03 What does 'Abide in Christ' mean? (1 John 2:1-11)

Krisan Marotta: If you're listening to the Wednesday in the Word podcast, this is the podcast where we explain not only what scripture means but how we figure it out. I'm Krisan Marotta. This is the third talk in our series on the book of 1 John. Today we're going to be looking at 1 John chapter 2, verses 1 through 11. The lecture notes for today's talk are on the link below this podcast, or you can also find them on our website at wednesdayintheword.com slash 1 John 3. I'm so glad you joined us today. How do we know what matters? Think about all the different denominations in the Christian Church and all the doctrinal differences that we have with each other. Which ones should we be worried about? For instance, what about the Sabbath? What if there's a group in our church who believes that it's wrong for your kids to play sports on the Sabbath and another group in the church thinks no recreational activity is perfectly okay? How are we supposed to handle those differences? Or what about baptism? What if one group thinks you have to be immersed and another group thinks no, you can be immersed, but you can also be sprinkled? Does that mean that one of those groups is saved and one isn't? Infant baptism is another big one. Some people say it's symbolic only, some people say it's for the child, some people say it's for the parents. There's a lot of different views on that. How are we to handle it when we have different ones? And then there's the issue of women in authority. What if one group thinks that women can be pastors and another group thinks they can't even lead a small group? How are we to handle those differences? Now I do think if we could achieve a perfect understanding of scripture, we would know how to handle these issues. I'm not saying that all truth is relative. I firmly believe there are absolute truths out there, and there are right and wrong answers to these questions, that is, biblically, theologically correct answers, and if we had a perfect, wise, mature understanding of scripture, we would know what to do. But we're not there yet. I certainly don't claim to have all the answers, even though I do think they're out there. The question I'm asking today is which disagreements matter? What do I do when I disagree with the answers that another genuine believer gives to these kinds of questions? Does it matter or does it not matter? What issues are so critically important that I should draw a line and say if you don't believe X, it seriously calls into doubt whether you're really a believer. On the other hand, what issues should I say, well, okay, we disagree, one of us is right, one of us is wrong, eventually God will straighten us out, one of us, or maybe both of us, because we both could be wrong, but where do you draw the line? What are the make or break issues on which we must agree, and what are the issues that we can say, you know, one of us is right, one of us is wrong, and we'll just agree to disagree. That's the issue we've been discussing in first John. And what I want to suggest to you is in terms of drawing that line, I think there are at least two critically important questions. Questions so fundamental to the faith that you must answer them correctly biblically or you're not saved. The first one is your view of Jesus. Who was Jesus Christ and what did he do for you? You have to answer those questions correctly to be saved. Who was Jesus? What did he do for you? So your view of Jesus. The second is your view of sin and righteousness, and that's the issue John has brought up in chapter one, and he's going to continue discussing in the section we're looking at today. To review, John wrote this letter from Ephesus when he was an old man and most likely the last surviving apostle. The generation that lived during Jesus' earthly ministry is passing away. And as they pass away, disputes are arising in the church over what is the actual gospel. Because now everyone is learning the gospel one step removed. Now they are no longer learning the gospel directly from an apostle or from someone who was sent directly by an apostle. They're learning it one step removed, and the gospel is getting distorted. False teachers are claiming that the apostles got the teachings of Jesus wrong, but not to worry, because these teachers have the real gospel, and oh by the way, Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah. And other debates are arising, and John, as the last surviving apostle, steps in to set the record straight. So he began the letter by stating his authority. He's an apostle of Jesus and an eyewitness to the life and ministry of Jesus. He tells us the gospel is about how to find life in the kingdom of God, and that he is in a unique position to teach that message because he was there, he saw it, he heard, and he touched. And if you want to know which voice to listen to amidst the cacophony of voices all claiming to have the truth, then he says, listen to Jesus and the apostles Jesus sent. Jesus has the word of life, the message, and the truth about how to find eternal life, and he gave his apostles unique authority to speak for him. Then in verse 5 of chapter 1, he began the body of the letter, and his first point was that if you're trying to recognize the true gospel, the first thing you need to realize is that God is good, completely and utterly good, and those who follow him will walk in the light, as he said. That is, their lives will be marked by a desire for holiness and godliness, and they will repent and grieve over their sinfulness. He's going to give us two more marks in the section we're going to look at today. In other words, two more ways to recognize true believers, and those are that genuine believers will keep his commandments, that is, keep the commandments of Jesus, and they will love their brothers and sisters. Now this is a continuation, I think, of what he began in verse five. So I'm going to start with chapter two, verse one and go to verse six. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin, and if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. By this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. The one who says I have come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in him. The one who says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked. So he's just said in chapter one, verses five through ten that believers must know they're sinful, and now I think he's gonna conclude that section. The first two verses of chapter two kind of summarize and wrap that up and then introduce what he's gonna go on to say. And in this next section, he's basically gonna say, Don't take what I said about knowing that you're sinful to be a license to sin. Knowing that you're sinful does not mean you can now pursue a lifestyle of of sin. So in two one, when he says, I'm writing these things to you, whenever we see a phrase like these things, we want to ask ourselves, what things is he referring forward to what he's about to say, or is he referring backward to what he just said? And I think because of the flow of thought that this refers backwards. I am writing to you all these things about I what I just said in five through ten about genuine believers pursuing righteousness and recognizing that they're sinful. I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. I see these verses as concluding his thoughts from the previous chapter, and he's saying something like, My spiritual offspring, I've written these things about how genuine believers will view sin so that you won't fall into a lifestyle of sin. Now remember the Gnostics believed that there was a schism between the spiritual and the physical, such that it didn't really matter what you do with your physical body as long as your soul, your spiritual self, is enlightened with their secret knowledge. So they claimed you can pursue a selfish, sinful, hedonistic lifestyle and still be a Christian. And that may be what John has in mind. Some people say that Gnosticism wasn't really a force in the culture yet, that it came later, but we do see a very similar argument that Paul writes against in Romans. He has critics who claim, hey, Paul, if your gospel is right, if we're saved by grace and we're no longer obligated to keep the law, then we can do whatever we want, right? Because we're forgiven. And Paul writes against that in Romans, and that's a very similar view, that it doesn't matter what I do with my body because I'm forgiven. And John's saying here, I think I'm writing this to you so that you won't get taken in by these false claims and pursue a sinful lifestyle. And that brings us to verse two. First John chapter two, verse two is one of those verses that splits denominations. How you interpret this verse has some profound implications for your theology, and those differences have divided denominations. I'm going to give you a very brief introduction to the debate, and you could accuse me of oversimplifying the issues. I may have done that in trust trying to boil them down into a few minutes and make them understandable, but at least this is the flavor of the debate. So two one and two two, my little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin, and if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. Now I would understand this to be something like when you sin, remember that you have an advocate or an intercessor with God in Jesus Christ, and he is just. I think that's what he means by an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. We have someone who will speak on our behalf with the Father, and that is Jesus Christ, and he is just and fair and trustworthy. And so I see two one as an a word of encouragement. He said, you know, I, John, have just explained how you have to seek holiness and godliness and take your sins seriously, but when you do sin, I don't want you to conclude that you have failed and you are not a believer. Rather, remember when you sin that you have an advocate. And an advocate is just a powerful counsel for the defense. You have this person who will speak for you in Jesus Christ who will come to your defense such that God will forgive you. So you need have no fear in confronting your sin and repenting of it because Jesus Christ is faithful and trustworthy to defend you before God. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins. Okay, what's a propitiation? Propitiate means to regain favor or to appease. And when we talk about the atonement, two words come up, expiation and propitiation. And even though we don't use them as part of our daily vocabulary, I think we need to understand the difference. And if we understand expiation, it's gonna help us understand propitiation. In his book, The Truth of the Cross, R. C. Sproull explains those two terms this way. Expiation has to do with removing something or taking something away. And you see that in the prefix ex, which means out of or from. That always helps me remember what it means. Expiation has to do with taking away guilt. So you take away guilt through the payment of the penalty or payment of the ransom, the offering, the atonement. So expiation is to remove guilt or to take the guilt away through the offering of an atonement or paying the penalty. But propitiation, on the other hand, has to do with the object of the expiation. The prefix pro means for, and propitiation brings about a change in God's attitude. He's the object of the expiation. He's the one we're trying to appease. He's the one the payment for penalty is being made to. Propitiation changes his attitude such that he moves to being for us. He's no longer against us, now he's for us. So through the process of propitiation, we are removed from being under the wrath of God. We are restored into favor with him, and that's the propitiation. So if you're angry with me because I've done you wrong and I satisfy your anger, then I am restored to your favor and the problem is removed. So the thing that I do to satisfy your anger, that's the expiation. The change in your attitude such that you are now favorably disposed to me, that's propitiation. So expiation is the act that results in the change of God at God's attitude toward us. That's what Christ did on the cross. It describes the ransom he paid for us, and the result of Christ's work is propitiation. God's anger is turned away, his wrath is satisfied. So propitiation describes the resulting change of attitude in the one who receives the ransom. So take all that back to John. John is saying, But when you sin, remember you have an advocate, you have an intercessor with God, Jesus Christ who is just, Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for your sin, and as a result, when he advocates for you, it turns away God's wrath for your sin and restores you to his favor. Now the theological debate is around the last phrase in two two. Who are the two groups in the rest of the verse? He says, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. Well, who is the ours and who's the whole world? The first view is universal salvation, and this view is held by the universalist. They understand the ours as believers and the world to mean everyone else. So he's talking about not only ours as believers, but also for everyone else in the entire world, and they would argue that Christ's death offers and guarantees salvation for everyone. And they see John as saying Christ is an advocate and a propitiation, not only for those who have faith, but for everyone everywhere, and in the end, love wins and everyone will be saved. Well, that view doesn't hold up to Scripture. There are so many verses that contradict that it's hard even to know where to begin. It is quite clear from Second Peter and Romans nine, among many other places, that some people are not going to be saved. Just for example, this is Second Peter chapter two verses one through three. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. So destruction, most people see that as judgment, they're not going to be saved, going on in verse two. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be maligned, and in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. So judgment and destruction, again, not everyone will be saved. And I have talks on Second Peter on the website if you want to explore that chapter more. I also have talks on Romans 9. Those are two kind of key verses that speak against universalism, but there's a lot. The second view is called universal atonement. This view is held by Arminian theology, those who adhere to Arminian theology. The Arminians also understand this passage to refer to believers and unbelievers, but they don't think Christ's death guarantees salvation. So they would say Christ's death offers salvation to everyone, but it does not guarantee salvation for anyone. Salvation requires a response of faith on the believer's part. So the classic analogy the Armenians would use to explain this is suppose you're drowning in the water and someone throws you a life preserver. That throwing you a life preserver is what Jesus did on the cross. The life preserver will save you, but in order for it to save you, you have to reach out and grab onto it. You're not saved until you actually grab onto it. So the life preserver is there for everyone, but only those who reach out and grab it are the ones who are going to be saved. So the Arminians would see John as saying, Christ is an advocate and a propitiation for everyone in the whole world, but only a few people are going to actually accept his sacrifice and be saved. Now the major problem with Arminian theology, in my opinion, is that it takes salvation out of God's hands and puts it back in mine. Under that view, God doesn't actually save me because it's up to me whether I grab hold of the life preserver or not, and I can let go at any time. I think that scripture makes it clear that salvation is God's doing from beginning to end. There are again, I think, lots of verses that teach that. Let's just look at Ephesians chapter two, this is verses one through ten. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast, for we are his worksmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, so that we would walk in them. I know there's a lot in there, but the key verse is for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is a gift of God. If I'm understanding Ephesians correctly, the life preserver is the wrong analogy. The better analogy is that we have already drowned. We are already dead at the bottom of the ocean floor, and what God does for us is He makes us alive again. Because of Jesus' death on the cross, he brings some of us back to life. Notice that you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked, but God being rich in mercy, because of his great love, made you alive. So salvation is God's doing from beginning to end. And that brings us to the third view of this verse, which is known as limited atonement. This is the view held by reformed theologians and Calvinists. In my reading, reformers are split on how to understand John II, but they end up in the same place. They just get there by a slightly different interpretive road. So I'm going to give you again the two simplified understandings. Some reformers see John as referring here to elect Jews and elect Gentiles. So he's saying, John is saying, Christ is an advocate and a propitiation not only for Jews who believe in Jesus, but also Gentiles from all over the world who believe in Jesus. They would argue that Christ's death guarantees salvation only for the elect. So under this view, salvation is still God's doing from beginning to end. God calls us, predestines us, foreknows us, redeems us, offers his son as the atoning sacrifice, and changes our hearts and gives us faith. But he only does this for the elect, that remnant or subset of humanity. Now some who hold this view say that because this is John's theology, he just assumes that we will know that he's talking about the elect here and the ours and the whole world we would he just assumes we will know would be the Jews and the Gentiles who are saved. Because the issue of the day was what about the Gentiles? Culturally, at the time, the question of Gentile salvation was under d debate. Now, a slight variation on this is that John is talking about believers and unbelievers, not just the elect, because Christ's death is an adequate and sufficient payment for everyone's sins. In other words, they would say Christ's death was sufficient to cover the sins of the entire world, but God only accepts it as payment for those who have faith, and faith itself is a gift of God. And that view ends up in the same place, still concluding salvation is God's doing from beginning to end, that He's the one who calls us, redeems us, and gives us faith. But he only does that for the elect. So they would say if there was some hypothetical unbeliever out there who was not part of the elect but wanted to be saved, no other payment would be necessary. In other words, they would say it's not the case, it could never be the case that there is only enough of Christ's blood to cover the elect, and if other people wanted to be saved, we'd have to find another sacrifice that Christ's blood was sufficient for everyone, but only guarantee salvation for the elect because God accepts it as payment for them. Now, just to clarify, I don't believe their hypothetical is possible. I don't think there is anyone out there who wants to be saved and is not saved, because even the desire to want to be saved is something that God gives us. And that's the first step of faith. Okay, so that's the various understandings of the verse and its theological implications. The question we want to talk about as Bible students, then is why is it here in chapter two? What did John think he was saying in context? Well, it seems to me, and again I don't have the market corner, but my best understanding at this point is that in context, John is saying something like this there is only one way to salvation for everyone, and that is through faith in Jesus. So remember, the Gnostics were teaching that the way to salvation was through enlightenment, not really forgiveness. You had to be enlightened by their secret knowledge. The Pharisees thought that the way to salvation was through law keeping and following all the rules and regulations. And I think John's point is Jesus paid the penalty for our sins, and there is no other way to salvation. That is the only way. It's not that we can gain salvation through forgiveness, and other people can gain it through enlightenment, and other people can gain it through keeping the law. There's only one way to salvation for the whole world, and that is Christ's death. That is the only basis on which anyone can hope to gain God's forgiveness. So I would paraphrase that something like this My young friends, I have written these things to you so that you might not be taken in by a lifestyle of sin. But when you do sin, remember that we have someone who speaks for us before God, and that is Jesus Christ the just. He's the way we gain forgiveness because he paid the penalty for our sins, and he is not the way to gain forgiveness just for us. He is the way to gain forgiveness for anyone anywhere in the world. Alright, let's go on to verse three. By this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. John is returning to this issue of how do we recognize genuine teachers and false teachers, and how do we know genuine believers from false believers. Having said that believers walk in the light in chapter one, I think now he says, Let me give you a second way to recognize true believers, and this is, I think, flushing out that idea. They will keep his commandments. Now keep in this context means to embrace as good and right to obey. The idea is that you would want to strive to obey them, that even if you can't obey them perfectly, you still believe they are the right thing to do. As we talked about in the last podcast, one of the marks of saving faith is wanting to be righteous. Part of saving faith is knowing that I'm sinful and wanting to be saved from my sin. So John says, We know that we're believers. We know that we have come to know Jesus if we want to keep his commandments, if we want to be righteous. The reverse of that is not true. I cannot say if I keep his commandments, then I'll come to know God. In other words, if I'm obedient enough, then I'll be a believer. You don't become a believer by trying hard. Martin Luther wrote about his experience from with trying to find God by keeping the commandments. He was a monk, and he made a really desperate and sincere effort to do anything and everything he felt God required him to do in order to learn everything he could about God. And he writes about beating himself, spending days in protracted fast, laying for long, agonizing hours on the cold floor of his cell anything he could think of to find God, but he only found despair. And then he read Romans and Paul's statement that the just shall live by faith, and other words that those who are justified will have life because of their faith, not because of their works or obedience, but faith, and that faith is a gift of God. We can tell who really believes in and follows the teachings of Jesus because they want to keep his commandments. So it's not that they have earned a place by keeping his commandments, it's not that they're perfectly obedient all the time, but they have come to see his teachings as right and valuable and true, and they want to keep them. Going on in four through six, the one who says I have come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in him. The one who says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked. I think John's point here is that the one who claims to represent the teaching of Jesus must necessarily conduct himself the way Jesus did. In other words, believers must have the same values that Jesus had, the same love of God, the same understanding of reality, the same view of what's important in the world and what isn't, the same view of sin and righteousness and so forth. John is not saying that the one who follows Jesus must be flawlessly obedient. Rather he's saying the followers of Jesus share the same understanding of sin and righteousness that Jesus had. The one who says, I know Jesus and yet is not striving to live life by the things Jesus taught is lying about knowing Jesus and does not know the truth. Whoever strives to obey Jesus' teaching, it shows that his love for God is being brought to maturity. By this we know that we're remaining faithful to his teaching. The one who accurately represents Jesus' teaching will strive to live his life in the manner that Jesus did. So I think that's kind of a rough paraphrase, but you could sum all these verses up by saying genuine believers will strive to keep and follow the teachings of Jesus. That is, they will pursue righteousness, they will hunger and thirst for righteousness. They will live a life characterized by grief and repentance over sin and by hungering and thirsting after godliness and righteousness. Now, why can John make this claim? Again, I think this is part of the very essence of saving faith. We talked about this in the last podcast. Saving faith involves four things knowing that I am sinful, wanting to be righteous, knowing that God is not required to make me righteous, and then four trusting that God will make me righteous because of the blood of Jesus Christ. He's saying those who have faith, those who trust in Jesus want to be righteous as he is righteous. Now notice all this implies that faith itself is a gift. If I could manufacture all those aspects of saving faith on my own, how would I know that I would keep going or that I wasn't just a hypocrite and I'm fooling myself? How would I know that I won't give up or change my mind or lose my faith? If it's up to me, then my desire for righteousness is a sign of nothing because I could desire righteousness this month and then next month no longer desire it. And then my desire for righteousness would be a sign of nothing, just that at that particular moment I was following Jesus. But John can say your desire for righteousness is a sign that you have faith if he believes faith itself is a gift of God, and once I have it, I can't lose it. It's not something I created in myself, it's something God gave me as a gift and he will bring it to maturity. So John can say with confidence, if you desire to keep God's commandments, then you can have confidence that you are in fact a believer because God is the one who gives you that desire as part of saving faith. If you have it, you've been given it by God, God is calling you, saving you, adopting you, and you are one of his. So by implication, these people who hate their fellow believers are not walking in the light, and they have something in them that will be their destruction. To continue our image, imagine having to navigate that mountain trail we just talked about without any source of life at all. You can't see where you're going, you can't see where you need to place your your next footstep, it's treacherous and it can lead to your doom. Now, John doesn't actually say this person will stumble, but the likelihood is great. He can't see, he doesn't have the right perspective, and it's going to lead to his destruction. So the one who hates his brother remains in foolishness and does not live according to what is true and does not have a clear picture of his destiny because his foolishness keeps him from seeing the folly of his ways. John has made two points here. We've come to know him if we keep his commandments, and the one who loves his brother or his fellow believer abides in the light, and there's no cause for stumbling in him. Now, how does John know this is true? How can he say with confidence these are marks of believers? Notice how similar this is to you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. What's critically important for Christians is their view of sin and righteousness. If you know Jesus, you must also know that you're a sinner and want to be freed from your sin. So therefore, you want to keep the commandments, you want to follow his teaching, you want the holiness and the godliness he offers, and you grieve and repent over your sinfulness. As a corollary, you love your brother and sister because well, I think two basic reasons. One, you have no pride. This view of sin makes you realize you have nothing to gloat about, nothing to be self-righteous about, and no position from which to look down on your fellow man. If you understand the depth of your sinfulness and you long to be holy, then you have to look at your fellow believer and go, Well, they're in the same boat. I have no cause to judge or hate them. But more importantly, and I think this theme comes up over and over in the New Testament, you realize that your fellow brothers and sisters, fellow believers are on this journey with you. When you look around at the Sea of Humanity, you look at them and say, Those are my people. We value the same things, we want the same things out of life, we're hoping on the same things, we have set our view of what's right and wrong on the same path, and we have the same view of what's critically important in life and what isn't. So these are the people that are on this journey of faith with me. So we feel this affinity or affection or longing or love for them because they are also on this journey of faith. And if we love the things of God, one of the things God loves is his people, and we would love them too. So John has said, There's two more ways you can recognize genuine believers. They long to be holy and righteous, and they strive to keep the teachings of Jesus. They try strive to keep the law and his commandments, they're not living selfish, sinful lives, and they love fellow believers. And that sounds pretty basic, but think how easily we get distracted from it. Notice what John does not include. He doesn't say, well, genuine believers will attend church every week, and if you don't attend church every week, then your faith is suspect. That's not what he says. He doesn't say genuine believers will have a hundred percent correct right theology. That's not part of it. He doesn't say genuine believers will do a lot of prayer and fasting, or that they're feel awe or passion or an emotional worship kind of rush. He says the critical point is how do they view their sinfulness? Those who have come to know Jesus have come to know that they're sinners and long to keep his commandments and they love the people of God. Now I think this has some pretty important implications. One is that inward attitude is more important than outward rituals. It is more important what you embrace and understand on the inside fundamentally than how you look on the outside as a Christian. You can pray every week, every day, you can fast, you can attend church, you can be on a zillion committees. But if underneath all that you lack this deep understanding that you're a sinner and you need a savior in Jesus Christ, then the outward actions count for nothing. So faith is an inward, deep, fundamental change of heart, and if that's what's important, that you have that inward reality, not the outward motions or the rituals. The second implication I think is that personal righteousness is more important than Christian issues. In other words, people are more important than programs. It is more important that we love individual people than that we have an outreach program. And sometimes we can get caught up in the format, the organization, setting up all the proper channels and forget to love our neighbor on the other end of that program. We don't have to change the entire world's view on, say, abortion or race relations or poverty, but we ought to love the single mothers, the struggling sinners, and the poverty stricken. People are more important than programs. We don't necessarily need programs to love people, and loving people should be the goal. A third implication of this is that we should not be afraid to call sin. And that's getting increasingly hard in our modern American culture because we live in the wake of the I'm okay, you're okay generation where everything is relative, and if it feels good, do it, and every idea is of equal weight, and it's how bigoted of you to say X is right and Y is wrong. And yet, from a biblical perspective, some things are wrong. We can and should condemn sin where we see it, but we can love and forgive the sinner. Now, don't take that too far. I'm not giving you license to run around with a baseball bat and beat people up and say, Hey, I caught you in sin, but we're not doing anyone any favors to say God loves you and you're special without also saying God loves you in spite of the fact that you have this problem with sin. So what should we do with all those doctrinal disagreements? I started this by saying which issues are most important and what issues are issues we should we should draw a line on. And I would say John has given them to us. Who was Jesus and what did he do for you? That's one. And what's your view of sin and righteousness? That's two. And by that I mean those aspects of saving faith we've been talking about. So we can keep debating respectfully and humbly, we can keep studying, we can listen to each other, we can respect each other, and we can disagree on a wide range of issues in theology, but we can't compromise on who is Jesus and what did he do for you. That's the critical important issue. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but also shows you how to figure it out. If you've been blessed by this podcast, please do me a favor and take two minutes to leave a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts. It really does help people find the podcast. And tell your friends what you've learned. It's very easy to subscribe, just go to Wednesdayandtheword.com, click on subscribe to the podcast, and it will show you how.