{"id":7266,"date":"2020-10-30T04:20:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-30T09:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/wp\/?p=7266"},"modified":"2020-10-29T21:29:46","modified_gmt":"2020-10-30T02:29:46","slug":"1-john-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/?p=7266","title":{"rendered":"1 John 3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.\u00a0

\u00a0It is of great benefit to the Christian to take a good, intense look at the love of God\u00a0bestowed on us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears[1]<\/a>\u00a0we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.\u00a03<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.\u00a05<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.\u00a06<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.\u00a07<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.\u00a08<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0Whoever 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.\u00a09<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s[2]<\/a>\u00a0seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.\u00a010<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0By 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul\u2019s teaching in\u00a0Romans 6<\/a>\u00a0is a great example of this principle. He shows us that when a person comes to Jesus, when his sins are forgiven and God\u2019s grace is extended to him, he is radically changed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love One Another<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

11<\/a><\/strong> <\/a> For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12<\/a><\/strong> <\/a> We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13<\/a><\/strong> Do not be surprised, brothers,[3]<\/a>that the world hates you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.\u00a015<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.\u00a016<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John will not allow us to merely\u00a0talk<\/em>\u00a0about love; real love is demonstrated in actions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a017<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?\u00a018<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.\u00a019<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we see this love at work in our lives, we can know that we are\u00a0of the truth\u00a0\u2013 and this brings assurance to our hearts before God, that we are standing in Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

20<\/a><\/strong> <\/a> for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21<\/a><\/strong> <\/a> Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22<\/a><\/strong> <\/a> and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

23<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.\u00a024<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God,[4]<\/a>and God[5]<\/a>\u00a0in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The person who walks in the kind of obedience and love John speaks of will also experience answered prayer. This is not because their love and obedience has\u00a0earned<\/em>them what they ask, but their love and obedience comes from fellowship \u2013 the key to answered prayer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":1168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","filesize_raw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-reading"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7266"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7267,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7266\/revisions\/7267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}