1 John 2
Bible Passage: 1 John 2
God’s Commandments And Our Spiritual Life
Our Lord Jesus had plainly revealed to us a spiritual life and death matter recorded by Apostle John,
And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.
John 12:50
Keeping God’s commandments is indeed vital to our spiritual survival.
Keeping God’s commandments are no burden if we know whom we have believed.
Keeping God’s commandments do really mean a lot to God and to us who are His children.
For God is a jealous God who would not want us, His children, to go astray and end up in the snares of the devil; and only in remaining in the commandments of God, and to walk as how our Lord Jesus walked, then can His children be strong enough to resist the temptations of the devil.
Only when we are able to keep the commandments of God, then can we be called a true follower of Jesus Christ, or a Christian.
So the command of God being emphasized in Apostle John’s first epistle is to love one another. Can we do this commandment of God?
Have we asked ourselves in what ways can we show our true and godly love to our brethren?
Keeping A Constant Check On Our Spiritual Status
The tendency to sin is always present in all of us, even though we had been baptized in the Name of Jesus for the remission of our sins.
For God knows our weaknesses as man, so He is willing to provide us forgiveness if we are willing to admit that we have sinned, and to confess our sins before Him.
Apostle John knows that there are different spiritual status in every individual believer in the Church of God, so from vv.12 to 14, he reminded them to keep watch of their spiritual state through the admonitions he had written to them before.
Reminders which were: they had been forgiven for the sake of God’s name, they have known God who is from the beginning, they have overcome the wicked one, they have known the Father, and they have the word of God abiding in them.
We all as readers of Apostle John’s epistle must also consider this reminder is for us.
Our call to become Christians is a call to be people living in the world but yet NOT partakers of the world. Our mission is to let the light of God abide in us and then shine forth the glory of God to the world.
Beware Of The Anti-Christ
This is the End Times we are living in, so it is obvious that the devil will also work extra hard to pull as many people, especially the elect of God, to accompany him as he faces his eternal condemnation.
Therefore, we who knows God and His word must be wise to recognize the anti-Christ. God has revealed it through Apostle John that the anti-Christ would come out from the fold of God.
This anti-Christ would be a liar and denies the Father and the Son.
In today’s religious belief system, it is not difficult to recognize which are the religions that have counterfeited the Christ of the Bible, and have denied that Jesus is the Son of God!
There are also people, some have already passed away but managed to lure a huge number of followers, who claimed to be Jesus themselves.
As long as we continue to abide in the pure word of God, we will not be ensnared by the trickery and sugar coated lies of the anti-Christ.
May we all be vigilant in the Lord so that we can continue to abide in His grace; and may we also be able to shine forth His true light to His glory.
May God give us the wisdom to follow closely behind Him.
Shalom