Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. (1 John 2:24)

By nature, we are often attracted to something just because it is new. We almost always think of new as better. But when it comes to truth, new is rarely better. That which you heard from the beginning is better. Paul put it well in Galatians 1, where he told us that even if an angel from heaven should bring us a new gospel, we are to reject the angel. It isn’t easy to do this, because we are tempted to be “tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting” (Ephesians 4:14). We sometimes itch for something “new” and “exciting” even if it departs from that which you heard from the beginning.

But which you heard from the beginning doesn’t describe whatever teaching any Christian might receive when they just begin to follow Jesus. The beginning, for John’s first readers, described the time when they were under the teaching of the apostles, which is now recorded for us in the New Testament. It is the message of the Bible in general, and the New Testament specifically.

Simply said, we abide in what is from the beginning when we stay close to our Bible. If that was your environment when you were a young Christian, that is wonderful. But if it was not, then put yourself in that environment now. This is John’s point when he wrote, let that abide in you. It doesn’t mean just knowing it, but living in it. When we live in the simplicity of the truth of Jesus Christ, then we will abide in the Son and in the Father. Our world is filled with people searching for God, some sincerely and some insincerely. But if someone wants to really live in God, John tells us how to do it: let the message of the apostles (which you heard from the beginning) live in you.

John didn’t say “if you know God’s word, you know God,” because someone can have a bare, intellectual knowledge of God’s word. But he did say, “if God’s word lives in you, God lives in you.” We can come to a living, growing, relationship with God through His word.

Abiding in Jesus (living in Jesus) is not a passive thing; it is active. We must give ourselves, mentally and spiritually, to living in Jesus. Charles Spurgeon said, “We abide in him, not by a physical law, as a mass of iron abides on the earth; but by a mental and spiritual law, by which the greatness of divine love and goodness holds us fast to the Lord Jesus.”

Where are you living today? Live in His word, and you will live in Him.

Click here for David’s commentary on 1 John 2

He said to him, “I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’” (He was lying to him.) So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water. (1 Kings 13:18-19)

It is one of the strange passages in the book of 1 Kings. The Lord spoke to a man of God from Judah and told him to go and rebuke King Jeroboam of Israel. God also told this anonymous prophet to refuse any invitation to hospitality as he delivered his message; he was to say his word from God and then return directly to Judah.

Then came another anonymous prophet, but he was from the northern Kingdom of Israel. He spoke to the prophet from Judah, and when he spoke he was lying to him. The prophet from Israel gave a false word, trying to persuade the man of God from Judah to change his course from doing exactly what God told him.

Perhaps the Israelite prophet saw the tired and weak prophet from Judah sitting under an oak tree, faint with fatigue and a lack of food and he felt sorry for the famished man of God. Perhaps the lying prophet was motivated by misguided compassion. No matter what his motivation was, his sin was great because he not only lied, he also represented God as a liar, contradicting His previous word.

He lied convincingly, claiming that an angel spoke to me. Perhaps that was true and it was a deceiving angel. Satan and his messengers can appear as angels of light (2 Cor. 11:14-15). One way or another, the deception worked and he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water. The man of God from Judah listened to the lie from the prophet of Bethel. He did this for several reasons:

• The prophet from Israel was probably older (an old prophet, 1 Kings 13:11) and had the respect of the man of God from Judah.
• The prophet from Bethel identified with the man of God from Judah (I too am a prophet as you are).
• The prophet from Bethel claimed a spectacular experience (an angel spoke to me).
• The prophet from Bethel claimed to speak for the Lord (by the word of the Lord).
• The prophet from Bethel did not seem to be an idolater who should be shunned (Bring him back with you to your house).
• The prophet from Bethel offered no reward, other than simple food (he may eat bread and drink water).

No matter how natural and seductive this enticement was, it was the duty of the man of God to resist it. He had a word from God to guide his actions, and should receive no other word except through dramatic and direct confirmation by God’s Spirit. His failure at this point ended his usefulness as a messenger of God.

F.B. Meyer well applied the lesson to our life: “When we have received a direct command fresh from the lips of Christ, we must act on it, and not be turned aside by a different suggestion, made to us through the lips of professing Christians… Deal with God at first-hand.”

There may be many reasons why it seems sensible to disobey a command from God, but it is our place to simply trust and obey. There really is no other way.

Click here for David’s commentary on 1 Kings 13

Then Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?” Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you.” (Genesis 41:38-39)

It’s been said that the successful executive is the one who can delegate all the responsibility, shift all the blame, and take all the credit. That’s the plan some people use to achieve success; but that strategy is like a house of cards – it won’t stand very long. Joseph’s example shows us how to achieve and handle success in a way that honors God.

Notice that timing is important to the success that God gives. Here, in Genesis 41, Joseph just then came to the pinnacle of his success; but it took him a long time to get there. Joseph had been “wasting” his time in prison the previous years; but it wasn’t a waste at all. It all had a place in God’s timing for Joseph’s success. From his youth, Joseph had the idea God had destined him for great things. But Joseph didn’t know the fulfillment of those great things would take so long.

Psalm 31:14-15 says, “But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in Your hand.” Can you say this also? Can you say to God, “My times are in Your hand”? So often we feel as though we are all ready for what we know God will do for us or through us; yet we must rest in the Lord, and say to Him “My times are in Your hand.”

Joseph had been promoted by Pharaoh; he had risen from the pit to the pinnacle. But we shouldn’t think Pharaoh was the one responsible for Joseph’s promotion. God was the one responsible. Joseph wasn’t waiting on Pharaoh to get out of jail; he was waiting on God. The Psalmist reminds us: “For exaltation comes neither from the east, nor from the west nor from the south. But God is the Judge: He puts down one and exalts another.” (Psalm 75:6) The credit for Joseph’s amazing rise to power did not belong to Pharaoh, or to Joseph, or much less to blind fate or circumstance. It was the fulfillment of God’s divine plan.

Another thing to notice is that Joseph had two sons, whom he named Manasseh and Ephraim (Genesis 41:51-52). Joseph lived in Egypt. He married an Egyptian woman. Joseph worked for the Egyptian Pharaoh. Yet he gave his two sons Hebrew names. This shows us that Joseph has not forgotten about God, even in his success. Many people, when they have been promoted the way Joseph was promoted, feel they no longer need God. They think that God is only good for the prison and not for the palace. We should be like Joseph, who was devoted to God no matter what – bad times and good times.

Here’s a good prayer for today: “God, give me a heart that will wait on You, and serve You faithfully, never forgetting You even when I am successful in the eyes of the world.”

Click here for David’s commentary on Genesis 41

Therefore the Lord said: “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men, therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work among this people, a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.” (Isaiah 29:13-14)

Physical blindness is a special burden to bear. Yet the Bible tells us there is a worse kind of blindness – spiritual blindness. Isaiah 29 is all about spiritual blindness – the causes and cures of it. In part, Israel was spiritually blind because they wanted it and chose it. In part, they were blind because God sent blindness upon them. Isaiah 29:13-14 explains why He did this.

First there is a dramatic accusation against the people of Jerusalem: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me” In Isaiah’s day Jerusalem knew how to talk the spiritual talk, but their hearts were far from God.

You can’t always tell a person’s heart by what they say. You can’t always tell a person’s heart by what they do, at least in a single deed. Though only God can really know the heart, the closest we can come is by looking at the whole of their life – not only what they say or only what they do, and especially not only at how they act at church or among Christians.

Jesus said, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). This is a true, but not absolute principle because people can draw near to God with their mouths and honor the Lord with their lips, and their hearts can still be far from God. Of course, their speech will betray them at one time or another – but perhaps it will never happen at church!

This manner of talking the talk, but not having the heart, didn’t end in Isaiah’s day. Jesus quoted this same passage from Isaiah when He rebuked the religious leaders of His day for their hypocrisy (Matthew 15:7-9, Mark 7:6-7).

Because of all this, God gave the sad verdict: “The wisdom of their wise men shall perish.” Because Jerusalem’s pride had led them into spiritual blindness, sleep, drunkenness, illiteracy, and hypocrisy, God promised to destroy the “wisdom of their wise men.” Their supposed wise men promoted the pride that led to all these evils.

Isaiah called this “a marvelous work and a wonder” when God decides to reject the wisdom of man and to display His own superior wisdom. Many years after Isaiah, the Apostle Paul was also amazed at the “wisdom” of man, and how it compared to the “foolishness” of God (1 Corinthians 1:21-25).

Isaiah and Paul were in perfect agreement about the great wisdom of God and how human wisdom – though it has its own glory – must always take a second place to the wisdom of God. You would have to be blind to not see it.

Click here for David’s commentary on Isaiah 29