Gnostic "Love"
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Now this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him.
If we say, “We have fellowship with Him,” yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
This is how we are sure that we have come to know Him: by keeping His commands. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” yet doesn’t keep His commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
But whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God is perfected. This is how we know we are in Him: The one who says he remains in Him should walk just as He walked.
Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old command that you have had from the beginning. The old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
The one who says he is in the light but hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he’s going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven because of Jesus’ name.
Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For everything that belongs to the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle—is not from the Father, but is from the world.
And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God’s will remains forever. Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard, “Antichrist is coming,” even now many antichrists have come. We know from this that it is the last hour.
They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge.
I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son.
No one who denies the Son can have the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well. What you have heard from the beginning must remain in you. If what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father.
And this is the promise that He Himself made to us: eternal life. I have written these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.
The anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you don’t need anyone to teach you. Instead, His anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie; just as He has taught you, remain in Him. So now, little children, remain in Him, so that when He appears we may have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.
If you know that He is righteous, you know this as well: Everyone who does what is right has been born of Him.
Point: One cannot claim fellowship with God, nor be in fellowship with brothers and sisters in the Lord, if one is walking in the ways of darkness. To claim to be without sin, is to deceive one self and walk in the way of darkness. True believers will walk in God’s light, and sin, but sin is not a way of life. Confession and Jesus’ shed blood provide purification, so the believer may walk in the light, as Jesus is the Light, and has walked in the Light.
Have I claimed fellowship with God, but yet walk in the ways of darkness?
Have I grown comfortable with sin, following its ways instead of God’s ordered ways and commands?
Is confession of sin an active practice in my walk with Christ, or do I let things slide, believing “dualism” is a trait that Jesus embraces and lived out.
Do I walk in the light as Jesus is in the Light?
The Apostle John, points to these questions, as He protects his flock from false teachers who have rejected their community, rejected them as brothers and sisters, rejected that Jesus is the Messiah, and have instead promoted a “secret knowledge” of light, given to them “Knowers” of God, about the Kingdom of Light.
These “Knowers of secret knowledge”, gnostics, claim to know God, have fellowship with God, but reject Christ as the Son because no divine entity can dwell in earthly materialism, especially a bodily form, and mix with evil. To dwell in body is to be imprisoned with evil. The “secret knowledge” of apparent further hidden apostolic teaching, unlocks the person from one’s human imprisonment, to become one with the Kingdom of Light, the Kingdom of God.
Who is a gnostic today? Anyone who rejects the King’s light personified on earth in the person and divine Christ, “the Holy Spark”. The prophet Isaiah pointed to Christ as the divine personification of God come to earth, the true light, who gives light to the true reality.
You will nurse on the milk of nations, and nurse at the breast of kings; you will know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior and Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
The sun will no longer be your light by day, and the brightness of the moon will not shine on you; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your splendor.
Your sun will no longer set, and your moon will not fade; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and the days of your sorrow will be over.
The gnostic, who teaches and preaches a “secret knowledge” and salvation, other than Christ, is, according to the Apostle John, a liar and antichrist (1 John 2:22-23). He or she does not know God, does not walk with God, does not know love, and does not walk in the fellowship of believers, because who can walk in the fellowship of believers who does not love, because to know love, is to know Christ, and to know God.
Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son can have the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well.
I have written these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.
Gnostics do not believe in Jesus as the Son of God, not do they love one another as He has commanded and modeled. Gnostics come with “secret knowledge”, believe they are of better stock than the unenlightened, and love not their so called “brothers and sisters”.
Now this is His command: that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He commanded us.
All Believers Walk in the Light of Christ
The Apostle John encourages us…”God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him” (1 John 1:5). The body is not evil, afterall the body was modeled after God’s, in His image, to house God, the Holy Spirit, in His temple. You and I are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Don’t you know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.
Our bodies have come underneath the curse of sin and death, but that has not changed the origin. How can God reside in that which is evil? What partnership can God have with evil? The Apostle Paul says none.
Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? And what agreement does God’s sanctuary have with idols? For we are the sanctuary of the living God, as God said: I will dwell among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.
We are not to call evil what God has made, for everything God created is good and is not to be rejected because it is holy through God’s word and prayer.
For everything created by God is good, and nothing should be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, since it is sanctified by the word of God and by prayer.
There is no secret knowledge, there is no other way, hidden, by which man can come to God and His Kingdom. He who abides in Christ, abides in the Father; He who knows the Son, knows the Father; He who loves the Son, loves the Father. Jesus came into the world, born of a woman, by the power of the Holy Spirit, dying as a man, sinless, but bearing our sin; and rose from the dead, so that men and women may be able to walk in His light, and have fellowship with the King in His Kingdom. To believe anything else is to be walking in darkness, to believe a lie, and to not be walking nor practicing the truth.
Walking is a Jewish metaphor refering to the way or how one lives. To “walk in darkness” is to live one’s life according to sin.
“This, then, is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who practices wicked things hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”
To claim fellowship with God while walking in darkness is to claim and believe in a dualism of that good and evil can exist together. Jesus says no. John say no…not possible. What we are doing is living a lie and calling God a liar. Better yet, we walk in allegiance with the Devil. Sin is open rebellion against God, HIs commands, His order, and His ways. It is declaring allegiance with the Devil in rebellion towards God and His ways. And we wonder why God hates sin? Have I alligned myself with the Devil?
The fact is, John says, we believers and followers of Christ, sin. 1 John 1:8 says, “If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” The difference is ‘living according to sin’, walking in darkness. If I proclaim love for Christ, and live like the Devil, I have no fellowship with Christ, nor with believers and followers of Christ. But if I commit sin, while living after Christ, I have merely fallen, need to pick myself up, repent, confess, and receive the forgiveness Christ made possible through the cross.
Am I living according to sin, or merely stumbling in my walk with Christ? The Apostle Paul states, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” - Romans 3:23. The Apostle John encourages us to confess our sins, to Christ, and be forgiven and cleansed from our unrighteousness.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say, “We don’t have any sin,” we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
The snag we run into today is that our world has become very comfortable with sin. The world does what it wants and desires. Good is called evil, and evil is called good. Everyone does as they see fit and please, just as in the days of Noah and the flood. Jesus said those days would return before His returning.
As the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be.
Have we become comfortable with sin? Do we confess our sin to one another, to God? Do we seek His forgiveness? Do we seek healing? The Apostle James says in James 5:16
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The urgent request of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.
Do we desire fellowship with God? Fellowship with our brothers and sisters? Unity within the body of Christ? We are to confess our wrongdoings to one another so that we might be made whole. This is the way and love of Christ. Jesus’ sacrifice turned away the wrath of God upon us, the sinner, so that we might have fellowship with the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and amongest the fellowship of believers. The gnostic does not embrace this truth, nor accept this truth because He or she does not know God nor love God because he or she does not know Christ. Denial of sin, and living a life of sin, leads to darkness; confession of sin leads to light, and the ways of light.
Read Psalm 51
Lead Corporate Confession
Australian Book of Prayer
1, 2 & 3 John Corporate Confession
Merciful God,
our maker and our judge,
we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed:
we have not loved you with our whole heart,
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves:
we repent, and are sorry for all our sins.
Father, forgive us.
Strengthen us to love and obey you in newness of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
An assurance of forgiveness follows, prayed by the service leader:
Almighty God,
who has promised forgiveness of sins to all who turn to him in faith:
pardon you and set you free from all your sins,
strengthen you to do his will,
and keep you in eternal life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Communion