I John 3 - When one keeps on sinning
Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous.But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.
posted by studiosmith @ permalink
2 Comments:
God has been calling me to begin to evangelize my family, so I have started a monthly family bible study. So far my mother and my sister have joined me. Our first lesson was about how we are enemies of God apart from Christ and my mother was truly shocked about that, not understanding the true nature of sin. We moved on to talk about how we can actually stop sinning and have the righteousness and perfection of Christ. My mother couldn't understand how we could be perfect while still being able to sin. By divine providence it was at that moment her cat knocked over a seemingly empty cup of coffee I had brought in with me. A drop of coffee fell on her light colored carpet and she got a bit flustered and grabbed a cleaning wipe and started scrubbing the spot. Then it just came to me to use that as an illustration to help her understand what we were studying. I said imagine you are God and now you see this blot on your rug, you don't like it there, you cannot bear to look at it, it has to be cleaned up. Christ is the rag you hold in your hands, you are using him to blot out the sins before you and now it looks clean to you, right? But we know that the rug is not perfectly clean, yet because of Christ's sacrifice and because He blots out our sins we look clean, we are clean to the Father.
People just do not understand how devastating sin is and how even our own good works are filthy with self serving. Good post Barry!
Hey Terri
Life has been very different and challenging for me in the recent weeks, and I thought I published your comment, but just realized I hadn't. Thank you for sharing. Also wanted to say that I value the urgency and priority you place on sharing Truth with people, especially people who you have the most to lose from disagreement on such matters of the heart. Great illustration you found to express your perspective. Your point that "even our good works are self-serving" REALLY SPEAKS to our broken, sinful nature, and how only through the grace of Christ are we presented clean to God. Most people can’t see that good works, at the core, are connected to pride. For those people who mean well, how can they be prideful? I am grateful you have pointed this out to your family (and here), because only through obedience and in serving God, with the goal of giving Him glory, are we found faithful. People often see their faith through their lens of “intellect.” But “obedience’ is the reward—you are not rewarded for your obedience. From Os Chambers..."The golden rule for understanding in spiritual matters is not intellect, but obedience."
Thanks for your comment Terri. May God continue to guide your steps and may He give you the fitness and peace to minister to others. And through that all—Joy.
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