{"id":28596,"date":"2023-11-01T22:00:38","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T05:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/1-john-3_1-8-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-10-24T17:04:21","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T00:04:21","slug":"1-john-3_9-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/1-john-3_9-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Let God\u2019s Word Bring Us To Our Knees"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 John 3:9-17<\/strong>\u00a0 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 1 John 3:9-17.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

1\u00a0John 3:9-11 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0No 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.
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This 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.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 9-11:\u00a0 John puts it in such black and white terms:
\n\u00b7\u00a0Those who do what is right belong to God.\u00a0 Those who sin don\u2019t belong to God.\u00a0 (v9-10)
\n\u00b7\u00a0Those who love their fellow brothers and sisters belong to God.\u00a0 Those who hate their fellow brothers and sisters don\u2019t belong to God (v10b-11).
\nSo say you\u2019re someone who has trusted Jesus as your Saviour.\u00a0 You believe you are a child of God based on John 1:12 and other Bible verses.\u00a0 Yet you know for a fact that from time to time you still sin and you still don\u2019t love others as you should all the time.\u00a0 How are we to take these verses from\u00a01\u00a0John 3:9-11?<\/p>\n

I view these verses much like I view Jesus\u2019 sermon on the mount:\u00a0 these verses show me just how high God\u2019s standards are, how completely unable I am in my own strength to meet God\u2019s standards, and how much I need God\u2019s forgiveness and a Saviour to save me and to change my heart.\u00a0 In other words,\u00a0let these verses bring us to our knees in repentance.\u00a0 Let these verses cause us to cry out to God to change us from the inside out<\/strong>, so that by God\u2019s power our conduct would match our identity: that we are children of God who do what is right and who love our brothers and sisters faithfully.\u00a0 Let these verses remind us of the kind of lives God has called us to live.<\/p>\n

1\u00a0John 3:12-15 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Do 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.
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 12-15:\u00a0 Just as Cain hated his brother Abel and murdered him (Genesis 4), don\u2019t be surprised if the world hates you, John says, but you don\u2019t live in hate.\u00a0 For hating others kills the life of God in you.\u00a0\u00a0By likening hatred to murder (v15), John recalls Jesus\u2019 words in Matthew 5:21-22 during his Sermon on the Mount.<\/p>\n

1\u00a0John 3:16-17 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This is how we know<\/u>\u00a0what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0If 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?<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 16-17:\u00a0\u00a0The cross is the greatest demonstration we\u2019ll ever know about what love is.\u00a0 \u201cThis is how we know what love is\u201d (v16), John says.\u00a0\u00a0Just as Jesus showed us what love is by laying down His life for us, it is with our practical actions that we show the love of God to others<\/strong>.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of the big themes of\u00a01\u00a0John: true love is shown not just with words but with action.<\/p>\n

Also, here John uses his favourite phrase:\u00a0 \u201cThis is how we know\u201d.\u00a0 This phrase appears about 10 times in this short letter (1\u00a0John 2:5; 2:18; 3:10; 3:16; 3:24; 4:2; 4:6; 4:9; 5:2).\u00a0 In other words, for John there is a clear way to know certain big truths in life.\u00a0 Not everything is up in the air and open to interpretation.\u00a0 I believe one reason John could speak with this level of conviction is because he personally encountered Jesus Christ.\u00a0 As John wrote to begin this letter, \u201cThat which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched–this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.\u201d (1\u00a0John\u00a01:1)<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Personal conviction about God comes from having a personal encounter with God.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>If you don\u2019t have strong convictions about God, could it be because you have not yet personally experienced Him?\u00a0 If you want to personally experience God, it begins with first opening your heart and taking a humble step of faith toward Jesus and His Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

Father, thank You that though I so often don\u2019t live up to Your standards of how a child of God should live, thank You that Jesus\u2019 blood cleanses me of all my unrighteousness and covers all of my sin.\u00a0 Holy Spirit change me from the inside out, that I would live the way You call me to live.\u00a0 Let me experience You more and more.\u00a0 Out of that may I show others what love really is through my actions and my words.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 1 John 3:9-17.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!
\n\u00a0
\n1\u00a0John 3:9-11 (NIV)\u00a0
\n9\u00a0\u00a0No 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.\u00a0
\n10\u00a0\u00a0This 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.\u00a0
\n11\u00a0\u00a0This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
\n\u00a0
\nOn verses 9-11:\u00a0 John puts it in such black and white terms:\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0Those who do what is right belong to God.\u00a0 Those who sin don\u2019t belong to God.\u00a0 (v9-10)
\n\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0Those who love their fellow brothers and sisters belong to God.\u00a0 Those who hate their fellow brothers and sisters don\u2019t belong to God (v10b-11).
\nSo say you\u2019re someone who has trusted Jesus as your Saviour.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28596"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28610,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28596\/revisions\/28610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}