Saturday, July 30, 2016
1st John ~ The Christian Life as Divine Sonship (2:29;4:6)
1 John 2 NLT
29 Since we know that
Christ is righteous, we also know that all who do what is right are God’s
children.
1 John 3 NLT
1 See how very much our Father loves
us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who
belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they
don’t know him.
2 Dear friends, we are already God’s
children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears.
But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really
is.
3 And all who have this eager
expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.
4 Everyone who sins is breaking God’s
law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.
5 And you know that Jesus came to take
away our sins, and there is no sin in him.
6 Anyone who continues to live in him
will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand
who he is.
7 Dear children, don’t let anyone
deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are
righteous, even as Christ is righteous.
8But when people keep on sinning, it shows
that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But
the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.
9Those who have been born into God’s family
do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t
keep on sinning, because they are children of God.
10So now we can tell who are children of God
and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and
does not love other believers does not belong to God.
11 This is the message you have heard
from the beginning: We should love one another.
12 We must not be like Cain, who
belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him?
Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what
was righteous.
13 So don’t be surprised, dear brothers
and sisters, if the world hates you.
14 If we love our brothers and sisters
who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a
person who has no love is still dead.
15 Anyone who hates another brother or
sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have
eternal life within them.
16 We know what real love is because
Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our
brothers and sisters.
17 If someone has enough money to live
well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s
love be in that person?
18Dear children, let’s not merely say that we
love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.
19 Our actions will show that we belong
to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.
20 Even if we feel guilty, God is
greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.
21 Dear friends, if we don’t feel
guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence.
22 And we will receive from him whatever
we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.
23 And this is his commandment: We must
believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he
commanded us.
24 Those who obey
God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know
he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.
1 John 4 NLT
1 Dear friends, do not believe everyone
who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they
have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.
2 This is how we know if they have the
Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus
Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God.
3 But if someone claims to be a prophet
and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God.
Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into
the world and indeed is already here.
4 But you belong to God, my dear
children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit
who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.
5 Those people belong to this world, so
they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them.
6 But we belong to God, and those who
know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us.
That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of
deception.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)