"On every page of the God-breathed writings are many thoughts that stretch out like long, clear arms of light across the darkness, discovering things otherwise hidden and illuminating wider areas than those of the immediate context. They are searchlights. I have selected one in each chapter of Scripture, for at least one central thought in every chapter should arrest the mind and affect the life," wrote G. Campbell Morgan, a skilled, wise, warm-hearted Bible teacher who conducted a classic 3-year study called Life Applications from Every Chapter of the Bible. Here is the fruit of that research—summarized, illustrated, and amplified with useful details—on all 66 books of the Bible.
1 John 1:3 "Our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ." First John is the first of three letters the aged apostle John wrote to a general or widespread Christian audience to reaffirm the core of the Christian faith: the full humanity and deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and the obedience to Scripture and genuine love that characterize all true Christians. John begins, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes ... and our hands have handled concerning the Word of life ... that ... we declare to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us." Peter said essentially the same thing: "We did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty" (2 Peter 1:16). These apostles had literal fellowship with the Lord Jesus from the beginning of His ministry, and were led by Him into fellowship with God the Father. Those of us who believe their eyewitness testimony are drawn into the same fellowship, which expresses itself in a relationship and community that shares resources and responsibilities. The Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and all believers have all things in common. All the resources of each in this wondrous relationship are at the disposal of the others. Such is the grace of our God. In Him "is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another" (verses 5-7), which makes it clear we are genuine believers whose sins Christ has indeed forgiven.
1 John 2:15 "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." It has been said that the apostle John was never afraid of an apparent contradiction when it would save his readers from a real contradiction. The apparent contradiction is how this highlighted verse from 1 John correlates with this famous verse from John's Gospel: "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son" (John 3:16). To interpret each statement correctly, we must determine what "the world" refers to in each. The world God so loved is the whole order of His creation, at the summit of which under Himself is mankind. He gave His Son to redeem and reinstate sinful men and women, which will lead to the redemption and reinstatement of creation (Romans 8:19-22). The world we are not to love John later describes like this: "the whole world lies in the power of the evil one" (1 John 5:19). To love this world as it is—alienated from God and in rebellion against Him ever since the first man and woman fell to the temptation of the evil one—is impossible for the man and woman who loves it with the love of the Father. Since God's love seeks the world's highest good, it can make no terms with evil, but is willing to die that it may live. That is the radical difference between the child of God and the man of the world. 1 John 3:18 "Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth." That is the practical application of a train of thought beginning like this: " By this we know love, that [the Lord Jesus] laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers" (verse 16). Whatever other ideas about love people may have, the Christian recognizes the supreme manifestation of it in Christ. Then John asks a pointed question: "But if anyone has this world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?" Only one answer makes sense, which is that such a person obviously lacks the love of God. John's application of these truths puts two kinds of love into contrast: love in word or talk versus love in deed and truth. Opposed to love in word is love in deed; opposed to love in talk is love in truth. Love in word may possibly be sincere, but it is of no real value if it stops short of the deed. Love in deed is always of value, even though it speaks no word. Love in talk is evidently insincere since it is contrasted with love in truth. Therefore, the first love is not love at all. Love that professes, but does not act, is not true love. Love that acts is love in truth. 1 John 4:19 "We love because He first loved us." John writes with simple precision here. We can love God only because He first loved us, but it is also true that we love one another and all people because God first loved us. John had come to realize that much of what is called love is not love at all from God's perspective. He has already declared, "By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our loves for the brothers" (1 John 3:16), "Love is of God" (1 John 4:7), and superlatively, "Love is God" (1 John 4:8). Nothing, therefore, is worthy of the name love that is not of that nature. In now saying "we love," John is not describing any mere human affection or emotion, behind which may lurk considerable selfishness, but is upholding as a diamond on display pure, disinterested love that pours itself out in uttermost giving. We come to experience and give out that kind of love only when we find it redeeming us at infinite cost. The apostle Paul describes that reality here: "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit ... given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:5-8). When we come to know that love, then we do truly love. We love God in an utter abandonment of all we are and have to Him. Nothing is withheld from Him. We love people with the same abandonment. Like with the early disciples, anything we have is valuable in proportion as it may be given for the enrichment of others.
1 John 5:21 "Little children, guard yourselves from idols." That is how this letter of fellowship and love startlingly and yet appropriately ends. The cry of the heart that truly knows God is, "What have I to do with idols?" (Hosea 14:8). Still, however, the warning is necessary. There can be no perfect fellowship if devotion is divided. The one and only peril that threatens us in the life of fellowship is admitting any person or passion that seeks to share the supreme place in our lives with our Lord Jesus, through whom we also have fellowship with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Therefore anything that divides the heart in its loyalty to the Lord is an idol. It can be something plainly wicked or something good in itself, but used as a substitute for God and His Word. Whether person, place, thing, or idea, if its influence alienates us from our Lord, it is an idol. John uses strong language to describe the remedy for idolatry: he speaks of keeping ourselves in isolation from idols. We are not to go near them, nor to allow them to come near us. Anything that has the remotest chance of interfering with our fellowship is to be put away and kept away. Our devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ is to be kept pure.
