Spiritual Warfare: Our Task

Who/what do you believe?

We spoke a little bit about this last week. We must careful about who we allow to influence our thinking.

The battle is for the mind.

How we think will determine how we act. Yes how we act will also determine how we think, it is a both/and approach not either/or. This is why each month I work with someone to make sure my thinking and behavior is what it needs to be.

You are loved!

As we enter our text this morning this is the first truth of our text. I realize some translations say “friends” but John is indicating more than just friends and instead talking about a deep and invested interest. They are his “beloved ones”. As they are loved by him (John) it is because God loves them.

Carefully examine all things.

Test all things he says. We must have a healthy level of skepticism in life. Faith in Scripture is not “blind” in the sense of checking the brains out the door.

Why? There is a battle going on around us.

John talks about false prophets and the spirit of the anti-Christ and we immediately think of End times. But don’t forget what is mentioned here in our text: some of them are already here!!

Standard: The life and teachings of Jesus.

It is all about Jesus!Discernment is called for to keep from falling prey to this spirit’s ways, which are carefully cataloged in 1QS 4.10–11 (Vermes 1997: 102):

1. greed

2. slackness in the search for righteousness

3. wickedness and lies

4. haughtiness and pride

5. falseness and deceit

6. cruelty and abundant evil

7. ill temper and much folly and brazen insolence

8. abominable deeds [committed] in a spirit of lust

9. ways of lewdness in the service of uncleanness

10. a blaspheming tongue

11. blindness of eye and dullness of ear

12. stiffness of neck and heaviness of heart

Yarbrough, R. W. (2008). 1–3 John (p. 222). Baker Academic.

Jesus—fully God and fully human.

Because of this truth we can trust what he says and we can trust his salvation.

Jesus—demands we live differently.

We cannot “confess Jesus” and live as we want. He commands our destiny as the song states. Correct doctrine matters but not at the expense of living. As John will go on to say, we must love. Jesus said very similar words.

The Spirit of Christ is greater.

The encouragement John gives us and his first hearers is that we are not alone. We have more on our side than is on those who oppose him. Yes, Satan may be powerful but because we have the Holy Spirit we are not powerless at all. In our devotions this week we will read a story in 2 Kings about how we need to see the reality of the world around us.

Protection against criticalness & cynicism: Community!

We need others. The commands are not just, or maybe even primarily, individual in nature. The church body/family/community is tasked with this job of testing things. We do not do this alone. What community are you part of?