Throughout this letter, John provides three tests by which his people can evaluate the teachers who had left the church. Their doctrine differed greatly from John’s, so the readers wondered who was right. Which teaching was the truth? In 4:13-21, John combines the Doctrinal test (see also 2:18-27 and 4:1-6) and the Love test (…
Read MoreMonth: July 2023
Believing Rightly and Loving Greatly
“It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.” Those words from Morpheus to Neo in The Matrix are as relevant today as they were in John’s day. No one in the early church was choosing between red and blue pills, but they were choosing between the…
Read MorePut Your Love into Action
If someone evaluated your salvation based on the love you show to fellow believers, how would they rate you? Could you point to your love as proof of your relationship with God? In 1 John, the Apostle is giving his readers guidelines for evaluating true teachers from false teachers, and he’s already told them that…
Read MoreWhen Doing Confirms Being
I learned early on that I don’t like rules, at least most rules. I like rules that other people need to keep so they don’t hurt me or my loved ones. Those rules are great. It’s just that I don’t like rules for me. I don’t like the speed limit on most roads. I don’t…
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