2 John 1:1 “The elder, To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth—and not I alone, but also all who know the truth— because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, will be with us in truth and love.
I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father has commanded us.And now I urge you, dear lady—not as a new commandment to you, but one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the very commandment you have heard from the beginning, that you must walk in love.”
How many of us have ever belonged to any kind of an exclusive club or society? How many of us view ourselves as being just a little bit more special and a little bit more enlightened than the next fellow? The temptation to snobbery is very real. One of the ways the occult hooks people is by preying on their intellectual pride. Sometimes people refer to “the wisdom of the centuries” without stopping to think that wisdom can be both light and dark!
Things got off to a great start with the early church…..but there are no gardens of Eden without snakes! And Christianity was born in a time when there were already all kinds of gods and philosophies of various sorts. St. Paul, when speaking to the Greeks in Athens, observed that the Greeks were “very religious.” Paul was referring to the huge number of altars and temples of various kinds that dotted the city of Athens. But most other places were the same. Helping the early believers sort out truth from appealing fiction was a full – time job and not an easy one.
One of the groups that was particularly appealing to highly educated Christians was a group referred to as “Gnostics.” The term Gnosticism is a Greek word that refers to those who have special knowledge. Gnosticism was not an organized religion or philosophy, but the term rather refered to a group of teachings that distorted Christianity by trying to merge it with current philosophies. John Dummelow in his Commentary explains it this way: “ this (John’s Epistles) contained three warnings against the dangers of the time. These dangers resulted from the great main problem which lay at the foundation of all Oriental religions—the relation of finite man to the infinite God. How could that chasm be crossed? how had it been crossed in the work of creation? how were spirit and matter related? how did evil enter the world, and what was evil? Almost all early thinkers were driven by these questions into some form of Dualism. There were, they must believe, two Powers in conflict. Since spirit was the higher, matter was evil; it was the work of the inferior god. The material, the natural, was therefore to be fought against; the spiritual man could have nothing to do with it. Indeed, so far as he was truly spiritual, he was already freed from and above it. Hebrew religion, in its moments of clearest insight, set itself against this Dualism. The creation, it declared, was not the work of an inferior deity or deities, but both worlds, those of spirit and matter, were called into being by one and the same infinite God. When teaching about Jesus, these false teachers refused to accept the fact that Jesus was a perfect sinless man and instead had various explanations, none of which would fully acknowledge Jesus as both the Son of God and Son of Man. (For a much more lengthy discussion, check out “Gnosticism” on Wickepedia.)
Why was this teaching so dangerous? Jesus Himself taught that “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10) Carried to their logical conclusions, any form of gnosticism would ultimately deny the deity of Christ or His position as both Son of God and Son of Man. And this kind of thinking could in turn cause people to either become caught up with fasting and denying the flesh and pursuing a works – based kind of salvation, or they could turn in the opposite direction and go completely into gross immorality, using this philosophy as an excuse.
Technology may have advanced but human nature remains the same. Many of us want to work out our own philosophies or our own means of salvation. But Paul, that Jewish scholar was right when he said, ” There is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:22-24 Jesus Christ, the Son of Man and the Son of God, came and laid down His life as a blood sacrifice for our sins because nothing less would pay that price. And John, who was closer to Jesus than any of the other disciples, was an eyewitness to this.
Don’t fall for the lure of secret rituals or incatations! God is a God of light and truth. Anything that takes you away from the light of God is evil and deadly!
PRAYER: Father God, help everyone who reads this devotional to seek Your truth. Speak to our hearts and give us Your light. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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