3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
So then how do we discern a liar? In the case of a Christian you can claim to know Jesus, but it isn’t based on what you say, but what you do. We have seen all kinds of people claim to be “prophets of God” and “great evangelists”, etc. But when we see they don’t keep the commandments of the Lord we know they are a liar. The same is true of any liar, the thing to focus on is what they do, not what they claim. How many times have politicians promised to do something in a campaign but then did nothing when they were elected. The Lord said you would know them by their fruits, by what they do, what they produce. Not by what they promise to produce.
7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. 9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.
That is the key point. If you are filled with hate you are in darkness. I am writing this on Nov 5th, we are still sorting out the Presidential election held on Nov. 3. But I got this text from a person who will remain anonymous “(Don’t let the door hit your fat a** on the way out, you repulsive orange turd of a human slab of garbage.) Oh and take your ugly family of F**tards with u, vile filth” [I have modified some of the language with the * so that this post is not flagged]. We may not know who, or what or how we got deceived, but if you are filled with hate like this, know that you are in darkness.
12 I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
I have seen that it is particularly young people who spend a lot of time on Twitter, Tik Tok, and Facebook who are the most extreme in their expression of hate. So know this, your sins have been forgiven, plead the Lord’s blood, confess and repent and you will receive this forgiveness.
13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.
I have noticed that the older people, even those with very strong political beliefs one way or the other are much more cautious about this kind of hate speech. Perhaps it is our experience of being duped in the past that has made us more prudent. Again, referring to this example of the election I know that neither of these candidates is without sin and I also know that tomorrow I could learn something totally horrifying about either one. I have come to learn there is only one Savior, Jesus Christ, and His ways are not my ways. When you purify gold or silver you melt it with extreme heat, and then the impurities which are light and less dense float to the top, to twitter, where they can be skimmed off. The end of the age is an extreme case of this process where God has to sort out the faithful believers from the seeds that the evil one planted. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. At this time there is clearly a warfare going on. We all hopefully want the results to be valid. We don’t want China or Russia to come in and steal the election so that some person who has been compromised by them is running our country. We want the truth, we want to walk in the light, we want to have love for our fellow brothers and sisters. Light overcomes darkness, love overcomes hate, truth overcomes lies. Overcome depression with the word of hope. This is the time for young men of faith to stand strong.
14 I write to you, dear children, because you know the Father.
I understand the hateful reaction the young children are showing in the streets and on social media. They know a God of love and what is being portrayed is not Him. I would encourage you to stand for righteousness and justice by imitating the God of love and light that you know. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. For those of us who are older we need to draw on our experiences. Not just to keep ourselves from being deceived, but also to help those who are being deceived. I have had experiences with false prophets and the foundation that they stand on is a “fabricated story” that is designed to “make merchandise of you”. This is the “origin story”, the “I pulled myself up from my bootstraps” story. Examine that, find out if it is fabricated and focus on how that is designed to make merchandise of people. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. That said, I think there are some very wonderful people online who are strong. Ben Shapiro is a good example of one. I am very encouraged when I see these ones standing strong and overcoming the evil one. I know many are very disturbed by the events happening right now wishing we could go back to a time when everything was peaceful. I view this as the end of the championship game between light and dark, you have those who are strong and the word of God lives in them standing strong, and you have the false prophets fighting for all they are worth knowing that it is do or die for them. This is much more exciting and worthwhile than the NBA or NFL.
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.
Everything in the world passes away. From the view point of eternity 100 years is a blink of the eye. It is a wisp of smoke, it is a vanity. No one will remember or care who won what superbowl, but the battle we are now in, that does matter. They will care about this for eternity.
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.
There are many antichrists, not just one, not just “the antichrist”. Notice how in every case “they went out from us”. The antichrist is not an outsider, they are someone who was in the group but then stepped outside the boundaries of that group. So for example, a cult leader will deny Jesus who redeemed us. This can be done very subtly. I am a Christian because I know Jesus, but they will add another requirement. That added requirement denies the Lord who redeemed me and in so doing denies Jesus. In the example above of politicians, they will step outside the bounds of the constitution and deny that. For example in this recent election much was made of Trump nominating Amy Coney Barrett, and then the Senate confirming her. However, none of those actions were outside of the constitution, nor when you carefully scrutinize the evidence were they outside the boundaries of precedent. On the flip side they said that they would get power in this election and “pack the court”. That means instead of 9 Supreme court justices they would nominate 11 or 13. That is clearly a violation of precedent and although it doesn’t violate the letter of the constitution it certainly violates the spirit of it.
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.
We need to be careful, many think that crafting a lie is a quick and easy way to get what they want, the old “the end justifies the means”. They are convinced that their way is right, so the fact that they lie about it is no big deal because they are doing it for the greater good. We saw this with Kamala Harris during her debate. She pointed out that a very similar event to RBG’s death occurred right before Lincoln’s reelection. However, Lincoln, the founder of the Republican Party, did not nominate someone in that last month. She interpreted this as a precedent that you should not nominate someone before an election. The problem is that in the 1800s there were no cars or airplanes or telephones. The Senate had already adjourned and gone back to their home states. It would not have been possible to confirm anyone in the time left. So instead Lincoln said “this is the person I will nominate if I am reelected” and that motivated many senators to campaign all the harder for his reelection. So remember, no lie comes from the truth. It will blow up in your face.
