A Home Church Ministry
For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The “κόσμος” (kosmos) can reflect five principle meanings in the New Testament (Baker's Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol. 2, p. 2163): The universe created by God with design …
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. The inner-sanctum of God’s temple is our heart; the holy of holies in the temple of the Holy Spirit. “Love” has been identified as the positive expression of Christ’s light in the …
I write to you, dear children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Commendation and assurance (2:12–14) precede …
I am writing to you, fathers, that you have known him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, that you have conquered the evil one. Commentaries treat this section with near complete unity as an exhortation to the Church, rather than providing the reason John is writing his epistle, …
Continue reading "Spiritual Fathers and Young Men: 1st John 2:13"
(NIV) I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. (NET) I am writing to you, little children, that your sins have been forgiven because of his name. The next three verses use the phrase “I am writing to you, dear children” joined with the conjunction …
NET: Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have already heard. 2:8 On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you which is true in him and in you, because …
Verse 11: Spiritual Blindness But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them. Someone may attend Church, volunteer, lead, and be well studied; they may give all their money to the poor, …
VERSE 10: The Light Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. This is the second test in John’s apostolic epistle given to believers so that we can verify that Christ is in us and we are in him. In these first …
VERSE 9: Still in the Darkness Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. “A brother or sister”: John again employs the vehicle of repetition to elucidate what he means by “our brothers or sisters” (See 1st John 2:9-11; 3:20, 15, 17; 4:20; 5:16); …
VERSE 9: Hate Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. “Hates”: John’s metaphor of darkness is the foundation used to introduce the supreme unholy attribute of hate in the same way that his metaphor of light is the foundation used to introduce the …
A Dedicated Faith 