1 John 3
This week we’re thinking through 1 John 3.
Your insights, observations and thoughts are welcome!
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1 John 3
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. 7 Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; 8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.
11 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; 12 not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.
13 Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. 19 We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him 20 in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. 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 the things that are pleasing in His sight.
23 This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. 24 The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
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My thoughts
verse 1
How truly blessed we are to be called His children. We are not of this world although we do live in it. Unbelievers dont really understand us as they do not know the Lord and He is very much a part of us.
2
We are still being shaped and molded to be like Him.
However we cant fully understand and know Him either until we see Him face to face
3
We are becoming pure because He is pure.
4
We must try to live a righteous life.
5
God is totally pure. There is no sin in Him. God sent his son Jesus down to Heaven to die on the cross for us. Jesus took the sins of the world on Himself even though He is totally sinless.
6
We are forgiven because of Him.
7
We must be aware of false teaching to do this we must read and know the Word well
8
Bad thoughts and actions come from the Devil. We must on our guard. Because of the work done on the cross sin can be conquered. The devil wont have a leg to stand on if we put all our faith in Him and lead where He guides us
10
There is a difference between believers and unbelievers. We are called to live a righteous life and love others. The unbelievers tend to be more not for themselves.
11
We must love each other as God first loved us. We must also love our enemies. I often pray for those who are done me wrong.
Verse 15 is an interesting one
“you know that no murderer has eternal life”
what happens if a person who has murdered comes to know the Lord while serving his/her time does that mean he or she is forgiven and receives eternal life or not
16
Jesus truly loved us as even though He was innocent He gave His life for us. Thank you Jesus. If we truly love Him we must be willing to die for other believers.
17 and 18
If we are well off we must give to others who are less fortunate than ourselves
Its not enough to just say we care we must prove it. We must be like the good Samartian and give.
I think this can sometimes be given in time and serving as well as $$
22
When we pray we must believe that whatever we ask for He will give it to us according to His will
We will get extra blessings if we keep His commandments and live the way He wants us to.
23
One of the greatest commandments is to love Jesus. I learnt the other day that when something is written in the bible more than once – when it is repeated – it is important. It therefore is important that we love others. This reminds me we cant be lone Christians we need others to help, love and support us and we in turn must do that too.
24
When we follow where He leads us then we have true communion with Him.
He has given us the Holy Spirit to help us do what is right.
It’s taken most of the week for me to shake loose long enough to comment here. I guess some weeks are just that way, hmm?
I’ve been thinking and meditating though – on the fly.
The leading idea in my thinking this week has been this:
(1) See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God
(16) We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
(18) Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.
These thoughts parallel the things Paul wrote about love in Ephesians 5 and John’s own words in John 3.
God loved, God gave.
If I love – I’ll “give it up” and that without a grudge.
I can’t tell you (I’ll try though) how reassuring it is to take a breath, give some more and say to myself “This is how God does it. Give it to ’em.” It’s gratifying to glance skyward and whisper “Could you help me?” knowing He will.
So much more here… so much more, but these are my prevailing thoughts this frenetic week.
I may come back and add some more later; it’s a rich chapter.
Phil
same with me
a BUSY week
where is everyone else
maybe they are all busy too