Changed by His Love
1 John 2:26: These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you.
There is the danger of their becoming super–duper saints. A lady said something to me the other day which I didn’t appreciate very much because I know her husband so well and he is a wonderful Christian. She’s been going to Bible classes, and they have been fine classes. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not criticizing the Bible classes. However, she was adopting a very superior attitude toward her husband, that she knew more than he knew, and that she was really the one who could teach him. Very frankly, I don’t think she could.
He is a very intelligent man, and although he is not able to be in as many Bible classes as she is, what he does hear has an effect upon his life. So there is a real danger of present–day Gnosticism, of professing to have a super knowledge and maybe even a super experience, of becoming a super–duper saint where there is just no one else at your level. Such a position is a dangerous one to come to because if you come into a knowledge of Christ and you begin to grow in grace and knowledge of Him, you will have the same experience that John the Baptist had, which he expressed this way, “He [Christ] must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). 1
Loving Him
Jesus continues to expose the road to deception. It can be easy to spot deception in others and difficult to detect in ourselves. Once again, abiding with Him is the certain cure from becoming a hostage to the demands of the world, and to the demands of our own flesh. Ask Jesus to reveal any log in your own eye. He will protect the humble.
For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Acts 20:29
Loving Others
An attitude of spiritual superiority is actually a very deceptive behavior to hide ones own spiritual insecurities.
Make Me Like You
Lord, thank you for teaching us to become the servant of all, and the lord of none.
1. McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Epistles (1 John) (electronic ed., Vol. 56, p. 74). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
