daily bible readings

Us and Them - 1 John 4:1-6

Jan 31 2020

Speaking to non-Christians about the  things of God can be frustrating an difficult. Most of us have probably felt the hair-pulling frustration and difficulty of trying to share spiritual truths with a non-believer.

The Scriptures reveal the root cause of such difficulty. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:13–14, “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

John concurs and declares in 1 John 4:5–6, “They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.”

In fact, both John and Paul reflect Jesus’ teaching. In John 15:18–21 Jesus declares to the disciples, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.”

The teaching from Paul, John and Jesus has enormous implications for the church. Given that the world cannot discern spiritual things and that it hates Christ Jesus and is anti-Christ by its very nature, the church must learn to discern and critically analyse everything the world says. The recent marriage debate in Australia is a case in point. Many Christians simply adopted the logic of the world and the arguments from the world. What we need to do, given the above passages, is to build a biblical world view on every issue and make decisions based on such a world view rather than on what the world tells us.

Even more so, we need to understand that there is a fundamental divide between Christians and non-Christians that is spiritual rather than intellectual, emotional or psychological. Those who are of the world speak from the view point of the world and the world will naturally listen to them. Those in the world will not listen to us and cannot accept our biblical view points. Unless the Holy Spirit is at work in a non-believer, we should not expect to see any acceptance of what we say to them.

But, those who know God listen to a biblical world view and accept it. They listen to the gospel and accept the teaching of the Scriptures. They accept Jesus Christ and the authority of the Apostles and of the Scriptures.

And so, we should expect to see a constant difference and possibly friction between our view points and the view points of the world. Without the Holy Spirit, the world will never accept the Gospel world view and the implications there in.

Obviously, we need to keep speaking into the world and we need to keep the world accountable. But, this needs to be doused in prayer constantly! Our prayers need to call upon the Spirit to work in the world to bring regeneration and life to spiritually dead hearts. Let’s confront the world with a biblical worldview but let’s make sure we do it in deep and committed prayerfulness.

Prayer: 

Adoration:

  • Adore the living God that He gives His Spirit to all who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
  • Adore El Shaddai that the world will never overcome Him and that His plans shall come to fruition.

Confession:

  • Take time to confess your sins to the Lord and to ask for His forgiveness.

Thanks:

  • Thank Jesus that He has sent the Spirit to regenerate your heart and to make it new in Him.
  • Thank your Lord and Saviour that you can understand the Word and apply it to your own life first.

Supplication:

  • Pray that as we meet on this coming Sonday that the Spirit will be powerfully at work in us, growing us in the Word and moulding us to be more like Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.
  • Pray that we would all have opportunities to speak to non-Christians about the gospel and about Christian things. Pray for conversions as we share with them.

Discussion Questions

  1. What two groups of people are pictured in vv4-6?
  2. What differences between them are listed?
  3. How do we know which group a person belongs to?

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