The Truth About Transformation

Imagine that you've been asked to write a book on marriage. Your publisher says, "We want to target young engaged couples who are considering getting married." What do you want to say to young couples considering marriage?


You begin writing your manuscript, but several weeks later your publisher calls and says, "Change of plans. We now want a book for married couples considering divorce. We've discovered that most people who consider get bad advice from their friends and family – most of the time they encourage them to go through with it. So we want a book for married people in this situation."

The audience and the situation changes everything, doesn't it? Different people in different situations need to hear different advice. The book you write for a struggling married couple is different than the one you write for a young engaged couple. For instance, if an engaged couple says that all of their friends are concerning about their upcoming marriage...you would tell them they might need to listen. If a married couple tells you that all of their friends tell them they should get a divorce, you might encourage them to not listen.

In the same way, 1 John was written for a specific group of people in a specific situation. In order to understand 1 John, you need to understand who these people were. The people John was writing to were not unsaved or unbelieving people. They were not hypocrites. They were born-again, Spirit-filled followers of Jesus Christ. Even though John addresses the heresy of Gnosticism, he isn't writing to the teachers of the heresy. He writes about them, but not to them. John is writing to a group of dedicated and devout Christians who are, most certainly...saved.

This is important because we often try to use the teachings of John in 1 John to answer questions that John was not addressing. 1 John was not written to address the question of "Am I really saved?". It was not written to provide a measuring rod to test the authenticity of our own or other's salvation. John is answering the questions, "How can I change? How can I be more like Jesus? How can I go deeper in relationship with God?", not, "How do I tell if I or anyone else is really saved". 


Again, this is important to understand because this week we are going to explore Scriptures that say things like, "No one born of God will continues to sin because God's seed remains in him; he can't go on sinning because he has been born of God." If applied as a test of our salvational authenticity, this verse can be used in a judgmental manner. If applied as a promise that salvation provides us the empowering victory over sin, it becomes a message of hope.

I hope you will join me this week as we explore The Truth About Transformation!