December 15 – 1 John 2:28-3:10
Jesus, our Savior King, we praise You for You are Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace!!!! We thank You for You secure our peace! We fall before You in worship and adoration. Draw near to us, Lord of all.
We have salvation because God first loved us. In other words, God initiated that salvation. His love is evidenced every day. But no evidence is greater than that He, as our Father, gave His Son for our sake. His love was the beginning of His great rescue plan.
In Him, we have our identity. We are His children, sojourners, and aliens in a foreign land? Yes, Jesus followers, yes. But first, we are His children. I don’t know if we stand in awe of that enough. Of all the human made mandates and human invented gods… there is only one God. The One not created. I struggle to fathom just how big that is.
Sitting here as I read these verses once again, verse 10 hit me like a ton of bricks. “By 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.” I do not love easily, I am not naturally kind. It is something that I have to go before God with every single day. And over the years, I am slowly becoming more of the love filled person He wants me to be. We each have our own thing that we struggle with; this is mine. And I am so thankful that He is so patient and so faithful in answering my requests for help to change and be more like Him. I so want to love others with a Jesus kind of love and I want that to be clearly evident when I am around others. And quite honestly, when I am on my own too!
The love God wants us to bestow on people is more than the emotional kind of love; it is a purposeful love, a driven love, and a God kind of love. And we humans sure do struggle with this! We must practice the God kind of love, right? Practice until it just immediately flows from us. How do we do that, and what does it look like? We must spend time with God in His word; we must fellowship with other Jesus followers, find a mentor, serve where God tells us to serve and listen to each other’s testimonies. It’s like what coaches and language teachers often say, “practice until it is muscle memory.”
From this Christmas season on, let’s be known for evidentially and obviously being children of God and not children of satan.
My Verse: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” 1 John 3:1
My Response: God Almighty, Destroyer of evil, Sovereign, and Perfector of love. I come before You with nothing. I have nothing worthy of Your mercy and grace. Nothing worthy of Your love. And yet, You loved me first. How can it be?! You have claimed ownership of my heart, saved me from destruction, loved me before I knew You. Who am I that You would love me so much? I am Yours. I am loved. I am Your child. I am free from death. I am cherished. I am chosen. I know who I am because I know who You are!!!! I love You, O Lord, my strength!!!!!
Further Reading: John 3:16-21; Ephesians 1:3-6
What’s next?
As the Spirit leads, share what He has laid on your heart in the comment section below. Then join us again tomorrow for the next commentary.
3 Comments. Leave new
So glad I took some extra time to come back and read your commentary. Your words resonate within me and give me a greater appreciation for God’s love. Thank you. Oh, I also chose v. 3. It amazes me that he loves me with a steadfast love.
I love reading Melissa’s thoughts SO much!!
Sharon’s Evening Thoughts: I’m back after a blessedly quiet #sabbathing kind of day. I hope you all had time to worship and ponder the miracle of Christ’s coming to earth in some small way, today. It’s our first day with a new word to examine: LOVE. I’m looking forward to every lesson, Melissa, and enjoyed and learned from today’s. Thank you.
My verse: 1 John 3:9 “Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.”
My response: So thankful John reminds us that saying “yes” to Jesus as Lord and Savior means the Holy Spirit is given control of our lives. To choose to sin is to take back that control and willfully disregard our King and loving Savior. If people flagrantly sin – with no remorse of concern – perhaps they have never yielded to the Spirit? Is John helping us “see” those who might infiltrate a church to do it harm? Thank You for Your Spirit, Lord. Thank You for calling us to obedience and for making us terribly uncomfortable when we stray. You discipline us for our good. True love wants us to be all we were created to be. Help me to hear Your voice and heed Your corrections when I sin, turning quickly back to You.