r/ChristianDevotions

On this,the church is built.
Ephesians 2:20
" having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone"

Once the foundation is laid, you do not keep laying it. You build on it. What follows is the framework for the structure. The weight of which is supported by that foundational truth. Not by new truth upon new truth, but by that first and foremost truth.

The apostolic foundation is not a continuing office or a stream of new revelation. It is a once-laid, historical reality consisting of men who were personally commissioned by the risen Christ and who were eyewitnesses of His resurrection. Their authority was derived by His direct appointment and their unique testimony.

1 John 4:13-15
"By this we know that we remain in Him and He in us, because He has given to us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God."

John is still pressing the same vital question that runs through the entire letter.

How do we know we truly belong to God?

Obviously this was on the minds of the first century church.

Why?

Why question their own sincerity?

They were questioning because the church had been infiltrated and then fractured. And it's confusing to see so much worship and fellowship and yet at the same time see people being crude and stupid. People screwing around with idols and pagan spirituality.

It becomes a stumbling block for faith with those whose love doesn't run deep. The early believers were not mainly wrestling with abstract philosophical doubt. People who had shared the table, sung the hymns, and claimed the same Lord were now drifting into compromise. With behaviors that contradict the gospel they once confessed.

It's confusing because faith is supposed to have overcome the world. When worship and worldliness sit side by side in the same community, two things happen. First among those whose attachment is mostly to the experience of fellowship or the appearance of spirituality begin to question everything. If the people around them can claim Christ while still chasing idols, maybe the whole thing is an unstable mess. And those whose love is rooted in the person of Christ and the gift of the Spirit are grieved. Not shaken, but disappointed and concerned about how these things can affect their ministry.

John is writing to this second group. He's calling them deeper. And that love that runs deep is not a feeling that rises and falls with the faithfulness of others. It is the fruit of remaining in the One who first loved us and sent His Son as the Savior of the world. And when these people who love God, who hold heaven in their hearts like this, and they witness shallow love like the sight of people "screwing around with idols and pagan spirituality" while still using Christian language; for them it becomes a crisis of faith. And as it should. The Holy Spirit within them should bear witness within them. There should be an almost visceral response from the body. It should become a crisis of holy grief. A tightening in the spirit, a refusal to make peace with the mixture, a deep concern for the purity of the church and the honor of Christ.

Your witness should respond in this way. That response is right. It is the Spirit guarding the truth and the love that belongs to those who abide. Not to become cynical, but to persevere in pointing them back to the grounds of their faith; the Spirit given, the apostolic testimony to the sent Son, and the open confession of Jesus as the Son of God. And marked by love for one another. These are the things that keep love from becoming either sentimental or brittle. They allow believers to feel the full weight of the compromise around them without losing their own place in the mutual indwelling of God and His people.

The love that runs deep does not ignore the scandal of shallow profession. It grieves it. And then it keeps remaining in proclaiming of the truth.

Early I said the other group was "screwing around with idols and pagan spirituality". It's an image about a screw that keeps turning, driving deeper with every rotation, until it is seated hard and fast and difficult to remove. It's a progressive entanglement and eventual hardening.

I used the words "screwing around" intentionally. In the first-century churches of Asia Minor worship included plenty of casual, careless, and sexually charged pagan practice. Temple prostitution, fertility cults, and the general sexual ethics of the Greco-Roman world. These were not abstract ideas; they were part of the air the people breathed.

Some who claimed the name of Christ did drift into those patterns while still using Christian language. On the surface John’s primary charges are against the secessionists, but there's a root cause that should not be ignored. Because people don't simply wander around in confusion because they don't know any better. They are usually reacting to a sin that hasn't been confessed.

They deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, or they doubt the work of The Holy Spirit. They do not love the brothers, and they have gone out from the fellowship. But Scripture does not treat doctrinal departure as if it floats free of the heart. People rarely drift into confusion and compromise simply because they lack information. More often they are already reacting to something they have not yet brought into the light. In the first chapter John insists that if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us (1:8–9). John knows the root that runs deep in these secessionists. Unconfessed sin hardens. It dulls the conscience. It makes the pure confession of the Son feel costly or inconvenient. It makes sacrificial love for the brothers feel optional. Over time the heart looks for a theology that will accommodate what it is unwilling to surrender. The root is often a refusal to walk in the light.

This does not mean every false teacher is merely covering up some personal immorality, or that every doctrinal error is only a moral problem in disguise. Some deceptions are intellectual, cultural, or downright demonic.

Still, John will not let us separate the two cleanly. The one who remains in God is the one who confesses the Son AND walks in the light. So when people who once shared the table begin mixing Christian language with idols and pagan patterns, the visible compromise is real. Beneath it there is often an older, quieter refusal. A sin that was never confessed, a darkness that was never brought out into the open. In fact, in these days, when the truth comes out, it's celebrated. Not for the confession, but as an appreciation for that lifestyle. The darkness is celebrated. It's "brave" to live in the dark. And not being afraid of the dark is their blessing. What John calls self-deception and walking in darkness is rebranded as authenticity and courage.

That is why the love that runs deep must remain clear-eyed. It grieves the compromise without being surprised by it. It refuses to call darkness light. Not out of fear, it's not a phobia. And it keeps its own footing where John places it. In the Spirit who has been given, in the confession that Jesus is the Son of God, and in the ongoing decision to walk in the light rather than celebrate the dark.

The one who remains does not need to rage or panic. The Spirit already bears witness. The Son has already been sent as Savior of the world. These compromisers cannot change that. It is finished in Christ. That finished reality is what steadies the love that runs deep. It grieves the mixture of Christian language and celebrated darkness without being thrown off its feet. It refuses to call darkness light; not from fear or phobia, but because it has seen the light and knows the difference.

The fracture is real. The compromise is painful. Yet none of it can undo what the Father has done in Christ Jesus.

Amen? 🙏🏼

1 John 4:1-3
"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist,which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world."

John earlier said, "this is how we know that he lives in us. We know it by the Spirit he gave us." So how can we tell a false prophet from a genuine message from the Spirit, even when we have the Spirit inside and inspiring our life?

Read it.

Stick to the Word of God.

Mainly God said what He meant. For the most part the scriptures are not difficult to grasp. If you want to know God, He's already given you everything you need to know. There's absolutely zero need for new New Testaments.

And the confess it.

You want to test that new revelation? Make it through God's Word in the name of Jesus Christ.

Go ahead. Say in His Name.

If it's right and holy it will hold up and the Spirit will bless it. For blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

The test John gives is not mystical or subjective. It is public, clear, and centered on the person of Christ. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. Every spirit that will not confess Him is not from God. Clear and concise. Bring it into the light of God’s written Word in the name of Jesus Christ. Say that it is in agreement with salvation found in Christ, and if it's true it will be found true. But if it cannot profess Christ as sovereign God, it's of the world and not of God. It's of the spirit of the air.

Anything that softens, redefines, or denies the real incarnation; the eternal Son truly becoming flesh, living, dying, and rising as the God-man, fails the test. No amount of sincerity, emotion, or spiritual-sounding language can rescue it. The Spirit of truth does not contradict the truth He has already given.

Yeah but...how do we know?

Thankfully we don't have to wonder for long. John shares, what is for me, probably the MOST profound and precious word just a few verses later.

1 John 4:7
"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God."

Here is the living proof that the confession is real. Love that comes from God is not something we work up. It flows from the new birth. The one who truly confesses the incarnate Christ will also love the brothers. The same Spirit who leads us to acknowledge that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is the Spirit who produces love for those who belong to Him.

Okay, well that's all well and good but take a look around at all the love. Even nature alone is completely brutal.

So, where is the love?

The Holy Spirit has that answer, already given.

Like I said earlier, the scriptures are clear and not at all difficult to grasp, because they have already anticipated these questions and have already written out the answers.

Once again, look a few verses further:

1 John 4:9-10
"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

Full circle. Here we are again at the name of He who is our Lord and blessing. The test of the spirits, the proof of the new birth, and the demonstration of true love all meet in the same place.

Jesus Christ, the eternal Son who came in the flesh, lived, died as the atoning sacrifice, and rose again.

Confess Him.

Say it! Say it!

Love the brothers.

And now rest in the love that was shown when the Father sent the Son.

Amen 🙏🏼