Rebound revisited, part 5. 1Co 11:28; 1Jo 1:8-10; Eph 4:17; 2Ti 2:25

Title: Rebound revisited, part 5. 1CO 11:28; 1JO 1:8-10; EPH 4:17; 2TI 2:25.     

 

1.Judge yourself throughout, separating divine thoughts from sin and human good, 1CO 11:31.

 

2.Acknowlege the sin, evil, wrong, error, human good, etc.

 

Gnosticism was a heresy far more subtle and dangerous than any that had appeared during the early years of the church. It became so widespread that by the beginning of the 3 rd cent. A.D. most of the intellectual Christian congregations throughout the Roman Empire were to some degree infected by it. [International Standard Bible Encyclopedia; Revised]

 

[Quote from ISBE Revised] To the Gnostics the great question was not the intensely practical one, "What must I do to be saved from sin?" but "What is the origin of evil?" "How is the primitive order of the universe to be restored?" In the knowledge of these and of similar questions, and in the answers given to these questions, lay redemption as the Gnostic understood it.

 

We have noted the eight major points of Gnosticism and now I will show you how John’s first epistle is written to refute them all.

 

The following may be regarded as the chief points in the Gnostic systems: (1) a claim on the part of the initiated to a special knowledge of the truth [logos]; a tendency to regard knowledge as superior to faith and as the special possession of the more enlightened, for ordinary Christians did not possess this secret and higher doctrine;

 

1JO 2:4 The one who says, "I have come to know Him," [I have attained the logos] and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;

 

1JO 2:5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:

 

1JO 2:6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

 

(2) the essential separation of matter and spirit, matter being intrinsically evil and the source from which all evil has arisen;

 

Because of this belief, which originated in eastern religion the Gnostics believed Jesus to be flesh and therefore evil, but they also believed the Christ to be separate from the person of Jesus and that the Christ was the possessor of the ultimate knowledge and thus had attained the logos [His title in JOH 1:1]. In their belief system, the Christ descended upon Jesus after His baptism thus empowering Him with logos during His ministry, but also that the Christ left Him before the cross, and therefore the Christ was not Jesus in the flesh but the spirit of logos that empowered the man Jesus, whose body was evil. They further taught that the crucifixion of Jesus was an illusion.

 

1JO 2:22 Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus [flesh] is the Christ [hypostatic union]? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.

 

1JO 2:23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.

 

Concerning the false teaching of the coming and going of Christ to the man Jesus at baptism and before the cross:

 

1JO 5:6 This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood.

 

 “water” - the baptism of Christ; the beginning of His ministry.

“blood” - the Cross of Christ; the end of His first ministry.

 

1JO 5:7 And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is the truth.

 

1JO 5:8 For there are three that bear witness, the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.

 

Spirit = witness of the truth. Water = truth of His baptism [death, burial, and resurrection]. Blood = the truth of the substitutionary spiritual death for the sins of the world.

 

All are in agreement, but from which all Gnostics and false teachers are not in agreement.

 

1JO 5:9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for the witness of God is this, that He has borne witness concerning His Son.

 

(3) an attempt to solve the problems of creation and the origin of evil by postulating a demiurge, i.e., a creator or artificer of the world distinct from the deity, and emanations extending between God and the visible universe (the demiurge for the Gnostics being the God of the OT, an inferior being infinitely remote from the Supreme Being who can have nothing to do with anything material);

 

1JO 4:9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

 

Only begotten means uniquely born and is a direct reference to the humanity of Christ who also possessed the fullness of deity. God the Father did not send the Christ after the baptism of Jesus but at the virgin birth. This term, monogenes, means the only, unique, and incomparable child and is used by John describing the Christ in JOH 3:16.

 

(4) a denial of the true humanity of Christ (Docetism); a docetic Christology which considered the earthly life of Christ and especially His sufferings on the cross to be unreal;

 

1JO 1:1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life — 

 

1JO 1:2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us — 

 

1JO 1:3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

 

1JO 1:4 And these things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.

 

1JO 3:16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

 

(5) the denial of the personality of the Supreme God, and also the denial of the free will of mankind;

 

If God didn’t have a personality then how could He love?

 

1JO 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

 

Free will:

 

1JO 3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;

 

1JO 3:8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning.

 

1JO 5:1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.

 

(6) the teaching, on the one hand, of asceticism as the means of attaining spiritual communion with God, and, on the other hand, of an indifference that led directly to licentiousness;

 

1JO 2:4 The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar,

 

1JO 2:9 The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.

 

1JO 2:10 The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.

 

1JO 2:11 But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

 

1JO 2:12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake.

 

1JO 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

 

1JO 2:17 And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.

 

1JO 2:29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.

 

1JO 3:3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

 

1JO 3:4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.

 

1JO 3:5 And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.

 

1JO 3:6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.

 

1JO 3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;

 

1JO 3:8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

 

1JO 3:9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

 

1JO 3:10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

 

1JO 3:11 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another;

 

1JO 3:12 not as Cain, who was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous.

 

1JO 3:16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

 

1JO 3:17 But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

 

1JO 3:18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.

 

1JO 3:19 We shall know by this that we are of the truth, and shall assure our heart before Him,

 

1JO 3:20 in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.

 

1JO 3:21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;

 

1JO 3:22 and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.

 

1JO 3:23 And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.

 

Included also is 1JO 1:5-10; which we will look at very closely.

 

(7) a syncretistic tendency that combined certain more or less misunderstood Christian doctrines and various elements from oriental, Jewish, Greek, and other sources;

 

1JO 5:18 We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him and the evil one does not touch him.

 

1JO 5:19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

 

1JO 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, in order that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

 

1JO 5:21 Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

 

(8) ascription of the OT to the demiurge or inferior creator of the world.

 

1JO 1:1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life

 

1JO 2:13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning.

 

They denied the doctrine of atonement and that salvation was by faith alone, but they believed that salvation was attained by a special knowledge of the truth that the average Christian could never attain.

 

The summary of the reason for writing the epistle is clearly in:

 

1JO 2:26 These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you.