“TRUSTING GOD.” PROV. 3:5-6; 1 JOHN 2: 1-11.
PROVERBS 3:5-6; 1 JOHN 2:1-2, 3-6, 7-11.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO PROVERBS 3.
This is the first lesson in a series of four on the theme, “Relationships Worth Improving.” This study focuses on biblical teachings concerning important relationships, beginning with God. Many people do not have a meaningful personal relationship with God. But the Bible views this as the foundation for all true human relationships. The first lesson, “Trusting God” focuses on this important relationship. Throughout the Bible we are commanded to trust God.
One of the best known, and loved hymns of the Christian faith is entitled, “Trust and Obey.” When we truly trust God then we lovingly and willingly obey Him.
Our study “Trusting God” will focus on the word “Trust.” This word appears frequently in the O.T. and includes the idea of trusting in something or someone. It can also refer to boldness. To trust someone or something implies a belief in that person or thing; a belief that is expressed in total reliance.
When one trusts another individual, he is confident that the individual will do what he says he will do, and therefore there is a boldness in moving forward. The call to trust God is a call to total abandonment of one’s decisions to the will and direction of God.
Our study begins in the Book of Proverbs, which provides a wonderful collection of practical truths to lead us in our relationship with God and others. This first passage Prov. 3: 5-6 will help us see the value in following God’s wisdom; He will give us guidance.
We will build on that truth by examining verses from 1 John 2 to discover the wisdom and knowledge that really counts---the knowledge that comes from experience. First John explains that the proof that we are trusting in God is in our actions.
The Book of Proverbs is unique. Rather than narrative passages, prophetic preaching, or teaching discourses like other Bible books, Proverbs is a collection of sayings designed to impart practical information on how to live wisely. The proverbs were collected to provide fathers a practical tool to teach their sons the value and source of wisdom and ways to put that wisdom into practice in their daily lives.
PLEASE READ PROVERBS 3: 5-6.
These verses are among the most memorable words of wisdom from God. We would each do well to commit these two verses to memory. In Proverbs 9:10 we are taught where wisdom begins. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” This truth can serve as the theme for the Book of Proverbs. Chapters 1-2 extol the value of wisdom, but Ch. 3 moves us back to the source of wisdom: the Lord.
The secret to being wise is to seek out the source of all wisdom. Proverbs 2: 6 tells us that the “Lord gives wisdom.” If we want to be wise, we must come to Him and trust in the Lord. This trust calls for total trust in every aspect of our relationship with God. Rather than deal with the issue of wisdom in an abstract manner, this passage ties the pursuit of wisdom with devotion to the Lord. While the call to find wisdom through trust in God flies in the face of the world’s approach to seeking wisdom. It is not an anti-intellectual approach. Learning, knowledge, and the subsequent application of that knowledge are not enough: these pursuits are to be supported by trust in God, a commitment that is expressed in a submissive attitude to Him. True believers must trust in the Lord with all their hearts and not depend upon their own understanding. All perfection in the life has some imperfection with it, and all our knowledge is not without some darkness.
The opposite of trust in God is to rely upon your own understanding. The father-teacher of Prov.3:5 warned against the kind of self-reliance that leans or relies on one’s own understanding instead of total reliance on divine wisdom. Prov. 3:7 says “Don’t consider yourself to be wise.” Prov. 18:26 says, “The one who trusts in himself is a fool.” To “rely on” is a picture of leaning on something with one’s whole body. When I rely on something, I am resting on it. But can I rest on my own understanding?
Understanding goes beyond one’s own intellect; it also includes the capacity to understand moral standards. My own perception of right and wrong must be brought in line with God’s standard. There is a divine goodness that stands above the desires and hopes of men, as the standard by which they are eternally judged.
My wisdom and understanding do not compare to God’s. Because He is God, He alone truly knows what is right and what is best. Therefore, a part of wisdom is a sense of intellectual humility, whereby I submit my understanding of things to God’s correct understanding.
Devotion to God and devotion to Wisdom are inseparable. For the scholar, who may be tempted to seek knowledge without having first submitted to God, this means that the search will be futile and the wisdom gained will be distorted if one has not first oriented oneself to the creator in faith, humility, and obedience.
The proverb builds on the element of trust by telling us to think about Him. This is more than just mental assent that He exists; this type of thinking is a conscious and deliberate activity. Our thoughts about God are to be a part of all our other thoughts, for we are told to, “Think about Him in all our way. And He will guide you on the right paths.”
Here is the second use of the word all in vv. 5-6. We are to trust God with all our heart, and we are to acknowledge Him in all our ways. Vs. 5 deals with total trust; vs. 6 focuses on the scope of areas in which our relationship with God provides guidance. Vs. 6 calls for surrender to God of every area of life. We can have a personal relationship with God, and in some respects this relation is similar to relationships with humans: however, in other ways our relationship with God is unique. The picture here is of the total personality, and most certainly the mind and the will.
What is the result of submission to God? He will guide you on the right paths. The only way I will ever be able to experience a rich and full life is to surrender my pseudo-wisdom to God’s true wisdom and trust His leadership. It’s not enough to know what God’s wisdom says or what the right paths are. I must walk those paths in obedience. If we acknowledge Him in all our ways then God will direct our paths.
PLEASE TURN TO 1 JOHN 2.
When John the beloved wrote his First Epistle, his goal was to help believers know that they have a relationship with God. There were some in the early church who twisted what it meant to have a relationship with God. The Gnostics were one such group. The Gnostics made a false distinction between the physical and the spiritual. Spiritual things were all that mattered, and the Gnostics’ goal was to focus on those things to the exclusion of anything physical.
To the Gnostics, it didn’t matter what they did physically. Spiritual knowledge was all-important. Others believed that, because they had a relationship with God, sin was of no consequence. They were perfect and sinless.
In Ch. 1 of 1 John, the apostle wrote of the need to believe the testimony of Jesus Christ. While the Gnostics would applaud this knowledge, John showed this knowledge is more than head knowledge. It is knowledge from experience. For example, I know about the pain of cancer, but those who have had cancer know it far greater than I do. They know by their experiences. In the same way, It is one thing to know about Jesus, but it is quite another to know Jesus.
PLEASE READ 1 JOHN 2: 1-2.
Sin is the biggest hindrance to a relationship with God. Throughout 1 John is a tension between two realities about sin. One truth is that no one who continues a life of sin can have a relationship with God: “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.” The other truth is that no one but Jesus lives without sinning: “if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Some of the false teachers lived sinful lives: others claimed to be without sin.
The tension between these points of view continued in John 2: 1-2. John’s prayer for these little children was that they sin not. However, John knew that reality demanded that he deal with what his readers were to do if anyone sin. The ideal was that they never again commit sin, but he had just stated in John 1: 8-10 that none of them was without sin.
Knowledge about Jesus should move me to action. As I see the truth of Jesus, I also see my sin and God calls me to confession. I do not deny my sin, but I admit my sinfulness and turn to
God, for forgiveness and cleansing. I do not depend on myself to gain access to and fellowship with God. I depend on the work of Christ. Consequently, when I depend on Him, I gain knowledge of God through experiencing His love, grace and presence in my life.
John wrote so that you may not sin. Someone could misinterpret John’s words in Ch. 1 and conclude that, because sin seems to be a constant problem, why try to live a holy life? Or someone may read of God ‘s forgiveness and cleansing, and conclude that, because forgiveness is so readily available, why worry about avoiding sin? John did no want his readers to fall into that trap and miss the joy that comes from living in a right relationship with God. He did not scold his readers. He referred to them as my little children. He felt nothing but love and tenderness for his children in the faith, and it is out of love that he offered this warning to avoid sin.
What Jesus did for us---the basis of His role as our advocate---is the word propitiation. In typical Greek usage, propitiation referred to the act of appeasing someone, but the N.T. gave this word a far deeper meaning. Because of sin, we became the objects of God’s wrath, for God cannot tolerate sin. We must also deal with the consequences of our sin. When Jesus hung on the cross, He took upon Himself our guilt and became the object of God’s wrath. He paid the penalty for our sin, satisfied the demands of God’s law, and removed God’s wrath. Jesus’ death on the cross also removed the taint of guilt on us and made us the object of God’s mercy and forgiveness. Propitiation captures both of these wonderful truths: God’s wrath is removed through Christ’s sacrifice, and sin’s penalty is also removed.
Jesus work of propitiation is applied not only to believers’ sins but also to those of the whole world. Does this mean that all sins are forgiven and removed? As numerous as all of humanity’s sins are, Christ’s saving work was able to pay the price of all of them. But there is a difference between salvation being universally provided and universally applied. Christ‘s works of propitiation are applied only to the sins of those who accept His work and receive Him by faith.
We must keep this in the context of John’s readers. He was writing to believers: my little children. He reminded them that they have been set free through the gracious work of Christ, but if anyone does sin, there is an answer. John was not referring to habitual sin, but throughout his epistle, he noted that believers do not habitually sin. The verb tense for sin refers to a single act. If a person commits an act of sin, he can turn to Jesus who saved him through His work of propitiation and now stands before the Father on His behalf. Our relationship with God is built on constant trust in God, depending daily on Christ to keep us from sin and to stand before the Father on our behalf when we sin.
What assurance do we have that God forgave our sins when we first came to Him? What assurance do we have that God continues to forgive us when we commit a sin? The saving work of God in His Son is the answer to both questions. Two key words describe Christ’s saving and keeping work of grace. The first word in the sentence is that He is the propitiation for our sins.
The other word is advocate or parakletos which is used here for the work of a defense attorney. Christ represents us in heaven. He defends us against the accusations of any who accuse us of sin. Heb. 7:25 says that Jesus “ever liveth to make interecession for” believers. This defense is based on His death as “the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
I am always glad when someone says, “I am praying for you.” Even more wonderful is the assurance that Jesus is praying for me!
Jesus work as our defense attorney is as much an expression of the Father’s love as it is of Jesus’ love. The Father is not a vengeful judge whose wrath against sinners continues to accuse us. God the Father revealed His love in sending His Son to Calvary to die for our sins. God the Judge reveals His love in making Jesus the propitiation for sinners and the defense attorney for saved sinners.
Remember that Christians do not continue in a life of sin, but they do commit sins that need to be confessed and forgiven. Jesus offered Himself according to the Father’s plan as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Jesus is our advocate in heaven who defends us on the basis of His atoning sacrifice. The person who truly knows God will gladly obey Him.
PLEASE READ 1 JOHN 1: 3-6.
In the preceding verses, John helped us see the problem of walking in the darkness of sin. John wanted us to gain the right understanding of sin and to remember that the only solution to our sin problem is the saving work of Jesus Christ. It is not enough merely to know these truths: We must know these truths by experience. We must believe them and appropriate them into our lives by faith.
Know is a key word in these verses and in the letter as a whole. It is an important word in a study of our relationship with God. John wrote, We know Him, not we know about Him. Our basic knowledge of God is the knowledge of personal acquaintance. This does not minimize the things we know about God, but it magnifies our personal knowledge of God.
The Greek noun for knowledge gnosis, became the name of one of the earliest Christian heresies. Gnostics did not come into their own until after the first century, but some of their subtle distortions appeared earlier. John was attempting to refute some of these early heresies. John focused on three themes against them, which probably stood over against three basic tenets of the Gnostics. John emphasized faith in the incarnation: he stressed righteous living: and he called for believers to love one another.
Third, John stressed what Christians can know about their relationship with God. In vs. 3 John dealt with how we know that we know God. One of the purposes of 1 John was to give ways that believers could know whether their faith is genuine.
But how can believers know that they have received the gift of life in Christ and fellowship with God. God said in Isaiah 55: 8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the havens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than you thoughts.” In 1 Cor. 2: 9 Paul wrote “But it is written, Eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.”
We are spiritually blind. We cannot discover God’s character or personality. But into our darkness shone the grace of God; He has revealed Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ.
According to John, one way we can know is though our obedience. We know we have come to know God by keeping His commands. Obedience to the commands of God is not what makes us Christians, but this obedience shows that we are Christians.
At the moment of salvation, God comes to live in our lives and writers His law on our hearts. Therefore, knowing God in a personal relationship is not conditional on one’s obedience to
Scripture, but it is a sign, an indication that the relationship already exists.
Many people want to divorce religion from ethics. Their view of religion is more a philosophical viewpoint, an intellectual approach that does not really affect one’s daily life. John faced the same type of people in his day---Gnostics whose understanding of God was merely an intellectual exercise with no ethical obligation. He also encountered religious people (like we do today) who claim to have a relationship with God because of some emotional experience, but they made no connection between that religious experience and their daily living.
Knowledge of God does have an intellectual component, but it also has a spiritual and moral one. This is why John made a connection between knowledge and obedience. Keeping His commands means that we guard and carefully obey God’s commands. This keeping is a continuous, habitual action that shows that we already know Him, know being a completed action that has continuous results. In other words, believers already know Him, and this is seen in continuous acts of obedience.
Vs. 4 presents just the opposite picture of vs. 3. The person who makes the claim, “I have come to know Him,” without showing obedience to God is an unbeliever. A believer has a habit of obeying the Word of God, but an unbeliever does not possess that habit. John even called such a person a liar, because his lack of obedience proves that the truth is not in him. This unbelievers’ behavior is inconsistent with a proper knowledge of God.
However, the person who is obedient, who keeps His word, is of the truth. God’s truth is in that person, and God is in the person. When a person keeps God’s Word, that person is exercising obedience as a continuous, habitual lifestyle. The believer is in the truth, and the truth is in him. What a beautiful picture of the intimate relationship Christians can have with God through Christ.
Who can have such a relationship? Vs. 5 tells us: whoever keeps His Word. The Gnostics, whose teaching John opposed, prided themselves on their special knowledge, which made their religion for an exclusive group of pseudo-intellectuals. John refuted that exclusiveness with the simple word “whoever.”
God not only embodies love. He is love. So when God indwells those who trust Him and obey Him, it is quite natural that His nature---His love---enters their lives as well. When we live in God, we live in love. But how is this love perfected in the lives of believers? In His love, God gave us His Word---His commandments---that leads us to live fully the life for which He created us. When we are obedient, we reach our full potential and achieve the purpose that His love desires for us. Jesus summed up the commands of God in these two: love God and love your neighbor. Therefore, the love that God has placed in us reaches perfection when we return that same love back to God and those around us.
Vs. 6 is a key verse. It builds on vv. 3-5, but adds a new dimension. To walk may refer to walking in the literal sense, but in the N.T. it is often used figuratively of one’s way of life. “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk, even as He walked.” This is one of several texts outside the Gospels that call for believers to live as Jesus did. These Bible verses are the biblical basis of the influential novel “In His Steps” by Charles M. Shelton.
The life of Jesus could be summed up as a life of love. His ministry, His miracles, His interaction with people, and certainly His death all speak of His love. To see love in perfection we need only to look at Jesus. And that is the same type of life we are called to live! We are to walk just as He walked. John brought the idea back to the proof of our relationship with God. When we exhibit love in our lives, we are living---walking---like Jesus, and this shows that He is in our lives.
It is one thing for a person to say he remains in Him, but it is quite another thing to prove it by living like the One in whom we say we are remaining. The idea behind remains is staying in one place. It is not a casual staying in one place for a moment and then moving on: rather it is a place where one continually and constantly dwells. In this context, then remains takes us way beyond simply knowing about someone. Remains is a position in Christ filled with fellowship, commitment, dependence, and friendship.
Keeping God’s Word proves that we truly have the love of God in our hearts and God will help us live as we ought.
PLEASE READ 1 JOHN 2: 7-11.
In vs. 7, John continued the idea he had begun in vv. 5-6. His attention was on love being perfected in us as we live—and love---as Jesus did. John reminded us that this call to love is nothing new.
He said that he was writing no new commandment unto his readers, and he insisted he was writing an old commandment, which they had from the beginning. First John 3:11clarifies this: “This is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.”
John seemed to have been remembering the night before Jesus went to the cross. Following the last supper, Jesus said in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
Jesus’ new commandment of John 13 is the old commandment of 1 John 2:7. When Jesus first gave this commandment, it was new. Now years later it was an older commandment, but it also still was new. When Jesus first set forth the command “to love one another” it was on a dark night before He died. Judas betrayed Him. Peter denied Him. When Judas left the room, John wrote, “It was night.” John was speaking of spiritual darkness, not just of a dark night. But John lived to see the risen Lord and to experience the power of His Spirit. Thus he now wrote, The darkness is past, and the new light now shineth.
In vs. 8 John recognized that he was also giving them a new command. It was not new in the sense of time but of quality. Love was raised to a whole new standard in the life of Jesus. No one had ever known love to go to such lengths: Jesus loved even the worst of sinners! Through His death and resurrection, Jesus gave a depth of meaning to love that had never been demonstrated before.
The richness of this new command is true in Him, and because we as believers live in Christ, the depth of this love is also to be true in us. The truth of this love—its evidence—is seen in that the darkness is passing away., Darkness is in the process of leaving because of the love of God spread through Christ and His followers. Jesus is the Light of the world, and where Christ is seen, His light shines. Wherever light shines, there is no darkness. So as the true light is already shining, so also the darkness is passing away.
John, like Jesus, referred to the words about love as a commandment. Modern readers, unfamiliar with the meaning of agape may wonder how anyone, even Jesus, could command anyone to love. People today think of love as a feeling that is freely entered into, not something they do because Jesus commanded it. Christian love, however, is something a person does on behalf of another person. This is why Jesus could command love for enemies. If we wait until we have loving feelings for enemies, we’ll never do good for them. Enemies are people we don’t like and who don’t like us.
In vs. 9 John has moved us from seeing our relationship with God in terms of knowing Him to remaining in Him and then to living in His light. To remain in Christ is to let His life—and light—shine through us. To live in the light is to live the life of God. We give the proof that we are living and remaining in God’s light as we exhibit Christ-like character and conduct. This Christ-likeness is seen most clearly in our love for others. John first stated the opposite of this: “The one who says he is in the light but hates his brother is in the darkness until now.” We are either in the light or in the dark, and we either love our brother or hate him. John left no room for a middle position.
When it comes to relationships, there is no such thing as indifference. The logical conclusion then, is that one cannot be in the light and have hate for someone at the same time. The use of the word brother would certainly make us think in terms of hating other believers. But Christ loved everybody, so can we really live in Christ’s light and express hate for anyone?
John focused attention on doing good, for other believers, but he did not intend that believers forget their need to do good for people who are not brothers and sister in Christ. John did intend to lift up the family of faith as the beginning point for Christian love. The church and the S.S. class should be the training ground for loving one another. People who can’t show love for members of the Christian family can hardly be expected to love people who oppose the cause of Christ.
John gave some examples of how Christian love works. Christians ought to be willing to lay down their lives for one another. Christians ought to move quickly to help a fellow Christian in need. A boy was baby-sitting his younger brother when a fire broke out. The boy was outside at the time, but he did not hesitate entering the house. By risking his own life, he saved his younger brother. Neighbors asked, “What were you thinking when you ran into a burning house?” The older brother seemed shocked that anyone was surprised at his actions. He explained, “I wasn’t thinking about anything. I just heard my brother’s cry.”
Showing sacrificial love to others indicates that we are in the light, and believers do not stumble since the light makes it possible for them to see where they are going. When believers live uprightly without stumbling, their positive witness does not throw stumbling blocks in front of others.
John used the strong word hate to describe Christians who fail to love one another. We wonder why he used such a strong word. Couldn’t he have used words such as apathy or indifference to more accurately describe loveless actions? John apparently wanted to show the seriousness of a failure to show love. The emotion of hate may not be present, but lovelessness achieves the same effect as hate. Vv. 9 and 11 paint a dark picture of the believer without love.
Vs. 10 presents a positive picture of the person who loves his brother and abides in the light. The final part of vs. 10 can mean either that the one who loves his brother does not stumble or does not cause others to stumble. Both are true.
But what does loving fellow Christians have to do with a right relationship with God ? First John 4:20 raises a pertinent question. How can a person who does not love people claim to love God? He does not love people whom he can see. By what logic can such a person love God whom he has not seen? A.V.DAUGHERTY <altav@swbell.net> http://www.the weeks.org/av/
NEXT SUNDAY FROM 1 CORINTHIANS 7, AND EPHESIANS 5, WE LEARN TO BUILD A RIGHT RELATIONSHIP IN MARRIAGE AND HELP OTHERS TO DO SO. 5/02/04