place where people must be useful to us before we will love them. It also means we stop calling bitterness by nicer names. Sometimes we call it discernment. Sometimes we call it being realistic. Sometimes we call it having standards. Sometimes we call it remembering the facts. But John says hatred blinds the eyes. That is a frightening truth, because blind people often do not know what they are not seeing. Hatred makes us confident in the dark. It convinces us that we understand the whole matter. It edits memory in our favor. It turns people into categories. It makes mercy look naïve and contempt look sensible. It lets us say, “I am walking in the light,” while stepping carefully around every command of Christ that would require us to put down the old grievance. But the true light is already shining. That is John’s hope. The darkness is passing away, not because human beings have improved themselves, but because Christ has come. His light exposes what we would rather keep hidden. It reveals not only our sins, but also our Savior. The same Lord who commands love also supplies grace. He does not merely point at our bitterness and condemn us. He calls us out of the darkness and teaches us to walk in the light. And so the question becomes wonderfully practical. Whom must I stop hating? Whom must I begin loving in obedience to Christ? What phone call, visit, apology, prayer, gift, silence, correction, forgiveness, or act of service would make the commandment visible in my life? John will not allow love to remain a decoration on Christian speech. It must become the furniture of Christian living. It must be found in homes, churches, markets, meals, hospital rooms, funeral gatherings, messages sent, messages not sent, words spoken, and words swallowed before they become poison. “He who loves his brother abides in the light.” That is where Christians belong. Not in the old room where the quarrel sits at the table and is fed like an honored guest, but in the light of Christ, where mercy has entered, truth has spoken, and love has work to do. #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John2

#4 An Explanation: I know I said this was not going to be a regular thing and here I am doing the second in a row tossing extra content at you. As last time I just think a bit of context will be a positive thing. Can be skipped if you want. Yes, Christians are commanded to love all people, but Scripture gives a special emphasis to loving fellow believers. Jesus commands His people to love even their enemies. That means Christian love cannot be limited to people who agree with us, like us, treat us well, share our culture, or belong to our church. The Christian is not permitted to say, “That person is outside my circle, therefore I owe him nothing.” We are to do good, show mercy, pray, speak truth, forgive, and act justly toward all people because every person is made in the image of God. But when John says “love your brother” in 1 John, he is speaking especially about love within the family of God. “Brother” means a fellow believer. John is not narrowing Christian love so that outsiders may be ignored. Rather, he is pressing the point that a person cannot claim to love God while despising those whom God has made His children. This is similar to family life. A man should treat all children with kindness, but he has a special obligation to feed, protect, teach, and care for his own children. In the same way, Christians should love all people, but they have a particular duty to love the brethren — the household of faith. So what does “love your brother” look like in everyday life? It begins with refusing hatred. That sounds obvious, but John is very direct about it. A Christian may be hurt, grieved, disappointed, or angered by another believer. But he may not settle into contempt. He may not secretly enjoy another believer’s failure. He may not nurse bitterness as though it were a treasured possession. He may not call resentment “discernment” and pretend it is holiness. Love means seeking the good of the other person before God. It speaks truth, but not to crush. It forgives, but not because sin does not matter. It is patient with weakness, but not approving of evil. It prays for the brother who is struggling. It helps when there is need. It refuses gossip. It gives the benefit of the doubt where possible. It corrects when correction is needed, but with humility, remembering that we too live by mercy. In ordinary life, love may look like visiting someone who is ill, helping a family in trouble, giving quietly to someone in need, listening before judging, apologizing when we have sinned, forgiving when we have been wronged, refusing to repeat damaging stories, welcoming the awkward person, bearing with the difficult person, and not abandoning the wounded person. It also means practical loyalty to the church. Not blind loyalty to wrongdoing, but faithful commitment to the people Christ has purchased. Christians love their brothers and sisters by worshiping together, serving together, carrying burdens together, correcting one another, encouraging one another, and refusing to treat the church as a disposable convenience. John’s point is not that love saves us. Christ saves us. But love shows that His light is truly at work in us. A loveless Christian is a contradiction. A bitter Christian, settled and satisfied in bitterness, is walking in darkness while claiming to enjoy the light.

Holy Wit – Bible Study #4 The Old Commandment Made New (Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John – 1 John 2:7–11) Scripture Reading (NKJV): 1 John 2:7 Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. 1 John 2:8 Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. 1 John 2:9 He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. 1 John 2:10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 1 John 2:11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. 1 John 2:7–11 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A7-11&version=NKJV 1. No New Commandment, Yet Not Merely Old John begins with what sounds like a contradiction: “I write no new commandment,” and then, “Again, a new commandment I write to you.” This is not confusion. It is apostolic precision. The command to love was not newly invented by John, nor even by the church. God had commanded His people to love long before the coming of Christ. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” stood within the Law of Moses. The people of God had never been permitted to separate covenant faithfulness from love toward others. Cold orthodoxy was never the goal. Loveless religion was never obedience. Yet John also says the commandment is new. It is new because it has now been revealed in its fullest form in Jesus Christ. The old commandment has not been replaced; it has been fulfilled, embodied, clarified, and intensified in Him. In Christ, love is no longer merely commanded from outside us. It has been displayed before us in flesh and blood. Leviticus 19:18 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+19%3A18&version=NKJV John 13:34–35 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+13%3A34-35&version=NKJV 2. Love Made Visible in Christ Jesus did not simply teach love. He defined it by His life, death, patience, mercy, holiness, and sacrifice. The world uses the word love for nearly everything, until the word becomes soft enough to mean approval, sentiment, attraction, or kindness without truth. Scripture is not so vague. The love revealed in Christ is holy love. It does not excuse sin, flatter pride, or pretend darkness is light. Christ loved sinners without becoming careless about sin. He loved His disciples even when they were slow, fearful, argumentative, and full of misunderstanding. He washed feet. He bore reproach. He laid down His life. This is why Christian love cannot be reduced to being pleasant. A person may have a gentle voice and still be loveless. Another may speak firmly and yet love deeply. Biblical love is not mere temperament. It is the grace-shaped disposition of one who has been loved by Christ and is being conformed to Christ. John 15:12–13 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+15%3A12-13&version=NKJV Romans 5:8 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+5%3A8&version=NKJV 3. The Darkness Is Passing Away John says the commandment is true “in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.” This is a statement about the age inaugurated by Christ. The coming of Jesus has not left the world as it was. The Light has entered. The darkness has been exposed. The kingdom of God has broken into history. John is not saying there is no darkness remaining. He is saying darkness no longer has the final word. The true Light is already shining. Christ has come. The gospel has gone forth. The Spirit has been given. The people of God now live between the victory already secured and the final glory still to come. This matters because Christian love is not merely private moral improvement. It is evidence that the new creation has already begun its work in us. When believers love one another in truth, patience, forgiveness, and sacrificial care, they bear witness that Christ’s light is not theory. It is shining in real people, in real churches, in real conflicts, in real obedience. John 1:4–5 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A4-5&version=NKJV 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+5%3A17&version=NKJV 4. Hatred as Darkness John gives no room for sentimental self-deception: “He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.” A bitter Christian is a contradiction John refuses to soften. This does not mean Christians never struggle with anger, grief, offense, disappointment, or painful memories. Scripture is honest about human injury. Some wounds are deep. Some betrayals leave scars. Forgiveness may involve a long obedience of returning again and again to the mercy of God. Love does not require pretending evil did not happen. It does not require trusting the untrustworthy or denying the need for justice, boundaries, discipline, or wisdom. But hatred is different. Hatred settles in. Hatred nurses injury as identity. Hatred wants the other person diminished, humiliated, or destroyed. Hatred enjoys the darkness while claiming to belong to the light. John’s concern is not that believers have no emotions. His concern is profession without transformation. The person who claims fellowship with God while clinging to hatred is not merely having a bad day. He is walking in contradiction to the God he claims to know. Matthew 5:21–24 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A21-24&version=NKJV Ephesians 4:31–32 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+4%3A31-32&version=NKJV 5. Love as Evidence, Not Purchase John is not teaching that we earn salvation by loving others. Love does not purchase eternal life. Christ alone saves. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Our obedience is never the foundation of our acceptance before God. But love is evidence of life. The root is grace; the fruit is love. Where Christ has given life, love begins to grow. Sometimes slowly. Sometimes painfully. Sometimes after much pruning. But it grows. This is why John speaks so bluntly. He is not interested in religious claims that have no moral evidence. Anyone can say, “I am in the light.” Anyone can use Christian words. Anyone can sing, attend, speak, post, teach, or debate. But John asks whether the claimed light has touched the heart. Love does not make us Christians. But the absence of love exposes a claim to Christianity as hollow. A lamp that gives no light may still be called a lamp, but the name does not overcome the darkness. James 2:14–17 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+2%3A14-17&version=NKJV Galatians 5:6 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+5%3A6&version=NKJV 6. Love and Abiding in the Light John says, “He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.” Love brings moral clarity. Hatred blinds; love steadies. Hatred distorts our judgment, our speech, our memory, our interpretation of others, and even our sense of God’s nearness. A hateful heart does not see straight. Love, by contrast, walks in the light. This does not mean love makes everything easy. Loving one another often requires patience with weakness, courage in truth-telling, humility in apology, and grace in forgiveness. Love may have to confront. Love may have to wait. Love may have to refuse gossip, suspicion, contempt, and the secret pleasure of seeing another stumble. But love does not stumble around in darkness pretending blindness is discernment. It walks where Christ walks. It moves toward the good of the brother or sister, not merely toward the satisfaction of the wounded self. 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+13%3A4-7&version=NKJV Colossians 3:12–14 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+3%3A12-14&version=NKJV 7. The Blindness of Bitterness John’s final warning is severe: the one who hates “does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” Hatred does not merely damage relationships. It damages perception. It makes a person spiritually disoriented. This is one of sin’s great deceits. The bitter person often feels unusually clear-sighted. He sees everyone else’s failures. He remembers every slight. He can explain every reason for his resentment. He may even dress his bitterness in the language of principle, discernment, or justice. But John says hatred blinds. The danger is not only that hatred leads a person in the wrong direction. The danger is that hatred makes him confident while doing so. He walks in darkness and calls it wisdom. He stumbles and calls it strength. He refuses mercy and calls it righteousness. The Christian life cannot be lived that way. Christ has loved us too deeply, forgiven us too freely, and brought us too fully into the light for us to make peace with hatred. Titus 3:3–7 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Titus+3%3A3-7&version=NKJV Hebrews 12:14–15 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+12%3A14-15&version=NKJV 8. The Church as the Household of Love John’s words are personal, but they are not merely individual. He writes to the church. The command to love one another assumes life together among believers. Christianity is not a solitary arrangement between the individual soul and God while the church remains optional scenery. The local church is one of the places where this commandment becomes visible. Here people of different backgrounds, temperaments, histories, ages, cultures, and weaknesses are called to belong to one another in Christ. That is not always easy. In fact, it is often precisely there that love is tested. It is easy to love the idea of the church. It is harder to love actual Christians. Actual Christians interrupt, misunderstand, disappoint, need help, speak poorly, fail to notice, and sometimes wound. Yet these are the people Christ has purchased with His blood. To love the brethren is to love those whom Christ loves. It is to receive the family God has given, not merely the one we would have selected. 1 Peter 1:22–23 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Peter+1%3A22-23&version=NKJV 1 John 3:14–18 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+3%3A14-18&version=NKJV Reflection Questions 1. Why does John describe the commandment to love as both old and new? 2. How does Christ’s own love define Christian love more clearly than human sentiment or cultural politeness? 3. What is the difference between struggling with hurt or anger and settling into hatred? 4. Why is love evidence of salvation but not the basis of salvation? 5. In what ways can bitterness distort spiritual judgment and make darkness feel like clarity? 6. Who in your life is difficult to love, and what would obedience to Christ look like in that relationship? Prayer Points 1. Thank God that the command to love has been fully revealed in Jesus Christ. 2. Ask the Lord to expose any bitterness, resentment, contempt, or hidden hatred in your heart. 3. Pray for grace to love fellow believers in truth, patience, humility, and holiness. 4. Ask God to make your church a visible witness of Christ’s light through its love. 5. Pray for wisdom to distinguish biblical love from mere sentiment, approval, or avoidance of conflict. 6. Thank Christ that He loved us while we were sinners and now teaches us to love as those brought into the light. For further study (NKJV): Leviticus 19:18 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+19%3A18&version=NKJV John 13:34–35 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+13%3A34-35&version=NKJV Romans 13:8–10 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+13%3A8-10&version=NKJV 1 Corinthians 13:1–7 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+13%3A1-7&version=NKJV 1 John 3:14–18 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+3%3A14-18&version=NKJV #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John2

Holy Wit – Reflections #3 (Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John) Following the Teacher Scripture Reference: 1 John 2:1–6 There is a certain look that appears on the face of a student who has just made a mistake in front of a teacher. You can see it in a classroom. You can see it in a workshop. You can see it on a football field, in a kitchen, in an office, or anywhere one human being is trying to learn from another. It is the look that says, "Well, that did not go as planned." Sometimes the mistake is small. Sometimes it is spectacular. The student forgets an instruction, uses the wrong tool, answers the wrong question, or walks confidently in the wrong direction. There are few things in life quite as impressive as watching someone make a mistake with complete confidence. Most of us have done it. Some of us have done it repeatedly. The difference between a good student and a bad one is not usually the number of mistakes. It is what happens afterward. The bad student decides the teacher is the problem. The bad student explains why the instructions were unclear. The bad student becomes an expert in excuses. The good student looks embarrassed, learns something, and keeps following. Years pass. The student is still not perfect. He still makes mistakes and still occasionally misunderstands. But something has changed. If you watch closely, you begin to see the teacher in the student. Not physically. In habits. In attitudes. In priorities. The student begins to value what the teacher values, to notice what the teacher notices, and to approach problems the way the teacher approaches them. The resemblance grows. That resemblance is what came to mind as I read 1 John 2. John begins with a command: "Do not sin." Then, almost immediately, he acknowledges reality: "If anyone sins..." John understands Christians. He understands that believers are still learners, still growing, and still capable of mistakes that make us wince when we look back on them. The remarkable thing is that John does not leave us standing alone in our failure. He points us to Jesus Christ the righteous—our Advocate, the One who represents us before the Father, the One whose righteousness succeeds where ours does not, and the One whose sacrifice fully dealt with our sin. That is the foundation of the Christian life. Not our performance, but Christ's. Not our righteousness, but Christ's. Not our ability to avoid every mistake, but Christ's ability to save sinners. Yet John does not stop there. Because grace does something. The student who truly follows the Teacher does not remain unchanged. Over time, he begins to resemble the One he follows. This is why John speaks of obedience—not as the basis of salvation, but as the evidence of salvation. The Christian obeys Christ imperfectly, sometimes frustratingly imperfectly. Yet there is a growing desire to walk where Christ walks, to love what Christ loves, to turn away from what Christ hates, and to become more like the Teacher. John is not asking whether believers have arrived. He is asking whether they are following. That is a very different question. One produces despair. The other produces hope. Because every Christian can point to failures. Every Christian can point to sins. Every Christian can point to moments that require repentance. But can we point to a growing resemblance to Christ? Can we say that, however slowly, we are learning to walk where He walks? That is John's concern. Not perfection. Direction. Not mastery. Following. Not sinlessness. Resemblance. And that is good news for all of us, because the Teacher we follow is also the Advocate who stands for us when we stumble. #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John2

#3 An Explanation: This will not be a regular thing but with this study I think some clarification is called for. It’s going to make for a lot more content than I normally post up but again I think it is necessary. Not crucial so feel free to skip this if you wish. Following commandments and obedience is being talked about in this study and we need to assure we understand what does this obedience look like? Obedience to what? What does this obedience look like in a Christian’s life? This is exactly the question that must be answered if we're going to avoid turning John's words into either legalism or vagueness. When John says: "By this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments." (1 John 2:3) the immediate question is, "Which commandments?" Because if we answer incorrectly, we end up either back under the Mosaic Law or in a Christianity so fuzzy that obedience means whatever we want it to mean. - First, John is not talking about ceremonial Old Testament laws John is not saying Christians prove their salvation by: • Keeping kosher • Observing Jewish feast days • Offering sacrifices • Following Levitical regulations The New Testament repeatedly teaches that believers are not under the Mosaic covenant as a covenant system. - So what obedience is John talking about? John actually answers this throughout his letter. For John, obedience is fundamentally obedience to Christ. Notice how often he returns to the same themes: • Believing the truth about Jesus • Loving fellow believers • Rejecting sinful patterns • Walking in the light • Keeping Christ's word • Remaining faithful to apostolic teaching In other words, obedience is not primarily about checking boxes. It is about a life increasingly shaped by allegiance to Christ. - What does that look like practically? It looks like a Christian who: Repents when he sins. Not because he is terrified of losing salvation every Tuesday afternoon, but because he loves Christ and hates the sin that disrupts fellowship with Him. ________________________________________ Tells the truth. Because Jesus is truth. A believer may fail, exaggerate, shade the facts, or speak carelessly, but there is an increasing commitment to honesty. ________________________________________ Loves other believers. This becomes one of John's biggest tests. A person can possess impressive theology, quote Greek verbs, and own seventeen study Bibles. But if he habitually hates, despises, or refuses to love fellow Christians, John gets very uncomfortable very quickly. ________________________________________ Fights sin rather than making peace with it. Notice I didn't say "never sins." John has already said believers do sin. The question is whether we are at war with sin or comfortably sharing a sofa with it. ________________________________________ Seeks to obey Christ even when inconvenient. Forgiveness. Generosity. Humility. Purity. Faithfulness. These things rarely arrive naturally. They usually require surrender. - What does obedience not look like? This is equally important. John is not describing: • Sinless perfection • Constant spiritual victory • Flawless performance • Never struggling • Never failing If that were his standard, then verse 1 would make no sense: "If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father." John expects Christians to fail. What he does not expect is for them to become comfortable with failure. The evidence versus basis distinction This is the crucial point. Imagine an apple tree. Apples do not make it an apple tree. Apples reveal it is an apple tree. Similarly: Obedience does not create salvation. Obedience reveals salvation. Or to put it another way: A Christian does not obey Christ in order to become a child of God. A Christian obeys Christ because he is a child of God. - John would probably ask a modern Christian something like this: Not: "Have you achieved perfection?" Not: "Have you had enough spiritual experiences?" Not: "Can you recite enough theology?" But: "Is your life moving toward Christ or away from Him?" That is the direction-of-life test John repeatedly applies throughout 1 John. The believer stumbles. The believer repents. The believer gets up. The believer keeps following Christ. That imperfect but genuine pattern of obedience is what John sees as evidence that someone truly knows God.

Holy Wit – Bible Study #3 Christ Our Advocate (Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John – 1 John 2:1–6) Scripture Reading (NKJV) 1 John 2:1–6 1 John 2:1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2:2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. 1 John 2:3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 1 John 2:4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 1 John 2:5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 1 John 2:6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. 1 John 2:1–6 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A1-6&version=NKJV 1. Grace Is Not Permission to Sin John begins with a statement that immediately corrects a common misunderstanding of grace. “These things I write to you, so that you may not sin.” The purpose of the gospel is not merely forgiveness; it is holiness. God does not save people in order to leave them unchanged. The grace that pardons also transforms. Throughout church history, some have treated grace as a safety net beneath a life of careless disobedience. John rejects that idea at the outset. Notice the order. John has just taught that believers must confess their sins and that God forgives and cleanses (1 John 1:9). Yet he does not conclude, “Therefore sin is no great concern.” Instead, he concludes, “Therefore do not sin.” Biblical grace never lowers God's standard. It provides the means by which sinners may be reconciled to God and progressively conformed to Christ. 1 John 2:1 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A1&version=NKJV Titus 2:11–12 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Titus+2%3A11-12&version=NKJV 2. Christ Our Advocate Before the Father John immediately balances the call to holiness with assurance. “And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father.” The word Advocate carries the idea of one who comes alongside to represent another. John does not say believers might have an advocate if they have performed adequately. He says we have an Advocate. The significance is profound. The believer's standing before God ultimately rests not upon his own righteousness but upon Christ's righteousness. Our acceptance before God is grounded in the finished work of Christ and His continuing intercession. John specifically calls Him “Jesus Christ the righteous.” This title is central to the argument. A sinful advocate could not help guilty sinners. But Christ is uniquely qualified because He alone possesses perfect righteousness. The believer's assurance is therefore Christ-centered, not self-centered. 1 John 2:1 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A1&version=NKJV Hebrews 7:25 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+7%3A25&version=NKJV 3. The Meaning of Propitiation John next explains why Christ can function as our Advocate. “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins.” This is one of the most important doctrines in Scripture. Propitiation means that Christ's sacrificial death satisfied the righteous wrath and justice of God against sin. Modern people often prefer to think only about God's love, but Scripture refuses to separate His love from His holiness. God is perfectly loving, but He is also perfectly just. Sin creates a real moral debt before a holy God. That debt cannot simply be ignored. At the cross, Christ bore the judgment deserved by His people. Divine justice was not set aside; it was fulfilled. Because the penalty has been borne, God remains both “just and the justifier” of those who trust in Christ. The cross is therefore not merely an example of love. It is an accomplishment. Something objective occurred there. Christ actually dealt with sin. 1 John 2:2 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A2&version=NKJV Romans 3:25–26 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+3%3A25-26&version=NKJV 4. Knowing God Produces Obedience Beginning in verse 3, John shifts from Christ's work to the evidence that His work has taken root in a person's life. “By this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” John is addressing a recurring problem. Some claimed special knowledge of God while living lives marked by disobedience. John refuses to separate theology from conduct. Notice that obedience is not presented as the basis of salvation but as evidence of salvation. John is not teaching salvation by works. He is teaching that genuine faith produces visible fruit. A transformed heart produces a transformed life. This becomes one of the major themes of the entire letter. Profession alone is insufficient. Claims must be tested. 1 John 2:3–4 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A3-4&version=NKJV John 14:21 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14%3A21&version=NKJV 5. Assurance Through Transformation John's concern is not to create uncertainty among believers but to provide legitimate assurance. “By this we know that we are in Him.” Throughout this epistle, John repeatedly provides tests of authentic faith. These tests are not intended to encourage endless introspection. They are intended to distinguish genuine Christianity from mere religious profession. One of those tests is obedience. The believer may stumble, fail, and require repeated repentance. Yet there remains a fundamental orientation toward God and His commands. Where the Holy Spirit is present, transformation follows. The perfection John describes is not sinless performance but the maturing work of God's love in the believer's life. 1 John 2:5 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A5&version=NKJV Philippians 1:6 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians+1%3A6&version=NKJV 6. Walking as Christ Walked John concludes with one of the strongest statements in the letter. “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” Christianity is not merely agreement with a set of doctrines, although doctrine matters profoundly. Nor is it merely participation in religious activity. It is union with Christ. Those united to Christ increasingly reflect Christ. The pattern of His life becomes the pattern toward which believers are being shaped. His humility, obedience, truthfulness, love, and submission to the Father become the model for Christian living. John's argument is straightforward: Christ died for sinners. Christ advocates for sinners. Christ transforms sinners. Therefore those who claim to belong to Christ should increasingly resemble Christ. The gospel not only rescues; it renews. 1 John 2:6 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A6&version=NKJV Romans 8:29 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+8%3A29&version=NKJV Reflection Questions 1. Why does John begin with the command not to sin before discussing Christ as Advocate? 2. How does the doctrine of propitiation deepen your understanding of the cross? 3. Why is Christ's righteousness essential to His role as Advocate? 4. How does John distinguish between the basis of salvation and the evidence of salvation? 5. What practical areas of your life most need to be brought into conformity with Christ? Prayer Points 1. Thank God for the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. 2. Praise Christ for His continuing advocacy before the Father. 3. Thank God that the penalty for sin was fully satisfied at the cross. 4. Ask the Holy Spirit to produce increasing obedience in your life. 5. Pray for wisdom to walk more faithfully in the footsteps of Christ. For Further Study (NKJV) Romans 8:33–34 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+8%3A33-34&version=NKJV Hebrews 9:24–28 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+9%3A24-28&version=NKJV James 2:17–18 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+2%3A17-18&version=NKJV #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John2

Holy Wit – Reflections #2 (Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John) Walking in the Light It started with a strange smell. Not a dramatic smell. Not the sort of smell that causes neighbors to gather in the yard pointing at the house. Just a faint smell. A suspicious smell. The kind of smell that whispers, "Something around here is wrong." The homeowner ignored it. Naturally. That is what homeowners do. For several days he convinced himself it was probably nothing. Perhaps the dog had rolled in something unfortunate. Perhaps a potato had reached the end of its earthly ministry. Perhaps it was simply one of those mysteries of life that nobody was meant to solve. The smell persisted. Eventually he began opening cabinets. Nothing. He checked the pantry. Nothing. He inspected the refrigerator. Still nothing. By this point the smell had become less of a smell and more of a personality. It seemed to greet him whenever he entered the kitchen. Finally, after exhausting all reasonable explanations and several unreasonable ones, he pulled a small storage bin away from the wall. Behind it sat a forgotten bag of onions. Forgotten might not be the right word. Abandoned would be more accurate. Those onions had clearly made peace with their own mortality some time earlier. The discovery was unpleasant. The cleanup was unpleasant. The smell was unpleasant. But afterward the kitchen was clean again. The mystery vanished the moment the hidden thing was brought into the light. Most of us would prefer our spiritual lives to work differently. We would like the smell to disappear without moving the bin. We would like the problem solved without examination. We would like cleansing without confession. Unfortunately, John seems entirely unwilling to cooperate with these preferences. In 1 John 1:5–10, he tells us that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. That is wonderful news right up until we remember that light reveals things. We enjoy light when it illuminates mountain ranges, sunsets, oceans, and photographs of grandchildren. We become slightly less enthusiastic when it illuminates us. John addresses a temptation as old as humanity itself: the desire to appear better than we are. "If we say..." The phrase appears repeatedly throughout the passage. "If we say we have fellowship with Him." "If we say we have no sin." "If we say we have not sinned." John is exposing the gap that can exist between our words and reality. The issue is not that Christians sin. John assumes they do. The issue is what Christians do with their sin. Darkness says, "Hide it." Pride says, "Deny it." Fear says, "Cover it." The gospel says, "Bring it into the light." That is one of the most freeing truths in the Christian life. God already knows everything we are trying to hide. Confession is not the moment God discovers our failure. It is the moment we stop pretending. And remarkably, the promise attached to confession is not condemnation. It is cleansing. John does not say that God is faithful and just to embarrass us. He says God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The Christian life is not a performance in which we convince God we are better than we are. It is a relationship in which we increasingly trust Him enough to tell the truth. The light can be uncomfortable. Anyone who has stumbled into a brightly lit bathroom at three in the morning knows this. But the purpose of God's light is not destruction. It is restoration. The hidden onion behind the storage bin may be a silly illustration, but the principle remains. Problems hidden in darkness rarely improve with time. They simply become more comfortable in their hiding place. John calls believers to something better. Not perfection. Not pretense. Not spiritual image management. He calls us into the light. And there, in the place we often fear most, we discover the grace we needed all along. #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John15to10

Holy Wit – Bible Study #2 Walking in the Light (Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John – 1 John 1:5–10) Scripture Reading (NKJV): 1 John 1:5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. 1 John 1:5–10 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+1%3A5-10&version=NKJV 1. God Is Light John begins with a foundational truth: “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” Light throughout Scripture is associated with holiness, truth, purity, and the revealing presence of God. Darkness represents sin, deception, and rebellion. John does not present God as mostly light or occasionally light. There is no darkness in Him whatsoever. Everything that follows in this passage grows out of that reality. 1 John 1:5 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+1%3A5&version=NKJV James 1:17 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+1%3A17&version=NKJV 2. Fellowship Requires More Than Religious Words John immediately warns against empty profession. A person may claim fellowship with God while continuing to walk in darkness. Such a claim is false because our conduct eventually reveals what our words attempt to conceal. John is not teaching perfection, but consistency. A life moving toward God cannot simultaneously embrace darkness as its home. 1 John 1:6 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+1%3A6&version=NKJV John 3:19–21 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3%3A19-21&version=NKJV 3. Walking in the Light Walking in the light does not mean living without struggle or failure. It means living openly before God. The believer does not hide sin, excuse sin, or redefine sin. Instead, he brings his life into the light of God's truth. As believers walk in the light, they enjoy fellowship with one another and continual cleansing through the blood of Christ. 1 John 1:7 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+1%3A7&version=NKJV Ephesians 5:8–10 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+5%3A8-10&version=NKJV 4. The Danger of Self-Deception John then addresses a common human temptation: denying our sinfulness. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.” The greatest deception is often self-deception. The problem is not merely that others are fooled; we ourselves become blind to reality. Spiritual growth begins with honesty about who we are and our continual need for God's grace. 1 John 1:8 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+1%3A8&version=NKJV Proverbs 28:13 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+28%3A13&version=NKJV 5. The Gift of Confession One of the most comforting promises in Scripture appears in verse 9. Confession is not informing God of something He does not know. It is agreeing with Him about our sin. When believers confess, God responds according to His character. He is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse. Forgiveness is not based upon our worthiness but upon the finished work of Christ. 1 John 1:9 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+1%3A9&version=NKJV Psalm 32:5 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+32%3A5&version=NKJV 6. Christians Live in the Light John closes by warning against claiming we have never sinned. Such a claim ultimately calls God a liar because it contradicts His testimony about humanity. Christians are not people who pretend they have no sin. Christians are people who bring their sin into the light, confess it, and find cleansing through Christ. The mark of spiritual maturity is not sinlessness but increasing honesty before God. 1 John 1:10 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+1%3A10&version=NKJV Romans 3:23 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+3%3A23&version=NKJV Reflection Questions 1. What does John's statement that “God is light” teach you about God's character? 2. What is the difference between struggling against sin and walking in darkness? 3. Why is self-deception so dangerous in the Christian life? 4. How does confession strengthen fellowship with God? 5. In what ways can you practice living more openly in the light this week? Prayer Points 1. Thank God for His holiness, truth, and purity. 2. Ask God to reveal areas of darkness that need to be brought into the light. 3. Thank Christ for His cleansing blood and continual forgiveness. 4. Pray for humility and honesty in your walk with God. For Further Study (NKJV): Psalm 51:1–12 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+51%3A1-12&version=NKJV Proverbs 28:13 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+28%3A13&version=NKJV James 5:16 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+5%3A16&version=NKJV #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John15to10

Holy Wit – Reflections #1 Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John Scripture References: 1 John 1:1–4 There is something deeply reassuring about old men who keep repeating themselves. When you are young, you tend to think repetition is a sign that someone has run out of material. But after enough years on earth, you begin to realize repetition is usually connected to love. Grandparents repeat things because they desperately want the grandchildren to remember them after they are gone. Fathers repeat things because sons possess an almost supernatural ability to forget obvious truths. Pastors repeat things because sheep wander. Constantly. Sheep can wander from one side of a field to another while still technically standing in the same field. Human beings can wander while sitting perfectly still in church. And John—the old apostle writing near the end of his life—repeats himself because he has spent decades watching Christians drift into confusion. So he begins not with abstract theology but with memory. “That which we have heard…” “That which we have seen…” “That which our hands have handled…” One gets the sense John is almost leaning over the table while writing this. Not irritated exactly. But firm in the way older saints become firm after burying enough illusions. “No,” he says in essence. “This was real. We were there.” Christianity did not begin as a philosophy discussion among men in robes drinking strong coffee and debating the meaning of existence. It began with fishermen staring at a man calming storms. It began with exhausted disciples watching Christ sleep through weather that convinced seasoned sailors they were all about to die. It began with dirty feet, crowded roads, exhausted evenings, empty tombs, and breakfast beside a shoreline after the resurrection. John had touched the risen Christ. That leaves a mark on a man. And perhaps that is part of why modern people sometimes struggle with Christianity. We prefer spirituality that remains comfortably vague. Vague spirituality asks very little of us. It drifts pleasantly around the room like scented candle smoke. But the gospel refuses vagueness. John insists on reality. He insists Christ entered history. He insists eternal life wore skin. He insists God became visible. Which means Christianity is not mainly about mankind searching for God. It is about God revealing Himself to mankind. That changes everything. It means truth is not something we invent but something we receive. It means fellowship is not built merely upon shared hobbies, political alignment, or mutual appreciation for church potlucks featuring casseroles whose ingredients remain known only unto the Lord. Real Christian fellowship begins with shared union in Christ. And then John says something remarkable. “These things we write to you that your joy may be full.” Joy. Not escapism. Not denial. Not pretending life is easier than it is. John writes those words in a world filled with persecution, false teachers, suffering, and death. Yet he still speaks confidently about joy because Christian joy is rooted somewhere deeper than circumstances. The world tends to offer two alternatives when reality becomes painful. One is denial. The other is despair. John offers neither. Instead, he points believers toward Christ—the One heard, seen, touched, crucified, risen, and proclaimed. Joy, according to John, is found not by escaping reality but by finally understanding it correctly. R.C. Sproul often emphasized that Christianity is grounded in objective truth outside ourselves. John says much the same thing here. The apostles were not selling inspiration. They were bearing witness. The faith rests upon revelation, not religious creativity. And there is comfort in that. Because if Christianity depended upon human cleverness, it would collapse every Tuesday afternoon by approximately 2:15. Human beings are simply not stable enough creatures to build eternal hope upon themselves. But Christ remains stable. The same Christ John heard. The same Christ John saw. The same Christ John touched. The same Christ still proclaimed today. And that, John says, is where fullness of joy begins. #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John

Holy Wit – Bible Study #1 That Your Joy May Be Full (Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John) Scripture Reading (NKJV): 1 John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— 1 John 1:2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 1 John 1:3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:4 And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. 1 John 1:1–4 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+1%3A1-4&version=NKJV 1. Christianity Begins with Revelation, Not Human Discovery John opens his letter in a remarkably earthy way. Christianity is not introduced as philosophy, speculation, or private spiritual insight. John speaks as a witness. He heard Christ. He saw Christ. He touched Christ. The faith is rooted in reality, not religious imagination. This matters because humanity has always preferred spirituality that floats free from accountability. A vague religion cannot be disproven because it never risks becoming concrete. John refuses that escape route. The Son of God entered history visibly, physically, publicly. The apostles did not meditate their way into Christianity; they encountered the risen Christ. The gospel therefore does not begin with man climbing upward toward God, but with God revealing Himself in His Son. 1 John 1:1–2 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+1%3A1-2&version=NKJV John 1:14 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A14&version=NKJV 2. The Word of Life Was Manifested John calls Jesus “the Word of life.” Life is not merely something Christ gives; it is something He is. Eternal life is not presented in Scripture as an abstract force floating through the universe like spiritual humidity. Eternal life is found in a Person. John stresses that this life “was manifested.” The invisible God made Himself known. The eternal stepped into time. The One who was “with the Father” entered the ordinary world of roads, meals, dust, exhaustion, tears, and crucifixion. Christianity therefore does not deny reality in order to manufacture comfort. It looks directly at the brokenness of the world while simultaneously declaring that God has entered it personally. 1 John 1:2 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+1%3A2&version=NKJV Colossians 1:15–17 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+1%3A15-17&version=NKJV 3. Fellowship Is Rooted in Truth Modern people often speak of fellowship as emotional warmth, shared interests, or the pleasant experience of being around agreeable people with decent casserole recipes. Biblical fellowship is deeper than that. John says fellowship begins with the apostolic witness to Christ. The apostles proclaim what they saw and heard so that others may share in fellowship with them — and ultimately with the Father and the Son. True Christian fellowship is therefore not built upon pretending differences do not exist or avoiding difficult truths in the name of niceness. It is built upon shared union with Christ through the truth of the gospel. The church is not merely a collection of people trying to be encouraging. It is a people joined together because they belong to the same Savior. 1 John 1:3 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+1%3A3&version=NKJV Acts 2:42 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+2%3A42&version=NKJV 4. Joy Is the Fruit of Reality, Not the Denial of It John closes this opening section by speaking of joy. This is important because Christian joy is often misunderstood. Scripture never defines joy as pretending life is painless or convincing ourselves that suffering is imaginary. John writes during a world filled with persecution, false teaching, hardship, death, and uncertainty. Yet he still speaks confidently of fullness of joy. Why? Because joy is rooted not in circumstances, but in fellowship with the living Christ. Christian joy survives reality because it is anchored in something deeper than reality’s changing conditions. The world frequently offers two counterfeit paths: denial or despair. John offers neither. Instead, he points believers toward truth-filled fellowship with Christ, and from that fellowship comes enduring joy. 1 John 1:4 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+1%3A4&version=NKJV John 15:11 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+15%3A11&version=NKJV 5. The Faith Once Delivered There is something wonderfully stubborn about John’s approach. He keeps returning to what was “from the beginning.” Christianity does not reinvent itself every generation in order to remain fashionable. The church does not outgrow Christ the way children outgrow bicycles and regrettable hairstyles. John writes as an old shepherd reminding believers that stability is found not in novelty, but in abiding truth. The apostles were witnesses, not inventors. Their task was not to improve the message, but to faithfully proclaim it. This remains deeply relevant because every age believes itself sophisticated enough to revise Christianity into something more acceptable. John simply brings us back to Christ Himself — heard, seen, handled, crucified, risen, and proclaimed. 1 John 1:1 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+1%3A1&version=NKJV Jude 1:3 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jude+1%3A3&version=NKJV Reflection Questions 1. Why does John place such strong emphasis on hearing, seeing, and touching Christ? 2. How does Christianity being rooted in historical reality strengthen your confidence in the gospel? 3. In what ways does modern culture attempt to separate spirituality from truth? 4. How does fellowship with Christ shape Christian fellowship with other believers? 5. What is the difference between biblical joy and mere optimism or denial? Prayer Points 1. Thank God for revealing Himself through His Son Jesus Christ. 2. Praise Christ for entering real human history to save sinners. 3. Ask for deeper fellowship with the Father and the Son through His Word. 4. Pray for discernment in a world filled with confusion, spiritual counterfeits, and self-made truth. 5. Ask the Lord to produce lasting joy rooted in Christ rather than circumstances. For further study (NKJV): Luke 24:36–43 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+24%3A36-43&version=NKJV 2 Peter 1:16 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Peter+1%3A16&version=NKJV John 17:20–23 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+17%3A20-23&version=NKJV #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John

#4 Holy Wit – Reflections (WW – Wisdom and Worship – Psalm 1; Psalm 112; Psalm 150) Scripture References: Psalm 1; Psalm 112; Psalm 150 There was a man I used to see almost every Saturday morning at a small diner years ago. One of those older places where the coffee arrives before you ask for it because the waitress has already profiled your age and posture correctly. He sat alone most mornings in the same booth near the window. Nothing outwardly remarkable about him. Ball cap. Work jacket. Hands that looked as though they had spent decades arguing with machinery. He would eat slowly, read portions of the newspaper with visible disappointment, occasionally mutter “Well that’s dumb,” under his breath at headlines, and then leave an unusually generous tip. But there was one thing about him people noticed. He was remarkably calm. Not cheerful in the artificial motivational-speaker sense. Not floating through life in mystical denial. Calm. And in modern society, calm people eventually become suspicious. You almost want to ask them what information they possess that the rest of us lack. Because most people now operate at the emotional pace of caffeinated squirrels trying to file taxes during an electrical storm. But this man remained steady. One morning somebody in the diner asked him directly: “How do you stay so relaxed all the time?” And he answered in the simplest possible way. “Well...the Lord’s still running things.” That was it. No sermon. No lecture. No twelve-part podcast series entitled Unlocking the Hidden Secrets of Emotional Alignment Through Quantum Positivity. Just: “The Lord’s still running things.” At the time, I thought the answer sounded almost too simple. But the older I get, the more Psalm 112 sounds exactly like that man. “He will not be afraid of evil tidings; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.” Now that does not mean the righteous man never experiences fear, grief, uncertainty, or sorrow. The Psalms themselves are filled with tears, confusion, and cries for help. Scripture is not emotionally dishonest. But there is a difference between a troubled heart and an untethered one. Psalm 1 describes the wise man as a tree planted by rivers of water. Stable. Rooted. Nourished continually from beneath the surface. That image matters because modern culture increasingly produces the opposite sort of person — spiritually uprooted, emotionally reactive, constantly blown sideways by every new outrage, headline, trend, or catastrophe prediction. And there is no shortage of those. Human civilization now essentially functions as one giant machine for delivering anxiety directly into people’s pockets every seven minutes. The Psalms push back against that drift by continually redirecting attention toward God. Not because difficulties are imaginary. Because God is greater. That old diner man likely understood this better than many educated people. The fear of the Lord produces steadiness because it places life back into proper proportion. God remains sovereign. God remains faithful. God remains worthy of worship. And therefore panic does not deserve permanent residence in the soul. Psalm 150 then takes the whole journey of the Psalms and ends exactly where it has been heading all along: “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.” That line lands differently once you realize praise is not merely emotional enthusiasm. It becomes orientation. The wise life eventually becomes the worshiping life. Not because mature believers never see darkness, but because they repeatedly return their attention to the greatness of God. That changes people over time. A praising person becomes steadier. Kinder. Less self-absorbed. Less chronically outraged. More grateful. More aware that every ordinary mercy — sunlight, forgiveness, food, laughter, redemption, another morning to breathe — is undeserved kindness from God. And perhaps that is one reason the Psalms begin with wisdom and end with praise. Because properly seeing God eventually produces worship. The wise man delights in the Lord. The worshiping man trusts the Lord. And after enough years walking with Him, the two become difficult to separate. Eventually the soul simply learns this settled reflex: The Lord is still running things. And therefore: Praise the Lord. #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WWWisdomAndWorship #Psalm1

#4 Holy Wit – Bible Study The Wise and Praising Life (WW – Wisdom and Worship – Psalm 1; Psalm 112; Psalm 150) Scripture Reading (NKJV): Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; Psalm 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. Psalm 1:3 He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper. Psalm 112:1 Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, Who delights greatly in His commandments. Psalm 112:4 Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness; He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. Psalm 112:6 Surely he will never be shaken; The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance. Psalm 112:7 He will not be afraid of evil tidings; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD. Psalm 112:8 His heart is established; He will not be afraid. Psalm 150:1 Praise the LORD! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament! Psalm 150:2 Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness! Psalm 150:6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD! Psalm 1 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+1&version=NKJV Psalm 112 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+112&version=NKJV Psalm 150 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+150&version=NKJV 1. Wisdom Chooses a Different Path Psalm 1 opens the entire Psalter by describing two fundamentally different ways to live. One path is rooted in reverence for God. The other drifts steadily toward ungodliness, sin, and scorn. The wise person does not merely avoid outward evil; he deliberately delights in the law of the Lord. His mind and heart are shaped by continual meditation upon God’s truth rather than the endlessly shifting opinions of the world around him. This is important because human beings are profoundly influenceable creatures. Whatever consistently forms our thinking eventually shapes our desires, our speech, our priorities, and our conduct. Psalm 1 presents wisdom not merely as information, but as orientation. The wise life is a Godward life. Psalm 1:1–2 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+1%3A1-2&version=NKJV Psalm 111:10 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+111%3A10&version=NKJV 2. The Fear of the Lord Produces Stability Psalm 112 continues the theme by describing the man who fears the Lord. He is not sinless. He is not trouble-free. But he is steady. “He will not be afraid of evil tidings; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.” That sentence feels increasingly rare in an age fueled by panic, outrage, and perpetual anxiety. Modern life often conditions people to live in a constant state of emotional alarm. Every headline becomes catastrophe. Every uncertainty becomes dread. Yet the Psalms repeatedly describe the person who fears the Lord as rooted and stable. Why? Because reverence places life upon the correct foundation. The wise person understands that circumstances constantly change, but the character of God does not. The fear of the Lord does not eliminate difficulty from life. It steadies believers within difficulty. Psalm 112:1 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+112%3A1&version=NKJV Psalm 112:7–8 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+112%3A7-8&version=NKJV 3. Wise People Become Praising People Psalm 150 closes the Psalms the same way Psalm 111 began: with praise. “Praise the LORD!” The Psalms move repeatedly through grief, repentance, warfare, confusion, joy, thanksgiving, and longing — yet they continually return to worship. This is not accidental. The worshiping life is the mature life. Wise believers eventually learn that praise is not merely emotional enthusiasm reserved for unusually pleasant seasons. It becomes the settled posture of a heart that has spent enough time remembering the greatness and faithfulness of God. The Psalms call believers to praise God: • for His mighty acts, • for His excellent greatness, • for His faithfulness, • for His righteousness, • for His mercy, • and simply because He is worthy. The wise life becomes increasingly occupied with God rather than endlessly occupied with self. Psalm 150:1–2 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+150%3A1-2&version=NKJV Psalm 145:3 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+145%3A3&version=NKJV 4. Worship Is the Proper End of Human Life Psalm 150 ends with one of the broadest calls to worship in all Scripture: “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.” The Psalms conclude there because worship is not peripheral to human existence. Humanity was created to know God, delight in Him, glorify Him, and live in continual acknowledgment of His greatness. Modern people often pursue meaning through achievement, entertainment, status, wealth, distraction, or endless self-construction. Yet beneath all those pursuits remains a restless emptiness that cannot ultimately be satisfied apart from God Himself. The Psalms repeatedly direct the human heart back toward its proper center. Worship is not the loss of human fulfillment. It is the recovery of it. Psalm 150:6 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+150%3A6&version=NKJV Psalm 16:11 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+16%3A11&version=NKJV 5. The Wise and Praising Life Becomes a Witness Psalm 112 describes a righteous person whose life quietly affects others around him. He is gracious. Compassionate. Generous. Steady. Unafraid. The Psalms never present wisdom as cold intellectual superiority. True wisdom produces godly character. Likewise, praise is not meant to remain hidden inside private thought alone. Worship overflows into speech, conduct, gratitude, humility, and faithful endurance. A praising believer becomes a visible testimony in a fearful and cynical world. Not because Christians pretend life is easy. But because they continually return to the greatness of God even while life remains difficult. The wise and worshiping life points beyond itself. Psalm 112:4–6 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+112%3A4-6&version=NKJV Psalm 34:1–3 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+34%3A1-3&version=NKJV Reflection Questions 1. According to Psalm 1, what shapes the wise person’s life differently from the ungodly? 2. Why does reverence for God produce stability during fearful times? 3. How does regular praise help redirect attention away from self? 4. What does Psalm 150 teach about humanity’s purpose? 5. In what ways can a worshiping life become a witness to others? Prayer Points 1. Thank God for His wisdom, faithfulness, and continual care. 2. Ask the Lord to help you delight in His truth rather than the counsel of the world. 3. Pray for a steadfast heart that trusts God during uncertain times. 4. Ask God to cultivate continual praise and gratitude within your life. 5. Praise the Lord for His mighty acts, His greatness, and His enduring mercy. For further study (NKJV): Psalm 19:7–11 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+19%3A7-11&version=NKJV Psalm 63:1–5 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+63%3A1-5&version=NKJV Psalm 146:1–10 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+146%3A1-10&version=NKJV #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WWWisdomAndWorship #Psalm1

#3 Holy Wit – Reflections (WW – Wisdom and Worship – Psalm 92; Psalm 145) Scripture References: Psalm 92:1–5; Psalm 145:1–6 There was an older farmer I knew years ago who had the unsettling habit of talking to his cows. Not occasionally. Constantly. Every morning before daylight he would head out to the barn in chore boots that looked as though they had personally survived several wars. Coffee thermos in one hand. Feed bucket in the other. And from somewhere in the darkness you would hear him carrying on full conversations with livestock. “Well now, settle down there, Margaret.” “You’re acting like you haven’t eaten since the Truman administration.” “You girls are moodier than a church potluck committee.” And the cows, for reasons known only to cows, seemed perfectly content with the arrangement. Now the thing I remember most was not actually the conversations. It was the singing. Because somewhere between pouring feed and hauling hay, this old farmer sang hymns. Not professionally. Not especially on key either, if we’re being completely honest before the Lord. But constantly. “How Great Thou Art.” “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” “Blessed Assurance.” The barn became a kind of low-budget sanctuary held together by nails, mud, and tractor parts. At the time I assumed this was simply an old rural eccentricity, like chewing toothpicks or distrusting all modern thermostats. But looking back, I think Psalm 92 explains people like him. “It is good to give thanks to the LORD.” Not merely proper. Good. Modern people tend to think of praise as emotional overflow — something that happens spontaneously during unusually inspiring moments. But the Psalms describe praise more like spiritual nutrition. Something healthy. Necessary. Formative. And perhaps older believers understand this better than younger ones because life eventually teaches you that the human mind drifts naturally toward worry the way shopping carts drift toward parked cars. Left unattended, the soul slides. Toward complaint. Toward fear. Toward irritation. Toward endless mental rehearsals of everything currently wrong with civilization, family, weather patterns, politics, cholesterol numbers, and the suspicious new noise coming from the truck engine. So the Psalms repeatedly call believers back into deliberate worship. Morning and evening, Psalm 92 says. “Every day,” Psalm 145 says. Not because God forgets who He is overnight and needs periodic reminders from nervous Christians. Because we forget. Human beings are forgetful creatures. Yesterday’s answered prayer becomes today’s fresh panic. The Lord carries us through one impossible season and by Thursday afternoon we are already behaving as though the universe has slipped free from His supervision entirely. The Psalms fight that drift relentlessly. They drag the wandering soul back into remembrance. “His faithfulness every night.” That line grows heavier the longer one lives. Because eventually you realize God’s faithfulness is not theoretical. It is cumulative. You look back and see decades of provision you barely noticed while rushing through them. Prayers answered slowly. Deliverances that arrived quietly. Protection you only recognized years later. And somehow praise becomes less theatrical and more steady. Less fireworks. More foundation. That old farmer likely never imagined himself a theologian. But every hymn in that barn was quietly shaping his heart. Repetition was forming him. That is one of the great truths underneath Psalm 145: human beings become shaped by whatever regularly occupies their attention. If a person spends every day marinating in outrage, panic, envy, and endless digital noise, those things eventually carve channels into the soul. But worship shapes people too. Regular praise steadies the mind. It reminds us that God remains glorious even while the world behaves like a shopping cart with one bad wheel pulling violently toward the ditch. And perhaps that is one reason the Psalms speak so often about daily praise rather than occasional praise. Because worship was never meant to be emergency equipment pulled out only during catastrophe. It was meant to become rhythm. Habit. Orientation. A way of walking through the world remembering continuously that the Lord is still faithful, still sovereign, still worthy of praise. Even in muddy barns. Even in weary seasons. Even when the singing is somewhat offensively off-key. Especially then. #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WWWisdomAndWorship #Psalm92