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 – 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 – 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

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

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