Sharing Life and Christ

The Apostle John uses the word “love” over 30 times in his first letter. 1 John itself can be seen as an expansion on the greatest commandment that Jesus speaks of: And He said to them, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40 Love seems so simple to define, doesn’t it? It isn’t a word that I typically dwell on much because I know what love is. Don’t I? As I continue to be amazed at how frequently (and seemingly randomly!) the word love is thrown about, I want to know how God defines love and be able to use the word in a way that honors Him. While there are different kinds of love, I specifically want to understand and correctly use agape love, not just in my vocabulary but in my actions as well. The descriptors below have b...

Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as He is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. 1 John 3:7-10 Before we begin examining this fantastic passage, let’s make sure we understand the context and the overall message John is conveying. For starters, the entire second half of chapter two (v. 18-27) warns the reader against the antichrists who have come into the world. John makes it clear how the antichrists think, talk, and live. In verse 28, John transitio...

I’ve been studying 1 John for awhile, and this morning I came to a verse that caused me to do quite a bit of digging. It is a simple enough verse, but often I tend to hurry past a verse that has so much meaning simply because I think I understand it. Considering that the verse describes the promise of God to all who profess faith in Jesus Christ, I thought that, just maybe, it might be worth studying and discussing with others. And this is the promise that He made to us--eternal life. 1 John 2:25 First off, as I looked at the Greek, the word used for “promise” and the word used for “made” have the same root. Basically, it can be reworded as “this is the promise that God promised to us.” The word ĕpaggĕlia signifies divine assurance of good or a gift graciously bestowed. Since God’s Word never changes or fails, we can take great hope and comfort from this promise of eternal life. As I thought about the promise of eternal life being a gracious gift, I began considering a few vers...