Is there anyone who hasn’t spent at least a little time contemplating if we are living in the last days? Most of the apostles surely did. Many new believers in the first century certainly did. Sometimes it seems as if we are obsessed
with the end times and what may come. What if there is famine? What if there is a problem with our water supply? What if our government is subjugated to a world power? What if we can’t buy or sell without submitting to evil? What if Christians will be persecuted, tortured, and killed? What if the stability that I have known in my life is gone in an instant? What if I become homeless? What if there is no electricity? What if there are no public utilities? What if food is scarce and controlled by evil men? What if? What if? What if?
There is this repeated theme of I am in you and you are in Me in John’s Gospel. We should not be surprised to find it again in John’s letters. But this time, we get a reminder that the Spirit of God that lives within us is greater than any spirit we will encounter in the world.
We are equipped with the Spirit of Truth and can denounce the spirit of error. But too many Christians live as if the Spirit within us is not adequately matched for the things that we encounter in the world—in life. We are sometimes timid. We sometimes do care what the world thinks about us. To whom do we listen? There are still false prophets today. And the people who belong to the world listen to them. But we belong to God. So what do we believe? Being a Christian these days is a tough, nearly impossible road to travel… Or… He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
That’s the question that we answer with our lives. Are we afraid to profess our faith before another? Are we afraid to bring the full tithe? Are we afraid to minister—truly get involved in the lives of those whom Jesus called the least of these my brothers? Can God really handle what this world will throw at me? Or do we know for sure that He who lives in us is indeed greater than he who is in the world?
How do we know? When we struggle, we don’t despair. Easter was the death of despair. When we pray, we know that Jesus knows what it is to be human and we trust His intercession as He asks God the Father for what we really need. We know that our hope is always in the Lord. We know because we rejoice in the day the Lord has made. That’s even if your old bones are hurting and the coffee is cold. That’s even if school is just really not where you want to be today. We live as fully as we can, even when that fullness includes suffering, and pain, and ridicule for we know that we belong to God and not to the world. And we live without fear of anyone or anything being greater than the One who lives in us. For He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Now let’s translate this into a first person statement. He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world. (THOMAS SPENCE)