John 2:12-14 GOD’S WORD Translation
Don’t Love the World
12 I’m writing to you, dear children, because your sins are forgiven through Christ.
13 I’m writing to you, fathers, because you know Christ who has existed from the beginning.
I’m writing to you, young people, because you have won the victory over the evil one.
14 I’ve written to you, children, because you know the Father.
I’ve written to you, fathers, because you know Christ, who has existed from the beginning.
I’ve written to you, young people, because you are strong and God’s word lives in you. You have won the victory over the evil one.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
The purpose of the church is to bring God’s people to maturity in Jesus Christ.
The apostle John has given us a helpful way to gauge various levels of maturity.
When John speaks of certain Christians as little children, the fact which characterizes them is that they know their sins are forgiven.
Certainly that is the first thing a new Christian learns.
Therefore, as long as they are celebrating in that stage of understanding, glorying in the fact that their sins are forgiven, they can be lovingly classified as little children.
John doesn’t mean, of course, that they are to forsake their initial excitement over having their sins forgiven.
On the contrary, they should have a continually increasing awareness of the forgiveness of sin as they go through life. He simply means that a focus on the joy of being forgiven marks the initial stage of the Christian life — not maturity.
Then he says, I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.
For a long time, I thought John was referring to God the Father, the One who is from the beginning.
But thinking back to the way he opens the letter, I began to realize that this is really a reference to the Son: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched — this we proclaim concerning the Word of life
(1 John 1:1).
Here he is obviously referring to the Lord Jesus Himself.
The mark of being a spiritual father, then, is a deep, thorough understanding of the deity and the humanity of Jesus, the fullness of the revelation that has come to us through the Son.
It is to have a deep sense of closeness to him, having walked with him through much of life.
Out of that closeness comes a clarity of understanding of Jesus’ words to such a degree that there is a grasp of the great doctrines which he came to reveal.
This level of maturity means to display an understanding and a manifestation of the same character which Jesus displayed, along with the strong evidence of compassion, tolerance, patience, justice, and forgiveness from which only a long term relationship with the Son of God can produce.
Finally, the young men are characterized as having overcome the evil one, as having reached a stage of maturity where there is an understanding and a practice of the way to resist temptation and distinguish between good and evil.
As Hebrews puts it, “But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”
(Hebrews 5:14).
The kind of person who is overcoming the wicked one is able to see evil as evil (even when it looks too too good!) by the revelation of the Scriptures and by the individuals prayer life which comes from an understanding given by the Spirit.
Romans 8:12-17 The Message
12-14 So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
15-17 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!
We may find we have a lot of big questions about the truths and mysteries of the Christian faith that we each need to learn how to live with by praying it through.
But there’s nothing quite so precious as the assurance deep down inside that we belong to God–no matter what!
While some people claim such certainty is not possible, Paul says it is.
We can be sure!
We come to this assurance through an accumulation of evidence.
We confess our sins and ask God for mercy in Jesus’ name, and we’re told no one will be turned away (Romans 10:4-13).
Romans 10:4-13 The Message
4-10 The earlier revelation was intended simply to get us ready for the Messiah, who then puts everything right for those who trust him to do it. Moses wrote that anyone who insists on using the law code to live right before God soon discovers it’s not so easy—every detail of life regulated by fine print! But trusting God to shape the right living in us is a different story—no precarious climb up to heaven to recruit the Messiah, no dangerous descent into hell to rescue the Messiah. So what exactly was Moses saying?
The word that saves is right here,
as near as the tongue in your mouth,
as close as the heart in your chest.
It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master” —embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!”
11-13 Scripture reassures us, “No one who trusts God like this—heart and soul—will ever regret it.” It’s exactly the same no matter what a person’s religious background may be: the same God for all of us, acting the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls out for help. “Everyone who calls, ‘Help, God!’ gets help.”
We claim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our life, and we know we can do this only by the work of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3).
1 Corinthians 12:1-3 The Message
Spiritual Gifts
12 1-3 What I want to talk about now is the various ways God’s Spirit gets worked into our lives. This is complex and often misunderstood, but I want you to be informed and knowledgeable. Remember how you were when you didn’t know God, led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did it? It’s different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can. For instance, by using your heads, you know perfectly well that the Spirit of God would never prompt anyone to say “Jesus be damned!” Nor would anyone be inclined to say “Jesus is Master!” without the insight of the Holy Spirit.
We see the growth of fruit in our life, and we know that’s the work of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
Galatians 5:22-24 The Message
22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
23-24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.
As Paul points out, in the final analysis God’s work of giving us assurance of salvation happens deep within us.
Think of it–the third person of the Trinity speaks with our internal spirit, testifying, reassuring, promising that we are children of God (Romans 8:16).
Assurance like that remains deeply rooted no matter what troubles come, no matter how often our spiritual apathy, doubts, trials and tribulations try to talk us out of faith, no matter how much we are confronted by all our unworthiness.
Say it to yourself over and over today: I belong to God!
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Ecclesiastes 10:5-7 The Message
5-7 Here’s a piece of bad business I’ve seen on this earth,
An error that can be blamed on whoever is in charge:
Immaturity is given a place of prominence,
While maturity is made to take a backseat.
I’ve seen unproven upstarts riding in style,
While experienced veterans are put out to pasture.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 