I John, 3:16-18

Well, today we're in chapter 3 and verses 16 through 18. And I'd like to, let's see here. Someone can read 13 through 18. Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love you, brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Let us not love in world or in time, but in deed and in faith.

Okay, so verse 16 is really a neat verse. I mean, it's just a tremendous verse. And actually, when I became a believer, I was overseas in England. I met the Lord there. I remember listening to people talk. Boy, if you know John 3.16, you should really know 1 John 3.16, because they kind of have a similar message. They talk about Christ's death for us, and it does. It's a tremendous verse, and we're going to delve into that.

But also it seems like that, and it's interesting when we picked out, you know, I'll take responsibility for the groupings, and you can, you know, that made me a good decision and a bad decision. But it's interesting that my thought on this, that this verse couples with these verses. And we're going to see that it does and it doesn't. This but here seems to be a contrast as it goes into 17 and 18. And it seems like this is making a statement about our wonderful Savior, and this is making a statement about our Christian walk and the authenticity of that. And so it's interesting.

We're going to see some interesting things. And I have some questions for you. I'm not sure I have them all answered, but maybe we can figure it out here. OK. All right. OK, so let's start the first clause here. And the first clause is we know love by this. And we as a subject here know it's going to go. We've seen this quite a few times, the know of experience, taking in knowledge, acquiring knowledge. And the direct object here is love.

And then there's a prepositional phrase which modifies the verb, by this or in this, which points to the second clause there, that he laid down his life for us. And what's neat about this is, if you look at the tenses here in the Greek, this is the perfect tense. And I ask this every week or every couple of weeks. What's the perfect tense?

A past completed action has abiding results up into the present. So what you could do in rendering this, you could say that we have known God's love, and by implication it's God's love. We have known God's love in the past, and we continue to know God's love up into the present by the fact that He laid down His life for us.

So that's something that we know. We had to know that in a sense to become a believer, right? If we didn't know that, we couldn't become a believer. So we've known that in the past. and up into the present, and we continue to know that, and that's a reality in our life now, and we know that, and we count upon that.

So that's really a cool thing. And there's some other verses in Scripture that, you know, Scripture has just a tremendous amount to say about God's love, and I just chose a few. And here's my verse I kind of alluded to, you know, for God so loved the world, And God's love produced action. He gave his only begotten Son. And that talks about our belief in that fact.

And then in 1 John 4.10 it says, and this is love. not that we love God, but that he loved us. And again, there's some action involved in that. And he sent his son to be the propitiation or satisfaction for our sins. So here's my kind of expanded translation, just kind of what I said. We have known God's love in the past, and we continue to know God's love now in this present time by this that he laid down his life for us, which we'll get to in a second. So just a tremendous verse. We probably could go off and look at all the aspects of God's love and do a lot with just this phrase alone.

I wasn't planning to do that. And actually, let me just go back for a second here. This by this or in this, this preposition, it could be also by means of this, I believe. by this or in this, or by means of this. He laid down his life for us. That's just kind of a small point there, maybe. So then I thought, well, it's interesting.

This phrase, we know, occurs in the first John a fair amount of times. This isn't all the occurrences, but I chose the ones here that use gnosko, the know of experience, we're experientially coming to know these facts. So the first one, I think the first one in 1 John is that we know that we have come to know Him. So 1 John is much about knowing, as we've seen quite a few times. We know that we have come to know Him by our Christian walk, by keeping His commandments, walking in the light. We come to know Him.

Then it says in 1 John 2.5, we know that we are in him. If you have to go back and look back at the first part of the verse, but whoever keeps his word, in him the love of God has been perfected, brought to maturity. So we know that we're in him by his life being lived out through us.

And then one we've covered about knowing it's the last hour, and we know it's the last hour by the fact that we now see many antichrists have appeared. And then down in 324, which we'll get to here in a few weeks, probably actually in a couple of weeks, we know by this that he abides in us by the spirit he's given us. And we know, by this we know we abide in him and he in us because he's given us of his spirit. So that phraseology, this isn't all, this isn't most of them, not all of them, that phraseology John uses a lot. He wants us to know the facts about what we have in Christ, who we are.

Okay, this is the middle part, the B part. He laid down his life for us. And this is in the Aorist tense, it's a past point fact, it's a reality, indicative mood, it's a reality. He laid down his life. And there's a couple of interesting Greek words we have here. Tithami, I think that's how you pronounce tithami. To put, to place, to set. Frequency signifies to lay. And then his life or life is this word, psuche. And it actually means, it's interesting, I was expecting this to be Do you think of another Greek word? What's that? Yeah. Okay. Actually. And Zoe, right. I was thinking it might be one of those, but it's interesting.

The word turns out to be, you know, in Genesis, he, God breathed enough, the breath of life or lives. Actually this word, uh, use here said that Christ gave up his breath of life or it is rendered in some places soul. So it's kind of interesting. And we're going to see a bunch of other verses that use. At first, I thought, boy, this is the only place. And you start looking through vines and other things, and you're like, wow, this word is used a lot more speaking of the kind of life that Christ has.

And he laid down his life for us or on behalf of us. So I want to look at those two words. And they're going to be pretty important words as we go through here. OK, so let's look at this phrase, laying down one's life. And actually, both those words, tithami and tithami for to lay down, and psuche for life, both appear in these verses.

And this is out of vines, basically. He kind of grouped them. And there's a lot more. I just picked a sampling. This is ones that speak of Christ laying down his life. Here's Peter. And then here's of believers. So as we see here, in fact, actually, let's just go and look at this for a second. This is really good.

If I get someone to read here, let's go to John 10. There's actually quite a few things that in John 10 that talk about Christ laying down his life for us. And they both used Tithami and Tsuke. John 10, so if I could get a volunteer to read 11 through 18.

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is in a hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, saith the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth. And the wolf catcheth him, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because He is unhierly, and he careth not for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.

Therefore, that my Father love thee, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from thee, But I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my father.

Great. Thanks, Doris. So, you know, it's just really tremendous here. You know, in verse 14, you know, I am the good shepherd. You know, I know my own. And then in 15, I lay down my life for the sheep." Very, very similar phraseology to our verse. And then 18 is just really tremendous.

You know, no one takes it away from me, but I lay it down of my own initiative. You know, just foundational stuff in the Christian life. I have the authority to lay it down. I have the authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from my Father. Okay, then interesting, then Peter.

You know, Peter very, Brashly says, Peter said to him, said to the Lord, Lord, why can I not follow you right now? I will lay down my life for you. And then the, what does the Lord say? You remember what he said? We're going to turn there. He says, Peter, he said, I don't think so. He didn't say that. He said, no, Peter, here's what's going to happen. You're going to deny me three times.

Peter was very, you know, And not to say that I, you know, I can identify with that too. Sometimes you're very, you can be very zealous and say things, oh yeah, no problem. I'll lay down my life for you, Lord. And then in John 15, 13. Roger? Sorry, go ahead. Can I share something? Sure, that's fine. Back in your John 10. Okay, good. I have a note here that I think is very interesting. Okay. Verse 10. Okay.

Father knoweth me not. The other sheep I have which are not of this fold. Now he's talking to the Jews here. He is now distinguishing not Israel but born again believers. Excellent, excellent. That's a real good point. No, I agree with you. I mean, I think he's looking ahead. There's going to be another fold, and that's going to be the church. That's great. That's great. So here, then in John 15, 13, he says, greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. So let me ask the question here.

And this is going to kind of, I'm not sure I want to belabor this point, but what kind of life is spoken of here? I mean, it's probably pretty obvious. What kind of life does Christ have? What kind of life is being spoken of here? Is there a distinction in Scripture between a life in Scripture, a physical life, and maybe a spiritual life? There is a distinction, right? That's why I'm trying to hit him, stumbling around here. So what kind of life is spoken? Is this a spiritual life here, or could it be both? What do you think? The focus here is pretty much physical.

When Peter said, Lord, I'll lay down my life for you, he was thinking I'm going to really die. I mean, this is it. Even though he couldn't carry it out. And I think here, this thing here, this is a tremendous statement. Greater love. This is the highest love that a man can have for his brother is to lay his physical life down.

So I think what's in view here is physical life. And that's going to kind of play in here kind of, I think, importantly, because when we get to the next part, when it talks about, it's going to make a, it's going to have an ought. It's going to have an ought for believers. And the question comes up, is he talking about physical life or spiritual life or both? So I just want to kind of, you know, this seems to be addressing physical life here. And he does, eventually, right? Yeah, right. And that's, of course, that's, you know, that's tradition.

We don't have that outside of Scripture, but I mean, you know, it's pretty obvious he did. Okay, so here's the C part of the verse. So now that we've established this wonderful truth, we know, we've known it in the past, we continue to know up into the present, that he laid down his life for us or on behalf of us. It says, we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

OK. And it has this and it's in the present tense. So this is something to be a present. This is a present reality for the believer. And this ought is a fellow, to owe. It's translated ought with various personal pronouns. This is a we in this case. And this little phrase, to lay down our lives, modifies that verb there.

And then it's for the brethren, or on behalf of the brethren. I'll just skip to this first. This seems to be the brothers in the Lord, seems to be focused on that. It can be a physical brother, but I think in this case it's focused on brothers in the Lord. So what do you think, and I haven't really told you yet, what do you think this word lies here. What word do you think that is that Zoe or bios or suitcase?

Okay. I can't pronounce it, right? Yeah. Okay. Well, what, what do you think it is? So it's interesting here. So this is kind of a, a learning process for me. I started to this and I'm going to tie these three verses together. That was my goal. I go in with Roger's goal, right? When I get down to here, I say, man, I'm looking at this. And I talked to some other brothers in the course of this.

So these two words, life and lives, this is just a plural of that of Psyche. So we ought to lay down our lives. I'm thinking, well, this is preparing for the other verses that are coming. Because he's going to tell us, if I see my brother in need, if I see my brother in this and that, I'm thinking, well, You know, he's talking about a sacrificial giving of our lives for the Lord.

I mean, day by day, moment by moment. But the more I looked at this, I said, you know, I don't know about that. I think this seems to be in this context, in this context, it seems like it's being the same word. It's referring back to Christ's death, which is a physical death. It also was a spiritual death. He was separated from the Father. But we can't do that. I can't spiritually separate myself from the Father. A believer can't do that.

Can I back you up? Sure, go ahead. John 21, 19. Well, 18 and 19. Truly, truly, I say to you when you were younger, this is the Lord talking. You used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished. When you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go. Now this, he said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. So he's talking again about physical death. Exactly. Exactly. OK. OK. That's good. That's good. Excellent. All right.

So I know after thinking about it for a while, I think that this is speaking of, even though we're going to go into another set of verses, they're going to talk about a sacrificial giving, letting Christ live his life through us, this seems to be tying back to that we ought to lay down our lives. This is physical life. Actually, back to the verse that we had before, right?

It says, right here, believers, greatest love, I'm not sure what that word greatest is, but to lay down one's life for his friends. I mean, that's the top of the mark. I mean, giving your physical life for a brother, or your friends, is it. So I mean, it's a lot more than a couple of bucks.

Right. And say, you know, we're going to see you. We're not to love with word or with tongue. Oh, have a good day. You know, I'm praying for you. And hey, I'm guilty of that, too. I mean, I say, I'm going to pray for this person. I better make a note so I remember what I told him. So anyway, that was just kind of, maybe it's not a biggie. I mean, maybe it's obvious, but it just was kind of, So this is the same word here. Let's go on here. So actually, I did a little study on the word ought.

A couple of verses in 1 John 2.6.

The one who says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. It says, you call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If then the Lord and teacher washes your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet.

So in these cases here, we're not, this is not talking about, and after thinking about this, probably, you know, this is talking more about not physical giving of a life. This is the ought talking about Christian, the Christian life, letting Christ live his life through you.

Just to highlight it again, here's the two. These are the same word. And if you notice, we're going to start down in 17 and 18. So this seems like that does kind of break it up too. So 16 kind of stands as the ultimate example of love laying down your life. Christ was the example. And it says that if that believer, that may come and happen in a believer's life. OK, so now we're going to move into verse 17. So 17 is interesting. It has the first three clauses.

Actually, there's a compound verb here. Has the world's goods. Sees his brother in need. Closes his heart. And you could just make it three separate. This is kind of the compact version, if you will. But whoever. So, but whoever has the world's goods, but whoever sees his brother in need, but whoever closes his heart against him. And what's also interesting here is that we're going to find that these verbs here, And we haven't talked much about this. And I'm not certainly the world's expert in this. I'm not even close. But in Greek, every verb has three aspects. It has a tense, like present tense or past tense and so on, eros tense. It has a mood. It has a voice, active voice or passive voice.

Well, these verbs we're going to find are going to have this thing called the subjunctive mood. And we see that mood a lot in all these conditional sentences. If this is true, then that will be true. And use that's a subjunctive mood. But we're going to see some subjunctives here. But they kind of have an interesting and I spent a little bit time looking at some of that. It seems like the subjunctive mood is a mood of some uncertainty. This jumping mood is the action that is objectively possible with a motive probability.

But in this case, rather than the. The mode of probability being wrapped up in the verb, it's more in the subject, the but whoever. It may be that it's not everyone, it's whoever. And it could be whoever may have the world's goods, whoever may see his brother in need, whoever closes his heart against him. So the uncertainty of that verb somehow, and this is why it loses me. I've got to study some more. Maybe Josiah's been down that path. It falls back into the subject. And that's where the uncertainty comes out.

But whoever may have the world's goods, but whoever sees his brother in need, but whoever may close his heart. Because the actions are pretty, you know, he has the world's goods, he sees his brother in need, he closes his heart. But it's the whoever part. Now that probably totally confused you.

But anyway, it's interesting. That's probably not a, you know, we could go off on rabbit trails. We're going to see another subjunctive thing here a little bit, too. So I want to point that out to you. OK, so the verb here is has. And it's a subjunctive mood that we talked about. It's a usual verb to have. And the direct object is the world's goods. And here's interesting, this is interesting.

It has our word bios, which in some contexts is life or lifetime, but it's also a lot, you know, means of living, livelihood. So bios can have different, you know, and in the context can apply different things. So let's, a couple of verses here. Let's look at Mark 22, 44. And this is a case where BIOS is used. And can I get a volunteer for that one? Mark 12, verse 44.

I may have said something different. I think they all put in and out of their surplus. that she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all that she had to live on. Okay. So that little phrase, actually, this is, I should have probably gone back and have him read the first part, but this is where, this is a poor widow, and she's making a contribution to the treasury. So what's interesting, you know, that you think about this, whoever has the world's goods. So you, you know, you say, well, what is that? And this, you know, this is, I'm trying to get a hold of what this, what that is. So in this case, it's not a whole lot. That's all that she had. That was what she owned, which wasn't a lot. Now, we're going to find these other verses here. In fact, we don't have to turn. Let's see how we're doing here.

In Luke 15 and 12, it talks about more a surplus or a wealth, like it talks about the 1512 talks about the prodigal son. Yeah, right. And so the father divides his wealth up. He gives half to the prodigal son, who goes off and squanders, and he gives half to his other brother. So bios, in this case, and there are more verses, but these are kind of representative. Sometimes it can mean just whatever you have, and sometimes it can mean that you might have a lot. And then 21.4, it talks about out of their surplus they gave.

This means a living, you know, doesn't have to be a lot. You have what you need to live on. So you have something, apparently. I mean, you're not broke. In today's world, I'm not sure what that even means anymore with credit cards, which is a sad thing. You know, are you really ever broke in today's world, right? Always got a credit card. And after a while, you have to pay it back.

I guess my point was here that this is just, it's not a person that has a tremendous abundance. I just have what I need to live on. The next phrase is, but whoever sees his brother in need. And this is a cool word. This is phereo. It's one who is a spectator. It's used of one who looks at a thing with interest. And let me just turn here to John 20. John 20, verse 6. So this isn't just a casual gaze.

This is an intense, like you might do, when you're in a theater, right? When you're a spectator in a theater, you're watching pretty carefully. I mean, you're not, you know, you're not just kind of casually. Otherwise, you probably wouldn't be watching that movie or whatever. You'd think, well, I lost my attention. So you're really gazing pretty.

So John 20, verse 6. It says, Simon Peter therefore also came, following him, and entered the tomb, and he beheld, which is our word, the linen wrappings lying there, and the face cloth which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. When he came into the tomb, he, wow, look at this, look at this. I mean, he was examining, you know, look at all these things here in the tomb. So it wasn't just a casual, oh, it's an intense looking with interest. So this is not to just happen to notice your brother walking by. You see your brother need, you have observed it, you know it. It's more than a casual glance.

And then the other thing is that the need, it's a necessity. And I had a verse for that. No, I guess I didn't. Okay, well, it's a necessity. I apologize. I thought I had a verse for that. So you see your brother, and it's not a casual glance, and he has a need. It's a necessity. So that's what's being spoken of here. So that's the second one. Well, I don't know.

Well, first of all, it's your brother. It's your brother. And once again, I would say, It probably is focused on your brother in the Lord or your sister in, whoever sees his brother in need. And then the last part is, so it's actually, it's not only that you have the world's goods, you have some means that you could help, it seems like.

You see there's a need and it's not just a casual look. and there's really a need, but you, this is a, you close your heart, you know, to figure, to shut, to shut up. It's, you know, not a pretty picture. So you just say, nope. Actually, I had a fever. It's a C and literally it means just, just literally to shut the door and to close something. You just, you say, nope, I'm not going to do it. So this is a, you know, a pretty strong condemnation.

We shouldn't be doing that. We shouldn't be. We have the world's goods, we see our brother in need, we shouldn't be shutting our heart and saying no. And the word for heart, this is this cool word, here on office, splanchnon, the physical organs of the intestines, kind of the Middle East picture of the heart, you know, your gut or you have a gut feeling. It's called in scripture the heart many times.

So you close your affections. You say, no, I'm not going to do it. Against him is a prepositional phrase. And so then the last part, how does the love of God abide in him? A rhetorical kind of thing. If you have the world's goods, you see your brother in need, and you shut your heart, you say no against him.

How does the love of God abide in him? And apparently, this is John again. John's very practical in this. Over and over again he's saying, here are some actions, and do these actions line up with who you are in Christ? And he asks, how does the love of God abide in him?

It doesn't make any sense. It's inconsistent. And the word abide is the word we see, you know, abide in him, you know, be at home. It's illogical that the love of God could abide in him if he's doing the following, the previous things. Is the love used throughout here, 1 John, always? It's agape, yes, or forms of that, yeah. It's agape, right. Well, that's a normal, if you're, you know, if you had to, in most cases, it's going to be agape. It's agape in this case, yes.

That's God's love, and that's love that I can't produce, right? It can't come out of me. It comes from God. It's God's love that flows through me to my brother. So how does the love of God abide in him? Because the only person the love of God can abide in is a believer.

So he's saying, how is the love being lived out in your life? How is it being at home in your life? It's not, if you're doing these things. But if you think about it, the Christian life The Christian life is God's love, right, being lived out through us, and God's love is by nature the agape love, the self-sacrificial love.

So, I mean, that's in view. Not that phileo is not in there sometimes, but God's love is characterized by agape love. Could you identify it more by heavenly love versus earthly love? Phileo means earthly love? That's possible, sure. At one time I had a study where I did, you go through all the passages on agape, which are most of the passages in scripture, and then the few that are on phileo, and it's kind of neat to do that. God's love is expressed wonderfully with the word agape, whereas phileo is brotherly love between brothers.

Okay, so now we're to verse 18. This is a word, little children, or technon, the enduring term that John has been using over and over again, little children. He's going to encourage the believer to let God's love come out through him. Let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and in truth.

So here we have, the subject is let us, and this little let us in the verb, let us not love, this is kind of an interesting little combo here that we're going to find And the Greek is sort of an indicator of something here in just a second. And this is subjunctive again. What's interesting is you have a compound prepositional phrase here. with word or with tongue, in deed and in truth. So this is what we're not to be doing.

We're not to just be loving with word or with tongue. I want to try to separate the difference between what word means and what tongue means. Your first thought is, well, word and tongue sound like the same thing. That was my first. Well, what's the difference between word and tongue? And so I have some ideas on that. We are to love in deed and in truth. There are to be deeds, to be actions. And it is to be truth, is to be truthful. OK, so let's just look here's a special another little sidelight on the Greek language here.

That little lettuce is called Hortori subjunctive. This is something you go home. I learned about Hortori subjunctive today. Huh? It's that it's use of a subjunctive, this mode of probability. is used to urge someone to unite with a speaker in a course of action. And that's from Wallace, Wallace's book on the Greek. And here's a couple of examples that Wallace gave.

Hebrews 4.14, therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

And then Galatians 6.9, let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.

So that little, it's a subjunctive plus a plural, and that's getting at the edge of what I understand, but subjunctive plus a plural is is that kind of construction, and it's an urging of one to do something. So in this case, he's urging us to not love in word or tongue, but indeed in truth. So that's what he's urging us to do.

Here's the two ones I wanted to compare here. The word logos and glossa, word and tongue. This is an expression of thought or speech. And actually, this word is a very significant word. It speaks in John's writings. John's the one that uses it. He uses the word Jesus as a living word.

So this is used, in the beginning was the word, in the Gospel of John. And then in the first verse of 1 John, we saw it there as well. So logos. And if you look here, you'll see that this seems to be, if you look at the verses that I kind of quoted here, it talks about things that are, I would say, scripture, if you will. It's talking about God's word, Logos. So in 3.16, it's like the word of Christ ritually dwell on you. In the Timothy passage, it's the words of faith. So this seems to be kind of focused on scripture.

So it seems like, and this is just my kind of rendering of it, he's saying don't just quote, this is a paraphrase, don't just quote verses at a person, don't just say, John 3.16, you know, I'm not trying to, you know, people just write a verse and hand it to you here. You have a problem? I write a verse and I hand it to you. Okay, well, that could be good. I mean, that could be just fine.

But this seems to be saying, hey, we just don't love with word or with tongue. And this seems to be focused on God's word. And then the other part is this tongue, organ of speech. And James in here, he just really, really hammers us on, you know, the tongue. Be careful of your tongue. Your tongue, it can just get you into all kinds of trouble. So it's saying, don't just give them verses. Don't just give them pious platitudes. Don't just talk, you know. It's in deeds and truth. It's focused on action. God said he loved us, and he produced action. And in a sense, that's what the believer is to do, because he's walking in the Lord. He's walking with Christ.

Okay, so let's just get on to the last. In deed, I didn't do truth. I think it's Aletheia, most likely. I hope I'm right. So in deed and in truth, A deed is aragon. It's a work or a deed or an act. And once again, James says, your actions prove out your Christian life. A person without actions, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works, you kind of doubt his faith. Actions that come out of faith come out of our walk. I like what Weist has here.

Little born ones, let us not be loving in the sphere of words, not even in the sphere of tongues. but in the sphere of deed and truth. So that's to be where our loving is. It's in deeds and truth, not in the sphere of giving people what I'm going to call Bible verses and just pious platitudes. It's in the sphere of deeds and truth.

So the question is, how do we do all this? If you notice here, we have some words we ought to lay down in our lives. Has the world's good. Sees his brother in need. Closes his heart. How does the love of God abide in him? Little children. There's a lot of pressure on us, right? I'm going to go home today, and boy, I've got to get busy. Monday morning, I'm going to start anew, right? So how do we do this? That's a question that, how is this accomplished in the believer's life?

Well, I think one of the Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ. It has to be Christ's life. If you think about that, giving of your physical life was the first part. These are way over the top. All you've got to do to become a Christian is give your physical life. That's step one, right? And then you give all, you know, so on. I mean, it has to be Christ's life.

If it's my life, it's not going to be God's love. It's not going to be the agape love. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God. So back to the fundamentals of the Christian life. It's by trusting and walking in the Lord, abiding in Him, so that His life, Christ's life, will be lived out through us.

That's how we can accomplish those aspects in those three verses. So that's it. Any last thoughts or questions? OK, well, let's close in prayer. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for this day, Father. We thank you for your word, Lord. We thank you, Father, that we can trust in you and rest, Lord, and not strive to do these things.

So we know that there are needs. We see our brothers and sisters in need, Lord. And we know, Lord, that you're the one that can truly give them comfort, truly give them what they need. And it's only as we abide in you and trust in you that we can that your life can be shown through us and that we can give them what they need. We thank you for this in Christ's name. Amen.