Meditations

2 John

As time moves toward its grand finale, spiritual darkness and deception will continue to deepen all around us. The Lord Himself warned us that the spiritual peril of the last days would be such that “except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” lest the deceivers should “deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:22,24).

What can we do for our own survival in these latter times “when some shall depart from the faith” (1 Timothy 4:1)? Our spiritual success most definitely depends entirely on the grace of God (Jude 24). However, He does not intend for us to take a passive role in our own lives. So let’s notice two specific survival instructions given in Jude.

“Building up yourselves on your most holy faith” (Jude 20). To survive we start where we find ourselves . . . and build upward, daily expanding our spiritual building on the foundation of faith. “OK,” you say. “Fine. But don’t you have anything more practical than that?” Most definitely! Read it all

Matthew 23:1-15

I can say Christians shouldn’t gossip, and still engage in (or at least listen to) gossip. That’s paying lip service to something — saying one thing but doing the opposite. That’s giving truth my mental and oral assent…and no more.

I can know and practice the doctrine of nonconformity, and still wish I could live otherwise (at least in some regards). That’s paying external service to something — doing the right thing without a heart genuinely committed to it. That’s an assent to truth in intellect and practice,…and no more (though it usually is accompanied by lip service).

Lip service goes no further than saying the right things. External service improves on lip service by also doing the right things. We must say and do the right things. But even those aren’t enough.

God wants my heart service, my whole-being service, my whole-life service. He wants me to obey Him and to do His will from the heart (Romans 6:17; Ephesians 6:6).

Let’s grow out of lip service and external service! Read it all

1 John 4:13-5:5

From this passage I learn the following reasons for brotherly love:

• I have been born of God.
• I know God.
• God loves me.
• God dwells in me.
• God’s love is perfected in me.
• I dwell in God.
• As God is, so am I in this world.
• God loved me first.
• I love God.
• God commands it.

The summary of those reasons is their recurring point of reference: God. Read it all

Matthew 20:1-16

The first workers negotiated a contract. The others trusted the justice of the boss to pay them what was right. His goodness rewarded them beyond their expectations.

Nobody was obligated to work for this boss.

The long-term workers accused the boss of making the short-term workers equal with them. He seems to agree when he says, “the last shall be first, and the first last.”

Do not forget your original pleasure and joy at being called to work.

Do not complain if you do more than others in the kingdom of Heaven.

Do not envy those who do less than you in the kingdom of Heaven.

Do not begrudge others their rewards and blessings.

Do not challenge Read it all

1 John 3:11-24

As humans we do not perceive the spiritual realm and its realities well at all. So that presented God with a “problem” — how to reveal to us the love He has always had for us. His solution was to do something. Since doing and living are inseparable, we could also say that God’s solution was to live His love for us.

Because Jesus wanted me to see clearly His love for me, He died for me. Notice what 1 John 3:16 says — “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Imagine that! Had He not put our lives ahead of His own, we could not have known His love for us.

Furthermore, He gave His life so that we might have an example to follow in our relationships with others. The conclusion of that verse tells us how to make our own love perceptible to others. Read it all