Replies

That's a good place to be. One of the most highly significant verses in that chapter is brief to the point of being terse, but the phrase is one to remember well and constantly:

"We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error" (1 John 4:6 AV; bolded and colored for great emphasis)

This little highlighted phrase is very easy to skip over, but it is very, very deep.

The "us" is at least the Christ-trined and -commissioned Disciple/Apostles whose writings were once told but now inscripturated by them alone, no Apostolic Fathers or antiNicene Patristics or subsequent pious authors need apply.

In this, it would seem appropriate to include the writers of the Old Testament also, for the New Testament is concealed in the Old; but the Old Testament is revealed in the New.

He (She) that KNOWETH God HEARS the doctrine of the Apostles. But the one who is not of God does not listen to, or hear, or understand the doctrine of the Apostles.

Jesus warned of something that appears again and again in the Old and New, as recorded by Levi and others:

Matthew 12:13-17 (AV):

¹³ Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. ¹⁴ And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: ¹⁵For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. ¹⁶But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. ¹⁷For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

It is the hearing, speaking, and writing Apostles who have the best handle on the Old Testament Writings, even more so than the OT writers themselves, whom the Church Age regenerated disciples undergoing progressive sanctification need to hear and obey, without questioning the Apostles' authority, only questioning our own preservation and perception of their doctrine.

" And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers" (Acts 2:42 AV)

This was the rule of the indoctrination of the prototype Jerusalem Pentecostal Assembly, and should be ours. Not long dissertations of the social gospel, or political matters, or the state of society. Simply hearing the doctrine of the apostles and apply it in the four ordinances:

o Remember the Jesus death in the breaking of bread (and cup of the New Covenant)

o Preaching the Gospel of reconciliation to The Father through the Shed Blood of our Redeemer to all nations for the purpose of recruiting disciples and seeing them saved

o Inducting the disciples professing salvation by the delegated authority to conduct the symbolic rite of total immersion in water into a lifetime of discipleship under the teaching of the Apostle's doctrine

o Sovereignly preferring one another in the body of Christ, including Him as the Head, above self and others, as Jesus loved His chosen disciples, even to death

This is the Way of the Cross, for the Company of The Committed Ones.

We need not to step beyond this holy ground, but we do need to step up to it, and not be afraid to exert ourselves in it, dear FRiend.