1 John 2:18-28

For Reading and Meditation:     Psalm 14:1-7

The idea of a living personal God gives men and women the jitters. They sense deep within that they are accountable to Him but they don't know just what to do about it. C. S. Lewis put it like this: "The Pantheist's God does nothing, demands nothing. He is there if you wish for Him, like a book on a shelf. He will not...

For Reading and Meditation:     1 John 2:28-3:11

Peacemaking is a positive attitude that produces good spiritual and mental health, and the one who has this attitude, according to Jesus, is to be envied and congratulated. The promise of the seventh Beatitude is that peacemakers "will be called sons of God". Why called? Because they are sons of God. This is their...

At first glance this verse poses problems. If we don't need anyone to teach us, why did the risen Lord give teachers to build up the saints for the work of ministering (Ephesians 4:11-12)?

In order to understand John's meaning, it helps to know the background of his letter. At the time he wrote, the church was being plagued by false teachers known as Gnostics. These heretics had once professed to be sincere believers in the Lord Jesus...

Not that we shall be exempt from loss disappointment, sickness, human unkindness, embarrassment, vexation, insult, defamation, humiliation; not that we shall have in this world all the displays of providential favor on which we may have calculated; these are not the things promised; the promise that he hath promised us is eternal life. God may have dealt strangely with thee, my soul; but say frankly, has he at all dealt with thee in a way to hinder the fulfillment of the promise made thee?...

My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and not turned aside.The Lord loves justice, and does not forsake His saints; they are preserved forever. § The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.The just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. § If they had been of us, they would have continued...

You are all sons of light and sons of the day. . . . Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.It is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. § Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. § ...

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find … O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! § If Christ is in you, the...