Devotionary

Believing that Jesus was a man who actually lived and was crucified on a Roman cross is not the same thing as believing He was the Christ. Respecting Jesus as a great example of moral living and ethical teaching is not the same thing as recognizing Him as your Savior. Even admitting that He was the Son of God is not the same thing as confessing Him as your Lord. Knowing about Jesus is not enough. But trusting in Him is.

John is going to remind us just how ridiculous it is to love this world and the things it offers, because it and everything on it, are on their way out. They are fading, rusting, and losing their value. But he would have us remember that we are eternal creatures, complete with souls that will last forever. When we become infatuated with this present reality, we tend to take our eyes off our future eternity. We begin to live as if this is all there is.

John wants us to avoid all forms of self-glorification. It’s probably one of the most insidious forms of self-love, because we don’t even realize that we are making ourselves our own gods. We look at our resume or our checking accounts and begin to believe that we are self-made and self-sufficient. And rather than glorify God, we glory in ourselves.

It is far too easy for us to see these things as the source of our satisfaction and sense of self-worth. They become another means by which we practice self-love. We convince ourselves that we deserve them. We rationalize that they will make us happy. And in doing so, we turn them into little gods that we fully expect to meet our needs. But they almost always prove to be impotent and incapable of delivering what they promise. They can’t return our love.

Love of the world is ultimately love of self. We don’t really love the world. We simply love what we believe the world can offer us. It holds out a host of tempting allurements that it offers in return for our time, attention and affections.

You can’t love the world and love God at the same time. And it is hard to love others when we’re busy loving the things of this world and buying into the constant temptations to meet our every self-centered need. We love the world for what it can offer us in return. We give it our time, attention and affections, because it promises to make us happy, fulfilled, successful, popular, and satisfied. But love for God is other-oriented. It focuses on the needs of others.

John would have us reconsider the incredible nature of what God has done for us and to us as a result of His Son’s death on the cross. We have been made right with God. No more condemnation. No more fear of death. We have forgiveness of sins and the peace that comes with knowing that our eternity is secure. And if there was ever a time we needed to hear those words, it is now.

These verses are packed with insight and encouragement, and in them, Paul will address the need for believers to stand firm in their faith, fully confident that Christ has accomplished a major victory for them. They are fully equipped to live the life they have been called to live. They need not fear failure or losing their salvation.

Paul was anxious that the believers to whom he was writing were confident in their knowledge of God. And the best way to assure them of their relationship with God was to be found in their obedience TO God. Those who have come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior, will live differently, because they have the Spirit of God living within them. They have a new capacity to live in obedience to God because they possess the power of God in the form of His Spirit.

The inability to see clearly makes it almost impossible for us to walk safely and confidently. And in this, the sixth episode on 1 John 2, verses 3-11, we are going to hear what John has to say about the consequences of living in the dark.

John will link our love of God with our love of others. And who did he get that idea from? Jesus Himself. Jesus was the one who described the love of God and others as the two greatest commandments. And John simply drives home the point that you can’t truly love God if you refuse to love your brother or sister in Christ.

We have been given the Spirit of God, who provides us with the power of God, and makes it possible to love as we have been loved by God. In a world that is marred by hate and superficial forms of selfish, self-centered love, we are to model Christ-like love that is totally selfless and sacrificial.

John will point blank tell us that our walk or lifestyle is to emulate that of Jesus. And when we walk as He walked, we will know that we are in Him. In other words, we will have assurance of our salvation by virtue of our transformed behavior. But one of the things John will drive home is that a love for others is to be a hallmark of the one who has come to know Christ.

John would have us remember that the darkness is passing away, whether it looks like it or not. Jesus Christ has conquered death and sin. He has already won the victory and it only a matter of time before His light eliminates the darkness once and for all. But in the meantime, we are to be His lights in this world. We are to reflect the light of Christ in such a way that our lives not only expose the darkness around us, they help eliminate it.

John wants his readers to know for certain that they are saved and that they can live lives that express the reality of their salvation. He wants them to know that they have been transformed from darkness into light. But if that is the case, as he strongly believes it is, their lives should reflect their new nature. Their behavior should give evidence of the radical transformation that faith in Christ has brought about.