3 John: Stand Firm in the Truth

By Doris Tarbutton

This third letter of John, who identifies himself as “the elder”, is another treatise with the theme being truth.  After studying through all three letters written by John, we know two things for sure: God is Love and loves us, and we must embrace the Truth as a part of the Spirit of Jesus.

Verses 1-4 The elder, to my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth. 

Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.  It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth.  I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

John identifies himself as the writer and sender of this letter, not only as a friend of Gaius, but as his spiritual mentor and authority.  Gaius, a personal friend of John and a brother in “the truth”, is characterized as an exemplary believer.  Just as we write to friends and family expressing a desire for their continued good health and happiness, so John addresses Gaius.

The niceties out of the way, John truly compliments Gaius in the area of his spiritual walk with the Lord.  The report John received was that Gaius was standing firm in the truth John had taught him.  He was being faithful to the true teachings of the Gospel.  There is a great joy that comes to the teacher when a student, a disciple, learns the lesson and assimilates it into his life.  This joy and satisfaction in their continuing in the truth of the Gospel was John’s reward for his ministry among them.

Verses 5-8 Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you.  They have told the church about your love.  You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.  It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans.  We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth.

It is our responsibility to provide for those servants of God who come to minister among us.  We experience this now when the church holds a special meeting, a concert or a seminar.  We do not personally know these people, but as fellow workers in the Gospel ministry, we recognize the Holy Spirit within them and the truth they are to share with us.  It is the people of God who provide for them when they come.  It is not to be the people of the world who do not know God. God gives to us freely, we are to give freely to others.  Matthew 10:8 concludes “Freely you have received, freely give.”

What we have to share, the Gospel, does not belong to us, but to God and His Kingdom.  We are the servants that carry it wherever we go.  John exhorts us to “work together for the truth.”

Verses 9-10 I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us.  So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us.  Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers.  He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.”

By his behavior and underlying motives we can see that Diotrephes was a deceiver and an antichrist.  His sins standout blatantly: “loves to be first”, “gossiping maliciously”, “refuses to welcome the brothers”, “puts them out of the church.”  Somehow this man had risen to a position of great authority in the church.  John does not indicate whether he was a church official or a church member like every one else.

There are those false disciples in the church whose purpose is to disrupt fellowship, to cause confusion and division.  They are disciples, not of God but of the devil.  Listen to what Paul wrote to the Roman church some 30 years earlier: Romans 16:17-19 “I urge you brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned.  Keep away from them.  For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites.  By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naïve people.  Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.”

John was not addressing a new issue, but an old issue with a different name on it.  False disciples were a problem in John’s time.  Do we have them in our churches today?  Yes!  What are we to do?  We are to follow the example of the godly man, Gaius.  We are to stand firm in the truth and not accept the false teachings.  We are not to listen to the malicious gossip.  We are not to follow the example of inhospitality.  We must stand for the truth of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Verses 11-12 Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good.  Anyone who does what is good is from God.  Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.  Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone—and even by the truth itself.  We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.”

Gaius was not the only godly man in this church.  Another man, Demetrius, was also seen as standing firm in the truth.  His life produced the fruit of the Spirit that was seen by those around him.  He is an example for us too.  As we walk in the truth, obedient to the commands of our God of love, the fruit of the Spirit will be produced in us and begin to show in our outward lives.  Our standing firm in the truth and faith is an evidence of our obedience to God.

John gives his friend, Gaius, some sound encouraging advice: “do not imitate what is evil but what is good.”  We will do well to heed this advice as well.  Our eyes are to be focused on Jesus and His truth.  We are to turn away from anything that is evil.  If we look on evil, listen to gossip, participate even passively in evil we become sharers in the evil.  We must constantly guard our minds, our eyes and ears from receiving any evil.  Instead, we follow the commands of God and do what is good.  The statement “anyone who does what is good is from God” does not mean an occasional good deed.  It means a person who consistently stands for the purity, the holiness, the righteousness, the truth of our Lord.

Verse 13 I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink.  I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.  Being there in person was John’s desire, but it was not possible.  A letter must do.  However eloquent the letter, it is not as powerful as a face to face discussion.  With all our technology of sending letters electronically, we are removing the personal from our communications.  We must make sure that we gather together on a regular basis to share fellowship and talk about the Lord.

Verse 14 Peace to you.  The friends here send their greetings.  Greet the friends there by name.  Although Diotrephes wielded great influence in the church, it is evident that there was a group of faithful believers who stood firm in the faith.  Here John wishes to greet each one by name.  Each one is precious to him as a disciple.  “Peace to you” is the common Hebrew greeting and benediction.  We hear the Hebrew word shalom.  It is the same greeting.  It is not a wish or a desire of John but is a pronouncement of a blessing on these faithful ones in this divided and confused church.  Let us work and be discerning in our service to the Lord to bring peace to all the members of our church and the extended family of God.

Live the Truth

By Doris Tarbutton

In this second, short, letter by John to the church the subject is truth.  This is the essence of our spiritual walk with Jesus—He is the Spirit of Truth.  It is His Spirit that gives us victory over deception and lies.  Apart from Jesus we have no access to Truth as an absolute.

Verses 1-4 The Elder, to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth—and not I only, but also all who know the truth—because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever: grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.  It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.

John uses the word truth 5 times in this rather long introduction.  We cannot escape the subject of this letter!  What is the underlying commonality among believers?  Is it not what John tells us here?  We are bound together in truth.  When we consider the meaning of truth, we find that it means “reality, veracity, to be true.”  What is reality for the believer in Christ?  Is it not Christ crucified, raised from the dead and ascended into heaven to intercede for us at the right hand of the Father?  This is the reality of our very existence, both physically and spiritually.  Everything we do is predicated on this premise: Jesus Christ is our Truth.

John 14:6 “Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 8:31-32 “…if you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

We have a desire to know the facts about a situation, the things that will not change about it, the veracity in which we can trust what is given to us as fact.  Jesus, throughout His ministry, taught His disciples those things which are set in eternity—they are reality, they are truth.

Here is truth: Jesus is God, He is Light.  In Him is no darkness at all.  In Him is no sin to embellish, distort, subtract from the teaching at hand.  Therefore, we conclude that everything He taught was and continues to be true.  We can trust Him and His words.  These things will stand the rigorous test of scrutiny by the Holy Spirit.  In fact, the Holy Spirit uses the very words of Jesus in teaching us truth!

Looking now at 2 John, we see the word truth used 5 times in the first 4 verses.  It claims our attention!  Reading these verses in light of Jesus as the Truth, and His teachings as True, we conclude that truth is what undergirds our faith and our fellowship with Jesus and with each other as fellow believers.  The Holy Spirit continues to nurture our faith with doses of the truth of the Word.  We judge every teaching and explanation against the truth as given us by the Scriptures and the personal instruction of the Holy Spirit.

John calls himself the “elder” in this letter.  This tells us that he was a church official, a spiritual leader who met the requirements for elder as given in 1 Timothy 3:1-7.  He was a mature, Spirit-filled man of God.  He is writing either to a specific woman and her family or most likely, a particular church and the members of it.  We are, after all, a part of the extended family of God.

Verse 13 The children of your chosen sister send their greetings.  This ending to the letter indicates the second choice for the recipients of the letter—a church an its members.  John uses the same type of euphemism referring to his own church body as “your chosen sister”, an indication that the “chosen lady” in verse 1 was a church body.

In verse 3 the salutation continues with a call for boundless blessings and benefits upon the people reading the letter.  When “grace mercy and peace” are used together, this is a way of expressing unlimited amounts of these elements are desired for each person.  They come only as the love of God provides, and He will provide in truth and love.

Verses 5-6 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning.  I ask that we love one another, and this is love: that we walk in obedience to His commands.  As you have heard from the beginning, His command is that you walk in love.

As we studied in 1 John 3-5, we are given detailed and specific instruction and counsel on the love of God and our response to it.  In a word, obedience.  It is by obeying His commands that we evidence our commitment to Him, our desire to serve Him, our experiencing His love by loving other believers in Christ.  “God is love” (1 John 4:8,16) so if we are to be in Christ and walk as He did, then we must “walk in love.”

Verse 7 Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh have gone out into the world.  Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.”  A deceiver is a person who deliberately tells lies and distortions of the truth to draw another from the truth.  It is calculated to do harm to the believer.  It is meant to interfere with the believer’s relationship with God, to cause confusion and doubt that unsettles the believer’s faith and trust in God.  We know that satan is the “father of lies” (John 8:43) and that his whole character is that of deceit.

Revelation 12:9 “The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or satan, who leads the whole world astray.  He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.”  Whenever we encounter deceit in any form, we know the origin.  It all comes from satan and we must refuse to accept any of it!  We must cling to Jesus, our Truth.

It stands as logical reason that deceivers would not acknowledge the truth about Jesus.  John is again refuting the false teachings of his day, that claimed Jesus was not always God, but was God only during His ministry years.  They claimed Jesus did not come as God in the flesh, a heresy that assaulted the very pillars of our faith!

John goes further to liken them to their father, the devil, by calling them “antichrist”.  Indeed they were against the truth of Jesus as the Anointed One, the Christ of God.  Anyone who brings false teachings into the church today is as guilty as these John was warning about.  His warnings are specific and have an element of alarm for us today.

Verses 8-11 Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully.  Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.  If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him.  Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.

What a timely warning for us!  There are a multitude of false teachings rampant among the people of God.  Some say that Jesus was not God’s final word, that another has additional and superior knowledge.  Some leave Jesus and God out of their sermons and teachings—teaching only worldly truths vaguely related to Biblical truth.  John’s instructions are valid for us: “if anyone comes to you and does not bring  this teaching (that of Christ), do not take him into your house or welcome him.”

We can see a literal, physical sense in which we turn our backs and close our ears to anyone bringing false teachings.  We are not to have anything to do with false teachers, certainly not to invite them into our homes.  If we look at this spiritually, we are the temples of the Holy Spirit.  If we listen to false teachings, the deceivers, we are allowing satan entrance into our spiritual lives.  That makes us a partaker with satan!  As John exhorts his people and also us—be strong to resist and stand firm in the truth we know in Jesus.

Verse 12 I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink.  Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.  It is evident from this statement that John loved each of these individuals in the Lord.  His spirit was attuned to them, they all shared of the One Spirit, the One Lord, they were all members of the same family—God’s family—and John longed for a reunion with them.  It is much more profitable to speak face to face than through the written word.  Isn’t this why we long to hear directly from God through the Holy Spirit?  We want to experience Him face to face, to feel His touch, to hear His voice, to have His loving embrace.  We long for that intimate, personal relationship with our Savior so that “our joy may be complete.”

These Things We Know

By Doris Tarbutton

John has delivered several important spiritual doctrines to his reader, his “children and friends” in the faith, in these five short chapters of his letter, 1 John.  He began with the theme of eternal life in Christ and will end with that theme.  He gave us teachings on God’s love and what we are to do because of it: love one another.  He gave us instruction on being anointed by the Holy Spirit.  He gave us instruction on recognition of the anti-christ elements of false teachings that come into the church.

He pointed out numerous errors in the prevailing false teachings of the day, such as claims to be without sin, claims to be in fellowship, but still walking in darkness, claims to live in Jesus but not walking as Jesus did, claims to be in the light but harboring hate for his brothers.  John firmly held up our place in the Kingdom of Light as opposed to being in the world.  He taught us to “test the spirits” of all teachings and teachers, relying on the guidance of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth.  He talks much about Jesus as the Son of God, a relationship that was disputed by the false teachers.

He ends the letter by reciting some foundational truths we know, because the Holy Spirit teaches and counsels in these truths.  1 John 5:13-15 “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.  This is the confidence we have in approaching God: That if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know [believe] that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know [believe] that we have what we asked of Him.”

The Greek word for know as used in these verses is an inward understanding.  We can say it is the intuitive knowledge given us by the Holy Spirit.  We know in our spirits that we have eternal life, for “the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Romans 8:16)

Our confidence in coming before God in prayer, then, is based on our being in Christ as one of God’s children.  Confidence is having the freedom or frankness in speaking all one thinks or pleases.  In confidence there is a boldness before the Lord.  If we do not heed the instructions given previously by John—to love God and obey His commands, and to love one another—we are not walking in the Light of Jesus’ life and may miss discerning God’s will.  Praying outside His will is a hindrance to our being heard by God.

Scripture is full of instructions concerning God’s will and the conditions for prayer to be heard.  John gives a summary statement here: “If we ask anything according to His will He hears us.”  Assuming that we are in right standing with God, loving Him and obeying Him, then John gives us a wonderfully encouraging truth: “We know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him.”  This truth must not be taken out of context and abused by fleshly desires suggested by satan.

We are to walk in the Holy Spirit, and allow Him to pray, to intercede, for us in language appropriate to bring before the throne of the Most Holy One.  This is one of the many functions He fulfills as the Advocate before the Father.

Verses 16-17 “If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life.  I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death.  There is sin that leads to death.  I am not saying that he should pray about that.  All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.”  Let us look first at the absolute truths John gives us in these verses:

First, “he should pray”.  Our first response to any and every situation should be prayer.  John has just told us in verses  14-15 that we have direct access to God in prayer.  It is not our role to “save” our fellow believer, that is the role of the Holy Spirit.  We are to earnestly pray for the spiritual welfare of the person we see in sin.  (We would want others to pray for us, too, as we sin!)

Second, “all wrongdoing is sin”.  We must see ourselves included in the crowd here.  None of us are sinless.  Therefore, we must show love and compassion for our fellow believers in Christ.  There is no sin that is okay or just a little wrong.  John says “all wrongdoing is sin.”

Third, John’s use of the word death here implies both physical and spiritual separation.  There are sins, and the false teachings of John’s day led many into immorality, that do lead to early physical death.  If they died in rebellious disbelief of God, they also experience spiritual death.  For those of us who genuinely attempt to obediently follow Jesus and love God, our sins cause a spiritual separation of fellowship with our Lord.  This can be mercifully rectified through repentance and forgiveness by our Lord.  We are restored, because of our position in Christ.

There are differing opinions on what “sin that leads to death” is.  One thing we know: rejection of Jesus as the only way of salvation and to eternal life is a sin that results in death.  Other than that one, all is speculation.

Verse 18-19 “We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.  We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.”  The know in these verses is also of the intuitive knowledge that the Holy Spirit puts within each believer.  With the residence of the pure and holy Holy Spirit within, there is no place for the continuance of sin.  The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin so that we can be washed clean by the Blood of Jesus and stand firm in the spiritual battle raging around us.

John beautifully expresses an eternal truth: “The One who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.”  Jesus claims us as His own.  We are held firmly in the palm of His hand—our names are engraved there—nothing can ever remove us from Him.

John 17:9 “I pray for them.  I am not praying for the world, but for those You have given Me, for they are Yours…verse 23 I in them and You in Me.  May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me…Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, and to see My glory, the glory You have given Me because You loved Me before the creation of the world.”

John has already said we “overcome the world”, that the “victory is our faith”.  In 4:4 he has said: “the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”  With these promises and truths to undergird our faith we stand in strength, clothed in the armor of God, to withstand any onslaught of the evil one.  He is defeated and will not prevail as long as we stand in the power of God!  Our position as children of God brings us under His protection—a place of power and glory—even in the midst of a sinful, dark world.

Verse 20 “We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is True.  And we are in Him who is True—even in His Son Jesus Christ.  He is the True God and eternal life.”  The Holy Spirit puts this testimony into our spirits.  It is eternal truth given by the eternally pure, righteous Most Holy One.  We have spiritual resources to know the truth and the True God.  We have the Scriptures, all of them, we have the witness of the Holy spirit within us, we have experienced His truth active in our lives.  We have a boundless hope for eternal life, because it is promised by Him who is always True.

What a glorious place to be in—“in Him who is True!”  Let us rejoice greatly and praise Him for who He is and His great gifts to us!  Verse 21 “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.”  It is a sad commentary on God’s children that we must be reminded to ‘keep yourselves from idols”.  We should love God so completely that there cannot be any other god in our lives.

Are there idols in your life?  Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any and all things that impinge on the worship of God alone.  Earnestly repent of those idols and commit anew to serve God and God alone.  He alone is worthy of all praise, honor and glory.  All is due Him and Him alone!

True Testimony–What Is Yours?

By Doris Tarbutton

A personal testimony is the most powerful tool we have to convince someone what is true.  Given under oath in a court of law, it carries even more weight.  The testimony I’m looking at, for this post, is from the Bible, 1 John 5.  For a testimony to be accepted, certain elements must be present.  In the Scriptures, it is evident that, according to the law, there must be at least two and better, three witnesses.  For a testimony to be required, by implication there is a controversy, a debate, a differing of viewpoints that demand statements of fact an truth.

In 1 John 5 we are given true testimony about our relationship with God, in His love, and testimony about Christ’s identity.  We must remember that John was writing this letter to refute false teachings that denied the human-God make-up of Jesus.  These false teachings tore at the very foundation of faith in Christ as Savior and Lord as the Son of God.

The chapter begins by using the family as an illustration.  We have a special care and concern for all members of our extended family, even if we are not physically close to all of them.  We look forward to those family reunion times when we hug and kiss relatives, assuring them that we do love them.  John says this is the way it is in God’s family.  If we are part of the family, we know the Father, then we will love His children, because they are part of the family group.

Verse 1 “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves His child as well.”  The word believes in this verse is derived from a Greek word that means faith.  Putting these together we understand that we are to believe based on our faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Anointed One, the Holy One.  On this basis we are born of God, He is our Father.  We are all His children because of our faith believing in Jesus as Christ.

Do we need a test to know that we love others in God’s family?  John gives us one: verses 2-3 “This is how we know that we love the children of God: By loving God and carrying out His commands.  This is love for God: to obey His commands and His commands are not burdensome.”  Love is a 2-way transaction.  Love instigates love as it flows from one person to another.  Children in this verse carries the idea of knowing who the parents are.  This is not a generic reference to people of the world as children, but specifically to those who have God as Father.

The outstanding characteristic of all of us showing our love for God is obedience.  Obedience to the very first command—to love God completely (Deuteronomy 6:5) and obedience to all the things He gives us to do.  We are to use the spiritual gifts He has anointed us with, according to His leadership by the Holy Spirit.  When we serve someone we love, the service is a joy, not a burden.  Obedience to God’s commands are that way.  They are a joy to follow.  He does not give us more to do than we can handle.  They are not burdensome, because we are in fellowship with our God.

Our adversary continues to be satan and the world.  But verses 4-5 “For everyone born of God overcomes the world.  This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.  Who is it that overcomes the world?  Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”  Our belief in our position in Christ stands firm in a world of sin and darkness.  Because we believe, by faith, that Jesus is the Son of God, we have a continuing overcoming of the world and its influences on us as humans.  Our victory was settled when we accepted Jesus as our Savior.  Now, it is an abiding in Him that continues the victory over the temptations of the world.  Not everyone enjoys this position—only those who have given their lives in commitment to Jesus as the Son of God to be kept for eternal life.

Verses 6-8 “This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ.  He did not come by water only, but by water and blood.  And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.  For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.”  Jesus did not come merely as a man who became God when He was baptized!  This is the false teaching John was refuting.  Jesus came in human form, but was always God.  He was baptized with water, as all believers must be, to indicate obedience to God.  He was also especially anointed by the Holy Spirit from the Father for the ministry He was initiating.  Being baptized, by itself, did not validate His ministry.  It was His Blood that made the difference!

Only Jesus could pay the atoning price of sacrifice for the sins of all mankind.  It was His Blood shed and flowing from His body that provides our salvation, forgiveness, cleansing, righteousness and privilege to come before the throne of God in prayer.  There are, then, three witnesses testifying and identifying Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ—the Anointed One.  The Holy Spirit of God was present throughout Jesus’ life, leading Him from the manger to the Cross to the empty Tomb to the Ascension back into heaven.

The Spirit agreed with the anointing of Jesus with water for ministry and agreed with the Blood shed at the Crucifixion.  He continues to agree with all that Jesus was and did for us.  He maintained the purity and holiness of Jesus throughout His earthly ministry.  Jesus was always in total agreement with the Father.  John 14:31 says “but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.”  John 17:23 “I in them and You in Me.  May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.”

Verses 9-12 “We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which He has given about His Son.  Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart.  Anyone who does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about His Son.  And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.  He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

Our testimony is the same one John gave.  We all share in the one testimony.  There may be differing circumstances by which we came to know and accept Jesus as our Savior, but the reality, the truth, is the same for each believer.  Our eternal life is based solely in our relationship with Jesus Christ as the Son of God.  Without Him there is no hope of eternal life in heaven!  And for now, the love of God we experience is the basis for our lives.

This is the cornerstone, the foundation bedrock, on which we build our spiritual lives—the love of God.  One of the joys of being in God’s family is the unity and harmony among so diverse a group of people.  The testimony we carry in our spirits is the unifying force.  What a privilege!  What a blessing!

John 3:36 “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”  John 3:13-16 “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.  Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.  For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The testimony of man is good and useful to lead to spiritual understanding, but it is the testimony of God Himself and Jesus Himself that is the greater testimony.  Since God speaks only the absolute truth, we can wholeheartedly accept His testimony concerning eternal life.  When He says there is only one way—Jesus—we must believe that there is only one way!  Therefore, when John says “Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart.  Anyone who does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar because he has not believed the testimony God has given about His Son.” (verse 10)

We recoil at the thought of God being called a liar!  Eliminating that possibility, we are left with the choice of believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and gives to us eternal life because God said so!  Can we grasp what a wonderful gift we are given?  Do we express our gratitude to God for His provision of redemption through His Son?  Do we grow deeper in our love for God and obedience to His commands because of our gratitude for God’s testimony about His Son?  Does the very hope of eternal life with Christ cause us to hunger and thirst after His righteousness and His Kingdom?

With Paul let us proclaim “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37-39)