Bible Study on 1John 4, verses 7 to 13, let us love one another

 

1John 4:7 ¶  Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 9  In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11  Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 12  No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13  Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

For you Greekophiles out there this is the same love as noted in 1Corinthians 13 and translated as charity. This, like in that chapter, is a reference to a Christian’s love of their brothers and sisters in Christ.

The concept of love is a problem for many modern Christians who read the Bible by going back to the Greek. Let's look at another darling of liberal Bible expositors; John 21:15:17.
After the resurrection Jesus asks Peter three times if Peter loves Him, which calls into sharp, painful memory that Peter had denied His Lord three times as Jesus predicted He would. And there are many other great sermons from this passage, I'm sure.

But, there is a problem. My friend who pretends to be a Greek expert is about to burst. He excitedly points out that the first and second time Jesus asks the question He uses the word Agape' for to love someone from esteem or respect and also used for divine love. Each of those times Peter responds with Phileo, the love that comes from friendship or brotherly love. The last time Jesus Himself uses Phileo and once again Peter responds with the same. My pseudo-scholarly friend will say that this lends much more meaning to the conversation because Jesus is asking for a different kind of love, a divine love, which Peter is not capable of and this reflects a fundamental failure in mankind's capacity or willingness to love God in the right way blah, blah, blah.

What my friend who likes to think he is more intelligent and knowledgeable than a Christian janitor who can read English has done is to reveal his own ignorance. Agape' and Phileo are words for love that are used interchangeably. No extra insight into these verses is gained by playing ping pong with them. In Matthew 6:5 hypocrites phileo to pray standing in the synagogues, in Matthew 19:19 you are told to agape' your neighbor as yourself, John 15:9 says the world won't phileo the disciples, 1 Corinthians 16:22 says that if any man phileo not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha, and when we are repeatedly told to love our neighbor as ourselves with agape' the Scriptures in no way imply that this is superior to our brotherly love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. I doubt anyone would imply that the kind of love Jesus says we are to have for each other, which distinguishes us as His followers is inferior to the love we are supposed to have for a stranger who is in need.

Titus 3:4 doesn't have the love of God our Saviour toward man as agape'. Paul's admonition in Titus 3:15 isn't agape'. 1 Peter 1:22 uses both words for the same thought with phileo first and then agape'. Does knowing this change your understanding of the text? Does it help you know what you are to do? Is your lack of access or availability of access to the Greek a determinant of your ability to understand God's words? Finally, in Revelation 3:19 does it matter to you that Jesus phileo's here?

Now, my point in saying all of this is very clearly, in a limited time, and taking only a few examples, is that you will gain no valuable insights in the Bible by going back to the original languages. It's like telling me you are going to really get to know the Gettysburg Battlefield and then immediately digging the deepest hole in the ground that you can. I would tell you to compare verse with verse in the Bible or tour the entire battlefield. Keep in mind Paul's admonition in 1Corinthians 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

Dictionaries, encyclopedias, and even Strong's Concordance are not inspired by God. Compare scripture with scripture and ignore the scholar who says the original languages give more insight than the English. All they are trying to do is to take the authority of your Bible from you and replace it with their own intellect as your final authority.

So back to the passage here in 1John. If we don’t love our brothers and sisters in Christ then we cannot say we know God because God loved us so much that He lived as one of us and died for our sins, raising Himself from the dead to justify us so that we might live in eternity with Him. With such a great love expressed to us and for us how can we not love others sacrificially whom He also died and rose for?

God loved us first and the Son of God, or God made flesh, satisfied His own anger at our rebellion, was a propitiation to Him for us by Himself. Because He loved us, we should love each other. God’s love is completed or perfected in us when we love our brothers and sisters in Christ properly. Consider the following passage among many.

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. 2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

1Peter 1:21  Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. 22  Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: 23  Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

Bible Study on Genesis 25, verses 11 to 28, part 2, the carnal man

 

PART 2 Why is Jacob favored over Esau? Esau was a carnal man who was willing to give up his birthright to appease his appetite and lost his blessing. Jacob was clever and crafty, which we think of as not being very good character traits especially since he used them to obtain a blessing from his father by deceit and treachery. Why did God choose Jacob over Esau? The history of the carnal man of uncontrolled appetites is a history of war and rebellion. It is a history of corruption and injustice. Esau represents what is wrong with charismatic leaders who cause young women to think things they should not and cause young men to deliver up their common sense to follow blindly. He is a man of the earth, a natural man.

1Corinthians 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The natural man is lusty and everything he sees exists to serve him; either his appetites, his sexual lust, or his need to dominate others for fear of being dominated himself. He is praised in our literature and media and millions will follow him. The trouble is that he would trade God’s inheritance for another meal, approval and validation from others, and a chance to have what he wants at the moment. He despises what he calls, “pie-in-the-sky religion,” and concerns himself only with satisfying his immediate needs in the here and now. He could not envision eternity for all he was worth. He cannot even perceive of the idea of God usually. He is too busy putting food in his belly, perhaps a beer, glass of wine, or liquor to his lips, or pursuing the latest tech gadget or get rich scheme to even consider the fate of his soul. The question you should ask yourself, young man, is, are you an Esau?

Hebrews 12:14  Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: 15  Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; 16  Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. 17  For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

On the other hand, Jacob, though clever and resourceful, deceitful even, who will wrestle with God Himself, can be molded into God’s man. Full of flaws himself, character flaws, fearful and uncertain at times but obedient as often as he can be, in the end, God’s choice of him to further God’s work of reconciliation, of bringing mankind to God, bears fruit in Joseph and his brethren, the forebears of the Hebrew “race” from whence the Redeemer of mankind comes and from whom God’s ministry of reconciliation flows.

Bible Study on 1John 4, verses 4 to 6, greater is he that is in you

 

1John 4:4 ¶  Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 5  They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 6  We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

Again, John uses the phrase little children which, as I said previously, may be a reference to how new the converts are or simply an affectionate title for the disciples of Christ and students of John, under his care.

We have the Holy Spirit indwelling each of us, the very power that raised Christ from the dead. The world system is not stronger than He, the Holy Ghost, the very mind of God who is also God. Note what Paul said.

Romans 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

Romans 8:11  But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

We should have this confidence when we are facing the world system, its oppressions, and its temptations. God is stronger than all. I am also reminded of this Psalm.

Psalm 124:1 ¶  «A Song of degrees of David.» If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say; 2  If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us: 3  Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us: 4  Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul: 5  Then the proud waters had gone over our soul. 6 ¶  Blessed be the LORD, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. 7  Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped. 8  Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

Those who are antichrist are of the world and cannot and do not know the God who created them. There are a bunch of verses that would applicable to this sentiment but here are some that stand out to me as an inspiration.

1Corinthians 2:12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

James 4:4  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

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.

Those who hear and believe the doctrines put forth by Christ and His apostles know the truth and those who reject the truth are in error and as an old time preacher once said, “It is impossible to pursue righteousness when one is zealously clinging to error.”

John 17:14  I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

Bible Study on Genesis 25, verses 11 to 28, part 1, of Ishmael and Isaac

 

Genesis 25:11 ¶  And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac dwelt by the well Lahairoi. 12  Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s handmaid, bare unto Abraham: 13  And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, 14  And Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa, 15  Hadar, and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah: 16  These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles; twelve princes according to their nations. 17  And these are the years of the life of Ishmael, an hundred and thirty and seven years: and he gave up the ghost and died; and was gathered unto his people. 18  And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria: and he died in the presence of all his brethren.

Genesis 25:19 ¶  And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham begat Isaac: 20  And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian. 21  And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 22  And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. 23  And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. 24  And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. 25  And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau. 26  And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them. 27  And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. 28  And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob.

This passage of Scripture starts off with an account of Ishmael’s death and of his progeny who grew to great numbers and occupied what has come to be known as Arabia. Then, an account is given of the birth of Esau and Jacob. Esau was his father’s favorite while Jacob was his mother’s favorite. Esau was an outdoors kind of guy who liked to hunt and Jacob hung around the house or tent. He was probably a big help to his mother and a “momma’s boy.” As we will see though, he was not a wimp or a “simpering milquetoast.” The elder shall serve the younger is a prophecy of Esau playing second fiddle to Jacob. He will be willing to give up his birthright for a bowl of stew and Isaac will be tricked into giving his blessing to Jacob.

Esau will lend his name to Edom which eventually will be known as Idumea.

Genesis 36:1  Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom…8  Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir: Esau is Edom.

Ezekiel 35:15  As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

The kingdom of Edom no longer exists but its geography lies within the southern reaches of the country known as Jordan. Some commentators believe that it is the location of the wilderness where the survivors of the Beast of Revelation’s final fight against the Jews will flee in Revelation 12. There lies the famous rock city of Petra. Esau’s legacy then runs throughout history and Jacob and Esau will be united in a manner of speaking in the end, if this is correct.

Bible Study on 1John 4, verses 1 to 3, that spirit of antichrist

 

1John 4:1 ¶  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2  Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3  And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

Here is an argument for the discernment of Christians. John is arguing against the heresy of Gnosticism. Gnostic, from gnosis meaning knowledge of spiritual mysteries, was an ancient belief that included many different things over time and through cultures. But the essence of it was an elite possessed of a secret or arcane knowledge. In this belief generally, mankind was perfectable and would become a god. It has come down to us in the form of Communism, a religion disguised as a political ideology. In Communism man is perfected after much death and destruction and becomes his own god, the socialist man. He goes back to the garden of Eden only without the God who created him, which the Communist denies exists. People are tricked and deceived into it by being told that it is the only compassionate philosophy, an ideology where people get what they need to survive. What is not said is that results from a dictatorship where an elite determines what you need and will withhold it if it suits their will and murder you if you don’t go along with them. All efforts at Communism have resulted in mass murder.

The Gnosticism that John objected to held that the God of the Old Testament wasn’t really the Creator but Satan, although they typically don’t use that or Lucifer to describe him, the Demiurge, who holds mankind in a deception where the physical world is an illusion. That God is evil and Jesus Christ came to free us from Him. Think in terms of the movie The Matrix. People are freed from the illusion in Christ. But Christ was not God in the flesh because since all matter, and hence flesh, is part of the illusion and therefore evil, God would not actually come in the flesh. Christian Gnosticism was the mixture of many Judaic, Egyptian, Roman, and others’ ideologies and philosophies and was a great enemy of the truth of the gospel in the early years of the church. This is the spirit of the Antichrist.

If a religion acknowledges that Jesus Christ existed but denies that Christ was God in the flesh, or denies that He died on the Cross, even saying it was an illusion, and denies that He rose from the dead, then that religion is a form of Gnosticism.  

This is the spirit of antichrist, which will feature so prominently in Revelation’s end times prophecy although the term is not used in that book. However, we typically call the Beast of Revelation, the Antichrist.

Bible Study on Genesis 25, verses 1 to 10, Abraham gave up the ghost

 

Genesis 25:1 ¶  Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. 2  And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. 3  And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim. 4  And the sons of Midian; Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. 5  And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. 6  But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country. 7  And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years. 8  Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people. 9  And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre; 10  The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth: there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife.

Abraham’s second wife, or third, if you count Hagar, (concubines are a type of lesser wife, a cultural phenomenon not ordered by God) is named Keturah and she gives him Midian, the father of a tribe who will later be a problem for the Israelites trying to get into Canaan and once they are in the Promised Land. But, a priest of this tribe will provide a wife for Moses and be his sanctuary in the wilderness after he flees from Egypt.

But keep in mind that, like we do, people give names to their children that are often known and already existing, in use by others. For instance, Cush had grandsons named Sheba and Dedan in Genesis 10:7. There is a man named Sheba who rebelled against King David in 2Samuel 20. In modern times we have examples where a former Rock and Roll performer and wannabe politician named himself Jello Biafra after a secessionist Nigerian state, Biafra. On a soberer note there are many children named after famous places like London, Brooklyn, Paris, and even India. So, while naming customs were more based on religious reasons in the ancient world and for reasons of already having an ancestor with that name we must be careful about making genealogical links as a matter of fact between two people or a person and a tribe bearing the same name in the Bible.

Still, Keturah most likely was a Canaanite who had Sheba and Dedan as part of her own heritage and passed these respected names down through her son, with Abraham’s supposed blessing and involvement, of course.

It must be remembered, as stated in verse 5, that all of Abraham’s inheritance goes to Isaac so that it is the Jews, not the Arabs, who were given the land of Canaan. As stated before all of these promises are in Christ so that the fulfillment of that promise of land will not be complete until Christ physically returns. The political Israel of today is a puny representative of this enormous grant of land from the border of Egypt to the Euphrates. See previous comments on this subject.

Abraham’s wives other than Sarah are called concubines. Abraham lived 175 years and gave up the ghost which is his spirit (see Luke 23:46) and was gathered to his people. Gave up the ghost is a reference to dying that is used later for Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Jesus, Ananias, and Herod.  Gathered to his people is referenced again for Ishmael and Jacob at their deaths.

Abraham is said to be eminent in Paradise, the garden of God, when it was in the heart of the earth, separated from Hell, and called Abraham’s bosom (see Luke 16.) Paradise comes from a Persian word meaning a walled garden or a hunting preserve. The garden of God, called Eden, was once on the earth but, after Adam’s fall, was hidden by cherubim (see Genesis chapters 2&3, Ezekiel 28:13, 14; 31:8,9). Jesus went to the heart of the earth, to Paradise, Abraham’s bosom, the garden of God, to preach after the Cross. (see Luke 23:43; Matthew 12:40; 1Peter 3:19; 4:6). Paradise was separated from Hell and is now taken up into Heaven because of Christ (Revelation 2:7) which we can see because Paul went “up” there as stated in 2Corinthians 12:4.

Why is Paradise called Abraham’s bosom? Because Abraham represents all of those who believe God. Salvation is predicated upon believing what God said. It is as clear as a bell.

The Greeks, flowering as an intellectual culture much later around the 5^th century BC, had great contact with the Ancient Near East as mercenaries, traders, and settlers before that and derived their concept of Hades from the Hebrews. Greek philosophers stated that they did not know the origin of their mythology but the first mention of Hades is in Homer, writing perhaps in the 9^th century BC, nearly a thousand years after Abraham’s life and three hundred to four hundred after Moses’ put the account in writing. The 9^th century BC is also the time when most scholars believe that the Greeks derived their alphabet from the Phoenicians who we will see derived it from the Hebrews who got it from God at Mount Sinai. Before then, picture writing was used by the cultures of the world, from the Sumerians on the plain of Shinar, called Cuneiform, to the Egyptians, called Hieroglyphics, to China, and even down to the civilizations of South and Central America over two thousand years later.

As an example of Greek involvement in the Near East, when Nebuchadnezzar and Pharaoh Necho’s armies fought at Carchemish (Jeremiah 46) both sides used Greek mercenaries extensively.  In addition, a prophet lamented how Hebrew children had been taken as slaves to Greece. (Joel 3:6). There were Greek cultural influences in the Near East and Greek language influences as well. However, the Greeks who wrote about Hades wrote after this period of time and were influenced by what they learned from the Hebrews as they were by what they learned about other cultures’ practices and beliefs. The Greeks themselves even admitted they learned a great deal in Egypt and the Near East. In the later Greek myth, Hades was a place for not only the wicked but the good persons’ souls to abide after death while Tartarus was where their supreme god, Zeus, cast the Titans, giants, and there were different places for enjoyment and punishment based on a person’s behavior in life as well as their relationship to the gods. In the Ancient world, then, it was understood that the abode of the dead, good or bad, was in one location.

Isaac and Ishmael bury Abraham with Sarah. It is probably the last time the Jew and the Arab will cooperate in much of anything.

God’s ministry of reconciliation, of reconciling mankind to Himself, was carried on in a dramatic way through Abraham. Abraham remains an important figure in human history. Abraham believed what God said. Do we?

James 2:23  And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.

Bible Study on 1John 3, verses 23 and 24, by the Spirit which he hath given us

 

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.

Here are fundamentals of the Christian faith, what it means to be a Christian. We believe on the name of Christ and we love our brothers and sisters in Christ. Keeping the commandments of Christ, the Word of God, show that we have His Spirit, His very mind, inside of us.

We believe Jesus was who He said He was.

John 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

John 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 7  If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. 8  Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

When we believe in Him the Spirit, the very mind of God, indwells us.

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.

Romans 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

And there are outward proofs, evidence that we have that very mind of God indwelling us.

Galatians 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24  And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

John 13:34  A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Matthew 22:35  Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, 36  Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38  This is the first and great commandment. 39  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.