LOVING THIS WORLD

I John 2:15 Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love the world, you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you. NLT

Have you stopped loving this world and what it offers to you? You cannot be right with God until you do. Let the Lord show you today where your attachments are. Let Him show you who, or what, you value more than Him. Let Him show you how unreliable and unfulfilling the things of the world really are. Let Him show you that all the promises of the world to satisfy the soul are empty lies from Satan.

The bottom line is that when you long for the things of this world and strive to obtain them, you really don’t love the Father. You strive to obtain that which you love. Our actions speak louder than our words. You can claim to love God, but if He is not your passion, your words do not mean much. Your soul cannot be divided on this. You cannot love the Father of truth and the father of lies at the same time. God will not share our affections with the world.

Loving the world is an act of treason for those who claim to love God. It is declaring that what God promises is not true. He promises to satisfy the soul. He promises to give us something worth living for. He promises to reward those who are faithful to Him. He promises to meet our every need. He promises to break our attachments to the things of the world. When we grow attached to the things of the world and rely upon them to make us happy, we are denying that God can meet the needs of our souls, that He is not enough for us.

You cannot live for the things of the world and love God at the same time.

LOVE AND HATE

LOVE AND HATE

I John 2:9-11 If anyone says, "I am living in the light," but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is still living in darkness. Anyone who loves other Christians is living in the light and does not cause anyone to stumble. Anyone who hates a Christian brother or sister is living and walking in darkness. Such a person is lost, having been blinded by the darkness. NLT

It matters what we think about others and what we feel about them. Some people hurt us and sometimes very deeply. It may be physical, emotional, or mental. However it may be, we sometimes get hurt and it may alter our lives completely. For some, the damage is so severe that life becomes very difficult, and it affects one’s ability to live in victory in Christ. When negative things happen to us because of others, we are prone to develop negative feelings and thoughts about them, making any kind of fellowship with them virtually impossible.

Yet, John tells us that we must love and not hate those who hurt us. It is not impossible to love those who hurt us, otherwise God would not have instructed John to write it. Our biggest hurdle to move from hate to love is our will. We do not want to change. We like to live with an attitude of hate because it somehow makes us feel in the right. We have been wronged, and the other party is guilty. We want to take matters into our own hands and see that justice is served. We want revenge. Therefore, we savor our feelings and resist the need to change. However, if we are to be right with God, we have no choice, we must move from hatred to love. The question is, "How is that possible?"

God is love. The only way we can love those who hurt us is for us to immerse ourselves in God. We must determine in our hearts that we need God. We must know that it is impossible for us to change apart from a deeply rooted connection with God. We must seek God. We must enter into His presence as often as possible. We must consistently draw near to God until we know that our heart changes. We must first experience the love of God for ourselves before we can love those who hurt us. There is no other way to move from a hate-filled heart to a love-filled heart.

A true child of God does not linger in the darkness of hatred. In fact, he is incapable of living in hatred. God is love and when God is in us, we become vessels of love. As long as darkness envelopes the soul, God is not there. God is light and love and where He is they fill up His dwelling place.

Dear friend, if you are struggling to forgive and love someone today in your past or present, spend all the time you need in the presence of God. Do not shortchange yourself. Wait on the Lord and He will change you. He will fill you with a heart of love. Pray about this until you pray through. 

LOVE AND LIGHT

 

LOVE AND LIGHT

I John 2:10 Anyone who loves other Christians is living in the light and does not cause anyone to stumble. NLT

Living in Christ dictates how we love. If we truly love others, we will be careful not to hinder them in their walk with the Lord. We will be careful what we say and do so that we don't cause anyone to stumble. We will take seriously the effect we have on our fellow believers.

When we are in discussions about the Bible, we will think before we speak so that we don't say things that the Bible does not teach. It is easy to talk about our opinions, but unless our opinions are formed by the Holy Spirit, we can say things that will confuse others or cause them to believe things that aren't true. It is imperative that we are well-grounded in the Word before we endeavor to speak with authority on it.

When we are with others, we will be careful how we act. We will strive to control our actions and reactions. When we begin to lose control of ourselves, we will remove ourselves from the situation before we conduct ourselves in an ungodly way. It is not easy to do, but for the sake of our witness, we must strive to do it.

We will not take advantage of others. We will treat them with kindness and respect. We will to the best of our ability be a help and not a hindrance to their walk with the Lord. We will be good influencers and not bad influencers in the walk of faith of those we come in contact with.

If you love the Lord, it will show in how you live amongst His children and the world. You will not be a stumbling block to someone's faith.

LOVING OTHERS

 

LOVING OTHERS

I John 2:9 If anyone says, “I am living in the light,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is still living in darkness. NLT

It is not possible to love the Lord and not love His children.  Let us stop for a moment and think about this.  Think about those who are a part of the church that you have strong disagreements with because they don’t believe as you do.  Think about how you feel about them.  It’s easy to sit back and judge them because they don’t see “the light” in the same way you do.  It is easy to question whether or not they are even saved.  We develop strong feelings about those who are not walking in the light as we are walking in the light.

Yet, the Word teaches us that if we are living in the light, we will embrace all who are believers in Christ.  We may not understand their thinking or approve of their living, but that doesn’t get us off the hook.  Our responsibility before God is to love all those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We don’t always know for sure who are saved, but it really doesn’t matter.  We are to be channels of God’s love to the Church and world.  Godly love should define who we are.  It should be evident in all we do and say.  We are to live out godly love and let the Lord deal with the rest.  God is love and as His children, we inherit His love.

If we let our differences alienate ourselves from other parts of the body of Christ, we are living in darkness and not the light.  It’s something to think about as you think about your attitude towards those who you don’t know or understand within the body of Christ. And, it's something to think about when you consider your attitude and feelings towards those within the Church who you have problems with, those who may have wronged you and caused you grief and pain. To love God is to love others. Godly love is not selective love; we are to be vessels of love to all because God loves us and everyone else, too.

OBEDIENCE IN LOVE

 

OBEDIENCE IN LOVE

I John 2:3-6 And how can we be sure that we belong to him? By obeying his commandments. If someone says, "I belong to God," but doesn't obey God's commandments, that person is a liar and does not live in the truth. But those who obey God's word really do love him. That is the way to know whether or not we live in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Christ did. NLT

Being saved is more than just saying you are. A true child of God will obey the Word of God. There will be a conscious and determined decision to strive to live according to the teachings of Scripture. There will be a desire to learn and understand the Word so that the Word can have its proper effect on how life is lived. It's not too hard to figure out those who are trying to obey the Lord from those who aren't. The difference between the ways of the Word and the world are like night and day.

One of the sure proofs of a life lived in obedience to God is the love that comes from the heart. We obey God because we love Him. We love Him because it is the natural response of a heart who has been forgiven and filled with the presence of Christ. We love Him because we are so grateful for His forgiveness and willingness to adopt us as His children. We love Him because of His willingness and efforts to change who we were into a people like Him. We love Him because of His loving provision for our needs now and for all of eternity. If we are true children of God, we cannot resist the urge to love Him back, for He first loved us. He sought us out to save us. He is the one who prepared us for the day of our salvation. There is no greater love than the love of God for us and then the growing love we have for God.

He who claims to know God and yet does not love God and obey Him is a liar. The Truth is not in Him. Are you telling the truth when you say that you love God?

OUR SOUL SECURITY

 

OUR SOUL SECURITY

I John 2:3 And how can we be sure that we belong to him? By obeying his commandments. NLT

It doesn’t take much thinking to understand this simple, but profound, truth. Satan wants us to be in doubt about our salvation. He wants us to focus on the uncertainty of our salvation instead of the certainty of it. He wants to convince us that we can’t really know for sure where we stand before God. He wants us to believe that we are not worthy of salvation or that we aren’t being good enough to be saved.

John reminds us today that the proof of our salvation is not in our feelings or thoughts, it’s in our obedience. Those who are truly saved are those who strive to obey God. Obeying God requires us to know what God commands. In order to know what God requires of us, we must be students of His Word. We must read the Word with open hearts and minds, prayerfully seeking how it applies to our living. We must humbly accept God’s instruction and be willing to admit it and change when we fail to live it.

God has given us ready access to His Word. He exposes us to its teachings in many different ways so that we have no excuse for not knowing His commandments. God does not leave us in the dark and then expect us to keep His commandments. The more we know and understand His Word, the more responsibility we have to live by it. Whatever knowledge we have, we are to live it.

As we submit to the authority of God over us, the more knowledge we are given and thus increasing our responsibility to live holy lives. No one can claim innocence in this. God makes available to us all the resources we need to submit to Him and obey Him. He who does not obey God is living in sin and cannot have fellowship with Him or know that indeed he is saved.

If you belong to God you will obey Him and become like Him in your character.

JESIUS, OUR ADVOCATE

 

JESUS, OUR ADVOCATE

I John 2:1-2 My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if you do sin, there is someone to plead for you before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who pleases God completely. He is the sacrifice for our sins. He takes away not only our sins but the sins of all the world. NLT

The Word is given to us to help us to know what is sin and how not to do it. God does not want any of us to sin, even though He knows we will. Knowing our spiritual weaknesses that causes us to sin, God provided for us a Savior who not only can forgive us, He can help us to not sin. Jesus is on our side. Whenever we do sin, He is there to stand in-between God and us so that God in His anger will not destroy us. Jesus pleads the case before God for all who are in His care and sins. He is our advocate. He does not go to the defense of those who are not His, they are on their own to answer to God, they have no protector. In Christ there is forgiving grace. He honors those before God who honor Him. There is no sin that He cannot and does not forgive if there is genuine sorrow for it. If we are genuinely sorry, we will change and not continue to live in our sin.

Jesus pleases God completely. He did what He was sent here to do. He lived a sinless life so He could die a sinner's death. He became the perfect sacrifice for sin. There was nothing left undone that had to be done for us to be forgiven by God. He forgives us, but not just us. He forgives all who come to Him for forgiveness. There is forgiveness for everyone in the world if they want it. No one is beyond the reach of God's love, forgiveness and love. No one.

God is not happy one bit when we sin. He hates it. But, when we do sin, we have someone who can appease the wrath of God, Jesus our Savior. God can only forgive us through Christ Jesus our Lord. He allowed Jesus to come and provide a way for us to be forgiven for our sins because of His love for us. He has no desire to see anyone die and go to hell. Turn to Jesus and let Him take care of your sin problem.