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Dr. Manny Arango
Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey. To all my fellow pastors, I've got a question for you. Does your city know that your church exists? Listen, I get it. You're preaching, you're leading, you're discipling, you're doing ministry. We are in the same boat. And let's be honest, social media and marketing, not your strong suit. Not mine either. And that's probably the last thing on your mind. And that's why we chose to partner with Church Candy marketing for our church Plant the garden. We out here, y'all. They help churches get more actual guests walking through the doors on Sunday without your eye having to stress over ads or algorithms or trying to crack the social media code. Right now, Church Candy is helping nearly 400 churches reach their communities with simple invite ads. And it works. It's super effective. I can tell you from firsthand experience. So if you're tired of being your city's best kept secret, how about you do this? Go to churchcandy.com Manny and book a free consultation book a discovery call. Their team will break it all down and show you how to start seeing new faces at your church this Sunday. I'm in the trenches with you trying to grow the church. And how about we just start a whole campaign? No more empty churches. So let's partner with Church Candy and get our churches full. The glory of Jesus. Let's go. We are finishing up first John. So Johannine literature accounts, I think actually third biggest contributor of literature in the Bible, number one is Luke. I don't know if you know that Luke actually wrote more than Paul. Okay, so Luke is the number one contributor for the New Testament. Paul is number two, and John comes in at number three. Okay, so we got the gospel of John 1st John 2, John 3 John and Revelation. So five books by my man John. So today is John, chapter four and five. Hey, I'm gonna give you what I call the Orange Theory advance challenge. Every time I go to Orange Theory, Well, I haven't been in years. Well, when I used to go, there's like, hey, here's the workout. And they would give you an advanced version of the workout. So here's the workout. The workout is to read first John, chapter one, two and three yesterday, and then chapters four and five today. But here's my advanced challenge, okay, for all the Bible nerds out there, is to actually just read all of First John yesterday and then all of First John again today. So if you read all of First John yesterday, read all of First John again today. If you're on a streak, don't break your streak. If you haven't done the reading today, go do that, then come back and watch this video. With no further ado, let's dive in. I got some context clues for you. First John, chapter four actually tells us the conflict that's happening. John is living in Ephesus. He's overseeing churches all over Asia Minor. And there seems to be a heretical group that's kind of teaching some Gnostic ideas throughout the church. And he addresses it directly in, in First John chapter four. I'll start reading. In verse one, it says this, dear friends, do not believe every spirit. So he's, he's not even saying don't believe every person. He's actually saying, test spirits. Like don't believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world, John makes it spiritual. He's saying it's deeper than just a person. A false prophet isn't just a human being lying to you, wanting to deceive you. A false prophet has a spirit and you need to discern that spirit. You need to test that spirit. And how do you test that spirit? Okay, he says in verse 2, this is how you can recognize the spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Has come in the flesh. That Greek word is Sarx. Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. Okay, so John says, here's the test. If people preach a gospel that is based in Gnosticism, if people preach this dualistic compartmentalized gospel where Jesus is a spiritual being but didn't have a body, that Jesus didn't really operate in the flesh. If people preach that their spirit is actually the spirit of the Antichrist, that is Antichrist. Because incarnation is inherent to what it means to be Jesus. We can't have Jesus without the incarnation. This is a non negotiable. This is not unless he has a physical body. Now to give you even more of a context clue, he's using a buzzword here. And he's using the same buzzword that he used in his gospel, which is the Greek word sarx, flesh. Now remember, John is writing after Paul. Paul's writings are all done at this point, okay? And when Paul uses the word sarx, the word flesh, he always uses it negatively. John is creating tension in the New Testament. So John is going to use this word positively. My doctoral professor's name, Scott McKnight, he always says this. Imagine when you pick up the New Testament, it's actually an invitation to a dinner party. And you go to that dinner party, and all of the authors of the New Testament are sitting around a table and they're all discussing things. And Paul's there, Luke is there, John's there, Matthew's there. Whoever wrote Hebrews is there. All the New Testament authors are all present and they are discussing and they are telling each other that they're holding each other in tension. They're not disagreeing with each other. They're actually adding layer and nuance to each other's writings. And so you can hear it in James. James is essentially saying, I know Paul is saying that all you need is faith. But let me tell you something. What Paul means by that is that it's the kind of faith that has works. Hey, I know Paul. I know his life, okay? I am not just reading words that he wrote. I actually know Paul. Peter is saying the same thing. He's like, man, some of the stuff Paul writes is really difficult. Let. Let me help bring some clarity. John is doing the same thing. He's like, man, I know Paul uses this word flesh, and it can make it seem like to be human is to be wrong. It could create in today's society what we would call as purity culture. I know that you could get this idea that just to be human is to be sinful and evil. This idea of total depravity is. Really gets. Gets into Christian theology through Paul. And I don't even think that's Paul's intention. We have authors like John who, who are like, hey, Jesus had flesh. Now there's all kinds of words that John could have used. He could have said body, he could have said physical. He could have said all kinds of things. But he says, sarks, it's a buzzword. Okay, I want to show you. Let's keep moving. One John, chapter two. John tells us a little bit more about the problem that's happening in the churches. Says, dear children, this is First John, chapter two, verse 18 and 19. Dear children, this is the last hour. And as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming even now, many Antichrists have come. Okay, so the Bible's clear. There is the Antichrist, but there's also antichrists, okay, plural. So we're not just looking for one penultimate Antichrist, but there are Antichrists. Many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. Verse 19. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. You say people went out from us. They claimed that they were down with us, they claimed that they were disciples, but they didn't really belong to us. And again, he's talking about the false teachers that are sowing heretical Gnostic ideas into the fabric of this church. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. And then first John, chapter two, verse 26. Just a little bit more context. I'm writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. So there are leaders who are trying to lead the churches astray and, and trying to get them to believe in a Gnostic heresy. And so that is why John is writing this book. All right, let's get into some nerdy nuggets. The big nerdy nugget is that if you look at the Gospel of John and you look at First John, actually everything that John is going to say in First John comes straight out of his gospel. Okay. John is kind of embellishing, going into more depth on stuff he's already said. And I'll show you that in a couple of spots. Okay, I want to show you One John, chapter five, verse six, it says this. This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. Now if you go to John, John's Gospel, John, chapter 19, verse 34, it says this instead. One of the soldiers pierces side with a spear, bringing sudden flow of blood and water. So you can you, you see the parallels, right? It's pretty clear to most scholars that John is writing both of these. And that's pretty evident. Let me give you one more. I'll actually give you a couple more. First John, chapter 5, verse 13 says this. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. Okay? 1 John 5, 13, he kind of gives a thesis statement for why he's even writing this letter. But guess what? He also gives a thesis statement for why he wrote the book of John. Okay, so first John 5, 13 says, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. Said, believe, know eternal life. Kind of the buzzwords. Well, what does he say in his gospel in John, chapter 20, verse 30 to 31. This is what John writes, says Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. By believing, you may have life in his name. We have life, name, belief, all again, okay? These things are written so that, boom. These things are written so that, boom. Believe, life, name. Let me give you another one. 1 John, chapter 5, verse 2 to 3, says this. This is how we know that we love the children of God by loving God and carrying out his commands. Okay? This is how we know that we love the children of God by loving God and carrying out his command commands. In fact, this is love for God to keep his commands and his commandments are not burdensome. This comes this passage that I just read to you from. First John, chapter 5, verse 2 and 3, comes directly from John's gospel. John, chapter 14, verse 15 says this. This is Jesus talking. If you love me, keep my commands. Keep my. It's funny. I was at a marriage conference recently and it went awesome. It was in Gardena, California, kind of outside of la, and me and my wife were talking about marriage and talking about relationships. And I can only speak from a masculine perspective, which is why my wife is on stage with me, so she can speak from her perspective. And I said to all the gentlemen in the room, I said to all the guys, said, hey, for all the guys who have been married, let me give you a pro tip, okay? Many marriages have failed because men have believed in this book about love languages. I was like, do not be deceived. Women have all five of these love languages, okay? They've got access, service, physical touch, words of affirmation, quality time and gifts. They got all five. If you mess around, you just, you know, have your wife take a test, and your wife's like, oh, my love language is gift giving. And then you just give gifts. She's immediately going to ask you for some. For some quality time. And then you start giving quality time, and you're like, all right, I'm giving the quality time, you know? And guess what? Guess what that woman's going to ask you for. She's going to ask you for some words of affirmation because women have all. All Five. They have all five of these love languages. This idea that men have one and women have one is a crazy concept. I've been married for 10 years. Guess what? My wife has all five. It's funny, while I said that on stage, she then said, I actually have six. I was like, yeah, man. Which is why Paul commands husbands to, like, love their wives, because it's. They require a certain kind of love. Well, guess what? I then said, hey, ladies, let me tell you right now, like, dudes only got two love languages, okay? Sex and respect. That's it. That's it. Sex and respect. If. If you. If you marry a guy and then you. You don't have sex with him and you don't respect him, then you're going to be. You're. You mad? You're going to turn that guy into a monster. That guy's not going to be a good person to be around because he feels constantly disrespected and he feels starved of sex. Probably one of the biggest reasons he got married was so that he wouldn't burn. He wouldn't burn in lust. So I love this because I think that sometimes we're a little. Almost like we don't trust a masculine perspective. But God has both feminine and masculine perspectives. And for God, guess what love is? Obedience. Obedience. This is like the fatherly part of God. And anyone who's grown up with, like, a dad or anyone who has a husband, like, you do understand that if you disrespect a man long enough, they won't feel loved by you. Because men 100% understand love as obedience. This is why, like, I don't believe in having cats as pets because they're just not obedient. Like, nothing can be around me. This is not obedient. That's not trained. It's like dogs. They'll do what you say. I don't believe cats have the ability to love. They don't love because they can't obey, okay? Love and obedience go together. That's not just like a manosphere red pill, like, you know, masculine thing. That's just. That's God. God's like, hey, don't play yourself if you love me. That will be shown in a very real way. It'll be shown in how you obey me. Don't sing a bunch of songs on a Sunday, but don't tithe. Like. Like, don't do that because you're singing songs because you think you love me. But really, I would like for you to obey. Don't be in worship bawling your eyes out, but you're also having sex with your boyfriend. Like, don't do that. Because at the end of the day, God's saying, hey, this isn't just affectionate. This isn't just emotional. I want you to obey. I don't just want you to love me with your feelings. I want you to love me in action. And the way that you love me in action is by obeying my commands. Bible nerds, I have an announcement. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos, releases May of 2025. In pre orders are officially open. When I began to learn Genesis in its proper context, I learned that the creation account is not primarily about God creating something out of nothing, but rather God bringing divine order, order to the chaos of the cosmos. That one nugget was a game changer for me because I've been preaching to all the kids in my youth group that peace was a solution for their anxiety. But really, God's solution to chaos is never peace, but rather order. Peace isn't something that you stumble into. It's something that you intentionally step into. And that starts with aligning your life with God's order. I think that this book is a game changer. It's nerdy, it's practical. It provides a very contextual understanding of the book of Genesis. And if you grab a copy, you'll learn why there's a huge dragon on the COVID Head to the link in the show notes to pre order or head toCrushingchaos.com to see the really dope trailer that we made for this book. I think it's time for you to crush the chaos in your life. And that starts with grabbing a copy of this book. Now back to the podcast. Okay, so we can see, you know, just from those three examples, how the letter of first John is rooted in the gospel of John. And let me give you a timeless truth. This is John, chapter 13. And then we're gonna see this repeated three times in one John. Okay? John, chapter 13. It's the gospel of John 13, 34 and 35 says this. A new command I give you. This is Jesus talking. A new command I give you love one another. Whoo. A command that's a command to love one another. I know we have this overly emotional definition of love, that in order to love someone, I gotta like them. In order to love someone, I gotta get along with them. In order to love somebody, our personality's gotta be the right personality. And, you know, God forbid, you know, I'm an on the Enneagram, I Can't love fours, you know, Your enneagram number becomes your freaking identity. It's absolutely ridiculous. Jesus says, hey, I'm giving you a command. Love one another. As I've loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you're my disciples if you love one another. Okay, how does John then expand upon this in this letter in First John? First John, chapter four, verse seven and eight. Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. Then we have one John 4, 11, 12. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to what? Love one another. No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. Which means I've never seen God. But, man, if I start loving you, I'll love the God in you, that there's something divine in you that should attract me to love you, that I should see past all the things that I don't love about you or I don't like about you, to begin to see the image of God in you. And then lastly, first John, chapter 4, verse 20 21. Whoever claims to love God, yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother or sister whom they have seen cannot love God whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command. Anyone who loves God must also love their brother or sister. You can totally see how John's letter here is rooted in the Gospel of John and that this is our timeless truth. By the way, I feel like I transitioned from the nerdy nugget into the timeless truth. I don't know if I even announced it. Our timeless truth for the day is that we gotta love, like radically love your brothers and sisters in Christ, regardless of personality, regardless of denominational differences. I think that one of the ways that the enemy has just played us is made us think that we could love him but not love one another. It's actually one of the ways that I think the world is not impressed by the church is that we operate in division. And I think that we've got to begin to commit ourselves to loving one another and that love is not an emotion, that love is not a feeling. But love is a choice that I make. And I make the decision to begin to love the people that I'm around. I think this is why church is so important and Christian community is so important. And I'm scared When we live in a world where I just get to pick all my friends and I get to pick all my friends, and I just get to watch church online. And that means. So you're not intentionally around anyone who gets on your nerves. Actually going to church. Physically going to church means that you're gonna get put on some volunteer teams with people that you don't get along with, that you are gonna naturally be around. Church means that you're going to be around people of different races and different ethnic groups and different generational backgrounds and different political parties. And that stuff's good. If you just create an echo chamber where everybody agrees with you, then how can you even prove that you love? Love is actually proven in the fact that me and my wife aren't the same. We're opposites. Real love is the fact that God, who is nothing like humans, could actually love us and we could have relationship. It's easy to love if all I ever have to do is love black people or love people who are like me. But the moment I have to love the other, that's actually a more difficult love. It's difficult to love women as a man because we speak different languages. We have to first overcome this barrier of just being different than one another. It's anytime I meet another eight on the Enneagram, we just kind of get each other. I'm like, oh, got it. I know how to not piss you off. You know how to not piss me off. We're good, man. We right here. But the moment I interact with someone who's different than me, man, that's when love actually has to kick into gear. And I'm leery of being attracted to churches that are just branded so heavily that they just all attract all the kind of same people. So it's like a bunch of conservatives are just all at one church. And so there's not even opportunity for you to really love. And love is empathy. Love is saying, you know what? Even though I may not agree with that person's perspective, I could see how if I were in their shoes, I could come to that conclusion. That's actually love. I'll say it this way, that unity is not uniformity. That actually you only really even have the chance for unity when there is diversity. Diversity of ethnicity, diversity of age, diversity of preference, diversity of theology, diversity. Once there's diversity, now there's actually an open door to love and to empathize. And I think, man, as, as. As ads just get targeted more and more and more, I think that churches just start to look like individual monoliths instead of a collection of people who are different and come from different socioeconomic backgrounds. That's my timeless truth for the day. All right, tomorrow we are diving into second and third John. We put both of them in one day. They're both tiny little books. This is the end of First John. We got day 75 tomorrow. And he yo, by, by tomorrow, you can say you've done 75 hard. You know what I'm saying? Anyway. Anyway. Anyway. All right, I'll see you tomorrow. I'm proud of you. If you're on a streak, don't break it. If you. If you've been doing this for 74 days, I'm insanely proud of you. I'll see you right here tomorrow. I love you so much. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show@thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram hebibledepartment. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.