What Is Good, and Who Gets to Say?

from Google Images

The American 2020 Presidential election was probably the most controversial election in American history. It even resulted in an insurrection on January 6, 2021, just two weeks prior to the new President being sworn into office! Whatever one believes about the election results, the point is, about half of American voters believe the election results were good and fair, while the other half believes they were not. So, what is meant by good, and just as importantly, who gets to say? Certainly, about half of the folks who voted in the American presidential race are divided on what they would call good and fair. Some of the folks who believed the election was stolen took matters into their own hands and used violence in an effort to overthrow the election results. Certainly, what those folks considered good was very different from what the other side considered fair and good. So, who gets to say what good is?

 

How Could Jesus Be Equal with God?

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Jesus responded in his own defense against his persecutors that God is not subject to the Law of Moses. Moreover, the name of God, I AM (YHWH), is more like a verb than a noun. In other words, God is active, not complacent. He may have rested from or ended his work of creation on the seventh day, but he didn’t rest from doing good on the seventh day. He continues even to our own day to uphold all things by the word of his power (Psalm 75:3). Furthermore, he continues every day to provide all things for his creatures (Genesis 1:29-30), and he ceaselessly works out his labor of love for mankind, namely his redemptive work in those he has created (Psalm 7:9, 11). This understanding is also known and believed by the Jews, including the authorities of Jesus’ day. Therefore, Jesus reasoned, if he was doing the work of God, evidenced in the miracle (John 5:8-9), which even the authorities had to admit they couldn’t do, accusing Jesus of wrongdoing would be the same as accusing God of wrongdoing, because God performed that work through Jesus! In other words, Jesus identified himself as the Arm of the Lord (Exodus 6:6; 15:16; Isaiah 53:1), continuing the work of God that no man could do (John 5:17).

 

Will You Be Made Whole?

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In John 5:6 Jesus asked an impotent man if he wanted to be made whole. Why wouldn’t the man wish to be made whole? However, Jesus’ question goes much deeper than a simple question. The man was crippled for 38 years. He claimed he had no one who would help him (John 5:7), but obviously his basic needs were met by someone. Therefore, Jesus asked: “Do you want to be made well?” He was pointing out that wholeness would bring with it the new responsibility to care for oneself. Wholeness would bring with it great and probably unanticipated changes. “Do you want this, or are you content with others caring for you?” Jesus’ question can be turned inward: “Do I want to be made whole, for I am the man!

 

Persecution and Trouble Are Inevitable!

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Jesus told his disciples they needed to prepare themselves for coming persecution, telling them they would be delivered to the councils and beaten in the synagogues (Mark 13:9). The councils were the local courts, called sanhedrins, and they were held in local synagogues throughout the land. A sanhedrin was composed of three or twenty-three members, populated by the Jewish leaders within each town.[1] The chief court of the Jews was THE Sanhedrin at Jerusalem, and it functioned as the Jews’ supreme court. It was made up of Sadducees, Pharisees and other Jewish leaders who were considered Jewish nobility. The court system in Jerusalem consisted of 3 twenty-three member courts,[2] and, when these three courts met together as one court, it functioned as the supreme court of the land. THE Sanhedrin was presided over by the officiating high priest, called its president or nasi (prince – see Numbers 11:16),[3] and it was this judicial body that condemned Jesus to die (Luke 22:66-71), and probably Stephen (Acts 7:1).

 

Understanding the Terms of the Parable

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The sower in the parable is Jesus. Many folks believe the sower may be anyone who preaches the Gospel, planting the seed of the word of God in the hearts of those who listen to him (Mark 4:3, 14-15). However, while this may be true in a works context, which Jesus tells his disciples to do, in the parable the sower is Jesus. I’ve heard it said, but I forget by whom, that logic demands that the sower would cast most of his seed on good soil. Only a small amount of seed would fall by the wayside or among thorns or rocks, but this misses the point of the parable. One shouldn’t try to press modern farming into the Lord’s first century AD parable. The idea of maximizing the output of a cash crop doesn’t enter the story of the parable. Rather, the parable tells us what happens to the word of God, once it’s deposited into the hearts of men. The different types of soil point to different types of human hearts (Mark 4:4-8, 15).

 

Who Are Jude’s Angels?

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Jude points to a time before the Genesis Flood for his second example of the Lord’s judgment. He mentions the wicked who “kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation…” (Jude 1:6), as described in the KJV. Other translations phrase it differently but they all give the same sense, and they tell us the wicked are spirit beings, angels, who sinned.[1] Yet, how would an angelic rebellion, which the Bible **never** describes or even mentions,[2] be helpful to Jude to use as an example for what was occurring during the first century AD against the Church and the Gospel of Christ? Many are quick to interpret what was done, but they are not so quick to show why Jude chose that particular event to serve as a warning against the wicked deeds of the false teachers during the first century AD.

 

Saved Out of Bondage, Once and for All

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In the next three verses (Jude 1:5-7) Jude mentions three examples of the Lord’s judgment upon the wicked, and they are supposed to stand as warnings to folks like the wicked teachers who sought to defame and destroy the Gospel efforts in the first century AD. Most scholars make the wicked out to be sexual deviates. While this might be a literal rendering of the texts involved, how would sexual immorality point to the false teachers who arose against the Gospel of Christ in the first century AD? In Jude 1:5 the author of this epistle points to a time under the Old Covenant when the Lord saved a people for himself out of the land of Egypt. Jude tells his readers that they already know about this, therefore, he is only going to recall the event itself for the purpose of illustration. In other words, he doesn’t have to explain the details, because they already know about the event; they know the details. What Jude recalls to his readers’ memory is that although the Lord saved a people for himself once for all, he acted a second time to destroy those who weren’t faithful. So, what’s Jude’s point and what exactly is he referring to by saying: “them who believed not” (Jude 1:5)?

 

Contend for the Faith Once Delivered

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Three times in this short epistle Jude addresses his readers as beloved (Jude 1:3, 17, 20). In the Gospel narratives the word is used only of Jesus, but in Acts and the epistles it is often used of brethren who work diligently on behalf of the Gospel. However, it is usually used, as it is here in Jude, as a way to address all believers in Christ.

 

Jude and Peter

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The epistles of Jude and 2Peter have many similarities, leading many scholars to assume one author copied the other, or they both have a common source for the similar material. However, this doesn’t have to be so, at least not in the manner that is assumed by the scholars and those who are influenced by their arguments. For example, if you are like most people you’ve never heard of the Ardennes Counteroffensive. It was the last major German offensive campaign to occur on the Western Front during World War II. Its better known name is The Battle of the Bulge! The popular name comes from the Western press who described the way the battle line curved inward on wartime news maps. While the correct military term was the Ardennes Counteroffensive, it is much more widely known in the West as The Battle of the Bulge.

 

The Great Conspiracy of the Last Days

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Jude was the brother of James, probably of the apostle, James the Less, who was also known as the brother of the Lord. If this is so, this James was no doubt dead (cir. 62 AD) at the time of Jude’s epistle. Jude mentions a trial that came upon the Messianic believers, trying their faith  (Jude 1:3). Ungodly men had secretly crept into the ranks of the flock and were in some fashion tempting the brethren (Jude 1:4). How were they going about this? First of all, they slandered the present leaders (Jude 1:8). They despised the leadership of God’s Spirit. Secondly, they whispered to others about matters not to their liking. Then, they openly complained and finally spoke against the Gospel of Christ in a manner that appealed to the desires of some within the body, and in so doing they exalted their own authority (Jude 1:16; cf. verse-4).

 

I Don’t Wish to Write with Pen and Ink

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In closing, the Elder told Gaius that he wanted to tell him many things, but he wouldn’t put it down in pen and ink (3John 1:13; cp. 2John 2:12). Paul wrote many epistles some very long (Romans, the letters to the Corinthians and Hebrews etc.) and some very short (Philemon, and his letters to the Thessalonians), but 2^nd and 3^rd John are the shortest in the Bible. It may appear that 3^rd John is larger than 2^nd John, but the additional 14^th verse of 3^rd John is deceiving. There are actually 249 Greek words in 2^nd John to only 219 Greek words in 3^rd John.[1] Philemon and Jude come in next with 339 words and 454 words respectively. While there is valid purposes for writing short letters (Philemon and Jude), I have to wonder why the Elder thought it necessary to keep from writing down all he would have liked to tell his recipients, the Elect Lady (2^nd John) and Gaius (3^rd John). Both Paul and Jude seem to have communicated all they wished to say to their recipients in their short letters, but not so John. Why might that be?

 

The Elder

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What are John’s epistles about? Well, as I mentioned in my study on John’s second epistle, they are all about fellowship: fellowship with God (1John); the wrong kind of fellowship (2John); and the kind of fellowship Christians should have with one another (3John). John’s third epistle is about overcoming peer-pressure. We are presented with four characters: the Elder, the one who writes the letter; Gaius, the letter’s recipient and the one who has the reputation of acting contrary to peer-pressure; Diotrephes, the dangerous character who is applying the peer-pressure; and Demetrius, who is probably the letter-carrier and perhaps the answer to the peer-pressure problem, or, in other words, he may be Diotrephes’ replacement, but this, admittedly, is conjecture. Nonetheless, it does fit the context.

 

Neither Bid Him Godspeed!

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In 2John 1:10 John warns the elect lady and her children against receiving anyone who comes to them and doesn’t bring this doctrine—which doctrine does John have in mind? It is the doctrine of Christ (2John 1:9), which is to love God, which is expressed in our trust in Christ (1John 5:3; cp. 3:23) and love the brethren, just as Christ loved us and gave himself for us (1John 5:2; cp. 3:11, 14-18). John’s warning, then, was that folks who came to the elect lady and her children, preaching something else, something that did not express the nature of this doctrine, they were to neither let them into their houses nor bid them Godspeed (2John 1:10).

 

The Lie that Is Antichrist!

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John mentions that he wasn’t writing because his readers didn’t know (eido – G1492) the truth (1John 2:21). That is to say he wasn’t writing, because his readers didn’t understand the truth. The Greek word eido is translated usually as see (with the eyes) or know (meaning to understand or perceive). The word is used of the wise men who rejoiced to see (G1492) the star they had seen (G1492) in the east (Matthew 2:9-10). The same word is used of Herod’s understanding when he saw (G1492) the wise men mocked him by returning to Mesopotamia without notifying him. So, the word used by John in 1John 2:21 can be used of either physical or mental sight. It doesn’t actually refer to the content of a doctrine, but the ability to understand that doctrine. So, John was saying he wasn’t writing because his readers didn’t understand truth, but because they did and could understand what he was saying. This was something the antichrists couldn’t do, because they rejected the Anointed One and thus refused his anointing that offers spiritual understanding (1John 2:18-20).

 

It Is the Last Hour!

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John claimed what he called antichrist[1] would come in the last time, and the fact that there were many antichrists, to whom he could point, was proof that he and his readers were living in the last time (1John 2:18). In my previous study I showed that John meant they were living in the last time or final years of the Old Covenant, and that it would be soon destroyed, due to how corrupt the people of that Covenant had become. Moses, himself, had predicted this time would occur, and he made that known to the leaders of Israel before they entered the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 31:28-29). However, I believe John was not only speaking of the last time of the Old Covenant, the time when Jesus appeared (Hebrews 1:1-2), but he spoke of a particular part of the last time!