November 18, 2024

Passage Read: 1 John 3-4
Meditation Verses: 3:5-8

Thought

"Let no one deceive you." John here says that no one who abides in Jesus continues to sin, but he practices righteousness and therefore is righteous. That seems heretical to my modern ears. I have been trained by the church, in the church, that I am a sinner and I cannot cease from sin. Have I misunderstood or have I been deceived by the same people who were to teach me the truth? If I seek to know and follow Jesus, the closer I follow Him, the more time I spend with Him, the less I must sin and the more I must practice righteousness, because Jesus never sins and I'm following closely at His heels! So if I continue to sin, that means I'm not following Jesus as closely as I think I am. In fact, if I continue to sin, there is a good chance I've never seen or known Jesus! I still belong to Satan!

Application

Victory over sin comes only in part by my own efforts to eradicate it from my life. The real secret is to spend more and more time with Jesus, watching what He does and doing it along with Him. When I give up the love of worldly things and give myself to knowing and doing His will, then I am changed. But giving up my autonomy is the hardest thing to do. And that's exactly what Satan's problem is. So the more I'm convinced that I must be my own person and have my own expression of myself, the more I prove myself to be a sinner in the hands of Satan, rather than a righteous man dwelling with Jesus.