“We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life.”
1 John 5:19-20 NLT
These are the truths of the Christian faith that are cultivated in the knowledge of a real-life savior, who had a real death and real resurrection in time and space. This is true “gnosis.” Relationship with Christ brings conviction, boldness, agency, and clarity to relationships. It terms them loving and reconciled. This is the true knowledge of the son. It is not ethereal and removed from practical application but it is functional and meaningful in n a tangible way with tangible results. Even in John’s day, there were many who had begun to castrate the fervor and flavor of Christianity by turning it into a religion of thought and emotion rather than a discipline of the thinking and the passionate. It is our charge, in our salvation, by the work of the Holy Spirit in our sanctification to fully accept the adoption into Christ’s family. These are the things and practices we must set up in our hearts. We must not be ashamed of Christ. We must love God wholeheartedly and men tenderheartedly. We must put away the idea that our salvation is illumination and elitism and instead begin to love each other by committing to following Christ’s examples of admonishment, worship, discipline, and fellowship.
This post first appeared at JoshMcGary.com
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