The claim that any human can also be God is so audacious the mind reels. Only the power of spiritual birth can burn it into your heart, overcoming the objections of human logic and understanding. By the same token, you simply cannot love God without the Son, because if He is not risen in your spirit, you cannot even know God, much less love Him.
John reaffirms the love born of the Spirit creates a desire in the heart to obey God's Laws. Such a desire defines holiness for us, and builds the confidence to face everything this world throws at us. This is completely backwards from the message of the Talmudic legalism, which served only to hinder action out of fear. Our overpowering conviction of His favor is all we need, and it's only available in Jesus. His ministry began with His baptism in the Jordan. While it did not end at the Cross, it rests entirely on the power of His blood. Without that, there could be no Spirit dwelling in our spirits. Without the Spirit, it is simply not possible to know the truth of things; there is no ability to see beyond the symbols.
It is not possible to denigrate Jesus Christ without blaspheming the Father and rejecting the Spirit. They are One. The Laws still stand, but any claim to spiritual awareness begins with Christ. Without Christ, the whole of the Old Testament is meaningless. John wrote this letter simply to remind those who already knew the truth, because they already had a spiritual birth.
This spiritual birth is our confidence to come before God with any sort of request. The door is open to us always. It remains possible for any believer to become a sucker for false teachings, and that same confidence before God allows us to pray effectively for them. Of course, some people become so locked into self destruction, there isn't much anyone can do. We can't know what's going on inside them, and to all appearances they exhibit no spiritual awareness, no spiritual life. You can't pray for them as you would a fellow Christian, but we have a duty to pray for things we do understand.
We live in the assurance Children of Heaven tend to avoid sin and folly because the Lord builds a preference for His ways. Satan cannot own us again. We belong to Christ; the world belongs to the Devil. We have no use for worldly wisdom, but cling to the Son who guides us into His truth. This guidance will help us avoid anything resembling idolatry and spiritual compromise. Don't trust the things of this world.
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By Ed Hurst
13 November 2011
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