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

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

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

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

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

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

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