Live to Love Scripture Encouragement

How do you know you know the Truth?

Do you know the truth? Of course, I hope so. I’ve been zeroing in on truth all year, and this is the tenth time this year for me to meditate on and write on truth. The apostle John almost OCD’d on truth in his first epistle. Let’s see what we can learn from 1 John 2:20-21.

1 John 2:20
But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.

We are dropping into a section of his letter where John addressed those who he considered to be antichrist. This verse begins with the contrasting conjunction, but, to contrast those who are antichrist and have left their assembly with those who are true believers. Believers have a chrisma, an anointing from Jesus, the Holy One. W.E. Vines gives insight as to what John meant when he wrote that it “indicates that this anointing renders them holy, separating them to God. The passage teaches that the gift of the Holy Spirit is the all-efficient means of enabling believers to possess a knowledge of the truth.” The antichristos are those who oppose Christos, the Anointed One by assuming a guise of Christ and boasting that they have the knowledge of the truth. This movement was called gnosticism. The gnostics or antichrists maintained that salvation could be gained through a special form of secret knowledge. They didn’t believe God could become flesh because the material world was evil. They believed Him to be a wholly spiritual being. These were the people who went out from the church because they were not of the body of Christ. They did not believe Jesus was God in the flesh.

I want to encourage you this month by the truth John espouses in his letter. We believe the truth, namely that God came in the flesh. His name is Jesus. He died for our sins, was bodily raised from the dead, was ascended into heaven where He sat down at the right hand of God, and as promised, sent His Spirit to His own that He might dwell in their bodies and reveal Himself through them, for the glory of God. Okay, that’s a really long sentence, so read it or listen to it again. We believe God came in the flesh. His name is Jesus. He died for our sins, was bodily raised from the dead, was ascended into heaven where He sat down at the right hand of God, and as promised, sent His Spirit to His own that He might dwell in their bodies and reveal Himself through them, for the glory of God.

The presence of the Holy Spirit is the anointing from Jesus that makes them holy. They don’t simply have a spiritual knowledge. They have the indwelling presence and power of Christ which produces the wonderful, glorious fruit of faith, love, and obedience. They don’t only know about Jesus Christ; they know Him because He and His word abide in them.

Do you know what John was talking about? Everyone who has the Son of God has the life, wrote John in 5:12. If you have Jesus, you are living with Jesus. You have an anointing from the Holy One that has made you holy to God. You recognize Jesus’ presence and power in your life. You have fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. You are living to love with Jesus for the glory of God because you have an anointing from the Holy One.

You know the truth!

1 John 2:21
I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth.

What is the truth that John’s readers knew? As we look back over what John wrote up to this point, it seems clear that the truth he had in mind is that Jesus of Nazareth is the true God, eternal life, in the flesh through whom the wrath of God was averted by giving His life (His shed blood) as a payment for sins. He was then raised from the dead and now lives to give eternal life (which is to know the Father and the Son) to everyone the Father gave to Him (John 17:2-3). John had just written that they had an anointing from God, and therefore they knew Jesus is life and that they have His life within them.

John 19:35 “And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe.”
It is stunning to pause and recognize that we are reading the words of an eye witness to Jesus’ death. His testimony corresponds to the original. It is what
God saw, said, and did. It is the truth. Unfortunately, many today have no understanding of truth. They think it is whatever they want it to be. “It’s my truth,” they might say. John knew his account faithfully explained what is true, namely, that Jesus was the Word of God incarnate, Immanuel, who came to die as our substitute. He came to remove sins from all those who believe. As Ps. 103:12 promised, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” He suffered and died that He might bring all who believe to God.
There are many false witnesses today declaring that these things are not true. They assert that God crucifying His Son on the cross is cosmic child abuse and “their” God would never do that. They say Jesus died because He spoke truth to power. They do not believe atonement for sin was necessary because they do not believe in the original sin, but rather think man’s problem is shame that we can simply deny and cast off so we can become our true selves and be what we were meant to be. Furthermore, they think man has now progressed to have a better understanding of God and Jesus than John and those men who walked with Him.
Whose testimony shall we believe? Shall we believe the babbling of fools who were not there over an eye witness’s account? It would be foolish to do so. Don’t miss this. Those who believe John’s testimony and the testimony of the other eye witnesses, love Jesus and love with Him. It is the fruit of their lives. Those who do not believe, love themselves as God and cannot love others. If you believe in God, believe also in Jesus. He is the one and only God who has defined love by His death and resurrection life. Who do you believe?

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 19:32-34 “So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.”
Jesus was dead. What more could they do to Him to increase the pain or hasten His death? The others weren’t dead yet, so the soldiers’ job was unfinished. The jab of the spear was to confirm that Jesus was dead. It wasn’t to kill. God may do something similar with those who are His.
We died when Jesus died. Death, sin, and fear of death were defeated. We died to self so we might live to God. God will send people to make sure we are dead. If we are not dead to ourselves, then expect them to “break our legs.” Our legs are the things on which we trust rather than trusting in Jesus’ death and resurrection. If we have died to ourselves, we should also expect God to send people to pierce us. Don’t blame them. They are God’s agents confirming that we indeed died when Jesus died. When love flows out of our hearts, it proves that we are dead to this world and satisfied in Him alone. Loving with Jesus isn’t possible as long as we are hanging on to this life. We must give up our spirits to God and trust Him to give us life. Then love will come out.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 19:31 “Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”
Did those Jews have no shame? They had no problem with unjustly trying and condemning Jesus, but wanted to be sure they observed the law in Deut. 21:23 not to leave a dead body unburied. They swallowed the proverbial camel and strained the gnat! Had it not been a “high day” Sabbath, both the first day of Passover and the normal Sabbath, they would have had no problem leaving His body on the cross to putrify and be eaten by the buzzards, as the Romans usually did.
Let’s pause, think about this hypocrisy, and examine ourselves before we are incensed at their lack of shame and hateful cruelty. At the heart of the matter was a lack of fear of God and a desire for approval from men. Jesus had said of them, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God” (John 5:44)? Have we ever thoughtlessly spoken ill of someone with whom we disagreed so that their reputation might be destroyed and our reputation enhanced in the eyes of our followers or friends? I’m ashamed to say that I have been guilty of the same hypocrisy.
Today, let me encourage us to purify our souls from the shameful desire for glory from men, so we can sincerely and fervently love others God puts in our paths today, for His glory. If we don’t, we allow the same shameful, hypocritical attitude in our souls that would murder a man and then seek to gain more followers on social media for doing so.
The reason it is important to live to love with Jesus is that such a purpose in life will protect us from doing what the Jews did. We live to love with Jesus because we seek glory from the one and only God. That’s why Jesus loved us—to glorify the Father and to be glorified by the Father.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

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John 19:30 “Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”
After fulfilling the last Scripture He knew to fulfill, Jesus had one last thing to do.
Breathe His last breath knowing He would not be able to exhale. He suffocated and gave up His spirit to His Father—yet He did not die—His spirit did not die. In a moment, He was with His Father. The work was done. He could sit down on His Father’s throne and take an eternal Sabbath rest. It was the Passover rest. The lamb had been sacrificed. The blood shed. The blood sprinkled on the altar, the mercy seat, the Priest (the Son), and the worshippers. It was time to celebrate and enjoy the salvation of God.
Can you imagine the immediate relief of leaving His body and this world of pain, misery, and suffering? Please take a moment and do so. Your time is coming! You and I will come to that moment when we too can say, “It is finished.” Our journey in this world is over. We will breathe our last breath, leave our bodies sleeping here on earth, and immediately experience the same relief Jesus did and and enter into the presence of our God and Father, Jesus Christ. What a glorious day that will be! We will be raised up and united with Him by the power of the Holy Spirit. We will experience the reality of what we now know positionally. We are one with Jesus just as Jesus is one with the Father. To God be the glory.
That hope is what births faith and love, for Paul wrote to the Colossians, Col. 1:3-6 “We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth.”
We believe and love because of the hope of the gospel. We know we will breathe our last breath on earth and in the next moment breathe in our first breath of eternal life in heaven which will never end. Have you heard this gospel in your heart? Is it bearing the fruit of faith and love in your heart? Are faith and love increasing as you walk in the grace of God in truth? We live to love with Jesus because of the hope of the gospel.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com