I John, Book of

Mike Ford focuses on Ecclesiastes 11:7-8, proclaiming that light is sweet and that it is a pleasure to see the sun. Even though still don't know a lot about the nature of light, God has revealed its cause and symbolic meaning in His scriptures. Light symbolizes God, righteousness and purity, while darkness symbolizes ignorance, evil, and depression. With day comes perception and hope, darkness brings fear and despair. When darkness spreads its pall over people's minds, they mistakenly believe God does not see their sins. Satan, the adversary dedicated to destruction, is the ruler of darkness and death. The Apostle John repeatedly emphasizes that God is light, and in Him there is categorically no darkness at all. If we keep His Commandments, we are walking in the light. If we hate our brother or if we become enticed by the ways of the world, we are living in darkness. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light and provides bright—but deadly—lures to his dens of sin. In the New Jerusalem, the luminosity (symbolic of righteousness) of God the Father, Jesus Christ and His Bride will obviate the light of sun and moon. It behooves God's called-out ones to walk in the light of righteousness, keeping His laws and commandments. We must not let the pulls of the flesh and the world conceal the light we reflect as we walk in the light of His Truth.

David C. Grabbe:  By the time the apostle John penned his gospel and epistles, he had witnessed the ministry of Jesus Christ, the crucifixion, the resurrected Messiah, and the founding of the church of God. ...

Richard Ritenbaugh, reflecting on popular music involving the theme of romantic love as the answer to all the world's ills, remarks that the composers of these lyrics have no idea as to what love really is. The fuzzy definition of love is responsible for tolerance of sin, deviancy and liberal, multi-cultural mis-evaluations. We should have a more mature understanding of love for God and love for neighbor. The outgoing concern toward other beings begins with God the Father to Jesus Christ to us. Without godly love, real love does not exist. Real love does not exist in isolation; another being must always be the object of real love. God's plan involving the reciprocal sharing of love among members of God's Family began well before the foundations of the world, at which time a possible sacrifice for sin had to be factored in. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The love of God, through the mechanism of His Holy Spirit, works on our inner beings (our mind and spirit), making us like Him, demonstrating the love of God, loving God with all our minds (keeping His commandments) and our neighbors (including our enemies) as ourselves. The extent that we love our brethren may be an accurate gauge as to how much we love God.

Richard Ritenbaugh identifies nine categories of the "we know" assertions in the first Epistle and the Gospel of John, asserting that fully knowing consists of developing a deep intense relationship with God. John asserts that (1) Commandment keeping is vital to forming a relationship with Him, (2) we live in the last hour, (3) our potential is to be just like God, (4) love for God shows itself in service to brethren, (5) we are united with God by His Spirit in us, (6) God hears our prayers as we remain attuned to His will, (7) we must overcome sin, (8) we are distinctly different from Satan and the world, and (9) Christ's coming has opened our understanding, enabling us to have a relationship with the Father and the Son. The leaders of the recent apostasy in the WCG have discarded these truths.

In the last few years, turmoil and confusion have run amok in the church of God. Many feel they were misled by individuals who taught them doctrines they later came to understand were untrue. Some have yielded to the tendency to become cynical and suspicious of nearly anyone who claims to be a teacher of God's Word. Why all the distrust? Do Christians need a church?

Eternal life, emphasizing a special intimate relationship with God the Father and Christ, is vastly different from immortality, connoting only endless existence. John Ritenbaugh suggests that we have been called to a state of fellowship and a quality of life which has not been made available to the rest of mankind- a fellowship higher than the intimacy of marriage- a God-plane relationship we can experience right now (John 5:24) if we seek His will and keep His commandments, loving the same things and hating the same things God does, constantly overcoming, and fellowshipping with His called-out saints.

John Ritenbaugh asserts that the S.P.S. (Specific Purpose Statement) of the entire Bible is "Let us make man in our image, according our likeness" (Genesis 1:26). To this end God has given us His Law, which serves as a map showing us the way of sanctification and holiness. Because God desires companionship of beings like Himself, He is in the process of reproducing the God-kind. The map showing the way consists of the Old and New Testament, works inextricable as law and grace and letter and spirit. As Paul's writings reveal, the Old Testament is in the New revealed while the New Testament is in the Old concealed. Contemporaries of John and Paul (and some deceivers this very day) have tried to throw out the Old Testament and the Law, replacing it with Gnosticism.

John Ritenbaugh reiterates that love is not a feeling, but an action- defined by John as keeping God's commandments (I John 2:3), the only means by which we can possibly know Him, leading to eternal life. While what humans consider love is self-centered and carnal, God's love is essentially others-centered. When God begins the love cycle, by His Spirit, He gives us His love; then it only becomes matured in us as we use it (loving God and loving our neighbor by the keeping of His Commandments). If we don't use it, then it bounces off from us and nothing is accomplished. Using God's love may be compared to learning to skate; the more we use it the stronger it gets. Beginning as a feeling, it doesn't become love until an action is taken.

John Ritenbaugh reiterates that confusion or lack of peace is the clear fruit of Satan's involvement. It is nearly impossible for righteousness to be produced in an environment of instability and disharmony brought about by selfish ambition, competition, and bitter envy. In confronting our wily adversary, we must maintain constant vigilance, resisting unlawful desires, not allowing Satan to have a bridgehead in our emotions. Satan consistently works on our fear of being denied some form of pleasure. If we stay loyal to God, resisting Satan as Job did, Satan's power over us will be broken. Resistance must begin in the mind and thought processes where demonic influences try to persuade us to entertain ideas exalting ourselves over the truth or knowledge of God.