EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/2/2024 8:25 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Test Applied”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 John 2:4-5
Message of the verses: “4 The one who
says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments,
is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him
the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:”
I realize that I did not get as far as I wanted to get to
in yesterday’s SD on this title, but I just have to do what I believe that the
Lord wants me to do in these situations.
It
is true that plainly, those in God’s kingdom hear His voice and obey it, and
that is what I desire to do, but all believers face the spiritual foes that are
against us, the world, the flesh, and the devil. The following is what Jesus told Pontius
Pilate, “Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice (John 18:37c; cf. 1 John
3:18-19), which says “18 Little children, let us not
love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. 19 We will know by this
that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him.” Now in sharp contrast, those who do not obey
His commands demonstrate that the truth is not in them. MacArthur writes that “John
therefore exposed the empty pretense of those who assumed they had ascended to
a higher level of ‘divine truth.’ For
such false teachers, present with the readers, their so-called knowledge
elevated them above prosaic earthly matters and rendered unnecessary any
concern for moral conduct or godly living.
But as James declared, ‘Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead,
being by itself…For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith
without works is dead’ (James 2:17, 26; cf. Eph. 2:10; Heb. 12:14; 1 Peter
1:14-16). Those whose faith is genuine
will obey the truth.”
Now
as we look more closely at verse five we see that it then applies the test for
assurance positively. Whoever sincerely
and also lovingly whoever keeps His word; in him the love of God has truly been
perfected. Now it is best to understand
the phrase translated the love of God as an objective genitive, meaning the
love for God. What John is describing
here is the genuine love believers have for God as being perfected, and not in
the sense of finished perfection, but salvation accomplishment. That is one thing that I was actually praying
about in our prayer meeting as I just want to finish strong, to keep growing in
the Lord and not give up as I get older, but to be used by the Lord so that I
can bring glory to His name. MacArthur
writes “In fact, the Greek verb teteleiotai
is translated ‘accomplishment’ in John 4:34-35; 5:36; and 17:4. It can even mean ‘initiate.’ The supernatural granting of this love (Rom.
5:5) results in the obedience to Scripture, and is not merely an emotional or
mystical experience.” We have to be
careful that we don’t always trust our feelings, but better facts.
Now
it is by this genuine love that believers know that they are in Him. Now this
little phrase in Him, which is found 57 times from the book of Acts to
Revelation, and the Him means Christ, as stated is used frequently in the New
Testament, and it indicates a central truth of the Christian faith. MacArthur
adds that “Commentator John Stott summarized the significance as follows:
“The whole context, and especially verse
6, suggests that the phrase in him
again refers to Christ. To be ‘In Christ’
is Paul’s characteristic description of the Christian. But John uses it too. To be (or to “abide’ verse 6) ‘in’ Him is
equivalent to the phrase to ‘know’ Him (3, 4) and to ‘love’ Him 95). Being a Christian consists in essence of a
personal relationship to God in Christ, knowing Him, loving Him, and abiding in
Him as the branch abides in the vine (Jn.xv. 1 ff.). This is the meaning of ‘eternal life’ (Jn. Xvii.
3; I Jn. V. 20). (The Epistles of John, The
Tyndale New Testament Commentaries [Grand Rapids; Eerdmans, 1964], 91. Italics
in original.)
10/2/2024 8:56 PM
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