Milo

GOD’S GREAT LOVE
1 John 4–5

“This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9).

We are to rest in the assurance of God’s great love.

Overview
False prophets deny Jesus Christ is God and man (4:1–6). Love is the external mark of spiritual birth (vv. 7–21). The believer loves and obeys God, overcoming the world (5:1–5). The person who trusts Jesus has God’s life within him (vv. 6–12). God wants us to know we have eternal life; to pray with confidence (vv. 13–15), to pray for those who sin (vv. 16–17), and to abandon sin (vv. 18–21).

Understanding the Text
“Test the spirits” 1 John 4:1–3. In the first century, itinerant teachers traveled the Roman world. Second Peter 2 tells us that many false teachers were among them; men who saw teaching the new religion as a way to make money. This fit a well-established pattern, as teachers of philosophy and other religions also traveled, gathered little groups of followers, and charged whatever the market would bear. All these traveling teachers were trained in rhetoric, and were skilled hucksters. So John warned the gullible. Don’t be taken in by smooth-talking teachers.
The critical test then and now is, does this teacher present Jesus Christ as God in the flesh? Any who honor Jesus with less than full Deity express the “spirit of the antichrist” rather than the Spirit of God.

“The One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” 1 John 4:4–6. Every now and then I run across someone who is anxious about possible demon possession. This verse can be a great comfort. The spirit that animates the antichrist, Satan himself, operates freely in this world. But the Christian is not part of the world! We have within us One who is far greater than Satan—the Holy Spirit of God.
Let the Spirit fill your life, and you are in no danger of demon possession. Satan can manipulate the circumstances around you. But he cannot touch your heart or spirit as long as God’s Spirit lives within you.

“Whoever knows God listens to us” 1 John 4:4–6. Don’t be defensive if others think your faith in Christ is foolish or peculiar. We Christians speak in the language of our land, yet what we say can’t be “heard” by those who do not know God. The viewpoint of the world has always been blind to Scripture’s God.
Instead of being defensive, keep on loving and doing good. Every day God calls more men and women out of the world to Him. Some you speak to will suddenly begin to hear—and you’ll know that God is at work in their lives.

“Whoever does not love does not know God” 1 John 4:7–12. Non-Christians frequently ask believers to “prove” God. You can’t see Him, or touch Him, they may say. How can you know God exists?
On the one hand, you and I might argue from history. Jesus lived. He died. And His resurrection is the most thoroughly attested event in the ancient world! Those events demonstrate God’s existence, and His active love.
But there’s an even better way to answer. God revealed Himself in the love Jesus showed in giving Himself for us. And God creates a Jesus kind of love in the hearts of those who know Him. Others can know that God is real by seeing Jesus’ kind of love expressed by Christians.
It’s sometimes possible to reason another person into faith. But it is usually easier to love them to a personal trust in Jesus.

“God lives in him and he in God” 1 John 4:13–16. The theme of “assurance” is strong in these last two chapters of 1 John. I’ve known folks who actually get angry if a Christian suggests he or she “knows” he is going to heaven. To some that’s presumption. To others it’s an insult—a sign that the believer thinks he or she is better than they. But John makes it clear that God wants us to know, for sure, that we are saved, and that God lives in us, as we live in God.
It is not presumption to take God at His word, or to rely on the love God has for us. It would be presumption NOT to trust God’s promises.

“Perfect love drives out fear” 1 John 4:17–18. I suspect that most people feel a twinge of anxiety, and glance at their speedometer, if they see a police car while on the road. We appreciate police as guardians of the public good. But most of us are a little nervous around one.
It’s similar for most folks with God. The idea that God is over there in the next car, watching us, makes a person feel a bit edgy.
John, however, said that we need have no fear or anxiety in our relationship with God. Any more than if the policeman we recognized in the next car was our dad. Then we’d just wave to him and smile. There would be no fear, because his presence near us offered no threat of punishment.
Love does just this in our relationship with the Lord. On the one hand, we know He loves us. So He will do nothing to harm us. On the other, as we respond to Him with love, there’s no room left for fear. Terror of someone and love for him or her cannot exist at the same time. Real love drives out fear.
So don’t fear God. Remember He loves you. And love Him in return.

“He first loved us” 1 John 4:19–21. In God’s relationship with us, He is the initiator. He loves first. And His love makes a difference.
It’s as if we were soaking wet kindling. We have no spark of love for God in us; no way to ignite a flame. But God’s love encompasses us. It warms and dries us, and finally kindles love’s fire in our own hearts. In our relationship with God love drives out fear. In our relationship with others, love creates true caring.
What John was saying here is very important. If God’s love hasn’t warmed, dried, and kindled our own love for others, then we have not yet learned to love God. The same fire that warms God’s hearts warms our brothers and sisters.

“His commands are not burdensome” 1 John 5:1–5. Again John insisted that God stimulates one love in our heart; a love that expresses itself both toward God and toward others. We can’t be warm toward God and cold toward our fellowman at the same time.
There’s another exciting thing about love for God. It makes obeying easy. “Want to” is always easier than “have to.” As long as we feel that we are forced against our will to do certain things that God demands, those things will be burdensome to us. But if we eagerly want to do those same things, they seem to us to be a delight.
You can easily check the state of your love for the Lord using this principle. If you find you want to do those things that you know please Him, you can be sure that your love for God is alive and well.

“There are three that testify” 1 John 5:6–9. The meaning of the “water and blood” here is much debated. Perhaps the best way to understand them is to identify the “water” as Christ’s baptism, which introduced His public ministry here on earth, and the “blood” as His death, which ended it. Everything Jesus said and did in public, as well as His death, witness to His nature as the Son of God. The stories of Jesus’ life and death, confirmed in us today by the Holy Spirit, continue to identify Jesus as God’s Son and our Saviour. Anyone who rejects the record of Jesus’ life and death for us, as that record was inspired by the Spirit and is authenticated by the Spirit today, makes God out to be a liar (v. 10).
How clearly this passage draws the issue for all mankind. We either believe God’s Word in and about Jesus, or we call God a liar. There is no middle ground.

“God has given us eternal life” 1 John 5:10–11. Once again we have words of assurance. If you believe God’s words about Jesus, you have been given eternal life. That life is yours, now. “He who has the Son has life.”
Since you believe, enjoy! Be assured of your acceptance by God, and revel in the love God has for you. That love is far more wonderful than all the riches of the world.

“Ask anything according to His will” 1 John 5:14. It’s not that we have to guess at God’s will. This is a promise! As we live close to the Lord, He will guide our prayers, so that what we ask is what He wishes us to have.

“Sin that does not lead to death” 1 John 5:16–20. “Death” here is biological, not spiritual. We see a parallel in 1 Corinthians 5, where Paul demanded that a brother who lived in open, persistent sin be expelled from the church, and also be handed over to Satan “so that the sinful nature may be destroyed” and his spirit “saved on the Day of the Lord.”
It is persistent, determined continuation in known sin that puts a person beyond the reach of prayer, and exposes him or her to judgment in this life.
But John wants us to realize true believers can sin, and should be the object of our prayers. And he wants us to be encouraged when we fall. God’s life in us will call us back to holiness, and we will “not continue in sin.”
Don’t treat sin lightly. But don’t be overwhelmed when you fail. Draw on God’s strength, and stand again.

DEVOTIONAL
Blessed Assurance
(1 John 5:11–15)
There are very few things in this world that we can be sure about.
Becky Schmidt, our friend and our pastor’s wife went to the doctor for a regular checkup—and discovered she had cancer. She’s responding well to treatment. But suddenly the whole world of Richard and their three boys was shaken.
Karl Klammer left the north to take a job here in Florida. The family sold their home, loaded their possessions in a U-Haul truck, and headed south. The day after he got here, the company he was to work for declared bankruptcy, and shut down operations.
Last Saturday night a junior in our local high school was on her way to work. An- other car went through a stop sign, struck her vehicle, and killed her.
Assurance—that confident assurance about ourselves and our future—is something that this world simply does not offer.
Yet, right now, you and I can be absolutely sure, if we believe in Jesus, that we have eternal life. We can be completely confident that God listens to our prayers, and that as we ask according to His will, the answer is assured.
The circumstances of our life on earth will always remain uncertain. We can be assured only of the reality, and the wonder, of our relationship with God.

Personal Application
Claim the blessings of assurance, that are your heritage through faith in Jesus Christ.

Quotable
“To be assured of our salvation is no arrogant stoutness. It is faith. It is devotion. It is not presumption. It is God’s promise.”
—St. Augustine

TESTS OF FAITH
1 John 2:3–3:24

“Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence” (1 John 3:18–19).

Love and obedience are inner and outer tests of a personal relationship with God.

Overview
John identified three tests of knowing God (2:3–11), and expressed confidence in his readers (vv. 12–14). He urged us not to love the world (vv. 15–17), and warned against antichrists (vv. 18–27). We are to live as children of God (v. 28–3:3), doing what is right (vv. 4–10), and loving one another (vv. 11–15) as God in Christ has loved us (vv. 16–20), assured by our lives and by the Spirit that we live in Him (vv. 21–24).

Understanding the Text
“We know that we have come to know Him” 1 John 2:3–11. Somehow the young woman in Canada got my Phoenix phone number. She began to call me, sometimes several times a day. She was anxious and afraid. She didn’t know if she was a Christian, though she believed in Jesus. When the fears came flooding back, she dialed my number.
She was an extreme case, but many Christians have moments of uncertainty. How can we know that we’ve come to know Him? John gave three tests. First, we obey His commands (v. 5). A person wearing the uniform of the U.S. Army obeys the orders of officers over him. That’s part of being a soldier. Obeying Jesus is part of being a Christian, and shows that we acknowlege His authority.
Second, we “walk as Jesus did” (v. 6). If we belong to Jesus we become more and more like Him. So when we respond to others and to life situations as Jesus did when He was here on earth, we show that we belong to Him.
Third, we love our brothers (v. 9). You can’t hate others and belong to Jesus, because Christ loves others. People can say they belong to Christ, and be hateful and hating. But their actions deny their words.
So take a look at yourself. Do you find you keep Jesus’ commands? Do you try to act as you think He would? Do you love your fellow Christians, and enjoy being with them? Then relax! You know Him. And others know you know Him as well!

“I write to you” 1 John 2:12–14. John’s letter wasn’t intended to convict, or to create anxiety. It was intended to encourage. It was written to those John knew were true believers, who showed the mark of Jesus in their lives. How good it is when others let us know they have confidence in us.
It can mean a lot to your family and friends if you give them the same kind of praise.

“Do not love the world” 1 John 2:15–17. In this famous paragraph “the world” is the total system of values and perceptions that together are expressed in the culture of sinful human beings. John revealed the nature of this system, saying that the roots of every human society are anchored deeply in the selfish cravings of sinful man, in man’s tendency to greedily desire the materialistic things he sees, and in man’s drive for ostentatious self-importance. Each of these is antagonistic to God, and a culture that weaves society from these values is corrupt.
We have to abandon the values of human society and adopt the values of God the Father. Man’s culture is not ours, and we should not be comfortable in it.

“Many antichrists have come” 1 John 2:18–25. John did believe that in the future a specific individiual, the Antichrist, would appear. John also believed that false Christians who even then were seeking to lead believers astray were antichrists: enemies of Jesus and the Father.
We know two things about antichrists from this passage. We know that they were once members of the church, but “went out from us.” They set up their own splinter movements. And we know that they revealed themselves by denying that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. John said flatly that no one who denies the Son as God has any knowledge of the Father.
Not everyone who calls himself a Christian is one. In time, however, such folks reveal themselves, by causing schism in the church, and by denying the deity of Jesus.

“His anointing teaches you about all things” 1 John 2:24–27. What protects us from false teachers? Objectively, we make sure that “what you have heard from the beginning remains in you.” The doctrine of the early church and the Apostles is preserved in the inspired Word of God; we study and stand on it. But there is a subjective source of security as well. This is the Holy Spirit, that “anointing you received from Him,” who “teaches you about all things.”
The inner voice of the Spirit and the objective Word combine to witness to the truth. We don’t need any human authority to tell us what is true and what is false. If we listen to the Word, and to the Spirit, we will know.

“And that is what we are!” 1 John 2:28–3:10 Our dog Mitzi has this fixed idea that she’s a member of the family, and ought to have a place at the dinner table. If we don’t watch out, she jumps up on a chair, rests her chin on a place mat, and waits for the opportunity to grab a bite to eat. We have a hard time convincing her that she’s a dog, and dogs don’t eat people food at the dinner table.
John wants us to develop a fixed idea too. He wants us to understand that, even now, we ARE the children of God. We can’t tell what that means ultimately, other than the fact that when Jesus comes we’ll be like Him. But, knowing that we are God’s children and that we will be like Jesus, has a tremendous impact. Mitzi’s wrong when she thinks she’s a person and tries to act like one. But we’re right if we think we are God’s children. If we are totally convinced we’re God’s own, John says we’ll begin to act like God here and now.
If you ever wonder how to act in a particular situation, just remember that you’re a child of God. And act as you believe a child of God should.

“Do not be surprised . . . if the world hates you” 1 John 3:11–15. In the first and second century of our era the world did hate Christians. The Christians refused to take part in public life because sacrifices offered to gods and goddesses were a traditional element in political and social gatherings. Christians were condemned as atheists and as haters of humanity, for to the pagan those who did not shoulder their civic responsibilities seemed to attack the social order.
Otherwise Christians were good citizens: honest, moral, responsible, but still hated. So these words of John were important. Hatred comes from sin, and if Christians were hated and killed, the persecution revealed the sin that infected society. But the obverse must also true. If hatred is the mark of evil, love is the indelible sign of good and godliness.
Some, even in America, are hated because their stand strips away the cloak that hides the basic immorality of such things in our society as abortion, exploitation of sex, and media corruption. They feel the hostility John wrote of. But all of us are to show love, the unmistakable evidence that God has touched, and entered, our hearts.

“If our hearts do not condemn us” 1 John 3:21–24. Deep down, you and I do know what’s right. And we know when we do wrong. We may try to hide it, but even if we attempt to deceive ourselves, there remains a nagging certainty that we’ve done wrong.
What a powerful motive for choosing what is right and good! When our conscience is clear, when we know we’ve done our best, John says we “have confidence before God.” We have confidence to pray, and confidence to claim the answer to our prayers. And most important of all, we have confidence that He does live in us.
Only Jesus within can motivate us to gladly choose what is right and good.

DEVOTIONAL
Toward the Light
(1 John 3:4–10)
I remember when I was in grade school I had to do an experiment growing a lima bean. I guess education hasn’t advanced all that much, because now, 50 years later, the nine-year-old in our house has grown a lima been too. But what’s interesting is that, the sprouting plant will always grow toward the sun. Somehow the life of the bean is drawn toward the light. You can turn the plant around, even lay it on its side. Whatever you do, the sprout will orient toward the sun.
That’s what John was saying about us when he wrote, “No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning” (v. 6). The NIV captures the vital tense of the verb. It’s not that a Christian never sins. It’s that believers will not “keep on sinning.” John said the reason is that God’s seed—the principle of divine life —has been planted in our personalities. God’s life within us grows in the direction of godliness. His life is oriented toward purity. And if God’s life really is in us, there will be a definite tilt toward what is right, and away from sin.
Anyone may sin at times, and in all likelihood will. But you can still tell the DIRECTION in which a person is growing. And so can everyone else!

Personal Application
The direction of your life is more important than where you are now.

Quotable
“Glorious God, give me grace to amend my life, and to have an eye to my end without begrudging death, which to those who die in You, good Lord, is the gate of a wealthy life.
“And give me, good Lord, a humble, lowly, quiet, peaceable, patient, charitable, kind, tender and pitiful mind, in all my works and in all my words and all my thoughts, to have a taste of Your holy, blessed Spirit.
“Give me, good Lord, a full faith, a firm hope, and a fervent charity, a love of You incomparably above the love of myself.
“And give me, good Lord, Your love and favour, which my love of You, however great it might be, could not deserve were it not for Your great goodness.
“These things, good Lord, I pray for, give me Your grace to labour for.”—Thomas More

1 John

INTRODUCTION
First John was written by the Apostle John, probably about A.D. 85–90. John also wrote two other brief letters, the Gospel of John, and the Book of Revelation.
This letter was written to reaffirm core Christian truths then being denied by false teachers. Using the familiar images of light, righteousness, and love, John showed that Jesus is the Son of God, that He did come in the flesh, and that salvation is ours only through Him. John also insisted that Christians do sin and must confess their sins. Cleansed, believers are to live as Christ lived, obedient to God and showing love toward all, and especially toward others in the community of faith.

LIVING IN LIGHT
1 John 1:1–2:2

“If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

God cleanses us that we may live Christlike lives.

Background
Traditional religion. In the first century, religions were generally evaluated by their antiquity. A faith that was ancient was assumed to be true. Those in the upper classes generally thought that there was one great God. They believed that this great God, along with lesser gods, was worshiped by different peoples under different names and by differing rites. As long as the worship practices of a nation or people had roots that could be traced back to antiquity, that religion was considered true.
It was not unnatural in such a society for some to view Jesus as a great and wise man, a worshiper of the great God. But Jesus could not be God Himself, for no religion introduced into the world a hundred or so years earlier could possibly be true. It did not pass the test of antiquity. The soul of Jesus might, upon His death, have attained the status of a lesser divinity. But He could not be God, as orthodox Christians claimed.
This issue, with others, was addressed by John in this brief but powerful letter to the churches of Asia Minor, where John lived out the last decades of his long life. As the Christian movement spread through the Roman world, false teachers did corrupt Christian teaching in an effort to make the new faith fit in with contemporary ideas on religion. But, as John showed, Christian belief is radical, and calls for a complete change of mind about religion, about one’s condition as a sinner, about salvation, about godliness, and about the person of Jesus Christ.

Overview
John based his teaching on personal knowledge of Jesus and continuing fellowship with God (1:1–4). One who claims to be without sin is in darkness (vv. 5–8). Confession of sins brings forgiveness and purification by Christ, our atoning sacrifice (1:9–2:2).

Understanding the Text
“That which was from the beginning” 1 John 1:1. John’s Gospel begins, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The same thought is expressed here. Having faith in Jesus is not worshiping a newcomer on the scene of religion. Jesus existed from the very beginning, for Jesus is God: the source of earthly and eternal life.

“We have seen with our eyes” 1 John 1:1–3. John emphasized his role as an eyewitness to the Incarnation. God isn’t someone far off, distant, unknowable. In the person of Jesus, John had seen God with his own eyes, touched God with his own hands, walked beside God on Palestine’s rugged trails. When false teachers trot out philosophical arguments to prove that God could not become man, and that no human being could share substance with the great God, John had a simple answer. “I’m not talking arguments. I was there. I’m talking what I’ve seen and heard.”
You and I need to have this same kind of confidence. Not that we see and touch Jesus as John did, in the flesh. But today you and I can experience Jesus too. We can know the peace He brings when we are overcome with anxiety. We can sense His leading. We can feel conviction and know a joy that only the Holy Spirit brings. When we know Jesus in this deep, personal sense—when we experience Christ—we KNOW. The most logical-sounding arguments of scoffers have no compelling force when we know, by personal experience, that Jesus is God.

“So that you also may have fellowship with us” 1 John 1:3–4. The word translated fellowship appears over 60 times in the New Testament. The root concept is that of sharing; of having something in common. English versions have translated the Greek root by fellowship, communion, participation, partnership, and by sharing a common life.
Two thoughts are important here. First, “fellowship with us” precedes “fellowship with the Father” in these verses. Perhaps John was saying that we best experience God in and through the community of faith, not on our own. If you want to experience God at work in your life, become part of a church in which God is presently at work.
But John was saying more. He was saying that a person must experience Jesus for himself to have the assurance that possessed John. Knowing about God isn’t enough. Believing that God exists isn’t enough. You must commit yourself to Jesus, and in faith’s link with Christ, that common life you will share with Him, you will experience Him for yourself. And then, you too will know.
What a wonderful thing to be able to say to scoffers, or those who doubt and hold back: I can tell you what I have seen and heard; I can tell you of my experiences. But why not try Jesus for yourself? Why not touch, and see, and hear the truth, as Jesus works in your life today?

“If we walk in the light” 1 John 1:5–7. John frequently contrasted light and dark in his writings. At times the emphasis is moral: darkness represents moral corruption, and light holiness. Here, however, light and darkness are reflections of reality. Those who walk in darkness can’t grasp the true state of affairs. Those who walk in the light see, and are able to deal with, reality.
John was saying something that modern counselors have come to realize is basic to all human relationships. Unless you are willing to be honest with yourself and others, no basis for a close personal relationship exists. You can’t say you have fellowship with God if you’re not honest with Him and yourself. And you can’t say you have fellowship with others. You may think that you have things in common. You may assume that your relationship is intimate and close. But if you’re not in touch with reality, you are fooling yourself.
God can handle anything in our relationship with Him, except deceit. He can even deal with sins! John said that if we walk in the light as God is in the light—if we’re honest with ourselves and with God about our sins—the blood of Christ will keep on purifying us from all sins.
Don’t pretend with God, or yourself. When you do something wrong, face up to it. Admit it, and let God forgive and purify (see DEVOTIONAL).

“If we confess our sins” 1 John 1:9. The word “confess” is homologeo. It means to do an about face concerning a sinful act: to recognize it as sin, and to acknowledge it as sin to God. When we acknowledge our sins for what they are, God is able to act in us. He not only forgives us, but He keeps on cleansing us from all iniquity. Augustine wrote, “He who confesses and condemns his sins already acts with God. God condemns thy sins; if thou also dost condemn them, thou art linked to God.”

“That you will not sin” 1 John 2:1–2. Lots of people don’t understand how God does business. Tell us ahead of time that if we confess our sins we’ll be forgiven? (1:9) Not even mention punishment, penance, remorse, or repayment? Just, confess and be forgiven? Why, if it’s all that easy, why not just go out and sin all you please? All you’d have to do is drop in on God, say, “I did it,” and go on home scott free!
I can understand why they’re puzzled by this. In essence John was saying, I want you to know that Jesus completely satisfied the wrath of God against sinners, and that Jesus is there now, pleading His blood whenever you are accused of any sin. Jesus is saying, “That one’s paid for, Father.” And it is, so you go free.
John understands though. “I’m writing this,” John wrote, “so that you will not sin.” The thing that keeps Christians from sinning is not fear of punishment. It’s love for Jesus. The more we realize the depths of our sin, and how much we’ve been forgiven, the more love we have for the Lord. The love that assures us forgiveness awakens our love, and we freely choose not to sin, for our lover’s sake.

DEVOTIONAL
“Not Me, Lord”
(1 John 1:5–10)
One of the characters that appears regularly in Family Circus cartoons is “Not Me.” He’s a ghostly figure, and every time Mom asks who broke the lamp, or who got into the cookies, the kids quickly blame “Not Me.”
He was a familiar figure even in the first century. John pictured him in these verses of his first letter. “Anyone around here sin?” he asked. And everyone pipes up, “Not me.”
To John, this is serious and not at all funny. “If we claim to be without sin,” John writes, “we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (v. 8). We’ve stepped out of the light, and lost that intimate contact with God that we maintain only by being honest with ourselves and with Him. There’s even more. If we refuse to acknowledge our sin, our sins will go unconfessed. We’ll miss experiencing the flood of forgiveness that deepens our love for the Lord. And we’ll cut ourselves off from the cleansing work of God’s Holy Spirit: a work that can only take place in those who are honest with themselves and honest with God.
So next time you get angry and strike out at a loved one, don’t pass it off as “righteous indignation.”
Next time you fudge on your income taxes don’t think, “Everyone’s doing it,” and excuse yourself.
Next time your spouse says he or she needs to talk, don’t turn your back in bitterness or indifference.
And never, never claim—even in your dreams—to be without sin. Take your place with the rest of us: weak, vulnerable, trying, and at times failing, but walking honestly with God and with others, and by God’s grace growing better than we have been, and better than we are.

Personal Application
If you deceive yourself, you are in darkness indeed.

Quotable
There may be virtue in the man
Who’s always sure he’s right,
Who’ll never hear another’s plan
And seek no further light;
But I like more the chap who sings
A somewhat different song;
Who says, when he has messed things up,
“I’m sorry; I was wrong.”

It’s hard for anyone to say
  That failure’s due to him—
That he has lost the fight or way
  Because his lights burned dim.
It takes a man aside to throw
  The vanity that’s strong,
Confessing, “Twas my fault, I know;
  “I’m sorry; I was wrong.”

And so, I figure, those who use
  This honest, manly phrase,
Hate it too much their way to lose
  On many future days.
They’ll keep the path and make the fight,
  Because they do not long
To have to say—when they’re not right—
  “I’m sorry. I was wrong.”

—Herald of Light

“I AM COMING SOON”
Revelation 21–22

“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life” (Rev. 22:17).

God’s final message to us is an invitation to heaven.

Overview
God creates a new heaven and earth where He will dwell with men (21:1–5), from which the ungodly will be excluded (vv. 6–8). A heavenly Jerusalem will serve as the capital of the recreated earth (vv. 9–21), and God Himself will be there (vv. 22–27). There will be no more curse or night, but we will serve God and see His face (22:1–6). The vision ends with a warning (vv. 7–11), an open invitation (vv. 12–17), and the assurance that Jesus is coming soon (vv. 18–21).

Understanding the Text
“A new heaven and a new earth” Rev. 21:1. Both Isaiah and Peter graphically describe the dissolution of the material universe. Second Peter 3:10 says that “the heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.” There is no place in eternity for a universe which has been corrupted by sin.
What a reminder for us. If it is necessary for God to replace a thousand million galaxies, untold millions of light years removed from earth, and all because of human sin, how awful must sin be. And how swiftly we should draw back from temptation!

“The New Jerusalem” Rev. 21:2–4. The real significance of Jerusalem in history is that it is the one place on earth where God chose to be uniquely present with men. The story of the temple’s dedication reports that God’s glory filled the temple: He settled there to be accessible to those of Israel who worshiped Him. Thus earthly Jerusalem serves as a metaphor for the heavenly city, destined to be the capital of the new heaven and earth.
God was present in earthly Jerusalem, but insulated from His people by the curtains and walls of the temple. The New Jerusalem is heaven, because there will be no more insulation of God from men. He will be with us, and “He will wipe every tear from [our] eyes.”

“To him who is thirsty I will give to drink” Rev. 21:6–8. Isaiah used this same imagery, crying out:

Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost (Isa. 55:1).

Just so, here God says, “I will give to drink without cost.”
Heaven is ours at no cost to us. But hell is earned, by the vile, unbelieving acts that men perform.

“It shone with the glory of God” Rev. 21:9–21. The New Jerusalem is the most carefully described of anything in these chapters. Possibly this is because the city is the residence of God, who is Himself the focus of eternity to come.
Some scoffers have had a field day with the Holy City. Even though it is a 1,400 mile square, one man calculated that it could hardly hold a fraction of the people who must have lived from Adam’s distant day to ours.
“Heaven isn’t big enough!” he announced. And newspapers actually picked up his words, and ran them as the heading of a story on his findings!
Of course, even a careless reading of the text of Revelation 21 shows that the city rests on a restored earth, in the center of a renewed universe, and that the city is NOT “heaven” at all. But no one bothered to check the Bible’s text. Not the scoffer with the slide rule. And certainly not the editors of the papers that printed his findings.
How sad when people fasten on to some detail of the text, distort it, and announce once again that the Bible’s credibility has been disproved. How sad when reading of an eternity we each must face, that what is overlooked is the promise, “I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.”
This is the real story in Revelation 21. Not the details of what life may be like when time has come to an end. But the invitation to make God our God; God’s promise that “he will be My son” (v. 7).

“The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” Rev. 21:22–27. In the Book of Psalms there is a sequence of poems known as “songs of ascent” (Pss. 120–134). These songs were either sung by pilgrims as they approached Jerusalem to worship or, as some commentators believe, sung by Levites as they stood on one of the 15 steps that tradition says led up to the temple from the court below. These were songs of joy; songs of praise. Songs that expressed the worshipers’ sense of grand privilege as they approached the dwelling place of God on earth.
Just think what it means for heaven to have no temple. And think of the songs of joy that we will sing. For when in eternity we enter the New Jerusalem, we will be coming not to a building that represents God’s presence, but to God Himself. And our whole being will overflow with praises and delight.

“No longer will there be any curse” Rev. 22:1–5. This, with God’s personal presence, is the most wonderful thing about heaven. There will be no more curse. We will at last be unfettered. The potential that God planted in the human soul when He created mankind in His own image will at last be released from the cancer that eats at us now. We do not yet know what we will be, John says, “when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).
We shall serve Him, the text says. We will see His face. And we will reign forever and ever. We can’t imagine everything that serving God and reigning implies (see DEVOTIONAL).
But if you wish to dream, dream of freedom from sin’s curse; of becoming the person God has always intended you to be. And dream of seeing God face-to-face.

“The time is near” Rev. 22:10–17. It seems strange to read, “Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong” and “let him who does right continue to do right.” At least, it seems strange until we sense the immediacy in the context. Jesus has cried, “I am coming soon!” (v. 7) and will immediately utter the same cry again (v. 12).
When Jesus comes, our destiny will be fixed. Today there is still time for the one who does wrong to repent. When Jesus returns, the door of opportunity will close.
Jesus is coming soon. Every man needs to heed that warning cry, and respond while the Spirit and the bride still say, “Come!”

“Amen! Come, Lord Jesus” Rev. 22:18–21. The more we know of life on earth, the more attractive heaven is.
The young dream dreams of next year, of marriage, of promotions on the job. The middle aged dream of retirement. And the aged dream of yesteryear. How sad if all our dreams are of life on this earth, of fleeting days and nights, and passing joys.
The Christian who has gazed on earth and found it a void has a different dream. We look up, and in our reverie imagine a loud trumpet blast. And with the saints of every time and place, we cry “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus.”

DEVOTIONAL
Heaven
(Rev. 21:22–22:5)
Donald Grey Barnhouse used to speculate in his Monday night New York Bible Class. What would heaven be like? He didn’t know, of course. But he was quite sure that God had wonders beyond description in mind.
“I expect that one day God will tell me, ’Donald, go create a world and people it and govern it for Me,’ ” Barnhouse would say. Somehow he felt that the whole re-created universe, with it myriads of galaxies and uncounted stars, should be filled with beings who loved and worshiped God, and found great joy in Him. To Barnhouse this earth, and our race, was but a seed. And when that seed sprouted, and history had run its course, a redeemed humanity would be the agency through which God spread the knowledge of Himself through an endless multitude of possible worlds.
Perhaps. God’s purposes undoubtedly have a scope that exceeds our most exalted imaginings.
But these concluding chapters of Revelation do make one glory exceedingly clear. When this world ends, we will know God. We will walk in His light, freed forever from the curse of sin. Free to serve Him, to see His face, and to love Him as we ought to love.
And for us, this is enough. For the true definition of “heaven” is, “heaven is where God is.”
And that is where we will be.
No wonder John, who has seen it all, cries “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus.”

Personal Application
The greatest blessing the new year could possibly hold would be the return of Christ.

Quotable
“Will He not give us all things when we are with Him? What shall our life and our nature not be when His promises unto us shall have been fulfilled! What will the spirit of man be like when it is placed above every vice that masters and subdues—when, its warfare ended, it is wholly at peace.”—St. Augustine

THE LAKE OF FIRE
Revelation 20

“Then death and hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death” (Rev. 20:14).

Heaven and hell are the ultimate realities.

Background
The thousand-year-reign. This is the only mention in Bible of a thousand-year period during which Christ rules on our present earth. Yet many of the themes seen in this puzzling chapter are developed quite fully in the Old Testament and in Christ’s own eschatological teaching. One scenario, which may not be correct, but which is most fascinating, explains the chapter in this way.
After the armies of earth are crushed at Christ’s return, the surviving population experiences the judgment described in Matthew 24. Many who enter the kingdom Christ will rule are thus unconverted individuals; if you will, Germans, but not Nazis. Christians, members of the body of Christ, have already met Christ in the air, as 1 Thessalonians 4 describes. The martyrs who experience the “first resurrection” are Old Testament saints or believers of the Tribulation era, as Daniel 12:4 indicates. These reign with Christ on earth for the thousand years, fulfilling the prophets’ predictions of an era of peace under the Messiah.
Despite the ideal environment established by Christ in the Millennium, when Satan is released at the end of the era he finds willing followers among the descendants of the survivors, eager to rebel against the Lord. This final rebellion is quickly put down, Satan is assigned to the lake of fire, and at this point the universe itself dissolves, as described by Isaiah and in 2 Peter 3.
Now final judgment takes place. The dead appear before God, and all who are not written in the Book of Life—that is, who have not during one of history’s eras put their trust in God—are consigned to the lake of fire.
One thing fascinates me about this interpretation of Revelation 20 and the many Old Testament and New Testament passages integrated with it. When God warned Adam in the Garden of Eden not to disobey, He said, “When you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen. 2:17). When Adam sinned death struck: first a spiritual death, and out of that a biological deterioration. No matter what man accomplishes in the physical universe, humanity remains spiritually dead, the grip of sin tragic and unbreakable.
One way to look at sacred history is to see it as a demonstration of this fact, and of the utter necessity of salvation. Human beings can and do blame crime and corruption on environment, on heredity, on Satan’s influence, and on a host of other factors beyond individual control. But the fact remains that it is because of sin and spiritual death that pain and evil stalk us still.
God first gave man utter freedom—and the world became so evil the race had to be destroyed in the Genesis Flood (Gen. 6–8). Then God instituted human government by making man responsible to correct evils (9:6). And ancient empires emerged, whose rulers’ pride and greed was expressed in terrible wars and torture. Then God chose a single family, the Jewish race, and covenanted to be their God. Even though He gave them a law that showed how to love Him and one’s fellow man, Israel rebelled again and again, turning aside to idolatry. So God sent a Saviour, and proclaimed a Gospel of forgiveness and transformation for all. And the world ignored the invitation, preferring the pursuit of sinful desires. So at the last Christ institutes a kingdom where righteousness is enforced: a golden age of peace and plenty, with Satan’s influence removed. Even then, when Satan is released, mankind gladly throws off the bondage of goodness to rebel yet again against God. In this all the awfulness of sin is finally, fully, revealed. And man apart from God’s redeeming grace is shown to be a sinner indeed.
In this historic demonstration of the sinfulness of humankind, the necessity for a lake of fire is found. Each human being is too significant to simply perish, as if he or she had never been. And yet because sin is sin, and unredeemed men truly are spiritually dead, the unredeemed must be forever isolated from eternity’s holy state.

Overview
The last battle over, Satan is chained (20:1–3) and martyrs are raised from the dead to reign with Christ (vv. 4–7). After a thousand years, Satan is released and again deceives the nations, but is then thrown into the lake of fire (vv. 8–10). This universe is then dissolved, and all the dead judged. Those not in the Book of Life are thrown into the lake of fire (vv. 11–15).

Understanding the Text
“He seized the dragon” Rev. 20:1–3. “I don’t know why I did it,” some Christians say. “I guess the devil must have made me do it.” At best it’s a poor excuse. The devil may tempt and encourage us to sin. But Satan can’t “make” us do anything. Why, even God doesn’t “make” us do things. He simply gives us the freedom to choose.
It would be nice if Satan were bound today. I suspect some of the corruption we see in our society would disappear. But even if he were bound, you and I would remain responsible to choose between evil and good; between God’s will, and our own.

“They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years” Rev. 20:4. The members of this group are carefully identified. The fact that they had not worshiped the beast or received his mark indicates they must have lived and died during the terrible final years when the Antichrist held sway.
Even so there is a vital lesson here for us. Participation in evil may seem the easy or even the necessary choice at times. Many an employee has remained quiet, despite being aware of illegalities in his company’s practices. Many an engineer has remained silent despite doubts about the safety of the product his employer produces. Many an accounting firm has been aware of sharp practices covered up in creative annual reports—and by taking refuge behind “accepted accounting standards” perpetuated fraud rather than lose an account. The martyrs of Revelation remind us that it may cost to take a stand for what is right. But that in the end, the rewards of righteousness are great.

“The first resurrection” Rev. 20:5–6. Some have objected strenuously to the notion that there might be more than one resurrection of the believing dead. A Rapture for Christians? A special resurrection for Tribulation martyrs? Another for Old Testament saints? How confusing! “Why,” they say, “God wouldn’t do anything like THAT.”
Perhaps not. But I’m always fascinated by folks who are utterly certain about what God would and wouldn’t, or could and couldn’t, do. It must be wonderful to have such a secure grasp of God’s intentions.
Personally, while I’m not ready to be dogmatic, I have the impression that God’s plans are far more complex and multifaceted than even the most creative of us can imagine. Why, even the good cooks I’ve known haven’t been satisfied to serve meat and potatoes at every meal. I suspect the future God will place before us will outdo the most lavish spread ever conceived for a royal court or luxury cruise.

“The devil . . . was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur” Rev. 20:7–10. Jesus tells us that the lake of fire was “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). Hell wasn’t formed with mankind in mind. Heaven was.
This is an important truth for us to hold on to. God has done everything possible to keep human beings out of that eternal lake of fire. Including experiencing on Calvary a fate more awful for Him than the lake of fire could be for any man. On Calvary He who knew no sin was made sin for us, and the crushing weight of all of history’s evil seared the holy Son of God.
If anyone goes to the lake of fire it will be because he has not responded to the love of a God who reveals Himself to all men through creation’s universal Word, and through His incarnation (see DEVOTIONAL).

“The Book of Life” Rev. 20:11–15. It’s in the Old Testament as well as here. This image of a book in which a record of those who know and love God is maintained. Malachi 3:16 calls is a “scroll of remembrance” which “was written in His presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored His name.” Here it is the Book of Life. And how appropriate a name!
Being found here is the difference between eternal life and eternal death. Between endless life in heaven, and unending existence in the lake of fire. How good it is to know that when we trusted Jesus as Saviour, our names were recorded there.

DEVOTIONAL
The Lake of Fire
(Rev. 20:7–15)
There are many images of eternal punishment in Scripture. But the one that recurs most often is that of a vast, dark, and smoldering pool of burning sulfur, whose fumes rise sullenly into a leaden sky. Jesus Himself used language like this. He spoke of a place “outside.” A place of “darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 25:30). A moment later He called it “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (v. 41). The striking fact is that in His teaching Jesus spoke far more often of hellfire than of heaven!
You and I can’t begin to grasp what the lake of fire is like, or fully understand the necessity for its eternal existence. There are no words that soften the impression given in Scripture, no arguments that make the terrible fate so many face palatable. All we can do is to confess that Scripture teaches that the lake of fire smolders there at history’s end. And confess that God is love, and by love’s eternal sacrifice, God has offered each human being a way of escape.

Personal Application
Let Scripture’s images of the lake of fire deepen your awareness of what it means to be saved.

Quotable
“I cannot preach on hell unless I preach with tears.”—D.L. Moody