Devotions

The letter of 1 John was written to a group of believers who found themselves in a difficult climate. As Christianity spread, it was met with opposition from a religious culture that was very inclusive. The Greco-Roman world was ‘open’ to many different philosophies and had a pantheistic point of view where all beliefs and ideas could be meshed together.

Christianity is monotheistic and very exclusive. Now, exclusive doesn’t mean you aren’t welcome because of your ethnic background or history. No, not at all. Rather, Christianity makes a declaration that Jesus Christ is the only way to God and that the revelation we receive in scripture is all we need for a life in God. It’s a very plain and simple declaration, and it can’t be merged with any other religion. Either it’s completely true, or it’s utterly false. 

Those in the early church who had come to saving faith in Christ had the temptation to try to merge their new beliefs with their culture’s idols. John was writing and speaking out strongly against those who were preaching false messages that the tenets of Christianity could be blended with the culture’s beliefs. He made this point through the staggering juxtaposition between light and darkness. 

If you’re in a dark room and someone lights a match, that light is undeniable. It will never be confused with the darkness. 

What Christianity claims cannot be confused or mixed with anything else in the world. 

“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But 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 cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:5-7, ESV). 

We brought sin on ourselves, but we will one day be resurrected into a restored world because of what Jesus did on the cross. This is the great hope we have in Christ and his message. There is no other way. 

^{Joshua West serves as the Church Leadership Network Director at World Challenge helping equip and empower pastors all over the world. Joshua’s desire is to raise up ministers who will correctly and boldly preach the word with passion and integrity. The point of all his work and writings is to preach the gospel, glorify God and to teach sound doctrine.}

No matter what kind of trouble you are in, you simply cannot extricate yourself from it in your own power.

In order to understand how God delivers us from afflictions, we must study how he delivered Israel from their bondage. The Bible says, “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they are written for our admonition” (1 Corinthians 10:11, NKJV).

Everything that happened to Israel — their bondage, trials and deliverance out of Egypt — are testimonies and examples to us today. The Lord told Moses, “I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them…” (Exodus 3:7-8).

God’s Word clearly says here, “I know their sorrows.” Beloved, if that does not give you comfort in your affliction, nothing will. The Lord is saying, “I know what you're going through, but this is not your battle. The devil is too much for you, so I have come down to deliver you.”

“I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the land which I swore” (Exodus 6:6-8).

Try all you want to deliver yourself, dream, scheme and manipulate; but in the end, God says, “This is my work!”

When David came against the giant, he said, “Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s” (1 Samuel 17:47). David did not take matters into his own hands and say, “I’m going to bite the bullet and do this in my own strength.” No! He knew this was the Lord’s battle.

The psalmist wrote, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes” (Psalm 119:71, NKJV). You may wonder, as I have, “What kind of theology is this? Is it actually good to be afflicted?”

The Hebrew word for affliction here means “abased, chastened, defiled, hurt, humbled, weakened, depressed.” When you put this meaning into the verse, it suddenly reads, “It is good for me to have been chastened, humbled, weakened, depressed; so that I could learn the Lord’s statutes.” The word statute means “engraved law.” The psalmist is saying, “It is good that I went through these troubles because in the process, God was engraving his laws and ways in my heart.”

The Lord allows trials to come our way to test us, but that is not his primary purpose. Rather, our afflictions are to teach us to walk rightly before him. The Bible says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous…” (Psalm 34:19). According to the psalmist, the point of all our afflictions is for us to learn from them.

One of our missionary couples wrote about the situation in the African nation where they are working. One of the poorest on earth, its situation has been worsened by the long, bloody civil war there. The missionaries recently drove to this desperate country in a truck with a group of Christians from a neighboring country. They were delivering a load of supplies and were scheduled to attend a meeting that night across the border. About five miles from the border, their truck started slowing down. The driver floored the pedal, but the truck’s speed kept dropping. The team was dejected as they watched the car in front of them pull away into the distance.

Finally, the team arrived at the border and instantly the truck’s engine died and simply would not move. Everyone on the team wondered, “Lord, what is going on?” Suddenly, the border guards started racing about, shouting excitedly, “There was an explosion across the border not far from here! One of the warring factions blew up a car that had just driven in.” The missions team realized the car that had been attacked was the one directly in front of them. If the missions truck had been running properly, they also would have been attacked.

The next morning, the driver from the missions team turned the key in the ignition, and the truck started right up. In fact, it ran fine all the rest of the trip. They recognized that God’s purposes had been accomplished through this seemingly troublesome circumstance.

Our Savior exists as a man right now in glory. He is a living person with flesh, bone, hair, eyes even though he is God. Although we are here on earth, his Spirit dwells within us. “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’” (Galatians 4:6, NKJV).

There is another spirit at work in the world: the antichrist spirit. Just as surely as Christ has given us his Spirit, there is an antichrist spirit set on preparing hearts for the coming of the man of sin.

“And this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world” (1 John 4:3). John was saying, “You have heard about the coming of the antichrist. It has been preached and taught, and you expect his arrival. Beloved, wake up, because the spirit of antichrist is already at work!”

Understand that the antichrist will not suddenly appear on the scene and overwhelm humankind. Rather, his spirit is mysteriously at work now, setting up his kingdom in cold, compromising hearts. When he finally appears, he will be publicly revealed to a world already prepared for him, to hearts his spirit already possesses!

Right now we see a growing antichrist sentiment, but soon this will turn into a flowing stream and eventually a vast ocean. The antichrist spirit is invading the hearts of many apostate Christians even now. “But how?” you ask. “Why would certain Christians ever turn to the antichrist?” It is because they are like-minded with him.

John wrote, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. …Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour” (1 John 2:15-18).

John is warning us that those who still love the things of this world have opened themselves to the spirit of antichrist. He is saying, “You know these are the last days because so many are full of the covetous, antichrist spirit!”

“Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11, NKJV).

God is talking about his own heart here as well as ours. His chastening is not joyous to him but grievous and painful. When God moves in to judge, he hovers over his children as he chastens them. He looks for even the slightest sign of sorrow or repentance, and he lets up at the first inkling of one. He longs to say, “Enough, no more. It pains me too much to punish you.”

Beloved, you must come to grips with this matter of God's pain. When others are trying to hurt you, you have to bring your thoughts into captivity, and say, “Oh, Lord, let me pray for my enemies, for those who are trying to wound me.”

God loves the most wicked, vile sinner on the street; and if he loves that person, how much more does he love the Christian who hurts you and has made himself your enemy?

Perhaps you have an idea by now of how far we are from the heart of God. We have so much yet to learn of his heart. No, he does not delight in judgment. He takes no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked, nor in his chastening of his children. On the contrary, it pains him awfully.

Let me tell you what the Lord delights in. “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:18-19).

Thank God for his great compassion that is available to all. He delights in mercy!