Whitehall MT Church of Christ

Whitehall MT Church of Christ A church that will always praise God and search His truth. Come let us reason together with God.

09/01/2026

Aug.31. First John 4:7-5:5.
(My phone is up & running again... obviously).
The 4th chapt. has more about love, it's definition, benefits, obligations and application than in the rest of the epistle combined.
It's mostly S.E. In v.8 he says that "God IS love", & in v.9 he says that that love is MANIFESTED in us. Should be able to see it.
V.10, "propitiation" is, again, restitution plus satisfaction.
V.12,15f, "abide" is your personal mailing address, & God's is in us.
In v.18, who is the one who fears? The man in v.20.
Sums up the chapt. in v.21.
5:1 is often compared with Jn.1:12 (see), but be careful with that: this isn't saying that 'once you receive/believe Him, that you're now ALLOWED to become children of God'. Not saying that. They already are. V.13 says that they "were born", past perfect tense. The argument hinges upon 1)the definition of belief (it already includes obedience), and 2)that our standing AS children of God is by His design, not ours. We couldn't achieve that station on our own.
So, back in 1st Jn. 5:1f our status as His children is demonstrated in our love for others of His children, when we love God, and when we are obedient to His will.
(An old teacher of mine had a tee shirt which said, "GO AHEAD! Get EVEN with God!
Love Him back! After all, He STARTED it!")
V.4, there are things that overcome the world. Can make a list of them, but the one John cites as giving US victory over the world is our faith.
Vss.6-9 contain a bit of a problem, so that will keep until next time, but DO read those vss. in several x-lations & cf. them.

08/27/2026

Aug.26. First Jn.3:17-4:6.
Vss.17f build upon v.16.
V.19, acting in our brother's interest demonstrates our heart condition.
Vs.20, the gnostic teacher has caused them to question their standing in God's eyes & John is telling them that God knows our hearts better than we do.
In Jer.17:9, he basically says 'Don't believe your heart when it says you're okay'. Here, John says 'Don't believe your heart when it tells you you're NOT okay'.
In both cases God is greater than our hearts & HE knows where we stand with Him. All we have to do is listen to what HE says, and then do that.
Vss.21-24 John reasons from that truth & demonstrates the confidence we have before God & the benefits of that. Like, 'Don't let anybody steal your joy, Brethren.'
4:1 is a crucial doctrinal point: "test the spirits to see if they are of God", which presupposes, doesn't it, that there are spirits out there which are NOT of God?
(John takes an aside for a few verses & comes back to this point in v.5.)
Vss. 2-4, Because of the gnostic heresies regarding Jesus not being God, & sounding convincing about it, Jn. puts all this together & again tells the church that they are okay & that they have God's word for it.
The "test" they are to use to determine whether or not those spirits are of (from) God, is the word OF God -your Bible.
In v.5, "They" here are the spirits from v.1, whom we are to 'test' using Scripture. Do they pass or fail the test?
V.5 says they fail because they are "of the world" & not from God.
Notice also that the world listens to them, so they're slick, convincing. Their speech is smooth and fair and beguiling, Paul says in Rom. 16:18.
A silver-tongued predator is still a predator.
Vs.6 is the comparison between the gnostics & the apostles: 'We ARE of God. Test US & you'll see that. Listen to our teaching, not theirs'.
Any doctrine which discards the apostle's teaching was invented in hell.

08/24/2026

Aug.23. First John 3:13ff.
Because of what Jn. just got through saying, he says in v.13, 'It's not at surprising for evil to hate good'.
In Gen.3:15, God PUT hostility (enmity) between good & evil. God WILL NOT HAVE peaceful coexistence between good & evil.
If we compare the "love" Cain had, a self-love, but the bad kind - eros vs. agape, because Cain loved Cain, no matter what it cost Abel), we have a cf. of 3:12f with 3:16,18. Capisce?
V.14, a new life? 'You have that', Jn. is saying. This love is present active tense- you must PRESENTLY love. If you do not presently love, then you are presently dead.
V.15, hate = a failure to love. To actively hate, all you gotta do is not love, yeh? Non-love is hate just as non-righteousness is sin & that guy is dead AND he's a murderer.
Cain hates, & is "ek tou ponerou" ('out of the evil one'); Satan is a murderer (Jn.8:43f, see.), killed Adam & Eve.
The one who hates, kills his own soul, note Gen.4:5-8 (Where Satan uses Cain's heart to kill the seedline promised in Gen.3:15).
The murderer in 1Jn.3:15 is the hater. He's already destroyed his own soul.
Without the cross, 3:16, we'd not know agape. Jesus lay down His life -a deliberate decision-(an act of obedience); He did it 100%; and He did it for US! So in v.16, see that Calvary imposes upon us a DEBT!
Anyone you know who's alive because another died? Jim Fowler was in a foxhole with 2 guys when a gr***de flew in. One guy jumped on the gr***de (this is a literal event here) & is shredded. When asked in class how that made him feel, Jim said, "How do you want me to feel? I was alive covered with his blood".
Graphic? yes; but no more graphic than you & I being covered by the blood of the Lamb of God.
Give that a think next time as you take the Lord's Supper, because that was a literal event, too.

08/22/2026

Aug.19. 1st Jn.3:9ff
Idea here is the PRACTICE of sinning. A person born of God will refuse to continue practicing sin because His seed abides in him.
Be very careful here, as some will say that once you are saved you CAN'T sin, which is what the antinomians preached then & even now.
John is just communicating that a believer will CHOOSE not to continue practicing a particular Christian infraction. They will fight it, pray, asking God to keep the evil one away, resisting the devil so he'll flee, asking other belivers for their help & prayers, etc.
Compare those behaviors with the children of the devil in v.10.
Reminds me of Gal.6:1 (see now). When Paul says "caught in any trespass", he's not talking about being caught 'red-handed', but rather you being 'ensnared' (caught) by the sin.
Can't get out of it even though you try. So, in asking the church for their prayers, a spiritual one there may have been ensnared by that same sin or trespass, is now free & can help you back to the light, and do so in Christian love.
Carry that idea into what John says in v.11.
V.12 suggests that Cain was, in fact, a "lover", but a self serving one. Jn. says we are not to love one another like that.

08/12/2026

Aug 11. Ist John 3:2ff.
Last text (Aug.10), we saw 3:2 promises our resurrection & so spirit CAN indwell flesh or there would not be a resurrection in our future.
In 3:3 we must purify ourselves to be ready for that event.
How do we go about that? He's already said, & we've looked at it together, but it's been a while, so: 2:6, by staying in the blood which entails walking as He walked, which is our response to the redemption He purchased. 2:1 shows that it works, that He does purify. Seek after sanctification, Heb.12:14 (Justification is God making us clean; sanctification is our effort to bring our lives into line WITH that justification), and, to the degree that we quit sinning, we become purer and purer -more sanctified. If Christians then, our sins are not a failure in our justification, but in our sanctification. That's not license to sin, but a reason NOT to.
3:4, he speaks of a PRACTICE here. Says it's lawlessness. All the gnostic groups growing out of the antinomians - ('no law" once you're saved) -their thinking being, you'll recall, is that once spirit indwells flesh, nothing the flesh does can influence the spirit (small 's'), this would include in the antinomians themselves, the epicureans, Nicolaitans, libertines, and all who would say that once one is saved, a person cannot become again lost, and the apostle John refutes that. Follow his inspired reasoning here:
V.5, antinomians said (and still say, given the above) that, in effect, once one experienced the new birth, as his readers had, sin doesn't make any difference to God. Here, John tells the church that they know that's wrong. Were it true, why did God manifest Himself in Christ to take it away?
John takes his proof further by saying that "in Him there is no sin". Why didn't Jesus practice sin, if it doesn't make any difference to Him?
A third point may be in v 8. The Son of God appeared THAT ('so that'; 'in order that' - a heena clause here) He might destroy the works of the devil. Sin.
Why go through that if once a person is saved their sins are of no concern to Him? And why would the faithful NEED an advocate, 2:1?
Vs.6, "abides" is present tense. Fellowship. The one who fellowships God isn't antinomian. He will sin, but that's not his practice.
Those who practice sin have neither seen nor known Him, v.6. Can't be converted on a platform of hatred. Rather, conversion is based on the blood of Christ, manifested in a practice of righteousness, 3:9; the practice of love, 4:7; & the practice of belief, 5:1, all of which here are present tense. Still applicable. Whatever it takes to get new birth, it takes exactly that to keep it.

08/11/2026

Aug.7, First John 2:21ff.
(Best if you call re-read the text from 7/6, the day they decided to change the texting platform to something "better")
In 2:21 John tells them, 'you already know this, but I'm going to tell you again anyway"; cf. 1:2; 2Pet.1:12-15, esp. v 15; Eph.3:4, etc. -all pretty much pleading with us to read what they wrote.
In 2:22, & several times in this epistle, John ('the apostle of love') calls these gnostic teachers "liars" (cf. vss 26; 3:7, 20; 4:3,5, 20; 5:10, just to name a few).
Really 2:18-27 tell us HOW we know what we know.
2:27, the anointing has taught you, and as a result:
In vs. 28, Jn. says "abide" (your permanent mailing address) "in Him" (same term Jn. uses in Jn.15:4-7, 10, and for the same reason)
In Ch.3, to grasp John's words, we must remember that the antinomian gnostic says he has God & he's the only one who does.
3:1, "Look how great (amazing, some versions say) a love God has. So, what's so amazing about it?:
1) He bestows it. 2) He bestows it on US! (Take a glance @ Rom.5 for a minute. Paul says that while we were helpless, v.6; sinners, v.8; enemies, v.10, God reconciled us -that's pretty amazing love, yeh?)
3) He grants us status, Jn. says in 3:2, calls us "children of God".
4) promises Future Glories, v.2. Really don't know what we'll be like, but we do know that we'll be like Him.
All these have dealt with what we ARE, but here in v.4, he speaks of what we WILL be which isn't so clear.
"We'll see Him as He is", but we don't know much about that either.
I think John's point at least INCLUDES the idea of our resurrection as part of these future glories. IF flesh were altogether evil, as the gnostics teach, then there wouldn't BE a resurrection, & here in 3:2, John promises one. Then he begins to help us prepare for it.

07/27/2026

July 27, 2026.
Eureka!
On July 6th, Samsung decided that they would no longer support the message ap on their phones.
They switched us to Google messenger & I had to send each text individually to over 100 people. Knew that was not going to work.
Attempted many configurations /sought much counsel, but just in THIS last hour, I hit upon a combination which seems to have worked.
So all today should have rec'd the 1st John text dated that last date, Jul. 6th, even if a few had rec'd it already, back when I was trying to do it individually.
Likewise, all should receive this text.
(Am tempted to say, "Let me know if you don't receive this message", which I would find quite funny, though some may not.)
Also noticed on this format, there there is no word count. Used to be limited to 256 characters & spaces -which was sometimes inconvenient for me. Now, there seems no limitation, which may prove inconvenient for you! But I will try to be respectful of your time.
God bless your continued reading of His word!

07/04/2026

July 3. 1st John 2:18ff, where John is listing the characteristics of the antichrist(s), con't.
In 4:6, he says they: reject apostolic authority; are motivated by the spirit of error, 4:5f; are deceivers, 2nd Jn.7; and they menace your salvation, 2Jn.8.
So that's what? 14 attributes?
See, so the antichrist isn't some baby boy with a tiny 666 birthmark, yeh?
They are those who, by various means, reject the religion Jesus perished & then rose again to purchase for us, then they supplant that inspired faith with one of their own design, telling people that theirs is superior.
They are wrong, & yes, there are those today who do what the gnostic antichrists were doing in the first century.
Review the apostle's list he gave here. YOU KNOW people who fit this profile right now! You do. Might even be entrusting your immortal soul to them. Some of these 1st century brethren did that: traded their identity as Jesus' church for a cheap, plastic imitation.
(Another point fits in here: antichrist doesn't HAVE to be a person; can be an antichristian doctrine. That's the way John employs the term in Revelation. Emperor worship -an earthly king- superceding worship of our heavenly King.)
So, in 1Jn.2:18, he began a CONTRAST between a profile of antichrists (here, gnostics) and the profile of those Christians who survived the church split initiated by gnostic heresies.
What follows now, primarily, are the characteristics of the saved, along with the precious standing of those (all souls) who adhere to this heavenly authored salvation.
V.20 begins a highly contested discussion of an "anointing". Not hard if we just READ what John wrote!
He says that they "HAVE an anointing FROM the Holy One".
So, first crack out of the box, the anointing ISN'T Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Look at it: the anointing is FROM God, the anointing here isn't God.
It is the MESSAGE, not the MESSENGER. At least not here.
To see what it IS, list what it DOES.
More manana.

07/03/2026

July 2. 1st Jn.2:18ff.
John begins a contrast (a 'cf.' = contrast/compare) between Jesus' church here with the gnostic "antichrists", listing first the characteristics of those who are teaching falsehood to the true church.
V.18 begins, in most versions with, "Children, it is the last hour", but the "the" isn't there. When the definite article is absent in Greek, the reader or listener supplies the appropriate indefinite article: "a", or "an". So he says, "It is A last hour". This indicates a transition occurring: In Jn.4, Jesus "An hour is coming & now is", the hour indicates a transition (remember when I put X, it's short for 'trans', so 'Xisition', means 'transition', right?)
When Jesus says, "My hour has not yet come", it means a Xisition will occur.
In Jn.5:25 (see) the spiritually dead will Xisition to spiritual life (the 'resurrection' of dead into life.)
& in Jn.5:28 (also see), a Xisition of the physically dead at the last day.
So here in 1Jn.2:18 is a significant Xisition -apostacy is beginning, antichrists are coming & some were already there at that time.
(The whole idea of an "antichrist" has been hijacked by Hollywood & fed to people. And some lazy preachers have fed that error to their flocks. Best for us if we listen to John's definition.)
He lists many forms of antichrist(s):
V.19, sectarian; non-Christian; never accepted the truth (or, if they did, they have departed from it), these are heretics -we really didn't loose a Christian in the bunch- BUT they DO draw after them some people in the church & these eventually lose their church identity. (This is the first Biblical split); they are liars, v.21f; denying the Father AND the Son; they decieve & lead you astray, v.26; claim to be anointed, vss.20, 24, 27 (which we'll circle back to & discuss); they are false prophets, 4:1; deny the humanity of Christ, 4:3; they are of the world, and speak from the world, 4:5; (More of their profile tomorrow, AND THEY ARE STILL HERE!)

07/02/2026

July 1. Read First John 2:15ff.
Want to thank you all for your grace & patience in granting me a sabbatical for a time; I certainly needed it.
So, last verses we looked at in 1st Jn. were 2:12-14. Then we looked at the order of John's writings; 4 points regarding Inspiration, Text, & Canon showing the legitimacy of the Bible's 66 books & the error of adding the Apocrypha or the Pseudoepigraphical books to the canon God approved.
So, let's get back to 1Jn.2. in v.15.
Four kinds of love in Gk., this one is agape, or 'sacrificial love', so Jn. says 'Do NOT sacrifically love 1)the world, 2)the things of the world". Some of those might include appetites, prestige, money, power, etc.
Rich young ruler was in trouble not because he had 'things', but that the things had him, yeh?
And "world" here is this present existence. In 2Tim.4:10, Demas loved "this present world" more. Didn't want to die. But Jn. says in Jn.12:24 (see) that the seed MUST die, death is required; see also v.24.
Why not love these things? Because if you do, the love of God isn't in you. There ARE 2 worlds -this one & the next one. Can't serve 2 masters because you'll love the one & hate the other. (See also Col.3:1f, 5).
V.16, the very nature of things -lust of the flesh (internal), lust of the eyes (external), boastful pride of life (external, too, but things we already have). Satan uses these to attack.
Like a Pharisee giving a coin to the poor, but also blowing a trumpet. Doesn't come from God, but has it's roots in worldliness. Takes God completely out of the picture.
V.17, the world passes away & the things, too -these are temporary, so they really can't count, BUT he who does the will of God lives eternally.

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