King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 7 notes
1My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
2And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
The standards for Christian living are high ✋ indeed.
We must abundantly leave room for love to abound one for each other, for we are flawed in many ways.
However, we should be wise so our love is not taken advantage of.
3And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
6He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
This is the standard for Christianity. You cannot profess Christ and not walk 🚶 thus.
Either such an one is a liar 🤥 and deceiver, or is a novice in the faith.
7Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.
8Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.
9He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.
10He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
11But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.
12I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.
There is room for stumbling as little children, the room of forgiveness.
The apostle John indeed is preaching a balanced Gospel.
13I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.
14I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.
15Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
18Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
This is where I have some concerns: the early apostles preached the imminent coming of the Lord.
But now, alas, they were aging and the Lord had not yet come; Peter had to address this issue in his second letter.
The Apostle Paul also had to address similar issues; some even said the Lord had already come.
Paul refuted this claim on the basis that the antichrist hadn't yet come, and he had to come before the Lord's coming.
We see that through the preaching of Christ there is this imminent, pending and looming coming of the Lord, for which our response is that of watching and waiting.
However, after a while men become weary 😩.
It's been 2000 years now... The only consolation is that a day is like a 1000 years before the Lord, and a thousand years a day...
What is 2000 years to an eternal God?
So we continue to wait.
But why through our time has the Lord made his coming so imminent, when all the apostles and early church ⛪ would pass on?
Maybe because the Lord knows the heart of man and kept the time of this coming away from us, to keep us in check and in line.
And to keep us fervent and evangelistic. This our Lord.
In this same vein, the coming of the antichrist and the prophecy of the end times would pan out in a way that may be beyond our human thinking and any assumptions we have of the end.
19They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
In this vein, the false teachers who have come out of good and sound churches are walking 🚶 in the spirit of the antichrist.
If we follow this logic, does that not mean the antichrist would come out of the church ⛪, or at the very least be religious and like the Christ?
This ties in with his description in Revelations.
And indeed the spirit of the antichrist is very much alive now.
20But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
Indeed, we know all things by the unction.
The Spirit of truth.
21I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
22Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
23Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
24Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
25And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.
26These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.
27But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
The witness of the Spirit teaches us all things... And so we can know what is true from falsehood.
28And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
29If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.