3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of […]
I’ve been reflecting on yesterday’s post about 1 John 1:9, and I wanted to round out some of the ideas. Paul makes a great deal about how we have been baptized into Christ’s death, and are raised with Him to newness of life (Romans 6:3-4). I recently (thereforenow.com/2012/03/his-cross-is-my-death/) made the point that it is Christ’s […]
We resist grace because we do not believe He exists, and we suspect that if He does exist, He will manifest His power only to punish and judge. We cannot leave our confession hanging and vulnerable waiting upon the awful silence, we cannot believe that the alien touch from beyond the silence will be a […]
1 John 1:5-10 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5 God is light: this is the message John heard from Him who was from the beginning. We want to know what God says to […]
1 John 1:1-4 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands 1 John 1:1 We have an amazing statement here to start off 1 John. That which was from the beginning – think about that for […]
1 John 2:1-5 I’m doing a study through 1 John with my men’s group, so I’m posting insights from it here. Maybe it will make a nice little resource going forward. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. 1 John 2:1 John has just finished saying […]
The question was posed to me, what do you make of the verse in 1 John 5, that there is a sin that leads to death? Isn’t there sin that is unforgivable? What does this say about the grace message? In Hebrews 12 he talks about looking at things from the perspective of two mountains, […]
So, in typical fashion with grace, and with the notion that “God gives to His beloved even in their sleep,” ( Ps 127:2 ) I woke up with another insight about the question from the last post. First, you should know that in our house, fruit-checking is a bit of a derogatory term. “You’re being […]
Tullian Tchavidjian recently posted this statement on his twitter feed: “What motivates our obedience determines whether or not it is a sacrifice of praise. Obedience to God’s commands prompted by fear or guilt is not true obedience.” This may be true, but it raises the question, what about all those verses about the fear of […]