This is the second in a series of studies on the book of 1John. I would like you to read From the Beginning before reading this one.
Keeping in mind that John is taking us back to “the beginning” when we knew that we are one with God and our brother and therefore had no difficulty fulfilling the “great commandment” to love God and our neighbor, let’s look at these words from John:
1 John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. 19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
If we read this by the “letter” rather than by the “Spirit,” we might think that we can know that we are “of the truth” and can “assure our hearts before him” when we do good things for our brother. That is the surest and quickest way to go back “under the law” which came in when we first felt alienated from God and thought we had to do something good to gain His acceptance.
No! Paul tells us:
Romans 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
In our humanity we are incapable of doing good. It is only when we “reckon” that humanity to be “dead” and allow Christ to live as us that any good can be done.
Jesus tells us the ONLY way we will ever know we are “of the truth”—and it’s not by doing good things for our brother:
John 18:37 . . . To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
When I ascend into God consciousness (“lay down” this “life” of humanity), and listen to and obey the voice of God inside concerning my brother, being willing to give him anything God directs me to give, then—and only then—am I loving “in truth”; anything else I do to show my compassion is “dead works” and not love.
My heart is “assured” “before Him” when I listen for that voice and do what He instructs me from the inside (the Spirit), not from the “letter” of the written word.
Both Jesus and Paul illustrate this. When Mary of Bethany poured a very expensive ointment on the head of Jesus, those looking on “murmured against her” for wasting what could have been sold and given to the poor (a “brother in need”). Wasn’t Mary “shutting up her bowels of compassion” from those who were needy, thereby demonstrating that the love of God didn’t dwell in her? We could see it that way if we read 1John by the “letter.” No, Mary listened to her heart which told her to do this for Jesus, who didn’t appear to be in need, and received the highest commendation from Him for her act of love (Mark 14:3-9).
Then in Paul’s “love” chapter (1Corinthians 13) we read this words: “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing” (v 3).
When I know that I am one with my Father and with my brother, love will always be what motivates me. I will always be listening for my Father’s instructions concerning my relationship with my brother as did Jesus, doing only what I hear my Father say (John 12:50).
John’s next words can again put us right back under the law if we read them by the “letter.”
1 John 3:20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. 22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
My heart always condemns me when I’m still under the law operating from a conscience that I’ve programmed to condemn me when I violate whatever rules I’ve set for myself to earn God’s acceptance and approval—see Freed from the Conscience. For that is the nature of the law (cursing and condemning me for not keeping it perfectly) and the very reason Jesus became a curse for me—to free me from that condemnation.
Galatians 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. 12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. 13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: 14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.)
But, notice, even when my heart condemns me, “God is greater than my heart.” I cannot depend upon my conscience to instruct my humanity; I must die to that humanity and allow God to do His works through me. I do that by listening and obeying whatever I hear my Father say.
v 21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
My heart doesn’t condemn me when I have the “new heart” (Ezekiel 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh) and I’m not operating out of the conscience which always condemns. I’m rather listening to the Spirit within which never condemns.
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
I have “confidence toward God” because I am no longer under the law, trying to earn God’s love. I’ve already received His love; and my confidence is solely in Him, not in my own ability.
1 John 3:22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
Now this is a statement that can so very easily be misinterpreted. Don’t read this as saying that God answers our prayers because of something we do. We just saw that we are “cursed” if we don’t keep the law perfectly, that “the law is not of faith” and that we receive from God all His blessings by “faith” or just believing that all His promises are yes and amen through Christ (2Corinthians 1:20). All that we receive from our Father is a free gift, not to be earned by anything we do, especially not by doing the works of the law.
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Then what is the “commandment” that I must “keep” if I’m to know that I receive what I ask for?
1John 3:23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. 24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.
When I know that I am one with God and with my brother as Jesus prayed that I would:
John 17:21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
When I know by the Spirit that He dwells in me and I in Him, that we all do, then I have no difficulty loving God or my brother or believing the love that God has for me (1John 4:16), no difficulty at all believing on the “name of His Son Jesus Christ” (God made visible as man). I will then understand that God is made visible in my other brothers as He was made visible in my elder brother Jesus Christ and that we are all one:
Hebrews 2:11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.
Until we grasp this truth that God has made Himself visible in all of us and that we are all one with Him and with one another, we cannot understand the “message” of 1John. When John says that we are to “try the spirits” to see if they are “of God” (4:1), he tells us that we know a “spirit” is “of God” if that spirit “confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh” (v 2); otherwise, it is the “spirit of antichrist.” We have thought that to mean that Christ came in the flesh in the man Jesus, which of course He did. But He also came in my flesh and your flesh:
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
John 14:17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
1 Corinthians 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
Ephesians 4:6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Indeed, this is the “mystery” that had been hidden from previous “ages and generations”—the mystery that “that which was from the beginning” came to reveal to us: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:26-27).
We have been trained by religion that to believe this is blasphemy. That’s what the religious leaders of Jesus’ day said too. Nothing has changed.
John 10:30 I and my Father are one. 31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? 33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. 34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? 35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; 36 Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? 37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. 38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.
Until I know, as Jesus did, that the Christ has come in my flesh, that my Father has sanctified me and sent me into the world, that the Father is in me, and I in Him, that I and my Father are one, I will never do the works that Jesus did, even though He said I could and would (John 14:12) because it is not my works, but the works of the Father that I am one with.
I can never “assure my heart before Him” until I know that I have the “new heart” and “new spirit” that can never condemn me but is rather always assuring me that I am one with my Father and giving me understanding of this “mystery” of the Christ in me living as me:
Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.