Lesson 27
We’ve been talking about praying in Jesus name in public places so I thought it was an interesting article that Dr. Moeller brought deciding on the name of God, Do Moslems and Christians Worship the Same God? It’s interesting that here in the United States they want generic prayers in public places. But listen to this. A recent Malaysian court ruling restricted the use of the name Allah to Moslems only. So while we have the US courts wanting a generic deity; we have the Islamic courts – basically the Islamic court is more logically consistent than American secular courts in that they are prohibiting that the name of Allah can only be used by Moslems. That’s consistent.
So Dr. Moeller goes on and he says, “Feminist theologians is another example of changing God’s name. Feminist theologians have demanded that masculine pronouns and names for God be replaced with female or gender neutral terms; but to change the name of God is to redefine God.”
So that is an excellent way of phrasing this. If you change the name of God, you change the essence of God. After all, isn’t that what names mean? Names aren’t arbitrary. Names depict the essence of the object of the noun. So he says that any confusion about the name of God will lead to confusion about the nature of God if not to idolatry. Then he goes on to say how God has revealed His names down through Scripture. The Trinitarian language for example – the Trinitarian language is the language of the Bible; but from the very starting point Islam denies what Christianity takes as a central truth claim. You can’t mix this stuff. I mean this is logical thinking that nouns mean things.
If you think about language, what is the function of a noun? The function of a noun is to distinguish an object. Why do we call an object by a particular name and not another name? We distinguish an object by its noun because we want to distinguish it from all other objects. That’s why we have nouns. This is how ridiculous, how illogical, how nonsensical these kinds of discussions go. I mean apparently people who make these arguments have never taken an English course in school. Maybe they don’t teach English in school anymore. I don’t know. Apparently people have a hard time understanding what nouns are about.
“Even some Christian evangelicals in mission fields are arguing that Moslems who come to faith in Christ can remain in the mosque and continue to worship God as Allah. It’s hard to see how anything other than a theological disaster is going to occur.”
Yes.
Comment
Well, let’s start with 1 John. We’re going to get into that next section. We want to get through it some time.
(Opening prayer)
All right, we’re starting now into this next section. This is the section where we…the body of the epistle basically. We said in the outline…you’ll notice in the box there - attaining confidence before God in prayer and at Christ’s return through sharing eternal life.
We went through these things last week about the frequency of nouns and verbs in this text. We dealt with the percent of the verses with “love” in them. Clearly this section - and I did it by percent so I‘m not biasing the frequency because of the size of the units. So when you have the situation statistically use percents. It’s clear there’s a massive change when we come into this section of the text. So John is going to talk a lot about love. That’s why since he’s going to talk a lot about love, we wanted to go into the theology of love a little bit because l-o-v-e (again a noun and a verb) has become so misused. The word l-o-v-e today as it is used in everyday language is devoid of ethical content – largely devoid of ethical content. So we showed last time…there we have a chart showing that love in the Scripture theologically is inseparable from righteousness and justice. You can’t separate those 3 nouns. They are integrated in the nature of God Himself. God loves righteousness and justice. He loves His holiness. He loves His integrity. He’s committed to that eternally. He’s not going to change because He’s immutable. God changes not.
NKJ Hebrews 13:8 …the same yesterday, today, and forever.
If that’s the situation within the trinity, it then means that the Father loves His righteousness and justice and His personal conscience is there. The Holy Spirit and the Son so you have this reciprocity going on within the trinity. That relationship of love with integrity is what the Bible is talking about when it’s using love. That’s what John is looking at. So when we see high frequency occurrences of the noun and verb in this section of text, that’s the theological luggage that goes along with all that. So you can’t sentimentalize this section of John. This is not sentimentalism. This is profound theology that’s anchored in the very nature and character of God Himself. We wanted to make that clear.
Then of course last time we also …we showed how the foundation of fellowship as John developed it. He’s developed a triune presentation of fellowship with God. He’s been more specific than just the blank idea of fellowship with God. It’s fellowship with the trinity. When he does that there are nuances to fellowship - one of which is that as far as the Father is concerned, He is righteousness and justice - His nature that defines everything else in the trinity here because again righteousness and justice are the moral content of God’s nature. So we have to confront God’s nature. So if we’re going to have fellowship with God; then how do we harmonize our lives with His righteousness and justice? The answer is 1 John 1:9
NKJ 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So that’s the only way to do it. You can’t do it with some psychological thing, bongo drums or hoopla. It has to be a confession before God of what he confesses.
The idea there by the way is we don’t know enough to confess all our sins. It says:
NKJ 1 John 1:9 …He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So it’s that act, that choice of acknowledging our sins. That’s why 1 Corinthians 11 is always there before a communion service. It’s nothing new here.
Then the Son, remember of all the three people of the trinity it’s the Son who is seen. He is the revealer of God’s nature. So this is the Father. Then the Word of God which is the revelation of His nature. That’s historical. That’s visible. What do we do? What is our response to the Son? Of course He isn’t here physically so therefore the only physical thing that we have in our hearing, in our sight, in our minds is the Word of God; and then we submit to that authority. We submit to His revelation.
NKJ 1 John 2:4 He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
So that’s the interaction in fellowship with the Second Person with the trinity. It’s submission to His revelation.
Then we have the Holy Spirit unseen; but He’s the worker of God and it’s the influence of God the Father’s nature as it’s revealed. Then we love His workmanship. That is where we’re getting in this passage in John. So that’s the background so we’ll understand the flow of things.
So if you’ll look at 1 John 2:28, this is sort of the theme verse. We said it’s the theme verse because it’s talking about confidence before God. The word confidence occurs three crucial times here. That’s the characterization of this section – having confidence before God.
To show that section verse 28:
NKJ 1 John 2:28 … we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.
If you’ll hold the place there and turn to the very next epistle, 2 John; and if you’ll look in 2 John at verse 7 and following. We’re looking at another epistle by the same author. Now watch what he’s saying in verses 7, 8, and 9. He’s saying here – this is written to apparently a little small church.
NKJ 2 John 1:7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.
See he’s at that same theme again. Why is that theme? Because how can you have fellowship with the trinity if you’re not going to submit to His revelation? If you’re not going to submit to His revelation, you’re not going to have fellowship with Him. That’s the danger of these deceivers. If they’re going to deny that Jesus Christ is who Jesus Christ says He is, we have a problem.
This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
Basically a Christ hater...
8 Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward.
9 Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God.
So there’s a threat here, an implied threat to believers, in verse 8. The threat is that to get derailed from fellowship with the trinity,. to get derailed from that by following false teaching, is to lose rewards. There are long-term consequences to these kinds of choices. That’s why John is so emphatic in his epistles that we make the right choices.
So back to verse 28. That’s the theme.
Now we’re going to start in this section. So let’s look at verse 29 and 3:1; and we’ll get into the flow here a little bit. While we’re there, this is something else about verse 28. Remember back earlier I said when you see a verb, check the subject of the verb. In this case the subjects of the verb are pronouns. But the pronouns are shifting. Observe what happens in verse 28.
NKJ 1 John 2:28 And now, little children,
Those are the addressees.
you
There’s second person – second person.
NKJ 1 John 2:28 And now, little children, you
Second person pronoun.
abide in Him, that when He appears,
Now what do we have? Why do you suppose there’s a shift in the pronoun here? What does this shift mean? It’s going from the second to the first person - second person plural, first person plural. Why isn’t this – and now little children you abide in Him that whenever He appears you may be of confidence and not be ashamed His coming? Why does it go in place of you to we? Anybody? Yes, Laura.
Comment
Okay, John is including himself in this by bringing in the first person plural. He’s connected with all this. Now let’s reflect on that. He’s connected in one sense because if he doesn’t follow this, it applies to him too. The Apostles are not above the law. The Apostles are not above the revelation. But does anyone sense another aspect to this “we?” Yes.
Comment
They?
Comment
Okay
Comment
But little children are believers. So John appears to involve himself in the divine evaluation of his people. Now this we’ve seen before. Remember back when we first started this epistle, back in verse 4 there was a textual issue. I raised this point back there because in the critical text... Look at 1 John 1:4. Remember there was a little note that we made in verse 4.
NKJ 1 John 1:4 And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.
The received text doesn’t read that way. The received text reads, “These things we write unto you that our joy may be full.” I defended that reading because that’s the same reading we incur in 2 John. Even if you don’t accept the received text in verse 4 of chapter 1, if you go to 2 John and 3 John the attitude is there. We have the evidence then that the apostle sees himself as so connected to the people whom he’s taught that if they screw up it’s shameful to him. I think that shows the pastor’s heart that pastors and teachers are intimately connected to their own flocks; and they’re hurt when their own flocks are hurt. There’s a unity involved here. I think we pick that up if we’re very careful about how we read, and we do notice in the text this shift from second person to first person.
Okay, let’s go on now to verse 29. Now he’s starting in with this section. Keep in mind chapter divisions were not in the original Greek text. In fact the verses weren’t even in the original Greek text. It was just text. It just flowed. That’s why we have to be careful how we divide things up…we have a sense it.
Verse 29 says:
NKJ 1 John 2:29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.
Keep in mind where we are going is one of the most difficult and controversial texts in John - and that’s verse 9. If you let your eyes go down to verse 9, you’ll see that’s where we’re headed. That’s why I’m being very cautious how I’m getting there because verse 9 has been used to argue that on one hand it appears to be teaching perfectionism. It can’t be teaching perfectionism because that’s not theologically correct. So what is it teaching then? We have to answer that question eventually. We’re watching ourselves in how we get there.
One of the things that is raised in this issue in this epistle - notice in verse 29:
NKJ 1 John 2:29 If you know that He is righteous,
There in your notes (the handout) it’s the Greek word oida which is you already know something like you know doctrine. But the second “know” is ginosko which means perceive. If you know, if you know the concept, if you know the doctrine that He is righteous, that is the character of God; then you’ll perceive that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.
Now we have to deal what practicing righteousness is; but before we even get there, this is an issue of discernment now. That’s going to be the theme he’s going to get through because later he’s going to deal with how believers love one another in the congregation, in the corporate body; but before he gets there he’s got to say how do we identify the work of the Holy Spirit in the body because what did we say? Love is connected to His righteousness and justice. So it’s an attraction for the work of God. The issue now becomes how do we recognize what is the work of God? We have people - short people, big people, long people, people of color, people of whiteness, people who have obnoxious personalities, people who are very pleasant to be around – all kinds of people that are in the body of Christ. So the love that he’s talking about isn’t anchored to those things. It’s anchored to something else. It’s anchored to the work of the Lord in the congregation.
So now we have to deal with another frequency chart, and that is “manifest.” Now this is the percent of verses with “manifest” in them. The first section...that was the first 4 verses so you have a high percent because you only have 4 verses. Remember when the epistle starts out, what does he say?
NKJ 1 John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled…
Now what are those 4 verbs doing? Are they talking about mysticism? Why aren’t those 4 verses talking about some mystical, religious experience? It’s reality. It’s physical reality. We hear it. We see it. We touch it. That’s what John means when he says, “We perceive.” He’s not thinking mystically. He’s thinking historically. Physically, that’s what we see – our sensory data. So that’s manifest.
Now if you go through the text, this section we’re in now, this has high frequency. It’s about 12 – 13% of the verses have “manifest” in some form in them. The emphasis now in this very same section that is talking about love, love, love, love, love, is also talking about manifest, manifest, manifest, manifest. So let’s see if we can connect the two. You can’t love unless you know the object that you should be loving. But how do you know the object you should be loving if it isn’t manifest? So now he’s…look now at watching for the work of God so that we can identify that and so then we can love it. This is why now when we start in verse 29, he’s getting at this. He says:
NKJ 1 John 2:29 If you know that He is righteous,
There’s your theological doctrine. You know God is righteous. You know His character. So he says it’s a simple logic here. If God has this character and He reproduces that character by regeneration or being born again, then the manifestation of the being born again should fit His character. God doesn’t create freaks. God creates something that manifests His character. So that’s why he says, “If you know He is righteous.” By the way it’s very interesting - notice the first word in verse 29. Why do you suppose it’s an “if”? Why doesn’t he say, we know He’s righteous so therefore... Why do you suppose he has that little “if” in there? What does that show that he’s thinking about the people he’s writing to?
Comment
By putting a condition in there, it’s a subtle thing he’s getting at. Parents know this.
“If you go to somebody’s house, I want you to act this way.”
It sounds like a conditional clause, but it really isn’t because they are going to go to their friend’s house. If a parent says that to the kid, “If you’re going to their house, I want you to act a certain way;” there’s an implied threat there. What is it? You might not be going to their house if you’re going to act that way. So we use that kind of if. It’s kind of an implied thing.
Yes, Joel.
Comment It seems very unlikely though because he’s very evidential in the way he presents things. His if-then statements throughout these epistles especially you know he says, “If we love one another, then they you know therefore or if say you have no sin then you are a liar. The truth is not in you.” You know these if-then statements. The evidence indicates the consequence of that evidence. We see that throughout the Gospel of John which is evidential to the extreme. He’s saying, “We have seen. We have touched.” You know. He constantly goes back to this eyewitness account where he’s passing these evidences along. He’s not speaking from apostolic authority. He’s speaking from the evidence of two consequences of it.
It’s the Johannine emphasis on evidence. The “if” there - like a parent would say that to his kid. It’s trying to get his readers to think. Do you really know that God is righteous? Have you really thought about it? That’s what this is doing there. It’s very important in other words for you guys to understand, he’s saying, that God is righteous. You’ve got to understand the character and nature of God.
That’s one reason people why we have such sloppy evangelism going on today. You can’t endlessly say God loves you without also saying what kind of a God He is because otherwise you get into all kinds of problems. You get into promiscuity. You get into lacksidaisycalness. You get into no commitment because the nature of God isn’t clear. So right at the beginning of this section where he’s talking about love (high frequency occurrence here); but its manifestation and behind that is the theology of God’s character. So if you know that He is righteous. Basically what he’s saying you ought to. Maybe some of you are screwed up.
Yes, George.
Comment What about “since?”
That would work logically since; but the point of putting an “if” in there makes it somewhat contingent.
Comment
Yes, he can. Well, he can make it contingent in the sense if they’ve been deceived - they are believers who have listened to the false teachers because one of the things the false teachers obviously must be saying is that sin doesn’t count. If that’s what they’re teaching - because remember he said if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Why would they think they have no sin? Are they being influenced by these false teachers? One of the words that you’ll never hear in our society today - you never hear the word sin do we? Have you ever heard that word recently in any political, moral discussion? No it’s what the Gallup Poll said last Tuesday.
Comment
Yes, you err. But sin is the 3-letter word that nobody wants to use because if you’re going to use that word you immediately wind up having to deal with the nature of God. It’s uncomfortable to think about the nature of a holy, righteous God. It’s discomfort.
The “if” here - it’s a way of zeroing in. If you guys know that God is righteous and God is just, if you haven’t been misled so far; then you’ll know and you’ll recognize…
NKJ 1 John 2:29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.
So the manifestation of the life of Christ in the congregation can’t be discerned if you don’t have a measurement; and the measurement is the character of God. If you don’t see the character of God, then what are we looking at here?
Now the next thing we have to deal with is what does he mean here when he says practice the righteousness. If you’ll notice on your notes, I refer you to 3:10. Look at the end of verse 10. That’s the end of this section. By the way verse 10 of this very same…see how manifest is used.
NKJ 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,
Then he adds a clause. Here’s where love and manifest come together.
Whoever does not practice righteousness
Same expression
nor he who does not love his brother.
So in John’s terminology here when he talks about practicing righteousness, there is a social dimension to this - loving the brethren. We’ll see. Then he gets into what “loving the brethren”: means.
So we go back now to verse 29.
born of Him
There’s a doctrine in the Scripture called regeneration. Here’s a simple way of remembering 4 things that happen at the moment of salvation. Think of the word RIBS, r-i-b-s. I just brought Diane Burke Dr. Chafer’s volume 3 because she asked last week when I was talking about this 33 or 34 things that God does at the moment of salvation. In fact we walk through our Christian life knowing about 3 of them. There are actually at least 33, maybe 34 different things. Dr. Chafer years ago has a whole discussion - goes on page after page after page after page of all these things. There are 4 things the Holy Spirit does. They’re easy to remember if you think of RIBS.
Those are 4 little letters you can remember quickly – R-I-B-S – regeneration, indwelling, baptism, and sealing.
It’s nice sometimes when you get discouraged and down hearted and tired – it’s good sometimes to shut off things and go through what God has done for you and to thank Him for every one of those things. It’s a nice spiritual exercise that these things are God’s grace.
We come then to “he who practices righteousness.” He’s going to go into this. John uses that he sees somebody and he says, “Oh, they’re born. That’s the nature of God coming through.” He’ll use the word born. It’s the nature of God. When somebody’s in fellowship and doing things that can be visibly seen and perceived that he says that’s manifestation of regeneration.” He expresses it as being born again.
Now let’s move to 3:1. We’ll just about get through this; and that’s it.
NKJ 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.
Now that’s a strange clause. We’ll have to think about that.
The first verb there, behold, is a strong one. It’s not the usual one for look. This particular word for “behold” means I want you guys to really look at this - think about this. Stop, think, observe and digest this.
NKJ 1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us
See why when we started today and when we did the lesson last week we showed the business of the trinity how he is righteousness and just and you can’t separate His love from His righteousness and justice. Well, John says we need to think about what kind of love God has bestowed on us. We were sinners. We violated His righteousness and justice. He is not going to compromise His righteousness and justice. So how does a God who is righteous and justice have fellowship with fallen man? He can’t arbitrarily have fellowship with man if God is righteous and just and immutable because if He’s going to have fellowship with sin like all the religions say; then you’ve got to change His moral character which violates His immutability. If God has that kind of static character, an immutable character, the question now is how is the kind of love manifested. What do you suppose this is leading to? What do we call God’s love toward the sinner? What’s a synonym for that? His love for His Son was from all eternity. That’s love. But love toward a sinner does what? In other words, for Him to be able to love a sinner what must God do so He doesn’t compromise His character?
Comment He has to justify the sinner.
He has to figure out how He can justify the sinner. We know how. It’s the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Second Person taking upon Himself the form of a man and dying for sin. That’s the only way God can love. He can’t love any other way without compromising His righteousness and justice. So John is still amazed with that because remember John 3:16.
NKJ John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…
Remember God so loved the world, so loved the world. God loved the world this way. He gave His only begotten Son. That thought is never far from John. So when you see here:
NKJ 1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us
He’s asking us to think of grace. This is grace. John doesn’t use that like Paul does. Remember Paul came out of a legalistic background; and he’ll use that noun grace, grace, grace a lot more than John will. John uses the word love more; but it’s a love that’s disciplined theologically.
So here we have:
NKJ 1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!
Why is the title “children of God” so important here? If you’re a child of God, thinking in terms of physical things – when you see, I mean look at the people look at the kids of Awana.
They look at kids and say, “Oh, she must be the daughter of so-and-so.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because she looks like so-and-so.”
When John comes here and he says, “Behold what manner of love …that we should be called the children of God,” what is he getting at that there? Having the same nature. So he’s not talking about a person’s necessarily about his outward characteristics, her outward characteristics. You could have people who are horribly injured, people who are dying, people who speak some strange language. You could have all kinds of differences; but he’s not looking at the differences. Nor is he looking at the shortcomings we all have, our foibles. He’s not even looking at our sin at that point. He’s looking to see if there’s regeneration there. He’s saying that’s the work of God. Remember the 3 persons of the trinity in fellowship: God the Father, He has His nature. It is revealed in God the Son; and God the Holy Spirit implements His workmanship that fits His nature. This is how fellowship of the trinity goes.
NKJ 1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!
That is we have His nature given not because of our good works, not because of our merit; but because He regenerates us.
Now he makes this last statement. What do we make of this last clause in verse 1? What do you think?
Comment
Okay. What he’s getting at here as he said, the world never understood Jesus Christ and they’re not going to understand us in the same sense. There’s a reason why. And we can see this. In one sense, one of the good things about out culture coming apart today is that it’s showing light and darkness.
I use this illustration. I have to be careful Carol says how use it. When we lived in Texas we had these big cockroaches. These guys were like you put a leash on them. You walk out at night in the kitchen to get something and flip on the light and they’re going all over the place. And these guys are big guys. You step on them and you can feel it. The point is that when the darkness happens the cockroaches come out. In a culture where you have leadership and academia and the people that set the tone of the culture; you’re going to have the cockroaches come out.
Now I had a discussion with my son that works in the Pentagon when they have this constant harassment against Christian evangelicals, particularly in the Department of Defense.
I said to him, “Gee, I wonder if there’s a policy with the Secretary of Defense that’s pushing this.”
And Jonathan who’s watched the whole dynamic inside the Pentagon said, “No, I don’t think Dad I don’t think this is a policy. What’s happened is a tone has been set. So these people that were there all along now feel free to go after the Christians.”
It’s the same thing in schools. It’s the same thing in the classroom. You set a tone. The tone tends to suppress or it gives permission, latent permission. What we’re seeing in our culture is now all of sudden the animosity toward Jesus Christ is people who had it all along now feel freer to express it. So you have books like – these guys always write books around Easter time because they make lots of money. …written a book called “How Did Jesus Ever Become God?” He’s a big New Testament scholar at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. So the Christian scholars got together and wrote a counter book – “How God Become Jesus.” I thought that was an eloquent maneuver. This is coming out more and more. When you see it - in one sense you can’t take it personally. That’s what this verse is saying.
NKJ 1 John 3:1 …Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
The word there is ginosko. The world did not perceive Christ. The reason they didn’t perceive Christ is the same reason that cockroaches don’t come out when the light’s on. John says this. My cockroach illustration is not far off theologically because you can read it in John 3. John says this. You can read it in John 3. He says, “Why do people flee the light?
NKJ John 3:19 "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because..
What?
their deeds were evil.
That’s what’s happening here. Verse 1 is encouraging us in one sense – that we share to the degree that our regenerate nature is manifest we are going to share the same misunderstanding, the same anger, the same hatred that Jesus Christ faced.
Yes Laura.
Comment
Good point! Did everyone get what Laura just said? Good point, Laura! Look at the first and second sentences here in verse 1. The first one is talking about God the Father’s love toward us. We pointed out that he forever, all eternity He loved the Second Person
NKJ John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
Did God the Father compromise His love by allowing His Son to die on the cross? No He didn’t, did He? Letting His Son die on the cross was not compromising His love. Allowing us to suffer is also not compromising His love. Very good point. The idea here is to think of the persecuted believers. Every day Carol and I pray for Pastor Saeed rotting in an Iranian jail, Asia Bibi in Pakistan, Mr. Guafur, Mr.Yimiti in China. These guys are in prison. They’re in prison right now – this morning.
It is very easy for them to think, “Well, God doesn’t love me anymore because He’s left me alone in this prison. I am tortured. I eat junk for food. I’m sick. I have pain. How can you say God loves me?”
In the same way, Jesus could have said that dying on the cross.
I think the takeaway thought here is if the world crucified Christ, we shouldn’t be surprised in their animosity to us. But it’s not a personal thing. This is where I find it personally very difficult, and I’m sure some of you do – is that when you are in these situations socially; it’s easy to become a combatant in the sense that you see them as your enemy. In one sense they are, but they become an enemy because they’re being seduced by the spirit of this world. The real enemies behind this are the principalities and powers. It’s hard to keep your mind on that because these people are like you and I would be if God hadn’t called us to salvation. So it’s a hard thing to do. You want to stand up and you want to refute. Jesus stood up. He argued vehemently. This is not a call for passivity. It’s just in our activity we get to distinguish between the seducing spirits and principalities and powers that energize (Paul says in Ephesians 2.) - they energize these people. They deceive these people. These mullahs in Iran - those are deceived men. They’re unregenerate deceived men that are under the domain of principalities and powers of whoever is running Iran at the time. So that’s the situation.
I think verse 1 here:
NKJ 1 John 3:1 …the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
…is a word of comfort. It is kind of fortifying us for the situations.
Next week I will be in Tampa. I’ve been asked to speak there. Joel you’re going to be here, right? Doing your thing on apologetics, isn’t it?
Comment
Joel has done a lot of study on some of the background. He interacts a lot on the Internet with unbelievers so I’m sure it will be a good presentation. Then I will be back the next week and we’ll continue this section. I’d like to go a little faster through this section than we have. I think once we get through verse 9 we can move pretty rapidly.
(Closing prayer)