So here are just a few things on my mind lately and I wanted to share them with you guys.
1 John 3:1-10 ( NIV )
“See what kind of love the Father has given us in letting us be called God’s children! Yet that is what we are. For this reason the world does not recognize us, because it did not recognize him either. Dear friends, we are now God’s children, but what we will be like has not been revealed yet. We know that when Christ is revealed we will be like him, because we will see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope based on him keeps himself pure, just as he is pure. Everyone who keeps living in sin also practices disobedience. In fact, sin is disobedience. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and there is not any sin in him. No one who abides in him goes on sinning. The one who goes on sinning has not seen him or known him. Little children, do not let anyone deceive you. The person who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. The person who practices sin belongs to the evil one, because the devil has been sinning since the beginning. The reason that the Son of God was revealed was to destroy the works of the devil. No one who has been born from God practices sin, because God’s seed abides in him. Indeed, he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born from God. This is how God’s children and the devil’s children are distinguished. No person who fails to practice righteousness and to love his brother is from God.”
Do we not understand the awesome glorifying and humbling fact that we (John 1:12) are sons and daughters of the living and Holy God! The God who’s glory no one can fathom, the God who created the heavens and the earth and the God who so graciously and lovingly sent His ONLY son Christ Jesus our Lord and savior to die on the cross so that whoever should believe in Him shall have eternal life (John 3:16). But we being very ungrateful are very shortsighted. We argue and complain (Ph 2:14) about in all reality very small things and miss the all the blessings by grace in our lives. We miss the very fact that we are Children of the Holy living God. But I guess first we need to ask ourselves if we are. What does Children of God mean? John 1:12-13 ( NIV ) “However, to all who received him, to those believing in his name, he gave authority to become God’s children, who were born, not merely in a physical sense, or from a fleshly impulse, or from man’s desire, but of God.” So to even have the right to be called “children of God” we must first receive Him. Ok fairly easy to understand, but the 2nd thing is we need to believe in His name. To believe in other words means to act. For example if you have a plate of food in front of you and you are really hungry are you going to just sit there and think or believe that that plate of food is going to fill you up or are you going to eat it? So if I believe I’m going to act. When we act for God means we are obeying Him (Mathew 28:19). But how can we obey Him if we don’t know what He says? Most “Christians” only really read the bible maybe once a week if that. I mean you can’t drive a manual car if you not know how, and you can’t obey God if you don’t know how. So we are not obeying how can we act? And if we are not acting how do we believe? Is it just more just a thought of Him than belief? And if we are technically not believing in His name than how are we children of the Hole God? Well of course Faith plays a big big part in the hole believing process. Hebrews 11:1 (NIV) “Now faith is the assurance of things we hope for, the certainty of things we cannot see.” So it is impossible for you to believe in something you can’t not see without faith, we need faith to believe.
If we go back to 1John 3 “And everyone who has this hope based on him keeps himself pure, just as he is pure.” Without reading the gospel we cannot be pure. Our hope is in Him and Him alone. In 1 Peter 1:22 (NIV) it say’s “Now that you have obeyed the truth and have purified your souls to love your brothers sincerely, you must love one another intensely and with a pure heart.” It is by obeying His holy purifying scripture that we purified. And to be pure in heart is the up most importance because in Psalms 24:1-6 ( NLT ) it say’s “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him. For he laid the earth’s foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths. Who may climb the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies. They will receive the LORD’s blessing and have a right relationship with God their savior. Such people may seek you and worship in your presence, O God of Jacob.” So who can “climb the mountain of the Lore”? The one who has clean hands (John 13:6-10) He is the one that cleans us (Jer 2:22) and the one who is pure in heart.
OK I need you to pay attention to this next part of the passage in 1John 3 - Everyone who keeps living in sin also practices disobedience. In fact, sin is disobedience. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and there is not any sin in him. No one who abides in him goes on sinning. The one who goes on sinning has not seen him or known him. Little children, do not let anyone deceive you. The person who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. The person who practices sin belongs to the evil one, because the devil has been sinning since the beginning. The reason that the Son of God was revealed was to destroy the works of the devil. No one who has been born from God practices sin, because God’s seed abides in him. Indeed, he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born from God. This is how God’s children and the devil’s children are distinguished. No person who fails to practice righteousness and to love his brother is from God.” WOW! “The one who goes on sinning has not seen him or known him.” Not that we need to be perfect that’s kind a impossible but that if we keep falling over that same sin over and over or in other words “who does not stop sinning” has not seen Him or KNOWN HIM. The gospel say’s it’s like a dog returning to his vomit. It talks about in 2 Peter that it is worse off for the person that knows but still sins (2Peter 2:17-22). And then it goes on to say that “those people” are not children of the living God but children of the devil.
The questions are you abiding by God, or are you just sliding by doing the minimal? Have you really been born again? If so what fruits is your life producing? Following the gospels standards of children of God are you one?
