Comments on: 1 John 2

By: Jonell

Jonell — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 21:24:36 +0000

Thanks for the clarification of:
—Little children—Young men—Fathers—
… I needed that bit of information.

I like Vance Havner’s quote about the duck. Seems I’ve heard that somewhere before.

I guess that’s what keeps getting pounded home each time I read I John (all the way through) is that if I am a child of God and walking with the Lord, I will show it by the way I live.

If it is not evident by the way I live whose child I am, then I need to check my heart and #1 – make sure I’m a child of God or #2 – get rid of those things in my life that are dragging me and the name of Christ through the mud.

Good stuff here, isn’t it?

Jonell

By: Phil

Phil — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 19:13:14 +0000

Young, middle-aged, and old, this letter includes you.

—Little children, your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. You know the Father.

—Young men, you are strong,and the word of God abides in you. You have overcome the evil one

—Fathers, you know him who is from the beginning.

Verse 16 is one of the easiest-to-remember summaries of what constitutes wrong. Everything worldly falls into one or more of three general categories:
—the desires of the flesh
—the desires of the eyes
—the pride of life

And none of it is not from the Father.

Pretty basic, but still hard to live by. Perhaps He knew that, and offered us the Comforter to live within and give us the strength hour by hour.

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 01:58:35 +0000

Today I’ve been meditating on Verse 28:

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

I’ve written considerably here about the concept of abiding and what it means to me, primarily from John 15 (You can search for “abide” or “John 15″ in the margin search engine; I won’t fill this space with links.) and here the apostle John once again encourages his readers to abide in Him. I like the reason he gives. it’s noble; it’s practical:

So that when He appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame.

When I draw my strength from God for everything I do, when my entire purpose for being is to bring forth fruit so he is honored, I’m going to SMILE when I see him coming, not wince and shrink, looking for someplace to hide.

One more reason to pursue a constant state of abiding in Him!

By: jenz

jenz — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 19:00:26 +0000

1
What an blessing and a privilege it is to have an “advocate with the Father” Especially when that advocate is Jesus the almighty himself. I have had to stand up for Billy over the years. Fighting to get what he needs to help him learn. But I am a mere human stop and think for a moment about the fact that we have Jesus standing up for us. WOW!!
2
I also want to take this opportunity to thank Him yet again. He not is standing up for us. He not only took my own sins upon his shoulders He also took the whole worlds.
3, 4 and 6
Loving Him means obeying Him. Trying to live like He did.
5
However we are mere humans who do muck up and sin. Over time and trying to obey Him He works in us perfecting us.
9
We are called to love. We are called to love everyone even our enemies.
10 and 11
By doing so we can walk in Jesus sweet light. If we hate others it is a sin.
I was once involved with an ex-manslaughter (he had served his time) this was a very very rough time in my life. He was very abusive. I to this day pray for him. He claimed he was a Christian yet he still sinned badly. He truly needs the Lord. I pray that the Lord is able to get deep inside him and work. I believe it is only through the pure love of God that he can be cleaned whiter than the snow and become a man of God.
12
Praise the Lord!!! Thank you sweet Jesus
15
We are not of this Earth. Loving things that exist here is only temporary. We have to keep our eyes on Jesus, on the big picture, on where we are going. this reminds me of the wonderful book I read not so long ago – Do You Know Where You Are Going – Sujo John
It also reminds me that we cant serve both things of this world, like $$ and Him.
16 and 17
I have struggling with this recently. I pray that You Lord help me to do what is right.
21 – 27
The truth is Jesus is real. He is Lord of all. There are some to claim they are Christ but they are not. There is only one Lord Jesus Christ and He is the messiah. We must belief and put our faith in Him. If we dont accept, believe and love Jesus then we also dont accept that His father is God.
If we do indeed put our faith in Him then we receive the gift of eternal life.
28
If we do indeed believe in Him and live for Him we can be sure that when He returns we will ready. We wont be like Adam and Eve and hide in shame. We shall be ready to follow Him where ever He leads us.

By: Phil

Phil — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 01:40:58 +0000

“How do you know?” is a really good question, especially when the alleged believer we’re observing is demonstrating marginal behavior when it comes to living a godly life.

How do we know?
How obedient is he/she? Doing what Christ says?
Living disobediently? There’s room to wonder.

Now here’s the rub.
We are MUCH less patient than God when it comes to ascertaining their spiritual health. We see this week and last. We remember a couple months ago and last year. God sees it all. He knows the beginning from the end. He can be dogmatic and sure. We can’t. We don’t know enough.

Does anyone remember how long the prodigal was gone? (from Luke 15) A summer? A year? Five? Fifteen? Jesus didn’t say, probably on purpose. The father never quit looking for his son’s return and when he saw him coming down the lane, his welcome and response was sincere, eager and filled to overflowing with grace.

So when assessing another, I need to be careful. God knows things I don’t. When assessing myself, I’m going to use the highest possible mark.

Keep His commandments
Keep His word.
If I say I abide in Him I’d better walk like He walked.

-=-=-=-

Vance Havner once said,

“When I see a bird that looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and keeps the company of ducks I can safely assume ‘that’s a duck’. But when I see a Christian that looks like the world, lives like the world, talks like the world, and is comfortable in the world… I’m sorry but I’m drawn to certain conclusions.”

-=-=-=-

I wanna be like JESUS!

By: Phil

Phil — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 12:37:10 +0000

There’s a word in verse 2 we don’t use every day. Would be good to make sure we know what it means. Here’s from Easton’s 1897 Bible Dictionary:

Propitiation

that by which God is rendered propitious, i.e., by which it becomes consistent with his character and government to pardon and bless the sinner. The propitiation does not procure his love or make him loving; it only renders it consistent for him to execise his love towards sinners. In Rom. 3:25 and Heb. 9:5 (A.V., “mercy-seat”) the Greek word _hilasterion_ is used. It is the word employed by the LXX. translators in Ex. 25:17 and elsewhere as the equivalent for the Hebrew _kapporeth_, which means “covering,” and is used of the lid of the ark of the covenant (Ex. 25:21; 30:6). This Greek word (hilasterion) came to denote not only the mercy-seat or lid of the ark, but also propitation or reconciliation by blood. On the great day of atonement the high priest carried the blood of the sacrifice he offered for all the people within the veil and sprinkled with it the “mercy-seat,” and so made propitiation. In 1 John 2:2; 4:10, Christ is called the “propitiation for our sins.” Here a different Greek word is used (hilasmos).

Christ is “the propitiation,” because by his becoming our substitute and assuming our obligations he expiated our guilt, covered it, by the vicarious punishment which he endured.
(Comp. Heb. 2:17, where the expression “make reconciliation” of the A.V. is more correctly in the R.V. “make propitiation.”)
Easton’s 1897 Bible Dictionary (emphasis mine)

Sorry if that seems a bit technical, but it’s a WONDERFUL word describing a remarkable work Christ does on our behalf! He became our substitute so He could take care of our guilt. ALL of it. Hallelu~!

Phil—