More Than "Because I Said So" - Part 2

1 John 2:18-23
"Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also."

I was fortunate enough when I graduated high school that the Lord worked it out for me to go to Georgia Tech. I still haven't figured out why they accepted me when I really think about my SAT score, but I'll take it anyway. While there, some of the core classes that everyone has to take absolutely killed me. I can remember sitting in calculus with a foreign graduate student as an instructor wondering if he was speaking English or a foreign language. The answer was yes. He was talking about calculus, so to someone who just didn't get it, it was certainly a foreign language. It was terrible. After walking out of a test in which I would later learn that I had scored a 17 on (yes, out of 100), I really understood that I really didn't understand anything. My teacher was terrible. It certainly couldn't have been the student...

One of the things that we read about with John's writings is false teachers. It was something that was very important to the new testament writers because as the church was in its infancy, the accuracy of the theology being taught was paramount. Today, there isn't quite the same focus on the questionable teaching, but believe me it's out there. But what exactly is a false teacher? Well, to be quite frank, it's anyone who preaches or teaches and either distorts the truth of the scripture, or doesn't teach all aspects of it. It's teaching in a manner that leads people in a different direction than the absolute truth of the gospel of Christ.

Again, John is being very direct. He doesn't want his readers to just take his word for it. He's telling them explicitly why he's writing them. He's already expressed an urgency for them that we discussed in my previous post. Now, he's telling them that what they have already learned must remain in them. Why? There's that why question again. The answer is two fold. One is explicitly stated by John, and one is implied. I'll start with the implied. They must keep a hold of the spiritual knowledge that they have because as these false teachers are running around deceiving folks, John's readers must be able discern the truth. I'm sure we've all heard about how the Secret Service trains their agents to spot counterfeit bills. They spend hours upon hours studying the real thing. That way when they are presented with a counterfeit, it stands out like a sore thumb. It's quite the same for me as a Christian with the Word. I must study it, meditate on it, memorize it, talk about it and immerse myself in it so that when I am presented with anything that is contrary or taken out of context or twisted, it should stand out like that sore thumb.

The second reason that John says that we should hold to the truth of the Word is that by doing so i will remain in the Son and the Father. In John's Gospel most of the 15th chapter is devoted to telling us to abide in Christ. He tells us that if we abide in Him, He will abide in us. The word he uses here for abide is the word X which means to be rooted to or knit to Christ. Either translation is a beautiful picture. When you are rooted or knit to something, you become a part of it. Keeping His word in my heart and knowing it allows me to become one with Christ. Now that's a promise.

So there I have it. It's simple enough really...in theory. Kind of like calculus. But when it comes down to putting it into practice, it becomes a little more difficult...kind of like calculus.

Precious Father with perfect patience, why you stand by my as I fall time and time again baffles me. I know that I must abide in you, but I find myself wandering from the lifesource of the vine. You have given me everything that I need to stand against the attacks of the enemy. And this enemy is quite cunning. He uses whatever tactics he can to get us to fail. False teachers abound and are quick to distort the truth and even flat out lie. And they seem to be surrounding me more and more each day. But you have given me everything that I need. You have given me your word. Ephesians 6 tells me that I have armor to protect my spirit. And the first piece of that armor is the truth of your word. With it I am able to discern the lies and half-truths of Satan. Father, help me to abide in you. Motivate me to remain in your word. To completely immerse myself in the totality of your teaching. To let it wash over me, instruct me, convict me, and lead me. As I start off this new year, let me do so being vigilant to remain in you. And let me always be on the lookout for counterfeit truth.