I asked ChatGPT what I could do in the public forum to communicate better. In fact, I used the phrase “be more systematic.” It replied:

If I were looking for one improvement in your public communication, it would not be to become more systematic. It would be to become more explicit about the chain of reasoning that already exists in your head. You already do this naturally in conversation. When someone asks the next question, you answer it. Five questions later, the whole structure is visible.

In writing, you have to ask those questions on behalf of the reader before they can. That’s the main difference I see between your private communication and your public communication.

It had pointed out just before:

For example, in the last ten messages, you moved naturally from:

– John’s present-tense verbs
– eternal life
– Gnosticism
– Ignatius
– John 5
– Ephesians 2
– the river illustration
– fellowship as the lifeline

To you, those are all connected. To a reader, they may seem like separate thoughts.

That was really helpful to me. I’m going to pray about how to pass on those chains of thought. This post, however, is some immediate thoughts on ChatGPT’s advice and an explanation of the connection between the above topics. I apologize that the following is long and that I am not asking questions for you. I hope, though, that the questions are implicit through the rest of the article.

A Flow of Theological Thoughts

Let’s take a shot at passing on the connections in my head between various theological thoughts.

1. Paul and John use eternal life differently, very differently. For John, we have eternal life now (i.e., Jn. 3:16; 6:47). For Paul, it is a reward at the final judgment (i.e.; Rom. 2:6-7; Gal. 6:7-9). Most people are confused by this, and they impose John’s wording on Paul’s writing. Even pastors often have no idea this is true. (I almost added Rom. 6:22 as a reference for Paul, but if I had, you would have had to ask why Romans 6:23 seems a contradiction to it. I have John Chrysostom’s explanation on my “Contrasting John with the Rest of the New Testament” post
2. Paul and John, if the Bible is true, have the same theology. (If they did not, the Bible contradicts itself on eternal life!)
3. The connection between them, the agreement between them, despite the difference in wording, is easy to see in John 5:26-29. In 5:26-27, we see John’s thinking. We are the living dead, zombies, alive physically but dead spiritually. When the word of the Lord comes, we are raised to life. John only knows of one real life, the uncreated and thus eternal life of God brought to us in Jesus. Paul says the same in Ephesians 2:1-10. We were “dead in our trespasses and sins,” but God in his mercy (different word than grace) saves us by his grace (different word than mercy and best explained in Titus 2:11-12), and this is defined as being made alive in Christ.
4. In John 5:28-29, those “in the graves” hear the word of our Lord and resurrect, those who have done good to a resurrection of life and those who have done evil to a resurrection condemnation. This aligns with Paul who said both that those who patiently do good will be rewarded with eternal life at the judgment (Rom. 2:6-7;) and that those who are sowing to the Spirit will eventually reap eternal life because they are doing good (Gal. 6:7-9).
5. The reason they speak differently is because John is writing *FORTY* years after Paul wrote Romans. John was an old man overseeing Ephesus and the churches around it. (These are mentioned in Revelation 2-3, and Ignatius of Antioch directed 5 letters to these same churches only a decade or two after John wrote his Gospel.) In the late-first century, gnosticism had managed to spread in teaching and influence, much more than it had in Paul’s lifetime. Though Paul mentioned them (1 Tim. 6:20-21), they were much more trouble by the time John wrote his Gospel. His first letter was written about them as well, aimed directly at them. They talked, but did not do, so John’s first letter slams hypocrites. Ignatius, writing to the same area and some of the same churches, also mentioned them repeatedly.
6. One other connection between Paul and John is on immortality. The Greek idea that our souls are immortal has infiltrated Christianity, but it was unknown to Paul and John. Both knew that immortality belongs only to God (1 Tim. 6:16), and God would confer immortality only on the righteous and only at the judgment (Rom. 2:6-7). So John says we have immortality, eternal life, now only because we have the Son, and eternal life is in the Son (1 Jn. 5:11-12). To have eternal life in ourselves, to be immortal, had to wait for the resurrection of life when the dead come out of the tombs (Jn. 5:28-29). Then eternal life will be in us, too, and we will be immortal because God has conferred immortality on us.
7. Another important thing for us to understand is that to Paul and to John, to be saved is to be saved out of the muck and mire of the world. Someone who serves sin is headed for death, not immortality (Rom. 6; Gal. 5:19 – 6:10; all of 1 John). John, in his letter, is standing at the side of raging river calling for those who are being swept down the river to reach out for the lifeline he is throwing them. He’s crying, “You’re not saved! You’re still being swept down the river towards your doom! Grab the lifeline and come fellowship with us here on the river bank where you are really saved!” (cf. 1 John 1:3-4).
8. People being swept down the river don’t need assurance. They need to be saved from drowning, so James said: ” Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:19-20).

The Always To Be Remembered Caveat About Good Works

In all of this, it is critically important that the good works required for immortality are a pattern of good works (Rom. 2:7; Gal. 6:10), not sinless perfection, and an ongoing forgiveness because you are walking in the light (1 Jn. 1:7), not just because you’re saved.

In the NT, “saved” rarely means going to heaven. Instead, in Ephesians 2:1-10, it means being made alive in Christ (v. 5) and becoming God’s workmanship (v. 10), unless “saved from wrath” is used. That does mean going to heaven because at the final judgment you were judged righteous.

Note: as another connection of ideas, becoming God’s workmanship is grace. It is the very definition of grace. As always, note that I greatly, greatly, greatly prefer “favor” as a translation of the Greek charis rather than “grace,” but that said, read Titus 2:11-12 and think about whether being God’s workmanship and grace are exactly the same thing.

You can know how Jesus will judge at the judgment (2 Cor. 5:10) by reading Matthew 25:31-46 and Revelation 2-3.

Jesus died to make you righteous in behavior (Titus 2:11-15 especially, but also Eph. 2:8-10; Rom. 14:9; 2 Cor. 5:15; Acts 3:26; and compare Acts 26:20). If your behavior has a pattern of righteousness, you are of God, and you can expect to have the righteous standing that Jesus has with God. If your behavior has a pattern of ongoing evil, you do not belong to God, but are of the devil (1 Jn. 3:7-12). That passage begins by saying not to be deceived about this.