The Will Of God

The Right Path

The Truth About Faith The Gospel of Salvation

The Truth About Faith The Gospel Of Salvation

The Will of God

For any of us to be with our Heavenly Father, Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, and the Holy Spirit along with all the blessed in the new Heavens and Earth we are to be diligently seeking and doing God’s will so that we please God.

Mark 3:31-35
31 And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. 32 And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” 33 And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

Proverbs 16:7
7 When a man's ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 (NASB)

1 Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more. 2 For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. 8 So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you. 9 Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; 10 for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more, 11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, 12 so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.

These scriptural verses listed are just but a few that we need to need to study, understand and as we try to please God and seek to do the will of God the Father, His Son our Lord Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 6:33, Matthew 7:21-27, Matthew 11:28-30, Matthew 25:31-46, Matthew 28:18-20, Luke 9:35, Luke 22:41-42, John 3:26-36 NASB, John 4:23-24 NASB, John 5:22-36 NASB, John 6:24-29, John 9:31, John 12:25-26, John 15:5-8, Acts 2:42-47, Acts 3:22-23, Acts 22:14,28:28, Romans 2:10-29, Romans 6:16-22, Romans 8:1-11, Romans 8:22-29, Romans 12:1-3, Romans 12:19, Romans 13:1-7, 1 Corinthians 4:1-6, Ephesians 5:1-21, Ephesians 6:10-18, Titus 3:1-6, Hebrews 10:19-31 (NASB), James 2:1-26, James 3:1-12, James 4:6-10, 1 Peter 2:13-17, 1 Peter 4:1-2, 2 Peter 1:1-11, 2 Peter 2:20-22).

In this following commentary written below, Brother James Coffman sheds light on seeking to do the will of God.

1 John Chapter 2

Verse 15

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Love not the world … God so "loved the world" that he gave his only begotten Son (John 3:16), but "world" here has a different meaning. "It is an inclusive term for all those who are in the kingdom of darkness and have not been born of God." John R. W. Stott, op. cit., p. 101. It also regards the material and temporary character of it. It is "visible" and therefore must be classified among those things which "are seen," contrasting with the things which "are unseen" and designated by Paul as eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18). Bruce noted the difference thus: "It is the world-system organized in rebellion against God which is in view - the current climate of opinion, as we might say."F. F. Bruce, Answers to Questions (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1972), p. 132. He also observed that the word "love" is different here from that used in John 3:16. "In John 3:16, it is self-sacrificing love; here it is acquisitive love."Ibid. John will further explain his meaning in the next verse.

Love of the world … love of the Father … This strongly suggests the "love of God" contrasted with the love of mammon in Matthew 6:24; and John’s statement that the love of the Father is not in one who loves the world corresponds with Jesus’ declaration that "No man can serve two masters" (Matthew 6:24). Morris pointed out what he called John’s little trick of "emphasizing a word by simply repeating it. He used world three times in this verse and another three times in the next two verses." Leon Morris, op. cit., p. 1263. John used this word "more than twenty times in this epistle," Paul W. Hoon, op. cit., p. 238. and in more than one sense. Hoon thought that the "world" has the "sense of creation as contrasted with the Creator." Ibid. See under next verse.

Verse 16

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

For all that is in the world … is not of the Father … This has the effect of explaining what John meant by his use of "world" in 1 John 2:15. It is that aspect of it which is "not in the Father." It is therefore incorrect to accept "world" in these verses as meaning God’s glorious natural creation, described by the Father himself as "good" (Genesis 1:10,12,18,21,25). Jesus said the world loves its own (John 15:19); Paul said, "Be not conformed to this world" (Romans 12:2); and John declared that, "The whole world lieth in the evil one" (1 John 5:19). In the light of these and many other passages in the New Testament, it is clear that John was here speaking of that phase of the world of people which is antagonistic to God.

Lust of the flesh … lust of the eyes … vainglory of life … For ages, students of the New Testament have seen in this triad suggestions of the triple temptation of Eve: the fruit was good to eat … beautiful to see … and would make one as God, knowing good and evil; and likewise the triple temptation of Christ: he was hungry … Satan showed him all the kingdoms of the world … such an exhibition of Jesus’ power as that of leaping from the parapet of the temple unharmed would have been a vainglorious triumph. From such comparisons, the things mentioned by John in this verse have come to be called "the three avenues of temptation." The sins in view have been variously classified: sensuality, materialism, ostentation (C. H. Dodd); R. W. Orr, op. cit., p. 612. voluptus (sensuality), avaritia (avarice), superbia (vain-glory) (B. F. Westcott); John R. W. Stott, op. cit., p. 101. appetites of the body … desire to possess material things … egotism, etc. A number of scholars are reluctant to allow that any correspondence of this passage with the temptations of Eve and of Christ is intended; but David Smith did not hesitate to affirm that, "Here is a summary of all possible sins, as exemplified in the temptations of Eve (Genesis 3:1-6), and of our Lord (Matthew 4:1-11)." David Smith, op. cit., p. 178.

Lust of the flesh … All temptations which have their roots in appetites and needs of the body are included in this; but the appetites of the body are not in themselves sinful. Therefore, "flesh" is used here in "the ethical sense, meaning the old nature of man, or his capacity to do that which is displeasing to God." Charles C. Ryrie, op. cit., p. 1013.

Lust of the eyes … The eyes have been called the gateway to the soul, hence the point of entry for many temptations. ’tin John’s day, the impure and brutal spectacles of the theater and the arena would have supplied abundant illustrations of these." A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 24. It is no less true of our own times.

Pride of life … The central lust of the ego itself is indicated by this. The utterly selfish instinct in all human life that insists upon achieving the fulfillment of the person itself, the inherent passion of the soul to do its own will, fulfill its own desires, glorify its own ego, and to occupy the inner control-center of life - that is the pride of life. Salvation in Christ requires that this be denied. Macknight’s comment on this was:

John means all things pertaining to this life, of which men of the world boast, and by which their pride is gratified: such as titles, offices, lands, noble birth, honorable relations, and the rest, whose efficacy to puff up men with pride and to make them insolent, is not of God.

James Macknight, op. cit., p. 50.

Verse 17

And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of

God abideth forever.

All of the vain things that so charm, seduce and dominate the lives of people during their brief pilgrimage upon earth are actually endowed with no more permanence than a mirage. Whatever glory or eminence may come to man is only for the fraction of a moment; he builds for himself a house, a palace or an empire; but the whirling suns brush him into the grave, and where is he? Whatever achievement, success or honor may place upon his head for an instant some distinction or accolade, tomorrow cannot remember it. This tragic quality of all human glory is the reason why the apostles taught Christians to look to the unseen, the invisible realities of hope and faith in Christ for their true fulfillment.

As Paul put it:

We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Paul’s words are an excellent supplement to what John wrote in this verse.

Verse 18

Little children, it is the last hour: and as ye heard that antichrist cometh, even now have there arisen many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last hour.

It is the last hour … The apostles had asked Christ to tell them when the end of the world was coming, when the temple would be destroyed, and when the Christ would come. To these three questions, Jesus gave a composite answer (Matthew 24), but not distinguishing for them the fact that these events would not all occur simultaneously; however, Jesus did deny them altogether any answer as to the time of his Second Coming (Matthew 24:36,42). It is therefore the height of presumption to construe John’s words here as meaning that Christ was coming soon. "The last hour" here has no reference whatever to the Second Coming and must be referred either to the destruction of Jerusalem or the end of the world. Significantly, since Jesus failed (purposefully) to distinguish for his apostles that those two events (the end of all things and the destruction of the city of Jerusalem) would be separated in time by thousands of years, it may be legitimately supposed that the apostles might have thought they would come at the same time; but, even more significantly, no apostle ever said so. There is not a line in the New Testament that has any such declaration in it. However, in the providence of God, the destruction of Jerusalem was foreordained to be a type of the overthrow of the entire world; and in giving the signs that would precede the first event, Christ of necessity gave in those very signs the sign of the end of the world; but it was necessary for Christ to make the signs of Jerusalem’s overthrow plain enough for the Christians to be forewarned and to enable them to escape from the city before its destruction. Otherwise, Satan might have accomplished the total destruction of the church itself in that disaster. Heeding those signs which Jesus had given, John here prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem (perhaps supposing also that the end of the world was at hand, a supposition that he did not state, even if he thought it). And what sign did he stress? That there were antichrists who had already appeared. This was the very sign that Jesus had definitely connected with the destruction of the temple (involving also, of course, the overthrow of Jerusalem): "There shall arise false christs and false prophets" (Matthew 24:24). It was also indicated by Christ as being a signal for the "elect" to "flee out of Judea" (Matthew 24:16), to avoid "the end of the world"? Certainly not! To avoid the destruction of Jerusalem? Of course! Thus it is absolutely certain that John in this passage was not warning the Christians to get ready for the end of the world, but to get ready to flee the city of Jerusalem. That this is exactly what John and the other apostles did in such statements as this is proved by the fact that the Christians did flee Jerusalem, not a single one of "the elect" losing his life in the holocaust that overthrew the city in A.D. 70.

Despite the fact of "antichrist" being popularly understood as "a personal opponent of Christ at the end of time,” New Catholic Bible, op. cit., New Testament, p. 315. and also being identified with Paul’s "lawless one" (2 Thessalonians 2:8), there is absolutely no authority for such views. The "antichrists" in this passage are plural; the "lawless one" is singular; Christ associates the antichrists, or false christs, with the need for the "elect" to flee out of Judea (Matthew 24:16); whereas, Paul associated the "lawless one" with the "coming of the Lord," an association that John refrained from making here. Neither the "man of sin" nor "the lawless one" of Paul’s writings has any connection whatever with what John wrote here. It was long after John wrote that "the name of antichrist was appropriated to that great adversary of Christ ’the man of sin’ (2 Thessalonians 2:3)."John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (Naperville, Illinois: Alec R. Allenson, Inc., reprint, 1950), p. 908. John’s antichrist "falls far short of Paul’s ’son of perdition.’" Harvey J. S. Blaney, op. cit., p. 372.

As ye have heard, antichrist cometh … Although only the singular is used here, it is clear from what John at once wrote that there were many of these. Where had the Christians heard of this? From the teachings of Christ, as recorded in Matthew 24.

It is the last hour … Before leaving this, the error of the rendition should be noted. As Stott said:

This phrase should be translated "a last hour." Westcott makes much of this and writes that the omission of the definite article "seems to mark the general character of the period and not its specific relation to ’end.’ It was a period of crucial change." John R. W. Stott, op. cit., p. 108.

Morris also stressed the same thing, saying, "There is no article with hour. John is not saying it is the last hour, but that it is a last hour.” Leon Morris, op. cit., p. 1264. In the light of such truth, how ridiculous, therefore, it is for men to write such dogmatic opinions as the following:

"The last hour …" The apostles undoubtedly anticipated the coming of Christ in the near future, etc... R. Dummelow, op. cit., p. 1056.

"The last hour …" The expected immediate second coming of Christ to judge the world. James Russell Williams, Compact Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1964), p. 600.

Nothing but the unwillingness of Christians to admit that the apostle John could seem to be much in error about the nearness of the day of judgment could have raised a question about language so plain. This can only mean "the last hour before the Second Coming of Christ.” A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 25.

A hundred other examples of the same kind of scholarly blindness could be cited. It never seems to have occurred to such commentators that there is no hint whatever of the Second Coming in this verse.

It is true of course that those who suppose that the apostles "expected" the coming of Christ to take place concurrently with the destruction of Jerusalem are probably correct in that supposition. Why? Because Jesus himself so mingled the prophecies of the two events that such a supposition might easily have followed. However, true exegesis of the New Testament does not consist in reading into its sacred texts what people suppose the apostles thought, but rather consists in studying what they wrote; and John wrote nothing here, either of the judgment or of the second coming of Christ.

Verse 19

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they all are not of us.

From this verse it is plain that the "antichrists" were Christians who had defected from the truth. Their departure from the apostles and from the church indicated their hostility to the truth. Many of these were no doubt teaching the most shameful errors, justifying, or rationalizing the most wicked and dissolute behavior on the basis of Gnostic or other false teachings they had adopted.

Such a verse as this, of course, is made use of as a crutch for the proposition that a person "once saved is always saved"; however, it should be carefully noted that John did not here write of the false teachers that "they never had been of us," but that at an unspecified previous time, they were not. This is even more clear in the last clause where the word is not that they had never been of us, but that they are not of us. Their departure from the faith became final at some point prior to their leaving; but there is no suggestion by the apostle that those who departed had never been truly converted at the beginning of their Christian association. The fallen angels were not wicked from the beginning but became so; and Judas was not wicked when the Lord chose him as an apostle, but he fell "through transgression."

Verse 20

And ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things.

As Morris said, "This is just another way of saying that all of them had received the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Leon Morris, op. cit., p. 1264. that is, the earnest of the Holy Spirit, which is given to all believers in Christ following their repentance and baptism into Christ (Acts 2:38f).

And ye know all things … The marginal reading here, "you all know," is a better rendition because John did not mean they knew everything, else he would hardly have been writing to them. The thing he referred to here is apparent in other places in the letters of John, namely, that, as regards the basic doctrine of Christianity, called "the word" or "the truth" or "the light," the Christians had been adequately enlightened on all these things before they could become Christians. (Jeremiah 31:31-35). Thus he refuted the boasts of the false teachers that they had any vital new truth that could have benefited anyone. When people hear and obey the gospel of Christ, they have already reached the zenith of all knowledge as it regards the eternal redemption of the soul. There is another view of this passage which accepts it as a reference to one of the charismatic gifts mentioned by Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:8, that is, "the discerning of spirits."James Macknight, op. cit., p. 54. The thought behind this is that congregations generally, at the time John wrote, had among their members certain persons endowed with that gift; hence there was no need for them to be led away by false teachers if they heeded the information already available to them from that source. Although the other interpretation is preferred here, this one may not be ruled out altogether as possibly the true one.

(Cited from “James Coffman Commentaries of the Bible 1 John 2” Study Light.org

Hebrews 12:1-2
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

James 1:22-27 (ASV)

22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves. 23 For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror: 24 for he beholdeth himself, and goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But he that looketh into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and so continueth, being not a hearer that forgetteth but a doer that worketh, this man shall be blessed in his doing. 26 If any man thinketh himself to be religious, while he bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his heart, this man’s religion is vain. 27 Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

Our Lord and Christ Jesus has given us the way to Father (John 3:1-21, John 10:1-18, John 11:25-27, John 14:6, John 15:4-17, Romans 15:1-4, Ephesians 2:11-22, Hebrews 10:19-25, 1 John 5:10-13) and told us that we need to be doing the will of God (Matthew 21:28-32, Mark 3:31-35, Ephesians 6:1-9, Hebrews 10:35-39, 1 Peter 4:1-2, 1 John 2:15-17) to become not only children of God but brothers and sisters with the our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus (Matthew 12:46-50, Matthew 25:40, Matthew 28:10, Luke 8:21, John 20:17, Romans 8:29, Hebrews 2:5-13).