YEAR 1, WEEK 39, Day 5, Friday, 27 September 2024

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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Friday, 27 September 2024:

1 John 2:1 — My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

In last Friday’s readings, John made it clear that we all sin, but when we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us. (1 John 1:8-10) However, today John reiterates that sin should be rare for us rather than normal – “But if anyone does sin….” We are to strive for sinlessness despite not being able to achieve sinlessness, little children growing in Christlike character over a lifetime – “I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” This shouldn’t be hard to understand. Toddlers don’t stop walking just because they fall a lot early on, and no one never falls, yet we make every effort to avoid it. Just because we won’t completely eliminate crime and disease on earth doesn’t mean we don’t make every effort to combat them. Just because musicians will never achieve perfection doesn’t mean they don’t continue to strive and some clearly achieve an amazing degree of mastery. How rare is it to find someone who has arrived at a mastery level of Christlikeness? Those who stand as bright lights of godliness don’t get there by accident but rather great effort over a lifetime. Grace isn’t opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning.

• 2 Peter 1:5-12 — For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have.

“And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments…. whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” (1 John 2:3, 5, 6)

Our passion to avoid sin is fueled by our passion to know Him, not simply to know about Him but to know Him in perfect fellowship, to be one with Him, which is what Jesus desires for us more than anything else – “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent…. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (John 17:3, 22-23) Our desire for oneness with Jesus is our motivation for living the sinless life, and the Spirit empowers us; but we must act on that empowerment; we must not quench the Spirit, grieve the Spirit, or get out of step with the Spirit by disobeying God’s perfect word enlightened by the Spirit. Obedience is the natural fruit and evidence of our fellowship with Him, bringing glory to God. Obedience is natural fruit which is created and nourished by the Spirit but cultivated or farmed through our works of love which God has prepared for us. Do not be the lazy farmer — “The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.” (Proverbs 20:4) The more our love and fellowship with Christ increases the easier obedience becomes as our desires increasingly become His desires – “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3)

• Romans 6:2 — How can we who died to sin still live in it?
• Romans 8:5 — For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
• Romans 12:9 — Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
• Hebrews 12:14 — Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

It is striking how much the expectation has changed within the church. John’s expectation was that sin would be a very rare thing – “if anyone does sin.” It seems the church today expects sin within the body to be a normal thing, and the worldly church is quick to proclaim “grace” as an excuse for accommodating sin, rather than freedom from the bondage of sin through the power of the Holy Spirit. The early church certainly didn’t cheapen grace like that. We are saved by grace alone, resting upon God’s merit rather than our own unworthy merit. However, the expected response to grace is obedience motivated by love. Obedience isn’t the path to salvation, it is the evidence of salvation. Obedience requires effort. Grace is not opposed to effort; grace is only opposed to earning.

1 John 2:1-6 — Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

Obedience is the true mark of salvation and love for Christ. Christians do not achieve holy perfection in this life, but Christians display holy direction in life. How far the church has drifted from what Jesus expects of his followers. The truth of your love for God and others is revealed by your obedience. All disobedience is selfish and unloving, no matter how you justify it. Don’t deceive yourself by going to church while continuing in sin and believe that you are good with God.

“We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.” (1John 2:3) The ‘casual Christian (if there can be such a person) says confidently, “Well, everyone sins.” Yes, we live in a state of grace. Yet the Bible commands that, in our love for Christ, we must resist sin with all our might as our genuine act of worship (Hebrews 12, James 4:7, Romans 12:1, 1 Corinthians 10:13; John 4:23). Today is a new day. Get your armor on and step out.

1 John 2:4 – Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

There is no such thing as a “carnal Christian.” Those who continue in sin unrepentantly don’t know Him though they may believe in Him like the demons do – “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” (James 2:19)

1 John 2:18 – Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.

Many speculate about the end times antichrist, but there have been and will be many antichrists, people who are against God. Anyone who preaches a truth that is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ is an antichrist, no matter how kind and ‘good’ that person may seem.

1 John 2:19 – They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

Those who reject their faith never really had faith to begin with.

1 John 2:22, 23 – Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

Again, those who deny that Jesus is the one and only Son of God and the one and only way to God are antichrists.

1 John 2:27 – But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

If the Holy Spirit is within you, then the Holy Spirit is your Teacher. Study God’s word daily, walk with Jesus in obedience, remain in prayer, and listen to the Holy Spirit.

1 John 2:29 – If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

Children act like their parents. God’s children act godly. What you do reveals what you really believe in and who you really love the most. Those who really love Jesus want to please Him in love and obey Him as a desire of the heart rather than just an act of obedience.

“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 27 September 2024: Obey today. Focus on abiding in the Him, by loving Him, obeying Him in loving obedience, and loving each other in Him as the highest earthly expression of our love for Him. “And now, little children, abide in him.” (1 John 2:28)

• 1 John 2:6 — Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
• 1 John 2:10 — Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.
• 1 John 2:17 — And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
• 1 John 3:6 — No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.
• 1 John 3:9 — No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
• 1 John 3:14 — We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.
• 1 John 3:15 — Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
• 1 John 3:17 — But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?
• 1 John 3:24 — Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
• 1 John 4:12 — No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
• 1 John 4:16 — So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
• 2 John 1:2 — …because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever:
• 2 John 1:9 — Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

Reread 1 John 2:3-6 and consider your actions today from the context of those verses, meditating upon what your behavior says about your love for God. From the context of these verses, consider what you allow yourself to think about, what you choose to view or listen to, what you gaze up, what you say, what you do, and what you feel. What do your actions in context with these verses reveal to you?