Scripture Read: 3 Jn 11-15 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself; and we add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true. 13 I had many things to write to you, but I am not willing to write them to you with pen and ink; 14 but I hope to see you shortly, and we will speak face to face. 15 Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by name.
Application: Look how John ties good works to those that love God! But salvation is by grace – no works involved! That’s not completely true … When we talk about salvation it is a complex and multifaceted subject. We need to be clear exactly what aspect of salvation we are talking about. Are we discussing “how” or “when”? Are we looking at the eternal perspective or the here and now? Is this a discussion on how God sees salvation or how we experience it? There is a big difference between how we enter the Body of Christ and how we “know” we are in the Body. Even on the topic of “knowing” are we talking about intellectually or experientially? Here again, we see the testimony of works. At one point in recent Church history the push to stop thoughts of salvation by works became so strong that – as usual – the flawed humans in the church de-emphasized works too much. That is why many today struggle with the idea that if you don’t have works then you don’t have a right to consider yourself saved. The shocking reality of all this is that we are not arguing with human authors of today – we are debating with the scriptures. Paul makes it clear, so does Peter, John, James and the writer of Hebrews. They all have statements like this one here; if you do what is bad then you appear to not know God! I know that I first wrestled with this until I starting putting these comments into context. All these scriptures are not speaking to HOW a person is saved, but challenging whether a person is truly saved. Obviously each author is speaking in general terms, it is the norm for a person that has come into a relationship with Christ to see good works spring forth from their life. If they do not, they should question whether they truly experienced a conversion. Notice “THEY” – not we. It is not our job to judge who is or is not in the Body, but it is each individuals job to look at his or her own life and make that assessment. 1 Cor. 3 makes it clear that there are those barren of rewards in heaven – but evidence shouts that that is the exception – not the rule – God help us to imitate what is good and validate the saving work You have done in our life!
* Meditation Questions: How much have you changed since you trusted Christ? Do you see good works coming from your life that were not there before? When your deeds are evil what do you do? Would anyone that knows you well be surprised that you claim to be a Christian? What does that say?
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