December 19th

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Welcome to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Each weekday, Dr. Crisp will be discussing biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Tune in daily to start your day right and deepen your understanding of how to better walk the way and enjoy the journey. Here's your host, Dr. Tony Crisp.

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Welcome to On the Way. This is Tony Crisp, and this is the 365 Bible Reading Plan. Today is December the 19th, and our chapter for today is 1 John chapter 3. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God. Therefore the world does not know us because it did not know him. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that He's gifted us with. What manner of love is the same phrase that was used by Mary when Gabriel appeared to her in Nazareth and told her that she as a virgin was going to conceive the Son of God. She said, What other worldly kind of information is this? This is not of this world. That's the same kind of word and phrase that is used here. You see, the love of God is beyond anything human. As you know, there are four words for love in the Greek language. Eros, where we get our word erotic, is the noun form ero I love in the sense of eroticism. That is a totally self-consuming kind of love. That is not the kind of love that God wants us to display, and certainly not the kind of love that He has. It is not in the New Testament used in any way, and it is always referring to someone who is totally consumed with self. A narcissist, that's a common word that's now being used and thrown around. Someone that is consumed with making sure everybody knows about them. Then there is the word storgos, storgeo. It is usually used with an alpha privative on the front, an a, a storgas. And it is translated in our English versions, usually without natural affection. That a storgas, that ah, that alpha privative negates whatever it is tied to. And so this is the kind of love that a brother would have for a brother, a sister for a sister. In other words, it is natural affection. You say, well, my brothers and I fought like cats and dogs. Well, that's not how we determine word usage. You see, the reality is that there is a natural affection for brother to brother, sister to sister, mom to dad, mothers to their children. That's the natural thing. Even in the lost world, those without God, there is still a natural tendency to love and to care for those that belong to them and are part of a family. That's the word storgos. Then there is the word phileo, philosoph, phileo, I love. One is a verb, one's a noun. And this is the way all of the love words are. Phileo has its root in pleasure. It's a love that says, I will treat you well as long as you bring me pleasure, as long as you make me happy. A country western star just divorced her husband, and she said he no longer makes me happy. He no longer brings me joy. The glitter is gone. Well, let me just say to you, marriage is not about glitter. And lots of times there's very little glamour involved in it. Marriage is a commitment, and that brings us to the last word. It is the word agape, agape, I love, agape, the noun form. And it is love that is based in the character and in the choice of the one doing the loving rather than in the attitudes or the actions of the one being loved. Now your attitudes or actions may determine whether you enjoy the love that is available to you, but love and commitment to someone, godlike commitment, is agape. It is a love that says I'm going to love you because of who I am, not because of who you are. I'm going to love you because of what I choose to act and do toward you, not on the basis of what you do and act towards me. This is the kind of love that is mentioned in the book of Romans, chapter five and verse eight, where it says, But God demonstrated his agape. God loved us. God demonstrated his agape toward us in that while we were yet sinners, missing the mark, in rebellion, shaking our fist in the face of God, God still acted with grace, kindness, love, and affection toward us. Yes, God is angry with sinners every day. But God sets his love upon us. That's what the Bible teaches. You see, it is a two-track system. Man is loved and drawn by God to Himself. Man can rebel against that. Man can choose to go a different way. But God sets his love upon someone. And as with his own children, God disciplines us because he loves us. God said, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. You see, God's not a grandfather, he's a father. He doesn't let us buy with things. He's going to discipline us. Why? Because he hates us and he's mad at us, no, because he loves us. So what manner, what other worldly kind of thing is this love of the Father that He has given us, that He has bestowed upon us, and we have possession of it, that we should be called the born ones of God. We're not just adopted into His family, and that's not a light thing, but it is not of blood. But the Bible says you and I are the born ones. That means those of us who are born again into God's family. If you're just born as a human being into this life, you're born into the human family. You're born into Adam's race. And to be in Adam, all you have to do is be born. But if you're going to be a part of God's family, not just Adam's family, but a part of God's family, you must be born from above. You must have a spiritual birth. You must be born again. And that's how we get into God's family. It's not natural processes of birth and being born into a Christian family or a heathen family. It is that we are born into the human race, and then as children of Adam, we are born into the family of God. That's what he's talking about here. That this great love allows us to be a part of God's dynamic family. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him. In other words, the world does not know us, it doesn't know what we're about, it doesn't understand what we're about. And all you have to do as a child of God is act different than the world, and they can't get hold of the kind of love that God has toward us or that we have toward one another. Beloved, now are we the born ones of God. This is verse two. And it has not yet been revealed. There is no time yet that has been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he shall be revealed at a point in time, somewhere in the future, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. That's right. You see, I believe all we're ever going to see of God is the person of Jesus. He is the revelation and the manifestation of God. This is what John wrote in his gospel. He's hearkening back to this. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. And then it goes on to talk about his creative acts in the following verses. When he comes to verse 14, he says, And this word, this Lagos, became flesh, and he dwelt among us, he tabernacled among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the unique of God, the unique Son of God, the monogones, the only begotten of the Father. And then he starts talking about John. And then in verse 18, he says, Now no man has seen God at any time, that is, God is spirit. That's what Jesus said in John chapter 4. God is spirit, and those of us who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. And he told Nicodemus in chapter 3 of John, you cannot see the Spirit. No man can see God in his essence. Why? Because God is spirit, and we in these human bodies, it would disintegrate us immediately with the glory and the manifestation and the splendor of God Himself. No man has seen God at any time. That's a very clear statement. No man has seen God. They might have seen the image of God, they might have seen a Theophany, a Christophany, as Moses did. But when Moses said, I want to see you, I want to know you, I want to look upon your face, God said to Moses, You can't do that. But what I will do is I will let you see, and I love what the King James says, my hinder parts. What on earth is that? Well, the word is the word where I have been, his afterglow. God says, I'm going to put you inside a rock. I'm going to put my hand over you so my glory doesn't kill you and blind you forever, and I'm going to walk by, and after I've walked by where I've been, you'll be able to see that is my afterglow. Now that's the glory of God. Now, beloved, we cannot see him as he is, but one day we shall see him as he is. Now that eighteenth verse of John goes on to say, No man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten, the monogones, that's Jesus, the Son of God, the monogenes has declared him to us. Now the word declare is the word exegete or exegesis. That means explanation. When you explain a passage, you're doing exegesis. You are exegeting a passage. You're reading out of the text. And so Jesus is the exegesis of God. That means he is the explanation of what God is like. If you want to know what God is like, look at the person of Jesus. And this idea of, well, what would Jesus do? Well, look in the Bible. You're not Jesus. You don't have the same mind of Jesus. Yes, we have the mind of Christ in that we can know him, walk with him, read his will, and do it. But if you want to know what Jesus would do, get in the Word of God and it'll tell you what Jesus will do. Because there is a precept, a principle or a pattern in the Word of God for all of life and how we are to act. And it may not have been that Jesus showed us or taught us something specifically, some precept. But somewhere in the Word of God, we're going to find a precept, a principle, or a pattern on how we are to act in everything. And if there is something that we are not sure of, God will give us wisdom about that. But the Bible says we're going to see him as he is, glorified. And we will be like him, glorified like he is. We're going to have the same kind of body that Jesus had after the resurrection. We're going to be able to travel not at the speed of sound, Mach one, not at the speed of light, no. We're going to be able to travel at the speed of thought. That's what Jesus did. There is no solid material that he could not transport himself through. And you see, he is God. And we're not going to be little gods, as the Mormons would say. Oh no. No, we are going to be like him in the sense that we are his children. We're going to be glorified like he is. We're going to see him as he is. And the Bible says, any man that has this hope, now the word hope is the word elpis or elpida, and it is in that family of expectation. I've told you over and over again in this year of study together and walking through the Bible that hope in the Bible is not wishful thinking. Hope in the Bible is eager anticipation that God is going to do what he said he would do. It is excited expectation that God is going to keep his word. You see, hope is an expectation. And so it says, We shall see him as he is, and anyone, everyone, all who have this hope, this expectation in him, purifies himself, that is, makes himself clean, he will walk with God in holiness. That's the basic word there, hog for the word for holiness, just as he is pure. You see, if you and I would live as though Jesus is coming at any moment, that he could come at any moment, and by the way, he could, then the Bible says that kind of expectation truly that he could come at any moment, and he can. That that would cause us to live in a way of holiness. It would cause us to walk in a way and love in a way, and it would put perspective in a way that we sometimes get away from when we get caught up in doing things in this world. Now the rest of the chapter is about living a life that is a testimony of Jesus. And he uses the present tense over and over again. It says in some versions, he who commits sin. Well, the word commit is in the present tense. It's the word for practice. Anyone who practices sin as a way of life, that means that your life is identified with sin and living an ungodly life of living a rebellious life, that's not the life of the child of God. Now I cannot look at you and say you're saved, but I can look at you and see whether you're living as a saved person would live. People say, Well, what about grace? My question is back, well, what about grace? Grace teaches us to obey. Grace teaches us to love. Grace teaches us to not live like the rest of the world, not love like the rest of the world. We don't love those who just love us. Jesus said, if you just love those who love you, Matthew chapter five, then what do you do more than lost people? What do you do more than the publicans? What do you do more than the Pharisees? So while we condemn others for adultery and for thievery and fraud and lying and all of those things, what about our own self righteousness where we begin to judge and condemn people and say to them, You're not this and you're not that. What we need to do is understand that the Bible is very clear. Those who are the children of God, their lives are characterized by godliness. Those who live an ungodly life and their life is known and characterized by ungodliness, then that is betraying the nature that is within them. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, because all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And those things are not of God. You and I are going to fall, we're going to sin, but it should not be our way of life. Just because we're saved is no sign and no guarantee that we're going to live sinless. As a matter of fact, I guarantee you will not. But it should mean that we sin less. This is what all of chapter three is about. Living and loving as God teaches us to do. And that is a mark. That's a mark. Obedience is a mark of discipleship. Obedience is a mark of the Spirit of God who lives within us. Loving someone who is unlovable, loving someone who is unloving, reaching out to them. All of those things that God has done for us and given us a paradigm to follow, a template that He has made for us. We are to follow that. And the Bible says that is the way that we prove that we're part of the family of God. For on the way, this is Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

Thanks for listening to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Tune in every weekday for information on biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Fridays are for your questions. Email your questions to questions at TonyCrisp.org. Then just listen for your question to be answered on Friday's podcast. That's Questions at Tony C R I S P dot org. Thanks for listening and have a blessed day on the way.