WEEK 17 MEMORY VERSE:
“Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.”
3 John 1:11

Monday, July 6, 2009
1 John 5:21
Keeping from Idols
In this one six-word verse, John gives us one of the most powerful commands/ pieces of advice to be found in all of God’s word. When he tells the believers of the 1st century to keep themselves from idols, the major issue is indeed the actual pagan idolatry that was typical of that day, complete with physical objects that represented deities, either in public places or private homes. To follow Christ meant turning from the practice of worshiping these idols, even though it was firmly embedded in the culture and in the psyche of these converts to Christ.
We have our own idols today, I’m afraid, and this scripture calls on us to give them the very same treatment. Whether our idols are materialism, fame, entertainment, pleasure, self, knowledge, reason, emotion, romantic love, security, respectability, other people, or something else, we have to turn our worship off everything else and give it only to Jesus, the one who is truly worthy of it. Ask God today to help you in identifying and dealing with your own idols.

Prayer Starter:
Lord, it is so easy to allow myself to be carried back into worshipping my idols. Help me to see when this is happening to me. Show me how to deal ruthlessly with my own worship of idols, that my heart may truly belong to you.

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
1 John 4:10

Sunday, July 5, 2009
1 John 5:18-20
Born of God, Done with Sin
The seemingly simple equation of verse eight seems to be that those born of God will never sin again. However, we know from the broader context of Scripture (including the other writings of John), that this cannot truly be the case. The continued presence of sin and our struggle against it are assumed to be realities for the believer until he or she leaves this life. We are told that because of the power of the Holy Spirit, we do not have to give in to temptation in any given situation, but we are also assured that absolute perfection will not be attained by anyone in this life except Jesus himself. The message of John here seems to be more about habitual, continuous trafficking in the same patterns one was following before meeting Christ – an unchanged, unrepentant lifestyle. So we can with confidence say two things as a result: 1) a person who has seen no change in their heart and life, especially in regard to sin, needs to examine closely whether they have truly met Jesus Christ, “the true God and eternal life”; and 2) As those who are children of God, we do have a deliverance from bondage to sin, and we cannot be eternally harmed by the enemy of our souls, the evil one. Praise God for this reality today, and allow him to strengthen and protect you as you continue to walk away from sin.

Prayer Starter:
Lord, THANK YOU that being “born of God” means I am no longer a slave to sin. Help me to walk this out, not in my own strength, but in the strength of your Son, him who is true, the true God, and eternal life, Jesus.

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
1 John 4:10

Saturday, July 4, 2009
1 John 5:13-17
Knowing our Standing
In this brief passage, John talks about two major aspects of our standing before God that he wants us to be confident about. First of all, he speaks of his purpose in writing this letter, and says that it is for the purpose of assuring those who believe in Jesus’ name that they indeed have eternal life. It is a beautiful thing that we can know our standing before God in this matter. In fact it is important that we have this assurance, and God wants us to.
The second piece of confidence John wishes to give us regards our prayer lives. He assures us that anytime we ask according to God’s will, he hears it and grants our request. So it becomes incredibly important that we: 1)seek continuously to understand the will of God; and 2) become persistent in asking him in prayer for what we believe to be in accordance with his will. So today, are you sure of eternal life? God wants you to be! Are you confident and persistent in your prayer life? God wants you to be!

Prayer Starter:
Lord, thank you for wanting to give me the assurance of my salvation. Help me to get and maintain that confidence. Help me to be confident ad persistent in my prayer life as well, that I might have all that you want me to and that I might make the biggest impact possible through my prayers.

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
1 John 4:10

Friday, July 3, 2009
1 John 5:6-12
He Who Has the Son
The bulk of this passage is about the identity of Jesus Christ – affirming that he is indeed the Son of God and the way to eternal life. John talks about him as the only way to this true life: “He who has the Son has life; he who doe not have the Son of God does not have life.” Obviously, then, the most important question in life for any person actually becomes, “Do I have the Son?” Today’s society tends to have a great deal of trouble with the concept that there is one way to eternal life, and even more with the concept that this way is Jesus. As followers of Christ, however, we must be willing to hold onto the truth even when some people strongly disagree and misunderstand us. Furthermore, we should have a great burden for those who do not have the Son. This is, after all, a life and death situation for them. Where does concern for those outside of Christ lie on your scale of priorities?

Prayer Starter:
Thank you, God, for sending the Son to be my way to eternal life. Help me to hold on tightly to the truth that he is indeed the only way. Also, please raise my level of concern for those who are not in the Son, and use me to help them know you.

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
1 John 4:10

Thursday, July 2, 2009
1 John 5:1-5
Love through Obedience
In verse 3, John clearly equates love for God with obedience to his commands. At first glance, this might sound a bit like legalism to us – that there is some kind of standard of obedience God is looking for in my life in order to classify me as “one who loves God.” But this would equate to us having to essentially earn a place with God through our works. The point of this passage is quite the opposite. John is actually saying that true love for God is always fleshed out in real obedience to God, so much so that he can say “love is obedience.” However, to reinforce the fact that obedience is the result of love and not its precursor, he then says that God’s commands are not burdensome. Once we are transformed by God’s love and have a true love for God in our hearts, it is not nearly so often “work” to obey him, but rather the natural result of being born of God – therefore we are able to “overcome the world.” Thank God today for the freeing power of his love – that he really does capture our hearts and break the power of sin in our lives as we fall in love with him.

Prayer Starter:
Lord, thank you that obedience is not really work when I am I love with you, but merely the living out of what is in my heart. Help me to love you more as my life progresses, so that I may live more obediently than ever before.

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
1 John 4:10

Wednesday, July 1, 2009
1 John 4:19-21
Loving our Brothers
Interestingly, John draws a direct correlation between our love for God and our love for other people. Our ability and motivation for loving others is rooted in the fact that God has first loved us. Furthermore, it is also such a natural outflow of our love relationship with God that if we do not love our brothers (and sisters), it is impossible to claim that we truly love God. This reality strongly refutes the philosophy of the person who thinks it makes us holy if we withdraw from people altogether in order to “develop” our relationship with God. Of course it is easier to be positive, enjoy life, and act godly if there are no people around to test our patience, forgiveness, and love. There are certainly times for withdrawal in order to focus on God and our relationship to him, but these should always be part of a rhythm of engagement and withdrawal. In fact, love for other people is so integral and necessary to our relationship with God that the primary way we serve God, practically speaking, is through serving other people in one way or another. Remember that love is not simply an emotion, but involves decision and action. Who is it that you need to find a way to love more deeply, love in more practical ways, or love at all?

Prayer Starter:
Lord, help me to truly express my love for you by really loving other people. Soften my heart that I may love those it is not easy to love – I know that truly loving you is impossible without growing in my ability to love others.

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
1 John 4:10

Tuesday, June 30, 2009
1 John 4:13-18
Love, Enemy of Fear
Verse 18 is about the relationship between love and fear in a person’s life. Although we are to have a healthy fear of God as well as a love relationship, these two cannot coexist as the primary motivation of our life in God. Many times we initially come to God out of fear – either fear of hell, fear of God himself, or fear of what our lives are becoming apart from him. However, as we grow in our love relationship with him, we begin to experience what John talks about in the latter part of this passage. We begin to lose our fear about the Day of Judgment as we experience firsthand the love of the Father toward us. As we internalize the truth that Jesus has taken all our punishment for us, we are freed to relate to God more and more on the basis of love. Again, we always need to maintain a sense of awe and respect for him, but experiencing his love drives out our fear of him actually doing us harm. This is the experience John is talking about in verses 16 through 18, and it should be the experience of every believer. Is it yours?

Prayer Starter:
Lord, teach me how to rely on your love for me and to allow your perfect love to drive out my fear. Thank you that Jesus took the punishment for my sins on the cross. Teach me how to believe in and receive your love in greater measure and to grow deeper in my love for you. Help me to leave behind for good the notion of serving you out of fear.

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
1 John 4:10

Monday, June 29, 2009
1 John 4:7-12
Love Based on His Love
The foundational idea of this passage is that God is the inventor and originator of selfless, character-based love (Greek, “agape”). It follows, then, that whenever this kind of love is present in someone’s life, it is evidence that he belongs to God; conversely, anyone who does not love others in this way shows that she does not know God. Even though John points to these outcomes as evidence, he still exhorts us to act in love. So it follows that it must be possible to belong to God and not act in love in a given situation, because it is inconceivable, based on the gospel of grace, that we could make ourselves belong to God through simply choosing to love others. So the question before us today is this: As followers of Christ, are we truly living in the kind of love he makes possible for us, or are we mostly choosing to take a “lower road”, one of loving those who love us, are attractive to us, or to whom we are obligated to give our love. Furthermore, if we are not growing at all in the expression of this agape love in our lives, what does that say about the genuineness of our love relationship with God? Find a way to love in a greater way today, and thereby live out your identity as a child of God!

Prayer Starter:
Lord, help me truly express my relationship with you through loving others. When it is most difficult to love, may that be the time your love is most evident within me. Give me a situation in which to demonstrate agape love today.

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”
1 John 3:16

Sunday, June 28, 2009
1 John 4:4-6
Greater is He
Jesus now lives within his followers in the person of the Holy Spirit. The beauty and the implications of this reality are expressed in the classic phrasing of verse 4, “…the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” This is one of the most precious and practical promises in all of scripture. The fact that the God of the universe is in our lives to convict, comfort, empower, encourage, and guide us is an awesome thing, and it is quite possible that a large number of followers of Christ are either totally unaware of this reality OR have not believed or acted upon it in their every day lives. This promise means that we do not have to be fooled by the false messages of this world, which come at us every day, but God can give us great clarity to see the truth and reject falsehood. It means we do not have to give in to temptation when it comes our way, because the one who has decisively defeated sin lives within us. It means we do not have to be discouraged or defeated by the opposition of the enemy or of this world’s system, because the Almighty One ultimately has all authority and will triumph at the final day. We simply need to learn how to hold his hand and access his power in the midst of these types of struggles. How are you doing in walking out this powerful reality?

Prayer Starter:
Lord, thank you that you not only promise to be with me, but that your overcoming power actually lives within me. Teach me how to walk this reality out in everyday life as the lies, opposition, and discouragement come against me.

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”
1 John 3:16

Saturday, June 27, 2009
1 John 4:1-3
Testing What We Hear
John’s focus here is on discerning which messages should be believed, internalized, and acted upon, and which messages should be rejected as false teaching. His warning can be applied to every message or idea we hear, whether it be the teaching of a religious leader (which this passage seems to be centered upon), a more direct communication from a spirit (usually in our thought life), or even ideas and “voices” from other sources (like our friends, our family, or the media). The assumption is that there is a spiritual impetus behind each and every idea we encounter, especially those that relate to truth, values, worldview, and spiritual things – they either come from above or from below. Therefore, we need to become proficient at discerning which is which every bit as much as the early church did. We do this by thoroughly acquainting ourselves with biblical truth and ruthlessly applying it to all the messages we receive and the thoughts we have. How are you doing in this process?

Prayer Starter:
Lord, please help me to be diligent in my intake of biblical truth. Help me as I seek to understand it, meditate upon it, and obey it in my life. Give me the wisdom and courage to reject those messages that come my way and reflect the spirit of the antichrist, no matter their source.