Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

Introduction to 3 John - Insight for Living Click Here to Read or Listen to 3 John 1 The elder,  To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.  2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. 3 It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Once again the author identifies himself as the "elder". This time he is writing to a specfic person, "Gaius" who is probably a leader in one of the churches in Asia Minor. This kind of greeting makes it pretty certain that the apostle John is the author. This letter is written around 90-100 A.D., so John would have been up in age maybe in his 90's. He was on the island of Patmos, where he also wrote the book of Revelation.  We can see a lot of the language he uses is very ...

Background on 2 John - Insight for Living Click Here to Read or Listen to 2 John 1 The elder,  To the lady chosen by God and to her children, whom I love in the truth—and not I only, but also all who know the truth— 2 because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:  3 Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love. The elder was someone who oversaw the church. Historically people think this was the apostle John, although John identified himself in the gospel of John and 1 John, so not sure why he would do that here. Others think it is a leader of the church.  The "lady" is generally considered to be a personification of something or someone most likely the church. Paul called the church, "the bride of Christ", which is also feminine. John focuses again on the idea of "truth', which he emphasizes in all of his other letters too. This is the truth that John has been te...

Click Here to Read or Listen to 1 John 5 Faith in the Incarnate Son of God 5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. John again links believing in Jesus with obeying God's commands. Obeying his commands is one of the primary ways we show God we love him. You have heard a parent say, " If you love me you would obey me."  This can be manipulative but in essence it is true. If we know obeying God's commands pleases Him, then if we love God, we should want to obey His commands. And, it shows we trus...

Click Here to Read or Listen to 1 John 4 in NIV or TPT Translation A Warning against False Teaching 1Delightfully loved friends, don’t trust every spirit, but carefully examine what they say  to determine if they are of God, because many false prophets have mingled into the world. 2Here’s the test for those with the genuine Spirit of God: they will confess Jesus as the Christ who has come in the flesh.  3Everyone who does not acknowledge that Jesus is from God has the spirit of antichrist, which you heard was coming and is already active in the world. As teachers come into the church or you listen to teachers from other churches, you should be careful and discerning and take note of their teaching.  The most important aspect of their message is what they teach about who Jesus is. Most importantly they must teach that Jesus is the Messiah. No one can confess Jesus is Lord apart from the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:3.  Jesus came in the flesh, meaning he became a hum...

Click Here to Read or Listen to 1 John 3 (TPT) 1See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. Part of knowing God is becoming part of His family. Just as a husband and wife start a family and have kids as a product of their love for each other, so the Father has chosen us through the Son and given us the Holy Spirit, as a downpayment of our future inheritance. (Ephesians 4:13). If you wonder why the world often does not connect with Christians, it is because they does not know the Father or the Son.  Though we are children of God now, we will experience more of what that means when Jesus returns. ...

I am going to be using The Passion Translation (TPT) for the Daily Bread in 2025. To give you a taste of it, the following the link will contain both the NIV and TPT side by side, so you can compare and contrast both translations. There are also study notes that you can hover over for the TPT. You can still listen to the NIV by hitting the sound icon in the top left.  There is no perfect translation and new translations can add new insights to traditional translations. I.e. NIV was written in 1984 and TPT in 2020.  Click Here to Read 1 John 2 in NIV and TPT 1My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. John, of course doesn't want the believers to sin, but he reminds them they have an advocate who stands before the Father to intercede for them. Since He isright...