I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. -3 John 1:4
Truth is a major theme in the writings of the Apostle John.
John tells us that God expects us to live in the truth. This shouldn’t be surprising considering the fact that the Spirit of Truth lives inside of us!
We don’t expect the Spirit of God to deal falsely. God is never afraid to speak the truth. Why then do Christians conveniently go silent when we think others will find the Word of God offensive?
One of the clearest examples of gospel “misrepresentation by omission” is found in our use of John 3:16.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. -John 3:16
I admit, there’s a lot to love about this verse. I’m grateful for the truth of it. In one sense, it stands alone, needing nothing more. And yet, I think we do a disservice to God and others when we take it out of context.
If there’s one passage that every Christian seems to be able to recite by memory, it’s John 3:16
I don’t have a problem with this being a favorite verse among Christians. What I take issue with is that John 3:17-18 follows it- and nobody ever seems to quote the verse in context!
Let’s look and see what it has to say.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. -John 3:17-18
I think it’s fairly obvious why we quote John 3:16 as a standalone statement. It comes down to the unlikeable word “condemned” found in the next sentence.
Nobody wants to say that somebody without Jesus stands condemned. And so we just leave that part out. The only problem is, the Apostle John, led by the Holy Spirit, thought it was important enough to write it into the New Testament!
Not content with pointing out the fact that people without Jesus stand condemned, the Apostle John points just a few verses later, that the wrath of God remains on those who reject Jesus.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them. -John 3:36
The Apostle wants everyone to understand in the plainest way possible that if you believe in the Son of God you have eternal life, but if you reject the Son of God you will not have eternal life, because without Jesus, the wrath of God will remain on you.
People deserve to know that refusing Christ has eternal consequences. We are not doing anybody a favor by leaving out uncomfortable truths.
The Apostle John says something in his gospel that a great majority of Christians refuse to think about, let alone say.- The Apostle tells us that lost and fallen humanity is under the wrath of God and stands eternally condemned without Jesus Christ.
Why are so many Christians afraid to speak plainly about this?
How dare we shy away from proclaiming the whole counsel of God!
Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. -Acts 20:26-27
Paul says that when he stands before God he will be innocent of the blood of the people he preached to. He specifically points out that the reason he’ll be innocent of their blood is that he told them THE WHOLE TRUTH.
Where did we get the idea that we can leave things out?
God in His wisdom has chosen to talk about what happens to a person if they refuse to receive His Son. He says that such a person “stands condemned”. He says that such a person “remains under the wrath of God”.
These are very serious statements.
I would like to remind you again that it’s the Holy Spirit who is speaking through the Apostle John when He says these things!
When we cherry pick the Word of God and remove the parts we find distasteful, what we’re really doing is editing the Author’s work!
Do we really think it’s a good idea to revise the work of the Holy Spirit in order to make it more palatable?
It’s not that this passage is complicated. It simply comes down to the fact that we like to quote the happy parts, and leave out the difficult parts. When we do this we’re being disingenuous and violating the nature and work of the Holy Spirit.
We don’t see the Apostle John apologizing or soft pedaling what he wrote. He could have left the hard parts out of his gospel, but if he had done so he would have been unfaithful to the Spirit of God.
What strikes me about the Gospel of John is that John is absolutely open and candid when it comes to the truth. We never get the impression that he is anything but entirely honest and forthright in his presentation of Jesus and truth of God. The gospel and letters that John wrote are an open rebuke to the modern Church. They call us back to the truth that is in Jesus.