Chapter 2 (NIV–the verses in this chapter were taken from this version. Each chapter will be from a different version to avoid copyright issues.)
Let Truth Abide in You (Moody) “2:24-26. To protect their relationship with God, the readers have an objective (v. 24) and subjective (2:27) safeguard.” Objective: to remain “in the truth of the incarnation” and “realize eternal life.” Subjective: “the anointing of the Holy Spirit.”
Continue reading“Yahweh said to me, ‘Behold, I have begun to deliver up Sihon and his land before you. Begin to possess, that you may inherit his land.’ ” (Deut. 2:31).
The flesh can say no to cigarettes and alcohol and reform external behaviors so they fall within the local community’s standards. But you can’t see the rebellion against God in the flesh. It took God to point out to the Israelites Sihon as the enemy to remove from the land. We wage an inner battle, and a Christian can fight this war only with the Spirit’s leading. You may know this leading through a nudge in the Word or an event that brings questions to your mind.
Continue readingChapter 2 (NIV–the verses in this chapter were taken from this version. Each chapter will be from a different version to avoid copyright issues.)
Deceptions of the Last Hour
v. 18, Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “The false teachers who were present were worldly to the core.” John warns the readers to keep alert regarding members of the church, for “Antichrist … would display his traits of hostility toward god’s Christ.”
Continue reading“But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him; for Yahweh your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as it is today” (Deut. 2:30).
Sin in the flesh is obstinate, firmly set against God. We can’t reform it. It can’t be fixed. No negotiating is possible. Only a new creation makes it possible for a greater power to overcome it.
Continue readingChapter 2 (NIV–the verses in this chapter were taken from this version. Each chapter will be from a different version to avoid copyright issues.)
Do Not Love the World
v. 15, Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.
(FSB) “2:15-17 In these verses, John exhorts believers to oppose the values of the evil one. He also remind his audience that those who love and obey God have the gift of eternal life.”
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) The world “as an entity hostile to God… is always a seductive influence which Chrisian should continually resist. … The world competes for the love of Christians and one cannot both love it and the Father at the same time.”
(Cultural) “God summoned Israel to love him and be consecrated as holy to him, rather than following the pagan values of the nations around them (Lev 20:23-26; Dt 18:9). Likewise, Jesus’ followers must avoid any values in their cultures that conflict with his interests.” (Life) “2:15-16 Worldliness is also internal because it begins in the heart and is characterized by three attitudes. … When the serpent tempted eve (Genesis 3:6), he tempted her in these areas. Also, when the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, these were his three areas of attack (see Matthew 4:1-11). … Do your actions reflect the world’s values or God’s values?”
Continue reading“Rise up, take your journey, and pass over the valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land; begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle” (Deut. 2:24). The Lord named the names of the kings they were to defeat. You are reading the Word or hearing its message. The sharp, two-edged sword of the Word revealed the enemy in your soul (Hebrews 4:12). The Lord brought a problem to mind and named it. The Lord indicated what to work on next. You have your marching orders.
Continue readingWhat is the life of faith in the disciple of Christ? Faith is always centered on Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The work of God the Spirit is to bring us to believe in Jesus and to keep us believing. How important is this faith? “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6). If we are Spirit-led believers of Jesus, we want to please the Lord at all times. (If we are not, we want to please ourselves.)
Continue readingChapter 2 (NIV–the verses in this chapter were taken from this version. Each chapter will be from a different version to avoid copyright issues.)
v. 5, But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him:
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “…obedience to God’s Word (‘His commands,’) v. 3) results in a rich and full experience of God’s love: God’s love is truly made complete in him. …an obedient believer has a deep full-orbed acquaintance with ‘God’s love.’ ”
(Moody) “perfected” = “matures. … Love for God expresses itself in obeying His commands.”
(Vincent’s II) “Keepeth His word. Note the changed phrase: word for commandments. The word is the revelation regarded as a whole, which includes all the separate commandments or injunctions.” “Is the love of God perfected. … the obedient child of God is characterized, not by any representative trait or quality of his own personality, but merely as the subject of the work of divine love…” “The phrase the love of God … It is not possible to settle the point decisively, but I incline to the view that the fundamental idea of the love of God as expounded by John is the love which God has made known and which answer to His nature. … This interpretation does not exclude man’s love to God. On the contrary, it includes it. The love which God has is revealed as the love of God in the love of His children toward Him, no less than in His manifestations of love to them. The idea of divine love is thus complex. Love, in its very essence, is reciprocal. The perfect ideal requires two parties.” Footnote: “the genitive case, of God, of the Father, represents God as the subject of the emotion.” (Cultural) “obeys his word. To do so had always been a way of showing love for God.”
Continue reading“They took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us, and brought us word again, and said, ‘It is a good land which Yahweh our God gives to us’ ” (Deut. 1:25). Moses here is reminding the Israelites of the good reports from those who spied out the land. Now you have the promise of the God who cannot lie. “It is a good land the Lord our God is giving us.” It is worth the effort. The seed falling into the ground sprouts something beautiful in its place. The grub spinning a cocoon tomb emerges as a thing of beauty to soar on gossamer wings.
Continue readingChapter 2 (NIV–the verses in this chapter were taken from this version. Each chapter will be from a different version to avoid copyright issues.)
The Test of Knowing Him
v. 3, We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “It seems obvious that a life of fellowship with God in the light ought to lead to knowing Him. … Jesus promised His disciples a special self-disclosure that was predicated on their obeying His commands (John 14:21-23).” This is how readers can know “whether their experience of fellowship with God has led them really to know Him in a personal way.” By obedience.
(Moody) “Obedience is … a fruit evidence, or result of regeneration.”
(Life) “2:3-6 … “True Christian faith results in loving behavior; that is why John says that the way we act can give us assurance that we belong to Christ.”
(Vincent’s II) “We know. Or, perceive. By experience, from day to day; distinguished from we know, expressing absolute immediate knowledge of a fact once for all. Compare 1 John iii. 2.” “That we know. … literally, have come to know.” (Wiersbe) “2:3-5 Jesus taught His disciples what belonging to Him means—to live in Him. … Just as the branch gets its life by remaining in contact with the vine, so believers receive their strength by maintaining fellowship with Christ.”
Continue reading“Behold, Yahweh your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as Yahweh the God of your fathers has spoken to you. Don’t be afraid, neither be dismayed” (Deut. 1:21).
You’ve tried and failed. You got up again and did your best. It was never good enough. You’re discouraged. You’re stressed. That’s good—because it will help you see the difference between your effort and the Spirit’s power. You could not drive out the foe on your own. Now you do it from the position of being in Christ, with all the resources of God at reach. Now you do it with the knowledge that God is for you.
Continue readingChapter 2 (NIV–the verses in this chapter were taken from this version. Each chapter will be from a different version to avoid copyright issues.)
The NKJV and NIV link the following two verses to the preceding verses in chapter 1.
v. 1, My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “The statements in 1:8, 10 about believers’ sinful tendencies do not encourage sin; they actually put perceptive Christians on guard against it.” “Advocate … The thought here … is of a defense attorney who takes up the case of his client before a tribunal. … admirably illustrated in His prayer for Peter (Luke 22:31-32). … Jesus asked the Father to prevent Peter’s faith from collapsing.”
(Moody) 2:1-2 addresses 1:10 to prevent leniency, that confessing sin is not to be the norm; and severity, that if anyone sins, it is not hopeless, because we have an Advocate. “His atonement satisfies God’s just demands regarding our moral failures, thus securing forgiveness.”
(Vincent’s II) “If any man sin, we have. By the we have, John assumes the possibility of sinful acts on the part of Christians, and of himself in common with then, and their common need of the intervention of the divine Advocate.” (Wiersbe) “To people who are feeling guilty and condemned, John offers reassurance. … the best defense attorney in the universe is pleading your case.”
Continue reading“We traveled from Horeb and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw, by the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as Yahweh our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh Barnea” (Deut. 1:19).
You’ve read in the Word about peace like a river, but you feel like you’re drowning in stress. You’ve heard of strength but know weakness. Freedom but feel enslaved. That great and terrible wilderness. It is not your home. You are only camping out here. You must get through it on your way to the Promised Land. We must through many tribulations, not around them, enter the Kingdom of God.
Continue readingThe Basis of Fellowship with Him (NKJV)
v. 5, This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “As Light, God both exposes man’s sin and condemns it. If anyone walks in darkness, he is hiding from the truth which the Light reveals.”
(Vincent’s II) “God is light. … Not a light, nor the light …” It is “in His very nature.” It “is not a metaphor.” “In Him is no darkness at all. It is characteristic of John to express the same idea positively and negatively.” Greek: “And darkness there is not in Him, no, not in any way.”
(Moody) “This summary … assesses three false claims in 1:6-2:2.” (Life) “If we want to have a relationship with God, we must put aside our sinful ways of living. To claim that we belong to him but then to go out and live for ourselves is hypocrisy.”
Continue reading“Behold, I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob—to give to them and to their offspring after them” (Deut. 1:8).
The land is your soul that has been cratered by conflicts and scarred by sin. Patrols of fear, commandos of pride, and troops of idols are entrenched in every nook and cranny of your heart. Their feelings have always been a force you could barely, if ever, resist. Their volleys have incapacitated you with fear and anxiety.
No longer.
Continue readingI thought I would change up my morning times by looking up the notes for passages I’ll meditate on in advance, all taken from my various study Bibles and commentaries. I am adding the notes to the meditation, first followed by the meditation, and including both in the blog.
Here is 1 John 1:1-4. Let me know what you think of the idea and layout. By including the notes, we’ll both be on the same page with the meditation, although my own life history will make its way into the story.
Continue readingMoses gave many stirring words to encourage the people of Israel to take the territory the Lord had given them in Canaan. I had marked many of them in my Bible over the years. Since I write devotionals, I thought I would take a stab at encouraging myself with these words for warriors, inspiring words that would lift my spirit and help me go the extra mile in my faith. The words of courage are needed, for the land will not be taken lightly. The sins and weights that wear us down take time to dislodge and die to. But the Lord had promised them victory if they continued in faith and obedience that follow the principles laid down in the law that exalt the Lord above all. To those who fight the good fight of faith, here are words for warriors.
Continue readingIn this sign, the raising of Lazarus from the dead is presented simply in two verses, John 11:43-44. But all the preceding verses in the chapter reveal great spiritual depths contained in this brief passage. Jesus raises the dead. In what ways does it affect how we see life and death differently? How does the hope of resurrection affect our viewpoint of living today? If we believe that Jesus as the Son of God will raise us from the dead, how will we see our present life and eternity in a new way? How will our relationship with Jesus change? Will we find new life in His name?
Continue readingThe Lord healed a blind man on the Sabbath to reveal the spiritual blindness of others that we might believe in Him. The sign began with the philosophical question posed by the disciples when they saw a man born blind. “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:1-2).
Continue readingJohn chose to highlight particular signs or miracles to help us believe that Jesus is who He says He is, and find life in His name and no other. One of the miracles is the event of the multiplication of loaves and fish in John 6.
Continue readingJohn’s gospel has a stated purpose: “these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31). In this fourth sign, Jesus reaches out to a man who had an infirmity in the legs for 38 years. What can we gather from this sign to lead us to a fuller understanding of the Son and find reasons to plant our faith in Him?
Continue readingThis is Jesus’ second sign He did in Galilee (John 4:54), though He had performed other miracles (John 2:23) after the first sign performed in Cana of Galilee. This second sign was that of a boy who was close to death (John 4:47) healed merely by a spoken word from afar (John 4:50). The event was brief; the lessons plentiful.
Continue readingJesus disrupted the Jews’ lucrative commerce system in the outer court of the temple, which had been disturbing the worship of the godly non-Jews there (John 2:15-16). For this action, the Jews asked for a sign, for verification from God for His authority to do what He did (John 2:18). Jesus’ response was, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). John helpfully clarifies: “But He was speaking of the temple of His body” (John 2:21). Jesus and His union with the Father through the Spirit was the sign.
Continue readingThis is the first article of a series focusing on the seven signs in the Gospel of John. It’s not often that a book states a purpose, but John’s gospel does: “these [accounts of miracles] are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:30). John highlighted seven miracles to help us see that knowing Jesus Christ as the Son of God will bring about a spiritual life known only to those who have put their trust in Him. We can certainly affirm with doctrinal correctness that Jesus is the Son of God, but it isn’t the same as Jesus revealing Himself to us in such as way that we place our faith in Him as the Son.
The Gospel of John is unique among the gospels in that the Father plays a major role. In John’s gospel, we get a better sense of who Jesus is to the Father, of the relationship and communion of the Father and the Son. When we grasp this relationship and believe in Him with this understanding, then we will be oriented toward Christ in a deeper way, a life-affirming way. An abiding communion with the Father and the Son should heavily define the Christian life, which John’s first epistle covers in more detail.
Continue reading“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” (1 John 2:24). We need three facts about Jesus to “abide,” or make its home in us, so we can progress in our faith and grasp of the Word. Jesus is God. Jesus is Savior. Jesus is Lord. These are facts we received when we heard and believed the gospel of salvation “from the beginning” of our faith journey. If these facts are not settled in you, then you will have doubts and fears and anxieties. How can we read the Bible with hope and progress with those feelings holding us back?
Continue readingWhen we consider the Our Father prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) from the standpoint of God’s promise to Abraham, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3), it adds a new dimension to this prayer. This prayer furthers a vision that the Lord has today, to bless all nations.
Continue readingIn his brief letter, positioned just before the last book of the Bible, Jude writes a lot about apostates (those who fall away from the Lord Jesus) in the past (vv. 4-11) and in the present (vv. 12-16). Jude writes of “ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness…” (v. 4). These ungodly people mischaracterized God’s grace as approval for doing immoral things. There are many ways we can be drawn away from the Lord. In this epistle, Jude focuses on straying because of listening to misleading ministers.
Jude gives us a four-dosage prescription (vv. 20-21) to keep our spiritual lives healthy and strong, so that we may not be led astray and meet the same doom as the errant instructors.
“Christ died for my sins on the cross.” These words roll off our lips with ease. Did you ever think about what salvation means, and how extensive it really is? I want to introduce four long Bible words that are packed with meaning, and that help us appreciate more powerfully what Christ accomplished when He died on the cross. Most of this material comes from the book, The Cross of Christ, by John R. Stott.
Continue readingIn the Old Testament through Isaiah the prophet, the Lord had given a sign to king Ahaz, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (Matthew 1:23, referencing Isaiah 7:14). Immanuel means “God with us.”
Hundreds of years later, an angel visited Joseph and told him that Mary, his betrothed, “will bear a son, and you shall call his name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Jesus means “God Saves.”
Continue readingTo us who are still loaded down with the cares of life, with its many distractions, with the endless to-do’s driving us with no end in sight, Jesus’ offer still stands: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, NKJV).
Perhaps we cannot come to Him because our goal in life is quite different from “rest.” We want to achieve. We want the best. We need money. We need a friendly face. We have some place we want to be and rest won’t get us there.
Actually, it will.
Continue reading
