Numbers 35; Psalm 79; Isaiah 27; 1 John 5
When I was a child, one of our neighbors was walking a
street of a nearby city and someone stopped him and offered to buy him new
shoes. What that generous person did not know is that man he stopped was a
millionaire. We chuckle at the story yet wonder why anyone would hide his true
wealth and dress like a homeless person.
The same question could be asked about Christians, about
me. God has given me new life in Christ. I am adopted into His family, a child
of God and a friend of the King of kings. However, my behavior and outward
appearance do not always match my true nature.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. (1 John 5:1)
My commentary explains that an unsaved person can display
his true nature through sin but a child of God cannot. If I sin, I am concealing
who I really am rather than manifesting who I am. Obeying God is a product of
new birth and if I am living righteously, others can be certain that I am God’s
child (1 John 2:29), but only because Jesus lives in me.
John describes many times that Christians are to love one
another and pray for one another, especially if we see a brother or sister in
Christ struggling with sin. Sometimes we are not sure who is a Christian if
their behavior is masking their identity. However, again John says:
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. (1 John 5:1)
For that reason, we are to love one another. This love is
not to be only for believers who exhibit an admirable life. It is to be like
the love of God who loves us not because we are lovable, but because His
nature is to love. As His child, it is also my nature to love and lack of love
hides my true nature. If I love my Father, I also ought to love His children,
not because of sentiment or verbal expression but because this love for God is
inseparable from obeying His commands.
John makes it clear that obedience is the core of loving
God and other Christians, even those who are masking their true nature with
sin. He also makes it clear that this is impossible in our old nature’s sinful
flesh. If I am not filled with the Spirit of God, I am thinking only of things
that benefit and glorify me. The secret of a victorious, obedient life is mine
only as I believe and live according to what God says is true.
I have overcome the world (see 1 John 4:4). This is made
possible by faith in Christ. He has put His truth into my heart, His very self!
Thus faith in Christ not only gives me new life but victory over the world’s
system which is satanically blinded to the gospel, even to the point that
anyone who disbelieves God is making Him out to be a liar. There is no middle
ground; I either believe or I do not. The Bible is clear that those who have
Christ have life and those who do not have Christ do not have life. To say
otherwise is to call God a liar.
Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:10–12)
APPLY: My prayer is like the psalmist, only made present
tense by the power and presence of Jesus Christ. “Help me today, O God of my salvation, for the glory of Your name. You
have atoned me from my sin so deliver me from masking who I am in You. Keep my
life pure and obedient in loving You and others — for your name’s sake!”
(Psalm 79:9, personalized)
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