Posted on 10/09/2008 7:03:35 AM PDT by colorcountry
Read 1 John 2:22-24, 4:1-6
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God…I John 4:2-3a
When the apostle John writes about confessing the Son and confessing Jesus, he doesn’t mean just saying the name. He doesn’t mean just putting the name in all capital letters and inserting it into the name of your church. He doesn’t mean just tacking the name on to the end of your prayers or statements of faith. If he did, all manner of blasphemy would need to be acknowledged as “the Spirit of God.”
The converse is also true. When John talks about denying the Son, he doesn’t just mean openly ridiculing the name. This denial, which John says comes from the antichrist, must have content.
Dr. Walter Martin explained: “One thing is very sadly missing in the Christian church today: We don’t define our terms. We just take it for granted that everyone understands what we’re talking about…When somebody says the word Jesus, it means nothing by itself unless it’s defined within the context of the New Testament. The Jesus of a certain religious organization is an angel. The Jesus of another is one god among many gods and the spirit brother of Lucifer, who is the devil.”
The heart of John’s test of “every spirit that confesses…Jesus” hinges on how the terms are defined. If “confession” is defined as having placed complete faith and trust in (for forgiveness of sin and for eternal life:; and if “Jesus” is defined as the only Son of God, existing in the very form of God, fully human, fully diving; then we have an agreeable starting point for further discussion.
Whether listening to someone speak on matters of faith, or telling someone about our faith, we need to focus on substance and meaning, not merely language.
PRAYER POINT Ask God to remind you to clearly communicate – both in listening and in talking – as you discuss eternal matters.
Debate of any kind is not appropriate on a devotional thread. They are closed, i.e. to be treated as if they are occurring behind the closed doors of a church. -Religion Moderator
Previous Devotionals in this series
Day 3 – Who Cares About Truth?
Day 6 - A God by Any Other Name…
Day 11 – “But, I Didn’t Know…”
Day 12 – “Repent and Be Delivered”
Day 14 – A Call to Discernment”
Day 21 – When a Prophet Speaks
Non-Denominational ping
BUMP
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