Category: BSF John Study 2016-2017

Abigail Van Buren, of Dear Abby fame, once wrote, “The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.”

I think, however, what we read in 1 John is that it is more of a Rehab Center, than just a hospital.  We are recovering sin addicts.  We are healing from a crippling disease called sin that we were born in to and that is an epidemic that has infected the entire world.

When we accept the gift of Christ, we immediately and fully justified, we are fully and completely saved from the disease of sin.  But, sin has ravished our bodies our minds and our hearts from before the day we were born.  We carry not only our own sin, but the sins of our parents and grandparents (to the third and fourth generations).  Not only that, but we still live surrounded by sin, such as lust and pride.

The role of a Rehab Center is to build us back into what we were created to be.  This is not done by a magic word or a pill or shot, it is something that takes time.  It takes a trained coach to guide us in exercises.  To push us, but also to give us exercise that is within what we can bear, but instead to build us up.  There are times it may be painful, not because the coach is mad at us or dislikes us or even because we have done something wrong, it is just part of the process.  That coach is the Holy Spirit.

When John writes, “anyone born of God does not continue to sin”, we might look at that and say, “but wait a minute,  I sin every day. Does that mean I’m not born of God?” However, if a patient in rehab falls down, we don’t say that they failed.  They are in rehab.  It is expected that they might fall from time to time.  But they get back up and they continue in rehab.  They don’t continue to fall down, they continue to get up and they continue to be rehabilitated.  In the same way, we don’t continue to sin, we continue to follow Jesus!

Our fully rehabilitated state is holiness.  We were created to be holy, to be children of God and to be able to live and love in His direct presence.  We are accepted and admitted the day we put our faith in Jesus, but the Holy Spirit works to rehabilitate us for the rest of our lives.

My Answers:

12.
He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
I see an overflowing of the Holy Spirit in my life and experience joy and peace.

13.
a.
Anyone who believes is born of God, loved by the father as a child.  We love through love of other children and obeying his commands, overcoming the world – through the power of Jesus, the Son of God, who came by water and blood, testified by the spirit of truth (all testify together).  All who believe accept this testimony.  God has given us eternal life in His son.  Whoever has the Son has life, and whoever does not does not have life.

b.
Anyone born of God does not continue to sin (kept safe by Jesus and the Devil cannot harm them)
We are children of God and the world is under the control of the evil one
The Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we can know and be in Him who is True

We received some very good advice when our children were little.  The recommendation was, instead of telling them what not to do, tell them what to do instead.

Saying, “don’t touch that”, puts the focus on the negative.  Saying, put your hands here and here when you approach this, is a positive and puts the focus on what to do.

I use this approach every day.  It is a core part of my work and how I lead others.  It is a central part of my teaching.  It is a major influence in working with kids (of all ages).  I even use it with myself.

Above my bathroom mirror, I have a 3×5 card of “insteads” paraphrased from Og Mandino.  Things like, if I’m feeling depressed, sing; if I’m feeling sad, laugh; if I feel afraid, trust in God’s power; If I feel poor, give thanks for blessings…

So, what is the instead to sin?

John answers that in this letter.  The opposite of “to sin” is “to love”!

God is love.  Love God, Love Jesus, Love the Holy Spirit, Love each other, Love Jesus and the Spirit within us.  Love our brothers and sister and God in them.  Love the community of believers.

Yes, we walk in a world filled with lies and lusts and prides and false teaching.  But the focus of our walk is not on avoiding the darkness, it is staying in the light.  It is walking in love.  It is letting our Lord carry us when we don’t have the sight to see the path.  It is remaining, abiding, living in Christ and becoming holier, fixed, repaired, transformed, more and more every day.  It is praying and reading and speaking the Word.

Love!

My Answers:

9.
Great love of God lavished on us, called children of God.  When Christ appears we shall be like him, purified as he is.  This helps because we do not have strength on our own to not sin or be cleansed of past sins, but Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection provides the only hope of purification, to be made holy as he is holy.  We are cleansed of sin by his work not ours.

10.
Love one another because we have passed from death to life.  We know true love because, in love, Jesus laid down his life for us.  We in turn should be willing to lay down our lives (forgo personal gain) for our brothers and sisters and to keep God’s commands.

11.
To (1) believe it and (2) to witness and profess it to others as the truth.

I love that BSF took us from our study in John 15 to this letter in 1 John.  At the last supper, as we’ve been reading and studying, Jesus over and over again encouraged His disciples to “keep my commands.”

Keeping the commands of Jesus is challenging.  It is something that we all struggle with, not because we don’t want to, but because we are sinners.

As a writer/blogger, I know I often am prompted to write about the things that I’m struggling with and working through.  I think it is a way that the Holy Spirit works in me as I try to put these challenges and struggles into words. It is not that I have the answers, but that I have the questions.  And, I think this letter of John is, in a way, his blog post along the same lines.

He writes it to sons and to fathers and to fathers and to sons and to young men.  But, in part, I think he also writes it to himself.  What does it mean to keep Jesus’ commands?  How do you go about doing it?

First, and foremost, he explains we haven’t arrived yet, we are still on the journey.  If anyone says they haven’t sinned or don’t sin, they are a liar and they call God a liar.  We fall short of keeping the commands every single day.

Second, we cannot just throw up our hands and say “this is impossible” and go on not keeping the commands.  Instead, we are to “not sin”.  It isn’t a “try not to sin”, but just simply, don’t sin.

But, how? Here, John includes the most important part…  It is not on our own and not by our own efforts, but by the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.  There is no quick and easy path.  No lies by false teachers that we can say some word or follow some practice.  It is purely by the purifying and sanctifying work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

This takes us directly back to John 15.  The Father is the gardener, snipping off the sucker distractions in our life that take away time and energy from producing fruit.  But as we live and grow, these side branches, the lusts and prides, need to continue to be pruned back as our branches are trained as we mature.  We are nourished by the connection to Jesus and fed and supported by the Holy Spirit inside and out.

We don’t “try” to not sin.  We don’t “try” to be holy.  We just follow.  We just put our faith in God.  We just stay, remain, abide, walk, in the light, the love of God.  We don’t try, we do.  You don’t try to love God.  You love God and let that love grow every day.

It’s not easy and it is a struggle, but it is not a mystery and it is not impossible, not by our strength but because of “The Righteous One.”

My Answers:

6.
We know we have come to know him if we keep his commands.   By observing whether or not we are keeping his commands.  Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

7.
Lust of the flesh – sexual immorality, gluttony, desires only for self gratification
Lust of the eyes –  pornography, consumerism, constantly desiring more and different
Pride of life – self centeredness, self righteousness, self absorption, Existentialism: my will and my choice is paramount

8.
False teachers are real and prevalent.   They try to lead others astray by calling the truth lies and lies the truth.  Hold to what is known.  hold to the anointing of the Holy Spirit, hold to the fact that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the true Father.

Why are Christians hated and persecuted in the world?  It isn’t just a targeted response.  It doesn’t come from logical or rational thought, it is deeper, more basic.  We smell.

In the same way that different people have different tastes, food they like and dislike, we learn from scripture that the aroma of faith smells differently to believers and none believers.

Throughout the old testament, there are over 40 verses discussing the pleasing aroma of true sacrifice to God.  This is a recurring theme and one that time and again points to the aroma of how Jesus smells to God.  He is the ultimate sacrifice, one who laid down His life for His friends.

2 Cor 2:14-16 discusses this.  When we are followers of Christ we take on His sacrifice as our own and we take on His aroma.  To God we smell like Jesus.  It goes out before us.  It is present on us whether we open our mouth or not.  It is all around us.

To fellow believers it is a pleasing aroma.  It smells like home.  It smells like Jesus.  It smells like everything we want and desire.

But to those who have rejected Christ, we smell like their future.  We smell like death.

If you have ever smelled a dead animal, you know the smell.  It is repulsive and they can think of nothing but getting rid of it, hating it, getting it away from them.

The smell is not the same because the future is not the same.  The smell is not the same because the “smeller” is not the same.  We smell the perfume that was poured on Jesus by Mary to anoint Him, they smell death that awaits them by participating in rejecting the Lord.

My Answers:

12.
Unbelievers, because they have rejected Jesus and, in so doing, rejected his followers as well.  Do they dislike me or what I represent to them?  If they hate Jesus, shouldn’t they hate me as well, if I’m living a life that reflects His glory?

13.
Luke 5, it is not the healthy who need a doctor…  Our place in this world is to be a servant of Jesus in aiding the spiritually sick to become well, by drinking from the well of salvation.  We are constantly under attack in this endeavor because we stand out, we fight the disease of sin.  I attempt to do this with children who must make their own decisions about faith in their life but currently come under the faith of their parents.  I do this will co-workers and clients and vendors at work.  I do this with family who do and do not believe.

14.
a.
The disciples then and there as well as those of us who are disciples here today.  Me.

b.
Because why would we expect to be treated better than Jesus was treated?  We have less power, less authority on our own, our only real power and authority is that which we channel that belongs to Jesus.  In the same way, the attacks on us are not on us, but on Jesus through us.

 

One of the things I love the most about John 15 is the way Jesus makes the intangible visual and tangible and real.  For example, LOVE.  We know love as an emotion.  We know it is real, but it isn’t something that we can visualize or touch, much less “remain in”.

But, Jesus explains that LOVE is like a HOME, and not just any home, but God’s home.  It is a real and tangible place.  It is a safe place.  It is a place we are with God, in His presence, in His Home.  It is a place for us, where we have our own room, just like home.  It is a safe place.

But, we are a people prone to wander.  The grass appears greener in other places (even though it is dead grass painted green).  And we walk out the front door.  Sometimes we think we are just sneaking out for a short time, other times we reject the Father to His face and run away.  But just as in the story of the prodigal son, the Father keeps our room ready for us to return and be welcomed back.

One other thing I want to point out from this verses is the interpretation of the word “if” in verse 14.  Jesus says, “You are my friends if you do what I command.”  The word here is if, not when.  The other translation of the Greek word used here is “whosoever”.  The message is NOT “when you obey me you are my friend and when you don’t you are not.”  But, instead, Jesus is saying, ‘those who choose to love me show it by obeying my commands (such as loving one another, such as remaining in the Father’s love), and not only will they not be rejected by me, but I will call them my friends.’  Think about this from the perspective of who Jesus is.  He is the King of Kings and Lord or Lords.  But those who choose to come under Him are not only His subjects and servants (as would be the case with other Kings), but He promises that we will be His Friends.

Friends get invited to dinner.  Friends become part of the family.  Friends get a seat at the table and, ultimately, get adopted as brothers and sisters.

My Answers:

9.
Love is a home.  It is a place to dwell in occupied by God.  It is a place to remain.  It is something to share, to bring others in to.  As the song says, it is a big, big house!

10.
It is what Jesus commands.  It is what Jesus did for us (and them).  It is the only way to share the gospel.  You cannot share the good news in hate or as a weapon against others.  You can’t share it by throwing it over the fence, emailing it out.  You share it by sharing Christ’s love.  It is not our love that is the key, it is the love of Jesus Christ.

11.
To be His friends.  We were appointed that we might go and bear fruit, everlasting fruit.  When we ask He will empower us in anything that is needed for that mission.  It starts with Love.

When we read these verses in John 15 and get to the part about pruning, we probably cringe a little.  Even when it is for our own good, we don’t like pruning.  It sounds painful.

But, the message is clear, we need to do more pruning in our lives, not less.  And, the first area that we need to prune relates to time.

As hard as we may want it to be different, there are only so many hours in a day.  In those hours we fill them up with a lot of “good” activity.  We make commitments with family, friends, partners, work, organizations, and even ourselves.  We are busy, busy people.  We are busy, busy people doing “good” things.

But which of those things are bearing fruit?

Why aren’t more Christians active in their faith?  The number one reason given is that they are too busy. Of Christians in America, only 20% attend a worship service weekly.  Of those who attend worship service only 20% read the bible more than once a week.

How do we expect to bear fruit when we are not receiving nourishment?

Why do we keep participating in things that aren’t bearing fruit and taking our time away from those that do and those that nourish us?  I think the answer is in three parts.

First, we get into a rut.  We go from day to day, commitment to commitment, busy to busy, and we don’t think and assess things from a higher vantage point.  This is one reason it is so important to occasionally pull back, retreat, block out some quiet time that you do not fill up with things already on your list, but that you assess the things you are engaged in, that fill up your time, against the criteria of bearing fruit.

Second, we don’t know how to get out.  We really don’t want to disappoint other people and we get ourselves into situations where we have made a commitment and we don’t know how to end it.  But God gives us the answer to this as well, it is called seasons.  Pruning one activity so that we can begin a new one does not mean we are saying the first activity is bad or something we are rejecting.  We are saying it was great for a season and now we are entering a different season of life.  This also gives us a way of communicating effectively to those we are stepping away from.  It is a way of confirming that value of what we are a part of for the season of life we were in, but that it is now time for us, in this season of life, to move to something else. (keeping in mind that while it may not be producing fruit in our season of life, that does not mean it cannot be producing fruit for others).

Third, I think we sometimes take pride in the importance of our busy-ness.  How often have you heard the conversation, “How are things going?  Good, we are staying really, really busy.”  We get so caught up in being busy and being proud of how much we must be wanted and needed, that we get too busy to see what all this busy-ness is taking away from our lives.  How it takes away the opportunity to listen to God and what he has called us to do.  There is a big difference between working on lots of things and working on the right things, and aren’t the right things the things that produce fruit?

My Answers:

6.
With Children, at work, with family, in church

7.
It is, in the same way there can be “bible on the bookshelf” christians, who put faith in Jesus but have disconnected from Him in practice and are not living a life of faith.  James 2, faith without work is dead

8.
Focus on being healthier.  Blood numbers weren’t where they should be.  To continue to do the work God has given me, I need to stay healthy and able to perform which means I need to eat right and exercise.

I love the visual that Jesus provides of the vine and the branches.  When we are in the right path in life we are so securely connected to the Lord that we are part of the same living organism.  The nourishment that we need for eternal life comes up out of the eternal roots of the plant (from the Father), through the vine (Jesus) and into us, the branches.  The Holy Spirit is the connecting fluid flowing throughout, bringing the nourishment deep into us.

Not only that, but the illustration puts it in the right order.  We connect to Jesus, not the other way around.  Jesus isn’t something that we add to our life to make us feel whole.  We are chosen by the master gardener to be grafted on to Jesus, taking something that was weak and frail (us) and making it a part of something eternal and holy.

But the same illustration shows our propensity to sin as well.  Just like a branch, we wander, seeking out the next shiny thing to get our attention.  We don’t completely let go of Jesus, and He for sure does not let go of us, but we stretch ourselves out reaching for the lusts of temptation.  We sometimes not only reach out, but be bind ourselves around those other things.  They are always things of this earth, nothing but rocks or wooden (including things like shiny rocks such as gold and jewels and coins and paper money).  We get ourselves so wrapped around these things that, in a  storm, we pull against the direction of our vine and we can be hurt and damaged.

When this occurs, the master gardener helps prune us back, again giving us the strength and nourishment that we cannot receive in chasing after wandering ways.

My Answers:

3.
We are not on our own or disconnected, we are tied to Christ, we are connected to Him and receive life through the connection in him

4.
Earlier he had washed their feet and explained they were already clean because they had received His word, and walked with Him.   Psalm 51, Create in me a pure heart, o God, and renew a right spirit in me, — If any one is thirsty let him come to me and drink John 7:37

5.
This is about where we draw strength, not whether we are or are not saved.  We often, through sin, pull away from Christ and attempt to find power in ourselves.

For most of us, there is something special about home.  It may have been the home of your childhood or the home you made with your spouse.  It could also be a home that you are looking forward to one day, here on this earth or even the home Jesus has promised believers in heaven.  There are emotions and a fullness that comes with our thoughts and our yearnings for home.  It is far more than just a house.

I think it is one way that we can understand the gift of peace that Jesus discusses.  Peace is far more than the absence of war or the absence of conflict, in the same way that light is more than the absence of darkness.  It is a real thing in and of itself.  It is the feeling we have in our heart when we dream of home.  A feeling of calm and comfort, of love.  And it is a reflection of the home we are destined to: heaven.

But, while heaven is and will be our home, as it is the home of our Father and our Brother, it is not Satan’s home.  Satan is the prince of the Earth.  He does not have a home in heaven and he has no peace.  His dominion is one of lies and unrest of conflict and fear. And, when this world ends, Satan will see his end as well in a lake of fire, but we in peace in Heaven will go on for eternity.

My Answers:

12.
“He” has no hold, not it, but He.  He comes (and even in his coming of evil he serves the purposes of the Father).  He is the devil, He has been cast out of heaven and has no home there.  He is a liar and the father of lies.  He is a brother to the sin of this world, not a child of God because he rejects God and rejects Jesus

13.
“He” has no hold, not it, but He.  He comes (and even in his coming of evil he serves the purposes of the Father).  He is the devil, He has been cast out of heaven and has no home there.  He is a liar and the father of lies.  He is a brother to the sin of this world, not a child of God because he rejects God and rejects Jesus

There may be many different interpretations of what the gospel means in John 14 related to “that day”.  I believe the time that Jesus was discussing was the day, after His ascension, that the Holy Spirit would come into the apostles.  That day was Pentecost when they were gathered together and the gift manifested itself in their professing the good news in many tongues with flames of fire.

I believe that day comes for us when we accept the gift of Jesus’ sacrifice and the Holy Spirit is given to us as a seal of the commitment of God that we are His adopted children.

But, that begs the question, if I’m filled by the Holy Spirit, why do I keep sinning?  Why do I feel so hollow at times?  Why do I fear and worry?

This is an area where not having a background in the Jewish faith puts us at a disadvantage.  Pentecost was a holy day long before the receiving of the Holy Spirit by the Apostles on that day.  It is called Shavu’ot.  49 days, 7 weeks of 7 days are counted leading up to the day of Shavu’ot from the second day of Passover.  The 50^th day is the day of celebration.  The celebration is also called the Festival of Weeks because of the counting of the weeks leading to it.  It jointly celebrates the First Fruits of the Harvest and it also celebrates the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai.

One point I thought was interesting, quoting from the website, jewfaq.org, “It is noteworthy that the holiday is called the time of the giving of the Torah, rather than the time of the receiving of the Torah.  The sages point out that we are constantly in the process of receiving the Torah, that we receive it every day, but it was first given at this time, thus it is the giving, not the receiving, that makes this holiday significant.”

Isn’t it amazing that God used this holiday as a foreshadowing of the day of the giving of the Holy Spirit to believers in Jesus.  And, like a book, especially, like the bible, we receive Him, the Holy Spirit, day after day after day, entering into a deeper relationship and being transformed by His presence in our hearts and minds.  This illuminates why and how we have been given the gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit on the day we accept Jesus as our savior, yet we receive Him more and more each day.

My Answers:

9.
The day of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  For those in the room, it was Pentecost.  For us, it is the day we accept Jesus as our savior and we are born again

10.
to have his commands and keep them is to love Jesus.  Those who love Jesus are loved by the Father and loved in return by Jesus and Jesus will reveal himself to them/us/those he loves
It has helped me see things in a bigger light of a tapestry that was unwoven by sin, but now has been retied and rewoven

11.
teach you all things, remind you of everything Jesus has said – Both, because they go together.  I need both teaching and reminding, more in-depth education and the day-to-day drill and practice of what I know.  I know the difference between right and wrong (in most cases), but I still choose to falter and sin.  I need the reminder, the coach.

I love the message and the pictures in John 14:20-21.  It is a picture of total connection.  The image that comes to my mind is a chain.  Now, I understand that we often have a negative impression of chains: the chains of bondage and oppression and slavery.  But chains have very positive meaning as well.  They embody strength and flexibility.  They provide an accurate measure (in land surveying a chain was often used for measurement).  They also a good metaphor for the connection of us with God.  The three persons of God are perfectly interconnected.  The Father in the Son and the Son in the Father, The Holy Spirit also linked in each of them.  And the message of these verses in John 14 is an invitation, a promise, of a gift that will reconnect us into that Spiritual Chain.  We are not just outside, but linked directly to God through the Holy Spirit inside of us.

I think this is how it originally was in the Garden.  Man was not God but he was in God’s image and shared a connection that was broken when we opened our link in the chain to sin instead of Love.  But, by Jesus becoming fully man, He has restored the link.

My Answers:

6.
Advocate – One who supports and recommends on our behalf
Spirit of Truth – One who is in spirit and is inherently true and the truth
Holy Spirit – Holy, Set apart, God, Spirit is the nature, breath of God, Mist, not of the physical dimension/world but of the spiritual

7.
He is a he, He is not visible but real, He can be known, He is given by the Father and stays forever (he is eternal), we will come to them and make our home is Jesus and the H/S on equal footing, he teaches and reminds

8.
Jesus commands us to obey his teaching, through obedience we show our love for Him and the Father shows his love for us in return.  The words of Jesus we are to obey are not his alone, but also those of the Father.  Without bible study we do not know the word of God, given as a gift for us for God to reveal himself to us so we may know and repent and love Him