Confessional Lutheran Ministerium

Psalm 148:1-14 NKJV

148 

Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord from the heavens;
Praise Him in the heights!
² Praise Him, all His angels;
Praise Him, all His hosts!
³ Praise Him, sun and moon;
Praise Him, all you stars of light!
⁴ Praise Him, you heavens of heavens,
And you waters above the heavens!

⁵ Let them praise the name of the Lord,
For He commanded and they were created.
⁶ He also established them forever and ever;
He made a decree which shall not pass away.

⁷ Praise the Lord from the earth,
You great sea creatures and all the depths;
⁸ Fire and hail, snow and clouds;
Stormy wind, fulfilling His word;
⁹ Mountains and all hills;
Fruitful trees and all cedars;
¹⁰ Beasts and all cattle;
Creeping things and flying fowl;
¹¹ Kings of the earth and all peoples;
Princes and all judges of the earth;
¹² Both young men and maidens;
Old men and children.

¹³ Let them praise the name of the Lord,
For His name alone is exalted;
His glory is above the earth and heaven.
¹⁴ And He has exalted the horn of His people,
The praise of all His saints—
Of the children of Israel,
A people near to Him.

Praise the Lord!

Twelve times in this Psalm the Psalmist calls upon God’s people to praise Him. Twelve—one for each of the tribes of Israel, one for each of the apostles whom the Lord would call. Twelve is the number associated with the whole Church of God. The whole Church is encouraged to praise.

Actually, the praise is to come from even beyond the bounds of the Church. The Psalmist focuses first on the heavens, both the spiritual realm where the saints and angels dwell and the physical realm where the heavenly bodies hang. Saints and angels are called upon to praise their God. Even the voiceless heavenly bodies are to praise the Lord who hung them in space, who gave them their being and their purpose. Indeed, the fulfillment of their purpose is their praise as they declare the glory of God by their very existence.

The “waters above the heavens” are a reference to Genesis 1:7, when God stretched out the heavens to divide the waters left behind on the earth from the waters that He placed “above the heavens,” forming what sounds like a watery boundary at the edges of the universe. The fact that such waters have not yet been discovered by man is merely another reason for us to praise the Lord, whose understanding of the universe far surpasses man’s understanding, and who is to be praised all the way out to the edges of the creation.

The Psalmist then calls upon the earth and everything in it to praise the Lord, from the various kinds of living creatures, to the various wonders of nature, to the various classes of men. All, all, all owe the Lord their wonder, awe, thanks and praise, most of all because of how He raised up the people of Israel, and through them Christ the Redeemer, and through Christ the whole Church in heaven and on earth, so that we may outlast even the heavens and the earth and dwell with Him forever in glory everlasting.

Let us pray: We join all creation and the whole Church in praising Your name, O Lord, our God, for You alone—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—are worthy to be praised. Amen.

1 John 5:1-10 NKJV

John expresses in today’s reading something he also wrote about in the first chapter of his Gospel: “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (Jn. 1:12). Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, who came in the flesh to make atonement for our sins, is born of God. And those who are born of God not only love God. They also love all the others who are born of God. That’s the way it has to be in our Father’s house. But this love isn’t so much a feeling as it is a heartfelt devotion to God and to our brothers, a devotion that’s defined by God’s commandments. How do we love God and our brothers? By keeping God’s commandments, which we only truly begin to keep from the heart when we are born of God, when we are brought to faith in Jesus.

There are some significant differences in the Greek manuscripts of vv. 6-10, so that the (N)KJV reads very differently from the ESV/NIV. Nevertheless, they all agree that Jesus came by water and blood, and that the testimony of the Spirit, the water, and the blood agree that Jesus is indeed the Son of God in whom we should believe.

The water seems to refer to Jesus’ Baptism, when He stepped forth to fulfill all righteousness for us and when the Father gave His testimony about Jesus as His well-pleasing Son in whom we should believe. The blood seems to refer to Jesus’ death for our sins, after which the Father raised Him up, testifying again that Jesus is His well-pleasing Son in whom we should believe. The Spirit foretold Jesus’ Baptism (e.g. Is. 61:1) and His suffering, death, and resurrection and tells us the significance of it all (e.g. Is. 53:6-10). Those events themselves, combined with the Spirit’s testimony, are God’s reliable witnesses that Jesus is the Christ in whom we should most definitely believe, lest we make God out to be a liar. Let us pray: Father, You have given us ample testimony about Your beloved Son and have drawn us to Him by Your Gospel. For this we give You praise and thanks. Grant us Your Spirit, that we may always keep Your commandments. Amen.

1 John 4:11-21 NKJV

¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

¹² No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. ¹³ By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶ And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

¹⁷ Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. ¹⁹ We love Him because He first loved us.

²⁰ If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? ²¹ And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

When we first heard and believed the Gospel and were baptized into the name of Jesus, we sprang forth from Jesus as branches from a vine. In John’s Gospel, we heard Jesus say to His disciples, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). How do we know we still abide (that is, remain) in God and God in us? We continue to believe and confess that Jesus is the Son of God, along with all the other articles of the Christian faith. We know what and in whom we believe. We abide in the faith.

But there is an additional way to know that we abide in God and God in us. “He who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” That love is first for God. Standing on His promises of forgiveness and acceptance through Christ, we no longer cower in fear before our Father. We love Him, because we know for certain that He loves us and that all punishment and condemnation has been removed from us for the sake of Christ, who made atonement for all our sins.

But we’re fooling ourselves, John says, if we think we can love God while hating a child of God, a brother or sister in Christ, one of our fellow Christians. We claim to love a God whom we have never seen with our eyes or heard with our ears. But we do see our fellow Christians in the world. It should be easier to love the one we can actually see and interact with. But seeing our brothers also means seeing their weaknesses and their flaws and their needs that require our attention. The sin that still dwells in us makes it harder to love the ones we can see.

So if you find that you lack genuine love for your brothers here, don’t make excuses for it. Admit it. Repent of it. See in Christ God’s love for you and for your brother, and then return to your daily task of overcoming your natural lovelessness and replacing it with the love of your Father. When we love our brothers, that love then becomes a piece of evidence assuring us that we do, in fact, abide in God and God in us. Let us pray: Heavenly Father, abide in us with Your love, and, by Your Spirit, help us to abide in You always. Amen.

1 John 4:1-10 NKJV

4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, ³ and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

⁴ You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. ⁵ They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. ⁶ We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Today’s reading continues the focus on faith and love. Knowing our Father rightly, having the right faith, is essential. But there are many spirits, many spiritual teachings about God, that do not come from God. They come from the evil one. They are destructive lies, being spread by false teachers.

So John urges us to “test the spirits.” The only way to test them is with the Holy Spirit’s own inspired words and teachings, given through the prophets and apostles. The example John gives in these verses is the true humanity of Jesus. Anyone who denies this is spreading the teaching, not of Christ, but of the Antichrist. Later, John will give other examples concerning the true divinity of Jesus (4:15) and about Jesus being the Christ (5:1). It is not love for God to simply accept every nice-sounding teaching about God. It is not love for God to minimize the importance of doctrine. No, love for Christ compels us to make sure that nothing but the true teaching of Christ is accepted among us.

And when we adhere faithfully to the apostles’ teachings, we can be sure that we have overcome the world and all the lying spirits of the world, because the Spirit of God is greater than the devil and his false teachers, who are his antichristian representatives. The world gladly listens to lies, but “My sheep hear My voice,” Jesus said. The children of God will be able to see through the lies, if we listen carefully to God’s Word.

After tending to the faith God has given, we return again to the love of God as the source and pattern of our love. “God is love,” John says. God’s character faces outward, with genuine care, showing goodness to all, not because of anything good in us, but because that’s who He is. He demonstrated His love by sending His only-begotten Son into the world and causing Him to suffer and die for us, not because we deserved it, but because that’s who He is. If this is how God is, then let us strive, with the help of His Spirit, to become like Him.

Let us pray: Father, grant us discernment that we may distinguish between truth and lies. And, knowing You rightly, help us to become people who truly love as You love; through Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

1 John 3:11-24 NKJV

¹¹ For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, ¹² not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.

¹³ Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. ¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. ¹⁵ Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

¹⁶ By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. ¹⁷ But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

¹⁸ My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. ¹⁹ And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. ²⁰ For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. ²¹ Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. ²² And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. ²³ And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.

²⁴ Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

John summarizes the whole Christian life at the end of today’s reading: “This is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another.” Faith toward God and love, specifically, toward “one another,” that is, toward our fellow Christians. This love for “one another” does not exclude love for our unbelieving neighbor. But there is a special kind and degree of love for our brothers and sisters in Christ, a first priority.

John reminds us of the hatred that Cain had for his biological brother Abel, because, spiritually, unbelieving Cain was not believing Abel’s brother at all. It should be no surprise, then, if the world hates believers. What would be surprising, what would be truly horrifying, is if Christians started hating—or failing to love—their fellow Christians.

This obviously applies most directly to those Christians with whom we interact on a regular basis, those with whom we gather together and receive Holy Communion together. But the command necessarily goes beyond that. If we recognize Christians in many of the Christian denominations around the world, then we must also love them.

What does love look like? St. Paul tells us to “speak the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15). Loving our fellow Christians includes telling them the truth, honestly and humbly, if they have fallen into sin or been deceived by false teachings. Yes, love even includes not gathering around the Lord’s Table with brothers who hold to some false teaching, as a witness and as a warning.

Love is shown through words. But it must also be shown through actions. Jesus showed us that most clearly by laying down His life for those whom He loved, setting a pattern for us. We should be ready to die for our brothers and sisters in Christ, too. And if we are ready to die for them, why wouldn’t we also be willing to do something far less drastic, like being kind to them or sharing material goods with them?

Our Father commands His children to believe in the name of Jesus and to love one another. Let us do our Father’s bidding! Let us pray: Father in heaven, stir up true love in our hearts, that we may also show it with our actions. Amen.

1 John 3:1-10 NKJV

3 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. ² Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. ³ And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

⁴ Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. ⁵ And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. ⁶ Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.

⁷ Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. ⁸ He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

¹⁰ In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.

The apostle John refers over and over again in his writings to the astounding truth that we who believe in the Lord Jesus have actually been born again as children of God. And every time he says it, he says it with a sense of awe and gratitude to God, who has shown such grace to poor sinners through His Son, Jesus Christ. “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” He makes a sharp contrast throughout his epistle between the children of God and the people of the world, who are not the children of God. Understanding this is the key to understanding his repeated use of the word “brothers.” The “brothers” he is talking about are our fellow children of God, our brothers and sisters in Christ, our fellow Christians. As God’s children, we have the promise that we will one day see Him, and that we will be like Him, we will be fully restored to His image of holiness and perfection—like Father, like son and like daughter.

If we have this hope, to see our Father and to be like our Father after this world passes away, then we will keep ourselves pure now, while we still live in this world. Living righteously, living sinlessly, living as holy children of a holy Father will be our daily and constant purpose in this life.

If that’s not a person’s purpose, then he reveals that he is still a child of this world, not a true child of God. We are first made righteous in the sight of God by faith in Christ, who is our righteousness before God. But someone who has true faith cannot go on sinning without repentance. People are fooling themselves when they claim to believe in God while willfully living in sin. Such faith is certainly not saving faith. Wherever there is genuine faith, there will be daily contrition and repentance, growth in righteousness, and the constant effort to abandon sin. If the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil, it makes no sense for us to cling to the works of the devil. If the Son of God came to take away sin, how could we go on living in it?

Let us pray: Gracious Father, thank You for making us Your children. By Your powerful Spirit, make us more and more like You; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Psalm 147:1-11 NKJV

147 Praise the Lord!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
For it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful.

² The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.
³ He heals the brokenhearted
And binds up their wounds.
⁴ He counts the number of the stars;
He calls them all by name.
⁵ Great is our Lord, and mighty in power;
His understanding is infinite.
⁶ The Lord lifts up the humble;
He casts the wicked down to the ground.

⁷ Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
Sing praises on the harp to our God,
⁸ Who covers the heavens with clouds,
Who prepares rain for the earth,
Who makes grass to grow on the mountains.
⁹ He gives to the beast its food,
And to the young ravens that cry.

¹⁰ He does not delight in the strength of the horse;
He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.
¹¹ The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him,
In those who hope in His mercy.

Psalm 147 is a Psalm of praise. The first word of this Psalm in Hebrew is Hallelujah or Alleluia, which means, “Praise Yah[weh]!” Truly it is good to praise the Lord, Yahweh, the one true God who revealed Himself to Israel. It is good to sing praises to Him and about Him. And, as usual, the Psalmist gives us several reasons why He deserves our songs of praise.

The Lord deserves our praise because He is mighty and powerful, and His understanding knows no limits. He is, after all, the Creator of the stars, who still calls each one by name. But the Lord’s power and might would mean little, if He didn’t also care about us. But He does care, as the Psalmist describes. He built Jerusalem and kept it intact until Christ came and fulfilled the prophecies about His suffering, death, and resurrection. He continues to build the Jerusalem of His New Testament Church, as Jesus promised, “I will build My Church.” What’s more, He also cares for each and every member of His Church, healing the brokenhearted and binding up their wounds with His forgiveness and with His love. His goodness is seen in His lifting up of the humble, but also in His casting down of the wicked. Neither that lifting up nor that casting down always happens immediately, but it will always happen, because it is the Lord’s way.

Starting in v. 7, the Psalmist again calls on us to praise the LORD, with thanksgiving and with joyful music. Why? In the following verses, he highlights the Lord’s active involvement in the creation, in the formation of the clouds, in the sending of rain, in the growing of crops for man and beast. When you see the clouds in the sky, when you taste the food that has grown from the earth, remember that these benefits are not gifts of “Mother Nature.” Recognize your God’s hand guiding it all, and remember to give thanks to the Lord.

Finally, praise the Lord because He does not favor the strong, as this world does. Instead, He favors and delights in “those who fear Him, who hope in His mercy.” Let us pray: We praise You, O Lord! We fear You and hope, not in ourselves, but in You and in Your great mercy, which You have shown abundantly in Your acts of Creation, Preservation, and Redemption through Christ. Amen.

Psalm 146:1-10 NKJV

Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord, O my soul!
² While I live I will praise the Lord;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

³ Do not put your trust in princes,
Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.
⁴ His spirit departs, he returns to his earth;
In that very day his plans perish.

⁵ Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,
Whose hope is in the Lord his God,
⁶ Who made heaven and earth,
The sea, and all that is in them;
Who keeps truth forever,
⁷ Who executes justice for the oppressed,
Who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord gives freedom to the prisoners.

⁸ The Lord opens the eyes of the blind;
The Lord raises those who are bowed down;
The Lord loves the righteous.
⁹ The Lord watches over the strangers;
He relieves the fatherless and widow;
But the way of the wicked He turns upside down.

¹⁰ The Lord shall reign forever—
Your God, O Zion, to all generations.

Praise the Lord!

The 146th Psalm is also a psalm of thanks. Especially in this day and age, people are prone to put all of their trust in the leadership running the country. While it may be understandable to desire leadership that is conservative and aims more toward godly values, it still doesn’t mean that all a person’s trust should be poured into that leader. That’s called idolatry. The 3rd verse of Psalm 146 puts a proper understanding in the mind of the reader/prayer: “Put not your trust in princes [leaders], in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.”

Here’s how the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther put it: “This is a Psalm of thanksgiving; and it contains a blessed doctrine; namely, that we ought to trust in God, who alone can defend; and who does defend faithfully all those who trust in him, and all those whom the world hates and casts out. And the Psalm shows, that we ought not to trust in any man, not even in kings or princes, nor in the mighty, nor in the rich, as the world do. For (as the Psalmist saith) “it is God alone that can mightily and gloriously deliver out of affliction,” and all trust in man is deceitful and vain; for (to say nothing about the vanity of such trust in all other particulars) no man knoweth anything certain respecting his own life!”  (Luther’s Manual on the Psalms, pgs. 400-401)

 The psalm prophecies Jesus’ miracles in verses 4-6 — “the blind see; the lame walk; lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the Gospel preached to them” (see Matt. 11:5). Through His Word and Sacraments Christ continues to come and be the healer, the restorer, the anointed One through whom alone is salvation. It is He, says Psalm 146, “who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in the, standing guard over truth forever, doing judgment for the oppressed, giving food to the hungry.” Who else would we, believing/baptized Children of God want to turn or trust in?

Let us pray: O Lord, thanks be to You for bringing us to abandon all trust in man and trust alone in the only One through whom salvation comes, Christ Jesus. Amen.

1 John 2:18-29 NKJV

¹⁸ Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

²⁰ But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. ²¹ I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.

²² Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. ²³ Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

²⁴ Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.

²⁶ These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. ²⁷ But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.

²⁸ And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. ²⁹ If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.

Adding to the trouble we’ve already considered (the tugging of the world, sinful flesh and the devil)—mockers, plus the apostate who appear as if they were the Church and lead many astray—St. John now tells of the Antichrist, and that many like him had already come! He warns briefly, but thoroughly enough for us to recognize them.

      What reveals and characterizes the Antichrist, and the antichrists, is that they are deniers of God the Son and His saving work. There are those who, John says, went out from the Church, looking like the Church, but not being the Church. Among these are those who deny that Jesus is God the Son, a distinct Person from God the Father, but of the same Substance. The Athanasian Creed was traditionally confessed on all major festivals of the Church Year to prevent us from falling into the ways of these ancient heretics or their modern counterparts who so blatantly deny the deity of Christ.

More pernicious, though, are those antichrists who are not so blatant, outwardly confessing Jesus to be true God, but confounding His work. These cloaked evil-doers tempt us to look to something other than His atonement for the world’s sins as our salvation—whether directing our faith to our experience of His blessings or miraculous power, to our feelings of holiness or closeness to Him and the Church, or seeking assurance of our election through our works or service. The great Antichrist who enthrones himself over God, though, demands our faith to be in our works (or those of the saints) as supplementing Jesus’ payment for our salvation. He demands allegiance to himself, and condemns salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone (2 Thess. 2:3-4,7-10).

Rejoice, dear confessional Lutherans! Thanks to God working through Luther you have God’s preserved truth and are free from the Antichrist and the antichrists! Let us pray: O Holy Spirit, sanctify and keep us in the true faith, transforming us by and conforming us to Your holy Word!

1 John 2:11-17 NKJV

¹¹ But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

¹² I write to you, little children,
Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.
¹³ I write to you, fathers,
Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
Because you have overcome the wicked one.
I write to you, little children,
Because you have known the Father.
¹⁴ I have written to you, fathers,
Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.
I have written to you, young men,
Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you,
And you have overcome the wicked one.

¹⁵ Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. ¹⁷ And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

While much in the world has changed with the passage of time, much remains now than it was then. As Holy Scripture proclaims: “There’s nothing new under the sun.” (Ecc. 1:9) As it did then, much threatens now to deceive and destroy. Therefore, much of John’s response to his circumstances back then speaks just as well now as it did then. The blessings, the challenges, the exhortation, all are as timely now as ever.

While St. John frames his message in terms that are natural enough, there is at the same time no real difference in what he offers as assurances to all who abide. In no way does he differentiate between the blessings of some verses those of others. Not some but all are strong in the power of Christ’s victory over evil, which makes us “more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37).

In our day Christians still need to beware of the temptation to accommodate their faith to current cultural viewpoints and practices. We must not be taken in by the temptation to adjust biblical teaching ti fit the value systems of the pest world; to rationalize a materialistic lifestyle; to adjust moral standards subtly so they are not radically out of step with the times; to revamp our statement of theology so it will be more widely accepted; to employ methods of biblical critics in order to make conservative scholarship respected in the scholarly circles.

The temptations are many, and the urge to cave in is immense — all for the sake of comfort for the self. But Scripture calls it ‘worldliness.’  Any attitude that or action that makes the individual—and not God—the center and measure of the universe smacks of worldliness. Through faith in Christ’s fully atoning merits for you for the forgiveness of your sins, God brings you to do His will — namely, live and love sacrificially for the sake of your neighbor.

Let us pray: Thanks be to You, O Lord, for bringing us to forego the way of selfish worldliness and live sacrificially because of the sacrifice of Christ Jesus for us. Amen.