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Good morning!
We are at the Washington County Agricultural Fair for the 11 am church service today.
Please feel free to read the lesson! You can also comment if you would like to discuss it.
Since we are not meeting in person this week, we won't be able to have our typical time of sharing. However, we still invite you to share any prayer requests as a comment below. This way, we can still pray for you! When you are ready, use the prayer below to get started.
God I invite you to come into my life and empower me to live an honorable life of faith, always doing what pleases you. When I stumble, help me to get back up and keep walking with You. Thank you for saving me. Now I am a child of God!
Today's lesson is on 1 John 3:1-10.
We are unsure of the issues that faced the letter's original audience, Apparently, they had been confronted with threats to their faith. Some of these threats included the temptation from an early form of the attractive heresy we call Gnosticism. Among other things, Gnostics taught that it did not matter whether a person had morality or love – as long as he or she had “secret knowledge.” To combat this false teaching, John emphasized the connection between right belief, right actions, and right love. The child of God must believe the truth, obey the commands, and love the brethren. False teachers were so bold that John referred to them as having a “spirit of antichrist.” John wanted their influence eliminated lest they split the church further.
In contrast to the children of God, the world has failed to know God and his abundant love revealed through Jesus Christ Therefore, the world is also unable to know the children of God. As a result, believers can anticipate facing hatred from the world. As God's children, we do not fully know God's plan for our lives. But we know we will someday be changed. What we eventually will be has not yet been disclosed fully. Even so, we know this: when Jesus appears at his second coming, we shall see him as he is because we will see him face-to -face. At that time, we shall be like him. Christ will transform our bodies into something glorious. In and through this transformation, we will share in Christ's glory. It is he who is pure, meaning he is sinless. Christ's blood shed on the cross is the means through which our purification from sin occurs. John's directives in this verse mirror Jesus' teachings: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect”. Human perfection is impossible on earth. However, we should make every effort to live pure and upright lives as children of our perfect heavenly Father. Having established the life of purity required for God's children, John presents the danger that believers face: that of sin. Sin is foolishness, the opposite of faith, falling short of God's glory, a willful failure to do good or any wrongdoing. Ultimately, sin turns people into enemies of God. Simply having knowledge of Jesus is not enough . Instead, believers should seek understanding of Christ and conform their lives to that knowledge. Only one person could take away humanity's sins: Jesus Christ. Only Jesus has the power to deal with sin because he was a sinless Son of God. He and he alone could take away our sins through his sacrifice on the cross. John begins a contrast of two types of people. The first is the person who lives in Christ. Jesus taught that believers should remain in him because he is the source of spiritual life. Believers do so by receiving his teachings and obeying them. Doing so does not mean that believers will be perfect and without any sin. Rather, when we follow the perfect, sinless Savior, we can pursue lives of holiness and righteousness. The second type is the person who has neither seen Christ nor known him. Some people in John's original audience had apparently claimed that they could know God but continue to live sinful lives. This false belief led to a strong correction from the apostle: it was not possible to both love God and love sin. Some people in the community had attempted to deceive the believers and lead them astray from the truth. We can assume that these teachers had wrongly taught that a person could be righteous without behaving righteously. In contrast to the righteous person is the person who does what is sinful and disobeys God's law. People who willfully oppose God and his truth are following the devil's lies. This spirit of disobedience results in a person's spiritual death. Since the introduction of sin at the beginning, the devil has opposed God and the people of God. The devil' opposition comes through temptation. Therefore, believers should “not give the devil a foothold. Instead, we should make every effort to resist the work of the devil. To read a book that deals more with this topic, I would recommend “Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table” by Louie Giglio. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth a sacrifice for human sin. By doing so, he triumphed over the devil.. Although Christ has already won the victory, the devil has power in the world for a time. That power, however, is limited. Someday, Christ will return to destroy the devil and devil's work. God's children will continue to wage war against sin and its effects. Although we have been released from sin and freed from its condemnation, our sinful nature will continue until Christ returns to deliver us. When John says that believers cannot go on sinning, he does not mean that we will live perfect lives. Instead, John's words are meant to encourage us to seek godly and upright lives. Believers can avoid life of sin because they have the seed of God in them. This seed is 'planted” when believers receive the gospel and the Holy Spirit. Only through the power of God's Spirit that remains in us can we fight sin. A person's status is also measured in how he or she loves other members of the family of God. As the love of God fills believers. The person who habitually fails to act with righteousness or demonstrate love is not God's child. 
Conclusion
Rubrics help learners understand expectations and how to achieve an assignment's intended goals. Today's Scripture gives us a rubric for whether or not we live as though we have been filled by God's love. If his love has changed our lives, then we will seek lives of holiness and demonstrate love for others. God's love has transformed us, but we are still affected by the presence of sin. Until the ultimate defeat of Satan, we will fail to behave or love as we ought. In the meantime, God has given us tools to help us grow spiritually. He has given us his Spirit to transform us into Christ likeness. God has also provided us with a spiritual ”family”; other children of God. These spiritual “siblings” can encourage us to live according to the rubric of life that God has given us.
Prayer
Loving God, you have shown us tremendous mercy and brought us into your family. We repent of the times when we have failed to love you and our neighbors. Show us how we might better notice the Spirit's leading so that we will not remain in sin. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen
Questions for discussions
Benediction
Next week's lesson will be on Titus 1:1-3; 2:11-15.
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