I John 4
Two spirits working in our world: True and Falseverses 1-6
Beloved – believe not every spirit
BUT try the spirits whether they are of God
BECAUSE many false prophets
are gone out into the world
Hereby know you the Spirit of God
Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come
in the flesh is of God
and every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is
come in the flesh is not of God
and this is that spirit of antichrist
whereof you have heard that it should come
and even now already is it in the world
You are of God – little children – and have overcome them
BECAUSE greater is HE that is in you
than he that is in the world
They are of the world – therefore speak they of the world
and the world hears them
We are of God – he that knows God hears us
he that is NOT of God hears not us
Hereby know we the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error
Genuine love starts with Godverses 7-10
Beloved – let us love one another – FOR love is of God
and every one that loves is born of God – and knows God
He that loves NOT knows not God
FOR God is love
In this was manifested the love of God toward us
BECAUSE that God sent this only begotten Son
into the world that we might live through HIM
Herein is love – NOT that we loved God – BUT that HE loved us
and sent HIS Son to be the propitiation for our sins
Genuine love needs to be expressed to fellow believer’sverses 11-12
Beloved – IF God so loved us – we ought also to
love one another
NO man has seen God at any time
IF we love one another – God dwells in us
and HIS love is perfected in us
Indwelling Holy Spirit proves God’s love for usverses 13-17
Hereby know we that we dwell in HIM –and HE in us
BECAUSE HE has given us of HIS Spirit
And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son
to be the Savior of the world
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God
God dwells in him and he in God
And we have known and believed the love
that God has to us
God is love – and he that dwells in love dwells in God
and God in him
Herein is our love made perfect
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment
BECAUSE as HE is – so are we in this world
No fear in perfect loveverses 18-19
There is no fear in love
BUT perfect love casts out fear – because fear has torment
He that fears is not made perfect
in love
We love HIM – BECAUSE HE first loved us
Watch out for liarsverses 20-21
IF a man says – I love God – and hates his brother
he is a liar – FOR he that loves not his brother
whom he has seen
how can he love God whom he has not seen?
AND this commandment have we from HIM
That he who loves God love his brother also
COMMENTARY:
DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers
: 6 We are of God: he that knows God hears us; he that is not of God hears not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (4106 “error” [plane] means deceit, inadvertent incorrectness understood as if wandering away from the path to one’s destination, to mislead, to cause to be mistaken, wandering, stubbornness, or cause to be mistaken)
DEVOTION: There are people who will listen when we talk about Jesus and what HE is doing in our life. There are people who just seem to not care to hear our testimony of what God is doing in our life.
Even in church we can find people who want to hear what a blessing we have received from the LORD during the week. It might be that HE helped us with something at home. HE might have helped us to get our chores done. HE might have taught us something in our devotional time. HE might have helped us with our parents. HE might have helped us witness to an unsaved friend. HE might have just answered a prayer request regarding something at school.
Genuine believers will want to listen to you tell about how Jesus is working in your life. Those who show no interest in what God is doing are not showing the love of God to you.
Remember that there are two spirits working in our world. There is Satan or the devil that is the prince of the power of the air. He wants to deceive us into thinking that we are doing everything in our life by our own power. He wants us to believe that we don’t really need Jesus Christ in our life every day. He doesn’t want us to pray. He would rather we listen to our worldly music and worldly friends and think nothing about Jesus except maybe for the couple of hours we are in church. He wants us to leave our Bible closed all week.
Then there is the Spirit of Truth that wants to encourage us to read God’s love letter called the Bible each day and learn more about the love of God that we are to manifest in our world. HE wants us to listen to God speaking to us through our thought life and prayer times. HE wants us to know that we can overcome sin in our life.
Each day we have to understand who we are listening to. There are two voices coming into our life.
CHALLENGE: Our responsibility is to listen to the right voice. Can you hear HIM NOW????
DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers
: 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that HE loved us, and sent HIS Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (2434 “propitiation” [hilasmos] means an appeasing the means of appeasing wrath and gaining the god will of an offended person, means of forgiveness, expiation, atonement, sin-offering, or means by which sins are forgiven)
DEVOTION: There is a big word in this verse that we need to understand. It is the fact that Jesus Christ is our propitiation. This word means that Jesus Christ is our appeasing sacrifice before the Father. HE is the one who died on the cross for our sins. HE is the only one who was the perfect sacrifice for our sins.
In the Old Testament they offered animal sacrifices to God on a regular basis. They were to be animals that were without any imperfections. The priests would examine the animal to make sure it was worthy of being offered to God.
On the Day of Atonement a special sacrifice was taken into the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle in the wilderness or the Temple in Jerusalem to make a sacrifice for the nation of Israel. First the High Priest had to go in and make a sacrifice for his own sins. If the sacrifice was not accepted by God then the High Priest would die and have to be pulled out by a rope that was tied on his leg for that purpose. Once the High Priests sacrifice was acceptable then he went in a second time to offer a sacrifice for the people.
Jesus entered in a place of sacrifice for all those Old Testament saints, New Testament saints and Tribulation saints. All those who are going to heaven were covered by HIS blood on the cross. HE was the ONLY perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. Only those who repent and turn to follow Jesus will go to heaven. All others will spend eternity in the lake of fire with the devil and his angels.
God loved us so much that HIS Son had to die for our sins. We should love our fellow believers. If we express our love for our fellow believers we are manifesting the love of God in our life.
I received a call yesterday morning from someone I care about deeply. She called to check in. We prayed together on the phone. She called because she knew I cared about her and how her family was doing.
I receive many such calls because people know that I care about them. Are you receiving these calls? You should be!!!!
Each one of you is important to me. Most I have never met and will probably never meet this side of heaven but you should know that I am not just writing to write. I am writing because I care about the growth of each one receiving the devotionals.
CHALLENGE: God is answering prayer on a regular basis. We praise HIM for HIS faithfulness to us. Remember to send your prayer request in for prayer.
: 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love. (2851 “torment” [kolasis] means punishment, correction, vengeance, chastisement, penalty)
DEVOTION: John continues to encourage believers to love one another. Some are still struggling with this concept. There are individual who attend church together that do not like one another. In fact, they avoid one another. John calls this hate.
Love is part of the character of God. Many places in the Word of God it states that “God is love.” HE has an agape is the type of love that the Father has toward HIS children. When we have the Father’s love we have nothing to fear.
Fear or phobias come from a sense of insecurity. People think that they cannot trust some others. This included God in the case of those who are addressed in this verse.
The love that God manifests toward us because of HIS son is perfect love. It is a mature love. It is a love that doesn’t think of punishment. It is a love that doesn’t think that God wants vengeance on us for all our sins. Some have even used this verse to think that they might spend eternity in hell because of God not really loving them.
God wants us to realize that we have nothing to fear in this world or in the world to come. Those who have fear are concerned about punishment. Those outside of Christ have someone to fear. That is the judgment of the LORD at the end of time. God wants us to have HIS perfect love. HIS love casts out fear. Greater is HE that is in us than he that is in the world. True believers have NOTHING to fear or dread.
There are two spirits working in our world. The spirit of error with is the devil. The Spirit of truth which is the Holy Spirit. We continue to have the fear of the LORD but not the fear of punishment. There is a difference. We have to reverence the LORD. HE is our Father. Christ is our Savior. The Holy Spirit indwells us to give us instruction in the truth of the Word of God. All three persons of the Godhead love us and work with us to make us mature servants of Jesus Christ.
CHALLENGE: Do not let the enemy room in our lives to cause us to dread meeting the LORD. Our hearts need to be FILLED with joy at the thought of going to be with the LORD.
DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers
:19 We love him, because he first loved us. (4413 “first” [protos] means 1 first in time or place. 1a in any succession of things or persons. 2 first in rank. 2a influence, honor. 2b chief. 2c principal. 3 first, at the first. [Strong, J. (1995). Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship])
DEVOTION: Have you thought at all about how God planned your salvation? We do know from Romans 5:8 that God loved us while we were still sinners and enemies of Him. He did not wait for man to take the first step toward Him, but rather called people to Himself throughout the course of human history.
But, importantly, believing in the sovereignty and omniscience of God requires that you believe that God was not at all surprised at man’s fall in Genesis 3, even though He had created man in sinless perfection. In other words, God chose to create man all-the-while knowing that His creature would rebel against Him. So, in the mind of God before there was even a creation, there must have been a plan concerning what God would do in the face of man’s rebellion.
That is why, in this important treatise by John on love, John emphasizes that God’s love preceded (and transcended) ours. This means that God chose to honor His creation by loving it. His love was so great that He knew that He would have to send His only begotten Son to die on the cross in order to redeem man from his sin, and yet God was willing to demonstrate this love to man.
When we truly understand the depths of God’s love (and this is exactly what Paul prays for in Ephesians 3:17-19), it is easier to love those around us. Our love is merely a reflection of God’s love for us.
CHALLENGE: Describe how God first loved you to someone else today. You may be the first person to describe the love of God to them! (MW)
: 20 If a man say, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? (5583 “liar” [pseustes] means cheat, falsifier, one who breaks faith, deceiver or a false or faithless man)
DEVOTION: John contrasts love and hate often in his writings. In the book of I John alone he uses the word five times. He is concerned that individuals who claim to be follower of Jesus Christ should know the difference between love and hate.
Many people can say that they love God but they manifest no love for their fellow believer. John says that it is not possible to love God and not love your fellow believers. In fact, he says that they are deceivers.
They are first deceiving their own self into thinking that they can understand true love while they don’t care for those who are around them in church.
John wants the believers in his church to realize that they have to love one another in order to show their love for God. God showed HIS love by sending HIS Son to be our propitiation. Jesus Christ was the only appeasing sacrifice God could accept to replace us. Jesus Christ died in our place so that we can have a place in heaven for eternity.
Now to say thank you for our salvation we are supposed to love all the other fellow believers. Do those around us know that we genuinely care about what is happening in their life? When we say that we care does that mean that we are praying for all those in our church on a regular basis?
I have suggested that you take all the members of your church and put them on an alphabetical list and pray for them each month at least. We are to pray for the “A’s” on the first and the “B’s” on the second and so on. This way we can say to our fellow members that we have prayed for them each month at least. If they have special prayer requests we need to pray more often.
This is just one way we can show them that we love them. We should regularly ask those who attend church with you if they have any special prayer requests.
I ask for prayer requests daily. I hope all those reading these devotionals will send their prayer requests to me for either private or public prayer. We need the prayers of fellow believers.
CHALLENGE: What other ways can you show your fellow believers that you genuinely care about them? Share some of them with me and your pastor.
DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:
BODY
Chastity (Purity in living)
Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)
Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)
Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)
Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone)
SOUL
Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)
Frugality (wise use of resources)
Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)
Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)
Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God)
SPIRIT
Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)
Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)
Confess that Jesus Christ is come in fleshverse 2
Confess that Jesus is the Son of Godverse 15
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)
DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:
Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)
Commandmentverse 21
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)
Godverses 1-4, 6-12, 15, 16, 20, 21
Love is of Godverse 7
God is loveverses 8, 16
Love of God manifestedverse 9
God sent HIS Sonverses 9, 10, 14, 15
God loved us firstverses 10, 11, 19
No man has seen Godverse 12
Fatherverse 14
God in believersverse 16
God the Son (Second person of the Godhead –God/man, Messiah)
Jesusverses 2, 3, 15
Christverses 2, 3
Jesus Christverses 2, 3
Jesus Christ has come in the fleshverse 2
Sonverses 9, 10, 14, 15
Only begotten Sonverse 9
Propitiation for our sinsverse 10
Savior of the worldverse 14
Jesus is the Son of Godverse 15
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)
Spiritverses 2, 13
Spirit of Godverse 2
Spirit of truthverse 6
Spirit given to believersverse 13
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
False spiritverse 1
Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in flesh is of Godverse 2
Every spirit that confesses not that
Jesus has come in the flesh is not of Godverse 3
spirit of antichristverse 3
False spirit in the worldverse 4
spirit of errorverse 6
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)
Worldverses 1, 3-5, 9, 17
Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)
False prophetsverse 1
Not confessing Jesus Christ is come in fleshverse 3
Antichristverse 3
Hears spirit of antichristverse 5
Not hear believersverse 6
Loves notverse 8
Sinsverse 10
Fear has tormentverse 18
Hate his brotherverse 20
Liarverse 20
Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)
Believe not every spiritverse 1
Try the spiritsverse 1
Confess that Jesus Christ has come in fleshverse 2
Believers are of Godverse 4
Overcome false spiritsverse 4
Holy Spirit in belieververses 4, 13
Knows Godverses 6, 7, 16
Hears Godverse 6
Knows Spirit of truthverse 6
Love one anotherverses 7, 11, 12, 21
Born of Godverse 7
Live through Christverse 9
Love Godverses 10, 19, 21
Propitiationverse 10
Love shows God dwells in usverses 12, 13, 16
Love perfected in usverses 12, 17, 18
Confess that Jesus is Son of Godverse 15
God dwells in believersverse 15
Known the love of Godverse 16
Believed the love of Godverse 16
Boldnessverse 17
No fear in loveverse 18
Love brotherverse 20, 21
Israel (Old Testament people of God)
Church (New Testament people of God)
Belovedverses 1, 7, 11
Little childrenverse 4
You are of God
Overcome false spirits
Greater is HE that is in you
He that is knows God hears usverse 6
Love brotherverses 20, 21
Last Things (Future Events)
Day of Judgmentverse 17
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QUOTES regarding passage
11 The author continues to show that the true nature of love is unselfish and sacrificial. In 3:16 he appealed to Jesus, who laid down his life for his brothers, as the example for believers to follow. Now he directs attention to God’s own example: “Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” The nature of the argument is not properly deductive but analogical, as Bruce (p. 109) has shown: “If the children of God must be holy because He is holy (Lev 11:44f; 1 Pet 1:15f and merciful because He is merciful (Lk 6:36), so they must be loving because He is loving—not with the ‘must’ of external compulsion but with the ‘must’ of inward constraint: God’s love is poured into their hearts by the Holy Spirit whom they have received (Rom 5:5). (Barker, G. W. (1981). 1 John. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews through Revelation (Vol. 12, p. 343). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.)
If God so loved us (εἰ οὑτως ὁ θεος ἠγαπησεν ἡμας [ei houtōs ho theos ēgapēsen hēmas]). Condition of first class with εἰ [ei] and the first aorist active indicative. As in John 3:16, so here οὑτως [houtōs] emphasises the manifestation of God’s love both in its manner and in its extent (Rom. 8:32). Ought (ὀφειλομεν [opheilomen]). As in 2:6. Noblesse oblige. “Keep on loving,” (ἀγαπᾳν [agapāin]) as in 3:11. (Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (1 Jn 4:11). Nashville, TN: Broadman Press.)
:9–11. If one wishes to know how God has demonstrated His love, he need only look at the fact that God sent His One and only Son into the world that we might obtain eternal life thereby (“One and only” translates monogenē, “only born one,” which also is used in John 1:14, 18; 3:16.) Moreover, this love was not a response to man’s love, but an initiative on God’s part (1 John 4:10). By it the Son became an atoning Sacrifice (hilasmon, “propitiation”; see comments on 2:2) for our sins. Nothing less than God’s love in Christ is the model for the love Christians should have toward one another.
Important to John’s argument is his reference to God’s love in 4:9 as His love among us. In verses 12–16 he showed how this love, experienced among Christians, can make God visible to them. (Walvoord, J. F., & Zuck, R. B., Dallas Theological Seminary. (1985). The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 899). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
4:11 God’s sending His Son gives Christians not only salvation privilege, but obligation to follow this pattern of sacrificial love. Christian love must be self-sacrificing like God’s love. (MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (1 Jn 4:11). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.)
Ver. 11. Beloved, if God so loved us, &c.] As to send his son to be a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins, and to obtain eternal life for us through his sufferings and death: the apostle uses the same language his Lord and master did, John 3:16 we ought also to love one another; for those who are the objects of God’s love ought to be the objects of ours; and if God has loved our fellow-Christians and brethren to such a degree, as to send his son to die for them, we ought to love them too; and if we are interested in the same love, the obligation is still the greater; and if God loved them with so great a love, when they did not love him, but were enemies to him, then surely we ought to love them now they are become the friends of God, and ours also; as God loved them freely, and when unlovely, and us likewise in the same manner, and under the same circumstances, then we ought to love, and continue to love the saints, though there may be something in their temper and conduct disagreeable: God is to be imitated in his love; and his love to us, which is unmerited and matchless, should influence and engage us to the love of the brethren, who have a far greater claim to our love than we can make to the love of God; and which indeed is none at all, but what he is pleased to give us. (Gill, J. (1809). An Exposition of the New Testament (Vol. 3, pp. 647–648). London: Mathews and Leigh.)
FROM MY READING:
(Remember the only author that I totally agree with is the HOLY SPIRIT in the inerrant WORD OF GOD called THE BIBLE! All other I try to gleam what I can to help me grow in the LORD!!)
a. Truth is a leading concept in John, but an antithesis comes only with Jn. 8:44–45, where falsehood has a personal representative, who again has children. Lying here is an active contesting of the truth, i.e., unbelief. On the one side we have God and Christ, on the other the father of lies and Christ’s opponents. Murderer and liar go together (as do truth and life) in 14:6.
b. God is light, and hence we should do the truth in fellowship (1 Jn. 1:6; 2:4; 4:20). Lying denies the confession (2:21–22). The liar manifests antichrist. Confession includes admission of sin; refusing to admit it is the same as opposing God’s truth and thus treating God as a liar (1:10; 5:10). (Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985)
LUTHERANS PRAY TO MOTHER GOD FOR HELP (Friday Church News Notes, May 8, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – On April 28 the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America posted a prayer tweet addressed to “Mother God,” asking her to “raise us up to salvation … so we may share the sweetness of your holy word with all the world.” This was one of the ELCA’s #Bread4theday Twitter posts. The ELCA is the largest Lutheran denomination in America, and it is obviously apostate. The ELCA Publishing House has printed countless volumes which promote unbelief. For example, in 1988 an ELCA book by Ragnar Leivestad, entitled Jesus in His Own Perspective, goofily claimed that Jesus never invoked for himself a special position and did not claim messianic titles. The World Council of Churches, of which the ELCA is a member, is filled with mother goddess worship. ELCA women participated in the WCC’S “Re-imagining Conference” in 1993 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Star Tribune reported that “throughout the conference worship experiences will celebrate Sophia, the biblical goddess of creation” (Nov. 3, 1993). On Sunday morning, the conferees joined together in repeating a prayer to their female goddess, including these words, “Our maker Sophia, we are women in your image. … With the honey of wisdom in our mouths, we prophesy a full humanity to all the peoples.” At the WCC’s Seventh Assembly in 1991 South Korean Presbyterian Chung Hyun-Kyung evoked a female Holy Spirit (Religious News Service, Mar. 5, 1991). The WCC publication No Longer Strangers, a joint project with the Lutheran World Federation, which includes the ELCA, suggested that God be addressed as “The Source, Lady of peace, Lady of wisdom, Lady of love, Lady of birth, Lord of stars, Lord of planets, Mother, Home, Presence, Power, Essence, Simplicity.” Consider the poem “Bakerwoman God,” which is to be used in church services: “Bakerwoman God, I am your living bread. Strong, brown, Bakerwoman God … Put me in your fire, Bakerwoman God … Break me, Bakerwoman God. … Bakerwoman God, remake me.” The hour is very late, folks!
The tribes of Israel do an inadequate job of vanquishing the aliens living in the Promised Land.
INSIGHT
The book of Judges is a pathetic chronicle of a weak and willful people. Soon after Joshua’s death, the Israelites begin to fall short of the directives he gave them. They fail at the most crucial point and tolerate the presence of immoral idol worshipers among them. The story which follows is one of sexual immorality, murder, idolatry, corruption, and greed. The depths to which the Israelites plunge is truly disgusting- reminding us of the warnings given by Moses and Joshua.
Turning your back on God always has tragic consequences. When we read about the Israelites, their foolishness seems so clear. Yet when we are faced with temptations today, it doesn’t seem so clear. We can learn from the past, however. The consequences can be just as grave for us. A wise man walks with the Lord and is saved.
(Quiet Walk)
Sitting in his wheelchair at a senior citizens home in Belize, a man joyfully listened as a group of American high school teenagers sang about Jesus. Later, as some of the teens tried to communicate with him, they discovered he couldn’t talk. A stroke had robbed him of his ability to speak.
Since they couldn’t carry on a conversation with the man, the teens decided to sing to him. As they began to sing, something amazing happened. The man who couldn’t talk began to sing. With enthusiasm, he belted out “How Great Thou Art” right along with his new friends.
It was a remarkable moment for everyone. This man’s love for God broke through the barriers and poured out in audible worship—heartfelt, joyous worship.
We all have worship barriers from time to time. Maybe it’s a relationship conflict or a money problem. Or it could be a heart that’s grown a bit cold in its relationship to God.
Our non-talking friend reminds us that the greatness and majesty of our almighty God can overcome any barrier. “O Lord, my God—when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds Thy hands have made!”
Struggling in your worship? Reflect on how great our God is by reading a passage such as Psalm 96, and you too may find your obstacles and objections replaced by praise.
By Dave Branon (Daily Bread)
THE OFFENSE OF CHRIST’S TEACHING
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Luke 19:10
What has offended mankind above everything else is the simplicity of our Lord’s way of salvation. There is nothing that annoys people so much as the true doctrine of the cross, the doctrine of the blood of Christ and of the rebirth. Look at those people whom we read about in John 6. There they are; our Lord has said to them in essence, “I am the living bread. I am the bread of life. I have come down from heaven to give you new life that is life indeed.” And it was that which made them go from Him and decide never to listen to Him again.
Let me put it again like this. If Christ had come and told us that the way of salvation was to consider a great, noble, and wonderful teaching and then to resolve to set out and do it, why, we would have liked it. Christ said in effect, “If man could save himself, I would never have come into this world. God gave the people in past ages an opportunity of doing this. He gave them a law and told them when He gave it to them, ‘Do that and it will save you; live that life and you will be righteous in My sight.’”
If man could have saved himself, there would have been no need for the Son of God to come to earth. Indeed, His coming is proof that people cannot save themselves. Our Lord constantly said that, and that is what annoyed people so much. He said, “I have come to give My life as a ransom for many, for nothing but that could ever save those souls of yours and reconcile you to God. And,” He said, “it is as simple as this: I have purchased your salvation—I offer it to you as a free gift.”
A Thought to Ponder: If man could have saved himself, there would have been no need for the Son of God to come to earth.
(From The Heart of the Gospel, pp. 63-64, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
Heartfelt Prayer
“Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.” (Lamentations 3:41)
It is so easy to let our prayers become routine and repetitious, and we need to remember that God listens more closely to our hearts than the phrases from our lips. The Lord Jesus cautioned us about this: “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him” (Matthew 6:7-8).
Many people will lift their hands to pray or prostrate themselves on the ground. Some will stand; some will kneel. Some shout, some pray silently, some even leap and dance. Some will write out their prayers and then read them to an audience; others will pray eloquently and at great length. But the thing that counts far more than posture or eloquence is our attitude of heart. We must lift up our hearts to the Lord, not just our hands or our voices. Then He will hear in heaven!
We need to feel as the psalmist felt: “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God” (Psalm 42:1). Our hearts need first to be right, of course—pure and true in His sight. “Call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22). “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18). “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:22).
Our prayers must also come from a believing heart. “Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.” Otherwise, “let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord” (James 1:6-7). With these conditions met, the Christian is ready to pray, but then he must pray from deep within his pure, true, believing heart, and God will answer. “The effectual fervent [one word in the Greek, energeo] prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16). (HMM, The Institute for Creation Research)
A couple of weeks ago, a woman had a baby. Childbirth, of course, happens tens of thousands of times a day in the United States, but this baby was a product.
A couple paid a doctor and an agency to secure the child. The mom’s relationship with the child is governed not by biology, but by contract, one with clauses and exceptions and conditions. A man who made no genetic contribution is being called the child’s other “father,” along with Anderson Cooper, a major media celebrity, which is why this baby’s birth made national headlines.
Cooper is a homosexual man. He and his now-ex partner hired a woman to be a surrogate, a practice increasingly common in the U.S. The headlines announcing the couple’s acquisition were universally fawning, as if this story carried none of the extraordinary details listed above at all: “Anderson Cooper talks first weekend as new Dad;” “Anderson Cooper announces birth of his son; urges people to hold on to ‘moments of joy.’”
None of these articles, in fact not a single one that I could find in any major publication anywhere, even hinted that there might be any ethical concerns with Cooper’s purchase. In fact, when author Joyce Carol Oates mentioned on Twitter – after explicitly congratulating Cooper, by the way – that she found it curious the news coverage never mentioned Cooper’s hired surrogate at all, she was excoriated.
The speed at which our culture is able to normalize a behavior thought just yesterday to be somewhere between questionable to unthinkable is stunning. To not mention any shred of ethical hesitancy around the decision to purchase procreation, particularly by a couple who chose an intentionally sterile union in the first place, is one thing.
To gush over the doting dads as if the way this whole thing happened is quite unremarkable? Well, that’s something else entirely. After all, culture is often most powerful in our lives where it makes the least amount of commotion. When something is no longer considered debatable, and is instead assumed, it’s been normalized.
This story demonstrates that commercial surrogacy, including cases in which the child is intentionally deprived of its mother, is now fully normal.
We’ve repeatedly pointed out the many ethical problems with surrogacy on BreakPoint: it assumes “children” are a right that God never promised; it assumes a Gnostic view of human bodies and relationships; it denies children the opportunity to be raised by their biological mom and a dad; it treats children as products instead of image-bearers; it poses a significant risk for women to be exploited financially.
We’ve also talked about the disastrous consequences of the sexual revolution, especially how it has divorced sex, marriage, and procreation and devalues other human beings for how they can serve our own sexual desires.
Here, in this story, we have a new chapter of this: Two men who choose a sexual relationship that doesn’t include a uterus still consider themselves entitled to the products of a uterus. And so, they hire a uterus, not really the whole woman. After all, their decision makes the woman a mom, but they don’t want that part of her. They only want the part that will allow them what they want.
We see the world through the stories we tell ourselves, and each reporter who told this story tacitly agreed that Cooper and his partner were the good guys. As Joyce Carol Oates quickly discovered when she asked why the baby’s mom should be left unnamed, the protagonist role was already taken, and it would be awkward to cast the hired help as the antagonist. So, they just didn’t mention her at all. That was probably what was specified in the contract anyway.
But what about her? Was she, as most women who agree to surrogacy tend to be, lower-income? Was the financial pressure simply too great to not be attracted by the payday?
Perhaps the strangest part of the growing cultural acceptance is how surrogacy is so often championed by the Progressive Left, especially as it has increasingly served the cause of same-sex marriage. Yet, it violates almost every central tenet of the worldview they claim.
After all, if anything is “capitalism run amok,” it’s commercial surrogacy. Is there a more disgusting display of greed than the rich paying the poor for their babies? And, surrogacy exploits the vulnerable. It robs women of their bodily autonomy, especially when contract clauses commit them to reproductive decisions, including abortion. Increasingly, surrogacy is about two wealthy men using a woman for her body, while appropriating a role that only she can fulfill.
Surrogacy is also the final chapter of a culture that prioritizes adult happiness over children’s rights, in this case by offering a service only the very wealthy can afford. Surrogacy denies that children have rights to their mother and father, and that a mother has a right to her own child. Like transgenderism, surrogacy denies biological realities, in this case the miraculous bonds, both physical and emotional, that connects mothers with their children. Surrogacy serves money, and makes winners and losers. The losers are always women and children. The winners are always those with big bank accounts.
If there were a segment of culture that should rebuke surrogacy but often doesn’t, it would be the Progressive Left, which fancies itself the champion of the vulnerable, the poor, and of women. Some do, in particular feminists who see the potential for exploitation.
If there were another segment of culture that should rebuke surrogacy but often doesn’t, even more so in fact, it would be Christians. Some do, but too many don’t, mostly because their worldview analysis stops at what’s normal, rather than what’s right.
Behind Anderson Cooper’s money and these headlines is this baby’s mom. No matter what we tell ourselves about how willing she was or how better off she is now, she is harmed and so is her son – who somehow knew from the moment he was born to look for her. Unfortunately, he won’t find her. Shame on us. (BreakPoint)
Where does your last name come from? Sharpe – this name has appeard in many history books. This family was known for their loyalty and bravery. When times were darkest, this family would rise and fight for good. (Thanks Tim)
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