Read: I John 5:1-21

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of Son
of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
(I John 5:13)

Thoughts… God does not want you to be insecure about your salvation. He takes no pleasure in dangling you over the fires of hell on a rotten stick. He wants you to know in your knower beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are saved and on your way to heaven.

No earthly father in his right mind would want his children to be insecure about his love for them; that he would protect them and provide for their needs no matter what. Even when they misbehave, he doesn’t want them to feel as if he going to kick them out of the house. A good father doesn’t love his kids one day but not the next. His love is unconditional, and his children know that. Home is a safe place for them, and that’s why they are secure and well adjusted.

So it is with God. And so God wants his children to be: secure and well-adjusted in the safe love of God. And the Apostle John wrote that this is one of the very reasons why God gave us his Word: To put into writing for all eternity that God’s children are eternally secure in their salvation.

Whether you feel saved or not, it doesn’t matter. God’s Word says that when you gave your heart to Jesus, you were saved.

Whether you feel forgiven or not, the Bible says that if you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

Whether you feel the love of God or not, Scripture says that he loves you with an everlasting love.

Whether you feel God’s presence or not, the Word says he will never leave you nor forsake you.

Whether you feel he has heard your prayers or not, God’s Word says you can have confidence that if you ask anything according to his will, he hears you.

Whether you feel that heaven is your home after you die or not, the Bible says that Jesus is your resurrection and your life; that in him, you will never die.

So who are you going to believe: your feelings or God’s Word?

I think I will go with what God’s Word declares to be true. I hope you will too!

Prayer… Dear God, thank you for your Word. It gives me security in my eternity, and nothing can tear that away from me.

One More Thing… “Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again.” —St. Augustine

Read I John 4:1-21

“No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God
lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”
(I John 4:12)

Thoughts… Ask a thousand different people for their concept of God and you most likely will get a thousand different depictions. But the Bible makes it plain that the chief expression of God is love. What does God look like? He looks like love.

Not the sloppy, squishy, anything goes kind of love our world knows. Not the ever-changing love that rises and falls with one’s current emotional state that far too many people today understand love to be. Not the selfish kind of love that loves to the degree that love is requited.

No—it is an unconditional love; it is a sacrificial love; it is a proactive love; it is a love that seeks out unworthy objects. It is a holy and righteous love; it is a tough love; it is an unchanging love. It is that kind of love that is at the core of God’s nature. It is this love that is the essence of his being.

And though no one has ever seen God, he has made himself visible by the evidence of his love in this world. Wherever you see this kind of love, there, in a very real sense, you see evidence of God. Whether you see evidence of love in the wonder and majesty of nature or in the selflessness and sacrifice of humanity, there God has left his fingerprint of love.

But God is best seen in the lives of his redeemed ones as they live in loving community within the family of God. Whenever you see authentic fellowship, spiritual unity, self-sacrifice, forgiveness, serving—you are seeing love in action; you are seeing God.

When you see God’s people reaching out to a lost world, loving the unlovely, serving the poor, preaching the Good News to the lost, laying down their lives so that hostile people can see the Father, there you have God’s love on display; there you see God.

And God is especially visible when his love is on display in you. When you love with no thought of love in return; when you go out of your way to love; when you love in response to hurtful and hateful actions; when you suffer, but patiently love; when everyone else has give up but you stubbornly love anyway…

When you see true love in action, there you see God.

Prayer… Dear Father, I pray that your love will be on display in me today.

One More Thing… “Our love to Him is the proof and measure of what we know of His love to us.” —John Newton

Read I John 3:7-24

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid
down his life for us. And we ought to lay down
our lives for our brothers.”
(I John 3:16)

Thoughts… Jesus summed up God’s requirements of us in two straightforward commands: The first requirement is that I am to love God with my entire being—my spirit, of course, but also my intellect, my emotions, and my body. The second requirement is that I am to love my fellow man just as I would love myself.

Now it’s not the first command that we struggle with—at least not in principle. It is quite obvious that we are to love God. It’s the second that we have difficulty living out. Love for God is one thing, but loving other people is what give us fits.

But Jesus was clear, and so was John in his first epistle, that we cannot truly love God without truly loving people who were made in God’s image. Likewise, when we are loving people authentically from the heart, then we are making our love for God truly practical.

That is our call as Christ-followers: To love God by loving people!

So then, how do we define the kind of love for people that demonstrates our love for God? John made it as plain as day: To lay down our lives for people just as Jesus laid down his life for us.

Now that’s sounds really spiritual, but how do we make that kind of love practical since it is not likely that we will ever be called upon to literally lay down our lives and die for another? John shows us how in verses 17-18:

“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in
need but has not pity on him, how can the love of God
be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words
or tongue, but with actions and in truth.”

True love for God that is demonstrated in authentic love for people is first of all, selfless and sensitive. It knows that what I have is not for my own gratification, but for the benefit of others. It knows that not only in principle, but it discerns ways to practice that kind of selfless love in real, everyday life situations.

Second of all, it is a selfless and sensitive love that is motivated by compassion, not just duty. It sees the need in another and is moved by the love of God as well as our love for God to do something about that need.

And thirdly, in a way that reiterates the first two points, it is, on the one hand, not just a knowing love, but it is a doing love; and on the other hand, not just a doing love, but a knowing love. In other words, this laying-down-your-life kind of love that John speaks of is based both in the Biblically revealed character of God as well as the love of God that is practically revealed through action in our everyday world.

How do we know that we are truly the children of God? When we love others in this manner.

Prayer… Father, I have declared my love for you countless times, but perhaps I have not equally demonstrated the authenticity of that love by sensitively, compassionately and selflessly loving those around me in real ways. Forgive my neglect, and help me today to allow the kind of love you have for me to be demonstrated toward others. May I be real life proof of your love throughout this day.

One More Thing… “When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now…. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.” —C.S. Lewis

Read I John 2:18-3:6

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us,
that we should be called the children of God.
And that is what we are!”
(I John 3:1)

Thoughts… Imagine that—you are a beloved child of God. What incredible love the Father has lavished on you that he should make you his very own! You were once outside the family of God, with no hope and no future. You were an enemy of God, living in disobedience to his law, the object of his wrath because of your sinful nature. You were a mess.

But then, God in his love sent his one and only son, Jesus, to rescue you from the helplessness and hopelessness of your sinful condition. He took upon himself the wrath that you deserved, and he paid the full price for your pardon. He took your sin into his own body—he became sin for you—so that you could become righteous before God.

What love indeed!

Think about this: You received a full and unconditional pardon from the penalty of death, and thus, you are no longer an object of God’s just judgment. But there’s more; God’s love didn’t stop there. You were not only pardoned, you were adopted into God’s very own family. You who were once an enemy are now brought near to God’s heart and given a place in God’s kingdom. A permanent place was set you us at the King’s table and you were given a position of purpose in his eternal plan.

What love indeed!

All because of God’s love, you were made a child of God. What love the Father has bestowed upon one so undeserving as you. And now you are called his very own. That is who you are!

What love indeed!

Prayer… Father, I am your child. Nothing can change that. No one can take that away from me. What love indeed, that you should call me your own. And now, Father, what loved I have for you, because you first loved me.

One More Thing… “To use the grace given is the certain way to obtain more grace. To use all the faith you have will bring an increase of faith.” —John Wesley

Read I John 2:1-17

“The man who says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he
commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him…Whoever
claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”
(I John 2:4 & 6)

Thoughts… An overwhelmingly high percentage of Americans claim Christianity as their faith, yet there is not a correspondingly high number of people who are walking as Jesus did. Obviously, this points to a fatal misunderstanding of what it truly means to be Christian.

Claiming to be a Christian doesn’t make you one anymore than going through the MacDonald’s drive-thru makes you a “Happy Meal.” For too many, the only thing Christian about them is their claim. Neither their internal character nor their lifestyles match what they say they believe.

Just in the past few days, a high profile celebrity, a professional athlete, died after being shot. I listened with interest as his heartbroken family and friends were speaking of what a good person and a good Christian he was. Yet the man was shot in a home that he was sharing with his girl friend. They were not married but living together, yet claiming to be followers of Jesus Christ.

This is just one example of the kind of incongruence we now witness continually in our society. And sadly, these incongruent values are never challenged, but find wide-spread acceptance, even from people of faith.

I know I am on dangerous and unpopular ground in making a judgment about the authenticity of this man’s faith in Christ, but someone needs to point out that claiming Christ is only authenticated when we walk as Christ did. In other words, sexual purity, moral fortitude, financial integrity, humility, kindness, and a thousand other virtues must distinguish both our inner being as well as our public identity.

There ought to be a distinguishable difference if we are going to claim Christ as our Lord and Savior. Claiming him in name only will not wash with God on the day we stand before him.

Jesus said, “I you love me, you will do what I command.” That—and nothing else—qualifies one to be Christian.

Prayer… Father, I pray for the courage and wisdom to confront the incongruent faith that is rampant in our land in a way that will open hearts and minds to what it truly means to be Christian. Give me your compassion so that I will not be judgmental. And Lord, help me to walk as Jesus did so that I can speak with authority before a world that needs to see the authentic Jesus.

One More Thing… “Beside Jesus, the whole lot of us are so contemptible…But God is like Jesus, and like Jesus, He will not give up until we, too, are like Jesus.” —Frank C. Laubach

Read I John 1:1-10

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins and cleanse us form all unrighteousness.”
(I John 1:9)

Thoughts… Most believers have favorite verses from the Bible: John 3:16—“For God so loved the world…”; Jeremiah 29:11—“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord…”; Ephesians 2:10—“We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus…”

But this verse, if not my favorite, certainly represents a promise that I have most often claimed. If you are like me, you use this verse early and often. Though I do not make a practice of deliberately sinning, I do have my moments when I give into temptation, surrender to the flesh and fail God. Frankly, I am sinner.

But that—sinner—is not my true identity. Rather, I am a sinner saved by grace. That is the true me; one whose sinful nature and whose acts of sin are covered by God’s grace.

The truth is, we all sin. Every Christ-follower who wants to do away with sin in their life stumble—sometimes in small ways, sometimes we sin largely. But by God’s grace, he has made a way for us to be relieved of our sins simply, thoroughly and unconditionally when we humbly and honestly confess them before him.

And when we confess our sins, he forgives us! How awesome is that! Each time we sin, Jesus has already atoned for that sin by his blood that was shed on the cross. So when we confess, we are simply tapping into an inexhaustible reservoir of forgiveness that was established when Jesus deposited grace by his sacrificial death.

Now some people, including me, at times feel so badly about their sin that they wonder if it has truly been forgiven. One of the wonderful things about the truth proclaimed in this verse is that our forgiveness doesn’t rest on our feelings. It rests on God’s faithfulness. Notice what John wrote: When we confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive us our sins.”

Nor is our forgiveness affected by the presence of guilt. There are times, frankly, that I will still feel very badly about a sin that I have confessed before God for days afterward. But that doesn’t mean that I am not forgiven.

Bear in mind that forgiveness is based on God’s justice. You might still feel guilty, but that doesn’t affect God. He was completely just in forgiving your awful sin because Jesus already bore the punishment for it. That’s why John writes, “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

I am so grateful for the truth of this verse, and I suspect that you are too. For sure, we need to do away with sin in our lives, but when we don’t, when we blow it, we can go to God and he eagerly and freely forgives us for Jesus’ sake.

How great is that? No other god is like our God—we are most blessed.

Prayer… Father, forgive me from all unrighteousness and cleanse me thoroughly through the blood of Jesus so that I can be kept in right standing in your awesome presence. Steer me away from evil and keep me on the paths of righteousness this day. And thank you for the inexhaustible gift of forgiveness made possible by your grace. Though I hope I don’t have to tap into again this day, I am sure I will.

One More Thing… “Free grace can go into the gutter, and bring up a jewel!” —Charles Spurgeon