Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

Click Here To Read or Listen to 3 John 1   3 John 1 is the shortest letter of the bible at 219 words. If you want to see a general overview of the book click on the link below.  Click Here to Read About the Background, Purpose and Themes of 3 John 1 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. We see the relational side of Paul once again, as he describes his relationship with Gaius. He calls him a " dear friend " twice. One of the joys of doing ministry together is the deep and lasting relationships we build with each other. Even if we are separated by distance, we long to see each other and enjoy fello...

2 John 1 Summary of the book of 2 John (From GotQuestions.org) Author : The Book of 2 John does not directly name its author. The tradition from the earliest days of the church states that the author was the apostle John. There have been various conjectures over the years that another disciple of Christ named John may have been responsible for this letter. However, all the evidence points to the author as John the beloved disciple who also wrote the Gospel of John. Date of Writing : The Book of 2 John would most likely have been written at about the same time as John’s other letters, 1 and 3 John, between A.D. 85-95. Purpose of Writing: The Book of 2 John is an urgent plea that the readers of John’s letter should show their love for God and His Son, Jesus, by obeying the commandment to love each other and live their lives in obedience to the Scriptures. The Book of 2 John is also a strong warning to be on the lookout for deceivers who were going about denying the Incarnation, saying t...

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 teaches about the relationship of becoming a child of God, loving God, and keeping his commandments. We can't misunderstand this to mean if we keep God's commands that earns us God's love. Most importantly John says God's commands are NOT BURDENSOME. By giving us commands and principles to live by, God is not trying to make our lives miserable. It is when we don't live by G...

Click Here to Read or Listen to 1 John 4 On Denying the Incarnation 4 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, the particular heresy which was being taught was that Jesus only appeared to come in the flesh, but he was more of a spirit being. Some of these teachers taught that because the flesh was bad, God would never inhabit a human body.  Many might claim to be teaching "in the spirit", but unless their teaching acknowledges that Jesus was truly a man, it is not only false teaching, but John says it is controlled by the ...

Click Here to Listen to or Read 1 John 3   (All of the commentary quotes are in italics from David Guzik, Enduring Word Commentary) 3 See 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. 2 Dear 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. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. " See " what great love the Father has " lavished on us ". Another version says " behold ". We need to continually take a look at the love God has poured out on us. We can never forget it. He has lavished it on us. God is not stingy with his love but gives it all up for us. And because of this once again John says, " we can know him ". We should never forget the great love God has fr...

Click Here to Read or Listen to 1 John 2 Love and Hatred for Fellow Believers 3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he ands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. As I mentioned yesterday the specific heresy John is confronting in the early church is "Gnosticism", which comes from the Greek word, "to know". So John reframes the real meaning of the word when he says, " You have come to know him if you keep his commandments" . Knowing Jesus is not just in a mystical sense, but we experience our knowledge of him every day as we keep his commandments.  The "Gnostics" claimed they knew God from some secret knowledge obtained in the "spirit", but they lived godless lives. Since the body was b...

Click Here To Read 1 John T oday we start the 3 letters of John, universally agreed to be written by John, the beloved the disciple  These letters were written toward the end of the 1st Century (90-100 AD)   Like 1 and 2 Peter, false teaching was infiltrating the church. The particular form of heresy was known as “Gnosticism”, which advocated a strict dualism of the body and the Spirit  The Gnostic heresy was where one could be given secret knowledge  The “gnosis” in the Greek means “to know”.  To gain this knowledge was to become like God.  This heresy was a precursor to our modern “New Age” movement and things channeling God’s Spirit  The  other main theme is the essence of God, which is His love incarnated through the  Jesus Christ, who was truly God and truly human.   The Incarnation of the Word of Life 1  That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes ,which we have looked at and o...

Click Here to Read or Listen to 2 Peter 3   The Day of the Lord 3 Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2 I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. This first verse in chapter 3 confirms that the apostle Peter wrote both of these epistles. Peter is trying to build the church up, especially in their "thinking". This relates to the false teaching. The antidote to false teaching is the truth of God's Word, both in the Old and New Testaments. The holy prophets spoke God's Word, the apostles did through Jesus, and Jesus was the "Word made flesh".  “Peter believed in the inspiration of the very ‘words’ of Scripture; he was not one of those precious ‘advanced thinkers’ who would, if they could, tear the very soul out of the Book, and leave us nothing at all." - Spurgeon Pe...

Click Here to Read or Listen to 2 Peter 2   False Teachers and Their Destruction 2 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. Peter now addresses the issue of the false teachers who had infiltrated the church. It would seem as though they might be believers, as Peter says about them, " Denying the sovereign Lord who bought them. " At the heart of every heresy is a denial of who Jesus is either as a man or as God. Part of the heresy will allow people to gratify their sinful desires and justify their bad behavior. The conseque...

Click Here to Read or Listen to 2 Peter 1 Today, we start Peter's second letter. Like 1 Peter most people conclude it is Peter, the apostle, which is confirmed in the salutation at the beginning of the letter . 1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,  To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:  2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Here is a little background on this letter.  Where are we? Peter wrote this letter from Rome soon after he wrote 1 Peter in AD 64–66. So what would have prompted another letter to the same group so soon after the first? From the contents of the letter, it appears that Peter had received reports of false teachers in and among the churches in Asia Minor Where are we? Peter wrote this letter from Rome soon after he wrote 1 Peter in AD 64–66. So what would have prompted another letter to the same group so soo...