Our government this week warned we may be living with physical distancing and face masks for another two years. The recent surge of Covid infections in countries who thought they had “flattened the curve” has precipitated a major rethink. We are on a precipice.
It’s comforting to remember that “this is our Father’s world”. He is all-knowing, all-present, and all-powerful. Nothing surprises him. He has factored Covid into his sovereign design. We will be delivered of it in his time.
This doesn’t mitigate the suffering but it does give hope. We continue to pray “thy will be done” even as we implore him to deliver us from the evil of the virus. In the meantime Covid forces a re-evaluation of values even as it catalyzes a renewal of spirit.
Many years ago I had the honour of interviewing John R. W. Stott for a television show. I brought my copy of his classic, “The Message of The Sermon on the Mount” to the studio. He graciously singed it. As we waited for the crew to make the final lighting adjustments, we talked about the “sermon”. I’ll never forget his summary of the beatitudes. I can’t quote him directly, but this is what I remember of what he said:
The first four beatitudes are about our attitude towards God: We are poor in spirit, our bankrupt souls are dependent on him; we mourn the corruption of our fallen nature, but in meekness offer moldable hearts to the work of the Holy Spirit; and in all of this we find ourselves constantly hungry and thirsty for Jesus.
The last four beatitudes are about our attitude towards our neighbour: we refuse to judge; we have no secret agenda which will exalt ourselves and diminish the other guy; we will make peace, not war; and we’ll suffer hardship to tell our world that the Kingdom of Heaven awaits.
Stott made it clear that these were “preaching points”. Which they are. But they’re worth remembering.
Key Verse: 1 John 5:12 “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God doesn’t not have life.”
John says things as they are. He knew that the “whole world” for a period of time was “under the control of the evil one” (v.19). He also knew that “the evil one” can’t “touch” the believer who puts his trust in the “One [Christ] who was born of God” (v.18b). He knew that one sin could separate man from God eternally (the sin of unbelief — 16c), and only one act could forever unite man with God (belief “in the name of the Son of God” — v.13). And, he knew that if the believer was in tune with God’s will on a matter, God would respond to an obedient petition (v.14).
But there was one thing John knew that rose above all else — in fact he calls it his “testimony”: “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (v.11). John knew that God was utterly holy and could not tolerate sin. He also knew that God was just and had to punish the sinner. And, most importantly in John’s thinking, he knew that God was love, hating sin but loving the sinner. So what was God to do? The “wages of sin is death”, but “He is not willing that any should perish.”
John knew that God sent Christ to take the penalty of our sin upon Himself — “he is the atoning sacrifice for our whole world” (2:2). Jesus is the key to life. If you have Him you have life — “He is the true God and eternal life” (5:20c)
Key Verse: 1 John 4:21 “And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
It was John, in his gospel, who gave us those immortal words of Jesus, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” (John 3:16). Now, in this chapter he says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (v.10). “God is love”, says John (v.16b), and He loved us long before we loved Him (v.19). And because God loves us “we also ought to love one another” (v.11).
How do we love one another? Love “with words or tongue but with actions and in truth”, says John (3:18). Love, simply understood, means to seek the best for neighbour and for God. That, of course, implies more than mere verbalizing — it implies action. Love, ultimately, is something you.
This linkage between love for God and love for neighbour was obviously an issue for John. He says, “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him” (1:9-11).
This message is perfectly consistent with the call of the Old Testament prophets to righteousness and justice. Righteousness meant proper relationship with God. Justice meant proper relations with neighbour.
Even Jesus stressed it. We’re to meet God’s expectation of us by loving him, loving neighbour, and even self, with all our “heart…soul…mind…and strength” (Mark 12:28-31)
Key Verse: 1 John 3: 19, 20 “This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in HIs presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.”
Before commenting on this key verse, allow me to make a few observations about two verses which can cause more than a measure of concern to the eager-to-please reader — consider verses 6 and 9. You read these verses and exclaim, “I’m in trouble here! Because I’m sinning every day.” Let me help you.
In both verses, sin is described in the context of habitual and continual sin — that is, sin which is wilfully embraced day by day. John refers to those who “continue to sin” while professing victory over sin ( for sure, he’s thinking of the Gnostics here). He’s not thinking of human failure, but rather he’s addressing committed hypocrisy. If you “live in” Christ (6a) and have “God’s seed” (9b) living in you, then you’ll find yourself combatting rather than embracing sinful behaviour. For those who “continue to sin”, there is no struggle or fight; it’s part of their lifestyle. For those who have “been born of God”, sin is a real issue that needs to be fought and conquered in Christ every day. The former accept sin, the latter fight sin. But everyone does sin.
And, when your heart condemns you (as it surely will from time to time), remember this: God is greater than your heart. While you may be condemning yourself, God may be lovingly reaching out to remind you of the ongoing work of Christ’s blood in your life (1:7). He knows the dark realities of your past and the struggles of your present. He can be trusted to deal graciously with all who put their trust in Him.
Key Verse: 1 John 2:17 “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”
As stated in the introduction, John was concerned about the effect of heretical teaching on his “dear children” (v.1). These heretics (known as “Gnostics”) were spiritual “elitists” who saw the Gospel as being too simple, and they longed for the “depth’ of the mysteries of God. Some of them saw the biblical account of creation as inadequate; they believed in a king of spiritual evolution whereby the world arose through generation or emanation from God over and through a long, series of “aeons”. They saw the material world as radically separated from the immaterial world. And they saw Jesus, not as God made flesh, but as someone who only seemed to be God. A common view was that Christ’s diving nature was only a temporary condition that came at His baptism and went before His crucifixion. Irenaeus, one of the Church “fathers” wrote of the Gnostics as “these blasphemous systems which divide the Lord…saying that he was formed of two different substances (Against Heresies III, 16:5).
One of the consequences of Gnosticism was a moral gap between what you preached and how you lived. They saw all matter (including your body) as evil, so only evil behaviour was expected. But, you could soar to the heavenliness with your spirit — so live like the devil, but worship like an angel.
This is why you see so much in this chapter about obeying the word, loving your neighbour, walking as Jesus. did, living in the light, confessing that Jesus is who He says He is, and doing the will of God. We are to “continue in Him” until He comes (v.28. His truth is not ephemeral but historical.
Key Verse: 1 John 1:3 “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father with His Son, Jesus Christ.”
In the poet Browning’s “A death in the Desert”, the apostle John lies dying in the presence of some of his followers. When my ashes scatter, says John,
“there is left on earth
No one alive who knew (consider this!)
–Saw with his eyes and handled with his hands
That which was from the first the Word of Life.
How will it be when none more saith, ‘I saw’?
John was the last living eye-witness of “the Word of life”. He had “heard” Jesus speak. He had “seen” Jesus. He had “touched” Jesus. And Jesus wasn’t merely another teacher, He was “the life” (2a). “We have seen it and testify to it”, says John. “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard.”
One day my wife and I were driving when we heard a loud crash a few hundred meters ahead of us. I say “heard” because that was the extent of our knowledge of the accident. We didn’t see it happen We did see the aftermath. And, as we assisted the victims until the arrival of the police and ambulance, we heard their (differing) accounts of the event. When the police arrived they quickly passed us by as witnesses — we hadn’t seen it happen.
An eye-witness is of incalculable worth in a court of law. Theories, biases, and lies all yield to the power of a first-person account.
One of the great strengths of Christianity is that it is rooted in history. We have the first-person accounts of eye-witnesses. Whether we like it or not, whether we accept it or not, history tells us the story of Jesus.
Matthew 5 Persecuted because of Righteousness vv.10-12
Rather than do a word study on “righteousness” (which he could have done), Jesus qualifies its meaning as that which is done “on my account” or “because of me” (v. 11b). He is looking ahead and anticipates the push-back the disciples will suffer as they “go into all the world and preach the gospel.” In fact history tells us most of them died martyrs deaths “because of [him].”
They became martyrs not just because of their radical rabbi, but also because of the worldview that he taught and lived. Jesus was all about “the Kingdom of Heaven”. This worldview brought with it unheard of culture, a values “transplant”, a collateral uprooting of Jewishness, offensive to both Pharisees and Sadducees. It demanded resistance by the established order. It needed to be squashed. So start by squashing the founder and his followers. Jesus knew that the first to be eliminated would be he.
Jesus links persecution “because of me” with “reward in heaven”. Make that “great” reward. There are at least two nuances here: 1. Suffering for Jesus does not necessarily bring material gain or comfort. Most, if not all, of those who have died because of their witness for Christ in history did so penniless. This “earth” does not reward saints. “Heaven” does. 2. Reward rejects a mercenary attitude on the one hand, and the obligation of compensating meritorious service (“not by world of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy…he saved us…” Ti. 3:5) on the other hand. The ultimate reward is, and will be, entry into the Father’s presence. Any other reward is eclipsed by that ultimate prospect. And, in space and time, God’s love is the best reward for anything done in Christ’s name.
Key Verse: 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
The subject of this concluding chapter is the return of Christ. Already in Peter’s day there were impatient believers and outright unbelieving scoffers who were saying, “Where is this ‘coming’ He promised (v.4). Only a few decades had passed since Jesus ‘ ascension, but already there were doubters about this much acclaimed “parousia” (second coming). These questioners were disappointed and in some cases disillusioned — Jesus had let them down — or, at least He was pretty slow in fulfilling His promise to return.
So Peter puts things in perspective. First of all he reminds his readers that God doesn’t work within our space-time limitations. In His eternal kingdom, one day has no more quantitative reality than a thousand years (v.8); for God, everything is “now”.
That’s why He’s not “slow in keeping His promise” (v.9a NIV). To us He seems slow just like a newborn infant thinks its mother slow when she switches him from one breast to the other. He bleats impatiently and angrily at the interruption to his feeding and the length of time until its resumption. To the mother, however, it’s no time at all.
If God is waiting even in the least sense, it is because He is “not willing that any should perish”. He wants as many as possible to enjoy “a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness” (v.13). But let’s not lose our sense of perspective — from God’s point of view, Jesus is at the door. So, let’s “lift up our heads, for our redemption is near!”
Key Verse: 2 Peter 2:19b “…a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.”
Chapter 2 is rather gloomy reading. It describes false teachers in very explicit terms. Peter refers to them as shameful (v.2), greedy (v.3), corrupt (v.10a), arrogant (v.10b), blasphemous and ignorant (v.12a), beasts (v.12b), blots and blemishes (v.13), springs without water and mists driven by a storm (v.17a). They “mouth empty, boastful words” (v.18) but are, in fact, “dogs returned to their vomit” and “sows wallowing in the mud” (v.22). They are truly a destructive lot.
The men Peter refers to here were probably some of the earliest heretics known as “Gnostics”. There were various kinds of Gnosticism (from the Greek word “gnosis” — “knowledge”), but the heresy itself essentially was an outworking of spiritual pride. the Gnostics were mystics who were tired of if not “beyond”, the simplicity of the Gospel. They wanted the “deeper” things.
One of the tragic realities of Gnosticism was the dehumanizing of Jesus. Because they saw all material things (including flesh and blood ) as evil. They declared it a contradiction in terms that God should become flesh and dwell among us. Jesus, in their eyes, wasn’t really human, but some kind of angelic illusion. This, of course, totally destroyed the meaning of atonement — for only if Jesus was truly man, and truly sinless, and shed real blood on a real cross, was He a once for all sacrifice for sin. If He wasn’t human, he could never have become “the Lamb of God”.
Their view of Jesus was wrong, and, as you might expect, their morality was also wrong. They were characterized by spiritual mysticism on one hand and carnal sensualism on the other. They had “eyes full of adultery” and “never stopped sinning” (v.14a). They preyed son the gullible and seduced them to their compelling combination of sex and religion (v.14b).
That’s why the chapter is so forbidding. Peter was angry; and rightly so.
During this protracted Covid isolation I’ve been “redeeming the time”. Social media has been very useful in keeping in touch with our WOW partners overseas, and writing a couple of books has filled the gaps. Keep a lookout for “Cantelon’s Casual Commentary” (Matthew, Mark, Luke/Acts, John) in a single volume, and “Opening the Windows of Your Soul”(a book on the Lord’s Prayer) to be published in the next year.
We’ve all been forced to take stock of our values, loves, and personal significance over these sheltering in place months. We don’t know when it will end. If you’re like me you’re becoming tired of the limbo but (hopefully) grateful for the reboot of our internal software.
History will one day look back at a period of both introspection and unexpected renewal and reinvention. But for us in the present we’ve got to endure the pain and nourish our hope.
Key Verse: 2 Peter 1:8 “For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (NIV).
Would you listen and take note if some trusted pastor gave you a list of things to do with the promise that, if you did them, you would “never fall” spiritually? Well, that’s exactly what Peter does in this chapter.
Look at verses 5-8. In these two sentences Peter challenges us to do seven things. Or, more correctly, to add seven things to our faith. We are to add goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love, to our faith. And we’re to do so “in increasing measure”.
Let us briefly consider all seven. It seems that in almost every choice we make, we face a fork in the road — one path is the good, the other is the bad. Usually we don’t have to spend much time determining which is which — our conscience kicks in automatically. Peter says, choose goodness.
Knowledge comes through study and thought, self-control through goal-setting, and perseverance through singleness of purpose — all three mean work.
Godliness can only be attained through a high view of Scripture and committee obedience to its directives. Brotherly kindness depends absolutely on a high view of your neighbour. Both of these virtues could be expressed in other terms: righteousness and justice.
As for love, there is a final distillation of its meaning in the writings of many theologians: to love means to seek the highest good of neighbour and of God. To truly love means to be truly selfless — it’s as far from sin as you can get in this limited universe. You have a taste of eternity when you love.
“Do all these things” and “you will never fall” (v.10).
