EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/21/2025 11:45 PM
My Worship Time
Focus: “PT-2
“Satan’s Children Are Indifferent Toward God’s Children”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
1 John 3:16-18
Message of the verses: “16 We know love by
this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for
the brethren. 17 But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in
need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?
18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and
truth.”
In the last SD on this section I forgot to quote the
end of a paragraph which had the Philippians 2 section in it and so I will
finish that quote as I begin this Spiritual Diary.
“Paul also was willing to surrender his
life for the cause of Christ, ‘For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain’
(Phil. 1:21; cf. Rom. 9:3-5; 2 Cor. 1:9-10).
Of course, the Lord Jesus was Paul’s role model, because at the cross He
laid down His life for all who believe (cf. John 10:11, 14-18; 15:13; Rom.
8:32-34; Gal. 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24).”
I
really do not believe in confidences, but if I did then I would think that the
Lord has me studying two books from His Word that are talking about suffering
and even dying for the cause of Christ as I am studying 2 Timothy in the
morning and 1 John in the evening.
Let
us look at what the expression laid down His life for us, as this is unique to
the apostle John (John 10:11, 15, 17, 18; 13:37-38), and in addition to live itself
it refers to divesting oneself on anything important. Now obviously, Christ’s atoning death is the
supreme example of selfless love as seen in John 15:12-13; along with Phil:
2:5-8; 1 Peter 2:19-23, and could compare with 2 Cor. 8:9). So John exhorts his readers as followers of
Christ, that they ought to lay down their lives for the brethren, should such
sacrifice be necessary. As mentioned my
study in 2 Timothy Paul is about to be killed for the cause of Christ and one
of the reasons for his letter to Timothy was because Timothy seemed to be
faltering in his faith a bit and so Paul wanted to lift him up, and he also
speaks of the fact that Timothy too, may have to lay down his life for the
cause of Christ, which I believe that is what happened to Timothy years later.
Now this expression from 1 John which I just quoted and is in dark letter
refers to something far more extensive than only sacrificial death for a fellow
believer is clear from the subsequent statement about having goods that someone
needs. There are other kinds of
sacrifices that believers may be called to do for the cause of Christ.
I think that I will end this SD here and
Lord willing finish it tomorrow evening.
1/22/2025 12:03 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment