Devotionals
I John 4:13; A Devotional
Submitted by Martin Glynn on Sat, 10/11/2008 - 5:37am.By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
Here John speaks of us being confident for the day of judgment. The Greek word for confidence here is parresia which comes from pas (all) and reo (to utter or pour out). The essential word picture here is that all pours out of you; you hold nothing back. This idea makes you bold and unrelenting, especially in your speach. But what makes us bold? Love.
Does Jesus Really Understand What I Am Going Through? (A Devotional)
Submitted by Ben Henshaw on Tue, 10/07/2008 - 10:18am.Have you ever….
Been tempted? (Matt. 4:1-11)
Been misunderstood? (Matt. 13:53-57; Jn. 6:52-66; 7:35, 36; Mark 8:31-33; 9:30-32)
Been ridiculed and mocked? (Matt. 27:27-31, 38-44)
Faced a difficult decision? (Matt. 26:36-46)
Been laughed at? (Matt. 9:23, 24)
Been angry? (Jn. 2:13-17)
Been envied? (Jn. 11:45-48; Matt. 27:18, 19)
Been falsely accused? (Matt. 26:59-63)
Been treated unfairly? (Jn. 19:4-16)
Felt alone? (Matt. 27:46; Mark 14:32-42)
Felt afraid? (Luke 22:39-46)
Been abandoned? (Jn. 16:32; Matt. 26:31; Mark 14:50)
Suffered unjustly? (Luke 23:13-25)
Been abused? (Matt. 26:67-68; 27:26-31)
Loved someone without being loved in return? (Luke 13:34; Mark 10:17-22)
Been frustrated? (Matt. 9:1-8; 12:22-29; 15:16; 16:21-23)
Gone hungry? (Matt. 4:2)
Been ignored? (Mark 1:40-45)
Been homeless? (Matt. 8:18-20)
Been unappreciated? (Luke 17:12-19)
Been wounded by a close friend? (Luke 22:54-62; Matt. 26:47-50)
I John 4:11-12; A Devotional
Submitted by Martin Glynn on Sat, 10/04/2008 - 8:58am.Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
John is furthering his command for us to love one another. The verb tense of the second love in verse 11 is actually the infinitive, meaning that the verse should probably be "So we ought to be loving one another." There is a clear sense of present action here, saying that this should already be happening, and if it isn't, it must start now.
Loving one another is truly important. We cannot see God. We cannot touch Him. I believe we can feel Him in our spirits, but at the present time, our interaction with Him is still pretty limited. So how do we know God is real? How do we feel God in our hearts? According to John, it is by loving one another!
I John 4:7-11; A Devotional
Submitted by Martin Glynn on Sat, 09/27/2008 - 10:51am.Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
I John 4:4-6; A Devotional
Submitted by Martin Glynn on Sat, 09/20/2008 - 10:14am.Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
I John 4:1-3; A Devotional
Submitted by Martin Glynn on Sun, 09/14/2008 - 12:58am.I apologize for being a little late this week. Yesterday and today have been rather hectic, and I don't like to rush this. So let us begin chapter 4:
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
Remember that this is a letter and that the chapter divisions came later. John has not fully changed thoughts here, but has flowed from speaking of the Holy Spirit to speaking about false spirits. This coincides with his message in the last section as well which is based on true and false Christians.
I John 3:22-24; A Devotional
Submitted by Martin Glynn on Sat, 09/06/2008 - 11:05am.22and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
I wanted to point out one particular word in this section: entole or commandment. This word is a key word in this apostle, being highlighted in three section: 2:3-8, 3:22-24, and 4:21-5:3. Let us reconsider what John says in chapter two:
I John 3:19-22; A Devotional
Submitted by Martin Glynn on Sat, 08/30/2008 - 9:39am.19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
This is a passage talking about assurance. Now we who have been involved in the C/A debate know about assurance. Calvinists often say that they are assured of their salvation because they have been predestined before the foundation of the world, and know that they cannot loose what they have been given.
I John 3:16-18; A Devotional
Submitted by Martin Glynn on Sat, 08/23/2008 - 11:16am.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. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
It is a real shame that John never made it to the third chapter in his other epistles, because he seems to have this magic touch with the sixteenth verse of third chapters. Oh well.
Coming out of his analogy of Cain as the bad example, John is commanding us to do the opposite. While Cain laid down his brother's life for his own, Christ laid down His own life for us. Thus, we should emulate Christ, laying down our own lives for our brothers.
I John 3:12-15; A Devotional
Submitted by Martin Glynn on Sat, 08/16/2008 - 9:59am.12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
Remember here that John is not mentioning Cain here to discourage us from killing. John here is recalling the word of our Lord:
I John 3:11; A Devotional
Submitted by Martin Glynn on Sat, 08/09/2008 - 7:30am.11This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
I wanted to highlight this verse alone, because although it concludes the former section and sets up the next, it is a powerful aphorism as well.
Often we forget that we should love one another. This is especially true when we are part of a in-house debate like Arminianism and Calvinism. Often our Calvinist brothers condemn us, saying that we are heretics and Semi-Pelagian and other false accusations. Often we aren't that much better.
Even though we disagree, and disagree strongly, we need to love each other. We need to disagree in love, desiring one another's health, and recognizing that faith in the gospel and alleigance to Christ is more important than the subtleties of doctrine. The context of this verse is the mark of a Christian: that Christians love their brother. Also, that anyone who does not love their brother is not a Christian. .
I John 3:7-10; A Devotional
Submitted by Martin Glynn on Sat, 08/02/2008 - 8:25am.7Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. 9No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
This is a much bigger section, but I think it is warranted. The text is very clear cut here. Doing what is right is the mark of the righteous, and doing what is evil is the mark of the worldly. Though we are not defined by what we do, and we are not saved by what we do, what we do does demonstrate who we are inside.
I John 3:5-6; A Devotional
Submitted by Martin Glynn on Sat, 07/26/2008 - 8:21am.5 And you know this: that appeared so that those sins may be taken away. And in Him there is no sin: 6everyone who dwells in Him never sins; everyone who sins has not seen Him nor learnt of Him.
The above is my translation. First we here about “that appeared” (the pronoun being ekeinos not autos) which is reminiscent of verse 2, speaking of the future return of Christ, thus identifying Christ as the subject. However what’s interesting is that which was in the future is not being treated as if it were in the past. Both appeared and taken away are in the simple past tense, and even “to see” later in verse 6 which is also reminiscent of verse 2 is in the perfect past tense. So we have this sense that the hope of verse 3 is in some way realized for the believer.
1 John 3:4; A Devotional
Submitted by Martin Glynn on Sat, 07/19/2008 - 9:14am.Hello. Ron Fay is taking a brief vacation and in the meantime, I shall be taking his place. Though I cannot promise to do as well of a job in exegesis of Scripture for you as Ron, I promise you I will do my best. With that said, let us move on to what is truly important, the Word of God:
Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
1 John 3:1-3; A Devotional
Submitted by Ron C. Fay on Sat, 07/12/2008 - 7:16am.Know how great the love the Father has given to us, in order that we would be called the children of God, and we are. Through this the world does not know us, because it does not know him. 2 Beloved, you are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet appeared. We know that if he would appear, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is. 3 And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, as that one is pure.
