John's Mending Ministry
The apostle John did not write anything until his old age. It was not until the Lord Himself told John, “what you see, write” (Rev 1:11), that he took up his pen and began to write to the churches. John wrote Revelation from his exile on the Island of Patmos around 90 A.D., but his Gospel and Epistles were written later from the city of Ephesus after his release.
John’s ministry was a mending ministry. By this time in church history (only about 60 years after the church was born at Pentecost) there was already a lot that needed to be mended. The churches in Asia, including the church in Ephesus where John now labored, had turned away from Paul’s vision (2 Tim 1:15). The church in Jerusalem had been scattered due to the Roman army’s destruction of the city, spreading its law-keeping practice (Acts 21:20) everywhere. Heretical teaching about the person of Christ was troubling the churches (1 John 2:22-23; 4:3; 2 John 7). Ambitious leaders were forbidding fellowship and excommunicating those who disagreed with them (3 John 9-10). Brotherly love was sorely lacking (1 John 3:10b).
Many who loved the Lord could remember the glory of the church in its original state. They had been told that the Lord would be back soon for His prepared bride. How discouraged they must have been! We will never know how many followed Demas back to the world (2 Tim 4:10).
John was assigned by the Lord to write to meet this need. What was John’s solution to these troubling times? We can see a wonderful line in his epistles.
1. Maintain the Fellowship (1 John 1)
In troubling times, we must first maintain our fellowship with the Lord and with one another by confessing our sins and by enjoying the Lord’s blood (1 John 1:7). Fellowship between Christians is often the first casualty when discouragement sets in. The natural response is to accuse our brothers and excuse ourselves. Confession is needed for all our sins, but the context in 1 John is specifically any sin that breaks our fellowship. While there might be the tendency to point the finger of blame, John reminds us that we are all sinners. We all need to confess our own sins, take the blood, and fight to maintain the fellowship (1 John 1:9).
2. Touch the Anointing (1 John 2)
John reminds us that the Lord is in us as the anointing (1 John 2:20). We should not get into our minds trying to figure out how to respond to the things around us. Instead we should turn to the subjective Christ within and learn of Him. If we let the anointing abide in us, He will teach us to abide in Him (1 John 2:27). Many problems seem to evaporate as we touch the Lord in our spirits.
3. Love the Brothers (1 John 3)
Love for the brothers is the spontaneous expression of the divine life (1 John 3:14). If brotherly love is absent, it can only mean that the divine life is short. Such love acts as a gage to tell us our spiritual condition. It is easy to be full of talk, teaching, and doctrine, and think we are in the real thing (1 John 3:18; 4:20-21). But brotherly love is the test. If it is absent, we know that something is wrong.
4. Prove the Spirits (1 John 4)
The Lord told us to be “prudent as serpents and guileless as doves” (Matt 10:16). While we should love all the brothers, we should not follow blindly. John says we must “prove the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). Only those who maintain the fellowship, touch the anointing, and genuinely love the brothers can hope to prove the spirits. If we are short these three items, we can only prove or disprove according to our own subjective standard.
In John’s time, there were those who claimed that Jesus had never been incarnated as a man. They claimed that He was only a spiritual being pretending to be a man, because the holy God could never actually touch the sinful material world. This was heresy, because only a real man could shed real blood to cleanse us from our sin. John says to test such teachers by holding their teaching up to the standard of the truth. Are they able to declare that Jesus had indeed come in the flesh (1 John 4:2-3)? If not, their teaching is not of God.
Today we may not confront that particular heresy, but we must still hold the truth as our standard. Is what is taught according to the Bible? Is it healthy teaching for the building up of the church, or a convenient teaching to build up the teacher(s)? We must reject anything that does not pass the test of truth, regardless of the reputation of the teacher. Additionally we must ask, “Is there a spirit of love, or a spirit of contention behind the teaching?” John reminds us, “He who does not love has not known God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8).
5. Overcome the World (1 John 5)
In dark times such as in the days that John wrote, many who love the Lord may become discouraged and tempted to leave the church life and go to the world. They only want a sweet fellowship in which the brothers love one another and the Lord is honored as He should be. “What use is it,” they ask themselves, “to continue running the Christian race when everything is falling apart around us? It is out of our control. Lets go elsewhere so we can at least live a peaceful human life.”
To them John writes, “For everything that has been begotten of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory which has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4). The same faith that initiated us into the divine life will enable us to overcome the temptation of the world. Did not Jesus say that He would build His church? Faith answers, “Amen!” Did He not also say that He would one day return for His glorious Bride? Again, faith answers, “Amen!” Doesn’t the Word say that some should stand as overcomers in the dark day? Once again, faith answers, “Amen!”
What should we do? John says, “And this is the boldness which we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” (1 John 5:14). We must pray! Prayer will embolden our faith and allow God to move.
6. Walk in Truth and Love (2 and 3 John)
John writes, “I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth… even as you heard from the beginning, that you walk in love” (2 John 1:4a, 6b). “For I rejoiced greatly at the brothers’ coming and testifying to your steadfastness in the truth, even as you walk in truth. I have no greater joy than these things, that I hear that my children are walking in the truth” (3 John 3-4).
In 1 John 4, truth was the standard against which we measured the teaching set before us. Here the truth, mixed with love, has become our walk. Those who are able to receive John’s word in the first five steps will have the reality of such a walk. Such a walk will carry us through no matter how dark the days before us.
John’s ministry was a mending ministry. By this time in church history (only about 60 years after the church was born at Pentecost) there was already a lot that needed to be mended. The churches in Asia, including the church in Ephesus where John now labored, had turned away from Paul’s vision (2 Tim 1:15). The church in Jerusalem had been scattered due to the Roman army’s destruction of the city, spreading its law-keeping practice (Acts 21:20) everywhere. Heretical teaching about the person of Christ was troubling the churches (1 John 2:22-23; 4:3; 2 John 7). Ambitious leaders were forbidding fellowship and excommunicating those who disagreed with them (3 John 9-10). Brotherly love was sorely lacking (1 John 3:10b).
Many who loved the Lord could remember the glory of the church in its original state. They had been told that the Lord would be back soon for His prepared bride. How discouraged they must have been! We will never know how many followed Demas back to the world (2 Tim 4:10).
John was assigned by the Lord to write to meet this need. What was John’s solution to these troubling times? We can see a wonderful line in his epistles.
1. Maintain the Fellowship (1 John 1)
In troubling times, we must first maintain our fellowship with the Lord and with one another by confessing our sins and by enjoying the Lord’s blood (1 John 1:7). Fellowship between Christians is often the first casualty when discouragement sets in. The natural response is to accuse our brothers and excuse ourselves. Confession is needed for all our sins, but the context in 1 John is specifically any sin that breaks our fellowship. While there might be the tendency to point the finger of blame, John reminds us that we are all sinners. We all need to confess our own sins, take the blood, and fight to maintain the fellowship (1 John 1:9).
2. Touch the Anointing (1 John 2)
John reminds us that the Lord is in us as the anointing (1 John 2:20). We should not get into our minds trying to figure out how to respond to the things around us. Instead we should turn to the subjective Christ within and learn of Him. If we let the anointing abide in us, He will teach us to abide in Him (1 John 2:27). Many problems seem to evaporate as we touch the Lord in our spirits.
3. Love the Brothers (1 John 3)
Love for the brothers is the spontaneous expression of the divine life (1 John 3:14). If brotherly love is absent, it can only mean that the divine life is short. Such love acts as a gage to tell us our spiritual condition. It is easy to be full of talk, teaching, and doctrine, and think we are in the real thing (1 John 3:18; 4:20-21). But brotherly love is the test. If it is absent, we know that something is wrong.
4. Prove the Spirits (1 John 4)
The Lord told us to be “prudent as serpents and guileless as doves” (Matt 10:16). While we should love all the brothers, we should not follow blindly. John says we must “prove the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). Only those who maintain the fellowship, touch the anointing, and genuinely love the brothers can hope to prove the spirits. If we are short these three items, we can only prove or disprove according to our own subjective standard.
In John’s time, there were those who claimed that Jesus had never been incarnated as a man. They claimed that He was only a spiritual being pretending to be a man, because the holy God could never actually touch the sinful material world. This was heresy, because only a real man could shed real blood to cleanse us from our sin. John says to test such teachers by holding their teaching up to the standard of the truth. Are they able to declare that Jesus had indeed come in the flesh (1 John 4:2-3)? If not, their teaching is not of God.
Today we may not confront that particular heresy, but we must still hold the truth as our standard. Is what is taught according to the Bible? Is it healthy teaching for the building up of the church, or a convenient teaching to build up the teacher(s)? We must reject anything that does not pass the test of truth, regardless of the reputation of the teacher. Additionally we must ask, “Is there a spirit of love, or a spirit of contention behind the teaching?” John reminds us, “He who does not love has not known God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8).
5. Overcome the World (1 John 5)
In dark times such as in the days that John wrote, many who love the Lord may become discouraged and tempted to leave the church life and go to the world. They only want a sweet fellowship in which the brothers love one another and the Lord is honored as He should be. “What use is it,” they ask themselves, “to continue running the Christian race when everything is falling apart around us? It is out of our control. Lets go elsewhere so we can at least live a peaceful human life.”
To them John writes, “For everything that has been begotten of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory which has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4). The same faith that initiated us into the divine life will enable us to overcome the temptation of the world. Did not Jesus say that He would build His church? Faith answers, “Amen!” Did He not also say that He would one day return for His glorious Bride? Again, faith answers, “Amen!” Doesn’t the Word say that some should stand as overcomers in the dark day? Once again, faith answers, “Amen!”
What should we do? John says, “And this is the boldness which we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” (1 John 5:14). We must pray! Prayer will embolden our faith and allow God to move.
6. Walk in Truth and Love (2 and 3 John)
John writes, “I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth… even as you heard from the beginning, that you walk in love” (2 John 1:4a, 6b). “For I rejoiced greatly at the brothers’ coming and testifying to your steadfastness in the truth, even as you walk in truth. I have no greater joy than these things, that I hear that my children are walking in the truth” (3 John 3-4).
In 1 John 4, truth was the standard against which we measured the teaching set before us. Here the truth, mixed with love, has become our walk. Those who are able to receive John’s word in the first five steps will have the reality of such a walk. Such a walk will carry us through no matter how dark the days before us.