In early May 2024, President Biden’s Justice Department began reviewing marijuana’s classification as a Schedule I drug, moving to reclassify it as a less dangerous Schedule III drug—on par with anabolic steroids and Tylenol with codeine—which would provide tax benefits and a financial boon to the pot industry. This action merely reflects the national trend of accommodating American culture to the legalization of marijuana. In 2014, for example, an editorial on the front page of the New York Times argued intensely for the legalization of marijuana and the removal of all penalties against the manufacturing and distribution of marijuana, let alone the possession of marijuana in its many forms.

John warns his people about false teachers among them and exhorts them to know sound doctrine, continue walking with the Spirit and walking in righteousness.

One of the key elements of the new world order emerging in the 21st century is Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Putin is a delusional tyrant who is building a fascist state that loathes democracy, freedom and individualism. He is not a friend; he is not to be emulated; he is not a defender of Christian values. He is a ruthless dictator, who regards Stalin as a Russian hero who needs to be restored to his rightful place as the savior of Russia. The war in Ukraine is the beginning of his delusional vision of a new world order. These delusional ambitions of Putin, the fascist tyrant, cannot be ignored.

Walking in the “light” with Jesus is a walk of loving obedience, assurance and not “loving the world” or its desires and its pride.

For those of us who lived through the anti-apartheid protests in the 1980s, or the Vietnam War demonstrations of the 1960s and 1970s, the current tumult—and the way it has collided with broader social and political upheaval—echoes some especially tense times in our country’s history. But, these demonstrations also raise a profoundly important question: Why has the war in Gaza so galvanized American college students in the first place, compared with other crises or conflicts where pressure on American leaders may have had more potential for effect?

A new medical phrase has entered our vocabulary—“transgender medicine.” It refers to medical treatments for children who identify as transgender. The treatments at issue include puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgery, although this is relatively rare. The Economist summarizes these treatments: “Puberty blockers are drugs that delay the onset of puberty. Cross-sex hormones stimulate the development of opposite-sex characteristics: estrogen causes males to grow larger breasts, testosterone gives females bigger muscles and deeper voices, among other things.”

John sets up the first test of assurance that we are walking with Jesus–obedience.

At the heart of the pro-life movement is the deep-seated conviction that from the moment of conception, an unborn child is a separate human life. Although the baby is completely dependent on the mother, it is still a separate human life. The baby’s life is not more important than the mother’s—which is why the best-drafted pro-life laws protect the life and physical health of the mother—but it possesses incalculable worth nonetheless. “Absent extreme circumstances, the unborn child must not be intentionally killed. And while pro-life Americans can disagree about how to protect unborn children—whether it’s primarily through legal restrictions, primarily through measures meant to reduce the demand for abortion, or primarily through a combination of abortion restrictions or financial assistance to mothers and families—there has long been agreement on that one core claim: From the moment of conception, an unborn child is a person worth protecting.”

Our fellowship with God is affected by our sin and John gives three truths about how we deal with sin in our lives to facilitate that fellowship.

Concern, even anxiety, about the upcoming generation is a given in American history. For example, in 1935, George Leighton and Richard Hellman in Harper’s lamented the apathy, disenchantment and criminality of high school students in America. In 1982, Neil Postman published The Disappearance of Childhood in which he argued that teens were adopting adult vices (e.g., heavy drinking, crime and sexual immorality). He blamed television. In that same spirit of concern and anxiety, a new book by Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing An Epidemic of Mental Illness, gives focus to smartphones and social media.