After being born into His family, we aspire to follow His example as our perfect pattern by abiding — staying connected as a branch does to the vine — in fellowship with our source. John walked the talk. But, it was not always so. Jesus had nicknamed the two brothers, Boanerges, “Sons of Thunder” (Mk 3:17). On one occasion, these two brothers wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy a village! (Lk 9:51-56). Test of Affection “I love peanut butter.” “I love my wife.” Words, like coins, can be in circulation for such a long time that they start wearing out. The word “Love” has lost its precision and depth in our culture; It has “gone cold” and does “cover a multitude of sins” and in many ways… The Greek has four words for “love”: Storge: Affection love, as a parent toward a child; Phileo: Friendship love; having things in common; Agape (noun): Totally committed love; [vs. Agapao, the verb: totally given over to]; Eros: Sensual, sexual, love (not in NT). Even the Greeks clearly understood that it was essential to bridle and restrain eros. John’s Three Contrasts As John describes a life that is real, he uses three words repeatedly: life, love, and light. Love, life, and light cannot be separated: 1) Christian love is affected by light and darkness (1 Jn 2) Christian love is a matter of life or death (1 Jn 3:10-24). To live in hatred is to live in spiritual death. 11).
He who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:6-9). It is through Jesus that men know God; it is in Jesus that men can approach God. Apart from Jesus we have no secure knowledge of God; to deny him is at the same time to lose all grip of God. If we deny Jesus', if we deny his knowledge of and his relationship to God, we can no confidence in what he says. His words become no more than the guesses which any good and great man could make. Jesus claims that a man's reaction to him is, in fact, a reaction to God and that that reaction settles his destiny in time and in eternity. "So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven" (Matt 10:32-33). To deny Jesus is to be separated from God, for on our reaction to Jesus our relationship to God depends. To deny Jesus is indeed the master lie, It is to entirely lose the faith and the knowledge which he alone makes possible. We may say that there are three New Testament confessions of Jesus. There is the confession that he is the Son of God (Matt 16:16; Jn 9:35-38); There is the confession that he is Lord (Php 2:11); and There is the confession that he is Messiah (1Jn 2:22). The essence of every one of them is the affirmation that Jesus stands in a unique relationship to God; and to deny that relationship is to deny the certainty that everything Jesus said about God is true. Joh 16:13-14 ESV (13) When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but
His profession of faith is not real. This is the distinction that is in view in 1 John 3:1-10. A true believer does not live in habitual sin. He may commit sin — an occasional wrong act — but he will not practice sin making a habit of it. The difference is that a true Christian knows God. A counterfeit Christian may talk about God and get “involved” in “religious activities,” but he does not really know God. A true Christian lives a life of obedience; he does not practice sin. Committing sin vs Being sinful – full of sin Unplanned sin vs Sin by plan and choice - lifestyle 1 John 3:7-8 7] Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. 8] He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. He that committeth sin (ho hamartian). “He that keeps on doing sin” (the habit of sin). Sin comes from the devil; and the devil is he who sinned in the beginning. We sin for the pleasure that we think it will bring to us; the devil sins as a matter of principle. The New Testament does not try to explain the devil and his origin; but it is quite convinced -- and it is a fact of universal experience that in the world there is a power hostile to God and to sin is to obey that power instead of God. “... destroy the works ” does not mean “annihilate the Devil.” Satan is still at work today!
The church is never injured from the outside; only from the inside. “...privily”: False teacher never announce their arrival as such. “...damnable heresies”: There is no heresy that has not been anticipated by the Holy Spirit. Heresy is like leaven (Gal 5:9); it corrupts all with which it comes in contact. “...denying the Lord who bought them”: A direct rebuttal of limited atonement, the view that Christ died only for those whom He would later save “…and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 Jn 2:2).” Their teaching was flattery; Their ambitions were financial; Their lives were dissolute; Their conscience was dulled; Their aim was deception. Isa 28:7; Jer 23:14; Ezek 13:3; Zech 13:4. “Wolves in sheep’s clothing” is the way our Lord pictured them (Mt 7:15; 2 Cor 4:1,2; 11:13). And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 2 Ptr 2:2 “...pernicious ways”: aselgeiais: debased sexually ;immoral practices. Debauchery (1 Pet 4:3); filthy (2 Pet 2:7); lustful (2 Pet 2:18) aselgeia unbridled lust, excess, lasciviousness, wantonness, outrageousness, shamelessness, insolence (Rom 13:13; 2 Cor 12:21; Gal 5:19; Eph 4:9; Jude 4). And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. 2 Ptr 2:3 “...feigned words”: “Counterfeit words” or “manufactured, fabricated words.” plastos, from which we get the English word “plastic.”