IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 304

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part LXXXVIII

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 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. 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. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 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. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 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. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment . He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also” (1 John 4:1-21).

We spent our time yesterday discussing the idea of reconciliation as it is brought to our attention in the words Savior and propitiation. Reconciliation is a very important word with meanings that far surpass the ideas that generally come to mind when we hear the words that brought this idea to our attention; much more than atonement, vicarious or otherwise, and much more than the idea if saving as it is understood by the doctrines of the church. That Christ died for us is a Truth and that He died for our sins is a Truth as well but that He died in our place and took our personal sins upon Himself is only in the doctrines of men. That we are saved by the Christ is also a Truth but this not so in the light way that it is painted by doctrine which is for many that if we believe that the Master died for our sins, if we ‘confess’ Him and give our hearts to Him that we are saved. The Truth of salvation is found in keeping His words and following Him as one would follow his  Shepherd. There is an active participation in the propitiation and there is an active participation in salvation and this active participation is reconciliation and it is found in the good news, which is that “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” and every man can find it by following in the teaching of the Master which is that we should: “repent ye , and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Repentance is the way par excellence to be reconciled with God and the God Within, the Christ Within; repentance is that necessary change of focus from the world of things to the world of God; from the selfish to the selfless, from serving mammon to serving God.

We said in this in the last post in this way: the reconciliation IS what brings man to the Kingdom of God and what makes of him a disciple; the reconciliation is placing one’s focus on the things of God and no longer on the things of the world which is what the Master tells us that we need to do. From here we went on into the Parable of the Sower to show again that Jesus teaching is pointed and clear if we would only take the time to examine it and ourselves by understanding that He is talking to us ALL.

We come now to our next verse from this Fourth Chapter of John’s Epistle and this is another one that is difficult because it is the foundation of much doctrine regarding the idea of confession. Let us look at: “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God“. From prior verses we do get the understanding of what is takes to be able to profess that “God dwelleth in him, and he in God“:

• “And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him” (1 John 3:24).
• “If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12).
• “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him” (John 4:16).

We should, at a minimum, understand that these sayings are of no less importance that the saying in our subject verse and from the combination we should get that to dwelleth in God one must “confess that Jesus is the Son of God“; “keepeth his commandments“; “love one another” and “dwelleth in love“. Can we see the idea here that we cannot do but one of these or even two of them but ALL of them must be considered together. We get further enlightenment on this from the Master in His teaching on the branch and the vine where He says: 

• “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch can not bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love” (John 15:4-9). We dealt with these verses in some detail in In the Words of Jesus parts 268 – 271 and a part of our conclusion is in the relationship of the terms and ideas of being in, abiding and dwelling. We noted from those prior posts that the word dwelleth is generally rendered abide in other translations and it is a rather mystical and misunderstood message using either word. From Vincent’s interpretation we get that the Greek word meno should be seen as: To abide in God is a more common expression with John than to be in God, and marks an advance in thought. The phrase is a favorite one with John. See John 15:4 sqq.; 6:56; 1 John 2:24, 27, 28; 3:6, 24; 4:12 sq.; 15 sq. Bengel notes the gradation in the three phrases “to know Him, to be in Him, to abide in Him; knowledge, fellowship, constancy.”⁴ . Can we see the intent of the use of these words being in the spiritual context only and that dwelling or abiding in the Master or in God is akin to dwelling in His Kingdom. From our perspective of the inseparable nature of these ideas we should understand the deep meaning of the way that a man can “dwelleth in God, and God in him“
• “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love” (John 15:10). Can we see then that this one verse says it ALL; that to “confess that Jesus is the Son of God“; “keepeth his commandments“; “love one another” and “dwelleth in love” are all inclusive in this saying by the Master and that it is this that we find restated in several ways by the apostle.
• 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“ (John 14:23). Do we see here the same thing and the strict correlation between “keep my commandments” and “keep my words“; that there is no separation here; His words are His commandments?

Having renewed our understanding of abiding in and dwelling in God and the Master we look now at the word translated as confess and what it is that is confessed. Knowing that this cannot be seen as any more important that any of the other sayings we have above, we should see also that it is included in the whole idea of keeping His commandments which we can take from this saying: “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32). Let us look now at this word confess for which there are a number if meanings aside from that which is common in Christian doctrine. From the earlier verse in which this appeared we posited that in the perspective from which this was written that the saying had the force of the words as they are commonly understood. Speaking to people in that day who had heard of the Master, John says that if one can admit that the Master is the Christ, then He is of God and all others are antichrist and this is a straightforward statement to men in that day who would be in his reading audience. We spoke also of the way that doctrine takes this idea to every man, woman and child on the Earth and how unfortunate this perspective is. We also gave this idea that when the apostle tells us that “Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God“, we can take this as it appears, that if we confess this we are of God; however, does it not ring even Truer to say that one that is of God will ”confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh” because he will know this in his heart and from the Christ Within. This is much like saying that if we follow the Master and keep His words it is because we are His disciples rather than to see the Truth that we become His disciples by following Him and Keeping His words. Looking now at how this word is defined:

• The lexicon tells us of this Greek word homologeo that: to say the same thing as another, i.e. to agree with, assent to, concede; not to refuse, to promise; not to deny, to confess, declare, to confess, i.e. to admit or declare one’s self guilty of what one is accused of; to profess, to declare openly, speak out freely; to profess one’s self the worshipper of one, to praise, celebrate². The Greek word is translated as: confess 17, profess 3, promise 1, give thanks 1, confession is made 1, acknowledgeth 1²; which can offer a rather diverse understanding.
• Strong’s tells us that homologeo means: to confess, acknowledge, agree, admit declare; this can be a profession of alegiance, an admission of bad behavior, or an emphatic declaration of a truth³; all of which goes rather well with the ordinary understanding of the idea of confession.
• Vincent gives us some needed help here in understanding what is meant in this word. From its use in this verse we are referred to i. 9, our earlier verse above, which tells us that: Confess (oJmologw~men). From oJmo>v, one and the same, and le>gw, to say. Hence, primarily, to say the same thing as another, and, therefore, to admit the truth of an accusation. Compare Psalms 51:4. The exact phrase, oJmologei~n ta<v aJmarti>av confess the sins, does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. Compare ejxomologei~sqai aJmarti>av (paraptw>mata) Matthew 3:6; Mark 1:5; James 5:16. See on Matthew 3:6; 11:25; Luke 22:6; Acts 19:18; James 5:16. Absent in the listing of verses here is Vincent’s entry for Matthew 10:32 where the compound term is confess me and which we can see as the same idea as we are discussing but spoken from a different perspective. He says here that: Confess me (omologhsei en emoi). A peculiar but very significant expression. Lit., “Confess in me.” The idea is that of confessing Christ out of a state of oneness with him. “Abide in me, and being in me, confess me.” It implies indentification of the confessor with the confessed, and thus takes confession out of the category of mere formal or verbal acknowledgment. “Not every one that saith unto me ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The true confessor of Christ is one whose faith rests in him. Observe that this gives great force to the corresponding clause, in which Christ places himself in a similar relation with those whom he confesses. “I will confess in him.” It shall be as if I spoke abiding in him. “I in them and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me” (John xvii. 23)⁴. We should note here that the Greek word for confess is the same as in our passage from John above and that this understanding that is given here by Vincent is of momentous value in understanding the concept presented by the apostle. We can see here that this is not different than believing in or believing on Him as it relates to keeping His words and following Him. Can we see here also the active participation of each and every one who is or who aspires to be a disciple and can we now relate this idea to those that we presented above: “keepeth his commandments“; “love one another” and “dwelleth in love“.

None of these ideas are isolated from any other but rather they ALL work together and, in reality, as one with the differences being only in the perspective of the man who looks at these from the viewpoint of a man in the world and of the world. Once a man has overcome and can say that he is and that he does these things we list above, he is beyond the restrictions of seeing things in eyes of flesh and finds himself in the Kingdom of God. We must ever remember that the apostle, indeed all the apostles, are writing to disciples and to aspirants to discipleship, men who have seen the Light and are on the Path and who, like the Apostle Peter, falters here and there. These words by the apostles are their words of correction for us ALL.

We will continue with our next verse in the next post.

Note on the Quote of the Day