Walk the Walk
- Now we drop down to one speaker. The other guys must have gone home.
- Look, this lone speaker says, I'm not saying I want people to sin. That's crazy.
- But he is saying that if you do happen to sin, Jesus has your back. And how can you really be sure you're cool with Jesus? You do the stuff he told you to do.
- The speaker continues: if someone comes along and tells you that they're tight with Jesus, but they aren't walking the Jesus walk, then you know they're a big fat liar.
- It's not enough to just to believe that Jesus is awesomesauce—you have to show it by following in his holy footsteps. Additional note from the speaker: this is actually really tough to do.
- The speaker isn't trying to tell you something new, he says. This is actually a really old rule that Jesus talked about from the beginning. The basic rule is love.
- If someone says they're living in God's light but they really hate a fellow Christian, then they're actually in the dark and stumbling around blind.
- The speaker goes on to address "children," "fathers," and "young people." He's hitting all the important demographics.
- He's writing to all these groups because they're so holy and faithful. They know who God is and they've rejected evil..
- The speaker is also kind of leery about "the world." (His words, not ours.) He's referring to the world made up of outsiders who aren't focused on Jesus at all, the ones who spend all their time worrying about things like sex and good looks and money. The world is a flashy place.
- If you love the world, you do not love God, says the speaker.
- Luckily, he continues, that world will be gone soon and only the love of God will hang around.
- We are living in "the last hour" over here. Um…that doesn't sound good.
- Everyone knows that the antichrist is coming, says the speaker. In fact, a whole bunch of antichrists have already come. The speaker makes it clear that he's talking about some ex-members of the community who have broken off.
- Burn.
- But the people hearing this letter—the ones who are still part of the community—are totally cool. The speaker knows that they know the truth, and he encourages them to keep on keeping on as part of this community.
- The antichrist spreads lies about God and Jesus, but everyone else knows the truth.
- The members of the community are "anointed," which means they have been specially called out by God. They should stand by the original teachings that have been passed down by Jesus and not worry their pretty little heads about all these new-fangled ideas that the naysayers are trying to spread around.
- Basically, says the author, stick with God and with the community and things will be swell.