Put All Your Eggs in One Basket (1 John 4:13-16)
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One of the major concerns of any missionary effort among a religious people group is syncretism. Syncretism is the merging of two or more religions with the result being something that is really a new religion altogether. When you mix chocolate, graham crackers, and marshmallows, you get an entirely new creation. Or maybe it’s more like combining Elmer’s glue with liquid starch. The result a strange substance known as Gak.
Syncretism is why many people in South America and Africa call themselves Christians but continue to worship idols as well, and in some cases even refer to their idols as Jesus, Mary, and God. I think tolerance is so popular in America because people today, in part, simply do not want to be restricted to one system of faith. They want to dabble in a little bit of this and a little bit of that. We see this in America when something like 92% believe in God, 83% say they are Christian, yet only 59% believe in a literal Hell, only 44% think that Jesus is the only way to Heaven.
Jesus said that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that the only way to be with Him and the Father in Heaven is through Himself. We need to put all our eggs in one basket, Jesus Christ, because unless we do that, we have not truly put our hope in Him as our only Savior.
“By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” (1 John 4:13-16)
The passage beings with “by this we know that we abide in him and he in us.” How do we know it When we see this kind of phrase in the Bible, we often need to back up a verse to see what he’s talking about. In verse 12, we read that when we love one another, we know that we abide in God. But this is really more of a result of abiding in God. In this case, John explains how we know we abide in God in the second part of the verse.
Much of the punctuation that we see in our English translations wasn’t in the original text. The comma you see in your Bible really ought to be a colon. What it’s saying is that we know we are in Christ and Christ is in us because the Holy Spirit inside of us confirms this truth to us! When the Holy Spirit lives in you, you ought to know it. You should know it not just cognitively, but experientially. The Holy Spirit ought to be a real presence in your life, guiding you, teaching you, changing you, convicting you, and if He does these things for you, then you know He’s in you, and if you know He’s in you then you know that you’re in Him.
Now, what does it mean to be in Christ? We’re pretty familiar with the concept that God abides in us. We know that when we come to believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us. And we are called the Temple of God. But what does it mean that we abide in God?
When we think about how the Holy Spirit abides in us, we often think of it in some kind of physical way. But the Holy Spirit is not a physical being! When the Holy Spirit dwells in us, it is spiritual. God’s Spirit joins with our spirit so that we are eternally bound to God, we are sealed in the Spirit. In the same way, when we abide in God, it is not physically or spatially, but spiritually. To abide in God means simply to rest in Jesus Christ, trusting Him as Savior, and fixing your thoughts, hopes, and desires on Him. It’s nothing that we do physically, or outwardly, it’s something that happens inside of us.
The only way to get the Spirit to come and live inside of you is to believe in Jesus Christ (v. 14-15). Notice that believing in Jesus and knowing that the Spirit abides in you confirm the same truth in your life. This points to the reality that these things happen in a person’s life at the same time. We must believe in Jesus Christ alone! We can’t believe in Jesus and Buddha. Or Jesus and Mohammud. Islam claims to be the fulfillment of Judaism and Christianity. But Islam can only be true if Christianity is false. The Qur’an states that Christians distorted the Scriptures (Surah 2.75)!
Scholars agree, however, that the Bible we read matches the original texts to a a very high degree of accuracy. If Islam depends on our Bible being distorted, then Islam doesn’t have a leg to stand on! I heard an excellent argument against polygamy the other day, which I think applies to our discussion here as well. A fundamentalist Mormon was trying to defend polygamy to his evangelical Christian friend. The Mormon said, “Show me even one verse in the Bible that says I cannot have two wives.” His Christian friend replied, “That’s easy. Matthew 6:24 says, ‘No man can serve two masters.'”
We can’t dabble in a little bit of this and a little bit of that. We need to be 100% for Jesus Christ. If this is true for you, you can make the declaration John does in verse 16. God is love. We don’t need to look for love elsewhere, because God is love.
I think many people hesitate to fully trust in Christ because they’re afraid that He won’t satisfy. But Psalm 34:8 says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” I don’t think this is inviting us to merely try Jesus a little. No, if we’re truly to taste and see, we need to jump in with both feet, allowing Jesus to fully meet our needs.
Put all your eggs in one basket. Believe in Jesus alone, and abide in His love.
Pastor Chris Huff has been with us since July 2009. He and his wife, Abby, have four children. Chris is originally from St. Louis, MO and even though he was raised as a city boy, he has a small town heart. Chris is all over the internet, so you can find him on Facebook, Twitter,… (read more)
