Bible Study 1John 5 Identity & Overcoming Disucssion

Our discussion on Bible Study 1John Chapter 5 Identity & Overcoming have the additional points to add.

1. The Testimony of water, blood and the Spirit. 1Jn 5:8
• One interpretation is that it refers to the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in Mark 1:10-11. Water is the baptism water. Blood is Jesus in manly form of flesh and blood and the Spirit appearing as the dove.
• The testimony of God is the voice of the Father as in v11 "You are my beloved Son; with you, I am well pleased."
• This incident was a public event witnessed by many people then.
2.  Getting our Prayers Answered. 1Jn 5:14
• God will only answer our request according to His character. God will not give us something that violates His character and His love for us. Hence, the Faith of Word preachers teach us to look for promises in the Bible first and that base our requests on those promises. It is not our faith that works but the faithfulness of God's words.
• We know from the Bible that God will give us good health, wealth for us and for us to bless others but not to become our idol, and good relationships. 
• We must also consider the time and our growth. God's answer is immediate but it takes time to see the full manifestation of the answers and there is a need for our growth in maturity. We must also know that patience can only be seen when we are put in a difficult situation for a long period of time. Peace is best seen in crisis. Love involves sacrificing our interests for others. 
3. Loving and Praying for our Brothers 1Jn 5:16-17
• It tells us that we should be concern and watchful over our brothers' growth and well-being in the Lord. 
• We are to pray for them when he "is committing a sin not leading to death" and not to bother when he "is committing a sin leading to death". This is a difficult verse to understand.
• Firstly, how do we know what sin will lead to physical death or not? I would suggest that we will pray for all who are sick and seek God for wisdom as to what specific words or corrections that need to be given.
• We do have incidences in the Bible like Act 5:1-11 and more specifically in 1Co 5:5  "you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord".
• It shows that sometimes, we cannot be kinder than God! Trust God no matter what.
4. Keeping Sin Away 1 Jn 5:18-19
• Our salvation is sure when we do not keep on sinning. We may sin, but we will be convicted and then we will repent and be forgiven. The righteous may fall but they will get up. Proverbs 24:16 NIV for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again...
• Our assurance is Jesus keeps us safe and the evil one cannot touch us (5:19).
5. Conclusion 1 Jn 5:20-21
• Most are surprised by John's v21 "keep yourselves from idols..." after v20 assurance of our salvation. 
• Maybe the following rephrase will make it clearer. 
• Now that we know for sure that Jesus Christ is the Son of the True God and has given us eternal life then let us not have any other idols (like money, people, other religions & practices) to distract us from our devotion to Him. Let us live out the eternal life in us and waver no more.

Bible Study 2John Exhortation for Leaders

The Elder Apostle John wrote this letter to an Elect Lady and her children. He was exhorting the woman leader and her members. That should put an end to the argument that woman should not lead in church. This is also a good summary letter on "How to have a Successful Christian Fellowship Life Group".

Grace, Mercy and Peace from God
It begins with typical blessings of "Grace, mercy and peace of God".
Grace is the power of God for us to do things that God call us to do. See Christianity Rediscovered: "Grace is Unmerited Favor" - This common definition is wrong.
Mercy is our undeserved blessings and goodness from God to us. We get mercy without any of our performance. It is entirely the goodness of God. Peace of God gives us the calmness, worry-free, fear-free, harmony and joy in face of crisis. See Peace - Biblical View. When we are disturbed, troubled, depressed and fearful, please remember to get the grace, mercy and peace from our Lord Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father.

The Key Points of the Exhortation
1. Walk in the Truth of the Commandment of Love. (v4-6)
2. Know the True Doctrine of Christ which includes confessing that Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.
3. Watch ourselves that we continue to abide in the teaching of Christ. Christianity is not a one off event but a journey with Christ beginning with our acknowledgment of Jesus as the Christ. (v8-9)
4. Do not have fellowship with those(corrupters) that have a different doctrine of Christ. Otherwise, we will be participating in their evils.(v10-11)
5. Meeting one another face to face that our joy may be full (v12). This point stresses the importance of fellowship in persons, not just by mail!

The Meaning of Jesus coming in the Flesh
1 John 4:2, John tells us how to discern the spirit of false prophets and anti-Christs -"Did the spirit confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh". Here in 2John 1:17, he uses "confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh". Jesus Christ is the key of Christianity. Remove Christ, and Christianity is gone! If Christ did not come in the flesh as man, then man sins remained. If Christ the man was not resurrected and be coming again in the resurrected form of flesh (new kind), then the promise of eternal life is also false.

In those days, there were heretic preachings to spiritual Christ rather than accept the physical man Jesus as God, and the shameful death on the cross. To a natural human mind, God as a limited man with suffering is not easy to accept. But the essence of Christianity is the very fact that God came as man to die for man as man to show forth the great love of God for man.

In this letter, John placed this 'Christ in the flesh' in the midst of walking in love, watching ourselves, abide in His teaching. It seems to me that he was stressing on the importance of loving the real person in the flesh as evidence for loving God.

In Charles Brown Cartoon, Linus said, "I love mankind. It's people I can't stand!". A Leader stressed that we should not be man centered but Christ centered. Therefore, we shall emphasize relationship with Christ over caring for members. What do you think? May be the following verses can help our understanding:

• (1John 4:20) If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 
•  (John 13:35) By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Questions for Discussion & Applications

1. Grace, Mercy, Peace from God & Christ in truth and love. What are the meaning of the different words? What do they do for and to us?
2. What are the main teachings of this letter?
3. What is the Doctrine of Christ? How do we treat those that do not follow the Doctrine of Christ? Is that the way to treat people?
4. What is the relationship between John and this Elect Lady? What does it tell us about the relationships among the early believers?

Bible Study John 10 Jesus is the Door & the Shepherd

Jesus used the things we encountered in everyday life to illustrate and tell us who He is. Story is the most effective means of communication and teaching. All of us like to listen to story. We project ourselves into it. It is hence attention getting and easy for us to remember the lessons. It is probably the reason that Jesus used many parables to teach us the deep things of God, man and truths.

Q1 What can we learn about Jesus as the Door to the sheepfold? Make a comparison with those that came in by other way.

Jesus as the Door: 

1. Through Jesus, we will be saved 10:9 and have eternal life v28
2. We have freedom (go in and out v9)
3. Have abundant life (find pasture v9) and they may have it more abundantly v10

Thief come in illegally and by stealth (we may not know or may be deceived or may by ignorance and negligence, let the thief in). They do the opposite of what Jesus does.

1. steal (vs freedom) - take away what you have: of your heart - freedom, joy, peace, etc; of your mind - wisdom, clarity; of your body - health; of your possession - house, business, savings.
2. kill (vs Salvation) - take away your abundant life, and even bring death to you, your family, your friends etc.
3. destroy (vs abundance) - to break apart good things like relationships, successful businesses etc. They put fear, depression, hopelessness, hatred, revenge, lusts, immorality, dirt in you.

Q2 What can we learn about Jesus as the Good Shepherd? Make a comparison with the hired hands.

1. Call his own by name and know them (v3,14). Knowing by name implies truly knowing you as a person and your character. When Jesus wants us to believe in His name for our salvation, he also means that we know not just His Name but who He is.
2. Leads them out (v3). Jesus will lead us and guide us. If we don't know what to do, we need to stand on this promise and ask God for guidance.
3. He goes before them (v4). This verse is an emphasis that Jesus is not leading us from the back like a commandment in war asking his men to charge forward when he stays at the back. Jesus leads by going first. He opens out the path and make the way that we can easily recognize and walk on it. We need not be fearful of the present or the future. We need not be worried about the uncertainties of life, weathers, wars, famines, sicknesses etc (Read Ps 91 and see the protection of God for you). Put our faith in Jesus as our Good Shepherd.
4. Lays down His life for the sheep (v11,15). Heavenly Father loves Jesus for that (v17) showing that our Heavenly Father loves us even more that He gave Jesus for us!
5. Go to look for other sheep not in the fold yet (v16). There is only one fold with Jesus as the Shepherd.
6. No one is greater than Jesus to take Jesus' life. He laid it willingly to save us (v18) and is able to take it up with resurrection power to bring us along with Him.

Hired hands will run away by themselves first on the first sign and danger and leave the sheep to be exposed to the attacking wolves. When we face crisis, those who stay to help us and those who left us, enables us to know who are our true friends.

Q3 What are the people's reactions to Jesus' saying? Who were they? What about you, what do you think of Jesus?

In Jerusalem, we found two groups. One thought Jesus as mad or demon possessed(v19) They were blind to the evidence and took up stones to stone Jesus(v31) when Jesus made it plain to them that He was from God (v37-38). But John quickly pointed out another group that believe in Jesus and cited evidence (opening the eyes of blind - Chapter 9) to refute the first group as wrong.

(Additional explanation: Can devils heal too? Yes if the sickness is caused by another lower ranking demons. But devil cannot heal a sickness that has a natural cause. e.g. the man born blind. A sickness caused by demon can be found in Luke 13:16).

Many of those that lived beyond River Jordan believed Jesus because of John the Baptist prophecy and Jesus actual fulfillment of the prophecy by His works, most definitely, miracles (v41-42).

Jesus never asked us to believe Him without evidences. He proclaim a truth and have evidences to support His words. Chinese wise man taught us to know a person by hearing his talk and then observing his behavior before making a conclusion about the person.

Q4 How can we be sure that we are true believers? What assurance have Jesus gave us?
John 10:4 the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. v5 they flee from strangers.
10:27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

There are a few things that we must be doing to know we are true believers:

1. Know His voice. We know His voice by studying His words - the Bible. Jesus will speak according to and confirming the Bible teaching. Simply, Jesus talk like the Bible. When we heard a speech, and it contradicts the Bible, then we know it is not from Jesus. Jesus does not speak against the Bible.
2. We seek to hear(v27) from Jesus our Shepherd. We spend time to talk to Jesus and to listen to His guidance, comfort and other words of love. 
3. We follow(v27) and obey His words and then truly know and experience, or taste, the good words of Jesus.
4. We stay away from the strangers - people that talk and behavior against the teachings of the Bible.

The Assurance from Jesus: (v27-30)

1. Jesus knows us (those that hear and follow Jesus v27)
2. Jesus gives us eternal life and we shall never perish.
3. NO one is able to snatch them out of His hand.
4. Because His Father is greatest than all. (no one is able to snatch us away from His Father's hand - repeated for our assurance)
5. Jesus and Father are ONE. We are in Jesus and His Father's strong hand and no one can snatch us away.

Many believers are worry that they could loose their salvation. This is unnecessary worry. Once we truly believe and entrust our lives to Jesus, then it is Jesus (and Father) who is responsible for our lives and not us. It is not us holding on His hand but His hand is holding unto us. Stop worrying about whether you are loosing your salvation and live rightly as the eternally secured child of God and behavior like one, showing forth the glory of our Heavenly Father by our works of faith and labor of love, attracting others to Jesus and our Father.

Bible Study 1 John 4 Discernment & Love Discussion

We discussed on Bible Study 1 John Chapter 4 Discernment & True Love.

Discernment First - Don't be Deceived by those that come using Jesus Name.
There are many false prophets in this world and want to push their teachings to us. Many come in the name of Jesus, Bible, and God. John gave us the key test - Jesus Christ, the Son of God  coming in the flesh of man to die for us. There are doctrines that preached that Jesus was only a man or Jesus as man was symbolic only. Christianity is built on Jesus. Remove Jesus and there is no Christianity. Not believing in Jesus as coming from God the Father, as a man to die for our sins and resurrected to give us new life also make Christianity belief void (1 Cor 15:13-19).


We discussed that there were 3 groups for people - the believers, the anti-Christ, and the undecided. The anti-Christ will try to deceive believers and others away from following Christ. Believers has the Holy Spirit inside that is greater than them in the world. So, believers should not be afraid of the challenges in the world and from the anti-Christ spirit working through men.

True Love - Exemplified by God and Working in Us & Empower Us to Reach out.
We are empowered to love others because God first loved us and sent His only Son Jesus Christ to die for us. Our love show that are in God and God in us 1John4:16. Love is perfected, showing a growing degree of love, through our practices of love for one another. True love is unconditional, proactive, sacrificial, others-centric, and build upon the foundation of Jesus' love for us. Counterfeit love is performance and self-benefits based. I love you because I gain good things from you such as beauty, service, respect, money, etc. Once you are doing what I want, I withdraw my love. Such is counterfeit love.


True love cast out fear - fear of punishment.
True love provides the environment for openness, transparency and trust. There is no fear of punishment. Fear of punishment creates cover-up, lies, distance. We compare discipline vs punishment. Discipline is firstly concern about you, your benefits, character molding and growth. It is future oriented. Discipline may be painful in the short-term. But the person being disciplined must understand its purpose and know it is for him. Discipline is done in private. Punishment is about past wrongful acts being committed. It is more concern about the rules being violated than the person committing the wrongful act. It is meant to be a warning, of fear, to all others as well. It is to make sure all follow the rules. It is enforcing a behavior. Discipline is about internalizing a good value. I don't steal because stealing is bad not because it will be punished.


Let's Be Real - Don't Kid Yourself - Loving God includes loving His People
John is brutally frank about love. 1 John 4:20 If you hate a brother than you are a liar if you said you love God. He who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. There are people who tell you should put God and ignore the people.  That's sound great but is misleading. Loving God also means loving the people that God gave His Son Jesus Christ for. He who cannot be concern about his brothers or sisters cannot love God who he cannot see.

For an exposition on True Love, see here.

Bible Study John 9 Man born Blind vs the True Blinds

I like this chapter. It is a detailed descriptions of events that have many lessons for us and yet there are much humor in it. Our hero does not have a name and is recognized as the "Man born Blind".


Q1 Why was the man born blind? Whose fault is it? (John 9:1-7)

1. Man can tell what is abnormal or bad.
   Blindness is bad. Sin is bad. Some how we have this believe, irrespective of religions or cultures, that doing good bring good outcome and bad outcome is due to some wrong did in the past (this or earlier ancestors). This is a moral argument for the existence of God. We can trace our sins and wrongs back to Adam. But there is little we or even Adam can do about our past, and only God can undo or do better than that. The better than is done by Jesus Christ. Adam was born from the earth. Believers are rebirth with the Holy Spirit of God through Jesus! We part-take the nature of God and become children of God! The people who hurt us and caused problems for us are the ones least concern and able to correct the hurts and fix the problems. Don't wait for them to do something about it. Do something about it ourselves - forgive, fix and go on with our own life. Accepting and embracing our good and the bad is the beginning of a abundant life. Accept ourselves because Jesus has accepted and love us. Jesus does more to transform and empower us with His grace. Believe and trust Him.
   
2. What we are born with does not mean it is normal.
   Blind is abnormal even though the man was born with it. Accept the weaknesses we are born with. Face them upfront and fix them. We are also born strengths. Discover them too. Develop our strengths and manage our weaknesses are key to abundant life of champions. However, if we don't admit our weaknesses or sins, and instead give accuses for them, then we will never break out of them. Confession of our sins to God is not about God's forgiveness (for God has already forgiven all our sins in Jesus' cross two thousands year ago) but about our deliverance from its bondage in this life. God does not want us to be in sin's bondage.
   
3. From past oriented thinking to future oriented thinking.
   "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him". Jesus shifted the whole attention from past-oriented blame focus to future oriented for good thinking. God can make a seemingly hopeless situation into one that bring glory to God and joy to the people. Ask God for a miracle for your present crisis. Listen carefully to His analysis and guidance. Our present problem is the result of past pattern of decision making and behavior. Unless we change our thinking pattern and behavior, we will always end up in the same crisis again even if God bail us out. God will tell us what to change so that we don't have to live in miracle after miracle. Life in the promise land is better than the life in the desert of miracles (manna, water, cloud by day and fire at night).
   
4. Get up and Do as per instruction of God.
1. Jesus made spit and made mud and than put it on the man's eyes. Jesus have many ways to heal people. Each according to the need of the situation. Don't put God into a box and don't make a doctrine out of a method of healing. It is just a method for the particular situation. It can be repeated but don't make it the ONLY way!
2. Do as Jesus said and go to pool of Siloam to wash. The man could not have gain his sight if all he did is to wipe off the mud. He had to follow Jesus' instruction exactly as sign of trust. Sometimes we ask God for help but we want to do them in our own terms and then blame God for not helping us! Be like Naaman. He listened to his servant and humbled himself to wash seven times at the Jordan River as per instructed by the prophet Elisha (2 King 5).

Lesson: Rather than argue about whose fault is it, ask what good can come out or be done about it. Then do it.


Q2 How to witness for God? (John 9:11)
The best form of witnessing is our own real life story. An real experience cannot be explained away as we shall see in this passage. Some of us may not have dramatic conversion experience like sickness to health, addiction to freedom, criminals to pastors, but our own story is real and it is likely to be more common. Don't undervalue your experience of conversion just because it is 'normal' or 'common'.  Is Jesus still relevant to 'normal' people like us? If we want a template of witnessing, a framework for story telling, let take the man version. John 9:10-11

1. Before: I was born blind. (They asked him how he got well).
2. The Source: Jesus. 
3. What Jesus did? He made mud, anointed my eyes, tell me to go to Siloam and wash.
4. What did I do? I went as told.
5. What the outcome? I got my sight.
6. What about you? Do you want to know Jesus? (8:35-38)

Q3 What are things forbidden in Sabbath according to the Pharisees?

1. Doing work like making mud and opening eyes (healing).

Q4 What was the mindset of the Pharisees? Why can't they accept Jesus?

1. Good man follows the Rules of the Sabbath (actually our man enhanced rules).
2. Those that break the Rules could not be good man and definitely not from God.
3. Such Sabbath-Rules breaking man could not have performed a healing miracle.
4. The healing miracle could not be true. 
5. If he is seeing now, he could not have been born blind.
6. My belief is Sabbath Rules is bigger than facts. I reject such facts as lies. 
7. Such Sabbath-Rule Breaking people are misleading the people and should be put to death.

Prejudice and biased are sticking to own mindset irrespective of the truth and facts. Sometimes there could be an error in our observation, an illusion, like the acts of the magicians. We know it could not have happened as what we are seeing. We just don't know the trick behind it. That was what the Pharisees thought and they continue to pursue the case hoping to discover the tricks! They checked with his parents and despite the pressures, the parents reported the fact that he was truly born blind. They tried to get him to change his testimony but failed.


Q5 What is the truth? What it revealed about Jesus?
To the prejudiced, the real world is confusing and puzzling. The man gave the simple, clear and logical argument that silenced the 'brilliant' mind of the Pharisees. John 8:30-33.

1. This is an amazing thing! 
2. Yet, you do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 
3. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but God listens to those who worship and do His will. 
4. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 
5. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. i.e. Since he healed me, He must be of God.

Lesson: Mind without prejudices is able to see thing clearly and logically.
Check our assumptions behind our beliefs.

Q6 Who is truly blind? What is the consequence?
The Pharisees who stick to their prejudices and refused to see the truth about Jesus remained in their blindness and sins (John 8:41). If only they acknowledged their blindness, and see Jesus as He is, they would be saved.


Q7 What about you? What do you say about Jesus?

Bible Study John 8:31-59 Attempt to Stone Jesus

Telling the truth and exposing a cover-up could get you into big trouble as Jesus did. In the normal case, truth has to be first packaged in love. The order is grace and then truth. (See Ephesians Chapter 4 & 5 Walk in the New Life Part 2 ...Exposing and Correcting need to be done in love and with care. We must be able to gain the trust first else any correction will be seen as an attack and will not result in true repentance and change.) In this instant, Jesus exposed the truth of the true power behind all the attacks against him --- it is the devil. Jesus could not deny the truth in face of attacks and danger to His life.

Q1 On what grounds that Jesus claimed that the Pharisees' father is the devil?

1. We do what we have heard from our father (8:38b). 
2. Jesus acknowledged that physically the Pharisees were offspring of Abraham (8:37) but in terms of behavior, they acted according to the wishes of the devil (8:44,47b). The devil was a murderer and they wanted to kill Jesus too (8:59)
3. If they were true children of Abraham, they would follow what Abraham did, and it would be to receive Jesus, the Son of the Father God. (8:39-43,47)
4. Jesus' claim of His identity was not without support and evidence. He challenged them in 8:46 " Which one of you convicts me of sin?" vs they knew they had sinned. (see 8:7).

Q2 What the Devil is like? (8:44)

1. He was a murderer from the beginning, 
2. He is a liar and the father of lies. There is no truth in him.

Q3 How can we tell Jesus has not demon in him? (8:48)

1. "I honor my Father (God)" 8:49
2. "I do not seek my own glory". The Father, the Judge seeks it(Jesus' glory). 8:50
3. "If anyone keep my word, he will never see death" 8:51-52. This is repeated twice. Who can give life and conquer death except the One that is God the life-giver. Jesus in this discourse had repeatedly said that He is the Son of God. His insistence on telling the very truth resulted in his rejection and eventual death on the cross by the small grow of religious leaders.
4. If I were to say I do not know the Father(God), I would be a liar like you" 8:55
5. "Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad" 8:56
6.  “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”  8:58 . This is actually saying explicitly that he is God. Hence, the people, those who did not believed in him, were angry and picked up stones to throw at him.

Bible Study John 8:12-36 Light & Truth

Q1 Jesus said he is the light of the world. What does it mean?
Light could mean many things. But as a good Bible Study student, we will need to stay in the context to understand the meaning. The verse is:

 “I am the light of the world.
Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

1. Light of the World: not just one person but for everyone who want it - whoever.
2. Follows Jesus (the Light): We can see the light only by following it. The light is our focus. It points the way. 
3. Walk: following is walking after Him. Believe and obey His commandments. This light leads to the truth later in vs 32.
4. Darkness vs Light: In darkness, we see not. We don't know what is right or wrong. There is no direction. We can fall into traps and holes easily. Light shows us the safe way and also let us know where are the holes and dangers. 
5. Light of Life: This light is about the issues of life and not the street lights. It shows us how to live this life in freedom(John 8:32), abundance(John 10:10), peace and success (John 14:27,16:33,20:19,21,26)

Q2 How can we know Jesus' testimony is true?
(see also Bible Study John 7 Jesus' Defense & The Reception Q3 Jesus Defense) 

Pharisees: You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.

Jesus:

1. my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. (Details are in Q3).
2. You judge according to the flesh(external, appearance); I judge no one (by external appearance).
3. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. (My Father God knows the inside intention of man and hence a true judge)
4. In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me. (My Father and I are the needed two witnesses)

Pharisees: “Where is your Father?”(It is natural to ask to see the Father than Jesus' claim is His 2nd witness).

Jesus: “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.

This is the tough part that upset people because one can only know the Father through Jesus. The key then is to know Jesus better. What evidences were there to show Jesus was not normal human beings but Son of God? Jesus words and deeds were recorded throughout and Jesus was not asking us just to believe His words only (John 10:38b believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father).

Q3 Where did Jesus come from? How can you know? What was the reaction to His claims?
Jesus claimed He was from ABOVE whereas we were from this World below.
We cannot go to Him ABOVE and die in our sins, unless we believe that He is of God.
We can know by lifting up Jesus -the Son of Man and through Him know His Father 8:28.
Lifting up Jesus is about believing and following Him. Saying nice things about Jesus and not following Him is of no good and it is actually an insult to Jesus.
v30 recorded for us that many believed in Him.


Q4 How to know the Truth? How will the Truth set us free?
v31 and v32 shows the sequence of freedom:

1. Abide in Jesus' Word, then
2. We are truly Jesus' disciples, then
3. We will know the Truth, then
4. The Truth will set us free.

The truth is found in Jesus' Words but we won't know the truth truly until we abide, live in, follow, and experience it to know it fully. By following, walking in the light of the truth, then we make an external objective truth into an internal subjective and personal truth that show forth its power to deliver us from any bondage (of sins, wrong beliefs, weaknesses, confusion ...) and into the live of abundance and freedom.

Freedom is about freed from en-slavery of any sort, and a cleansed and purified conscience to enjoy the right and good God and all His providence. Freedom is about the ability to grow up, move forward to the higher planes in life without restraining baggage.

Knowing the truth the beginning and practicing the truth gives us the true victory, progress and the joy of life freedom. Grace is not freedom to sin but freedom to enjoy and do more good.