Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the daily Bible podcast. Merry Christmas day after stop. It's just going to be like married two days. No, no, no. I'm a Grinch man. He over here telling me I can't be celebrating Christmas the day after it. What is wrong with you? My lawn, uh, basically get off my Christmas lawn. Look, the 12 days of Christmas is a thing. I don't know how that works. I just know that I'm going to celebrate as long as I can. I'm going to enjoy it. I'm sure if somebody does and they're going to send us an email, do you take out, do you take off your lights a day after. Yeah. That guy? No. That was a Christmas is over. We're done with this. No, but I do find that it's like, it's a thing I need to get done. And I feel like until I get it done, it's hard to feel real motivated about getting a whole lot done in the new year. All right. Cause it's like, all right, I gotta take down Christmas. I gotta put it away. Well, I'm kind of, I'm counting on my neighbors. Um, I'm thinking about them and how long it takes them to take them down. Cause we are really early to put them up. We'll see how long it takes to take them down. Yeah, well, yeah, it same in our neighborhood. It's like November 1st hit and it everything's switched before. My neighborhood was in October. Yeah, well, our neighborhood had all the demon demonic, like mummies and everything else, eating people. So they couldn't be Christmas at the same time. So I was wondering if they did that as a, as a way to protest against it. Oh, I wonder if that's it. Maybe, maybe I just, Halloween decorations can be burned and never brought out again. However. I like a harvest decoration. Yeah, that's fine. Put some haters out there and some pumpkins. Yeah. But the demonic. I'm going to do a blow up PSL for October of next year. Pumpkin spice. Latte. Oh, not lobster. Yeah. I bet they do that probably in Louisiana. Yeah. I'd see that Jeff probably knows. He would know. He probably does it. Crab boil with some pumpkin spice thrown in there. That does not sound good. And I haven't tried it don't know. Yeah. I wouldn't like it anyway. I'm not a big grab guy or lobster. You liked that stuff. Yeah. I mean, when I eat it, I do, I don't make a habit of eating it very often. I don't try to eat. I just, uh, yeah. Doesn't it doesn't. This is it look good? Does. Does it smell good? I've tried it a few times. Not my thing. Well, and they're alive. The lobsters are when you put them in the pot. Well, I don't, I've never done it myself, so yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I've seen it done a couple of times. I've been in the house when it's been done. But yeah, this crustaceans though, I mean, What are they? Number one, is that meat that I'm eating? What exactly? My eating, those are the aliens. And they look like it though. And those things that look like they belong to any part of the natural order of things. Right. Well, and then there's like the lobsters and then somehow there's the crawfish, which are just like baby lobsters. That's basically it. Yeah. And they live totally different places. You can find crawfish in the stream, outside my neighborhood. Yeah. You don't want to eat those? Probably not, but, but they're bottom feeders, right? They're all bottom feeders. Yep. Which I've heard bad things about. Yeah. Same with like white fish that are in like fish tacos. Those are usually bottom-feeder, but those tastes good. And I don't think about it the same way for some reason. Okay. I don't know why. Another day. I don't pursue that. I'm a chicken or steak kind of guy, but if I were to eat, it I'd be much. I'd be much happier with fish than it would be with crawfish. All right. Fair enough. To each their own. Yeah. Well, it's the day after Christmas. So probably a lot of leftovers going on right now. Oh yeah. Hopefully. Yeah, so. And, uh, enjoying the cleanup process. And hopefully some more time with your family still. That would be good. Yeah. All right. Let's jump in to our reading for today because it's a big book. It's a small book, but a big book. Yes, we do lots of leftovers here. First, John, for John written by John, John, who? John, the apostle same one that we're studying the gospel of John in. So. Uh, he is writing this letter. Uh, and there's a lot of questions in, and really there's two camps when it comes to first, John there's the camp that says this is a test of fellowship. Uh, meaning this is a test of, are you walking in fellowship with the Lord and with other believers? Are you. Are you doing what you should be doing as a, as a Christian? Or do you need to stop and realize, oh man, I'm, I'm out of whack and I need to rededicate myself to this and I need to come back and I need to, to, you know, Return cause I've been backsliding. That's one approach to this. The other approach to this is that no, this is a test of salvation. That what John is writing here is that these are markers of true Christians. And if these markers are not present, then. Uh, you probably have somebody that is not needing to rededicate their life to Christ, but to repent and believe in the first place. Um, and, and this is where it gets tricky because people, I saw a post on X earlier this week that said, why do Christians have such a hard time believing in simply being saved by grace alone, period. Well, we don't. Um, but we have to understand what salvation does in our life. And that's what this book strives to answer by and large in. This is why when John was going to say over and over again. By this we know by this, we know by this, we know by this we know in so many times when he says something like by this, we know that we have come to know him. Okay. So what's the alternative then? Well, The other would be that we haven't come to know him if we're not measuring up to, to some of these things that he's, he's held out there. So first John is a difficult book and it's a book that I hope is not discouraging to you because it's not holding up perfection either because John is going to say here, Uh, right off the bat. He's going to say if you claim that you have not sinned verse 10, Uh, you make Christ a liar and his word is not in you. So this is not about perfection, but it's really about the direction of your life. And it's a good book for us to be ending a year on as we anticipate the next year and saying, okay, what, what do I want my life to look like? But he opens in chapter one by saying, Hey, you can rely on this. Because we're eye witnesses of these things. And that's really what the opening paragraph is all about. Uh, we're writing these things to you because we've seen him seen the, the word we've touched the word we heard the word. Uh, and so Jonathan I'm there and he does this in his gospel too. He says the one who's writing these things to you, bears witness about these things being true because I was there, I saw them. And so he's passing on to us in first, John, what he heard from Christ. And then he says, you know what? If you want fellowship with Jesus walking the light and walking the light looks like putting off sin, which is a common theme throughout the whole book. And it probably, it would be helpful for us to tackle that right off the bat, rather than parsing it out every single time it comes up here. But. Pastor rod. Let's kick kick around and in a love to get your thoughts on this. He's going to say things like no one who is a Christian makes a practice of sinning. Um, how do we understand? And yet he's also going to say. No one is without sin, right? Anyone who says he's without sin is a liar. So, how do we balance these things? The Christian who's got a sensitive conscience listening to us out there going, oh, man. Does this mean I'm not saved because I have sin in my life. Um, how do we, how do we usefully apply first John to our life? I love first John, for that very reason, because he does apply those tests and those tests are meant to be an encouragement. As you're saying, in fact, he says in verse four, here, we're writing these things so that our joy may be complete. There's a, there's a, there's a goodness and a joy that comes from being obedient and walking in the light later on in chapter five, he's going to tell us that I'm writing these things. Uh, to you who believe so he's talk, he's assuming that his audience are believers. Um, who believe in the name of the son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. So all of this has meant to encourage and support their understanding of what it looks like to live a life fatefully in Christ. And so to the tender conscience, you might read first John and say, man, I don't pass any of these tests. I desperately need to grow, and that would be the right response. Not I'm dead. Uh, unless you so utterly failed that you're, you don't understand repentance and faith. You don't understand what it means to follow Jesus in the first place. Okay. Maybe, but for most of us who read this, the point for John, is that when you read, oh man, I don't love my brothers and sisters the way I should. I need to grow in that Lord help me. I confess that I've fallen short and I need to grow in these areas. I think functionally. As pastor John is writing this to probably the churches in and around Ephesus. If he's not pastoring emphasis at this point. He's he's writing this as a means to say, look, I want you to know how you have joy and how you know that you're right with Christ. And it's going to look very practical. The only way for a Christian to know that he's been regenerated by God, as I see a transformed life in response to that. So we love grace. We can say confidently, we're saved by grace, through faith in Christ. And that's it. But once that's taken place, we should definitely expect to see a difference in the life of the Christian. And that's what John's doing here. Yeah. There's a couple other things that are helpful. Running in the background of first John, for us to understand some of, of his, uh, approach you was to combat some false teaching. And, and so one of the doctrines that he's writing to combat, although not by name, because it didn't really emerge. In, in full force for another almost. 50 to a hundred years. And that is the doctrine of Gnosticism. That the spirit is good in the flesh is bad. And that's why John is so often going to say in this a puzzle, anyone who does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in, the flesh is not of him. That's why his emphasis is on the flesh so often because there were people coming in to saying that there's no way that the son of God would come in the flesh that maybe he simply appeared in the flesh, or it seemed like he was in the flesh, but there was no way that he was actually in the flesh because the flesh is bad. The flesh is sinful, and there's no way that God could take on the flesh and not be corrupted by the flesh. And so John is writing. To combat some of these false teachings that have crept in. And, and that's where he talks about those that have gone out. He talks about those that are the antichrist. And when he says you've heard that the antichrist is coming and I even tell you right now, mentee, many antichrist have already come. This is in chapter two here. And he's, he's going to talk about the fact that the antichrist or those that are denying. Ah, Christ that are denying that these key doctrines about who Jesus is in answer. We can look around the world today and see that that still exists today. When you see somebody who today denies a key doctrine of Christianity or a truth of God's word, you would say with John. This is an antichrist lowercase, a. Uh, that doesn't mean that the ultimate antichrist is not coming. We're going to get there in just a few days and in the book of revelation. Uh, but there are, are antichrist small, a, those that are anti Jesus anti-art. Messiah. Who are those that go out into Nike doctrines about him? And so John is writing to these, uh, believers there in, in trying to encourage them in, in some of this. Idea of, Hey. Uh, love the brothers, love one another in and be careful about making sure that you are obeying the Lord and obey God. These are written to a specific historical context in which these were some of the key doctrines being undermined. Uh, by those that were looking to lead these people astray. Chapter three. You get the introduction of the, the emphasis on love, which takes up and think. Back to John's gospel and how often. Uh, John focuses on the love and John's there in the upper room hearing Jesus say, by this, you will. Prove to be my disciples, if you love one another. And so John brings that here. Uh, with a heavy emphasis here. And I think it's helpful that we're, we've been in the gospel of John. And now we can read the letter that John is writing here. We can see a lot of the overlap here. Uh, John is writing based on what as he opens the epistle and chapter one. But based on what he heard from Jesus. And so he connects our love for one another. So tangibly with our status. About who we are and whether or not we have, as he says in verse 14, passed out of death and into life, we know that it, because we love the brothers, he's taken that directly from Jesus. He's taken that directly from the upper room. He's saying you want to know that you're in Christ loved one another, because why? Because chapter four you've been loved by God. And because God has loved you first, you should also love one another. And so we see a lot of Jesus' influence on John in the, the epistle first, John. Chapter five then. Um, is it a call towards a victory and, and perseverance? Uh, holding fast. He, he talks about the, the fact that we have overcome the world because of the one that lives in us. Uh, chapter five or six, he says, this is he there's one that lives in us is the one that came by the water and the blood. Jesus Christ. So again, he's talking about here. He's he's battling some of this nasty Gnostic reality there. So the one that came by the water in the blood is referring to his incarnation, his humanity here. And he's saying Jesus did indeed come by the water in the blood. This was not just a spiritual appearance or a seeming appearance here, but he is here. He was here. And so that's the key is having the right perspective of Jesus in verse 12, whoever has the son who has life. Whoever does not have the son of God does not have life. And then he concludes as well saying, I write these things to you that believe in the name of Jesus that you may know that you have eternal life. That's why, again, we go back to, this is a test of salvation. And not just a test of fellowship, because he's saying here I'm writing that you might know that you're saved, and these are the things that I'm writing to you. This is a deeply encouraging book. If you allow it to be it's so helpful because it does give us some, some markers to know how we're doing. Uh, it's kinda like when you stand your kids up against the wall and you kind of give it a little notch there to see how tall they are and you look at it next year and they're a little bit taller. Uh, this is kind of, I think the way John attends for this book to work, he wants us to see, look, you're growing up in the faith. Are you there yet? No. No. And you're never going to be there fully and completely, which is why we need first John one nine. Gotta confess our sins, but we should see that there is constant growth toward the direction of becoming more like Christ. Now that's an important point that we often miss. And it's one that we need to hold delicately because we don't want to make it say something. That's not saying. We're not saying that Christians have to do this to be right with God. We're saying that Christians do this because we're right with God. And that consequence is so transformative that your whole life has taken over by it. That's a good distinction there. Yeah. Yeah. Not to be right with God, but because we're right with God. Right. Helpful. All right. Hey, let's pray. And then we'll be done with this episode. God, thanks for your word. Thanks for, uh, this book. I do pray that among our church, no one would fail these tests. Um, well, I pray that this book would not be a heavy yoke upon anybody, but something that is encouraging. Uh, even motivating to us as we're looking at this next years, thinking to ourselves, okay. Let's Excel still more. Let's run hard after Jesus this next year. And so we thank you for that. Thank you for John. Thank you for his writing to us in Jesus name. Amen. And then can you bring your Bibles tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the daily Bible podcast? See you then. Bye.