F O O T H O L D
READING
91 TRAVELLING IN THE LIGHT
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PRAY Lord God, please help
me to discover new and important things in
the Bible now.
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READ 1 John 2:7-29.
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THINK There are several
important commands in this passage. List the
two which are most
challenging to you.
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FOCUS The command to love is
old (7; Leviticus 19:18) but Jesus
transformed it to make it
new (8, Luke 10:29-37).
The false teachers whom John
is combating wanted to divide
Christians into the
spiritual 'haves' and 'have nots'. John's
poetic list (12-14) points
out that the church is for everyone.
There is no grade system
with spiritual aristocrats patronising
novices. The church is God's
family.
When John uses the word
'world' (15) he means 'anti-Christian
society' rather than nature-world
or people. Jesus loved that
world dearly. This list in
verse 16 includes all kinds of
unrestricted indulgence of
our physical appetites, impure
thoughts, envy and greed,
the pursuit of status.
John was not suggesting (nor
did Jesus) that the Christian should
withdraw from the world to
avoid contamination. In fact, he
prepares his readers to
prepare for the deceptions of the Enemy
of Christ. This enemy
sometimes persecutes Christians, and at
other times tries to capture
people's minds by offering a
plausible alternative to the
authentic Jesus.
How do you then, remain
travelling in the light? John tells us to
depend on the Holy Spirit (20)
and to live always by the Holy
Spirit's teaching (24). For
further teaching about the Holy
Spirit see John 15:26-16:15.
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PRAY Pray that you will be
alert to falsehood and ready for a growth
in godly living.
