November 2, 2023
Passage Read: 1 John 3-4
Meditation Verses: 3:4-10
Thought
John really is writing this letter so that those who receive it can know whether they are saved or not. He gives so many signs of a true and false believer. This sign has to do with sin: Jesus Christ came to take away our sins, which we usually understand to mean forgiveness of past sins, which is of course correct. But he goes on to say that anyone who keeps on sinning is not of Jesus but of the devil. Sin is lawlessness, and Jesus came to take away sin: He came not only to bring forgiveness of sins we commit and have committed, but to take away our lawlessness, our compulsion to sin, such that we should see sin fade from our lives. Jesus living in us should cause us to stop sinning and to start living in righteousness, doing what is right. He came to change who we are and how we live, so that sin becomes a thing of the past and no longer a thing of the present. This is how we recognize who is of God and who is of the devil: Those who continue to sin, who do not do what is right, are of the devil, but those who are born of God cannot continue to sin!
Application
John doesn't give a timeframe, but makes it sound like a pretty quick and dramatic transition. What is clear is that the true believer cannot keep on sinning, he cannot continue in lawless behavior, but because he has the Spirit of Christ who obeyed the Father perfectly, even to the point of giving up His own life, we who believe in Him should walk in that same Spirit of submission and humility and obedience to the Word of God. Or to put it another way, as John does, he should walk as Jesus did. This is what Jesus came to accomplish, so to deny that it is possible and is a goal to attain to is to deny the plan and purpose and power of God. We can strive for and hope to achieve sinlessness because that is what Christ came to do for us, and what the Spirit in us is trying to work in us! If we think it's impossible, we defeat ourselves before we begin and we work against what God is trying to bring about in us, confirming that we are still rebels, still lawless and not of God! And that's a very bad thing! That's the last thing I want to be true of me! Which means I need to stop resisting God and His Word, and I need to be sure I understand what love for a brother really looks like, because that's another sign John talks about, and is really what is accomplished when I walk in obedience to God's Word, when I walk in lawfulness, because the Law teaches what is love for God and love for brothers.