EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/1/2024 8:37 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
“The Test Applied”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 John 2:4-5
Message of the verses: “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 God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:”
Perhaps some of you remember that when I was
studying the gospel of John that it was mentioned that John’s nickname was
Boanerges which means “Sons of thunder” as this nickname was actually for both
James and John. So in keeping with this
nickname, the one the Jesus gave to he and his brother, John thunders at those
who claim to have come to know Christ but d not keep His commandments. We saw something earlier in 1:6 “If we say
that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie
and do not practice the truth;” John warns that their claim to fellowship is
completely unfounded. This truth is not
just for those that John was writing to then at the end of the first century,
but for all those who read this in today’s world, for there are many in this
day and age who are following this kind of pattern, and according to John these
are not true believers. Once again let
us look at 1 John 5:13 to show us the following “These things I have written to
you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you
have eternal life.” Paul says something
similar when he writes to the Corinthians “Test yourselves to see if you
are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about
yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you — unless indeed you fail the
test?” John, in these verse from 1 John
is questing his readers as to whether or not they are believers, and if they
are then they would follow the Lord’s commandments, which seems to be something
that they are not doing. I am trying to
show my readers here that it is possible to know that you are a true follower
of Jesus Christ, and in showing this you will have a desire to follow the commandments
of the Lord, not that following these commandments will save you, but you will
have a desire to follow them.
John
MacArthur writes “Anyone who makes such a claim and lives in disobedience is a
liar. The apostle’s epithet boldly
exposes the danger of self-deception concerning salvation, which is damning to
those who fail to realize their blindness, repent of their sins, and embrace
the truth (cf. Gal. 6:7; Titus 3:3). “Do
not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also
reap” (Gal. 6:7). “For we also once were
foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and
pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another”
(Titus 3:3).
I’m sorry to not finish this section but there are
things that I want to do before I go to bed as I need to be up earlier tomorrow
morning to get some things accomplished.
Lord willing I will finish this section in tomorrow evenings SD.
10/1/2024 8:59 PM
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