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What does “passed from death to life” mean in 1 John 3:14?

By Jeremy Myers
17 Comments

What does “passed from death to life” mean in 1 John 3:14?
http://media.blubrry.com/one_verse/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/495199521-redeeminggod-126-what-does-1-john-314-mean.mp3

In 1 John 3:14, we read this:

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.

meaning of 1 John 3:14Is John saying that in order to receive eternal life, you need to love other Christians? Lots of other pastors and Bible scholars teach 1 John 3:14 in just this way, but is that really what John meant?

If so, then how can eternal life be received “by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone”?

If eternal life is also earned by making sure we love other people, then eternal life is partially earned by good works, and is no longer by grace alone through faith alone.

So what is the meaning of 1 John 3:14?

The Theme of Fellowship in 1 John

To understand 1 John 3:14, it is first of all important to understand why 1 John was written.

The first letter of John is written so that the readers may live a life of fellowship with God and with one another (1 John 1:3).

What is 1 John all about

With this as his primary theme, John provides instructions throughout his letter about how to have fellowship with God and with one another.

Note that fellowship is not the same thing as a relationship (see Fellowship). You can be related to someone while not having any fellowship with them. Children are often estranged from parents, so that while they are still related, they never gather together to enjoy each other’s company.

The same thing can happen to those who are related to God and to one another through Jesus Christ. We can be spiritually related while failing to be in daily fellowship.

John writes his letter to make sure that those who read it maintain their fellowship with God and with one another.

With this theme in mind, John paints many contrasts in his letter, comparing the life out of fellowship with darkness and death, while describing life within fellowship as light and life (cf. 1 John 1:5-7; 2:8-10; 3:14-16; 5:11-13).

And while eternal life is mentioned in this letter (cf. 1 John 2:25; 3:15; 5:11), this is not because John is equating eternal life and fellowship, but because ongoing fellowship with God and one another is based on the unchanging fact of eternal life from God.

While you can have relationship without fellowship, you cannot truly have fellowship without relationship.

John knows his readers have the relationship with God and writes so that they might maintain their fellowship as well (cf. 1 John 2:12-14). To live out of fellowship is not to lose our eternal life, but to live away from light and love and in the realm of death and darkness.

1 John 3:14 is about fellowship with God and others

So when John writes in 1 John 3:14 that we know we have passed from death to life because we love our brethren, he is not talking about how we know we have eternal life, but how we know we are in fellowship with God and one another.

One way to know you are in fellowship with God is because you are in fellowship with other believers, that is, because you love one another.

The opposite is also true. Anyone who does not love his brother “abides in death.” The word “abide” means “remain, or to continually dwell” (see Abide), and so the one who hates his brother is not living in the fellowship that God wants and desires for us, but is instead continuing to live in the realm of death, from which Jesus rescued and delivered us.

1 John 3:14 is about escaping the realm of death in which we live, and experiencing true life

As seen in my studies on the word “Death,” the world is controlled by death. We engage in rivalry and accusation which leads to the death of others, and we kill others in the attempt to avoid our own death. We also believe that the death of our enemies will bring peace, but violence against our enemies only results in an increase of their violence against us.

passed from death to life 1 John 3:14

Jesus came to rescue and deliver us from this never-ending cycle of escalating violence, but if we Christians continue to hate our brothers and live in rivalry against them, we have not escaped the control of death but continue to dwell in it and be ruled by it.

So, John invites his readers to love one another instead of hate, and in this way, escape the realm of death.

The context provides further evidence that physical violence against other human beings is what John has in mind when he writes about death. He is not talking about spiritual death or the loss of eternal life, or even that the one who hates his brother proves that he really wasn’t a Christian in the first place.

The context has nothing to do with such ideas.

Instead, John directs the reader to the first death in Scripture, when Cain murdered his brother Abel (1 John 3:12). John also goes on to describe death as “murder” (1 John 3:15).

While John does go on to say that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him (1 John 3:15), he does not mean that no murderer can be a Christian, or that no Christian can murder someone.

He means that when a Christian hates someone or murders someone (for this does happen), it is because they are continuing to follow the ways of this world, rather than the ways of God (see the discussion of 1 John 3:14-15 under Abide).

The meaning of 1 John 3:14

1 John 3:14 is not about gaining or keeping eternal life, or proving that you have it. Instead, it is about living in the way of life that God wants for His people, rather than the way of death that this world is accustomed to.

So, do you want to know that you are living in God’s way of life rather than the world’s way of death? You can know this if you have true and genuine love for other people.

Does this help you understand 1 John 3:14? Please ask any follow-up questions you might have in the comment section below.

The Gospel DictionaryUnderstanding the Gospel requires us to properly understand the key words and terms of the Gospel. Take my course, "The Gospel Dictionary" to learn about the 52 key words of the Gospel, and hundreds of Bible passages that use these words.

This course costs $297, but when you join the Discipleship group, you can to take the entire course for free.

God is Redeeming God, Redeeming Scripture, Redeeming Theology, z Bible & Theology Topics: 1 John 3:14, abide, Cain and Abel, death, fellowship, gospel dictionary, hate, love, sin

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Stop Calling Yourself a Christian

By Jeremy Myers
87 Comments

Stop Calling Yourself a Christian

love like JesusI think all of us “Christians” should stop referring to ourselves as “Christians.”

Nor should we ask other people if they are a “Christian.”

I have two lines of reasoning for why we should stop saying we’re Christians.

1. They were first called Christians in Antioch (Acts 11:26)

When the term “Christian” was first invented, it was coined by an outside group of “pagans” who observed the way Jesus-followers behaved and recognized the similarity between what they were doing and what Jesus did. And so they called these Jesus followers “Christians.”

In other words, the first “Christians” did not take this title for themselves; it was given to them.

The term means “little Christ,” and while some scholars think that it was maybe intended to be a derogatory term (sort of like Yankee Doodle), I do not think so. I think the people of Antioch noticed how “Christ-like” the people were who claimed to follow Him, and so they started to referring to this Christ-like followers of Jesus as “Christians.” It was a way to identify them and talk about them.

they will know you are christians by your loveThe Christians of Antioch were not known for their hate, venom, judgmentalism, or religious pride, or even for their good theology, pious life, and vast Bible knowledge. Instead, They were knowing for looking and acting and behaving like Jesus Christ, and as a result, they were “called Christians” by those who were not Christians.

If the watching world started giving titles and nicknames to those who proclaim to follow Jesus today, what sort of titles do you think they would give us?

I am not sure I want to know … but I doubt it would be “Christian.”

But this leads me to the second line of reasoning for why we should stop calling ourselves “Christians.”

you keep calling yourself a Christian

2. They will know you are Christians by your love (John 13:35)

If you truly are a “Christian” you don’t have to tell people. They will know it. How? By your love.

Those who truly act like a “Christian” do not have to tell people they are a “Christian” because people already know it. They know it by your love.

I follow Jesus t-shirtI walked by two guys in the store the other day who were both wearing Christian t-shirts. One was saying to the other, “Yeah, they all hate me at work, but that’s okay, because I’m standing up for Christ.”

Now, I cannot say for sure, but I imagine that since I heard this about five days after the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of gay marriage, that this man’s idea of “standing up for Christ” consisted of telling his coworkers that LGBT people were headed for hell, were destroying our country, and were signs of the collapse of modern society and traditional marriage.

Some religious people think that “standing up for Christ” in today’s culture means telling others that God hates gays. Just check out some of the comments on my post from two days ago.

Look, I don’t know where you stand on the gay marriage issue. I don’t care. What I do know, however, is that wherever you stand on gay marriage, the proper response to gay people is love.

The same goes for other groups of people some Christians love to hate. Like Muslims. Whatever you may think about the Muslim religion, the proper way to treat a Muslim is with love.

Love is the proper (and only) response to ALL people, no matter what they believe or do, if we are followers of Jesus.

If you want to represent Jesus to people, don’t do it by hating or condemning them. (And don’t use the line about how you “Love the sinner, but hate the sin.”)

Anyway, back to the conversation I heard in the store, I wanted to tell this guy who was proud of his “stand for Christ” that just because people hate you for what you say doesn’t mean that you are standing for Christ.

In fact, in the Gospels, the only people who really hated Jesus were the religious people. Those who were condemned and judged by the religious people loved Jesus and hung out with Him and were accepted by Him.

So if the world hates you but religious people love you, you might not be following Jesus.

Also, if, like this guy in the store, you have to tell people you are a Christian by broadcasting it on your t-shirt, you’re doing it wrong.

If we want to tell people we are followers of Jesus, we do it by loving them. Just as He loves us. Unconditionally. That’s what Godly love is.

I am convinced that the person who loves others unconditionally but doesn’t claim to follow Jesus is closer to the Kingdom of God than those who claim to follow Jesus but doesn’t love others unconditionally.

love is of GodIf love is of God, and everybody who loves is born of God and knows God because God is love (1 John 4:7-8), then it only makes sense that love will be the prevailing characteristic of one who is born of God and know God!

It is not a person’s words that make him or her a Christian, or what they post on Facebook or wear on their t-shirts, or even how many Bible verses they can quote, or how often they attend church and Bible studies, or whether they can “take a stand for Christ.”

They will know we are Christians by our love, and if you have not love, they will never know you are a Christian, no matter how much you tell them you are.

Or maybe I should put it this way: If you have not love, you can never properly act like a Christian, no matter how much you tell people you are one.

The REAL Question We Should be Asking Ourselves (and others)

So the question we should be asking is not “Am I a Christian?” but rather, “Am I Christ-like?”

“Do my words sound like words Jesus might say?”

“Do my actions look like things Jesus might do?”

“Do I love unconditionally, forgive freely, serve sacrificially, and accept all?”

“Do I challenge the religious status-quo for setting up barriers to God and creating groups of us vs. them?”

“Do I break down the walls of religion by eating with the so-called ‘tax-collectors and sinners’?”

If so, then keep living in love and looking like Jesus, and maybe, just maybe, someone might call you a “Christian.”

God is Redeeming Church, Redeeming Life Bible & Theology Topics: 1 John 4:7-8, Acts 11:26, Christian, Discipleship, evangelism, hate, John 13:35, looks like Jesus, love, love like Jesus, missions

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I’m so tired of hate speech and guilt trips masquerading as the Gospel

By Jeremy Myers
86 Comments

I’m so tired of hate speech and guilt trips masquerading as the Gospel

angry preachers hate speechI listened to a sermon today in which the preacher (I’m not going to call him a pastor) said these things:

If you are going to follow Jesus, you need to stop hanging out with your non-Christian friends…

Gays are disgusting people…

God has called me to a new ministry…

On that last point, the preacher forgot to mention publicly that he got a $10,000 bonus for agreeing to go to this new area of ministry.

If I were a bolder person, I would have stood up and called him out on these points.

But I didn’t.

Instead, I took notes so I could write a blog post about it…

Look, here’s the point…

If you are going to preach hate, legalism, and self-righteousness, don’t do it in the name of Jesus, and don’t call it the Gospel. Of course, that’s probably asking too much.

When it comes to hate speech, legalism, and self-righteousness, Christianity has a corner on the market. 

The Gospel is good news. The center of the Gospel is the message of Jesus: that God loves everyone, has forgiven everyone, and extends infinite grace to everyone. If you claim to be a Christian but can’t preach that, it makes me think you don’t understand the Gospel.

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, evangelism, forgiveness, gays, gospel, grace, hate, homosexuality, love of God, pastoral ministry, Preaching

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Tell God Your Blasphemous Thoughts

By Jeremy Myers
120 Comments

Tell God Your Blasphemous Thoughts

A reader recently sent in the following question about blasphemous thoughts and the unforgivable sin.

I got your book on the unforgivable sin. What advice can you give for those who suffer with blasphemous thoughts? I have not said anything but they are still upsetting. I am going through a lot of stress right now. I have been having this issue about 2 years now. Any advice is appreciated. I was told just not to accept them (or cry-which I have done). God bless you.

I am glad you got the book. There is so much more I could have said about the unforgivable sin in that little book. This is one of the questions I should have dealt with in more detail.

What is a Blasphemous Thought?

First off, I am not sure what you might consider a “blasphemous thought.” As I have had hundreds of personal and online conversations about the unforgivable sin over the years, I find that lots of people have some sort of idea about what constitutes blasphemous thoughts or actions, but which are not really blasphemous at all. The reason most people have these ideas is because they heard a sermon, read a book, or had a pastor tell them that certain actions or thoughts were blasphemous. But when we really look at the what blasphemy is,  we find that most of these sermons, books, and pastors were simply misinformed or were trying to control other people to act or behave a certain way.

So, to take an extreme case as an example… I have sometimes talked with people who say that they were told that it was blasphemy to question something their pastor taught. They were told that the pastor is “the Lord’s anointed.” Often the pastor will quote Psalm 105:15 as a way of showing that to touch, harm, or question “the Lord’s anointed” is some sort of affront to God. Therefore, to question or challenge the pastor is considered to be some sort of blasphemous challenge to God Himself.

This is an extreme example, to be sure, but it does happen (more than we realize!). But a moment’s reflection reveals that in these cases, the pastor is usually just trying to control people to conform to his own desires, wishes, and commands.

However, I would say that easily 95% of the teaching out there about the “sin of blasphemy” falls into this same category. Usually, what is being taught as blasphemous is not blasphemous at all! Sure, those certain behaviors or actions might be sinful, but there is a vast ocean of difference between sinful thoughts or actions and blasphemous thoughts or actions.

But here’s the thing… I am just going to go out on a limb and guess at what blasphemous thoughts you might be having. Though there is a whole variety of things that people think qualify as blasphemous thoughts or actions, in my experience, there is one main thing that people think is a blasphemous thought.

And it is this… when most people think they have thought or said something blasphemous, it is because they thought or said these words:

F*** you, God! I hate you!

Probably there is not much worse that could be said toward God, and I hesitate even putting such a thing on this blog. If anything qualifies as a blasphemous thought, this is probably it. (Though even here, nowhere does the Bible say that such a statement is blasphemous. In Matthew 12:31-32, when Jesus accuses the Pharisees of being close to committing the unforgivable sin, this is not what the Pharisees were saying, and is not even close to anything they ever would have said…)

So the statement above is not a blasphemous thought, but is still pretty bad, but I wrote it out for a purpose.

If you are saying or thinking these sorts of things toward God, there are two things God wants to say to you in return.

God Wants You to Know He Loves You

The first thing God wants to say to you is this:

Oh yeah? So you hate me, huh? Well guess what?

I love you.

Yeah, that’s right.

I. Love. You.

No matter what, I love you.

No matter what you say or do, no matter what you think, no matter how hurtful your words or thoughts, I will love you forever. My love for you will never change, will never diminish, will never fade away.

Say what you will. Do what you will. I forgive you for all of it, because I love you.

love of GodHow do we know God says this to us, no matter what we say to Him?

Because the Bible tells us over and over that He loves us no matter what. While we were yet sinners, God sent His Son Jesus to die for us (John 3:16; Rom 5:8). Love is the essence of who God is (1 John 4:8). Before you were ever born, God knew every sin you would ever commit, every word you would ever say, and all “blasphemous thoughts” you would ever say or think. And He sent Jesus to die for you anyway! Why? Because He loves you!

More than anything else, God wants to let you know that He loves you and will always love you.

The God you Hate… God Hates Too

But the second thing God would want to say to you in response for any angry or hateful thought you might have about Him is this:

Hey, I understand. In fact, the god you claim to hate is the god I hate too.

The only reason you are having those thoughts or thinking those words is because you thought I was a certain type of god, and I have not turned out to be that way. Your life is going in directions you didn’t think it would go, horrible things have happened to you in life, and you think I did these things to you. Someone told you some wrong things about me. Someone told you that I caused those bad things to happen to you. This is not true.

If I had done those horrible things to you, you would have every right to resent and hate me.

But I didn’t send this pain, tragedy, hardship, or evil into your life. I would never do that.

Remember what I told you before? I love you!

I might discipline you out of love, but when I do, I will make it clear to you what I am doing, and why.

All those evil things that happen to you are only because the world is full of sin, and the enemy is out to steal, kill, and destroy. I never steal, kill, or destroy.

Bad things happen in this world, and I am so sorry you have to experience them.

When these bad things happen, my role, my job, my task, is to do what I can to love you through them, to be with you in the pain, to suffer alongside you. This is one reason I sent Jesus. It is also why I sent the Holy Spirit.

I am not a god who sends suffering into your life; I am the God who suffers with you in life.

I am not a god who sends pain so you cry; I am a God who cries with you in your pain.

And regarding what you thought before… you know, those words you said in your head. Thank you for saying them.

Really.

Many people either try to deny the painful experiences they are facing, or they clam up about their pain and refuse to talk to me about it. But not you. You are honest about your pain and are willing to talk to me about it.

Even though your words are hurtful, they show that you continue to want to talk to me and have a relationship with me. Most people just give me the silent treatment. But you haven’t done that. You continue to want to talk. I want that too.

Telling me you hate me isn’t blasphemy; it’s honesty. It is how you feel. And I am glad you came to me in your pain.

So let me begin by showing you who I really am…

I am not sure if this exactly answers the question that was sent in to me, but in my years of experience as a pastor, author, and blogger, I have found that most people who have fears about blasphemous thoughts and blasphemous words, usually have one of two things going on in their life (and often both). People who think they have committed the unforgivable sin usually have a religious leader who is trying to control them, or warped and dangerous ideas about who God is and what God is like.

Once we can see that God is not like the angry, fire-hurling deity that is often taught in some churches and by some pastors, but instead looks remarkably like Jesus who loved, accepted, and forgave everybody, it is then that we begin to see how much God loves us, and that no matter what we say or do, His love for us will never change, never waver, never diminish.

It is not a blasphemous thought to think that you hate God.

If you think you hate God, go talk to Him about what you are feeling, and why you feel that way.

He loves to have these open and honest conversations with us about who He truly is and how much He truly loves us… no matter what.

Only once we see the love of God, will the thoughts of anger and resentment toward God begin to disappear. So if you are having blasphemous thoughts or ideas toward God, don’t feel bad about them or fear that such thoughts will make God stop loving you. Instead, take those thoughts to God, and say, “God? Do you see what think about you?” Then sit and listen to see what God says in return.

The last thing God wants is for us to shut ourselves off from Him. So if we are having blasphemous thoughts toward God, the best thing we can do is talk to God about them, so that He can show us how much He loves us, and how the God we think we hate is not actually the God He truly is.

God is Redeeming Books, Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: blasphemy, forgiveness, grace, hate, Jesus, love of God, Matthew 12:31-32, Theology of God, Theology of Sin, Unforgivable Sin, unpardonable sin

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You’re Disgusting! Burn in Hell!

By Jeremy Myers
16 Comments

You’re Disgusting! Burn in Hell!

This post is written by Sam Riviera, a frequent contributor to this blog.


You’re disgusting! Burn in hell!

burn in hellHow would you like it if someone said that to you? You probably wouldn’t like it.

Do we have the right to tell anyone that they should burn in hell? Do we have the right to say it to people who march in Gay Pride parades? To women who have had an abortion? To prostitutes? To child molesters? To murderers?

Especially when we realize that, in the minds of most, “hell” is a place where people get tortured and tormented for all eternity. Telling someone they should burn in hell is announcing your desire that they suffer in agonizing pain forever and ever. Is telling someone they should burn in hell really Christlike love?

Maybe people who say such a thing should be arrested, as Bill O’Reilly, Fox news host, suggested on his show.

What would you do if someone got in your face about something they didn’t like about you, about who you are, what you believe, what you have done, or how you live, and told you that you will burn in hell for those things? Is telling someone to burn in hell commendable Christian behavior or condemnable Christian behavior?

Love in the Margins

All of my life I’ve had friends who many have considered on the margins, the outer edges of society – LGBTs, homeless, prostitutes, addicts, murderers and other criminals, and you-name-it. I love these people. I mingle with them. I talk with them. I hug them. I walk arm-in-arm with them.

[Read more…]

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: burn in hell, Discipleship, gay, guest post, hate, Jesus, lgbt, prostitute, sinners

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