Thoughts From 1John 2 - Part 1

   My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. 1John 2:1-6

            We are currently rewatching Survivor season 23. Some friends of ours are Survivor fans and we get together and work our way through them all starting at season 1 usually including dinner. I remember watching it the first time and loving it because one team lead by Coach, Brandon, and Rick always pray in Jesus' name before meals, challenges, after wins always giving God credit. Now I watch it knowing the history of these guys, none of whom have remained faithful to Jesus, one even serving time in prison and it's too painful to watch. What a mockery of the name of Jesus! People that truly are followers of Jesus will live in obedience to Him. We have so many politicians in the public eye like Pete Hegseth, JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Kristie Noem, Tallarico who claim to be Christians, but their lives tell us differently in a lot of cases. Who are we to believe?

          I think John would say, "Don't worry about them - you obey Jesus." If we say we know Jesus, every day gives us a choice - do I obey or do I not obey - and we say, "I'm following Jesus and I'm going to do it His way." He gives us His word to show us what is right and His Holy Spirit to alert us to those forks in the road and to help us choose rightly. And when we choose His way, we are demonstrating our love for Him because we chose God's way over our way.

       There is a young man at our church that recently got saved and baptized and the other day he was asking people if they knew of a place he could stay. People were concerned. "Are you homeless?" "Where have you been staying?" He replied that he has been living with his girlfriend and God has been telling him that he needs to move out because that's a sin. Isn't that interesting? He didn't clean up his act before getting saved, he got saved and now is walking in obedience to what the Holy Spirit is telling him. Now I don't know if 20 years from now he will be a Coach, Brandon, or Rick but I do know that currently he is on the right path.

     What about you? What about me? Are we going to choose to obey Jesus in everything today? I know with God's help, I am!