Verse of the Day 2/17
1 John 4:4-5 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. 5 Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world's viewpoint, and the world listens to them. New Living Translation (NLT)
In today's passage John is speaking about those who were distorting the gospel, adding rules and regulations to it while others distort the gospel. The same thing goes on today within and between denominations. Yesterday's verse challenged us to study, to rightly divide, to cut straight in our understanding of the gospel. This studying is not for the sake of study, not for the sake of knowing more, which itself can be a distraction, but that we believe more. Believe more with our hearts, believe more of what God has for us, and to be able to communicate that with others in love and by His grace through faith.
Our aim is not to reach others, to bring others to Christ from a worldly point of view, but to be an example of what we believe, by believing, by living out what the gospel says. John Piper captures this when he writes, "We are worldly when we, like the world around us, give ourselves to an entertainment mentality, when we amuse ourselves to death. We are still worldly, however, when we rightly reject the eye candy and froth of pop culture and then conclude that our problems are intellectual, and our solutions more learning. It was the enlightenment, not the Light of the World, that gave us education as its high and holy sacrament. What Jesus calls us to is to repent and believe the gospel. It is more important to us and our sheep that we would learn to believe more, than that we would find more to believe."
The first statement in verse 4 should be at the forefront of our minds as we go to worship Him today and as we live for Him through the week, knowing that "greater is He that is in you than he who is in the world".
In Christ,
Mike
Mike
Follow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com
Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace NIV
Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace NIV
1 John 4:3-6
The Message (MSG)
2-3 Here's how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ—the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person—comes from God and belongs to God. And everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing in common with God. This is the spirit of antichrist that you heard was coming. Well, here it is, sooner than we thought!
The Message (MSG)
2-3 Here's how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ—the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person—comes from God and belongs to God. And everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing in common with God. This is the spirit of antichrist that you heard was coming. Well, here it is, sooner than we thought!
4-6 My dear children, you come from God and belong to God. You have already won a big victory over those false teachers, for the Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world. These people belong to the Christ-denying world. They talk the world's language and the world eats it up. But we come from God and belong to God. Anyone who knows God understands us and listens. The person who has nothing to do with God will, of course, not listen to us. This is another test for telling the Spirit of Truth from the spirit of deception.
No comments:
Post a Comment