1 John 2: My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

But if anyone does sin,we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Beloved brother, beloved sister in Christ: you are going to sin. I do.

We continue to need Christ as our advocate every day of our mortal lives.

2 He is the propitiation [the means of appeasing the deserved wrath of God] for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.

We know that we know Jesus: not only knowledge, but an intimate knowledge and personal relationship with Jesus as our Lord.

4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.

By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

The New Commandment

7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning.

The old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

Hear this now of God’s unfailing love for us.  Discern which brother and what sister now lives in the light. Understand who hides in the lies of the darkness and remains a slave of the sins of the world.

9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.

11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes…

We may not hate another of the family of Christ Jesus. For all who are saved are filled with His light. In us can be NO darkness at all.

Do Not Love the World

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires [lust], but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

 

1 John 3: See 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.

2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever 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. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.

10 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.

Love One Another

11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another...

18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

The Apostle John, who with the Holy Spirit is also author of the Gospel of John, writes to the church of the high importance of the love of Christ Jesus for us.

Do you believe? Do you know how much God has loved us from the beginning?

For God sacrificed His Only Son on a Cross for you and for me.

Will you become His righteousness?

Dearly beloved, our Bridegroom sends you His love.