What they knew #6: Jesus came
“…And we know that the Son of God has come…” (Jump to full passage above)
This is no pretension. They did not need faith for this. The facts were nearby John himself having walked with Jesus. He had seen the spectrum of life, the spectrum of love that was the man Jesus. None but one from God himself could have been this way. The antagonists of Jesus’ day even say that Jesus had come from God; and rejected it.
“So,” John says, “you know that Jesus came. Live there. Don’t allow yourselves to become bedraggled over the false shouts of deceived teachers.”
What they knew #7: The understanding Jesus gave us connects us to God
“…and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true;” (Jump to full passage above)
The viewpoints which had grown up in their minds and hearts were not just about Jesus. They were bigger than that reaching all the way to the throne of God. As Jesus lived among the people of Israel as Savior of the world he demonstrated understanding. The purpose of these things was that crucial reconnection with him who is true. Satan is false. God is not.
“Can you recognize those points on which you are connected to the one who is true?” John’s statement makes this question rhetorical. The answer is yes without reservation. “Act on it. Do not doubt. You sort of get this intrinsically. The things I am saying are not new to you but evoke thoughts like, ‘Yep, I do believe that’ so live there.”
What they knew #8: There is no God but God.
“…so that we may know him who is true…He is the true God and eternal life.” (Jump to full passage above)
There are no other options at the God-store. Monotheism, as revealed in the Judeo-Christian spectrum, is right. The people to whom John is writing have this clarity. They know that truth connects them with eternal life. “Let it be. Don’t dredge up the old doubts. Leave them in the murky water that you are wading in.”
What should we stay on the lookout for? Idolatry
“Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” (Jump to full passage above)
This seems such an odd last phrase, but the society from which John’s readership was drawn was full of such things. Think of how our lives rotate around the cell phone. Such a device is our conduit for good or for ill. I am not trying to draw your mind to the phone itself as being the idol. It is rather the connection to other things. Steadily our society is leading toward the need for a smartphone.
In John’s day, idols and the culture surrounding them was similarly pervasive. Choices, daily activities, family structure, political connections, and decisions were not divorced from these false deities. Idols set the tone, but the Christian community had left reliance upon such things behind.
John’s parting comment was to remind them of how they must continue to make new choices and not relapse into what was old, comfortable, and culturally connecting.
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