Schism In The Church
Opening Prayer
Loving Lord, in pursuing You may I find You; in finding You may I serve You. May it be so today.
Read 1 JOHN 2:15–27
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
Warnings Against Denying the Son
18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
24 As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us—eternal life.
26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Remember, as you come to worship, that Jesus prayed that we might be one. Pray that you may contribute to unity in your own church and beyond.
Words confuse us in today’s reading. We know that “God so loved the world” and that “the Word became flesh” (John 3:16; 1:14). Here John tells us not to love the world, but he is using the words “world” and “flesh” in a different sense. Furthermore, popular culture has given us a different understanding of the antichrist from that which we find here.
In his letters, John uses “the world” to refer to everything that is not of God. When he writes of “everything in the world” (16) he does not mean mountains, rivers and trees, but spiritual impulses that come from lives lived without reference to God. The word “flesh” here refers to what is purely human, as opposed to divine. So often we seek to meet ordinary, human needs in ungodly ways. As advertisers know, we are more easily captivated by outward appearance than by the intrinsic value of things—the “lust of the eyes” (16). E-marketing has made us particularly susceptible to this. By “the pride of life” (16) John is referring to the sense of security that we derive from worldly things like jobs, bank balance and insurance. These are good things, but not if we forget that they have no eternal value and they obscure our need for God.
The term “antichrist” occurs only in John’s letters and refers to those who have taken a stance of opposition to Christ. There had been antichrists (plural) in the Ephesian church, denying that Jesus is the Son of God. Rather than refuting the beliefs of the antichrists, John sets out to strengthen the Christians in the fundamentals of the faith. This is why there’s so much repetition and prominence given to words like “light,” “love” and “truth”—simple words, yet inexhaustibly profound.
Apply
In what areas of your life does love for the world compete with love for God (use of money, time, relationships and ambitions)? What can help you in this area of struggle?
Closing prayer
Father, I see myself in the sins that John describes here. Please transform my life to live as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven—like Jesus did.
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