Responding to Present Needs (1)

The apostle John was the last of the apostles, the one who outlived all the others. He lived about thirty years longer than the last of them, for his life lasted until the end of the first century. That is why John's message, both in his Gospel, in his three epistles and in Revelation, has such a timely and precise application in these final days. John wrote for a church that was already showing signs of decadence, which was under attack by evil forces in an attempt to corrupt right doctrine.

John knew -and the Holy Spirit even more so- how the holy gospel would be attacked, how Christians would be destabilized, how the enemy would try to introduce the seed of evil into the bosom of Christianity. That is why John's writings have so many serious warnings in this regard, and they give us the tools to face the difficult times in which we live.

We will focus our attention, for now, on the First Epistle of John, a letter that touches on four or five aspects in a reiterative and recurrent way, as if the writer was circling around them, as if in a spiral, so that he returns to them again and again, but always adding something new, so that, at the end, we have those five themes developed in all their breadth and dimension.

Now, it is interesting to note that the themes that John deals with in this epistle respond precisely to the announcements and warnings that the Lord Jesus Christ made, on more than one occasion, about the final days. It is as if John had collected, by the Spirit, each one of the Lord's warnings, and had given them the precise treatment with God's solution for each one.

For example, the Lord said that, in the last days, the love of many would grow cold; so John gives us the key so that God's love does not grow cold. The Lord also said that wickedness would increase; so John gives us the key to what to do about the problem of sin. The Lord said that in the last days many would claim to be the Christ, and would try to deceive, if possible, even the elect; so John tells us about the antichrist, what his pretensions are, and how to overcome him. Thus, each of the subjects touched by the Lord about the time of the end are treated by John with great care, so that none of us may be deceived.

God's provision is always complete and timely for the needs of his people. God never abandons his beloved at the expense of adversarial forces. Even for this time, he provided the answers beforehand, even before the questions arose, for God is faithful and his mercy endures forever.

Beginning tomorrow and in the coming days we will see, God willing, each of these issues, with John's response to each of them.

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