1 John 5:6-21 Our Certainties

In the rest of this letter, John tells us Christians what we are certain of – what we know for sure:

                Jesus IS God

                Believers HAVE eternal life

                God ANSWERS prayer

                Christian don’t PRACTICE sin

                The Christian life is the  REAL life

The Holy Spirit is within us, testifying to us about the truth of these statements.  Satan, our flesh-nature, and the world are all screaming in our ears trying to persuade us that it’s all a lie.  But we’ve been given spiritual discernment.  We know what’s true and what’s false.  “To a man of the world the Christian life is unreal and the worldly life is real,” my commentary said.  But we know better!

Father, thank You for Your assurance that this isn’t all just made up fantasy.  Thank You for peeling away the blinders Satan puts on our eyes.  Keep me in Your truth and increase my faith!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 John 5:1-5 Moving From Grudging Obedience To Joyful Obedience

John shows us how to move from obeying out of fear to joyful obedience, for “disobedience to God’s will is a tragedy – but so is reluctant, grudging obedience.  God does not want us to disobey Him, but neither does He want us to obey out of fear or necessity,” my commentary explained.  “The secret to joyful obedience is to recognize that obedience is a family matter.  We are serving a loving Father and helping our brothers and sisters in Christ.”

D.L. Moody said, “Every Bible should be bound in shoe leather.”  “We show our love to God, not by empty words but by willing works,” my commentary added. 

The progression toward joyful obedience follows a path:

“As God’s love is perfected in us, we have confidence toward Him and do not live in fear.  Because fear is cast out, we can be honest and open; there is no need to pretend.  And because fear is gone, our obedience to His commands is born out of love, not terror.  We discover that His commandments are not burdensome.  Finally, living in this atmosphere of love, honesty, and joyful obedience, we are able to face the world with victorious faith and to overcome instead of being overcome.”

Father, I thank You that, over these years, You have been perfecting Your love within me.  Where once I read Your Word and thought it restrictive, I now read it as Your love letter to me.  Please keep on doing that.  I’m not there yet, but I want to be.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 John 4:12-21 In Him and In Us

This section has a lot of “in us” and “in Him” phrases, and I remember years ago how tough it was to figure out what was actually being said.  It’s all about God’s abiding in us.

“God has said something to us, and God has done something for us … The third great fact is God does something in us!  We are not merely students … or spectators … we are participants in the great drama of God’s love,” my commentary said.

“God now reveals Himself through the lives of His children.  Men cannot see God, but they can see us.  If we abide in Christ, we will love one another, and our love for one another will reveal God’s love to a needy world.  God’s love will be experienced in us and then will be expressed through us …  The world will not believe that God loves sinners until they see His love at work in His children’s lives … The more we love God, the more we understand the love of God.  And the more we understand His love, the easier it is for us to trust Him.”

My commentary also talked about loving people with wrong motives.  Our love should happen because God loves us and not because we are trying to appear super spiritual.  “Unless we love the lost, our verbal witness to them will be useless … Too much witnessing today is a mere mouthing of words.  People need an expression of love.”

Father, it’s taken me years to start seeing Your love perfected in me, and I know You’re not nearly done yet.  Thank You for driving home what I’ve known for years – that people don’t care how much You know until they know how much you care.  Let my love for them be real and reflect Your love for them shining out through me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 John 4:1-11 -- Love for other believers -- a privilege rather than a responsibility

John wanted us to get to a deeper point of view of love, my commentary said.  He knew we’d tend to see love for other believers as a responsibility rather than a privilege, and God didn’t want it to be a forced response, but instead a natural response.  When a compass responds to magnetic north, it is responding to the nature of the earth.  Similarly, a Christian should respond in love to what God commands because we are responding to His nature, which is love.

Our natures should determine our actions, too.  God showed us that because He is love; therefore, He did something – He sent His Son for two reasons:  That we might live through Him and that He might be the propitiation for our sins.  “Propitiation is something God does to make it possible for me to be forgiven …. He is holy, so He must uphold His holy law.  But He is also love and he wants to forgive and save sinners,” my commentary said.  He has to be consistent, and the way He remains so is through the cross, where His holiness and His love both shine out.

Father, thank You for having such love for me!  I’m sorry that my sinfulness caused You to have to give up Your Son to satisfy Your holiness.  But I’m so thankful for Your love!  Help me to make it my nature, too.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 John 3:11-24 Four Levels of Relationships With Others

John shows us four potential levels on which we may live in relationship with others.  The lowest is murder and it’s the level where Satan lives.  “The world hates Christ … Christ shows up the world’s sin and reveals its true nature … People of the world try to cover up their true nature with religious rites,” my commentary said.  God isn’t wanted in their lives.

A second level is hatred, and it is much like murder.  “The question is not so much, ‘What did you do?’ but ‘What did you want to do?’  What would you have done if you had been at liberty to do as you pleased?”  A believer may occasionally be angry with a brother, but it is not the same as a settled habit of hate toward an unbeliever.”

Indifference is a third level, and a Christian can exist on this level, but shouldn’t.  “Jesus had this in mind in the parable of the good Samaritan.  A lawyer wanted to talk about an abstract subject:  “Who is my neighbor?”  But Jesus focused attention on one man in need, and changed the question to, “To whom can I be a neighbor?”  My commentary continued, “A man need not even hate his brother to be guilty of sin.  All he has to do is ignore him or be indifferent to his needs.”

The final level is Christian love.  “To love in word means simply to talk about  a need, but to love in deed means to do something about meeting it.  You may think, because you have discussed a need, or even prayed about it, that you have done your duty, but love involves more than words – it calls for sacrificial deeds.”

Father, help me to exist on that last level.  I know that when I do, I will enjoy great blessings from You – assurance, answered prayer, and abiding in You are some which John mentioned here.  And I want to be abiding in You.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 John 3:1-10 Sins vs. Sin

“A Christian who sins is a child sinning against His Father.  The unbeliever sins against law.  The believer sins against love,” my commentary says.  “The fear of the Lord indicates that God’s children hold their Father in reverence and will not deliberately disobey Him or try His patience.”

A Christian reading this can quickly begin to doubt his salvation when he sees verse like, “Anyone who lives in Christ does not go on sinning.”  But my commentary explained, “The emphasis here is not on sins (plural), but on sin (singular) … Sins are the fruit, but sin is the root.”

It states that asserting our will against God’s will is rebellion and rebellion is the root of sin.

This is all about deliberately and habitually sinning.  Deliberately indicates that we are asserting our will against God’s will.  Habitually means we are doing it on such a consistent basis that it is clear that we don’t care.  We are practicing.  “John did not deny that Christians sin, but he did deny that Christians can live in sin.”

“A Christian has an old nature from his physical birth and a new nature from his spiritual birth.  The old nature produces sin, but the new nature leads one into a holy life.  A Christian’s responsibility is to live according to his new nature, not the old nature.”  In an example, those natures were compared to two dogs inside us that are fighting.  The dog that wins is the one which is fed the most.

It also said, “Temptation appeals to our basic natural desires.  There is nothing sinful about our desires, but temptation gives us an opportunity to satisfy these desires in an evil way … Satan baits his traps with pleasures that appeal to the old nature, the flesh.  But none of his bait appeals to the new divine nature.”  We overcome the desires of the old nature by beginning each day by yielding our bodies to God, and by reading and studying the Word, feeding our new nature.  We also pray for God to fill us with the Holy Spirit and to give us power to serve Christ and glorify Him, it said.

If we do sin, we are told we must instantly confess to God and claim forgiveness.  Sin separates us from God, and we need to restore the fellowship so He can work in us.  Failing to do this leads to backsliding.  A key question is, “When temptation comes, do I play with it or do I flee from it?”  Do I immediately yield to the divine nature within me?”

Father, help me to have strength to let my new nature answer the door when sin comes knocking.  Keep me feeling the pain of deliberately sinning against You, so that my conscience won’t be desensitized by my sin.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 John 2:18-29 Finding The False

John needed to be sure that Christians could discern when someone was a false teacher, and here he tells us what to look for.  False teachers depart from the fellowship.  True Christians desire to be with the people of God.

They also deny the faith, and claim that they’ve been given special anointing and knowledge which others do not have.  Anyone who denies that Jesus is God come in the flesh is a false teacher.  “To deny the Son means to deny the Father also.  You cannot separate the Father and the Son, since both are one God,” my commentary said.

False teachers try to deceive the faithful.  “Satan is not an originator.  He is a counterfeiter … Satan’s chief stratagem … is to plant the counterfeit wherever Christ plants the true.”  We must be able to determine which is which.  We do this by depending on the Holy Spirit.

One very interesting thing I read was this:  “You should discern in the bible what God says to different people at different times;  there are passages that apply specifically to the Jews, or to the Gentiles, or to the church.  You must be careful to distinguish between them.  Though all of the Bible was written FOR you, not all of it was written TO you.”

Father, help me to abide in You and in Your Word so that I can have the discernment I need to tell truth from lie.  Speak personally to me so that I may know Your will for my life.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 John 2:7-11 Loving Other Christians

“A Christian who is walking in the light (which simply means he’s obeying God) is going to love His brother Christian,” my commentary said.  The Christians who’d started out as Jews knew the commandments to love.  But John is showing us something new and fresh about it all.  It is new in emphasis, example, and experience.  It’s not about simply talking love for others. 

As we witness Christ’s love for us, He serves as our example, and we begin to love others the way He does.  It becomes a matter of the will rather than an emotion.  “A Christian begins to hate what he used to love and love what he used to hate.”  We do that because we’ve got new life inside us in the Holy Spirit.  It’s not something we can do ourselves.  We see Jesus never showing hatred or malice.  He never hated the people who committed sins.  Love for them drove everything He did.  “He looked with loving pity on the religious leaders who … accused Him of being in league with Satan … As they crucified Him, He prayed for them:  Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

My commentary also said, “It is impossible to be in fellowship with the Father and out of fellowship with another Christian at the same time … In Matthew 5:21-26, note that Jesus did not say that the worshipper had something against his brother, but that the brother had something against the worshipper … When we harbor an unforgiving, unloving spirit, we harm ourselves most.”

Father, please help me to place love as the most important reason for getting along with my fellow Christians.  Help me to want to immediately fix things when something is wrong, not letting it fester.  And remind me when I am out of fellowship with a fellow believer that at the same time I am out of fellowship with You.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 John 2: 1-6 Dealing With Sin In The Life Of A Believer

Wow, what awesome stuff!  Dealing with sin in our lives as believers.  “Sin is not simply outward disobedience; sin is also inner rebellion or desire … Our receiving the new nature does not eliminate the old nature we are born with.  The old nature fights against the new nature.  No amount of self-discipline can control the old nature.  Only the Holy Spirit can …”

We often try to deal with sin by covering it up and pretending nothing is happening, but God knows and won’t stand for that in a Christian’s life.  He can’t be part of sin, so our fellowship with Him suffers.  We often think that we can be the exception to the rule, applying God’s Word to others, but not to ourselves.

We can confess our sins; this means much more than simply admitting them.  We instead must call them what God calls them and agree with Him about them.  It’s being honest with ourselves and with God about them.  “It means judging sin and facing it squarely,” my commentary said.

The best thing, though, is to conquer our sin.  When we sin (and we will), we should immediately confess it to God and claim His forgiveness, realizing what it cost Him to do so – Jesus’ death.  We should spend time in His Word daily to know Him better and to ascertain His will, and then obey that will, not out of fear or out of our own needs, but out of our love for Him.  We do this with the help of the Holy Spirit living in our hearts and with Jesus interceding (praying) for us at God’s throne.  That’s incredible for a sinner to think about – I did this while they are doing that for me!

We do this best by abiding in Christ – “depending completely on Him for all that we need in order to live for Him and serve Him,” my commentary said.  “God has made provision for us in these ways to conquer sin.  We can never lose or change the sin nature that we were born with, but we need not obey its desires.  As we walk in the light and see sin as it actually is, we will hate it and turn from it.  And if we sin, we immediately confess it to God and claim His cleansing … The life that is real has no love for sin … If we say, then we ought also to do.”

Father, thanks for this booster shot today.  I so needed it.  Help me to re-examine my life and agree with You in honesty about areas of sin I struggle with.  Then help me to give them up in total surrender to You.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 John 1 -- Obedience, Love, and Truth

My commentary said John wrote his gospel to tell people how to receive this wonderful life.  He wrote this letter to tell people how to be sure they have really been born of God.  It listed characteristics that are true of Christians:

                They live a righteous life.

                They don’t practice sin – they do sin, but they don’t make it a habit.

                They love God and other Christians.

                They have no love for the world and the world hates them.

                They overcome the world.

This life is revealed in Christ and experienced when we put our trust in Him as our Savior.  It is also shared with others by the lives we live and by the words we speak.

“The life that is real is characterized by discernment … The Spirit is our Teacher; it is He who enables us to detect truth and error and to remain in Christ.  He is our protection against ignorance, deception, and untruth. “

John speaks continually of obedience, love, and truth … A Spirit-controlled mind knows and understands truth.  A Spirit-controlled heart feels love.  A Spirit-controlled will inclines us to obedience…If a true believe is out of fellowship with God, it is usually for one of three reasons:  He has disobeyed God’s will; he is not getting along with fellow believers; or he believes a lie and therefore is living a lie … A believer can never had joyful fellowship with the Lord if sin stands between them.”

Father, I see that obedience, love, and truth must all work together in my life if I am to remain in fellowship with You.  If any of those three is missing, I’ll have a problem.  Keep me obeying and loving and knowing the truth.  Keep me in fellowship with You!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

2 Peter 3: 11-18 So What Kind Of People Should You Be?

Peter asks us, after his warnings that the Day of the Lord could come at any moment, “So what kind of people should you be?”  He then helps us to understand what God expects from us as we await Jesus’ return.

We are to continue to separate ourselves from the evil in this world, with an attitude of excitement and expectation, fixing our hope only on Him.

We should behave like foreigners.  “We are strangers and pilgrims headed for a better world … Christians should be different, not odd.  When you are different, you attract people; when you are odd, you repel them.”

We should enjoy living for God personally, and “we should avoid two extremes in ministry.  One is the attitude that we are locked into God’s sovereign plan in such a way that nothing we do will make any difference.  The other extreme is to think that God cannot get anything done unless we do it,” my commentary said.

We must also be diligent to win the lost and diligent to grow spiritually.  Here, Peter says, “Beloved … be mindful … Beloved … be not ignorant … Beloved … be diligent … Beloved … beware…”  That last one means constantly guarding yourself.  We do this by being in a constant state of development, it said – not growing spiritually in spurts.  We grow in grace and in knowledge of God and in a balanced way, keeping a balance between worship and service, between faith and works.”

Father, I feel like I’ve been growing spiritually in spurts lately, rather than continuously.  I need Your help to balance out grace and knowledge of You and to balance out worship and service, faith and works.  Please show me how, Father.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

2 Peter 3:1-10 The Scoffers' Ignorance

Peter took on the scoffers who were laughing at the very idea of God intervening with punishment.  Even with the limited knowledge of science in the world at that time, they’d decided that everything would tick right along and that it couldn’t suddenly be destroyed; therefore, judgment wouldn’t come and they would be proved right.  They also questioned the delay of God’s judgment, suggesting it as proof that the system couldn’t be altered.

Peter told them that God’s Word was true.  Judgment had occurred in the past – with the flood, with the Egyptian plagues, and with Sodom and Gomorrah.  It was all right there in plain sight.

He said that God’s Word was consistent.  God had created and He had destroyed.  They were deliberately ignoring evidence.  Since God had intervened in the past, creating everything we know out of nothing, and had intervened with punishment by bringing the flood, it was entirely consistent that He could intervene in modern times.  Since His Word made it all and holds it together, He can easily intervene.  “God has the power to break in at any time and accomplish His will,” my commentary said.  So what about the delay?

God’s will is merciful.  He is eternal, having always existed, while we are immortal – we haven’t always existed, but were created.  We have a beginning but not an end.  We will live forever, either in heaven or hell.

God is not constrained by time.  “He is never in a hurry, but He is never late,” my commentary said.  “God wasn’t delaying the return of Christ because He was unable or unwilling to act, but because He is longsuffering and wants to give lost sinners the opportunity to be saved … God’s delay is actually an indication that He has a plan for this world and that He is working His plan.”  The scoffers couldn’t see that He was doing all this for them in His love.

Father, I’m so thankful that You are a God who is absolutely in total control.  Otherwise, You wouldn’t be God.  Help me to use the time You are giving us to draw others to You and to show them the love You have for them.  Open their eyes, Father.  Remove Satan’s blinders so that they can choose to be saved.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

2 Peter 2:17-22 The Worst Kind Of Bondage

The false teachers kept trying to see freedom to weak Christians, and that freedom was freedom to sin.  They used the grace of God as their empowerment for their arguments.  “Doing whatever you please is not freedom – it is the worst kind of bondage,” my commentary said.

Those false teachers kept making false promises.  Peter compared them to wells without water.  As a result, people could never feel satisfaction.  “There is in mankind an inborn thirst for reality, for God.  ‘Thou hast made us for thyself,’ said Augustine, ‘and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.’  People attempt to satisfy this thirst in many ways, and they end up living on substitutes,’” my commentary added.

This freedom was offered by false Christians, who were in bondage to money, fleshly lust, and pride.  “In the Bible, freedom does not mean having it your way.  That attitude is the very essence of sin.  The freedom that Jesus Christ offers means enjoying fulfillment in the will of God … Through the Word of God, we discover the truth about ourselves, our world, and our God.  As we face this truth honestly, we experience the liberating power of the Spirit of God … Temporary reformation without true repentance and rebirth only leads to greater sin and judgment … Sinful tendencies don’t disappear when a person reforms; they merely hibernate and get stronger … True holiness is more than conquering temptation; it is conquering even the desire to disobey God.”

Father, I know that You have saved me  and changed me.  When I am tempted by my old life, remind me that I am facing more than conquering temptation.  Help me to see that I must always be about conquering even the desire to disobey You.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

2 Peter 2: 1-16 Beware of Counterfeits

Peter is warning here about false teachers in the church.  One paragraph can sure give us pause:  “Promoting a party spirit in a church is one of the works of the flesh.  Whenever a church member says to another member, ‘Are you on my side or the pastor’s side?’ he is promoting a party spirit and causing division.  A false teacher forces you to make a choice between his doctrines and the doctrines of the true Christian faith.”

False teachers use feigned words – “words that can be twisted to mean anything you want them to mean.  They use our vocabulary but they do not use our dictionary.”

Peter’s aim was to prove “that judgment does finally come, no matter how secure the sinner might feel … God judges rebellion and will not spare those who reject His will.”

Peter also encouraged the true believers, showing how God protects us from pollution in the world and from the judgment He will someday bring to the world.

The words my commentary used to describe Lot’s problems are telling for us today:  “Abraham took Lot out of Egypt, but he could not take Egypt out of Lot … It is difficult for us to understand Lot … Lot was saved (‘Lot … that righteous man’) … All the while Lot lived in Sodom, his soul was tortured and greatly troubled by the filthy conduct of the people … Peter assured his readers and us that God knows how to ‘be delivering the godly out of testing and temptation’ so that we may live victoriously … Lot had entered Sodom, and then Sodom had entered Lot and he found it difficult to leave.”

Even today, many believers have abandoned the place of separation and are compromising with the world, my commentary says.  “God’s people, as weak as they are, will be delivered from judgment by the grace and mercy of God.”  We just need to see what’s around us and how it affects us, so that we won’t get away from it only by the skin of our teeth.

Father, remove any blinders that Satan places on us, and help us to see what’s really happening and where we are in the whole equation.  Separate us and protect us from evil.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

2 Peter 1:12-21 Remember, Remember, Remember

In four verses, Peter says “remember” three times.  That reminded me of how many times I’ve closed my quiet times asking God to remind me often of what I’ve just learned.  We have a tendency to forget, to get distracted, and to simply become mentally lazy.

Peter wanted us to understand that the Word is dependable and durable, compared to men, experiences, and the world, my commentary said.  “Men die, but the Word lives … Experiences fade, but the Word remains … The world darkens, but the Word shines.”

Peter was addressing the false teachers who’d tried to infect the church and take it over.  They were using bits and pieces of the Word, often out of context, to tout their own beliefs.  My commentary said, “The Word of God was written to common people, not to theological professors.  The writers assumed that common people could read it, understand it, and apply it, led by the same Holy Spirit who inspired it.  The humble individual believer can learn about God as he reads and meditates on the Word of God; he does not need the experts to show him truth.”  This was exactly opposite of what those false teachers were telling them.

Father, once again I ask You to help me remember.  Let all of Your Word sink deeply into my heart.  Help me to be able to find whatever You are impressing on me.  Make it all familiar to me.  Let Your Word be my life.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

2 Peter 1:5-11 The Progression

Peter gives us a progression for spiritual growth, and my commentary said the parts should not be considered “beads on a chain to be collected”.  “The word translated add really means to supply generously or to make lavish provision, it said.  We don’t just work at it until we think we have it.

Our spiritual life starts with faith in Christ – belief in what He did for us on the cross.  His sacrifice should cause us to make lavish provision for moral excellence – the Greek word used means “the fulfillment of a thing’s purpose.”  As we discover our purpose in Christ, we will then want to make lavish provision for gaining knowledge of God and Christ.  This helps us to handle life successfully and in the manner that they would have us handle it.  That knowledge develops as we obey God’s will and begin to see things from God’s perspective.

As we gain His perspective on things, we’ll then want to make lavish provision to develop self-control.  For instance, seeing God at work in every circumstance, we’d become slow to anger, knowing that God is growing us and knowing that it’s not simply another human punching our buttons.

That growth comes through enduring difficult circumstances and witnessing His faithfulness despite them – even expecting such circumstances.  Here, we make lavish provision for patience as we begin to expect the unexpected, seeing God at work, growing us spiritually.

This expectation and patience, seeing things from God’s perspective and not man’s, develops Godliness in us.  We need to make lavish provision for it – “living above the petty things of life, the passions and pressures that control the lives of others,” instead “seeking the welfare of others,” my commentary explained.

By this time, we should also have been developing brotherly kindness – “unfeigned, sincere love of our fellow Christians and not just be pretending that we love them … even sacrificial love for them,” my commentary added.

God does all of this as we cooperate with Him in our spiritual growth, not simply sitting there waiting to receive these things.  Our part requires spiritual diligence and discipline in addition to cooperating with God.  He doesn’t destroy our own personalities – the image of Christ is reproduced in us to help us effectively use the way God designed us for His glory, according to my commentary.

Father, I love what I read here.  It means so much more fleshed out like this.  Keep me ever aware of my part in my own spiritual growth, and help me to see You at work in me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

2 Peter 1:1-4 Sinful Nature vs. Godly Nature

Our Christian life starts, of course, with faith in Christ Jesus.  Now Peter tells us that at that moment we are “born complete” spiritually.  It’s a matter of spiritual growth from that point forward.  We are given a divine nature, where before we only had our sinful nature.  “Our nature determines our appetite, behavior, environment, and association,” my commentary said, just as a lion’s nature determines all of these things about its life.  Our sinful nature has determined all of the sinful ways these parts of us could go.  But “with God’s nature within, then we ought to have an appetite for that which is pure and holy.  Our behavior ought to be like that of the Father, and we ought to live in the kind of ‘spiritual environment’ that is suited to our nature.  We ought to associate with that which is true to our nature.  The only normal, fruit-bearing life for the child of God is a godly life… If we feed the new nature the nourishment of the Word, then we will have little interest in the garbage of the world.  But if we ‘make provision for the flesh’ our sinful nature will lust after the ‘old sins’ and we will disobey God,” my commentary added.

Father, I hadn’t ever thought about my sinful nature driving my appetites, behaviors, environment, and associations.  We are much like animals in that regard.  But we were created in Your image, and I’m so thankful that You gave me a divine nature.  Please help me to be ever aware when my appetites, behaviors, environments, and associations are being driven by my sinful nature rather than from the new nature You gave me.  Help me not to feed the old nature, so I won’t lust after the old sins.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Jude 1-25 Watch Out

Jude, Jesus’ half-brother, was led by God to write words of warning about false teachers in the church who were gaming the system by using God’s grace as an excuse for sexual sin.  Church members were “making themselves filthy with sin … These people speak against things they don’t understand … They have fought against God.”

Jude described them further:  “These people complain and blame others, doing the evil things they want to do.  They brag about themselves, and they flatter others to get what they want.”  They were letting desires turn into actions rather than snuffing out evil thoughts, and they were causing division in the church.

Jude’s solution?  “God is strong and can help you not to fall.”  He tells us to remember God’s Word, to build our Christian life, to exercise spiritual discernment, and to commit ourselves to Christ.  “Like the young man who falls in love and marries, and is no longer interested in his old girlfriends, so the believer who keeps himself in the love of God, caught up in the glories of the Savior, will never want to turn to Satan’s substitutes.  You don’t have to stumble,” my commentary said.

Father, help me to keep myself in Your love, never wanting to turn from it for Satan’s deceiving substitutes.  Don’t ever let me buy the lie again.  Keep me from stumbling.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

2 Thessalonians 3:6-18 Trouble In The Church?

Paul had to deal with church discipline with the Thessalonians for a second time.  The main issue was people who’d erroneously believed Christ’s return was imminent and who’d sold everything.  Now they weren’t wanting to work, but just to live off the church.

Elsewhere, Paul had addressed personal differences between Christians.  The solution had always been going to the person directly rather than involving the church.  “Another mistake is in trying to win an argument instead of trying to win the sinning brother,” my commentary said.

Other causes of church problems include doctrinal errors, a believer overtaken by sin, a repeating troublemaker, and open immorality by a believer.  Paul gave sound advice for dealing with each of them here.

In verse 14, Paul is talking only about the matter of Christians not working for a living and sponging off the church, and he urges that we “take note of them, have nothing to do with them, so they will feel ashamed.  But do not treat them as enemies.  Warn them as fellow believers.”

My commentary added, “For obedient saints to treat disobedient Christians with the same friendship they show to other dedicated saints is to give approval to their sins.”

It also asked this pertinent question of all Christians:  “Are you a part of the peace of the church or part of a war in the church?”

Father, please help me to gain valuable insight from these words.  Give me wisdom in dealing with my fellow Christians.  Help me to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford