Job 30
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Job describes outcasts of society verse 1- 8
But now they that are younger than I have me in derision
whose fathers I would have disdained
to have set with the dogs of my flock
Yea – whereto might the strength of their hands profit me
in whom old age was perished?
For want and famine they were solitary
fleeing into the wilderness in former time
desolate and waste
Who cut up mallows by the bushes
and juniper roots for their meat
they were driven forth from among men
(they cried after them as after a thief)
to dwell in the cliffs of the valleys
in caves of the earth – in the rocks
Among the bushes they brayed
under the nettles they were gathered together
they were children of fools – yea
children of base men
they were viler than the earth
Outcasts of society mocking Job verse 9- 15
And now am I their song – yea – I am their byword
they abhor me – they flee far from me
and spare not to spit in my face
BECAUSE HE has loosed my cord – and afflicted me
they have also let loose the bridle before me
Upon my right hand rise the youth – they push away my feet
and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction
they mar my path
they set forward my calamity
they have no helper
they came on me as a wide breaking
in of waters in the desolation
they rolled themselves upon me
Terrors are turned upon me – they pursue my soul as the wind
and my welfare passes away as a cloud
Days of affliction affect Job verse 16- 19
And now my soul is poured out upon me
the days of affliction have taken hold upon me
my bones are pierced in me in the night season
and my sinews take no rest
By the great force of my disease is my garment changed
it binds me about as the collar of my coat
HE has cast me into the mire – and I am become like dust and ashes
LORD is not answering Job verse 20- 23
I CRIED to YOU – and YOU did not hear me
I stand up – and YOU regards me not
YOU are become CRUEL to me
with YOUR strong hand YOU opposes YOURSELF against me
YOU lift me up to the wind – YOU cause me to ride upon it
and dissolves my substance
for I know that YOU will bring me to death
and to the house appointed for all living
Job describes the feeling of separation from God verse 24- 31
Howbeit HE will not stretch out HIS hand to the grave
though they cry in HIS destruction
Did not I weep for him that was in trouble?
was not my soul grieved for the poor?
When I looked for good – THEN evil came to me
and when I waited for light – THERE came darkness
My bowels boiled – and rested not
the days of affliction prevented me
I went mourning without the sun – I stood up
I CRIED in the congregation – I am a brother to dragons
and a companion to owls
My skin is black upon me – and my bones are burned with heat
my harp also is turned to mourning
and my organ into the voice of them that weep
COMMENTARY:
DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers
: 1 But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock. (3988 “disdained” [ma’ac] means despise, abhor, loathsome, to reject with contempt, to contemn, trash, or pertaining to limiting or avoiding association)
DEVOTION: Job is making a classification of people. He is stating that there is a group of individuals who are mocking him that in real life would not be able to take care of his sheepdogs.
These are individuals who have no class. This can happen in any income level in life. There are people who are poor who have class and there are people who are rich who have class. Sometimes many in the middle class think they have class but it doesn’t show at times.
Money doesn’t earn you class from the perspective of Job. He is looking for individuals who see a good man down and still treat him nicely. They are there to encourage and help in any way they can.
So money shouldn’t make a difference on how people treat each other. If it does than we have many problems in our Christian world that the secular world doesn’t seem to care about.
Here we have the young men of families that Job has known all their lives. He knows the parents as well as the children. Now the children are making fun of him and he doesn’t understand how their parents haven’t taught them any better.
The fathers knew their place in society but the children didn’t seem to understand what they were to do in this given situation and apparently their parents had not told them how to act.
Are we training our children to understand that there is a difference in people and they are to respect all people from whatever social class they are a part of? Are we seeing today what Job saw in his day?
The answer is yes. Many parents are not training their children to be nice to those who might be less fortunate than themselves. Also there needs to be a training regarding those who are more fortunate than we are. Our actions represent our family either way.
CHALLENGE: Parents social training is always good – even today!! Honor needs to be given to whom honor is due.
DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers
: 9 And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword. (4405 byword” [millah] means a condensed but memorable saying or example embodying some important fact of experience that is taken as true by many people with a possible negative connotation)
DEVOTION: Here might be another indication that these conversations were given over a long period of time. There were people making songs about the plight of Job and they were not nice songs.
They were making his name something not to be honored but those who were hearing the songs. Job knew this was happening and he was not pleased. He didn’t think these things should be happening to him and he thought that those who knew him wouldn’t get involved in such a treatment.
Can you imagine people gathering in the streets and singing songs that put Job down? It had to be hard to listen to what people were saying when he knew they were wrong but couldn’t prove it at the time.
We might have gone through times when people put our names down. They might not have written a song but the gossip circuit was busy spreading whatever bad news they could about you.
So Job had this happen to him and he was innocent. God allowed it to be part of the test HE was allowed Satan to give in his life. Satan just continued to work on Job to make him deny the LORD.
The list of problems associated with what has taken place in Job’s life continue to get long but he is still defending his faith in spite of all that is happening.
Why didn’t he just give up? It seems at time he just wanted to die but he continued to give evidence that his relationship with the LORD was good. His friends didn’t believe him. His enemies thought all that was happening was joke.
Job knew where he was in his heart in relationship with the LORD and he kept that thought throughout the entire trial.
Can we keep the same thoughts as we go through our trials of life? If you are presently going through a hard time that you think you don’t deserve are you praising the LORD? CHALLENGE: Job had questions but he still gave glory to God. We need to do the same.
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: 13 They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper. (1942 “calamity” [havvah] means wickedness, perverse, the termination of something by causing so much damage to it that it cannot be repaired or not longer exists, destruction, or misery.)
DEVOTION: There are people who seem to enjoy hitting others while they are down. Here is Job in a poor situation where he could use friends to come along side and encourage him the best they could but instead they can do nothing but accuse him of wrongdoing.
They want him to confess or give up instead of continuing to tell them that he doesn’t understand why the LORD is doing this to him at this time. He needed good friends and they just thought they were helping by being part of his problem.
We have individuals in our lives that seem to be negative all the time. They see the bucket as have empty instead of half full. They can only see the negative side of what is happening instead of being an encourager to help the one who is down to get up again.
When we have someone or somebodies like these “friends” than we need to move away from them and find others who will be there to encourage us. It is not hard to find genuine friends that want to help rather than just say negative things against you.
Here we have to genuinely ask ourselves why we are going through these things and realize that the LORD will send an answer sometime in the future as HE did with Job.
Waiting on HIM is very difficult when you are going through hard times but HE is there and we need to seek HIM.
CHALLENGE: Self-examination is necessary at times and we need to be honest with what is happening in our lives. Look to the LORD to help you with this. HE helped Job.
DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers
: 21 Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me. (393 “cruel” [’akzar] means harsh, violent, deadly, or fierce)
DEVOTION: Have you ever wanted to give up? Have you ever felt that the LORD wasn’t hearing your prayers? Have people who didn’t have a good reputation ever make fun of you? Have you ever felt that you were better dead than alive? Do you ever wonder why the LORD leaves you here on this earth? Job thought all these thoughts.
The people that are making fun of him in his present condition are not the nobility. They are uncommon folks that he would have no dealings with in the past. They make songs about him. They want to spit on him. Some of those who don’t work and expect things to be given to them are jealous of those who have. If they have an opportunity, they love to put them down. This group is having fun at Job’s expense.
Job knows that the LORD is going to take him to his grave. He has cried out to God for help. He is not enjoying the affliction the LORD sent his way. He felt that God has been harsh with him. He believes God is not answering his pleas. He knows that the LORD is going to bring him to the grave before this is over. He believes that God is being heartless toward him. He doesn’t realize that the LORD is allowing Satan to commit these actions against him to refine him.
In our lives we have affliction that the LORD allows to happen to us. We don’t like it any more than Job liked his affliction. We pray and it seems like the LORD is not answering. We know that the LORD answers prayer. However, HE doesn’t answer it in our time frame.
Job is mourning over his condition. We will find out that that is not what the LORD wants Job to do during his affliction. We are to give thanks for all things. We are to count it all joy when we have diverse trials. Do we think that the LORD is heartless because of the affliction HE sends our way?
There are many Christians who are going through hard time. Some have lost their jobs and don’t know where to get the next one. Some have lost their friends and don’t know why. Some continue to lose money from their retirement and wonder what is going on. Some have children with health issues. Some have families that don’t get along. Some are in ministries that are having problems.
In all of these we are to give thanks. The LORD is never heartless. HE loves HIS children. HE will test them. HE is testing us. Are we passing the test???
We can be like Job and question what the LORD is doing but even in our questioning we can praise HIM. HE wants us to be honest with HIM. HE wants us to come before HIS presence with boldness. HE wants us to gather with other Christians and ask for prayer. Too often we don’t share our trials with others. We assume they know what we are going through. That is WRONG!!!
CHALLENGE: When we go through rough times we need to take it to the LORD in prayer. We also need to gather a group of Biblical friends to pray for our strength during these times. Share your heart with good friends.
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: 26 When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness. (3176 “waited” [yachal] means hope for, tarry, trust, endure, expect, or be pained)
DEVOTION: We have a movie we watch during the Christmas season that is called “It’s a Wonderful Life” where the main actor doesn’t think he has such a wonderful life. Well, the whole picture changes for him and now he is in trouble and doesn’t know what to do. He has an “angel’ helping him get through the whole movie. It all works out in the end.
Real life sometimes is not the same. Here we have Job living a life that is pleasing to the LORD and all of a sudden everything goes in another direction. He loses it all. He loses his possessions, family and health. He has “friends” come to give him comfort and there is no comfort. He looks to the LORD for answers but it seems that heaven is silent.
This verse explains how he is feeling at the present moment and might describe how we are feeling on different occasions in our life. We are looking for good and it seems evil came. We are hoping for a light at the end of our present circumstance and there seems to be only darkness.
Job’s life was real and our lives are real and there is going to be time of darkness rather than everyday being one of light from the LORD.
We are commanded to hope in the LORD no matter what our circumstances say to us. We are commanded to trust HIM with all our heart, soul and body. It is hard to do on days we see only darkness.
Dark days are not to have control of our life. The salvation provided by Christ on the cross gives hope beyond all our thoughts. Count on the LORD to keep HIS word when HE states that HE will never leave us or forsake us.
CHALLENGE: The example of Job and his thoughts at times helps us understand why we think these thoughts at times. We know they are wrong but they enter our head anyways.
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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)
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
Job cries out to God verse 20, 28
Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)
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DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:
Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)
God the Son (Second person of the Godhead –God/man, Messiah)
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)
Job verse 1- 31
He is in derision
I am a song to friends
Friends spit in my face
God has loosed the cord
God has afflicted me
Friends mar my path
Friends not helpers
Terrors are turned on me
Days of affliction (2x)
No rest
God cast me into the mire
God doesn’t hear his cries
Friends are cruel to him
Cried in the congregation
Skin is black
Bones are burned with heat
Harp turned to mourning
Organ into voice of them that weep
Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)
Thief verse 5
Fools verse 8
Base men verse 8
Viler verse 8
Evil verse 26
Darkness verse 26
Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)
Cry out to God verse 20
Grieved for the poor verse 25
Good verse 26
Light verse 26
Israel (Old Testament people of God)
Church (New Testament people of God)
Last Things (Future Events)
Death verse 23
Grave verse 24
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QUOTES regarding passage
30:26 Job’s problem was not complicated. Whatever he wished for, he received the opposite—“evil” instead of “good” and “darkness” rather than “light.” Formerly he led the good life, but now his life was filled with trouble: no wealth, no health, no respect. He had lived in the “light,” as it were, but now “darkness,” symbolizing death and the grave, was all he saw. (Alden, R. L. (1993). Job (Vol. 11, p. 296). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)
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24–31. In 29:18ff. Job outlines his former expectations. His present circumstances are as different as darkness from light. He looked for (‘expected’) good, but evil came. The words chosen take us back to 2:10. His heart (literally ‘intestines’, organs of the most visceral emotions) is in ceaseless turmoil. The main cause of his distress is the unaccountable injustice of his present plight. Although the meaning of verse 24 is quite obscure, in the light of verse 25 it could present the picture of a person ‘in ruins’ stretching out a hand for help which no common humanity would deny. Certainly, Job had never ignored such an appeal; indeed, my soul grieved for the poor. Verses 28–31 enlarge on his plight. Only the wild animals offer him hideous company (29); his appearance is repulsive (28, 30); his voice harsh and hoarse (31). On the rule ‘you reap what you sow’ Job should now be treated as he treated others (chapter 29, especially verses 12–17). His cry, unheeded by God (verse 20), is ignored by men also (28). The meaning of blackened, but not by the sun is not understood, and something parallel to verse 28 has been tortured out of it (as by neb) only by recomposing the line. Although a different root is used in verse 30, there is probably some connection. The word translated sun in verse 28a means ‘heat’ and the (different) word heat in verse 30b suggests drought or desolation. Job ends his lamentation on the physical agonies of his illness, unrelieved by a kind word or friendly touch. His friends sat with him (2:13), but they did not weep with him. (Andersen, F. I. (1976). Job: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 14, pp. 256–257). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.)
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24–31 These verses complete the contrast with chapter 29. Here Job was in the position of those poor wretches to whom his heart and strength went out in 29:12–17. As a summation of his case, he packed his argument with emotion and righteous indignation. Justice was all on his side. The very benevolence he so freely had dispensed (v.25) he now looked for in vain (v.26). Verse 26 also reminds us of his expectations in 29:18–20. So here (vv.27–31) he presented himself to the court as he was, his body marred and burning with fever; he himself was exhibit A. As he often did, Job closed the stanza (v.31) with a strong figure of speech (cf. 29:6, 14, 17, 25; 30:15). His “path had been drenched with cream” (cf. 29:6), now his “harp is tuned to mourning and [his] flute to the sound of wailing.” (Smick, E. B. (1988). Job. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job (Vol. 4, p. 987). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House)
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30:24–31. His three peers had done to Job what no one else would think of doing: they opposed him when he was broken and in … distress. Yet Job had sympathized and grieved with people in their trouble. Hoping to get some help (good and light) from his friends Job got the opposite. Certainly their antagonism was undeserved!
Then Job again elaborated on his physical and emotional pain: inner churning or turmoil, days of suffering (cf. v. 16), blackened skin (from his disease; cf. v. 30), crying for relief, wailing like jackals with their doleful howls, and like screeching owls (or, perhaps better, “ostriches,” as in the nasb, with their weird groans; cf. Isa. 13:21; 34:13; Micah 1:8), blackened and peeling skin (cf. Job 19:26), and intense fever. Consequently, his joy (harps and flutes often played joyful tunes) became grief; he was mourning and … wailing like someone in a funeral dirge. His emotional pain is expressed in 30:24–26, 29, 31; verses 27–28, 30 relate to his physical pain.
Such manifold misery, as Job voiced in this chapter, had led him down a path of great depression.
(3) Job’s oath of innocence (chap. 31). This solemn oath is Job’s final effort to compel God to do something about his plight. The negative form of confession, in which the accused wished on himself a curse if he were in fact guilty of the charges, is a strong form of denial. Job used the “if guilty” oath repeatedly (“if” occurs 19 times in vv. 5, 7 [3 times], 9 [twice], 13, 16–17, 19, 21, 24–26, 29, 31, 33, 38–39), sometimes followed by the imprecation “let” or “then may.” Besides denying Eliphaz’s charges against him (22:6–9) and other sinful actions, Job also denied infractions of attitudes and motives. (Zuck, R. B. (1985). Job. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 753). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
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Ver. 31. My harp also is turned to mourning, &c.] Which he used, as David, either in religious worship, expressing praise to God thereby, or for his recreation in an innocent way; but now it was laid aside, and, instead of it, nothing was heard from him, or in his house, but the voice of mourning: and my organ into the voice of them that weep; another instrument of music, which had its name from the pleasantness of its sound, and was of early use, being first invented by Jubal, Gen. 4:21. but not that we now so call, which is of late invention: those instruments which Job might have and use, both in a civil and in a religious way, were now, through afflictions, become useless to him, and neglected by him; or these expressions in general may signify, that, instead of mirth and joy he was wont to have, there were nothing now to be heard but lamentation and woe; see Lam. 5:15; Amos 8:10. (Gill, J. (1810). An Exposition of the Old Testament (Vol. 3, p. 437). London: Mathews and Leigh.)
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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!!)
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Romans 4
Justification by faith is illustrated in the Old Testament through the lives of Abraham and David.
INSIGHTTo impute something means “to apply something to your account.” The Bible teaches that no one can earn salvation. However, God will give it to us freely if we have faith in Him. God honors the attitude of our hearts and imputes righteousness to our accounts. To be able to impute righteousness to those living during Old Testament times, God looked ahead to the work of Christ on the cross. Now He looks back to the Cross. But in both ases, God´s people have been saved by grace through faith.
PRAYER
Offer praise to God for His righteous works:
I will praise the name of Jesus! (Quiet Walk)
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WHAT DOES FELLOWSHIP MEAN?
…and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
1 John 1:3
What does fellowship mean? To be in a state of fellowship means that we share in things. We are partakers or, if you like, partners–that idea is there intrinsically in the word. That means something like this: The Christian is one who has become a sharer in the life of God. Now that is staggering and astounding language, but the Bible teaches us that; the New Testament offers us that, and nothing less than that.
Peter writes,”Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4). That is it, and there are many other similar statements. Indeed, the whole doctrine of regeneration and rebirth leads to this; born again, born from above, born of the Spirit–all carry exactly the same idea. This, then, is what John is so anxious to impress upon the minds of his readers–that Christians are not merely people who are a little bit better than they once were and who have just added certain things to their lives. Rather, they are men and women who have received the divine life.
In some amazing and astounding manner we know that we are partakers of the divine nature, that the being of God has somehow entered into us. I cannot tell you how–I cannot find it in the dissecting room. It is no use dissecting the body–you will not find it, any more than you will find the soul by dissecting the body; but it is in us, and we are aware of it. There is a being in us–“I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20); how, I do not know. We will understand in glory, but somehow we know now that we are sharers in the life of God.
A Thought to Ponder
The Christian is one who has become a sharer in the life of God.
From Fellowship with God, pp. 80-82. BY Dr.Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
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The mark of a Christian should be love. In Matthew 22, we read that the two greatest commandments are love for God and love for our neighbor. In John 13:35, Jesus says, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” In John 17:21, Jesus says if Christians have unity (based on love), the world will believe that Christ was sent from God. When our badge is love, the world is convinced that we are genuine disciples of Jesus, rather than hypocrites. (Quiet Walk)
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Purified Seven Times
“The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” (Psalm 12:6-7)
The preservation of the divinely given words of Scripture is incomparably superior to that of all other ancient writings. God has not allowed any of His words to “pass away,” for Jesus said: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). They are, in fact, “for ever…settled in heaven” (Psalm 119:89).
Although the original “autographs” of Moses, Paul, and the other human writers have long vanished (perhaps they have even been translated to heaven with the Ark of the Covenant— note Revelation 11:19), God saw to it that dedicated Hebrew scribes and Christian scholars meticulously copied the writings through the centuries so that we still have God’s Word to guide us today. Although there are variant readings in different manuscripts, the original words are there somewhere. Very few real questions remain about any of these, so we have the original Greek and Hebrew words to a high degree of accuracy.
The fires of anti-Christian persecution, caviling humanistic philosophies, literary criticism, scientific skepticism, pagan pantheism, cultic distortions, and apathetic indifference have sought to destroy God’s Word, but all have failed. It is the bestseller of all time, translated into more languages than any other writings.
No matter what forces are directed against it, it always emerges brighter and surer than ever! Even this present generation will fail in all modern attempts to defeat the Holy Scriptures, for God will “preserve them from this generation forever.”
(HMM, The Institute for Creation Research)
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THE CROSS AND PRAYER
God heareth not sinners. John 9:31
The cross opens the door of heaven to me, and I can begin to pray. And we have all known, have we not, what it is to turn to God in prayer? Some of us remember during the last world war (World War II), and during the 1914-18 war (World War I), reading of the terrible experiences of men torpedoed at sea. There they might be, in their little dinghies, for days on end. The food had ended, so had the water, and they were just drifting, and it seemed that everything had finished, and there was nobody in sight to save them. They were frantic and did not know what to do. Then somebody would say, “What about prayer?” None of them had prayed for years or had ever thought about God, but in their trouble they remembered Him.
We have all known what it is to turn to God in prayer, but the vital question is this: Can we pray? Have we any right to pray? What is prayer? Prayer means entering into the presence of God. It means addressing that almighty, holy God who is in heaven while we are on earth, the God we have ignored and spurned and reviled and rejected. How can we go into His presence? The answer is that we cannot go into His presence as we are.
“God hears not sinners” (John 9:31). There is only one way whereby a man can pray with any confidence and assurance, and it is in believing in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to the apostle: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.” He is fond of saying this “we find it everywhere. “For through him,” says Paul to the Ephesians “by Christ’” “we both have access by one Spirit unto the Fathe”” (2:18).
A Thought to Ponder; There is only one way whereby a man can pray with any confidence and assurance, and it is in believing in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(From The Cross, pp. 191-192, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
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CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:3
The Christian experience is a definite and a certain experience–“that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us.” Now if people do not know what they have, how can they wish for others to share it with them? So that is the starting point–that the Christian experience is not a vague one; it is not indefinite or uncertain. Rather, it is a well-defined experience, and true Christians know what they have; they are aware of what they possess. They are in no uncertainty themselves as to what has happened to them as to their personal position. “These things write we unto you,” says John, “that your joy may be full”–that you may share what we have. You cannot invite someone to share something with you unless you know exactly what you are asking him to share.
We are dealing with what may be called the great New Testament doctrine of the assurance of salvation, which has been subjected to considerable criticism. People have regarded it as presumption. They have said this is something that is impossible, and that no one should be able to claim such a thing.
But John is a man who tells us that he knows, and it is because he knows and because of what he has experienced that he is writing. Christians are not men and women who are hoping for salvation, but those who have experienced it. They have it; there is no uncertainty. They “know whom [they] have believed” (2 Timothy 1:12); and it is because John has possessed this that he writes about it.
A Thought to Ponder: Christians are not men and women who are hoping for salvation, but those who have experienced it.
(From Fellowship with God, pp. 57-58, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
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