1 John 2:15-29
Notes
Transcript
Background
Last week we read the first half of 1 John 2, and talked about knowing God and abiding in Him. The overall theme of the book is knowing who God is, believing in His Son Jesus Christ, and having assurance of eternal life.
15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
John moves in this section from talking to believers about knowing God and abiding in Him, to warning against the things of this world. His shift is from loving God and loving your brother to hating the darkness.
This was first brought up in chapter 1:
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
Notice that he says nothing of hating people. We are to NOT love the world, or the things of this world.
This does not mean that God does not love the world. In fact, we saw earlier in verse 2 that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world.
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
The difference is understanding where the darkness of the world comes from: the devil, who is overcome as we discussed last week.
11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
Understand “lust” as meaning a longing or desire.
This may seem vague, but he gives a description as to what this means:
Lust of the flesh - “cravings” of the “sinful man”
This refers to our person, which is sinful due to the Fall.
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
Lust of the eyes - covetousness and lust in a modern understanding.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’;
28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
29 “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Boastful pride of life - what we have done.
7 For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.
All this is darkness, and it (the world) is passing away. But, if we abide in Him, we will have eternal life.
We must not get caught up in the things of this world.
We must not get caught up in the things of this world.
The result of this, of course, is being hated by the world.
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.
20 “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.
19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.
21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth.
22 Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.
23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.
John now brings up the concept of antichrist.
This word is only used by John and refers to opposition to the Messiah.
The concept, however, is prevalent:
3 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts,
4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”
7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
These people will even integrate within the Church, attempting to mislead.
1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
6 For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,
7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
John once again uses the verb grapho here.
He again shows us he purpose in writing: to reveal what we’ve already talked about.
He also simply lists what is necessary to “have” the Father - confess the Son.
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
24 As for you, 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.
25 This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.
26 These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you.
27 As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.
28 Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.
29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.
“Abide” is used half of these verses here. We saw this concept last week as well, that if we walk in the Light, we have fellowship with God and each other.
Keeping His commandments is the evidence of our relationship with God.
4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
14 “You are My friends if you do what I command you.
See that there are some who are trying to deceive the Church.
22 for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect.
13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
14 No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
15 Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.
We have an anointing from God, and are to abide in Him and walk in the Light of Christ.
We have an anointing from God, and are to abide in Him and walk in the Light of Christ.
What does it mean to have an anointing?
Priests and kings (“Messiah”) were anointed as a sign of their station.
33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
34 “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.
If we abide in this anointing, we will look forward to Christ’s coming.
38 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
9 And it will be said in that day, “Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”
APPLICATION
APPLICATION
We must not get caught up in the things of this world.
We have an anointing from God, and are to abide in Him and walk in the Light of Christ.
Next week, we will continue through 1 John.