December 26, 2017

Insights on Today's Reading

1 John 1 - "Enjoying fellowship with your God and Savior" is a pretty good way to describe this letter from John.  He emphasizes his own pleasure of fellowship as he describes the intimacy he knew with Jesus in the opening verses of this letter.  He then encourages an honest appraisal of our own lives and encourages us to fellowship with God by walking in the light of His Word and keeping our hearts clean through confession and acceptance of God's forgiveness and cleansing.

1 John 2 - Though John encourages believers not to sin, he also lets all of us know that we have an "Advocate" with the Father who is Jesus our Lord, verses 1,2.  We are to live our lives in-step with Jesus, verse 6.  John also describes the Christian growth experience of speaking of "little children," "young men," and "fathers" in verses 12-14.  "Love not the world" verse 15, is essential if we are truly to enjoy a love relationship with God.  The closing paragraph of this chapter, verses 27,28, should be included in the first three verses of chapter 3.

1 John 3 - The opening paragraph continues the thought of practicing righteousness as a way of life which is a clear indication that a person is a true follower of Christ.  Verse 9 emphasizes the "Christ-life" living in our lives.  Christ never sinned and He leads believers in living a holy life.  Verse 16 reminds us of the love Jesus spoke of back in John 15:13, about laying our lives down for those we love.

1 John 4 - "Testing the spirits," verses 1-3, is John's way of speaking about our evaluation of people who attempt to preach and teach about the Lord.  There were those in John's day who did not believe that Jesus had "come in the flesh."  John also encourages believers to know that they have a greater Person in their lives than all the forces of evil against them, verse 4.  John beautifully describes the "love of God" in verses 7-14.  He gives a very clear reason why the Father sent His Son in verse 14:  "...to be the Savior of the world."

1 John 5 - John speaks of our faith in the Lord as the means to be overcomers in this life, verse 5.  He also gives one of the greatest "assurance" verses in the Bible in verse 13, that whoever believes in the Lord Jesus "knows that they have eternal life..."  John speaks about a "sin unto death" which may be idolatry, verse 21.  May we all learn the joy of having fellowship with our Savior here for that will be our eternal pleasure in heaven!